History:

No historic account of Fair Lawn would be complete without recognition of the Lenni-Lenapi ("original people"), native tribes of northern New Jersey. Their trails, campsites, rock shelters and hunting grounds became the roads and towns we use today. When the first Dutch settlers made their way up to what we know as the Hackensack and Passaic Rivers, it was to establish fur trading posts with the Hackinghaesaky Indians, one of the tribes of the Lenni-Lenapi. The great chief of the tribes was Oratam. As settlements grew, the Lenni-Lenapi were forced further west to unsettled land. They left behind place names of Indian origin. Few of us realize how many such names are still with us, for example: Passaic (either "where the river goes over the falls" or "valley"), Paramus ("fine stream" or "place of wild turkeys"), Wagaraw ("crooked place" or "river bend"). Typically, River Road, one of the oldest roads in the eastern part of our country, was once an Indian trail, leading to the "Great Rock" tribal council site in Glen Rock.

The most interesting Indian relic in Fair Lawn is the fish trap (weir) in the Passaic River (Native American Fishing Weir Web Site). It can be seen during low water 200 yard upstream from the Fair Lawn Avenue bridge. The trap consists of two rows of stones forming a V-shaped dam into which the Indians drove the fish during migration, closing the opening at the point of the V with weighted nets. The Dutch called this the "slotendam," or "sloterdam" from the verb sluiten, "shut." This gave rise to the name of Slooterdam (also spelled Sloterdam) which was used to describe the surrounding area. Fair Lawn was known as Slooterdam as late as 1791, and River Road was called the "Slauterdam Road" until after the Civil War.

Life in the area was rigorous but settlers prospered. Farms were fruitful; fish and game were abundant. Suprisingly, slavery was encouraged by the early proprietors. A bonus of land was granted the freeholders for every slave brought into the colony. Slaves worked the farms and cut the sandstone that went into building the farmhouses. By 1790, Bergen County has approximately 2,300 slaves.