Harman Douwenszen is thought to be the first white settler. He came to America as a toddler and grew up in Bergen, New Jersey. In the State Archives in Albany there is a 1687 letter on file petitioning Governor Dongan to buy a strip of land in the west hills of Tappan (today Nyack), in which he had lived on for 12 years. His petition was granted and he bought the land from the Native Americans. He called his farm New Orania ("Oranje" in Dutch). This section of Nyack became known as Orangetown in 1683. The Tappan Register of 1707 claimed it was pronounced Nay-ack. Nyack became part of Rockland County in 1798. Harman's younger brother Theius changed the family name from Douwse (Frisian for first son) to Talma (Dutch for first son). His children became Talman and eventually Tallmans. The New Orania farm became the Tallman homestead, at the northeast corner of what is now Broadway and Tallman Place. The building was demolished in 1914.