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3 unusual facts about 1880 Garret Rock May Day Riot


1880 Garret Rock May Day Riot

For many years Paterson, New Jersey’s mostly Roman Catholic German immigrant community had gathered at Garret Rock, a large plateau at the summit of Garret Mountain in Passaic County, New Jersey near Patterson, in continuation of the ancient German spring festival of “Maying” or ascending a mountain to sing in the rising sun of the first Sunday of May.

With the sheriff’s meager forces unable to themself control the crowd, Patterson’s Mayor Graham and Sheriff Van Voorhies called upon the greatly revered Patterson Roman Catholic priest Father William N. McNulty, the moral authority of whose exhortations to the crowd were sufficient to temporarily quell or distract that mob, while sheriff’s deputies extricated the constable and the Dalzells from the rear of the second house and placed them in a transport coach.

New Jersey Governor McClellan had readied several companies of the state’s military forces at Newark, New Jersey under General Plume, but the order for the militia was ultimately countermanded.



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