ELIJAH HARRIS was born 15 MAY 1812.
He was married to JEMIMA van RODEN, 18 APR 1834, by the Rev. John Berdan,
pastor of the Acquackanonk, New Jersey, Dutch Reformed Church. They had
six children. He died 12 MAY 1890 and is buried in the Mt. Hebron Cemetery,
Upper Montclair,
New Jersey.
The parentage of ELIJAH HARRIS has not been ascertained.
JEMIMA van RODEN was born 12 AUG 1813, and died 19 JUL 1900. She is also buried in Mt. Hebron Cemetery. Her parents were probably ABRAHAM MARKS van RHODER (II) and LYDIA ACKHART (?) van RHODER, of Franklin Township, Bergen Co., New Jersey. There is oral tradition that the maiden name of JEMIMA van RODEN's mother was LYDIA OXH(E)ART. The 1850 Federal Census enumerated ABRAM van RHODER and LYDIA van RHODER (aged 50 and 69) as occupying the dwelling immediately before the dwelling enumerated as the home of ELIJAH HARRIS and his family. ABRAHAM MARKS van RHODER (II) and LYDIA van RHODER, together with JEMIMA van RHODER and James Ramsey and his wife Rachel, by deed dated 2 MAY 1814 (recorded in Essex County Deed Book X, p. 460), conveyed land in Acquackanonk Township, Essex Co., New Jersey, to TUNIS I. SPEER. There is also a deed dated 25 APR 1818 (recorded in Essex County Deed Book H-2, p. 271), conveying a two-fifths interest in the same property, from WILLIAM van RODEN and CATY van RODEN, his wife, to TUNIS SPEER.
The parents of ABRAHAM MARKS van RHODER (II) were probably ABRAHAM MARKS van RHODER (I) and his wife JEMIMA (maiden surname unknown). ABRAHAM MARKS van RHODER (I), of Bergen Co., New Jersey, died intestate ca. 1800. Letters of administration on his estate were granted to JEMIMA van RHODER on 23 APR 1800. Her fellow bondsmen were JOHN ACKHART and JOST ACKHART (N.J. Archives, Vol. XXXVIII (Vol. IX of Abstracts of Wills), p. 387; File 3118B; Liber 38, p. 539).
ELIJAH HARRIS and JEMIMA van RODEN HARRIS lived in Belleville, New Jersey, from at least 1840 (see the Census for that year), to about 1864, when property in Montclair Township, Essex County, was purchased in JEMIMA's name. The Montclair property was sold in 1869 to Frederick T. Freylinghuysen (who became U.S. Senator from New Jersey and Secretary of State under President Arthur). In 1870 a farm in Caldwell Township (probably in Fairfield Village, where ELIJAH, called a "hatter" in the 1840, 1850, and 1860 Censuses, at some time had a hat factory) was purchased, also in JEMIMA's name. There ELIJAH and JEMIMA dwelt with son ANDREW and his family, and, for a time at least, the children of son ISAAC. The Caldwell properties were disposed of in 1878. At her death in 1900, JEMIMA van RODEN HARRIS was living with her son ANDREW on his farm in Upper Montclair (part of Montclair Township).
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