THE SUYDAM HOUSE 

OCCUPIED BY HESSIANS DURING THE REVOLUTION

	Hessians - took possession of the Hendrick SUYDAM house in 
the Bushwick section of Brooklyn during the Revolutionary War. 
They were not welcome to Hendrick's snug homestead on Bushwick 
Lane, but, good Whig that he was, he had his choice of being 
relegated to a dirty prison or swearing allegiance to the Tory 
cause. So he chose the latter. His house was as trim and tidy 
and clean as the average Dutch house of the day. It had been 
built about 1700.by Leffert LEFFERTS, some say. Other 
authorities claim that a man by the name of Van NUYSE may have 
owned the land and built the house.

	Like a horde of wild Vandals, the hired soldiers of the king 
descended on Mistress SUYDAM's snug home, spreading about them 
more dirt than the Dutch had ever been buried in, and gaining, 
by reputation, the name of the "Dirty Blues." These Hessians were 
prodigious thieves; though, when once assured that they would 
remain unmolested by the Patriots, they were kinder than the 
British, and more likely to give the Americans a square deal.
	
	A door-post in the SUYDAM. house was hacked by the sabre of 
the captain of the regiment, one Colonel RAHL,. who with twenty-one men 
and a cook took up quarters there during the absence of Hendrick 
SUYDAM. Mrs. SUYDAM was obliged to vacate a part of her house, and 
establish herself and her children, as best she could, in a room
across the hall. For three months she lived there, until her Dutch
soul became desperate, so unclean were her tenants, and she left her
house. Returning later, she found it in a deplorable condition,
her furniture broken, the house sacked, and all of the bedding stolen.

	Before the destruction of the house, about fifteen years ago, there
were many evidences of the hard usage it had received, though, so far
as the walls were concerned, it might easily have weathered another century 
or two. Staples in the ceilings of the rooms on the first floor were once 
used by the soldiers to hang their sabres on. Bullet-holes were found in the 
casements of the windows set in their tiny sashes. The sabre-marks on the 
lintels of the front door were never removed, being kept there, no doubt, 
by the sturdy Dutch as a reminder of the many indignities they received 
during the days when Hessians roved through their streets and robbed 
their fields, flocks, and larders. The first story of the house was 
built of stones gathered from the neighboring fields, and the walls 
were unusually thick and exceptionally well built. The site of the old 
house is occupied by the Second German Baptist Church, on the 
corner of Evergreen Avenue and Woodbine Street.


Remsen Homestead
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