During our trip to New York City last week, one of the monuments I marked on our tour route was the Netherland Monument in Battery Park (The Battery). My 10th great-grandfather, Johannes Dyckman, worked for the Dutch West India Company. He was born in Holland around 1618 and was "first clerk to the chamber at Amsterdam". In 1651 he was stationed at Fort Orange (modern-day Albany, New York), working as Commies (Commissary) - the clerk and chief officer of Fort Orange.
The "Old Dyckman Homestead" on Broadway in Manhattan is the oldest Dutch house on the island to this day. It was owned by Jan Dyckman and possibly originally the property of another 10th great-grandfather, Daniel Tourneur, a French Huguenot who lived in this settlement when it was still called New Amsterdam. Daniel's home is marked on the 1660 map of New Amsterdam. For more blogs about this interesting branch of my family, click here. To learn more about the Dykeman branch (which married into several New York City families including Tourneur, DeVaux, Bosyns, Claessen, and Paresis), click here.
"IN TESTIMONY OF ANCIENT AND UNBROKEN FRIENDSHIP THIS FLAGPOLE IS PRESENTED TO THE CITY OF NEW YORK BY THE DUTCH PEOPLE, 1926"
The west side of the monument is inscribed: "ON THE 22ND OF APRIL 1625 AMSTERDAM CHAMBER OF THE WEST INDIES COMPANY DECREED THE ESTABLISHMENT AND THE CREATION OF THE ADJOINING FARMS THE PURCHASE OF THE ISLAND OF MANHATTAN WAS ACCOMPLISHED IN 1626. THUS WAS LAID THE FOUNDATION OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK."
The opposite side contains a map of "Fort Amsterdam and Surroundings".
This monument is located on the southwest corner of Battery Place and State Street, at the head of Broadway and across from the National Archives building. It was designed and sculpted by H.A. van den Eijinde (1869-1869) from bronze and granite. The base is 7-feet x 7-feet and it stands 12-feet in height, without the flagpole.
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