Call Number: ARC.279
Extent: 0.8 Linear feet, in two manuscript boxes.
The Terhune and Wyckoff families papers (1747-1932) include documents of two prominent families, affiliated through marriage, from Gravesend in Kings County, New York (part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn after 1898). John Terhune (1767-1842) played a significant role in the early development of Coney Island as a resort location, and the collection includes some documents on that subject and on a dispute over whether to incorporate the town of Gravesend. The bulk of the collection, dating from the first half of the nineteenth century and likely compiled principally in connection with the administration of the estates of various Terhunes and Wyckoffs, includes bills, receipts, promissory notes, inventories, deeds, indentures, court filings, and other financial and legal documents. The collection holds several individual items of interest, including two letters commenting on the use of personal slanders as a tactic in political campaigns, a document related to the founding of the Agricultural Society of Kings County, six cartes-de-visite, bills of sale and a will referring to enslaved African-Americans, indentured servitude agreements, and a promissory note (1796) from Aaron Burr to Albert Terhune. Other names of Gravesend residents appearing frequently in the collection include Bennet, Emmans, Lake, Lott, Ryder, and Stillwell.
Names:
- Terhune family
- Emmans family
- Lott family
- Stillwell family
- Terhune, Albert
- Terhune, John
- Wyckoff family
- Coney Island House (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
- Gravesend and Coney Island Bridge and Road Company
Places:
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
- Coney Island (New York, N.Y.)
- Gravesend (New York, N.Y.)
- Kings County (N.Y.)
- Kings County (N.Y.) — Genealogy
Subjects:
- African Americans — New York (State) — Kings County
- Auctions — New York (State) — Kings County
- Court records — New York (State) — Kings County
- Executors and administrators — New York — Kings County
- Genealogy
- Indentured servants — New York (State) — New York
- Inventories of decedents’ estates — New York (State) — New York
- Legal documents — New York (State) — Kings County
- Locomotive engineers
- Public officers — New York (State) — Kings County
- Railroads — New York (State) — Kings County
- Real property — New York (State) — Kings County
- Wills — New York (State) — Kings County
Types of material:
- Cartes-de-visite (card photographs)
- Correspondence
- Deeds
- Estate inventories.
- Genealogies
- Indentures
- Invoices
- Promissory notes
- Receipts (financial records)
- Slave bills of sale
- Tax records