So it all started with the election of Jan Evertsen Bout and Huyck Aertsen van Rossum as the first aldermen. Die Jan Bout (son of Evert) and Huyck van Rossum (son of Aert) can also be found as street names in today's Breukelen-South, just like two other early settlers of Brooklyn: Joris Dircksen and Gerrit van Couwenhoven. All four men were not from Breukelen. But who were these founders of Brooklyn?

Jan Evertszoon Bout came from Barneveld and became a prominent settler in seventeenth-century New Netherland. He arrived there on the ship De Eendracht in 1634. Bout had first settled in Communipaw (Mill Creek Point, now Jersey City) on the west bank of the North River and part of the Pavonia patronage. He came to this area as an inspector on behalf of the Amsterdam businessman Michael Pauw, the Patron and known as the Lord of Achttienhoven. Bout established his own farm there and also became active as an interpreter for the Algonquin Indians.

In 1643, Bout fell victim to the incident known as the Pavonia Massacre, which led to the Kieft War. The house and barn of Jan Evertsen Bout were destroyed by the Indians. Jan's land yielded a good wheat crop and was sold to Michel Jansen van Vreeland in 1646 for 8,000 guilders. Bout then moved to Breuckelen (Brooklyn) because of the Indian War. On July 6, 1645, Jan Evertsen Bout had bought land there on "Matckawick aan Gouwanus Kil".

Bout was a member of the Council of Eight, which played an important role in the removal of William Kieft as director of New Netherland. He accompanied Adriaen van der Donck to the Netherlands to denounce the mismanagement by the Dutch West India Company to the States General. Bout was elected alderman of Brooklyn in the years 1646-1654. Although he was re-elected in 1654, he refused to serve again. But Director General Pieter Stuyvesant ordered the sheriff to formally notify Bout: "If you do not accept to serve as Ships with others, your inmates, then you must prepare to board the ship King Solomon to Holland” and Bout therefore continued to serve the community. In 1660 he was appointed to a committee of three men to establish and map the new plantations in Brooklyn.

Huyck Aertsen was therefore not from Breukelen, but apparently from Rossem. Some sources indicate that he came to New Netherland from Utrecht. Huyck became Jan Bout's neighbor in Brooklyn; both ranchers also owned land on Manhattan Island. The name of Huyck Aertsen can be found in the sources with great regularity, because as alderman of Breuckelen he had to deal with all kinds of conflicts, regulations and worries. Yet he was a less prominent settler than Jan Bout. But at least important enough to have its own street in Breukelen 375 years later…