Pages

Monday, August 11, 2025

Pocket Watch of Peter S Duryee 1922

A pocket watch of Peter S Duryee is up for auction on eBay. The item is located in Australia, far from its origins.

EBay listing for pocket watch engraved for Peter S Duryee

The manufacturer was Illinois Watch Company, which still exists today.



Cover of watch is engraved P S D

Picture of engraving on the watch

The engraving reads:

Peter S Duryee
Vice President 1914-1919
President 1920-1921
A Token of appreciation of his devoted
and able services to the
Knickerbocker Country Club
from his associates on the
Board of Trustees
January 27th 1922

There were many men named Peter Duryee or Duryea. This particular watch probably belonged to Peter Stanford Duryee (1873-1954). He was born, raised, lived, and died in the City of Englewood, Bergen County, New Jersey. 

Peter's parents were Jacob Augustus Duryee (1841-1886) and Arenia Graves Ruggles (1844-1911)

On November 8, 1900 Peter married Pauline Julia Clephane (1875-1954). They had two daughters. Pauline Clephane Duryee (1903-1985) married Anton Gysberti Hardy. Margaret Ruggles Duryee (1904-2000) married Albert Whitney Rhodes.

Peter had many endeavors throughout his life. He began as a coffee and tea merchant. He actively raised funds for charities. He became a banker during the World War, circa 1917. He held top positions at various financial firms. He was one of the first commissioners of the Englewood Police. He was also a trustee of the New York and New Jersey Railroad Company and served on the board of directors of Englewood Hospital.

In 1954, Peter died on May 12. His wife, Pauline, died nine days later. They were buried in Brookside Cemetery in Englewood.


Friday, August 1, 2025

Mary (1822-1861), Not a Daughter of Jacob Vanderhoof and Ann Hopler

Beware of blindly accepting published family trees!

Jacob Vanderhoof (1772-1847) and Ann Hopler (1772-1841) lived and died in Morris County, New Jersey. This couple produced thousands of descendants, myself included. As a consequence, they are found in lots of online family trees. Vanderhoof and variant spellings were common in New York and New Jersey in the 1700s and 1800s, resulting in many different people having similar first and last names living within miles of one another. The few written records that survive lack details that would help distinguish one person from another of the same name.

The result is lots of trees that merge different people into one, or criss-cross the lines.

As of this writing, I have not sorted all of the men named Jacob Vanderhoof. I'll produce articles as I figure out children, record sets, or locations.

A tree appeared with Jacob, Ann, and sixteen children. I explored this tree because I was curious about the sources about their daughter, Elizabeth (1799-1878). The picture for Elizabeth is that of a young woman. Elizabeth was well-past her youth when cameras and photographs were invented, so this cannot be her.

Tree of Jacob Vanderhoof, Ann Elizabeth Hopler, and sixteen children

I looked at the youngest offered child, Mary, born in 1822, when her mother was fifty. The only source is another family tree. This will not suffice.

Source for the life of Mary Vanderhoof is another tree

In 1848, Mary Vanderhoof and J K Odell married in Sussex County, New Jersey. This was just before state-wide registry was required; however, the event was recorded at the county level and can be viewed online. From this record we see that the bride was described as "of Wantage." This is in Sussex County, about thirty miles northwest of Rockaway Valley in Morris County, where Jacob Vanderhoof and and Ann Hopler had resided before their deaths.

March 30, 1848. Mr J K Odell of Hardiston to Miss Mary Vanderhoof of Wantage.
Sussex County, New Jersey Marriages 1828-1853

On October 30, 1861 Mary Odel died in Vernon, Sussex County. This record is also available online. State-wide registration was in the form of ledger books at this time. The cause of death was consumption, or tuberculosis. Her parents were Jacob and Elizabeth Vanderhoof.


Mary Odell has a memorial page at Find A Grave, along with a photograph of the stone. She was buried at Deckertown Union Cemetery in Wantage.

Mary Vanderhuff Odell (1823-1861)
Memorial page at Find A Grave

The above-mentioned sources don't help us definitively rule Mary in or out as a daughter of Jacob Vanderhoof and Ann Hopler. Without visiting this cemetery in person, we can check for other Vanderhoofs buried there.

We find Jacob A Vanderhuff (1791-1870) and Elizabeth Swan (1793-1870) listed in the same cemetery as Mary. They seem more likely to be her parents. (Yes, Mary is listed as their daughter at Find A Grave. This is because I requested this change after finding and reviewing documents.)

Jacob A Vanderhuff (1791-1870)
Memorial page at Find A Grave

Elizabeth Swan Vanderhuff (1793-1870)
Memorial page at Find A Grave

The will of Jacob A Vanderhuff is viewable online. He left his estate to his living children and to three of his grandchildren, "children of John K Odell and my daughter Mary, now deceased."

Will of Jacob A Vanderhuff of Vernon, Sussex County, New Jersey.
Proved August 17, 1870.

This helps chip away at one bit of inaccuracy in the Vanderhoof tree. More to come.