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===Establishment=== In 1791, [[Alexander Hamilton]] (1755/57β1804), first [[United States Secretary of the Treasury]], helped found the [[Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures]] (S.U.M.), which helped encourage the harnessing of energy from the [[Great Falls of the Passaic River]] to secure economic independence from British manufacturers. The society founded Paterson, which became the cradle of the [[Industrial Revolution]] in America.<ref>[http://www.patersongreatfalls.org/significance.html District Significance], Paterson Friends of the Great Falls. Accessed September 4, 2011.</ref> Paterson was named for [[William Paterson (judge)|William Paterson]], statesman, signer of the [[United States Constitution|Constitution]] and [[Governor of New Jersey]], who signed the 1792 charter that established the Town of Paterson.<ref>[http://www.wpunj.edu/university/history/WilliamPaterson_Bio.dot Who Was William Paterson?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708044357/http://www.wpunj.edu/university/history/WilliamPaterson_Bio.dot |date=July 8, 2011 }}, [[William Paterson University]]. Accessed September 4, 2011. "He also supported a proposal by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton and a group of investors to incorporate them as the [[Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures]] (SUM). In 1792 he signed the charter incorporating SUM as well as a municipal charter covering 36 square miles for the Corporation of the Town of Paterson at the site of the Great Falls of the Passaic River."</ref><ref>Hutchinson, Viola L. [http://mapmaker.rutgers.edu/356/nj_place_names_origin.pdf#page=25 ''The Origin of New Jersey Place Names''], New Jersey Public Library Commission, May 1945. Accessed September 16, 2015.</ref> [[Architect]], [[engineer]] and [[Urban planner|city planner]] [[Pierre L'Enfant]] (1754β1825), who had earlier developed the initial plans for [[Washington, D.C.]], was the first planner for the S.U.M. project.<ref>{{cite book|last=Jusserand|first=Jean Jules|author-link=Jean Jules Jusserand |chapter=Major L'Enfant and the Federal City |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u2MUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA184 |title=With Americans of Past and Present Days |page=184|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons|location=New York|year=1916|isbn=9780722276648}}</ref> His plan proposed to harness the power of the Great Falls through a channel in the rock and an [[Aqueduct (water supply)|aqueduct]]. The society's directors felt he was taking too long and was over budget; he was replaced by Peter Colt, who used a less complicated reservoir system to get the water flowing to factories in 1794. Eventually, Colt's system developed some problems and a scheme resembling L'Enfant's original plan was used after 1846.<ref>[http://www.patersongreatfalls.org/sum.html Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures], Paterson Friends of the Great Falls. Accessed August 15, 2011.</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150311194613/http://patersongreatfalls.org/letters/Intro_NJ.pdf Introduction: Project Copy of the Calendar of the S.U.M. Collection of Manuscripts from the New Jersey Historical Records Survey], Paterson Friends of the Great Falls, backed up by the [[Internet Archive]] as of March 11, 2015. Accessed December 9, 2016.</ref> Paterson was originally formed as a [[township (New Jersey)|township]] from portions of [[Acquackanonk Township, New Jersey|Acquackanonk Township]] on April 11, 1831, while the area was still part of [[Essex County, New Jersey|Essex County]]. It became part of the newly created Passaic County on February 7, 1837, and was incorporated as a city on April 14, 1851, based on the results of a referendum held that day. The city was reincorporated on March 14, 1861.<ref name=Story>Snyder, John P. [https://nj.gov/dep/njgs/enviroed/oldpubs/bulletin67.pdf ''The Story of New Jersey's Civil Boundaries: 1606β1968''], Bureau of Geology and Topography; Trenton, New Jersey; 1969. p. 210. Accessed May 30, 2024.</ref>
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