When West Milford celebrated its 100th birthday in 1934, the ‘special police’ on duty included Waldo Fredericks, Jack Ryan. Arthur Sisco, Billy Struble, Walter Card, John Moeller Jr., John Moeller Sr. and Les Fredericks. Sommer Stites was chief of the group. Others in the photo are unidentified. They are in front of Brown’s Hotel at Greenwood Lake. (Photo by Charles Rotsaert)
Before West Milford had a full-time police officer or bought its first police car, two “special police” officers patrolled the township on motorcycles they purchased themselves.
They were part-time officers assigned to duty by the elected officials, and they were assigned work time based on a limited municipal budget.
There were three voter-elected Township Committee members, referred to as Township Committeemen.
Before John Moeller became a full-time police officer in 1934, he was hired as the township’s first “special police” officer in 1929.
A year later, it became obvious that police presence was needed for weekend traffic control and other emergencies that arose.
Ezra Winters was chairman of the Township Committee that appointed Moeller to “special police” duty at the Greenwood Lake resort area.
He had his own motorcycle for transportation while on duty.
He was very busy, and a week after his appointment, the Township Committee felt it was necessary to appoint a second “special policeman.”
Harry Fox, son of a retired Jersey City officer who lived on Macopin Road, was hired. Fox, like Moeller, had his own motorcycle for patrol duty.
Brown’s Hotel, on property today designated as Brown’s Point State Park at Greenwood Lake, drew crowds to watch popular prizefighters in the hotel’s training ring. It was also a place where too frequently a police officer was needed to address disputes.
Critically injured
Moeller and Fox were on their motorcycles on Greenwood Lake Turnpike (Passaic County Route 511) on Labor Day 1930, when an inebriated man left Brown’s Hotel bar and slammed his car into Fox and his motorcycle, critically injuring him.
This was long before the township had a volunteer ambulance squad. The nearest hospital was in Paterson, a long trip for cars of that day that often managed a top speed of about 40 mph.
People at the accident scene put Fox across the back seat of a car and drove him to Paterson General Hospital. His legs were severely crushed.
Fox’s son Bob remembers being told about these events that happened long before he was born.
Bob and his wife, the former Mitzi Beier of Ringwood, are long-time residents of Mendham in Morris County. In a recent phone call, he said he remembers hearing his parents tell stories many years ago.
Like Bob and me, his parents were students at Butler High School when nine area towns made up the student body.
Harry Fox and Ethel Potter of Riverdale met at the high school and were dating. Ethel was a year younger than Harry. Because it was a holiday with Harry on police duty, Ethel was visiting friends at a Pennsylvania farm.
After Fox was settled in at the hospital, Moeller sent her a telegram. It said, “Harry Fox hurt. Come at home at once!” Of course, she came back as quickly as possible. Bob still has that telegram.
Physicians at Paterson General Hospital struggled for two days to keep Fox alive - and, mercifully, they succeeded. Bob never forgets hearing about Dr. Joseph Roy, who is credited with successfully saving both of his father’s legs.
Fox remained in the hospital for nine months while the professional staff nursed him back to health. After that, he returned to his parents’ home on Macopin Road just south of the Vreeland cemetery.
Bob credits Harry Rhinesmith, a neighbor and family friend, as being responsible for his father eventually being able to walk again.
Rhinesmith owned an auto garage on Hamburg Turnpike in Bloomingdale. Every day on his way to work, he stopped at the Fox home and helped Harry learn to walk again.
Eventually healed, Fox later was elected to serve on the West Milford Board of Education and was chosen as board president. His legal name was Henry Frederick Fox, a name his son never recalls hearing.
To everyone who knew him, he was Harry, his son said. “This even was the case in anything he signed. It was always, Harry, not Henry.”
Fox family
The Colonial Meyer homestead is still standing and is visibly well-cared for by residents who live there today.
Bob’s grandparents, Harry and Catherine Fox, had four children who lived in the house with them, but only his father and brother John grew to adulthood.
The youngest brother died in his senior year at Butler High School and the sister was just 20 when she died.
After Harry Fox healed from his injuries, he and Ethel were married and lived in the Macopin Road house with his parents.
Their son Bob was born in 1936 and spent his early years there. His first year of school was at the Macopin rural schoolhouse on Westbrook Road. The rest of his education through eighth grade was at Hillcrest School after the rural school closed.
Later Harry and Ethel Fox built their own home further north on Macopin Road. It was next door to Rhinesmith’s home. Both houses across from the former Fredericks General Store are homes for people of a new generation.
Bob’s uncle John continued to live at his parents’ home until he married in his late 30s and built his home (still a residence) also on Macopin Road.
Bob recalls that when he was young, his grandfather’s sister Sophie also lived with the family.
Watershed area grows
From the 1950s until they died, Al Meyer, who was Bob’s uncle, and Al’s wife lived in the house where Harry Fox grew up with his parents and grandparents. The house is surrounded by City of Newark watershed property.
In the days before the elaborate water purification systems that are in place today, Newark bought land where people lived to provide a buffer of pristine land to protect the reservoirs.
Many people, including the Marion family whose homestead was across from St. Joseph Church and Echo Lake School on Germantown Road, were met with eminent domain law and had to sell their property to the watershed.
After the Marion home was vacated, it was demolished as were homes on most properties purchased by the watershed.
The Meyer house is one of the few old homes surrounded by watershed land that is still standing and serving as a residence.
Fox Sr. was a watershed guard and the home was preserved as a home for watershed employees.
Moeller’s career, along with the growth of the West Milford Police Department, continued.
In 1942, the addition of Jack Ryan gave West Milford a two-man Police Department. Moeller became captain.
In 1946, James Kemble joined the force as a patrolman. In 1949, there were 5,000 people living in the township and Moeller became police chief at a salary of $1,300 a year.