1686
Origins and early settlement
The name is Lenape. The Borough of Paramus traces it to peramsepuss, rendered as “land of the wild turkeys” or “fertile fields where turkeys are found.” A metal turkey statue at Paramus Park commemorates the derivation. A second, less-supported reading translates the root as “pleasant stream.”
European land patents in the area were recorded by Jacob Epke Banta in 1686, Isaac Van Saun in 1695, and Albert Zabriskie in 1702, the last on land deeded to him by the Lenape. The Zabriskie family had arrived from Poland by way of a Dutch ship in 1662. Their holdings here, roughly two thousand acres, came to be known as the Paramus Patent.
Two of the family's houses survive as recorded historic structures: the Zabriskie Tenant House and the Albert J. Zabriskie Farmhouse. The Van Saun name survives too, attached to the county park that now occupies part of the old farm a mile from this address.
Sources: Borough of Paramus, Paramus History; National Register of Historic Places listings.


