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Helen L. Kenward. from K. Y. S. July 6 TH 189
SOCIAL HISTORY
FLATBUSH
YAMNI 2TARTANI THE HO MATRIMON
·
HOMESTEAD OF THE LEFFERTS FAMILY. Front view.
THE
SOCIAL HISTORY OF
FLATBUSH,
AND
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE DUTCH SETTLERS IN KINGS COUNTY.
BY GERTRUDE LEFFERTS VANDERBILT.
" To Holland they felt a deep, unalterable, hereditary attachment. Nor have the vicissitudes of time extinguished that sentiment in their descendants. Two centuries have scarcely weakened the veneration which citizens of New York of Dutch lineage proudly cherish toward the fatherland of their ancestors."
-History of the State of New York. J. Romeyn Brodhead.
NEW YORK: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. 1899.
COPYRIGHT BY GERTRUDE LEFFERTS VANDERBILT. 1881.
129 FS Esla
TO THE DESCENDANTS OF THE DUTCH SETTLERS IN KINGS COUNTY THESE PAGES ARE Dedicated.
1
PREFACE.
THE Rev. Thomas M. Strong, D. D., for nearly forty years beloved pastor of the Reformed Church, Flatbush, collected, as far as practicable, facts pertain- ing to the early settlement of the town.
These facts were in the first instance brought before the public in the form of lectures delivered before the Flatbush Literary Association.
Subsequently, at the request of his friends, these lectures were collected in a volume, entitled "The History of the Town of Flatbush," and published in 1842.
Since the publication of this interesting volume, there have been great changes in this little town. The day is probably not far distant when it will become a part of the adjoining city of Brooklyn ; then all traces of its village life and its individuality as a Dutch settlement will be lost.
In all love and respect for the memory of Dr. Strong, I have taken up the pen which he laid down,
6
PREFACE.
not so much in continuation of his subject as to give it from a different standpoint. As a woman, I have inclined to the social side of life, and have endeavored to record the changes which time has made among the people in their homes and at the fireside.
I have undertaken this as a pleasant task, bringing to the work at least so much of fitness for it as may be caused by familiarity with those changes, and a knowledge of the traditions, customs, and manners of the Dutch.
At an early period all the families in this county were united through marriage and intermarriage, thus forming one large family circle. I have assumed with greater confidence the preparation of this work because, as I do not address the great world beyond, I may, for that reason, escape unfriendly criticism ; these simple annals being only intended for this family circle of the descendants of the Dutch settlers, who alone can find an interest in the record.
GERTRUDE L. VANDERBILT.
Flatbush, 1880.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. INTRODUCTORY 9
II. EARLY SETTLEMENT OF KINGS COUNTY 11
III. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE HOLLAND SETTLERS . 17
IV. GRADUAL CHANGE FROM DUTCH TO ENGLISH 24
V. NAME OF THE VILLAGE OF FLATBUSH 31
VI. DUTCH NAMES 38
VII. USE OF THE DUTCH LANGUAGE .
50
VIII. EXTERIOR OF DUTCH HOUSES 58
IX. INTERIOR OF DUTCH HOUSES 66
X. FURNITURE 79
XI. PREPARATION OF WINTER STORES 102
XII. COOKING UTENSILS 111
XIII. SILVER AND CHINA .
115
XIV. MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND PICTURES 127
XV. DRESS .
XVI. WEDDINGS
149
XVII. FUNERALS
152
XVIII. THE GRAVEYARD OF THE REFORMED DUTCH CHURCH 158
XIX. HEALTHFULNESS OF FLATBUSH, AND MORALITY OF THE INHABITANTS . 169
XX. FARMS AND THEIR OWNERS .
175
XXI. DOMESTIC SERVICE
249
XXII. AGRICULTURE .
269
121
8
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
XXIII. FRUITS AND VEGETABLES
277
XXIV. GARDENS, WILD FLOWERS, AND WOODS 284
XXV. VILLAGE ROADS 299
XXVI. CHURCHES IN FLATBUSH 305
XXVII. RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES 319
XXVIII. WAR OF THE REVOLUTION-1776 . 322
XXIX. WORK FOR THE SOLDIERS
327
XXX. TOWN-HALL 328
XXXI. OUR DUTCH FOREFATHERS 330
XXXII. MISS SALLY . 356
XXXIII. REST AFTER STRIFE 364
APPENDIX 370
THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF FLATBUSH.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
OUR Dutch ancestors were slow to accept innovations. It is probable that before the beginning of this century their manners and habits had remained for generations the same. Such is no longer the case. We need only go back a few years to find customs which have now ceased to exist. Neither Flatbush, nor any of the towns on Long Island settled by the Dutch from the Nether- lands, differ for that reason from other towns and vil- lages in the State.
Nearly every trace of Dutch descent has been swept away ; there only remain the reminiscences and tradi- tions, while the old family names mark the localities still, as the projecting peaks mark the submerged rock.
All that relates to home and kindred has its interest, especially when we know that the home is soon to be broken up and the ties of kindred sundered. In this we find our excuse for calling together the family circle of Dutch settlers in Kings County, to talk with them of changes which have taken place in social life, and to review customs and habits which are almost forgotten.
10
THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF FLATBUSH.
It seems presumptuous to dignify with the name of history this fragmentary account of old and familiar things ; perhaps we might offer it as the " landscape of the age" in which the actors of Dr. Strong's History lived. As such it may help us to understand some things which time is every day rendering more indis- tinct.
Dr. 'Stiles, in his history of Brooklyn, apologizes for giving comparatively unimportant minutiæ, with the plea that it is "for those who are to come after us, and to whom these matters may be to a considerable extent unattainable except through our pages." He con- tinues : " 'Posterity,' it has been said, 'delights in de- tails,' and to many of our readers themselves, if they should live to a good old age, years will bring a truer appreciation of the value of these little points, which are now unheeded in the rush and bustle of the active present."
We may plead in the same words for the many appar- ently unimportant things which we have related ; they may be so familiar now as to be almost unworthy the record, but they will grow in importance as the years pass on.
As one gathers a leaf or presses a flower from a spot which is full of pleasant memories, so we gather these leaves, and present them as memorials of the pleasant garden spot of which, in time, there will be little left save these mementoes which we here offer.
CHAPTER II.
EARLY SETTLEMENT OF KINGS COUNTY.
COMPARATIVELY few of the towns and cities of the United States have a history which extends far into the past. They are of to-day ; they glory in their rapid and vigorous growth. Last year there was the stillness of the unbroken forest ; this year is heard the pioneer's axe ; next year you may find a thriving and populous town.
Such is not the case with the villages of Kings County. Their place is among the earliest of Amer- ican settlements. The uncouth ships, which in slow and perilous voyages brought our ancestors from the Nether- lands, sailed at a time just after the second William of Orange had died, when De Witt was made Grand Pen- sionary of Holland, Oliver Cromwell held rule in Eng- land, and Louis XIV reigned in France.
As long ago as that, our ancestors left their homes in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, in Utrecht and Dor- drecht, in Leyden and Delft, and embarked in the ships that sailed from the ports of North Holland for the, as yet, unsettled shores of the New World.
They came of a race of soldiers and sailors ; they had fought against their Spanish oppressors, and had obtained the freedom they desired. They had wrestled
12
THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF FLATBUSH.
with the tides of the strong North Sea, and they had conquered their land from its dominion. The sailors among their people were found in every port and on every coast.
But these men came to the new world neither as sol- diers nor sailors, not even as traders ; agricultural pur- suit was their aim. They were attracted toward the new territory beyond the sea by the descriptions of the rich soil and the abundant harvests that repaid the culture of the unappropriated lands. They were not driven out by oppression, as were the Puritans ; for there was no country in the world that was so liberal as to religious opinions at that period, and so tolerant, as was Holland. They came, a hardy, energetic race, at the freedom of their own choice, in the strength of an independent manliness, to earn an honest living by their own indus- try. They brought their families with them and all their household effects ; for they looked forward to making the New World a permanent home for them- selves and their children.
Following the route taken by Hendrick Hudson, they steered toward the island called Manhattan, where al- ready the home government had offered inducements for them to settle, and from which friends had written beckoning letters. For a while they may have lingered among their countrymen there, but, casting their eyes southward toward the wooded heights beyond the swift- running river that divided Manhattan from the island called by the natives Seawanhacka, influenced by their agricultural proclivities, they sought a richer soil than New Amsterdam afforded.
And now the little towns began to spring up in the wilderness.
13
EARLY SETTLEMENT OF KINGS COUNTY.
In 1636 there were a few settlers along the shore line, and in time, as a house here and there appeared, their settlement got to be known as Breuckelen. In the same year Ex-Governor Van Twiller had a tobacco farm on the opposite shore ; and the houses that gathered in its vicinity, and the farms that gradually were brought un- der cultivation, became another town called Amersfoort, after the birthplace of the good patriot Oldenbarneveldt. Greatly must we regret the descriptive propensities that forced the original names of Amersfoort and Medwoud into Flatlands and Flatbush.
In 1643 the English held a patent from the Dutch, under allegiance to the States-General, and Governor Kieft calls their seaside home s'Gravensande (the Count's Beach), and Lady Moody introduced some English names and English blood into the settlement ; but the good Baxters and Hubbards and Stilwells intermarried with the Dutch after her ladyship went away, and s'Graven- sande became as thoroughly Dutch as any of us.
In 1654 some families from Holland, still following the coast line, took up their abode in another little settlement, in which they also commemorated their love for the fatherland by calling it New Utrecht. It was not until 1660, or later, that they obtained a patent, and the little town began to grow.
Midway between Amersfoort and Breuckelen in 1651 there lay a tract of land which gladdened the heart of the Hollander, because, with its level surface, it also gave promise of rich soil ; a small portion southward was even a level flat without trees. They soon found, however, that the densely wooded was the richer land. Here the farmers began their work of forming homes in the primeval forest by cutting down the great trees
14
THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF FLATBUSH.
of hickory and white oak and black oak. Perhaps it was in memory of the hard labor that the heavy timber cost them that they gave the name of Midwood to that little clearing. It lay on an inclined plane, elevated some fifty feet above the level of the ocean, toward which it gently sloped southward.
Thus it was that, looking here and there, and bar- gaining for patents or formal grants, and perhaps get- ting a little angry now and then, and having their plucky nature tried to the utmost by disputes between various claimants, and as to the limits of various boun- daries, they finally came, each one, into possession of a certain allotment of land, and here and there grew fam- ily homes, and under the names of Breuckelen, Med- woud, Amersfoort, Utrecht, and s'Gravensande appeared the five Dutch towns of Kings County.
Silas Wood, in his "Sketch of the First Settlement of Long Island," says that "the western part, if not the whole of it, was in a great measure bare of timber."
This may possibly be true of some portions of the island, but it was not true of Flatbush. Dr. Strong says that the "lands in and about Flatlands were level and free from woods"; but, in speaking of Flatbush, he says, "it comprised a tract of woodland bounded on the north by hills, on the south by Flatlands, and extend- ing east and west in one continual forest." Elsewhere he says : " At time of purchase it was heavily covered with timber."
In the orders and proclamations of the Governor to the different towns at various times there is inferential proof that Dr. Strong is correct, for in 1656 the inhab- itants of Flatbush were ordered to inclose their village with palisadoes, within the inclosure of which they re-
15
EARLY SETTLEMENT OF KINGS COUNTY.
tired for mutual protection during the night ; the first church was also fenced in with strong palisadoes.
A law was passed commanding the inhabitants of New Utrecht to cut down the belt of trees around their settlement, which formed a hiding-place for lurking sav- ages. Also in 1646 the people of the town of s'Graven- sande, by a vote of the first town meeting, ordered "every inhabitant to make poles of fence to inclose a common field of corn." In like manner, they voted in 1648 to make a common pasture for their calves. As these palisadoes were probably young trees, it would have been difficult to enforce these laws if the island had been so wholly destitute of timber.
In the Journal of the Labadists, translated by Hon. H. C. Murphy, they refer, in 1679, to the woods seen on approaching the land at the Narrows.
They distinctly mention passing through woods on their first visit to Breuckelen, and when they enjoy the hospitality of the settlers at Gowanus they make marked reference to the free use of fire-wood, which could scarcely have been the case unless the woodland had been not only abundant, but very accessible. They say : "We found a good fire, half way up the chimney, of clear oak and hickory, of which they make not the least scruple of burning profusely."
1
Hence we judge that the axe rather than the plow first gave employment to the settlers. To those who in the Netherlands had toiled hard to reclaim their land from the ocean, this must have been unaccustomed, but it could not have seemed like hopeless or discour- aging work. They were now to cultivate a wilderness that had never been plowed or planted before, but these men brought to the task the energy they had gained in
16
THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF FLATBUSH.
their labor among the dikes and dunes of Holland, and, because they came of a stalwart race, they were not afraid of work.
The west end of this island was described by Hen- drick Hudson's men as being " full of great tall oaks, and the lands were as pleasant with grass and flowers and goodly trees as they had ever seen, and very sweet smells came therefrom."
Surely the land " so pleasant with grass and flowers and goodly trees " has been true to the promise it gave to its discoverers, and has, for these two hundred years, borne rich harvests.
Under their careful cultivation, the beautiful gar- den and farming land of Kings County has supported many generations ; their industry has given it as a leg- acy to us, and we surely owe them the slight tribute which may be included in a recognition of their toil.
CHAPTER III.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE HOLLAND SETTLERS.
IT has been the fashion to laugh at the Dutch set- tlers. They have been held up to ridicule, and their manners and customs have been considered an excellent subject for a jest. But a caricature is not a true pic- ture ; it would be folly to consider that intended as a likeness which was acknowledged to be an exaggerated representation.
It has been said by a great historian that "the Eng- lish courtiers sneered at the honest Dutchmen of the Netherlands, whose virtues were a reproach to them and their king, and whose national prosperity caused them intense jealousy." That was in the distant past, but lingering echoes of these sneers long followed the Hollander ; perhaps they were heard the more dis- tinctly for the silence that followed, neither the Dutch- men in the Old World nor their descendants at a later period in the New pausing amid their industries to lis- ten and retort.
Honesty, industry, economy, prudence, self-reliance, truthfulness, patience, and forbearance were character- istics of these people ; but, as some one has wisely said, " these are not flashy virtues, they are not even attrac- tive to thoughtless youth, and they are despised thor-
2
18
THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF FLATBUSH.
oughly by reckless adventurers. Nevertheless, they are the virtues which make good and happy homes, a sta- ble government, and a prosperous community." Such were the characteristics of these men, and upon these as a foundation they laid the corner-stone of their home in the New World.
"The New Englanders," says a popular writer, " have had full justice done to their colonial and their subsequent enterprising achievements in building up the new republic of America. ... With the people of Holland it is different, and until recently compara- tively little has been known in this country of their national heroic history and character."
When Motley, the great historian of the Dutch re- public, placed before the world the national history of our ancestors, he laid us, in common with all others of Dutch descent, under infinite obligations to the culture of New England that produced the historian so entirely worthy of this theme. We find it now easier to prove that these original settlers of our Dutch towns were not the boors which they are sometimes called, because it has been shown to the world that, in the country from which they came, "political and religious freedom was most highly prized, popular education nearly universal, and regard for law and order was most profound ; where the rewards of industry were widely shared, the neces- sities of life most abundantly secured, and the blessings of civilization were equally diffused."
We have every reason to believe that the Dutch de- sired to perpetuate the political and religious freedom to which they had been accustomed ; for, says Brod- head, speaking of the colony, "Up to this time (1688) New York had always been differently governed from
CHARACTERISTICS OF HOLLAND SETTLERS. 19
any other British American colony. She had never been a chartered or a corporate government under Dutch or English authority. Her eclectic people never wished to be ruled by incorporated oligarchies like those of New England. What they desired, and what for a season they enjoyed, was a 'Charter of Liberties,' secur- ing to every inhabitant a share in local legislation, free- dom of conscience, and equality of all modes of Chris- tianity. While a Dutch province, New York, with the comprehensive liberality of her fatherland, had invited strangers of every race and creed to nestle among her own early colonists."
When Governor Stuyvesant undertook to drive the Quakers from the colony, he was reprimanded by a let- ter from the Dutch West India Company in 1663, in which it is asserted that "the consciences of men ought to be free and unshackled." Furman says that this is the only instance in which the Dutch colonial govern- ment attempted to exile a man for his religious princi- ples. It is said that in after-years the old Dutch Gov- ernor admitted his mistake, and offered as his excuse that he thought it was intended to make political use of the liberty sought.
The Dutch Government refused to recognize witch- craft or to inflict the death penalty upon those who were suspected by others; in this respect they were surely in advance of an age which gave the fullest cre- dence to this superstition, and persecuted unto death the poor victims who might be suspected.
The Rev. George W. Bethune, D. D., said, in speak- ing of Holland : "The world, especially this country, owes Holland a large debt of gratitude for the earliest lessons of modern freedom, the foremost lessons of re-
20
THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF FLATBUSH.
ligious toleration, and the finest exhibition of the influ- ence which general education and simple religious hab- its have upon the character and happiness of a people."
Another writer on colonial times, speaking of the Dutch settlers, says : "If there be any who, in looking back to the period and persons we are sketching, feel a sort of compassion for their supposed inferior chances and lower development, we advise them to spare their benevolence and apply it where it would be more truly needed. The comparison of merit between the inhabit- ants here during the last century, or of the years pre- vious, with the present time and all its vaunted educa- tional and fashionable advantages, is not a whit in favor of our own day in all the important respects that make manly and womanly excellence."
We may question the educational advantages of that period if the writer has reference to those derived from books and study, schools and colleges ; but there are other sources for the development of character, and these may have had greater power and efficiency in pro- ducing a sturdy manhood then than many of the mold- ing influences to which young men and women in this age are subjected.
As to the religious training, its results upon charac- ter may have been as efficient as that of to-day. It was certainly all that the age could give. The fruit of October may have been advanced by the May sunshine proportionately with the more perceptible mellowing of the August heat.
The Dutch were a religious people. They prized highly the services of the sanctuary, and established their churches with their first settlement. In New York as early as 1626 they assembled together for wor-
CHARACTERISTICS OF HOLLAND SETTLERS. 21
ship, and for forty years theirs was the only church in that settlement. At the recent quarter-millennial an- niversary of the Collegiate Church, the dates upon the walls, interwoven with flowers, were 1628-1878.
Even before the new colony was supplied with a minister, his duties were undertaken by men known as "Krank-besoeckers," or " Ziekentroosters," i. e., con- solers of the sick, whose duty it was also to read the Scriptures to the people on Sunday.
As to the estimation in which they held learning, Brodhead says : "Neither the perils of war, nor the busy pursuit of gain, nor the excitement of political strife, ever caused the Dutch to neglect the duty of ed- ucating their offspring to enjoy that freedom for which their fathers had fought. Schools were everywhere pro- vided, at the public expense, with good schoolmasters to instruct the children of all classes in the usual branches of education."
A church was built in Flatbush as early as 1654, and we have the records of schoolmasters from 1659; but there was a school even before this date. This early attention to the education of the children is what we might expect of settlers from a country which, says Charles Sumner, " is placed in the very front rank as the land which first established common schools, and threw the doors of its universities open to all." "And," says another historian, speaking of this time, "it is not too much to say that they [the inhabitants of the Nether- lands] were far in advance of all other nations in every element of civilization, whether material, intellectual, artistic, moral, or religious."
Says T. W. Field, writing of Brooklyn and its vicin- ity : "In every town of the New Netherlands which
22
THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF FLATBUSH.
was settled under the Dutch Government a school was established, which was taught by a competent teacher under a license of the Government, which paid him a small salary in addition to his other emoluments. .. . After the conquest by the English in 1664 the teachers received no salary from the Government, which did little to encourage education. . .. The liberality of the pa- ternal Dutch Government was thus strongly contrast- ed with the stinginess of the English authorities, who never dreamed of such extravagance as paying salaries to teachers."
T. G. Bergen says that this liberality was not that of the paternal Dutch Government, but of the Dutch Church.
Furman says, in reference to this, that Governor Stuyvesant recommended a suitable person for the schoolmaster in Breuckelen, because they regarded it as being so important, not only " to establish schools, but to secure the service of proper men to conduct them," and therefore they would select no one unless " the Gov- ernor was satisfied of his competency." Furman adds, speaking of schools among the Dutch, "With them it was a cardinal principle to diffuse the means of educa- tion as widely as possible."
The prestige of the Latin School of Dordrecht was such that, in 1635, it was considered the best in north- western Europe.
The advantages for obtaining an education in the Netherlands were so general that the most of those who came from there to settle here could read and write. They brought not only their great Dutch Bibles and Psalm-books with them, but many a little parchment- covered volume, in heavy black-letter, with here and
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