Teunis Garret Bergen

Teunis Garret Bergen (October 6, 1806 – April 24, 1881) was an American farmer, surveyor, militia officer, and Democratic politician who served one term as a United States representative from New York from 1865 to 1867. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Garrett and Jane Wyckoff Bergen, into a longstanding Dutch American family in Kings County. His family was prominent in the New Utrecht and Flatbush areas, and he was a second cousin of John Teunis Bergen, who also served as a U.S. Representative from New York. The Bergen family were substantial landowners and, by 1810, owned at least forty-six enslaved people, reflecting the entrenched system of slavery in early nineteenth-century Brooklyn.

Bergen attended local common schools and continued his education at Erasmus Hall Academy in Flatbush, New York, an institution that served many sons of leading families in Kings County. On December 19, 1827, he married Elizabeth Roelof Van Brunt, a member of another prominent Dutch-descended family in the region. The couple had one son. Bergen’s early life and education prepared him for a career closely tied to the land and local public affairs in the growing communities of Kings County.

Engaging primarily in agricultural pursuits, Bergen became a substantial farmer in the New Utrecht area while also establishing himself as a surveyor. His expertise in land matters and his local standing led to a long tenure in town government. He served as supervisor of New Utrecht, Kings County, New York, from 1836 to 1859, a period of significant growth and change as Brooklyn and its surrounding towns evolved from rural communities into more urbanized areas. In addition to his civil roles, Bergen was active in the New York State Militia. Having served successively as ensign, captain, adjutant, and lieutenant colonel, he ultimately held the rank of colonel of the Two Hundred and Forty-first Regiment, New York State Militia, known as the Kings County Troop, reflecting his prominence in local military and civic affairs.

Bergen’s political career extended beyond local office to state-level constitutional and party work. A committed Democrat, he participated in shaping New York’s fundamental law as a member of the state constitutional convention of 1846, and later as a member of the constitutional conventions of 1867 and 1868. He was also active in national party politics, serving as a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions held at Baltimore and Charleston in 1860, gatherings that took place amid the sectional tensions that preceded the Civil War. Through these roles he became a recognized Democratic figure in Kings County and statewide politics.

In the context of the Civil War’s aftermath and the beginning of Reconstruction, Bergen was elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-ninth Congress. He represented New York’s second congressional district and served in the U.S. House of Representatives from March 4, 1865, to March 3, 1867. His single term in Congress coincided with the closing months of the Civil War, the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, and the early debates over Reconstruction policy. As a member of the Democratic Party representing New York, Bergen contributed to the legislative process during this significant period in American history, participating in the democratic process and representing the interests of his constituents. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1866 and left Congress after his term ended.

After completing his service in Congress, Bergen returned to Kings County and resumed his agricultural pursuits and surveying work near New Utrecht. In addition to managing his land and professional activities, he engaged in literary and historical work, reflecting a broader interest in the history and development of his native region. He remained a figure of local note in Brooklyn and its surrounding communities during the later years of his life.

Teunis Garret Bergen died in Brooklyn, Kings County, New York, on April 24, 1881. His name continued to be associated with local institutions well after his death. A New York City public school in Brooklyn, Public School 9, was for many years named after Teunis G. Bergen. In 2019, however, the school was renamed “PS 9 Sarah Smith Garnet,” honoring Sarah J. Garnet, the first Black woman to serve as a principal in New York City. The change followed a movement to remove the slaveholding Bergen family name from a school whose students are approximately 40 percent African American. Public discussion of the Bergen legacy included the resurfacing of an 1819 advertisement in which Bergen’s uncle, Teunis J. Bergen, offered a $40 reward for the return of Sam and Dinah, an African American couple who had escaped from slavery on the Bergen estate with their three-year-old child, underscoring the family’s historical involvement in slavery and its continuing relevance to public memory.