There was a time when the people of Bloomingdale, which at that time included the north end of Riverdale (“East Bloomingdale”) and most of Butler (“West Bloomingdale”), desired to form a new county. They envisioned taking parts of five counties to form “Pequannock County” — with Bloomingdale as the county seat, of course.

This effort failed, but ultimately Bloomingdale would become an independent borough when Pompton Township was broken up in 1918.

A companion article in the same 1879 newspaper explained why Bloomingdale anticipated a bright future accompanied by both industrial and residential growth.