USA > New Jersey > Passaic County > Preakness and the Preakness Reformed Church : a history 1695-1902 : with genealogical notes, the records of the church and tombstone inscriptions > Part 2
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Thomas Hart, Merchant, of Enfield, England, in the County of Middlesex, one of the Proprietors, was the first perhaps, who had any special or individual claim over the region known as Perekenos, 01 Perekenes. He owned several tracts of land in New York and East New Jersey. By will, dated December 19, 1704, he bequeathed two third parts of said lands to his sister, Patiente Ashfield, and one-third part to Mercy Benthall, wife of Walter Benthall, all of London. His sister, Patiente Ashfield, was made sole executrix of said will. She, however, in her will,-dated June 26, 1708, made Joseph Heale, of Stanis, in the County of Middlesex, distiller, her executor, and empowered him to convey said lands and premises
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inherited by her, who, with Mercy Benthall and Richard Ashfield, grandson and heir, of said Patiente Ashfield, for that purpose, "employed Rip Van Dam, of New York, and John Rodman, of Long ,Island, near New York, as their attorneys." Richard Ashfield him- self afterwards came to East Jersey, and was appointed, September, 1725, Receiver General of the Board of Proprietors. (East Jersey under the Proprietors. Whitehead, p. 178.) Later, Priscilla and Mercy Benthall, daughters of the said Walter and Mercy Benthall, and their heirs, by their will, dated July 20, 1721, appointed Rip Van Dam, Sr., and Rip Van Dam, Jr., of New York, their attorneys, to dispose of their real estate and its appurtenances, which they had inherited. Through all these persons and their representatives, at different times, a number of conveyances were made in Preakness, in the early days of the eighteenth century.
We have seen that the 5,500 acres bought by Brockholst and Schuyler, and their associates, afterwards divided up into the Pompton, Upper Pacquanac, and Lower Pacquanac Patents, com- prised the greater part of Wayne Township. This territory was all in the West and South. The Northern and Eastern portions of the Township, though not until after a number of settlements had been made, were afterwards covered by what was known as the Preakness Patent, which consisted of 4,481.81 acres, and was returned by the Board of Proprietors to the heirs or assigns of Richard Ashfield, October 1, 1753, (recorded in Perth Amboy, in Book S, 3, page 356), being intended to protect or confirm the earlier purchasers and settlers in the possession of their titles, whether their pur- chases were made of the Indians, or of the heirs of Thomas Hart. William Roome, of Butler, says, "this tract extended from what was formerly known as the Greaves place, now the Green Brook Farm, on the top of East Mountain, south along that mountain to within a mile of the Passaic River, and ran northwesterly from the Greaves place to within half a mile of the 'Clove,' at Franklin Lake ; then westerly, taking in the Uriah Van Riper, and James D. Ber- dan, and other places, to probably the tops of the hills, nearly to the line of the Pompton Patent ; then southerly, leaving a space of from a quarter to a half a mile wide between it, and the Pompton and two Pacquanac Patents, down to the top of the Harteberg Mountain, near the *old Totowa Schoolhouse." This took in almost all of what is known as Preakness Valley, or about all of
* This stood further down on the opposite side of the road toward : Paterson, from where the present schoolhouse now stands.
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Wayne Township, except the three Patents, already referred to, and the space of from a quarter to a half a mile wide between them and the said Patent.
A copy of this patent, in three parts, may be found among the transcribed papers in the Passaic County Clerk's office, in Paterson.
An abstract of the Indian deed to "Rip Van Dam, Attorney, legally to look after the rights of Thomas Hart," a deed which covered this and a somewhat larger territory, of which abstract we obtained a copy, through the kindness of William Roome, of Butler, from among his papers, (although we have been unable anywhere to find the deed itself, or a copy of it among the public records), is as follows :
A-5-£30,3
In pursuance of a former bargain, etc., made in year A. D. 1707. Situate in Bergen County, Nova Cessarea.
First tract :
"Beginning at the N end of a boggy meadow into which a small run of water emptieth by a Black Oak standing on the north westerly side of said run, marked on four sides (1) Eastward on South Side of a rowof hills on a straight line marked all along until it comes to the top of the great mountain (2) Southward all along the top of the Great Mountains until it cometh by an old wagon road to a white oak marked (3) along said road on which the trees are marked on both sides of said road until it meets Singack Creek, and so up Northerly along said creek until it meets ye old Minissing path where two black oak trees are marked four sides, one on East and one on West Side said creek. (4) Along said path until it comes on ye West Side said Boggy Meadow (5) along said meadow to beginning."
Second Tract :
"Beginning at the falls of Pomton River where on or near to which stands a mill on West Side said River thence running on the top of the mountain Northward all along unto the end of said mountain and thence through a flat land on a straight line marked all along until it reaches foot of another mountain to a White Oak standing between the rocks thence on a straight line marked all along until it meets Poghkeek Creek, and so crossing said creek, continuing the said marked line straight along Westward till top of mountain, then southward down said mountain till it reaches
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HISTORY OF PREAKNESS
Pequanac river, and so down said river until it comes to the old Minssing path, and thence * * where it first began."
Signed the 3rd September, 1714.
PAPEJECOP
MASSATOUWOP MATIHBACK
Their
PAPEJDCOP + Marks.
IN BEHALF OF
SAPON, MAMERISU,
AND SEVERAL MORE INDIANS.
Witnessed before Jared Jur Coromus, George Ryerson and Marcul Cald.
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CHAPTER II.
SOME OLD PREAKNESS FAMILIES AND GENEALOGICAL NOTES.
From an old Historical Discourse, by Rev. William B. Van Benschoten, of Wyckoff, N. J., published in The Bergen County Democrat, March 5, and 12, 1869, we learn that two brothers of the Berdan family came from Hackensack, to Upper Preakness, some time between 1715 and 1720, and bought 400 acres of land there at eighteen cents per acre. One of these brothers was married, and the other not. The unmarried brother, having a wife in view, began to build a log house, but died before it was finished; when the married brother finished and occupied it; and he became the progenitor of all of the name in this section. If, therefore, Van Benschoten is correct in his statements, the Berdans may be the oldest Preakness family in existence.
However, we cannot yet by any means substantiate these declarations. There is probably no question but that the first Ber- dan, Jan, who spelled his name Baerdan, after the revocation of the edict of Nantes, in 1685, came to this country, in the latter part of the seventeenth century, as a Huguenot refugee from Holland, and that with his wife and only son, who was also named Jan, or John, he settled somewhere on the present site of Brooklyn. Baer- dan's wife soon after this died, when he married again, and by his second wife had two daughters. Jan, Jr. did not get along very well with his stepmother, and in the course of a few years, quite early in life, left home. This second Jan, or Jan, Jr., the only son `of the first Jan Baerdan, appears to have been the progenitor of all the American Berdans. He first married Eva Van Siclen May 20, 1693, at Flatbush, Long Island, by whom he had at least eleven, and perhaps twelve, children. The oldest of the children, a daughter, Marretie, who first married Joris or George Doremus, of Lower Preakness, was born at New Amersfoort, (Flatlands), Long Island; but all the rest of his children were born and baptized in New Jersey. Shortly after the birth of his first child, Jan moved to Hackensack, N. J. His third child, and second daughter, Eva, married Cornelius Kip, also afterwards of Lower Preakness, a partner of George Doremus (and now also his brother-in-law), in a
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600-acre land purchase there. The second marriage of this Jan, the father of these children, about forty years after the first one, occurred November 6, 1733, when he married Vrouwtjen Van Dien, widow, at Hackensack. He owned several parcels of land about Hackensack, particularly in the region of what is now May- wood, certainly one also at Slotterdam, and 362 acres in Upper Preakness, on Singac Brook, which last parcel he bought of the heirs of Thomas Hart, November 18, 1720, and for which he paid £ 72 and 10s .; or just fifty cents per acre. If Jan himself never lived on this land, in Preakness, surely one or more of his sons did. His fifth child and third son, Albert, born January 17, 1702, and baptized January 25, at Hackensack, who, September 29, 1727, married Divertje Banta, (bap. May 24, 1710), owned this land in his day, and lived on it; and he had a son Jacob, born March 28, 1746, as well as a son John, who both likewise owned the same land in their day, and apparently lived on it,-the latter selling some of it, his share, no doubt, to Edo Marselis, in 1769; while the former, that is, Jacob, held what belonged to him, and handed it down to his posterity. A part of the original 362-acre tract, at any rate, is still in possession of the family (1902), in the person of a great grandson of this Jacob, son of Albert, viz : James D., who is in the sixth generation from Jan, Jr., or the seventh from the first Baerdan in the country.
Jan Berdan, Jr., who married Eva Van Siclen, in 1693, was Justice of the Peace in Bergen County 1716, 1720, 1721, 1723-7, 1731, and probably later, as well as it may be, between all these dates; although, in regard to dates later than these, it may have been a son, or grandson, of the same name, who was Justice 1741, 1743, as well as Freeholder 1745-8.
We will give next what we have from the records concerning this Jan Berdan and his family :
First marriage at Flatbush, Kings Co., Long Island, May 20, 1693, Jan Berdan and Eva Van Siclen; second marriage at Hackensack, N. J., November 6, 1733, Jan Berdan, widower, and Vrouwtjen Van Dien, widow. (Maiden name, Verway.)
Children :
1. Marretie, b. 1694, at N. Amersfoort, (Flatlands), L. I.
2. Jan, bap. between August and October, 1695, at Hack- ensack.
3. Eva, bap. October, 1697, at Hackensack.
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4. Ferdinandus, bap. January 28, 1700, at Hackensack.
5. Albert, bap. January 25, 1702, (b. Jan. 17), at Hack- ensack.
6. Willemtee, bap. June 5, 1704, at Hackensack.
7. Reynier, bap. May 2, 1706, at Hackensack.
8. Elena, bap. April 11, 1708, at Hackensack.
9. Annaetjen, supposed to have been born about 1710, (although Harvey, in Genealogical History of Hudson and Bergen Counties puts it in 1718).
10. Dirck, bap. February 3, 1712, at Hackensack.
11. David, bap. December 12, 1714, at Hackensack.
Marriages :
1. Marretie, married twice. (See Doremus Genealogy. Nelson.)
(1) Joris Doremus, March 16, 1717.
(2) Jacob Tietsoort, December 6, 1733.
2. Jan, married May 11, 1738, Cristyntjen Van Giesen, who was baptized September 28, 1718.
3. Eva, married September 17, 1720, Cornelis Kip.
4. Ferdinandus. We do not know that Ferdinandus ever married. He was admitted to membership in the Hackensack Dutch Church September 16, 1729. John Berdan, Jr., and "Cer- nand," brothers of Marretie, are named as two of the four executors of Joris Doremus's will, dated March 25, 1733, and proved October 20, 1733.
5. Albert, married September 29, 1727, Divertje Banta, who was baptized May 24, 1710.
6. Willemtee, married March 30, 1723, Isaac Kip.
7. Reynier, married November 3, 1738, Antjen Romein.
8. Elena, married March 30, 1728, Jacob Kip.
9. Annetjen, married December 10, 1736, Abraham Leroe, who was baptized March 18, 1705.
10. Dirck, married June 9, 1738, Antje Van Winkle.
Dirck Berdan was admitted to membership in the Hackensack Church November 22, 1733.
11. David, married May 12, 1738, Christyntjen Romeyn. Note .-- The three Kips here mentioned were brothers.
Of the children of Albert Berdan's son Jacob, of Upper Preak -. ness, who was born March 28, 1746, and who married Rebecca Ryerson, we mention only two.
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1. Albert, (b. 1767, d. 1837), who married Mary Ackerman, (b. 1771.)
2. Polly, or Mary, who married Uriah Van Riper, the great grandfather of Mrs. Andrew P. Hopper, and Mrs. C. H. Post.
Albert Berdan, (b. 1767), who married Mary Ackerman, had children :
1. Jacob, (b. 1790, d. 1875,) who married Catharine Dema- rest, a daughter of the Rev. John Demarest, of Ponds. These were the parents of the present (1902) James D. Berdan.
2. Christina, b. 1793.
3. Rebecca, b. 1801, who married Garret Berdan, of Lower Preakness, a second cousin of her father's.
Jacob and Catharine (Demarest) Berdan's children, were Sarah, Maria, Rebecca (1), Caroline, Albert, Rebecca (2), Mar- garet, John, James D., Elizabeth, William.
Rebecca (2) was struck by a locomotive at Hackensack, N. J., and killed, July 28, 1900.
Harry M. Berdan, son of James D., who married Elizabeth Berdan, of Paterson, has been Freeholder, Township Clerk, etc.
The site of the log house, on the Berdan property, in Upper Preakness, was just back of where the barn buildings of the present James D. stand. The first story of the main part of the old house now occupied by the family was built, (according to the father of William Roome, of Butler, who was a surveyor), in 1792, either by the son or grandson, Jacob, of the first settler, according to whether that first settler was Jan, who married Eva Van Siclen, or his son, Albert, b. January 17, 1702. The second story of the house was built by Albert Berdan, b. 1767, the grandfather of the present James D., and the son of the original builder. In his time, that is, in Albert's time, the Indians used to have a summer encampment across the little brook north of the house; while, in the winter, they would go to Bloomingdale, as it is now, and make their winter quarters in the thick woods there. From these Indians, with whose children the said Albert played, when he was a boy, has been handed down the name Pra-qua-less, or "quail woods."
Johannes De Riemer (Doremus) settled in Lower Preakness as early as 1717, or possibly a little earlier. In a deed from the legal representatives of the heirs and devisees of Thomas Hart, late of London, dec'd, to Derrick Dey, October 9, 1717, for 600 acres of land, in Lower Preakness, the tract is described as "Be- ginning at the southwest corner of Johannes De Riemer's land, on
-
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Singac Brook," which land probably was that which his son Cornelius H., (Hans), or J., (Jan), Doremus, (he wrote his name both ways), on September 20, 1769, for £480, deeded to Samuel Van Saen ;- now evidently, in part, at any rate, the Aaron Laauwe farm, and the Sikkema and Garside farms. In the deed to Van Saen, the said tract is described (Bergen County Transcribed Deeds, Book A, p. 121) as "Beginning at the east side of a brook, called by the Indians Singack, at a place where a small run of water runneth into said sd brook, and running from thence (1) South 811/2° East 40 chains (2) thence North 32° East 241/2 chains (3) thence North 811/2° West 30 chains (4) thence North 803/4° East 30 chains (5) thence North 811/2° East 10 chains and 70 links to the Singack Brook aforesaid, thence down the stream the several courses thereof to the place where it first began con- taining 150 acres strict measurement."
Note .- There appears to be something wrong here, as we cannot bring the lines together. The only explanation we can give is that the fourth and fifth lines are probably North West in- stead of North East, in which case the plot would be in shape something like the diagram below.
N. 811/2° W. 10 ch. and 70 links.
N. 8034° W. 30 ch.
N. 811/2° W. 30 ch.
N. 22º F. 241/2 ch.
S. 811/2° E. 40 ch.
This is the explanation of Samuel R. Demarest, attorney, of Hackensack. Johannes De Riemer (Doremus) was the second living son of Cornelis Doremus and Jannetje Joris, who, with their children, Cornelis and Johannes, were the first of the name in this country. They came from Middelburg, Holland. Their oldest son. Thomas (1), died on the voyage ; two daughters had died in the old country ; several other children were afterwards born to them in America. The family lived at Wesel, between Paterson and Passaic.
Cornelis Doremus, the immigrant, b. at Breskens, m. May 12, 1675, at Arneminden, Janneke Joris van Elsland, (b. at Groede),-
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all these places being on the Island of Walcheren, Province of Laan, in the southwestern part of Holland, bordering on Belgium. They came to America about 1685. Their children were :
1. Thomas (1), bap. March 24, 1676.
2. Maijke, bap. November 17, 1677.
3. Janneke, bap. January 3, 1680.
4. Cornelis, bap. February 3, 1682.
5. Joannes, bap. September 7, 1684.
All the above baptisms occurred at Middelburg.
6. Thomas, (2), bap. April 11, 1687, at Bergen.
7. Jannetje, bap. June 4, 1691, at Bergen.
8. Joris, b. about 1693.
9. Hendrick, bap. May 28, 1695.
Thomas (1), as we have seen, died on the voyage to this con- tinent. Maijke and Janneke died young in Holland. Cornelis m. August 12, 1710, Rachel Pieterse. Johannes m. August 19, 1710. Elizabeth A. Akkermans, who was born in Bergen. and lived, at the time of her marriage, at Hackensack. In his latter days Johannes Doremus lived at Paramus, where he made his will July 5, 1754, witnessed by Deyrek Dey, Nicholas Kip, and Philip Schuyler. This was probably Philip Schuyler. of Pompton, who, in 1712, married Hester Kingsland. Thomas (2) m. October 4, 1712, Anneke A. Akerman. Jannetje m. October 22, 1715, Frans Oudtwater .. Joris m. March 16, 1717, Marretie Berdan. Hend- rick m. April 14, 1716. Annatie Hesselse. The father of these children died January or February, 1715; their mother somewhat later.
After Cornelis H., (Hans), or J., (Johannes), Doremus, son of Johannes, conveyed the aforementioned tract to Samuel Van Saen, he removed to Parsippany. None of his descendants, and therefore of Johannes's descendants, that we know of, is now with us. But Peter J. Doremus is a descendant of the first Johannes's brother, Thomas (2), in the seventh generation from Cornelis, of Wescl.
This Thomas married Anneke Abramse Ackermans. "He settled near the head waters of the Peckamin River, on the portion of the Garret Mountain tract given to him by his father's will." Thomas Doremus's son, Cornelis Doremus, married Antje Yong. They had a son, Thomas, who married Rachel Spier. A son, Peter, of this union, married Susanna Jones. These were the grand-
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parents of Peter J .- his parents being Nicholas Jones Doremus and Elizabeth Haring, his wife.
William D. Doremus, of Preakness, is a descendant of Joris or George, another son of Cornelis Doremus, of Wesel, and brother of Cornelis, Jr., and Johannes and Thomas. This George or Joris Doremus married Marretie Berdan. Their son Cornelis married Sara Reyerse. This couple had a son who married Margaret Wes- tervelt. These were the parents of Jan Doremus, who wrote his name John G., the father of William D., and who married Geertje Ryerson. The first Joris Doremus died in 1733, and his widow married again, her second husband being Jacob Tisort. (Tietsoort). William Dearman Doremus is in the fifth generation from him, and in the sixth from Cornelis, of Wesel. He was the fourteenth child of his parents, and the third William. The old house in which Jacob Meyer lives, northeast of the Bingham place, was built by an uncle of William D. Doremus, by the name of Dearman or Tear- man, or Tierman, who married Mr. Doremus's father's sister. The house was burned the night President Lincoln was assassinated, but was built up again, the old walls remaining, or being left in the building, as far as they would do. Mr. Doremus's father or grand- father owned all the land east of where he lived, and of where William D. lived, to the top of the mountain, this side of Paterson, including the Robert Gaede place, the John Grundy place, the Van Orden and other places, as well as west of his residence, to Singac Brook. Jan, or John G. Doremus, the father of William D., was long an elder, and for a time treasurer of this church. He lived on what is now (1902) the Bingham place, where his father Joris had lived before him, in an old stone house, long since in ruins, just back of where the present house stands. William D., who married Helen Ann Benson, spent most of his married life in the house across the road.
Also the late Cornelius O. and John Doremus, brothers, of Lower Preakness, were descendants of this same George, the brother of the first Johannes Doremus, in another line from that of William D., and in the seventh generation from Cornelis Doremus and Jannetje Joris. This is the line: Joris Doremus and Marretie Berdan had a son Joris who married Marregrietje Tytsoort. They had a son Cornelis. We don't know whom he married. But he had a son Joris who married Eve Yong. And this couple had a son Jores, who married Elmina Onderdonk. And these were the parents of the brothers C. O. and John. Jores Doremus, the father
1
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HISTORY OF PREAKNESS
of these boys, lived in Lower Preakness on the mountain towards Paterson, where his grandsons, the sons of Cornelius O., now live.
A great many acres, in various portions of Preakness, have belonged to the Doremus family, though the name is not at present as numerous here as it has been.
The mill and farm property occupied by the Peter J. Doremus family, before it belonged to his father-in-law, John I. Traphagen, was owned by William Sickles, his (Peter's) wife's grandfather, and father-in-law of Mr. Traphagen, who, (Sickles), bought it of Richard Doremus, a descendant of the first owner of it, viz: Joris or Georges, who came here in 1723, son of the first Cornelis of Wesel. (Cornelis,-Joris or Georges,-Johannes,-Joris,-Rich- ard.) This Richard, therefore, was the first George's great grandson. His farm and mill property in Preakness was devised to him by his father's will. After selling it to Mr. Sickles, he removed to New York, and, when he died, was buried in Schraalen- burg .* Peter J. Doremus was born and brought up in Pacquanac.
August 30, 1717, David Danielson, who was a Hennion, of Bergen County, bought of the heirs of Thomas Hart for "£130 current money of New York," a tract, which, with all about them, covered the Preakness church and parsonage lots. It is described as follows:
"All that certain part or parcell of land, situate, lying. and being in Bergen County, in the Province of East New Jersey afore- said. beginning at a black oak tree marked with the letter D, and from thence running North one hundred and twelve chains to a rock marked D. D.," (probably back of the old Esquire Merselis house, now Mrs. Cahill's), "thence North eighty-six degrees East- erly sixty-nine chains to Singac Brook, then down the stream thereof to a black oak marked on four sides, which is the North East corner of Brockholst land, then following Brockholst lines, to a stake set near a brook, thence South eighty-six degrees Westerly fifty-three chains to the tree where it began, containing, (as by the return of the surveyor may appear) six hundred and fifty acres together with, etc., etc."
This seems to have included all of what in these days (1900) are known as the Merselis properties, and those south of them, and taking in at least the upper end (but we cannot tell how much of it) of Lower Preakness, between Singac Brook and Pacquanack
* Most of these facts are taken from the Doremus Genealogy by Wil- liam Nelson. John Neafie likewise has furnished us with some of them.
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Line. Some of this land, according to the Passaic County Records, appears to have been deeded October 2, or 20, 1719, to Garret Gar- retson, Jr. Theunis Hennion, grandson of D. D. Hennion, also at one time owned some of it, which, on June 1, 1763, he deeded to Edo Marselis. David Danielson Hennion had two sons who remained in Preakness,-Daniel or Nathaniel and Johannes. Theunis was the son of this John or Johannes. Theunis Hennion, son of Johannes, and grandson of David Danielson Hennion, was married at Acquackanonk, June 13, 1746, to Annetje Doremus. The entry states he was born at "Perikenes." His will is dated May 19, 1801, and was proved December 29, 1801.
David Danielson Hennion, baptized in New York, July 1, 1665, was the son of Nathaniel Pietersen Hennion, who came from Ley- den, Holland, and married Anneken Davids Ackerman, June 28, 1664, in New Amsterdam, (New York City.) David was the oldest child of this union. There were eleven children in all :
1. David, bap. July 1, 1665, at New York.
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