West Milford - On the wall of the West Milford Museum hangs a marriage license dated June 14, 1845. The bride, whose photograph also graces the exhibit, was Margaret Terhune, the groom was Jacob Laroe. The wedding took place in the Presbyterian Church where nine witnesses affixed their signatures to the certificate. Jacob Laroe was born in 1824 and Margaret, his wife, was born in 1825. Between 1847 and 1862 they had five children - Maria, Emma, Henrietta, Mary and Alfred. It was said that Jacob Laroe, a carpenter by trade, was one of the few people in the area who could read and write and was therefore the keeper of the town’s records. His perfect, ornate penmanship seems more appropriate for the creation of beautiful poetry than the journals he kept which outlined everyday particulars, such as the cost of nails and lumber. A deed for the Laroe’s 1845 purchase of the little house on Main Street indicates that they bought the home for “$300 in good and lawful money, a wagon and horses.” It is believed that Henrietta Laroe stayed on in the house as Margaret and Jacob aged. Alfred Laroe, the youngest child, and his wife Jessica were Phyllis Van Hooker’s grandparents. Their daughter, Margaret Laroe, married Loren Copley and they had four children, Phyllis among them, born in 1935. Phyllis Copley Van Hooker was born in Orange, and raised for a time in a Copley family home in Auburn, N.Y. Her father died when she was just 6-years-old and the family moved back to West Milford. By that time the family owned a second home in Pinecliff Lake, located right behind the original homestead. When Phyllis was 8-years-old they were back in the Main Street house and she lived there until she married. Phyllis attended Hillcrest School, graduating in 1949. From there she went on to Butler High School and then to Maryville College in Tennessee where she spent two years as a music major. As she recalls it, “I came home then because it was my sister’s turn to go to school for a few years.” She then went to work in Paterson for the telephone company. Phyllis has many happy childhood memories of West Milford. There was Jecker’s, the ice cream store where the children went to buy comic books and sweets. Finn’s Crackerbarrel, where the Trinkets to Treasures shop is now located, provided fresh, live chickens for Sunday dinners. “Finn’s had a stove in the center of the store which became a gathering spot for town people,” she said. At one time, Phyllis said, parts of the Crescent Park development and the area at the Wachovia bank end of the Shop Rite strip contained commercial fields of pussy willows and gladioli. The Post Office and a lumber and building supply store was across the street from where Richard’s Funeral Home now stands and to the right of Richard’s was Van’s Motel with a beauty salon out front. “We didn’t leave town often,” she said. In the mid-1940’s she recalls going to a movie for the first time in Pompton Lakes. The Greentop Luncheonette was across the street from the current town hall complex and it provided the always-needed teenage hangout. “Everyone knew everyone in town,” Phyllis said and a lot of their social life revolved around their church. “We were very lucky to grow up in the time we did. We never locked a door, it was just a different era,” she said. Her grandmother had become a real estate agent for the Pinecliff Lake community so Phyllis and her friends had access to the lake, winter and summer. They would walk down what they called “wiggley road” to the lake on a hot day, picking wild strawberries along the way. When they tired of swimming they would often spend time on the back porch of the house roller skating. With the skate keys draped around their necks, they whirled around the porch until the paint was worn away. They would listen to the radio or play catch on Main Street if their mother wasn’t watching too closely, though there were few cars to worry about. “We didn’t have diddley, but we didn’t know we didn’t have diddley,” Phyllis said. Jim and Phyllis Van Hooker married in the Presbyterian Church in 1956 where the ladies of the congregation provided their reception. They remain active in their church and Phyllis has been the organist for 54 years. They rented several houses in West Milford until they bought their own home near the center of town. Between 1957 and 1965 they had four children, all now married, and they currently have 13 grandchildren. These are the great-great-great-great grandchildren of Jacob and Margaret Laroe. Phyllis remembers her childhood home with great fondness. She recalls a huge brass knocker on the front door and a big brass key. She said the house had eyebrow’ windows and hand blown glass and the living and dining rooms were curtained off to keep the heat contained. Eventually the original fireplace was closed because its age rendered it unsafe to use. Michael Heller bought the house from Phyllis and her family in 1999. He has been working on it since 2000 and said he has done so with respect and understanding of the historic nature of the home. “I took the time to make it look and feel like old-time West Milford,” he said. But for a true look back in time one only needs to stop in the West Milford Museum. Set in a room of its own is Margaret and Jacob Laroe’s bed and horsehair mattress, framed photographs, and a shaving mirror set on a hand-made chest of drawers. A mannequin in one corner displays the bridal dress of one of their descendants, another corner holds a cradle, doll and antique infant clothes. In 1845 newlyweds Margaret and Jacob Laroe bought a house. In the ensuing years the family made it a home. Dateline Trivia: n 1790: The Supreme Court met for the first time n 1791: Vermont became 14th state, first known as New Connecticut n 1793: Poland Spring water first served at an inn located near the original spring in Maine n 1807: Robert Fulton invented the steamboat n 1817: Harvard Law school founded n 1845: James Knox Polk elected 11th president of the United States. (At age 17 Polk survived a gallstone operation without anesthesia or antiseptic, neither in use at the time.) n 1845: The rubber band was invented n 1845: The U.S. Naval Academy, then known as the Naval School, opened in Annapolis, Maryland n 1845: The Irish Potato Famine began. By 1852 approximately one million people had died from starvation and disease Sources: Jim and Phyllis Van Hooker; West Milford Museum; Michael Heller; Wikipedia.org; spiritus-temporis.com; polandspring.com; americasbesthistory.net; wnjpin.stat.nj.us; The Earth Shook and the Sky Was Red, Inas Otten and Eleanor Weskerna Jim Van Hooker, local historian and husband of Phyllis Copley Van Hooker, a direct descendent of the bride and groom, provided the Laroe family bible and other records dating back to the 1845 origins of the family. In 1790 George Washington, a former planter, surveyor and soldier, was serving as the first president of the United States (1789-1797). John Adams was vice-president. In August of 1790 the first official Census was conducted with the results showing 3,929,326 people living in the United States, that number included 697,681 slaves. The largest cities were New York City, Philadelphia, Charleston, Boston and Baltimore. In New Jersey the population was recorded as 184,139. Sometime during that year, while President Washington was authorizing the purchase of land along the Potomac River for the creation of the District of Columbia, a little house was built in the center of West Milford. The lot was on what would later be called Main Street, known today as Union Valley Road. No information was uncovered about the original owner but one subsequent owner’s family can be traced from 1845 until the present time.