Dairy Farms...

During the '30's there were at least 3 dairy farms in River Vale. The one that we knew best was Pascack Dairy. It was located on the north side of Cleveland Avenue almost down to Cedar Lane. It was owned and operated by a kind and generous man named Harry Sabin. The Sabin family lived in a house out by Cleveland Avenue. Behind the house was a "milk house" where the milk would get processed and bottled, for mostly home delivery, by Harry and his milk truck. Harry usually had one of the local boys go with him on the route and take the milk from the truck and put it in the wood or metal box that the customer had on their front or side porch. The Pascack Dairy cows could almost always be seen grazing along the north side of Cleveland Avenue or over along Cedar Lane where they could freely walk. There was also a huge hay barn behind the Sabin house that provided another place where we could play and romp around.

Another dairy farm was owned by a Mr. Barnes and was located on the southwest corner of Prospect Avenue and River Vale Road. Mr. Barnes apparently did not have as many cows as Pascack Dairy and it seemed as though he worked very hard on that piece of property to make a living. I seem to remember that he grew quite a few vegetables on the property also.

A third farm was still further north up River Vale Road. It was owned by the Iten family and was located just across from where the Woodside School now stands. The Iten cows would wander all through the woods going even further north on River Vale Road.

The Iten cows would also go down the back and graze all the way through to Orangeburg Road. The Iten family eventually sold the farm and moved to Catskill, NY, where they had more space to raise even more cows.

There was a 4th dairy farm but I'm not sure how much of it was on River Vale land. That was Stockdale's farm on Prospect Avenue. It was a well-kept place with rather large dairy barns and a pond in the middle of the place. I know that some of it was on River Vale property so I suppose that it could be counted as a River Vale farm.

Just as most of River Vale has gone, so have these dairy farms. Each one was sold off and its' property was developed with houses being built where the cows used to roam.