Page:History of Hudson County and of the Old Village of Bergen.djvu/20

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12
The History of Hudson County

Various chronicles allege that the name "Bergen" was intended by these people of Scandinavian stock to perpetuate the name of the old city of Bergen in Norway. Others maintain that it was to recall Bergen op Zoom in Holland. But the word "bergen" also means "hills" or "mountains," and thus would have been an obvious title for the Dutch to give the ridge. Most of the names of early land-holders as recorded in the deeds of the succeeding epoch seem indubitably Dutch.

The Amsterdam Licensed Trading West India Company did not succeed in extending the colonization of the new

Old Octagonal Church
Corner of Bergen Avenue and Vroom Street