Dr. Ditmars, ( 1771-1860) was a son of one of the first colonial Dutch
families to arrive in New Amsterdam.
The earlisest member of the family in this country was Jan Jansen, from
Ditmarsen, in Denmark's Dutchy of Holstein. In 1647, he obtained a plantation
or farm at Dutch Kills. Today it would lie along Jackson Avenue between
Queens Plaza and Newtown Creek.
The family later moved to Brooklyn and there is immortalized in the name
of the Ditmas Park community.
Brooklyn native Dr Ditmars went to Princeton. He spent 12 years in British
Guiana, South America. He settled in Astoria and practiced medicine for
nearly 50 years dying at 90.
He lived in a mansion at the Hell Gate at the foot of the street that
bears his name.
