Ramsey History

The First Killing in Ramsey?

RamseyNJHistory — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 20:30:41 +0000

In a town that counts its violent crimes in the single digits per decade, any killing is going to cause a sensation and Ramsey’s had a few over its couple of hundred year history. But what was the first? We’re left to wonder: an argument between Dutch settlers or Native Americans perhaps, a violence perpetrated during or after the Revolutionary War? The earliest recorded story of what would appear to be a crime of man slaughter comes from the mid 1800′s.

A man named William Slack had an approximately 40 year history in Ramsey over two periods (he left for Haverstraw NY a while), first as a cabinet maker when he arrived in 1849. During that time he was also the primary undertaker for the area, but it was his job as constable that introduced him to the “notorious character” Ben Moore.

Fowler's Hotel, Ramsey NJ

Slack, described as a “slight young man, not particularly skilled in ruffianism” was tasked with arresting Moore, a local bully who had stabbed a man (who later died of the injuries) in Fowler’s Hotel.

Slack was successful in arresting Moore, although it was described as a “Herculean task”, and brought him to the county jail in Hackensack. Moore received a ten year sentence, served at the State Prison in Trenton, for his crime.

Source: History of Bergen County, New Jersey, 1630-1923; by Frances Augusta Johnson Westervelt; New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1923, 1229 pgs.

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Ramsey, NJ – Then & Now Video

RamseyNJHistory — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 20:16:36 +0000

This was a fun project completed with the Ramsey Historical Association (RHA), whose web site I’ve been working on. I was looking for things I could feature there, and Paul Simpson, president of the RHA, had this great project he did where he and his daughter went around taking modern day pictures to compare with historical photographs in the RHA collection.

Fast forward, with a little help from my sister, and we have a sort of documentary video comparing locations in Ramsey, 100 years ago, and today.

Enjoy!

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We All Need Republican Good Times

RamseyNJHistory — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 21:19:03 +0000

Tomorrow the Ramsey Council will install one of the three candidates the local Republican County Committee put forth for the Council’s vacant seat, to hold that seat until a November election.

In honor of local politics, today’s post is an original 98 year old letter from the webmaster’s collection, sent to Ramsey’s first mayor, Dr. John B. Finch, a veterinarian who lived in the home at the corner of Main Street and Arch Street, from the very same Republican County Committee.

The fight requires some money.

In the letter Randolph Perkins proclaims that “we all need Republican Good times” and asks Mr. Finch (probably should have said Dr.) to “do your share” because “the fight needs money”.

National Politics at the Time

Recall that in just the next month, on November 5th 1912, Woodrow Wilson, the democratic candidate, handily won the election over Progressive Party Candidate (and former President) Theodore Roosevelt, with the Republican candidate William Howard Taft finishing with only eight electoral votes. Don’t feel too bad for Taft though, on June 30, 1921 he was nominated to become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court by President Warren G. Harding.

The NJ Governor in 1912?

The very same Princeton Professor who won the presidency, Woodrow Wilson.

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Post Office, Ramsey NJ

St. John’s Episcopal Church

RamseyNJHistory — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 05:05:08 +0000

The postcard shows what is now the entrance to town at the intersection of Main Street and Franklin Turnpike as it appeared in 1908.

St. John’s Episcopal Church was built in 1906, dedicated as a memorial to Emma Crocker by her husband George Crocker on land donated Edwin Carpenter (founder, First National Bank of Ramsey).

Entering Town, St. John's Episcopal Church

The cars in the picture required goggles for the driver and driving clothes for all riders to deal with the dust thrown up from the unpaved roads of the time.

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Original St. Paul’s RC Church

Ramsey Train Station

RamseyNJHistory — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 05:17:04 +0000

This photograph shows the Ramsey, NJ train station as it looked in 1911.

The Ramsey, NJ Train Station

Built in 1868, it is the oldest passenger rail station still in service in New Jersey. Within a couple of years of the station’s completion, the Paterson & Ramapo was sold to the New York & Erie, later just the Erie Railroad, one of the most important companies during the golden age of American railroads.

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It Started with the Train Station

Swiss Chalet

RamseyNJHistory — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 20:28:41 +0000

Established in 1918 by Louise and Charles Pfuhl as a lunch and dinner restuarant.

Swiss Chalet, Route 17 Traffic Circle

Swiss Chalet - Card Back

It was located at the Franklin Turnpike exit off of Route 17 North, near the current location of a TGI Friday’s and the Fountain Spa.

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Another Death by Train

RamseyNJHistory — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 23:47:42 +0000

It was not long ago that a man in a rush to get home at night got off of his west bound train and crossed the tracks on Ramsey’s Main Street while the crossing gates were down. He looked to see whether any trains were coming from the other direction, never thinking that a train not stopping at Ramsey might pass on the second track going west bound, after all that track usually only had east bound trains. But tonight another train heading west was passing the one he just got off of, and he paid for ignoring the crossing gates, warning lights, warning sounds, and train horn with his life.

The Ramsey crossing gates with guard fences at right.

That accident prompted black gates to be put up pushing pedestrian traffic directly to the crossing gates, large warning signs, and a grim safety awareness poster with a body bag on the platform hanging from the train station warning of the dangers of ignoring the crossing guards.

Yet people, albeit less of them, still ignore the gates, hurrying to catch a train, get to their car, or do wherever they are off to do. Most times a person will get away with it, and the fact that they get away with it breeds contempt or blasé about the risks posed by a forty thousand pound locomotive moving at 40 mph. But every few years someone doesn’t get away with it. This morning Christiana Lee, a 21 year old from Glen Rock didn’t get away with it. Maybe she was going to be late to get somewhere. But she crossed directly in front of a train heading to Hoboken at 7:41am this morning, and now she will never get to where she was going.

People will argue that this crossing is not safe, that any crossing requiring pedestrians to cross over tracks is no longer safe. Why isn’t the track crossing like that of Ridgewood, NJ, an underground tunnel, why did Ramsey abandon its plans over two generations ago to build a similar tunnel? Why not have a pedestrian bridge go over the tracks like in Waldwick, NJ, or even the Route 17 station. Such questions are valid to discuss, but at some point people are responsible for their own well being. You may be able to cross while the gates are down and have nothing happen 999 out of 1000 times, but once in a while what happened today, and a few years ago, and countless times all over New Jersey and the nation will happen again.

And it will continue to happen, as long as people think they are gaining an extra minute by ignoring the train crossing gates. Locomotives weigh in excess of forty thousand pounds, and will never be able to stop on a dime. In a collision with a train, the train will usually win.

Condition Your Mind to the Risk

Years ago an article in Time Magazine cited an expert who was attempting to explain why only one elderly man, against flight crew instructions, made his way out of a grounded airplane. As a result he and his wife were the only survivors of a subsequent fire on the plane. The theory put forth was that as a young man, this man had been at a movie theatre which caught fire, and that having that early experience allowed him to reason out the proper way to deal with similar situations ahead of time. When the situation, fire, repeated itself he instinctively knew how to react.

Back in the 1990’s I came across the story of Mary Wojtyla of Chicago. Mary, on August 26th, 1991 was also struck and killed by a train. She was killed in very much the same manner as that man in Ramsey years ago, two trains heading in the same westbound direction on two different tracks, with one passing another. She relied on other people who were crossing and didn’t look herself, ignoring the warning bells. The difference between this and hundreds of other accidents is that a train enthusiast had set up a camera to capture the arrival of a specific locomotive, and captured the accident on video.

Don’t watch this video if you don’t want to, it does show a person losing their life and is disturbing. That said, much as the theory from that Time Magazine article goes, you can use this to equip yourself and your mind to fully comprehend the risk of crossing train tracks against the train whistle, crossing guards, and warning bells. Before I saw this video I didn’t think much of jogging to beat the train while the gates were down in Ramsey, like hundreds of others. After seeing the video I never did it again. This Chicago woman’s tragic mistake at least has a legacy of teaching others.

Finally

The fact that this young woman from Glen Rock was looking at her phone, or wearing headphones, and crossed the gates hardly matters against the fact that this was a tragedy. Her life being cut short is no more or less a tragedy because of a mistake, and normal people (despite some of the comments seen on Facebook) are upset by this event.

It was obviously a mistake, a mistake she has paid a tremendously tragic price for over a momentary lapse of judgment. And that is not fair, because we all have lapses in judgment now and then; however life rarely strikes a perfect balance between mistakes and their consequences. Some get off the hook with nothing, some pay far too much like Christiana Lee did. Train personnel are left to cope, her family left to grieve, and the rest of us are left to witness, wonder, be upset, and lament the tragedy of a young adult life just starting out now cut short unnecessarily.

So forgive me if I’ve diverted briefly from the history topic that is this web site’s raison d’etre. But we’re starting to form another kind of history in Ramsey, a pattern of events at the train station, that is nothing but tragic. It is bothering me. Let’s draw some meaning from this sad event.

Please, when the gates are down, when the whistle blows, do not cross the tracks.

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Woodie Ramoco Grill Diner

RamseyNJHistory — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 20:02:41 +0000

Located on Route 17, Ramsey, NJ.

Ramoco Grill

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H.R. Parvin Druggist

RamseyNJHistory — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:51:28 +0000

Parvin’s Drugstore as it appeared on Main Street in Ramsey in 1908. On the telephone poll is an advertisment for the Frank’s Ice Cream sold inside. Farther up the pole note the “BOOTH INSIDE” message. Telephones at this time were still fairly new (first invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876), with few homes having them Parvin’s offered a public phone booth.

Where we buy our souvenirs.

Note the advertisement of bonbons and chocolates, always fresh, as well as 10 cent cures.

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Ramsey’s Professional Athletes: Ryan Grant

RamseyNJHistory — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 23:29:23 +0000

Ramsey has had a few athletes reach the professional ranks in sports, a phenomenon that may gain steam with the emergence of Don Bosco’s football program as a national powerhouse. One of the first to recently make an impact in the National Football League is Green Bay running back and former Don Bosco player Ryan Grant.

NFL player Ryan Grant.

Grant was born in 1982 in Suffern, New York. He attended Don Bosco, left briefly tto attend Clarkstown South High School in West Nyack, but returned to Don Bosco where he had a senior season that included 26 touchdowns and nearly 2,000 rushing yards as the Don Bosco team would make it into but lose the state championship game to Holy Cross High School (Burlington County).

Originally signed by the NY Giants as an un-drafted free agent in 2005 after playing his college ball at the University of Notre Dame, Grant has had most of his success with the Green Bay Packers the last three seasons rushing for 3,412 yards.

You can also follow this hometown player’s thoughts on Twitter.

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Interstate Lanes