On March 14, 1863, the New Jersey Legislature created the township of
West Orange by combining all of the land of the existing Fairmount
Township, formed only a year earlier, with a section of neighboring
Orange. It created West Orange with its present-day boundaries and gave
the new town a separate and distinct identity. It became home to the
laboratories of world-famous inventor Thomas Edison in 1887, and he
lived here until his death in 1931. But there is so much more to the
town's history. Four former New Jersey governors also lived here,
including Civil War general George McClellan, who, as a town resident,
unsuccessfully opposed Abraham Lincoln in the presidential election of
1864. The fertile farmland that attracted the early settlers left behind
an enduring legacy of rich history still interwoven into the community
of today.