A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 18

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 exception of young Walter these sons contributed largely to the industrial prog- ress of Queens county. In 1816 John H. Jones, in company with William M. Hewlett, built a woolen factory at Cold Spring ; and in 1820 John H. built another one, this time in partnership with his brothers, William H. and Walter R., at a cost of $12,500. They soon acquired possession of the first and managed both with marked success. Walter R. was a man of superior business qualities. He en- gaged in many business enterprises and was uniformly successful in them all. His greatest achievement, possibly, was in connection with the Atlantic Mutual Marine Insurance Com- pany, which he built up into a most influential and wealthy corporation, and of which he was president for many years. On his death, April 5, 1855, he was succeeded in that office by his nephew, John Divine Jones, son of John H. Jones, and who was born at Cold Spring Au- gust 15, 1814. Mr. John D. Jones has proved a liberal patron of many of New York's public institutions, such as the Historical Society, while to the Protestant Episcopal church his gifts have been generous and unostentatious. He married, June 9, 1852, Josephine Kath- arine Floyd-Jones, daughter of General Henry Floyd-Jones.

Charles H. Jones, the youngest of the fam-

ily of John and Hannah Jones, married Eliza G., a granddaughter of John Gardiner of Gardiner's Island, July 12, 1838. He made his home on the old family farm. For a time he had the management of considerable brick- yard property, in which his brother, Joshua T., was interested at the time of his death. In all his business relations he was most for- tunate, but his domestic life was clouded by a succession of bereavements. Of his four chil- dren only the youngest, Mary Elizabeth, sur- vived him. She married, in 1873, Dr. Oliver Livingston Jones, son of Oliver H. Jones and grandson of her father's eldest brother, Will- iam H. Jones. They have a family of three children : Louise E., born September 18, 1875; Charles Herbert, born December 18, 1877; and Oliver Livingston, Jr., born April 1, 1880. Dr. Jones in 1871 succeeded to his father's property at Laurelton, on the west side of Cold Spring Harbor, and quickly developed it into a prosperous resort. The last years of Charles H. Jones' life were spent in a magnificent man- sion, built by his brother, Walter Restored. In it he preserved many portraits and relics of the family and no scion of Knighthood days was more proud of his ancient pedigree and its associated heirlooms. He died Jan- uary 23, 1882.

William, the second son of William Jones and Phœbe Jackson, may also be referred to here as having .founded a family which is still prominent in and around Oyster Bay. He was born October 4, 1771, and became a farmer at Cold Spring Harbor. By his wife, Kezia, daughter of Captain Daniel Youngs, of Oyster Bay, he had a family of nine children: Sam- uel W., David W., Cornelia Haring, Susan Maria, Elbert W., Eleanor, Hannah, Amelia and Daniel. All of these except Elbert W., who died in his twenty-first year, married and had families. From the rank he held in a local militia company William Jones was known generally by his title of major. In 1816 he was elected a member of the State Legis- lature and was re-elected with one exception

SOME OLD FAMILIES IN QUEENS AND KINGS.

each succeeding term until 1825, when he de- clined further service. He died September 16, 1853.

His second son, David W., was the literary man of the family. He succeeded to a por- tion of his father's property and acquired a more than usual measure of success as a farmer. Under the nom de plume of "Long Island" he wrote largely for the "Spirit of the Times," once the leading American country newspaper, and he contributed to Henry W. Herbert's (Frank Forester's) work on "The Horse and Horsemanship in the United States," etc. He was born May 3, 1793, mar- ried Dorothy Adams, a native of England, July 4, 1822, and died July 6, 1877, in his eighty- seventh year. He left a family of five sons : Edmund (unmarried), Robert (died 1868), Charles, Elbert and David The latter married, in 1870, Julia W. Nelson, a grand- daughter of General Nathaniel Coles, and re- sided at the homestead erected by his father.

By way of change we may now be justi- fied, instead of following the fortunes of a family, in taking up the story of a piece of land and tracing the fortunes of its owners for nearly two centuries, by this method not only illustrating the fortunes of a number of old families but keeping in front the story of the land, the possession of which in the main gave these same families the power in the community which they successively wielded. We begin our present study with the text, so to speak, of a piece of land lying beside Brook- lyn Ferry and extending for a distance toward the Wallabout. We begin at the time when from the Manhattan shore all that was seen on the Long Island shore was a few scattered farms, while behind these stretched an un- known wilderness crowded with game, and from which emerged at times only the red men bent on murder or trade, to barter with the farmer, or complain about his encroachı- ments and double dealing.

In 1630 Wolfert Gerretse (Kouwenhoven, Couwenhoven, or Cowenhoven) emigrated to America from Amersfoort, Utrecht Province,

Netherlands, with his family, and seems to have at once entered the employment of the then Patroon of Rensselaerswick as superin- tendent of farms. He afterward worked a farm on Manhattan island, and in 1637 pur- chased a tract of land from the Indians in Flat- bush and Flatlands. He subsequently con- siderably increased his holdings and was evi- dently a thrifty, peaceable citizen. He died about 1660, leaving three sons,-Gerret (the ancestor of the Flatlands Cowenhovens), Jacob and Peter. The latter was a brewer on High [Pearl] street, New York, and in 1665 was appointed Surveyor General of the Col- ony. He was also a man of war, and in 1663 as a lieutenant took part in the Indian cam- paign at Esopus [Kingston]. From him are descended the Cowenhovens of Gloucester county, New Jersey.

We are more interested here with the sec- ond son, Jacob, Jacob Wolfertse, as he was generally called in the old Dutch style, who was born in Holland and came to this country with his father. He was in business in New Amsterdam as a brewer, and also did business as a trader with Albany, owning a sloop which plied between that town and New Amsterdam, but does not seem to have made money, for on one occasion a bouwerie he owned in Graves- end was ordered sold to pay his debts. Still he appears to have been a man of considerable public spirit, well regarded by his fellows, and a stanch member of the Dutch church. He died in 1670. On July 6, 1643, Jacob re- ceived a grant from Governor Kieft of a piece of land on the East River shore of Long Island. It was described as: "Bounded north by west by Cornelius Dircksen, ferryman's land, stretching from said ferryman's land east by south along the river 56 rods, and along ditto into the woods, south by east, 132 rods ; in breadth in rear in the woods 40 rods, and on the east side, north by east till to the river 120 rods, amounting to 10 morgen and 48 rods."

As near as may be determined for prac- tical purposes, this property commenced at the

HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

present site of Fulton Ferry and stretched along between the present Front and Water streets (the shore line in the olden time) and extended up the Jamaica Road (Fulton street ) from the shore until the present junction of Front and Fulton streets. The ferry at that time was in itself a little settlement. Cornelis Dircksen, the ferryman, seems to have had a tavern near Peck Slip in New Amsterdam and ran the ferry as an adjunct to his trade. He received in 1643 a grant of a triangular piece of land, measuring about two morgens, from the Director General. Dircksen was a sort of land speculator and seems to have bought what land he could get near the ferry and subdi- vided it, when he could not resell in a lump, in small parcels suitable for a dwelling and a garden. In 1643 he bought from Willianı Thomassen a farm of seventeen morgens at the ferry, paying therefor 2,300 guilders, and so secured the ferriage rights, such as they then were. In 1652 he sold two morgens and sixty- seven and one-half rods to Cornelis de Potter. In 1654 Egbert Borsum obtained a grant of two lots at the ferry, and was lessee of the river transportation business in the same year.

We will return to this subject more fully when telling the story of the ferry system, but enough has been presented here to show how easily and frequently larger and small parcels of land changed hands even in those primitive times. The home seeking population was then in the minority on the west end of the island and people went there with the primal inten- tion of making money, not of founding fanlı- ilies. Jacob Wolfertse did not long retain his valuable piece of property,-it seemed the most valuable on Long Island even at that time,- for in 1645 it was in possession of Henry Breser, who seems to have been a merchant and land speculator. In 1651 he rented the property to Jan Hendrickson Stillman and Thomas Stephense, and the same year he sold it to Cornelius de Potter, for 1,125 guilders. De Potter, who was a magistrate at Flatlands, died about 1660, and left the property in ques- tion to his daughter, Adriaentye, who married

Jan Aardz Middagh, by which time it had extended to some two hundred acres "lying east of Fulton Ferry and Fulton street." Jan seems to have remained in possession until his death, about 1710. From that time until the property came into the possession of John Rapalye several years prior to the Revolution, it seems impossible to trace its transmission.

The Rapalye family is descended from Joris Jansen, who came to this country from Hol- land in 1623. He resided first at Albany, with his wife Catalyntje. There was born their first' child, Sarah, on June 9, 1623, who has often been described as the first white child born in Brooklyn. On June 16, 1637, he obtained a patent for 167 morgens of land at the Walla- bout and there settled and became a man of much local importance. In 1641 he was one of the twelve Select Men chosen to sit in Coun- cil with Governor Kieft, and restrained for a time that doughty representative of their High Mightinesses from proceeding to extremities with the Indians. For over a decade he was a magistrate of Brooklyn and died in 1665 full of years and honor. His family consisted of : I. Sarah, married (first) Hans Hansen Bergen, (second) Tunis Gysbertse Bogart.

2. Marretje, born March 16, 1627, mar- ried Michael Paulus Vandervoort.

3. Jannetje, born August 18, 1629, mar- ried Ren Jansen Vanderbeeck.

4. Judith, born July 5, 1635, married Peter Pietersen Van Nest.

5. Jan, born August 28, 1637, died Jan- uary 25, 1663.

6. Jacob, born May 28, 1639, killed by Indians.

7. Catelyntje, born March 28, 1641, mar- ried Jeremias Jansen Van Westerhout.

8. Jeronemus, born June 27, 1643, mar- ried Anna, daughter of Tunis Nyssen or Denyse, succeeded to his father's property at the Wallabout and resided there until his death, about 1695. He bequeathed his estate to his son Jeronimus, who in turn devised it to his daughter, Antie, wife of Martin M. Schenck, of Flatlands.

SOME OLD FAMILIES IN QUEENS AND KINGS.

9. Annetje, born February 8, 1646, mar- ried (first) Martin Ryerse, (second) Joost France.

IO. Elizabeth, born March 26, 1648, mar- ried Dick Cornelise Hoogland.

II. Daniel, born December 29, 1650, mar- ried Sarah, daughter of Abraham Klock, and resided in Brooklyn probably on farm land set off from the paternal estate. He was an ensign in the Brooklyn militia company in 1673 and lieutenant in 1700.

of this family, and his wealth made him its most noted member so long as he resided in Brooklyn. In another place we will speak more fully of the personal fortunes of John Rapalye, and it may here suffice to say briefly that the land passed from his hands after the Revolution, and by the operation of the law of attainder became vested in the Commis- sioners duly appointed to take charge of suchı forfeiteed estates when the British flag, as the flag of an enemy, was hauled down and our

Ferry

M. Rapailie

Brookland

---

"- €. --

THE FERRY.

(1) The Ferry Tavern. (2) The Rapalye Homestead.

) Tho old Stone Tavern.

The father of this family, which by its in- ter-marriages finds a place in every ancient genealogical tree in Brooklyn, was not an ac- complished penman, whatever his other educa- tional qualifications may have been. He signed his mark "R" to all documents. His sons were more elaborate in the presentation of the fam- ily name, signing it "Rapalje," "Rappalie" and "Repreele."

The owner of the tract at the ferry we have taken for our text was a representative

beloved Stars and Stripes run up on every staff from which it had floated.

The property, comprising one hundred and sixty acres in all, was bought from the Con- missioners in 1784 by Comfort and Joshua Sands, and thus brought to the front in Brook- lyn another old Long Island family-but then new in that community-whose name is now held in peculiar veneration.

The Sands family hailed from Cow Neck or Manhasset, at which place Sands' Point still

Road to Jamaica

HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

marks the location of the pioneer settler of the name-the great-grandfather of the brothers in whose fortunes we are immediately con- cerned. Both were born on the ancestral prop- erty,-Comfort in 1748, and Joshua in 1757. Comfort entered into business on his own ac- count in Peck Slip, New York, and by the time the Revolutionary war broke out had managed to save a considerable amount of money. As an instance of values in those days we may mention that Comfort in 1781 rented a house at 307 Queen (Pearl) street, for $32.50 a year. His business career was mainly confined to Manhattan. In 1776 he was a member of the New York Provincial Congress and held the office of Auditor General of the State. He also represented the city several times in the Assembly and acquired for those days considerable wealth, for every interest he touched seemed to flourish. He died at Ho- boken September 22, 1834.

Joshua was much more closely connected with Brooklyn and Long Island. In 1776 he secured a position, through the influence of Governor Trumbull, of Connecticut, in the commissariat department of the army. This position he held for a short time, but during it he took part in the battle of Brooklyn and was of considerable service in the memorable retreat of Washington's troops from Long Island. In 1777, in company with his broth- ers, Comfort and Richardson, he formed a company for supplying clothing and provisions to the Continentals. Their proposals were ac- cepted and they set about supplying the goods, but it was many years afterward before they received payment, for the condition of the pub- lic treasury long after peace was inaugurated was the reverse of prosperous, and Uncle Sam, somehow, even when his treasury was full, has never been a very prompt paymaster. The brothers, however, had other interests which paid them better and their partnership was continued after the war was over. The Rapelye property seems to have been their first large speculation after peace was proclaimed,

and it is said that the money used in the pur- chase represented the profit on their dealings in soldiers' pay certificates which they had bought up at a steep rate of discount. How- ever that may be, it made Joshua become a resident of Brooklyn, for he at once built a home for himself on the estate, on Front street. and remained identified with the place and its interests until his death. He established in it a new industry, that of the manufacture of cordage and rigging, and laid out extensive rope-walks, importing the necessary machinery and skilled labor from England. He held many public offices, was a State Senator from 1792 to 1798, Collector of Customs at the Port of New York between 1797 and 1801, and a member of Congress in 1803-5, and again in 1825-7. In 1824 he was chosen president of the Village of Brooklyn Trustees and seems to have been a most active man in the socia!, political, religious and industrial affairs of the community. He died in 1835.

With its possession by the Sands brothers the history of the Rapalye property as a single factor ceases. While Joshua retained enough of the land for a house and an extensive gar- den, the brothers had no idea of holding on to an estate which they had simply bought for speculative purposes. So, in 1788, it was sur- veyed, streets laid out, and in conjunction with the adjoining Remsen property of John Jack- son, buyers were invited for lots in the tract, which was boomed as a new village-the "vil- lage of Olympia." It was pictured as a village of homes with city and country advantages combined, and as the lots were cheap they readily sold. Some doubt was cast upon the legality of the title by which the brothers held the property, for Rapalye had carried off all the title deeds ; but the Sands brothers deemed the voucher of Uncle Sam good enough for all practical purposes and most of those witlı whom they had dealings fully agreed with them. This opening up of Olympia was the beginning of the distribution of many an old Kings county estate into building lots-the

SOME OLD FAMILIES IN QUEENS AND KINGS.

starting point of a series of "booms" of various sections which is still going on even at the present day.

When the Rapalye property was subdivided by the Sands brothers, one of the arguments used to support the theory of the future rise in value of the lots was that Brooklyn was cer- tain to extend along its section of the water front, as on the other side of the main road from the ferry was a series of inaccessible hills which rendered the ground utterly unsuitable for building purposes. The arguments were specious enough, but time showed how utterly fallacious they were.

In 1647 Dirck Janssen Woertman settled in Brooklyn from Amsterdam, and successively bought up several patents on lands south of Brooklyn Ferry, covering, roughly speaking, that section now known as the Heights. In 1706 he disposed of that property to Joris Remsen, who had married his daughter, Fem- metje. When the deed was completed Joris removed with his family from Flatbush, where he had previously resided. With the death of Joris, about 1720, commenced the subdi- vision of the property into smaller holdings. He had previously sold fourteen acres to his son-in-law, Jacobus De Bevoise, a tract long afterward known as the De Bevoise farm. Stiles says: "The remainder of Joris Rem- sen's land was inhcrited by his son Rem, who died in or about 1724 [the only authority for this is that his will was dated that year], leaving among other children a son, George (or Joris), who fell heir to the paternal es- tate, married Jane, daughter of Philip Nagle (Nagel), and died between 1735 and 1743, leaving issue Rem, Phillip and Aletta. O:1 the 19th of June, 1753 (Kings County Rec- ords, liber 6, page 174), Philip Remsen, de- scribed there as of Bucks county, Pennsyl- vania, together 'with Philip Mease, Esq., of Flatbush, only surviving executor of his fa- ther's estate,' conveyed to Henry and Peter Remsen, merchants of New York, for the suni of £1,060, one-half (estimated at fifty-seven acres) of the original property purchased by

his great-grandfather, Joris Remsen, from Woertman. * The above named brothers, Henry and Peter Remsen, at some time prior to 1764 sold to Philip Livingston, Esq., of New York, that portion of the es- tate lying between the present Joralemon and Atlantic streets and extending from the East River to Red Hook Lane. On the Ist of Au- gust, 1768, the Remsen brothers divided be- tween them the remainder of the property, Henry taking the northerly half, adjoining the De Bevoise farm, and Peter taking tlie southerly portion next to the Livingston farm, from which it was separated by a lane since known as Joralemon street." -

Part of the Livingston property, with a dis- tillery erected upon it and which had been in successful operation for several years, was sold in 1802 to Hezekiah Beers Pierrepont, afterward owner of the De Bevoise and Ben- son's farms of the Heights, and thus was in- troduced into Brooklyn history the name of a family which has done more for its sterling development than any other that could be named outside of the descendants of the orig- inal settlers. H. B. Pierrepont was the grand- son of the Rev. James Pierrepont, the first minister settled in New Haven and one of the founders of Yale College. For a time Heze- kiah was a clerk in the New York custom- house, but was previously thoroughly trained for a business career by his uncle, Isaac Beers, of New Haven. His opportunity in life came with his appointment as agent for Watson & Greenleaf, who were engaged in the purchase of the national debt, and he was fully equal to it, acquiring a moderate fortune. He then founded the firm of Leffingwell & Pierrepont and engaged in shipping provisions to Europe, residing for a time in Paris to look after the interests of the firm there. This trade was interrupted by the course of the war between Great Britain and France ; so he chartered a vessel, "The Confederacy," and, filling it up with merchandise, accompanied it to China in 1795. The speculation proved a profitable one, but in 1797, while on the voyage home

100

HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

from China, "The Confederacy" was seized by a French privateer and sold, in defiance of American treaty rights and stipulations. In 1800 Pierrepont returned to New York and two years later married Anna, daughter of William Constable, a merchant of New York who had been interested with Alexander Macomb in the purchase, in 1787, of over a million acres of land in the northern part of the State of New York. By his bride, Pierre- pont came into possession of some 500,000 acres of these lands, mainly in Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties.

WM. A. MUHLENBERG.

In prospecting for some business enter- prise in which to engage he saw a prospect of success in the manufacture of gin, and it was with that business in view that he bought, in 1802, the Livingston distillery at the foot of Joralemon street, Brooklyn, and so com -- menced a connection with the future "City of Churches" which was of the utmost conse- quence to both. He was not long in Brook- lyn before he fully realized the bright pros- pects of its future, and soon made up his mind that in aiding in its development lay a certain and substantial return for his own means and

his business energy. So he purchased the tract of land on the Heights known as the Remsen farm, part of the old Remsen property, and gradually extended his holdings as opportunity offered, his last great purchase being the De Bevois farm, for which in 1816 he paid $28,- 000. A year later he abandoned the distillery and thereafter devoted himself solely to the de- velopment of his real estate. In 1815 he had been one of a committee which succeeded in getting from the legislature a village charter for Brooklyn, and he had the bulk of his prop- erty graded, and laid out in streets and squares' and finally placed on the market. He be- lieved in wide streets and fully exemplified his ideal in the care he bestowed on Pierre- pont street, which was laid out with a width of eighty feet, while Montague street and Remsen street were each scheduled at seventy- five feet.

Stiles, in his "History of Kings County," page 130, says :

As chairman of the street committee he exerted himself to secure an open promenade for the public, on the Heights, from Fulton Ferry to Joralemon street. He had a map and plan drawn for the improvement by Mr. Silas Ludlam, and procured the consent of the pro- prietors for a cession of the property, except from his neighbor and friend, Judge Radcliff, who opposed the scheme so violently that Mr. Pierrepont, rather than have a contest with a friend, withdrew from the attempt, and him- self paid the expense incurred for the survey and plan, though he had ordered it officially. He lived and died in the belief and desire that the Heights would some day be made a public promenade, on some similar plan. Before his estate was divided and sold his executors gave the opportunity to the city to take the prop- erty between Love Lane and Remsen street and Willow street, the only part of the Heights that remained unoccupied, for such a public place, and a petition was signed by a few pub- lic-spirited men for the object. But it was. defeated before the city authorities by over- whelming remonstrances, very generally signed in the large district of assessment that was proposed.

It appears from his diary that as early as

101

SOME OLD FAMILIES IN QUEENS AND KINGS.

the year 1818 he made inquiry as to the cost of stone wharves. He reluctantly improved his water-front with timber, only when he found, from the depth of water, the cost of stone structures was too great to be war- ranted by the small income derived by wharf- owners under our present port laws. He per- sistently declined to sell his lots, except where good private dwellings of brick or stone were engaged to be erected, suited to the future character of his finely-situated property. Time has now proved the soundness of his judg- ment. His property is now covered by elegant mansions, besides five fine churches, the City Hall, Academy of Music, Mercantile Library, and other public buildings, while the front on the bay is occupied by extensive wharves and warehouses. Mr. Pierrepont possessed great energy of character and a sound judgment ; was domestic in his habits and had no ambi- tion for public office, or relish for political life. Yet he gave his services freely to his fellow citizens in aid of their local affairs.

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A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 18

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