Elizabeth Sutliff Dulfer: Her journey from slave to wealthy Bergen County businesswoman
Elizabeth Sutliff Dulfer was well into her 50s when she began her rise to prominence as one of Bergen County's wealthiest businesswomen and landhol...
Elizabeth Sutliff Dulfer was well into her 50s when she began her rise to prominence as one of Bergen County's wealthiest businesswomen and landholders.The late start wasn't her doing. The rise certainly was.Born in 1790 without money, property and autonomy, Dulfer spent the first 31 years of her life a slave. She was degraded as property on William Campbell's farm outside modern-day Hackensack, to which she would return in 1847 to buy untapped clay pits formed by glacial Lake Hackensack.In all, she bought 87 acres that year.