Autumn Years Summer 2023

William and Betsy Thompson.

Sautjes Tave’s Begraven Ground Cem etery in today’s Demarest. A week later, Closter was again raided. Even the Hes sians (German mercenaries for the Brit ish) were said to be sickened by the Loy alist urge to commit arson and murder on their former neighbors. On June 8, 1780, 30 to 50 raiders ar rived before dawn at the home of Isaac Naugle (80 Hickory Lane) and began stealing horses, cows and sheep. Local Patriot militia officers assembled the troops and chased after the marauders, killing one and wounding several oth ers. Two days later, the Patriot militia captured 12 foraging British sailors who had docked their ship at Upper Closter Landing. In March 1781, more than 200 British and Loyalists went to Closter to plunder. The Patriot militia drove them off, but not before they had thoroughly stripped Closter of everything movable. One Clo ster resident, Aury Auryansen, compiled a list of all stolen and damaged items in his household and filed a claim with the state government for reimbursement. During the Revolution, Closter was a war zone, and residents risked being killed and/or having their house ran sacked and burnt.

Bergen County. The congregation Wil liam founded still exists in both Sparkill, New York, and Closter. In Closter, it is the Centennial A.M.E. Zion Church (con structed in 1896), which is the church U.S. Senator Cory Booker attended while growing up in Harrington Park. THE RAILROAD In 1855, The Northern Railroad of New Jersey was organized, and land for the proposed right-of-way was acquired. That brought John Henry Stephens, a carpenter and businessman originally from Manhattan, to Closter, where he began snatching up land along the pro posed route. Also in anticipation of the railroad’s opening, David A. Demarest created a subdivision of 67 lots adjacent to the right-of-way that went through his property. These properties comprise the core of what would become Closter Vil lage (today, part of the downtown and the blocks to the south). As the railroad was being built, a large station house was erected (where Blanch Avenue crosses the tracks) and named

AFTER THE REVOLUTION Following the turmoil of the Revolution, Closter reverted to a quiet, small collec tion of farms along the few roads that crossed the area. Closter’s first teacher arrived, named Benjamin Blackledge, who taught English to a population that primarily spoke the Jersey Dutch dialect. Proficient in English, he became promi nent in the northeastern part of Ber gen County, serving as a judge and the township’s first clerk. With his mastery of English, Blackledge penned count less legal documents. As the population grew, the Central School District of Har rington Township built the town’s first school near the Vervalen property on West Street before 1830. Around 1830, an African-American man named William Thompson (who was born a freeman) came to Closter as an itinerate preacher. Here he fell in love with an enslaved young woman named Betsy. William purchased her freedom and married her. The couple first lived in the area of today’s downtown Closter. In 1841, William purchased property on what was called Closter Mountain (to day’s Alpine), and there he built a church for a community of former slaves. Rev erend William Thompson is the father of the first African-American church in

1860 newspaper image.

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AUTUMN YEARS I SUMMER 2023