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By Anthony Olszewski
COPYRIGHT 2002
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This "original" little municipality called Jersey City grew out of the area known as Powles or Paulus Hook, a tract of solid land jutting out into the Hudson
River, bounded by Harsimus Cove on the north and south cove or Communipaw Bay on the south, and separated from the marsh land on the west by a creek
that had been enlarged about 20 feet in width, large enough for ordinary boats to pass. Warren Street was roughly its western boundary. This area was
purchased from the Dutch West India Company by Abraham Planck. In 1698, it was purchased from Planck by Cornelius Van Vorst. In 1804 Anthony Dey, a
prominent New York lawyer, acquired it and soon thereafter passed title to Abraham Varick, also a prominent New Yorker, who the following day conveyed
the area to Col. Richard Varick (a former Mayor of New York who had been General Washington's aide-de-camp in the American Revolution), Jacob
Radcliff (a former Mayor of New York) and Anthony Dey (a wealthy New York lawyer and cousin of Col. Varick). These three were the leaders of The
Associates of the Jersey Company, whose charter was drafted by Alexander Hamilton. For fifteen years it possessed the government and shaped the destiny
of the infant community. By: J. Owen Grundy, Historian and Louis P. Caroselli, Corporation Counsel
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