Michael Sedon's article on the Zabriskie-Schedler property on West Saddle River Road in Ridgewood appeared in Friday's (July 23, 2010)
Ridgewood News. Follow the link to read the original and view Chris Peters' photos.
Link to
Ridgewood News article about Schedler property:
http://www.northjersey.com/news/bergen/99080654_Historic_house_on_site_of_Revolutionary_War_battlefield_.html?c=y&page=1
Historic Ridgewood house on site of old battlefieldFriday, July 23, 2010
BY MICHAEL SEDON
The Ridgewood News
STAFF WRITER
The village's acquisition of the seven-acre Florence Schedler property could be considered historic because it is the last large undeveloped tract of land within the village's borders. But long before the Open Space Committee and local sports groups started eyeing the parcel for future baseball and soccer fields, it was a bigger part of American history as the site of a Revolutionary War battlefield.
The property and the house located on it have caught the eye of local and county historians. Using historic maps, directories and other records, they determined the land was purchased from the Old Paramus Reformed Church parsonage farm in 1823 by John A.L. Zabriskie, who built a home on the land.
The church was an outpost during the Revolutionary War, and was used for a barracks, prison, headquarters for General George Washington and a hospital. About 6,000 men throughout the war — as many as 300 at a time — camped on the church property, which included the Schedler property.
"That whole area was battlegrounds," said Ridgewood Historian Joe Suplicki. "It wasn't a big battleground with thousands of troops at one time, but there were skirmishes there throughout the war."
At the time of the American Revolution, East and West Saddle River roads existed at their present location, said local historian Peggy Norris, and the British forces used West Saddle River Road to conduct a "two-pronged" attack on Paramus in March 1780. The British forces of about 300 were split, with about half of the troops attacking from the south and the other half attacking from the north. Those attacking from the north used West Saddle River Road, Norris said.
"The largest body of them came down here," Norris said as she pointed to West Saddle River Road on an 1861 map of the area. "And there was a fight in front of the church. When you're coming down West Saddle River Road, even today, all of a sudden the church pops into view."
American revolutionaries had "pickets" set up on these roads to warn of any possible British attacks. Suplicki said the British surprised the pickets on West Saddle River Road, causing a battle to ensue.
"Firing began long before they got to the church," he said. "So that means they were firing when they were on this property."
What is significant about the Schedler property is the fact that it has been owned by only three families; it is undeveloped; and it was the location of this battle, Norris explained.
"Potentially, archeological research would be interesting," she said. "And you have seven acres of undeveloped land right in this area where this battle took place."
Although the numbers for casualties and captured soldiers are different on both sides, as they often are in war, accounts from British and American soldiers of the physical makeup of the area, landmarks and battle plans match up, pointing to the Schedler property as the battlefield, Suplicki and Norris agreed.
From multiple historic sources, Suplicki reconstructed the history of the Schedler property and the house. In 1823, the property spanned about 19.65 acres. That property was then bequeathed to Zabriskie's son, James, who in 1902 sold the property to Seth Hawley.
"When Hawley bought the property, an interesting thing is James, in the next census, was still in the household and listed as a servant," Suplicki said.
A 1908 Ridgewood tax assessment map showed that Hawley owned 19.65 acres for a short time before he sold that property to Carmen Smith in 1910, but the state built Route 2 around 1930, which essentially cut the property in half, giving it today's dimensions. Route 2 is today's Route 17.
"I think at this point they [Smith] sold off some of the stuff on the other side [of Route 2] to keep the majority [on one side] because it's kind of hard to farm both sides of a highway," Suplicki said.
Clara Smith, Carmen's widow, took up ownership of the property when he died. Their children, one of which was Florence Smith, eventually married Augustus Schedler.
"So essentially three families, two generations of two of them, owned the property," Suplicki said. "And Florence lived there her whole life."
The house, or at least a portion of the house, was built in the 1820s, based on an exterior examination by the former president of the Bergen County Historical Society, Kevin Wright.
"Exterior evidence conforms to the date when the property was acquired out of the parsonage farm," Wright said. "But the only way you could truly ascertain [the age of the house] is to look at it on the interior."
Areas to be examined would be the basement, which would provide the footprint of the original building, and the attic, which would show timbers and what cut those timbers, whether it was a circular saw or a sash saw.
"That would tell you whether the roof line is original or whether the building was razed at some point in its history," Wright said. "But the basic elements of a building of that vintage are present, especially its south-facing orientation."
The home faces south, as many New Jersey Dutch homes did in the era to face the winter sunrise, and it is a frame house, which is less well known in historic circles because sandstone homes were more durable that wood-framed structures, Wright said.
"I think the site itself holds at least some archeological potential as a Revolutionary War battleground, which we don't often think of as being in our midst," Wright said of the Schedler property. "This was the center of the Revolution. Bergen County was the crossroads."
Wright, along with Norris, Suplicki and Dr. Henry Bischoff, professor emeritus of history at Ramapo College, have been using digital technology to overlay current road maps on historic maps and battle descriptions while driving along Bergen County roads to trace the exact path these armies took in the Revolution.
"What we're finding is absolutely surprising: that the original roads largely survived along with many landmarks, and that's really how I came to look at the Schedler property," Wright said. "It was coming down West Saddle River Road where you see the church, knowing that this was the line of the British attack. This house certainly deserves a second look."
