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Gc 974.701 K61du 1751308
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
3 1833 01125 9139
.
840
A HISTORY
OF THE
TOWN OF FLATLANDS
KINGS COUNTY, N. Y.
BY
Rev. ANSON DUBOIS, D. D.
Reprinted from "The Illustrated History of Kings County," edited by Dr. H. R. Stiles, and published by W. W. Munsell & Co.
BROOKLYN, N. Y. 1884.
840
-
1751308 HISTORY
OF THE
TOWN OF FLATLANDS.
BY REV. Autour DuBois, D.D.
S YITUATION. The Township of Flatlands lies upon the northwesterly shore of Jamaica Bay, and includes a number of islands within the Bay. It is deseribed, in ancient patents, as "lying between the Bay of the North River and the East River;" the former designation being applied to Jamaica Bay, inasmuch'as the North River was regarded as dis- charging into the ocean at Sandy Hook. The principal islands within the bay, belonging to the town, are: Barren Island, at the extreme south; Bergen Island, mainly in the salt meadows ; and Ruffle Bur, at the eastward. Flatlands contains some 9,000 aeres of land, about one-third of it arable, under high cultivation.
Names. The name Flutlands is descriptive, and applied, originally, to the whole of the flat country eastward from Prospect Park Ridge, all the way from the Narrows to Hempstead. Gov. STUYVESANT says : " I found on my arrival [1647] the Flatland so stripped of inhabitants that, with the exception of the three English villages, Hemstede, New Flushing and Graves- end, 50 boweries and plantations could not be enumer- ated."
The first plantation established in the town was called Achtervelt, because it lay after, or beyond the " Great Flats," the field, in approaching it from New Amster- dam. This name, however, did not attach to the town- ship, which was designated by its early inhabitants New Amersfoort, after the eity of that name on the river Eem in the province of Utrecht, in the Netherlands, whenee Wolfert Gerretse, one of the patentees, and several others of the early settlers, immigrated. Colloqui- ally it was termed " The Bay"-or, in Dutch, " de Baije" -from its situation upon Jamaica Bay, and it is so named in many local documents.
The terms New Amersfoort and Flatlands were, for awhile, interchangeable; but in course of time the descriptive word became here localized as a proper nanie.
Aboriginal Inhabitants. The subdivision of the great Algonquin family of Indians inhabiting Long
Island, living in this town, was the Canarsie, with its principal village at the place still bearing that name. Extensive banks of broken elam-shells at Canarsie and Bergen Island attest both their numbers here, and the great extent to which the manufacture of wampum, or Indian money, was carried on here.
Their social condition must have been very low at the settlement of the town. Verazzano, who, in the ser- vice of Francis I, in 1524 entered a large bay in lari- tude 41º North, supposed by some to have been the Bay of of New York, gives a very flattering description of the natives of the adjacent shores ; and that o Capt. Hendrick Hudson, in 1609, is not unfavoral' :. These men, however, could hardly have known them so well as Rev. Jonas Michaelis, the first dergyman of New Amsterdam, who says : " They are as thierish and as treacherous as they are tall, and more inhacinn than the people of Barbary."
The Dutch travelers, Dankers and Sluyter (16:3). give us a description of an Indian house at New Utrecht. which was probably a type of their dwellings elsewhere.
It was sixty by fifteen feet, the frame rough post- and poles, and covered with reeds and bark. An open space the whole length of the roof, at the ridge, allowel the smoke to escape from fires built upon the earthen floor for the six or eight families inhabiting it. It had no windows, but was furnished with a low narrow door at each end. Their implements for domestic t.se. agriculture, and fishing, were few, and one of our tray. elers gives us a pen-and-ink sketch of an Indian woman of that period, drawn from life. It is not a pleasing picture, and gives the impression that intercourse with the whites had debased rather than elevated their character.
There is no evidence, however, of unjust or oppressive treatment of the Indians by the whites in this town. Their lands were taken only by purchase, and no title was considered good until the Indian right had been legally extinguished. The two races lived pracefany together; and, when the murder of inoffensive savages
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'2
SETTLEMENT OF THE TOWN BY THE DUTCHI.
took place at Pavonia, and Corlaer's Hook, in 1643, the people " dwelling at the Flatland " gave evidence of Immane sentiments by " immediately expressing dissatis- faction at this sudden and nnexpected slaughter." But the white race grew stronger, and the Indian weaker, until about 1830, when Jim de Wilt, or " Jim the wild man," died in his wretched hnt at Canarsie, the miserable remnant of the once proud possessors of these fertile lands.
Settlement of the Town by the Dutch. At its settlement by the whites, Flatlands was divided into salt meadows, forest lands and prairies. The prai- ries, or open plains, were peculiar to this town, and doubtless account for its very early settlement. BERGEN says: "The most tempting locality on the west end of Long Island, for natives of the low and level lands of Holland or Belgium, who were inexperienced in the clearing of forests, were the flats in Flatlands and Flatbush; miniature prairies, void of trees, with a dark- colored surface soil, similar to that of the western prai- ries; which had been subject to the rude enlture of the natives, and were ready without much previous toil and labor for the plow."
The carly patents refer to " The three flats of Long Island." These were Van Twiller's (central at Ave. B and 5th street), Von Corluer's (central at Ave. C and Troy Ave.), and a third called " The Little Flots" and described as "The westermost of the three flats on Long Island." This " Little Flats," Dr. T. M. STRONG locates at the intersection of Flatbush ave. and the town line. But, while that locality was so called, the true locality of the "Little Flats " referred to in the Land Patents, as distinct from the Township Patents, was, without doubt, at the point where Hudden and Van Kouwen-Hoven formed their settlement, near the Flatlands Reformed Church, at the intersection of Flat- bush and Flatlands avenues. Beside these three flats there were maize lands, under rude Indian culture, at Canarsie Point and Bergen's Island. Finally, there were the " Great Flats," on " Flatlands Plains," cover- ing a large portion of the western part of the town. Probably, most of the Great Flats was under more in- perfect Indian cultivation than the other maize lands ; but they were destitute of trees, and we have reason to think that considerable portions of it were made to yield the seanty crops of savage agrienlture. The extent of the Great Flats would be roughly described by a line drawn from the Paerdegat westward, to near the inter- section of the Manhattan Beach railroad and Ocean avenne ; thence to the residence of Jeremiah Ryder, near Nostrand and Ave. M ; thence to a point on Mill Lane, some three hundred yards beyond the Methodist Church ; thence to the Neck road at the Dutch Church, and along said road to Ave. I and 45th street, and thence to the place of beginning. The " Indian path " from Fulton Ferry to Bergen Island passed through the centre of this great plain, and is
shown by the old line of Flatbush ave. and Mill Lane. As a rule, the black soil shows the portions of the town originally open, while the gray soil shows that part covered by the forests.
There can be no doubt that the earliest whites in Flat- lands located at, or near, the point where the southerly course of the Kings highway bends suddenly westward at J. B. Hendrickson & Son's store. Uniform tradition, the language of early patents, the debris of Holland brick, and the proximity of burial-place, church and school, all prove this spot to have been earliest occupied by Europeans. It was probably called " The Little Flats," because separated from the " Great Flats" by a belt of timber along the low ground, a little northeast. erly of the Church. This elect prairie was particularly eligible, because it lay close npon the salt meadow; (much depended on in those early times for cattle-tech): and, still more, because it was convenient to " the Bay." whose fish, oysters, and wild fowls, afforded our printi- tive inhabitants so valuable a part of their year's pro- visions.
Some rude settlement was probably formed here :.. carly as 1624. In evidence of this we find Brooklyn and Amersfoort are mentioned as Dutch settlement -. in 1649, along with the statement, " Our freemen have resided on that Island down from the very fir -?. " In 1660, the West India Company say, " Long Island wa- taken possession of by planting Amersfoort." and other places are named after it. In all the early enumeration of Long Island towns, Amersfoort is placed first, doubt- less from its priority of settlement. Gov. Stuyvesant gives important testimony as to its settlement in lot. by speaking, in 1664, of Long Island as " Now June ... fully possessed some 40, some 30, and the least to years." If we accept this statement, and rerede forty years from 1664, we shall find Amersfoort " plant ... " and " peaceably possessed " by its white inhabitants in 1624.
Our early people were themselves fully aware of their seniority, in this county, and are interesting with -.. . of it. In a statentent before the County Court, at Gravesend, 1666, in a certain dispute with Flatbush. they say :
"You may be pleased to take notice that much we might plead before them with respect to antiquity and the first settlers and settlement of this place; the great brunt of troubles, and loss of goods, and lives of men that was gone through with and lost, as some of the English who shared therein with us can testify."
These statements, taken in connection with the attriet- ive conditions of the lands and waters of this township. are deemed sufficient to fix the date of settlement by the whites as early as 1624.
Early Land Patents .- The first recorded por- chase of lands in this town took place June Fith. 1636, when Andries Huddie (or Indden) and Wolffwer Gerretse (Van Kouwenhoven) bought of the Indi: n-, and obtained the next year from Gov. Van Twiller :.
3
EARLY LAND PATENTS.
patent for, the westermost of the three flats on Long Island, called by the Indians Caskateurs (or Kuskutenu). " Van Corlaer's" and " Van Twiller's Flats" were pur- chased the same day. On this purchase, according to
Wolfert Gerritse his mark
1 Van Couwenhoven
TUNIS G. BERGEN, "a plantation called 'Achtervelt' was established, on which, prior to July 9, 1638, when an inventory was taken, they had a house set around with long round palisades, the house being 26 feet long, 22 feet wide, 40 feet deep, with the roof covered above and around with plank ; two lofts, one above another, and a small chamber at their side ; one barn 40 feet long, 18 feet wide, and 24 feet deep ; and one bergh with 5 posts, 40 feet long. The plantation was stocked with 6 cows, old and young, 3 oxen and 5 horses." The lands of Hudden and Van Kouwenhoven are described as extending " From a certain meadow, or valley, west- ward to and into the woods." That is, as we understand it, the patent covered all the western portion of the town, from the Paerdegat and its outlet. west ward across the "plains" to, and into, the woods beyond them, or to the Gravesend line. We have another description inci- dentally given, when, in 1652, the Company directs the Governor to annul parts of certain land claims, and among them "The Great Flat, otherwise the Bay, on Amersfoort Flat, with the lands adjacent claimed by Wolfert Gerretse and Andries Uuidde, containing full 1,000 morgens, not a fiftieth part of which they are able to occupy." Hudde and Van Kouwenhoven, however, never relinquished possession, though the frecholders endeavored to compel them to do so under this forfeiture. By the account of the contest which thus grew up between the patentees and the town, we are able to locate nost of the original bounds of the patent very definitely. A jury of the Court of Sessions, at Gravesend, in Decem- ber, 1679, sustained the patentees ; but disputes as'to where the patent-lines really were, continued until 1695, when the heirs of Elbert Elbertse (who had acquired the original patentee rights), and the freeholders of the town, mutually bound themselves to accept as final the decision of a commission to locate the lines. These commissioners say : "The westermost bounds or limits of said Elbert's patent joins to the eastermost lines or limits of Gravesend, one patent comprehending in it the lands of Jan Albertse (Terhune), Jan Van Dyckhuysen, and Thomas Willet, and so from the northward corner of the said Willet, joining to Gravesend, along the westermost side of the Flats of Flatlands." A still later commission-for this old difficulty was hard to settle- carries the last-mentioned line "Northerly till it ents the line which runs westerly from the meadow or valley on the east side of Flatland- town, including the said
meadow ; being bounded north by Flatbush land and west by Gravesend line." It is probable that the Wyckoffs and a few others in the southerly part of the town held directly from the Government; but it is clear from the above that the patent of Iwollen and Van Kouwenhoven covered all the land- from the Paerdegat and its outlet to Grave .- end, and northward to the Flatbush line.
Hudde never resided here, and sold portions of his patent right to Wolfert Gerretse until September 16th, 1647, when all his remaining interests were thus disposed of.
Achtervelt had assmned the appearance of a village. The residence of the elder Van Kouwenhoven, with his barns, &c., stood near where J. B. Hendrickson's store now is. The house was large, with two stories in the roof, in thorough Holland style. Van Kouwenhoven's second son, Gerret Wolfertse, lived near by, in a clap- board house, with his young family, Wellein Jan. Neeltje, and Marritze. This important centre of the settlement was inclosed by stout palisadoes and fur- nished with a guard of soldiers. We have no evidence that any hostile attack was ever made upon it, but there was always more or less danger from the large number of Indians in the immediate vicinity. At the time of which we speak, the Wyckoffs, the Stoothoff-, the Van Nostrants, the Tennessens, and some others, were per- manently located here, and by the time the Dutch church was organized, in 1654, there were promiwest in the town the families of the Schencks, the Aminerz.au-, the Strykers, the Van Sigelens, the Romeyn-, the Bruynses, the Davises, the Van Dyckhuysens, the Van Arts Daalens, and doubtless others.
The estate called Achtervelt fell, after Wolfer: - death, to his second son, Gerret Wolfertse, who married Altje Cool of Gowauns, and died about 1645. His widow married Capt. Elbert Elbertse (Stoothoof). wLose name is the most prominent of all in the early history of the town. Elbert gained possession of the whole of Gerret's estate by agreeing with the guardian of Gerset'- children to pay the debts on the estate, bring up the children, teach them to read and write, and pay them each 200 guilders, except Jan, who, being lame, was to receive 300. This agreement did not include the ser- arte interest of Gerret's widow; for, by his will, ma Ie after her death, Capt. Elbert directs 2,000 guilders to be paid to Jan, and an equal amount to be divided among the other children of Gerret (viz .: Willem, and Neeltje, wife of Roeloff Martense Schenck, and the children of Marritse, deceased, who had married Capt. Stevense Voorhees) as "dne them from their mother's and grandmother's estate."
Town Government .- In the early settlement. when all were surrounded by savages and the fami- lies were mutually dependent on each other for pr - tection and comfort, no precise form of munichel government was needed. The laws and habits of Ho-
4
TOWN GOVERNMENT.
land regulated the affairs of this feeble offshoot. Titles of land were derived from the Governor and Council in New Amsterdam ; and cases in law, did any arise, were adjudicated by the same authority. The time came, however, when local courts were necessary. Gravesend, settled by Lady Moody early in 1643, received from Governor Kieft a charter in 1645; and, in it, authority to form a body politie and a local court of three magis- trates, with final jurisdiction in the amount of fifty guilders. Flatbush had been settled by direction of the Governor in 1651, and three years later, March 6th, 1654, was favored with a local court of six magistrates in connection with Flatlands, sitting three-fourths of the time at the former place and one-fourth at the latter. But this quarter of a loaf, tardily given, the people of Flatlands thought little better than no bread, and requested the Governor and Council to give them a court of their own. One was accordingly established, March 31st, 1661, to consist of three magistrates, the first being Elbert Elbertsen, Pieter Cornelissen, and Simon Jansen. These officers, were elected annually by the freeholders and confirmed by the Governor. They were called Schepens, and the constable was called a schont.
There existed in this town, for one hundred and fifty years, a close intimacy between Church and State. The civil magistrates minst be of the Re- formed religion, and the officers of the church were ex-officio officers of the town; the elders being trustees of the school of the town and of the lands held for the use or benefit of the school and the church; while the deacons had charge of the poor, and of all the funds collected by tax, or by contribution, for their support.
Flatlands grew into a municipality withont formal legislation or anthorization of any kind, except in its land grants. It was thirty years after its settlement before it enjoyed any privi- leges of a local conrt, and then only in connection with its more favored neighbor, Flatbush ; and thirty- seven years before it could boast one of its own, of the most primary jurisdiction. Its charter as a township was even longer in coming. An English Governor, . Nicolls, did its people this tardy justice, October 4th, 1667, without assuming to create a municipality, but expressly recognizing its existence. Omitting verbiage, the charter is as follows :
" Whereas, there is a certain town in this government. situate in the west Riding of Yorkshire of Long Island, commonly known by the name of Amersfoort, al's Flattlands, which is in the occupation of several freeholders and inhabi- tants who heretofore have been seated there by authority. * Now for a confirmation. * * * 1. Richard Nicoll. Esq .. * have granted and do grant unto Elbert Elberts [ Stoot- hoff], Govert Lockermans, Ruelof Mertens |Schonekl. Pieter Claes [ Wyckoff]. Wellen Gerrit | Van Kowww.kap. Tho. Hillebrants, Stephen Coertsen [Voorte , . hard Court
Stephens [Voorhees], as Patentees, for themselves and their associates * * * all that tract * * * and other parcels pur- chased of the native Indian proprietors, or others, within these limits, viz .: From their western bounds, which begin at a certain creek called the Stromme Kill {Garretsen's Mill Pond] they stretch to Filkin's or Varken's Hook on Hoy Point, which is also included within their limits. [This Point was about the intersection of Avenue J and East 83d street, and had the meadows belonging to New Utrecht township northeasterly on to Vischer's Hook, or Canarsie Point. ] Then from the limits of Middlewout al's Flatbush * * * beginning at a certain tree standing upon the Little Flats, marked by commissioners, October 19th, 1666, a line stretching southeast to Canarsie. It includes within its bounds several parcels of land, particularly a tract granted by Governor Petrus Stuyvesant to Jacob Steendam and Welken Jaus, November 12th, 1652, and transferred to Flat- lands November 30th, 1662. Also lands at Canarsie hereto- fore manured and planted by consent of the Indians, and ou April 16th, 1665, bought for a valuable consideration by the inhabitants of Flatlands, together with the meadow or valley at Canarsie, divided April 20th last year from the town of Flatbush by a line half a point northerly from the mouth of the [ Fresh] Creek. To have and to hold, * * * and that the place of their present habitation shall continue, and retain the name of Amersfort al's Flatlands. * * *
Given * * * at Fort James, New York, October 4th, 1667. MATTHIAS NICOLL. Sec'y. RICHARD NICOLL.
allebor Oblibot Ton . 1460 Facsuntle of Ebert Elbertarn Stoothoff's signature.
Roelof mantonly french.1680.
Farsimile of Roelof Martense Schenck's siunature.
maria if it jur + vou pichon
Faesimile of Pieter Claesen Wyckoff's signature.
Ofören Ruesof . 1675.
Fresimile of Steven Koers Vorlaves' signature ..
The indefinitemess of this charter immediately occas- ioned difficulties as to boundary lines at Cavarsie ; and early the next year (February 3d, 1668), Governor Lovelace issued another charter, confirmatory of the preceding, and granting certain provisions in the pur- chase of land- at Canarsie. Still another charter was granted by Governor Dongan, March 11th, 1685, to Elbert Elbertse (Stoothoff), Roelof Martense (Schenck), Pieter Classen (Wyckoff), Willem Garretsen (Van Kouwenhoven), Court Stevensen (Voorhees), Lucas Netto ) and John Teunissen, for them. w Att ., according to the tenure of East
5
EARLY INILABITANTS.
Greenwich, they paying annually 14 bushels of good wheat in New York. But none of the charters defined the town boundaries intelligibly, and acrimonious dis- putes leading finally to litigations, in 1661, between Flatlands and Flatbush, in regard to the Canarsie meadows, continued for the long period of thirty years. After the matter had ocenpied the attention of successive courts, and of several commissioners, and of the Governor, a joint commission from the two towns, in May, 1677, agreed on and staked out a line across the Canarsie meadows, adding to their report this important item : " All manner of difference between them to this day to bee forgotten and forgiven." But the miasma of the marsh must have soured the temper of the people; for, two years later (June, 1679) the Flatlanders prosecuted their Flatbush brethren for trespass at Canarsie, and obtained judgment in £10 damages. In 1691 the judgment was still unpaid, and was then reaffirmed and execution ordered. Flatbush thereupon appealed to the Governor and Council. We have no evidence that the judgment was reversed; and, if not, there must be now due to this town from Flat- bush the original £10, with costs, and some two hundred years' interest.
Flatlands was recognized by the State as a town, March 7th, 1788. The Supervisors, for the last hundred years, have been the following : 1783, 1785, 1786, Ulpianns Van Sinderin ; 1784, Abram Voorhees ; 1787-98, Capt, Nicholas Schenck ; 1799, 1800, Hen- drick I. Lott ; 1801-15, Johannes Reisen ; 1816-39, Gerrit Kouwenhoven ; 1840-43, Andrew Emmans ; 1844-53, John A. Voorhees ; 1834, John A. Wyckoff ; 1855, to the present time, John L. Ryder.
Thus, for a century past, the highest political office of the town has been held by ten men, some of them through terms of 9, 14, 23, and the present incumbent, 27 years. Our people are contented when they are well served, and the civil service in Flatlands is not in need of "Reform."
Early Inhabitants .- The following names are from the list of those who took the Oath of Allegiance to the British crown, in 1687; with the date of arrival in this country of the foreign-born :
Pieter Claesen Wyckoff. 1636 ; Gerret Pieterse Wyckoff, Claes Pieterse Wyckoff, Hendrick Pieterse Wyckoff. Jan Pieterse Wyckoff. natives ; Elbert Elbertse (Stoothoff), 1637; Gerret Elbertse (Stoothoff). Hans Janse (Van Nostrandt). 1640; Roelof Martense Schenck, 1650: Jan Martense Schenck, 1650; Jan Roelof Schenck, Martin Roelof Schenck, Derick Janse Ammerman. 1650 : Jacob Stryker, 1651 : Fferdinandes Van Sickelin, 1652 ; Christoffle Janse Romeyne, 1653 ; Ruth (or Rut) bruynsen, 1653; Wilham Davies, 1653 : Jan theunis Van duyckhuys. 1653: Simon Janse Van Arts Daelen, 1653 ; Cornelius Simonen Vanarsdalen, Pieter Cornelius Luyster, 1656 ; Thys Pieter Luyster, 1656 ; Pieter Pieterse Tall, 1657: Jan Brouwer, 1657 : Direk Brouwer, hendrick Brouwer, Dirk Stoffiese, 1657: Stoffle Direkse (Langstraet), Adriaen Kumne, 1660 ; Court Stephense Van Voorhees, 1660: Albert Courten Van Voorhees, Laycas Stephense (Van Voorhees).
1660; Jan Stephense (Van Voorhees). 1660; Abram Wil- liamse, 1662 ; Johannis Williamse, 1662 ; Evert Janse Van Wickelen, 1664; theunis Janse Van Amach, 1673; Gerret hansen (Van Nostrandt), Gerret hendrickse bresse. Wellim Gerretse Van Couwenhoven, Gerret Williamse Van Cov- wenhoven, Anthony Warnshaer, William Williamse boreklo. Jan Albertse Terhune, Pieter Nevins, Pieter Manfoort.
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