A History of Deerpark in Orange County, N. Y.

by Peter E. Gumaer

Morris further states that "Caudebec is situated in the department of the Lower Seine, in which are the following towns: Lillebonne, Rouen, Elbeuf, Gournay and Aumale," and judges that it lies on the river Seine between Paris and the English Channel, and belongs to that part of France that anciently was called Normandy.

I feel very thankful for this information. It reminds me of certain occurrences which attended Cuddeback and Gumaer at the time of their flight from France, and all in connection gives me reason to think that both of them resided in the capital mentioned.

Caudebec said that the vessel in which he escaped from his country had many wheat bread passengers on it, who, after a few days' sailing, began to complain of their fare on the vessel, and that they could not live on the diet furnished, when the same consisted of plenty of bread, meat, beans, and other vegetables, and such eatables as were generally had on ships, but were inferior to such as they had been habituated to. As for himself, he said he thought he could do well enough on such victuals, but, he said, before they arrived at their place of destination, provisions became scarce and they began to have good reason to complain. From which, it appears, that their voyage must have been retarded by contrary winds, or a circuitous route, to avoid being taken by their enemies. I have also understood that Gumaer lived in a city, and, when his enemies sought for him, he was reading in a garden, where he was informed of his enemies searching for him and he fled to the top of one of the houses, where he hid. Now, as it appears that this city was a flourishing place before it became reduced by the persecutions mentioned and suffered much in consequence of the same, and, as one of those two individuals bore the name of the town, it appears very probable that the passengers in the vessel mentioned were all from this capital.

I have been informed that Caudebec sometimes related the manner in which the Protestants, or Huguenots, were tortured and murdered, one of which I still remember, but consider it too shocking to our feelings to embrace it in this work, being worse, in my view, than the vile Nero's project of employing dogs to kill Christians. These innocent people in the early days of Christianity suffered great persecutions from those who were inimical to their professions and doctrines. It seems strange that after their doctrine became popular, the greatest proportion of those who embraced it in France became as cruel as the monster Nero, who had the power to exhibit to the world his thirst for imposing on mankind the numerous cruelties he caused to be inflicted. He became so destitute of the feelings of humanity that he caused even his own mother to be put to death to satisfy an unnatural curiosity. Also the great moralist, Seneca, who had been his tutor, did not escape his jealous disposition, but was put to death according to his orders. All his impositions for self present gratification will remain an everlasting stain on his character of the blackest dye, and the sufferings he caused to be endured must have affected thousands of his subjects.

Now, all these acts are only as a drop of water in a bucket to like acts unnecessarily imposed from time to time on the Roman people and other nations, by ruling characters of Roman dominions.

What shall we think of mankind, who, for self-exaltation, have so overcome all those tender feelings implanted in their natures as to kill, murder and plunder each other without any just cause, but merely to satisfy the cravings of men who were a curse to the world? I do not know of any species of creatures on the globe who have acted as cruel as human beings have done in this respect. And by taking a view of the sins of the ancient nations, who have been destroyed, it appears that good reason existed for their destruction, and that all the animal tribes have yielded more to the government and laws of their Creator than mankind.

The name Gumaer, as now written, was on the certificate written "Guimar." In another writing, which gave Gumaer the right of citizenship in the English territories, it was written "Guymard." This writing was also found among the papers formerly of Peter Gumaer, Jr., now (1858) in possession of his son-in-law, Solomon Van Etten, Esq. It is probable that the names Gomar, Guymard and Guimar, in France, originated from one of those names, the last of which is the name of a certain town within the French territories. I have never seen the handwriting of Cuddeback or Gumaer. The children of the first families were not educated, in consequence of which, when it became necessary to write their names in their business transactions, &c., the same was done in the Dutch tongue, without any other guide than that of the oral sound, which of the latter name had become somewhat broader among the Dutch than what it was originally; and the French sound of "mar" was altered in the Dutch sound of "maer," which is the same as that of "maur" in the English tongue.

A hasty flight of these two individuals prevented them from being furnished with sufficient funds for a livelihood, in consequence of which it was concluded that two sisters of Cuddeback, who were to leave France afterwards and meet them at their place of destination (which, the writer has understood, was to be England, but it may have been in Holland), were to bring money for setting up a business of trade. It is probable that there was an intended marriage of Gumaer with one of those sisters. They did not arrive at the appointed time, and, after all hope of their coming was given up, these two young men embarked for America and landed in the State of Maryland, which passage exhausted all their money, and here they began to experience the want of it. After a short stay, they came into the State of New York, where both entered into a state of matrimony, Cuddeback with a daughter of Benjamin Provost, who was in a trading business either in the city of New York or somewhere in the vicinity of the Hudson river, whereby he became related to some Swartwout families, which probably led to an association of Cuddeback, the three Swartwouts and other companions to move into this part of the country. Peter, son of the first Gumaer, has said that his son Elias took after the Deyo family, which leads us to infer that Gumaer's wife was of a Deyo family.

The name of the father of the three Swartwouts is not known, but we have reason to believe it was Gerardus, as this is a name which has been given to at least one member of each Swartwout generation from the first in this neighborhood to the present; and also in the family of Harmanus Van Inwegen, whose wife was a Swartwout, and the name of their only son was Gerardus, which name has also continued in his family descendants to the present time. The name Jacobus (James) and the name Samuel, are Swartwout names, and have continued in those families to the present time. In the early part of the settlement here, there were two Swartwouts who sometimes came over here from the east side of the Hudson river (probably from Dutchess or Westchester counties) to see their relatives here. The name of one of them was Jacobus (James), and he was generally called Dickke Jacobus (Thick James), in consequence of his bodily thickness. It was said he was uncommonly broad and thick around his shoulders and breast, and unusually strong. It is probable that the Swartwouts in this place either came from the city of New York or from one of the counties on the east side of the Hudson river, and that their ancestry emigrated from Holland into this country at an early period of its settlement for advancing their interests.

Cuddeback, Gumaer and one of the Swartwouts were the only three of the first settlers who remained in the present town of Deerpark, and they became the owners of the land granted by the patent; and having become too weak to defend their possessions against Jersey claimants, they let Harmanus Van Inwegen have some of their lands to come and reside here and help defend their possessions. He was a bold, strong and resolute man, on whom much reliance was placed. He was originally from Holland, and in the early part of his life had been a seafaring man. At a certain time he was at the house of Cuddeback, and on hearing him read that part of history which relates to Hindoo women suffering themselves to be burned, after the death of their husbands, in case of being the survivors, said that his own eyes had seen what he (Cuddeback) was reading, and mentioned the place of the occurrence and manner in which it was transacted. Van Inwegen had married a sister of the three Swartwouts.