Westwood Cemetery was established in 1861 as the Old Hook Cemetery. The earliest burial was in 1791. Westwood Cemetery is a non-sectarian cemetery and continues to offer final resting places that suit individual needs. Whether you are planning for the future or purchasing for an immediate need, we have a variety of options available within the 35 acre park.
The newest part of the Westwood Cemetery where the family burials start around 1840 to Present sits on the Kinderkamack Road side of the cemetery
The back of the cemetery sits on a buff overlooking the pond that is parallel to Old Hook Road
The original family members were buried in this section of the cemetery while their grandchildren and great grandchildren are interned in the front section.
The oldest section of the cemetery which sits next to Old Hook Road is the Hopper Family plot which dates back to before the Revolutionary War
The Blauvelt Family plot sits next to the Hopper Family plot
The oldest section of the cemetery by Old Post Road home to family members of the Post, Blauvelt, Voorhis and Hopper members
The Demarest family plot overlooking the pond from the buff
The Blauvelt and Bogart family plot
The DeBaun family plot by Old Hook Road
One of the original Demarest family plots
The Haring family plot overlooking the pond
The Ackerman family plot
The Eckerson family plot with members of the Hopper and Demarest families
This section of the cemetery contains the oldest tombstones in the cemetery so many have broken or crumbled away. The lawn in this section of the cemetery is also not as well maintained so there are overgrown bushes and trees hiding the tombstones so you really have to look.
Then I worked my way back to the front of the cemetery finding the graves of these people’s children and grandchildren by following the names and dates of these people’s family members.
One branch of the Demarest family is front and center in the front of the cemetery
Next to them are the DeBaun and Vanderbeck families
Another branch of the Demarest family is a few rows behind
The Kipp family have a rather large family plot
The Hopper & Banta families share this large twin family plot
The Bogart family has this large family plot
The Westervelt family is near them with many of their members of the family
The Demarest family had two large family plots in the middle of the cemetery
The family plot of the Demarests and the Harings
The Demarest and Van Bushkirk family plot
The large Blauvelt family plot
The DeWolfe family plot
The Voorhis family plot
The Terhune Bogart family plot
What I found fascinating about this cemetery was to see the progression of each of these families from parent to child to grandchild just by walking through it. The families branch out in all sections intermarrying with similar families and the buried next to them. From back to front here they rest.
Maple Grove Park Cemetery in Hackensack, New Jersey, is a historic burial ground originally established around 1850 by the Dutch Reformed Churches of New York City. Formerly known as the New York Cemetery, it is a significant local repository for both 19th-century history and rescued historical remains.
Originally founded to serve members of the True Reformed Dutch Church, the cemetery was previously referred to as the New York Cemetery on Plank Road. As older churches and their surrounding burial grounds in northern New Jersey were decommissioned, their headstones and remains were frequently relocated to Maple Grove
The historic front section of the cemetery in the front of the cemetery
I visited the Maple Grove Park Cemetery one afternoon in search of a Revolutionary War Veteran, Albert Voorhis. I did not find his particular tombstone but I did find his family plot and many of the ‘first families’ of Bergen County. These include families such as the Demarest’s, Haring’s, Voorhis, Ackerman’s, Christie’s, Hopper’s, Van Saun’s and Blauvelt’s.
The Demarest family plot
The front part of the cemetery is nicely landscaped with interesting family plots dotted all over the this part of the cemetery. These were the families that shaped this history of the County and other branches of their extended family are either buried in historic Reformed Church graveyards or are in small cemeteries that were part of the family farm that now sit in subdivisions of McMansions, neglected and forgotten.
The Demarest family plot
I found it interesting to note how big many of these families were and how all of these ‘first families’ married into one another, probably because of family stature or maybe to extend the length of the family farm. These interconnections shaped and developed how Bergen County developed over a three hundred year period.
The Demarest/Hopper family plot
The Westervelt Family plot
The extended Voorhis family plot
The Zabriskie family plot
The extended Terhune family plot
The DeBaun family
The Brinkerhoff family plot
The Van Winkle family plot
The Ackerman family plot
The Blawvelt (Blauvelt) family plot
The Van Saun family plot
Another Terhune family plot
The Vreeland family plot
The Quackenbush family plot
The Hopper family plot
The Hopper-DeWolfe family plot
The extended Christie family plot
The extended Lydecker family plot
The Van Valen family
Another branch of the extended Demarest family
This cemetery is an interesting look at the early history of not just Bergen County or New Jersey but of the United States. These extended families contributed so much not just in military activity but in business, religion and education that helped build this country.
This unique cemetery is more than just a place of rest but a place of history and of respect. These were the extended families who contributed so much to the progress of our country and how it was directed into the future.
I visited the Alpine Cemetery, which is a historical active cemetery just off Closter Dock Road. This is the resting place of Revolutionary War Veteran, William Wilson and many other veterans from the Civil, Spanish American, World War I and II as well as from Vietnam, Korea and Desert Storm. All the graves were marked with American flags as we just finished Memorial Day weekend.
The family plots that separate the site
There are many family plots of “First Family’s” of Bergen County like the Westervelt’s, the Haring’s and the Campell’s. The family plots are separated by small fences and some are marked by the family names.
The cemetery on the hill in Alpine, NJ
The separate family burial plots
The Campbell Family burial plot
The Campbell family plots
The Van Sciver family plots
The Anthony Family plots
The Anthony family plot
The Haring Family plot
The Haring family obelisk
The Westervelt family plot
The Jordan/Wilson family plot
I looked at the Wilson family plot for the Revolutionary War veteran but the burial spot is probably has been lost to time. William Wilson may be lost to history but I know he was buried here.
The front part of the cemetery
The Veteran’s Memorial Rock with the names of World War I and II, Vietnam and Korea veterans
The Van Valen family plots
The Pearsall family plots
The Older family plots
The burial grounds from the front
There is a quiet elegance to these historic cemeteries. Who were these people? What did they do? Do people remember them? They are very interesting places to visit.
The history of the cemetery:
(From the historic sign)
The cemetery was founded in 1822 by resident William Gecox along Closter Dock Road when he bought 23 and a half acres as a burial ground for neighbors and for laborers who worked in the area. Mr. Gecox sold these plots on what had already been a burial ground.
The people buried in the cemetery were farmers, laborers, and tradesmen and their family. By 1870, the village “in the Closter Mountain” had take the name “Alpine” in the 1890’s. When William and his wife, Susan Helms pass in the 1890’s, their children sold the remaining plots. The cemetery has continued to be used into the twenty-first century.
The front of the English Neighborhood Reformed Church
The sign in front of this historic church
The front of the church
The front of the church from Church Road
The historic marker in front of the church
Since my project studying the historic graveyards and cemeteries of the Revolutionary War with my International Marketing students, I have taken my time to walk these sites and try to understand the history and importance of these sites as part of the memories of who these people were, the contributions that made to not just our county but the country and trying to keep their memories alive while many have been forgotten by their families.
The newer back part of the cemetery
Visiting during a recent post Memorial Day visit, I got to see how many veterans of all the wars from the American Revolution to Desert Storm were buried here. Even though we studied just the veterans of the Revolutionary War, I was fascinated by the number of Civil War and World War I and II veterans here as well.
The older section of the graveyard
The history of our County and Country are shown among the rows of tombstones that represent the contribution of our County residents to the many causes. It was very humbling to see them being honored at this time.
What I found interesting was many of the branches of ‘Founding First Families’ of Bergen County were interned here, representing Bergen County’s contributions to the foundation of the United States.
The Engle family plot where Revolutionary War veteran John Engle was a member
The Vreeland family plot closest to the church is the resting place of Revolutionary War veteran Michael Vreeland (again this site was once their family’s farm)
A closer look at the Vreeland family plot
I believe this is the tombstone of Michael Vreeland, Revolutionary War veteran
Another branch of the Vreeland family
Another branch of the Vreeland family
The Herring (Haring) family crypt
The Outwater family crypt. General Outwater’s side of the family is buried in a family plot in Carlstadt, NJ
The Banta family plot
The DeGraw family plot
The grave of Benjamin Westervelt
The grave of a soldier I could not read
It was so interesting to walk amongst the rows of tombstones and trying to understand each person’s story and their personal contributions to the way our community was founded and developed. So many of these family names are woven into the history of Bergen County.
There is a quiet elegance to these graveyards and on a warm sunny afternoon they are less scary and more of a place of understanding and respecting our past. It was an interesting history lesson.
Looking at the oldest section of the graveyard where many Colonial family plots are located
History of the Church:
(From the Church website)
The English Neighborhood Reformed Church is the oldest building in Ridgefield, NJ, erected on its current site way back in 1793, long before Bergen County became the bustling metropolitan area it is today.
But even before this, way back in 1675, Ridgefield was known as “The English Neighborhood” and covered roughly 10 miles of land between the Hackensack and Hudson Rivers. This is where our church gets its historic name. The first construction of the church (in Leonia) dates back to 1768, but was moved to its present site in Ridgefield, in 1793.
This area played a role in the Revolutionary war, when General Washington retreated with the Continental Army in 1776 from NY City and passed through the English Neighborhood. Those who fled the area for their cause, included the English Neighborhood Church’s first minister, Garrit Leydekker, an Englishman and a Tory, who fled for the safety of New York City, taking the church’s first records with him.
The historic graveyard next to the church
The church’s steeple was the tallest structure to rise above the flat meadowlands and would become a surveyors landmark. It is approx. 80 ft. in height and made from hand-strewn timbers and wood dowels, rather than nails.
The historic church on a sunny afternoon
In 1804, Edgewater Avenue was a bustling artery for commerce and was part of the toll road known as the Bergen Turnpike. For 100 years, covered wagons transported their goods from the farms of NJ, to the ferries that would carry them to market in NY City, right past the church. The church was once located in the heart of the bustle of life as it was, before the industrial revolution.
The historic doors of the church
In 1854, the railroad was brought to Ridgefield, which introduced industry and growth to the town. Throughout the Civil War, members of the congregation were active in the “underground railroad.” Runaway slaves were hidden under the bridge by Overpeck Creek. They were given food, clothes and other necessities to help move them to the next safe haven, during the night.
In 1912, the Sunday school building was added, across the way from the church. Additions to the building were completed in 1954 and 1962.
A bridge was built over the Railroad tracks in 1932, which led to the closing of Edgewater Avenue and the “Old Highway” that once brought passersby with regularity, became a dead-end street. These gradual changes have meant that the historic legacy of the English Neighborhood and its church, goes largely unnoticed.
However, these changes also, today provide the quiet hamlet that the church finds itself surrounded by – a little piece of heaven on earth – right here in a busy, and often congested, Ridgefield. It is this history and this unique location that makes the English Neighborhood Church a one-of-a-kind place to worship.
We hope you will join us some Sunday to see for yourself. God has blessed this congregation for nearly 233 years (2026). Jesus is doing some amazing things with this church and its people. You are welcome to be one of them, as we move into the next thing God is calling us to do and be, as Jesus’s disciples.
Visiting a Museum: The Unique, Unusual, Obscure and Historical 