Editing Roselle, New Jersey (section)

== History ==
On January 19, 1883, the world's first [[electricity|electric lighting system]] employing overhead wires began service in Roselle. It had been built by [[Thomas Edison]] to demonstrate that an entire community could be illuminated by electricity. This success encouraged the installation of electric lighting in numerous other villages and cities.<ref>Good, Philip. [https://www.nytimes.com/1991/06/16/nyregion/historic-chandelier-restored.html "Historic Chandelier Restored"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', June 16, 1991. Accessed July 29, 2012. "In 1947, during a tribute to the inventor on the centennial of his birth, his son Charles Edison said: 'Here in Roselle for the first time electric lines were strung overhead. This was just one of the many experiments, revolutionary and bold for the time, which were tried out in Roselle. The success of the Roselle venture encouraged immediate and widespread installation of electric lighting in villages, towns and small cities throughout the nation.' The successful experiment began in 1882, and by 1883 the hanging light fixture was installed in the church's sanctuary."</ref> The First Presbyterian Church, located on the corner of West 5th Avenue and Chestnut Street, was the first church in the United States to be lit by electricity, and the second in the world after the [[City Temple, London|City Temple]] church in London.<ref>{{cite news |date=February 23, 1951 |title=For the Record |department=Editorials |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/19430939/ |work=Shamokin News-Dispatch |page= 6 |location=Shamokin, Pennsylvania |via=[[Newspapers.com]] {{open access}} }}</ref>

Roselle was incorporated on December 20, 1894, at the height of the ''[[Boroughitis]]'' phenomenon sweeping through New Jersey at the time, based on the results of a referendum held two days earlier, from portions of [[Linden, New Jersey|Linden]].<ref name=Story>Snyder, John P. [https://nj.gov/dep/njgs/enviroed/oldpubs/bulletin67.pdf ''The Story of New Jersey's Civil Boundaries: 1606-1968''], Bureau of Geology and Topography; Trenton, New Jersey; 1969. p. 240. Accessed May 30, 2024.</ref> Roselle's name is derived from the Roselle Land Improvement Company, which was created in 1866 to lay out a community around the Mulford Station on the [[Central Railroad of New Jersey]]. The name "Roselle" is said to have been based on the company's founder, John Conklin Rose<ref>[http://www.boroughofroselle.com/History/ A Brief History of Roselle], Borough of Roselle. Accessed September 25, 2015. "By 1866, a Mr. John Conklin Rose took advantage of his connections with the railroad, (which was by then known as the Central Railroad of New Jersey) and with the cooperation of several landowners in this area established the Roselle Land Improvement Company. They laid out 'The Village of Roselle' on an area that the railroad had called Mulford Station, a stop on the road named for the many Mulford families who lived here."</ref> or from John Pierre Roselle, a friend of the railroad's president.<ref>[http://www.rosellepark.net/content/3037/3067/ The History of Roselle Park, New Jersey], Borough of Roselle Park. Accessed September 25, 2015. "In 1839, the first railroad began regular routes from Elizabethtown to Plainfield, and soon a stop at Mulford Station, named in honor of a prominent family, was scheduled, where Union Road crossed the tracks to Roselle. The stop was moved to Chestnut street about 30 years later and named Roselle in honor of the railroad president's good friend, John Pierre Roselle."</ref>