Bergen, Teunis G., 1806-1881

Brooklyn historian, land surveyor, farmer, local politician.

Antiquarian, genealogist, and author.

Lanman was librarian of the District of Columbia.

According to its constitution and bylaws, the Gowanus Debating Society was founded "to improve the members thereof in speaking by discussing different questions." The Society was governed by a President, Treasurer, Secretary, Recording Secretary, and Bookkeeper.

Teunis G. Bergen (1806-1881) was a Brooklyn surveyor and historian who served as New Utrecht town supervisor from 1836 to 1859 and as a Democratic congressman from the Second District.

Teunis G. Bergen (1806-1881) was a Brooklyn surveyor and historian who served as town supervisor of the town of New Utrecht from 1836 to 1859 and as a Democratic congressman from the Second District.

Teunis G. Bergen was born in New Utrecht, L.I. in 1806. He was one of the founders of the Long Island Historical Society and was also a member of the St. Nicholas society. His most famous publication was the genealogy of the Bergen family which traced by regular descent and intermarriage a large proportion of the Dutch population of New York and Eastern New Jersey. He died in 1881 leaving to his son, Van Brunt Bergen, his library.

Teunis G. Bergen (1806-1881) of New Utrecht (Kings County, N.Y.), now part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, was a historian and genealogist. He was connected to the Van Brunts by marriage, and in 1867 he published a genealogy of the family. According to Bergen, Rutger Joesten Van Brunt was the common ancestor of Van Brunts in what became the United States. Van Brunt emigrated from the Netherlands and settled in New Utrecht in 1657. The name Rutgert was common in the family's succeeding generations so it is unknown which Rutgert Van Brunt drew the map in this collection. It seems likely that it was one of Rutger Joesten's grandsons, either Rutgert (died 1758) or Rutgert (died 1760), both of New Utrecht. (See Teunis G. Bergen, Genealogy of the Van Brunt Family, 1653-1867, page 10-11, 13-14)

Teunis G. Bergen was born in the town of New Utrecht, New York on October 6, 1806, the eldest child of Garret Bergen and his wife Jane (nee Wyckoff). While growing up, he worked on his father's farm in the Gowanus area of Brooklyn and was educated at both the common school of the district and at Erasmus Hall Academy in Flatbush. As a young man, he was trained as a surveyor and subsequently pursued a successful career in this field.

Bergen was also a farmer and an active civic leader. As a member of the 241st regiment of the New York State Militia, he held the ranks of Ensign, Captain, Adjutant, Lieutenant-Colonel, and finally, Colonel. He served on the Kings County Board of Supervisors as the Supervisor of the town of New Utrecht for twenty-three years, 1836-1859, and was Chairman of the Board from 1842 to 1846. Bergen served as a member of the New York State Constitutional Conventions of 1846, 1867, and 1868, and was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention of 1860. In 1864, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat to the Thirty-ninth Congress, an office which he held until 1867.

In addition to his professional and civic activities, Teunis G. Bergen was a self-trianed historical researcher and genealogist, as well as a published author. His genealogical interests included not only his own family, but also many other prominent Brooklyn families. His published works include The Register of the Early Settlers and Freeholders of Kings County, NY, from its First Settlement by Europeans, to 1700, with Biographical Notices and Family Genealogies ; Genealogy of the Van Brunt Family, 1653-1867 ; The Bergen Family; or, the Descendents of Hans Hansen Bergen, One of the Early Settlers of New York and Brooklyn, L.I., with Notes on the Genealogy of Some of the Branches of the Cowenhoven, Voorhees, Eldert, Stoothoof, Cortelyou, Stryker, Suydam, Lott, Wyckoff, Barkeloo, Lefferts, Martense, Hubbard, Van Brunt, Vanderbilt, Vanderveer, Van Nuyse, and Other Long Island Families ; Genealogy of the Lefferts Family, 1650-1878 ; and his seven volume A History of New Utrecht, Long Island . Additionally, he contributed frequently to the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record .

Teunis G. Bergen died of pneumonia at his residence in New Utrecht, Long Island at the age of 74, and was interred at Green-Wood Cemetery.

The Bergen family that settled and proliferated throughout New York and New Jersey beginning in the 17th century is descended from the common ancestor, Hans Hansen Bergen, a native of Bergen, Norway. A ship's carpenter by trade, Bergen moved to Holland as a young man, and subsequently emigrated to the colony of New Amsterdam in 1633. His name appeared in land and church records in different forms, including Hans de Boer, Hans Noorman, Hans Hanszen Van Bergen, Hans Hansen, and Hans Hansen Bergen. It was not until the late 17th or early 18th century that his descendents formally adopted the surname, Bergen.

In 1639, Hans Hansen Bergen married Sara Rapalje, who was mistakenly rumored to have been the first European child born in the colony of New Netherland. They had eight children, among them Michael Hansen Bergen (baptized November 4, 1646), who held civil office for several years and was one of the patentees named in Governor Thomas Dongan's patent of May 13, 1686, which provided the land grant that established the village of Breuklen in the colony of New York. He and his wife, Femmetje Bergen (nee Theunis) had five children.

Michael Hansen Bergen's son, Hans Michielzse Bergen (baptized March 11, 1689) was a baker who resided near Brooklyn Ferry with his wife, Rachel (nee Bensing or Benson). They had seven children, among them Tunis Bergen (baptized October 15, 1730), who held civil and military office in Brooklyn. Tunis and his wife, Johanna (nee Stoothoff) had nine children, including their son, Garret Bergen.

Garret Bergen (born January 11, 1772) held civil and church office in Brooklyn, and was married to Jane Wyckoff on January 6, 1806. Together they had eleven children, including their first born, Teunis G. Bergen, who was born on October 6, 1806.

Teunis G. Bergen (1806-1881) was a Brooklyn surveyor and historian who served as New Utrecht town supervisor from 1836 to 1859 and as a Democratic congressman from the Second District.

New Utrecht was one of the original six towns of what today is the present-day borough of Brooklyn. Located in southwestern Brooklyn, the land that comprised New Utrecht was inhabited for centuries by the Nyacks before the arrival of the first Dutch settlers in the 1650s. In 1652, Cornelius Van Werckhoven, a shareholder in the Dutch West India Company from the city of Utrecht in the Netherlands, was granted permission to establish the Town of New Utrecht by New Netherland Director-General Peter Stuyvesant. Following the premature death of Werckhoven, Jacques Cortelyou, who came to New Utrecht to serve as tutor to Werckhoven's children, took over the duties of organizing the new Dutch settlement. In 1664, New Utrecht, as with all of New Amsterdam (now New York City), was taken over by the British. For a brief time in 1673 the Dutch reclaimed New Amsterdam until the British permanently regained control in 1674.

From 1674 on, the Town of New Utrecht would continue in its ways--the primarily Dutch-speaking farming community would remain relatively untouched by British influence until the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in 1776. After the war, New Utrecht would remain a farming community until its suburbanization began in the 1870s, helped by the construction of railroad lines into New Utrecht. In 1894, the Town of New Utrecht was annexed by the City of Brooklyn and shortly thereafter, in 1898, the City of Brooklyn was consolidated into New York City. Today, the area that comprised New Utrecht consists of several Brooklyn neighborhoods including Bayridge, Bensonhurst, Bath Beach, Dyker Heights, Borough Park, and Fort Hamilton.

Teunis G. Bergen (1806-1881) lived in the Bay Ridge area of New Utrecht (Kings County, N.Y.), now part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Bergen was a farmer, surveyor, civic leader, Democratic Party politician, and, especially relevant to this collection, a historian and genealogist. Among his works was Genealogy of the Van Brunt Family, 1653-1867, published in 1867. Bergen had a personal interest in the subject: he married Elizabeth Van Brunt (born 1804) in 1827.

Elizabeth was the daughter of Rulef (1777-1833) and Gertrude (nee Cowenhoven; 1782-1865) Van Brunt. Rulef was the son of Jaques (1746-1811) and Mary/Maria (nee Johnson). Rulef's brother, Isaac Van Brunt, had a son, Albert I. Van Brunt (1761-1838). Albert I. was married to Cornelia (nee Bennet); they had two children, including Albert (born 1833). This is an abbreviated genealogy, noting individuals who appear in some of the legal documents in the collection, including in connection with transactions with Teunis Bergen. The source for this information is Bergen's genealogy of the Van Brunts; see pages 26-30. It can be found in the BHS library at call number CS71.V36338.

While the names of many other Van Brunts appear in the collection, especially on correspondence to Bergen, two appear frequently and significantly enough to mention in this note: George Van Brunt and John Van Brunt. George appears on several legal documents, among them a will and bills of sale of enslaved African-Americans. George is likely that person appearing on page 44 of Bergen's book; he was born in 1769, lived in New Utrecht, and died in 1830. He married Aletta Lott and, after her death, Catherine Barre. One of his brothers was Rutgert W. Van Brunt, who appears on some transactions with George. Their father was Wilhemus Van Brunt. (See page 41-42 of Bergen.)

John Van Brunt (1802-1880) was a businessman, originally from New York, who settled in New Jersey at some point, certainly by 1834, shortly after his 1830 marriage to Margaret Westervelt. John and Margaret lived in a village in Bergen County in what was then called English Neighborhood; in 1859 that village took a new name, Englewood. John was an organizer and officer of the Northern Railroad, which in the 1850s extended the train running from Jersey City to English Neighborhood on to the New York State line. John was a member of the Democratic Party and a state senator for two terms. Among other positions, he was Englewood's Town Superintendent for Education for 20 years. His father was Cornelius Van Brunt (1760-1827), who married Jannetie Adriance. Adriance was the name given to one of John and Margaret's sons; Adriance became an architect and some stationery with his letterhead is in the collection, used by John for his correspondence. (See page 39-40 of Bergen's book for genealogy. See Adaline W. Sterling, The Book of Englewood for information about Van Brunt.)