[J. Thomas Scharf (1886)] If so, lie was twenty-one years old when he first saw America. It is now said that he began his life in this country poor, though there is also an oppo-site tradition. He had learned the carpenter's trade in Holland, and for a time followed it here. We are told that he worked on the old Dutch church in the fort. By great industry and tact, however, and with remarkable good fortune, he rose rapidly, left his trade and became a wonderfully successful merchant.1 He first married, in 1662, Margaret Hardenbroek, widow of the rich Pieter Rudolphus De Vries, with one child, Maria De Vries, whom he adopted, and who is known in history as Eva Philipse.4 Mrs. Margaret Philipse, a woman of rare energy, always reserved to At least thirty-six thousand Bohemian families sought refuge in Saxony, Sweden, Poland, Holland, etc. (See Art. " Bohemia," in Appleton's En-cyclopedia). Probably it was during this proceeding, in or soon after 1018, that the honorable lady above named fled, taking her children and whatever she could carry with her of her property to Friesland (not East Friesland, as has been said). It is certain that she did not settle there before 1G18, and also that she was there before 1C20, as her son Frederick, father of the first lord of the Philipsburgh Manor, had mar-ried before that, and her grandson was born in Friesland in that year.