The New International Encyclopædia/Princeton (New Jersey)

PRINCETON. A borough in Mercer County, N. J., 10 miles north by cast of Trenton; on a branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad (Map: New Jersey, C 3). Princeton is a very picturesque town. It has an elevated site of great natural beauty, enhanced by wide avenues and fine shade trees. Its handsome residences, too, many of which are in the colonial style, add to its attractiveness. Princeton University (q.v.) is the chief feature of the borough. Other educational institutions in Princeton are the Princeton Theological Seminary (q.v.) and the Princeton Preparatory School. Population, in 1890, 3422; in 1900, 3899.

Princeton was first settled about 1696 and received its present name in 1724. It was of little importance, however, until the removal here from Newark of the College of New Jersey in 1756. On August 27, 1770, the first State Legislature of New Jersey assembled here and on the 31st chose William Livingston as Governor. Washington here surprised and defeated a body of British on January 3, 1777. (See Princeton, Battle of.) Congress, driven from Philadelphia by mutinous soldiers, met in Nassau Hall, Princeton, in June, 1783, and was in session until November 4th. It was here that news reached it on October 31st of the final signing of the definite treaty of peace with England. Consult: Hageman, History of Princeton and Its Institutions (Philadelphia, 1870), and a sketch in Powell, Historic Towns of the Middle States (New York, 1899).