USA > New York > Essex County > Bloomingdale > The New York of yesterday; a descriptive narrative of old Bloomingdale, its topographical features, its early families and their genealogies, its old homesteads and country-seats, the Bloomingdale Reformed church, organized in 1805 > Part 9
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So much has been written about this country seat and the land where Andrew Hopper carried on farming that we forbear to enter much into detail. The house was of stone with a brick and wooden annex added at the time of his second marriage. The steep sloping roof and rounded gables, wide stoep, fan lights, and dormer windows were essentially Dutch. Even in its latter days the dignity of age became it well. The quaint carved mantles, the great yawning fire-places, and wide- arched hall retained the traditions of its better days. One can well understand how cozy the winter meetings
mahler Hense Be
Equatory
THE ANDREW HOPPER HOMESTEAD, 1868
الليلية
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of the Consistory could be made as the members circled around the fire. No doubt the well-known hospitality, which distinguished the Dutch,-a famed character- istic of the strain,-was exemplified in bumpers of "hot toddy," after the evening's business was finished and the pipes lighted. Great melancholy willows almost hid the house from view and the row of Lombardy pop- lars Andrew's father planted became pitiful skeletons under the burden of their years. The farmer's house, whose broad eaves stretched over a pathway floored with brick and shaded the wooden bench ensconced along the wall, stood behind these trees. The ground between them was almost a continuous piece of rock; grass and weeds covered it and rows of tall lilacs fenced it from the street.
Andrew Hopper's city residence was on the corner of Broadway and Ann Street, a noted spot, where Bar- num's Museum-that large gloomy structure made bizarre by the numerous colored banners and oval signs arrayed across its front-was afterwards located and which became on its destruction by fire in 1865 the site of the Herald Building. He had lived here prior to 1770 for there his son was born. The corner of this plot was purchased in 1762 by Capt. Thomas White, "a wealthy Englishman," says Valentine's Manual, "lately become a resident of this city." With his second wife, Ann, he joined in selling it to Hopper, April 20, 1773 (L. 40, 359), and on August 10, 1784, Ann, the widow, conveyed to the same grantee (L. 42, 167) land adjoining "on the southerly side of a certain street lately laid out and intended to be opened by the said Ann White leading from the Commons to Nassau Street, and intended to be called and known by the name of White Street. Various have been the sur-
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mises made to account for the origin of the name of Ann Street. Let us hazard the assertion that as Ann opened it, very naturally it assumed her name after her husband's death. As early as 1761 a public house stood on this corner. John Elkin, the proprietor, ad- vertised at that date that he served "breakfast from 7 to 9; tea in the afternoon from 3 to 6; the best of green tea and hot French rolls, pies and tarts drawn, from 7 to 9; mead and cakes." Just prior to the Revolution the "Sons of Liberty" acquired the property for their headquarters and changed its name to Hampden Hall. Many of the riots and public disputes of the war period occurred within its walls. After the peace it was occu- pied as a private house until its conversion in 1830 into Scudder's Museum.
Prior to 1686, when Governor Dongan granted his charter to the city by which all the "waste, vacant, and unpatented lands" on the island were vested in the Corporation, he appropriated this piece to himself, built a cottage upon it, and laid out the ground in a handsome manner as a garden, which was subsequently for many years called the "Governor's Garden." It embraced about two acres of land. After Dongan's departure to his native Ireland (where he afterwards became the Earl of Limerick) his garden was a pleasure resort commonly called the Vineyard. His kinsman, Thomas Dongan of London, later exercised control over this property and it was from this source that White acquired it.
The directory of 1786 makes Hopper a merchant at 71 Chatham Row. In 1789, says The History of the School of the Collegiate Dutch Church, p. 100, he was one of the officers by whom the school was supervised. This institution had its origin in the appointment of the
The first Consistory
109
first schoolmaster in 1633 sent out by the West India Company and is the oldest seat of learning in the coun- try of which there is any record. The names of its offi- cers from that date are extant and those of its pupils from 1791. Its home is now at 76th Street and West End Avenue.1
/7
1 In a cursory examination of The History of the School of the Col- legiate Dutch Church, 1883, some early Bloomingdale names are found which are scheduled here. Matthew Hopper joined the school in 1791, "having been delivered to Stanton Latham" with twenty- nine others on May 4th, says the entry made by Peter van Steen- burg. Latham had been clerk of the North Church and had superseded van Steenburg in charge by appointment of the Con- sistory of the Collegiate Church.
NAMES
AGES
ADMITTED
PARENTS
Hardenbrook William
Low
Jane
Hopper
Martha
Nov. 3, 1792
Holloway
Isabella
Feb. 2, 1795
Post
Jacob
7
Apr. 25, 1796; grad. May 25, 1802
Beekman
Henry
IO
June 15, 1796
George
Vandewater
John
9
Jan. 22, 1800
Mary
Post
Alexander
8
July II,
Benjamin
Whitlock
James
I2
Feb 8, 1803
Samuel
Quackenbush
Lawrence
IO
John
Kortright
Nicholas
9 Dec. 9, 1803
Daniel Warner
Beekman
Eliza
Feb. 4, 1804
George
Bogert
Peter
IO
Albert
Quackenbush
Samuel
I2
Apr. 26, 1804
Abraham
Beekman
Ann
II
Jan. 31, 1805
Richard
Bogert
Eliza
IO
May 27, "
Peter
Quackenbush
John
I2
April 4, 1806
Abraham
Whitlock
Samuel
8
Sept. 4,
Samuel
Kortright
Daniel
7
Oct. 30,
Abraham Bancker
Jones Cozine
Mary
IO
July 9, 1807
Garrit
Garrit
IO
Bogert
Margaret
8
Andrew
Van Orden
John
IO
March 17, 1808 =
Whitlock
Daniel
9
Thomas B.
Holloway
John
IO
June 9,
John
Bogert
Peter
9
Aug. 29,
James
Van Norden
Alice
8 Dec. 27,
John M.
I2
Jan' 31, 1809
Matthew
"
Ellen
IO
March 19, 1807
Margaret Warner
Ann
9
Mary
Henry
II
June II, 1802
Abraham
Catherine
II
Oct. 4, "
James
8 May 12,
James
9
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In 1805 Hopper became one of the two elders of the Church at Harsenville and held that position until his death. He was moderator at the organization, was the first delegate to Classis, and the first treasurer. The Consistory met at his house for the first time October 3, 1808. On December 9, 1813, he was mar- ried by Dr. Gunn to Elizabeth Guest, the widow of Peter Arell. The church records which make it Earl are in error. He died intestate April 4, 1824, and it is rather unusual that such scant notice in the pro- ceedings of the Consistory should have been taken of the event. At the succeeding meeting at Striker's Bay on August 2d, Ichabod Prall was elected an elder "in the place of Andrew Hopper deceased"-just this and nothing more-after a service of nineteen years. So state the minutes. The "Elder's book," in which
NAMES
AGES ADMITTED
PARENTS
Bogert
Margaret
IO
June 26, '
Andrew
Cozine
George
8
July 29,
"
Garrit
Van Orden
Samuel
I3
April 29, 18II
Matthew
Hopper
Andrew
II
June 24,
Garret
Post
Albert
IO
Sept. 30,
Mary
Bogert
Jane
IO
Feb. 6, 1812
Wert
Post
John
7
June 22,
Rachel
Bayard
Ann
9
June 29,
Elizabeth
Bogert
Sally
8
Oct. 5,
"
Andrew
Bayard
Peter
I3
Sept. 28, 1813
Elizabeth
Van Derbeck
Stephen
II
Feb. 28, 1814
James
Vanderbeck
Mimyan
II
Mar. 31, 1817; grad. April 26, 1819
Duryee
Henry B.
9 March 31, 1817
John L.
Post
Sarah Ann
8
March 26, 1832
Abraham
Dyckman
Peter B.
9
June 27, 1836
John
Byard
Mary
4
Sept. 28, 1840
David
Post
Ann B.
I2
Oct. 25, 1841
John A.
Clendenin
William
6
Sept. 6, 1842
George
Somerindyke
William
I3
Sept. 25, 1843
Clendenin
George
7
June 29, 1846
Charlotte
Hoagland
William H.
9 Jan. 25, 1847
Henry V.
Talman
Dowah D.
II May 31, 66
Peter
John H.
7
"
66
Hoagland
Catherine W.
8 July 24, 1848
Henry V.
"
David Byard
Elizabeth
9
"
Adrian
I2
Nov. 29,
Margaret Lawrence
John
II
Oct. 29,
John Betham
Jacob
9
May 25,
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obituary notices were written, seems to have been lost. It was resolved on March 13, 1826, that the treasurer pay the estate the balance of the money due it for advances, after deducting the amount due the Church and the Female Cent Society. Mrs. Elizabeth Hop- per continued to live in the Broadway home and spared no expense to keep it in order and to cultivate the garden and grounds which surrounded it. In June 1824 an action in partition had been begun, and the commissioners conveyed the house plot to the widow (L. 190, 330), for a consideration of $3050. On her death, on December 25, 1825, her heirs-at-law, two brothers and a sister, inherited it. The property was alienated by the family, by deed recorded in L. 1539, III, which conveyed it to William K. Vanderbilt. The same commissioners sold the Ann Street corner to the Ætna Fire Insurance Company (L. 193,103), for $21,700. There were two dwelling houses situated thereon known as Nos. 220 and 222 Broadway.
Hopper was buried in the family plot which was at present 50th Street and Ninth Avenue until 1885, when the remains were removed to Woodlawn. "He never dreamed," says Felix Oldboy, "that the little city at the lower end of the island would ever come knocking at his doors, and bidding him move on, and had gone comfortably to sleep in the belief that his worn out body would rest undisturbed in the sight of the fields he had tilled and the river in which he had sported in his boyhood." Here also his wives were interred in the fond hope that there they might repose till time should be no more. Allowance was not made for the restless spirit of this iconoclastic age. In 1846, por- tions of the cemetery were cut off for the opening of the streets on the east and north side thereof, when
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many bodies had to be removed to another part of the ground. Then a stone retaining wall some six feet high was constructed around the open sides, frame houses hemming it in on the south and west. Hop- per's headstone was left nearest to the line of 50th Street, and this inscription was plainly legible from the sidewalk:
In memory of ANDREW HOPPER who departed this life on the 4th day of April, 1824 aged 88 years. "The sweet remembrance of the just Shall flourish when they sleep in dust."
James Striker
History in repeating itself presents curious vistas. Here is a descendant in the fifth generation walking in the footprints of a kinsman whose lot it was to plant the first church on Long Island. Jan Strijcker reached New Amsterdam in 1652, with a wife, two sons, and four daughters. Two years later he took the lead in founding a Dutch colony at Midwout (Flatbush), whither he went, with the appointment April 8th of that year of "Serjeant." The same year he was selected as Schout (Chief Magistrate) of the settlement, an office he held for almost the entire succeeding twenty years. He was one of the Embassy selected to be sent to the Lord Mayors in Holland to make complaint and crave assistance on account of the colonists' annoyance from the English and Indians. (Col. Hist., vol. ii., p. 374). He represented his town at the great Landtdag called by the Burgomasters which met on April 10, 1664 at the Stadt Huys in the capital
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to take into consideration the precarious condition of the country. (Mrs. Lamb's History, vol. i., 205-7; New Netherland Register, 147). He was a representative in the Hempstead Convention the following year when the celebrated "Duke's Laws" were promulgated and appears as a patentee on the Nicoll's grant October II, 1667 and again on the Dongan patent, November 12, 1685. Prior to this period he had been elected Captain of the Midwout Militia Company, October 25, 1673 and on March 26, 1674 was named a deputy to confer with Governor Colve at New Orange when the Dutch came back to their own. To turn from the civil and military man, we find him in the first years of his residence at Midwout, one of the two commissioners appointed (December 17, 1654) by the Governor to build the Dutch Church and parsonage there. In a letter addressed to the "Noble Rigorous and Honourable Gentlemen and Honourable Director-General of the Council in Nieuw Nederlandt," December 20, 1659, he wrote that the church, "now, with God's help, nearly com- pleted, requires a coat of colour and oil, being covered on the outside mostly with boards. These materials must necessarily be brought from the Fatherland and we request it to be done upon your Honour's order to the Honourable Company." The edifice cost F1. 4057.9 (Docs. Relating to Hist. Early Col. Settlements, Fernow, vol. xiv. 482). Jan Strijcker's remains yet lie in the graveyard of this church, wherewith his descendants in the eighth generation are still connected, the present site of which is at Flatbush Avenue and Church Lane. He was an active supporter for many years of Domine Johannes Theodorus Polhemus, the pastor, and lived to see his family of eight children married and settled on valuable bouweries and occupying positions of influence
8
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in the community. He died circa 1697 at the ripe age of over eighty years, full of the honors which such a new settlement could bestow and with his duties as a civil officer and a free citizen of his adopted country well performed.
Not many families in Holland, outside the ranks of royalty, were more highly positioned than the Strijckers, who are of remote antiquity. Certain mem- bers thereof have been seated near The Hague for over eight centuries and another line near Rotterdam. Those of the name bearing titles are numerous. De- scendants here will be interested in searching for the tomb in the High Choir, No. 37, in the great Kirk at Haarlem, St. Bavon's, in which the remains of Dirck Strijcker, Knight, were interred in 1677. Motley's History of the Dutch Republic tells of Herman Strijcker, a monk who had abjured Romanism, who created in 1562 a widespread revival of religion among the masses. Mrs. Charles, in her Deliverers of Holland, gives considerable account of his labors. His eloquence drew thousands to listen to him and he is said to have preached to fifteen thousand men in arms during the Regency of Alva.
To return to this country. In the middle of the seventeenth century, Jan and Jacobus Strijcker re- ceived from the States-General of the Netherlands a grant of land in the colony of New Amsterdam upon condition that they took out with them to America twelve other families at their own expense. Their grant was dated in January, 1643. It does not appear that the offer was finally acted upon until eight years thereafter and then the younger brother Jacobus emigrated from the village of Ruinen, in the province of Drenthe, one year before Jan and founded the old
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Knickerbocker family of this name in and near New Amsterdam. He was the ancestor of the Manhattan family. Usually signing his name Jacob, he on occa- sions added Gerritsen before his surname, indicating that he was the son of Gerrit Strijcker. With him came his wife, Ytie (Ida) Huybrechts, and two children Gerrit and Altje. A man of ability and education he soon rose to the magistracy at New Amsterdam (Feb- ruary 2, 1655) and served in that capacity during 1656, 1658, and 1660. He was early singled out as a person worthy of trust, and confidence in his integrity was shown in many instances by his selection by the Court as referee and guardian. He was the owner of a num- ber of pieces of realty in the city and lived in 1656 on Pearl Street south of Fort Amsterdam, says the Year Book, 1900, Holland Society. On his complaint that the chimney of Jacob Stevensen's house had been neither repaired nor pulled down, although he had frequently notified the Fire Inspectors, the latter were ordered by the Worshipful Court of Burgomasters and Schepens to forbid within twenty-four hours the said Stevensen and his wife from "making any more fire there; or to pull down the chimney if they deemed it necessary." Strijcker stated he was the next neighbor and "nothing else is to be expected, not only by him but by the whole street, but a sudden destruction by fire " (Court Minutes, New Amsterdam, vol. ii., p. 230).
The Burgher right was introduced into the city in 1657, one that had been established in old Amsterdam five years previously. The position of Great Burgher was conferred on Strijcker, who took "the proper oath" on April 13th, whereby he became eligible to the holding of high municipal office. "The twenty names on this list," says Stone's Hist. of N. Y., 33,
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"composed the aristocracy of the period." The small Burghers had only the privilege of trade.
About the close of 1660, Strijcker removed to New Amersfort (Flatlands), as we ascertain from the church records of the capital where after the names of himself 4 and wife as members of the church it is indited that they had removed to the former place. They became members of the church there in 1667. It is to be noted that, although not living there till now, he early became associated with Long Island where he owned land, some of which he sold in 1653. He must have returned for a time to New Amsterdam, for in 1662 he again became a Schepen there and the following year acted as President of the Court. He was a mem- ber of the Convention, representing the Capitol, which met July 6th of that year, to engage the several Dutch towns to keep up an armed force for public protection. Having failed of election to the Burgomastership (nominated February 1664, Court Minutes, etc., vol. v., p. 16) he was appointed Orphan Master (Judge of the Orphan's Court) March 18th (New Netherland Regis- ter, p. 67). In the patent for Midwout issued in 1667 his name appears as a patentee, and when three years later the Sachem of Rockaway and his two brothers laid claim to this land so granted by Governor Nicolls, he joined the inhabitants in deciding to purchase the Indian rights. In consideration of ten fathoms of black seawant, ten fathoms of white seawant, five match coats, four blankets, two guns, two pistols, five double handfulls of powder, five bars of lead, ten knives, two aprons of Duffels, one half fat of strong beer, two cans of brandy and six shirts, a deed was executed which ran to Adrian Hegeman, Jacob Strijcker, Hendrick Jorise and Jan Hanson for and
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on behalf of themselves and the rest of the inhabitants and which bore date April 20, 1670. Business having re- quired Strijcker's attention up the river he lived for a time at Wildwyck (Kingston) where he rented "the vil- lage house " in 1671 (Year Book, 1896, Holland Society).
No sooner had the Dutch Commanders Evertse and Benckes established themselves in New Amsterdam, August 12, 1673, superseding the English control, than the nearest six towns, Midwout, Amersfoort, Breucke- lin, New Utrecht, Bushwick and Gravesend, together with Staten Island, submitted to their authority. These towns were chiefly settled by rejoicing Hol- landers and upon their nomination, August 18th, Strijcker was appointed Schout. On December 5th he, with his friend Secretary van Ruyven, was commis- sioned to examine and settle the boundary between the town of New Utrecht and Veryn's land and in 1674 was, with his brother Jan, a delegate to confer with Governor Colve on the state of the colony.
He was somewhat of an artist, probably an amateur portrait painter. He is called a "limner" in the records, and one of his productions, a portrait of him- self on a wooden panel, has descended in direct line to the present generation as has likewise a chair brought by him from Holland. (For reproductions of the portrait and chair Vide the N. Y. Gen. and Biog. Record for January, 1907.) This portrait was painted in 1655 and represents Strijcker in a velvet suit with the magisterial collar. The profession of art he did not follow, but devoted the time not occupied by his judicial and public duties to farming and trading with the Indians, a highly lucrative business in those days. He seems to have been a gentleman of considerable means, of much official influence, and of decided culture
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We find from the records kept by Domine Casparus van Zuuren, that he died in October, 1687. His eldest child, Gerret, married Wyntje Cornelise Boomgaert (Bogert) in December, 1673, and died in 1694. She died in 1700. They lived in Flatlands and were both members of the Church there in 1677. Governor Dongan appointed him Sheriff of King's County in 1688. In 1692, he bought a house and farm of one hundred eight and three quarters acres in Gravesend for £ 297.10. Of his nine children, we are concerned with the third, Jacobus, who was baptized in Flatbush August 27, 1682. He lived at Gravesend with his wife Martha until 1722, when he removed to Oyster Bay. His will dated September 27, 1748, when he was "very sick, and weak in body," is recorded at Jamaica in L. G. 256. Therein testator bequeaths to his daughter Mercy "a full Sorting out of Hou! Hold Goods and other Mouvables Equal to what my Daughter Woanche [Wyntje] Lane Has Already Had" and to each £ 25. paid from the movable estate. To daughter Mercy "my young black mair." All the remaining part of the estate was devised to his sons Garret and John, who were named executors, in equal shares, subject to the payment by them of £150. to each of their sisters.
Garret, or as he spelled his name Gerrit Striker, the great grandson of the old magistrate, was born May 20, 1726 when his father was fifty-three years of age. He lived at Oyster Bay and was in business at Glen Cove in 1756 with Obadiah Lawrence. In 1764, he removed to New York and purchased (August 8th) for £550. from Charles Ward Apthorp, a farm of fifty acres "beginning at the head of a certain cove on the easterly side of the North River" and bounded north- erly by the land of Humphrey Jones, with the lane
1
STRIKER'S BAY MANSION, 1852 From the painting in possession of the author
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leading to the Bloomingdale Road subject to right of way in the grantor. Here he built his home and named it "Striker's Bay." An indentation from the river formed the cove which recessed the shore to a con- siderable distance to the east, into which emptied a marshy stream which rose at 104th Street, near Tenth Avenue. A smaller branch of this brook from the neighborhood of the Avenue and 59th Street joined it at Eleventh Avenue. By his wife Ann, born July 30, 1734, daughter of Derick II. and Rebecca (de Grove, born 1720) Albertson, he had an only child James, born September 18, 1755. James's father died September 17, 1775, and his mother's death occurred October 10, 1785. The son inherited the property as heir-at-law. On the capture of the city, he became an ensign in the Second Regiment of "De Lancey's Loyalists," under commission dated October 23, 1776, but at the first opportunity went to New Jersey where he enlisted in the Light Horse Troop at Somerset as heretofore re- lated (Vide page 50). This troop made quite a record in the war. The Story of an Old Farm, gives this tale which is vouched for by General Stryker in his The Battles of Trenton and Princeton. This gallant deed occurred January 3, 1777, and is narrated in both these authorities as follows:
Another interesting incident connected with the stay of the army at this time was the arrival in camp of the gallant Captain John Stryker's troop of Somerset horse laden with spoils from the enemy. Cornwallis in his hurried march toward New Brunswick was so unfortunate as to disable a number of his baggage wagons. He left them at the side of the road in charge of a quartermaster with a guard of two hundred men. Captain Stryker, though having with him but twenty troopers, resolved
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upon the capture of these stores. In the darkness of night, he distributed his small force in a circle completely sur- rounding the camp. The guards were suddenly astonished by a volley of musket-shots and the whistling of bullets, while from under the black arches of the bordering trees came loud and repeated shouts as if from a countless host. Demoralized by recent defeats, the men incontinently fled, thinking that they had been attacked by a large force of the Americans. Their flight was not so much caused by the roar of musketry as by the unearthly yells of the lusty troopers which so suddenly broke the stillness of the night. Captain Stryker was not long in so repairing the wagons that they could be hauled to a place of safety; he lost no time in making his way to Washington's camp with his treasures. The joy of the troops was unbounded when it was discovered that the wagons contained woolen clothing of which the men stood in sore need.
"The captors, with their prize," says The Hist. of Hunterdon and Somerset Counties p. 57, "moved up as rapidly as possible on through Somerset County, crossed the Millstone at Somerset Court House, and overtook the main body a day or two later," at Pluck- amin. This troop was at the battles of Trenton and Princeton. After the battle of Germantown (October 4, 1777), the New Jersey Militia were sent back to their own State, where their presence was thought to be necessary on account of the threatening attitude of Sir Henry Clinton, the British commander in New York, who early in September had invaded the State with 3000 men in two columns, one moving by way of Elizabethtown Point and the other by Fort Lee and uniting at New Bridge, above Hackensack. He re- mained in the State but a few days, but his presence and his threatening attitude after his withdrawal created a general alarm which continued through the
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