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The Rev. Johannes Theodorus Polhemus, (1598-1676) who was the first member of the Polhemus family to settle in America, was born in 1598, probably at Boikirchen, a small community now vanished, but thought to be near the present Wolfstein in Rhenish, Bavaria.
After serving several churches in Brazil for several years (administered by the Dutch). The Dutch administrations in Brazil, which succeeded that of Governor Maurice, were inefficient and corrupt. The Portuguese revolted and the Dutch finally capitulated January 25, 1654s they were given three months in which either to depart or to embrace the Roman Catholic religion and bacome Portuguese citizens. In April 1654 there was a fleet of sixteen Dutch ships in the harbor of Recif to evacuate the Dutch Protestants together with a small number of Dutch and Portuguese Jews. For some reason Domine Polhemus took a separate ship from the one on which his wife and children were quartered. Fifteen of these vessels arrived safely in Holland including the one bearing his wife and four children. If the sixteenth ship conveying the Domine had not met with a misadventure, there probably would never have been a Polhemus family in this country. The Dutch ship on which the Reverend Johannes Theodorus Polhemus left Brazil was captured by a Spanish privateer not far from Recif. He finally arrived in New Amsterdam and not in Holland in September 1654 on the French frigate St. Charles.
After 'Domine Polhemus' arrival in America from Brazil, he went to Long Island to a village called Midwout. There were at that time three Dutch settlements on the western end of Long Island called Midwout, Amersfoort, and Breuckelens they later became the villages of Flatbush, Flatlands, and Brooklyn. There he built a church in Flatbush. This church continued in use for one hundred years and was served by Domine Polhemus until his death in 1676 at the age of seventy eight years.
[Belle Polhemus Gaddis, History of the Polhemus Family, Private manuscript - Initial 1962 Rev. 1968 Rev. 1974]
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Abt 1598 - 1676 (78 years)
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