USA > New York > A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 50
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KINGS COUNTY
CHAPTER XXV.
KINGS COUNTY.
K INGS COUNTY in its beginning was essentially a Dutch community. Gravesend, of course, was English, but its existence does not change the fact of Dutch pre-eminence, for it was permitted to be established by the authority of a Dutch Governor, and was at first as completely under Dutch laws and Dutch protection as was any other settlement on the island. When Col. Nicolls made his memorable descent upon New Netherland and forced the surrender of New Amster- dam and the abdication of the lion-hearted Peter, and wiped out the authority of "Their High Mightinesses," he formed the towns in what is now Kings county, with Newtown, Staten Island and part of Westchester into one of the Ridings-the West Riding-of his then newly created Yorkshire. That was in 1664. The reconquest by the Dutch under Governor Colve was too brief an interlude to permit much of a change in geographical nomenclature, or such frivolous things as ter- ritorial divisions, and so the West Riding of Yorkshire may be said to hold good for the west end of the island until 1683, when the present county of Kings was formed along with those of Queens and Suffolk. It had an area of some 70,000 square miles, and was divided into six towns,-Brooklyn, Bush- wick, Flatbush, Flatlands, New Utrecht and Gravesend. These towns, with the exception of Gravesend, "just grew,"-that is, they were not definitely settled at first with the
idea of becoming towns and rose into that pre-eminence simply because local conditions attracted settlers to given points, and also because it was necessary that the settlers should have rallying places for defense. Gravesend on the other hand was settled at first as a town colony. Over the territory in- cluded in these townships, and indeed over all the territory west of Oyster Bay, the authority of the Dutch rulers of the New Netherland was nominally supreme until Capt. Nicolls' upheaval sent Stuyvesant into re- tirement to his "Bouwerie," and not even the claims of Connecticut acting under its charter of 1662, which awarded it territorial jurisdiction over the whole of Long Island, could change the allegiance of . the sturdy Dutch farmers, there was nothing to gain by the change, and they understood their rules, although the paternal rule of such men as Kieft and Stuyvesant was sometimes felt irksome. Of Long Island outside of the towns in Kings County it can hardly be said that the rule of the West India Company was ever secure with the exception of Hemp- stead, Jamaica and Newtown; but these towns, like Gravesend, were permitted to choose their own officers and to manage their own affairs subject to review and approval by the Governor, a right that was rarely exer- cised. Oyster Bay, too, the boundary town, was another English settlement over which the Dutch claimed sway, but it finally was! yielded up to Connecticut. In the Dutch
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towns of Kings county (to use the best known name for the territory) the rule of the Gov- ernor in New Amsterdam was supreme. It used to be the boast of the old chroniclers that the Dutch honestly bought from the aborigines-and honestly paid the stipulated price-all the land in what afterward became Kings and Queens counties. In this claim they are perfectly justified by the record, al- though it seems to us that they drove a pretty hard bargain on their part, while, so far as the Indians went, it was a question of either sell or fight, for the white man had come to stay and the time had come for the native to go west in search of new lands, or remain and accept the virtues or the vices of the new order of things. Most of them remained; most of them, nay all of them, it might be said, the exceptions were so few, accepted the vices of the white man; and gradually, but surely, disappeared from the face of the earth. The Dutch Governors, as we have seen, were autocrats; but autocracy is insep- arable from a system of paternal government. They were loyal, except perhaps Minuit, to their task of building up the province over which they ruled, or making the people happy and contented and as comfortable in sur- roundings and wealth as possible,-always, however, remembering the paramount claims of their High Mightinesses and the success of the West India Company's venture. Every ef- fort was made to build up Long Island-or what they could see of it from the New Amsterdam shore of the East River or could discover of it in a day's journey. By order of the company a settler could easily get a patent for a piece of meadowland, more in- deed than he could cultivate, on a scale of payment little more than nominal and which would have made the modern phrase of "easy terms" to seem extortionate. To some farm- ers, indeed, free passages from Holland were given, and there is no doubt that the company did its best to people the territory. Large es- tates were even given to enterprising capital-
ists who promised to induce settlers, and pat- ents for land were freely given at times to all who had interest with the Governor and Council or could show a probability of their turning them to some use. A few of these people held the land simply for speculative purposes, much as property is similarly held in our day. But the bulk of those who cross- ed the East River with a patent went there to stay. In this way was the territory of Kings County first built up, but the process was naturally a slow one, and its early dif- ficulties and dangers were many and serious.
The leading event in the history of Kings county is the Battle of Brooklyn (or Battle of Long Island, as it is generally and incor- rectly called) ; but as that is fully narrated in one chapter, and the story of the British occupation told in another, there is no need of recurring to it here beyond this scanty mem- tion. The part which Long Island played in the war of 1812 is also told-and these prac- tically exhaust its story-with the moment- ous change which took place on Jan. 1, 1897, when, as the result of the vote of a majority of its inhabitants, it became part and parcci of the Greater New York, although still re- taining its standing as a district county. A forecast of this great amalgamation was seen in 1857, when an act of the Legislature turned the counties of New York, Kings, Westches- ter and Richmond into a single police district, under the designation of the Metropolitan district, under the direct control of the State. This innovation did not last long, nor can it be said to have been in any way a success, although it seems to have proved beneficial to the police administration in Brooklyn.
Kings County and the Borough of Brook- lyn are coterminous in their boundaries; but for administrative purposes the county ad- ministration is maintained,-that is, there is a distinct set of county officials in Kings,- sheriff, county clerk, public administrator, district attorney, etc.,-the county administra- tions of the component parts of Greater New
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KINGS COUNTY.
York not having been altered in that respect by consolidation. The County Courts are also maintained, and the general Government appears in its arrangements to have ignored the great fact of consolidation altogether. Kings County may be described as occupying the entire southwestern end of Long Island and to be bounded on the north and west by the county of New York: on the west by New
York Bay; on the south by Gravesend Bay, the Atlantic Ocean and by Jamaica Bay, and on the east and north by the county of Queens, including all wharves, piers, docks and basins lying southerly and easterly of the centre line of the East River.
The history of Kings County is simply a history of its townships and that history we will now proceed to relate.
CHAPTER XXVI.
FLATLANDS.
Y a narrow margin of a few months the old town of Flatlands could claim, in fact did claim, when the claim was worth anything, priority over Breuckelen and the other towns of Kings county. The first recorded purchase of land in the old town was dated June 16, 1637, when Andres Hudden and Wolfert Genretse Van Couwenhoven bought from the Canarsie Indians "the westernmost of the three flats (prairies), called by the sellers Kas- kutenu." On July 16th in the same year Gov. Van Twiller secured by patent another of the flats ; and Jacobus Van Curler (or Corlear), who in 1638 was a teacher in New Amster- dam, secured a patent for the third flat. The two latter transactions seem to have been in the nature of land speculations, but Hudden and Van Couwenhoven bought a place on which they might settle and earn their living. Their holding they called Achtervelt. In 1639 Hudden gave up, or sold, his interest in the plantation to Van Couwenhoven, although they appear to have continued for some time in partnership as regards other lands which they held in the neighborhood, and removed to New Amsterdam. Hudden seems to have been a politician, an almost continuous office-holder. Such was the beginning of Flatlands. In an inventory taken in 1638 it seems the owners of Achtervelt "had a house set around with long, round palisades, the house being twenty-six feet long, twenty-two feet wide, forty feet deep, with the roof covered above and around with plank; two lofts, one above another, and
a small chamber at their side; one barn forty feet long, eighteen feet wide, and twenty-four feet deep; and one bergh with five posts, forty feet long. The plantation was stocked with six cows, old and young, three oxen and five horses."
It was not long before the plantation be- came the centre of a settlement. Peter Stuy- vesant had a Bouwerie there which was farmed for him by Peter Wyckoff, who worked it, apparently in connection with sixty acres he had bought from Van Couwenhoven. Hans Hansen or Jansen, the ancestor of the Van Nostrands, also bought a tract of land, as did Elbert Elbertse, the ancestor of the Stoothoffs. Elbert appears to have had the land fever quite strong, for he not only kept steadily add- ing to his purchases on shore but became the possessor of Bergen's Island and Barren Island. In 1673 Governor Colve appointed him Captain of a company of militia, with Roelof Martense as his lieutenant and Derrick Janse as his ensign. He became the possessor of Achtervelt by marriage with the widow of the pioneer Couwenhoven's son and assumed the care of her young family. 'This Elbert faithfully performed, for he appears to have been a most honorable and upright man. By the time he thus came into prominence, Flat- . lands had become quite a settlement, and the Strykers, Van Sigelens, Romeyns, Ammer- mans and a dozen other families were located around the palisadoed mansion of the original settler, a mansion that was so arranged as to be a stronghold 'to which the people might
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FLATLANDS.
readily fly for refuge should Indian or other dangers arise.
But while first as regards settlement-if it was first, for the old records are a little con- fusing-Flatlands was much slower than some of its neighbors in acquiring municipal rights. Gravesend and Flatbush secured such privi- leges ahead of it. The people were to a great extent more isolated than those in the other settlements and probably attracted little atten- tion in New Amsterdam. It really needed little attention from the ruling powers. It was essentially a religious community, and in its earlier days the dictum of the Dominie and Elders at Flatbush was sufficient to settle all the little disputes which might arise. To a certain extent, too, when it required some de- cision at law, it had to arrange with the Magis- trates at Flatbush to hold the scales of exact justice, and that was too troublesome a pro- cedure to be invoked except on very grave oc- casions. In 1661 it assumed the dignity of possessing a local government, for it then was empowered to elect three Magistrates of its own, and the people chose Elbert Elbertsen, Pieter Cornelissen and Simon Jansen as the holders of this dignity-the old dignity of Schepen ; and their successors were to be elec- ted annually. It was not until the arrival of Col. Nicolls and the overturn of the Stuyves- ant regime that the town was called into being with the full dignity of a charter; and in that document, which was dated Oct. 4, 1667, it is called "Amersfoort, alias Flatlands." The boundaries of the town were laid down so in- definitely in this charter that an amended one was issued February 3, 1668, by Gov. Love- lace, and yet another by Gov. Dongan March II, 1685, but none of these proved clear enough to prevent litigations more or less bitter and acrimonious and tedious between Flatlands and Flatbush. In fact a local historian tells us that Flatlands in June, 1679, got a judg- ment against Flatbush for £io, and that the amount with interest is still due! In 1788 Flatlands was officially recognized as a town
by the State Government of New York, and it continued its independent existence until Jan. 1, 1896, when the town was wiped out and its territory became the Thirty-second ward of the then Greater Brooklyn.
A list taken in 1687 gives the following as the names of those who took the oath of alle- giance to the British authorities in accordance with the orders of Gov. Nicolls, and as the list is a valuable one for genealogical purposes we here give it in full :
Pieter Claes Wyckoff, 1636; Gerret Pie- terse Wyckoff, Claes Pieterse Wyckoff, Hen- drick Pieterse Wyckoff, Jan Pieterse Wyckoff, natives; Elbert Elbertse (Stoothoff), 1637; Gerret Elbertse (Stoothoff), Hans Janse (Van Nostrandt), 1640; Roelof Martense Schenck, 1650; Jan Martense Schenck, 1650; Jan Roelof Schenck, Martin Roelof Schenck, Derick Janse Ammerman, 1650; Jacob Stryker, 1651; Fferdinandes Van Sickelin, 1652; Christoffle Janse Romeyne, 1653; Ruth (or Rut) bruyn- sen, 1653; William Davies, 1653; Jan theunis Van duyckhuys, 1653; Simon Janse Van Arts Daelen, 1653; Cornelius Simonen Vanarsda- len, Pieter Cornelius Luyster, 1656; Thys Pie- ter Luyster, 1656; Pieter Pieterse Tull, 1657; Jan Brouwer, 1657; Dirck Brouwer, hendrick Brouwer, Dirk Stofflese, 1657; Stoffle Dirckse (Langstraet), Adriaen Kume, 1660; Court Stephense Van Voorhees, 1660; Albert Court- en Van Voorhees, Luycas Stephense (Van Voorlees), 1660; Jan Stephense (Van Voor- hees), 1660; Abram Williamse, 1662 ; Johannis Williamse, 1662; Evert Janse Van Wickelen, 1664; theunis Janse Van Amach, 1673; Gerret hansen (Van Nostrandt), Gerret hendrickse bresse, Wellim Gerretse Van Couwenhoven, Gerret Williamse Van Couwenhoven, Anthony Warnshaer, William Williamse borcklo, Jan Albertse Terhune, Pieter Nevins, Pieter Man- foort.
The date appended to some of these names indicate those in which were of foreign birth and show when they settled in the country. Of course such a list is not a complete census. The
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HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.
Rev. Dr. Du Bois prepared the following list from church and other records of those who resided in the town in 1687 and previously :
Gerret Seerjersy, Hendrick Freemensen (here in 1670); Gerret Gerretsen, Abram Joeresy (Brinkerhoff), Jan Cornelis, Jan Bar- rentsen (Van Driest), Albert Albertse (Ter- hune), died 1672, and Vaereyck Flieksen, all here in 1672; William lobbertse, Wm. Will- iamse (Wyckoff), Gerrit Remers, Barent Jureyaensy, Thunis Helebrantsy, here in 1673; Klaes Kornelesen, Barent the Tailor, Sawaern Jans, Hans Janse (Van Nostrandt ), Hendrick Hermanze, Widow of Frederick Ebbcott, here in 1674; Widow of Gerraen Keest, Willem Gansen Var Barkelo, Klaes Smit, Widow of Geromus Boeck, Willem Kuyken, Jan Snede- ghyer, here in 1675 ; Abraham Jorissen ( Brink- erhoff), Fookie Hansen, 1679; Cornelius Bar- entsen, Simon Jansen (Romeyne), Simon Jor- isen, 1680; Albert Terhune, Jr., Lawrence Koeck, Hendrick Aswerus, 1682; Jan Hansen (Van Nostrandt), Johannis Machgilssen, Jan Manfordt, Vls Homes, Jammes Willer, Will- iam the Shoemaker, De Fris the tanner, Jacob Fardon, Jan Albert Terhune, 1685; Rut Joos- ten (Van Brunt), Cornelis Simonsen Van Ars- dalen, Joost Rutjen (Van Brunt), Johannis Holsa, Jan Kilement a mason, Master Toon, the Doctor, here in 1687; also 1677-1685 ; Bru-
According to a census taken in 1738 the population consisted of 195 whites and 42 negroes, so that there was evidently no land boom or other excitement to disturb the even tenor of the place during these pre-Revolu- tionary years. In fact, outside of a scrap or two with Flatbush the annals of Flatlands were of the quietest description possible and centered round the story of the local church. The good people claimed that their religious no Hendrickse, Rutgert Brunoos, Tjelletje . history began with 1654, as they had an equal
Reimers (Wizzelpfinnig), Pieter Tull, Jan Poppe, William Stryker, Gerret Remmerts, Jan Kiersen, Dirckye Roelffsen, Pieter Hen- dricksen, 'Albert Steven (Voorhees), Steven Coerten (Voorhees), Martin Pieterse (Wyck- off), Luykas (Voorhees), Teunis Jansen, Swaen Jansen, Adam Michilse, Dierckie Will- iamse, Lourens Cornelise, William Hulett.
A census taken in 1698 showed a total of 40 men, 39 women, 130 children and 40 negro slaves. The name of the heads of families are given as follows, the first figure after the name (when two are given) being the num- ber in the family and the second the num- ber of slaves:
Gerret Elbert Stoothoff, 7, 4; Jan Teunis
Dykhuys, 5, 5; Roelif Martense (Schenck), 6, 4; Coert Stevense, 5, 2; Gerret Wyckoff, 5, 2; Hendk Wykof, 2, 2; Dirk Jans Amer- man, 9; Adriaen Kenne, 8; Dirck Langstraet, 5; Jans Kiersen, 2, I ; Alexander Simson, 10; Jan Hansen, 5; Pieter Nevins, 9, 1 ; Jacob Tysse Lane, 6; Helena Aertsen, 5; Simon Jantz Van Aersdaelen, 5, 1 ; Cornelis Simontz Aersdaelen, 8, 1; Willem Gerrittz Van Cou- wenhoven, 8; Aernont Viele, 2, 2; Jan Al- bertz ter hennen, 8, 2; Jan Brouwer, 8, I ; Thunis Jantz Amack, 7; fferdinando Van Sig- elen, 7, 4; Claes Wykof, 8; Jan Wykof, 4, I ; Willem Bruynen, 7, 4; Adriaen Langstraet, I; Lucan Stevense, 12, 4; Pieter Pieterse Wyckoff, 1; Hendrick Brouwer, I; Albert Amerman, I; Pieter Van Couwenhoven, 4; Martin Schenck, 5, 2; Jan Stevense (Voor- hees), 12, I; Pieter Monfoor, 8, 1; Steven Caerten (Voorhees), 5; Rutgers Bruyn, 9.
interest with Flatbush in the church then built. there, and whose history had been al- ready told in an earlier chapter. Certainly the structure at Flatbush was legally their religious home. The Governor said so. They contributed $48 toward the cost of its erection ; and Dominie Polhemus, they held was their pastor as much as he was the spir- itual director of their neighbors in Flatbush and Brooklyn. Indeed he was pretty regular- ly in Flatlands, preaching in barns and pri- vate houses until 1663, when they finished the construction of a church building in their midst.
It was a quaint little structure, according to our ideas, but doubtless Dominie and the
.
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FLATLANDS.
people were equally proud of it, standing as it did on quite a commanding site on a piece of already sacred ground,-ground which had been consecrated by the Indians as a burial spot from remote ages. In appearance the building was similar to the other temples of worship in the Dutch towns. Like them, it was octagonal in form, with a high-pitched roof, surmounted with an open cupola, over which a weather-cock showed the citizens the direction of the wind and assisted the local weather prophets in their prognostications. The cupola, of course, was to contain a bell, but by the time the building was finished the resources of the brethren for church decora- tion were exhausted and so the people were called to public worship by the beating of a drum until 1686, when a subscription netted 556 guilders and a bell was imported from Holland. The building was fitted up in the interior in quite elaborate style. The pulpit was a lofty structure, but rather a slender arrangement, surmounted with a sounding board that looked heavier than the pulpit it covered. The worshippers were seated on wooden benches except that a chair was re- served for the minister's wife and another for the magistrate. The accommodation was for 130 and the Dominie could sce every corner of the building when he was conducting the sermon: perhaps even when sitting on the hard bench provided for him in the pulpit he could mentally note the absentees and prepare to admonish the late-comers. The little edifice stood in its original form until 1762. At that time the members were Cornelius Voorhees, 5 sittings ; Steve Schenck, 4; Johannes Lott, 7 ; Hermann Hooglandt, 5; William Kouwen- hoven, 5; Roelof Voorhees, 4; Fammetie Dit- mars, 3; Roelof Van Voorhees, 4; John Van Der Bilt, 5; Jeremiah Van Derbilt, I; Abra- ham Voorhees, 5; Folkert Sprong, 2; Abra- ham Dorye, 4; Coustyn Golneck, I; Peter Wykof, 3; Johannes Lott, Jr., 3; Willianı Van Gelder, 3; Derrick Remsen, 4; Henrick Lott, 4; Jan Schenck, 5; Wilhelmus Stoot- hoof, 7; Jan Ouke. 1 ; Marte Ouke, I ; Samuel
Garreson, I ; Bernardus Ryder, 3; Albert Ter- hune, 4; James Holbert, 2; Fernandus Van Segelen, 1; Barent Vanderventer, I; Abra- ham Schenck, 1; Callyntje Janse, I; Garrett Wykoff, 3; Getore Heyn, 2; Jan Amerman, 6; Annatie Wykof, 5; Petrus Amerman, 3; Jacob Ouke, I ; Helena Ouke, I; Eisack Sel- over, I.
The church at that date was enlarged by having the three front octagons of the walls built out in a straight line so as to make a square side and in that way twenty-eight new sittings were added. The sittings in the church were allotted to the farms-not to individuals -- and were part and parcel of the property of each holding and subject to transference with it, and the dues to the church seemed to have been regarded down even to the year 1876 as a lien on certain pieces of property in exchange for the right to sittings. In 1794 the old weather-beaten building began so plainly to show the effects of time that an entire new structure was demanded. So the octagon building was torn down and a new church was erected which was opened for public worship December 26, that year, with a sermon by the Rev. Peter Lowe, one of the ministers of the home church in Flatbush. This structure lasted until 1848, when the present church building was erected. This has since been improved several times, and its usefulness was increased in 1853 by the erection beside it of a building for school and lecture purposes. The connection between the churches in Flat- bush and Flatlands terminated in 1820, and in 1824 Flatlands and New Lots were united ecclesiastically and the Rev. William Cruik- shank accepted the joint pastorate. During his term the church at Flatlands underwent one great change, inasmuch as it was, for the first time in its history, heated in winter by the introduction of a wood-burning stove. In 1827 a new pulpit was introduced and the ladies of the congregation subscribed a suffi- cient sum to have it appropriately dressed.
Mr. Cruikshank resigned in 1834, and was followed in 1836 by the Rev. J. Abeel Bald-
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win, who served until 1852, when the associa- tion with New Lots came to an end, and the Rev. T. M. Davie became minister of Flat- lands. Since then the church has prospered under a succession of pastors, on the work of one of whom, the Rev. Dr. Anson Du Bois, much of this sketch has been founded. Before leaving the church history of Flatlands we may here state that the Methodist Church at Canar- sie was organized in 1840, with twelve mem- bers, and that the Methodist Episcopal Church at Flatlands had its beginning in 1851. The other churches are of recent date.
In every old Dutch community school and church generally went hand in hand and formed part of the same organization. We have already scen this exemplified in the chap- ter wherein the story of the church at Flat- bushı is told. Such was undoubtedly the case at Flatlands, although the earliest records have been lost. The Rev. Dr. Du Bois in his lis- torical sketch tells the early story of educa- tion in this town so completely that we quote it :
We have found no records touching it (the school) earlier than 1675, when it was evi- dently in a mature and vigorous career under the care of the church elders. It was called "The School of the Town." The first notice we have of it is in regard to a supply of books by the deacons; and entries and bills, of ele- mentary and religious books paid for, appear in their accounts from 1675 for a long period of years, along with every variety and order of expenses.
According to the tradition in our town, and the well-known usages of other Dutch set- tlements, the schoolmaster was, by virtue of his office; Reader in church, Chorister, and commonly Sexton also. If this be true, we are able to name some of the honored leaders of mental progress in Flatlands from very early times.
The first who claims this honor is Willim Gerretse (Van Couwenhoven), 1675; the next Jan Brouwer, 1688; the third Pieter Tull, 1691, though the fact that he afterward be- came a pauper does not argue liberality of salary. Various items were paid "to the school- master," for salary and other services, until
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