24 MARCH 19, 2020 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
A family farm’s road to a modern Glendale
BY THE OLD TIMER
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
Glendale’s 88th Street was
originally named Van Dine
Avenue in recognition of the
family that owned the land in the
area. Today, it’s considered the
backbone of eastern Glendale.
Their name originally was spelled
Van Duyn. The founder of the family
in America was Gerrit Cornelisz
Van Duyn, a Hugenot from Burgundy,
France, who fled to Zwol,
Holland. From there, he emigrated
to America in 1649, a time when New
York was the Dutch colony of New
Amsterdam. Upon arriving in the
New World, he settled in Brooklyn.
In 1719, his grandson, William
Van Duyn, 26, purchased a farm
of an estimated 350 acres in an
area then known as the Hempstead
Swamp. The approximate
boundaries, as measured by present
day roads, were Woodhaven
Boulevard on the east; 84th Street
on the west; Juniper Valley Road on
the north; Union Turnpike on the
southeast; and Myrtle Avenue on
the southwest.
For five years, William Van Duyn
and his wife lived in the house that
was on the farm when he bought it.
In 1724, he built a new, larger house
on the west side of what was then
called South Meadow Road (presentday
Woodhaven Boulevard), just
north of what later became Cooper
Avenue.
William Van Duyn and his wife
had two sons: Cornelius, born in
1724, and Dow, born in 1730.
In 1752, Cornelius Van Duyn,
then 28 married Anna Vanderveer,
daughter of Dominicus Vanderveer,
a neighboring farmer. After getting
married, Cornelius built a house on
the west side of South Meadow Road,
just south of what would become
Cooper Avenue.
In about 1756, Dow got married
and built a house on the west side
of the South Meadow Road, several
hundred yards north of what is today
Metropolitan Avenue.
Cooper Avenue, at this point,
didn’t exist. It was not until 1800
when the roadway was constructed
as a wagon path from the presentday
intersection of Cooper Avenue
and Cypress Hills Street to what was
then South Meadow Road.
Once the road was built, it effectively
became the dividing line
between the Van Duyn farms.
But long before Cooper Avenue
came into being, one of the Van Duyn
sons found himself in a rivalry with
a neighboring farm family during
the American Revolution.
This 1940 photo shows 88th Street (formerly Van Dine Avenue) looking south toward the Long Island Rail Road
tracks in Glendale. The spire of P.S./I.S. 113 in Glendale is shown in the background at right.
Ridgewood Times archives/Courtesy of Greater Ridgewood Historical Society
THE WORLD TURNED
UPSIDE DOWN
By 1775, farmers across the area
began taking sides in the conflict.
Some were patriots standing with
the cause of American independence;
others were loyalists seeking
to remain subjects to King George
III of England.
While Dow Van Duyn was a
staunch loyalist, his neighbor on
the eastern side of South Meadow
Road — the family of Jeromus Remsen
Sr. — were patriots who had
several family members fighting
in the local militia.
Following the Battle of Long
Island on Aug. 27 and 28, 1776, in
Brooklyn, British Army members
began scouring the Hempstead
Swamp area looking for rebels.
They were aided by loyalists who
acted as informers against their
patriot neighbors.
One loyalist led the British soldiers
to the Remsen farm, where
Garret Remsen, who had fought at
the Battle of Long Island, had returned
to following the Continental
Army’s defeat there. Garret Remsen,
however, was awakened by his family
and fled out the back door before
the advancing British Army could
get him.
The next day, Aert Van Duyn, believed
to be a son of Dow Van Duyn,
This 1938 photo shows farmland off the intersection of 77th Avenue and
81st Street that was once part of the Van Duyn farm.
Ridgewood Times archives/Courtesy of Greater Ridgewood Historical Society
took horses from Jeromus Remsen’s
meadow and gave them to the British
soldiers. This act, of course, intensified
the bitter feelings between the
Remsen and Van Duyn families.
Of course, the Continental Army
would win American independence
from the British following the Battle
of Yorktown in 1781. Three years
later, in 1784, a commission of forfeiture
was established to judge
whether the lands of remaining
British loyalists should be seized
because of their actions during the
American Revolution.
The only farm in Queens seized
link
/WWW.QNS.COM
link
