The City of Garfield, Bergen County, New Jersey is located in the Northeast section of New Jersey approximately six miles Southeast of Paterson and 16 miles West of New York City. We are a multi-ethnic population of approximately 30,000 people living in an area of 1,333 acres or 2.08 square miles. Our neighboring communities are Passaic, Clifton, Wallington, Lodi, Elmwood Park and Saddle Brook.
Garfield, in about 976, was orginally the home of the Leni Lenape Tribe of the Algonquin Indians. As the area grew, in 1679 it came to be known as the Acqueyquinonke tract consisting of some 5320 acres. This covered land from where the Saddle River flows into the Passaic River (near the Wallingon border) to Great Rock (in Glen Rock).
The area north of Passaic Street was a wilderness inhabited by wild animals and, in 1720, money was raised through taxation to pay for the killing of bears, wolves, panthers, foxes and wildcats. Gradually the Acqueyquinonke tract was divided into land parcels and sold. Settlers began to build along the Passaic River and they lived in relative comfort until the Revoluntionary War began in 1775. The area, during that time, saw the movement of General George Washington and his army leave Hackensack and cross a bridge over the Passaic River at a point north of where the Gregory Avenue bridge joins Wallington and Passaic today.
All through the late 1700's and the 1800's Garfield started to grow rapidly and was becoming a strong industrial community with its woolen, chemical and paper mills many of which were located along or near the Passaic River. The river provided the resources necessary for industry and was a means of shipping and transportation to the area of Newark Bay.
Garfield,once part of the Township of Saddle River, broke away on March 15, 1898 to become a Borough whose boundaries were set by the State Legislature which still exists to this day. Garfield became a city on April 19, 1917 and is one of three cities in Bergen County along with 2 villages, 9 townships and 56 boroughs for a total of 70 municipalities in this northeastern county of New Jersey.

"The above information was researched and excerpted from William Scott's History of Passaic and It's Environs, Volume II found at the Garfield Free Public Library and the Forstmann Library in Passaic."