THE NEW YORK

Genealogical and Biographical Record.

VOL. XII.

NEW YORK, OCTOBER, 1881.

No. 4

A BRIEF MEMOIR OF THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF HON. TEUNIS G. BERGEN, OF NEW UTRECHT. (With a Portrait.)

BY SAMUEL S. PURPLE, M.D.

HON. TEUNIS G. BERGEN, whose contributions to family history, through the pages of the NEW YORK GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD and elsewhere, have rendered his name familiar to its readers, and who was a corresponding member of this Society, died of pneumonia, at his residence, at Bay Ridge, New Utrecht, L. I., April 24, 1881. He was born in the town of New Utrecht, on the 6th of October, 1806, and was the eldest child of Garret Bergen and Jane Wyckoff, his wife. His early youth was mainly spent between work on his father's farm at Gowanus, and at the common school of the district. As youth merged into manhood, he applied himself to the study and practice of surveying, and soon became proficient in that important profession. It was, doubtless, through the information he obtained in the discharge of the duties of a surveyor, in his native town, that he acquired that careful and thorough knowledge requisite to the right understanding of the ancient Dutch Records and Land Titles, and which made him so familiar with all that appertained to the legal and social history of the earliest settlers of ancient Meryckawick, or Breuckelen, and their descendants. To the main duties of an active life he added those of a farmer, and not forgetting those he owed to the community in which he resided, he faithfully discharged such as were imposed upon him by the choice of his fellow-citizens, as soldier, civilian, and statesman. He held the offices of Ensign, Captain, Adjutant, Lieutenant-Colonel in the militia, and finally that of Colonel of the 241st regiment. He held the office and performed the duties of Supervisor of the town of New Utrecht for twenty-three years in succession, or from April, 1836, to April, 1859, and from 1842 to 1846 was Chairman of the Board. He was a member of the Constitutional Conventions of the State in 1846 and 1867 and 1868, and repeatedly a member of Democratic State Con

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ventions. He was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention, held at Charleston, S. C., in 1860, and opposed the adoption of the resolutions of that body which caused the breach between the Northern and Southern Democratic party.

The last and most notable public office which he held by the choice of his fellow-citizens was that of Representative in Congress from the Second Congressional District of this State. In 1864 he was elected a member of the House of Representatives over his opponent the "Union candidate," by a majority of 4,800. In that body his party was in a small minority, but true to Dutch principles, inherited on all sides through such an ancestry, he stood firm to his party up to the completion of his term of service. This office was the last which he held, and on retirement from public and professional duties, he devoted his leisure hours to the entertaining and praiseworthy work, which crowning events prove was the enchanting dream of his life. Long before he entered upon his last public duties, he had become an expert in all that related to the history of the Dutch and their descendants on Long Island. For he had, on repeated occasions, rendered important aid to many writers engaged in historical work, and had left frequent exhibitions of his scholarly and accurate attainments, in the departments of local and family history.

His inquiries into the history of the first settlers of Long Island, and their customs and official laws, as handed down in the city and church records, have been both numerous and important. All who have had occasion to examine the Manuals of the Common Council of Brooklyn, which have been published, have found there recorded many of his exact and useful papers. His untiring and self-sacrificing researches into the almost obsolete records of the ancient Dutch churches of Long Island and New York have unearthed numerous and important materials for the use of modern historians, while his discovery in out of the way places of many of the detached birth, baptismal, and marriage records, and the restoration of the same, has conferred inestimable benefits upon the genealogist and antiquary. He was one of a small, and rapidly passing away number who spoke the Dutch language fluently, and was competent (according to the statement of one who is good authority and knew him well) to decipher the ancient Dutch records accurately.

His published writings have been numerous and important. The earliest in distinctive form were contributed to the local newspapers in his vicinity, but those which will be most sought after, and will continue so to be, and will prove most useful to genealogical inquirers, are to be found in the volumes. of the NEW York Genealogical and BiOGRAPHICAL RECORD. The first to its pages may be found in vol. 4, p. 39, being entitled, " Records of the Births of the Society of Friends at Gravesend, L. I.," commencing in 1665; then follow on page 150 The Van Dyke Family; and on page 199, the Marriage Records, Gravesend, L. I.," commencing in 1664; vol. 5, p. 68, contains A List of Deaths in Capt. Grant's Company in 1762; vol. 7, p. 152, "The Monfoort Family;" p. 174, "Prisoners of the Revolutionary War; " vol. 8, p. 62, "The Martense Family;" vol. 9, p. 126, “Contributions to the History of the Early Settlers of Kings County, N. Y.," being the Brouwer Family; vol. 10, p. 85, a second contribution being "Memorials of Francoys D'Bruynne; and page 155, a third contribution being "The Van Duyn Family." These contributions comprise portions of a large work on which he had been for a long time occupied, and pre