Jonas Jonsson Brunk (Bronck) 1600 - 1643
DID YOU KNOW...
his name was Jonas Jonsson Brunk (Bronck) and gave his name to the Bronx district in New York, USA.
Jonas came from Småland and was born around 1600 in Komstad outside Sävsjö, Småland, Sweden. Probably Broncks was a sea captain in the Danish merchant fleet and responsible for the transport of goods and livestock to the Dutch colony of New Netherland in the spring of 1639.
Already in the same year, he bought a piece of land from Indians on the Harlem River opposite the plains of Manhattan and called his farm Emmaus. He lived there with his Dutch wife Teuntje Joriaens for four years until his death in 1643.
His land became popularly known as Broncks Land, hence the name Bronx County. Located south of 150th Street in the Mott Haven area of present-day Bronx, the Bronck estate was 274 acres and consisted of a stone house with a tile roof, employee quarters, a tobacco house, and a barn. An unknown number of pigs, 25 horses and 25 cows belonged to the farm, according to the estate register, which is written in Dutch and has been preserved.
