The first attorney to practice law in Jersey City was James Wilson, who opened an office in 1812. The Hudson County Bar dates from the forming of Hudson County in 1840; at that time there were only eight lawyers in this locality. The first court of the new county opened in Lyceum Hall in Grand street, Jersey City, on April 14th, 1840, where it continued to be held until September 19th, 1843, when the court removed to the Newkirk house at the Five Corners, until the new Court House was completed March 11, 1845. The situation of the Court House was warmly debated, each town strongly urging its claims, but finally Hudson City was decided upon, and a site on Newark avenue was selected for the Court House and Jail; the latter was finished a little later than the Court House, and both were built from trap rock quarried on the site. Until 1843 there had been neither a City Attorney nor a City Physician, but in that year both of these offices were created. In that same year the city introduced street lamps, but at first in only those localities in which the property owners had made application for them. Gas was first used in Jersey City on December 1st, 1852; the streets were first lighted with it a few days later, one hundred and seventy-four street lamps being required. Electric lighting for the streets began about 1884. The first telephone service in the city was in 1878. RAILROADS AND STEAMSHIPS. In 1834 the New Jersey Railroad and the Paterson and Hudson River Railroad were opened and led to a new era in the history of Jersey City. The New Jersey Railroad extended to Newark, with work in progress toward Philadelphia. Its one car was advertised as "the passenger car 'Washington,' a splendid and beautiful specimen of workmanship, containing three apartments besides seats on top." Regular trips began September 15th, 1834. Eight trips a day were made, going from Jersey City to Newark in one hour and a half. The railroad cut was made by the New Jersey Railroad in 1837, following the line of a water course, and a depression across the ridge, which made it very crooked; the earth from the cut was piled up over one hundred feet high on the land belonging to the railroad back of the Tonnele place. The cars were drawn by horses until the locomotive, the Newark, was used December 2d, 1838.