Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2003

After the Revolution the quiet stability of Princeton was undisturbed except by occasional student riots and, to a less extent, by the War of 1812, in which a number of Princeton men fought. In 1813 the borough of Princeton was reincorporated with added territory.

Princeton men were mainly responsible for drawing the town out of the stream of New York-Philadelphia traffic. It was largely their money that financed construction of the Camden and Amboy Railroad (1834) and the Delaware and Raritan Canal (1832), neither of which passed through the town.

Before and during the Civil War, Princeton was divided on the slave question. But when the many southern students did not return after their holidays in 1863, sympathy grew for the northern cause. Feeling was not unanimous, however, and even during the course of the war two pronorthern students were expelled for dousing a southern sympathizer under the town pump. More than l00 Princeton students served with commissions in the two armies.

After the Civil War the town had an abortive industrial boom. The New Jersey Iron Clad Roofing, Paint and Mastic Company, incorporated in 1868, evidently borrowed its name from Civil War naval vessels. Another company was formed in the same year to exploit a patented process for seasoning wood and preventing mold in fabrics, but the business was hampered by a series of fires and explosions.

The borough obtained a new 49-section charter in 1873, which drew the following comment from a contemporary historian: "It is like a garment cut much too large for the person who is to wear it, but the town may grow up to the dimensions of this charter in time." This cautious prophecy has been partly fulfilled; the 1880 population of 3,209 was increased by a scant 700 in the ensuing 20 years, but was finally doubled in the 1930 census.

The Spanish-American War had little effect upon the then rapidly expanding university, although many students volunteered for service. More than 5,000 Princeton men were in uniform during the World War, and a scholarship was founded in memory of each of the 151 who died in service.

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