Volume 18 , Issue 19

1930 - Stories of Old Brooklyn

"Kouwenhoven Got Land From Indians," was the headlines we found in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Brooklyn, New York, dated 17 April 1930, Thursday, page 23. The photo with the news article showed a photograph of the "Old Kouwenhoven Mansion" on Kings Highway. The plot on which family mansion stood was part of the tract bought soon after ancestor came here in 1630.

Found on Newspapers.com

Schenck Family Dates Back To 1650
Moving on to 18 April 1930, Friday, page 19, we found more Kouwenhoven via "Schenck Family Here Dates Back To 1650."The photo shows Capt. john Schenck house, erected at Crooke's Island about 1656. Homesteads built by early Dutch settlers, Long Landmarks, one still stood in fine state of preservation in flatlands in 1930.

Found on Newspapers.com

There were two branches of the well-known Schenck family, so long prominent in the affairs of Kings County. The Bushwhack branch was descended from Johannes Schenck, who was born in Holland, probably the subdistrict of Kessel, on September 19, 1656. He came to America in 1683, and after residing in New York and in Ulster County settled in Flatbush, where he served as town clerk from 1691 to 1694 and again from 1700-to 1712. In the latter year he removed to Bushwhack, where he bought the mill property on which he resided until his death on April 16, 1728. In 1719 he was supervisor of the Town of Bushwhack. The homestead of this branch of the family was long a landmark on the road leading from New Lots to Jamaica. It was built some time prior to 1765 and was constructed principally of stone.

Another branch of the family, having for its progenitor John Schenck, said by Stiles to have been the "original Schenck on Long Island." According to Stiles, John with his brother Rolloff settled in the Town of Amersfort, later Flatlands, in 1650. That certainly antedates by 33 years the arrival of the head of the Bushwhack Schencks in America.

John Schenck bought land, on which he built a house and a mill, the latter long known as "Crook's Mill." The house was built more than 250 years ago (1680) and was still standing, one of the prominent landmarks in that section of Kings County. It was in a fine state of preservation. From the very start the Schencks were prominent in the affairs of the community. Some years after the family began to increase the Schencks were interested in ships that made regular trips between the Netherlands and Flatlands. There was a dock at Mill Island, that was a busy spot in those days. They also took a keen interest in political matters, and Teunis Schenck was elected to the state Assembly in 1815, 1819 and 1820.

From 1700 to 1711 Johannes of the Schenck family was schoolmaster of the Flatbush school. When a man signed a contract with the village fathers in those days he undertook a big job, as the records show he had not only to teach the children the three R's but also their prayers and the catechism, requiring them to be "friendly in their appearance and to answer questions freely and distinctly."

He was also required to issue funeral invitations, dig graves, toll the bell and be prepared to read the burial service. For this he received special fees of the few guilders, the amount varying according to the age of the deceased.

The salary of a schoolmaster, according to one of the old contracts drawn up at the time Johannes Schenck was schoolmaster, was 400 guilders in grain, "delivered at Brooklyn Ferry."

He also had the free use of a dwelling house, barn, pasture lot and meadows, and swelled his income a few guilders by the sale of the readers, spellers and "writers" used in the school.

Among the descendants of the Schenck family then living in 1930 were Charles Schenck, former president of the Peoples Trust Company; Willard P. Schenck, vice president of the Brooklyn Trust Company, and Franklin Schenck, assistant vice president of the Irving Trust Company.
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