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ABRAM DE BAUN.

ABRAM DE BAUN. The common ancestor of all the DeBauns in Bergen and Hudson Counties was Joost de Baen, a native of Brussels in Flanders (Belgium), who came over to New Amsterdam in 1683. The next year he married Elizabeth Drabb and located at Bushwick, L. I., where he was soon afterward made town clerk. In 1686 he removed to New Utrecht, where he was elected town clerk and taught the village school. This was during the controversy over the conduct of Governor Leisler. De Baen entered that contest and took an active part against the Governor, which caused him to lose his clerkship. He, however, continued to teach school and to reside at New Utrecht, where he took the oath of allegiance to the English king in 1687. Early in 1704 he sold his lands, of which he acquired a considerable area, and removed to Bergen County, N. J., where he joined the Kinderkamack settlement. He died in 1718 or 1719. His children of the second generation were Matie (married, in 1705 (?), David Samuels Demarest), Christian (married Judith Samuels Demarest), Mayke, Carrel, Christina, Jacobus, and Maria.

 

Of these seven children, Carrel (Charles), (2) married, in 1714, Jannetie Peters Haring, of Tappan. He first bought a large farm, in 1719, on the north side of Hardenbergh Avenue (now in Harrington ownshi0), extending from the Schraalenburgh road to the Tiena Kill (including part of which is now Demarest), on which for a time he resided. Shortly after 1721 he sold this farm and bought several large tracts between the Hackensack and the Pascack Rivers, on one of which he settled and died. His issue of the third generation were Joost, Margaret, Elizabeth, John, Jacob, Carrel, and Christiaen.

 

Carrel (3), born in 1728, married (1) Bridget Ackerman (born December 10, 1731, died January 27, 1793) and (2) Lea Van Orden. He was a farmer by occupation, and settled in the upper part of Bergen County. His issue of the fourth generation were Carrel, Margaret, Abram, Jannetie, Andrew, Sarah, David, John, and Isaac.

 

Isaac de Baun (4) was born December 9, 1779, and died June 18, 1870. He was a farmer and resided nearly all his life at Monsey, N. Y. He married June 13, 1807, Elizabeth Yenry, who died August 24, 1875. Their children of the fifth generation were Abram, Elizabeth, Maria, Bridget, Rachel, Jane, and John Y.

 

John Y. de Baun (5) was born at Monsey, N. Y., August 22, 1827. He was a remarkably precocious child. Although he had but an ordinary common school education he, by dint of an untiring perseverance and constant application to study, qualified himself for the ministry (which under the circumstances was a rare achievement), and on April 17, 1855, was licensed to preach by the Classis of Hackensack of the True Reformed Dutch Church. His first charge included the churches of Hempstead in Rockland County, N. Y., and at Ramseys in Bergen County, N. J., where he preached alternately until 1860, when he took charge of the two churches at Hackensack and English Neighborhood, N. J. Of these two churches he was the pastor for twenty-six years. During this time he resided at Hackensack, where he established and was the editor of the Banner of Truth, a monthly magazine, which is still the organ of the True Reformed Dutch Church. He died at Leonia, N. J., in February, 1895. He was twice married: (1) April 8, 1849, to Margaret Iserman, who died about 1893, and (2) to Jane Van Houton, who survives him. He was a thoroughly self-made man, an eloquent preacher, and in every way worthy of his high and noble calling. His issue of the sixth generation were Susan E., Martha A., James D., Abram, Edwin, Anna, John Z., James E., and Isaac C., of whom Abram (6) is the subject of this sketch.

 

Abram de Baun (6) was born April 2, 1856, at Monsey, N. Y., where he spent his childhood days. When old enough he entered Hackensack Academy, where he had the benefit of a full course of study, and then entered the law office of A. D. Campbell, at Hackensack, as a law student. He was admitted to the New Jersey bar as an attorney in June, 1877, and as a counselor in June, 1880. After his call to the bar he became a business partner of his old tutor, with whom he remained until March, 1894, when he formed a law partnership with Milton Demarest, with whom he is still associated in a lucratice [sic] practice.

 

Mr. De Baun was clerk of the Bergen County Board of Chosen Freeholders from 1878 to 1895 and for three years a member of the Hackensack Improvement Commission, during two years of which he was treasurer. For twelve years he has been counsel for the Hackensack Mutual Building and Loan Association. He is a Director of the Hackensack Old Ladies' Home.

 

He married (1) in 1878 Mary B. Christie, of Leonia. She died in September, 1881, and he married (2), October 2, 1884, Lydia B. Christie. He has no children.

 

Source: Genealogical History of Hudson and Bergen Counties, New Jersey, Editor, Cornelius Burnham Harvey, The New Jersey Genealogical Publishing Company, 1900, pages 138-139.