Eric and Gertrude Arnold with their son, John Eric. (Photo provided)
A 1937 fire destroyed a 1768 historic farmhouse at 1566 Union Valley Road, where Battinelli Family Farms plans to build a commercial and retail facility together with a farm operation.
A report about the fire was published in the February 1937 edition of the Upper Greenwood News, a publication existing at the time.
The newspaper said this was probably one of the oldest homes in northern New Jersey and certainly the oldest home in West Milford.
“The pre-Revolutionary home was built in 1768 by Angus Monroe who died in 1820,” according to the report. “He is buried in the West Milford church yard.”
Additional Monroe family members were living on property to the right and left of the brook that flowed from West Milford Lake.
“The building had been modernized from time to time and its exterior would lead one to think that the building was not older than the period of the ‘90s, but inside, one could see the old spacious rooms, hand-wrought iron locks, peg-jointed floors, immense fireplace that covered the one side of the living room that rose in solid masonry from the cellar.”
Before the fire, this was the home of Eric W. Arnold for 15 years.
“There wasn’t a single nail used in the building construction,” Arnold told Russell F. Chapman, editor of the newspaper. “Every timber from cellar to roof was fitted and peg-jointed.”
Arnold’s home after the destructive fire was a bungalow, still a residence, at the corner of Marshall Hill and Morsetown roads.
His name remains prominent in the 1930s history as a person involved in community service, including volunteering as a committeeman (the title before councilman was used) on the township governing board. He also served as a court judge (the title then referred to as magistrate) and on the board of directors of a group establishing the Chamber of Commerce of the Greenwood Lake Area.
Arnold was a businessman with a phone number “West Milford 99.”
His advertisement in the newspaper said, “Coal and Mason Material and Insurance of All Kinds -- Prompt and Efficient Service.”
He later added propane gas to the items that his businesses sold, but newspaper advertising for that was not found for this report.
As a West Milford committeeman, Arnold voted with Committeeman Walter Vreeland in the deciding vote regarding the number of taverns that were allowed to exist throughout the township.
Committeeman Ezra Winters was on the opposite side of the debate and opposed the ordinance.
The two committeemen ignored the strenuous objections of many residents and taxpayers, who petitioned and urged the Township Committee to reject the document.
The action in 1937 reduced the number of existing taverns from 40 to 35.
The vote took place at the Newfoundland Town Hall, which was on Route 23 near the Union Valley Road intersection.
Arnold and his wife, Gertrude, settled in at the house on Marshall Hill Road after the fire destroyed their Union Valley Road home. They raised their son, John Eric Arnold, there.
The son married in 1939 and he and his wife, Francella, lived across the street and had a baby boy. John Eric was drafted into the Army during World War II.
During one of the fiercest battles of the war, when he was just 25 and his son was just 4 years old, John Eric Arnold was killed in Germany in December 1944.
He is buried in Cedar Heights Cemetery in West Milford.
His wife moved out of state, eventually remarried and became Francella Clement Coffman. She died in 2006.
Their son is about 83 now and lives in California.
In West Milford, the road in the school complex at Macopin was named in honor of John Eric Arnold.
When Bill Koy was school superintendent, there was a successful movement to rename the road Highlander Drive. Those favoring the move said out-of-town teams participating in sports at West Milford High School had difficulty finding the street and some also said people no longer knew who John Eric Arnold was.
Through the efforts of Councilwoman Ada Erik, a street off Union Valley Road later was named to honor Pvt. John Eric Arnold.