Peter Schuyler

Pieter "Peter" Schuyler (1707 – March 7, 1762), a member of the Schuyler family, was a wealthy Dutch farmer from New Barbadoes Neck, now western Hudson County, New Jersey. He was a colonel during King George's War and was captured and exchanged as a prisoner during the French and Indian Wars. Early life Peter Schuyler was born in 1707 in New Barbadoes Neck, opposite Belleville, New Jersey. He was the son of Swantje Van Duyckhuysen (1679–1724) and Arent Schuyler (1662–1730) of Rensselaerswyck, now (Albany), New York. He was the grandson of Philip Pieterse Schuyler (1628–1683) and Margarita Van Slichtenhorst (1627–1710) and the nephew of Pieter Schuyler (1657–1724), mayor of Albany. In 1710, his father purchased a large tract of land along the shores of the Passaic River where large amounts of copper were discovered and mined at the Schuyler Copper Mine. When his father died in 1730, he received 787 acres of land and a large home. He also received one-third of the profits from his father's copper mine. Career In order to pump out mines which would fill with water in his father's copper mine, Schuyler arranged for the first steam engine in North America to be built. Schuyler Avenue, which runs along the eastern edge of the ridge honors the early settlement.