Jan DYCKMAN (U.E.L. Garret DYKEMAN’s great-grandfather) came to Harlem, New Amsterdam from a small county of Benthein in Westphalia, Germany near Holland about the year 1660 and there he became a successful landholder. Jan married Madaline TOURNEUR on June 15 1673 and there were six children from this union.
Their second son, Gerret was baptized on March 6, 1678 and became a constable in the years 1710-11 (similar to our Justice of the Peace). During that time, Gerret acquired 30 acres of land, which is now Audubon Park plus a share of his father’s estate. He died in 1729 and his widow survived until 1748. It is not known the name of Garret’s wife, but they had two sons: Jan, who married Marie MEYER about 1728 and Jacob who married Rebecca VERMILYEA about 1737. Jacob and Rebecca had eleven children and he was a constable from 1739 until 1742.
Garret DYKEMAN was the second child and oldest son of Jacob and Rebecca (VERMILYE) DYCKMAN, born on March 4, 1741 and baptized in the Sleepy Hollow Dutch Church of Westchester County, New York on June 6, 1741. About 1766, he married Eunice Ann HATFIELD who was the daughter of Gilbert and Tamar (BRUNDAGE) HATFIELD and the niece of Captain Abraham HATFIELD. Eunice was born March 9, 1746 and baptized as an adult on August 26, 1792 at White Plains, New York.
At the beginning of the Revolution, Garret was thirty-five, a man with several children and remained loyal to the King. He served in the First Regiment, Westchester Company, Militia, was seized as a prisoner and sent from his home probably to Connecticut. When he escaped, he moved his family from Harlem to New York City where they boarded the Neptune sailing for Saint John, New Brunswick and arriving in the fall of 1783. He also changed the spelling of his name from DYCKMAN to DYKEMAN. Garret received land grants on the south side of St. George’s Street, now King Street. In 1784, he and his sons petitioned for acreage in Queen’s County on the St. John River which became Jemseq. Eunice Ann died November 16, 1808 and was buried in St. John’s Anglican Church, Gagetown. Garret died on June 19, 1813 and was buried beside Eunice. His will, dated May 29, 1813 where he named his children as: Gilbert, Jacob, Moses, Joseph, Rebecca and Ann.