In 1835 the New Jersey legislature, spurred on by the promises of the recently chartered Camden and Amboy Railroad to the south and the northern New Jersey Railroad, granted a charter to the Morris and Essex Railroad. The road was to link Morristown with "one or more suitable places on the railroad known as the New Jersey Railroad and Transportation Company, at Newark or Elizabethtown".

The proposed railroad was controversial from its beginnings. Stagecoach and freight wagon owners were quick to complain that this new road wasn't needed. After all, the Morris Pike was busier than it had ever been with regular stagecoach services from the east to Morristown and, in summer, to the popular resort at Schooley's Mountain in Long Valley. These coaches were challenged by heavy freight wagons delivering goods to and from the coast.

With the charter, however, the complaints subsided as investors set about the task of building a railroad. Early on the nine elected directors dropped plans to link their Morris and Essex line with Elizabethtown. The traffic potential to Newark was much better and wealthy patrons from Newark's North End had bought over $100,000 of M&E stock and were offering a free right of way to the Roseville section of town.  The Directors couldn't resist even though that right-of-way had a steep grade of 140 feet to the mile. From this starting point in Newark the earliest plan was for the railroad to run along the Morris turnpike into Chatham, Madison and then on to Morristown. However stockholder Jonathan Bonnell presented the Directors with an offer of free land for the right-of-way at The Summit of The Short Hills, and also promised to build a station.

On November 19th 1836 the M&E line was officially opened between Newark and Orange. The service to this point was still by horse-drawn car.