“That this neighborhood is infested with a regular band of desperadoes can no longer be doubted,” the Montvale Standard wrote on Nov. 10, 1906.
“A highway robbery in true Jesse James style was committed in Park Ridge within a stone’s throw of the brilliantly lighted Main Street, and under the still more brilliant light of a full November moon.”
In last week’s Back in Time you read about the brazen burglary that took place at the Ter Kuile mansion on Grand Avenue in Montvale while the family was asleep (if you missed it, you can find it at thepressgroup.net). Our story picks up the following night and takes us less than a quarter of a mile away to Pascack Road—then known as Main Street—in Park Ridge.
It was a clear night with a full moon. A young man named Ira Van Orden had attended a masquerade ball that lasted until after midnight. He escorted to their residences two young ladies from Park Ridge who attended the party, and then made his way toward home. He cut through the farmers’ fields off Pascack Road, north of Park Avenue, singing and whistling as he went.
As the Montvale Standard described, “He was in fine spirits, for the ball had been a great success.”
As he walked on that cool early November night, the full moon was high in the sky and illuminated his surroundings. It also created shadows, like the one next to the stone wall he was approaching. In a small rural community like Park Ridge, Van Orden could not have foreseen the danger that was hiding in the darkness.
“Suddenly three figures arose in front of him. He felt a piece of cold steel pressed against his temple and he heard a muffled but threatening voice say, ‘Keep quiet.’ Mr. Van Orden was not asked to hold up his hands. His hands were held behind his back by one of the ruffians as if in a vise. The third bandit went through his pockets.”
The robbers got a nice little sum from Van Orden. In his pockets he had $8.75 cash, which doesn’t sound like much, but an equivalent value is about $330 in 2026. After the attack, the trio fled into the night and Van Orden ran home. We expect he did not sleep very much.
The criminals hit two more targets before they left town a few days later. The night after the holdup on Pascack Road, the burglars attempted to enter a house a short distance away. A large dog inside the residence scared them off. Two nights after that, the Montvale train station was broken into.
“What can be done to stop the depredations of the vagabonds who are infesting our neighborhood and causing honest men to get into their beds at night with a feeling of insecurity as to life and property?” asked the editor of the Montvale Standard.
This was years before the formation of municipal police departments as we know them. People had to take the law into their own hands.
The newspaper editor called for the formation of a Vigilance Committee to patrol Park Ridge and Montvale after sunset until the crime spree subsided. Besides that, the editor wrote, “Keep your shotgun loaded or your revolver in good working order and have the weapon handy for use at night.”