Under the direction of Chef Prince of the NJ State Firemen’s Home and our member, NJ Firemen’s Association President Bob Ordway, they cooked up a feast for the residents, their guests and members and families.
NJ State Firemen’s Association President and Bergen County Firemen’s Home Association member Bob Ordway manning the grill.
Chef Prince of the NJ State Firemen’s Home cooking up a storm.
The wonderful lunch that everyone enjoyed
Our entertainment that afternoon was singer Kelly Carpenter, who had entertained at many of our functions in the past. She sang popular show tunes, rock hits and country tunes.
The Sautjes Tave Begraven Ground Cemetery is an example of an early Dutch Cemetery of some of the first Colonists in Bergen County with some families arriving in the early 1600’s .
The entrance to the Sautjes Tave Begraven Ground Cemetery in Demarest, NJ
The historic sign at the entrance placed by the David Demarest Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution
The inside of the historic cemetery
These early families once owned farms under royal patents of hundreds of acres and these would be passed down from generation to generation. These small family cemeteries were once located on the edge of family land that have since been replaced by modern suburbs. This is now in the middle of a traffic circle surrounded by homes. The cemetery is a wonderful shape and is nicely landscaped.
The cemetery from the south side
Generations of a Bogarts, Blauvelts, Haring, Demarest, Du Bois, Van Scivan and other prominent families all inter married into each family were buried here.
The Bogart-Bauvelt family plot
The Bogart-Blauvelt family plot
The Demarest family plot
The Demarest-Haring family plot
The Ann Marie Demarest grave
The Cornelius Demarest grave site, a Revolutionary War veteran
Patriot Douwe Talema, who was killed by the Tories during the Revolutionary War
The Daniel Van Scivan grave, another Revolutionary War veteran
The Haring Family plot
The Haring family plot
The James Haring grave
The Sophia Haring grave
The Du Bois family plot
The Cemetery view from the southern corner
My video of Touring the Cemetery and its historic roots:
My tour of the cemetery
Leaving the cemetery you can see the landscaping offers these families privacy in both life and death.
After the tour of the cemetery, I explored Downtown Demarest, NJ and discovered a beautiful little town with small local stores and a beautiful set of parks surround the streams and the train station just off the downtown.
The town of Demarest Veteran’s display
The town of Demarest has its own rich beauty and you can see this by visiting its Downtown area and its parks.
The breathtaking Duck Pond Park attracted a lot of painters who set their easels by the banks of the streams.
The Duck Pond is really beautiful
They also have a really nice railroad terminal that is now a senior center
The historic Demarest Railroad Station
This wonderful community has so many wonderful attributes.
This mysterious little cemetery sits on a bluff overlooking Crooked Pond in Franklin Lakes, NJ. Unless you are looking for it, it is difficult to find as there are no markers or historical signs to guide you to the path.
You have to park the car across the street, walk across a dangerous road and you come across this small set of stairs that leads to the cemetery. In the pictures online it always looks so well maintained but the afternoon I was there, it had been over grown.
This set of stairs is hidden by the trees and bushes. This leads to the cemetery
This is another example of a small family cemetery
The History of the Cemetery:
(From the Borough of Franklin Lakes, NJ website-Written by Colin Knight)
Generations of Ackerman, Van Winkle, Romaine and other Dutch families are interred on top of the steep hill overlooking the serene body of water originally known as Hopper’s Pond. Owing to the geography, the local Dutch Reformed congregation assumed the name Ponds Reformed Church and established themselves in the Ramapo Valley in 1710. The early history of the Church recalls several changes in location and according to oral tradition services were held in a log cabin on the north side of the pond not far from the burial ground.
The other end of this small plot
The resting spot sits on a bluff overlooking Crooks pond
The view of the cemetery to the pond below
Among the tombstones are the graves of many members of troops that served in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.
We owe a lot to these Veterans who put their lives on the line for us in the War years. These men and their families helped shape not just the foundation of Bergen County but of the Country as well. These tombstones are of some of the men who fought in the Revolutionary War.
The grave of Gerrit Van Cleve
The grave of Joseph Van Cleve
The grave of Veteran Simeon Van Winkle
These brave soldiers fought in the Revolutionary War with some of their tombstones marker as veterans as others are not.
The graves face Crooks Pond
The tombstone of Veteran Samuel Romine
Samuel Romine’s original tombstone
The Veterans of the Crooked Pond Cemetery:
(From the Borough of Franklin Lakes website-Written by Colin Knight)
The Daughters of the American Revolution stepped up and have been working to restore the cemetery to it’s rightful state. 20 headstones have been restored, and recently, the Veteran’s Administration installed two new headstones for Revolutionary War veteran Samuel Romine and another for War of 1812 veteran Ralph Benjamin Romaine. Crooked Pond Cemetery has fourteen Veterans interred within its bounds, ten from the Revolutionary War, two from the War of 1812, and two who served in the Civil War.
An incomplete list of veterans buried here are John Ackerman; John Folley and Elias Folley; Samuel Romine, Benjamin Romine, and Ralph Romaine; Gerrit Van Cleve and Joseph Van Cleve; Corniess Van Houten, Hendrick Van Houten, and Roeloff Van Houten; and Simeon Van Winkle and Epson Van Winkel.
What is sad about these small family cemeteries is that I am sure that the families never thought to the future when the land would be sold off and the family would move on. The Voorhis and Demarest names still dot the landscape of Bergen County but these tiny plots are lost to the current generations.
The gravesite of Lucas Van Voorhis
The grave of Mary Demarest, who was the wife of James
The Dewolf-Haring family cemetery sits on a homeowners front yard
The Dewolf-Haring Cemetery is one of the most unusual of the small cemeteries in Bergen County that I have seen. It sits right in front of someone’s front yard.
The cemetery probably at one time sat at the very edge of the farmland which is now a golf club and a neighborhood of McMansions. It shows the progress of the area as the farmland was sold off.
The gravesite of John Haring
The DeWolf-Haring family; grandparents and grandson
The oldest part of the cemetery sits on the highest bluff overlooking the woods and the street. The Eckerson family burial plot is located here with graves dating back to before Revolutionary War.
The Old Tappan Cemetery sits on a hill in the woods
The oldest part of the cemetery sits on the very top of the hill overlooking the neighborhood
The site houses the graves of the Eckerson and Haring families
The cemetery is in a quiet corner between two house in what was once the Haring Farm
The family that is buried here:
(From the Dutch Door Genealogy website)
When some of this property, which originally had belonged to Abraham Jans Haring
according to the Zabriskie genealogy, was sold in 1785, ownerhip of the burial plot
was retained, and is described as being one square chain, which is 66 feet on each
side.
HARING FAMILY BURIAL PLOT AT NORWOOD, BERGEN COUNTY, N.J. ON THE PROPERTY NOW KNOWN AS THE ALLISON FARM.
10718 Abraham J. Haring d.1.1.1801 b.9.30.1720 a.80.3.1 (Tap. #358)
Broken stone
10719 David P. Haring d.9.15.1853 a.78.3.18 (Tap.#2418)
10720 Lydia Zabriskie w. of (Sch.p.186) David P. Haring d.12.30.1869 a.89.4.13
10721 Peter D. Haring d.4.2.1864 a.56.7.22 (Tap.#3727)
10722 Betsey Bogert w. Peter D. Haring d.12.31.1890 a.79.4.6
The front of the Denville Museum at Diamond Spring Road
The front sign for the Denville Museum
The beautiful stained glass sign outside
The front sign of the museum
The front gallery of the museum
The back part of the front gallery of the museum
The Denville Museum is an interesting and beautifully organized museum in Downtown Denville, NJ that tells the history of Denville and the surrounding communities. The collection starts with a collection of Native American artifacts and Revolutionary era household objects.
The early foundation of the Denville community is displayed in the front case
The historical marker that leads you to had path to the cemetery
History of the Cemetery:
(From the Historic Marker sign)
The historic cemetery directly in the rear of the Behnke farm contains the graves of descendants of early settlers in this area including a least two local farmer-militiamen of the American Revolution, Jacobus Brouwer and Henry Banta, as well as the grave of Cornelius Demarest, who served in the 22nd regiment of the Union Army during the Civil War (From Paramus Rotary sign).
The only way into this tiny cemetery is through z path located on Viola Road
The historic little cemetery is rich in history of the first families of Bergen County including Revolutionary War and Civil War veterans
The cemetery is the resting place of members of the Banta, Bogert, Terhune, Van Saun, Demarest, Kipp and Voorhis families
The Van Saun family graves
The Bogart family graves
Video of the Cemetery tour:
My tour of the Old Spring Valley Burial Ground on June 3rd, 2025
mywalkinmanhattan 