New Rochelle would naturally have drawn to itself a very considerable element of the large numbers of New York people who sought homes in Westchester County after the completion of the railways, had it not been for the organization of the new village, which offered superior advantages to most persons of that class. Thus the immediate progress of New Rochelle was effectually retarded. The growth of the township in the ten years from 1845 to 1855 did not compare with that of West Farms, Eastchester, Yonkers, or Greenburgh, being only 1,021. The population of the township in 1830 was 1,271; in 1S35, 1,201; in 1810, 1,816; in 1815, 1,977; in 1850, 2,518; in 1855, 3,101. Nevertheless, the village had long possessed every requirement for organized government. A town hall had been built as early as 1828, with money bequeathed for that purpose by a public-spirited citizen, William Henderson. In 1851 a cemetery, known as the Beechwood Cemeti ry, was located in New Rochelle by authority granted by tin1 board of supervisors. The community was inhabited by many people of substance and progressiveness. A village charter was accordingly applied for, which was conferred by tin1 legislature on the 5th of ( )ctober, 1857. The first meeting of the officers of New Rochelle Village was held January 21, 1858, when Albert Smith was elected president of the board of trustees. The original charter of New Rochelle continued in effect until April 20, 1801, when a new charter was obtained from the legislature. The village, from its organization in 1858, endured until 1899, when the present City of New Rochelle was instituted. It is noteworthy that the three cities of Westchester County -- Yonkers, Mount Vernon, and New Rochelle -- all had their birth as incorporated villages in the decade 1850-60. In this decade also the Township of Morrisania -- now the most populous portion of the old County of Westchester -- came into being as a separate political division.