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Site of
Gerardus Ryker - Jacob Sneden House
c.1762 - c.1900
Sneden Ice Pond & Dam

opposite 19 Rockleigh Road

The Sneden Family

       It is clear that the Rykers (Gerardus, John Sr, and Abraham) each had their own house on John Ryker lands, arranged from north to south along the road between those of Jacob Conklin, Jr, (existing as Conklin-Sneden House) and Abraham Ab. Haring, Jr. (existing as Haring-Corning House). Thus the original Ryker tract was situated between and adjacent to those lands Jacob Conklin, Jr. and Abraham Ab. Haring, Jr.* Of the three Ryker houses, the old wood Dutch style homestead of John Riker (Sr) exists as the Ryker-Mabie-Conklin- Sneden House (14 Rockleigh Road).

        After Gerardus emigrated to Kentucky c.1780, his brother John Riker, Jr. occupied the house. Upon the death of his father in 1828, John Riker, Jr., received the Geradus Riker property across Snedens Landing Road to Jacob Sneden & Cornelia Ann Rudd. About 1896, Cornelia left the Gerardus Riker House, moving next door into the house of another son, Robert Newton Sneden (Sneden-Happle House, 24 Rockleigh. The Geradus Riker appears to have become dilapidated. It was inhabited between about 1915 and 1929, when it burned to the ground.

"Between the Herman Happel and R. 'Newt' Sneden properties, there was a house occupied by the Leonard B. Snedens, prior to their purchasing the Roaring Brook property, which is no longer standing. 

"Located in the rear of the home was a pond where ice was cut in the winter and sold locally to those having their own ice houses. The ice was marked and cut with an ice plough in cakes of the proper size. They usually took the ice away when there was snow on the ground, with horse-drawn wooden sleds, probably four to six teams and sometimes a team of oxen. Saw dust, used to pack the ice cakes in the ice houses, was obtained from the Saw Mill."**

* Reginald McMahon: Two Haring Houses at Rockleigh, NJ, 
mms Bergen County Historical Society, River Edge, NJ
** From the handwritten notes of Newt Sneden, 1974. Courtesy of John A. Sneden, Jr.

          The remains of the house of son Gerardus consists of a cellar hole on Rockleigh Borough property just north of John Riker's homestead (opp. 19 Rockleigh Road).

         On borough parkland behind the Gerardus Riker-Jacab Sneden house site is the Sneden Ice Pond with original dam on the west side of the pond and ruins of a small ice house. On the east side of the pond an 18th century stone arch bridge spans the inlet stream. The open meadow to the south of the pond is reminiscent of 18th century pasture. The pastures to the north and east have reforested.

"I lived [at Roshaven] from 1934 until I went away to college in 1952. I remember ice skating on the pond across the street from the Kniffens, etc..."*

* Peter Van Strum, 17 September 2004

 People Who Lived There 

c.1762 - 1778

poss. Gerardus Ryker (1740-1781) & Rachael Demaree (1744-1814)

1778-1828

poss. 2nd John Riker (1736-1828) & Margrietje Blauvelt-Haring (1749-?)

 Reference Maps 

Rockland County Map, 1891