RIDGEWOOD

village, Bergen county, northeastern New Jersey, U.S. It lies along the Saddle River, 5 miles (8 km) northeast of Paterson, New Jersey. Dutch farmers settled in the area in the late 1600s. The village's Old Paramus Reformed Church, built about 1800 and remodeled in 1875, is on the site of an earlier church where statesman Aaron Burr and the widow Theodosia Prevost were married (1782) and where General Charles Lee was court-martialed after his retreat at the Battle of Monmouth (1778) during the American Revolution. In 1810 the community was called Newton, but its name was changed to Godwinville in 1829 to honour Abraham Godwin, a Revolutionary War hero. The coming of the railroad in the early 1850s spurred growth. It was renamed Ridgewood in 1866 and incorporated in 1895. It is now primarily a residential suburb of the New York City region. Pop. (1990) 24,152; (1996 est.) 24,432.