Maps of Oakland, The Ponds, Yawpo/Yawpaw and Vicinity
Please Note: This page is a work in progress as new maps and indexes are constantly being digitized and available online. Below, I'll corral the major collections I use for my research as well as link to some new projects and sites which are using maps in new ways. Enjoy!
— Michelle D. Novak, MI, Archivist, Oakland Historical Society
— Michelle D. Novak, MI, Archivist, Oakland Historical Society
Screen-grab of the State of New Jersey, NJ Geographic Information Network; New Jersey Time Machine site comparing, via slider, Oakland in 1960 and 2020.
State of New Jersey, NJ Geographic Information Network; New Jersey Time Machine
The New Jersey Geographic Information Network (NJGIN) was founded by the NJ Office of Information Technology, Office of GIS in 2001 to facilitate the sharing of geospatial content in the NJ GIS community. The network consists of a loose federation of data stewards across the state that openly share their valuable spatial data. [Description from the website.]
https://newjersey.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/media/index.html?appid=fcad50ae41634cd1aa293e3e47ce1c00
OHS Archivist's Notes
Compare an aerial view of New Jersey takes circa 1930 to a modern satellite view of the same areas! The two aerial views are rectified and a slider toggles between the two views. Note that the default view will center the map on Trenton, New Jersey. Zoom out to see more of the state and re-center the map on Oakland Borough.
The New Jersey Geographic Information Network (NJGIN) was founded by the NJ Office of Information Technology, Office of GIS in 2001 to facilitate the sharing of geospatial content in the NJ GIS community. The network consists of a loose federation of data stewards across the state that openly share their valuable spatial data. [Description from the website.]
https://newjersey.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/media/index.html?appid=fcad50ae41634cd1aa293e3e47ce1c00
OHS Archivist's Notes
Compare an aerial view of New Jersey takes circa 1930 to a modern satellite view of the same areas! The two aerial views are rectified and a slider toggles between the two views. Note that the default view will center the map on Trenton, New Jersey. Zoom out to see more of the state and re-center the map on Oakland Borough.
1780—“#50. de Suffrans à Pompton, 12 milles”; Washington–Rochambeau; Louis-Alexandre Breather [Cartographer] Collection; Princeton University Library
This amazing map is part of cartographer Louis-Alexandre Berthier's survey notebooks, where he recorded the topography, landmarks, key places, and distances from their arrival in Rhode Island to Yorktown, Virginia in 1780.
Map #50, “de Suffrans à Pompton, 12 milles,” records the march from their encampment in Suffern, New York State, down the Ramapo Valley Road, to the next night’s encampment at Pompton Plains, New Jersey. In the notebook, Berthier records the names of homeowners and mill owners along Ramapo Valley Road, and includes “Fanallen's Mills,” or Van Allen's property in the northern Ponds.
https://findingaids.princeton.edu/catalog/C0022_c0033
OHS Archivist Notes
Spelling, and especially spelling of names, was not generally standardized in the United States until the mid-20th Century—when the government began requiring more uniform spelling of names to identify people for individually-earned benefits such as Social Security. Before the standardization of school curriculums in the early 1900s, reading and writing were two completely separate taught skills and people were often taught to read without knowing how to write anything except their name.
Throughout much of history, people spelled names as they heard them and spelled them phonetically as interpreted in their own language. Upon the overtake of New Netherlands by the British in 1664, many Dutch settlers changed their surnames to sound more “English.” (Dutch immigrant Pieter Claesen changed his family name from Claesen to Wyckoff. Although the Wyckoff name appears in Friesland, it has almost nothing to do with the Claesen lineage.) Additionally, in 18c. New York and New Jersey, many settlers spoke a hyper-local colonial dialect of Dutch, called "Jersey Dutch," which is mostly unintelligible to modern Dutch speakers. Jersey Dutch borrowed words and influences from the English as well as Native American tribes and even coined original words and meanings that reflected their North American environments and experiences.
Since the Van Allens most likely spoke Jersey Dutch as well as English, and Berthier was French, you can imagine, when pronounced phonetically, how “Van Allen” (especially in an Anglo-Dutch accent) might sound like “Fanallen.”
Records well into the 20th Century have spelling variants for names and if you wanted to go by a nickname or change your name completely, official paperwork was usually not required. “They changed my family name at Ellis Island…” is almost always a myth as officials at Ellis Island were only checking-off the passengers' names as recorded by others at the point-of-departure. Like Berthier spelling “Van Allen” as he heard it and influenced by his native French, port-of-departure officials in, for example Frankfurt, would record the names of emigrants from Austria, France, numerous Slavic countries, Turkey, and other distant places—and wrote down the name as it sounded in their native-German. And, if you did not know how to spell your own name, let alone read in another language, there was no need or urgency for correcting it.
This amazing map is part of cartographer Louis-Alexandre Berthier's survey notebooks, where he recorded the topography, landmarks, key places, and distances from their arrival in Rhode Island to Yorktown, Virginia in 1780.
Map #50, “de Suffrans à Pompton, 12 milles,” records the march from their encampment in Suffern, New York State, down the Ramapo Valley Road, to the next night’s encampment at Pompton Plains, New Jersey. In the notebook, Berthier records the names of homeowners and mill owners along Ramapo Valley Road, and includes “Fanallen's Mills,” or Van Allen's property in the northern Ponds.
https://findingaids.princeton.edu/catalog/C0022_c0033
OHS Archivist Notes
Spelling, and especially spelling of names, was not generally standardized in the United States until the mid-20th Century—when the government began requiring more uniform spelling of names to identify people for individually-earned benefits such as Social Security. Before the standardization of school curriculums in the early 1900s, reading and writing were two completely separate taught skills and people were often taught to read without knowing how to write anything except their name.
Throughout much of history, people spelled names as they heard them and spelled them phonetically as interpreted in their own language. Upon the overtake of New Netherlands by the British in 1664, many Dutch settlers changed their surnames to sound more “English.” (Dutch immigrant Pieter Claesen changed his family name from Claesen to Wyckoff. Although the Wyckoff name appears in Friesland, it has almost nothing to do with the Claesen lineage.) Additionally, in 18c. New York and New Jersey, many settlers spoke a hyper-local colonial dialect of Dutch, called "Jersey Dutch," which is mostly unintelligible to modern Dutch speakers. Jersey Dutch borrowed words and influences from the English as well as Native American tribes and even coined original words and meanings that reflected their North American environments and experiences.
Since the Van Allens most likely spoke Jersey Dutch as well as English, and Berthier was French, you can imagine, when pronounced phonetically, how “Van Allen” (especially in an Anglo-Dutch accent) might sound like “Fanallen.”
Records well into the 20th Century have spelling variants for names and if you wanted to go by a nickname or change your name completely, official paperwork was usually not required. “They changed my family name at Ellis Island…” is almost always a myth as officials at Ellis Island were only checking-off the passengers' names as recorded by others at the point-of-departure. Like Berthier spelling “Van Allen” as he heard it and influenced by his native French, port-of-departure officials in, for example Frankfurt, would record the names of emigrants from Austria, France, numerous Slavic countries, Turkey, and other distant places—and wrote down the name as it sounded in their native-German. And, if you did not know how to spell your own name, let alone read in another language, there was no need or urgency for correcting it.
Detail of Oakland in 1861, then called "The Ponds," a section of Franklin in Bergen County. "Map of Bergen and Passaic Counties,: by G.H. Corey, John E. Gillette, and Griffith Morgan Hopkins, published in Philadelphia by G.H. Corey in 1861. Image from the Library of Congress. Rectification and retouching by Michelle D. Novak MLIS.
1861—Corey–Hopkins Map: Property Owners/Renters and Businesses
Around 2010, the Ridgewood Public Library received funding to restore their copy of the "Map of Bergen and Passaic Counties,: by G.H. Corey, John E. Gillette, and Griffith Morgan Hopkins, published in Philadelphia by G.H. Corey in 1861. This gigantic map—one of a series—records the location or owner/renter households and businesses in incredible detail. But, in order to find a household or business, you had to know approximately where they lived—which is made harder in that the names of towns across Bergen County were then very different than they are today.
In 2015, the Genealogical Society of New Jersey completed a project where a grid using approximately 1-square mile blocks was superimposed over a digital copy of the map (supplied by the Library of Congress) and the names within each block were transcribed. The resulting indexes, one for residences and a separate one for businesses, helps users look-up names first and then locate them on this very expansive graphic. All in all, the GSBC indexed more than 4,000 entries.
Explore the project, download maps and grid-key, and use the indexes: https://www.njgsbc.org/1861-corey-hopkins-map/
OHS Archivist's Notes
This map is one of the go-to maps for people doing family history research as it lists all the documented property-owners, and some renters, across the county and includes individuals as well as businesses. While it does not record everyone in a neighborhood (such as an every-name census), it's a great tool for visualizing where people lived and who may have influenced their lives. With annotated maps such as this one you can see clusters of owners with the same last name—which may indicate a larger parcel of land that was then sub-divided and given to sibling-heirs; familiar surnames that show up as spouses and in-laws; and households which may have been close friends or other relations. In research, this is often called a "Friends/Family-and-Neighbors Club," or "F-A-N Club," recognizing how our friends, family, and neighbors influence our life story.
Note that in 1861, Oakland was known as “The Ponds,” a section of the larger town of Franklin in Bergen County—one of 16 townships at the time. Legislative changes introduced in the 1890s sought to reap the wealth of Bergen County by imposing restrictions and some new taxes on townships with more than 300 people per square mile.
Bergen County's response was “Bergen Boroughitis,” which subdivided, and then subdivided again towns into smaller Boroughs, with many new divisions less than a square mile. And within 30 years, Bergen County would realize 70 Boroughs! (It's amazing to think that our roughly square-mile Boroughs, when formed, had less than 300 people in each!)
The changing borders of townships in Bergen County can be very confusing for researchers as the place you know today went by many, many different names—larger townships were known by official and unofficial neighborhood names before even Boroughitis. These place names are recorded in censuses and government records and some even survive into today. This is why Oakland was known as "The Ponds" even though it was officially part of Franklin Township—Franklin was so large, it needed some more local names for different areas. And, even when the name is similar to one used today, it was not. For example, the township of Hohokus—which included all the land from modern day Mahwah to the modern Borough of Ho-Ho-Kus—was a VERY different geographic area than the modern square-mile Borough of Ho-Ho-Kus!
Confusing? Yes. But also fascinating.
(For more information about Bergen County's "Boroughitis" of the 1890s, see the GSBC article, https://www.njgsbc.org/bergen-county-six-objects/bergen-boroughitis/)
Around 2010, the Ridgewood Public Library received funding to restore their copy of the "Map of Bergen and Passaic Counties,: by G.H. Corey, John E. Gillette, and Griffith Morgan Hopkins, published in Philadelphia by G.H. Corey in 1861. This gigantic map—one of a series—records the location or owner/renter households and businesses in incredible detail. But, in order to find a household or business, you had to know approximately where they lived—which is made harder in that the names of towns across Bergen County were then very different than they are today.
In 2015, the Genealogical Society of New Jersey completed a project where a grid using approximately 1-square mile blocks was superimposed over a digital copy of the map (supplied by the Library of Congress) and the names within each block were transcribed. The resulting indexes, one for residences and a separate one for businesses, helps users look-up names first and then locate them on this very expansive graphic. All in all, the GSBC indexed more than 4,000 entries.
Explore the project, download maps and grid-key, and use the indexes: https://www.njgsbc.org/1861-corey-hopkins-map/
OHS Archivist's Notes
This map is one of the go-to maps for people doing family history research as it lists all the documented property-owners, and some renters, across the county and includes individuals as well as businesses. While it does not record everyone in a neighborhood (such as an every-name census), it's a great tool for visualizing where people lived and who may have influenced their lives. With annotated maps such as this one you can see clusters of owners with the same last name—which may indicate a larger parcel of land that was then sub-divided and given to sibling-heirs; familiar surnames that show up as spouses and in-laws; and households which may have been close friends or other relations. In research, this is often called a "Friends/Family-and-Neighbors Club," or "F-A-N Club," recognizing how our friends, family, and neighbors influence our life story.
Note that in 1861, Oakland was known as “The Ponds,” a section of the larger town of Franklin in Bergen County—one of 16 townships at the time. Legislative changes introduced in the 1890s sought to reap the wealth of Bergen County by imposing restrictions and some new taxes on townships with more than 300 people per square mile.
Bergen County's response was “Bergen Boroughitis,” which subdivided, and then subdivided again towns into smaller Boroughs, with many new divisions less than a square mile. And within 30 years, Bergen County would realize 70 Boroughs! (It's amazing to think that our roughly square-mile Boroughs, when formed, had less than 300 people in each!)
The changing borders of townships in Bergen County can be very confusing for researchers as the place you know today went by many, many different names—larger townships were known by official and unofficial neighborhood names before even Boroughitis. These place names are recorded in censuses and government records and some even survive into today. This is why Oakland was known as "The Ponds" even though it was officially part of Franklin Township—Franklin was so large, it needed some more local names for different areas. And, even when the name is similar to one used today, it was not. For example, the township of Hohokus—which included all the land from modern day Mahwah to the modern Borough of Ho-Ho-Kus—was a VERY different geographic area than the modern square-mile Borough of Ho-Ho-Kus!
Confusing? Yes. But also fascinating.
(For more information about Bergen County's "Boroughitis" of the 1890s, see the GSBC article, https://www.njgsbc.org/bergen-county-six-objects/bergen-boroughitis/)
1902—Map of Bergen County, New Jersey / with a portion of Passaic Co.; New York, E. Robinson & Co., 1902; Princeton University
https://maps.princeton.edu/catalog/princeton-rr172066z
https://maps.princeton.edu/catalog/princeton-rr172066z
1910—Panorama of Oakland; Library of Congress
This image was printed on a series of five postcards showing Ramapo Valley Road from the gunpowder works (currently, Crystal Lake / Lakeshore Drive) to the Ramapo Hills Sanatorium (currently, Shop Rite Plaza).
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/related/?fi=subject&q=United%20States--New%20Jersey--Oakland.
OHS Archivist's Notes
This panoramic image, stitched together and annotated with road names and key buildings, is displayed in our Oakland History Museum at the Van Allen House. The OHS is working on a new version of this image to be uploaded online.
This image was printed on a series of five postcards showing Ramapo Valley Road from the gunpowder works (currently, Crystal Lake / Lakeshore Drive) to the Ramapo Hills Sanatorium (currently, Shop Rite Plaza).
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/related/?fi=subject&q=United%20States--New%20Jersey--Oakland.
OHS Archivist's Notes
This panoramic image, stitched together and annotated with road names and key buildings, is displayed in our Oakland History Museum at the Van Allen House. The OHS is working on a new version of this image to be uploaded online.
1912-1913—Bergen County, V. 2, Double Page Plate No. 32 [Townships of Franklin and Oakland];
New York Public Library Digital Collections
A 1912 landowners map. Although not as detailed as the 1861 map, it does include major industries and landowners and is a good reference to compare against the 1910 panorama of Oakland digitized by the Library of Congress (below).
https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/65538880-c5ec-012f-f23b-58d385a7bc34
New York Public Library Digital Collections
A 1912 landowners map. Although not as detailed as the 1861 map, it does include major industries and landowners and is a good reference to compare against the 1910 panorama of Oakland digitized by the Library of Congress (below).
https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/65538880-c5ec-012f-f23b-58d385a7bc34
Online New Jersey Maps—Spatial, Sanborn
Princeton University | Digital Maps and Geospatial Data
Princeton has digitized thousands of maps in high resolution and rectified them to a modern GPS-enabled map. Access the ever-growing collection through a graphic interface, zooming in on the area you want to view and then selecting the timeframe and type of map you need, https://maps.princeton.edu/
Note that while there are no maps online yet that specifically target Oakland, the wider maps of Bergen County show Oakland. Two useful collections include:
Princeton University | Digital Maps and Geospatial Data
Princeton has digitized thousands of maps in high resolution and rectified them to a modern GPS-enabled map. Access the ever-growing collection through a graphic interface, zooming in on the area you want to view and then selecting the timeframe and type of map you need, https://maps.princeton.edu/
Note that while there are no maps online yet that specifically target Oakland, the wider maps of Bergen County show Oakland. Two useful collections include:
1902 Landowners of Bergen County Map
A 1902 version of a property- and business-owner map in the style of the above 1861 Corey–Hopkins map. https://maps.princeton.edu/catalog/princeton-rr172066z |
Digitized Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps
Sanborn was one of the companies who mapped built environments, recording the types of structures and what they were made of. These maps were used by insurance companies to assess risk to buildings from fire and other disasters. Note that these maps were made of built-up environments, such as downtowns where buildings were close together and fire could spread more easily between them. Oakland and Franklin Lakes did not have the density to warrant a fire insurance map, although there may be some maps of industrial areas existing but not digitized here. Access Princeton's digitized maps through a spreadsheet organized by County: https://static-prod.lib.princeton.edu/visual_materials/maps/sanborn/sanborn-web.htm? |
The Changing Landscape of Bergen County, New Jersey
Rutgers University School of Arts and Sciences | Department of Geography | Historical Maps of New Jersey
https://geography.rutgers.edu/historical-maps-of-nj-articles/1076-the-changing-landscape-of-bergen-county-new-jersey
Rutgers University School of Arts and Sciences | Department of Geography | Historical Maps of New Jersey
https://geography.rutgers.edu/historical-maps-of-nj-articles/1076-the-changing-landscape-of-bergen-county-new-jersey
