The McDonald Papers, Part I, Chapter 3: The Westchester Guides in the War of the Revolution
John Odell was born near Croton River upon the Manor of Courtland, on the 25th of October 1756. His paternal ances-tor William Odell emigrated from England along with some of the early colonists of Rye, where he at first settled, but subse-quently, about the year 1680, removed to the Manor of Ford-ham, and married a daughter of one of the Dutch inhabitants. Similar alliances were sought by most of his children and descendants, by which means, when our guide's father settled,
THE WESTCHESTER GUIDES 69 first on the banks of the Croton and afterwards near Dobb's Ferry in Greenburgh, about the middle of the eighteenth cen-tury, both he and his family spoke the language of Holland, and in manners were Dutch rather than English. From commencement of the revolutionary troubles, in common with his father and near relatives, Odell opposed the coercive measures of the British ministry, and in June 1776, along with two of his brothers, joined a large volun-teer company of light infantry under the command of Stephen Oakley. This corps, to which the brothers Abraham and Michael Dyckman also belonged took part subsequently in the battle of Long Island. Abraham Dyckman was born at Kingsbridge upon the island side of Spyt den duivel Creek, on the 25 of August 1754. His paternal ancestors were among the early colonists of New Netherland and at one time owned nearly the whole extrem-ity of New York Island, north of Fort Washington. From the time of their first migration from Holland, their political propensities were strongly republican, and during the agita-tions that characterized the days of Leisler, they were his devoted friends, adhering to him after his fall with the same steadiness with which they had supported him while in power. It is a tradition in the family that a few days before the execu-tion of the unfortunate Lieutenant-Governor, their ancestor, Jacob Dyckman, then a child, accompanied his father, whose baptismal name he bore, to a city prison, where they saw the unhappy leader of faction, then under sentence of death.