USA > New Jersey > Memorial cyclopedia of New Jersey, Volume III > Part 35
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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 Stuyvesant's council.
Jan Strycker, born in Holland, 1614, reached New Amsterdam from Rouen with his wife, two sons and four daugh- ters, 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 sub- sequent history proves him to be promi- nent 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 Amster- dam a little over a year, and in the year 1654 he took the lead in founding a Dutch colony on Long Island at what was called Midwout; it was also called Middle- woods. 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 Commonality of the New Netherlands and a remonstrance against the conduct of Director Stuyvesant. The petition re- cited that "they apprehended the estab- lishment of an arbitrary government over them ; that it was contrary to the genuine principles of well regulated governments that one or more men should arrogate to themselves the exclusive power to dis- pose at will of the life and property of any individual; that it was odious to every freeborn man, principally to those whom God has placed in a free State of newly settled lands. We humbly sub- mit that 'tis one of our privileges that our consent, or that of our representa-
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tives, is necessarily required in the enact- ment of laws and orders." It is remark- able that at this early day this indictment was drawn up, this "bill of rights" was published. But these inen came from the blood of the hardy Northmen and im- bibed with the free air of America the de- termination to be truly free themselves.
In the year 1654 Jan Strycker was se- lected as the chief magistrate of Midwout, and this office he hield 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 dele- gates from the respective towns of Mid- wout, Bruckelen, Amers-fort, Utrecht, Boswyck and Gravesend selected him as "Schepen." He was also one of the em- bassy from New Amsterdam and the prin- cipal Dutch towns to be sent to the Lord Mayors in Holland on account of their annoyance from the English and the In- dians; they complain that they "will be driven off their lands unless reenforced from Fatherland." On April 10, 1664, he took his seat as a representative from Midwout in that great Landtdag, a gen- eral assembly called by the burgomasters, which was held at the City Hall in New Amsterdam, to take into consideration the precarious condition of the country. He was one of the representatives in the Hempstead convention in 1665, and he ap- pears as a patentee on the celebrated Nichols patent, October 11, 1667, and again on the Dongan patent, November 12, 1685. He was elected captain of the military company at Midwout, October 25, 1673, and his brother Jacobus was given the authority to "administer the oaths and to install him into office." Cap- tain 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 commis- sioners to build the Dutch church there, the first crected on Long Island, and he was for many years an active supporter of the Dominie Johannes Theodorus Pol- hemus, of the Reformed Church of Hol- land, in that edifice. After raising a fam- ily 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 citi- zen of his adopted country well per- formed.
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 Febru- ary 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, Manhattan 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 colonists 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 re-
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moved to New Amersfort, Long Island, now called Flatlands. He must have re- turned 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) (Huy- brechts) Strycker, whom he married in Holland, and who bore him two children, a son and a daughter, appear on the rec- ords as members of the old Dutch Church of New York, and it is noted that he had removed to New Amersfort. The rec- ords 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 Governor Colve on the state of the colony.
He seems to have been a gentleman of considerable means, of much official influ- ence and of decided culture. He died, as we find from the church records kept by Dominie Casparus Van Zuuren, in Octo- ber, 1687. From this date until the pres- ent 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 Acad- emy 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 re- sponded 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 Vredenburg, Freehold, New Jer- sey, July 22, 1862, by the Governor of New Jersey, and assisted much in organ- izing 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 capture of Morris Island, in the night attack on Fort Wag- ner, and in the siege of Charleston gen- erally. Subsequently he was transferred to the north on account of illness and as- signed to duty as senior paymaster at Columbus, Ohio, at Parole Camp, and continued in charge of that paying dis- trict (including Detroit) until 1866, when he resigned and returned to Trenton.
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 adju- tant-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 his- tory, 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, re- lating particularly to New Jersey and the battles of Trenton, Princeton and Mon- mouth. He became so interested in the conduct of the Hessians at Trenton that
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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 Barracks at Trenton, N. J.," "The New Jersey Volunteer-Loyalists," "The Battles of Trenton and Princeton," "The New Jersey Continental Line in the Virginia Campaign 1781," "Washington's Reception by the People of New Jersey in 1789," and other like monographs 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 abound 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 Doctor of Laws 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 conduct is due in large part its erection at last. He was president of the Trenton Savings Fund Society and great- ly interested in its new banking house, an ornament to his native city. He was a director of the Trenton Banking Com- pany and of the Widows' Home Associa- tion; also trustee of the First Presby- terian Church, Trenton, and of the Theo- logical Seminary at Princeton. He was president of the New Jersey Society of the Cincinnati and of the New Jersey Historical Society, and a member 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 American Geographical and Historical
societies and of the Royal Historical Soci- ety 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 recog- nized as an American scholar and gentle- man. He was modest and unassuming beyond most men, but was an accom- plished 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 man- ner and grace of bearing peculiarly his own. His high qualities, both of head and heart, his intellectual attainments and social elegance, marked him as one of nature's noblemen, and when he passed away one of the highest types of Ameri- can 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 his example remains an inspiration and a hope.
General Strycker married, September 14, 1870, Helen Boudinot Atterbury, of New York, and their children were: Helen Boudinot, wife of John A. Mont- gomery, Esq .; Kathlyn Berrien and Wil- liam Bradford. His wife and three chil- dren survived him.
HOPPER, John,
Lawyer, Jurist, Legislator.
In the records of the First Reformed Dutch Church in Hackensack, New Jer- sey, it is written that William Hoppe was a member of the church there as early as 1686, that Mattys Hoppe and his wife Antjie Forkse were members of the same church in 1687, and that their daughter. Christyna Hoppe, was baptized there on her confession of faith in the year 1686.
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There is little question that the surname Hoppe herein mentioned is identical with the ancient Holland Dutch name of Hopper, which has been so well and prominently known in the region of New Amsterdam and the New Netherlands for more than two and a half centuries, but the exact kinship of either Willian or Mattys Hoppe and Garret Hopper is not clearly settled, although the fair pre- sumption is that both of the former were of a single generation anterior to that of Garret Hopper, and that if one of them was not his father they both probably were his uncles, and not of a more remote degree of consanguinity. During the half century of undisputed Dutch dominion in America the family names of Hoppe and Hopper occur frequently in church and borough records and they both are known to stand for and represent a substantial element of the sturdy people that fol- lowed Hudson, the navigator and ex- plorer who in 1609 opened the way for Dutch colonization and settlement on Manhattan Island, originally the city of New Amsterdam but now New York, and in the regions adjacent thereto, which during the dominion of Holland on this side of the Atlantic ocean were within the jurisdiction of that sovereign power under the name of New Netherlands; and after the overthrow of the Dutch power in America by superior British might both names were still retained for generations although that of Hopper became finally dominant and is generally accepted as the common family patronymic.
Slaughter dam, and from which was taken an ampie portion of about five hundred acres for the family mansion and estate. There he caused his mansion house to be built and there he dwelt in comfort to the end of his days, cultivating his broad acres and in the enjoyment of the fruits of industry and a life well spent. The name of his wife does not appear, nor the names and dates of birth of all of their children, although the tradition is that theirs was a goodly family in numbers as well as in estate.
(II) Jacob, son of Garret Hopper, was born previous to 1730, and died about the year 1815. He had his residence on his father's estate, and his own house stood on the Pollifly road leading out from Paterson turnpike to Carlstadt. He too was an husbandman of industry and thrift, giving chiefest attention to the cultivation of his lands and providing abundantly for those who were to come after him in inheritance and possession. The baptismal name of his wife was Cor- nelia, and according to records which are regarded as reasonably accurate they had four children, all of whom are believed to have been born on the old homestead : I. Katrina, married John Earle, who died about the beginning of the War of the Revolution. 2. Henry Garret, who with his brother John occupied the paternal estate and divided it between themselves. 3. John I., born 1775. 4. Elizabeth, mar- ried Cornelius Terhune, grandson of John Terhune, the latter the progenitor of a notable family in early New Jersey his- tory.
(I) Garret Hopper was of Holland ori- gin and ancestry, if not of Holland birth, (III) John I., son of Jacob and Cor- nelia Hopper, was born in 1775; died in 1833, on the family homestead in Hacken- sack, where his life was chiefly spent ; and not spent in vain endeavor, for he is remembered as having been one of the and it is to him that genealogists and his- torians have accurately ascribed progeni- torship of the particular family considered in these annals. He became possessed by purchase of a considerable tract of land extending from Hackensack river to most thrifty and successful farmers in
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Bergen county in his time, bringing his First Reformed Church as one of its lands to the highest degree of cultivation elders and deacons. For a long time he vigorously opposed the movements of the so-called seceders, but finally yielded to their persuasions and joined them. His wife was Maria, daughter of Albert Ter- hune. She was born about 1781; died January 1, 1856, having borne her hus- band nine children: I. Cornelia, married John Terhune, a farmer and miller of New Barbadoes, who died in 1879, aged seventy-nine years. 2. Altia, married Al- bert A. Brinkerhoff, of Hackensack. 3. Catherine, married Jonathan Hopper, a merchant of Paterson. 4. Albert, died 1833, aged twenty-four years. 5. Jacob I. 6. John. 7. Eliza. 8. Maria, mar- ried Henry Demarest, of New York. 9. Jane, married Dr. George Wilson, of New York. and productiveness and tilling them ac- cording to methods which in many re- spects were far in advance of his day. The products of his farm were always of the best quality and he marketed them in New York at good cash prices ; his butter often brought a premium award because of its superior quality, and he profited not a little on account of his thrift and enterprise. He was one of the very first farmers to carry his produce to market in a wagon with springs and top, and he also was one of the first farmers of the region who sold produce in New York City. He is said also to have been a man of excellent education, and it is known that he attended the private school in Hackensack of which Dr. Wilson was then the head master; and a famous pedagogue he was, as well as being a man of high educational attainments.
During the second war with the mother country Mr. Hopper was drafted for serv- ice in the American army, but he fur- nished a substitute to take his place in the ranks. This was not because he was scrupulous of bearing arms, for none of the Hoppers ever were wanting in either moral or physical courage, nor is it be- lieved that they ever were opposed to war on principle; but at that time he evidently felt that he could best serve his country's cause by furnishing a substitute in his stead and he might be free to care for his family and home and farming in- terests which otherwise must suffer loss. In 1818 he built a fine substantial man- sion house of brownstone, on a command- ing elevation affording a good view of the surrounding country. It stood on what in comparatively recent years be- came known as Terrace avenue. He was zealous in religious matters and for many years was officially connected with the
(IV) Jacob I., son of John I. and Maria (Terhune) Hopper, was born on the fam- ily homestead in Hackensack, December 21, ISI0, and spent his whole life there, engaged in agricultural pursuits and to a large extent in market gardening and raising small fruits. So early as 1840 he began growing strawberries on an exten- sive scale for the New York market, and in this business he was very successful and continued it for many years. So great indeed was the yield of his fields that his daily shipments are said to have averaged more than three thousand baskets. This of course would not be regarded as an extraordinary yield for the present time, but it must be remem- bered that Mr. Hopper grew market berries nearly three-quarters of a century ago, when even a single trip to the market required a half day's time in going and returning, and when the plough, the har- row and the hoe were the only imple- ments used in preparing the land and cul- tivating the crops. But notwithstanding all this he was a very successful man in
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his business life and a man very highly respected for his sturdy integrity and up- right life. In 1835 Mr. Hopper married Ann, daughter of Garret Mercelis, whose wife was Lenah de Gray, of Preakness, Passaic county, New Jersey. She was born December 13, 1812, died in June, 1868. They had two children: 1. John, see forward. 2. Ellen M.
(IV) Judge John, son of John I. and Maria (Terhune) Hopper, was born on the homestead farm in what now is the township of Lodi, Bergen county, New Jersey, March 2, 1814; died in Paterson, October 15, 1897. He acquired his earlier literary education at Washington and Lafayette academies in Hackensack, and prepared for college under the tutorship of the Rev. John Croes, at whose classical school in Paterson he was a student for some time, and also under the special in- struction of Mr. Thomas McGahagan, the once famous master of the old acade- my in Bergen Town, now Hudson City, New Jersey. In 1830 he matriculated at Rutgers College, entering the sophomore class, completed the academic course of that institution and was graduated A. B. in 1833, cum laude, dividing second honors with Robert H. Pruyn, afterward min- ister plenipotentiary from the United States to Japan. After leaving college Mr. Hopper took up the study of law under the preceptorship of Governor Peter D. Vroom, of Somerville, New Jer- sey, remaining with him about two years, and afterward continued his studies for another year in the office of Elias B. D. Ogden, of Paterson. At a term of the Supreme Court held at Trenton, Septem- ber 8, 1836, he was licensed to practice as an attorney-at-law and solicitor in chan- cery in all of the courts of this State, and on February 27, 1840, he became a coun- selor-at-law.
Having come to the bar Judge Hopper
began his professional career in partner- ship with his former preceptor, Judge Ogden, under the firm style of Ogden & Hopper, which relation was maintained until 1848, when the senior partner was elevated to the bench of the Supreme Court of the State. From that time he practiced alone until 1869, when he took as partner his own son, Robert Imlay Hopper, then recently admitted to the bar; and thereafter this partnership rela- tion was continued so long as Judge Hopper was engaged in active practice, until he assumed judicial office which necessitated the laying aside of private professional employments. During the long period of his professional career as an attorney and counselor at law, Judge Hopper was recognized as one of the ablest lawyers of the Paterson bar; a man of the highest character, a lawyer of distinguished ability, a ripe scholar, and an advocate with whom principles always prevailed over expedients. His practice was largely on the civil side of the courts, and his clientage was such and the char- acter and mind of the man were such, that he was able to accept or decline cases without danger of pecuniary loss to him- self; but he would not refuse a case in which he was not sure of ultimate suc- cess to liis client, although at the same time he would not allow himself to be drawn into an action in behalf of a client whose personal integrity he had reason- able ground to question. His methods always were careful, but they were not laborious, and it was his policy to dis- courage rather than to promote litigation ; a safe and prudent counselor in the office, he nevertheless was a power in the trial courts, and with him it was a cardinal principle never to go half prepared into the trial of an important case ; petty ac- tions he preferred to be turned over to the younger members of the profession.
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In the trial of a case he always was properly deferential to the court, but never more than that, and never obsequi- ous in his manner before any tribunal. In presenting a case to the jury it was noticeable that he approached the subject in hand with dignity and in the light of principle and common sense, addressing himself to the understanding of his hearers and never appealing to their passions. And what may have been true of him as a lawyer, whether in private practice or in the capacity of prosecutor for the people, also was true of him as a magistrate on the bench of the court, for there too he was ever dignified and courteous, always considerate of the rights of attorneys representing litigant parties, and especially considerate and forbearing in his treatment of the younger members of the profession, frequently en- couraging them with fatherly assistance and advice.
Throughout the period of his profes- sional life Judge Hopper was much of the time an incumbent of office in connection with the operation of the courts and the administration of the law; town counsel of Paterson from 1843 to 1847; surrogate of Passaic county for two terms, 1845 to 1855; counsel to the board of chosen free- holders of Paterson from 1855 to 1864; prosecutor of the pleas from 1863 to 1868 and from 1871 to 1874. From 1868 to 1871 and again from 1874 to 1877 he was Senator from Passaic county in the Legis- lature of the State. In March, 1877, he was appointed by Governor Bedle judge of the District Court of Paterson, serv- ing in that capacity until January 8, 1887, when he resigned to accept Governor Abbett's appointment as president judge of the Court of Common Pleas, Orphans' Court and Quarter Sessions of the Peace for the unexpired term of Judge Absalom B. Woodruff, deceased. He was reap-
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