CAMPBELL-CHRISTIE HOUSE
Researched and written by Kevin Wright
The Campbell-Christie House was built by Jacob Campbell, a mason, about the time of his marriage to Altche Westervelt in April 1774. It stood upon land owned by his father William Campbell, an Ulster Scotsman who kept tavern on the north side of the road leading from Old Bridge to Schraalenburgh Church (now Henley Avenue, New Milford). Private Jacob Campbell served with the Bergen militia during the Revolution. According to a list of tax ratables, Jacob was a merchant in February 1780, keeping store in his household at the southeast corner of the intersection of River Road and Henley Avenue. About 1785, Jacob replaced his father as crossroads tavernkeeper. When William Campbell died in October 1793, his last will and testament provided that his estate be sold and the proceeds equally divided among his six sons and three daughters. Accordingly, Jacob sold his six-acre tavern lot the following spring to Abraham Brower; it was then occupied by Abraham’s brother, John Brower, Jr., a blacksmith, who established his blacksmith shop upon the roadside. John died a year later and on March 11, 1795, Abraham Brower sold the pemises (the blacksmith shop excepted) to John Christie, a blacksmith, for £250. John Christie and Helena Banta, both of Schraalenburgh, had been married at the Schraalenburgh South Church on January 28, 1791. In July 1795, John Christie was taxed as the owner of a house, one horse and two horned cattle. In November 1796, the local highway surveyors mentioned “the Tavern of John Christie.”
When John D. Christie died in 1836, he provided his “beloved wife Lena [Banta]” with “as much house room and privileges as she may want in and about my present premises where I now live and also $150 out of my personal estate.” He bequeathed “all of my lot of land together with the Improvements thereon, whereon I now live, lying on the east side of the [River] road” to his son John J. Christie. He was a farmer who, having married Anna Brinkerhoff in October 1825, raised a family of five boys: John, Junior; George; Samuel; Jacob Brinkerhoff; and Daniel. At about this time, the dwelling underwent considerable renovation and enlargement: a wooden kitchen wing was added at the south gable end; a jambless fireplace in the southeast (rear) room was closed; fashionable new wooden mantles in Classical Revival style were installed upon the fireplaces in the front rooms; and the garret may have been converted to bedrooms.
The Homestead farm of John I. Christie, deceased, encompassing 25 acres at River Edge, was offered at public sale on January 14, 1891 by his executors: Samuel Christie of New York, Jacob B. Christie of River Edge and Daniel J. Christie of New York. It was only five minutes’ walk from the railroad station and about two and a half miles above Hackensack. The Christie farm included 500-feet river frontage with deep water and 1,600-feet frontage on the road and therefore was suitable for business purposes. The house was “of antique design, built of stone,” situated on the corner of two public roads with a fine view of the river and countryside.
The family homestead descended to Jacob Brinkerhoff Christie, who married Elizabeth Van Houten in February 1861. He became manager of the Comfort Coal & Lumber Company. Their children were Aletta; John Walter; George; Alice M.; and Carlton Howard.
J. Walter Christie, born in the house on May 6, 1865, achieved fame as a mechanical genius and inventor. At sixteen years of age, he worked on pioneer submarines and developed turret tracks and gun mounts for battleships. In May 1904, he entered a car, built himself, into a race in Germany, boasting that he could reach speeds upwards of 90 miles per hour. In August 1905, he equalled the world’s record for gasoline cars on a circular track at Morris Park, doing a mile in 51.15 seconds. As measured by the same timekeepers, he also went a mile in 49 seconds, driving his car only in the stretches and coasting around the turns. He held the American speed record for cars on a straightaway and hoped to challenge the world record. His racing career ended on September 9, 1907, when he was nearly killed in ta car crash at Pittsburgh, while travelling 70 miles per hour. He was hospitalized with a broken wrist, a sprained back, a lacerated head and abdomenal injuries. Still recovering at home, he resumed walking with the assistance of a cane in late October 1907. On October 31, 1907, Jacob B. Christie and his wife Eliza sold the old homestead and 25.5 acres to Theodore Hill of Ridgefield. He conveyed the premises to the Brookchester Land Company on April 28, 1908. This real estate company surveyed the Christie and neighboring Zabriskie lands into building lots. The old Christie dwelling was sold to Anna M. Taylor of Brooklyn on July 3, 1909. Jacob Brinkerhoff Christie died at Ridgefield Park on March 11, 1911.
During his three years on the speedway, J. Walter Christie built and raced cars against Louis Chevrolet, Henry Ford and Barney Oldfield. He beat Oldfield in a fifty-mile race and held the world speed record. He went on to invent automotive front-wheel drive, many units of which were produced in 1913 and 1914 for fire trucks. He is best known as the “father of the modern tank,” having developed the design in 1930 for high-speed tanks that moved optionally on wheels or track. J. Walter Christie died at Falls Church, Virginia, on January 11, 1944.
DEMAREST MUSEUM (J. PAULISON HOMESTEAD)
Researched and written by Kevin Wright
Because of its proximity to the French Burying Ground and to the site of an old gristmill on the river, some twentieth-century observers mistook this simple two-room stone dwelling for the original habitation of David Demarest, Senior, erected in 1678. The Huguenot pioneer, however, actually resided on the west side of the river (River Edge) at Old Bridge, near unto the original family mill. We know little about these earliest dwellings—none having survived—except to say that they were probably built of heavy frame construction. Except for field-stone foundations, such a labor-intensive material as dressed stone was seldom used in frontier dwellings of the seventeenth century and the Demarests’ saw mill, built before 1683, certainly suggests that timber would have been the most convenient and familiar material for construction purposes.
When it was realized that the tract whereon the old cemetery and adjacent stone dwelling were situated originally belonged to David’s son Samuel, construction of the little stone house was mistakenly attributed to him. Consequently, its history was confused with that of another vanished old dwelling— the homestead of Simon Samuelse Demarest, which formerly stood on the west side of River Road (near about the present site of the New Milford Borough Hall), but which was razed about 1922. In any event, the Paulison Homestead, relocated to River Edge in 1956 and known as “the Demarest House,” is the best surviving example of a Bergen Dutch sandstone cottage with two rooms and two entry doors with a stoop shaded by the spring-eave extension of the roof; this type of “starter home” was most popular between 1790 and 1820.
The Old French Burying Ground is situated upon Lot #3 in the French Patent, encompassing 200 acres, surveyed for Samuel Demarest on January 13, 1695. By his last will and testament, probated October 19, 1728, Samuel Demarest, Senior, of Hackinsack, yeoman, devised this tract to his son Simon. Simon may have erected the now vanished house on the west side of River Road about the time of his marriage to Vroutie Herring in December 1722. Interestingly, the oldest recorded burial in the Old French Burying Ground dates to 1721, suggesting settlement at about this date. The cemetery was rarely used again until the Revolution, when circumstances perhaps made it difficult or impossible for neighbors to conduct burials in the nearest church yards.
By his last will and testament, probated April 8, 1761, Simon bequeathed the “land where my improvements are, on which I live” to his youngest son, Jacob. Jacob S. Demarest married Elizabeth Steenbrander at Schraalenburgh on August 27, 1768 and they had three children, all baptized at Schraalenburgh Church, namely: Vroutje, born July 31, 1769; David, born July 2, 1771; and Symon, born January 29, 1773. The family apparently removed to New York City either during or after the Revolution. Jacob possibly died there in November 1787—in any event, they disappear from local records.
On the Erskine-Watkins Map #113 (ca. 1778), the old Demarest house on the west side of River Road was marked “Elias Romeyn.” Born in Dutchess County, Captain Romeyn removed to this neighborhood after the British captured New York City and his militia company guarded New Bridge, Brower’s Hill and Liberty Pole throughout the war. He and his men were attacked at Liberty Pole on September 22, 1778, by a regiment of British dragoons. In 1782, Captain Romeyn was court-martialed and convicted of robbing the inhabitants of the neighborhood and of accepting bribes to overlook illicit traders along the Hackensack River who shipped goods to British-held Manhattan. He then departed the area.
Jacobus Paulison, a son of Paulus M. Paulison and Rachel Demarest, purchased 100 acres of the estate of Jacob S. Demarest in 1791 and then erected a gristmill upon the Hackensack River. He had this two-room stone cottage built for his son John J. Paulison on the Mill Road shortly after his marriage to Altie Ely, daughter of William Ely and Maria Demarest, on April 4, 1794. John Paulison took over management of his father’s gristmill in that same year.
When Jacobus died in November 1808, he left instructions to divide his farm between his two sons: Paulus received that portion to the north and the east of the division line, including the old Demarest homestead and barn on the west side of River Road; John received the land to the south and west, bounded east on the Franse Valletje and west on the Hackensack River, “together with the Mill house, New Barn, [and] dwelling house...” where he resided. In August 1821, Paulus Paulison agreed to allow William Ely, Andrew Zabriskie and others who had friends and relatives in the French Burying Ground near his house to enclose the old cemetery with a fence. This agreement mentions the “lane leading from the public road [River Road] to John Paulison’s house.” This lane now leads to the New Milford ballfields.
John Paulison died December 19, 1852, aged 79 years. His first wife had died in 1802, where upon he married Abigail Van Norden who survived him by three years, dying in March 1855 at 84 years of age. According to an inventory made in January 1853, the Paulisons used one of the two rooms of the stone house as a “Bedroom,” outfitted with a bed, bedding and cupboard; chairs, tables and sundry items were dispersed throughout the two rooms. Dry goods were stored in the garret; perishables were kept cool in either the east or west cellar. A small frame Kitchen was formerly appended to the west gable end of the house, a doorway beside the fireplace providing entrance to this wing. The curious shingled opening at the rear of the stone house accommodated a “hovel” or frame shed, perhaps used much like a “mud room” to store tools and fishing net.
In June 1853, Albert Van Voorhis, John Paulison’s son-in-law and executor, sold the old homestead farm, comprisingf 89.16 acres, to Abraham Collard. In October 1855, Collard sold 35.59 acres of the farm (including the old stone house) lying on the west side of River Road to Christian Sackman of Hudson County, but reserved the use of the Old Grist Mill until May 1, 1856. Sackman sold the same premises to Carl George Frederick Heine of New York City in February 1863. He was the popular proprietor of the New Bridge Hotel for many years before his death on February 6, 1894. Upon the death of his wife Louisa, he devised “the farm I own on the River Road containing 35 Acres” to daughter Emma, wife of Henry Rieman, and “the Hotel at New Bridge where I have resided for many years” to daughter Emma, wife of Henry Schreiber. When Emma Heine Rieman died in October 1921, her estate was divided among her four children: Bertha Louise (Telgheder), Augusta (Pratt), Annie (Cathcart) and Henry Rieman. For many years, a group of city artists known as the Pochard Club occupied the old stone house near the French Burying Ground on weekends in summer. The Demarest Family Association was organized in January 1937 to save the old house. Hiram B. Demarest Blauvelt, president of the Comfort Coal & Lumber Company, purchased the house from Henry B. Pratt and Henry Rieman, executors of Emma H. Rieman’s estate, in November 1939. The dwelling was painstakingly disassembled and reconstructed on Main Street, River Edge, directly behind the Steuben House, in 1955/56. It displays a collection of Bergen Dutch furnishings, many associated with the Demarest family.
The 1889 NEW BRIDGE
HISTORIC NEW BRIDGE LANDING
Main Street, River Edge/Old New Bridge Road
County of Bergen
Researched and written by Kevin Wright
Attracted to their greater durability and ease of maintenance, the Bergen County Board of Chosen Freeholders began about 1885 to install iron swing bridges as part of a program to facilitate inland navigation, which the slow operation and low clearances of wooden draw-bridges had long impeded. Accordingly, on August 6, 1888, they awarded a contract to replace the New Bridge to the King Iron Bridge & Manufacturing Company of Cleveland, Ohio, for $3,990; the contract for substructural masonry was awarded to Joseph Westervelt Stagg of Highwood for $3.994. Contractor Stagg removed the old wooden draw-bridge in the last week of August and completed construction of the sandstone abutments and center pier by November. Because of delays by the bridge company, he also installed a temporary foot-bridge to accommodate pedestrians. The King Iron Bridge Company installed the extant truss swing bridge in January and the completed work was opened to the public on February 2, 1889. It occupies the same location as the wooden bridge of Revolutionary fame.
New Bridge is a Pratt-type, low or “pony” truss, rim-bearing highway swing bridge, fabricated by the King Iron Bridge & Manuacturing Company of Cleveland, Ohio, using truss members manufactured by the Phoenix Iron Company of Philadelphia. A pedestrian walkway was added to the north side of the span in 1911. The Bridgeweld Company of Washington, D. C. reconditioned the bridge in 1936. It was supseded by a fixed concrete-and-steel roadway bridge, located 300 feet to the north, in 1956. The old bridge was listed on the New Jersey and National Register in 1989 as the oldest extant highway swing-bridge in New Jersey.
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