Remembering NW Bergen’s World War I Soldiers
Over 950 men and women from NW Bergen County served in World War I. The fifty-one listed below gave their lives.
They died in action, from wounds received in battle, from disease or the flu pandemic. Some were buried in Europe and some were returned home.
Northwest Bergen County towns were all changing in the early 1900s. Some, like Oakland and Upper Saddle River (the smallest) were losing population as the sons of farmers moved to the cities to work. Other towns were growing as industries were built and as commuters moved into their towns.
On the lists below, you will see the surnames of early settlers who populated our area and the names of newer immigrants from Italy, Poland, Scandinavia, Romania, Hungary, Albania, among others.
We honor them all.
Listed below are the Northwest Bergen men who died in service to their country in World War I:
ALLENDALE
Population 1920: 1,165
48 Served – 8 Died in Service
Harold Cook Ackerson, Marshall Harley Couch, James Robert Hubbard, John Raymond McDermott, Gustave William Nadler, Charles Larrett Nidd, Edward Sherrard, Nidd Harry Otto Weimer
FRANKLIN LAKES
Part of Franklin Twp. with Wyckoff Population 1920: 383
13 Served – 1 Died in Service
Zachariah Masker
GLEN ROCK
Population 1920: 2,181
40 Served– 5 Died in Service
Peter Ebbert,Frederick Jensen, Mortimer Kerr, Jacob E. Phillips, Frank Squires
HO-HO-KUS
Population 192: 0 586
21 Served – 1 Died in Service
Harry H. Sprague
MAHWAH
(then called Hohokus Twp.) Population 1920: 2,081
66 Served – 3 Died in Service
John P. Fromm, Edward Konight, Joyce Kilmer
MIDLAND PARK
Population 1920: 2,243
71 Served – 6 Died in Service
John Coombs, Garrett Swap, Frank Outslay, Herman Englishman, Harry Streelman, John Millington
OAKLAND
Population 1920: 497
29 Served – 3 Died in Service
James Julius Neilson, John Goodman, Elmer Terwilliger
RAMSEY
Population 1920: 2,090
93 Served – 5 Died in Service
George Hemion, Tobe Jannicelli, Alphonse Paglia, Herman Charles Stein, Nicholas J. Stocker
RIDGEWOOD
Population 1920: 7,580
424 Served – 14 Died in Service
Thomas M. Boyd, John A. Cadmus, Thomas W. Connor, Leonard J. DeBrown, George R. Denle, Jesse Eddy Douglass, Lindley Haines DeGarmo, William Kruskopf, Frank M. Patterson Jr., Floyd Alonzo Stevens, Antonie Wendels, Ulmont A. White, Charles Wolfhegel, Daniel S. Yeomans, Jacob Yeomans
SADDLE RIVER
Population in 1920: 506
12 Served – None Died
UPPER SADDLE RIVER
Population 1920: 251
8 Served – None Died
WALDWICK
Population 1920 1,296
5 Died in Service
John L. Dow, Walter Tunis Nightengale, Walter Hammond, William Demarest, William P. Zazzetti
WYCKOFF
Part of Franklin Twp. w/Franklin Lakes Population 1920: 1,288
57 Served – None Died
Congressional Medal of Honor
In World War I, New Jersey would contribute 72,946 drafted men and 46,960 volunteers.
Counting those already in the service, by the war’s end in November 1918, more than 140,000 New Jerseyans had served.
Eight of those New Jersey men were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for their extraordinary valor, the nation’s highest military honor.
Sgt. Ludovicus van Iersal, of Glen Rock, NJ, was a recent immigrant from The Netherlands, and enlisted as a volunteer. His unit saw battle at Verdun, Belleau Forest, and the Meuse-Argonne. Van Iersel earned the Croix de Guerre by retrieving 17 wounded men from “No Man’s Land.” He earned a second by using his language skills to convince a German officer to surrender with 60 men.
He was awarded the Medal of Honor for actions at Mouzon, France on November 9, 1918. On a nighttime reconnaissance mission, facing heavy fire, van Iersal swam across a swift river and found a lodging place under a bridge from which to view enemy positions. He swam back with information that saved 1,000 lives as his unit was moved to a safer position.
General John J. Pershing presented his medal. Sgt. John Cridland Lathan of Rutherford was also among the eight who received the Congressional Medal of Honor.