There is an old house in Flatlands which has been in a dilapidated condition for many years, but has attracted the attention of almost all who passed by for its picturesque beauty and symmetrical proportions. It seems to be of great age, for it has all the characteristics of the 18th century. I believe it is one of perhaps a dozen houses in Kings County which are very old. The general construction is of the Old Style; the half door with bull's-eye windows, the broad beamed roof extending far out, the closeness to the ground of the wooden structure, all bespeak age. The heirs of Jeffries VAN WYCK are the present owners of this interesting house and the surrounding land. They bought it of the executors of the estate of Rem HEGEMAN on October 16th, 1869. The property embraces one of the most valuable corners in the Thirty-second Ward, namely, the south-cast corner of Flatbush Avenue and Kings Highway or the Neck Road, as this section of it was sometimes called. This crossing has always been the center of the village life of Flatlands. Across the road was HENDRICKSEN'S store, kept by one family for over sixty-six years, and it was all that time the leading store of the southern part of the county. It also contained the post office, and here Court was held and justice honestly administered. This house, situated so close to the church, post office, and the center of activities of the time and of the town, must have been the scene of many interesting events, and if we could picture by pen those local dramas, they would be more interesting than fiction, and we would be surprised to find the people of Flatlands more progressive for their day and generation than are their descendants to-day. I believe their superior deportment was due to their military training, for nearly every man belonged to the company of militia in the town of which he was an inhabitant. This house was the home of Rem HEGEMAN, a farmer, who was a frequent purchaser of small plots of land and meadows. He evidently had a speculative tendency and his judgment seems to have been good, for he generally sold his purchases for more than he had given. He purchased this farm from Nicholas VAN DYKE on May 2nd, 1886. VAN DYKE had secured it from other members of his family on April 23rd, 1829. The last owner of whom we have record previous to VAN DYKE was Herman HOGELAND, who acquired it by two purchases; one on January 19th, 1722, when he purchased of Jan LUCASSEN and Johannes VOORHEES a tract they had acquired from Coert STEVENSE, who had purchased it of Garret COERTE on October 9th, 1699. HOOGLAND or HOGELAND had previously purchased the land of Albjday HOOGLAND and Arent SCHUYLER on November 27th, 1707. This property comes within the boundary of the patent of June 6th, 1686, to Andrew HUDDEN and Wolphert GARRETSEN, and later came into possession of Elbert ELBERTSE, whose heirs divided it up into farms and sold them. It, with all other land in Flatlands, went into the hands of the arbitrators, who proved the title and returned the property to its respective owner on the 18th day of February, 1695. Rem HEGEMAN was a descendant of Adriaen HEGEMAN, who came to this country in 1650 or 1651, and held numerous public offices, including that of Schout Fiscall of the Five Dutch Towns. Rem HEGEMAN was born at Flatlands, April 28rd, 1795, and died there on March 2nd, 1867. He married Helen WYCKOFF, and they had the following children: -Peter HEGEMAN, of whom I have no trace. -Sarah Ann HEGEMAN, married John C. VANDERVEER, who at one time was keeper of the Kings County Alms House, and was a son of Cornelius VANDERVEER and Maria ELDERT, his wife, and a grandson of John C. VANDERVEER, the Flatbush statesman, and great-grandson of Captain Cornelius VANDERVEER, Flatbush's Hero of the Revolution. They died without issue. -Helen HEGEMAN, married Jacob STILLENWERF; I think they resided in New Jersey, but have no further trace. -Catharine HEGEMAN, married William Tate, and had several children. -John G. HEGEMAN, born at Flatlands, March 28rd, 1816, and died there October 29th, 1845. He married Charlotte O. ROGERS, who was born at New London, Conn., on July 8th, 1819, and died at Brooklyn, New York, on June 15th, 1898. They had three children; namely, William R., Abbey, and John R. -William ROGERS HEGEMAN was born December 7th, 1841, and died November 9th, 1897. He married Miss JOHNSON, of Canarsie, and has several children. During the latter part of his life he was a successful merchant of Brooklyn. -John ROGERS HEGEMAN was born at Flatlands, on April 18th, 1844. He has led a notable career in the financial world. In 1866 he became an accountant for the Manhattan Life Insurance Company; in June, 1870, was made Secretary of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, and was elected Vice-President in October of the same year. In October, 1891, he became President of the Company of which he had been Vice-President for twenty-one years, and to him, in a large measure, is due the success of that company. Their business is largely Industrial Insurance, and requires men of trust and those in whom unbounded confidence can be placed. Mr. HEGEMAN is a great worker, finding time to attend to the details of business which other men are compelled to turn over to subalterns. He is connected with many other financial enterprises in an official capacity. The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company own and occupy a building in New York, the tower of which is the tallest office structure in the world. It is a fitting monument of a great enterprise. Mr. HEGEMAN has been a credit to his family, and it is an honor for any man to bear as time-honored and respectable a name as that of HEGEMAN. He was born in a comfortable farm house, and what better start in life should a man desire? He married Evelyn LYONS, and has one son, John R. HEGEMAN, Jr. Mamaroneck is his present place of abode.
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