Henry Meigs, Jr.

Infobox_Politician
name = Henry Meigs, Jr.


width = 144px
height = 216px
birth_date = May 7, 1809
birth_place = New York, New York
death_date = June 7, 1887
death_place = Bayonne, New Jersey
residence = Bayonne, New Jersey
office = Mayor of Bayonne
order = 1st
term_start = 1869
term_end = 1879
predecessor = none
successor = Stephen K. Lane
party = Republican
religion = Episcopalian
spouse = Mary Noel Bleecker
children = Henry III, Mary Noel
website =

Henry Meigs, Jr. was the Mayor of Bayonne, New Jersey from 1869 to 1879.

Meigs was born in New York City, the son of Henry Meigs, U.S. Representative from New York. Meigs married Mary Noel Bleecker on November 7, 1848. They moved to Bayonne in the 1860s and had a mansion built on Newark Bay. [Kathleen M. Middleton, "Images of America - Bayonne" ISBN 0-7524-0069-X (Arcadia Publishing Corp., 1995)] .

On May 16, 1857, an act of the New Jersey Legislature was approved that called for commissioners to be appointed to lay out streets and avenues for the future city of Bayonne. Meigs was made one of the commissioners in 1868.

When Bayonne was incorporated as a city in 1869, Meigs, who was nominated by the Citizens' Ticket, was elected its first mayor to serve a two-year term on April 13 of that year] . Meigs would be re-elected five consecutive times. In his later elections, he ran as a Republican. [cite news|title=Republican Successes in Bayonne.|publisher=New York Times |date=1871-04-13 [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9D0DEED91F38E333A25750C1A9629C946090D7CF] ] [cite news|title=New Jersey Elections.|publisher=New York Times |date=1873-04-10 [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9B0CE4DF173BEF34BC4852DFB2668388669FDE] ] In his last election in 1877, Meigs defeated former councilman Jasper A. Cadmus. During his terms as mayor, the first schools were built, the first policemen were hired, the first fire company was organized, the first city hall was built and gas lights were installed on some street. On June 1, 1877, Standard Oil Company opened its first refinery on Constable Hook. [ Royden Page Whitcomb, "First History of Bayonne, New Jersey", Bayonne: R.P. Whitcomb, 1904]

During his last term in 1877, Meigs was elected as the president of the New York Stock Exchange in New York City for a one-year term. Meigs was succeeded by Stephen K. Lane.

Meigs died, at age 78, at home on June 7, 1887. His funeral was held in Trinity Episcopal Church in Bergen Point. He was buried in St. Peter's Episcopal churchyard in Perth Amboy, New Jersey.

References