Editing Hamar (section)

===Establishment of government===
The first executive of Hamar was Johannes Bay, who arrived in October 1849 to facilitate an election of a board of supervisors and representatives. The town's [[royal charter]] called for the election of three supervisors and nine representatives. Elections were announced in the paper and through the town crier. Of the ten eligible town citizens, three supervisors were elected, and the remaining six were elected by consent to be representatives, resulting in a shortfall of three on the board. The first mayor of Hamar was Christian Borchgrevink.

The first order of business was the allocation of [[liquor license]]s and the upper limit of alcohol that could be sold within the town limits. The board quickly decided to award licenses to both applicants and set the upper limit to 12,000 "pots" of liquor, an amount that was for all intents and purposes limitless.

The electorate increased in 1849 to 26, including merchants and various craftsmen, and the empty representative posts were filled in November. In 1850, the board allowed for unlimited exercise of any craft for which no citizenship had been taken out, which led to much unregulated craftsmanship. Part-time policemen were hired, and the town started setting taxes and a budget by the end of 1849. In 1850, a new election was held for the town board.

The painter Jakobsen had early on offered the use of his home for public meetings and assembly, and upon buying a set of solid locks, his basement also became the town prison. One merchant was designated as the town's firefighter and was given two buckets with equipment, and later a simple hose. By 1852 a full-time fire chief was named. There was also some controversy around the watchman who loudly reported the time to all the town's inhabitants every half-hour, every night. Hamar also had a scrupulously enforced ordinance against smoking (pipe) without a lid in public or private.

In Hamar's early days, the entire population consisted of young entrepreneurs, and little was needed in the way of social services. After a few years, a small number of indigent people needed support, and a poorhouse was erected.<ref name=Pederson />

On 1 January 1878, the town/municipality of Hamar was enlarged by annexing about {{convert|800|daa|acre}} of land and 138 people from the neighboring municipality of [[Vang, Hedmark|Vang]] to Hamar.<ref name="dag">{{Cite web |last=Jukvam |first=Dag |year=1999 |title=Historisk oversikt over endringer i kommune- og fylkesinndelingen |url=http://www.ssb.no/emner/00/90/rapp_9913/rapp_9913.pdf |publisher=[[Statistics Norway|Statistisk sentralbyrå]] |language=Norwegian}}</ref><ref name="VH" />