Top 7 New Jersey Tech Support Companies

During the Civil War, New Jersey was one of only a handful of states to vote for Stephen Douglas in 1860 and later George B. McCellan in 1864; rejecting the Abraham Lincoln both times in the presidential elections. Eventually in 1878, McClellan had to settle for governor. In the Civil War, New Jersey was first run by the Republican Governor Charles Olden, and second by Democrat Joel Parker.

During the Industrial Revolution, many cities in New Jersey, such as Paterson, flourished. While before the economy had been mainly agricultural, despite crop failures and poor soil, New Jersey now made the shift to a modern industrialized economy thats main export was textiles and silks. The great inventor Thomas Edison, world renowned for his invention of the electric light, quickly became an important figure in the Industrial Revolution, granted with 1,093 patents for his inventions, many of which he created working in New Jersey.

His laboratories, were located in Menlo Park, NJ, for which he was named the "Wizard of Menlo Park", and later in West Orange, NJ, are generally considered the first actual research centers in the United States. The first thoroughfare in the world to have electric lighting was Christie Street in Menlo Park. Other innovations introduced to New Jersey included locomotion and steam boats.

In the mid to late 1800s, the major industry in the U.S. was iron mining. Bog iron pits in New Jersey were some of the first iron sources in the nation. Entire towns sprung up with the new industry; mainly dotted around mines like Mount Hope, Mine Hill, and Rockaway Valley Mines. In addition to iron, zinc mining was also a leading industry at the time, led in part by the Sterling Hill Mine, New Jersey.