The Grandfather of All the Loyalist Dykemans

The ancestry of Ouida Dykeman Siulinski (1905-1985), my Dutch Canadian grandmother, has clear roots in the Dyckman Loyalists of New York. She descended from the "Grandfather of All the Loyalist Dykemans", Garret Dyckman, who changed the original Dyckman surname to Dykeman presumably to appear less foreign in the English-dominated society of early New York. He was born on 4 Mar 1741 in White Plains, Westchester, New York. 

During the Dutch colonial era, the original Dyckmans (the ancestors of Garett) were merchants and farmers in the area called Washington Heights today in Manhattan. The area was named Nieuw Haarlem (New Haarlem), after the Dutch city of Haarlem, and was formally incorporated in 1660. Hard to imagine Manhattan as a strictly agricultural society. 

After the war, in 1783 Garret emigrated with his wife and family to the British Colony of Nova Scotia. Soon thereafter, on August 16, 1784, the Colony of New Brunswick was created by partition. On January 20, 1787, the Dykemans were granted Lot no. 9 containing 150 acres on Jemseg Creek, Parish of Waterborough, Queen's County, New Brunswick, where they settled to farm.

Yielding now to a document found in the Digital Collection at the New York Public Library, here is a brief summary of the Loyalist story:

In the American revolutionary war there were many in the then new-born Republic who either refrained from participating or took the loyalist side in the conflict. These were called “United Empire Loyalists,” for they clung to the unity of the empire and refused to ally themselves with their fellow-colonists in revolt. When the war was over, those who took up arms on the loyal side found themselves in a hopeless minority, loaded with obloquy and subjected to indignity at the hands of the victorious republicans. Rather than live under these humiliating conditions, some of the loyalists returned to England; but most of them, preferring voluntary expatriation in Western wilds to living in a country that had become independent through rebellion, sought new homes for themselves in Acadia and Canada.

Another part of the Loyalist story and of my own ancestry is the suffering after the war in the form of persecution and loss of property. I could not begin to imagine the extent of personal agony that so many of my Loyalist's ancestors endured. From the same library report in the Digital Collection, "many persons were banished and prohibited from returning to their homes. More than 12,000 left New York."

Dykeman homestead in Jemseg

Joshua Reade Dykeman and Hattie Springer, 1935

After the hardship of relocation and resettlement, life surely improved for the future generations of those early Dykeman settlers. What I recall of my grandmother's descriptions of her family in Canada were happy stories and how close they all were. These strong bonds were experienced by my father as he often described the joy of spending his childhood summers on the family farm in Jemseg, New Brunswick. The photograph above shows the parents of my grandmother, Ouida Dykeman Siulinski, poising at the family homestead.

St. John Anglican Church, Gagetown, NB

Returning to our Loyalist grandfather, Garett Dykeman married Eunice Ann Hatfield at White Plains, New York. He died on 19 Jun 1813 and is buried in St. Johns Anglican Church Cemetery in Gagetown along with his wife.

Credits:

1. Kingsbridge image

2. Church image

3. Homestead image

4. Joshua Reade Dykeman and Hattie Springer image

5. Garett Dykeman United Empire Loyalist record 

6. Reasons for Migration of Loyalists Following American Revolution document

7. The area was named Nieuw Haarlem (New Haarlem), after the Dutch city of Haarlem, and was formally incorporated in 1660: Source

8. Following the Revolutionary War, in 1783 Garret emigrated with his wife and family to the British Colony of Nova Scotia. On April 20, 1784 they were granted Lot no. 66 in Parr Town (now Saint John, NB) etc: Source