These are first three pages of "My American Family" © by Maitland B. Bleecker (1903-2002), published in 1996. Maitland wrote this fictional narrative to go along with the known life of Jan Jansen. It makes for interesting reading.

The first three pages appear here out of interest, and should not be reprinted without permission from the author.

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CHAPTER ONE 

IN THE LATE SPRING of 1658, a stub-nosed, two-masted, square rigged Dutch brig worked its way out of Rotterdam, Holland, down through the Straits of Dover, the English Channel, and into the almost endless reaches of the Atlantic Ocean. No trim ocean speedster, the lumbering merchant brig, heavily laden with supplies for the Dutch settlements in the New World, began its laborious way across the ocean to what it hoped would be a successful landfall at New Amsterdam-later called New York City.

With a fair wind to help the vessel on the start of its long journey, the small handful of venturesome passengers had taken their final took at the receding shores of their homeland and, with mixed feelings, gazed off into the unbroken vista of water ahead.

Obviously no passenger boat, but a freighter of about 200 tons burden, she reeked of foul smelling bilge water and a variety of cargo, some of which added their less than pleasant odors to that of the bilge. About a half dozen wooden bunks, below decks of course, and not already occupied by the crew, were not too inviting, but served their purpose when the day's idle wandering around on the main deck was mercifully over.

One passenger stood out rather oddly among some half dozen older men, who looked as if they were headed for what was probably their last hope of something that would keep body and soul together. He, of all the others, had gazed back at the last dim outline of his homeland knowing, only too well, that he would never again see the colorful, brilliant fields of tulips, the lazy turning of the windmills or the happy, loved faces of family and cherished friends. With a final long gaze, and a strange ache in his heart, he at last turned about with a sigh.

Only seventeen years of age, this young man was well built, moderately good looking, dressed in new and good clothing and, now quickly, carried himself with an air of excited expectancy. How this young fellow happened to be alone, on board this rather aged, brown-sailed, weathered, lumbering supply vessel headed for the New World is still an unexplained mystery, even to those of us who, in these latter years, name him as our first ancestor to leave his ancestral home and stake, his future on a new, and sometimes hostile, strange world.

Born in Meppel, a town about sixty miles northeast of Amsterdam, in the Province of Drenthe, Holland or, as it's sometimes called, the Netherlands, on July 9, 1641, he was named by his parents Jan Jansen Bleecker. The name, if Anglicized, would be John the son of John of the Bleecker family-or John Bleecker, Jr.

The name Bleecker in those days was spelled about any way you chose to do it -- Bleecker, Bleeker, Bleker and even Bleaker. Misspellings of the name later on in this book are not typographical errors, but are shown in the way they are found in the original documents being quoted. Basically, in English, the word would mean a fuller, a bleacher, or one who whitens, but I have no personal knowledge of what he, or his forbears, did for a living. Jan was apparently well educated and came of a good family, without doubt, and the family has a Coat-of-Arms which lends credence to this evaluation. The motto on the Coat-of-Arms is "Fide and Constantia"-"By Fidelity and Constancy."

In early records, preserved in some of our museums, the Bleecker Coat-of-Arms heraldic ascription is given as:

Arms: Per pale azure and argent, lst two chevronels embattles counterembattles or; 2nd a sprig of roses vert flowered gules.

Crest: A pheon or.

Symbolic Description: The shield is divided into two parts. First is blue, denoting truth, loyalty and devotion. Second is silver, standing for purity, justice and peace.

The chevronels represent the gable rafter of a roof, and were given to ambassadors and eminent statesmen for the protection- as under a roof- they gave their king and country in time of great need.

The roses were the emblems of knighthood and victory.

The crest, a pheon, represents the barbed head of a spear and is emblematic of heroism, speed and liberty.

Since none of the early accounts and documents, with which I am familiar, make any further references to the Coat-of-Arms, it would appear that young Jan was not unduly impressed by it, and did not regard it as highly as some of his more recent descendants. We do, however, find an article in the New York "World," dated December 2, 1883, stating of the Bleecker family that "they came of royal blood" and Cholly Knickerbocker, in the early 1900's, wrote a lengthy two-part story the New York Sunday "American" about the "azure-blooded Bleeckers."

Even less substantially documented was my Bleecker grandfather's comment to me, one day in my late teens, that we were descendants of William of Orange. But, as we have mentioned, since these things were apparently of no concern to Jan Jansen Bleecker, let's return to him and see how his emigration from an old established world to a strange and sometimes dangerous, wild, new world turned out.

Finally, after nearly two months of nothing but vast, empty ocean, the welcome call of "Land Ho" as heard from the lookout, and the sandy beaches and wooded shores of what we now know as Long Island became visible. Here were no windmills, beautifully cultivated farms, farmhouses and occasionally small hamlets. Only a very few scattered log houses and a glimpse of a small cluster of odd conically shaped affairs with smoke slowly rising out of the tops of two or three of them.

Not too long afterward, an entrance between two points of land became visible, and the brig lowly changed course and, laboriously, began tacking up through the "Narrows," emptying into a large bay, on both sides of which were large apparently uninhabited, heavily wooded areas. These soon were left behind and gave young Jan his first view of New Amsterdam, situated on the lower end of what appeared to be an island between two rivers emptying into the bay. Slowly moving up he near, or east, side of the island, the brig finally docked at an empty slip located along the side of a narrow road known as South Street and Jan, With a rapidly pounding heart, first put foot on this strange, largely unknown, new world he had chosen to live in for the rest of his life. It was just a matter of an hour or two before young Bleecker had brought his rather meager possessions ashore and located modest lodgings at a place called Van Dyck's Tavern, down near the tip of this island or, perhaps, peninsula.

Strangely, when he walked on firm land again, for the first time in weeks, his legs still felt and acted as if he even yet was on board the foul smelling brig that had just made port. In spite of this, his curiosity took control. Walking down the narrow dirt lanes in a south westerly direction, he very quickly came to a waterfront location facing the large bay that he had been on just a few hours earlier. Apparently this was locally referred to as the "Battery" and it was quite obvious that the name was appropriate, as this was a well designed fortification, looking quite adequate as a defense protecting the town from any attack from the waters of the harbor entrance.

In the next few days, his explorations took an opposite, northeasterly, direction and it was surprising how quickly he reached the edge of the actual town itself. The palisade enclosure, and the fort along the northern border, were located at what we now know as Wall Street, deriving its name from the timber "wall" of the enclosing palisade. Beyond these very few cross streets, strictly within the confines of the palisade, he was out in the country where there was some small evidence of farming but, beyond that, nothing remained except virgin forests and a few trails, continuing on in a rather northerly direction, with a cabin or shack now and then, apparently occupied by hunters or trappers. Little did Jan then realize that, over a hundred years later, the very ground he was walking on, so covered with stately trees, would be a farm, owned by his descendants and the road then passing through it would be named "Bleecker Street."

Occasionally, on these walks, he would come across an Indian or two who seemed to be absorbed in their own private world and made no overtures, either friendly or otherwise, toward him as they passed by.

Jan's plans in no way included settling in such a civilized place as New Amsterdam, so he soon found that being a good listener to the conversation of the tavern's varied patrons was well worth his while. Soldiers, sailors, merchants, traders and, obviously, woodsmen, trappers, hunters and tanned frontiersmen, all came and went, as he listened to what they had to say and stored it in his mind, to help him prepare for his next move.

He visited the various shops, referred to by the woodsmen as "truck houses," and soon learned that most of them were somewhat of a combination of trading establishment and general store. Based very largely on what he had heard and seen at the tavern, he finally purchased the few necessities of frontier clothing that appeared suitable-a deerskin shirt which fell nearly knee length, with fringe around the bottom and down each sleeve seam, heavy deerskin breeches, which also were fringed down each outer seam, and a comfortably warm coonskin hat. His own supply of Small-clothes seemed to adequately complete his wardrobe, for the time being at least.

More importantly, and needing careful selection and choice, were the pioneer settler Is tools for survival. Long conversations, with many of the hunters and woodsmen, who had obviously survived the rigors and dangers of life in this vast and unpredictable country, were entered into and, as a result, young Bleecker carefully purchased a highly recommended brass-bound English musket, an appropriate bullet mold, bar lead, actual bullets, both F and 4F powder-the extra fine grade for priming-powder horn, bullet pouch, cloth patches, woodsman's ax and a skinning knife. Thus equipped, he was ready to take the next step in his plans.

(end page 3)

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