Davis Uriah I | Born 1707

RIKER, Gerardus

Male 1740 - 1781  (40 years)


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  • Name RIKER, Gerardus 
    Born 16 Nov 1740  Cloister, New Jersey Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    Died 15 Sep 1781  Shelby County, Kentucky Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Person ID I4084  Uriah Davis I - Genealogy
    Last Modified 21 Jun 2018 

    Father RIKER, John,   b. 1689, Newton, Queens County, New York Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 1783, Bergen, New Jersey Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 94 years) 
    Mother WILTSEE, Geertruy,   b. 25 Apr 1698, Newtown, Queens County, New York Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 1781, Closter, Bergen County, New Jersey Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 82 years) 
    Family ID F1586  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family DEMAREST, Rachel,   b. 9/09 Jan 1742/1743, Schraalenburg, Bergen County, New Jersey Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Between 1812 and 1814, Jefferson County, Indiana Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 68 years) 
    Married 20 Nov 1762  Tappan, Bergen, New Jersey Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Children 
     1. RIKER, Jacob,   b. 1762, Old Tappen, Bergen County, New Jerset Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Yes, date unknown
     2. RIKER, John,   b. 18 Jan 1764, Closter, Bergen County, New Jersey Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 22 Nov 1848, Madison Township, Jefferson County, Indiana Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 84 years)
     3. RIKER, Leah,   b. 28 Nov 1765, Tappan, Rockland County, New York Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 24 Nov 1844, Riker's Ridge, Jefferson County, Indiana Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 78 years)
     4. RIKER, Gerardus Jr.,   b. 4 Nov 1767, Tappan, Rockland County, New York Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 7 Jan 1839, Madison, Jefferson County, Indiana Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 71 years)
     5. RIKER, Samuel,   b. 4 Nov 1769, Closter, Bergen County, New Jersey Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 1835, Madison, Jefferson County, Indiana Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 65 years)
     6. RIKER, Charity Geertie,   b. 6 Aug 1771, Old Tappen, Bergen, New Jersey Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Yes, date unknown
     7. RYKER, Rachael,   b. 19 Jun 1773, Tappan, Rockland, New York Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 28 Oct 1861, Mars Hill Cemetery, Wapello, Iowa Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 88 years)
     8. RIKER, Peter,   b. Abt 1775, Old Tappen, Bern County, New Jersey Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Yes, date unknown
     9. RYKER, Deborah,   b. 23 Jan 1777, Tappan, Rockland County, New York Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Abt 1837, Ripley County, Indiana Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 59 years)
     10. RYKER, Charity,   b. 1780, Shelby, Kentucky Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Yes, date unknown
    Last Modified 24 Jun 2018 
    Family ID F1585  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • Gerardus Ryker served as Ensign (or Lieutenant?) in Col. Theunis Dey's Bergen County, Regiment of New Jersey Militia; also as Ensign in Major Mauritius Goetschius' battalion, NJ Militia
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      Gerardus was married and before his father's death, removed to Kentucky. He has descendants living in Indiana. He lived near Bull Skin Creek, Shelbyville, Shelby Co., Kentucky. He was killed at the "Long Run Massacre" at Bull Skin, Eastwood, Kentucky while fighting with Boone & Tyler, on September 15, 1781, at 40 years of age.
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      Gerardus Ryker was listed as a cordwainer at the time of his marriage in New York in 1762. He immigrated to Kentucky in 1780 from Berkeley Co., VA and was part of the "Low Dutch Colony" in Shelby and Henry Counties in Kentucky. He was killed by Indians in the Long Run Massacre, also known as Floyd's Defeat, September 15, 1781 near Eastwood in Jefferson County, Kentucky. From The Kentucky Encyclopedia edited by John E. Kleber (University Press of Kentucky, 1992): LONG RUN MASSACRE. The Long Run massacre was a major incident in the series of battles in which early settlers in Kentucky fought Indians and their British allies on the western frontier during the Revolutionary War. Long Run is located near Eastwood in Jefferson County, Kentucky. In September 1781 Maj. Bland Ballard discovered Indian signs near Squire Boone's Painted Stone Station, near what is now Shelbyville. He warned the settlers there and at Beargrass Station to move to Lynn Station, which was a more secure area. For unknown reasons, Boone's and several other families delayed moving for two days. When they finally left the station on September 14, 1781, they were surrounded at Long Run Creek by a large party of Indians reinforced by British soldiers under the command of Capt. Alexander McKee. An estimated sixty people were killed by the Indians; only a handful, including Squire Boone, escaped. See Lou Catherine Ciore, "Long Run Massacre,'' Register 10 (Jan. 1912): 75-6.
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      While many of the Ryker families remained in the New York/New Jersey area, in about 1780 some 75 people, including Gerardus Ryker, Sr. and his family decided to "head west" under the leadership of Hendrick Banta. The particulars of their westward move- ment are shrouded in mystery, but it is likely that some of them floated 700 miles down the Ohio River to the Falls of the Ohio (Louisville, Kentucky) and came ashore there. Others, led by Samuel Duryea, came by wagon via the Cumberland Gap and the Wilderness Road to the Mercer County area. Regardless of their mode of transportation, it is fact that a number of these families settled on a tract of land at the "Low Dutch Station on the Beargrass," about 15 miles from the Falls of the Ohio. In 1784 they purchased 10,000 acres of land from Squire Boone, brother of Daniel Boone, and commander of Painted Stone or Boone's Station, Kentucky. Gerardus Ryker, Sr. subsequently moved his family further inland from the Beargrass to Shelby County, around what is now Bullskin Creek, where he and his sons had a farm and where Gerardus, Sr. later met his death at the hands of marauding Indians.
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