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BROOKLYN DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR
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THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES
Stephan In Ostrander
A HISTORY
OF THE
CITY OF BROOKLYN
AND
KINGS COUNTY
BY
STEPHEN M. OSTRANDER, M. A. LATE MEMBER OF THE HOLLAND SOCIETY, THE LONG ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY, AND THE SOCIETY OF OLD BROOKLYNITES
EDITED, WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES, BY ALEXANDER BLACK AUTHOR OF "THE STORY OF OHIO," ETC.
IN TWO VOLUMES VOLUME I.
BROOKLYN Published by Subscription 1894
Copyright, 1894, BY ANNIE A. OSTRANDER. All rights reserved.
This Portion is limited to Hibe Hundred Copies, of which this is mo. 2./
F129 By 085
V.I
PREFACE
AT the time of his death, in 1885, Mr. Ostrander had completed considerable MS. for a history of the City of Brooklyn and Kings County; had prepared many chronological notes with a view to fuller writing, and had accumulated a mass of material in the form of transcripts, references, newspaper and other reports. It was his own understanding that a first volume of a proposed two-volume history might be regarded as well in hand, and that the wherewithal for the remaining chapters was advanced toward completion.
At the outset of his undertaking the editor met the embarrassment of not finding any outline which might reveal the precise form in which the author intended to cast his work. Mr. Ostrander worked with a definite idea, but did not formulate this idea in writing, and only the completed expressions of this idea remained for the guidance of the editor. It became apparent that the author intended to rearrange and extend the matter for the earlier
610266 GEOGRAPHY
iv
PREFACE
chapters. This matter was preserved in the form of a series of articles published in the Brooklyn " Eagle," during 1879-80, covering the period from the discovery by Hudson to the beginning of the Revolution. The degree of attention which these articles at- tracted induced Mr. Ostrander to extend the series far beyond the range he originally in- tended to give to them. As a result these articles were not precisely consecutive, nor was the matter so ordered as to adapt itself to book chapters without material changes. Without knowing the author's design in de- tail, it was exceedingly difficult to effect these changes save upon lines which the natural symmetry of such a work seemed to suggest, and the editor has had no hesitation in so rearranging the material, and in changing such features of the narrative as had been temporarily essential to serial publication.
For the middle period, extending from the opening of the Revolution to the time of the consolidation of Brooklyn, Williamsburgh, and Bushwick, the author left a full narrative, and considerable collateral material. Beyond this point the chapters were in an unfinished sketch. In putting together the elements of this part of the work, the editor has been actu-
V
PREFACE
ated by a wish to follow, so far as it might be apparent, the author's aim and plan. Possibly there is no occasion to offer apology for those passages in the body of the work, and partic- ularly in the last chapter on modern Brooklyn, in which the editor has carried the narrative beyond the date of Mr. Ostrander's death. The few instances in which this occurs are obviously justified by the exigencies of the work. Nor should there be need for any de- fense on the part of the editor for the propor- tions of different elements of the work as now presented. No two historical writers would agree as to essential proportions in such a matter, and, without consultation with the author, no editor could hope to do more than compromise between such intent as appeared in unfinished work before him, and such ideal as to himself seemed wise.
Both author and editor have incurred obli- gations to Stiles's histories of Brooklyn and Kings County ; to the " Notes " of Furman ; Field's " Historic Scenes"; the Collections of the Long Island Historical Society; the his- tories of Thompson and Prime, and to other authorities to whom acknowledgment is offered in the notes and in the body of the work. The editor is indebted to the excellent alma-
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PREFACE
nacs of the "Eagle" and of the "Citizen "; to the " Brooklyn Compendium," compiled by John Dykeman, Jr., and published by order of the Common Council in 1870; to the recent compilation, " The Eagle and Brooklyn," ed- ited by Henry W. B. Howard and Arthur N. Jervis; and to various local reports and publi- cations which do not call for enumeration here.
A. B.
BROOKLYN, N. Y., March 5, 1894.
CONTENTS
STEPHEN M. OSTRANDER
PAGE xi
CHAPTER I THE REGION OF BROOKLYN AT THE TIME OF THE DIS- COVERY
Geology and Conformation of Long Island. Evidences of the Glacial Period. Theory of the Glacial Action. " Back-Bone" of the Island. Earliest Historical De- scription. Trees. Animal Life. Indian Tribes : Their Subjugation by the Iroquois ; Habits and Habitations . I
CHAPTER II
DISCOVERY AND FIRST SETTLEMENTS
Early Voyagers. Henry Hudson. Attitude of Holland and Spain. Motives of Holland. Hudson's Reports. West India Company. Dutch on Manhattan Island. The Walloons and the Wallabout. Derivation of the Name Wallabout. First authentically recorded Settle- ments on Long Island. The Van Corlaer Purchase. Bennett and Bentyn's Purchase. Joris Jansen de Rapalje. Van Twiller. West India Company's Pur- chases on Long Island. East River Lands 16
CHAPTER III
THE INDIANS AND THE EARLY SETTLERS
The Dutch. Policy toward the Indians. Puritan and Dutch Policy contrasted. Long Island Indians: Their Relations with the Whites. Kieft's Attacks on Pavonia and Corlaer's Hook. Uprising on Long Island. Over-
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CONTENTS
tures for Peace. Mission to Rockaway of De Vries and Olfertsen. Restoration of Friendly Relations . . 42
CHAPTER IV
THE BEGINNINGS OF BREUCKELEN
1643-1647
The Ferry and the Ferry Road. Settlement of Flatlands. Flatbush. Lady Deborah Moody and the Settlement of Gravesend. Early Settlements. The Name of Breuckelen. Henry C. Murphy's Comments. First Schepens and Schout. Commission from the Colonial Council. The Removal of Kieft. Arrival of Stuyve- sant . 53
CHAPTER V
DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL LIFE UNDER THE DUTCH
1647-1664
Beginning of Stuyvesant's Administration. Condition of the Colony. Character of the Early Dutch Houses. Household Arrangement. Dress. Funerals. Mar- riages. The Mixture of Races. Slavery. Religion. Attitude of Stuyvesant toward Sects other than Dutch Reformed. Triumph of Liberal Ideas. First Churches in Kings County. Troubles over the Church Tax. First Schools. The Dutch and Popular Education. End of Dutch Rule 69
CHAPTER VI
KINGS COUNTY AFTER THE ENGLISH CONQUEST
1665-1700
Assembly at Hempstead. The " Duke's Laws." Love- lace. New York retaken by the Dutch. Colve be- comes Governor. return of English Rule under the Treaty of 1674. Dongan and the Popular Assembly. De Sille. Journal of Dankers and Sluyter. The Ferry. A Dutch Dinner. The Schoolmaster and the Constable.
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CONTENTS
William and Mary and the Leisler Revolution. Slough- ter appointed Governor. Execution of Leisler, and Subsequent Honors of a Public Reinterment. Long Island receives the name of Nassau. Development of Privateering. Captain Kidd visits and buries Treasure on Long Island. Bellomont and the Suppression of Piracy. First Trial for Treason . 106
CHAPTER VII BROOKLYN BEFORE THE REVOLUTION
1701-1775
Brooklyn becomes the Largest Long Island Settlement. Division of the Common Lands. Regulations as to the Cutting of Lumber. The King's Highway laid out. Brooklyn Officials at the Opening of the Century. Lord Cornbury's Proclamation to Long Island Justices. Slavery. Encroachments on the Common Highway. The Trial of Zenger. Population in 1738. Fortifying Long Island. Newspaper Glimpses of pre-Revolution- ary Life. Ferries. Kings County in the Assembly and the Provincial Convention. Philip Livingston. General Town Meeting in Brooklyn 157
CHAPTER VIII
KINGS COUNTY DURING THE REVOLUTION 1775-1783
Kings County at the Opening of the Revolution. Parti- cipation in Events leading to the Crisis. Military Officers. Long Island Tories. The Continental and Provincial Congresses. Fortifying. Declaration of Independence. General Greene on Long Island. Draft in Kings County. Landing of the British at Grave- send. The Battle of Brooklyn. The Night Retreat. British Occupation of the County. Temptations to Disloyalty toward the American Cause, and Action of the People under British Pressure. The County in Congress. Losses in the Battle. Incidents. Prisoners billeted on the Inhabitants of Kings County. Long Island Refugees. Conspicuous Figures of the Period. Peace
. 211
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
VOLUME I
PORTRAIT OF STEPHEN M. OSTRANDER . Frontispiece
THE FIRST BROOKLYN FERRY Facing page 38
THE FERRY IN 1746 102
BROOKLYN CHURCH AND DUFFIELD HOUSE IN 1776. (Drawn from Illustrations in Stiles's History of Brooklyn) . 174
FIRST FIRE ENGINE USED IN BROOKLYN. (Drawn from lithographic illustration in Manual of the Common Council, 1863) . 206
BROOKLYN DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. (From the Map by Gen. Jeremiah Johnson) . 260
STEPHEN M. OSTRANDER
THE name of Stephen M. Ostrander has been honored in the city of Brooklyn as that of a man whose career exemplified a stainless citizenship. The honors have been not those of public favor offered in a citizen's lifetime, nor of memorials after he has passed away, but the monuments of a cherished memory, the recognition of a generous and wholesome personality.
Stephen M. Ostrander was born February 3, 1832, in the city of Brooklyn. He was of Dutch stock, his earliest ancestor in this country being Pieter Ostrander, who came to America in 1659. When Pieter Ostrander reached America with his wife and three chil- dren - a son, Pieter Pieterszen,1 and two daughters, Tryutje and Geertje - Peter Stuy- vesant was Governor of New Amsterdam, and the settlement on Manhattan Island occupied a small patch of land on the southern point of the land now occupied by the vast metrop- olis of New York. Settlers had been living on the Brooklyn side of the East River for a
1 See appendix in second volume for explanation of system of Dutch family names.
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STEPHEN M. OSTRANDER
little more than twenty years, and the Indians were still a formidable obstacle to the peace of the struggling young communities. Dutch immigration had not yet been checked by that bloodless conquest of the British, which five years later transformed New Amsterdam from a Dutch to an English colony, and changed its name to New York.
We afterward find Pieter Pieterszen living at Kingston. This second Pieter among the American Ostranders was born at Amsterdam, Holland, in 1650, and before coming to this country with his father had been enrolled as a cadet in the army of the Dutch king. In 1679 he married Rebecca, daughter of William Janszen Traphagen and Joostje Willems Van Northwyck. Among the children from this marriage was Hendrick Ostrander, born at New Hurley, N. Y., in 1693. Hendrick acquired the ownership of two thousand acres of land at Plattskill, which were evenly divided among his ten children. He was "a staunch adherent of the Reformed Dutch Church,"1 and served in the army previous to the Revo- lution. His marriage to Elizabeth Van Bom- mel, of Kingston, took place in 1724. His son Christoffer, born and died at Plattskill, was the father of Stephen Ostrander, born at Poughkeepsie in 1769, and afterwards of Pompton Plains and Brunswick, N. J., who
1 American Ancestry, vol. v., 1890.
... X111
STEPHEN M. OSTRANDER
was an eloquent minister of the Dutch Church. An illustration of the conditions prevailing at this period is offered by the fact that Stephen Ostrander preached in both English and Dutch.
The clerical Ostrander, who made an in- teresting reputation as a preacher in the early part of the present century, married Maria Duryea in 1796. His son, Abraham Duryea Ostrander, born at Pompton Plains in the following year, came to New York in his twelfth year, and began an energetic business career. From his earliest years he was of a studious tendency, and his self-acquired learn- ing gave him an excellent mental equipment. He became a ripe scholar and influential citi- zen. For many years he led the first Sunday school in the Reformed Dutch Church of Brooklyn (corner of William and Fulton streets), walking to the meeting-place from his home at Flatbush. In 1820, he married Margaret T. Wilson, daughter of Peter Wil- son, LL. D., of Columbia College, the tutor of Charles Anthon and other well-known scholars, and distinguished for having drawn up the constitution of the State of New Jersey.
Abraham Duryea Ostrander's three sons were Peter Wilson, George A., and Stephen M. Ostrander. George A. Ostrander, a grad- uate of Columbia College and of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, was the first
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STEPHEN M. OSTRANDER
house surgeon of the Long Island College Hospital. The other two brothers became lawyers, and it is among the interesting tradi- tions of the Kings County bar that they were frequently in opposition in the same case. Under such circumstances their professional steel clashed brilliantly, but the firm affection between the brothers had no hint of strife or rivalry.
Stephen M. Ostrander, born 1831, was edu- cated in this city and at Columbia College. He was admitted to the bar and began the practice of law while a decidedly young man, but soon made his personality felt in the life of the city. If his tastes led him to a studious life at home, his gifts and ambitions drew him into those features of political activity which demand voice as well as counsel. He cham- pioned the Democratic party, and until the close of his life he spoke his loyalty in no uncertain tones. He became one of the " war horses " of the party in campaign times, and was a respected adviser in those political times of peace when parties prepare for war. He would have made an admirable public servant, but party conditions did not bring him to the front as a candidate, though they welcomed his voice on the platform. He wished to be surrogate, but the nomination he sought was given to Jacob I. Bergen. He was not an insistent candidate within his party, and the
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STEPHEN M. OSTRANDER
rewards which might reasonably be considered to have belonged to him had not been be- stowed at the time of his death.
As a lawyer, Mr. Ostrander was conscien- tious, painstaking, forcible. His genial per- sonality made him popular wherever he ap- peared. His strong figure fitted his character, which was staunch and equable. By tempera- ment he was inclined to see the whimsical side of things, while quick to exclude any ele- ment of this sort from matters commanding his serious thought.
Stories concerning him reveal his quick humor. One day a witty but not especially well-versed Irish lawyer called upon him for assistance in preparing a case. One point of perplexity with the inquirer was as to the mo- tive power on the ferries before the use of steam. Knowing Ostrander's familiarity with early Brooklyn history, the inquiring lawyer demanded information as to this point. " Be- fore the days of steam," said Ostrander, "they used to have horse boats." " Horse boats ?" queried the lawyer, with a look of continued perplexity. "Yes." "Did the horses swim ahead of them ?" " No," solemnly returned Ostrander, " they had four holes cut in the bottom of the boat; the horse's legs passed through these holes, permitting him to walk on the bottom, and thus propel the boat." "Good!" said the listener, " I'll win the case." And he did.
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STEPHEN M. OSTRANDER
Mr. Ostrander's interest in American his- tory was perhaps a natural result of his an- cestry and his tendencies as a student. He early began the accumulation of historical ma- terial, and finally formed a definite plan for writing a history of the city of Brooklyn and Kings County. He was an active member of the Society of Old Brooklynites, frequently ad- dressing that body, and as a member of the Long Island Historical Society, -in whose handsome hall, on Pierrepont Street, he was the first to lecture under the auspices of the society, - he found many opportunities to further his hobby of historical investigation. He also entered that fraternity of descendants of Dutch stock, the Holland Society of New York.
During the later years of his life he was a frequent contributor to the newspapers and local magazines, generally upon topics directly related to local history. Debated questions as to historical matters always interested him, and his pen was ever ready with a casual com- ment. He was a good debater, though not pugnacious, and never an ungenerous opponent. In his profession, in his political associations, in his relations with his fellow-citizens and with fellow-members of the different socie- ties to which he was attracted, he was always well poised, highly respected, uniformly wel- comed. His catholic tastes and sympathies
STEPHEN M. OSTRANDER xvii
gave him many interests, as they gave him many friends. It was as natural that he should be prominent in the Presbyterian Church, which he attended, as that he should be a lead- ing figure in the Masonic fraternity, to which he was proud to own allegiance. His com- manding figure, good voice, and easy manner made him a popular speaker on social as well as public occasions.
Mr. Ostrander married Annie A. Hammond on August 7, 1866. His domestic relations were in keeping with the fine symmetry of his character. No marriage could have been happier. In the preparation of the historical work which was incomplete when his short illness closed his life, he had the loyal appre- ciation and assistance of his wife.
He died on November 19, 1885. The ex- tent of his practice and income might have indicated the probability of a considerable fortune, but he was too open-handed to have become a rich man. He died worth a good name.
HISTORY OF BROOKLYN
CHAPTER I
THE REGION OF BROOKLYN AT THE TIME OF THE DISCOVERY
Geology and Conformation of Long Island. Evidences of the Glacial Period. Theory of the Glacial Action. " Back-Bone " of the Island. Earliest Historical De- scription. Trees. Animal Life. Indian Tribes : Their Subjugation by the Iroquois ; Habits and Habi- tations.
THE geology of Long Island has always been regarded as a particularly interesting theme for those concerned in the study of such matters, since the examination of its phases brings into view so many and such various points of speculative interest. Prime in his " History of Long Island"1 remarks that " when we consider the retired situation of Long Island, and how little it has excited the notice of travelers, it is not surprising that its
1 A History of Long Island, from its First Settlement by Europeans, to the year 1845, with Special Reference to its Ecclesiastical Concerns. By Nathaniel S. Prime. 1845.
2
HISTORY OF BROOKLYN
geological character as well as other peculiari- ties should have remained so long unexplored. Until quite recently very few scientific men have even deigned to give it a passing notice, though the assertion may be safely hazarded that scarcely any other tract of land of equal extent on the American Continent furnishes more abundant room for the imagination of geologists to play upon, or that imposes a stronger necessity for conjecturing the opera- tion of some tremendous agency, which in its freaks had invaded the domains of both the land and the ocean, and after completing its sport had silently retired without leaving a track to determine its origin or identify its form."
The geologist of the present day does not seem to regard the field as one calling in the same degree for the exercise of the imagina- tion, though the more definite knowledge acquired and made familiar since the time of the publication just quoted has in one sense vastly extended the opportunity for specula- tion. Certainly it no longer can be said that scientific men have neglected the investiga- tion of the subject.
Commenting on the investigations of Dr. Dwight, Prime says : -
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ABORIGINAL LONG ISLAND
" From all these considerations, the inference has been regarded as legitimate that Long Island was once through its whole extent attached to the main; and some powerful agency, the form of which is now left entirely to conjecture, forced the separation which is now marked by the intervening Sound. One of the most plausible suppositions is that the separation has been effected by some resistless torrent of water, which, under peculiar circum- stances that it is impossible now to determine, has swept out the intervening land, and left its channel to be occupied by the waters of the ocean."
Thus vaguely were the early speculations set forth. With a well developed glacial theory to aid him the modern geologist is able to present a fairly circumstantial picture of probable conditions in the past. We now know with reasonable certainty that Brooklyn rests on soil that is a monument to a vast force quite different from any that were included in the hesitating speculations of the early writers.
In an admirable review of the subject written by Charles M. Skinner we are pre- sented with a picturesque outline of the glacial theory. We are reminded that Brooklyn stands on rubble that was rolled down from
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN
the New England mountains to the northward by a glacier larger than the combined areas of all the glaciers now existing on the earth. How many thousands of years ago this great glacier began its work we may only guess within somewhat liberal margins. This conti- nent of ice covered the whole of the northern part of North America, burying mountains beneath its bulk and hollowing the beds of the great fresh-water seas that Chicago and its sister cities front upon to-day, burying, too, for aught we know, the remains of civilizations, though nothing at present has been taken out of the glacial drift, except rude stone imple- ments, to show what the probable condition of man was at that time.
This ice lay so deep that not even Mount Washington barred its advance, and to-day geologists find the summit of this mountain heaped with blocks of stone that were dragged from other points and left there when the ice melted ; for glaciers are not stationary, like ice on ponds and marshes, but have an onward movement toward their point of melting that varies, with the slope of their beds, from six to thirty-six inches a day. In Greenland the whole interior is covered with ice thousands of feet thick, the movement of which is hindered
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ABORIGINAL LONG ISLAND
by a wall of mountains that nearly surrounds that island, but wherever a valley opens a way for it the ice sends down a tongue to the sea, and from these tongues the ocean currents break off the icebergs that float down the Atlantic. In their descent these glaciers act as plows, wearing off so much earth and rock from the hills that the icebergs are freighted with them, and where they melt their stony burdens sink to the bottom of the sea, forming the Grand Banks of Newfoundland.
The ice that buried upper North America acted in the same manner as the Greenland ice to-day : it eroded the mountains, it sent off bergs, and the rocks and gravel that it tore from the hills by a pressure of a thousand tons to the square yard were dropped at its foot, where they formed a moraine, as it is called. These moraines, which may be seen at the feet of the glaciers in Switzerland and British Columbia, and that sometimes make heaps and hills of rock, like rude forts, forty and fifty feet high, are trifling affairs to the shoals left by the great glacier of the ice age, for that can be traced from the Atlantic coast nearly to the Mississippi River. Long Island, measuring approximately 120 miles in length, is a small part of the dump of this glacier, and it is
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN
sometimes possible to tell where the stones came from that are found on the surface. For example, there are in Brooklyn anthophyllite from Westchester county, feldspar and green mica from Fort George, basalt from the Pali- sades of the Hudson, and a block of labrador- ite was found on Myrtle Avenue that had been carried down from the Adirondacks, three hun- dred miles.
The members of the United States geolo- gical survey, supported by the New York and other state surveys, have studied into the course and volume of the glacier and mapped its moraine from Montauk Point westward nearly half across the continent. By this sur- vey we learn that the gneiss that crosses under the East River and approaches the surface at Astoria, is the only bed rock to be found on Long Island, Brooklyn resting on a cushion of glacial drift that in some places is three hundred feet deep. Originally there were cliffs of gneiss edging the Atlantic, but the great glacier shaved these down to mere ledges. Central Park, New York, preserves a number of these ledges, rounded off into " sheep backs" and scratched by the pieces of stone that formed a grinding surface to the under side of the ice, while every now and
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