Charles Pitman Buckley, Mayor of the Borough of Tenafly, Bergen County, and a prominent member of the bar of New York City, was born in West Bloomfield, Essex County, N. J., on the 22d of December, 1834. His father, John Buckley, who became a resident of Bergen County in 1845, was a native of Yorkshire, England, while his mother Elizabeth Van Gieson, was descended from Rynier Bastienstianse, a native of Giesen, a village in North Brabant, who came to this country in 1660 and taught the first school at Flatbush, L. I., also performing the duties of court master, rung the bell, kept the church in order, and performed the duties of precentor, attended to the burial of the dead, etc., for a salary of 200 florins, exclusive of perquisites. He removed to Bergen, N. J., where he and his sons Garret, Isaac, George, and Rynier bought land and later purchased and settled on lands north and northeast of Hackensack in Bergen County. Isaac died in 1703 and a son, Jacob, died in 1704.
Mr. Buckley received his education in the public schools of New York City and Bergen County, N. J., and subsequently took up the study of law, being admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court in New York City at the October term in 1858. Entering at once upon the active practice of his profession in New York, he was in partnership with William G. Wheelright until 1862, and afterward with Jesse C. Smith and John S. Woodward under the firm names of Smith & Woodward, Smith, Woodward & Buckley, and Woodward & Buckley. Since January 1, 1891, he has been associated with William W. Buckley under the firm name of C. P. & W. W. Buckley. In 1873 he was appointed mater in chancery by Chancellor Runyon.
Mr. Buckley has resided in Tenafly since 1865. Upon the formation of Palisade Township in 1870, and thereafter for about ten years, he took an active part in political matters, attending all the State and county conventions, at the same time declining all nominations for office. In March, 1899, however, he became Mayor of the borough. He is a member of the Lawyers’ Club and of the New York Athletic club, of New York City, and of the Long Beach Club, of Barnegat, and the Tenafly Club, of Tenafly, N. J.
Mr. Buckley was married in New York City, in 1857, to Ella Augusta Mix, who died in 1884, leaving four children: William W. Buckley, a graduate of Columbia College, New York City; Thomas J. Buckley, a graduate of Stevens Institute, Hoboken, N. J.; and two daughters.
Source: Harvey, Cornelius Burnham, Editor; Genealogical History of Hudson and Bergen Counties, New Jersey, New York: The New Jersey Genealogical Publishing Company, 1900.