History of Queens County, New York : with illustrations, portraits, and sketches of prominent families and individuals., Part 52

Author:
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: New York : W.W. Munsell and Co.
Number of Pages: 703

USA > New York > Queens County > History of Queens County, New York : with illustrations, portraits, and sketches of prominent families and individuals. > Part 52

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Elizabeth Ditmars married (December 30th 1839) Martin I. Johnson, who was for some years, and at the time of his death, county clerk. He was the eldest son of John and Maria Johnson, and cousin of Martin G. Johnson. Martin I. and Elizabeth are both deceased, but one son, A. Ditmars Johnson, of Jamaica, survives them.

Dow Ditmars, son of Abraham Ditmars jr., studied medicine, and went to Demarara, South America, where he had a lucrative practice for fourteen years. When he returned he married Anna Elvira, daughter of Samuel Riker of Newtown, and bought a farm at Hell Gate (now Astoria), where he spent the remainder of his life, and died, at an advanced age, in 1860. Their children were Thomas T., Richard R., Abraham Dow, and Anna. They are all deceased but Abraham Dow Ditmars, who is a lawyer in New York.

Abraham Ditmars jr. held office in the Reformed Dutch church, Jamaica, and so did his son John A. Ditmars.

Abraham Ditmars jr. (father of John A.) was a captain of militia in the Revolution. He was known among the British soldiers who were quartered at Jamaica as the " rebel captain," and he suffered much from their depre- dations. They stole the crops from his farm, the provis- ions from his cellar, and all of his fowls but one, which went to the top of the barn to roost. One day the sol- diers ordered him and his family to leave the house, as they intended to burn it. He had to obey, and his sick wife was taken on a bed and placed in the door-yard ! But it seemed that an Almighty Power interposed; the consciences of the fiends stung them, and the dreadful threat was not executed.

So great became the demands upon him for the pro- duce of his farm, and for the use of his men and teams in carting the supplies of the British army, that he at last refused to comply. For this the petty officer who made the demand arrested him, took him to the village of Jamaica, and locked him up in the dungeon in the cellar of the old county hall, which stood on the spot now covered by Herriman's brick row. He was confined until the next day, when he was brought before a supe-

rior officer of the British army, to whom he made a frank statement of the sufferings he had endured, and of the unreasonable claims continually made upon him. The officer at once gave him an honorable discharge; and at the same time severely reprimanded the underling who had arrested him. This decision had a good effect, as he afterward did not suffer much annoyance. It is proper to say that the highest British officers always condemned the cruel and barbarous acts which were committed by the dregs of the army.

The home of Abraham Ditmars jr. was the farm of the late William C. Stoothoff, one and a half miles south- west of the village of Jamaica; and the old house, in which he lived and died, still remains. The home of his daughter Catalina, who married Samuel Eldert, was the old house on Eldert's lane now belonging to Henry Drew; and the old house on the Brooklyn and Jamaica plank road now belonging to Dominicus Vanderveer was formerly the home of Douw Ditmars, of another branch of the Ditmars family. It is a singular circumstance that these three old houses, probably the oldest in the town, should all have belonged to members of the Dit- mars family. They still stand as monuments of the solid style of building of the early Dutch settlers.

Abraham Ditmars and Abraliam Ditmars jr. were con- tributors to the fund for building Union Hall Academy and were two of the first trustees, at the time its charter was signed by Governor Clinton, March 9th 1792.

Abraham Ditmars jr. died November 19th 1824.

John A. Ditmars was colonel of the State militia in the war of 1812, and he and his cousins George and John Johnson and their nephew Dow I. Ditmis were en- camped at Fort Greene (now Washington Park), Brook- lyn. They were under the command of General Jere- miah Johnson of Brooklyn, who was the cousin of George and John Johnson and John A. Ditmars. There our soldiers were for some time, in daily expectation of the landing of the British forces, whose vessels of war were lying off the harbor of New York; but the British wisely concluded to depart without landing.

INTERMARRIAGES OF JOHNSON, DITMARS, AND RAPELJE FAMILIES.

The union of the Johnson and Ditmars families in this country began by the marriage of two sisters of Martin Johnson, Maria and Elizabeth, daughters of John John- son of Jamaica (great-grandfather of Martin G.), to two brothers, Douw and Abraham Ditmars of Jamaica.

Catalina, daughter of Martin Johnson of Jamaica (grandfather of Martin G.), married John D. Ditmis, the son of Douw.

Martin I. Johnson, a great-grandson of John Johnson above named, married Elizabeth, daughter of John A. Ditmars.

Phebe, daughter of George Johnson of Jamaica, mar- ried George O. Ditmis, a grandson of John D. Ditmis.

Victor Honorius Jansen of Holland married Breckje Rapalje *. Martin Johnson of Jamaica married Phebe Rapelje. General Jeremiah Johnson, of Brooklyn, mar- ried Sarah Rapelje.

Breckje, sister of John D. and daughter of Douw Ditmars of Jamaica, married (December 29th 1791) Peter Rapelje, of New Lots. Their children were Jacob, Dow and Peter.

Maria and Catalina were twin daughters of Douw Ditmars, of Jamaica, and sisters of John I). and Breckje Ditmars. Maria married Jacob Rapelje, of Newtown. They had one child, Susan. Catalina married John R.

* Written by different families Rapatje, Rapelje, Rapelye, and Rapel- yea.

* llenry Onderdonk jr., A. M., married Maria HI., sister of Cathrine Onderdonk, wife of Dow I. Ditinis.

250-b

HISTORY OF QUEENS COUNTY.

RESIDENCE OF MARTIN G. JOHNSON, LIBERTY AVENUE, JAMAICA.

Ludlow, of Newtown. She was his second wife. They At the age of 15 and for several years while at school had one son, Ditmars. young Johnson made the calculations for Spofford's Susan, the only child of Jacob and Maria Rapelje, married the Rev. Gabriel Ludlow, D. D., who for many years, and at the time of his death, was pastor of the Reformed Dutch church at Neshanic, New Jersey. He was the son of John R. Ludlow by his first wife. Another son was John Ludlow, D. D., who was twice professor in the Theological Seminary, New Brunswick, N. J., for many years pastor of the Reformed Dutch church at Albany, and afterward provost of the University of Pennsylvania. Almanac, and at the same age began to make surveys, thus combining theory and practice, which his teacher considered essential to a perfect understanding of sur- veying. At 16 he was, with his teacher Mr. Spofford, one of the assistants in making the preliminary surveys of the Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad, which work was in charge of Major Douglass of Brooklyn as chief en- gineer. At that time, 1832, Brooklyn was only a small village and extended but a short distance from Fulton Ferry. Above Henry street the houses were " few and far MARTIN G. JOHNSON. between," and on the line run for the railroad, near the present Atlantic avenue, it was mostly farming land. The business on Fulton street was nearly all below Sands street.

Martin G. Johnson was born and has always lived on the farm which he inherited from his father, situated on Liberty avenue, one and three-quarter miles west of the village of Jamaica and one mile south of Richmond Hill. This farm was bought October 5th 1744 by his great-grandfather John Johnson, who removed from Flatbush to this place, which was his home at the time of his death. His son Martin, the grandfather of Martin G., inherited the farm, and here he spent his life; and here was born George Johnson, the father of Martin G., and here he lived and died. There are few cases, if any, in Queens county where property has remained in the same family for nearly 140 years. There is a tradition that when his great-grandfather was looking for a home he noticed a fine growth of natural white clover on the road through this farm, which evidence of the fertility of the soil induced him to buy it.

Barent, another son of John Johnson, remained at Jamaica for many years, when he removed to Wallabout in Brooklyn. He was the father of the late General Jere- miah Johnson, of whose children there are still living Sarah Ann, wife of Nicholas Wyckoff, president of the First National Bank of Brooklyn; Jeromus J. Johnson, and Susan, widow of Lambert Wyckoff.

Martin G. Johnson commenced his education at the district school, and then attended Union Hall Academy, Jamaica; but his mathematical education was completed under Thomas Spofford, the teacher, and author of a prac- tical work on astrononly, who at the time of his death was principal of the Yorkville Academy, New York city. human remains were about being removed from the burial

Then (1832) there were only two railroads in the United States-the Albany and Schenectady (opened in 1831) in this State, and the Camden and Amboy Railroad in New Jersey. The Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad, opened in 1836, was the third.

At the age of 18, 19, 20 and 21, in the years 1834, 1835, 1836 and 1837, Martin G. Johnson surveyed a great number of farms in the westerly part of Queens county and the easterly part of Kings county, nearly all of which were laid out into lots and mapped. He made all the surveys and maps for John R. Pitkin, who purchased in 1835 and 1836 many farms at New Lots, Kings county, and Jamaica, Queens county. It was Mr. Pitkin's inten- tion to lay out in one general plan all lands from the easterly limits of the city of Brooklyn to the westerly line of the village of Jamaica; and four separate maps were made, in accordance with this plan. The westerly part was to be used for manufacturing purposes, and the easterly part was laid out into parks, avenues, streets and sections for country seats. East New York was to be the name of the whole tract. This name was for some time kept strictly secret, as he feared it would be taken by the village of Williamsburgh (now part of Brooklyn), which then began to expand. So careful was he to con- ceal his plans that the planning and mapping were mostly done in a rear office in Wall street, New York, which overlooked the South Reformed Dutch church in Garden street (now Exchange place) and its burial ground. (The

251

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, JAMAICA.

ground at that time, 1837). At last 'he had his plans ready and presented them to the public; but gradually yet surely the downfall of real estate came, and the grand scheme, as a whole, was defeated. But he was able to hold some land at East New York, and some at Woodville (now Woodhaven), and he laid the founda- tions for these villages, which have grown and are grow- ing rapidly. At that time there was not a building at East New York, except a few farm houses and out-build- ings along the Brooklyn and Jamaica turnpike; and the land was used for farming purposes.

Martin G. Johnson has been actively engaged in his profession from 1834 to the present time; and has sur- veyed, divided into lots and mapped very many of the farms in the easterly part of the city of Brooklyn, in New Lots and in the westerly part of Jamaica, and some in adjacent towns, comprising an area of thousands of acres. Besides the land laid out into lots he has made many farm surveys and maps.

He has made several surveys by authority of different acts of the Legislature: Town of Bushwick, southerly part (now part of the city of Brooklyn)-surveying, plot- ting, planning new avenues and streets, monumenting, and drawing map showing the same as laid out; Bush- wick, southerly part-leveling, making profiles, determin- ing grades, and drawing grade and sewerage plan; town of New Lots-surveying, plotting, planning new avenues and streets, monumenting, and drawing map showing the town as laid out; and surveying and drawing maps and profiles for the opening, grading, and paving, or graveling, of several of the principal avenues leading through and from East New York into the city and into the country.

Many of his maps are in the register's office of Kings county and the clerk's office of Queens county.

Politically, he is a very decided Democrat, and in early life was frequently a delegate to the county convention, and several times to the State convention; but he never would indorse the nomination of any one wanting in honesty and integrity, and always held it to be his duty to oppose any unfit and improper nomination.

He has been and is executor of several estates, which trusts he managed with the strictest fidelity.

For many years he has been a director of the Williams- burgh City Fire Insurance Company; was for many years a director of the Brooklyn and Rockaway Beach Rail- road (East New York and Canarsie Railroad); has been from its organization, and until lately, a director of the New York, Bay Ridge, and Jamaica Railroad (now part of the New York and Manhattan Beach Railroad), and was a director of the Eastern Railroad of Long Island (which was abandoned after the Long Island Railroad came into the hands of Austin Corbin, as receiver and president).

He is an elder of the Reformed Dutch church, Ja- maica, the church of his fathers, and takes a deep inter- est in its welfare, being one of the foremost in furnishing the means which are constantly needed for keeping the church and all things connected with it in a prosperous state. He is a friend of religious, benevolent and char- itable societies and institutions; and does not confine his gifts to the charities of his own church. The needy are kindly remembered. He is a life member of the American Bible Society, and of the American Tract Society.

Although much engrossed in professional business and engagements, yet he is greatly interested, and takes much pleasure, in the cultivation of his farm, which is one of the best in the county. He is a life member of the Queens County Agricultural Society.

The roads in his district of the town have been in his charge for many years; and their good condition is the best evidence of the judgment and care which have been used in constructing and keeping them in order.

JAMES S. REMSEN.

James S. Remsen was born at Jamaica, Queens county, in 1815. Mr. Remsen is a hotel keeper of over 40 years' experience as proprietor of the Jamaica Hotel. He was to the manor born, his father before him having followed the same calling for a livelihood, in the village of Queens (then called Brushville), his hotel standing opposite the tobacco factory. Our subject was quick to learn, of close observation, and possessed of judgment and fore- sight that have made him a famous man. In 1854, 28 years ago, he bought 512 miles of Rockaway Beach- nearly one half of the present Rockaway-for $550. The same year he built the Seaside Hotel, showing that his forecast had compassed the future of to-day; that he was not a visionary, but a practical man, who had deep- laid plans, with confidence in his own judgment. In 1875 Mr. Wainwright became a partner. Only a few years ago there were but two men on the beach who paid taxes, and they paid less than $25 per year. Now Mr. Remsen owns 20 hotels, and Remsen & Wainwright have recently enlarged and improved the Seaside Hotel and all its surroundings. He gave the land (comprising half a mile of beach) to the company that built the mammoth hotel which enjoys the proud distinction of being the largest in the world. This beach will soon draw a crowd for which the great house will be none too large. The strip of barren sea coast that sold 28 years ago for so small a sum could not be bought to-day for half a million dollars.

Mr. Remsen married Mary Seaman, by whom he has had a family of ten children, of whom only the following are living: John A., who is married and is keeping one of the hotels on the Beach; Charles and Sarah, both un- married and living at home. A brother of Mr. Remsen was once sheriff of Kings county. Mr. Remsen has al- ways belonged to the Democratic party, and has enter- tained at his hotel some of the most prominent politi- cians of both parties in the nation.

252

Alım De Bevise

ABRAHAM DE BEVOISE.

Abraham De Bevoise is a son of Charles and Ann De Bevoise, of Bushwick, Kings county, and was born in Bushwick, February 11th 1819, the only son and the eldest of three children. His father died in 1858, his mother in 1856. Mr. De Bevoise was educated at the common schools and reared to farm life. December 6th 1843 he married Ann Maria Covert, of Newtown. They have five children (one, a daughter named Ellen Amanda, having died in infancy), named in the order of their birth Charles C., Jane Amenia, Anna Delia, Eliza- beth Augusta, and Abraham Underhill.

About 1846 Mr. De Bevoise began business life on his own account in Bushwick. There he lived till 1861, when he removed to Jamaica, where he had purchased his present farm and erected his elegant and commodious residence, one of the handsomest and most convenient in that por- tion of the village, the plans of which were designed and drafted by Mr. De Bevoise, who has great talent for architecture, drawing and the construction of remarkably finely wrought mosaics of different kinds of wood, in the forms of center-tables, jewel-caskets and various other ar- ticles of beauty and utility.

Mr. De Bevoise has long been a Republican politically,

Anna Me De Bevorser

and has taken an earnest though passive interest in public affairs. His judgment is much esteemed by his fellow citizens, and he has been appointed to serve on several commissions for opening roads in Jamaica, and was for several terms one of the trustees of the village.

In 1858 Mr. and Mrs. De Bevoise identified themselves with the old Bushwick Reformed church. In Novem- ber 1861, upon their removal to Jamaica, they united with the First Reformed Church of that village, which with their family they have constantly attended since. Mr. De Bevoise was a deacon in the Bushwick church, and during most of the period of his connection with the Jamaica church he has held the office of an elder. In 1879, in connection with Rev. Mr. Alliger, then pastor, Mr. De Bevoise and others opened a Sunday-school at East Jamaica, of which Mr. De Bevoise was superintend- ent until he had firmly established it as a permanent in- stitution. For years he has been a teacher in the Re- formed Sunday-school at Jamaica, of which he has been superintendent since 1873.

In his domestic relations Mr. De Bevoise has been most happy, it often being remarked by those who know best whereof they speak that " his wife has ever been to him a help-meet indeed."

253

JOHN H. BRINCKERHOFF.

One of the most prominent living representatives of the old and honorable family of Brinckerhoff is he whose portrait and autograph appear at the head of this page.

The ancestor of this numerous American family, Jores Derrickson Brinckerhoff, emigrated from Holland in 1638 and in 1661 settled in Brooklyn. His third son, Abra- ham Jores Brinckerhoff, was born in Flushing, Holland, in 1632, and died at Flushing, Long Island, in 1714. He had but one child, Jores Brinckerhoff (1644-1729), whose tenth child and youngest son, Hendrick, formed the connect- ing link in the line of descent to the next generation. Hendrick was born in 1709 and died in 1777, leaving eight children, one of whom, Abraham, became the father of the sixth generation of this family in America. Abraham's oldest son, John, was married in 1791 to Re- becca Lott, and thus their seven children were lineal de- scendants of another one of the oldest families on Long Island. Their oldest son, Abraham, had seven children.

His oldest son, John H. Brinckerhoff, the gentleman first alluded to in this sketch, was born at Jamaica, No- vember 24th 1829, and in 1853 was married to Laura Edwards, a daughter of Gouverneur Edwards of West- chester county, N. Y. Their three children are of the ninth generation of Brinckerhoffs in America, and of each generation the family has definite records.

Mr. Brinckerhoff has had an experience as varied as most men of his years, and has reached, unaided, a sum- mit of success rarely attained by those whose lot is cast in this land and age of stern competition. His school days terminated when he was fifteen, and he began an apprenticeship as engineer and machinist with the Long Island Railroad Company. For this he seems to have he is now ably and acceptably serving.

had an especial aptitude; for within two years he was given charge of a locomotive as engineer. In 1854, the year after his marriage, he went to Syracuse, N. Y., as machinist for the New York Central Railroad Com- pany, and before the close of the following year the Michigan Southern and Indiana Railroad Company gave him charge of its shops at Adrian.

In September 1857 he began his present mercantile business in Jamaica.

In 1866 Mr. Brinckerhoff came into politics as trustee of his native village; he served in that capacity four years, and within that period he was a member of the board of education and treasurer of the board for four years. In 1869 he was also elected commissioner of highways, and in the last year of his term he was elected to the office of justice of the peace and entered upon its duties January Ist 1872. Here he served very accept- ably, but had only just completed one-half of the term for which he was elected when he resigned his seat as justice to accept from the Democratic party the super- visorship of the town of Jamaica in April 1874.

In the capacity of supervisor Mr. Brinckerhoff has made a record with which he has just reason to be satis- fied. That his constituents thoroughly appreciate the straightforward way in which he has administered this important trust is fully evidenced by his re-election to the office year after year from that time until the present. In the board of supervisors his ability and worth are recognized by his associates, who elected him their chair- man the second year he was a member; and in 1881, being one of the most experienced gentlemen in the board, he was again chosen chairman, in which capacity

254

J. M. OAKLEY.

Hon. J. M. Oakley is a son of J. M. and Frances (Smith) Oakley, and was born in New York city, June 19th 1838. His father died when our sub- ject was but seven years old, and his mother sub- sequently married Richard W. Smith, of Suffolk county.

Mr. Oakley has long been well known and popular on Long Island and in New York. His official career began by his choice to the position of chief engineer of the fire department of Jamaica village. In 1870 he was a candidate for member of Assembly and was elected, after a hot con- test, over two well known opponents (Francis B. Baldwin, the candidate of a rival Democratic faction, and George Everett, a Republican) and subsequently was re-elected four times. In the fall of 1875 Mr. Oakley was a candi- date for nomination for State senator, but was defeated

by the nomination of Stephen D. Stephens, of Richmond county, who was defeated at the polls by Hon. L. Brad- ford Prince. April 5th 1876 he was appointed by Gov- ernor Lucius Robinson one of the commissioners of quarantine, and he served in that capacity three years. In 1877 he received the nomination for State senator and was elected over James Otis (Republican), of Suffolk county, by a majority of about 2,500. Since the expira- tion of his term of service Mr. Oakley has not been a candidate for office, but has devoted his attention to railroad interests, having become a director in the New York, Woodhaven and Rockaway Railway Company, or- ganized in 1877, and elected to the presidency of the corporation in April 1881.

February 4th 1869 Mr. Oakley married Hester A., daughter of ex-Sheriff Durland, of Jamaica.

RESIDENCE OF GEO. S.VAN WICKEL, CLINTON AVE, JAMAICA,QUEENS CO., N.Y.

255

RUFUS KING.

THE KING FAMILY.

RUFUS KING.

Rufus King, an American statesman, born in Scar- borough, Me., in 1755, died in New York city, April 29th 1827. His father, Richard King, a successful merchant, gave him the best education then attainable. He was admitted to Harvard College in 1773, graduated in 1777, and went to Newburyport to study law under the direc- tion of Theophilus Parsons. In 1778 he served as aide de camp to General Glover in the brief and fruitless campaign in Rhode Island.

He was admitted to the bar in 1780, and at once en- tered upon a successful practice in Newburyport. He was an ardent patriot, and in 1782 was chosen a member of the general court of legislature. In that body, to which he was repeatedly re-elected, he took a leading part, and successfully advocated, against a powerful op. position, the granting of a 5 per cent. impost to the Con- gress as indispensable to the common safety and the efficiency of the confederation.

In 1784 he was chosen by the Legislature a delegate to the Continental Congress, then sitting at Trenton. He took his seat in December, and in March 1785 moved a resolution "that there be neither slavery nor invol- untary servitude in any of the States described in the resolution of Congress of April 1784, otherwise than in punishment of crime whereof the party shall have been personally guilty; and that this regulation shall be made an article of compact, and remain a fundamental princi- ple of the constitution between the original States and each of the States named in said resolves." This reso. lution was, by the vote of seven States (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland) against four (Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia) referred to the committee of the whole, where for the time it slept. The ordinance offered by Thomas Jefferson in the pre- vious year (April 1784) proposed the prospective pro- hibition of slavery in the territories of the United States after the year 1800. Mr. King's proposition was for its immediate, absolute and irrevocable prohibition. When two years afterward the famous ordinance of freedom and government for the Northwest Territory was reported by Nathan Dane, of Massachusetts (July 11th 1787), Mr. King, who was a member of that Congress (then sitting in New York), had gone to Philadelphia to take the seat to which he had been elected by Massachusetts as a member of the convention for framing a constitution for the United States; but his colleague embodied in the draft of his ordinance the provision, almost word for word, which Mr. King had laid before Congress in March 1785.

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History of Queens County, New York : with illustrations, portraits, and sketches of prominent families and individuals., Part 52

Author: Publication date: 1882 Publisher: New York : W.W. Munsell and Co. Number of Pages: 703

Author:
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: New York : W.W. Munsell and Co.
Number of Pages: 703