Bergen County - Hackensack - Memorial Day Wreath Laying
Monday, May 27 - Hackensack, Bergen County
Memorial Day Wreath Laying
At 10:00 am on Monday, join the Bergen County Historical Society as they honor the veterans of all wars with a wreath-laying at the grave of General Enoch Poor in the burial ground of the First Dutch Reformed Church on the Green, 42 Court Street, Hackensack, NJ. Excerpts from chaplain Israel Evans' graveside funeral oration will be read at the ceremony, followed by a tour of the historic cemetery.
Brigadier-General Enoch Poor, of New Hampshire, died at 44 years of age from either typhus fever or diphtheria on September 8, 1780, while about 14,000 Continental troops were encamped on "a high Ridge of land in a place called Steenrapie," the old name for the high ground extending from northern River Edge through Emerson. The main cantonment was situated between River Edge Avenue in River Edge to the vicinity of Soldier Hill Road, where Oradell, Emerson and Paramus intersect. While encamped at Steenrapie between September 4 and 20, 1780, the Continental army lost no fewer than twenty-three soldiers to disease. General Poor's body was brought from "Paramus" to the Brower House on Main Street, River Edge, where it was placed in a mahogany coffin for burial in the churchyard of the Dutch Reformed Church-on-the-Green in Hackensack on September 10, 1780. Six generals served as pallbearers while officers of the New Hampshire Brigade followed the coffin, together with officers of the new light-infantry brigade, which General Lafayette assigned to General Poor’s command shortly before his death. General George Washington, who made headquarters in the Zabriskie-Steuben House at New Bridge, marched with other generals in the funeral procession. On July 14, 1825, General Lafayette stopped at General Poor’s grave in Hackensack on his return tour of the United States as the Nation’s Guest and last living Major General of the American Revolution.
Edward Erie Poor, President of the National Park Bank of New York City, decorated General Poor’s grave every Memorial Day between 1864, when he first settled in Hackensack, and his death in 1900. The then newly organized Bergen County Historical Society organized the successful effort effort to construct a monument to General Enoch Poor on the Hackensack Green, gathering contributions of $1,000 from the State of New Jersey, $500 from the State of New Hampshire, and $500 from the Sons of the Revolution. Emilio Platti sculpted the figure, which Ernest Vatier cast in his Newark foundry. John and William Passmore Meeker, of Newark, N. J., designed the granite pedestal. The Poor monument was dedicated on Memorial Day 1904. For more information, visit www.bergencountyhistory.org.
Memorial Day Wreath Laying
At 10:00 am on Monday, join the Bergen County Historical Society as they honor the veterans of all wars with a wreath-laying at the grave of General Enoch Poor in the burial ground of the First Dutch Reformed Church on the Green, 42 Court Street, Hackensack, NJ. Excerpts from chaplain Israel Evans' graveside funeral oration will be read at the ceremony, followed by a tour of the historic cemetery.
Brigadier-General Enoch Poor, of New Hampshire, died at 44 years of age from either typhus fever or diphtheria on September 8, 1780, while about 14,000 Continental troops were encamped on "a high Ridge of land in a place called Steenrapie," the old name for the high ground extending from northern River Edge through Emerson. The main cantonment was situated between River Edge Avenue in River Edge to the vicinity of Soldier Hill Road, where Oradell, Emerson and Paramus intersect. While encamped at Steenrapie between September 4 and 20, 1780, the Continental army lost no fewer than twenty-three soldiers to disease. General Poor's body was brought from "Paramus" to the Brower House on Main Street, River Edge, where it was placed in a mahogany coffin for burial in the churchyard of the Dutch Reformed Church-on-the-Green in Hackensack on September 10, 1780. Six generals served as pallbearers while officers of the New Hampshire Brigade followed the coffin, together with officers of the new light-infantry brigade, which General Lafayette assigned to General Poor’s command shortly before his death. General George Washington, who made headquarters in the Zabriskie-Steuben House at New Bridge, marched with other generals in the funeral procession. On July 14, 1825, General Lafayette stopped at General Poor’s grave in Hackensack on his return tour of the United States as the Nation’s Guest and last living Major General of the American Revolution.
Edward Erie Poor, President of the National Park Bank of New York City, decorated General Poor’s grave every Memorial Day between 1864, when he first settled in Hackensack, and his death in 1900. The then newly organized Bergen County Historical Society organized the successful effort effort to construct a monument to General Enoch Poor on the Hackensack Green, gathering contributions of $1,000 from the State of New Jersey, $500 from the State of New Hampshire, and $500 from the Sons of the Revolution. Emilio Platti sculpted the figure, which Ernest Vatier cast in his Newark foundry. John and William Passmore Meeker, of Newark, N. J., designed the granite pedestal. The Poor monument was dedicated on Memorial Day 1904. For more information, visit www.bergencountyhistory.org.
