The Bergen County Historical Society in River Edge NJ, invites the public to join their members this Memorial Day, Monday May 31st 10 am-11 am at the First Dutch Reformed Church for a wreath laying ceremony. Meet us at General Enoch Poor's gravesite, First Dutch Reformed Church on the Green, 42 Court Street, Hackensack, NJ 07601.

Each year we honor the veterans of all wars with a wreath laying at the grave of General Enoch Poor in the burial ground of the First Dutch Reformed Church on the Green.

Excerpts from chaplain Israel Evans’ graveside funeral oration will be read at the ceremony followed by a tour of the historic cemetery.

Attendees are required to wear face masks and maintain a social distancing by staying 6 feet apart. 

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Brigadier-General Enoch Poor, of New Hampshire, died at 44 years of age from either typhus fever or diptheria on September 8, 1780, while about 14,000 Continental troops were encamped on “a high Ridge of land in a place called Steenrapie,” the old name for the high ground extending from northern River Edge through Emerson. The main cantonment was situated between River Edge Avenue in River Edge to the vicinity of Soldier Hill Road, where Oradell, Emerson and Paramus intersect. While encamped at Steenrapie between September 4 and 20, 1780, the Continental army lost no fewer than twenty-three soldiers to disease. General Poor’s body was brought from “Paramus” to the Brower House on Main Street, River Edge, where it was placed in a mahogany coffin for burial in the churchyard of the Dutch Reformed Church-on-the-Green in Hackensack on September 10, 1780. Six generals served as pallbearers while officers of the New Hampshire Brigade followed the coffin, together with officers of the new light-infantry brigade, which General Lafayette assigned to General Poor’s command shortly before his death. General George Washington, who made headquarters in the Zabriskie-Steuben House at New Bridge, marched with other generals in the funeral procession. On July 14, 1825, General Lafayette stopped at General Poor’s grave in Hackensack on his return tour of the United States as the Nation’s Guest and last living Major General of the American Revolution.

For more information visit the society’s website www.bergencountyhistory.org, Email: info@bergencountyhistory.org, or call 201-343-9492 and leave a message.