Take in a lecture in an 18th century historic home with local historian Hans Niederstrasser who will speak on Peter Hasenclever and the American Iron Company on the grounds of the Bergen County Historical Society (BCHS).
The lecture takes place from 7-8:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 26 in the Zabriskie-Steuben House, 1209 Main St., River Edge, New Jersey. The lecture is free; however, donations are welcome.
“His (Peter Hasenclever) major accomplishment in America was the establishment in the provinces of New Jersey and New York of a complete iron industry based on the latest technology available,” Niederstrasser said, noting Hasenclever founded Long Pond Iron Work in 1766.
Erskine’s writings indicate shipping to New Bridge happened by way of ox cart. A fragment bar of pig iron with LON was found in a 1967 dig of the New Bridge Landing wharf. It is on exhibit in the south room of the Zabriskie Steuben House.
Born and raised in Mexico City to a German-English mother and a father who had emigrated from Germany to Mexico in 1926, Niederstrasser was educated in a German elementary school in Mexico.
Because his English teachers were also German, his accent was and still is German. Aside from German, English and Spanish, he also speaks Portuguese.
Niederstrasser and the late Elbertus Prol translated a biography of Hasenclever earlier in 2022, published by the North Jersey Highlands Historical Society.