{"id":3331,"date":"2026-07-29T20:04:51","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T00:04:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/patersonhistory.com\/?page_id=3331"},"modified":"2026-07-29T20:04:51","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T00:04:51","slug":"history-of-the-dutch-in-paterson-new-jersey","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/patersonhistory.com\/index.php\/history-of-the-dutch-in-paterson-new-jersey\/","title":{"rendered":"History of the Dutch in Paterson, New Jersey"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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The history of Paterson begins long before the city was founded in 1792. Although Paterson is best known as America’s first planned industrial city, the land surrounding the Great Falls was settled by Dutch colonists more than a century earlier. Their farms, churches, roads, and family names profoundly influenced the development of present-day Paterson.<\/p>\n

The Dutch Arrive<\/h3>\n

The first Europeans to settle the Passaic Valley were Dutch colonists from the colony of New Netherland during the second half of the seventeenth century. The area was inhabited by the Lenape, who called the Great Falls Totowa<\/strong>. Dutch traders were attracted by the fertile river valley, the fur trade, and the abundant water power of the Passaic River.<\/p>\n

In 1678\u20131679, Dutch settlers acquired large tracts of land from the Lenape that became known as the Acquackanonk Patent<\/strong>. Farms stretched along both sides of the Passaic River from modern-day Passaic through Paterson and into Totowa.<\/p>\n

Early Dutch Families<\/h3>\n

Many of Paterson’s oldest family names originated with these settlers:<\/p>\n