TWO ELIZABETH COOKS, WIVES OF VANDERHOOFS

In the ongoing effort to sort the Vanderhoofs of Morris County, New Jersey, we have the related family of Cook. 

My fourth great grandparents were Stephen Cook (1797-1853) and Elizabeth Vanderhoof (1799-1878). They were buried in the Cook Cemetery in Denville, which is now on the grounds of the golf course of The Rockaway River County Club. Here's an older article of me in Cook Cemetery.

Also in the Cook Cemetery is a footstone engraved EV. This is supposedly for Elizabeth Vanderhoof.

Memorial page at Find A Grave
Elizabeth Vanderhoof 1804-1882
Cook Cemetery in Denville, New Jersey

There exists a death certificate for Elizabeth Vanderhoof, age 78 years, died April 24, 1882 in Rockaway Township. Her father was David Cook. Burial was at the Cook Cemetery.

Death certificate of Elizabeth Vanderhoof. Died April 24, 1882, age 78 years.
Hibernia, Rockaway Township, Morris County, New Jersey.
Father- David Cook.
Buried at Cook Cemetery in Denville.

I thought that this Elizabeth was the wife of Richard Vanderhoof, a son of Jacob Vanderhoof (1772-1847) and Ann Hopler (1772-1841). Richard was one of the last children, born around 1815. Richard and Elizabeth were last seen together in the 1870 census in Rockaway. They had at least seven children from about 1835 through 1847. At least two of the death certificates of these children list the parents as Richard Vanderhoof and Eliza Cook. 

In reviewing the works of Louisa Caroline Freeman Hickerson, she proposed a remarriage of Richard Vanderhoof, as well as a remarriage of Richard’s father, Jacob, also to someone named Elizabeth Cook. 

The two women named Elizabeth Cook were probably double first cousins.
They married a father/son pair.

I suspect that Susan Wiggins and Jemima Wiggins were sisters. Two sisters married two brothers. Both couples named daughters Elizabeth Cook. One became the first wife of Richard Vanderhoof. The other became the second wife of Jacob Vanderhoof, the father of Richard Vanderhoof.

The Elizabeth Cook who married Richard Vanderhoof had two brothers, Stephen and William, who married Richard’s sisters, Elizabeth and Hiley.

The Elizabeth Cook who married the widower Jacob Vanderhoof had a brother, Chileon, who married Jacob’s daughter, Charlotte.

This becomes intertwined.

 

JACOB VANDERHOOF (1772-1847)

Jacob and his wife, Ann Hopler, are buried in her family’s cemetery, Demouth Burial Ground, in Boonton. The stones are difficult to read at this point in time. The date of death on Ann’s stone is February 27, 1841. There might be no other record of her death.

Current appearance of the Demouth Burial Ground in Boonton.
Picture taken October 11, 2025 by Jody Lutter.

 According to Freeman, “There was Jacob Vanderhoof who married Elizabeth Cook, a daughter of David and Jemima (Wiggins) Cook. From copies of land transactions it would seem that it is the same Jacob as above. Two sons: Jacob C. born 1843. David born 1844. Elizabeth was a widow before 1850.”

Information about Jacob Vanderhoof's supposed second marriage and the children of that union.

In 1842, Jacob Vanderhoof and wife Elizabeth sold property in Pequannock to William M Dixon. If this is the same Jacob, this would indicate that Jacob had remarried between the death of his first wife, Ann, in 1841, and the date of this deed in 1842.

Deed. Pequannock, Morris County, New Jersey.
Jacob Vanderhoof and wife Elizabeth transferred land to William M Dixon.
March 4, 1842

By 1850, Elizabeth was widowed and living in her father’s household with two Vanderhoof children: Jacob, age 7, and David, age 5. Note the prior household is Tunis.

1850 census. Township of Rockaway.
Household of David Cook, age 69.
Jemima Cook. Catherine Adle (daughter?).
Elizabeth Vanderhoof, age 46. Jacob Vanderhoof, age 7. David Vanderhoof, age 5.

In 1872, Elizabeth filed for a widow’s pension based on the service of Jacob Vanderhoof in the War of 1812. Jacob’s death was stated as April 6, 1846. The date on his gravestone is April 6, 1847. 

Widow's Pension War of 1812
filed by Elizabeth Cook, wife of Jacob Vanderhoof, 1872

The pension was denied because Elizabeth could not prove that she was married to Jacob before the Treaty of Peace on February 17, 1815. She stated that her name was Elizabeth Cook and that the marriage occurred between 1820 and 1824.

Statement of Elizabeth Cook explaining that she cannot recall exactly when she married Jacob Vanderhoof.
They probably married in 1841 or 1842.

David Vanderhoof died in November of 1876. His entry on the death ledger stated his parents’ names as Jacob and Elizabeth. 

Death ledger entry for David Vanderhoof, age 25.
Died November 1876- no day given.
Father- Jacob. Mother- Elizabeth.

David was buried in Cook Cemetery, according to the application for a military headstone. 

Application for military headstone of David Vanderhoof (1845-1876).
Private, Company G, 7th Regiment, New Jersey Infantry. Civil War.

What became of Jacob Vanderhoof, born about 1843? I am not sure as of this writing. As we have seen many times within this family, there was more than one person named Jacob Vanderhoof born in the 1840s. I will need to gather their documents before we have definitive paths.

RICHARD VANDERHOOF (1815-1892)

Richard was born around 1815. He married Elizabeth Cook, probably around 1834. I have not found an entry for this marriage in the records of Morris and Essex Counties. A marriage was announced in a Newark, Essex County newspaper for Richard Vanderhoof and Elisabeth Cook in 1834 by Reverend S Higgins. Also married at this time was Jacob P Hill and Eunice Sanderson. This couple lived in Newark. Eunice was buried in 1851 in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Newark.

Marriage announcement of Richard Vanderhoof and Elisabeth Cook, 1834.

In 1850, Richard Vanderhoof, his wife, Eliza, and their seven children were living in Rockaway. Elizabeth’s age is consistently a few years older than Richard’s age. The prior Cook household was Stephen Cook and Elizabeth Vanderhoof, my fourth great grandparents.

1850 census Rockaway Township, Morris County, New Jersey.
Household of Richard Vanderhoof and Eliza.

Freeman wrote that Elizabeth Cook was possibly the daughter of Henry I Cook who died around 1831. "In 1831 she signed her name as Eliza Cook." If she did marry Richard Vanderhoof, it was after her father’s estate was settled.

Information about Richard Vanderhoof, his marriages, and children.

There was an Elizabeth Vanderhoof who died May 13, 1871 in Denville. She was married. Her parents' names were not provided. Who was she?

Death ledger entry for Elizabeth Vanderhoof, age 58.
Died May 13, 1871 in Denville, Morris County, New Jersey.
No parents or spouse listed.
Cause of death- consumption (tuberculosis).

Eliza Vanderhoof, wife of Richard Vanderhoof, was buried at Rockaway Valley United Methodist Church Cemetery. The date of death on this stone is August 30, 1875. I have not found a corresponding entry in deaths reported to the State of New Jersey. Freeman wrote, "Eliza seems to have died sometime about 1873-1875." Why did she not think that Eliza died as early as the 1870 census up until the time of her husband's remarriage?

Gravestone of Eliza, wife of Richard Vanderhoof
Died August 30, 1875. Aged 64 years.
Rockaway Valley United Methodist Church Cemetery
38 Valley Road, Boonton, Morris County, New Jersey

Three months after the death of his first wife, Richard Vanderhoof, son of Jacob, married Jane, daughter of Joseph Tunis. The Tunis household was next to Richard’s stepmother in the 1850 census.

Marriage ledger entry for Richard, son of Jacob Vanderhoof,
and Jane C, daughter of Joseph Tunis.
November 25, 1875 in Denville.

Richard and Jane were last seen together in the 1885 state census in Rockaway. Richard’s estate was inventoried in 1892.

Inventory of Richard Vanderhoof by Peter F Cook and Edward Peer.
Dated April 21, 1892. Morris County, New Jersey.

April 5, 1892 is the date of death on Richard Vanderhoof's gravestone. I do not see a corresponding entry in any online death index in New Jersey.

Gravestone of Richard Vanderhoof
Died April 5, 1892. Aged 77 years.
Rockaway Valley United Methodist Church Cemetery
38 Valley Road, Boonton, Morris County, New Jersey

The stones of Eliza and Richard are side-by-side.

Gravestones of Eliza and Richard Vanderhoof
Rockaway Valley United Methodist Church Cemetery

Richard's second wife, Jane, died in 1919 in Eatontown, Monmouth County. Her daughters and siblings are mentioned, but not her husbands.

Obituary of Jane C Vanderhoof, 1919.
Her children were from her marriage to William H Drayton (1822-1863).

More documentation is needed to firm up these loose ends.

Wrong Day of Death on Stone

We have another conflicting date on a gravestone in Rockaway Valley United Methodist Church Cemetery in Boonton, Morris County, New Jersey.

Find A Grave memorial page
Dora E Vanness Cook 1863-1892

Picture of the stone of Dora E Vanness Cook
at Rockaway Valley United Methodist Church Cemetery
Note the date of death is November 10, 1892

The stone for Dora E VanNess Cook provides her dates of birth and death: October 24, 1863 - November 10, 1892.

But her death certificate has her death as the next day, November 11, 1892. She died at 29 years of age in Boonton.

Death certificate of Dorcastina Elisabeth Cook
November 11, 1892 in Boonton
Available through the New Jersey State Archives

As discussed in the prior article about differing dates for Hila Vanderhoof Cook, the death certificate is a primary source for the date of death. The gravestone is not a primary source. We do not know when or why the stone was engraved.

Elizabeth Dorcastina VanNess married William H Cook (1866-1960) on June 12, 1889 in Powerville, which is an area in Boonton. She was the daughter of James VanNess (1817-1885) and MaryAnn Pierson (1825-1908).

William Cook's paternal grandmother was Hila Vanderhoof (1803-1888), whose gravestone illustrated an engravement with an incorrect year.

1940 High School Graduation

An admission ticket to a graduation ceremony was among family pictures I received recently.

The small red stub was for entrance to the commencement exercises of Central Commercial and Technical High School on June 19, 1940. The event was held at South Side High School. Both these schools were in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey.

Whose graduation was this?

My first guess was my paternal grandmother, Beulah Bernice Cook (1921-1940). She was the right age and her family lived in Newark in the 1940 census.

Yearbooks for Newark are online at Archive.org.

Cog 'N' Pen, the yearbook of the graduating class of 1940, features Beulah!

Photograph of graduating senior Beulah Cook
Central Commercial and Technical High School

The school as it appeared in 1940

The building that housed this high school still stands, though it is now part of the campus of the New Jersey Institute of Technology. It sits on Summit Street and Dr Martin Luther King, Jr Boulevard (formerly High Street) between Warren Street and New Street.

Modern day aerial view of campus buildings
New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, New Jersey
Google Maps

Central High School was constructed around 1910 and 1911. These pictures are also available on Archive.org. Eberhardt Hall is visible in the background with its eyebrow dormers. Eberhardt Hall still stands today. It was constructed in the 1850s to house the Newark Orphan Asylum.

Construction of Central High School on Summit Street

In Newark today there is a school called Central High School that credits its descent from the Central High School founded in 1911. 

The other George Wiggins who died in 1848

The prior article mentioned two Cook brothers, Stephen and William, born around 1800 in Morris County, New Jersey. Their parents were Henry Cook (1776-1831) and Susannah Wiggins.

The father of Susannah was George Wiggins. He was my sixth great grandfather. I have found very little on this man. He is mentioned in books about the Cook and Peer families of Morris County.

Book by Louisa Caroline Freeman Hickerson
about Cook family of Morris County, New Jersey.
Available at the Morristown and Morris Township Library.

In 1807, George Wiggins sold land in Hanover, Morris County to John Hinchman. This deed explained how George acquired the property. He purchased it from his father, Stephen Wiggins, and this deed was recorded in 1788. This document is a great example of defining family relationships in records other than birth, marriage, and death certificates.

Deed conveying land in Hanover, Morris County, New Jersey
from George Wiggins to John Hinchman
dated March 1807.
See picture below for the enlargement of the relevant portion.

George Wiggins purchased this property in Hanover
from his father, Stephen Wiggins.
That deed was recorded in 1788.

Online trees can lead to records, or they can be entirely wrong. The latter has been my finding so far concerning George Wiggins.

Suspect family tree of George Wiggins

Most trees have George's death in the year 1848. Their sources are other trees. This is not helpful.

After digging through many trees, I found two sources for this date.

The first source is a gravestone.

Picture of a blurry gravestone
attributed to George Wiggins of Morris County, New Jersey

This is a blurry picture of a gravestone, location not indicated. This is not a link within the Find A Grave database at Ancestry.

Over at Find A Grave, I found this memorial page. This stone marks the burial place in New Hampshire for a child named George A Wiggin. In other words, not a grown man named George Wiggins who lived in New Jersey.

Find A Grave memorial page
George A Wiggin died September 4, 1848, age 1 year, 9 months, 21 days.

The other source for the year of death 1848 is this entry in the Ancestry database called "New Jersey, U.S., Deaths and Burials Index, 1798-1971."

Entry for George Wiggins, died November 1848
Database at Ancestry

This is an older database that existed prior to the publication of ledger books of deaths; as such, they do not link to the relevant page in the ledger book. But- these entries trace back to a variety of sources, not only the official ledger books.

To obtain the exact book and page number for this death in the ledger books, I searched for George Wiggins in the index at the website of the New Jersey State Archives. Nothing.

Index of deaths for New Jersey 1848-1878
at the website of the New Jersey State Archives

Remembering that the title of this database indicates that the records begin in 1798, prior to the 1848 start date of New Jersey's death ledgers, I looked at the entry again. A film number was included, 542528. This film number appears in the catalog of FamilySearch for an index of events recorded in newspapers from Trenton, Mercer County, New Jersey.

FamilySearch catalog for film 542528
Vital statistics index from Trenton newspapers, 1800-1900

This film is not viewable outside a family history center; however, Trenton newspapers are available online at GenealogyBank (not a free site). This entry at Ancestry for George Wiggins refers to a newspaper article about his MURDER. Elijah Gray allegedly struck George with a gun stock in Salem. This is in Salem County, New Jersey, on the Delaware River and not close to Morris County. Plus, the men are described as "colored," and my ancestor George Wiggins was not.

Newspaper article about the murder of George Wiggins
of Salem, New Jersey in November 1848

These two hints at Ancestry were blindly accepted by many family tree creators without examining the underlying records. This has resulted in numerous trees with the unsubstantiated year of death as 1848 for the George Wiggins of Morris County.

At this point in my research, I can only determine that George Wiggins died sometime after conveying property in 1807.

Question: Where can I find this earlier deed dated 1788? The collection of deeds at FamilySearch (New Jersey, Wills and Deeds, ca. 1700s-2017) starts around 1790 for Morris County. I searched without success for this deed at the website of the New Jersey State Archives in their database of Early Land Records, 1650-1900s.

Family Tree Repair: Hiley VanDerHoof 1803-1888

I was excited to find this family tree with additional details about my fourth great grandmother, Elizabeth Vanderhoof (1799-1878). Then I realized the creator combined Elizabeth with Hiley Vanderhoof (1803-1888). These were two different women living in Morris County, New Jersey in the 1800s.

One of the red flags on this tree is that the person died in 1878,
but was enumerated in the 1880 federal census.

Hiley was spelled differently in various records. "Hiler" is a surname in the area. I do not know if this is the source of Hiley's first name.

• Hyla on her 1823 marriage record to William Cook
• Hiley in census entries
• Hylia on her death certificate
• Hila on her gravestone

Hiley and Elizabeth were two different people. They were probably sisters. They married two Cook brothers.

Family tree of Hiley and Elizabeth
as daughters of Jacob Vanderhoof (1772-1847) and Ann Hopler (1772-1841).

Two Cook brothers marrying two Vanderhoof sisters.
Stephen and William were sons of Henry Cook (1776-1831) and Susannah Wiggins (1780-18xx).

Hiley and William married in 1823 in Morris County, New Jersey. These record books were digitized and are viewable at FamilySearch. Names of parents are not provided in these entries.

Whole page of marriages circa 1823 in Morris County, New Jersey.

Close view of the line for the marriage of William Cook and Hyla Vanderhoof,
"both of Morris County." February 22, 1823 by Reverend John Ford.

Hiley's first appearance in the census is in 1850 in Rockaway, Morris County. Her husband, William Cook, is not listed with her and is presumably deceased. In her household is Jacob Cook, age 26, married within the year. Sarah Cook, age 20, married within the year. William Cook, age 11. Sarah was probably Jacob's wife and not a daughter of Hiley and William. She is not with Jacob in the 1860 census and presumably died between 1850 and 1860.

1850 census. Rockaway, Morris County, New Jersey

William Cook married Sarah J Anderson (1845-1928) in 1862.

Elizabeth died in 1878. She was buried with her husband, Stephen Cook, in the small Cook Cemetery in Denville. The few remaining stones are nestled on the grounds of the Rockaway River Country Club Golf Course.

Find A Grave memorial page for Elizabeth Vanderhoof (1799-1878),
wife of Stephen Cook (1797-1853)

Hiley was buried at the Rockaway Valley United Methodist Church Cemetery in Boonton. The year is incorrect on the stone. She died in 1888, not 1886. The death certificate is below.

Find A Grave memorial page for Hila Vanderhoof (1803-1888),
wife of William Cook

Death certificate of Hylia Cook
died June 16, 1888 in Rockaway Valley.
Father- Jacob Vanderhoff.

I have not found a death certificate for Elizabeth Vanderhoof Cook in 1878.

Elizabeth Vanderhoof and Hiley Vanderhoof were two distinct people, contrary to the online trees floating around.