When the families that settled the roughly 15,000 acres of land that now straddles the New York - New Jersey border in the late 1700s, they entered into a contract by which they would settle the land in common. 

How and why did they do this, and did this experiment pay off for them and their children?  

Joseph Barbieri is the Local History Librarian for the New City Library's Rockland Room, a member of the Genealogical Society of Rockland County, and a volunteer for the Orangetown Historical Museum and Archives in Orangeburg, NY. 

Free parking on Main Street or in the gravel lot, the Ackerman Zabriskie Tidemill Parking Lot if the snow is melted. Steuben House, 1209 Main Street, River Edge, NJ