THE DITMARS HOUSE AND ITS STORY

	At the outbreak of the War of the Revolution, General 
Washington ordered the farmers in Kings and Queens Counties to 
stack their grain in the fields and burn it, "provided the enemy 
came and the burning could be accomplished without endangering 
the buildings near by. Not long afterward the redcoats landed 
on Long Island, and hither and thither the Patriot farmers ran, 
dropping their silver into wells, concealing their valuables, 
driving off their live-stock, and last, but not least, burning 
their fodder and grain. Johannes DITMARS, fairly well off in 
this world's goods for the time in which he lived, young, 
patriotic, obeyed the commands given by General Washington. 
He had, however, a guardian who was a Loyalist, and refused to 
burn his grain. The enemy were not far away, and American soldiers 
ordered that the barn of the guardian of DITMARS be burned, 
whereupon young DITMARS rushed into the building, extinguished the 
fire, and, mounting a convenient pile of hay, cried to the Americans, 
"If you burn this barn, you burn me!"

	They marched away in solemn file, leaving young Johannes DITMARS; 
master of the situation, so intent on his service to his neighbor and 
guardian that probably little thought was given to the flaming stacks
of grain in his own fields. 

	Still another tradition, equally interesting, concerns an attack 
made by the British on the old DITMARS house by night. They came for
gold that they had heard was concealed in bags in a cupboard in the 
house. Two slaves heard the commotion downstairs, where young
DITMARS and his mother had been seized and smothered beneath a 
feather bed, while now and again the soldiers endeavored to force 
one of them to unlock the closet where the treasure was supposed 
to be concealed. When DITMARS refused to do this, the invaders, 
seizing their weapons, hacked the closet time and again. Their 
blows brought downstairs the two slaves, who, armed with various 
antiquated weapons, soon ousted the British.

	The following notice of the event afterward appeared:
"20 pounds Reward.
Last night, Nov. 5, about 8 o'clock, 
4 men, with weapons, forced into the house of Johannes DITMARS, 
Flatlands, and beat him and his mother in a cruel manner . . .
	Three of them went off, and the fourth was put in Flatbush Jail, 
but escaped the same night wounded in the head, and said his name was 
Jos. MOSIER."

	The DITMARS house still stands in Kouwenhoven Place, Flatlands.


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