USA > New Jersey > Genealogical and memorial history of the state of New Jersey, Volume IV > Part 28
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In 1656, Abraham Rycken made a voyage to the Delaware in hopes that he might be able to procure there the skins which the West India Company's laws forbade him dealing
in in New Amsterdam. Ascending the river in canoes, the boat in which he and his com- panions were was stranded near the falls of the river and had to be unloaded before it could be gotten again afloat. Bidding his boat- men encamp on the banks of the river until his return, Abraham Rycken visited Fort Casimir, near New Castle, where he learned that his efforts to obtain peltries would prove abortive. He then returned to New Amster- dam, and some time afterwards he took up his permanent residence on his farm at the Poor Bowery. In Dominie Hendrik Selyn's list of the members of the Dutch Church in New York in 1686, Abraham is noted as one of the five families living on the "Arms Bou- werie," and in Valentine's list of the owners of houses and lots in New Amsterdam in 1674 the residents of that part of the Heers Graft on which his house had stood, instead of read- ing Adriaen Vincent, Simon Felle, Abraham Rycken and Jochem Beeckman, reads Adriaen Vincent, Johannes de Peyster, John Vincent, Anna Vincent, Claes Lock, William Bogardus, Dirck Clasen, Margaret Backer and Jochem Beeckman, showing not only that the property had changed hands, both Felle and Rycken having sold out, but also that the city was rapidly being built up, the two lists showing the difference between 1655 and twenty years later. November 25, 1683, Governor Dongan gave Newtown a patent of the land granted to the inhabitants in 1652 by Stuyvesant, and in the list of 107 patentees named Abraham Ricke is the twenty-second. His will is dated March 9, 1688, and the inventory of his per- sonal estate April 5, 1689. They are recorded in Jamaica deeds liber A, p. 36.
Abraham Rycken married Grietje or Mar- garet Hendrikse, daughter of Hendrik Har- mensen, whom James Riker in his "Annals of Newtown" says may be regarded "as the first white man that turned a furrow in that sec- tion of the township." Harmensen died pos- sibly in the Indian massacre of 1643, and two years later his widow Tryon Herxer married Jeuriaen Fradell, a native of Moravia. Abra- ham and Grietje (Hendrikse) Rycken had children : 1. Ryck, changed his name to Lent. became ancestor of the family of that name, removed to Westchester county, New York, and was one of the original patentees of the famous Ryck's patent. 2. Jacobus, born 1640, died in infancy. 3. Jacobus, born 1643, joined his brother Ryck in procuring Ryck's patent, but in 1715 sold his interest to his nephew Hercules Lent, lived at Upper Yonkers, and
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died without issue. 4. Hendrick, born 1646, died young. 5. Marytje, born 1649, married Sibout H. Krankheyt. 6. Jan, referred to later. 7. Aletta, born 1653, married Jan Har- mense. 8. Abraham, born 1655, died August 20, 1746; married Grietje Janse van Buyten- huysen. 9. Hendrick, born 1662, joined his brothers Ryck and Jacobus, and changed his name to Lent.
(III) Jan, sixth child and fifth son of Abraham and Grietje Hendrikje (Harmensen) Rycken, was born in 1651. He was more or less of a roving character. In 1680 his name appears on a "list of those in Flushing who paid on the minister's salary." On this list he signs his name Jan Rycker, which is the first known occurrence of the name's being spelt with the final "r." October 24, 1691, he mar- ried Sara, daughter of Jan Schouten and Sara Jansen, and widow of Paulus Paulussen Van- derbeck. Paulus Vanderbeck Sr. was a man of some consequence in the colony and among the earlier settlers, obtaining his first land patent May 12, 1646. He was fourth husband of Marytje Tomas, whose first husband was Adam Brouwer, her second, Jacob Verdon, and her third, Willem Ariaensen Bennet, by all of whom she had had children. Jan
Rycker and Sara Schouten had four children baptized in the Dutch Church in New York : Abraham, referred to below; Helena, or Lena, baptized March 24, 1696, married Jan Dool- hagen ; Elizabeth, September 22, 1697; Eliza- beth (2d), baptized December 25, 1698.
(IV) Abraham, eldest child of Jan Rycker and Sara Schouten, was baptized in the Dutch Church in New York, February 13, 1695. At this time his parents appear to have been living on Staten Island, where Abraham himself seems to have lived until some time after his marriage, since his three oldest children were baptized and recorded in the Staten Island register. In 1728 he removed into what is now Essex county, New Jersey, and he and his wife were received into the Dutch Church at Second River, where the two youngest of his children were baptized. By his wife, Anneke Oliver, Abraham Rycker (or, as his name is more often spelt in the records, Rycke) had five children: Femmetje, baptized August 17, 1718, married August 12, 1740, in Second River Dutch Reformed Church, Abraham Steeger ; Abraham Rycker, baptized January 15, 1721, married Marytje Rex; Isaac Riker, referred to below ; Henricus, born November II, 1731, baptized February 6, 1732; and Matia, born May 14, 1734.
(V) Isaac, third child and second son of Abraham and Anneke (Oliver) Rycker, was born February 8, 1728, and baptized at Staten Island, April 28 same year. As is the case with his father, the date and place of his death is unknown; tradition asserts that he lived to a good old age, and that he was an old man when he married his third wife. January 29, 1751, when he married his first wife, Annetje Egberse, he was living at the Ganegat or Horseneck ; his wife came from Acquackonock, the present Passaic. He acquired a farm of 180 acres of land at Verona, at the head of Verona Lake, on Peekman's brook, extending along both sides of the turnpike. The property descended to his two sons by Annetje Egberse, and a part of it still remains in the hands of the elder son's descendants. The first son, Peter, born August 27, 1751, died August 2, 1806, married Martha Corby, who survived him twenty-six years and twenty-six days, dying August 28, 1832, and buried beside her husband in the cemetery of the First Presby- terian church at Caldwell. Isaac, second son of Isaac and Annetje `(Egberse) Riker, mar- ried December 19, 1765, Susanna, daughter of Samuel and Maria (Vanderhoef) Pier, and his descendants are still living near Caldwell. The youngest child of Isaac and Annetje Riker was Maria who married Abraham Brooks. With this last named son-in-law Isaac Riker seems to have had considerable trouble, as the court records contain a number of refer- ences to suits between them, and there are also records of mortgages which Isaac was obliged to place upon his Verona Lake property, pos- sibly in order to meet the expenses of this litigation. Some time after his first wife's death, Isaac Riker married a second time, but the date of the marriage and the name of his second wife is unknown. According to family tradition she was called "The Frenchwoman," and there is perhaps some reason to suppose that she was one of the Personettes. She bore her husband no children, and after her death he married (third) a wife whose name is lost, and they had children : I. Abraham, whose descendants are still living around Caldwell. 2. Catharine, born February 28, 1781, died April 28, 1862; married (first) a Piers, (second) Richard Oliver. 3. Jacob, of whom nothing more seems to be known. 4. Samuel, referred to below. Isaac Riker probably died a few years after the birth of his youngest son, since in 1797 his son Isaac mortgaged the portion of his father's farm that he had inher- ited, and it is known that the children of the
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third marriage were brought up in the fami- lies of friends and relatives.
(VI) Samuel, youngest child of Isaac Riker by his third wife, was born in 1784, and died August 24, 1849. His early life was passed in the home of Mr. Gould, who owned the farm adjoining that which his father had left to his children by his first wife. Like his father he was a farmer, and spent his life on his farm at West Bloomfield, now Montclair. He married Dorcas, daughter of Henry Isaacse Jacobus. Children: 1. Eliza Riker, born No- vember, 1808, died August 4, 1849 ; married, November 26, 1852, John Wesley Hancock. 2. Stephen Riker, born February 8, 1811, died July 11, 1815. 3. Stephen Riker (2), referred to below. 4. George Riker, born in West Bloomfield, March 25, 1818, died March 20, 1904; married, September 17, 1845, Eliza B. Silvey; children: i. Charles Frederick, born May 21, 1847, died October 5, 1857 ; ii. George Albert, born July 21, 1850, died March 31, 1885, unmarried; iii. William Francis, born November 7, 1852, still living, married No- vember 6, 1872, Mary E. Moore, and has four children ; iv. Annie Isabella, born November 4, 1856, still living, unmarried ; v. James Linden, November 4, 1856, still living, married Sep- tember 24, 1902, Mary E. Burnett. 5. William Riker, referred to below. 6. Edwin Riker, born December 8, 1826, died October 1, 1901 ; married, May 28, 1851, Matilda Tappan, and had four children, three girls, all married, and one now dead, and a boy, Herbert Morton, born September 8, 1864, died April 11, 1869.
(VII) Stephen, third child and eldest son of Samuel and Dorcas ( Jacobus) Riker, was born at West Bloomfield, May 2, 1815, and died in Newark, May 14, 1888. He married, November 6, 1839, Harriet Helen Kniffin ; children : I. Anna Louisa Riker, born Novem- ber 28, 1840, died November 4, 1870, unmar- ried. 2. Samuel McDonough Riker, born April 13, 1842, died November 6, 1898; mar- ried, October 8, 1867, Anna Augusta Jacobus ; one child, Joseph. 3. William Fortunatus Riker, referred to later. 4. Harriet Riker, born April 30, 1846, died November 16, 1868; mar- ried Frederick Williard Curtis Crane (See Crane). 5. Valentine Riker, referred to later. 6. Emma Euphemia Riker, born October 25, 1851, still living; married, June, 1871, David Hall Chase. 7. George Oscar Riker, born Feb- ruary 13, 1854, died August 1, 1855.
(VIII) William Fortunatus, second child and son of Stephen and Harriet Helen (Kniffin) Riker, was born at Pleasant Valley, Orange
county, New York. He received his early education in the public and high schools of Pleasant Valley and Newark. Learning the printing trade, he set up in business for him- self as a job printer and continued this until the outbreak of the civil war, when he enlisted and served first in the Twenty-sixth New Jer- sey Regiment under Colonel Morrison, and afterwards in the Thirty-seventh Regiment New Jersey Volunteers, as captain of Com- pany E, Colonel Grubb commanding. After the war Mr. Riker removed to New York state, but remained there only a short while, returning in 1866 to Newark and entering the employ of Robotham & Greacen, manufactur- ers of harness ornaments. Here he remained until his death, becoming in 1880 a member of the firm, and in 1896 sole proprietor. Mr. Riker's politics were Republican ; and his clubs were the North End club and the West End club. September 30, 1868, he married Julia Bertram, daughter of Thomas Bertram Har- rison, of New York City ; children : 1. William Harrison Riker, born July 8, 1869; at present agent of Prudential Insurance Company in Paterson, New Jersey ; married, May 15, 1898, Anna Margaret Pokorney ; children: William Fortunatus, Donald Bertram, Marjorie and Helen. 2. Mary Adelaide Riker, born August 20, 1871, still living ; married, June 24, 1908, Vance William Waterman, M. D., of Ver- gennes, Vermont. 3. Lewis Bertram Riker, born April 18, 1873, died September 24, 1877. 4. Julia Ethel Riker, born January 20, 1876; lives unmarried, in Newark. 5. Samuel Mc- Donough Riker, referred to below. 6. Helen Josephine Riker, born April 30, 1884, still liv- ing ; married Richard Watkins Foard (see Foard). Mr. Riker died July 6. 1909.
(IX) Samuel McDonough, third son and fifth child of William Fortunatus and Julia Bertram ( Harrison) Riker, was born in New- ark, March 26, 1879. For his early education he attended the public and high schools of that city and after graduation took a position as clerk in the firm of Walter Greacen & Com- pany, manufacturers of harness, jewelry and ornaments. This was then and is now the name of the old firm of Robotham & Greacen, of which his father was proprietor ; and with this firm Samuel McDonough Riker has con- tinued ever since, becoming in 1907 a member. October 28, 1903, he married Mignonette de la Force, daughter of James Langdon and Frances Cook (Force) Marvin; children : Monro Riker, born December 11, 1904; and Barbara Riker, January 22, 1908.
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(VIII) Valentine, third son and fifth child of Stephen and Harriet Helen ( Kniffin) Riker, was born in Newark, February 14, 1848, from which circumstance is derived his name. After graduating from the public and high schools of Newark he entered the insurance business and is now assistant secretary of the Prudential Insurance Company. His present address is 336 Park avenue, East Orange. November 16, 1870, he married (first) Fannie Francis Freeman, who died after bearing him two children: I. Richard Leslie Riker, born January 13, 1874 ; at present assistant cashier of the Prudential Insurance Company of New- ark; he is a retired commissioned officer in the first battalion, Naval Reserves; he married Mabel W., daughter of William and Rachel Amelia (Roberts ) Dixon. 2. Alice Freeman Riker, married Walter E. Scarborough; chil- dren Duncan and Gerald. June 16, 1886, Valen- tine Riker married ( second) Annie O. Freund ; children : Margueretha H., Dorothy, Adelaide, Harold, Ralph, Marion and Constance.
(VII) William, fifth child and son of Sam- uel and Dorcas (Jacobus) Riker, was born June 19, 1822, at West Bloomfield, and died, the patriarch of his branch of the family, at his home, 659 Clinton avenue, Newark, De- cember 27, 1897. He received a common school education in Bloomfield, and when he rcached fifteen years of age, according to the usual custom of that day, he was apprenticed to the firm of Taylor, Baldwin & Company, not only one of the earliest of the jewelry manu- facturing firms of the city, but also the firm to whom belongs the credit of first winning extended fame for Newark handiwork in that line of business. In 1837, when William Riker began his apprenticeship, the firm con- sisted of John Taylor, Isaac Baldwin, and Horace E. Baldwin, and it was the largest and most important of the six then existing firms. About eight years later Taylor dropped out of the firm, which then became Baldwin & Company, and about the same time William Riker, then a little more than twenty-one years of age, set up in the jewelry business for him- self, in September, 1846, on Green street. Some time afterwards William Riker took as his partner George H. Tay, and under the firm name of Riker & Tay continued the business until his partner was seized with the gold fever and went to California among the early "forty-niners." Horace Goble now took the place of George H. Tay, and the firm name became Riker & Goble until about 1869 or 1870, when the business removed to its present
location at 42-46 Court street, and Goble rcsigning, William Riker again became sole owner and manager. Several years later he took his son William Riker Jr. into partnership with him, and retiring from business in 1891, left the firm to the control and management of his two eldest sons, William and Joseph Marsh Riker, who then changed the name of the firm to the present firm of Riker Brothers. At first, owing to a prejudice against home products, jewelry made in this country met with slight encouragement, and almost all the large jewelry firms of Newark were obliged to maintain offices in New York, Philadelphia, and the western cities where their goods could be sold as the products of London or Paris. Much as the jewelers resented this, it took time, patience and courage to educate the public into a proper appreciation of American manufactures; and to the firm of Riker & Goble is due the credit of being the first to give up their New York office and salesroom, at 3 Maiden Lane, and of arranging to tran- sact all of their business from their Newark. factory itself. For a number of years William Riker lived with his family on Mulberry street, Newark; but in 1857 he purchased a farm- house property of twenty-one acres on the newly laid out Clinton avenue, which was at that time just becoming one of the popular residential sections of the city, and here built the house in which he spent the last forty years of his life and in which his youngest son was born. Mr. Riker was never a very robust man, and for several years before his death was confined more or less to his home, his last illness being of about four weeks duration. For many years he had been a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Newark, and Rev. David R. Frazer, D. D., pastor of that church, officiated at the funeral, which was at the house, the interment being in Mount Pleas- ant cemetery, the pall-bearers being Isaac Champenois, Edward Kanouse, Joseph Grover Ward, Samuel Streit, Samuel Baldwin, Icha- bod Dawson, William V. Snyder and Charles S. Stockton, M. D. November 22, 1848, Will- iam Riker married Sarah M. Hunter, who bore him five sons: William, Joseph Marsh, Cort- landt, Chandler White and Adrian, all of whom are referred to below.
(VIII) William (2), eldest son of William and Sarah H. (Hunter) Riker, was born in Newark, January 14, 1850, and is now living with his family at III Cleveland street, Orange. For his early education he was sent to private schools and later to the Newark
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Academy, after graduating from which he entered into his father's factory, where he learned the jewelry trade, and later became his father's partner, and in 1891, when his father retired, formed with his brother Joseph Marsh Riker the firm of Riker Brothers, of which he is senior member. Mr. Riker has always been an active and enthusiastic Repub- lican, and in 1893 received the appointment of register of deeds for Essex county, a position he held for five years and relinquished in order to accept the clerkship of the supreme court of New Jersey, to which he was appoint- ed in 1897. He is a member of all the Masonic bodies, as well as of the Essex County Coun- try Club and of the Orange Club. In 1896 he was elected a life member of the New Jersey Historical Society. June 18, 1885, William Riker Jr. married Jane Augusta, daughter and child of Prosper P. Shaw, who has borne him four children: Elsie Shaw Riker, born Sep- tember 21, 1886; Eleanor Hunter Riker, De- cember 31, 1888; Edith Catharine Riker, Jan- uary 8, 1890; and Robert Johnson Riker, No- vember 7, 1891.
(VIII) Joseph Marsh, second son and child of William and Sarah M. (Hunter) Riker, was born in Newark, January 8, 1852. After being educated in private schools he went to work in his father's jewelry manufacturing establishment, of which, on his father's retire- ment in 1891, he became junior partner. In 1902 he was elected president of the Mer- chant's National Bank, of which his father at the time of his death was one of the directors. He is a Republican, but has held no office, and he is a member of the Essex Club. May 18, 1881, Mr. Riker married Sara Ellen, eldest daughter of Samuel and Martha (Smith) Streit; children: I. Sara Streit Riker, born February 6, 1882, married Andrew Van Blar- com, Esq., of 863 South Twelfth street, New- ark, and has one child, Andrew. 2. Marian Berrien Riker, born April 6, 1884; married Franklin Conklin Jr., of 57 Johnson avenue, Waverly. 3. Joseph Marsh Riker Jr., born January 18, 1889. 4. Marguerite Streit Riker, born October 21, 1891.
(VIII) Cortlandt, third child and son of William and Sarah M. (Hunter) Riker, was born in Newark, February 20, 1854. After obtaining his education at the public schools and the Newark Academy, he went like his brothers into his father's jewelry factory, where he continued until his father's retire- ment in 1891, when he became treasurer of the Rapid Transit Railroad Company, which
position he held until the consolidation of the Newark street railways in 1893. In 1901 he became one of the directors of the Plainfield Street Railroad Company, which runs between Elizabeth and Plainfield. He is a member of the Union Club of Newark, and is unmar- ried.
(VIII) Chandler White, fourth child and son of William and Sarah M. ( Hunter ) Riker, was born in Newark, December 3, 1855, and now lives with his family at 422 Mount Pros- pect avenue, in the same city. After receiving his primary education at private schools he entered the Newark Academy, where he was prepared for college, and on his graduation there entered Princeton University, where he received his degree in 1876. He then went to Germany, where he undertook the mathemati- cal course at the Polytechnic Institute of Han- over, and attended courses of lectures on astronomy and Roman law at the University of Berlin. Returning after this to this coun- try, he entered the law school of Columbia University, where he graduated in 1879, being admitted to the bar as attorney that same year and as counsellor in 1882. Being an active and enthusiastic Republican, Chandler White Riker was appointed in 1879 as counsel for Clinton township, Newark, a position which he held until 1902. While holding this office Mr. Riker also acted as the counsel for two rail- road companies, and for five years served as county counsel for Essex. In 1898 he was appointed prosecuting attorney for his county and continued to act as such until 1903. In 1904-05 he was city counsel for Newark, and during the same years acted as president of the equal tax commission. In addition to this he has been counsel for twenty-one municipal- ities and corporations, among them being the Merchants' National Bank and the Irvington National Bank. In 1895 he was offered, but declined, the judgeship of the circuit court. He is a member of Trinity Protestant Epis- copal Church, and belongs to the Essex Club, the Somerset County Club, the York Harbor Club, the Maine Country Club and the Univer- sity Club of Newark. October 15, 1891, Mr. Riker married Mary Blair, youngest daughter of William V. and Laura Adelaide (Blair) Snyder ; children: Gertrude Riker, born Feb- ruary 14, 1895; Margaretta, November 28, 1897: Frances, July 11, 1901; and William Chandler Riker, October 17, 1904.
(VIII) Adrian, youngest son of William and Sarah M. (Hunter) Riker, was born in Clinton township, Essex county, New Jersey.
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August 16, 1858. He attended the schools of Newark, Newark Academy, and then entered Princeton University, graduating in the class of 1879. Having determined to adopt the law as his profession, he became a student at the Columbia Law School, from which he was graduated in 1881, being admitted that same ycar to the bar of New York. He was ad- mitted to the bar of New Jersey as an attorney in June, 1883, and was made a counselor-at- law in June, 1887. Since his admission he has been in successful practice in Newark, being a member of the law firm of Riker & Riker, his partner being his elder brother, Chandler White Riker. Adrian Riker became master in chancery in 1884. He attained success in his chosen career almost from the beginning, and is recognized at the present time as one of the ablest practitioners at the Essex county bar, enjoying a large and influential clientile. He has been connected with important litiga- tion as counsel, acquitting himself with a skill that has added greatly to his reputation. He is convincing in argument, and is noted for the care with which he guards his clients' affairs. He is general counsel to a number of the leading firms and corporations of Essex county, rendering therein efficient service. He casts his vote with the Republican party, being an active factor in their campaigns. He was a member of the state assembly in 1888-89, and his record in that body proved creditable in every way. As a citizen he is thoroughly iden- tified with every movement which has for its object the welfare of the community. He belongs to a number of clubs and organiza- tions, in all of which he is popular and influen- tial. He married, December 2, 1891, Louise C., daughter of Ichabod W. and Mary L. Dawson, of Newark, New Jersey.
(For ancestry see Christopher White 1).
(VI) Barclay, youngest son of WHITE Joseph (q. v.) and Rebecca (Smith) White, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April, 1821. He was a prominent Republican of Burlington county, New Jersey, and during the adminis- tration of President Ulysses S. Grant he was appointed superintendent of Indian Affairs for the state of Nebraska. He removed to Omaha, that state, which was for many years his home. Barclay White married (first) Re- becca Merritt, daughter of Restore Lamb, of Burlington county. He married (second) Beu- lah Sansom, daughter of James Shreve, who was born near Jobstown, Burlington county,
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