This research is an excerpt from a larger research paper by Ramin Ganeshram written in August 2024
The Dyckman farmhouse and farms were in Ward 9, or one of what was called the “Out Wards” of the City of New York. In the earliest days of Dutch colonization in the 17th century, this area was included in the description of Harlem and the work done there was uniformly described as heavy agricultural labor with denizens living in utilitarian and rudimentary dwellings. Prosperity followed sales of grain, produce, meat and seafood further south to the markets of the rapidly growing and congested city of New Amsterdam–a commercial relationship that continued through the 19th century.
While this remained a farming region until the early part of the 20th century, it would be wrong to assume that it was “remote” even in the Dyckmans’ eras, although it was rural. The land was originally owned by William Dyckman, a son of Jacobus Dyckman, Sr. who was the son of Jan Dyckman, the original Dutch immigrant to New York.
As an interstitial point between the ever-growing Manhattan to the South and Westchester to the north, as connected by two bridges, as well as the river, Ward 9 saw plenty of commerce before and after the Revolutionary War as well as activity during the War itself.
George Washington and the continental army occupied Manhattan Island briefly for the summer of 1776. Keenly aware that engagement with the British troops massed on naval ships in New York harbor was imminent he ordered the evacuation of women, children and the infirm to the mainland in mid August 1776. Two weeks later he ordered the island’s farmers to drive their livestock northward into Westchester, presumably to deprive the British of their use. Moving from their farm in the vicinity of 210 Street along the East River, William was accompanied by his family, including his grown sons, one of whom was Jacobus, later to inherit his farm. Their evacuation route was inland along the Kingsbridge Road (Broadway) near the site where William would build a new farmhouse in 1784 after his original home was burned by the British at the end of the war.
Although the Dutch had relinquished New York to the English a century prior, Harlem and the Kingsbridge area remained a stronghold of Dutch descendants. William and his brother Jacobus Jr. who operated a successful tavern, later helping to build the Free Bridge (Dyckman Bridge) in 1758, lived in a close knit community comprising their near and distant kin in the Odells, Vermilyea, Nagels, Kierson and Bensons on surrounding farms. Very possibly the enslaved among these families socialized with and married one another.
Both Jacobus Jr. and William were farmers with extensive fruit orchards. Jacobus also had a successful business selling young fruit plants and grafted varieties around the town. William and later his son Jacobus III had a successful cidery. Fruit farming seems to have been something of an extended family business: their cousin, the Loyalist, Staats Dyckman was an avid horticulturist who filled his travel diary on a trip to Jamaica with accounts of local produce like breadfruit and mango.
The traveler Dr. Alexander Hamilton, a physician from Maryland, observed in 1744 the extent to which the Dutch “endeavor to preserve the Dutch customs as much as possible” for their children. We can surmise that between 1784-1820, the Dyckmans and their enslaved servants still maintained Dutch-American customs that governed their business practices and diet.
Prior to the war the Kingsbridge area was described by travelers as a vast farmland with regular granite outcroppings and copses. High points afforded views of both rivers. The current farmhouse is on one such high point still capturing breezes off the water despite being surrounded by tall modern buildings. Easily seen from this vantage were the copious marshlands that crept into the island interior from the shore. Here indigenous people harvested oysters as part of their ancestral diet well into the 18th century as described by Dr. Hamilton in 1744. Oysters were a common protein in the European diet as well. Caves cut into the rocky outcroppings above the Hudson, still extant in Inwood Hill Park, may have provided shelter or communing places for native people.
This image from the New York Public Library nicely demonstrates how the area would have looked during the Revolutionary War.
The War itself changed the landscape that William Dyckman was to return to in 1784 with his wife and, presumably, enslaved people who would help him relocate from their burned property to the Kingsbridge Road, building the current farmhouse. All around them the landscape was scarred with evidence of war: Only the stone houses and mills remained unburned. The remains of Hessian redoubts, huts, and three forts alternatively housing American troops, including Black patriots, still dotted the countryside. The work of rebuilding the community would be fueled by the engine of enslaved labor.
After William’s death in 1787 his wife Rebecca remained alone at the Farmhouse with her servants. No doubt they carried the burden of keeping the proposition of farming and cidering going. An ad offering the farm for sale at William’s death demonstrates the extreme amount of work the Dyckman enslaved had put into rebuilding the farm in three short years since the family had returned. It advertised the house, barn, several outbuildings and a young orchard. The busy-ness of the Kingsbridge Road is acknowledged, making the site ideal for an enterprising entrepreneur.
In 1793 after William’s estate was settled his son Jacobus III moved into the Dyckman Farmhouse also presumably with his enslaved people although the first evidence we have of that is in the 1820 census noting the presence of 1 enslaved male and 1 enslaved boy .