USA > New Jersey > Bergen County > Ridgewood > Ridgewood, Bergen County, New Jersey, past and present > Part 2
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18
Colonel MeClaughey's regiment was at Paramus, January 1, 1777; Stores at Paramus were under guard of eighty or one hundred men, May 9, 1777;
Tea stored at Paramus was stolen, June 17, 1777;
Washington's army was cantoned from Fort Defiance to Paramus, August 9, 1779;
Headquarters of Major Henry Lee were located here, August 22, 1779, and September 4, 1779;
Headquarters of Lord Stirling were located here, on October 8, 1780.
On September 8, 1780, occurred the death of General Enoch Poor at Kinderhamaek, a few miles east of Paramus. His body was brought to Paramus and on September 10th he was buried in the graveyard of the First Reformed Dutch Church in Hackensack.
For a long time a branch of Washington's army was stationed in the Ramapo Valley along the section now the Havemeyer estate, and from there small detachments were thrown out across the country.
Paramus, lying between this station and the Hudson River, was subject to the march and countermarches of troops belonging to both parties.
At the time the American Army was retreating across New Jersey, and before it was half-way to Trenton, General Heath came down from his station in the highlands of the Hudson River and by the way of Paramus made an attack upon the British and Tories at Tappan, New York.
It was on the route of the American Army as it moved from Newark to King's Ferry, July 5, 1778; while one division of the French, in the march of the allies to Yorktown, passed through Paramus to the north.
Under the "Old Elm," located in Ho-Ho-Kus on Franklin Turn-
6
PAST AND PRESENT
pike (which starts near the Paramus Church), a granite marker was placed on May 30, 1914, by the Ramapo Valley Chapter, Daughters of the Revolution, as marking the route of General Washington and his troops from Fort Lee to Ramapaugh during the Revolutionary War, 1776-1781.
When Aaron Burr was appointed in 1777 a Lieutenant-Colonel in the American Army, he joined his regiment at Ramapo, where it was then stationed. At Paramus resided Mrs. Provost, the widow of Colonel Provost, of the British Army. It is stated that while Burr commanded the American lines at Fort Washington, he frequently came over to Fort Lee, obtained a horse, and rode to visit the widow at Paramus, returning to his headquarters before daylight. Mrs. Provost afterwards became the wife of Burr and according to tradition was married to him in the old Paramus Church.
It was while stationed here that Burr achieved his first military success. His regiment had encamped at Ramapo, in September, 1777, when intelligence was brought that the enemy was in Hackensack in great force and advancing into the country. Colonel Burr immediately marehed with all effective men, except a guard to take care of the camp, and arrived at Paramus, a distance of sixteen miles, before sun- set, where he found considerable bodies of militia in great alarm and disorder.
Colonel Burr set some of the militia to repairing fences which had been destroyed by them in their endeavor to mobilize. Having taken measures to secure the troops from surprise and also to provide pro- tection for the corn fields, he marched immediately with about thirty of the most active of the regiment and a few militia to ascertain the position and numbers of the enemy.
About ten o'clock at night, when within three miles of Hackensack, Burr, receiving word that he was within a mile of the picket guard of the enemy, led his men into a wood, ordered them to sleep until he awakened them, and went alone to discover the enemy's position. Returning about half an hour later, he awakened his men and ordered them to follow, forbidding any man to speak or fire under pain of death. Thus proceeding, they came shortly within a few yards of the picket guard before their approach was suspected. Burr then gave the word and his men rushed upon the enemy before they had time to secure their arms. The greater part of the enemy were killed, a few taken prisoners, and some accoutrements brought off without the loss of a man.
An express was immediately sent to Paramus by Burr to order all the troops to move and to rally the country. His success had so encouraged the inhabitants that they turned out with great alacrity and put themselves under his command. The enemy. however, probably alarmed by these threatening appearances, retreated the next day, leav- ing behind them the greater part of the plunder which they had taken.
One of the detachments thrown out by the patriot army stationed in the Ramapo Valley, was located at Hoppertown. now Ho-Ho-Kus, and operated as a sub-base for smaller parties. The presence of this force at Ho-Ho-Kus, together with the larger encampments at Ramapo
7
RIDGEWOOD, BERGEN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY
and at Paramus, subjected the country to the depredations of the British and Tories in their numerous attempts to reach the American stations and to destroy the possible sources of supplies. Some of these sorties were as follows:
About January 1, 1776, shortly after General Clinton had garri- soned his troops at Ramapo, the British, numbering between five and eight hundred troops, arrived at Hackensack. After imprisoning a number of the citizens in sympathy with the American cause, they marched on to Paramus, where they plundered some of the inhabitants of that neighborhood, afterwards returning to Hackensack with citizens of Paramus, whom they also confined in the Hackensack jail.
On the night of December 27, 1776, several families at Paramus were plundered in a raid and several friends of the American eause were taken away as prisoners.
During the night of April 21, 1779, the Tories under John Van De Roder took possession of the mill belonging to Jonathan Hopper, a captain of the militia. Hopper was born and raised at Hoppertown, but was then running a grist and saw mill at Wagaraw, on the present site of Alyea's Ice House, where Maple Avenue crosses the Passaic River to Paterson. Hopper's wife, hearing the noise, awoke her hus- band, and told him that some persons were in the mill. He arose, went to the door and, demanding to know who was there, was shot through the hand. The Tories then rushed into the house, seized him, and foreed his wife to hold a light while they ran him through nineteen times with bayonets and killed him.
On March 23, 1780, two parties, each consisting of about three hundred British and Hessian soldiers, landed, the one at Closter, several miles above Fort Lee, and the other at Weehawken, the former force to penetrate the country northward to Hoppertown and to attack the cantonment at that place, and the other to surprise the town of Haeken- sack and to push on and then attack the front of the American forees at Paramus. The Court House and several dwellings in Hackensack were burned and the entire route marked by devastation. At the Par- amus Church, where the two invading forces joined, they met the militia and citizens of the community, with the Continental troops sta- tioned there, and were driven baek. They succeeded in taking with them, however, about fifty prisoners, mostly citizens and members of the militia, who were thrown in the Old Sugar House Prison, many never to return.
Leaving New York City on April 15, 1780, a body of the British forces, consisting of two hundred horse and three hundred foot, landed in New Jersey at several points. Forming a junction near the English neighborhood, the whole detachment proceeded to the New Bridge on the Hackensack, where they arrived early in the morning of the 16th. After a skirmish with the American forces at that place, they continued their march to Paramus, coming in sight of the church a little after day-break. Finding the American forees had fallen back to Hopper- town. they proceeded until discovered by a pieket at the bridge upon the Saddle River. Although the small American force under Major Byles was taken by surprise, it heroically attempted to defend its posi-
8
PAST AND PRESENT
tion. During the engagement, however, Major Byles was mortally wounded, and his lieutenant killed. Overwhelmed by numbers, the Americans were compelled to surrender. The American losses by death, wounded, and those taken prisoner, were one Major, two Captains, four Lieutenants, and about forty rank and file, while the British lost seven rank and file killed, two Sergeants, and twenty-nine rank and file wounded.
After the encounter the British burned the house of Garret Hopper, who had bravely seconded the endeavors of the party to defend it, and who was badly wounded in the fray. They also burnt his mill and his brother's house.
In commemoration of the events connected with the community's history during the War of the American Revolution, the New Jersey Society, of the Sons of the American Revolution, in conjunction with Paramus Chapter No. 6, on July 4, 1914, placed and dedicated the following bronze tablet upon the Paramus Church building :
NISI DOMINUS FRESTRA NEAR THIS HOUSE OF GOD ENCAMPED
GENERAL WASHINGTON AND HIS ARMY IN 1778 IN GRATEFUL TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF THE PATRIOTS WIIO SLEEP IN THE ADJACENT CHURCHYARD AND TO THE MEN
AND WOMEN OF THIS COMMUNITY WIIO ASSISTED SO VALIANTLY IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE TIIIS TABLET IS PLACED BY THE NEW JERSEY SOCIETY OF THE SONS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION JULY 4TH, 1914
Paramus, as seen by an officer while in encampment here in 1778, is described as follows :
"This town is chiefly inhabited by Dutch people. Their church and dwelling houses are built of rough stone, one story high. There is a peculiar neatness in the appearance of their dwellings, having an airy piazza supported by pillars in front, and their kitchens connected at the ends in the form of wings. The land is remarkably level and the soil fertile, and being generally advantageously cultivated, the people appear to enjoy ease and a happy competency. The furniture in their homes is of the most ordinary kind, such as might be supposed to accord with the fashion of the days of Queen Anne. They despise the superfluities of life and are ambitious to appear always neat and cleanly and never to complain of an empty purse."
1782-1865
After the Revolutionary War, the agreeable elimate and the fertility of the soil attracted new settlers, who soon became established in the community. The growth of the community, however, was slow, owing to the fact that the people were widely scattered upon farms, and means of communication and of transportation were meagre and unsatisfactory.
The earliest settlements were near the Paramus Church, but soon
9
RIDGEWOOD, BERGEN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY
after the year 1800, a large area of country was developed, extending from the present site of Wortendyke to Lydecker's Mills (now Midland Park). This region was named Newtown by Cornelius Wortendyke.
Lydecker's Mill, which was located a few rods below the present stone mill (occupied today by H. J. Wostbrock engaged in the manu- facture of flannels), was a flour mill to which the farmers for many miles around brought their grain. The stone mill was built by Abra- ham Van Riper about the year 1826, and Midland Park was then known as Van Riper's Mill. Other mills in operation in this neighbor- hood were early known as Baldwin's Mill, the Quackenbush or Post Mill, and the Turning Mill.
The Stone Mill, about the year 1829, was used by Messrs. Van Winkle and Park for the manufacture of cotton yarn and warps. When they later sold out to Messrs. Munn and Whitehead, this mill and the other three were operated in the manufacture of cotton yarn, and the old Lydecker Mill was converted into rooms for making and sizing cotton warps. Ira Munn, who was related to Abraham Godwin of Revolutionary memory, in his honor about this time gave to this part of Newtown the name Godwinville-a name it retained for nearly forty-five years.
Abraham Godwin, when a lad of from twelve to fifteen years of age, enlisted with his two brothers under Colonel Lewis Du Bois in the Fifth Regiment, New York State Line. He served from January 1, 1777, to January, 1782, reaching the grade of Fife-Major. One brother, Henry, became Captain of the Seventh Company of the Fifth Regiment, while the other brother, David, served as a drummer in Henry's Company.
After the war, and until his death on October 6, 1835, in the seventy-fourth year of his life, Abraham Godwin was the proprietor of the Passaic Hotel in Paterson.
The settlement of Godwinville progressed and soon covered the terri- tory between Paramus and Newtown (Wortendyke) and included within its boundaries the present municipalities of Ridgewood, Glen Rock, and Midland Park.
The centre of the present site of Ridgewood in the early forties had only one house, a small stone building, located south of the Play House on the summit of the rise just west of the Erie Railroad tracks. The house was owned by a man named MeSweeney and afterwards was occupied by a Danish family named Thompson. This old stone house finally did service as Ridgewood's first lockup for lawbreakers.
The next house on the west side of the tracks was on Godwin Avenue and was the home of David D. Ackerman, the grandfather of the present Ackerman Brothers, the grocers.
Further west on Godwin Avenue, on the rise just beyond the hollow at Garfield Place, stood a house then occupied by James Jenkins and now occupied by William Runk.
Next came a house, used as a tavern by James Blauvelt, situated on the present Martin property. at the head of Cherry Lane (Lincoln Avenue). On this same site Garrett I. Hopper afterwards had his home. On the northwest corner of Cherry Lane and Godwin Avenue
10
PAST AND PRESENT
a blacksmith and wheelwright shop was erected and kept at one time by Mose Decker.
In front of this shop a public whipping-post, not an uncommon object in that period, had been set up in a triangle formed by the turning of Cherry Lane in both directions into Godwin Avenue.
At the junction of Ackerman and Doremus Avenues stood the stone portion of the house now occupied by Garrett G. Ackerman.
East of the railroad tracks other houses of that period were as follows :
On the site of the present Opera House stood an old stone farm- house, said to be owned by a family named Archabald. The barn was located on the east side of Oak Street. Near it was the well, which still remains and which is now covered by a large flat stone. Few who pass the stone realize that it marks the site of the well whose water for many years slaked the thirst of many of the former inhabitants.
The stone portion of the house, now the office of Dr. W. L. Vroom, on West Ridgewood Avenue, was built and occupied by Peter J. Hopper, the father of Albert P. Hopper.
The next house on Ridgewood Avenue was on the Wesley Van Em- burgh place and was owned and occupied by Samuel Hopper.
On the west side of Maple Avenue, on the property now owned by Samuel D. Graydon and near the gate to its entrance, stood an old stone house with its end to the road. This was originally owned by Peter Van Emburgh. It was demolished in 1864 and its stones were used for the facing of a fence which has likewise disappeared.
Where the Cameron property is now located stood a stone house which was remodeled in 1850 by its owner, a Mr. White, from whom Mr. Cameron purchased the property.
At the corner of Maple Avenue and Cameron Lane stood the stone house owned and occupied by Cornelius Zabriskie, who carried on a blacksmith business at the northeast corner of Maple and Harrison Avenues. His shop was built about 1800 and demolished in 1850.
Just north of the Cornelius Zabriskie house and on the present site of the residence of E. L. Zabriskie, stood an old stone house with its end to the road. This house was standing in 1811 when the property was purchased by Mr. Zabriskie's great-grandfather. It was torn down in 1850 and in that year the present Zabriskie house (recently remodeled) was built by A. J. Zabriskie.
Near the Ho-Ho-Kus Brook, a little south of Ridgewood Avenue and on the right-of-way of the present trolley line, stood the home of Garret A. Hopper, a brother of Samuel.
On the corner of Ridgewood Avenue and Paramus Road stood a grist and sawmill, built and operated by General Andrew H. Hopper, and destroyed by fire in 1860. A second mill was put up by a Mr. Jaroleman in 1861 and conducted as a cider, grist and sawmill until it burned a few years later.
The residence of Henry Van Emburgh was located on the east side of Maple Avenue, northeast of the present Ridgewood Commercial Com- pany's garage. It was afterwards occupied by his son, George Van
11
RIDGEWOOD, BERGEN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY
Emburgh, and later purchased by Captain Samuel Dayton and used as his homestead, finally being destroyed by fire.
The house located at the northwest junction of Prospect Street and Maple Avenue, and still occupied, was formerly the homestead of Har- manus Van Derbeek, and was built over one hundred years ago. An- other house dating back a hundred years is the old Van Dien House, situated on Grove Street near Pleasant Avenue.
These houses, together with the old stone houses on the Paramus Road, referred to in that part of this book which describes the "Early Dutch Homes," comprised the nucleus of what is now Ridgewood. At that time the centre of the Village was considered, geographically, as covering the twelve or fifteen acres of land included between Prospect Street on the East, a line about one hundred and fifty feet West of the Erie tracks on the West, Ridgewood Avenue on the North, and a line passing near the Broad Street Colored Church on the South.
The opening about the year 1848 of the Paterson and Ramapo Rail- road, which connected with the Erie at Suffern, and with the Paterson and Hudson River Railroad at Paterson, gave a new impulse of growth to the little settlement, which at that time consisted practically of two or three intersecting roads and scattered farms.
The nearest station on the new railroad was located at Ho-Ho-Kus. When the manufacturers at Godwinville, with their Paramus neighbors, asked for a station nearer by, they were refused, and it was only after a controversy of three years that they secured a station at the Godwinville Road Crossing (the present junetion of Ridgewood, Frank- lin and Godwin Avenues). At first only freight trains stopped. It was two years more before the place was made a stop for passenger trains and a platform built. In 1853 several New Yorkers, settling in the village, started the erection of homes in the vicinity of the station. In 1859 a depot was erected by the residents, commutation to New York City having started a year earlier.
THE CIVIL WAR
The excitement in Bergen County, when the news of the attack upon Fort Sumter was received, was equal in intensity to that in any section of the country. War measures were spoken of and flags were displayed on many buildings. As in the Revolutionary times, the people were divided in sentiment, some feeling that the war was unrighteous and unnecessary. The people of this community, however, although differ- ing strenuously in political views on questions of governmental policy, were for the most part loyal to the Union. Their enthusiasm was suffi- cient to secure the erection of two spacious buildings for drilling military recruits. From these drill halls, representing as they did two opposing political parties, many young men went forth to do or die for their country. One of these buildings was called Union Hall, and was built by the Republicans. The first speech made within its walls was delivered by Horace Greeley. The building has for many years been a chapel connected with the Paramus Church. The other, demolished a few years ago, was a clapboard building located east of Ho-Ho-Kus on the property of John Quackenbush. It was built by the Society for Pro-
12
PAST AND PRESENT
mulgation of Education in Bergen County, and was used as the drill room of the National Guard of Ho-Ho-Kus, of which Abram Van Em- burgh was Captain. When this company enlisted in the Civil War, it became part of the Twenty-second Regiment, of which Captain Van Emburgh was made Lieutenant-Colonel on February 20, 1863.
The morning after Fort Sumter was fired upon, Rev. E. T. Corwin, then pastor of the Paramus Church (he died in 1914 and is buried in Valleau Cemetery), fastened a flag to a pole and thrust it out of the belfry of the old church. When the congregation came to church the following Sunday they found "Old Glory" waving in the breeze above them. Some of the members objected, telling the pastor it was not right to have the flag there inasmuch as there was a division of opinion in the congregation. They insisted that the flag must come down. Two patriotic members, William Ranlett and John Jacob Za- briskie, approved of the pastor's action and declared that they would protect him in keeping the flag on the steeple. During the week a committee of the objectors called on Mr. Corwin and demanded the removal of the flag before the next Sabbath's service. Mr. Ranlett, on the other hand. immediately armed and equipped twenty-five men at his own expense.
On the following Sunday morning, after the congregation had assembled on the church grounds, the committee approached the pastor and informed him that, as they had stated before, the flag must come down, and come down at once. As they started toward the belfry, the pastor halted them and said: "I told you our flag should wave above us until the war is over. I have twenty-five men who will help me protect it. The first man who touches that flag to tear it down will be shot!"
In the midst of the excitement, the committee and their sympathizers gathered their families and left the scene, many never to return again to worship in the Paramus Church.
The flag lasted half a year and was replaced by others until the close of the war.
The majority of the citizens of this vicinity, responding to their country's call, were enlisted in Companies B and D of the Twenty- second Regiment. New Jersey Infantry, which was known as the Bergen County Regiment. Before departing to join their regiment. they assembled in the Guard Room. Rev. Mr. Corwin, after preaching a farewell sermon, gave each man a copy of the Holy Bible to take with him. These companies were originally made up of the following officers and men ; and those of this vicinity as recalled at the present time are indicated by stars as follows :
* Ridgewood.
** Ho-Ho-Kus.
*** Glen Rock.
COMPANY B
** Captain Abraham Van Emburgh
** First Lieutenant Jacob Z. Van Blarcom
** 2nd Lieutenant Benjamin Z. Van Emburgh
..
13
RIDGEWOOD, BERGEN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY
##Ist Sergeant Andrew Van Emburgh ** 2nd Sergeant Charles Van Riper ** 3rd Sergeant Thomas Eckerson ** 4th Sergeant James A. Osborne *5th Sergeant Theodore V. Terhune ** Ist Corporal Aaron Van Derbeck ** 2nd Corporal Abraham H. Hopper *3rd Corporal Cornelius D. Ackerman 4th Corporal Daniel Van Blareom 5th Corporal Stephen D. Bartholf ** 6th Corporal Theodore Bamper
** 7th Corporal John Acker *Sth Corporal Walter S. Terhune
PRIVATES
Howard, Cornelius
Jenks, John G.
Kent, Cornelius C.
Terhune, James E.
Lake, John
Terhune, Joseph F. Terwilliger, JJames H.
** Banta, Thomas T. Bertholf, Peter Brower, Robert D.
* Lutkins, John II. Lutkins. Richard
" Thompson, Ackerson Thompson, James, Jr.
C'ap, George Conklin. John E.
** Magroff, Martin
Cooley, Edward
De Baun, Isaac V. B.
Doremus, William
* Masker, Lewis
*** Thurston, Anthony Trumper, Harman
Darling, John
Edwards, James W.
English, William
Fineh, Isaac P.
** Myers, John J.
Finch, John
** Myers. Martin J.
** Osborne, William A.
* Van Vorst. Henry Waldron, John L. Wanamaker. Josiah Ward, Peter
West, Charles
Hennion, Garret G.
Hopper, Albert G.
* Ryan, Patrick Ryerson. Albert. B.
Winters, William
Hopper, Garret U.
Schmide. Simon
Wykoff, Samuel B.
Hopper, Henry L.
Stun, Daniel Stun, Isaae
Yeomans. Myndert
Hopper, Joseph B.
Terhune, Alexander
Yeomans, Samuel J.
COMPANY D
Captain John C. Westervelt First Lieutenant Walter H. Rumsey 2nd Lieutenant Nicholas Collingnon Ist Sergeant Abraham C. Herring 2nd Sergeant Thomas Demarest *3rd Sergeant John A. Marinus 4th Sergeant Nicholas Ottignon 5th Sergeant Jasper J. Westervelt Ist Corporal Isaae D. Bogert 2nd Corporal Genest M. Ottignon *3rd Corporal James B. Westervelt 4th Corporal Charles M. Westervelt 5th Corporal James A. Ottignon tth Corporal John F. Herring 7th Corporal Henry Swin Sth Corporal Henry Clay Humphrey
Terhune, Andrew A. Terhune, Henry II.
Abrams, Elias Abrams, Henry Aekerman, Peter Allen, Henry T.
Lenox, George
* Mabey, Frederick B.
* Thompson, John Il. Thompson, John J
" Thompson, William H. Tinker, James
Doty, Thomas E.
May, John .T. Meeker, William D. Messenger, Philip Miller, William H. G.
** Turse, Jacob Y. Van Horn, William Van Riper, Peter
Fineh. Joseph Harrop, John
IIennion, Andrew
Perry, James Peterson, Barney Pulis, Jacob
Whitmore, James
Whitmore, Wm. Il.
Hopper, David
Yeomans, Josiah
Hopper, John A.
*** Marinus, Christian Marsh, George W.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.