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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
m 3 1833 01145 1637
E
HISTORY
OF
NEW YORK CITY S
via EMBRACING
AN OUTLINE SKETCH OF EVENTS FROM 1609 TO 1830, AND A FULL ACCOUNT OF ITS DEVELOPMENT FROM IS30 TO ISS4.
BY
BENSON J. LOSSING, LL.D.,
AUTHOR OF
"Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution," " The War of 1812," and " The Civil War in America ;" " Mount Vernon and its Associations ;" "Illustrated History of the United States ;" " Cyclopedia of United States History ;" " Our Country ;" " Story of the United States Navy, for Boys," etc., etc.
JHustrated with Portraits, Views of Parks, Buildings, cit.,
ENGRAVED ON STEEL EXPRESSLY FOR THIS WORK
BY GEORGE E. PERINE.
VOLUME II.
NEW YORK :
THE PERINE ENGRAVING AND PUBLISHING CO.
840
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/historyofnewyork02loss_1
1755408
CENTRAL PARK
CHAPTER XXIV.
TN the closing years of this decade the social features of New York had lost many of those of the Knickerbocker period ; indeed, but lew of the features of the latter-named period were distinctly traceable in their purity. Art, hterature, science, and education had assumed new habits, new aspirations, and a more vigorous life. The pure drama was struggling almost hopelessly for existence against the inva- son of a vitiated taste. The sensational drama had greatly increased the number of theatre-goers. There were then four or five theatres in the city. Between 1835 and 1845 four new theatrical edifices were projected. "The age itself is dramatic," said the leading literary paper in New York City. " The dramatic spirit now, more than ever, characterizes the people."
Literature was cultivated as an art more than ever before, and the number of its devotees in New York was surprising-poets and prose writers.
During this decade three famous clubs were formed in the city of New York-namely, the Hone Club and the Union Club in 1836, and the Kent Club in 1838.
The Ilone Club was projected by the accomplished merchant and ex- mayor of the city, Philip Hone. Its membership was designedly few, not exceeding generally twenty in number, and represented the wealth and intellect of the city. One of its active and honored members, the late Dr. John W. Francis, wrote of this club : *
" It abjured discussions on theological dogmas, on party politics. and individual per- *onalities. Its themes were the American Revolution and its heroes ; the framers of the Constitution ; the United States judiciary ; New York and its improvements ; Clinton and the canal ; the mercantile advancement of the city ; banks ; Washington, Hamilton, Hancock, and Adams, and the Union and its powers. It justly boasted of its strong disci- fle., and gathered at its festivals the leading men of the Republic. Webster was cher- hand as a divinity among them, and in this circle of unalloyed friendship and devotion ! absorbed mind often expressed relief in cheering views of business life imparted by kas associates, and on the estimates formed of national measures. . . . I never heard a !: rath in this club of South or North ; it had broader views and more congenial topics.t
+ " Old New York," p. 204.
t This was written in 1857, four years before the great Civil War began.
432
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
Webster talked of the whole country-its seas, its lakes, its rivers, its native products, and its forests, from the buffalo of the prairie to the fire-fly in the garden. I have seldom encountered a naturalist who had so perfect a knowledge of the kingdom of nature.
" The gatherings of the Hone Club were cordial communions of a most attractive character ; they were held at intervals of a fortnight, and they ceased only upon the demise of its benevolent founder. Their festivals were of the highest order of gustatory enjoyment-the appetite could ask no more-and a Devonshire duke might have been astounded at the amplitude of the repast, and the richness and style of the entertain. ment. When I have conned over the unadorned simplicity of our ancestors, and had au . thentic records for the facts that at their more sumptuous demonstrations of hospitality. corned beef might have been decorating the board at both ends, constituting what the host called tautology, and that old Schiedam imported by Anthony Deyer made up the popular exhilarating beverage, and compared what I now witnessed in these, my own days, the canvasbacks and grouse hardly invoking appetite ; that 'Nabob' would stand without reproach, and Binghem alone receive the attention due its merit, I am irresisti. bly led to the conclusion arrived at on a different occasion, by my friend Pintard, that there is a great deal of good picking to be found in this wicked world, but the chances of possession are somewhat rare.
"Philip Hone was a thorough American in feeling, and a genuine Knickerbocker in local attachment and in public spirit. He watched with most intelligent zeal over the fortunes of this growing metropolis, identified himself with every project for its advancement, and labored with filial devotion in her behalf. Our most useful as well as most ornamental changes won his attention and enlisted his aid. From the laying of a Russ pavement to the elaboration of a church portico, from the widening of a street or avenue to the magnificent enterprise which resulted in the Croton Aqueduct, Mr. Hone was the efficient coadjutor of his fellow-citizens. Several of our most important and useful institutions are largely indebted to him for their successful establishment. With the late John Pintard, William Bayard, and Theodore Dwight, he devoted his best energies in rearing the savings bank ; and the Clinton Hall Association, with its impor tant branch, the Mercantile Library, are indebted to him as its founder and benefactor. He also, with others of the Hone family, gave support to the canal policy of his per- secuted friend, De Witt Clinton. I believe it is admitted, without a dissentient voice, that, as mayor of New York, he is to be classed among the most competent and able chief magistrates our city ever possessed. He largely contributed to works of benef- cence and knowledge which have marked the career of our metropolis."*
* "Old New York, " p. 297. John Wakefield Francis, the anthor of this interesting volume, was a conspicuous figure in the social life of New York for fully fifty years, as an eminent physician, a man of letters, and one of the most genial and fascinating of men, in whatever sphere he might be met. He was a native of New York City, where he was born on November 17, 1789. His father was a German grocer from Nuremberg. and when John. his eldest son, was nearly six years of age. he died of yellow fever. leav. ing four children to the care of their mother, a native of Philadelphia. of Swiss descent. She was a woman of extraordinary force of character, of decided literary tastes. and being left with a competence, she indulged and fostered in her son an innate love for books. At a suitable age John, from choice. was apprenticed to a printer and bookseller. Both master and apprentice soon discovered that the boy had mistaken his vocation. The lad's intense thirst for knowledge made him a voracious devourer of books. His indentures were cancelled. he was prepared for a seat in a high seminary of learning by the Rev. Dr. Conroy. and entered Columbia College so well advanced that he was admitted to the junior class.
The amount of literary labor performed by young Francis at this period was marvel.
433
FIRST DECADE, 1830-18-10.
One of the original members and choice spirits of the Hone Club, the veteran journalist and successful diplomatist, General James Watson Webb, survived until the summer of 1884.
lous. While he was an undergraduate he pursued the study of medicine in the office of Dr. Hosack, attended medical lectures, made elaborate abstracts of them, conducted, in connection with his preceptor, a medical periodical, The Medical and Philosophical Journal, and composed his celebrated medical theses on " The Use of Mercury." To his ceaseless and untiring industry at that period, and at all times afterward, may be accredited bis vast achievements in his profession and in the field of literature.
Dr. Francis received the baccalaureate from Columbia College in 1809. He was the first graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1811. When, in 1813, the medical department of Columbia College was umted with that of the College of Physi- cians and Surgeons, he was appointed professor of materia medica and botany in the new institution, as the successor of Dr. Hosack, who was promoted to the chair of theory and practice.
Soon after Francis had entered upon the practice of his profession, Dr. Hosack pro- posed to him a business copartnership. It was accepted, and this connection continued until 1820. Hosack was then at the zenith of his fame, and to him the younger partner was largely indebted for his manner of literary composition and power of expression.
Soon after taking his professional chair, Dr. Francis went to England. He carried to Dr. Abernethy the first copies of that gentleman's works published in America. He was cordially received by that eccentric physician, and so satisfied was Abernethy of the ability of the young American physician, that he cordially invited Francis to come and settle in London. In London, in Edinburgh, and in Paris, Francis became acquainted with the leading scientists and literary men of that period, and won the friendship of them all. While he was abroad he contributed to "Rees's Cyclopedia" the articles "Dr. Rush" and "New York."
On his return from Europe, Francis entered with vigor upon his duties as a professor and as a practising physician. During thirteen years he continued his medical lectures. and found time to write and publish several essays, and to assist Drs. Beck and Dyckman in editing the New York Medical and Physical Journal. In 1826 he, with others, formed the faculty of a new institution called " Rutgers Medical College" (already noticed), chartered by New Jersey,.but located in New York. Its career was short, and with it ended the course of Dr. Francis as a public medical educator. He never afterward held a professorship in any of the colleges, but devoted his time to his profession and to literature. In these departments of human activity his career was brilliant, useful, and every way successful. As a lecturer he was an impressive, animated, and often "loquent speaker. His personal appearance was prepossessing. In stature he was about five feet ten inches. His frame was strongly built, his head and features were massive. there was a play of humor about his face, and his head was adorned with a profusion of locks which, during the latter years of his lite, were of snowy whiteness. His nervous system was predominant, and hence he was always enthusiastic in manner He was the life of every social gathering, whether in a family, at a club, or a public festival, or cele- bration of any event. He was intimate with all the theatrical and musical celebrities of his time, and his society was courted by cultivated people, whether citizens or foreigners.
Dr. Francis lived a bachelor until he was forty years of age, when (1829) he married Miss Maria Eliza Cutler, a niece of General Francis Marion. She was a lady of retine- want. high social position, and was in every respect a helpmate for him in his labors or in dispensing with grace the hospitalities of his house. His home on Bond Street became
434
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
The Union Club was also organized in the year 1836. On the 30th of June a circular letter was sent out to a number of gentlemen of social distinction, inviting them to become members of the then in- choate club. It was signed by the following emment citizens, active in the various concerns of life at that day : Samuel Jones, Thomas J. Oakley, Philip Hone, Beverley Robinson, William Beach Lawrence, Charles King, Enos T. Throop, B. E. Brenner, G. M. Wilkins, B. C. Williams, F. Sheldon, J. Depeyster Ogden, and Ogden Hoffman. It was signed by John H. MeCracken, secretary.
From its inception this club was the representative organization of members of old families, such as the Livingstons, Clasons, Van Cort- landts, De Peysters, Van der Voorts, Dunhams, Van Rensselaers, Paines, Stuyvesants, Irelands, Griswolds, Centers, Suydams, whose names filled the list of membership. These were the remnants of the Knickerbocker race, who clung with tenacity to the idea and the tradi- tions of family aristocracy they had so long enjoyed. "Their names appeared in the list of membership," says Fairfield, " with a sort of
the centre of a literary as well as a scientific circle. There might be seen statesmen, poets, novelists, clergymen, actors, and philosophers.
In 1847 Dr. Francis was elected president of the Academy of Medicine, and he gave several addresses before that body. He also addressed the New York Typographical Society on the character of Franklin, in 1850, and the same year he received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Trinity College, Hartford. In 1854 he was smitten a dreadful blow from which he never recovered, in the death of his eldest son, a most promising young physician, bearing his name, and destined, as he hoped, to perpetuate his own professional and hterary fame. It was the first severe trial of Dr. Francis's life. "As I led him away from the death-bed when all was over," said Dr. Valentine Mott, in a warm eulogy of Dr. Francis, delivered before the Academy of Medicine, " he uttered a passionate exclamation of grief, that he who had saved the lives of so many less worthy. should lose his own son. . . . He was never afterward quite the same man."
Two or three years later Dr. Francis read a paper on Old New York before the New York Historical Society, which he elaborated into a most interesting volume. His final literary achievement was a sketch of the life of Gouverneur Morris. During the summer of 1860, in conjunction with Edward Everett, he laid the corner-stone of the Inebriate Asylum at Binghamton. He was always actively engaged in some good work-in public and private charities of every kind. He was, in an eminent degree, the physician of the poor. He might be seen walking alone by the side of a poor father carrying his child to the grave, whose coffin was probably paid for by the good doctor himself.
Dr. Francis died at his home in Sixteenth Street on February 8, 1861. The writer well remembers the impressive scene at his funeral in St. Thomas's Church. There both extremes of society met. The poor, who had enjoyed his bounty and his care, crowded the aisles in coarse attire to take a last sad look at the face of their benefactor and friend. It was a more touching eulogy than could be offered in the pulpit or on the rostrum. His widow followed him a few years afterward. He left two sons, Samuel W. Francis and Valentine Mott Francis, who are medical practitioners at Newport, R. I., " worthy sons of a noble sire."
.
435
FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840.
aristocratic monotony, of that Knickerbockerism which earned for dann the epithet of the Bourbons of New York. Hence sprang up that contest of the old magnates of New York society with the new Saloons of wealth and trade, which for years agitated the club, and * vastonally threatened to rend it asunder." *
At the first organization of the Union Club its home was at the Lotte of the secretary, Mr. Mccracken, whose widow became the wife . Charles O'Conor. It was not permanently organized until 1837. In that year apartments were secured in a building on the west side of Broadway, near Leonard Street. There it remained three years, when it occupied a building on the east side of Broadway, near White Street, owned by John Jacob Astor. Seven years later it migrated to a build- ing on Broadway, above Bleecker Street. There the club, grew strong and wealthy. The new element of active life which had interpene- trated New York society was thoroughly diffused through its member- ship. The aristocracy of family was no longer one of its doctrines, but worth, in its broadest sense, was recognized as the highest dignity.
In 1852 the Union Club was worth half a million dollars, and it was resolved to provide for it a permanent home. In 1855 a beautiful structure of brown stone was completed for it on the corner of Twenty- first Street and Fifth Avenue, at a cost of $250,000. It then contained about five hundred members. The membership has rapidly increased since.
It is said the Union Club approximates more nearly in organization to the European club than any other in this country. It has more social coherence than any other. Literature is but little represented in it, and journalism seems not to have been pressingly invited to its society in past times. Some years ago Mr. Marble, the editor of the World newspaper, was a candidate for membership, and was promptly blackballed. This incident excited the indignation of one of the lead- mg members of the club. One blackball was sufficient to reject a can- didate. The member alluded to declared that no candidate should ever thereafter be admitted so long as he could be present and put in a blackball, until the act of rejection of Mr. Marble should be rescinded. Mr. Marble was admitted, and so the daily press first obtained a repre- wentation in the oldest existing club in the city of New York. Its mem- bership now represents nearly all the professions and dignities which mark society, and the fashionable Union Club has become quite cosmo- ¡olitan in its features. The army and navy are represented by mem-
' The Clubs of New York," by Francis Gerry Fairfield.
-
$
436
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
bers who are not required to pay annual dues. The initiation fee for a paying member is $200, and the annual dues 875. Its membership consists of representatives of vast wealth, enterprise, and professional wisdom ; also of real noble lineage, a boon for which any man may properly be grateful, but not a boon to be relied upon almost wholly as a passport into "good society"- the society of good men. The wise couplet has it :
" What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards ? Alas ! not all the blood of all the Howards."
The Kent Club, so called in honor of the Hon. James Kent, the eminent chancellor and commentator, was organized in 1838, and was composed of the leading men of the legal profession in the city like Samuel Jones, Thomas J. Oakley,* John Duer, John Anthon, Francis B. Cutting, Ogden Hoffman, Peter A. Jay, Charles O'Conor, and other lights of the New York bar at that day. That club long since passed into the realm of history.
There were rare men who belonged to the Kent Club-men of great legal ability, profound wisdom, and quick wit. The annals of the New York bar at that time, if faithfully recorded, would furnish a vast repertory of genuine humor.
At this time there was a club or association of choice spirits in the city of New York, modest and exclusive. It still exists, but scarcely anybody but its own members is aware of the fact. It is called the Column, t and was founded in 1825 by a class or portions of a class that graduated at Columbia College that year.
* Thomas Jackson Oakley was a native of Duchess County, New York, where he was born in 1783 ; studied and practised law in Poughkeepsie. He had graduated at Yale College in 1801. In 1810 he was appointed surrogate of Duchess County, was a member of Congress in 1813-15, was a member of Assembly in 1815, and again a member of Congress in 1827-28. He succeeded Van Buren as Attorney-General of the State in 1819, and served again in the Assembly in 1820. When the supreme court in New York City was organized in 1828, he was appointed an associate judge, and upon its reorganization in 1846 he was made chief justice. Judge Oakley died in the city of New York in May, 1857.
t This name was derived from the circumstance that in its early days, before the club had a name, the members were permitted by Dr. Lyell, rector of Christ Church, in Anthony (now Worth) Street, to assemble in a room at the back of his church. In the centre of the room was a column that supported the roof. Dr. Lyell suggested that they name their club " The Column," which was done. " There were, I think," wrote one of the club to the anthor, " twenty or twenty-five members. They were young men who desired to perpetuate the friendship they had formed. They met weekly for the pur- pose of literary intercourse and cultivation. There were many bright fellows among them. As the original number of members began to diminish by death or otherwise, new men were introduced into the society. I was elected in 1530, and as we held our
437
FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840.
In the carlier period of the history of the Column, a monthly paper was read. and weekly discussions were held on topics which were engaging the attention of the Senate of the United States. Many of !!... pubhe questions of the day were discussed with as much acumen and sound logic as in the upper house of the national legislature. On such occasions the members assumed the gravity of representa- fives of a republican government. The presiding officer was styled the archon, in imitation of the Greek chief magistrate. There was a premier, secretaries of departments, a chief justice, etc. Many of these debaters have filled high positions in the State, the professions, and in business circles. The following is believed to be a correct list of the members of the Column at the time of the last anniversary dinner at Pinard's : Augustus Schell, archon ; William M. Evarts, # premier ; George E. Hoffman, Charles G. Havens, John II. Gourlie, George B. Butler, John Bigelow, Hamilton Fish, William M. Pritchard, Charles E. Butler, Edward S. Van Winkle, Parke Godwin, William F. Whitte- more, and Dr. Alonzo Clark.
fifty-eighth anniversary in February, 1883, you will see how old we are. Time has made great changes among its members. I think our membership is now about a dozen. George E. Hoffman, a son of Judge Hoffman, and a brother of the late Hon. Josiah Ogilen Hoffman, is the senior member."
The members actively engaged in the affairs of life abandoned the weekly meetings at about the beginning of the late Civil War, and agreed to have an annual reunion only, and a banquet. This festival has been held every year since.
* William MI. Evarts is a native of Boston, where he was born on February 6, 1818. He was graduated at Yale College in 1837, and finished his legal education at the Har- vard Law School. Mr. Evarts chose the city of New York as the most promising field for the practice of the legal profession, and there he entered upon it, there he has won his most important professional triumphs, and there, for a generation, he has occu- putrd a foremost rank among the members of the American bar. In 1851 Mr. Evarts was appointed United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, from which other he retired two years later. He was appointed one of the almshouse commissioners (how known as Commissioners of Charities and Correction). He had formed a law partnership in 1853 under the firm name of Butler, Evarts & Southmayd ; subsequently : breame Evarts, Southmayd & Choate. In 1861 Mr. Evarts's name was prominent bfore the Republican legislative caucus for United States Senator, and in 1876 he was for munently advocated for the Republican nomination for governor of New York. On 1. sh occasions a " compromise" candidate was nominated.
In Ine's MIr. Evarts was the legal champion of President Johnson in his impeachment Por, and that functionary called the great lawyer to the seat of the attorney-generalship th Lis cabinet. He was also the legal champion of President-elect Hayes before the elec- teal tribunal, and was called to President Hayes's cabinet in March, 1877, as the chief sister of state. This position he held, and exercised the functions with great dignity, a' Any, and success during the administration of Mr. Hayes.
In the realm of his profession Mr. Evarts has won more honor and distinction than **: publie office could bestow. Among the many great cases in which he has success-
438
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
The society possesses a silver column, about three feet six inches in height, including its base and pedestal. It is left in the custody of Messrs. Tiffany & Co., and is brought out only on the occasion of the annual banquet. At that time it is surmounted by a lighted Etruscan lamp while they are dining, as an emblem of the inextinguishable life of the society. This column is to be the property of the latest survivor of the association.
At the close of this decade the features of New York society pre- sented conspicuous transformations. Many exotic customs prevailed, both public and private, and the expensive pleasures of the Eastern Hemisphere had been transplanted and taken firm root. Among other imported amusements was the masked ball, the first of which occurred in the city of New York in 1840, and produced a profound sensation, not only per se, but because of an attending circumstance which stirred " society" to its foundation.
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