Abraham Skillman

Abraham Skillman's home during life was upon the ancestral farmstead (father's and grandfather's) at Dutch or Maspeth Kills. In the division of the land after his father's death, he had the north half, leaving to his brother Benjamin the south half and the old-time home where all the children of this generation, and of the preceding one, perhaps, were born. In the Revolutionary War (long after) Abraham took refuge in New Jersey, probably with his brothers there. During that dark time the well at his home was poisoned, and some Hessian soldiers camped on the farm were victims; and, probably to shield the Patriots, this deed was charged to a negro. Abraham's fine apple orchard, cut for firewood during the War, was a sad regret to him the rest of his life.

His home, built by him on these ancestral acres, where he, his wife and children lived, perched on its grassy slope, was swept away about 1840 by the growth of Long Island City, now, with Brooklyn, the whole of the Newtown region and its hamlets and villages, Maspeth or Dutch Kills, Newtown village, Middletown, and later, Astoria, besides regions beyond, today being swallowed up in the Borough of Brooklyn, Greater New York. This Abraham Skillman house was long conspicuous. "It stood, a celebrity for generations, on the roadside a few yards north of Thompson Avenue." (L. I. City Star, March 28,1879.)

Skillman Avenue, Brooklyn, owes its name to this ancient landmark. [ed. this Skillman Ave is actually in the Long Island City section of Queens Co. 2 blocks N. of Queens Blvd, from abt. 31st St. to 55th St. A second Skillman Ave is about 2 miles S. in Brooklyn, Kings Co. just S. of McCarren Park. Another mile S. is Skillman St. running S. from Flushing to Lafayette Ave.]

The dwelling stood at the highest point of the old (undivided) farm, a little north of the original homestead dwelling, the old stone house, where, as said, all the Skillman's in this country were born and up to this generation had probably lived some portion of their lives.

Links

• Skillmans of America
• Robert Smart rootsweb database

Sources

• The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record; Published by New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, 1906. pg. 26, 93, 94