By John Y. Dater, The Old Station Timetable, February 1982.

From the late 18th century this area of Bergen County was part of Franklin Township, named for the last royal governor of New Jersey. He was a son of Benjamin Franklin., February 5. 1849, the New Jersey Legislature established HoHoKus Township running north from the Ridgewood line to the state line at Mahwah. It ran from the Ramapo Mtns. East to the Saddle River and embraced the towns of HoHoKus, Waldwick, Saddle River, Allendale, Upper Saddle River, Ramsey and Mahwah. The bill mentions crossing the Paterson and Ramapo Railroad at HoHoKus.

The name HoHoKus comes from the Lenape Indians. It means “cleft in the rock” and was their name for the 100 ft. deep cleft where the railroad crosses HoHoKus Brook near HoHoKus. Ramsey was the chief town. The new Township Committee first held meetings in the old Mt. Prospect Inn on Franklin Turnpike. Later it went to a building part of the Ramsey Hotel at the corner of E. Main Street and Church Street. Here township elections were held using locally printed slip of paper and a box with a slot in the top. Here were the Township offices where you paid your taxes and collected the 50¢ bounty for killing hawks.

In the 1890’s the State passed the borough act and as a result Waldwick withdrew, also Saddle River and HoHoKus. In 1908 Ramsey became a borough and in 1910 Mahwah became HoHoKus Township. From 1792 there was a stage line on the Franklin Turnpike running from Jersey City and New York to Goshen, N.Y. and then to Albany. The first train on the Paterson and Ramapo railroad came through in 1848 running to the state line. To get to Suffern and the Erie station you had to take a horse and wagon. The Erie then ran over the Piermont branch to the Hudson and then by boat to New York. In 1852 the Erie acquired the Paterson and Ramapo and the Passaic and Hudson from Paterson so that you could get to Jersey City and New York by ferry in about an hour instead of the previous four hour trip. Ramsey and HoHoKus and Glen Rock were the only stations before Paterson.