USA > New Jersey > Genealogical and memorial history of the state of New Jersey, Volume I > Part 14
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In 1643 the States General of the Nether- lands offered a grant of land in New Amster- dam to Jan and Jacobus Strycker provided that they brought out, at their own expense, twelve other families from Holland. This grant, it does not appear, they accepted until eight years afterward, when they established the American branch of the family in and near New Amsterdam. The old Strycker mansion at Fifty-second street and the Hudson river is the last of the old manor houses of New York City. There were few offices which these able men did not fill at different times. Jacobus was a great burgher of New Amsterdam in 1653-55-57-58-60, also one of Peter Stuy- vesant's council.
Jan Strycker, born in Holland, 1614, reached New Amsterdam from Rouen with his wife, two sons and four daughters, 1652, leaving behind him all the privileges and rights which might be his by descent in the old world. He was a man of ability and education, for his subsequent history proves him to be prominent in the civil and religious community in which he cast his lot. His first wife was Lambertje Seubering. After her death he married Swantje Jans, widow of Cornelis Potter, of Brooklyn. The second wife died in 1686. In March, 1687, he married a third time, Teuntje Teunis, of Flatbush.
Jan Strycker remained in New Amsterdam a little over a year, and in the year 1654 he took
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the lead in founding a Dutch colony on Long Island at what was called Midwout; it was also called Middlewoods. The modern name is Flatbush. On the IIth of December, 1653, while still in New Amsterdam, Jan Strycker joined with others in a petition of the Com- monality of the New Netherlands and a remonstrance against the conduct of Director Stuyvesant. The petition recited that "they apprehended the establishment of an arbitrary government over them; that it was contrary to the genuine principles of well regulated gov- ernments that one or more men should arro- gate to themselves the exclusive power to dis- pose at will of the life and property of any individual; that it was odious to every free- born man, principally to those whom God has placed in a free state of newly settled lands." We humbly submit that "'tis one of our privi- leges that our consent, or that of our repre- sentatives, is necessarily required in the enact- ment of laws and orders." It is remarkable that at this early day this indictment was drawn up, this "bill of rights" was published. But these men came from the blood of the hardy Northmen and imbibed with the free air of America the determination to be truly free themselves.
In the year 1654 Jan Strycker was selected as the chief magistrate of Midwout, and this office he held most of the time for twenty years. The last time we find the notice of his election was at the council of war holden in Fort William Hendrick, August 18, Anno 1673, where the delegates from the respective towns of Midwout, Bruckelen, Amers-fort, Utrecht, Boswyck and Gravesend selected him as "Schepen." He was also one of the ém- bassy from New Amsterdam and the principal Dutch towns to be sent to the Lord Mayors in Holland on account of their annoyance from the English and the Indians ; they complain that they "will be driven off their lands unless re- enforced from Fatherland." On April 10, 1664, he took his seat as a representative from Midwout in that great Landtdag, a general assembly called by the burgomasters, which was held at the City Hall in New Amsterdam, to take into consideration the precarious con- dition of the country. He was one of the representatives in the Hempstead convention in 1665, and he appears as a patentee on the celebrated Nichols patent, October II, 1667, and again on the Dongan patent, November 12, 1685. He was elected captain of the mili- tarv company at Midwout, October 25, 1673, and his brother Jacobus was given the author-
ity to "adminster the oaths and to install him into office." Captain Jan Strycker was named March 26, 1674, as a deputy to represent the town in a conference to be held at New Orange to confer with Governor Colve on the present state of the country.
During the first year of his residence at Midwout he was one of the two commissioners to build the Dutch church there, the first erected on Long Island, and he was for many vears an active supporter of the Dominie Johannes Theodorus Polhemus, of the Re- formed Church of Holland, in that edifice. After raising a family of eight children, every one of whom lived to adult life and married, seeing his sons settled on valuable plantations and occupying positions of influence in the community, and his daughters marrying into the families of the Brinckerhoffs, the Berriens and the Bergens, living to be over eighty years . of age, he died about the year 1697, full of the honors which these new towns could bestow, and with his duties as a civil officer and a free citizen of his adopted country well performed.
Jacobus Gerritsen Strycker, or Jacob Strycker, as he seems to have generally written his name, was a younger brother of Jan and came from the village of Ruinen, in the United Provinces, to New Amsterdam, in the year 1651. On February II, 1653, he bought a lot of land "on west side of the Great Highway, on the cross street running from the said high- way to the shore of the North River, Manhat- tan Island." A part of this "lot" is still in possession of the family. He was a great burgher of New Amsterdam in 1653-55-57- 58-60. In the month of March, 1653, he appears as subscribing two hundred guilders to the fund for erecting a wall of earth mound and wooden palisades to surround the city of New Amsterdam to keep off the Puritan colo- nists of New England and unfriendly Indians. On May 27 of the same year the worshipful schepen, Jacob Strycker, is the purchaser of a lot of land ten rods square on what is now Exchange Place, east of Broad street.
About the close of the year 1660 he removed to New Amersfort, Long Island, now called Flatlands. He must have returned for a time to New Amsterdam, for in 1663 he appears again as an alderman of the young colony there. In the year 1660 he and his wife Ytie (Ida) (Huybrechts) Strycker, whom he mar- ried in Holland, and who bore him two chil- dren, a son and a daughter, appear on the records as members of the old Dutch Church of New York, and it is noted that he had
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removed to New Amersfort. The records of the church in the latter place shows both of them as members there in the year 1667. On August 18, 1673, he became schout or high sheriff of all the Dutch towns on Long Island, a position of influence and responsibility at that time. He was also a delegate to the con- vention, March 26, 1674, to confer with Gov- ernor Colve on the state of the colony.
He seems to have been a gentleman of con- siderable means, of much official influence and of decided culture. He died, as we find from the church records kept by Dominie Casparus Van Zuuren, in October, 1687. From this date until the present time (1906) the family genealogy has accurately been traced down by General William S. Strycker, whose biography we here append, drafted and adopted by the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States Commandery of the State of Pennsylvania shortly after his death.
William Scudder Strycker, son of Thomas Johnson and Hannah (Scudder) Strycker, of Trenton, New Jersey, was born in that city, June 6, 1838, died at his home in that city, October 29, 1900. He prepared for college at the Trenton Academy and was graduated from Princeton College in the class of 1858. He read law and was admitted to the bar (Ohio), but never engaged in active practice. He responded to President Lincoln's first call for troops and enlisted as a private April 16, 1861. He was appointed major and disbursing officer and quartermaster at Camp Vreden- burg, Freehold, New Jersey, July 22, 1862, by the governor of New Jersey, and assisted much in organizing the Fourteenth New Jersey there. He was appointed paymaster of United States Volunteers, February 19, 1863, and ordered to Hilton Head, South Carolina, where, July 8, 1863, he volunteered as acting aide-de-camp to General Gillmore and participated in the cap- ture of Morris Island, in the night attack on Fort Wagner, and in the siege of Charleston generallv. Subsequently he was transferred to the north on account of illness and assigned to duty as senior paymaster at Columbus, Ohio, at Parole Camp, and continued in charge of that paying district (including Detroit) until 1866, when he resigned and returned to Tren- ton.
On January 10, 1867, he was placed on the staff of the governor of New Jersey as aide- de-camp and lieutenant-colonel, and April 12, 1867, was appointed adjutant-general of New Jersey, with the rank of brigadier-general, which office he held continuously to his decease
(over thirty-three years) and the duties of which he discharged with signal ability. He was nominated brevet major-general by Gov- ernor Parker for long and meritorious service, February 9, 1874, and confirmed by the senate unanimously.
General Strycker was a wide reader and close student, especially of American history, and collected a large and valuable library, especially rich in Americana. He was noted as an author and wrote some of the best and most accurate historical monographs yet issued in America, relating particularly to New, Jersey and the battles of Trenton, Princeton and Monmouth. He became so interested in the conduct of the Hessians at Trenton that he made a trip to Hesse-Cassel, Germany, and exhumed from the archives there new facts of rare value concerning them. His "Trenton One Hundred Years Ago," "The Old Bar- racks at Trenton, N. J.," "The New Jersey Volunteer-Loyalists," "The Battles of Trenton and Princeton," "The New Jersey Con- tinental Line in the Virginia Campaign 1781," "Washington's Reception by the People of New Jersey in 1789," and other like mono- graphs are authorities on these subjects, and will continue so. He also compiled, or had compiled in his office as adjutant-general, a "Register of the Officers and Men of New Jersey in the Revolutionary War" and a "Record of the Officers and Men of New Jersey in the Civil War 1861-1865," that abounds with painstaking accuracy and care and that will forever remain as monuments both to himself and the state. In recognition of his scholarly work and worth, his alma mater justly conferred the degree of LL. D. upon him in 1899.
He was president of the Trenton Battle Monument Association and the life and soul of it for years, and to his wise and patriotic con- duct is due in large part its erection at last. He was president of the Trenton Savings Fund Society and greatly interested in its new banking house, an ornament to his native city. He was a director of the Trenton Banking Company and of the Widows' Home Associa- tion; also trustee of the First Presbyterian Church, Trenton, and of the Theological Semi- nary at Princeton. He was president of the New Jersey Society of the Cincinnati and of the New Jersey Historical Society, and a mem- ber of the New Jersey Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, of the Grand Army of the Republic, and of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion ; also a fellow of the Amer-
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ican Geographical and Historical Societies and of the Royal Historical Society of London.
General Strycker traveled extensively, both at home and abroad, and dispensed a gracious hospitality to Count de Paris and others, and was everywhere recognized as an American scholar and gentleman. He was modest and unassuming beyond most men, but was an accomplished officer and Christian gentleman. In both his military and civil relations he was alike honorable and honored. "None knew him but to love him, none named him but to praise." His abilities were of a high order, and he had a charm of manner and grace of bearing peculiarly his own. His high qualities, both of head and heart, his intellectual attain- ments and social elegance, marked him as one of Nature's noblemen, and when he passed away one of the highest types of American soldier, citizen and gentleman was lost. He was the very soul of probity and honor. His work is done, and it was well done, and luis example remains as an inspiration and a hope.
General Strycker married, September 14, 1870, Helen Boudinot Atterbury, of New York, and their children are: Helen Boudinot, wife of John A. Montgomery, Esq. ; Kathlyn Berrien and William Bradford. His wife and three children survived him.
Dr. S. S. Strycker, now a prominent physi- cian in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the son of Samuel Stanhope Strycker, the brother of Thomas Johnson Strycker, who, like his son, Dr. Strycker, was graduated at Princeton Uni- versity, and died in Trenton, New Jersey. Dr. Strycker belongs to all the great patriotic soci- eties : Colonial Wars, Sons of Revolution, Holland Society, and the Netherland Society of Philadelphia, the two latter by virtue of his Dutch descent. He married Grace Bartlett, daughter of Abner Bartlett, of New York, one of the trustees of the Astor estate. Dr. Strycker has one son, Abner Bartlett Strycker.
Grover Cleveland, former CLEVELAND President of the United States, is a native of New Jersey, born in Caldwell, Essex county, March 18, 1837, and comes of a notable ancestry. In their various generations several of his an- cestors were distinguished in military and pro- fessional life, and four Clevelands were gov- ernors of states-Chauncey Fitch Cleveland, of Connecticut ; Jesse F. Cleveland, of North Carolina ; Alvin P. Hovey, of Indiana, and Grover Cleveland, the subject of this narrative, of New York.
The Cleveland family traces its descent from one Thorkil, in all probability a Saxon land- lord, who about the time of the Norman con- quest assumed the surname De Cliveland, call- ing himself Thorkil De Cliveland, maintaining his family seat in the county of York, England. From him was descended the progenitor of the American branch of the family, Moses (or Moyses) Cleveland (or Cleaveland), who was born probably in Ipswich, Suffolk county, Eng- land, whence he came to America about 1635, when a lad about twelve years of age. He landed at either Plymouth or Boston, about fifteen years after the coming of the Pilgrims. He died in Woburn, January 9, 1701-2. He married, at that place, 7 mo., 26, 1648, Ann Winn, born about 1626, died prior to May 6, 1682. One family tradition makes her a native of England, another of Wales. Moses and Ann Cleveland were the parents of twelve chil- dren.
(II) Aaron, son of Moses and Ann ( Winn) Cleveland, was born in Woburn, Massachu- setts, January 10, 1654-5, and died there Sep- tember 14, 1716. He married there, 7 mo., 26, 1675, Dorcas Wilson, born January 29, 1657, died in Cambridge, November 29, 1714, daugh- ter of John and Hannah (James) Wilson. He married (second), 1714-15, Prudence
Aaron Cleveland served in King Philip's war, as did his brothers Moses and Samuel. He was made a freeman in 1680, and became a man of wealth and distinction, prominent in all public affairs. He gave to his children the best educational advantages of that day.
(III) Captain Aaron Cleveland, son of Aaron Cleveland, was born in Woburn, July 9, 1680, and died in that part of Cambridge called Mys- tic (now Medford), or at Norwich, Connecti- cut, about December 1, 1755. He lived in Wo- burn to 1704, in Medford to 1710, in Charles- town to 1713, in Cambridge to 1716, in Med- ford again, in Charlestown again in 1738, and afterward in East Haddam, Connecticut. He was admitted by profession and baptism to the church at Cambridge, October 7, 1711, and transferred to Medford church, and to East Haddam church August 10, 1755. He was made constable March 1, 1707-8. He was an innkeeper at Cambridge, and was a builder and contractor, and a man of business ability. He held one slave, to whom he willed freedom "after the decease of my beloved wife." He was a man of great stature and strength, and was prominent in military affairs, and was cornet, lieutenant and captain. He married, at Woburn, January 1, 1701-2, Abigail Waters,
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born there November 29, 1683, died January 6, 1761, daughter of Samuel and Mary (Hud- son ) Waters. They had eight children.
(IV) Rev. Aaron Cleveland, son of Captain Aaron and Abigail (Waters) Cleveland, was one of the most distinguished clergymen of his day. He was born October 19-29, 1715, and died in Philadelphia, August 11, 1757, in the prime of his life. While Medford is generally given as his birthplace, both Charleston and Cambridge contend for the honor. He entered Harvard College at the age of sixteen, and graduated at the age of twenty. Where he studied theology is not known. He settled in 1739 at Haddam, and probably delivered his first sermon there, being the third regular pas- tor. In 1750 he became a resident of Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he established "Mather's Church," as it was known after the church division in New England, and this is notable as the first Presbyterian church in the British lower province. In the third year of his min- istry his brother, Captain Samuel Cleveland, was killed by Indians. In 1754 he terminated his ministry, having became an adherent of the Church of England, and went to Norwich, Connecticut, where his widowed mother died. He was invited to preach to Church of Eng- land congregations in Norwich and Groton alternately, and consented to do so in the event of his procuring ordination. There being no bishop in America, he sailed for England in 1754 to take holy orders, and was ordained priest by Bishop Sherlock, of London, July 28, 1755. In August following he sailed on his return voyage, and his vessel narrowly escaped loss by shipwreck on Nantucket Shoals. He landed at Halifax, whence he went to Bos- ton and Norwich, and finally to Delaware. Finding a promising field at Newcastle, in the latter colony, he was assigned to that parish. He preached there once, and left to bring thither his family, passing through Philadel- phia, where he was entertained at the home of Benjamin Franklin, whose esteem and friend- ship he enjoyed. His death occurred in that home a few days later, August 11, 1757, due to a fever and an undermined constitution ascribable to injuries received in a fall on board ship at the time that shipwreck was imminent, as before narrated. He was buried in Christ Church graveyard, Philadelphia. He was an able and zealous preacher, and (to quote from Franklin's Pennsylvania · Gazette ) "a gentle- man of humane and pious disposition, inde- fatigable in his ministry, easy and affable in his conversation, open and sincere in his friend-
ships, and above every species of meanness and dissimulation." He married, at Medford, August 4, 1739, Susannah Porter, born there April 26, 1716, died at Salem, Massachusetts, March 28, 1788, daughter of Rev. Aaron and Susanna (Sewall) Porter. When her husband died she was left with ten children.
(V) Rev. Aaron Cleveland, son of Rev. Aaron and Susannah ( Porter) Cleveland, was a man of remarkable gifts, and his career was of phenomenal usefulness. He was born in Medford, Massachusetts, 1738, and died in New Haven, Connecticut, September 21, 1815. In early boyhood he gave evidence of more than ordinary mental endowments, and was intended for college. His father dying and leaving but little means to his family, the lad was apprenticed to a hatter at Haddam. Dur- ing his apprenticeship he devoted himself closely to study during his leisure hours, and at the age of nineteen wrote a poem, "The Philosopher and the Boy," which was publish- ed in the Everest's "Poets of Connecticut," 1843. In August, 1764, he was drafted for military service in the British army, and served for six months. After coming of age he work- ed as a journeyman hatter at Norwich, in 1768 went into the business on his own ac- count, at Bean Hill, Norwich, and was subse- quently in business at Guilford, Connecticut, for twenty-five years. He was a ready writer and strong controversialist, and early antag- onized human slavery. In 1773 he delivered a strong discourse upon the subject, based upon the scriptural passage, "Touch not mine an- nointed," being the first in Connecticut to pub- licly espouse the cause, and contributed copi- ously to the newspapers in advocacy of his views, and in 1780 wrote his "Poem Against Slavery," of which his descendants may be justly proud. In 1779 he was elected to the legislature, and introduced a bill for the aboli- tion of slavery. He declined a re-election. An attendant of the Congregational church, he became a leader among the Universalists, but in 1792 changed his views as to religion, con- nected himself with the Orthodox Congrega- tional Church, studied theology with Walter King, of Norwich. He was chosen deacon in 1794, was licensed to preach in 1797, and went as a missionary to the new settlemnt in Ver- mont. He preached at Canaan, New Hampshire, 1799; in 1800 settled at Braintree, Vermont ; was minister at Royalton, Vermont, for a year or two; and was pastor at Wethersfield, Con- necticut, November, 1803, to October, 1804. In March of the year of his death, he delivered
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two sermons which attracted marked attention, and were published both in the United States and England. His chief characteristics were ardent piety, great earnestness, sincere love of the truth, exuberant animal spirits, and a most ready wit. He married, at Norwich, Connecti- cut, April 12, 1768, Abiah Hyde, born in Nor- wich, December 27, 1749, or January 9, 1750, died at Norwich, August 23, 1788, only daugh- ter of Captain James and Sarah Marshall. He married (second), in Norwich, October 23, 1788, Mrs. Elizabeth Clement Breed, widow of David Breed, and daughter of Jeremiah and Mary ( Mosely ) Clement.
(VI) William Cleveland, son of Rev. Aaron and Abiah (Hyde) Cleveland, was born in Norwich, Connecticut, December 20, 1770, and died at Black Rock, near Buffalo, New York, August 18, 1837. He was a master silversmith, watch and clock maker. He manufactured silver spoons of much beauty, each bearing upon the back the name "Cleveland," in bold handsome letters. Specimens still exist, and one was presented to his great-granddaughter Ruth, a daughter of former President Grover Cleveland. Soon after his marriage, Mr. Cleveland set up in business in Worthington, Massachusetts, whence he removed to Salem, and then to New York state. He was deacon in the Norwich church for twenty-five years. He married, in Westfield, Massachusetts, De- cember 19, 1793, Margaret Falley, born in Westfield, November 15, 1766, died at Black Rock, New York, August 10, 1850, daughter of Richard and Margaret ( Hitchcock) Falley. They had six children.
(VII) Rev. Richard Falley Cleveland, son of William and Margaret ( Falley) Cleveland, was born in Norwich, Connecticut, June 19, 1804, and died at Holland Patent, New York, October 1, 1853. He graduated from Yale College in 1824, and studied theology at Balti- more, Maryland, with Rev. William Nivin, D. D., and afterward at Princeton Theological Seminary. In 1827 he was chosen as supply at Pomfret, Connecticut. He was ordained in 1828 minister of the First Congregational Church at Windham, Connecticut, and remain- ed there until 1833; minister at Portsmouth, Virginia, 1833-35; pastor First Presbyterian Church, Caldwell, New Jersey, 1835-41 ; pastor First Presbyterian Church, Fayetteville, New York, 1841-47. In the latter year he was chosen district secretary and agent for the Presby- terian Board of Home Missions in New York State, residing in Clinton, Oneida county, and also preaching in that vicinity. After three
years he was called to a church at Holland Patent, New York, where, after preaching one month, he died without an hour's warning, leaving his family in reduced circumstances, having throughout his life devoted his means to the education of his children. He was a man of more than ordinary ability, fine voice, bright mind and liberal ideas. He married, September 10, 1829, Ann Neal, in all respects a superior woman, born in Baltimore, Maryland, February 4, 1806, died at Holland Patent, New York, July 19, 1882, daughter of Abner and Barbara (Reel) Neal. Her father was born in Ireland, and was a law book publisher ; her mother was a German Quakeress. To Rev. and Mrs. Cleveland were born nine children. One of the daughters, Rose Elizabeth, is a well known author and educator. She was educated at Houghton Seminary, Clinton, New York, and became a teacher in that institution; and later had charge of a collegiate institution in Lafayette, Indianna. For a short time she was editor of Literary Life, a Chicago journal, and is author of "George Eliot's Poetry, and other Studies," and a novel, "The Long Run."
(VIII) Grover Cleveland, son of Rev. Rich- ard Falley and Ann (Neal) Cleveland, was born March 18, 1837, in Caldwell, New Jersey, in a small two-story building which was the parsonage of the Presbyterian church of which his father was then pastor, and which is yet standing. He was named Stephen Grover, for his father's predecessor in the pastorate, but in childhood the first name was dropped. In 1841, when he was three years old, his parents removed to Fayetteville, Onondaga county, New York, where he lived until he was four- teen, attending the district school and academy. He was of studious habits, and his frank open disposition made him a favorite with both his teachers and fellows. He left the academy before he could complete the course, and took employment in a village store, his wages being fifty dollars for the first and one hundred dollars for the second year, but soon after the beginning of the latter period he removed to Clinton, New York, whither his parents had preceded him, and resumed studies at the academy in that village, with the intention of preparing himself for admission to Hamilton College. The death of his father, however, disappointed this expectation, and made it necessary to enter upon self-support. He ac- cordingly accepted a position as bookkeeper and assistant teacher in the New York Insti- tution for the Blind, which he filled acceptably for a year. Starting west in search of more
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