USA > New York > A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 4
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Wood, Col. Alfred M., mayor of Brooklyn .- 444; 465. Wood, Fernando, mayor of New York. 445.
Wood, George M .-- 628.
Wood, Jonas .- 68. Wood, Silas, quoted .- 25.
Wood, William, of The Eagle .- 424.
Woodhull, Gen. Nathaniel, 180; sketch of, 237; vari- ons stories of details of capture, 240; the death of a patriot and a Christian, 242; thoughts on his career and services, 243; the long talked of monument still talked of, 244; the De Sille house, where he died, 330.
Woodhull, Richard M., founder of Williamsburgh,342. Woodhull, Richard, founder of a famous family .- 991. Woodhull, Rev. Selah S .- 160.
Woodruff, Horace .- 276.
Woodruff, Rev. William. 550.
Woodworth, H. D .- 314.
Woodworth, Samuel, poem "The Patriotic Diggers." -261.
Woolsey, Rev. Benjamin .- 137; 145.
Wright, Peter .- 89.
Writers' Club, The .- 502.
Wurster, Mayor .- 487.
Wyandanch-Tragedy of, 20; 30; 31; 89.
Wyckoff, Peter, Gov. Stuyvesant's farmer .- 311.
Wykoff's Hotel, Coney Island .- 372.
Yaphank .- village of, 996. Yellow fever epidemics .- 405; 452.
York, G. D .- 276.
Yorktown, projected town .- 343.
Youngs, Rev. John, of Southold .- 134.
Youngs, Capt. John .- 136.
Youngs, Col. John .- 1016; 1019; 1023.
Youngs, John, sheriff .- 69.
Youngs, Rev. John .- 1012.
Zeeaw, Jan Cornelise, of Bushwick. 338.
Zeelen, Johann, early settler at New Utrecht .- 329.
HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.
PROEM. .
POSITION OF LONG ISLAND IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES.
S A PART of the state of New York, Long Island can hardly be said to have now any separate political interest or to have at any time in the past done any more than a like share with the other sections of the Empire State in building up in Congress, in the tented field, or in the realms of liter- ature, science or art, the country of whose present greatness, of whose rank among the nations of the earth we are all so proud. The island has fully met every claim made upon her ; in the Revolution she suffered much and deeply, and the name of Woodhull and many another gallant hero ranks high on the honored roll of those who sacrificed home and property and life that political and religious freedom might live; in the war of 1812 she was ready to meet any invading force, and her ships helped to win the victory and to wrest from Britain, for a time, at least, that country's old claim to invincibility on the sea ; in the Civil war she liberally contributed men and treasure to preserve intact what the found- ers of the Republic had fought for, and in the war with Spain she freely responded to the call of the General Government. But,
then, other sections of the state acted equally as nobly, according to the measure of their opportunities.
Still, Long Island did exert, indirectly, it is true, but none the less clearly traceable and unmistakable, a degree of influence upon the general history of the country, especially in the early stages-the stages when history was being made and precedents established. It has always been obedient to established authority, but when the rights of the individual or the community were assailed or trampled on-be the government Dutch or English-it has led the way in defending those rights, and even Peter Stuyvesant found the farmers of Long Island more troublesome and determined, at times, than the burghers of New Amsterdam. The keynote of liberty resounded over the island long before the call to arms was made, and one of her sons was among the immortals who signed the Declaration of Independence, while another presided over the discussions of the first patriot assembly of the state of New York. The position it held in the mo- mentous affairs of the latter half of 1776, when it was regarded by the veteran Generals of
1
2
HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.
King George as the key by which the continent was to be opened up again to British au- thority, was alone sufficient to exalt it to a position among the shrines of the nation, one of the spots on which the struggle for liberty was most strenuously waged, and where, though defeated, it was shown that in military skill and finesse the Continentals were the equal of their adversaries, the veterans of many wars. It was there, too, that Washing- ton first earned his right to be regarded as one of the greatest captains of his time, of any time.
But besides this Long Island showed, even before the Revolution, that the people were perfectly fit to rule themselves and the various town governments were models of local au- thority for the rest of the country. . Even un- der the Dutch the townships enjoyed a gen- erous measure of local rule, and what was not allowed by the authorities in the fort on Man- hattan they took themselves. In fact the whole course of the history of Long Island shows that the less the. general government inter- fered with local affairs the better the result all round. The Dutch paternal rule in the western section, the English town rule in the eastern, and the happy way in which in Queens
county both Dutch and English could pool their issues, could respect each other's religious views and notions of statecraft, could live to- gether in peace and harmony, formed three significant conditions which were not lost upon the statesmen who were engaged in the work of bridging this country safely across the chasm which separated the disjointed and jealous colonies into a strong and united nation.
Long Island since the echoes of the Revo- lutionary war have died away has always been found ranged on the side of liberty and tolera- tion, her representatives in Congress and in the assembly have been men who by their talents commanded respect and by their efforts added largely to the progress the nation has made in all the arts that render men happy and ensure the prosperity of the country. She has been to a certain extent a community in herself, she so remains in a great measure to the passing day, and presents, in fact, in her own career an epitome of all that makes the country really great, thrift, honesty and re- ligion leavening the whole, while progressive- ness, energy and a watchfulness for oppor- tunities add year by year to the general wealth.
SILVER TANKARD. Presented to Sarah Jansen De Rapelje, by her husband.
CHAPTER I.
TOPOGRAPHY OF THE ISLAND-NATURAL HISTORY- BOTANY-GEOLOGY.
L ONG ISLAND lies between 40 de- grees, 34 minutes, and 41 degrees, 10 minutes, north latitude, and between 71 degrees, 51 minutes, and 74 de- grees, 4 minutes, west longitude from Green- wich, England. It is bounded south and east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the north by Long Island Sound and on the west by New York Bay and the East River, which latter divides it from Manhattan Island. Its length is about one hundred and twenty-five miles, its average width about fourteen miles, and its total area 927,900 acres. It is divided into the counties
*The population according to wards and townships is given as follows:
BROOKLYN BY WARDS.
W'ds.
Pop.
Acres.
W'ds.
Pop.
Acres.
1 ...
20,327
233.00
17 ...
57.309
823.30
2 ...
8,565
97.70
18 ... 25,133
873.00
3 ...
17,949
161.40
19 ... 37,645 413.84
4 ...
12,568
111.30
20 ... 25,446 461.50
5 ...
18,862
119.40
21 ...
58,957
483.20
6 ...
42.485
302.90
22 ...
66,575
1,361.60
7 ...
40,471
458.50
23 ...
61,813
736.00
8 ...
32,414
1,843.20
24 ...
31,767
1,198.50
9 ...
42,876
623.60
25 ...
48,328
567.80
10 ...
39,100
318.70
26 ...
66,086
*5,690.00
11 ...
22,608
252.60
27 ...
43,691
400.70 884.40
12 ...
30,354
663.10
28 ...
77,912
13 ...
24,029
230.30
29 ...
27,188
3,800.00
14 ...
31,483
282.60
30 ...
24,700
5,404.10
15 ...
30,269
244.80
31 ...
14,609
6,312.30
16 ...
56,550
244.80
32 ... 8,243
14,082.00
Total.
1,166,582 49,680,14
*Includes swamp lands and unattached islands.
QUEENS BY WARDS.
Wards.
Population.
Acres.
1
48,272
4,650.00
40,903
14,700.00
3
25,870
22,000.00
of Kings, Queens, Nassau and Suffolk; but all of Kings and part of Queens are now under the general government of the greater New York, although still retaining their county or- ganization: The population of these divisions according to the census of 1900 was as follows:
Kings . 1,166,582 | Queens 152,999
Nassau ... 55,448 | Suffolk 55,582
Being a total for Long Island of 1,452,611 .* In 1880 the total was 743,957, and in 1890, 1,029,097, so that a considerable advance has been made. The advance has been greatest
Wards.
Population.
Acres.
4.
30,761
36,600.00
5.
7,193
4,933.00
Total.
152,999
82,883.00
NASSAU COUNTY BY TOWNSHIPS.
Hempstead Township. 27,067
North Hempstead Township. 12,048
Oyster Bay Township. 16,333
Total.
SUFFOLK COUNTY BY TOWNSHIPS.
Babylon Township .. 7,112
Brookhaven Township. 14,596
Easthampton Township. 3,746
Huntington Township. 9,483
*Islip Township. 12,545
Riverhead Township. 4,503
Shelter Island Township 1,066
+Smithtown Township. 5,863
Southampton Township. 10,371
Southold Township
8,301
Total. 77,582
*Includes 1,349 people on the premises of the Manhattan State Hospital for the Insane.
fIncludes 3,177 people on the premises of the Long Island State Hospital.
55,448
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HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.
in Kings county, but all the divisions show substantial increases.
The island as a whole is flat and low-lying. Through the centre is a range of small hills from New Utrecht northeasterly to Roslyn, and from there extending to Montauk Point, the best known being West, Dix, Comac, Bald and Shinnecock Hills. The average height of this chain is about 250 feet, but Harbor Hill at Roslyn rises to a height of 384 feet, Janes Hill to 383 feet, Reuland's Hill to 340 feet and Wheatley Hill to 369 feet. Along the north shore from Astoria to Orient Point a bluff follows the outline of the coast, rising sometimes to a height of 200 feet. From the central chain of hills to the south shore the land slopes gently down to the sea, and much of the land, being pure sand, was long 111- capable of cultivation, although it is yielding to modern methods and appliances. Between these hills and the bluff which overhangs the north shore is a level elevated plain, broken in many places by rocks and glacial debris, but on the whole capable of being brought to a high state of cultivation. The physical ap- pearance of the entire island bears witness to the force of the movements of nature in the glacial period, and nowhere in America can that wonderful epoch be more closely or un- derstandingly studied. In a general way it may be said that the south shore is level, while the north is full of bits of rugged nature, rocks, dells, splendid marine and land views and an ever changing vista of hills, forests, cultivated fields and rich pasture lands.
The entire coast line is indented with bays and inlets, some forming even in their rugged- ness beautiful landscapes, and many of them affording splendid harbors and anchorages. On the south side of the island is the Great South Bay as it is called (although local names have been given to several sections), nearly one hundred miles long and from two to five miles broad, and it is separated from the Atlantic by a sandy bar from a fourth of a mile to a mile in width, changing its dimen- sions in every direction with every winter's
storn1. To the west end of the island are Jamaica, Hempstead, Oyster and Huntington Bays, and at the east end Gardiner's, Little Peconic and Great Peconic Bays; and the Pe- conic River, the only stream of water of any size on the island, ends its course of some fifteen miles at Riverhead. Gardiner's, Fish- er's and Plumb Islands are politically incor- porated with Long Island.
There are scattered throughout the island, especially throughout its eastern half, many small sheets of inland water, none worthy of mention in a summary such as this except one, the largest of them all-Lake Ronkonkoma. This beautiful lake, about three miles in cir- cumference, has a maximum depth of eighty- three feet ; its waters are ever pure and cool, and it has no visible outlet or inlet. The lat- ter peculiarities are common to many much smaller lakes on the island. Ronkonkoma lies in the midst of a beautiful landscape, into which it fits naturally, becoming the centre of one of the most delightful bits of scenery on Long Island. It was famous for its beauty even in the prehistoric Indian days, when the red man reigned and roamed over the soil, and many quaint and pathetic legends are yet as- sociated with it, although it has now received the tinsel adornments common to a popular "resort."
The ocean bottom to the south of Long Island has a slope of about six feet to the mile, but intersected in what appears to have been the old valley of the Hudson by a series of deep depressions. In that distant time the shores of Long Island were much higher than now. It is impossible to tell when the age of retrogression set in, but it seems clear that the process is still going on, although so slowly as hardly to make any change visible to the casual eye in any single generation.
The animal life on Long Island presented nothing unusual. We have plenty of evidence that deer once had the freedom of the whole island and were hunted by the red men and the earlier settlers; but they have long been reduced to limited numbers in spite of the most
5
TOPOGRAPHY OF THE ISLAND.
stringent game laws. It has been thought that the moose and elk once roamed through the forests, and in 1712 we read of an attempt being made to ship a pair of moose from Fisher's Island to England as a gift to Queen Anne, but this pair seems to have been the last of the race. Wolves which so often played havoc with the lives and stock of the pioneer settlers have long since disappeared. Foxes, too, which were plentiful at one time, are now imported, or the aniseed trail is made to do duty in their stead for hunting purposes, and the old-time presence of wild cats, beavers, bears, opossum, raccoons and many others is forgotten. It may be said that all the animals common to New York and Connecticut were common to Long Island, and are so still, al- though the increasing march of population and culture renders their numbers smaller year after year. Bird life was and is plentiful, and grcuse in the earlier days especially so. It has been said that some 320 species have been found on the island, specimens of most of them being in the museum of the Long Island Historical Society. The island was a resting place for many migratory species of birds on their semi-annual journeys north and south or vice versa, and at such seasons it was a verit- able sportman's paradise. Indeed hunting was long, with agriculture, one of the arts by which the pioneers added to their store of wealth, while in the hands of an Indian a skin was a facile medium of exchange. The people, however, were early aroused to a consciousness that indiscriminate slaughter of animals or birds was a thing to be guarded against, and as early as 1786 the slaughter of deer and grouse was prohibited in Brookhaven except to actual citizens of the town. Since then the successive restrictions upon hunting have been numerous enough to form a theme for separate study, but stringent as they are Long Island is yearly becoming less and less a happy hunting ground for the man who goes out with a gun anxious to shoot something.
But in spite of the restrictions, the man
with the gun keeps steadily in evidence. On Nov. 6, 1901, when the season for killing deer opened, it was estimated that 2,000 "hunters" armed with rifles were on Long Island, ready for the "sport." It was then estimated that about 2,000 deer were on Long Island, the bulk being, roughly, in the central portion extend- ing from Islip and Setauket to Riverhead. The center of the hunting area is in the neighbor- hood of the South Side Sportsmen's Club at Oakdale in whose preserves the deer are not permitted to be killed, even by its own mem- bers. It is possible that it is to this organiza- tion, and to the rigid way in which it guards its grounds and protects the game from slaugh- ter that the deer on Long Island have not been exterminated long ago. It is one of the dis- puted points on the island whether or not the deer really should be preserved. The farmers would vote for their extermination, while the hotel-keepers and the summer visitors would like their numbers increased. The growth of large private estates within recent years would indicate a careful preservation of all sorts of game and a consequent increase in numbers, especially of deer-the most picturesque of all game in civilized and populated communities.
As early as 1679 we find the oyster industry in the Great South Bay a marked feature, -- so marked that even then there was considered a possibility that the supply would be ex- hausted and orders were issued restricting the annual catch; but the bay from then to now has yearly extended its output, and the oyster industry of Long Island has brought to it more material wealth than any other. The inexhaustible supply of clams has also' proved a profitable industry and over $1,000,000 of capital is employed in the Menhaden fishery alone. The factories where the oil is ex- tracted from these fish have never been popu- lar in Long Island for various reasons, but they still give employment to several thousand workers every year in one way or another, and have contributed their share to the com-
6
HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.
mercial upbuilding of the section. Cod, bass and blue fish and other species-some 200 in all, it has been estimated-are common to the shores of Long Island, and generally are to be found, in their season, in immense quan- tities. The fisheries form quite a feature of the industrial life of the island, but the finan- cial result, great as it is, is but a fraction of what it should be were the wealth of the sea worked as zealously and as scientifically as that which lies beneath the soil. However, Long Island has long been a delight to the amateur angler, and the many successful sport- ing clubs of which it now can boast all include angling, either with the seine or "with an angle," after the gentle manner of old Izaak Walton.
Although from a botanical point of view the plant life of Long Island is not as varied or interesting as might be expected, still, if we accept the estimate made by Elias Lewis in 1883 that there were then eighty-three species of forest trees within its boundaries, there is not much cause for complaint. The most prolific of these trees was the locust, which was first planted at Sand's Point about 1700 by Captain John Smith, who brought the pioneer specimens from Virginia. It spread with great rapidity and the quality of its lumber was regarded as better than that in the trees it left behind in its parent state. Nowhere else on the Atlantic coast does the locust flourish as on Long Island. Oaks, chestnut and walnut trees are to be found all over the island in great variety.
"Long Island," writes Mr. Elias Lewis, "is fairly well wooded. Its forests are of oak, hickory, chestnut, locust, with many other species of deciduous trees. The evergreens indigenous to the soil are almost entirely of the yellow or pitch pine, Pinus rigida. At an early period of its history the forest growth of the island was doubtless heavier than now. There were oaks, chestnuts, tulip trees, and others of great age and of immense size: a few of these survive. The fox oaks at Flush-
ing, no longer existing, were historic trees and justly celebrated. A white oak at Green- vale, near Glen Cove, is twenty-one feet in girth, and is probably five hundred years old; another nearly as old is at Manhassett, in the Friends' meeting-house yard; others similar are at Smithtown and vicinity. A tulip tree at Lakeville, on the elevated grounds of S. B. M. Cornell, impaired by age and storms, is twenty-six feet in girth near the ground, and was a landmark from the ocean more than a century ago. The famous black walnut at Roslyn, on grounds of the late W. C. Bryant, is probably the largest tree on Long Island; it measures twenty-nine feet in girth at the ground, and twenty-one feet at the smallest part of the trunk below the spread of its enor- mous branches. Chestnut trees in the neigh- borhood of Brookville and Norwich, in the town of Oyster Bay, are sixteen, eighteen and twenty-two feet in girth.
"The growth of hard-wood trees on Long Island is rapid. A few large trees stand- ing indicate what they may have been, or what they might be if undisturbed. The evergreens grow with equal luxuriousness. A century and a half ago pitch pines were abundant from twenty inches to thirty-six inches in diam- eter."
Of the physical history of Long Island, however, the most interesting feature has been its geology, and this has been so thoroughly recognized that most of the local historians, including Thompson and Prime, have devoted to the subject considerable space in their re- spective works. It is well to follow their ex- ample, but in this case an improvement will be effected by presenting the subject as handled by a specialist,-for no one but a devoted and constant student of geology can write under- standingly and with authority upon the young- est and most exhaustive of all the sciences, as some one has called it. So here is given part of a paper on the geology of Long Island which was prepared by F. J. H. Merrill, the learned and studious State Geologist of New
7
TOPOGRAPHY OF THE ISLAND.
York, and which has been buried in the trans- actions of one of our scientific societies for several years :
The lithology of Long Island is compara- tively simple, the crystalline rocks being con- fined to quite a limited area. The greater part of the region consists of gravel, sand and clay, overlaid along the north shore and for some distance southward by glacial drift. This material. forms an important element of the surface formation, and though it has been already described by Mather and Upham, I shall devote a short space to its discussion. For the sake of clearness, we may describe the drift as of two kinds: Ist, the till or drift proper, a heterogeneous mixture of gravel, sand and clay, with boulders, and 2d, the gravel drift, a deposit of coarse yellow gravel and sand, brought to its present place by glacial and alluvial action, but existing near by in a stratified condition, before the arrival of the glacier. This yellow gravel drift, which in a comparatively unaltered condition forms the soil of the pine barrens of southern and eastern Long Island, and is exposed in section at Crossman's brickyard in Huntington, is equivalent to and indeed identical with the yellow drift or preglacial drift of New Jersey, a formation of very great extent in that state, and of which the origin and source have not yet been fully explained. though it is always overlaid by the glacial drift proper where these formations occur together.
In the hills near Brooklyn the till attains its maximum depth. This has never been definitely ascertained, but is probably between 150 and 200 feet. The only information we have on the subject is from a boring in Calvary Cemetery, where the drift was 139 feet deep. and this point is nearly five miles north of Mount Prospect, which is 194 feet high and probably consists for the most part of till. The occurrence of this till is quite local and very limited along the north shore between Roslyn and Horton's Point. From the former locality eastward the hills are mainly composed of stratified gravel and sand, probably under- laid by clay. On the railroad between Syosset and Setauket is an abundance of coarse gravel with but slight stratification. East of Setauket for some distance the drift is a fine yellowish sand, which washes white on the surface, and at Wading River the drift with cobble-stones was only eighteen inches thick where exposed, being underlaid with fine yellow sand. Along
the remainder of the north shore to Orient Point, six feet was the maximum depth of drift observed. Under this were stratified sands, gravels and clays, usually dipping slightly from the shore. On Brown's Hills, north of Orient, the drift is overlaid by three feet of fine micaceous sand, which has probably been carried to its present position by the wind. The drift at this locality is a clayey till, and its surface is strewn with an abundance of boulders of coarse red gneiss. On Shelter Island are high ridges of gravel overlaid by a few feet of till. The hills from Sag Harbor eastward are also composed partially of un- modified drift, but the most extensive deposit on the east end of Long Island is between Nepeague Bay and Montauk Point. Here the drift is disposed in rounded hillocks from 80 to 200 feet above the sea, with bowl and trough-shaped depressions between. The bluffs along the south shore, which are rapidly yielding to the action of the waves, consist for the most part of boulder clay and hard- pan of considerable depth, covered by a shal- lower layer of till. At a few places, however, on the south shore, west of the point, laminated blue clay streaked with limonite occurs, inter- calated with the till. At the end of the point a similar bed of clay is exposed, overlaid by stratified sand. From the extremely limited character of the exposures I am unable to de- termine whether the clay underlies the whole of the point or is merely local in its occur- rence. In character and position, however, it is analogous to beds occurring on Block Island.
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