Historical Notes.-The following description of
Saddle River township nearly half a century since,
before its boundaries were materially changed, may
be of interest :
” It is centrally distant northwest from Hackensack Town
eight miles, its greatest length east and west being ten miles,
its breadth north and south eight miles, its area 41,000 acres,
of which about 17,000 are improved. The surface is generally hilly,
the first and Second Mountains of Sussex County crossing the
Passaic and continuing through it. On the east, however,
between the Passaic and Saddle Rivers, there is a neck of
low and level land, the soil red shale and loam the valleys fertile and
well cultivated, and the hills well wooded. Through the valleys flow
several small brooks, such as Singack, Preakness, Krokaevall, Goffle, and
Ackerman’s Brooks.
” Goffle and New Manchester, a part of Paterson, are the chief villages
of the township. The population in 1830 was 3,397. In 1832 there were
741 taxables, 496 householders whose ratables did not exceed $30 in value,
80 single men, 7 stores, 8 gristmills, 1 cotton manufactory, 1 furnace, 10
saw-mills, 13 tan-vats, 2 distilleries, I wool-factory, 506 horses and mules,
and 1324 neat cattle over three years of age. The township paid a State
tax of $364.10, and a county tax of $690.26.”

George Van Riper.—His father, Garret I. Van
Riper, was a farmer at Bergen, in old Bergen County,
N. J. In 1815 he removed to Saddle River township,
where he died Feb. 24, 1821, aged eighty-two ,years.
He had one son, Jeremiah, by his first wife, who in-
herited the homestead at Bergen, and resided there
during his life. His second wife was Antlena Vree-
land, who died Sept. 25, 1819, aged sixty-three years,
leaving one son, George, subject of this sketch.
Garret Van Riper and his second wife were buried
in the graveyard at Paasaic.
George Van Riper was born June 3, 1787, and
during his minority received a good education from
books. He was well learned in civil engineering and
surveying, which, however, he gave little attention to
after his marriage, but he had a natural taste for
mathematics, as books now in possession of the
family, used by him, show much system and neatness.
He was united in marriage, July 23, 1814, to Clarissa,
daughter of George and Jane (Brinkerhoff) Vreeland,
who was born at Pamrapo, near Bergen,(Jersey City)
Dec. 25, 1794, and who survives and resides in
Paterson in 1881.
She is a woman of very retentive memory consider-
ing her age, well preserved in body and mind, and
still entertains socially and hospitably, as has always
been her custom, her many friends and relatives. Mr.
Van Riper and wife, the year following their mar-
riage, settled at Slaughter Dam, (Fair Lawn) in
Saddle River township,N.J., on a farm of some
three hundred acres, a property which his grandfather
George had owned, and which his father had inherited
and given to his sisters, Grietje and Alche.
Mr. Van Riper, who was familiarly known as
“Uncle George,” resided on this farm until his death,
May 23, 1857. He and his wife attended the Ac-
quackanonk Church,, where at different times he
served as elder and deacon. The children of this
union are Garret, born Oct. 16, 1815, died July 20,
1864. He was a farmer in Passaic County, and mar-
ried Martha Maria Romaine, who died, leaving chil-
dren,-Richard and Daniel R. Van Riper, Jane, wife
of Garret Newkirk, of Bergen; Cornelius, born Nov.
6, 1819, resided on a part of the homestead, and died
June 3, 1877, whose wife was Gatharine Jane Marce-
lis, who died Nov. 14, 1875, leaving children,-Clara
Jane and Edo; Helen; John G., born January, 1824,
married Maria Ann Romaine, of Lodi, and has three
children,-Georgianna, Romaine, and Louis P. The
other children of George Van Riper are Hartman
Vreeland, George G., Eliza Ann, and Henry.
Mrs. Van Riper’s paternal grandfather, Vreeland,
resided at Pamrapo, N. J. The Van Ripers, Vree-
lands, and Brinkerboffs are among the families who
trace their descent from an honorable ancestry, who
left their native country (Holland) to avoid persecu-
tion, and settled in this county, where their succeed-
ing generations have contributed to the development
of its various industries, and ranked among the
founders of all the cherished institutions of a free
country.