A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 137

Author: Ross, Peter. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1188

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With the return of the British power and the advent of Governor Andrus upon the scene the "Duke's laws" were again enforced, even more rigidly than before. Under Gov- ernor Dongan, the great charter monger, in 1685, the town, much against the will of a majority of its people, was compelled to take out a new charter. It seems to have taken three years of negotiations to perfect an in- strument which was thoroughly satisfactory to Hempstead, and probably the gift which the people gave to Dongan of a plantation of 650 acres had something to do with directing his mind in the right direction on many mooted points of boundary and in the township's an- nual tax being placed at twenty bushels of good winter wheat or four pounds of good current money,-a reasonable enough impost.

From that time until the outbreak of the Revolutionary struggle there is little to tell of the civil history of Hempstead. In 1702 the Colonial Assembly proposed to erect a public school in its bounds. About that same year the Episcopalians organized a congrega- tion in Hempstead,-represented by the pres- ent St. George's Church,-and, as was then

customary, took possession of the meeting- house and manse of the Presbyterians.

In 1775, when the crisis with the mother country became acute, Hempstead was pro- nouncedly against any change in the relations between the crown and the colonies, and a public meeting held on April 4th pledged re- newed allegiance to King George III and de- clined to send deputies to any provincial con- gress or assembly. It seems, however, to have changed its views so far as to elect Thomas Hicks and Richard Thorne to represent it in the provincial congress, but Hicks refused to at- tend, saying that Hempstead wanted to remain peaceable and quiet. Under the circumstances we can understand its becoming a favorite hunting ground for Tories in the days imme- diately preceding the landing of the British forces in 1776. Colonel Heard and the other Continental raiders captured many stacks of arms and stores of ammunition in Hempstead and sent many of the local Tories into exile. That, however, did not win the inhabitants over to the side of the patriots, and although under orders from the Whig leaders, it con- tributed several companies to the Queens county militia under the redoubtable Colonel John Sands, the heroes composing the regi- ment were found to be of little avail when the real hour of trial came and stern service was demanded.

But when that time came, when the British were in possession of the island and Hemp- stead was overrun with redcoats, the people found small comfort in their Toryism. The soldiers rode roughshod over Whig and Tory alike, helped themselves to produce and prov- ender without stint and paid prices of their own choosing, burned up fences and barns for firewood, robbed orchards and farm buildings without fear, turned the Presbyterian meeting- house into a barracks, and even desecrated the interior of St. George's Church (built in 1733), although the rector, the Rev. Leonard Cutting, was pronounced in his Toryism, so much so that when the war was over he was.

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forced to abandon his charge summarily and secretly.

At the time of the Revolution Hempstead village consisted probably of a dozen dwell- ings and the English and Presbyterian meet- ing-houses, and its progress was slow, the progress of a hamlet without any interests to attract the outside world. When Mr. Cutting summarily left the parish with the departure of the British, his place was filled by the Rev. Thomas Lambert Moore, a native of England, who seems to have developed into a most loyal American soon after his arrival in this coun- try. He was one of those who took part in the church proceedings necessary when the civil government had thrown off the English yoke to make the Episcopalian body equally independent of the authorities in London. In the old Prayer Book which had been sent to St. George's as a gift along with a com- munion set, presumably from Queen Anne, he pasted in new prayers for the President and United States authorities in place of those com- mending the British King and royal family and Parliament. In this church, in 1785, the first ordination in the American Episcopal Church took place, when John Lowe was ad- mitted to holy orders. Lowe was a native of Scotland, a man of many fine qualities, and, having received a university training, was for a time employed as tutor in the family of a wealthy landed proprietor in Galloway, not far from the English border. He fell in love with one of the young ladies of the family, and it is said she reciprocated his affection, but some- how the hoped-for marriage never took place. While the billing and cooing was going on one of the sisters of the young lady dreamed that she saw her sweetheart, a ship surgeon, and that the wraith had told her that the ship with all on board had gone down, and urged her not to weep for him, as she would soon join him in the other world. After many months it was learned that the lover had actually been drowned at sea. On hearing the dream related Lowe went to his room and wrote the following beautiful lines :

The moon had climbed the highest hill Which rises o'er the source of Dee. And from the eastern summit shed

Her silver light o'er tower and trec; When Mary laid her down to sleep, Her thoughts on Sandy far at sea ; When, soft and low, a voice was heard, Saying, "Mary, weep no more for me!"

She from her pillow gently raised Her head, to ask who there might be; And saw young Sandy shivering stand, With visage pale and hollow e'e ; "O Mary, dear! cold is my clay- It lies beneath a stormy sea ;

Far, far from thee, I shall sleep in death- So, Mary, weep no more for me!

"Three stormy nights and stormy days We tossed upon the raging main, And long we strove our bark to save, But all our striving was in vain. Even then, when horror chilled my blood, My heart was filled with love for thee: The storm is past, and I at rest, So, Mary, weep no more for me!

"Oh, maiden dear, thyself prepare, We soon shall meet upon that shore, Where love is free from doubt and care, And thou and I shall part no more." Loud crowed the cock, the shadow fled, No more of Sandy could she see ; But soft the passing spirit said, "Sweet Mary, weep no more for me!"

This song. the only piece of poetry Lowe wrote that is worth reading, has won for him an honored place among the minor poets of his native land. When his love passage ended Lowe came to this country and stud- ied for holy orders, which resulted in his ordination in St. George's Church. He after- ward went to Virginia, made an unfortunate marriage. fell into dissipated habits, and died at Fredericksburg in 1798. Mr. Moore was a most successful pastor, and under his care the congregation became the most flourishing of

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any in the township. Under him a new rectory was built in 1793, a large, commodious dwell- ing, and many important improvements were effected in the church building itself. In 1799 Mr. Moore passed away, and was suc- ceeded by the Rev. J. H. Hobart, who after- ward became Bishop of New York, and the ministry has since been held by a succession of talented divines, several of whom have been prominent in the affairs of the church at large.

The Methodist congregation was organized about 1812, the people meeting in each other's houses until 1816, when a house was rented and fitted up for service. In 1820 they built their first church, a small structure on the site which is now occupied by the building now in use.

With the beginning of the past century Hempstead village cominenced slowly to grow, for it became noted as a place of summer resi- dence and many people from New York began spending a season there, and as a result quite a number of attractive homes were added to it year after year. Communication with Brook- lyn was maintained by means of stages, and until the advent of the railroad Hempstead had a regular service of three stages in each week. The streets are lined with trees and are well and cleanly kept, and up to the pres- ent day, when it is credited with a population of nearly 4,000, it still retains many of the rural features which made it so attractive in the past and which half a century ago en- abled it to start on its modern era of pros- perity. It is a residential town, its manufac- tures amounting to little in a business way, and it depends to a great extent on the trade which comes to it from the needs of the villa residents and its summer population. It has all modern improvements in the way of gas, electricity, macadamized roads and social feat- ures of the highest class. Near it the Meadow Brook and Farm Kennel Clubs have their headquarters, and attract to it year after year many hundreds of people representative of what are called the foremost classes in New

York City's aristocratic circles. On the out- break of the late war with Spain Hempstead came prominently before the people of the State, for about to the north of it was located Camp Black, where for many months several thousand volunteers were housed and drilled in readiness to be sent to the front or into active service according to the requirements of the War Department. Had the war lasted any length of time there is no doubt that Camp Black would have been retained as a military depot, but the rapid victories of the American forces on land and sea brought hostilities to a more speedy conclusion than had been an- ticipated, and the camp was abandoned and has since been "a waste of furze and brush."

In point of historic antiquity the settle- ment in the township which dates closest to that of Hempstead village is that of Jerusalem, now a hamlet which has lost all its former prestige and pre-eminence and has apparently been forgotten. It is on the border line of Oyster Bay township, the creek known as Jerusalem River separating it from that ter- ritory. When the exodus from Stamford which peopled Hempstead took place, in 1644, one of the immigrants, Captain John Sea- man, and Robert Jackson purchased on their own account 1,500 acres of land from the In- dian's and settled upon it with their families. Their houses, as usual, were placed almost side by side, and after a time the dwellings of their children (Captain Seaman had eight sons and eight daughters, it is said, while Jackson had two sons and two daughters) made up quite a village a few hundred feet east of the Jerusalem River. Additions to the real estate holdings were made from time to time until the village terri- tory included some 6,000 acres, -. some of it the most fertile land on Long Island. De- scendants of these pioneers are to be found all over Long Island, and many have held high positions on the bench, in the learned professions, in Congress, and in the military service of the United States.

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The Seamans and Jacksons and their col- lateral branches devoted themselves to agri- culture, and the settlement would have passed on without attracting much attention but for the fact that it became one of the gathering places of the Long Island Quakers. The Sea- man family, or many of them, early adopted the tenets held by these "peculiar people," as they were then described by those who described them most tenderly ; and for nearly a century, from 1697 until 1793, regular meetings for worship were held in one or other of the Sea- man homes at more or less regular intervals. A regular meeting-house was built in 1827, and there Ardon Seaman preached and labored until his death, in 1875. By that time, how- ever, the Society of Friends had lost its hold in the vicinity, many of the old settlers moved away, the land through a long series of years of mismanagement had lost its fertility, and the new settlers who came in belonged to other communions. So the meeting place was abandoned, and with its passing Jerusalem be- gan to fade. Early in the nineteenth century, when it was seen that the land was losing its original fertility, an effort was made to in- troduce manufactures, a grist mill and a paper mill were built, and long afterward a tannery and wood mill were introduced, but none of them made much headway. It seems a pity that a place so full of treasured memories should pass into oblivion, but such seems to be the fate in store for Jerusalem unless a change speedily sets in, and of that there is yet no sign.

The crowning glory of Hempstead is Gar- den City, which was founded in 1869 by Alex- ander Turney Stewart, long the most noted of New York's merchant princes. A shrewd, far- seeing and wonderfully successful man in his business, Stewart, when wealth came to him, engaged in schemes which he deemed philan- thropic and which at the same time were likely to return to him the money actually expended on them. He gave several large donations in charity, but as a general rule he had no con-

ception of giving away money in the fashion of more modern millionaires. He was ready to help a public enterprise with his means, willing to inaugurate an undertaking which was to benefit the people, but he wanted some return for the money expended. For instance, one of his schemes was the erection of a hotel solely for women in New York, by which he thought he could benefit the hundreds of pro- fessional women in the great city and the hun- dreds of women who visited it from day to day, and at the same time gain five or six per cent. on the money he should invest in it. The hotel was built, but its restrictions were such that no one was satisfied, and it was soon abandoned.

So, too, he conceived the idea of erecting a town which would in its way be a model community, a little republic, a revival in nine- teenth century days of the old theocratic set- tlements. It would be far enough away from New York to keep away excursion parties, its land should be common property, should not be sold outright, and even the houses would be built by the corporation and only leased to the settlers. It would be a complete community within itself, make and enact its own laws, have a large hotel capable of ac- commodating the most refined travelers, wide streets, superb schools, and all manner of mod- ern improvements and equipments. Every- thing would be hedged about with restrictions, the place would be exclusive and refined, and the entire community should so commend itself that it would be regarded as a garden spot,- `a veritable Eden. With these notions of town building Mr. Stewart looked about for a site, and in 1869 selected a plot of 7,170 acres on the historic Hempstead plain, not far from the old village, for which he paid to the township $394.350. By an act of Legislature this money was to be invested and the proceeds devoted to educational purposes in the town he pro- posed to establish and for the support of its poor, should it have any poor.

So the place received the name of Garden

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City, was surveyed, cut up into streets and avenues, the hotel was built, houses were erect- ed, but the people did not flock in. Ameri- cans do not like to be hampered by restric- tions, and the class of people he aimed at se- curing preferred to own their country homes outright, and it seemed as though Garden City would end in being regarded as a merchant's folly. For two or three years its main pur- pose was to advance the price of Hempstead real estate and to afford the land boomers a chance to throw into the market other tracts of the great plain. Stewart died in 1876, be- fore he had time to fully mature his plans for the success of the new town, but it is difficult to understand how the policy he had outlined, and which he would have clung to with all the dogged pertinacity of his nature, would have ended in anything but failure.

But with his death a change came over Garden City. Many of his foolish restrictions were quietly thrown aside and the town was permitted to grow on the regular lines of sup- ply and demand. But the demand would have been slow had not his widow designed to make the town a memorial of her husband. She determined to build in it a grand cathedral, rivalling in size and beauty some of the great European religious shrines and to associate with it a school whose educational advantages should be unsurpassed. Some have averred that the cathedral and school were but a part of A. T. Stewart's original scheme, but that is merely surmise. The millionaire left the bulk of his vast estate to his wife untrammeled by obligations, and the cathedral, the school and the bishop's palace were hier free offering, and all she asked in return was that the group of buildings should become the seat of the Bishop of Long Island and that the crypt of the cathedral should be the last resting place of her own body and that of her husband, whose memory she thus desired to honor. Mrs. Stewart's purposes were heartily approved by Bishop Littlejohn and his clergy, architects were set to work and plans prepared, and on

June 28, 1877, the corner-stone of the cathedral was laid by the Bishop with imposing cere- monies. The following description of the cathedral and school is from the pen of the Rev. Dr. T. S. Downe :

The plan of the edifice is cruciform, with tower and spire, baptistery, organ apse, crypt and mausoleum. The style employed is deco- rated gothic of the thirteenth century, but the architect has given freshness and independence to the treatment by adopting the foliage and flowers of this country, and following nature rather than the old and stiff conventional forms. Unusual beauty and grace are attained in this manner in all the carved work of the triforium, capitals, bosses and corbels, which furnish everywhere varied and pleasing sub- jects for study. The exterior is constructed of Bellville (New Jersey) stone, and the interior of Berlin (Ohio) stone, with the use of native and foreign marbles in the pavement, chancel steps, baptistery and mausoleum. The pro- portions of the building are admirable, the extreme length measuring 190 feet, width of the transept including the porches 109 feet, of the nave and aisles 52 feet. The choir and chancel are 60 feet deep, separated by mar- ble steps, with the bishop's throne on the north side and the dean's on the south. The tower, which is monumental in character, with bold buttresses, ornate gablets and pinnacles, is 124 feet high; and the delicately tapering spire, crocketed and surmounted by a large illumi- nated cross of colored gems, is 97 feet, making the whole height 221 feet. In the upper stage of the tower is hung the chime of bells, thirteen in number, exhibited.at the Centennial exhibi- tion in Philadelphia, from the noted McShane foundry in Baltimore. The spiret of the bap- tistery is beautiful in design and workmanship, with its flying buttresses and pierced belfry ; and from the aisle walls also spring flying but- tresses to the nave, giving lightness and ele- gance to the general effect of the exterior, while the cornices are enriched with gargoyles and pinnacles. The roof is slated, and finished at the apex with a bronze crest, bearing a crown at the junction of the nave and tran- septs, and a cross over the chancel.

In the interior the work is equally elaborate and carefully finished. The baptistery is con- nected with the choir and transept by large arches, filled with elegant stone tracery, and is finished with columns of variegated foreign

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marbles, with capitals of statuary marble ex- quisitely carved, supporting the gothic groin- ing of the dome above. Around the walls runs a wainscoting of statuary marble with panels of vert antique. In the center of the inlaid marble pavement stands the white mar- ble font, adorned with appropriate symbols and figures, and covered by a rich canopy. The seats of the bishop and dean as well as the stalls of the clergy in the ante-chancel are of mahogany, with elaborately carved canopies ; and in the sanctuary the stalls and canopies are of carved stone, as well as the piscina and credence. On a platform of raised steps stands the altar, constructed of the purest statuary marble, with panels presenting in bold relief the chief events of our Lord's incarnate life, with their prophetical types in the old dispensa- tion. The pavement of this portion of the edi- fice is a rich mosaic of colored marbles. In the choir and transepts are large niches for appropriate figures, executed in marble.

The crypt is connected with the choir and nave by staircases, and contains a large chapel, with a spacious hall and vestibules of carved oak filled with panels of stained glass. At the west end under the choir is another smaller chapel, and adjoining it the mausoleum, which is polygonal in form, having 14 bays, wrought in the most elegant manner in statuary marble, with clustered columns of the costliest Euro- pean marbles at each angle of the walls, sup- porting the vaulting and its pendant crown. The symmetry and variety of the columnar treatment, the exquisite finish of the floriated capitals, corbels and mullions, all of which are separate studies, the stained glass present- ing the story of our Lord's passion, death and resurrection, the graceful statuary and the massive sarcophagus all combine to render this mortuary temple a triumph of architectural genius.

The architect is Henry G. Harrison, of No. 67 William street, New York, and the contract- or James H. L'Hommedieu, of Great Neck, Long Island. The stained glass of the crypt is from the manufactory of Colgate, New York; and that of the mausoleum and the cathedral itself from the celebrated London firms of Hea- ton, Butler & Bayne, and Clayton & Bell. When completed the edifice will have cost $1,000,000.

The organ, built by H. L. Roosevelt, of New York, ranks among the largest, and in several respects is one of the most remarkable in the world. It has four manual keyboards,

and one pedal keyboard, and comprises one hundred and twenty speaking stops and about eight thousand pipes. Though placed in dif- ferent parts of the cathedral, it is all played from one key box, situated in the choir, the remote portions being connected by cables of electric wire, over twenty miles of which are used for this purpose. The main body of the instrument is in an octagonal chamber built on the north side of the choir for this purpose. The next largest portion is at the other end of the building, in the stage of the tower im- mediately below the chimes and separated from the church by a stained glass window, which is opened and shut from one of the swell pedals in the choir by means of electricity. A third part is in the chapel under the nave, and can be played there from its own keyboard for chapel services. A fourth, above the ceiling, is called the Echo organ, and is played also from the choir. Two other portions are on cither side of the choir. The chimes are also played from the solo manual by electricity, or from a separate keyboard in the tower. The combination pedals are so arranged that the organist can change any combination to suit himself, small knobs being placed above the drawstops for this purpose. Three steam en- gines, located in different parts of the building, are employed to work the bellows. The cost of the instrument, which was not completed at the time of writing, was over $60,000, and the ornately carved mahogany cases cost about $30,000 additional.

Relative to the site of the cathedral a writer in the Sanitarian remarks :

"The setting of this gem of the pure gothic order of architecture, instead of being in arid metropolitan streets, is in a locality which will yet have a world-wide reputation for all that is most attractive to the eye and grateful to refined taste in landscape and architectural beauty, and all the luxury that wealth can ac- cumulate in its surroundings. Approached by any of the various lines of railway, or by the substantial and well kept carriage roads, worthy of the appellation sometimes given them of 'Roman roads,' the cathedral seems firmly planted upon an elevated plateau, with gently rolling surface, here and there broken by valleys sweeping in graceful curves, robed in green, and enlivened by flowers and crystal

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fountains, shaded with trees luxuriant in growth and of every variety known to the climate, fanned by delicious breezes, invigorat- ing and exhilarating to both body and brain, and elevating to the soul."

We may appropriately close our sketch of this noble edifice with the following eloquent passage from the address of the Rev. Dr. Snively at the laying of the corner stone :

"From this home of reverent worship and this center of earnest work there shall go con- stantly the messengers of peace on earth and good will to men, and in the Master's name and work shall kindle upon unseen altars the flame that shall illumine the world. And this cathedral, which at once enshrines the memory of the departed and gives untold efficiency to the missionary capabilities of the church, shall be both the instrumentality and the prototype of that sublime spiritual temple erected of human souls and cemented by a living faith- a temple which gathers its stones from many quarries, and hews its timbers from the forests of many lands, and which, without the noise of axe or hammer or saw, is rising through the centuries to its glorious consummation in Jesus Christ, its chief Head and Corner-stone.

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A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 137

Author: Ross, Peter. cn Publication date: 1902 Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1188

Author: Ross, Peter. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1188