CHRONOLOGY OF FAIRFIELD HISTORY AND EVENTS

1642 – Cornelius Hendricks Van Ness, father of Simon Van Ness, arrives in America (N.Y.)
1666 – Connecticut River Valley Puritans establish a settlement they call ‘Newark’
1701 – Simon Van Ness and 8 Partners buy thousands of Horseneck acres from the Lenape Indians
1702 – ‘Newark Puritans’ also buy 13,500 acres from Lenape Indians, but without proper authority
1720 – Dutch Reformed Church Congregation formed in Fairfield within Horseneck Section
1745 – Local land disputes and arrests by Proprietary Government lead to the ‘Horseneck Riots’
1784 – First Presbyterian Church Congregation formally organized in Horseneck ( Caldwell Village )
1798 – Horseneck becomes Caldwell Township as one of 104 townships established by New Jersey
1804 – Fairfield’s Brownstone Dutch Reformed Church completed (steeple to follow years later)
1808 - "Newark - Bloomfield Turnpike” opens. The new toll road crosses Fairfield’s south-western tip
1811 – Militia Officer Richard Dey is killed in a most unusual ‘horse accident’.
1813 – NJ takes significant parts of 1798 Caldwell Township and Springfield to form Livingston
1823 – Clinton Methodist Church Society formed.
1831 – Morris Canal bypassed Fairfield, and diverted tonnage from the Newark-Bloomfield Turnpike.
1837 – President Grover Cleveland is born in Caldwell Presbyterian Church Manse.
1844 – Channel cut into Beattie’s reef ( Little Falls ) to protect upriver 2,000 ton annual hay crop.
1852 – Clinton Methodist Church built on old Clinton Rd. (Plymouth St.) and Horseneck Road.
1858 – Deepavaal canal deepened to drain Fairfield’s Long Meadow Swamp and surrounding areas.
1869 - A “terrible calamity” occurred in Fairfield that instantly took Stephen Pearce’s life.
1870 – Newark-Bloomfield Turnpike acquired by Essex County becomes toll free Bloomfield Avenue
1882 – First telegraph service arrives in Caldwell Village.
1891 – First Railroad arrives in Caldwell Village.
1892 – Caldwell Borough ( including West Caldwell ) separates from the original Caldwell Township
1892 – Verona ( including Cedar Grove ) separates from the original Caldwell Township
1892 – First Catholic Church, St. Aloysius Parish serving all of West Essex, Pine Brook, and Hanover.
1893 – Fairfield Dairy produces its first ‘certified milk’ with their 68 rules of self regulation.
1898 – North Caldwell separates from the original Caldwell Township
1902 – Essex Fells separates from Caldwell
1902 – Second worst flood in New .Jersey history ( at that time ).
1903 – Worst flood in New Jersey History (all-time).
1904 – West Caldwell separates from Caldwell Borough
1904 – Boonton / Jersey City Reservoir and pipeline thru Fairfield completed
1905 – N.J. State Geologist proposes a 35 K acre reservoir that would cover all of Fairfield.
1907 – First all-Fairfield Elementary School completed. Four classrooms with two grade levels each.
1907 – Cedar Grove separates from Verona Township
1908 – Roseland ( once called both South Caldwell and Centerville ) separates from Livingston
1911 – First Fairfield Fire Department is formed. First Firehouse burns down three years later.
1915 – The famous Fairfield Dairy begins its decline as dairy herd is infected with bovine tuberculosis
1916 – Fairfield Road becomes part of New Jersey’s first highway network ( NJ Route 12 ).
1918 – James Caldwell Naval Rifle Range opens in Fairfield. Complex is the size of North Caldwell.
1919 - James Caldwell Naval Rifle Range hosts National Matches, world’s largest competition.
1920 - 83 year old Mary R. Van Ness Francisco votes for very first time at old Clinton Schoolhouse.
1923 – Jersey City adds a second six foot diameter pipeline parallel to the original
1904 pipeline
1925 – Grandview Amusement Park opens at the north-eastern end of Fairfield
1927 - Benjamin R. Norwood publishes Old Caldwell--A Retrospect 1699 –1926
1927 – NJ Highway renumbering: Route 12 becomes Route 6 with a new Fairfield / Wayne bridge
1929 – Marvin Airport established on small portion of former Fairfield Dairy land
1930 – Grand opening air show of Curtiss-Marvin Airport attracts an estimated 35,000 spectators
1933 - Curtiss Airport expanded to 272 acres with three new paved runways. Dutch Lane relocated.
1937 - Munkácsy Mineral Water Well becomes famous and soon wins first prize at 1939 World’s Fair
​1937 – New Municipal Building constructed on Fairfield Road.
1937 – Fairfield Police Department organized, replacing part-time Constables and their Deputies.
1940 - Curtiss-Wright builds one of its Engineering and propeller manufacturing plants in Fairfield.
1944 – Fairfield Farmers Daughter, Adele Zirk 23, marries multi-millionaire inventor Oscar Zerk 66
1955 – Lynn G. Lockward publishes A Puritan Heritage The First Presbyterian Church in Horseneck
1957 – Roscoe DeBaun self publishes Country Life in Fairfield New Jersey ( 1887 to 1909 )
1963 – Original Caldwell Township’s remaining 6,600 acre parcel renamed ‘Fairfield Township’
1975 – Fairfield (Dutch) Reformed Church designated as a Federal and State Historical Landmark
1977 – The Van Ness House, built circa 1720, is added to the National Register of Historic Places
1984 – Fairfield Chronicle ‘This WAS Fairfield’ Columnist Adelia Van Ness Collerd laid to rest at the Fairfield Reformed Church Cemetery.