EAST LIVERPOOL, a city of Columbiana county, Ohio, U.S.A., on the Ohio river, about 106 m. S.E. of Cleveland. Pop. (1890) 10,956; (1900) 16,485, of whom 2112 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 20,357. It is served by the Pennsylvania railway, by river steamboats, and by interurban electric lines. Next to Trenton, New Jersey, East Liverpool is the most important place in the United States for the manufacture of earthenware and pottery, 4859 out of its 5228 wage-earners, or 92.9%, being employed in this industry in 1905, when $5,373,852 (83.5% of the value of all its factory products) was the value of the earthenware and pottery. No other city in the United States is so exclusively devoted to the manufacture of pottery; in 1908 there were 32 potteries in the city and its immediate vicinity. The manufacture of white ware, begun in 1872, is the most important branch of the industry—almost half of the “cream-coloured,” white granite ware and semivitreous porcelain produced in the United States in 1905 (in value, $4,344,468 out of $9,195,703) being manufactured in East Liverpool. Though there are large clay deposits in the vicinity, very little of it can be used for crockery, and most of the clay used in the city’s potteries is obtained from other states; some of it is imported from Europe. After 1872 a large number of skilled English pottery-workers settled in the city. The city’s product of pottery, terra-cotta and fireclay increased from $2,137,063 to $4,105,200 from 1890 to 1900, and in the latter year almost equalled that of Trenton, N.J., the two cities together producing more than half (50.9%) of the total pottery product of the United States; in 1905 East Liverpool and Trenton together produced 42.1% of the total value of the country’s pottery product. The municipality owns and operates its water-works. East Liverpool was settled in 1798, and was incorporated in 1834.
EAST LONDON, a town of the Cape province, South Africa, at the mouth of the Buffalo river, in 33° 1′ S. 27° 55′ E., 543 m. E.N.E. of Cape Town by sea and 666 m. S. of Johannesburg by rail. Pop. (1904) 25,220, of whom 14,674 were whites. The town is picturesquely situated on both sides of the river, which is spanned by a combined road and railway bridge. The railway terminus and business quarter are on the east side on the top of the cliffs, which rise 150 ft. above the river. In Oxford Street, the chief thoroughfare, is the town hall, a handsome building erected in 1898. Higher up a number of churches and a school are grouped round Vincent Square, a large open space. In consequence of the excellent sea bathing, and the beauty of the river banks above the town, East London is the chief seaside holiday resort of the Cape province. The town is the entrepot of a rich agricultural district, including the Transkei, Basutoland and the south of Orange Free State, and the port of the Cape nearest Johannesburg. It ranks third among the ports of the province. The roadstead is exposed and insecure, but the inner harbour, constructed at a cost of over £2,000,000, is protected from all winds. A shifting sand bar lies at the mouth of the river, but the building of training walls and dredging have increased the minimum depth of water to 22 ft. From the east bank of the Buffalo a pier and from the west bank a breakwater project into the Indian Ocean, the entrance being 450 ft. wide, reduced between the training walls to 250 ft. There is extensive wharf accommodation on both sides of the river, and steamers of over 8000 tons can moor alongside. There is a patent slip capable of taking vessels of 1000 tons dead weight. An aerial steel ropeway from the river bank to the town greatly facilitates the delivery of cargo. The imports are chiefly textiles, hardware and provisions, the exports mainly wool and mohair. The rateable value of the town in 1908 was £4,108,000, and the municipal rate 15⁄8d.
East London owes its foundation to the necessities of the Kaffir war of 1846-1847. The British, requiring a port nearer the scene of war than those then existing, selected a site at the mouth of the Buffalo river, and in 1847 the first cargo of military stores was landed. A fort, named Glamorgan, was built, and the place permanently occupied. Around this military post grew up the town, known at first as Port Rex. Numbers of its inhabitants are descendants of German immigrants who settled in the district in 1857. The prosperity of the town dates from the era of railway and port development in the last decade of the 19th century. In 1875 the value of the exports was £131,803 and that of the imports £552,033. In 1904 the value of the exports was £1,165,938 and that of the imports £4,688,415. In 1907 the exports, notwithstanding a period of severe trade depression, were valued at £1,475,355, but the imports had fallen to £3,354,633.
EASTON, a city and the county-seat of Northampton county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., at the confluence of the Lehigh river and Bushkill Creek with the Delaware, about 60 m. N. of Philadelphia. Pop. (1890) 14,481; (1900) 25,238, of whom 2135 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 28,523. Easton is served by the Central of New Jersey, the Lehigh Valley, the Lehigh & Hudson River and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western railways, and is connected by canals with the anthracite coal region to the north-west and with Bristol, Pa. A bridge across the Delaware river connects it with Phillipsburg, New Jersey, which is served by the Pennsylvania railway. The city is built on rolling ground, commanding pleasant views of hill and river scenery. Many fine residences overlook city and country from the hillsides, and a Carnegie library is prominent among the public buildings. Lafayette College, a Presbyterian institution opened in 1832, is finely situated on a bluff north of the Bushkill and Delaware. The college provides the following courses of instruction: graduate, classical, Latin scientific, general scientific, civil engineering, electrical engineering, mining engineering and chemical; in 1908 it had 38 instructors and 442 students, 256 of whom were enrolled in the scientific and engineering courses. Overlooking the Bushkill is the Easton Cemetery, in which is the grave of George Taylor (1716-1781), a signer of the Declaration of Independence, with a monument of Italian marble to his memory. Among the city’s manufactures are silk, hosiery and knit goods, flour, malt liquors, brick, tile, drills, lumber and planing mill products and organs; in 1905 the value of all the factory products was $5,654,594, of which $2,290,598, or 40.5%, was the value of the silk manufactures. Easton is the commercial centre of an important mining region, which produces, in particular, iron ore, soapstone, cement, slate and building stone. The municipality owns and operates an electric-lighting plant. Easton was a garden spot of the Indians, and here, because they would not negotiate elsewhere, several important treaties were made between 1756 and 1762 during the French and Indian War. The place was laid out in 1752, and was made the county-seat of the newly erected county. It was incorporated as a borough in 1789, received a new borough charter in 1823, and in 1887 was chartered as a city. South Easton was annexed in 1898.
EAST ORANGE, a city of Essex county, New Jersey, U.S.A., in the north-eastern part of the state, adjoining the city of Newark, and about 12 m. W. of New York city. Pop. (1890) 13,282; (1900) 21,506, of whom 3950 were foreign-born and 1420 were negroes; (1910 census) 34,371. It is served by the Morris & Essex division of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western railway and by the Orange branch of the Erie (the former having four stations—Ampere, Grove Street, East Orange and Brick Church), and is connected with Newark, Orange and West Orange by electric line. The city covers an area of about 4 sq. m., and has broad, well-paved streets, bordered with fine shade trees (under the jurisdiction of a “Shade Tree Commission”). It is primarily a residential suburb of New York and Newark, and has many beautiful homes; with Orange, West Orange and South Orange it forms virtually one community, popularly known as “the Oranges.” The public school system is excellent, and the city has a Carnegie library (1903), with more than 22,000 volumes in 1907. Among the principal buildings are several attractive churches, the city hall, and the club-house of the Woman’s Club of Orange. The principal manufactures of East Orange are electrical machinery, apparatus, and supplies (the factory of the Crocker-Wheeler Co. being here—in a part of the city known as “Ampere”) and pharmaceutical materials. The total value of the city’s factory products in 1905 was $2,326,552. East Orange has a fine water-works system, which it owns and operates; the water supply is obtained from artesian wells at White Oaks Ridge, in the township of Milburn (about 10 m. from the city hall); thence the water is pumped to a steel reinforced reservoir (capacity 5,000,000 gallons) on the mountain back of South Orange. In 1863 the township of East Orange was separated from the township of Orange, which, in turn, had been separated from the township of Newark in 1806. An act of the New Jersey legislature in 1895 created the office of township president, with power of appointment and veto. Four years later East Orange was chartered as a city.
See H. Whittemore, The Founders and Builders of the Oranges (Newark, 1896).