The Locusts James Ellsworth De Kay Residence

James Ellsworth DeKay was born in Portugal in 1792, the descendant of an American Dutch family that had settled in America in the seventeenth century. When he was two years old, Dekay's family returned to the United States, but he lost his parents at a young age. He attended schools in Connecticut where he showed an early interest in natural history. Although he attended Yale from 1807 to 1812, it is not clear that he ever formally completed his studies. He enrolled in the University of Edinburgh, Scotland in 1818, receiving his M.D. in 1819. (Romero, 2002).

Given DeKay's leanings toward biology and natural history, his research interest gradually turned to the description and cataloging of biological specimens. In his work DeKay wrote more than 55 manuscripts on topics ranging from the description of modern fish and invertebrate species to fossil vertebrates (mammoths, marine reptiles) and invertebrates (his most direct tie to Trenton Falls). During the same period of time when the four district geologists were surveying the geology of New York State, DeKay was equally busy composing the Zoological Report of New York State. Though this task proved to be daunting and overwhelming for him, DeKay published a series of Annual Reports and a well-received Final Report in 1842.

After De Kay's death in 1851 the house passed through several subsequent owners to Sidney McCoun and then to Elizabeth P. Eppley