A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 54

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

USA > New York > A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 54

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vited a descent. The little battery of two or three twelve-pounders gave a good account of itself while it had the opportunity. It put a stop, to a great extent, to the illicit and un- patriotic traffic in its vicinity and it opened fire on the frigate Asia when that famous ship came within its range. The Asia re- sponded, and while the battery escaped harm the houses in the neighborhood suffered se- verely. Bergen says that this battery op- posed the landing of the British on August 22, hut there seems no clear warrant for this. The invaders in the disposition of their fleet on that eventful morning certainly placed a ves- sel-the Rainbow-to cover the place where the little fort was supposed to be. All the historical evidence shows that the British landing was practically unopposed, and indeed General Parsons in his minute report of the matter to John Adams mentions nothing of such a defense. Probably, therefore, the arm- ament had been moved to some of the forts in the established line of defenses where it might be enabled to do more effective service than in an outpost to which was opposed an entire fleet and a veteran army.

It is generally held that the landing from the British army was effected at Denyse's ferry, but probably the coast from there to what is now Bensonhurst was soon alive with the red-coated troops and the European mer- cenaries. For two or three days New Utrecht swarmed with the invaders, and roar of can- non and the din of musketry deadened all other sounds, while fields of grain were ruth- lessly trampled down and farm houses and cottages despoiled of their provender, battered by shot, or doomed to flame by the exigencies of the short campaign or the brutal malice of the soldiery. It was a terrible episode in the story of the quiet township, a whole epoch as it were crowded into a few days; but after it passed matters resumed their wonted quiet and the people were given a chance to repair the damage and prepare their fields for fresh crops. During the British occupation the town felt the iron hand of the invader more

*The following data bearing on this are taken from an article in the story of New Utrecht from a recent issue of the "Brooklyn Eagle;"

"In 1749 the seines of Justice Cortelyou secured the enormous catch of 9,000 shad. The farmers and shore dwellers were in such constant communication with Staten Island that in 1738 a regular ferry was established between Yellow Hook, near Bay Ridge, to an opposite point across the Narrows. This service was conducted by John Lane. The latest instance of large game is recorded in 1759, when a full-sized bear attempted to swim across to New Utrecht from Red Hook and was shot by Sebring of Brooklyn. From 1776 to the end of the British occupation, sympathizers with the Patriot cause were forced to make nightly trips across the Narrows in fishing boats to Staten Island and New Jersey. At this period the bluff on which Fort Hamilton was afterward built was occupied by the houses of Denyse Denyse, Abraham Bennett and Simon Cortelyou. In the bombardment from the ships, on August 22, 1776, the Bennett and Denyse dwellings were struck by shots from the English guns."

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heavily than those of any other of the old Dutch towns, for they had lived even more among themselves than had the others, and their Dutch doggedness, and determination and loyalty, were more marked; but when the occupation, with all its bitterness, became a thing of the past New Utrecht gradually re- sumed its old ways and contentedly sowed and reaped, laughed and dozed, as the seasons came and went and the years slipped on.

It got another awakening when the war of 1812 broke out, for then a rock lying off the then famous Denyse's ferry and locally known as Hendrick's Reef was selected as the site of one of the forts forming the defenses of the harbor. This fort was originally called Fort Diamond, on account of the shape of its little island site, but the name was afterward changed to that which it now bears,-Fort Lafayette. In the other defenses of Long Island, when the war of 1812 seemed to threaten them with another British invasion, the people of New Utrecht took an equal in- terest with their neighbors. On August 22 they worked on the Brooklyn fortifications and the New Utrecht company in the Long Island (Sixty-fourth) Regiment was main- tained easily at its full strength. It was of- ficered by Captain William Denyse, Lieuten- ants Barcalo and Van Hise, and Ensign Suy- dam. There was also another military coni- pany formed under Captain J. T. Bergen, while in New Utrecht was an armed camp for drill and instruction which bore the name of General Morgan Lewis.

In 1824 Fort Hamilton (the locality known to the Indians as Nyack) was com- menced and was pronounced as completed in 1832. But military evolution is a constant evolution and even to the present day it is still undergoing enlargement and improve- ment. It now occupies a reservation of 155 acres and ranks as one of the most complete fortifications on the North Atlantic coast. At the time of this writing an army board is considering several very extensive improve- ments, to cost in the neighborhood of $1,000,-

000. The barracks are to be rebuilt, and the parade ground will be graded and en- larged and also beautified by extensive tree planting. The government reservation is to be transformed into a fine park through which will pass a driveway connecting Bay Ridge with Bath Beach, Bensonhurst and Coney Island. Fine macadamized streets are to take the place of the old dirt roads. The redoubt at the southeastern corner of the grounds will be leveled, as it is in the way. The stables, store-room, hospital and the quarters of the non-commissioned officers are to be left standing. The improvements in- clude a new sewer system. In fact little of the old barracks will be left when the improve- ments now under consideration are completed. Most of the officers' quarters, however, will remain, and it is hoped that the old Cortelyou mansion at the southeastern corner of the grounds will be spared. It is a historic land- mark, having been General Howe's headquar- ters when he effected his landing on Long Island in August, 1776.

The modern history of New Utrecht is one simply of peaceful progress. Its villages- Bay Ridge, Fort Hamilton, Bath, Lefferts Park, Dycker Meadow, Bensonhurst-are, as we see them, mainly new developments, whose existence in these later days are due to the general desire for suburban homes and the wiles and ways of the land boomer. None of them has any history in the strict sense of the word,-any interest beyond their own1 borders,-although Bay Ridge came into un- kind prominence in 1873, when one of the supposed abductors of Charley Ross, of Phil- adelphia, was shot while engaged in an at- tempt to rob the old Van Brunt mansion which then stood on the site now occupied by the Crescent Athletic Club.

In 1831 the Methodists first organized a church in Bay Ridge, and in 1834 St. John's Episcopal church was organized at Fort Ham- ilton. It was founded mainly by people con- nected witlı the military reservation, and the late Robert E. Lee, the Confederate General,

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was one of its vestrymen in 1842, at which time he was a Captain in the United States army. In 1852 another Episcopalian body was founded,-Christ Church, Bay Ridge,- mainly through the efforts of the late J. A. Perry, the first Comptroller of Greenwood Cemetery, who died August 26, 1881. The advent of the street car, the laying of a line of railroad right through its farms to the sea- side, and, more potent than all, the introduc- tion of the trolley, have opened its every nook and corner to the outside world. Streets now cross each other on the map with mathemat- iral nicety, all over its old-time territory, farms have been cut up into city lots and every sea- son new communities are being brought to- gether. The time of the change from urban to suburban conditions was marked by many curious cantrips, none more curious than those of Cornelius Furgueson, who among other

things, had the township nightly lighted up with 3,900 gas lamps at a time when there was neither house nor barn to benefit,-one gas lamp it was said for every three persons in the township, or ten for each house! The company which supplied the gas received $28 for each one every year and paid a handsome commission on the contract. There were stories afloat of other jobs and it was just such stories, backed up by strong evidence, that hastened the end of New Utrecht's sep- arate existence. Governor Morton signed the bill for its annexation to Brooklyn May 3, 1894, and the measure went into effect on July I following. Since then New Utrecht has been reduced to the official position of a city ward, but its progress as such has been much more rapid than it ever experienced as a town- ship, while its future is of the brightest pos- sible description.

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CHAPTER XXIX.

BUSHWICK.

WILLIAMSBURG, GREENPOINT-THE ADVENTUROUS LIFE OF NEZIAH BLISS.

NLIKE the other Dutch towns on Long Island, Bushwick does not seem to have sprung into exist- ence as a town duly backed up by a patent, and must rather be consid- ered as a place which simply grew until it had township honors conferred upon it by the progress which its own people made in num- bers and importance. Lying in a fertile belt of land, some 5,000 acres of extent, it seemed from the beginning an agricultural paradise, while it was so adapted by nature that almost any portion of it was easily accessible. Ex- tending, roughly speaking, from the Wallabout to Newtown Creek, it had a splendid stretch of water front on the river facing New Amster- dam, while in its rear Newtown Creek and its tributaries formed another highway by which a farmer might send his produce to market. It seemed a stretch of land designed by nature for farming operations, and so far as we may judge its advantages were very early perceived by the pioneer prospectors of the West India Company. In 1638 most of the territory after- ward incorporated into it was bought from the Indian proprietors, and some of it even then is said to have been occupied by enterprising pioneers who saw that the land was good and had pre-empted as much as they could and then waited the advent of law and order to award them titles and make peace with the red man. By 1650 it boasted a mixed population of Swedes, Dutch and Norwegians. As early

as 1641 we learn of one of these settlers, Cor- nelius (Jacobse) Stille, having sold his farm in Bushwick, so that the territory by that time had so far advanced from its primeval condi- tion that its land had become the object of barter and sale. We do not propose to follow here the story of the early patents to such set- tlers as Jean Meserole, or Lambert Moll, or Claes Carstensen, or George Baxter, or Jan the Swede, or David Andriese, or Jan Forbus, or Pieter Jans the Norman, and merely present their names to show that Bushwick was pri- marily settled by as cosmopolitan a population as was New Amsterdam itself.

It was not until 1660 that the settlers began to draw together and the object then was sim- ply that of self-protection. The Indians were at that time ugly and troublesome, and a block- house was erected on a bluff beside the river near the foot of the present South Fourth street, which was given the name of the Keike, or Keikout (look-out), which became the pop- ular designation of a stretch of contiguous ter- ritory. That fortification protected the settlers, or at least inspired confidence in their hearts, especially of those near the Wallabout; but the farms seem to have rapidly-rapidly, for the time-spread over a wide stretch of territory. On Feb. 16, 1660, fourteen Frenchmen, re- cently arrived, along with a Dutch interpreter, waited on Gov. Stuyvesant and asked him to lay aside a section of the territory as a town plot and a few days later the redoubtable Peter,

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with his officials, crossed over to Long Island and designated, or more likely approved, a site between Mespat Kill (Newtown Creek) and Norman's Kill (Bushwick Creek), on which he ordered twenty-two house lots to be laid out and building was at once begun, the first house being that of Evert Hedeman. A year later Stuyvesant revisited the place, saw that every- thing was really prospering, and, in answer to the request of the inhabitants that he should give the village a name, dubbed it Boswijck, the "town in the woods." But he was greeted with another request, a petition signed by twenty-three male inhabitants-all there was undoubtedly,-asking for the usual town priv- ileges, such as being ruled by local magistrates ; and Peter the Impetuous, being in a better humor than usual, seems to have at once as- sented. They submitted six names and from the list he selected three,-Peter (Janse) de Witt, Jan (Cornelise) Zeeaw, and Jan Tilje,- who thereupon became the first magistrates. The Schout, however, was Adriaen Hegeman, who held that office over the other Dutch towns, for Bushwick took its place at once among these in spite of the cosmopolitan com- plexion of its population. Stuyvesant also ad- vised the surrounding settlers to build their houses so as to be in, or within easy reach of, the new settlement, and so they might help each other in case of danger. This suggestion was so evidently useful and practical that it was carried into effect with such zeal that within a few months the magistrates had to apply to the Governor and Council for an increase in the number of town lots, a request that was at once granted. It does not appear that Stuy- vesant, in spite of his evident partiality for the "town in the woods," ever conferred on it a town patent ; at least none has been discov- ered.

The early history of Bushwick is one of steady prosperity. On Dec. 26, 1662, say the Dutch records: "The magistrates of the vil- lage of Bosswyck, appeared before the coun- cil, representing that they in their village were

in great need of a person who would act as clerk and schoolmaster to instruct the youth; and that as one had been proposed to them, viz, Boudewyn Manout, from Crimpen op de Lecq (a villiage in Holland), they had agreed with him that he should officiate as voorleeser or clerk, and keep school for the instruction of the youth. For his [services] as clerk he was to receive 400 guilders in [wampum] annually ; and, as schoolmaster, free house rent and fire- wood. They therefore solicited that their ac- tion in the matter might meet the approval of the Director General and Council in Nieuw Netherland, and that the Council would also contribute something annually to facilitate the payment of said salary." From this beginning we can trace the progress of primary educa- tion in Bushwick, the story of which has al- ready been outlined.

Except a record of slow progress after the first exciting start, there is little to relate of the early Dutch history of Bushwick, but with the advent of Gov. Nicolls in 1664 there came quite a ripple of excitement. The town ac- cepted the change of government quietly enough, though perhaps not loyally, and was represented in the Hempstead Convention of Marrh 1, 1665, by Jan Stelman and Guisbert Teunissen. It was in the latter's house that the excitement commenced, for there a minis- ter, a preacher from New Amsterdam, deliv- cred a sermon by order of the Governor. The name of this clergyman is unknown, and only a few of the inhabitants went to listen to him. In the first place he was a minister of the Church of England, a body of which few, if indeed any, of the people knew anything ex- cept from hearsay; in the second place, like most Protestants, they did not care to have a minister thrust upon them; and in the third place they had learned that they were to be taxed for the support of the new religious teacher. The amount was first fixed at 175 guilders, but when the extent of the opposition to the move became apparent, Gov. Nicolls re- duced the impost 100 guilders. This there

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was no evading, grumble as they might, and the amount was paid yearly until Gov. Colve took the reins of government, in 1673. But the people, while forced to pay, could not be compelled to listen, and most of them pre- ferred to stay away from the services thus thrust upon them and adhered in their alle- giance to the Dutch Reformed Church, travel- ing generally to the little tabernacle in Brook- lyn. Gov. Nicolls, however, in spite of all this, willingly acceded to the request of the people for a municipal charter, and issued one on Oct. 25, 1667, in which the boundaries of the town are set forth, but in language which would be unintelligible to the general reader. Of course such a charter meant a fee and that was prob- ably the main reason for the prompt response which the request met with. Another patent was issued in 1687 by Gov. Dongan. When the brief rule of Colve came to an end and British supremacy was re-established, no at- tempt seems to have been made to thrust a minister once more on the people, and it was not until the time of the British occupation, after the Battle of Brooklyn, that the Episco- pal Church again asserted itself. Considering themselves under the spiritual guidance of the Collegiate Church, the people, except possibly the French who did not understand the lan- guage and very likely degenerated in religious observances, contributed to the support of that body; and there is still in existence a receipt given by Dominie Freeman for the Bushwick contribution to his salary, dated 1709. It was probably a year before, 1708, that the first church was built, the usual octagonal structure with steep roof and open belfry, surmounted by an eagle or a dove, or some other emblem- atic design in gilt. A part of the first com- munion service, still extant, bears the date 1708, and there is also a receipt for a church bell dated 17II, so that the former year may be accepted as the date of erection ; and as the queer-looking little box, with trifling altera- tions and improvements, lasted until 1829, when it was demolished, it must have been a good honest piece of construction.

Notwithstanding its magnificent situation, Bushwick did not prosper or increase in pop- ulation in the same proportion as the other Dutch towns. It remained a farming com- munity mainly, and seemed to live in a measure within itself, attending to its own business, its people settling their troubles by arbitration among themselves, steadily keeping alive their ancestral traditions, jealous of any interference · with their local affairs, supporting their own poor without the necessity of any legal edict, paying their quit-rent tax with the usual mild grumbling and finally becoming outspoken in their denunciation of the imposts and the laws of their English rulers. But they could do little more than grumble, for they were a mere handful. Probably in 1776 the whole population did not number over 250.

Bushwick, despite the disparity of its num- bers, was more pronouncedly patriotic and outspoken than any of the other King's County towns in the crisis which preceded the out- break of the Revolutionary War. It was repre- sented in the Provincial Congress at New York in 1775 and 1776 by Theodorus Polhemus. The town seems to have fully complied with the calls of the Congress for militia and Capt. Titus's company is claimed to have done its full share of duty in the Battle of Brooklyn. The result of that battle, however, effectually silenced the Revolutionary spirit in Bushwick, and many of its most ardent Patriots moved away, while not a few entered the military service of the struggling republic. The town seems to have suffered many hardships all dur- ing the years of the British occupation, the trees and fences were made to furnish firewood for the camps or taken for use in such defenses as were thrown up, while farm and garden produce was transferred from raiser to con- sumer by the easy methods of martial law ; and to that rude code in fact the civilization and property of the entire township had to give way. The most obnoxious feature of the occu- pation was perhaps the billeting of the soldiers on the people. A Hessian regiment, for in- stance, was quartered in Bushwick in the win-

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ter of 1776-7. Many of them were sheltered in barracks which they constructed on the farm of Abraham Luqueer, using whatever wood, growing or otherwise, came handiest. A great number, however, were quartered in private residences and defiled and destroyed the prop- erty which they occupied with reckless wanton- ness. So filthy were they in their habits that they received the name of "the Dirty Blues," and one of the results of their stay in Bushwick was a malignant fever which made a vacant chair in many a household. Gangs of toughs and thieves-human scum-later on in the oc- cupation crossed over from New York or marched from Brooklyn and infested the whole territory, while from 1778 until 1783 McPher- son's Guides, although nominally under British discipline, proved little better than a squad of thugs and freebooters. No wonder that Bush- wick rejoiced when the victory was won and the occupation became a thing of the past. Its citizens joined in an address to Gen. Washing- ton, to which he sent a most dignified reply. On Dec. 2, 1783, they had a grand festival at which they joined in thirteen regular toasts, beginning with "The United States of Amer- ica" and "His Most Christian Majesty (of France)," and "the States of Holland." Then they pledged New York, Clinton, Washington, the Council and Assembly, and closed with sentiments, the last of which was, "As the roar- ing of a lion is to animals, so may the frowns of America be to Princes." The chronicles tell us that "the day was spent in greatest good humor, decency and decorum. Every coun- tenance displayed in the most lively manner the joy and gratitude of their hearts upon this most happy and important event."

"Among the patriots of Bushwick," says Stiles, "we may here record the names of John Provost (grandfather of Hon. A. J. Provost), who escaped the pursuit of a detachment of British soldiers on Greenpoint and was obliged to secrete himself for three days in Cripplegate swamp, during which time he sustained life by milking the cows which pastured there; of

John A. Meserole, who was taken and confined in the Provost jail at New York; of John I. Meserole, who was mistaken for John A., while out gunning in a skiff, and arrested as a spy, but subsequently released; and of Abra- ham Meserole, another member of the same family who was in the American army. Jacob Van Cott and David Miller were also in the service, and taken prisoners. William Consel -. yea was taken during the war, and hung over a well and threatened in order to make him confess where his money was ; Nicholas Wyck- off was engaged in vidette duty with a troop of horse ; and Alexander Whaley was one of those decided characters of whom we should be glad to learn more than we have been able to ascer- tain, in spite of much inquiry and research. He was a blacksmith, residing at the Bushwick Cross Roads, on land forming a part of Abra- ham Rapalye's forfeited estates, and which he purchased at the commissioners' sale, March 21, 1785. (Liber VI, Convey., Kings Co., 345). The building which Mr. Whaley occupied was erected by himself, on the south side of the present Flushing avenue, his liberty-sign pole rising from a little knoll some twenty feet west of the house. His blacksmith shop was on the site of the present house, east of the old Wha- ley house. He died at Bushwick, in February, 1833, in the eighty-eighth year of his age. Bold, faithful, and patriotic, and odd withal, he made his mark upon the day and generation in which he lived. His obituary notice (all too brief) says that "he was one of the pioneers of American liberty ; being one of those who as- sisted in throwing the tea overboard in Boston harbor. He was the confidential friend of Washington, and in all the relations of life he always did his duty."

"Several estates were confiscated, among which were those of William Rapalje and others; the owners finding it convenient to go to Nova Scotia.

"Although opposite political opinions were frequently entertained by different members of the same families, it is worthy of remark that

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they always acted honestly towards one an- other. Though a great number of the inhab- itants of Bushwick were Whigs, the Royalists even were men of peaceable character and in- tegrity. This fact, as recorded by a venerable eye witness of the Revolution, speaks volumes in favor of the ancestry of Bushwick."

With the close of the Revolutionary strug- gle Bushwick resumed the quiet tenor of its ways and did not manifest to any extent the progress made by the other Dutch towns. Probably its people were averse to change,- to receiving and fraternizing with new-comers. They tilled the soil season after season, ate the produce of their fields, sold what they could, or what they did not want, and were happy. The centre of their little world was Het Dorp, where was located their church, their town house, their school-house and the little God's- acre where after life's little battle they were gathered to their fathers. This was the spot on which Stuyvesant stood when he named the place Boswijck and probably the visitor who r.owadays passes along Humboldt avenue, be- tween North Second and Skillman streets, may tread in the footsteps of the valorous Peter when he viewed the landscape and graciously assented, in the passing fullness of his heart, to all the people asked of him. Now its glory has departed and rows of houses stand on once fruitful fields. Even the old burying-ground has disappeared. It became practically unused and an eyesore, and in 1879 the graves were opened, the remains reverently gathered to- gether in boxes and deposited under the mod- ern Bushwick church. There was quite a set- tlement around Het Dorp, for it was the rally- ing place of the inhabitants, and the court- house and church and school caused it to be frequented by strangers at intervals ; but even in spite of these things it was a sleepy village, even in its busiest days. There was also a little settlement at the junction of what is now Flushing avenue and Bushwick avenue, which rejoiced in the name of Het Kivis Padt, or The Cross Roads, and another, Het Strand, stood

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A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 54

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