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History of Bergen County, New Jersey

In December, 1682, the Assembly of East Jersey passed an act dividing the province into four counties, viz.: Bergen, Essex, Middlesex, and Monmouth. Bergen included all the settlements between the Hudson and Hackensack Rivers, and extended to the northern boundary of the province. Bergen and its outlying plantations comprised about sixty thousand acres of land. In the act of January 21, 1709, "for determining the bounds of the several counties," those of Bergen were extended as follows: " Beginning at Constable's Hook, so along the bay and Hudson's River to the partition point between New Jersey and the province of New York; along this line and the line between East and West Jersey to the Pequaneck River; down the Pequaneck and Passaic Rivers to the sound; and so following the sound to Constable's Hook, the place of beginning."

In 1693 the counties were divided into townships. But those of Bergen County—viz : the townships of Bergen and Hackensack—had existed for many years and been organized municipalities, the former under the Dutch government of the New Netherlands, and the latter under the proprietary government of East Jersey, No court existed at Hackensack in 1682. Smith says, in his "History of New Jersey," under date of this year: "The plantations on both sides of the Neck, as also those at Hackensack, were under the jurisdiction of Bergen Town, situated about the middle of the Neck." The act of organization established the county courts at Bergen, where they remained until the enlargement of the county in 1709.

Table of Contents

• Indian History
• Discovery and Occupation of the New Netherlands
• Early Settlement and Land Patents
• Land Patents in Bergen County
• Old Bergen Town and Township
• The Old Township of Hackensack
• In Ye Olden Time
• Civil Organization of the County of Bergen
• Civil List of Bergen County
• Courts and Court Houses
• Bergen County in Time of War
• Societies and Incorporated Companies
• Internal Improvements
• Schools
• New Barbadoes - Hackensack
• Saddle River Township - Borough of Garfield
• Franklin Township - Oakland, Wyckoff, Wortendyke, Hohokus, Ramseys, Mahwah
• Orvil Township Hohokus, Waldwick, New Prospect
• Boroughs - Allendale, Upper and Lower Saddle River
• Ridgewood - Boroughs of Glen Rock and Midland Park
• Washington Township - Boroughs of Ridge Park, Montvale Woodcliff, Westwood; the Township of Hillsdale, Pascack
• Midland Township - Boroughs of Delford, Riverside and Maywood;
• Villages of Oradell, New Milford. Cherry Hill, and Spring Valley
• Lodi Township - Boroughs of Lodi, Wallington, Carlstadt, Woodridge, Hasbrouck Heights, Little Ferry and the Township of Bergen
• Union Township - Kingsland. Lyndhurst, and the Borough of North Arlington
• Boroughs of Rutherford and East Rutherford
• The Township of Ridgefield - Fort Lee, Ridgefield Park
• Boroughs of Ridgefield - Leonai, Fairview, Undercliff, Palisades Park, and Bogota
• Englewood Township - City of Englewood and Englewood Cliffs
• Teaneck Township - The Villa Grange
• Palisades Township Boroughs of Tenafly, Cresskill, Dumont and Bergen field
• Harrington Township - Northvale, Closter, Demarest, and Borough of Tappan.

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