Jeremiah Wynkoop is a fictional character in Carl Becker's classic essay, The Spirit of '76', originally delivered as a lecture at the Brookings Institute in 1927. Fictional though he may be, it also turns out that he had roots in the real world as well, although his milieu was the War of 1812 and not the American Revolution.

    Augustus Wynkoop, (1777-1836), was probably Professor Becker's role model for Jeremiah Wynkoop. Augustus was a successful merchant in New York City in the years before, during and following the War of 1812, serving on the jury in the trial of Samuel G. Ogden, another New York City Merchant. (Ogden hired as one of his attorneys, Cadwallader Colden, a family name you will recognize from Prof. Becker's essay, and whose sister-in-law was a Wynkoop.) Ogden was acquitted on the charges brought against him.¹

    Cadwallader Colden's younger brother, David, married Gertrude Wynkoop, of New Paltz, Ulster County, New York, in November of 1790. She was the daughter of Derrick D. Wynkoop, (1738-1829), also of New Paltz. After David's death, she married Alexander Colden, David's older brother. David and Gertrude had two children.²

    Augustus and his family long had homes in the Washington Square, West, area of Greenwich Village, back in the days when it truly was in the country,³ and they continued to own property in the area up until July of 1925, when they sold the last of the old farm property, (surveyed for subdivision in 1825), to the Israel Orphan Asylum, Inc.⁴

    In June of 1812, Augustus signed a petition praying that the embargo which was laid on American shipping on April 4, 1812, for ninety days, be continued, claiming that non-importation laws would produce all the benefits while it would prevent the calamities of a war with the British. This was submitted after the bill for the declaration of war had passed in the House. Augustus was one of fifty-eight signers, including John Jacob Astor, and other wealthy New York merchants and bankers.⁵

    In 1826 Augustus joined with other area residents, including Nicholas Fish and, once again, John Jacob Astor, to endorse a plan to build three canals through the Stuyvesant Meadows area, in an effort to reclaim the salt marshes there.⁶

    On the night of December 16, 1835 New York City was visited by the most terrible conflagration she'd ever suffered. The fire struck the city below Wall Street and quickly spread as the temperature dropped below zero, water in the hydrants froze and a fierce, biting, winter wind fed the flames. All ordinary means for stopping the fire were soon abandoned and efforts concentrated instead on removing the contents of threatened buildings to a safer place. The flames advanced unchecked, however, and these buildings went up in flames too. Millions of dollars of property were lost in the fires. The heat was so intense it melted the copper roofs on so-called fire-proof buildings and the burning liquid ran off into the streets in great drops. Iron shutters glowed cherry red.

    Finally, the Mayor, Cornelius W. Lawrence, in consultation with the fire department, determined to flatten some buildings in a desperate effort to stop the fire's advance. After some consultation, the east corner of Coenties Slip and Coenties Lane was chosen as the proper place to begin the necessary work. The building selected to be blown up was a large brick building occupied by Wynkoop & Co. grocers. A gang of officers and sailors from the Navy Yard soon arrived with gunpowder and promptly began to prepare the building for demolition. Lighting the fuse, the building heaved up as if by magic, tottered, shook and fell. As difficult a decision as it was to make, it proved to be the right one. By the time fire fighters from Philadelphia arrived to help, the fire was under control.⁷

    Augustus Wynkoop died less than eight months later.

    Richard Wynkoop, in the 1904 edition of the Wynkoop Genealogy in the United States of America, has this to say about Augustus on page 79:

    213. Augustus Wynkoop, (Capt. Cornelius C. 65, Cornelius 9, Maj. Johannes 2, Cornelius 1,) born September 10, 1777: died July 3, 1836: married, January 27, 1808, at Kinderhoek, Anna Maria Silvester, born February 26, 1780, died May 1, 1825, sister to Lydia [205].
    One of the varieties of the Wynkoop book-plate is in existence, with the name Augustus Wynkoop, in which the supporters of the shield are female bacchantes. It evidently came from the same source as the one which has "Cor C. Wynkoop" upon it, and was varied by mistake or design. The compiler has had it reproduced in electrotype, with men in place of the women, and with the motto inserted.
    Children of Augustus and Anna M. Wynkoop:
473. Mary Jane: b. Jan. 20, 1810: m. Henry H. Reynolds.
474. Augustus: b. Jan. 22, 1812: m. Anna Whiting.
475. Francis Silvester: b. Nov. 6, 1815: m. Sarah F. Elmendorf.
476. Catharine Burhans: b. Sept. 15, 1817: d. Jan. 6, 1842: m. Oct. 3, 1837, John Mumford Keese, who died in Chicago, Nov. 2, 1878, aged 64 years, 2 months. Their son, John Wynkoop Keese, d. at Pasadena, Cal., Nov. 4, 1903, aged 65 years.
477. Henrietta: b. Apl. 18, 1819: d. in Kingston, N. Y., Nov. 25, 1901. She lived with her sister, Mrs. Reynolds.
478. Elizabeth Hicks: b. Sept. 9, 1821: d. Apl. 1, 1824.

    Richard updated his birth information for Augustus Wynkoop in the unpublished 1906 Supplement to the Wynkoop Genealogy., on page 9:

    213. Augustus Wynkoop, b. Sept., 27, 1777; bap., Oct., 14, at Kingston, N. Y.

Sources:

    1. Barrett, Walter, The Old Merchants of New York City, Second Series, New York, Carleton, 1868, pp. 209-210.

    2. Purple, Edwin R., Genealogical Notes of the Colden Family in America, New York, Priv. print., 1873, p. 19.

    3. Chapin, Anna Alice, [With Illustrations by Alan Gilbert Cram], Greenwich Village, New York, Dodd, Mead and Company, 1917, p. 51.

    4. Unknown, "Israel Orphan Society Adds To Its Property," The New York Times, Thursday, 23 July 1925, p. 33.

    5. Guernsey, R. S., New York City and Vicinity During the War of 1812-'15: Being a Military, Civic and Financial Local History of That Period: With Incidents and Anecdotes Thereof, and a Description of Forts, Fortifications, Arsenals, Defences and Camps in About New York City and Harbor, and Those at Harlem and on East River, and in Brooklyn, and on Long Island and Staten Island, and at Sandy Hook and Jersey City: With an Account of the Citizens' Movements, and of the Military and Naval Officers, Regiments, Companies, etc. in Service There, Volume I, New York, C. L. Woodward, Bookseller, 1889-1895, pp. 17-20.

    6. Goodwin, Maud Wilder, Alice Carrington Royce, and Ruth Putnam, [Edited by], Historic New York: Being the First Series of the Half Moon Papers, New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1897. [Note: Compilation of twelve monographs written for the City History Club. Contents Governor's Island / Blanche Wilder Bellamy.] (Augustus Wynkoop - p. 347.)

    7. Stone, William Leete, History of New York City From the Discovery to the Present Day, New York, Virtue & Yorston,, 1872, pp 471-475.

Jeremiah Wynkoop -- I.
     From the Christian Science Monitor, Wednesday, 6 June 1956.

Jeremiah Wynkoop -- II.
     From the Christian Science Monitor, Tuesday, 12 June 1956.

Jeremiah Wynkoop -- III.
     From the Christian Science Monitor, Tuesday, 19 June 1956.