In 1874, the people of the Northern Valley from Northvale down to Englewood were being plagued by burglaries. It wasn’t until April of 1874 that their hideout was discovered, and in the most frightening of places—the loft above a local schoolhouse. It was uncommon for our sleepy little valley, which New Yorkers considered the countryside, to make the news back in those days. Yet, this story was so amazing that The New York Times picked it up and printed a story on April 26, 1874.
“For the last year and a half many burglaries have been committed all through Bergen County, more especially among the country residences on the line of the Northern Railroad,” The Times reported. “Dwellings and stores were entered and robbed indiscriminately, the thieves carrying off everything they could lay their hands on, but no clue could be obtained as to who they were or what was done with the stolen property.”
The Englewood Protection Society, a precursor to today’s police department, devoted all their resources to tracking down the thieves. They set their sights on one Charles Ferguson, a known criminal, and finally caught him in the act of unloading some stolen goods in New York. They arrested him and he confessed everything—including the location of his two comrades and the rest of their haul.
“Acting upon the information given to them by Ferguson, the officers of the society kept strict watch over the schoolhouse at Demarest, and on the seventh day their patience was rewarded by the appearance of two men, who were seen to enter the loft over the schoolhouse,” The Times reported.
The school, built in 1852, still stands at the corner of Hardenburgh and Brookside avenues in Demarest. After a new school was built in Demarest in 1894, the kids were relocated and the old schoolhouse was used by St. Joseph’s Catholic Church. Today it’s a private residence.
The Englewood officers surrounded the school and arrested two men. When police investigated inside the loft, they discovered a most incredible scene. The three criminals had set up a rather comfortable living situation for themselves.
They had a large cooking stove to prepare their meals and warm the space, its flue hooked into the school chimney. They also had mattresses, pillows and blankets, and a store of good wine and cigars that had been pilfered from Northern Valley homes and businesses.
“The presence of many feathers and bones plainly showed what had become of the many chickens and turkeys that had been missed from the neighborhood,” The Times wrote.
The men were surrounded by an eclectic collection of plunder. There was clothing, silverplate (part of which they had tried to melt down on the stove), tools, furniture, tobacco, umbrellas, canes, vases, and much more. All told, police removed two large wagon loads of merchandise.
“What is most strange is that they should have been able to occupy the loft of a schoolhouse in which children were taught every day for so long a time without being detected,” The Times wrote. “On one occasion one of them did stumble over the beams and made a great noise, which frightened the children so that they ran out of the house thinking the ceiling was going to fall, but no further attention was paid to the matter, and it was soon forgotten.”
The men were sent to the jail at Hackensack, and police were able to return many of the stolen goods to their owners. Mrs. Dumont Clark of Cresskill saw the return of a compound microscope worth $300, or nearly $7,000 in today’s money.