One afternoon I took a trip into my very distant past. I visited the tiny Haring family Farm Cemetery, which is the resting place of Cornelius Haring and his family. The cemetery is what is left of what was once a several hundred acre farm owned by the extensive Haring family of Bergen County, NJ.
The burial site had been hidden for years and the site neglected until restored by Eagle Scout, Anakin Rybacki in 2020
The history of the site extends back to the 17th century. “The immigrant ancestor was Jan Pieter Haring, who came from the Netherlands in the early 1660s. He was the leader of a group that purchased 16,000 acres in the Bergen/Rockland area, after living first in New Netherlands, now Manhattan,” said family descendant Regina Haring (Brown, NorthJersey.com).
Each of the historic tombstones are encased in a plastic box
The teen who renovated this cemetery encased each of the tombstones to preserve the place and history of each person buried on the site. Most of the tombstones were left in pieces by the time the renovation had started. This small cemetery is dedicated to the people who once lived here and passed away at the farm.
The grave site of Margaret Alyea
The grave of William Holdrum
The grave of Abraham Haring
Another simple tombstone of Elizabeth Haring
Some of the tombstones needed a serious cleaning
The grave of Elizabeth Blauvelt Haring
The cemetery from the entrance of the site
The sign on the site marking the fencing for the Haring Farm Cemetery
The cemetery is an interesting example of rural life in Bergen County when these early Dutch families would bury their loved ones on the family property rather than in the local churches.
My Class visit:
I stopped in at the Haring Farm Cemetery for a tour for their class project on Historical Cemeteries for the ‘Bergen 250’. This is for another Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. project.
So I got there early, raked the cemetery and tidied up the tombstones and cleaned and organized the signs. It looked so much better.
The Haring Farm Cemetery the morning of the tour. Much more respectable looking.
The South Presbyterian Church at 150 West Church Street in Bergenfield, NJ
The historic marker in front of the church
I was in Bergenfield, NJ recently to visit the Bergenfield Museum and I walked around this beautiful church and the graveyard next to it. What a beautiful, graceful building and the cemetery had an old New England charm about it. The graveyard held the graves of many of the original family members who founded the County and lived in Bergen County since the late 1600’s.
The inside of the church
The church sat in this beautiful area right next to Cooper Park off Downtown Bergenfield. I can’t wait to take a look inside one day.
The inside of the church during Sunday services
The Mission Statement from the Church:
(from the church website)
“As followers of the risen Lord, we, the South Presbyterian Church family, commit ourselves to proclaim the gospel, witness to the promise of God’s Kingdom, and nurture all children of God. In our community and throughout the world, we will serve in Christ’s name through worship and mission. We will serve through open worship, willing service and compassion to all for the glory of God wherever our lives shall take us.”
The historic marker of the church
History of the Church:
(from the church website)
SOUTH CHURCH is descended from the first Schraalenburgh congregation established in 1723. The first church building was constructed beginning in 1724, and fully completed by 1728. This was approximately 36 feet square with a Dutch hip roof ascending to a central belfry and steeple.
The front of the church cemetery
This church stood atop a small hill just west of Long Swamp Brook, facing south and fronting on the new county road laid down in 1717. Using today’s landmarks, we can describe the site as the southeast corner of the present cemetery, directly across Church Street from the South Church House. For more than seventy years, this small church building served the farmers of Schraalenburgh. The site of the new church was apparently chosen because of the presence of a large spring across the road near Long Swamp Brook.
The historic graveyard with some of the original families of Bergen County
The philosophy of the Dutch Reformed Church shaped the growth and development in the early years of the church’s existence. In the more than two and a half centuries of its history, the members of the congregation had to choose many times between the strictly puritanical concepts and the more convenient religious beliefs, and invariably chose the puritanical. Some members were the patriots of the Revolution while others were Tories. In 1799, the new South Schraalenburgh Church was built a short distance to the west of the original building.
The historic cemetery during the Fall of 2024
Because of differences within the congregation in the late 1700s, two groups were formed and when a decision was made to build a new church, the opposing group withdrew, purchased land and built the North Schraalenburgh (now Dumont) Reformed Church in 1801. In May 1866 the congregation voted to enlarge and remodel the building, adding 15 feet to the north end and replacing part of two windows in the front with doors on each side of the original single door, as you see it now. This was completed in 1867.
The Church graveyard
In the past century, the building has had its share of modernizations— candlelight gave way to oil lamps, and in turn to electrification. Heat was installed, first coal fired, then oil, now gas, although the old drafts persist to this day. However, the charm and grace of the old Dutch Church at Schraalenburgh have remained. The South Church House completed and dedicated in September 1952, on the corner of West Church and Franklin Avenue, is used by the church for various classes and events and many community organizations meet there. In 2002 South Presbyterian Church celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the Church House.
The historic graveyard at the side of the church in the oldest part
The South Presbyterian Church was placed on the National Registry December 6, 1975 and the Manse on August 24, 1979, both through the efforts of Mrs. Adrian Leiby. In 1913, after much discussion, the congregation chose to unite with the Presbyterian Church. Today, after almost 3 centuries of building and remodeling, separating and uniting, South Presbyterian Church in Bergenfield remains committed to the values of those Christian farmers who first gathered at this site to worship in 1723. . . steadfast in purpose and faith.
The Demarest family plot
The Church is especially beautiful at the holidays all decorated with wreathes and garland.
The South Church decorated for Christmas
The fences are so nicely decorated for the holidays
The outside of the church decorated for the holidays
The front of the church at dusk
The front doors are so welcoming at the holidays
The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. Project promoting the church for “Dark Tourism”:
In a recent project I created for my Marketing Students at Bergen Community College in Paramus, NJ, under the fictional company “Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.”, the Teams were tasked in creating a project that promoted the South Presbyterian Church for “Dark Tourism”, meaning that we promoted their historic cemetery for a historic walking tour concentrating on the Demarest family plot.
Here are the videos on the Bergenfield, NJ Historic sites project:
We walked through the park again to my take note of its Depression era past and beautiful views and colors and made our way to the historic South Presbyterian Church and its historic graveyard where the second half of the project would take place.
South Presbyterian Church at 150 West Church Avenue
Touring the South Church graveyard for the historical walking tour with members of the Church volunteer staff
The tour was lead by Bob Carpenter, a historian who is helping renovate this historical graveyard
The tour of the historical Demarest family plot, which ties into the museum building’s historical past, was lead by historian Bob Carpenter, who is helping the church renovate and restore the graveyard. Mr. Carpenter explained to us how he was fixing all the plots and historic tombstones and how the maintenance of the stones needs to be carefully done.
Mr. Carpenter explains how to maintain the tombstones in these historic graveyards
Video of the walking tour of the historic graveyard:
Both the church volunteers and Mr. Carpenter explaining to the students how families were buried in the 1700and 1800’s
We finished the tour that afternoon inside the South Church to learn its history in the community. Though it will not be part of the project, the church offered the students a glimpse into Bergen County’s past as the original church was built before the Revolutionary War.
The Student Consultants touring the pews of the South Church
Once the tour was complete, the Student Consultants had a better understanding of the locations where the project will take place.
The new project will include walking tours, historical aspects of all three locations, and ways of creating a Destination Marketing Plan for domestic and foreign tourism. This will take place when the Student Consultants present their ideas to myself and the museum and church staffs.
The student consultants had four weeks to this project and put together their game plans. The had to put together commercials to promote the Bergenfield Museum, Coopers Pond Park and the historical cemetery of the South Church. As an extra credit assignment, I had the students develop a Halloween walking tour with food and create a separate commercial for this of which three of the for groups completed.
Here is their Presentation of the Project Promoting the Historic sites of Bergenfield, NJ. This section of videos was on promoting the South Presbyterian Church:
The South Church Cemetery is one of the oldest and historic cemeteries in Bergen County and home to the Demarest family plot, one of the most prominent families in Bergen County. The students were tasked with creating a short Walking Tour video promotion for the project to promote the South Church for tourism.
Team One:
Commercial Two:
Team Two:
Team Three:
Team Four:
*Special Note: I credit my Marketing 201 students at Bergen Community College with all of this work and the dedication that they gave the class. Excellent job everyone!
The entrance of the Orchard Street Cemetery and Gatehouse
The Orchard Street Cemetery in Dover, Morris County, NJ was originally founded in 1851 when a group of men determined that a cemetery was needed in the Village of Dover, then part of Randolph Township. One member of the group, William Young, the first baker in Dover who had his store on Dickerson Street traded his “garden plot” at the end of Orchard Street to this new endeavor in return for several building lots on Orchard Street. The plot transferred from William Young to the Association was approximately one acre in size (Orchard Street Gatehouse Historical Society website).
The Gatehouse
The first thing you notice when you enter the cemetery is the Gatehouse. It needs a lot of work. Also it was not manned. Funny, the building looks like it belongs in a cemetery.
The historic plaque for the cemetery
The historic sign for the cemetery
The Cemetery is the final resting place of more than 3500 men, women, and children from the greater Dover area, primarily Dover, Randolph, Wharton, and Rockaway. There are over 125 veterans from the War of 1812, the Civil War, The Indian Wars, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, and Vietnam as well as well as peacetime veterans. There are many of the founders of Dover, Wharton, and Rockaway, civic and industrial leaders, and ordinary citizens of the area. Unfortunately, many burial records have been lost through the passage of time, fire, etc. so a full accounting of the burials will most likely never be realized as many people were buried without a stone memorial through choice or economic reasons (Orchard Street Gatehouse Historical Society website).
The entrance to the cemetery by the gate
When I visited the Orchard Street Cemetery, I noticed that most of the cemetery was designed into family plots, most gated or sectioned off. In each plot, you can see the generations of family members. There is a distinct change on the tombstones of family member marking the graves. Either is was prosperity of the family or just a sign of the times when people died where you see the changes in the tombstones and what they look like.
At least the families are housed together. Each of the family plots are marked by a gate or just a series of tombstones. Each of these family plots deserve respect and please remember this as you walk around the cemetery to pay your respects. There is a very positive feel to this cemetery.
I noticed the cemetery was broken into family plots separated by fencing
The Munson family plot
The Munson family plot
The Moller family plot
The Moller family plot
The Ford family plot
Deer watching me at the cemetery
The Hoagman Family plot
The Dickerson family plot
I had just come from the Bridget Smith House in Mine Hill and discovered that the Dickerson’s were once a prominent mining family who owned a large mansion just outside of Mine Hill.
The grave of Mahlon Dickerson
I found out from a member of the Cemetery Society that this is not the grave of the former Governor of New Jersey but a distant relative.
The Orchard Street Cemetery from the back of the cemetery
The Gatehouse at the front of the cemetery
The cemetery is an interesting look of how burying our dead has changed over the last 100 years.
The History of the Cemetery:
(this comes from the OrchardStreetCemeteryGatehouse.org website)
The Orchard Street Cemetery
The Orchard Street Cemetery in Dover, Morris County, NJ was originally founded in 1851 when a group of men determined that a cemetery was needed in the Village of Dover, then part of Randolph Township. One member of the group, William Young, the first baker in Dover who had his store on Dickerson Street traded his “garden plot” at the end of Orchard Street to this new endeavor in return for several building lots on Orchard Street. The plot transferred from William Young to the Association was approximately one acre in size.
The inside of the cemetery
On September 11, 1854 following the passage of the “Rural Cemetery Act of 1854 by the New Jersey Legislature, the Dover Cemetery Association was founded during a meeting in the Village of Dover held at School House District No. 1. The location of this school was to the east of Morris Street and to the south of the railroad tracks. This puts it on the opposite side of the railroad tracks from the old Stone Academy. The papers of incorporation were dated September 14, 1859 and duly registered with the County of Morris.
The inside of the cemetery
A deed dated February 22, 1855 was signed by Jabez Mills and his wife Hannah selling approximately 4.5 acres of their property to the Trustees of the Dover Cemetery Association. This deed was received and recorded on February 27, 1855 by the County of Morris. The acquisition of this property brought the cemetery to its final boundaries and size of 5.4 acres. It is believed based on gravestones in the cemetery that the entire property was being used as a cemetery prior to the date of the recording of the deed. Further, some sections of the cemetery property may have been used prior to 1851 due to gravestones that predate the founding of the cemetery. It is also known that there was an earlier Dover cemetery, the Morris Street Burying Yard located south of the train tracks along Morris Street.
The Munson family plot
It is believed that a number of the remains that were interred there were disinterred and moved to the Orchard Street Cemetery. Many stones in Orchard Street predate the cemetery founding and it can be inferred that either there were burials in the cemetery confines before it was founded or these are reinterments from the Morris Street Burial Yard, or both. In addition, there was later a small cemetery on Grant Street next to what was the Swedish Methodist Church. Around the turn of the 1900’s, this cemetery was closed and again, the remains within were disinterred and many were removed to Orchard Street.
The entrance to the historic Orchard Street Cemetery
The old Gate House at the entrance of the cemetery
Visiting a Museum: The Unique, Unusual, Obscure and Historical 