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GEORGE V. DEMOTT                   
HALE, HEARTY, HAPPY,
           ON 96TH BIRTHDAY
_________

VENERABLE PIONEER OF
CLIFTON DEVELOPED BIG
TRACT IN THAT CITY---
INTERESTING CAREER

With a mind as keen as a man half his age and a sprightly, quick way about him that gives evidence of his excellent health, George V. De Mott, of Hadley and Main Avenues, Clifton, is today observing his ninety-sixth birthday.
  "Yes, so 'tis." Mr. De Mott said, yesterday, when a Daily News man visited him at his home and mentioned that today would be the anniversary of his birthday.
  He greeted the reported with a hearty welcome and a firm handshake and proceeded to tell him a little about himself-a man not crippled through the infirmity of age, but a tall, alert and quick-witted gentleman showing no signs of age whatever and glad that he has been able to live so long and enjoy life, and hoping for many years more.
  Mr. De Mott was born April 27, 1822, on a large farm at North Bergen Township, Hudson County, now part of Jersey City, the same day that General Grant was born.  His father was George De Mott.  He was brought up on the farm and at the age of sixteen went to work in a New York dry goods store at Grand and Orchard Streets.  He boarded in New York--there was no way of commuting--and worked from 6 o'clock in the morning until 9 o'clock at night.
  As a young man, Mr. De Mott and a friend from New York decided to go West to St. Louis.  They got as far as Cincinnati where they engaged in the soda water bottling business, Mr. De Mott remaining there for two summers, coming east again because of ill-health.
  "A doctor out there told me I would have to go East right away," he said with a smile, "and he said I needn't count on living long."
  Mr. De Mott engaged in the same business in Hudson County and retired in 1870.  A year previous he came to Clifton with his family and resided at the old Clifton Hotel, which was on the site of the present hotel in Clifton bearing that name.  He purchased sixty to eighty acres of land in Clifton, then nothing but "wilderness," which ran from near the Passaic line at Main Avenue up as far as Clifton Avenue.  He also owned the hotel in which he lived.  He did not operate the hostelry, however.
  He has resided in his present home, which for years has been the most beautiful homestead in Clifton, for thirty-one years.  It was erected some years prior to the time he entered it.

(Continued on Page Eleven)

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GEORGE V. DEMOTT                   
HALE, HEARTY, HAPPY,
           ON 96TH BIRTHDAY
(Continued from Page One)

Mr. De Mott is a descendant of Mathias De Motte, who with many other French Huguenots, came to America following the revocation of the "Edict of Nantes about 1689 or 1670.  Many of them settled on the shores of the Hudson near and above what is now Jersey City.  Most of them started larger farms and were prosperous.
  Since he has been in Clifton, Mr. De Mott has taken care of his realty holdings and he served for fifteen years as a member of the Board of Freeholders of Passaic County.  He organized the old Clinton Land & Building Association.  He was chairman of the Freeholders for several years.  He was also a member of the Legislature from Hudson County.
  "Say," he said, "when I came here this was the wildest piece of property in the country."
  He was one of the real developers of the old village of Clifton, then a part of Acquackanonk Township, and a "stopping place" between Passaic and Paterson/  main Avenue, in the early seventies, was a mere path.  Before that time he saw the first locomotive operate over the Erie.
  Mr. De Mott was a member of the Old First Reformed Church, this city for many years, when it was located in lower Main Avenue, and he would drive down every Sunday.
  After the little chat had ended, Mr. De Mott added:
  "And you can say that I never felt better.  Had a little rheumatism the other day but I fixed it up all right.  And say, too, that I am mighty, mighty thankful that I have lived all these years and hope for more."
  Mr. De Mott was married twice, first in 1846.  Five children were born to the first marriage and none to the second.  One survives, John W. De Mott, treasurer of the City of Clifton.  There are three granddaughters.