Ramapough Mountain People
“The Jackson Whites”

A Pathfinder and Annotated Bibliography

by: Randy D. Ralph, MLIS, Ph.D.

In place 1995.  Last updated January 2, 2001.  Copyright © Randy D. Ralph.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction “The Jackson Whites” The Legend Journal Articles Newspaper Articles Books and Monographs Manuscripts, Term Papers, Theses and Dissertations Government Documents

Audiovisual Materials Interviews Speeches Unpublished Materials APPENDIX A Portraits of Members of the Van Dunk and De Freese Families APPENDIX B Primary Sources Examined by David S. Cohen

Introduction:

My parents moved the family way, way out in the country, after my baby brother was born, to a little tract house in the middle of the Preakness Valley in Passaic County, New Jersey. The valley was open and green and filled with Dutch dairy farms and Italian truck gardens. It lay snuggled between the Ramapo and Watchung ridges. Our family was one of the first to move into the new neighborhood between Old Man van der Veen's dairy cows and Mrs. Capodimaggi's vegetable garden. One day in mid-summer, not long after we'd moved in, a new kid showed up at the baseball diamond the us kids had carved out of one of the still-vacant lots. His name was Willie G. Mann, Jr., or, just "Junior." He became one of my best friends for reasons I didn't understand until many years later.

I was a fat kid. I was usually the last to be picked when the kids chose up sides for baseball. I could hit OK, but I couldn't catch worth a damn and I couldn't run fast either. More often than not, I'd wind up in the middle of a fight over whose team I'd made lose the last time - until Junior showed up.

The kids on the block thought Junior was "weird-looking" and said so. His complexion was almost bronze. He had sparkling Blue Plate Special blue eyes and jet black, curly hair. He looked for all the world like an Indian to me. To the kids on the block it was clear he wasn't "one of us." He was lanky and athletic, though. It almost seemed he could hit a home run with one hand tied behind his back, catch a pop fly blind-folded or round the bases in a blur and slide into home without a drop of sweat on his brow. He was a natural, and that was all that mattered to them.

Junior's folks had moved into a little house up the block from mine. Their old home in Mahwah was just a few miles away over the mountain in Bergen County. We didn't know it when we first met Junior, but the Manns belonged to a group that the farmers' kids called the "Jackson Whites." There was bound to be a fight when one of Old Man van der Veen's boys called Junior "Bockie," "Jack," or "Whitey." Junior won all these fights. This meant that he soon became captain of one of the neighborhood baseball teams. They called Junior's team, sort of half as grudging recognition and half as insult, the Jackson Whites, but only behind his back.

Junior would pick me first for his team amid jeers of "Oh, no! Not Fatso, again! Jeez!" I'd take my place at his side, ready to defend him against the jeers of "Hey, Jack! Bockie! You nuts?" that followed. I couldn't run very fast, but when I got someone down and sat on him, he stayed down. It became a routine as comfortable as an old shoe. I didn't mind the jeers anymore and the fights became less and less frequent. Together, Junior and I could take on the world, and did. Apart, the farmers' kids could get the better of us, and did. We won our fair share. That's all.

Before long, Junior and I became inseparable. We went everywhere together. Junior had almost an innate knowledge of the hills and trails around the valley. He knew the names of plants and what they were used for. He'd tear up a stalk of touch-me-not, rub it on a mosquito bite and the itch would go away. He knew how to sit patiently and wait for animals to come close. We could watch them, motionless, as they went about their business. We did all these things on long hikes into the hills in warm weather. We wouldn't make it back home until way after dark sometimes. At first, my mother didn't approve of any of this, but I guess when she saw the good it was doing me, she gave up and Junior won a place in our extended family.

Junior and I often wound up on top of Old Baldy, the biggest hill above the valley. It had a beautiful glacier-scoured serpentine barren at the top that the local people called a "bald." That's how it got its name. You could see the whole skyline of New York City clearly from there on a good day. Junior had never been there, even though it was less than thirty miles away. He used to love to listen to my stories about trips I'd taken into the city to see Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade or the Rockettes on stage at Radio City Music Hall. He could scarcely believe what he heard. You'd have thought I was describing Xanadu, or something. Junior knew about the mountains. I knew about New York City. Our worlds met on Old Baldy.

One day, after Junior and I had finished a lunch of crayfish poached in a tin can, we discovered a small, rusted steel pole barge, nothing more than an old cement trough, really. It was chained to an iron stake at the edge of Franklin Pond at the foot of Old Baldy. It was made for kids. It called out to us like God-damn Bali Hai. Junior picked the lock and in no time we poled the thing silently out into the middle of the pond through the sweet flag and water lilies at its edge leaving a fragrant wake behind us. To this day the smell of sweet flag yanks me right back to Franklin Pond.

We spent a long, lazy afternoon floating on the pond watching bullfrogs, snapping turtles, sunfish, dragonflies, and whatever else happened by. When the sun got low, we poled the barge back toward the shore where we'd found it. Junior locked it back up. No harm done, we thought. But on the way back up the hill a woman came screaming after us yelling "Stop, Nigger! Stop!" with two men close behind her. I'd never heard the word before. I knew instantly, from Junior's reaction, that I never wanted to hear it again.

We ran, but the men caught up with us and tackled Junior. The woman arrived shortly. She grabbed me and spun me around. "You should know better than this, Mr. Ralph!" she screamed into my face. "I've called your father and he's on his way here now. You're in big trouble, young man," she informed me. I was terrified. How did she know my name? She looked familiar but I had absolutely no idea who she was.

Meanwhile, the two men were wrestling with Junior and trying to subdue the kid amid a fusillade of epithets I mostly couldn't hear and didn't understand anyway. It was clear to me, though, that they hurt Junior as much as or more than the pummeling. One of them finally got him up, twisted an arm roughly behind his back and marched him down the hill toward where the woman and I stood. Junior was in a lot more trouble than I was, that was clear. But why? I didn't get it.

"Let's go boys." she said, to the men that had Junior. The woman led me off by my ear reminding me now and again of the awful trouble I was in. I went peaceably. The two men with Junior followed behind, struggling with the kid all the way. If Junior was going to go, he wasn't going to go without a fight. Every so often I'd hear a crack as one of them cuffed him again. It seemed like it took forever but we soon arrived at the woman's house behind a copse of trees close to the pond. The house was huge - almost a mansion, I thought. Then I saw my mother standing with arms on her hips on the large flagstone patio behind the house. She was watching us come down the hill toward her. She didn't say a word to me or to Junior.

My mother held up her hand as if to say "Stop." and motioned us two boys into black wrought iron arm chairs arranged around a low table. "Sit." she commanded. We did. Then she motioned to the woman and the two men to follow her up a way toward the house. "Stay put!" she commanded Junior and me. We did. My mother, the woman and the two men moved away and had an animated conversation in whispered tones above which floated, from time to time, words like "Nigger" and "Trash." I glanced over at Junior and was dumbfounded to see him crying. I'd never seen him cry before, no matter what. But he was sitting slumped over with tears running down his cheeks. He looked up at me with those amazing blue eyes. They said, simply, "See?" I saw. I saw instantly. I will never forget that moment. I will never forget the absolute contempt and hatred it made me feel for those people. They had hurt my friend. I learned disrespect that day.

We sat there just looking at each other dully until the adults had finished their argument over us. The woman nodded and went inside after motioning the two men away. They went around the side of the house and disappeared from my life forever, but, unfortunately, not from Junior's.

My mother turned and began to walk toward us. The woman stopped when she'd gotten to the screen door at the back of the house and turned, also. "Just make sure that half-breed stays away from here, Amy!" she yelled after my mother. She held up a hand without turning toward the woman to indicate she'd heard. Her eyes were on Junior. She raised a single finger to her mouth and made the "Shhhhh!" sign. "You shouldn't let your boy associate with that kind of trash!" she screeched. My mother's hand came down and she turned to face the woman who was halfway through the door by now but still shaking a finger in our direction. "You just let me worry about that, Miss Dijkstra" my mother said, raising a hand in a kind of peace sign, and turned back toward us. Junior and I looked at each other in shock. Miss Dijkstra?!?!!! Oh, my God! the school principal.

"Boys, come with me," my mother said and held out a hand to each of us. We got up and walked toward her. She turned at the same time and put her hands on our shoulders. All three of us rounded the house and moved toward my father's Studebaker which was parked in the circular drive in front of the house. She ushered us into the back seat together and started the car. I could see the drapes in one of the stone-framed windows move aside as the woman watched us leave. My mother pulled the car slowly out of the driveway onto Valley Road and pointed it toward home.

None of us said a word all the way back over Old Baldy to Junior's house. When we got there my mother turned in her seat, reached back and opened the rear door so Junior could get out. A shaft of light came from the door of Junior's house where his own mother appeared in silhouette. Junior looked at her for a moment and then back toward my mother. They exchanged one of those "Oh boy!" looks. My mother tousled Junior's hair. Then she pointed a finger at our noses in turn and said, "For Heaven's sake, boys, stay away from Miss Dijkstra's house from now on, will you? You promise?" We nodded vigorously. "Thanks, Mrs." Junior said and stepped out of the car.

We watched until Junior went through the door where his mother stood, a wooden spoon clutched in the hand resting on her hip, ready to go. The tale of our adventure had obviously preceded him home. Junior was in for it, that was for sure, and so was I. My father was not nearly as amused as my mother by the day's events. He took great pains to demonstrate this to me through the liberal application of a hair brush from Stanhome Products to my rear end. It didn't last long and it didn't hurt too bad. Besides, the bonus was that I had a great war story to tell to the other kids on the block. Miss Dijkstra! for crying out loud!

After this watershed event Junior and I became the fastest of friends. He'd spend a lot of time telling me about his family back in Mahwah while we were fishing in Old Man van der Veen's pastures. There was a widening in the brook there under the elms that Junior dubbed "Randy's Favorite Pool" in my honor. This was our domain. Even Old Man van der Veen's kids stayed away when we were there.

That's how I first came to know who the Jackson Whites were - from Willie G. Mann, Jr., my first and best friend. Junior told me stories about these shy, gentle, reclusive mountain people. They kept mostly to themselves. A lot of the townspeople in the valleys below their homes called them names because they were afraid of them or thought themselves better. Among Junior's many cousins, some were albino. Some had extra fingers or toes. Some had webbed fingers or toes. Some were a bit slow-witted. Some knew Indian medicine. Some spoke proudly of their Tuscarora or Hessian or Dutch blood. Some spoke "Jersey Dutch," an old dialect that the newer valley people couldn't understand. Some people said they came from runaway slaves or black whores. Some said they came from traitors and turncoats. Some people called them "Jacks." Others called them "Bockies." It really didn't matter. They were all wrong anyway.

Junior and his people took the name, "Jackson Whites," more often as the phrase, "Jacks and Whites." It was just as sharp and cut just the same either way. His parents had moved his family across the mountains and away from their home because they hoped they wouldn't have to hear it ever again. They were wrong.

Junior was drafted and went to Viet Nam in 1965. I remember thinking, "For once he goes without a fight and it's got to be now?!?!" He thought he was defending America. I didn't. I resisted the draft. I thought I was defending America. He didn't. I marched on Washington. He marched into a land mine. They sent him back home less than a year after he'd left. On a glorious day in the fall I stood with his people and his friends in the hills he loved and wept with them over his grave. I hoped I would never have to do anything so hard again. I was wrong.

“The Jackson Whites”:

The Ramapough Mountain People, also known locally, and in the pejorative as “The Jackson Whites,” are an extended clan of closely interrelated families living in the Ramapo Mountains and their more remote valleys principally in Bergen County, New Jersey, but also in immediately adjacent Passaic County, New Jersey, and Rockland County, New York. Their largely Dutch surnames, de Groot, de Fries, van der Donck, and Mann, in all their variant spellings, are among the oldest in the countryside and predate the Revolutionary War. They live only thirty miles or so from downtown Manhattan which lies just across the Hudson River (see map). They are shy, gentle, proud, and reclusive people who, until relatively recently, seldom ventured far from their mountain homes.

They are clearly racially mixed. There are elements from native Indian, Negro, Dutch, and possibly German (Hessian) and Italian blood lines. Their isolation has resulted in a high degree of intermarriage among the families which has, on occasion, produced genetic anomalies such as syndactyly (fusion of fingers or toes), polydactyly (extra fingers or toes), pie baldness, albinism, sometimes distinguised by a grayish skin color, and mental retardation.

The majority of the members of the extended clan, however, are robust, intelligent people with striking good looks. In general, members of the clan have light to dark bronze complexions, light eyes, and curly hair, usually jet black or brunette but occasionally pure white. Their facial features display a mixture of Indian and Negro characteristics that have set them apart from their neighbors for centuries. More than any other aspect, it is their looks that have isolated them, marked them, and engendered the many lies, misconceptions, myths and legends that surround them in the local oral history of the region.

The clan now prefers to be called the Ramapough (or Ramapo) Mountain People or the Ramapough Mountain Indians. In the 1980s, as a result of an activist movement led by tribal author and historian, Mozelle Van Dunk, they petitioned the Bureau of Indian Affairs, with support from the Attorneys General of New Jersey and New York States, for recognition and status as a bona fide Indian tribe. To date, their efforts have been unsuccessful. The Bureau classifies them as Black not Indian.

Map of the Ramapo Mountain region of New Jersey and New York

The Legend:

According to the first part of the legend, the first settlers in the Ramapo Mountain region were Tuscarora Indians. They fled northward on the Cumberland Trail to join their allies the Iroquois in upper New York after a humiliating defeat at the hands of the British Army in a series of skirmishes, part of the French and Indian Wars, in western North Carolina from 1711 to 1714. They were either joined shortly after their arrival by or came accompanied with runaway slaves, often referred to in those days as "Jacks." The sons of Black freedmen from the plantations of the nearby Hudson River Valley and Catskill Mountains also joined them and brought their former masters' Dutch surnames with them to the Ramapos. They intermarried with the Tuscaroras and possibly local Lenni Lenape Indians, as well. It is at this time that their local neighbors may have begun to refer to these people as the "Jacks and Whites."

According to the second part of the legend, during the War of Independence, the British Army command at New York contracted with a Colonial seacaptain and trader named Jackson to bring 3,500 prostitutes recruited in the cities of England to New York to serve the garrison. On the trans-Atlantic voyage one of the twenty ships in the convoy foundered during a storm and most of the passengers were drowned. The clever and industrious Jackson made for the West Indies and picked up an additional 400 black women to replace those lost at sea.

On his return to New York harbor the black prostitutes, known ironically as "Jackson Whites" and as "Jackson Blacks," were segregated from the rest and billeted for several years in a cow pasture in Greenwich Village called Lispenard's Meadows. When the British were forced, abruptly, to quit New York during the War of Independence, the women fled Manhattan in fear of their lives and wandered northward into the Hudson Valley where they heard, possibly from Hessian deserters, that the Ramapos were a haven for Tory refugees, Dutch adventurers and villians of all kinds, including the infamous Tory guerilla Cladius Smith, Cowboy of the Ramapos. and his followers and admirers.

All these people, according to legend, wound up in the Ramapos and by 1800 were firmly ensconced as a clannish, isolated group bearing the collective name "Jackson Whites," presumably as an ironic variant of "Jacks and Whites." The were despised by their respectable lowland neighbors either for having been Tory sympathizers, for their mixed blood, or for being Black, or Indian, or outlaw, or all of that, and more. From roughly 1800 on, the Jackson Whites had little to do with the world outside their Ramapo Mountains retreat and the few towns and villages they had managed to build.

Journal Articles:

"145 Minutes from Broadway," Country Life July/August, 1948.

A description of the Ramapo Mountain region with a recounting of the Jackson Whites legend.

Beale, Calvin L. "American tri-racial isolates," Eugenics Quarterly

4(Dec 1957):187-196.

The article discusses the origins of racially-mixed, isolated mountain populations like the Jackson Whites of New Jersey and the Melungeons of North Carolina and Tenessee.

Chanler, David, "The Jackson Whites, an American episode," Crisis 46(May 1939):

138.

The journal Crisis is devoted to discussion of black issues. Mr. Chanler writes that the Jackson Whites were considered to be black. They are an impoverished group under the control of the Ringwood Company of Bergen County, NJ, which employs many of them and provides substandard housing. There was a spate of newspaper articles about the Jackson Whites in the mid-30s brought on by the activities of Rev. A. F. Chillson of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Bergen County, who was interested in helping the Jackson Whites. The Ringwood Company became embarrassed by the attention and Rev. Chillson was soon moved to another church.

Cohen, David S., "The origin of the 'Jackson Whites': History and legend

among the Ramapo Mountain People," Journal of American Folklore

85(1972):260-266.

Of the many articles written on the Jackson Whites legend this is probably one of the best researched and most reasoned. The term Jackson Whites is considered extremely offensive to the local people of the Ramapo Mountain region of northern New Jersey and southern New York states. The origins of the legend are explored and critically analyzed. The group is identified as ethnically distinct from neighboring peoples. The core family names of the group are de Fries, van Donck, de Groot and Mann, probably brought to the region by escaped Negro slaves or freedmen from Dutch plantations in the Hudson Valley region. These Dutch surnames can be traced in local genealogical records back to the 1740s. The original inhabitants of the Ramapo Region, considered to be on the frontier then, were racially mixed sons and daughters of freed black servants and Dutch farmers and plantation owners with these surnames. There is little evidence that the current descendants have very much Indian blood although there may be significant components from the Lenni Lenape and the Tuscarora. The single largest racial component appears to be Negro. The light coloration of many members of the clan arises from albinism and pie baldness from isolation and constant intermarriage within the extended clan.

________, "The Ramapo Mountain People: A Reassessment," New Jersey

Folklore 2(1980):15-17

A general article on isolated, racially-mixed groups, including the Jackson Whites. It offers an analysis of the legends surrounding these groups and compares them with their own oral histories and traditions.

Collins, Daniel, "The racially-mixed People of the Ramapos: Undoing the

Jackson White legends," American Anthropologist

74(Oct 1972):1276-1285.

A review of the literature fails to validate the Jackson White legends which traditionally have accounted for the presence of a racially mixed collectivity in the Ramapo Mountain area. Extant oral traditions supporting the least documented & most pejorative aspects of the legends serve to maintain isolation & threaten the continuation of the Ramapo Mountain community of racially mixed people. The name Jackson White connotes a racial anomaly spawned by inbreeding & intermarriage, born into ignorance & degeneracy, & condemned to poverty, feeble-mindedness & suspicion. It is shown that an enumeration of the Jackson White pop is impossible, if not irrelevant. Ways in which the Indian, white & Negro elements of these mountain people are accounted for are discussed. The Jackson Whites are a group of people held together by the isolation of the mountains, kinship, the mixed racial stigma & a defamatory legend. Changing the legends about the Jackson Whites to the history of the racially mixed people of the Ramapos is a necessity.

"Community of outcasts," Appleton's Journal of Literature, Science,

and Art 7(Saturday, March 23, 1872):324-329.

One of the earliest accounts of the Jackson Whites as a clan or distinct group. The are described as poor, isolated and hermitic mountain people of mixed Negro, Indian, Hessian and Dutch blood. There are indications of albinism, mental retardation and other "degenerate" genetic anomalies.

Dunlap, A. R. and C. A. Weslager, "Trends in the naming of tri-racial mixed

blood groups in the eastern United States," American Speech

22(Apr 1947):81-87.

Not reviewed.

Gilbert, William H., Jr., "Memorandum concerning the characteristics of the

larger mixed-blood racial islands of the eastern United States,"

Social Forces 24(May 1946):438-447.

Greene, Florence E., "Tobacco road of the north," American Mercury

53(July 1941):15-22.

Ms. Greene describes the Jackson Whites as a "dull-minded, moral-less and lawless tribe of mountain folk who make the characters of Tobacco Road seem cultured and effete by comparison." She describes their homes as "squalid" and "jerry built" and notes that they can be seen "growing obliquely out of the mountainside like unwholesome fungi." [She neglects to mention that many of these homes were built by the Ringwood Company as workers' quarters]. The reiterates the principal components of the Jackson Whites legend as expostulated by John C. Storms, self-proclaimed authority on the subject. The Jackson Whites, and, by extension, others in the Ramapo Mountain region of New Jersey, were also known as "bockies" either from the name given to the oak splint baskets they wove. Many of the Jackson Whites were piebald or albino.

Harris, Mark, "America's oldest interracial community," Negro Digest

6(July 1948):21-24.

Not reviewed.

Harte, Thomas J., "Trends in mate selection in a tri-racial isolate, " Social

Forces 37(March 1959):215-221.

Not reviewed.

Honeyman, Abraham Van Doren, "Early trials of Negroes in Bergen County,"

Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society 10(1925):357.

Not reviewed.

"Jackson Whites," Eugenical News 16(December 1931):218.

A horrific description of the genetic abnormalities found among the Jackson Whites complete with photographs meant principally as an object lesson in what miscegenation can cause.

"Jersey man and his wife doing noble work among Jackson Whites,"

Prospector, Nov. 12, 1936, p. 2.

The article focuses on the work of Rev. A. F. Chillson of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Bergen County, NJ, and his wife and their efforts to help the poor of the region, collectively known as the Jackson Whites.

Jessup, Elon, "Secrets of the Ramapos," Outing 81(Feb. 1923):217-221,

236-238.

This is an article on hiking in the Ramapo Mountains of Northern New Jersey. It focuses largely on the geology, botany and general sights to be seen. There is no mention of the Jackson Whites. The article, despite its promising title, is of interest principally as a romantic overview of the physical nature of the region and its "secrets."

Johnson, Guy B., "Personality in a White-Indian-Negro community," American

Sociological Review 4(Aug 1939):516-523.

Not reviewed.

Johnston, James H., "Documentary evidence of the relations of Negroes and

Indians," Journal of Negro History 14(Jan 1929):21-43.

Not reviewed.

Kaufman, Charles H., "An ethnomusicological survey among the people of the

Ramapo Mountains," New York Folklore 23(1957):3-43, 109-131.

His research indicates that the musical origins of the folk songs of the Ramapo Mountain region are Dutch and Negro. There is little evidence for significant contributions from Indian, West Indian or German sources. This lends credence to the opinions expressed by others that the Jackson Whites are a mixture of Dutch and Negro lines.

Mayer, Allan J., "Is this tribe Indian?" Newsweek 95(Jan 7, 1980):32(1).

The article focuses on the recent attempts by the people of the Ramapo Mountain region to gain acceptance by the Bureau of Indian Affairs as the Ramapough Mountain Indians. They consider themselves to be descendants of the Tuscarora and Delaware tribes. The Jackson Whites legend is reiterated. Considerable credence is given to the notion that the current population is largely descended from free black pioneers and early Dutch farmers in the region. A dialect known as "Jersey Dutch" still echoes in their speech. This is offered as evidence of the connection with early Dutch settlers.

Merwin, Miles M., "The Jackson Whites," Rutgers Alumni Monthly 42(1963):8.

Not reviewed.

Price, Edward T., "A geographic analysis of White-Indian-Negro racial mixtures

in the eastern United State," Annals of the Association of American

Geographers 43(June 1953):138-155.

Not reviewed.

"Ramapo Memories," Magazine of History 4(September 1906):139-144.

Not reviewed.

Rankin, Edward S., "The Ramapo Tract," Proceedings of the New Jersey

Historical Society 50(1932):375-394.

Not reviewed.

Sheppard, Caroll-Anne, "Where are the Pineys?" New Jersey Folklife

14(1989):21-29.

Not reviewed.

Skinner, Alanson, "A primitive new race in the very heart of civilization: the

'Jackson Whites'," American Examiner 1911. In the files of the Eugenics

Records Office, Dwight Institute for Human Genetics, University of

Minnesota.

Not reviewed.

Snedecor, Spencer T. and William K. Harryman, "Surgical problems in hereditary

polydactylism and syndactylism," Journal of the New Jersey Medical

Society 37(September 1940):443-449.

The article focuses on the hereditary malformations found in some of the members of the Jackson Whites clan, principally in the Van Donk family. Polydactyly (additional fingers) and syndactyly (fusion of the fingers) are common abnormalities. There is also a considerable amount of albinism, pie baldness and some mental retardation among the youngest members of the clan. The ancestry appears to be largely Indian and Negro.

Speck, F. G., "Jackson Whites," Southern Workman 40(1911):104-107.

The Jackson Whites clan seems to have been founded by core families of native Algonquin Indians, probably Minisinks of the Delaware nation, with some of the Tuscarora who lingered for a rest in the Ramapo Valley on their retreat from North Carolina in 1714 to join their allies, the Iroquios, in New York against the British. Runaway Negro slaves and freedmen from the Dutch colonial plantations in the lowlands nearby added their blood to the mix. Some of the current surnames, van Donk, de Fries, Mann and de Groot come from these origins. The conclusion is that the Jackson Whites are a mixture of three racial lines and that their isolation led to the inbreeding which has resulted in some of the current genetic problems of the group.

Stuart, William, "Negro slavery in New Jersey and New York," Americana

Illustrated 16(Oct. 1922):347-367.

Not reviewed.

Thompson, Edgar T., "The little races," American Anthropologist 74(Oct

1972):1295-1306.

Not reviewed.

Wallace, Anthony F. C., "The Tuscarora, sixth nation of the Iroquois

Confederacy," Proceedings of the American Philosophical

Society 93(May 1949):159-165.

Not reviewed.

Weller, George, "Jackson Whites," New Yorker 14(September 17,

1938):27-30, 34, 36.

Mr. Weller's largely sympathetic article describes the clan as consisting of "self-respecting mountaineers of ancient lineage. . ." Maxwell Anderson in this play High Tor has his heroine refer to the clan in her remarks to her suitor: "We can't live in your cabin, and have no money, like the Jackson Whites over at Suffern." They were also referred to as "the Jacks." Many of the members of the extended clan are albino. It was not known at the time whether this condition was the result of inbreeding or of lack of copper sulfate in the mountain diet. One of the Whites, Nellie Mann, was the great-granddaughter of a Hessian deserter from the British Army who traveled with the Barnum & Bailey Circus for many years billed as a wild girl captured in the Australian bush. Nellie, who was proud of her standing with the D.A.R. insisted on being announced as "a beautiful American albino from our own Ramapo Mountains," which was ruinous to her career as a sideshow curiosity. The article follows the genealogy of the core families of the Whites. Mr. Weller notes that "it is harder to find out something that happened in the Ramapo Mountains two generations ago than what happened in the Fiji Islands at the same period." Much of the history of the Jackson Whites is obscure because they were largely ignored by polite and genteel society in the valleys below their mountain homes. The article continues to recount, in considerable detail, the legend of the origin of the Jackson Whites.

"Who are the Jackson Whites?" Pathfinder (Sept. 5, 1931):20.

Not reviewed.

Newspaper Articles:

Berger, Meyer, "Hill folk at the City's portals - Only 'forty-five minutes from

Broadway' dwell primitive people whose lives are still untouched by

the turbulent stream of the metropolis," New York Times Magazine

Mar. 24, 1935.

A remarkably sympathetic article on the "hill folk" of the Ramapos, principally the Conklin family. They are portrayed as rustic, not degenerate. Photographs show family and community activities. The Jackson Whites legend is recounted with skepticism.

De Yoe, Willard L., "Ramapo Valley history begins in this issue," Ramsey

Journal (July 4, 1957):1,5.

The first in a series of largely anecdotal version of the history of the Ramapo Mountain region of New Jersey and New York.

________, "Second chapter of Ramapo Valley History given," Ramsey Journal

(July 11, 1957):7,9.

________, "Hopper House History is continued," Ramsey Journal

(July 18, 1957):7, 10.

________, "History of Hopper House and Ramapo Valley continues," Ramsey

Journal (July 25, 1957):7.

________, "History of Hopper House and Valley Road during Revolutionary

times is continued with story of Lafayette and French Army,"

Ramsey Journal (Aug 1, 1957):7.

________, "Victorious end of Revolution recounted in part of history of

Hopper House, Valley Road," Ramsey Journal

(Aug 8, 1957):5.

________, "Hopper House and Valley Road history ends with anecdotes,

legends, notes about period," Ramsey Journal

(Aug 15, 1957):9, 12.

"Deformity traced in Jersey group," Newark Evening News (Jun. 6, 1940)

A biased presentation of some of the medical evidence of syndactyly and polydactyly among the Jackson Whites gathered by public clinicians. Seen largely as evidence of the evils of miscegenation and inbreeding. Those bearing the anomalies are said to be degenerate.

"Forest fire in the Ramapos," Star-Eagle Nov. 24, 1924.

A report of forest fires in the Ramapo Mountains and on the damage to homes and loss of life caused among the Jackson Whites. Efforts of local citizens to assist the "feeble" of the clan are praised.

Harrison, Charles, "Jackson Whites' Origin," Bergen Evening Record, 1960.

A well-documented presentation of the evidence developed, largely by David Cohen, on the origins of the Jackson Whites legend. The article is largely skeptical of the traditional tales and critical of those who recounted it in the past.

Hernandez, Raymond, "The mountain people dig in over recognition as Indians.

(People of the Ramapo Mountains want to be recognized by the federal

government as Indians," The New York Times 144(Jan 1, 1995):29, col. 4.

A detailed account of the recent efforts of the Ramapough Mountain People to gain recognition as an Indian tribe from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The legend of the Jackson Whites is recounted with derision.

"Hill folk inherit lives of poverty," New York Times May 3, 1937.

Not found. Incorrect citation?

"Jackson Whites," New York Sun Feb. 28, 1909.

Not reviewed.

"Jackson Whites get Ringwood Co. help," World-Telegram Apr. 28, 1937.

Not reviewd.

"Jackson Whites, racial hybrids, putter along in the Ramapos,"

Herald-Tribune Sep. 15, 1936.

Not reviewed.

"Jersey man and his wife doing noble work among Jackson Whites,"

Newark Sunday Call Sep. 13, 1914.

Describes the work of the Rev. A. F. Chillson and his wife among the Ramapo Mountain People. The deplorable condition of the settlements in the Bergen County area is described. The connection to the Ringwood Company is noted.

"Jersey to succor Jackson Whites: State appoints an investigator for

study as prelude to bid for federal aid," New York Times

Apr. 26, 1937, p. 21.

The article focuses on the activities of Rev. A. F. Chillson and his wife in their attempts to raise consciousness about he plight of the mountian people of the Ramapos. The state promised to assign an investigator but nothing came of it. The Jackson Whites legend is recounted.

"Jersey's Tobacco Road - 50 miles from the Broadway they've never seen,"

New York World-Telegram Apr. 27, 1937.

A radically racist portrayal of the Jackson Whites. They are seen as a degenerate result of racial intermarriage. Genetic abnormalities are cited as indications of such evils.

"Origin of the Jackson Whites traced by J. C. Storms," Paterson Call

Feb. 11, 1936.

Thoroughly retells the biased version of the Jackson Whites legends and myths some of which James C. Storms, local newspaper editor, created himself.

"State probes plight of New Jersey 'Jackson Whites'," Newark Sunday Call

Apr. 25, 1937.

In response to the activities of Rev. A. F. Chillson, the state appoints a commission to study the condition of the Jackson Whites communities in Bergen County.

Terhune, A. P., "When dogs go wild," New York Herald-Tribune Magazine

Mar. 4, 1934.

Even in the context of its time, an extremely nasty and radical portrayal of the Jackson Whites as the dregs of humanity, akin to dogs.

Books and Monographs:

Berry, Brewton. Almost white. New York: Macmillan, 1963, 212 p.

This is a shockingly racist little book. The author seems to have written it in a sincere and somewhat sympathetic attempt to cast people he calls mestizos in a better light, but it is written in language that exudes a casual air of white superiority over and pity for lesser people of mixed blood who are described in the preface as "pathetic folk of mixed ancestry who never know quite where they belong." He notes that "Miscegenation seems to be an inevitable consequence of the meeting of races and nationalities." He goes on to say, "I hope that this book will help to remove some of the prejudice and misunderstanding to which they have been subjected." In the segments on the Jackson Whites he reiterates the legend and quotes Florence Greene's article heavily, not entirely as an example of racist claptrap.

Beck, Henry Charlton. Fare to Midlands. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1939

(reprinted as The Jersey Midlands. New Brunswick, NJ:

Rutgers University Press, 1963).

The book makes passing mention of the Jackson Whites clan.

________. Tales and towns of northern New Jersey. New Brunswick, NJ:

Rutgers University Press, 1964, x & 349 p.

There is only passing mention of the Jackson Whites as "bockies" - mountain people who weave baskets made of oak splints - in the chapter "The Scourge of the Ramapos," which deals with the life and times of one Claudius Smith, a horse thief, murderer, sometimes political activist and highwayman who was hanged in his stocking feet on January 22, 1779. He was known as the "Scourge of the Ramapos" and as "Cowboy Claudius."

________. The roads of home: Lanes and legends of New Jersey. New

Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1956, xii & 291 p.

The author devotes a complete chapter to the Jackson Whites. He retells the standard legend skeptically and with sympathy. Most of the material presented is of more interesting aspects of the oral history of the Ramapo Mountain clans.

Clayton, William W. and William Nelson. History of Bergen and Passaic

Counties, New Jersey. Philadelphia: Everts & Peck, 1882.

Not reviewed.

Cohen, David Steven. The Ramapo Mountain people. New Brunswick, NJ:

Rutgers University Press, 1974, xvi & 285 p. illus.

A thorough and very scholarly account of the origins, history and traditions of the Ramapo Mountain People, known as the Jackson Whites. He presents evidence to support some portions of the legend and refute other aspects of it. The connection with Captain Jackson and the Negro prostitutes of the British Army in New York is particularly questionable. The clans seem to be derived largely from native Indian stock mixed with Negro freedmen. The genetic identity of the group, if there is any, is a result of intermarriage and what the author calls "solidarity."

________. Folk legacies revisited. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University

Press, 1995.

The book makes reference to his previous works on the Jackson Whites and summarized his findings.

Cole, David, ed. History of Rockland County, New York. New York: J. B.

Beers, 1884.

Not reviewed.

Cooley, Henry S. A study of slavery in New Jersey. Johns Hopkins

University Studies in History and Political Science. Baltimore:

Johns Hopkins University Press, 1896.

Emerson, Josephine. "The Jackson Whites." In Hudson Highlands, Solvitur

Ambulando, ed. New York: Appalachian Mountain Club, 1945.

Not reviewed.

Flick, Alexander C., ed. History of the State of New York. Vol. 1.

New York: Columbia University Press, 1933 - 1937.

Not reviewed.

Franklin, John H. The free Negro in North Carolina, 1790 - 1860.

Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1943.

Not reviewed.

Green, Frank B. The History of Rockland County. New York:

A. S. Barnes, 1886.

Not reviewed.

Harvey, Cornelius B., ed. Genealogical History of Hudson and Bergen

Counties, New Jersey. New York: New Jersey Genealogical

Publishing Co., 1900.

Not reviewed.

Hudson, Sue F. Background of Ho-Ho-Kus History. Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ:

Woman's Club, 1953.

Not reviewed.

Johnson, Elias. Legends, Traditions and Laws of the Iroquois or Six

Nations and History of the Tuscarora Indians. Lockport, NY:

Union Printing & Publishing Co., 1881.

Not reviewed.

Leiby, Adrian C. The Early Dutch and Swedish Settlers of New Jersey.

New Jersey Historical Series. Princeton, NJ: D. Van Nostrand,

1964 (now distributed by the Rutgers University Press).

Not reviewed.

Livingston, Rosa. Turkey Feathers, Tales of Old Bergen County. Little

Falls, NJ: Phillip-Campbell Press, 1963.

Not reviewed.

Lowell, Edward Jackson. The Hessians and the Other German Auxiliaries

of Great Britain in the Revolutionary War. New York: Harper

& Bros., 1884, viii & 328 p.

Provides some credence to the notion that Hessian deserters may have settled in the Ramapo Mountain region of New Jersey and New York.

Miller, David. The Forsaken Jackson Whites. New York: New York

Herald Tribune, 1961.

Depicts the Jackson Whites as a down-trodden lot with little dignity and confidence, neglected by the state and local agencies. The legend is retold, but with some good documentation. Many of the myths are debunked. Credence is given to the mixed blood ancestry with Indian, Negro and Hessian or Dutch blood.

New Jersey Library Association. New Jersey and the Negro: A

bibliography, 1715 - 1966. Trenton, NJ: New Jersey

Library Association, 1967.

Not reviewed.

Penfold, Saxby V. Romantic Suffern: The History of Suffern, New

York, from the Earliest Times to the Incorporation of the

Village in 1896. Tallman, NY: Rockland County Historical

Committee, 1955.

Not reviewed.

Pierson, Edward F. The Ramapo Pass, Including the Village of

Ramapo Works, Founded by the Pierson Brothers in 1795,

Josiah Gilbert, Jeremiah Hulsey, and Isaac Pierson and Other

Historical Particulars. Ramapo, NY: Private printing,

1955 (written in 1915).

Not reviewed.

Ransom, James M. Vanishing Ironworks of the Ramapos: The Story

of the Forges, Furnaces, and Mines of the New

Jersey - New York Border Area. New Brunswick,

NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1966.

Not reviewed.

Reuter, E. B. The Mulatto in the United States, Including a Study

of the Role of Mixed-Blood Races throughout the World.

New York: Negro University Press, 1969 (first published

in 1918).

Not reviewed.

________. Race Mixture; Studies in Intermarriage and Miscegenation.

New York: Wittlesey House, McGraw-Hill, 1931.

Not reviewed.

Ringwood Golden Jubilee, 1918 - 1968. Ringwood, NJ: Ringwood

Golden Jubilee, Inc., 1968.

Not reviewed.

Sawyer, Sr. Claire Marie. Some Aspects of the Fertility of a Tri-Racial

Isolate. Wahsington, DC: Catholic University of America, 1961.

Not reviewed.

Shapiro, H. L. "The Mixed-Blood Indian." In The Changing Indian,

Oliver La Farge, ed. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma

Press, 1942.

Not reviewed.

Skinner, Alanson B. The Indians of Greater New York. Cedar Rapids,

IA: Torch Press, 1915.

Not reviewed.

________ and Max Schrabisch. A Preliminary Report of the

Archaeological Survey of the State of New Jersey.

Bulletin 9. Trenton, NJ: Geological Survey of

New Jersey, 1913.

Not reviewed.

Smeltzer, Chester A. and John V. Dater. The Birth and Growth of Ramsey and

Mahwah. Ramsey, NJ: Ramsey Journal, 1949.

Not reviewed.

Speck, Frank G. A Study of the Delaware Indian Big House Ceremony.

Harrisburg, PA: Pennsylvania Historical Commission, 1931.

Not reviewed.

Stimpson, George W., "Who are the Jackson Whites?" In Things worth

knowing, New York: Burton, 1932, pp. 377-378.

A simple recantation of the many legends surrounding the Jackson Whites and the origin of the name.

Storms, James B. H. A Jersey Dutch Vocabulary. Park Ridge, NJ:

Pascack Historical Society, 1964.

A "Jersey Dutch" vocabulary and dictionary by the brother of John C. Storms, the N.J. newspaper editor who popularized and embellished the legends of the Jackson Whites.

Storms, John C., Origin of the Jackson Whites of the Ramapo Mountains,

Park Ridge, NJ: Author, 1936.

Probably the single most influential account of the Jackson Whites by a local newspaper editor, constantly quoted and misquoted. The legend is set forth in great detail but is not well documented. Much of the information is anecdotal or relies on strictly oral traditions of members of communities adjacent to the Ramapo Mountains. The entire account is hopelessly biased, racist in tone and filled with inconsistencies.

Terhune, Albert Payson. Treasure. New York: A.L. Burt, 1926.

Terhune refers to the Jackson Whites in this book as "white trash," "degenerate mountaineers," and "blue-eyed niggers." The legend is recounted in detail.

Tompkins, Arthur S. ed. Historical Record of the Close of the Nineteenth

Century of Rockland County, New York. Nyack, NY: Van Deusen

& Joyce, 1902.

Not reviewed.

Torrey, Raymond H., Frank Place and Robert L. Dickinson. New York Walk

Book. American Geographical Society Outing Series No. 2.

New York: American Geographical Society, 1923.

A book on hiking in New York wilderness areas. It mentions the Jackson Whites on page 90 in its description of the Ramapo Mountains. "Legend has it that the unattached followers of the British army [after the Revolutionary War] were relegated to the wilderness and with Indians and Negroes brought up a race of half-breeds." - the Jackson Whites.

van Loon, Lawrence G. Crumbs from an Old Dutch Closet: The Dutch

Dialect of Old New York. The Hague, Netherlands: M.

Nijhoff, 1938.

A pronunciaiton gazetteer and dictionary of the Dutch dialects of the Hudson Valley area of NewYork and neighboring New Jersey.

van Valen, J. M. History of Bergen County, New Jersey. New York:

New Jersey Publishing & Engraving Co., 1900.

Not reviewed.

Weller, George. "The Jackson Whites." In A New Jersey Reader. New

Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1961.

Another abridged version of the standard legends with appropriate skeptical commentary.

Westervelt, Frances A. History of Bergen County, New Jersey,

1630 - 1923. 3 Vols. New York: Lewis Historical

Publishing Co., 1923.

Not reviewed.

White, Newman L., ed. The Frank C. Brown Collection of North

Carolina Folklore. Durham, NC: Duke University Press,

1952 - 1961.

Contains a recounting of the flight of the Tuscarora Indians from North Carolina northward through the Appalachian Mountains with British troops in pursuit.

Manuscripts, Term Papers, Theses and Dissertations:

Austin, Roy S. People of the Ramapos. Term paper, William Paterson

College of New Jersey, Paterson, NJ, 1959, 42 lvs.

Not reviewed.

Baird, Doris. The Jackson Whites and their Culture. Original essay in

Suffern Library, Suffern, NY, no date.

Not reviewed.

Baker, Tunis. Jackson-Whites. Paterson, NJ: Term Paper, Paterson

Normal College. no date given, copy on file at the Department

of Institutions and Agencies, Trenton, NJ.

Not reviewed.

Brief School History of Rockland County, New York. A study prepared

by the pupils, teachers, and friends of the Rockland

County Public Schools, 1941. Mimeographed.

Not reviewed.

Cohen, David S. They walk these hills: A study of social solidarity

among the racially-mixed people of the Ramapo Mountains.

Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA,

1971.

A thorough and scholarly investigation of the origins of the Jackson Whites and on the causes and consequences of their social isolation from the mainstream.

Coombs, Elizabeth Lockwood. Antecedents of the Ramapo People: The

Jackson Whites. [S.l.]: Author, 1968, 1 volume unpaginated.

Not reviewed.

Cornell, H.; Deluca, P.; and Ziegler, M. Sociological Study of the

Jackson Whites. Manuscript in Pascack (New Jersey) Historical

Society, n.d.

Not reviewed.

Crawford, Constance. The Jackson Whites, Master's thesis, New York

University, New York, 1940.

Not reviewed.

Hadlock, Nancy. The Jackson Whites of the Ramapo Mountains. Report in

Ridgewood (New Jersey) Public Library, c. post-1940s.

Not reviewed.

Kaufman, Marie L. Public Health Nursing Among the Jackson Whites.

Unpublished essay on file in the Suffern Public Library,

Suffern, NY, 1951.

Not reviewed.

Lacatena, Angelo Victor. The people of the Ramapos: Yesterday,

today, and tomorrow. Master's thesis, William Paterson

College of New Jersey, May 1969.

Not reviewed.

Machol, Jill. The Ramapo Mountain people - a problem of acceptance. Painesville,

OH: Author, 1966, 25 lvs.

Not reviewed.

Merwin, Miles M. The Jackson Whites. Thesis, Rutgers University,

New Brunswick, NJ, 1953.

Not reviewed.

Moskowitz, Miriam. The Educational Problem of the People of the

Ramapos. Master's thesis, Jersey City State College,

1968.

Not reviewed.

Newark Public Library. The Jackson Whites: References to books, documents

and magazines, October 1941. Newark, NJ: The Newark Public

Library, 1941, 3 leaves unbound.

Three leaves bound containing bibliographic entries on the Jackson Whites discovered in the collections of:

• New York Pubic Library
• Russell Sage Foundation
• Library of Congress
• Paterson Public Library
• New Jersey Historical Society
• Newark Public Library
• Department of Institutions and Agencies, Trenton, NJ.
• Episcopal Church, Diocese of Newark, NJ.

Otto, Edward Arthur. The Ramapos, paradise or paradox? [S.l.]:

Author, 1965.

Not reviewed.

Nordstorm, Carl A. A Finding List of Bibliographical Materials

Relating to Rockland County, New York. Compiled for the

Tappan Zee Historical Society, Orangeburg, NY, and the Office

of the County Superintendent of Schools, New City, NY, 1959.

Not reviewed.

Pierson, Edward F. The Ramapo Pass: Including the village of Ramapo

Works: Founded by the Pierson Brothers in 1795, Josiah

Gilbert, Jeremy Halsey and Isaac Pierson and other

historical particulars. Ramapo, NJ: Author, 1915.

Not reviewed.

Price, Edward T. Mixed blood populations of the Eastern Unites

States as to origins, localizations, and persistence.

Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley,

CA, 1950.

Not reviewed.

Ramapo Presbyterian Church. Church History and Buyer's Guide Including

Cook Book of Favorite Recipes. Hillburn, NY: Ramapo

Presbyterian Church, n.d. Pamphlet.

Not reviewed.

Smeltzer-Stevenot, Marjorie. Footprints in the Ramapos: Life in the mountains

before the state parks. Ashland, OH and Sloatsburg, NY: Author, 1993.

Not reviewed.

Stamato, Linda. The Jackson-Whites of the Ramapo Mountains. M.A.

thesis, Seton Hall University, 1968.

Not reviewed.

Stead, Chuck. The Ramapo Mountain poet. Monroe, NY: Library

Research Associates, 1979, 24 p.

Not reviewed.

Storms, James C. Origin of the Jackson-Whites of the Ramapo

Mountains, Park Ridge, NJ: Author, 1958.

One of the first full recountings of the origins of the Jackson Whites. The work retells, uncritically, many of the legends surrounding the group and is a good source for local oral traditions.

Woodsmen, mountaineers and bockies: The people of the Ramapos: April 14 -

August 18, 1985. New City, NY: Historical Society of

Rockland County, 1985.

Not reviewed.

Government Documents:

New Jersey Conference of Social Work, Interracial Committee, Negro

in New Jersey, Newark, 21 Fulton St., 1932, 22 pp.

Not reviewed.

New Jersey Washington Bicentennial Committee, Forges and Manor of

Ringwood, Trenton, NJ: The Committee, 1932.

There is one paragraph on pg. 12 on the Jackson Whites.

Ramapough Mountain Indian Tribe of New York and New Jersey. Ramapough

Mountain Indians Incorporated: Petition for federal acknowledgement,

1990. Washington, DC: Bureau of Indian Affairs, March 31,

1990.

The petition for status as an Indian nation was denied.

United States, Work Projects Administration. Indian Site Survey of

New Jersey, March 16, 1936 - June 30, 1938. Trenton,

NJ: New Jersey State Museum, 1938.

Not reviewed.

Audiovisual Materials:

Finkelstein Memorial Library. The Ramapo Mountain People. Yesteryears,

Part 2. Spring Valley, NY: The Library, 1980, VHS

videocassette, speaker Mozelle Van Dunk Stein.

Interviews:

Blowers, F. E., Mrs. Public Health Nurse, Ramsey, NJ. Interview by

Jill Machol, 29 December, 1965. Cited in The Ramapo

Mountain people - a problem of acceptance. Painesville,

OH: Jill Machol, 1966.

Not reviewed.

Cooke, Fr. E. S., Catholic Priest to the Mountain People. Interview by

Jill Machol, 28 December, 1965. Cited in The Ramapo

Mountain people - a problem of acceptance. Painesville,

OH: Jill Machol, 1966.

Not reviewed.

Hein, Amy Isabel Plokhooy, author's mother. Interview by the author,

20 April, 1995.

My mother describes her experiences with the Jackson Whites during the time she was a sales representative for the Stanhome Products company in the Bergen and Passaic County, NJ, region. She vividly recalls several "Stanley Parties" she attended as the demonstrator of Stanhome household products in the homes of some of the Jackson Whites in Bergen County in the late 1950s. She describes them as being, in her view, amoral in the sense that they had no sense of what constituted an incestuous relationship. She also describes them, particularly the children, as dirty. She reports feeling mildly apprehensive when in the company of most of the men and many of the women of the clans. It is difficult to gauge how much of this reaction was conditioned by expectations and how much was a result of genuinely objective observation.

Haff, Stephen, Editor of the Ramsey Journal and President of

the Ramsey Community Service Association. Interview by

Jill Machol, 30 December, 1965. Cited in The Ramapo

Mountain people - a problem of acceptance. Painesville,

OH: Jill Machol, 1966.

Not reviewed.

Speeches:

Cooke, Fr. E. S. Modern Day Samaria: Stag Hill, History and Postulates.

Fordham University, New York, May 10, 1964.

Finn, Rev. John W. A Ramapo Treasure Hunt: A Survey of the Origins of

the Jackson Whites of the Ramapos. Bergen County

Historical Society, Hackensack, NJ, October 21, 1965.

Overall, Carole C. Various Retreat Groups: And more specifically, the

Jackson Whites of the Ramapo Mountains, May 8, 1959.

Unpublished Materials:

Draft of a Proposed First Report of a Bergen County Volunteer

Committee Concerned with the "Mountain People" of the

Ramapo Hills, Bergen County, NJ, 1953.

Not reviewed.

Goddard, H. H., Jackson-Whites, Unpublished study,

Vineland Training School, 1911.

See below

Jackson Whites, A study of Racial Degeneracy. Vineland

Training School, Vineland, NJ, 1911.

See also H. H. Goddard, above - probably the same manuscript.

Kaufman, Marie L. Public Health Nursing among the Jackson Whites.

Northern Bergen Nursing Service, 1951.

Not reviewed.

van Valen, J. M. History of Bergen County, New Jersey. New York:

Author, 1900.

This manuscript describes the Jackson Whites as being largely of Hackensack Indian blood. The Hackensacks were a branch of the Lenni Lenape tribe. Mr. van Valen says they "bear little resemblance to the Indians, yet as tradition gives it they are descendants of Hessians, Indians, and Negroes, but they know nothing of their ancestry, so ignorant have they become."

Vineland Training School. The Jackson Whites: A study of Social Degeneracy.

Vineland, NJ: The School, unpublished, unpaginated manuscript, 1911.

See also Goddard, H. H. Jackson Whites and Jackson Whites, A study of Racial Degeneracy. Vineland Training School, above - probably the same.

Volunteer Committee Concerned with the People of the Ramapos.

Fact Sheet, 1953.

Not reviewed.

APPENDIX A

Portraits of Members of the Van Dunk and De Freese Families

Yesterday

Charlie De Freese	Wesley Van Dunk
FROM: Cohen, David Steven. The Ramapo Mountain people. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1974.

Today

Bob Van Dunk	Mozelle Van Dunk Stein
FROM: Mayer, Allan J., "Is this tribe Indian?" Newsweek 95(Jan 7, 1980):32(1).

Tomorrow

Myron Van Dunk	Jack Van Dunk
FROM: Cohen, David Steven. The Ramapo Mountain people. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1974.

APPENDIX B

Primary Sources Examined by David S. Cohen

General Collections Consulted

• New York Pubic Library
• Russell Sage Foundation
• Library of Congress
• Paterson Public Library
• New Jersey Historical Society
• Newark Public Library
• Writings on American History, 1902-1936.

Manuscripts and Manuscript Collections

Bergen County Court House, Hackensack, NJ:

• Black Births in Bergen County, 1804-1844.
• Deeds.
• Manumission of Slaves, Liber A.
• Tax Assessment List, Township of Mahwah, 1972.
• Wills and Inventories.

Bergen County Historical Society, Johnson Free Library, Hackensack, NJ:

New York and New Jersey Cemeteries. Compiled by Herbert S. Ackerman

and Arthur J. Goff, 1947.

Paramus Reformed Dutch Church Records, Marriages 1799-1900, Baptisms 1851-

1900. Compiled by Herbert S. Ackerman and Arthur J. Goff, 1944.

Pascack Dutch Reformed Church Records and Cemetery. Compiled by Herbert S.

Ackerman and Arthur J. Goff, 1946.

Records of the Ramapo Reformed Dutch Church and of the Ramapo Lutheran

Church. Compiled by Herbert S. Ackerman and Arthur J. Goff, 1944.

Records of the Zion Lutheran Churches of Saddle River and Ramapo, NJ Compiled

by Herbert S. Ackerman and Arthur J. Goff, 1943.

Saddle River Dutch Reformed Church and Cemetery. Compiled by Herbert S.

Ackerman and Arthur J. Goff, 1944.

Tombstone Inscriptions, Bergen County. Compiled by Rev. Edward Kelder, 3 vols.

Community Action Council of Passaic County, Hewitt, NJ:

• Report of Findings of Progress Development Grant, 1967.
• Survey conducted from December 1966 to March 1967 of the Ringwood Mine Area.

Eugenics Records Office Files, Dwight Institute of Human Genetics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn.:

• Osborn, Dorothy, Pedigree of Van Donk-De Grote Albino Family.

Hillburn Village Hall, Hillburn, NY:

• Village Board Minutes.

New Jersey Historical Society, Newark, NJ:

• New Jersey Boundary Papers, 1769. 2 vols.
• New York and New Jersey Boundary ca. 1748-1753, 2 vols.
• Discovery, Grants, and Settlements of New Jersey ca. 1606-1700.

New Jersey State Archives, State Library, Trenton, NJ:

• State Census for New Jersey: 1855. Bergen and Passaic Counties.
• State Census for New Jersey: 1865. Bergen and Passaic Counties.
• State Census for New Jersey: 1915. Bergen and Passaic Counties.
• Wills and Inventories.

New-York Historical Society, Map Section, New York City:

Road from 15 M. Stone, near Suffran's to Fort Lee, Hackensack, Haversvraw,

etc., by Captain John W. Watkins, Erskine-DeWitt map no. 26.

Roads from Ringwood to Pompton Plains and from Pompton Plans to Sufferns,

by Robert Erskine, Erskine-DeWitt map no. 42.

New York Public Library, Manuscript Section, Budke Collection, New York City, NY:

• Abstracts of Deeds recorded in Liber A in the Office of the Clerk of Rockland County, NY (1798-1808), fol. BC-66.
• Assessment Rolls for the Town of Clarkstown, Rockland County, NY, for the Years 1841 and 1842, fol. BC-24.
• Assessment Rolls-Real and Personal Estates in the Town of Orange, County of Rockland, NY, for the Years 1796, 1807, 1808, 1817, 1820, 1821, 1826, 1827, 1829, 1832, 1837, fol. BC-47.
• Calendar of Wills and Letters of Administration Pertaining to Estates in Rockland County, NY, to the End of the Year 1850, fol. BC-68.
• Clarkstown, NY, Tax Assessment List, 1787, fol. BC-52.
• Genealogical Notebook, 3 vols., fol. BC-58m, 59, 60.
• Grand Jury List, Rockland County, NY, 1827, 1828, 1830, fol. BC-22.
• Historical Manuscripts, vol. A-E, Wills, Deeds, Mortgages, Church Records, Bills of Sale, Estate Inventories, 1666-1898, fol. 72-74, 34-35.
• Marriage Records of the Reformed Dutch Churches of Tappan and Clarkstown, Rockland County, NY, 1694-1831. Compiled by David Cole and Walter Kenneth Griffin, fol. BC-50.
• Original Assessment Rolls for the Town of Clarkstown, Rockland County, NY, for the Years 1848, 1850, 1851, 1852, 1853, 1854, fol. BC-25.
• Original Assessment Rolls for the Town of Clarkstown, Rockland County, NY, for the Years 1855, 1856, 1857, fol. BC-26.
• Original Assessment Rolls for the Town of Clarkstown, Rockland County, NY, for the Years 1858, 1859, 1860, 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1865. 8 vols., fol. BC-13-20.
• Papers Relating to the New York and New Jersey Boundary, 1686-1775; 1924, fol. BC- 29.
• Patents Granted for the Lands in the Present County of Rockland, NY, fol. BC-67.
• Records of the Clarkstown Reformed Church (Rockland County, NY), also the Baptismal Records of the Ramapo Evangelical Lutheran Church. Translated from Dutch by George H. Budke, fol. BC-49.
• Records of the Greenbush Presbyterian Church at Blauvelt, Rockland County, NY, Marriages, Baptisms and Membership from the ()rigination of the Church in 1812 to the Close of 1850, fol. BC-61.
• Records of the New Hempstead Presbyterian Church, Known Locally as the English Church; 1919, fol. BC-65.
• Records of the Reformed Dutch Church of West New Hempstead, commonly called the Brick Church, also the Kakiat Reformed Dutch Church, fol. BC-64.
• Records of the Tappan Reformed Church. Baptisms. 1816-1870; Marriages, 1831-1870, fol. 48.
• Suffern, Andrew. Account Book, 1795-1804, fol. BC-4.
• Suffern, Andrew. Account Book, 1795-1804, Ledger B, fol. BC-6.
• Suffern, John. Account Book, 1795-1804, Haverstraw General Store, fol. BC-8.
• Supervisors of the Poor, Account Book, 1793-1819, also 1847-1867. Clarkstown, NY, fol. BC-7.
• Tombstone Inscriptions, fol. 37 45.

Rockland County Court House. New City, NY:

• Deeds.
• Party Enrollment Lists.
• New York State Census for Rockland County: 1855.
• New York State Census for Rockland County: 1865.
• New York State Census for Rockland County: 1875.
• New York State Census for Rockland County: 1892.
• New York State Census for Rockland County: 1905.
• New York State Census for Rockland County: 1915.
• Wills and Inventories.

Rutgers University Library, Special Collections, New Brunswick, NJ:

• Kite, Elizabeth. Manuscript Research Notes on the Jackson Whites, box 5.
• Kite, Elizabeth. Compilation of the Jackson White Rose family, box 5.
• Kite, Elizabeth. Correspondence Relating to Research on the Jackson Whites, box 5.
• Vineland Training School, The Jackson Whites: A Study of Racial Degeneracy. Vineland, NJ, c. 1911. Microfilm.
• Town of Ramapo, NY Tax List. 1972. Hillburn.

United States, Bureau of the Census:

• Second Census of the United States: 1800. New York: Rockland County. Orange County.
• Third Census of the United States: 1810. New York: Rockland County. Orange County.
• Fourth Census of the United States: 1820. New York: Rockland County. Orange County.
• Fifth Census of the United States: 1830. New York: Rockland County. Orange County. New Jersey: Bergen County. Passaic County.
• Sixth Census of the United States: 1840. New York: Rockland County. New Jersey: Passaic County. Bergen County.
• Seventh Census of the United States: 1850. New York: Rockland County. New Jersey: Bergen County. Passaic County.
• Eighth Census of the United States: 1860. New York: Rockland County. New Jersey: Bergen County. Passaic County.
• Ninth Census of the United States: 1870. New York: Rockland County. Tenth Census of the United States: 1880. New York: Rockland County. New Jersey: Bergen County. Passaic County.

West, Lewis, private collection, Midvale, NJ:

• Account of the General Store at the Long Pond Furnace. 1866.
• Long Pond Ironworks, Account Books, 1866-69.
• Monthly Paylists of the Ringwood Ironworks.
• Payroll for the Greenwood Lake Ice House, August 9, 1879.
• Payrolls for the Ringwood Furnace, 1869.
• Store Sales for the Copper and Hewitt Company Store, August 1879.

Books:

Banta, Theodore. A Frisian Family: The Banta Genealogy. New

York: n.p., 1893.

Baptisms at Clarkstown from August 13, 1749, to December 28, 1794,

History of Rockland County, New York. Edited by David

Cole. New York: J. B. Beers & Co., 1884.

Baptisms at Tappan from October 25, 1694 to January 10, 1816, History

of Rockland County, New York. Edited by David Cole.

New York: J. B. Beers & Co., 1884.

Bergen County, NJ, Board of Justices and Chosen Freeholders. Minutes of the

Justices and Freeholders of Bergen County, New Jersey,

1715-1795. North Hackensack, NJ: Bergen County Historical

Society, 1924.

Coster, G. C. Hessian Soldiers in the American Revolution: Records of

their Marriages and Baptisms of their Children in America, performed

by Rev. G. C. Coster, 1776-1783, Chaplain of 2 Hessian Regiments.

Translated by Marie Dickore. Cincinnati, OH: C. J. Krehbiel Co., 1959.

Danckaerts, Jasper. Journal of Jasper Danckaerts. Edited by James

B. Bartlett and J. Franklin Jameson. New York: 1913, reprinted in The

History of the United States. vol. 1. 1600-1876. Source Readings,

eds. Neil Harris, David J. Rothman, and Stephan Thernstrom. New York:

Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1969.

de Vries, David Peterson. Voyages from Holland to America, A.D. 1632

to 1644. Translated by Henry C. Murphy. New York:

Billin & Bros., 1853.

Eelking, Max von. The German Allied Troops in the North American War of

Independence, 1776-1783. Translated and abridged from the

German by J. C. Rosengarten. Albany, NY: Joel Munsell's Sons, 1893.

Longworth, David. Longworth's American Almanac, New York Register

and City Directory. New York: David Longworth, 1805-26.

Meyers, Carol M. Early New York State Census Records, 1663-1772.

2d ed. Gardena, CA: RAM Publishers, 1965.

Muster Rolls of New York Provincial Troops, 1755-1764. New York:

NewYork Historical Society, 1892.

New Jersey and the Negro: A Bibliography, 1715-1966. Trenton,

NJ: New Jersey Library Association, 1967.

New Jersey Archives. 1st ser. vols. 11, 12, 19, 20, 24-29

Newspaper Extracts, ed. William Nelson, Paterson,

NJ: Press Printing & Publishing Co., 1894, 1895, 1897,

1898, 1902-17; vol. 22 Marriage Records. ed. William

Nelson, Paterson, NJ: The Press Printing &

Publishing Co., 1900; vols. 23, 30-39 Abstracts of

Wills, eds. William Nelson, Elmer T. Hutchinson, and

A. Van Doren Honeyman, Newark & Sommerville, NJ: New

Jersey Law Journal & Unionist-Gazette Association,

1918-44; 2d sers. vols. 1-5 Newspaper Extracts, eds.

William Stryker, Francis Lee, Austin Scott, & William

Nelson, Trenton, NJ: John L. Murphy Publishing Co.,

1901-17.

New York, Secretary of State. Calendar of NY Colonial Manuscripts

Indorsed Land Papers in the Office of the Secretary of

State of New York, 1643-1803. Albany, NY: Weed, Parsons &

Co., 1864.

New York State Historian. Third Annual Report of the State Historian

of the State of New York, 1897. Albany & New York:

Wynkoop Hallenbeck Crawford Co., 1898.

Newark Directory: 1910. Newark: Price & Lee Co., 1910.

Niebyl, Elizabeth Hale. A Program for Housing in the Township of Mahwah,

New Jersey: A Survey of Selected Areas and Recommendations

for the Removal of Substandard Conditions. Mahwah, NJ:

Volunteer Committee Concerned with the People of the Ramapos,

Inc., 1955.

O'Callaghan, E. B., ed. Calendar of Historical Manuscripts in the Office

of the Secretary of State, Albany, New York. Pt. 1, Dutch

Manuscripts, 1630-1664. Albany, NY: Weed, Parsons & Co., 1865.

________. The Documentary History of the State of New York. Albany,

NY: Weed, Parsons & Co., 1849. vols. 1-4.

________. Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State

of New York. Albany, NY: Weed, Parsons & Co., 1861.

________. The Register of New Netherlands, 1626 to 1674. Albany,

NY: J. Munsell, 1865.

State of New Jersey. Acts of the General Assembly of the Province of

New Jersey. Edited by Samuel Allinson. Burlington, NJ:

Isaac Collins, 1776.

________. Laws of the State of New Jersey. Compiled by William Paterson.

New Brunswick, NJ: Abraham Blauvelt, 1800.

________. Adjutant General's Office. Official Register of the Officers

and Men of New Jersey in the Revolutionary War. Trenton, NJ:

William T. Nicholson & Co., 1872. 2 vols.

________. Record of Officers and Men of New Jersey in the Civil War,

1861-1865. Trenton, NJ: John L. Murphy, 1876.

Stokes, Isaac Newton Phelps. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1495-1909.

New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1922. 6 vols.

United States, Bureau of the Census. Heads of Families at the First Census of

the United States Taken in the Year 1790. New York.

Washington, D.C.: Govermnent Printing Office, 1908.

________. Tenth Census of the United States: 1880. New York. New

Jersey. Population. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing

Office, 1883.

________. Eleventh Census of the United States: 1890. New York.

New Jersey. Population. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office,

1894, 1895, 1897.

________. Twelfth Census of the United States: 1900. New York. New

Jersey. Population. Washington, D.C.: Governmcnt Printing

Office, 1901-2.

________. Thirteenth Census of the United States: 1910. New York.

New Jersey. Population. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing

Office, 1913.

________. Fourteenth Census of the United States: 1920. New York.

New Jersey. Population. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing

Office, 1923.

________. Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930. New York.

New Jersey. Population. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing

Office, 1932.

________. Sixteenth Census of the United States: 1940. New York.

New Jersey. Population. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing

Office, 1943.

________. Seventeenth Census of the United States: 1950. New York.

New Jersey. Population. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing

Office, 1952.

________. Eighteenth Census of the United States: 1960. New York.

New Jersey. Population. Housing. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing

Office, 1963.

________. Nineteenth Census of the United States: 1970. New York.

New Jersey. Population. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing

Office, 1973.

van der Donck, Adriaen. A Description of the New Netherlands. Edited

by Thomas F. O'Donnell. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University

Press, 1968. First published in 1656.

van Laer, Arnold John Ferdinand, ed. Documents Relating to New Netherlands,

1624-1626, in the Huntington Library. San Marino, CA:

Huntington Library, 1924.

Westervelt, Frances A., comp. Bergen County, New Jersey, Marriage

Records Copied from the Entries as Originally Made at the Court

House by the Ministers and Justices of the Peace of the County.

New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1929.

Woodson, Carter Godwin. Free Negro Heads of Families in the United States

in 1830. Washington, D.C.: Association for the Study of Negro

Life and History, 1925.

Periodicals:

• Baptisms in the Lutheran Church, New York City, From 1725, New York Genealogical and Biographical Record 97 (1966): 92-105, 163-70, 223-30.

• Census of Orange County, New York, Based on the True Account of the Inhabitants Returned by Dirck Storm, Clerk of the County, June 16, 1702, The Rockland Record, Being the Proceedings and Historical Collections of the Rockland County Society of the State of New York, Inc., for the Years 1931 and 1932. Vol . 2 (1931): 65-79.

• Census of Orange County, 1712; ibid., Vol. 2 (1931): 22-23.

• Federal Census of 1800 for Orange County, New York, New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, 64 (January 1933): 62.

• Flatbush Dutch Church Records, Yearbook of the Holland Society of New York. New York: Holland Society of New York, 1898.

• Hoffman, William J.: An Armory of American Families of Dutch Descent, New York Genealogical and Biographical Record 19 (July 1938): 224 26.

• Marriages in the Reformed Dutch Church, New York City, New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, 70 (January 1939): 39.

• Marriages in the Village of Bergen in New Jersey beginning 1665, Yearbook of the Holland Society of New York. New York: Holland Society of New York, 1914. Vol. 2, Bergen Book, pp. 57-85.

• Records of the Reformed Dutch Church in New Amsterdam and New York. Collections of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. Vol. 1 (1890) Marriages, 1639-1801; Vol. 2 (1901) Baptisms, 1639-1739; Vol. 3 (1902) Baptisms, 1731-1800.

• Records of the Reformed Dutch Churches of Hackensack and Schraalenburgh, New Jersey, Collections of the Holland Society, vol. 1 (1891), pt. 1, Hackensack; pt. 2, Schraalenburgh.

• Some Early Records of the Lutheran Church, New York, Yearbook of the Holland Society of New York. New York: Holland Society of New York, 1903.

Newspapers:

• Argus (West Milford, NJ)
• Bergen Evening Record (Hackensack, NJ)
• Bulletin (Ringwood, NJ)
• Daily (New York City, NY)
• Herald News (Ridgewood, NJ)
• New York Times (New York City, NY)
• Nyack Journal News (Nyack, NY)
• Ramsey Journal (Ramsey, NJ)
• Rockland County Journal (Nyack, NY)

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