Autumn Years Summer 2023

erty, selling it to brothers Barent and Re solvert Nagel from Harlem for “two hun dred twenty-five pounds current money of the Province of New York,” or about $44 an acre today. The Nagel broth ers were 32 and 23 years old when they bought the wilderness land and settled on it. When the Nagels bought their land, the border between New York and New Jersey was disputed; each state naturally claimed a border that enlarged its hold ings. Survey technology at the time was not always accurate, and iron ore in the Ramapo Mountains had an effect on compasses. A 1750s map shows seven different locations for the state border, ranging from as far north as Piermont, New York, to as far south as Closter Dock Road. In 1761, Orangetown, New York, laid out Closter Dock Road. It was not until 1769 that the current state bor der was finally established. A 1745 survey map showed just six houses in Closter (five owned by the Na gels and one by William Ferdon). Other families soon took up residence, and

THE INDIANS Before the Dutch, the Indians had called the region home since the last Ice Age. Evidence of that habitation was found near the Dwarskill stream. In 1974, when the Hackensack Water Company was dredging to enlarge its reservoir (along the Dwarskill stream), a dredging shovel operator encountered a mastodon bone, and archaeologists were able to uncover and preserve the 75-percent-intact skel eton. Discovered nearby was a broken Clovis spear point (the type used to hunt mastodon). For years, the Dwarskill mastodon was on display in a museum in Paramus; today, it is in storage at the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton. SETTLERS After New Netherland was seized by the English, land speculators began snatch ing up large sections of Bergen County with patents granted by the Royal Gov ernor. In 1699, Balthazar de Hart and Isaac Bedlow purchased from the Le nape Indians a huge tract that fronted on the Hudson River for two miles. That tract included present-day Closter and parts of surrounding towns. According to the deed, these Lenape Indians were

paid (in today’s value) about $21,000 in wampum (shells strung together and used as money by Indians), five gallons of rum, three coats, about five gallons of “good beer,” four blankets, six garments of coarse woolen cloth and about $7,000 in coin money. An amazing price for what became some of the most valuable real estate in New Jersey! In 1701, the property was

sold to four brothers from Harlem, New York, named Vervalen (ranging in age from 21 to 14). Needing cash, in 1709 they sold the northern half of the property (1,030 acres) to a land speculator from London named Lancaster Symes. In 1710, Symes flipped the prop

Deed of sale from 1768 for Nagel property.

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AUTUMN YEARS I SUMMER 2023