Deyo Family Association
Our Purpose and Mission
Written by John Kirby of Texas and approved by the DFA
Board
Impetus for the Deyo Family Association was given when one of
the oldest streets in America with several of the original houses of twelve
seventeenth century Huguenot refugees from religious persecution in Europe was
designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964. The Historic Landmark is
located in the middle Hudson valley in the town of New Paltz, New York. Two of
the twelve Huguenot refugees were Christian Deyo and his son Pierre. Pierre
built the first stone House on Huguenot Street in 1692 and it stood for 200
years in the rural Flemish Style of all the Patentee abodes until it was
remodeled into a Victorian mansion in 1894. The Deyo Family Association was
originally organized for the purpose of acquiring the ancestral home and
maintaining it as a part of this Historic Landmark. In addition to this original
project, The Deyo Family Association has compiled an extensive genealogy and
history of the DEYO FAMILY IN AMERICA which is continuing to be updated and
maintained and cooperates with the Huguenot Historical Society, New Paltz, N. Y.
in other projects to memorialize the rich heritage of the descendants of the
twelve Huguenot patentees.
The overriding purpose and mission of the Association is to
perpetuate remembrance that their ancestors once faced the onslaught of
enslavement through religious persecution by over powerful government in Europe.
This caused them to seek a new life in a land of the free we call America. The
Association helps keep fresh in the minds of Deyo descendants the importance
their ancestors attached to regular religious worship of their almighty God as
well as the frequent receipt of religious instruction in His inspired truths now
in the Bible. It also reminds descendants of the importance their forefathers
attached to the need of government to guard against anarchical acts and to
assist in providing for the common good, but which safeguarded the right of
individuals to live productive and joyful lives.
By maintaining and documenting these links to the past, the
Association seeks to be an inspiration not only to other Deyo family members but
to other families as well to perpetuate the importance of keeping alive the
dedication and spirit of this and other early American families.
