March 23,2018
first posted by the Bergen County Historical Society
Ridgewood NJ, form the Bergen County Historical Society on March 22nd, 1780…a letter is drafted and sent to the Continental Outpost at Paramus Church being delivered by Lt. Colonel Richard Varick …
To the Officer as Paramus,
We, the subscribers, magistrates, sheriff and officers of militia…residing in Hackensack and its vicinity…make application to you for a detachment or party from your command to assist in protecting us and our neighbors, the well-affected inhabitants to the American cause against the incursions and depredations of small parties of the enemy and their vile abettors, the Refugees..
We are credibly informed that the enemy have in contemplation to make an attack and incursion on the inhabitants of Hackensack within five days..
The well-affected inhabitants, though willing to risk their persons in defense of their property, are too few in number….for the purpose of repelling the enemies’ parties or keeping up continued guards and scouts for their security…
Hendrick Kuyper and Peter Haring, Justices; Jacob Terhune and Isaac Vanderbeek, freeholders; Adam Boyd sheriff, Cornelius Haring, adjutant; and John Outwater, Samuel Demarest, Elias Romeyn, and David Demarest, militia captains (Photo of the Paramus Church, in modern day Ridgewood, where the Continental army had a string of outposts connecting back to Morristown)
