My Genealogy Hound

G E. RYCKMAN, a prominent citizen of Chautauqua county, New York, and the proprietor of the celebrated Brocton wine cellars, is a son of Lawrence F. and Lydia E. Ryckman, and was born at Brocton, March 16, 1835. His maternal grandparents, “Deacon” Elijah and Lucy (Belknap) Fay, were natives of Westboro, Massachusetts, and in 1811 came to what was afterwards Salem Cross Roads, Chautauqua county, but where at the present time is situated the village of Brocton. Mr. and Mrs. Fay were the first settlers at this point, in fact, about half of the present village of Brocton is located upon their old home farm. Lawrence F. Ryckman, father of G. E. Ryckman, came from near the city of Albany, New York— where the elder Ryckmans settled, one of whom was a member of the commission appointed by King William III to treat with the powerful Six Nations — and located in Chautauqua county at an early day. His ancestors were active in the politics of eastern New York and held prominent offices from alderman to mayor. Deacon Elijah Fay was the first to discover the adaptability of the soil and climatic conditions of the northern portion of Chautauqua county, bordering on Lake Erie, to the purposes of grape culture and in 1824 planted the first vineyard in that part of the State. In 1840 he began making wine for sacramental and medicinal purposes, and in 1859 our subject, Mr. G. E. Ryckman, in company with Captain J. B. Fay and Colonel Rufus Haywood, built the original wine cellars, known as the Brocton Wine Cellars, which to-day have passed into his hands as the sole proprietor, and have been increased in capacity to two hundred thousand gallons.

G. E. Ryckman, in addition to being the owner of these far famed wine cellars, is also owner and cultivator of a bearing vineyard of one hundred and forty-five acres. For the purposes of manufacture he is forced to buy extensively in addition to his own production; his purchase per annum being over two hundred tons of grapes. The wine product of these grapes is shipped all over the country and some to foreign lands, which fact is proper attestation not only of its quality but also of the esteem in which it is held by the commercial world. The qualities which have earned for his wines such a wide reputation are purity and honest value.