WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES APRIL 26, 2018 25
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
How a Ridgewood family contributed
to the American Revolution
BY THE OLD TIMER
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
Editor’s note: This is the second part
in the series, continued from last week.
After the Continental Army
surprised the British with victories
at Fort Ticonderoga and
in Boston, the British forces, under
General William Howe, evacuated
9,000 soldiers and 1,000 Tories and
headed for Halifax, Nova Scotia. But
General Washington quickly realized
they weren’t in retreat; they were
getting ready for an even bigger battle.
Washington surmised that the British
would plan an attack on New York
City to secure a base of operations that
could command the Hudson Valley
and the Delaware River Valley. This
would eff ectively split the colonies in
half, north and south — a potentially
fatal move for the colonists’ cause.
With that in mind, Washington sent
the small Continental Navy to New
York and moved his Army there. In
June 1776, the Continental Congress
— a month before formally declaring
independence from Great Britain —
authorized the call up of 19,800 men
from the militias to the Continental
Army. These included the militias on
Long Island. Nicholas Wyckoff , though
he had six children and a large farm to
work, volunteered.
Washington prepared for the attack
by having his men dig trenches on
the western end of Long Island. By
June, British ships started appearing
off Sandy Hook, NJ. Troopships were
arriving from England, with Hessian
mercenaries from Germany. General
Howe returned with his army from Halifax
and had recalled additional troops.
This painting depicts the Delaware Regiment opening fi re during the Battle of Long Island in the American
Revolutionary War.
By the third week of August, the
British were ready to move against the
Continental Army, entrenched on the
heights in Brooklyn. The British used
barges to ferry their troops across
from Staten Island to Gravesend Bay.
The Hessians moved forward with a
frontal attack, and the British troops,
who had marched to the east, came
up from behind the American lines
controlled by General John Sullivan.
The result was a disastrous defeat
for Americans. Some escaped by small
boat across the East River at Fulton
Ferry to Manhattan, moving in a fog
at night, before heading north to reassemble.
Nicholas Wyckoff was one of
those fortunate escapees.
The 17th Light Dragoons from the
British Army scoured the township
of Newtown seeking militiamen who
had escaped from the battle. While
searching the Wyckoff Farm, the
British troops wanted to burn the
house and barns because of Nicholas
Wyckoff ’s participation in the battle
against them. Antie Wyckoff, his
wife, prevailed on the British offi cer
to spare the buildings. Instead, they
took all the cows.
She also persuaded a Hessian
offi cer to try and get the cows back
so her children could have milk. The
Hessian managed to retrieve all but
one of the cows.
The British maintained a military
presence on Long Island until the Revolutionary
War ended in 1783. We’re
not exactly certain when Nicholas
Wyckoff returned to his Newtown
farm, but it was probably in 1777 or
1778. Aft er signing the Treaty of Paris
that formally gave the Americans the
independence for which they fought,
the British Army left Newtown for
good, taking thousands of Tories from
Queens County with them to Canada.
Needing money, Nicholas Wyckoff
sold 70 acres of land on the west of
Fresh Pond Road on Oct. 28, 1779, to
Photo via Wikimedia Commons
John Debevoise for 575 pounds (or $20
per acre). Two years later, he sold to
Debevoise another 70 acres of land on
the east side of Fresh Pond Road.
Aft er his fi rst wife died, Nicholas
Wyckoff remarried in 1780 and had
four children with his second wife.
In 1808, in addition to running his
farm, he became sheriff of Queens
County.
Wyckoff died on May 29, 1813, at the
age of 70. He left his property to his
two sons, Peter and Nicholas Jr. On
June 11, 1814, they agreed to divide the
land amongst themselves in Newtown
township, Queens and Bushwick
township in Brooklyn, with Nicholas
Jr. retaining the original Flushing
Avenue homestead.
Nicholas Jr. had a son, Peter, born
on Feb. 27, 1828. Upon Peter’s death in
1910, he was still living in the original
homestead where he had been born —
and was the last of the Wyckoff family
to live in that home.
The Wyckoff family heirs, starting
in about 1860, sold off property from
the original farm. Eventually, houses
were built in the area on the Ridgewood/
Bushwick border that were
given the nickname Wyckoff Heights.
Source: The April 28 and May 5, 1983
issues of the Ridgewood Times.
* * *
Share your history with us by emailing
editorial@ridgewoodtimes.com (subject:
Our Neighborhood: The Way it Was) or
write to The Old Timer, ℅ Ridgewood
Times, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361.
Any mailed pictures will be carefully
returned to you upon request.
Photo via Wikimedia Commons
This painting by Thomas Davies depicts the British fl eet following the
Battle of Long Island.
Courtesy of the Queens Borough Public
Library, Archives, Portrait Collection
A portrait of Nicholas Wyckoff Jr.,
1880
link
link
