The railroad brought major changes to New Jersey beginning in the mid-19th century. The state was mostly agricultural, and the new lines made it easier for farmers to get their crops to market. But they also made it easier for those employed in New York City or Philadelphia to live outside the urban core and yet commute to work each day. Even before the Civil War, the Brick Church station, in Orange, Essex County, about from New York City, became the center of the nation's first commuter suburb. New Jersey's townships acquired a new type of population, consisting of commuters, who formed communities near railroad stations, and who wanted good streets and roads, better funded schools, and a larger stake in the government. They were fiercely opposed on each issue by the existing rural, agricultural population, who understood that their taxes would need to be raised in order to pay for the services that they did not want.
