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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01145 1942
HISTORIC TALES
OF
OLDEN TIME:
CONCERNING .
THE EARLY SETTLEMENT AND ADVANCEMENT
NEW-YORK CITY AND STATE.
FOR THE
USE OF FAMILIES AND SCHOOLS.
BY JOHN F. WATSON,
Author of Ansais of Philadelphia, and Member of the Historical Societies of . Pennsylvania, New-York, and Massachusetts.
ILLUSTRATED WITH PLATES.
d'ifde tale of Olden Time.
NEW-YORK: W. E. DEAN, PRINTER.
840
PUBLISHED BY COLLINS AND HANNAY.
1832.
28264.
·
Fort Amsterdam & Village. - 1623 .-
1737665
ADVERTISEMENT
TO
PARENTS, GUARDIANS, AND PRE- CEPTORS.
IT is impossible to contemplate the wonderful progress of New-York City and State, in its actual advance to greatness, without feeling our hearts stirred with deep emotion, exciting us to gratitude and praise. But two centuries ago it began its career as a little Dorp or village, and now it is the great commercial emporium of the Union !
It should be the just pride and exultation of an American to belong to such a country ; and if so, what should offer him more interesting and edifying reading than the history of the infancy, and pro- gress to manhood, of such a people ? Impressed with such thoughts, we have supposed it might prove profitable to awaken in the breasts of the rising generation a fond regard for the annals of their forefathers : to whose enterprise, skill, and
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AI
ADVERTISEMENT.
industry (under God,) they owe so much of their present enjoyments, and distinction as a new peo- ple.
Youth have by nature an ardent desire and an earnest curiosity to learn the causes of things around them ; and it is equally the dictate of pa- rental indulgence and of Bible instruction, that " when your children shall ask you, wherefore are these things so, then shall ye answer them."
With views and feelings like these, we have been . induced to prepare the present pages, illustrative of the car'y events of their country, of its inhabitants, their manners and customs; such as things were in their days of rusticity and simplicity, when so wholly unlike the present display of fashion, pomp, and splendour. We aim, therefore, to lay before the young such a picture of the past, as may offer to their contemplation the most prominent and striking doings and things of the founders and settlers of the city and-state ; intending herein to restrict our exhibition to those incidents which . could most surprise, amuse, or interest their minds, while at the same time it may increase their store of knowledge concerning country and home, by dilineating those early times, and days by.gone, when New. York was but a provincial town, and the state a rugged woody country, with only here
v- VI
ADVERTISEMENT.
and there a humble village, "few and far be- tween." 1
The facts in the main have been derived from Moulton's recent Historical Notices of New-York. and from Watson's Annals of Olden Time. It is by multiplying these local associations of ideas con- cerning our country that we hope to generate patriotism ; binding the heart, by forcible ties, to the paternal soil.
" Go, call thy sons; instruct them what a debt
They owe their ancestors, and make them vow To pay it, by transmitting down entire
Those sacred rights to which themselves were born. "
THE AUTHOR.
Philadelphia county, 1831.
7-8
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
1
First settlement of the City of New-York,
9
--- Albany, 15
· The original Exploration of the country,
The first Colonists,
Notices of early Dutch times,
30
Early Inland Settlements,
37
The Indians,
46
Steam-boats,
59
Inland Settlers and Pioneers,
63
Olden time : Researches and Reminiscences concerning NEW-YORK CITY, as follows ; to wit :
Introductory and general views of the city, . 75
Primitive New-York, .
77
Ancient Memorials, .
79
Local changes and local facts,
91
Manners and customs, $120
128
Gardens, farms, &c. . 134
Remarkable facts and incidents, .
. 138
Apparel, 143
Furniture and equipage,
158
Changes of prices,
165
Superstitions, 166
Miscellaneous facts,
168
Incidents of the war at New - York,
176
Residences of British officers,
187
Ancient edifices, 193
Reflections and notices, 198
Watering Places,
. 203
The Erie Canal,
309
Page
19
28
Memorials of the Dutch dynasty,
١٢
HISTORIC TALES
OF
OLDEN TIME.
FIRST SETTLEMENT OF THE CITY OF NEW-YORK.
" The city rear'd in beauteous pride- And stretching street on street, By thousands drew aspiring sons."
IT was in the year 1609, in the delightful month of September, a month always furnishing pleasant days in our climate, that the celebrated Hudson, the dis- coverer, first furrowed the waters of the present New- York harbour with the keel of his adventurous yatch the Half Moon. Then "a still and solemn desert hung round his lonely bark !" How unlike was all which he could then see or contemplate, to what we now be- hold ! How little could his utmost reach of forethought realize the facts of present accomplishment-a populous and wealthy city; and a river scene, crowded with numerous vessels freighted with foreign and domestic plenty ! Then the site of New-York presented only a wild and rough aspect : covered with a thick forest, its beach broken and sandy, or rocky and full of inlets forming water marshes-the natives, there, were more
2
10
HISTORIC TALES
repulsive than their neighbours, being gruff and in- disposed to trade. We proceed to facts.
Whether Hudson actually landed upon New-York Island is a little dubious, since he does not expressly mention it in his journal, but speaks of the reserve and . gruffness of its inhabitants ; and contrasting their un- friendliness, so unlike all the other natives, who were every where warm-hearted and generous. Of the Wappingi, the people on the western shore of the harbour, he speaks with warm regard ; they were daily visiters and dealers, bringing with them for trade and barter, furs, oysters, corn, beans, pumpkins, squashes, grapes, and some apples. Among these Indians, say at Communipa and neighbourhood, Hudson landed.
But although Hudson has not himself mentioned any thing special of his landing in the harbour of New- York, we possess a very striking tradition of the event, as told 4 by the Delawares, and preserved for posterity by Heckewelder, the Indian historian. They described themselves as greatly perplexed and terrified when they beheld the approach of the strange object-the ship in the offing. They deemed it a visit from the Manitto, coming in his big house or canoe, and began to prepare an entertainment for his reception. By and bye, the chief, in red clothes and a glitter of metal, with others, came ashore in a smaller canoe ; mutual saluta- tions and signs of friendship were exchanged ; and after a while, strong drink was offered, which made all gay and happy. In time, as their mutual acquaintance progressed, the white skins told them they would stay with them, if they allowed them as much land for cultivation as the hide of a bullock, spread before them, could cover or encompass. The request was granted ;
11
OF OLDEN TIME.
and the pale men thereupon, beginning at a starting point on the hide, with a knife, cut it up into one long extended narrow strip or thong, sufficient to encom- pass a large place ! Their cunning equally surprised and amused the confiding and simple Indians, who willingly allowed the success of their artifice, and backed it with a cordial welcome. Such was the origin of the site of New-York, on the place called Manhat- tan, (i. e. Manahachtanienks,) a revelling name, import- ing " the place where they all got drunk !" and a name then bestowed by the Indians as commemorative of that first great meeting. The natives then there, descendants of the once warlike Minsi tribe of the Lenni Lenape, were the same class of people called by Heckewelder the Delawares or Munseys. The Indians, in their address afterwards, to Gov. Keift, said, " when you first arrived on our shores you were sometimes in want of food. Then we gave you our beans and corn, and let you eat our oysters and fish. We treated you as we should ourselves, and gave you our daughters as wives."
The first concern of the discoverer was to proceed up the " Groot Rivier"-the great North River ; the facts of which will be told in another chapter. After Hudson had occupied himself, in exploring and return- ing, 22 days, he sat sail for Europe ; and his favourable reports gave rise to an expedition of two ships in 1614, under Captains Adrian Blok and Hendrick Christiaanse. 'Twas under their auspices that the first actual settle- ment was begun upon the site of the present New- York, consisting in the first year of four houses, and in the next year (1615), of a redoubt on the site of the Macomb houses, now on Broadway. To this small
.
12
HISTORIC TALES
Dorp or village they gave the stately name of New Amsterdam. The settlement was wholly of a commer- cial and military character, having solely for its object the traffic in the fur trade. At the same time another similar settlement was formed at Albany. Colonization and land culture was an after-concern.
At the time Holland projected this scheme of com- mercial settlement, it was in full wealth and vigour, building annually 1000 ships ; having 20,000 vessels and 100,000 mariners. The City of Amsterdam was at the head of enterprize. Its merchants projected the scheme of sending out Capt. Henry Hudson (an En- glishman) to discover a northern passage to the East Indies. In this attempt he of course failed ; but, as some reparation for the consequent disappointment to his em- ployers-" the Directors of the East India Company," he fell upon the expedient of sailing southward to Virgi- nia, to make something there by traffic, &c. In so doing he fell upon the eventual and memorable dis- covery of the Delaware and Hudson Rivers. This was in the year 1609.
In March 1614, the States General gave out their grant, for the purpose of the fur trade, of this new coun- try to " the Amsterdam licensed trading West India Company," intending New-York as a part of their fancied West Indies !. Although the Dutch thought little or nothing of colonization, the English then in Holland, exiles for conscience sake, early desired to form a colony at New-York, and actually embarked for that purpose in 1620, but were prevented by the fraud of the Dutch captain, as it was alleged, and were actually landed at Plymouth ; forming there the me.
13
OF OLDEN TIME.
morable "Pilgrims of Plymouth"-the forefathers of New England.
In the year 1623, " the Privileged West India Com- pany," under its new charter of 1621, began its opera- tions along the Hudson, for the first time, with a direct view of colonization. In 1623, colonists and supplies were sent out with Capt. Kornelis Jacobse Mey, and were most heartily welcomed by the few previous in- habitants. Before these arrived, they had been two years without supplies and destitute ; so that some of the Staten Islanders had cut up the sails of their boats for necessary clothing. In compliment to Capt. Méy, and in memory of his welcome arrival in the bay of Manhattan, they named the bay Port May. At this time they commenced their Fort Amsterdam, on the Battery Point, southward of their former redoubt ; and finished it, under Gov. Wouter Van Twiller, in 1635.
It might serve to show the state of the fur trade about this time, to state, that in the first year of Gover- nor Minuit's administration, they collected and exported 4,700 beaver and otter skins, valued at 27,125 guilders or 11,300 dollars; and that in ten years afterwards, they shipped in one year 13,513 beavers and 1661 otters.
The settlement and fort continued to bear the name of Nieuw Amsterdam, by the Dutch, down to the time of the surrender by Governor Stuyvesant to the En- glish, in 1664. Then for ten years under the rule of Cols. Nicolls and Lovelace, acting for the Duke of York, it was called New-York ; but in August, 1673, a Dutch fleet, in time of war, recaptured it from the British, and while exercising their rule for their High Mightinesses of Holland, to the time of the peace in 2*
1
14
HISTORIC TALES
1674, they called the place New Orange, in compliment to the Prince of Orange, and the fort they called Willem Hendrick.
The city being restored to the British by the treaty, was redelivered to the British in October, 1674. The fort then took the name of Fort James, being built of quadrangular form, having four bastions, two gates, and 42 cannon. The city again took the name of New- York, once and forever.
The city was laid out in streets, some of them crook- ed enough, in 1656. It then contained by enumeration " 120 houses, with extensive garden lots," and 1000 inhabitants. In 1677 another estimate of the city was made, and ascertained to contain 36S houses. In the year 1674, an assessment of " the most wealthy in- habitants" having been made, it was found that the sum total of 134 estates amountel 95,000/.
. During the military rule of Governor Colve, who held the city for one year under the above-mentioned cap- ture, for the States of Holland, every thing partook of a military character, and the laws still in preservation at Albany show the energy of a rigorous discipline. Then the Dutch mayor, at the head of the city militia, held his daily parades before the City Hall (Stadt Huys,) then at Coenties Slip ; and every evening at sunset, he received from the principal guard of the fort, called the hoofd wagt, the keys of the city, and thereupon pro- ceeded with a guard of six to lock the city gates ; then to place a Burger-wagt-a citizen-guard, as night- watches at assigned places. The same mayors also went the rounds at sunrise to open the gates, and to restore the keys to the officer of the fort. All this was surely a toilsome service for the domestic habits of the peaceful
15
OF OLDEN TIME.
citizens of that day, and must have presented an irksome honour to any mayor who loved his comfort and re- pose.
It may amuse some of the present generation, so little used to Dutch names, to learn some of the titles once so familiar in New-York, and now so little understood. Such as,-
De Heer Officier, or Hoofd-Schout-High Sheriff.
De Fiscael, or Procureur Gen .- Attorney General.
Wees-Meesters-Guardians of orphans.
Roy-Meesters-Regulators of fences.
Groot Burgerrecht and Klein Burgerrecht-The great ,and small citizenship, which then marked : the two orders of society.
Eyck-Meester-The Weigh Master.
The Schout, (the Sheriff) Bourgomasters and Schopens- then ruled the city "as in all the cities of the Fatherland."
Geheim Schryver-Recorder-of secrets.
FIRST SETTLEMENT OF ALBANY.
" But times are alter'd-trade has changed the scene, A city rears its form where only huts were seen."
THIS city began its career cotemporary with New. York, having been visited and explored, as the head of navigation, by the discoverer, Capt. Hudson, on the 19th September, 1609; a day long to be remembered and respected as their natal day, as a people, by the present Albanians. In this vicinity he remained with his little ship the Half Moon four days, cultivating friendship
16
HISTORIC TALES
and trade with the natives, by whom his ship and peo- ple were much visited. The Mohawks-Maquas, were dwelling on the western side of the river, and the Mohic- cans on the eastern side. The frank and generous na- tives made them every where welcome ; and they in turn offered to make their hearts gay " with wine and aqua vitæ ;" so much so, that one of them became much intoxicated, and so astonished the others, " that they knew not how to take it, and made ashore quickly in their canoes." The story of this drunken revel be- came a memorable tradition, long retained among all the Indian tribes ; and this incident, connected with a similar one remembered at New-York island, gave rise to the name of Manhattan ; i. e. "the place where they all got drunk." The descendants of the Delawares often spoke to Heckewelder of the manner in which the white skins first dealt out strong drink from a large hock-hack, (a gourd or bottle) which produced stagger- ing and happy feelings.
It was under the visit of Schippers (captains) Blok and Christiaanse in 1614, that it got its first redoubt and first settlement on the island below Albany ferry. To this they gave the name of Casteel Eylandt, (Castle Island,) in allusion to its defence ; having mounted there two brass and eleven stone guns, with a little garrison of a dozen soldiers, commanded by an opper-hoofdt or chief: the whole making just as many men as big guns ! This little cattle fort was abandoned in 1617, having encountered there an unexpected enemy in the annual flood. They went thence four miles southward, to the shore of a creek called Nordtman's Kill, where they erected another defence, and there held a memorable
17
OF OLDEN TIME.
treaty with the Indians, which they long remembered and often referred to.
In 1623 they laid the proper commencement of the present Albany, in the construction there of Fort Orange, and giving to the little village the name of Auranie,- names in compliment and respect to their Prince of Orange.
* Albany was always fruitful in names, sometimes bearing several at the same time. They might be no- ticed generally thus, to wit : It was called Beverwyck until 1623 ; then Fort Orange until 1647; then William- stadt until 1664 ; when it first received, by reason of the British conquest, the name of Albany or Albania after the duke. During all the preceding period it bore also the popular nickname of Fuyck, which means hoop-net, in reference to their use of it in fishing. The Indians of the Munsey tribe had given it another name, calling it Laaphawachking, which meant the place of string- ing wampum beads, for which the Dutch of Albany were prized. It had also other names among other tribes ; thus it was called Skaghneghtady, or Schenectadea, a term signifying " the other side of the river." The Mohiccans called it Gaschtenick; the Delawares call- ed it Mahicawaittuck ; and the Iroquois, Chohotatia.
It having been the advanced post for the fur trade, it was of course, for numerous years, the proper Bever wyck for the beaver and otter sales of the Indians. It was the proper market for all which "the great five nations" could gather from their proper hunting grounds -- their Coursachraga-importing the dismal wilderness. From this cause Albany was, for more than a century, a place almost as common to Indian visitors as to whites.
18
HISTORIC TALES
The fort, a great building of stone, was constructed on a high steep hill at the west end of State-street, hav- ing around it a high and thick wa !! , where they now have a state house and a fine commanding view over the town below. The English church was just below it, at the west end of a, market ; and the original old Dutch church, now down, of Gothic appearance, stood in the middle of State-street at the eastern end-of which see a picture.
Professor Kalm, who visited Albany in 1749, has left us some facts. All the people then understood Dutch. All the houses stood gable-end to the street ; the ends were of brick and the side walls of planks or logs ; the gutters on the roofs went out almost to the middle of the street, greatly annoying travellers in their discharge. At the stoopes (porches) the people spent much of their time, especially on the shady side ; and in the evenings they were filled with people of both sexes. The streets were dirty, by reason of the cattle possessing their free use during the summer nights. They had no knowledge of stoves, and their chimnies were so wide that one could drive through them with a cart and horses. Many people still made wampum to sell to the Indians and traders. Dutch manners every where prevailed ; but their dress in general was after the English form. They were regarded as close in traffic ; were very frugal in their house economy and diet. Their women were over-nice in cleanliness, scouring floors and kitchen utensils several times a week ; rising very early and going to sleep very late. Their servants were chiefly negroes. Their breakfast was tea without milk, using sugar by putting a small bit into the mouth. Their dinner was buttermilk and bread; and if to that they
19
OF OLDEN TIME.
added sugar, it was deemed delicious. Sometimes they had bread and milk, and sometimes roasted or boiled meats. The New Englanders thought the Albanians much too close, and there was no good-will to them in turn.
THE ORIGINAL EXPLORATION OF THE COUNTRY.
" My soul, revolving periods past, looks back On all the former darings of that vent'rous race."
THE memorable landing day of the discoverer and his crew was on the 3d September, 1609. On that day, so soft and genial as a grateful summer season, as Capt. Hudson was ranging the line of our Jersey sea-bound shore, in going northward from the mouth of the De- laware, which he had just before discovered, he beheld, far a-head in the north-western sky, the Highlands of Nave-sink, and not long after the lofty and . woody lands of Staten Island ; both at once designating the locality and conferring the name of "the Great River of the Mountains." Such conspicuous objects, seen far off at sea, and mounting upward into the calm blue sky, were too attractive and unusual not to invite a nearer approach and closer inspection. Their hearts beat high with vague and mysterious conceptions about the unknown-Terra Incognita. Examination alone could allay or repress the feverish curiosity of the mind ; and to sail inward to the land, and to visit this new re- gion of the west, became at once the object and the
20
HISTORIC TALE3
desire of every mariner. 6 Little thought they, how- ever, as they passed the sea-beach strand of Monmouth county, and looked ashore upon the rude and blank margin of Long Branch, of the improvement and fashion- able resort to which it was destined ; and still less did , they imagine they were to find and explore a great river, which was to take the name and confer an im- .moriality of fame upon its discoverer and explorer. Thus events in time, sometimes trivial in themselves, become by the force of circumstances the counters of whole ages.
The first land so made, on the day aforesaid, was Sandt Hook-Sandy Hook. There he observed the waters were swarming with fish, and he soon after sent his boat's crew with a net to procure a supply. The tra- dition has been that in so doing they first made ashore on Coney Island, (wishing perhaps to see the opposite side of the bay,) and that there Hudson was at first re- ceived by the natives, the Matouwacks. There they found vast numbers of plum trees loaded with fruit, and many of them surrounded and covered with grape . vines. While the ship, the Half Moon, was at her anchor- age at the Horse-shoe harbour, she was much visited by the natives of the Jersey shore, a race of Dela- wares called Sanhikans ; they rejoicing greatly at the arrival of the strangers, and bringing them for their ac- · ceptance green tobacco, dried currants or wortleberries, &c. The shores were lined with natives, wearing mantles of furs and feathers, and having copper orna- ments and pipes. The crew, on going ashore, were received with great cordiality, and were conducted for observation some distance into the woods of Monmouth county. During the week which was passed at this
4
21
OF OLDEN TIME. "
ancherage, a boat was sent with an exploring party to sound and examine the passage of the Narrows, called by them the Hoofden, or head lands; but the men, in returning, were unexpectedly attacked by two passing canoes of 26 Indians, in which rencontre one Colman, an Englishman, was killed, and two others wounded, by their arrows. . The Indians were supposed to have acted in alarm, and seemed to have had no design of conquer- ing, but made off as hastily as they could. Possibly they were of the same race who dwelt on York Island, and who, from their dread of reprisal, may have been afterwards so reluctant to free intercourse and trade. Colman was buried at the Hook, at the place called Colman's point.
The country thus discovered took the name of New Belgium (Nova Belgica) and New Netherland (Nieuw Nederlandt). The North River was called by Hudson, not after his own name, as we since should designate it, but " the Great River"-Groot Rivier. After the year 1623, it was sometimes named in writings the Mauritius, in honour of Prince Maurice ; by others it was often called Manhattan river. But its most prevalent name in common acceptation was the Noordt Rivier (North River), both as a distinction to the Delaware River, which they called their South River, and as discriminat- ing it from the Oost Rivier-East River. To the In- dians it was known as the Cohohatatea and Shatemuc, and Heckewelder says it bore the name of Mohican- nittuck, meaning the River of the Mohiccans, who dwelt all along its eastern side.
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