Rewind to the year 1690
After his marriage to the widow Anneken (Schouten) Dey in 1691, Joris Ryerson
took over the operation of her farm on New Amsterdams Broad Way. It is described as containing 5-1/2 acres, with 309 feet
frontage along the Broad Way and 800+ feet west to the waters edge - the waters of the Hudson River. Here they settled down
to raise her 3 children - plus 11 of their own! Like his father, Joris probably planted tobacco. The old wagon lane on their
farm would come to be known as Dey Street.
Of all our ancestors, Joris was the most casual about his name. The 1703 census
of New York City lists him as Jores Riersie while in later years he was known as both George Ryerse and George Ryersen. His
family lived on this farm for 17 years before they moved across the Hudson River to New Jersey. The little
farm would be inherited by Annekens 3 children, as you will learn.
300+ Years of Incredible History!
This was a historically significant piece
of property long before Joris and Anneken came to live there. In the fall of 1613, a few years after Henry Hudson discovered
the great river that bears his name, a trading ship named TIGER captained by Adriaen Block, rode at anchor just off
Manhattan Island. It was loaded with a valuable cargo of beaver, otter and other skins and was preparing to sail back to Holland.
Unfortunately, a fire broke out on board and was soon out of control. The crew managed to salvage a few spare sails, tools
and fittings before they escaped the flaming vessel. The TIGER burned to the water line, her cargo of pelts a total
loss, her charred hull beached at the foot of what would become the Ryerson farm. Undaunted, Capt. Block and his crew camped
nearby and worked all winter, felling sturdy oaks and hickories that lined the shore and set to work laying the keel of a
new ship. By spring they were again ready to sail.
The flame-charred hull of the TIGER lay buried for hundreds
of years until 1916 when a workmans shovel revealed several of its solid oak timbers. They lay twenty feet below the surface
of the street which was being excavated for a subway extension. These fragments are now preserved and on display at the Museum
of the City of New York.
In September of 1776 during the Revolutionary War,
a fire broke out in lower Manhattan which destroyed about a quarter of the city, 493 houses and a path of desolation a mile
long - including the old family farm! No one is sure whether the fire was set by the British troops or the American patriots!
In 1835, a second great fire raged through
Broad Street, Wall Street and the East River area, destroying seven hundred buildings - among them the last remnants of old
New Amsterdam. After this fire, elegant mansions were built and the tillable land sloping gently down to the banks of the
Hudson on the old Ryerson farm became a very select neighborhood. By the 1850s, however, these had all been torn down and
in their place rose marvels of engineering skill - great office buildings.
The World Trade Towers - 1977
The shoreline along the Hudson River was filled in over the years,
extending several blocks beyond the waters edge of Joris farm. It was from this partially reclaimed fill land and partially
the old Ryerson farm, that rose the magnificent twin towers of the World Trade Center, soaring 110 floors - a quarter of a
mile - into the air above the very bedrock foundations of our little farm! (see map)