PARK RIDGE—This week, we go back 125 years to see what was being reported in the Park Ridge Local, the Pascack Valley’s first newspaper. This simple weekly paper did not have any bold headlines, photographs, or spot color. The six columns on its front page offered news briefs about what was happening in the lives of the local people. Sometimes, as you will read here, there would be thinly veiled (and rather amusing) editorial commentary on local issues. Three pages of advertisements, syndicated national news, household and farming tips, and short stories made up the remainder of the four-page folio.
Compiling and editing the paper were John C. Storms and James Banta Hall Storms. The brothers had grown up in Park Ridge in the 1860s and 1870s when the Pascack Valley was still rural, before any significant development or modern conveniences had found their way here. They were heavily involved in local affairs and knew just about everyone in town, which must have helped their reporting tremendously.
The minutiae printed in the Park Ridge Local is indicative of just how tight-knit this rural community was in its early days. Some of the reporting alludes to the fact that the Pascack Valley was once a vacation destination for people from larger surrounding cities. Many boarding houses operated here, bringing in a significant population of seasonal guests.
Enjoy this glimpse into life as it was in the summer of 1899, courtesy of the Pascack Historical Society.
- The Pioneer Baseball Club has disbanded.
- The Feddern house on Main Street [Pascack Road] is receiving a new coat of paint.
- One day recently, a lady living in the town found that while she had been busy with her household duties, some miscreant had entered the kitchen, taken the dinner from the stove, helped himself to a goodly portion, and replaced the things much as he found them. It is needless to add that the lady has ever since taken the precaution of locking the doors whenever she goes out of the room.
- The new building under construction at Etna [Emerson] is to be used as a barber shop.
- Over a hundred boarders are said to be staying at the boarding house on Spring Valley Road.
- The young daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Elmer VanHorn, of Etna, is reported to be in a precarious condition.
- Rumor has it that a widower and a widow, both former residents of this place, were recently married in the City.
- A family named Ackerman has rented one of the J.H. Riley houses on Ridge Avenue.
- Anyone strolling about town in the evening and keeping their eyes open may be rewarded by seeing some curious sights.
- Attention is called to the advertisement in another column by the Board of Education for a janitor for the public school.
- Several persons from this place have announced their intention of going on the Order of Railroad Conductors’ excursion to Shohola Glen.
- Suits have been ordered by the members of the Liberty Baseball Club, and it is possible that the club will appear in uniform on Saturday. They will play the Spring Valley team at that place. The following Saturday, the Libertys meet the River Edge Field Club on their grounds.
- Miss Elvina Campbell, in the company of some City friends, will leave here on Monday for Fallsburg, Liberty County, N.Y., where they expect to spend a fortnight.
- An inspector employed by the Hackensack Water Company has visited this section. Several parties have been notified to abate what are alleged to be pollutions of streams.
- Rev. Edward Lodewick [of the Congregational Church] will take his annual vacation during the month of August. He will be absent until the 26th of the month. The church will not be closed during his absence.
- Quite a number of boarders are staying with Joseph Peragallo and Pasquale Lamanna, south of Ridge Avenue.
- The Local force will not go to the mountains this summer to spend their vacation. The street in front of the office [on Park Avenue] furnishes a sufficiently rocky aspect to satisfy their longings for mountain scenery for some time to come.
- An Ohio man has gotten himself into some trouble with the postal authorities by advertising to send ten yards of silk for quilting purposes for ten cents. In reply, he mailed ten yards of silk thread. Several persons from this vicinity responded to the advertisement.
- “Ignorance of the law excuses no man”—not even a Justice of the Peace. He owes it to himself and to the public as well to have some knowledge of the statutes.
- Rev. Mr. Carle, pastor of the A.M.E. Church, announces that a camp meeting will be held by his church this year in the grove near Foresters Hall [on Kinderkamack Road], beginning Sunday, August 20. He hopes to continue the meetings on weekdays as well as on Sundays.
- A party named Heisley has been engaged to teach in the Woodcliff public school.
- Extra copies of the Local can be obtained by application at the office for three cents each.
- A wild-eyed man rushed into our office this week and asked to be given a bill of separation from his wife, whom he charged with nearly all the sins of the Decalogue. We tried to explain that while a newspaper’s functions are numerous and varied, it had neither the power nor the jurisdiction over the case in question, but the party seemed unconvinced. It was only by considerable effort that we persuaded him to seek relief elsewhere.
