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    Hawthorne
    Hawthorne
    Hawthorne
    Ebook176 pages47 minutes

    Hawthorne

    By Don Everett Smith Jr.

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Hawthornne residents can boast of the area s role in the American Revolution remember all who served during wartime, and trace countless families who have lived here for generations. Hawthorne captures the history of this north Jersey borough, home of General Lafayette s local headquarters, whicH today houses the town offices. It echoes old-timers memories of days spent hiding and playing in Hawthorne s high hills and then running down the steep slopes to the Passaic River for a swim.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateApr 26, 2006
    ISBN9781439616178
    Hawthorne

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      Book preview

      Hawthorne - Don Everett Smith Jr.

      Speaker

      INTRODUCTION

      Many of the amazing tales the world over have started with Once upon a time or In the beginning or, my personal favorite, A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. This story, however, begins with One night in Nelke’s Tavern . . .

      Hawthorne continued a long tradition of breaking away and starting a life of its own. The tradition began when Europeans broke away from religious persecution and came over the sea to settle here. Next, the colonists broke away from English rule. Then, in 1837, Passaic County broke away from Bergen County and Essex County to become its own entity. Finally, in 1898, several men in Nelke’s Tavern, on the corner of what it is now Rea Avenue and Goffle Road, decided that it was time they broke away from Manchester Township and form our own.

      That break was accomplished after a doctor named Sylvester Utter traveled to Trenton to argue for independence of Hawthorne and North Paterson as a borough, according to Utter’s grandson Donald Gray. Utter was then elected as the borough’s first mayor in 1898.

      Since that year, Hawthorne has grown from 500 people to nearly 18,000 residents. It is the perfect mix of towns, bridging the more urban municipalities of Paterson, Haledon, and Prospect Park with the more suburban towns of Glen Rock, Ridgewood, and Wyckoff.

      Furthermore, it is crossed by highways such as Routes 208 and 20. Route 208 heads north to Wayne, Mahwah, or upstate New York and connects to Route 4, which goes east to New York City. Highway 20 joins the historical Wagaraw Road and leads into Route 80, which goes west all the way to San Francisco.

      Although not named for any particular saint, as San Francisco was, Hawthorne was the given name of a train station in the 1860s (originally the station was called Norwood, but this led to confusion with the Bergen County town of that name), and so the borough became Hawthorne.

      A long-standing question has been, Where did the name Hawthorne come from? One source claims it was from the hawthorn shrubs that farmers had to dig out of their fields. Another source says the town was named for famed New England author Nathaniel Hawthorne. However, we should dwell on what former U.S. representative Marge Roukema said in the House of Representatives in 1998: The name is honored and revered and deserves the good reputation it has enjoyed for a century. It is one of the finest communities in our state.

      Out from under the British, Americans had to rule on their own and county and town governments were developed to do so. In 1837, Passaic County was formed. Just 13 years later, in January 1850, Judge John and Jane Van Winkle were murdered in their bed by former farmhand John Johnston. A native of Liverpool, England, Johnson was known to drink a lot, and it is believed that he was under the influence of liquor the night he committed the crime.

      One

      MANCHESTER AND EARLY HAWTHORNE

      Some 15,000 years ago, a glacier cut a path through the northern part of what is now New Jersey and most of New York state. The glacier scraped and scarred the hilltops and covered the rocky landscape with . . . rock and soil debris, local archaeologist Edward Lenik wrote in his 1999 book, Indians in the Ramapos. The ice scoured the ridges leaving bare rock or a thin mantle of soil while valleys and side slopes . . . were filled with deposits of sand, gravel and boulders. In some places the deposits blocked rivers and streams to form ponds, lakes and swamps. Later, after the glacier receded, trees took root in the fertile soil and the Leni Lenape and other Indians settled here, according to a Hawthorne 50th anniversary publication.

      Lenape language specialist James Remeter recounts the Native American’s daily life: They were up with the sun . . . the women pounding corn and men preparing to hunt. After food, the most important things were family and home. The girl who got up early to pound the corn made an ideal wife, Remeter said. Some of the homes were made of bark and covered with cattail mats, and others were log

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