James Riker (

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, May 11, 1822 – 1889) was a New York historian and genealogist. His father, James Riker (Snr) was a merchant and landowner descended from early Dutch settlers. Riker left school at the age of sixteen to work in his father's business. During the late 1830s and early 1840s he lived intermittently in

Goshen, New York Goshen is a town in Orange County, New York, United States. The population was 13,687 at the 2010 census. The town is named after the Biblical Land of Goshen. It contains a village also called Goshen, which is the county seat of Orange Count ...

, where he ran a store. By the mid-1840s he had settled at the family home on

Delancey Street __NOTOC__ Delancey Street is one of the main thoroughfares of New York City's Lower East Side in Manhattan, running from the street's western terminus at the Bowery to its eastern end at FDR Drive, connecting to the Williamsburg Bridge and Broo ...

in Manhattan. There Riker studied informally for the Presbyterian ministry and began the genealogical and historical research that would occupy him for much of his life. He collected original documents from the colonial era, copied extracts from documents in state and local archives and corresponded extensively with historians, relatives and old family friends. In 1848 Riker moved with his father to a new family home near to the corner of Fifth Ave. and 125th Street, Harlem. Two years later, having given up his plans for a religious career, he began work as a teacher in New York's Ward School 24. James Riker's first publication, a pamphlet genealogy that traced the Riker family to their early Dutch origins, appeared in 1851. He followed it with a substantial volume of local history, ''The Annals of Newtown'' (1852). Riker married Vashti Wood Horton in 1853, and the couple had several children. Vashti died in 1864, and Riker was re-married in 1867 to Anna C. Clute. Several years later Riker moved to Waverly, New York where he established the Waverly Library and Museum, and wrote two additional historical works, ''Harlem (city of New York): its origin and early annals'' (1881) and ''Evacuation Day, 1783, with Recollections of Capt. John Van Arsdale, of the Veteran Corps of Artillery'' (1883). In his later years Riker struggled financially and was forced to auction off a substantial portion of his library. James Riker died in 1889. James Riker's younger brother was the Civil War Colonel

John Lafayette Riker John Lafayette Riker (August 15, 1824 – May 31, 1862) was an American attorney and an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He was killed in action at the Battle of Fair Oaks during the Peninsula Campaign. Early life Joh ...

who organized the New York Volunteer Regiment known as the

Anderson Zouaves The 62nd New York Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It is also known as the Anderson Zouaves. Organization It was raised under special authority of the War Department in New ...

List of published works

*''A Brief History of the Riker Family, from Their First Emigration to This Country in the Year 1638, to the Present Time'' (1851) *''The Annals of Newtown'' (1852) *''Harlem (city of New York): its origin and early annals'' (1881) *'' Evacuation Day, 1783, with Recollections of Capt. John Van Arsdale, of the Veteran Corps of Artillery'' (1883)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Riker, James People from Harlem 19th-century American historians 19th-century American male writers 1822 births 1889 deaths People from Goshen, New York Historians from New York (state) Historians of New York City American male non-fiction writers