Post 5. Later Occupants, 1780s-1880s

According to Bergen County tax records, up to three branches of the Rutan family were living in Franklin Township, encompassing modern-day Wycoff Township, throughout the later years of the 18th century. Daniel Rutan (or a descendent of) subdivided and sold the original 469.2-acre lot, except for 75 acres that still remained to him in 1786. Per the tax records, Rutan owned these 75 acres, two to three horses, and one cow until at least 1792. The size of the farm, and its relatively modest inventory of livestock, suggests a modest way of life.

Between 1793 and 1851, a 53-acre lot containing the project site had five owners  – Robert and Betsey Frederick (pre-1801), John and Peggy Lozier (1801-02), John J. Ryerson (1802-40) and Cornelius Demarest (1840-1851). The Ryersons were descendants of one of the pioneer Dutch families of Bergen County while the Demarest family, like the Rutans, were descendants of French Huguenots.

In 1851, John Van Horn (b. circa 1814-d. 1890) purchased the small 60-acre farm from the Demarests. John was a shoemaker become farmer of Dutch descent who married Martha Terhune (b. circa 1820) in March of 1836, and together they had six children. A decade later, as seen on the G.M. Hopkins map of 1861, a house is documented on the property. It is labeled as being occupied by Sharton & Dahin, who were apparently tenants of the Van Horns. John Sharton and Theodore Dahin were both French immigrants working as farm hands, presumably for John Van Horn, shown occupying a house to the north of the project site on the southwest side of the present-day Wycoff Avenue.

Between 1862 and 1875, the property had three owners: Von Emburgh, Ackerman and Fuller. The Von Emburgh and Ackerman occupancies were relatively short-lived. In 1867, Daniel Fuller (b. circa 1834-d. 1905), a tea dealer and farmer of New Haven, Connecticut, and his wife Mary A. Davis (b. circa 1835-d. 1903) acquired the property. The Fullers used the former Van Horn house at the corner of Wyckoff and Cedar Hill Avenue as their permanent residence, suggesting the foundation of the house discovered on the project site may have remained a tenant house.

A house does not appear ono the site per the Atlas of Bergen County of 1876; however, in November 1875, Lizzie [Elizabeth] Perkins of New York City purchased the 60-acre lot for $27,500, more than triple its earlier value in 1867. The Fullers may have made substantial improvements to the farm. Not much is known of the Perkins family or their three-year ownership of the property, as all photographs and documents were burned per Lizzie’s last will and testament.