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The
Federal Period |
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The
Seeds
of
War |
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The Federal Period
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Reformed Dutch Church, Tappan, NY (Estb. 1694) |
Orangetown Resolutions
The Revolution
Harrington Twp
Carterette Road
Sparkill Creek Canal Co.
Federal Historic Sites |
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Orange Town
Resolutions
At a meeting
of the freeholders and inhabitants of Orangetown and Province of New
York, on Monday the fourth day of July, 1774, at the house of Mr.
Yoast Mabie in said town, the following resolves were Agreed upon and
passed, viz:
1st That
we are, and wish to be, true and Loyal
subjects to his Majesty George the Third, King of Great Britain.
2nd
That
we are most cordially disposed to support his Majesty and defend his crown
and dignity in every constitutional measure, as far as lies in our power.
3rd That however well disposed we
are towards his majesty, we cannot see the late acts of Parliament
imposing duties upon us, and the act for shutting up the port of Boston,
without declaring our abhorrence of measures so unconstitutional and big
with destruction.
4th
That
we are in duty bound to use every just and lawful measure to obtain a
Repeal of acts, not only destructive to us, but which, of course, must
distress thousands in the mother country.
5th
That
it is our unanimous opinion that the Stopping
all exportation and importation to and from Great Britain and the West
Indies would be the most Effectual method to obtain a speedy withdrawal.
6th
That
it is our most ardent wish to see concord and Harmony restored to England
and her colonies.
7th
That
the following gentlemen, to wit: Colonel Abraham Lent, John Haring,
Esquire, Mr. Peter Outwater, Mr. Gardner Jones, and Peter T. Haring be
committee for this town, to correspond with the city of New York, and to
conclude and agree upon such measures as they shall judge Necessary in
order to obtain a Repeal of said acts.
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Harrington Township
in The
American
Revolution |

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July
4th, 1776, officially began the Federal Period. With
their self-sufficient agricultural way of life, fierce independence,
reformed religion, ways of passing on inheritance, and even their Jersey
Dutch language, this was a group of people that had left the village
of the Bowery in New York City because they could not abide harsh
English authority. They would not easily submit to the British crown in
the Hudson Valley. As a group, the Dutch tended to be sympathetic with
the patriot cause. The English, on the other hand tended to be mixed and
often families divided. With the declaration of independence, a new
federal government was formed and
Provinces became States. During the Revolution, many a Jersey Dutchman risked
his life in the
militia and the Harings were no exception. Several members of the Gesner
and Sneden families joined Tory brigades. The area remained steeped in conflict
between Patriot and Tory, neighbor and neighbor throughout the Revolutionary War.
A
detachment of
Washington's troops encamped on the south side of Willow Road (now T.
Happel property). The General had ordered a fortified military post be established at Sneden's Landing.
These troops were to man the blockhouse. The troops, however, were not
there in 1780, when Capt. Abraham
A. Haring
was dragged from his farm (Capt.
Abraham A. A. Haring House) on Closter
Publick Road, never to be seen again. He died in a notorious British
prison-hulk
in Wallabout Bay, Brooklyn, before his youngest son, John, was born. British foragers too often reaped
the harvest that Bergen farmers had sown. The cupboards in the
"old stone kitchen" of the John A. Haring
House bear gouges
where, according to local tradition, British bayonets pried open the larder.
When the
Revolution ended the Patriots of the valley withdrew into themselves and
apart from their Tory neighbors. Within a generation there was intermarriage
and reconciliation. Family elders related to their
children and their children's children tales of 1776, when a new nation
unfurled its flag to the heavens and its voice resounded throughout the
land..."We owe allegiance to no Crown."
[50th
Anniversary - Borough of Rockleigh, NJ - 1923-1973]
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Changing
Harrington
Township |

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Harrington
Township 1876 |
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The small
farming community had prospered. The late 1700's saw Samuel Sneden, Jr.
marry Elizabeth Conklin, Jacob's daughter. When the 2nd Jacob Conklin
moved across the road into the former Ryker-Mabie farmstread, Samuel and
his wife, Elizabeth, came into possession of what would become known as
the Conklin-Sneden
House on Sneden Landing Road.
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Circa 1800 Area Map of Rockland, Harrington Township
[click to open]
By 1820, Jacob Haring, Nicholas Haring's
son, had enlarged the small house
(Jacob Haring House) his
father gave him on the east side of Closter Publick Road. He operated a flourishing
dairy farm (now Hutcheon Residence) here for many
years. Also in the 1820's, several of Jacob Conklin's grandchildren
settled on Conklin lands along the road to Snedens Landing by the New
York boundary. The Gowdy's, relations
of the Conklins, had moved down from New York State and established their farm on Carterette Road near the New York border by 1862
(James Gowdy House). In 1891 Leonard and Catherine Sneden came to
Roaring Brook Farm (Ryker-Mabie-Conklin-Sneden
House). Their old house and lands
have been a landmark since about 1752. The second half of the 19th century
brought little growth to the area with three new homesteads built.
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Circa 1850 Area Map of Rockland, Harrington Township
[click to open]
[50th
Anniversary - Borough of Rockleigh, NJ - 1923-1973]
In 1840 the Pascack
Valley portion of Harrington Township separated as Washington Township.
Other communities within Harrington Township began to incorporate during
the latter half
of the century. A period of growth and speculation began in Bergen
County. |
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Carterette
Road
(Piermont
Road -
North) |

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Late
19th Century Piermont Road at Bridge over Roaring Brook
Looking North with Abraham A. Haring House in the left distance
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First
named Carterette Road, this section of Piermont Road northward from Rockleigh Road
to the state
line, was straightened and improved in 1859 as an extension of the road
from Closter. For local farmers it was an easier wagon route to New York
State and for carrying produce to the steamboat landings on the Hudson
River. The new road was cut through farmlands of Abraham Riker,
Joseph DuBois, and John Gisner Conklin.
By
1872, Willow Road had been laid out between Carterette Road and the road
to Snedens Landing. The road was laid out along the northern boundary of
the Samuel Beasley property.
50th
Anniversary - Borough of Rockleigh, NJ - 1923-1973] |
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The
Sparkill
Creek
Canal Company
(Port
Harrington?) |

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Sparkill
Creek at Tappan Slote [Harry Ryerson c. 1920] |
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The latter half
of the 19th century saw a mad period of real estate speculation in
Bergen and Rockland counties. From 1870-1876 there was a brief interest
in canal transportation in the northeast. The area of Harrington
Township that was soon to become Northvale and Rockleigh was to play a
key role. The Sparkill Creek Canal Company was incorporated in 1871.1
The purpose was to open a canal from the New Jersey state line, where
the Sparkill crosses it, to the Hudson River2
[see 1891 map]. One of the many investors in the canal company was Herbert Gray Torrey
(1838-1915) of Stirling, NJ.1
The project never advanced farther than the enabling legislation passed
by the New York legislature. Yet it is interesting to note that the 1891 Beers
Map of Rockland County shows H.G. Torrey as owner of
two large (approx 40 acres each) adjacent tracts of land close to the New York boundary in what would become
Rockleigh (bounded by present Link Drive,
Piermont Road, and Paris Avenue), and crossing the Sparkill Creek into what
would become Northvale [see 1891 map].
Herbert
Gray Torrey, the
son of renowned botanist Dr. John Torrey (famous naturalist and
professor of Chemistry at the Columbia University Medical School), resided with
his family between 1850-1860 at Torrey Cliff in Palisades, NY. His
father founded the Torrey Botanical Club which was instrumental in
creating the New York Botanical Garden.3
H.
G. Torrey married in 1868 Marie Louise Snow of New York City. Upon leaving Torrey Cliff,
young H.G. and Marie Louise Torrey moved to Rockland, Harrington Township,
NJ. In the 1870 census, Herbert G. Torrey (29) is listed as residing in the H.
Tory I House at the NW corner of Willow Road and Rockleigh
Road) in now Rockleigh with his wife, Marie
Louise, (24) and son John G. (1).
In addition, the census lists a nurse, gardener and farm hand. The couple had two sons, John
Gray Torrey (1869, Harrington Twp, NJ -1898) and Ralph Guyot Torrey
(1878, Harrington Twp, NJ-1893). By 1880 the Sparkill Creek Canal
proposal had collapsed and the Torry family moved to
a house called Hilltop in Stirling, Morris Co., NJ. The Railroad Station
Park -- now Turtle Rock Park -- was presented to Stirling by Herbert
Gray Torrey.
Through
family members, H.G. Torrey developed strong connections with Frederick S.
Winston, a New York financier.4
H.G. Torrey, with intimate knowledge of the area from his
childhood, was speculating that his land would become a
barge terminal that would open Harrington Township directly to markets
down the Hudson and perhaps develop as an industrial site. The opposite
could be equally valid: that H.G. Torrey with powerful backing promoted
the Sparkill Creek Canal to open his land to the Hudson. Between
1875-1879, the Northern Branch of the Erie Railroad had pushed north
from Jersey City, through Harrington Township, to connect at Sparkill
with the Erie main line to western New York. So much for the Sparkill
Creek Canal Company as well as the plans and hopes of H.G. Torrey.
While, Torrey had invested wisely in the New Jersey West Railroad that
passed through family lands in Stirling, his
property in Harrington Township remained farmland.
The
southerly Torrey tract in Harrington Township would eventually become the residential and commercial
properties along the north side of Paris Avenue in Rockleigh; the northerly tract
became St. Joseph's orphanage and ultimately the county-administered
Archie Hay Village School. It is interesting to note that the banks of
the Sparkill in Rockleigh and Northvale are today corporate properties
that H.G. Torrey likely envisioned, but without a barge canal.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. HISTORY
OF ROCKLAND COUNTY, By Frank Bertangue Green. Rockland County Historical
Society, 1989.
2. HISTORY
OF THE CANAL SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK TOGETHER WITH BRIEF
HISTORIES OF THE CANALS OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA, VOLUME I.
CHAPTER XXII. CANAL COMPANIES INCORPORATED BY NEW YORK STATE. By Noble
E. Whitford, 1905. [http://www.history.rochester.edu/canal/bib/whitford/1906/Chap22.html]
3.
1870 Census, Harrington Township, Bergen Co., NJ, p 41.
4.
TORREY/TURTLE ROCK PARK, by Mary Lou Weller (Town Historian,
Stirling, NJ) and Dr. Patrick L. Cooney [http://nynjctbotany.org/njnbtofc/turtlerk.html]
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On
the Threshold
of
a New Century |

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Jacob
Haring Family
circa 1980 |
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Years came and went. What was before would be
again...the scent of apples from the cider mills would drift on the Fall
air...and batten shutters would close hard against the Winter snows, the
April wind would be cold...and in the Spring, Roaring Brook, long silent
in its icy crust, would be heard again. The village would stir and the
mountain would green...and all could anticipate life would again come
from old roots...
[50th
Anniversary - Borough of Rockleigh, NJ - 1923-1973]
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Federal
Period Sites |
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c.
1780-1783 |
Site
of Revolutionary Encampment
Willow |
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1788 |
Old
Gesner Burying Grounds
Earliest grave dated Dec. 11, 1788
Piermont Road - north |
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c. 1790 |
Samuel
Sneden House
21
Rockleigh Road |
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c.
1805 |
John
A. Haring House & Barn
5 (South) Piermont Road |
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c.
1820 |
Jacob
Haring House
2 Rockleigh Road |
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c.
1823-1833 |
Joseph
DuBois House
Rockleigh Road |
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c. 1823-1833 |
Van
Wickel-Moore House
36 Rockleigh Road |
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c.
1827 |
Abraham
Cooper House
& Blacksmith Shop
Rockleigh Road |
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c.
1850-1861 |
Site
of Conklin's Quarry
& Ruins of Cider Mill
34 Rockleigh Road |
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c.
1850-1861 |
Ruins
of Sloat's Saw Mill
Rockleigh Road |
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c.
1850 |
A.
Simms Residence
(not researched) |
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c.
1850 |
J.
Hansen Residence
Willow Road (not researched) |
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1857 |
Carterette
Road
(Piermont Road - north) |
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c.
1860 |
J.
Drexel Residence
(not researched) |
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c.
1862 |
James
Gowdy House
North Piermont Road |
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c.
1870 |
Abraham
Ryker House, later "Pegasus Club"
Rockleigh Road (P.
Wollard/Stoever Residence - not researched) |
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Compiled by E. W.
April, 2002 |
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Background Music:
"Dumbarton's Drums"
Courtesy of Barry
Taylor
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