a proud member of The USGenWeb® Project

Index | Archives | Biographies | Cemeteries | Census | Churches | Cities | History |

Libraries, Societies & Museums | Links | Maps | Military | Photographs | Vital Records

THE SCHUYLER FAMILY.--The New Jersey branch of the Schuyler family, now very numerous in the western and northern pars of Bergen County, are now descended from Philip Pietersen Van Schuyler, born in 1628 at Amsterdam, Holland, who, with his brother David, emigrated to America in 1650 and settled first at Fort Orange (Albany), N. Y., on December 12, 1650. Following his arrival at Albany he married Margaretta Van Schlectenhorst, of Nieuwkirk, Holland, her father being then manager of the Colonie of Van Rensselaer. He was a magistrate at Albany in 1656, 1657, and 1661. In 1662 he received permission to plant a village on the Esopus River. He died March 9, 1684. His children were six one of whom was Arent Schuyler, born June 25, 1682, who married and came to New York while yet a young man. In 1793 he wet to Pequannock (then in Bergen County), and with Anthony Brockholst purchased 4,000 acres for mining purposes. He also bought large tracts of land in Orange County, N. Y., but in 1710 he purchased land of Edward Kingsland on New Barbados Neck, where he resided and here he opened a copper mine. He became a wealthy man. His issue were eight children, several of whom became famous Jersey men, and their issue scattered over Bergen and Hudson Counties. Source: Genealogical History of Hudson and Bergen Counties, New Jersey, Editor, Cornelius Burnham Harvey, The New Jersey Genealogical Publishing Company, 1900, page 176.

THE SICKLES FAMILY had much to do with the early settlement of Hudson and Bergen Counties. Zacharias Sickles, the common American ancestor of the family, was a native of the City of Vienna, Austria, who soon after reaching manhood drifted to Amsterdam, Holland, where he entered the military service and was sent with a fleet on a cruise to Curacoa, where he remained until 1655. In the service he attained the rank of Adelborst or Cadet. In 1655 Governor Stuyvesant paid a visit to the island where Sickles was on duty. The latter accompanied the Governor to New Amsterdam and soon after attached himself to the garrison of Fort Orange (Albany). In 1658 he became a tapster of New Amsterdam and upon the surrender by the Dutch to the British in 1664 he married Anna, daughter of Lambert Van Vaelkenburgh, and went to work to gain a livelihood as a carpenter. In 1676 he was elected "town herder," which office he held for thirteen years on a salary of 18 gelders a head for the season. He was appointed rattle-watch, so called from the rattle used to give warning in making his nightly rounds. He was also for some time crier to call the people together on needed occasions, and porter or keeper of the city gates, to close them at night and open them in the morning. In 1669 he purchased a lot of land in Bergen, N. J., on which his eldest son, Robert, settled. The children of this son scattered through Bergen County, where many of Zacharias's descendants still reside. He had nine children, the eldest of whom was Robert, who married Gertrude Reddenhause and located at Bergen, where he was a prominent resident, and left a large family. His son William, born in October, 1704, married Elizabeth Cooper, and removed to Rockland County, N. Y., from which locality his numerous descendants spread south into Bergen County, where their descendants are still found. Source: Genealogical History of Hudson and Bergen Counties, New Jersey, Editor, Cornelius Burnham Harvey, The New Jersey Genealogical Publishing Company, 1900, page 179-180.

JAN ADRAINSE SIP was at Bergen as early as 1684, where, on April 22 of that year, he married Johanna Van Voorst He bought several lots at Bergen during the next fifteen years, and became an important and influential person in the town. His issue were eleven children, among whom were Ide, John, Cornelius, Abraham, Henry, and Helena. Most of them married and became residents of Bergen. Their descendants are still numerous in Hudson County. Source: Genealogical History of Hudson and Bergen Counties, New Jersey, Editor, Cornelius Burnham Harvey, The New Jersey Genealogical Publishing Company, 1900, page 180.

Hon. William D. Snow, son of Josiah Snow, founder of the Detroit Tribune, was born in Massachusetts February 2d, 1832. He was educated at Romeo, Michigan, afterwards studying law at Dixon, Illinois, under the late Attorney General Edson, of that state. For several years he was associate editor of the Tribune. He was a strong advocate of anti-slavery doctrine, and was a frequent contributor to the magazines and journals of that day, and also a hymn writer of some note. Mr. Snow settled at Pine Bluff, Arkansas, in 1860, and afterwards represented Jefferson county in the Constitutional Convention of Arkansas. The convention resulted in the establishment of a Free State Constitution, the first in any seceding state. Mr. Snow was elected in 1865 for the long term to the United States Senate from Arkansas. At the close of his term he declined a re-election, coming to New York city for the purpose of studying law. In 1871, however, Mr. Snow went to Paris, where he spent two years in the study of civil law. In 1875 he was admitted to the New York Bar, receiving, the same year, the degree of L.L. B. from Columbia College. In 1882 he became secretary and counsel to one of the New York Trust companies, but resigned in 1888 to take up general practice. He acted as volunteer Aide to General Powell Clayton and Major General Steele during the Civil War, and was instrumental in the enlistment and organization of three regiments in the state of Arkansas. Governor Murphy afterward tendered him an appointment as Brigadier General of Volunteers. This he declined. Mr. Snow is of retiring and studious habits, and in religion a Unitarian, president of the Unitarian Congregational Society of Hackensack. He belongs to the Lawyers' Club, the Bullion Club of New York and the Oritani of Hackensack. Several of his inventions have proved successful, his Thermostat being regarded as the most reliable and sensitive of its class. Mr. Snow is now a member of the bar in three states, having been admitted to the New Jersey Bar in 1894. After residing in the northern part of Bergen county for more than twenty years, while practicing in New York city, he gave up his city practice in 1896 and removed to Hackensack, where he hopes to spend the remainder of his life among his New Jersey friends. James Van Valen, History of Bergen County, New Jersey, 1900.

MOSES E. SPRINGER, the leading undertaker of Englewood, N. J., was born August 5, 1827, in New York City, where he resided until 1857, when he went to Wisconsin, where he remained two years. His education was acquired partly in the public schools, but chiefly through his own exertions and by those means which an ambitious youth finds amid the active employments of life. Thrown at an early age upon his own resources, he manfully paved his way in the world, picked up here and there valuable bits of information, and rapidly acquired a practical experience which has served him well throughout his career. For about fifteen years, both before and after his residence in Wisconsin, Mr. Springer was successfully engaged in business as a builder and contractor. In 1859 he returned East and settled in Englewood, N. J., where he still resides, and where he has successfully conducted an undertaking business since he retired from contracting. He is now the leading undertaker in that town, and has also been active in public affairs, having served for three years as Tax Assessor. He was one of the founders of Englewood Lodge of Good Templars and was a charter member of Tuscan Lodge, No. 115, F. and A. M., of Englewood, of which he is still a prominent member and Past Master. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, a public spirited and enterprising citizen, and in all the relations of life has displayed the attributes which mark a successful man. During the past eleven years he has been Secretary of the Englewood Mutual Loan and Building Association, a position which he still holds. Mr. Springer was married, in 1854, to Mary A. Golding, of New York City. Their children are Hester, Mary E., George W., Charles W., and Josephine Burr Springer. Source: Genealogical History of Hudson and Bergen Counties, New Jersey, Editor, Cornelius Burnham Harvey, The New Jersey Genealogical Publishing Company, 1900, page 164-166.

Dr. David St. John is descended from Matthias St. John (Sention) who came from England in l635, settling in New England. His grandfather, Noah St. John, removed to New York State upon his marriage with Elizabeth Waterbury, of Waterbury, Conn. Dr. St. John was born in Berne, Albany County, New York, in 1850, his father being David St. John and his mother, Mary Johnson of Scotch ancestry.  After pursuing a preparatory course in the Albany Schools, he commenced the study of medicine with Dr. H. W. Bell of Berne, N. Y., afterward entering the office of Professor James H. Armsby, of Albany, N. Y., then the leading surgeon in that part of the state. He took courses of lectures at the Albany Medical College, Buffalo Medical College, and Bellevue Hospital Medical College, graduating from the latter institution in 1875. He located in Hackensack where he has become prominent in his profession, and has been closely and prominently identified with all matters of town interest. In 1888, realizing the great advantages that a hospital would offer for the better treatment of a class of medical and surgical cases, Dr. St. John conceived the idea of organizing the Hackensack Hospital, and while his energetic and untiring efforts in its behalf have been ably seconded by all classes of citizens, his indefatigable labors have been the primary cause of its great success. He is President of the Medical Board, and visiting physician and surgeon to this institution, ex-President and member of the Bergen County Medical Society; a member of the New Jersey State Medical Society; New York State Medical Association and the American Medical Association. He was appointed by Governor Griggs one of the managers of the State Hospital for the Insane, Morris Plains, and is surgeon for the Erie Railroad. He also performs a good share of the surgical work in the western portion of the County outside of his hospital practice. Associated with him as assistant is Dr. A. A. Swayze, graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Baltimore, Md. The doctor is First Vice President of the Hackensack Trust Company, a director of the Hackensack Bank and of the Gas and Electric Company of Bergen County, and President of the Hackensack Heights Association, owners of a large track of valuable real estate on Hackensack Heights. Dr. St. John is a courteous and dignified gentleman. Sympathetic and thoughtful, he gains the confidence of his patients as he does of others with whom he comes in contact. He was married in 1879 to Miss Jennie Angle, of Hope, New Jersey. They have three children—Olive Graham, Fordyce Barker and Florence Angle. James Van Valen, History of Bergen County, New Jersey, 1900

Peter W. Stagg, a prominent lawyer of Hackensack, was born in New York City October 24th, 1850. His childhood and early life, however, were spent in Cresskill, N. J., where he attended the public school. In 1875 Mr. Stagg went to Jersey City where he became a student of law in the office of the late Charles Scholfield, and where he remained two years, after which he came to Hackensack, and entered the office of Ackerson & Van Valen, continuing with them until 1879, when he was admitted to the bar, at the June term. Immediately after being admitted, he opened an office for the practice of his profession in which he rapidly built up a good business. At the June term of 1883 he was made a counsellor-at-law. He served as assistant clerk to the House of the State Assembly at the sessions of 1891-2, and in 1895 was appointed by Governor Werts, as Prosecutor of Bergen county, for a term of five years. Prior to the time at which Mr. Stagg became prosecutor, this county had been infested with pool room and green-goods gangs. These the new prosecutor drove out, in addition to conducting the ordinary criminal business Mr. Stagg is a member of the I. O. O. F., Bergen County Lodge, and has been Grand Master of the State of New Jersey, having in 1897 the care and jurisdiction of 249 lodges in different parts of the state, comprising a membership of 25,000 Odd Fellows. He is also a member of the Fire Patrol. He was a member of the Second Regiment New Jersey Volunteers in the late Spanish War. Mr. Stagg was married on January 14, 1875, to Miss Jennie E. Westervelt, of Bergenfields. The oldest of their five children, Arthur A., is in his father's office. James Van Valen, History of Bergen County, New Jersey, 1900

Mr. John Terhune, the popular and efficient superintendent of the schools of Bergen county, was born at Midland Park, this county, August 4th, 1846. He was educated there in a district school. Later he attended the New Jersey State Normal School, and subsequently Fastman's Business College, at Poughkeepsie, N. Y. After being engaged for some time as an accountant and in mercantile pursuits, he took charge of the Midland Park Public School. He held this position for about nine years, until appointed to his present office, thirteen years ago. To Mr. Terhune belongs the credit of having popularized the observance of Arbor Day in the schools of the state. He has given a great amount of labor, time and money for this purpose. The fine Arbor Day programmes which he prepared and printed at his owh expense for a number of years, have been widely distributed throughout the country and have received the highest commendation from teachers and school officers everywhere. Mr. Terhune is also the author of the Teachers' Library Act for the establishment of professional libraries in each county, securing state aid to the amount of $I00 the first year and $50 each subsequent year. The profit derived from the sale of his Arbor Day publications he donates to the Teachers' Library; he raised by subscription and donations sufficient money to purchase 900 volumes for the library, which, with the cost of cases, printing, etc., has cost over $1000. This was the beginning of what has since proved to be a valuable library. In the Iibrary are to be found many valuable works on the history, theory and practice of education. When, in 1891 and '92, the Legislature of New Jersey made a special appropriation of $1000 for school library purposes, Mr. Terhune secured $810 of the money for Bergen county. The teachers of Bergen county appreciate Mr. Terhune's labors for their advancement. A piece of beautiful silver service with which they presented him at his wedding anniversary, in 1892, bears the following inscription: "From the teachers of Bergen county to their County Superintendent, John Terhune, as a token of respect and esteem, and of their appreciation of his faithful services and eminent achievements in the cause of public school education." Recently the teachers of the county presented him a valuable gold watch, very finely engraved. "Educational Hall" has a complete teachers'library, from which the teachers are furnished with books free of cost. James Van Valen, History of Bergen County, New Jersey, 1900