Teunis Garret Bergen (October 6, 1806 – April 24, 1881) was an American farmer and politician who served one term as a

United States representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

from

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

from 1865 to 1867.

Biography

Born in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, Bergen was the son of Garrett and Jane Wyckoff Bergen and the second cousin of John Teunis Bergen, also a U. S. Representative from New York. He attended the common schools and Erasmus Hall Academy (in

Flatbush Flatbush is a neighborhood in the New York City Borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood consists of several subsections in central Brooklyn and is generally bounded by Prospect Park (Brooklyn), Prospect Park to the nort ...

). He married Elizabeth Roelof Van Brunt on December 19, 1827, and they had one son, Garrett T. Bergen. His family owned at least 46 enslaved people in 1810. Bergen engaged in agricultural pursuits and

surveying Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the land, terrestrial Plane (mathematics), two-dimensional or Three-dimensional space#In Euclidean geometry, three-dimensional positions of Point (geom ...

and was supervisor of

New Utrecht New Utrecht () was a town in western Long Island, New York encompassing all or part of the present-day Bath Beach, Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Borough Park, Dyker Heights and Fort Hamilton neighborhoods of Brooklyn, New York City. New Utrecht w ...

, Kings County, New York, from 1836 to 1859. He was a member of the New York constitutional conventions in 1846, 1867, and 1868, and was a delegate to the

Democratic National Conventions The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 18 ...

at Baltimore and Charleston in 1860.

Tenure in Congress

Bergen was elected as a

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (Cyprus) (DCY) **Democratic Part ...

to the Thirty-ninth Congress and served as

U. S. Representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of the ...

for the second district of New York holding office from March 4, 1865, to March 3, 1867. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1866 and resumed agricultural pursuits and surveying near New Utrecht, and also engaged in literary and historical work.

Military

Having served as ensign, captain,

adjutant Adjutant is a military appointment given to an Officer (armed forces), officer who assists the commanding officer with unit administration, mostly the management of “human resources” in an army unit. The term is used in French-speaking armed ...

, and lieutenant colonel, Bergen was colonel of the Two Hundred and Forty-first Regiment,

New York State Militia The New York Guard (NYG) is the State Defense Force (SDF) of New York State, and is one of the four branches of the New York Military Forces (NYMF), the other three branches being the New York Army National Guard, New York Air National Guard ...

(known as Kings County Troop).

Death

Bergen died in Brooklyn, Kings County, New York, on April 24, 1881 (age 74 years, 200 days). He is

interred Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and object ...

Green-Wood Cemetery Green-Wood Cemetery is a cemetery in the western portion of Brooklyn, New York City. The cemetery is located between South Slope, Brooklyn, South Slope/Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn, Greenwood Heights, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, Win ...

, Brooklyn, New York.

Legacy

New York City Public School 9 in Brooklyn was previously named after Teunis G. Bergen; in 2019 the school was renamed to "PS9 Sarah Smith Garnet," after Sarah J. Garnet the first Black woman to serve as a principal in New York City. The name change followed a movement to remove the slaveholding Bergen family name from a school whose students are 40 percent African American. An advertisement from 1819 surfaced, in which Teunis' uncle, Teunis J. Bergen, offered a reward of $40 for the return of Sam and Dinah, an African American couple who had escaped from slavery on the Bergen estate along with their three-year-old child.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bergen, Teunis 1806 births 1881 deaths Politicians from Brooklyn American surveyors 19th-century American historians 19th-century American male writers Burials at Green-Wood Cemetery Bergen family Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from New York (state) Erasmus Hall High School alumni American male non-fiction writers 19th-century New York (state) politicians 19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives