Pieter Van Buskirk ( January 1, 1655 – July 21, 1738), also spelled Boskerck, is considered the first settler in the
Constable Hook area of
Bayonne, New Jersey
Bayonne ( ) is a City (New Jersey), city in Hudson County, New Jersey, Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey, in the Gateway Region on Bergen Neck, a peninsula between Newark Bay to the west, the Kill Van Kull to the south, and New York ...
.
Van Buskirk was the son of Laurens Andriessen Van Buskirk and Jannetje Jans, settlers in
New Netherland
New Netherland () was a colony of the Dutch Republic located on the East Coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territories extended from the Delmarva Peninsula to Cape Cod. Settlements were established in what became the states ...
. Not long after their arrival at
New Amsterdam
New Amsterdam (, ) was a 17th-century Dutch Empire, Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''Factory (trading post), fac ...
they moved to
Bergen
Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo.
By May 20 ...
, settling at
Minkakwa.
Van Buskirk built a home and farm around the year 1700 on a bluff overlooking the shore of
Upper New York Bay
New York Harbor is a bay that covers all of the Upper Bay. It is at the mouth of the Hudson River near the East River tidal estuary on the East Coast of the United States.
New York Harbor is generally synonymous with Upper New York Bay ...
on what became known as Van Buskirk's Point at the confluence of the bay and
Kill van Kull
__NOTOC__
The Kill Van Kull is a tidal strait between Staten Island, New York (state), New York, and Bayonne, New Jersey, Bayonne, New Jersey, in the United States. It is approximately long and wide and connects Newark Bay with Upper New York ...
. Van Buskirk started a small family cemetery next to his house in 1736. His wife, Tryntje died on October 31 of that year and is buried in the cemetery. Pieter Van Buskirk died two years later and was also buried in the cemetery.
For over 200 years, Van Buskirk and his descendants lived in his farmhouse. Today, the farm and the cemetery are gone. Both were demolished in 1906 by the
Standard Oil Company
Standard Oil Company was a corporate trust in the petroleum industry that existed from 1882 to 1911. The origins of the trust lay in the operations of the Standard Oil Company (Ohio), which had been founded in 1870 by John D. Rockefeller. The ...
, which purchased the land to expand their refinery. A different cemetery that was opened by James Van Buskirk still exists today.
Ancestry.com
accessed December 17, 2007.
See also
* Constable Hook Cemetery
Constable Hook Cemetery is the name used to refer to two cemeteries on Constable Hook in Bayonne, New Jersey, the extant Bayonne Constable Hook Cemetery and the no longer existing Van Buskerck Family Burial Ground. Both were founded by members o ...
References
External links
International-Matex Tank Terminals, Bayonne FacilityInternational-Matex Tank Terminals Bayonne Facility (pdf)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Buskirk, Pieter
1650s births
1738 deaths
People from New Netherland
People from Bayonne, New Jersey
American people of Dutch descent
People from colonial New Jersey