Relda Vreeland was a founder of the Macopin Volunteer Fire Company Ladies Auxiliary. She congratulates fellow officers after an election in 1965. From left are treasurer Leslie Weeden, first vice president Vreeland, second vice president Mrs. John Kachler, president Mrs. Walter Bal, secretary Mrs. Walter Bilenski and sergeant at arms Mrs. Ernest Giannini. (File photo by Ann Genader)
To have been one of the lucky people who had a lifelong friendship with Relda Vreeland is my special treasured gift.
Relda, who died in 1980, was one of the most intelligent and influential people in West Milford history, as evidenced by her successful accomplishments and personal history.
It did not matter that she was born at a time when the only place in life considered appropriate for a female was in a homemaker role.
She did not fit the pattern, saw no boundaries and always went where the wind took her.
Born to Arthur R. Vreeland and Minnie Drew Vreeland on Sept. 8, 1878, she was named Emma Relda Vreeland. Only known as Relda, she grew up in a very religious home and learned to recite Bible verses from memory at an early age.
The Vreeland family roots go back to a village near Amsterdam, Holland. After coming to America, Charles Wesley Vreeland bought 500 acres from the Lenni Lenape Indians. Part of the land is now the residential development of High View Estates.
He was an auctioneer and land speculator who built his Vreeland Victorian building at 1383 Macopin Road about 1840.
By 1861, he was operating the Macopin Post Office and the Vreeland General Store there. Items sold ranged from food to clothing. Record books for the Vreeland store date to 1890.
The Vincent Lanza family now owns the historic building at 1383 Macopin, and they operate a restaurant there.
In 1935, the year-round population of West Milford was 5,439 in about 80 square miles. There were many little self-sufficient communities in the township that had a church, school and general store.
People generally associated with others in their communities but knew some or recognized names of those in other areas.
Newspapers were the main means of communication and people generally read one of two daily newspapers, the Paterson Morning Call or the Paterson Evening News, delivered to homes by local youths.
Weekly newspapers published through the 1940s included the West Milford Argus, followed by the West Milford Mountaineer, Upper Greenwood Lake News and a few others that appeared for a year or two, then closed because of lack of revenue.
It would be difficult to find anyone living in the township during the 1930s and ’40s who was not acquainted with Relda. She was involved in everything from her staunch Republican politics to social events that included square dances and card parties at the Macopin Fire House.
Seats for her annual community day bus trip to Asbury Park to benefit the Macopin Volunteer Fire Company always sold out quickly.
Pony attracts followers
My earliest memories of Relda are when she made her social rounds to visit people in Macopin and Echo Lake communities, driving her surrey with the fringe on top pulled by her favorite pony.
People spent a lot of time outdoors. One of Relda’s travel routes was south from her Macopin Road home to the Echo Lake Road intersection. Macopin Road did not end there as it does today. It continued as Echo Lake Road onto the Bloomingdale intersection with Hamburg Turnpike.
Relda, parked at the roadside, seated in the surrey, spoke with the adults about politics or whatever issue she was involved with at the time. We kids spent time petting and talking to her pony.
In addition to the usual kids in the community, Peggy Fee, John Hill and Doris Schneider, children of summer residents usually joined us and loved the pony too.
The Gillen family moved to Echo Lake from New York City in 1936. Pete Gillen Sr. and his wife, Marion, wanted to start a family and raise their children in the country, so they moved to Echo Lake after seeing a newspaper advertisement about a house for sale.
Seeing how his children and others from the neighborhood enjoyed Relda’s pony, Dave Mathews, who owned and operated the Mathews General Store on the corner of Echo Lake and Germantown Roads, decided to get one that would be available for them to enjoy often.
Pete Gillen Sr. thought the same thing, and he bought a pony too. Pony rides in local driveways were popular until Doris Schneider, one of the older girls with a bit of healthy extra weight, had her turn to ride on the Gillen’s pony.
She mounted up and the ride was going just fine until the pony stopped, rolled over and dumped Doris on the ground. She was not injured. The pony ride enthusiasm eased a bit after that.
Ladies Auxiliary
Relda was dedicated to the Macopin Volunteer Fire Department. It was established in 1927 and served parts of Morris and Sussex counties before other volunteer fire companies formed.
Relda was about 49 and no doubt would have been a firefighter if it was a different time. She put her efforts into forming a Ladies Auxiliary to raise money to buy fire equipment and supplies. At that time, there was no municipal financial support for volunteer fire companies.
When residents reached voting age, Relda arrived at their homes for a visit. She told them about voting, and with their parent’s approval, she drove them to Town Hall (now the West Milford Museum) and they followed her recommendation and registered as Republicans.
When election day came, she ferried people back and forth to the polls from the moment they opened until they closed. She provided her passengers recommendations about who she believed was the best candidate who deserved their vote. She discussed and explained issues up for a vote and told her passengers her views.
There weren’t many Democratic Party votes cast in those days. Just a small number of residents in the Hennion and Struble families were affiliated with the Democrats in the Apshawa/Echo Lake area.
The arrival of the Gillens and other families from the city gradually brought in more registered Democrats. Before that, Floyd Struble, a Democrat, was popular and supported by voters of both parties, which created some independent voting.
The shift toward being independent continued with people from both major political parties filling Township Committee and Township Council seats. For a short time, the town had a nonpartisan government, but most voters later chose to return to partisan government. Today there is a new group in favor of nonpartisan government.
Women’s rights
I don’t believe there was an issue involving women’s rights during Relda’s lifetime that she did not get involved in supporting.
When the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, established in the United States in 1873, campaigned for women to have the right to vote, an article in the Pequannock Valley Argus described Emma “Relda” Vreeland as an active member of the WCTU, supporter of suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony and staunch supporter for women to have equal voting rights with men.
She was recognized by the Passaic County Board of Chosen Freeholders for her leadership in the women’s suffrage movement and honored in a joint New Jersey Legislative Resolution in 2012 for her contributions.
Relda, who never married, reasoned that she had never met a man that she liked better than a horse. She never drank alcohol nor smoked and continued to manage her affairs well into her senior years while still campaigning for Republican state and county election candidates.
She was one of the first female licensed drivers in New Jersey and was still driving around town in her favorite car, a Dodge sedan, at age 100.
She never was afraid to try anything new and was a lifelong learner.
Besides working at the general store and post office, she sold cemetery monuments from a Paterson company and became the neighborhood photographer, initially with a camera using glass plates.
She was an insurance agent for the Hartford Insurance Co. and was proud of a 1918 bronze plaque noting service to the company dating to 1894.
She had interest in music too, and she made it possible for people to dance and have parties on local bridges.
Relda had a hand organ that played music from paper rolls as she turned the handle, bringing any hayride, dance or party to life.
Relda died in February 1980 at age 102. She is buried in the Upper Macopin Cemetery on Macopin Road.