Onderdonk, Henry, Jr., 1804-1886
Name Entries
person
Onderdonk, Henry, Jr., 1804-1886
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Surname :
Onderdonk
Forename :
Henry
NameAddition :
Jr.
Date :
1804-1886
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Onderdonk, H. (Henry), Jr., 1804-1886
Computed Name Heading
Name Components
Surname :
Onderdonk
Forename :
H.
NameExpansion :
Henry
NameAddition :
Jr.
Date :
1804-1886
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Biographical History
Henry Onderdonk (1804-1886) was an educator and historian, a collector of Long Island antiquities, and the author of many works based on his findings among local records. Later, he became a founder (1863) and councilor (1868-1886) of the Long Island Historical Society (now the Brooklyn Historical Society), and a contributor to the Society's library and manuscript collections upon their formation.
Henry Onderdonk was born June 11, 1804, at Manhasset, NY, the son of Joseph Onderdonck, a farmer, and Dorothy Monfoort. Henry commonly rendered his name with a "Jr."; it is supposed that he did so to distinguish his name from that of his eminent relative, Henry Ustick Onderdonk (1789-1858), the Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Pennsylvania. Onderdonk graduated from Columbia College in 1827 and received an A.B. degree from Harvard in 1828. He married Maria Hegeman Onderdonk (1801-1875), daughter of George Onderdonk and Sarah Rapalije in 1828, and had two children, Elizabeth (1829-fl. 1909) and Adrian (1831-1888). Henry took up teaching, becoming principal of Union Hall Academy at Jamaica from 1832 to 1865, after which he devoted himself to literary pursuits. He was also a director of the Long Island Bible Society. Onderdonk died at Jamaica on June 22, 1886 and is buried in Monfort Cemetery in Port Washington, NY.
Onderdonk's career in historical and genealogical study may have been inspired by his father's tales as a young witness to the Revolutionary war period on Long Island and in New York City. Joseph Onderdonck, born in 1766, saw his father, Andries, a Deputy Chairman of the Whig Committee, taken prisoner by the British, 21 September 1776. After experiencing many scenes of the British military occupation of Long Island, Joseph was present at the Federal procession in New York (23 July 1788) and at the inauguration of George Washington as President of the U. S. (30 April 1789), and later often saw Washington around town.
Henry Onderdonk's first published works focused on local events during the American Revolution, and relied on eye-witness accounts; these early writings included Documents and letters intended to illustrate the revolutionary incidents of Queens County, N.Y. (1846), The capture and death of Brig. Gen. Nath'l Woodhull: In a series of letters addressed to J. Fenimore Cooper Esq (1848) and Revolutionary incidents of Suffolk and Kings Counties: With an account of the Battle of Long Island and the British prisons and prison-ships at New York (1849). Onderdonk's later works included writings about various Long Island churches, the Society of Friends (Quakers), and agriculture. While Onderdonk became a prolific writer of local and religious histories, he is perhaps most notable as a collector, compiler, and preservationist of official and military papers, diaries, old newspapers, oral histories, and many early records of Long Island towns and churches.
Because so much of Onderdonk's work concerns a geographic area called Queens County, it is helpful to recall that the Queens County of Onderdonk's time differed from that of today. Until 1899, Queens County consisted not only of the present-day county and New York City borough of the same name, but also all of what is now Nassau County. Some Queens County towns (e.g., Jamaica, Flushing) were consolidated into New York City in 1898, while others were not. Those not consolidated (e.g., Hempstead, Oyster Bay) were removed from Queens County in 1899 to form the new Nassau County. Accordingly, all references in this guide, and in the collection, to Queens County can be taken to include Nassau County as well.
(The above was based on a biographical note written in 2005 by Jonathan W. Montgomery. Additional sources: Genealogy of the Onderdonk family in America, edited by Andrew Joseph Onderdonk and Florence Evelyn Pratt Youngs; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monfort_Cemetery; http://www.nassaucountyny.gov/website/EN/facts_stats_maps/history_of_NC.html.)
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External Related CPF
https://viaf.org/viaf/3258995
https://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n82070449
https://id.loc.gov/authorities/n82070449
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African Americans
Agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture
Church announcements
County courts
Crime
Crime
Families
Fourth of July
Fourth of July
Genealogy
Horse racing
Horses
Indians of North America
Local elections
Local elections
Long Island, Battle of, New York, N.Y., 1776
Manuscripts, American
Music
Press and politics
Prisons
Quakers
Quakers
Quakers
Railroad companies
Reformed Church in America
Shawnee Indians
Smithsonian Exchange
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Thames, Battle of the, Ont., 1813
Tippecanoe, Battle of, Ind., 1811
Violoncello music
Vital statistics
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Places
New York (State)
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Jamaica (New York, N.Y.)
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Queens (New York, N.Y.)
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Long Island (N.Y.) |x History |y Revolution, 1775-1783
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Flushing (New York, N.Y.)
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Lake Success (N.Y.)
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New York (State)--Long Island
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Nassau County (N.Y.)
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Queens County (N.Y.)
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Hempstead (N.Y.)
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New York (State)--New York
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Long Island (N.Y.) |x History |y Civil War, 1861-1865
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Manhasset (N.Y.)
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Kings County (N.Y.)
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Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
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Suffolk County (N.Y.)
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Long Island (N.Y.)
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Suffolk County (N.Y.)
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Jamaica (New York, N.Y.)
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Long Island (N.Y.) |x History |y Revolution, 1775-1783
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Hempstead (N.Y.)
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Suffolk County (N.Y.)
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Queens County (N.Y.)
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Newtown (Queens County, N.Y.)
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New York (State)--New York
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New York (State)--Long Island
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Oyster Bay (N.Y.)
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Long Island (N.Y.)
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United States
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Queens County (N.Y.)
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Queens County (N.Y.)
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Long Island (N.Y.)
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Oyster Bay (N.Y.)
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Northwest, Old
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Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
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New York (N.Y.)
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United States
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United States |x History |y Revolution, 1775-1783
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North Hempstead (N.Y. : Town)
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Kings County (N.Y.)
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Long Island (N.Y.)
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Jamaica (New York, N.Y.)
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United States
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<conventionDeclaration><citation>VIAF</citation></conventionDeclaration>