Thanks Pat for the wonderful Christmas present of Bergen County Democrat - Death and Marriage Notices. As Pat mentioned the deaths were often - especially in later years posted under the community's heading. Here is one found under Ridgewood on 18 March 1887. [James A. Demarest was the son of Aaron J. Demarest and Margaret Baldwin and the widower of Eliza Catherine Achenbach. Ree "Ridgewood - On Monday evening about 7 o’clock James Demarest, who lives near Ridgewood junction, started to walk home by the railroad track, as he was accustomed to do. He always walked on the westward bound side of the road, so as to see when a train was approaching, Monday evening a freight train was left standing at the short cut, while an engine and two way cars were run up to Ridgewood, one of which contained a horse to be left at the station. In running back to the short cut Mr. Demarest was struck by the car attached to the engine and instantly killed. His body was so horribly mangled that he was hardly recognized. Mr. Garret G. Ackerman, a son-in-law, was walking up the track and was the first to discover the body . . . Mr. Demarest was 63 years old, and worked at shoemaking in the the rear of the C. P. Crouter’s butcher shop. He leaves a son and daughter; Ellsworth, the son, is a druggist in Brooklyn, and the daughter is the wife of Mr. Garret G. Ackerman, of Ridgewood. Mr. Demarest was [from] one of the old families of Bergen and well connected. Baldwin Demarest, a brother, lives in Saddle River.” * *James Demarest obituary, Bergen County Democrat, Hackensack, N. J., 18 March 1887, page 3, column 4. Maria (Ree) Hopper, CG http://www.reetree.com