Recipient of the Bergen County 2011 Historic Preservation Commendation Award for the Old Burying Ground
Photo of Old Burying Ground
by Dr. Davis Ross
Upcoming Lectures & Events
All Lectures Are Held at the Harrington Park Boro Hall, 85 Harriot Ave., Harrington Park, NJ 07640
7:30 P.M. - Handicap Accessible
All are welcome to these free lectrures!
Proud Sponsor
of the
Harrington Park
Arts Council
"The Art of Today - The History of Tomorrow!"
A Legacy Project of the HPHS for the 350th Anniversary of the
State of New Jersey
To increase the interest of our community in the arts, to assist all who wish to make an artistic contribution, and to bring the artist and the community-at-large together in a mutually beneficial relationship. To develop, promote, and coordinate the arts at the community level as an expression of Harrington Park’s talents, needs, resources, and aspirations under the auspices of the Harrington Park Historical Society.
To learn more, please click on the Arts Council Button
or visit the Arts Council on
www.artscouncilofharringtonpark.com
and on Facebook - Arts Council of Harrington Park
GREETINGS !
Welcome to the Harrington Park Historical Society - we are glad you are visiting with us on our website! Please browse around our website to learn more about us and what we do.
We hope you will join us for our ten lecture series on various history subjects that range from local to the far away on interesting historical topics. We meet the third Thursday of the month, except July and August, in the Harrington Park Boro Hall, 85 Harriot Avenue at 7:30 P.M. The Boro Hall is handicap accessible.
In addition to our lectures the Society maintains and preserves two historic cemeteries in Harrington Park, namely; the Perry Cemetery, and the Old Burying Ground. The Perry Cemetery is a small family burial ground located on what was the farm of David Perry (1809-1871). The Old Burying Ground cemetery is part of the land apportioned to Garret Huybertsen Blauvelt, son of one of the original sixteen grantees of the Tappan Patent approved by the Governor of New York in 1686. Although there are believed to be earlier ones, the first known burial was in 1722 and the last in 1905.
PLEASE READ AND RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP OR JOIN US AS A NEW MEMBER
As part of our mission, we are continuing to maintain and preserve the two historic cemeteries in our care, the Old Burying Ground and the Perry Cemetery. Now, we are reaching out to you, our members and friends to help us continue to keep these cemeteries in pristine condition, and to conserve these historical assets. Whatever you can donate at this time to accomplish this work, we cannot adequately express our sincere gratitude.
We hope you will continue to be as generous as you have been in the past when considering supplementing your annual dues this year. Those dues, which are fully tax deductible, are as follows:
Family $35
Individual $30
Youth (Under 18) $5
In addition to enjoying dual membership in the Arts Council of Harrington Park, HPHS members receive a discount on all Society events and activities (including fund raisers).
On behalf of the Harrington Park Historical Society, I look forward to welcoming you as returning (or brand new) members! Please call me (201-666-0566) or our President, Gerri Gibney (201-768-2615) if you have questions.
Sincerely,
Karen Goddard
Membership Secretary
Mail your check to P.O. Box 105, Harrington Park, New Jersey. Please include your name(s), address, phone, and email. Or, use the membership form noted above. Thanks!
HARRINGTON PARK HISTORICAL SOCIETY
WE NEED YOUR HELP!
SAVE OUR HISTORY!
Recently several historic headstones were desecrated at the Old Burying Ground on Tappan Road in Harrington Park.
Here is a short history of two of the broken headstones; Abraham Quackenbush (1768-1854) and his wife, Elizabeth Myers (1770-1807)) are part of the Abraham Myers family burial plot at the Old Burying Ground. In the middle of the 18th century, Abraham Myers received a royal charter from King George III to build a grist mill on the Hackensack River which his grandson John Bogert later operated and it thereby became known as “Bogert’s Mill.” The Myers family members interred in the plot are Abraham Myers, his wife Cathrena Nederman, daughter Cathrena, daughter Elizabeth and Abraham Quackenbush, son John Myers and wife Rebecca Durie. The markers are red sandstone.
As sole caretakers of this cemetery, the Harrington Park Historical Society will repair these monuments with your generous financial support.
If you would like to help the Society repair these stones, please send your donation to P.O. Box 105, Harrington Park, New Jersey 07640. Please make your check payable to the Harrington Park Historical Society. The Harrington Park Historical Society is a non-profit 501(c)(3) Corporation.
If you have any questions or would like to get involved in this effort, please contact Gerri Gibney at 201 768-2615, visit their website, or on Facebook.
JONATHAN KRUK
MASTER STORYTELLER
Guest Speaker, Master Storyteller Jonathan Kruk will regale all with a lively portrayal of the contentious, rowdy General & Reverend Muhlenberg, who was both a Lutheran & an Episcopal Reverend.
Known for solo performances of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and A Christmas Carol, Jonathan has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, The Today Show, the BBC, and the Travel Channel. He was awarded Good Citizenship medals for his history-based storytelling by the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Sons of the American Revolution. Mr. Kruk is the author of two local history books highlighting the American Revolution. Check out Jonathan’s website: https://jonathankruk.com/
DUES TIME - PLEASE SEE BELOW!
Please note we have moved from the Harrington Park Library to the Harrington Park Boro Hall for our meetings, and we will meet generally on the fourth Thursday of the month. However, be sure and check the dates we are meeting since we must schedule our meetings around the Boro’s usage of the building.
THE HARRINGTON PARK HISTORICAL IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE A SPECIAL EVENT SPONSORED BY ST. PAUL'S CHURCH
171 CLOSTER DOCK ROAD, CLOSTER, NEW JERSEY
HEREWITH THEIR BROADSIDE
St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran in Closter, New Jersey
Invites You to Celebrate
HAPPY 250TH AMERICA!!!
Religion played a major role in the American Revolution by offering a moral sanction for opposition to the British, an assurance to the average American that revolution was justified in the sight of God.
JOIN US ON THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 2026, AT 7:00 P.M.
AS WE CELEBRATE THE 250TH ANNIVERSARY OF AMERICA
TELLING THE STORY OF
“THE FIGHTING LUTHERAN PARSON”
RECEPTION TO FOLLOW
Peter Muhlenberg (1746-1807) was the prime example of a "fighting parson" during the Revolutionary War. The eldest son of the Lutheran patriarch Henry Melchoir Muhlenberg, young Muhlenberg at the conclusion of a sermon in January 1776 to his congregation in Woodstock, Virginia, threw off his clerical robes to reveal the uniform of a Virginia militia officer. Having served with distinction throughout the war, Muhlenberg commanded a brigade that successfully stormed the British lines at Yorktown. He retired from the army in 1783 as a brevetted major general.
TICKETS ARE $20.00 PP – RESERVATION ONLY
HANDICAP ACCESSIBLE
CALL THE CHURCH OFFICE TO RESERVE YOUR SPACE
PAYMENT BY CHECK
(201) 768-6310
Happy 250th America!
The Society would like to thank and salute the efforts of Ben Johnson, a high school senior at NVOT, who recently cleaned up the Perry Cemetery on Old Hook Road in Harrington Park, a historic asset preserved and maintained by the Harrington Park Historical Society If you have not visited this site, please pull off Old Hook in the parking area and read the historic story board and see the cemetery. Look for the historic marker sign reading: "Historic Cemetery."