Quick Facts
Biography
Abraham Bruyn Hasbrouck (November 29, 1791 – February 23, 1879) was a United States Congressman from New York and the sixth President of Rutgers College (now Rutgers University) serving from 1840 to 1850.
Biography
He was born in 1791 in Kingston, New York to Jonathan Hasbrouck (1763–1846) and Catherine Wynkoop (1765-?).
He studied at the Kingston Academy in New York before entering Yale College where he graduated in 1810. Studying the law under Tapping Reeve, Elisha Williams, and James Gould, he returned to Kingston, New York in 1814 to practice law. In 1817 he started a law practice with Charles H. Ruggles.
He married on September 12, 1819 to Julia Frances Ludlum (1795–1869), the sister of Judge Gabriel W. Ludlum. Together they had eight children, including a son: Jonathan Howard Bruyn Hasbrouck (1820–1899).
Hasbrouck was elected as an Adams man to the 19th United States Congress, holding office from March 4, 1825, to March 3, 1827. In 1840, he was appointed by the Trustees of Rutgers College as the sixth president, and the first layman to hold the office. During his tenure as President, he taught Rhetoric, Constitutional Law, and Political Economy. He strove to establish independence from the Dutch Reformed Church and added modern languages, and expanded scientific instruction to the curriculum. He resigned in 1849, remaining in office until 1850 when Theodore Frelinghuysen was appointed his successor.
Hasbrouck retired to Kingston, New York, where he died of pneumonia on February 23, 1879.
Abraham Bruyn Hasbrouck was a descendant of the Hasbroucks who founded New Paltz in 1678. The Hasbroucks were Huguenots, Protestant followers of John Calvin who fled what is today Northern France and South Belgium who fled persecution by the ruling Catholics. The original settlement of their ancestors survives today as Historic Huguenot Street, a National Historic Landmark District.
Legacy
A street named after him in both Newburgh and Kingston, New York.