THE STRYKER HOUSE



(DEMOLISHED)

	In A KOUWENHOVEN Bible is written in Dutch the fact that Gitty Jane KOUWENHOVEN 
was born on 4 October 1809.

	On 27 December 1827, she married Michael STRYKER of Flatbush and probably rode 
with him from her father's home in Flatlands northward along the Flatlands Neck Road 
to his home on a Flarbush farm which was west of the Neck Road and south of Cow Lane, 
later called East Broadway and still later Church Avenue.

	The house, in which her bridegroom was born on 3 February 1803, was a low broad 
building with pleasing lines. A bull's-eye over the entrance door helped light the 
second storey. The dwelling faced the south and stood far back from Cow Lane on 
Suydam's Lane.

	About 1900 the house was moved. Before it was demolished in 1941, it looked as it 
does in the second picture. 


	In this house of her father-in-law, Gitty Jane STRYKER, her husband and her children 
made their home. She had five children but only two lived for more than a few years. 
The youngest, Sarah Maria, born 28 September 1839, married Henry DITMAS of Flatbush.

	Michael STRYKER died on 23 October 1847; Gitty Jane, on 18 November 1848.

	Michael's parents were Cornelius STRYCKER (b.26 April 1760 - d.12 March 1841) 
and Adrianna SCHENCK (b.23 August 1768 - d.1 September 1830), who were married 
16 January 1789. 

	Cornelius's father Mighiel (b.17 March 1725 - d.26 September 1807) probably built 
the house about the time of his marriage to	his cousin Johanna STRYKER on 31 May 1751.	.

	Mighiel was born and brought up in Flatbush. He was the son of Jan STRYCKER 
(b.6 August 1684 - d.17 or 18 August 1770) and Sara BERGEN who were married on 
17 February 1722.	.

	Jan was the son of Pieter STRYCKER (b.1 November 1653 - d. 1741) who was born in 
Flatbush and took the oath of allegiance there as a native in 1687. His name is on the 
assessment roll for 1683, on its Dongan's Patent and its census of 1698. He was the 
captain of its militia in 1689. In May, 1681, he married Annetje BARANDS or JOOSTEN, 
who died 17 June 1717. His father was Jan STRYCKER (1615 - prior to 1697) who emigrated 
from Ruinen in Drenthe in 1652.

	Jan STRYCKER was one of the first settlers of Midwout. He was a magistrate there 
most of the time from 1654 to 1673. He represented it in the Hempstead Convention of 1665, 
and was one of its patentees. He took the oath of allegiance there in 1687.

	He was married three times; 1
1st, in Holland to Lambertje SEABURG, the mother of the above mentioned Pieter; 
2nd to Swantje JANS, widow of Cornelis de POTTER, 
3rd finally to Teuntje TEUNIS, widow of Jacob HELLEKAS alias SWART alias SWARTOUT, In 1679, 
he declared himself to be an armorer.

	In the National Art Gallery; Washington, D. C., there is a portrait which its one-time 
owner claimed was that of Jan STRYCKER painted by his brother Jacobus Gerritsen STRYCKER 
in 1655 when Jan was thirty-eight years old.



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