Polhamus Family
Why on earth would anyone want to
travel from Holland to Brazil in 1636? Yet that is exactly what our
first American Polhamus ancestor did. The answer lies partly in the
Sugar War between Holland and Brazil. “Dutch merchants were already
at Recife in Pernambuco, and in 1630 the Dutch fleet occupied Recife
and Olinda. They conquered Arraial do Bom Jesus, Paraibe, and the
Nazaré fort in 1635 during the Sugar War as the Portuguese
Brazilians and the Dutch tried to destroy each other's sugar mills.
Count Johan Maurits (Maurice) of Nassau arrived in 1637 and took over
Pernambuco. “ (Beck, Sanderson: Ethics of Civilization, Volume 11,
America to 1744, 2006).
Johannes Theodorus Polhemus (born
about 1598, probably in Bavaria) attended the University of
Heidleberg, receiving a Divinity Degree and then served churches in
both Germany and Holland. He applied for overseas missions and was
accepted into Maurits' expedition that was then being prepared for
travel to Brazil. He was originally to be in charge of the spiritual
care of soldiers and settlers on the island of Recif, but after
moving to Itamarca he also preached to the Indians in their own
language.
So
how did this missionary, now in Brazil, end up in America? While in
Brazil Rev. Polhemus married (there is evidence of an earlier
marriage in Netherlands with a daughter baptized in 1629) and had
several children. Although the Netherlands continued to rule in
Brazil for some time, the rulers had become corrupt and inefficient
to the point that when the Portuguese revolted in 1654, the Dutch
were overcome and given 3 months to leave. Rev. Polhemus sent his
wife and children on a ship back to Holland, and he took another ship
which was hijacked by
the Spanish, then captured by a French ship which landed him
in New Amsterdam in
September, 1654. He was
about 56 years old at the time- no spring chicken-
I can't even imagine going through that ordeal as a younger person,
but to suffer the trip, the hijacking, the separation from family
only to land in a strange land must have
been quite an experience.
It is
presumed
that Polhemus is the ancestor of all the Polhemus/Polhamus
Americans in their various spellings because of how our name came
about. Originally surnamed
Polheim, Johannes Theodorus
was entitled to add “ius” at the end of his name after his
graduation from university. Eventually the Polheimius name lost an
“i” or two and
became Polhemus. Some of the lines, ours included, changed the long a
sounding e to an actual a. As Rev. Polhemus worked for the church
we've been fortunate to have numerous records about his work and
life. Once in America, Johannes was
the first regular minister to the Dutch: “In 1654 came Dominie
Johannes Theodorus Polhemus from Brazil, now about 56 years old, to
serve the churches then formed to Midwout and Amersfoort, continuing
here till his death on June 8, (9) 1676; and serving also at
Breuckelen (Brooklyn) 1656 to 1660 and again from 1664 till his death
at the age of about 78 years." (S.
J. Voorhies:
Historical Handbook
of the Van Voorhees Family in the Netherlands and America”, 1935).
His wife was finally able
to join him 2 years later and they raised their children on
Long Island.
Most
of the residents of the western end of Long island had to attend
church in New Amsterdam. One church had been organized at Midwout in
1654, but had no minister. It was agreed that Rev. Polhemus would
preach there, provisions for housing and salary were begun. He also
preached at times at New Amsterdam. As
expenses were shared by the congregations at Breuckelen and
Amersfoort, Rev. Polhemus was also expected to provide services for
these communities. Rev
Polhemus had to walk between the congregations. These were not his
only difficulties.
Having finally made the trip from Holland to join her husband, it was
imperative that Mrs. Polhemus and family be adequately housed, but it
seems nothing was done without a struggle. Mrs. Polhemus had great
difficulty getting her husband's back pay while she resided in
Holland, and now there was difficulty raising the monies for family
housing. Mrs. Polhemus
arrived in September, shortly after which the cold began to set in
and the housing was not finished. In addition Rev. Polhemus was
still having difficulty getting paid and
sent a letter to church officials in Holland reporting the lack of
payment and the lack of a carpenter, stating that he and his family
were required to sleep on the bare ground!
The
next problem came in the form of a complaint from the congregation at
Breuckelen. Their complaint was that they were slighted in the
attentions of the minister. He offered a short prayer instead of a
sermon. They were not wishing to be critical of the Dominie, but
felt that his age and faculties were no longer sufficient to continue
to serve multiple congregations, so they refused to add their
financial support to his living. It
was a two hour walk (each way) between two of the congregations
(Midwout and Breuckelen) that Rev. Polhemus served when he turned 62,
which could explain the Breuckelen congregations' complaints. He had
a short reprieve when another pastor served Breuckelen from
1662-1664, but was given that congregation again when the new
minister returned to Holland. During his final time of ministry
there, in 1666, the first Reformed Church in Breuckelen was built,
and continued to be in use for 100 years. Johannes Theodorus was 78
or 79 when he died in 1676, having served long and faithfully.
Rev.
Polhemus had, during the course of his time in the New World, been
given a parcel of land, and had managed to purchase an adjacent lot.
Unfortunately, after
his death, there was a protracted dispute concerning the boundaries
of this land. Mrs. Polhemus became quite angry, and refused to
partake of communion. The new pastor was dragged into the
controversy which took years to settle, it finally being resolved
between 1681 and 1695. When
Catharina Polhemus died in 1702, the heirs agreed that the land would
be given to son Daniel Polhemus.
As
the Polhemus family became quite large, only the first generation of
children will be listed individually here. The entire family is well
documented in the work of I. Heyward Peck in The
Rev. Johannes Theodorus Polhemius and Some of His Descendants.
Christina, the child with the first unknown wife in Holland was
baptized in 1629. The other children were: Adrianna, b Brazil about
1644; Theodorus, b Brazil about 1646; Lammetje b Brazil about 1648;
Anna b Brazil about 1649; Maragrietje b about 1660, probably in
Midwout; Elizabeth, b about 1661, probably in Midwout; and Daniel b
about 1662, probably in Midwout. These children went on to live and
serve in the New World, most joining in the Revolutionary War,
serving in local offices and some going into the ministry. Some,
including first born son Theodorus, bought land in New Jersey, where
there are still numerous members of the Polhemus family.
It's
now time to introduce one
of our line's “brick walls”. We can trace
our line
back to my great great grandfather Eldred Nelson Polhamus, with good
documentation. Eldred died, based on census records somewhere
between 1905 and 1910. As far as I know, no one has yet found any
evidence of a death record for Eldred and his parents are not known.
Why
we can't find any evidence of his death at that late date is another
mystery.
Although good genealogy practice dictates moving from the known to
the unknown, that has not proved successful in this case. Based on
naming traditions, it
appears that we
should
concern ourselves with the line stemming from Rev. Polhemus' oldest
son, Theodorus, although
this is not a certainty.
Theodorus
was, according to Peck, a brewer, wheelwright and cooper, residing in
Flatbush and then in
Jamaica
on
the land he had received from his father.
Information
comes from his time as a church elder and from court and tax records.
He was an overseer in Flatbush and he was involved in land buying
both on Long Island, and, together with some other Dutch natives, in
New Jersey. Theodorus died about 1722, which would make him about
76. Two years before his death he began to dispose of some of his
land, giving some to sons Teunis, Abraham and Johannes. Theodorus
had 8 children with wife Aertje Bogert ( our one claim to a
connection with Humphrey Bogart!). Johannes, baptized 20 July 1685,
was in the middle of them. He remained in Jamaica, Long Island. He
married twice, but the identity of the first wife is not certain.
His second marriage was
to
Styntje/Marytje Bergen. She was a daughter of Hans and Antje
Lucasse (Eldersen) Bergen (this appears to be the source of the name
Eldred, which has led to the possibility that this is the line our
Eldred stems from).
When
I tell my sons about their ancestors, they always ask me, “Where's
the money?” This is the story I tell them. In 1761 Johannes sold
to his two sons, John and Eldred, “for love and affection and five
shillings”, a tract of land of about 150 acres in the west end of
Jamaica according to Peck. This was in addition to some meadow and
woodland acres that belonged to Theodorus and 10 acres of salt meadow
in Jamaica and 22 acres of meadowland in Newtown. This appears to be
shortly before Johannes' death. The same day Eldred sold his portion
to his brother John and he later sold to John additional land that he
had inherited upon his father's death. Interestingly, these are the
two sons Johannes had with his second wife. He had 4 children with
his first wife, although there is little record of the third and
fourth children. The first two had further records, including
marriage and children.
Now
here's what happened to the money: When the Revolutionary War came,
John became a Loyalist, going to Novia Scotia, where he died in 1816.
Before going to Nova Scotia he actively served in the war on the
side of the British. He attempted to save some of his property by
selling it before going to Canada, but much was forfeited to
the government as
the property of a Loyalist and sold. John was able to receive quite
a bit of land through a land grant in Nova Scotia. Can you imagine
what that land in present day Brooklyn would be worth today?
Eldred,
after selling his property to John moved to Dutchess County where he
remained until about 1794 when he returned to New York City, being
listed in directories as a carpenter and shipwright.
He
had
married
Sarah Carpenter who also moved to Dutchess County from Jamaica, Long
Island
with her family. While
in Dutchess Eldred
entered the Revolutionary War as
a Patriot.
In the 1790 census Eldred is in Dutchess County with 2 males over
16, 3 males under 16 and 4 females. This is interesting because Peck
only reports 3 named children, John, who
apparently never married,
Mary and Eldert (we'll call him Eldred 2). Who the other people are
in the census and what happened to them is unknown, but
we have to wonder if any of these folks are the ones leading down the
line to our Eldred. Eldred 2 married Ann __? , lived in New York
City where they had a son (Eldred 3) who was living in New York City
on the 1850 census at the same time great great grandfather Eldred
was farming in Esopus in Ulster County. Cousins? Possibly.
Now,
when the first Eldred went to Dutchess County before the
Revolutionary War, he was not the only Polhamus there! His
cousins, Cornelius,
Daniel and John,
brothers and sons of Daniel Polhamus, grandsons of Daniel Polhamus
(brother of Theodorus) were also there. This is another possible
line for us to follow. Rev. Polhemus had a son, Daniel, who had a
son Daniel 2. Daniel 2 had a son John who ended up in Marlboro,
Ulster, New York, where our folks came from. He had an unnamed child
who was baptized in the Marlboro Presbyterian Church in 1795. That
child, if a boy, would be about the right age to have a child in
1820, so could possibly be the father of our Eldred. Another
connection there is that a brother of the unnamed child was Jordan.
Jordan's line led to Abraham Polhamus, who had the farm across the
road from our Eldred for many years and there were marriages with the
Relyea family on both sides of the road.
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| Willis Polhamus Family 1920 |
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| Bertha's wedding |
So,
whether we follow Theodorus' line through the first Eldred, and
contend that our Eldred stems from one of the unnamed males from the
1790 census, or follow Daniel's line through John and his unnamed
son, we are surmising. What is known is that there was an Eldred
Polhamus, born 1820/21 who lived for most of his life in the town of
Esopus in Ulster County, New York and he had a son Willis who also
farmed in Ulster County. Willis married
Martha Jane Schoonmaker, a descendant of one of the original
Huguenots that came to New Paltz. They
had 10 children, 6 boys and 4 girls, one of whom, Earl, was my
grandfather. Eldred came from somewhere and the above scenarios
appear to be
the most likely.
Earl
helped his father Willis farm in Marlboro until his marriage in 1920
to Mary Edna Rhodes. After their marriage they purchased a farm in
the Town of Shawangunk, next to the current Magnanini
Winery on Strawridge Rd, outside of Wallkill. They had 2 girls,
Elsie and my mother Ethel. The girls attended the one room
schoolhouse on Plains Road until eighth grade. Since a one room
school was a little more flexible, they were able to skip a grade.
As the one room school was located between Wallkill and Walden, the
students had their choice of high school. Elsie chose
Wallkill and Ethel chose Walden, where she graduated at age 16. She
pursued a post high school secretarial course then worked as a
secretary at the Walden School, boarding in Walden, until she
married in 1947.
Additional Reference: Peck, I. Heyward: The
Rev. Johannes Theodorus Polhemius and Some of His Descendants in The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, July 1959-July 1961.
