Early Life
John L. Riker was born in Manhattan in New York City. His father, James Riker (Sr.) was a merchant, landowner and, at one stage, a New York City alderman. His mother, Elizabeth Van Arsdale, was the daughter of Captain John Van Arsdale of Revolutionary War and Evacuation Day fame. John Lafayette was the younger brother of James Riker, the New York genealogist who wrote A Brief History of the Riker Family, from Their First Emigration to This Country in the Year 1638, to the Present Time (1851), History of Harlem (1881) and Evacuation Day, 1783, with Recollections of Capt. John Van Arsdale, of the Veteran Corps of Artillery (1883).
John L. Riker is said to have been given his second name, "Lafayette", by his grandfather, John Van Arsdale, in honor of Gen. Lafayette, who had arrived at Staten Island on the day that Riker was born. Van Arsdale had served with Lafayette during the Revolutionary War and had met with him on August 16, 1824, the day after Riker's birth. Van Arsdale and the Veteran Corp of Artillery, of which he was a member, had received Gen. Lafayette at the Battery, on that day. Despite a lapse of forty-four years, Van Arsdale was recognized by Gen. Lafayette, which so pleased him that later that day when he visited his newborn grandson, he named him "John Lafayette".
Sometime in the 1840s Riker married his first cousin Anna E. Elder. Anna was the eldest daughter of Hannah E. Riker, who was the younger sister of his father, James. About 1848 Anna gave birth to Riker's first child, Anna E. Riker. A year or two later she gave birth to a son, John L. Riker Jr. In 1851 Riker's wife, Anna, died of "hysteria". The following year his father James Riker Sr. died and in 1854 his young son, John L. Riker Jr. died of congestion on the brain.
John L. Riker studied law and passed the New York state bar exam in 1860. He began the practice of law, but stopped shortly after the Civil War erupted and he answered President Abraham Lincoln's call to arms to put down the rebellion.
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