A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 56

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

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Speculation had now grown to enormous proportions. In 1828, in addition to the "Will- iamsburgh" and "Yorkton" settlements, the Jacob Berry farm, of twenty-five acres, next to the East River and Brooklyn line, and the Frederick Devoe farm, of ten or twelve acres, extending from the river to Seventh street and along South Fifth and Sixth streets, had been laid out in village lots and mapped. In 1833 one Holmes Van Mater, of New Jersey, hav- ing purchased the David Van Cott property, of twenty-four acres, extending from Sixth street to the old Keikout road, near Tenth street, and from South Third to Grand street, and for the space of a block to North First and be- yond, between Ninth and Tenth streets, in- cluding the "common" near Ninth and North First streets, had it mapped out into lots. John Miller had a map made of eleven acres, the northerly half of the land, inherited from David Miller, his father, being part of the old Keikout farm and of a piece of land extend- ing from Seventh to Tenth streets, bought by David Miller of one Roosevelt. Maria Miller Meserole had the south half of the same land, mapped by the village and then in partition in 1849.

Nearly all of the present Thirteenth and Fourteenth wards of Brooklyn-the original chartered limits of Williamsburgh-was laid out into lots before 1834, when a general map of the village was made by D. Ewen, setting out the entire chartered village into prospective city lots. Prior to this Edmund Frost, Silas Butler, Charles O'Handy and William Sin- clair had laid out twenty-five acres, extend- ing from near North Second street to North Tenth, and from Sixth street to Ninth street.

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Sharp and Sutphen had also seventeen acres laid out from North Second to North Seventh, and from Third to Sixth street. These par- cels were of irregular shape and matched to contiguous lands by irregular lines.

A . company purchased several farms and combined them in a map of 939 lots of land in Williamsburgh, the title being vested for convenience of sale and the execution of deeds in one William P. Powers, a handsome, amiable and honest young man, who was a law clerk in the office of John L. Graham, in New York. . tunes in their investments; and the pasture Powers also held title to one hundred and lands and fields which then made up nine- tenths of the territory of Williamsburgh were clothed in the hopeful imaginings of the hold- ers of lots with all the incidents of a busy, bustling town. ninety-seven lots located between Ninth street and Lorimer street, and South Third street and North Second street, and lying on both sides of Union avenue; also, he held title to the Abraham Meserole farm, west of Graham avenue.

The greatest rivals of Powers' associates were one John S. McKibben and Thomas Nicholls, and, associated with them as banker and friend, one George D. Strong. Nearly all the land south of the Meserole farm, held by Powers as above, to the Brooklyn line and the cross-roads, was purchased by Mckibben, Nicholls and Strong, and mapped into city lots, both upland and swamp. The only por- tion of what was made the third district of Williamsburgh, remaining to the original owners, was the part of the Meserole farm lying between Graham avenue and Bushwick avenue, the John Skillman farm, near North Second street, to the northerly village line and to the meadows, and from Union avenue to near Leonard street,-the land formerly of John Conselyea, deceased, afterward owned by Andrew J. Conselyea, as to part, and Mrs. D. W. Townsend and Mrs. Schenck as to other portions, and John Devoe as to land on the southerly side of North Second street, from Lorimer street to Bushwick avenue. But all these several farms and lands were mapped as city property by their old farm-owners and put on the market in competition with the land- jobbers' stock in trade. The village had already assumed jurisdiction, under an act extending its limits, passed in 1835, and laid out the streets as they are now recognized.

Such are the mater-of-fact details of the growth of the paper suburbs of our growing town. Its springs of life were hid away in the speculating haunts of New York City in dingy uper rooms of No. 142 Fulton street and No. 5 Nassau street, where often at mid-

day and at early nightfall gathered those who thought there was something more than Kidd's money hid away in the meadows and uplands of the old town of Bushwick.

At public and private sale large numbers of lots were disposed of, moneys were paid for margins, and mortgages were taken back for part of the purchase money to twice the in- trinsic value of the property. All went mer- rily, the land-jobbers were reputed to have become wealthy, and their customers saw for-

During the year 1836, a company purchased the Conselyea (formerly Daniel Bordet's) farm, together with an adjoining estate, trav- ersed by the present Grand street, laid it out (part of map of 939 lots), and erected there- on fourteen elegant first-class dwellings, de- signed to be the pattern houses of a new and model city. The advance in real estate and population was unprecedented-lithographed property-maps set forth in glowing colors the unrivalled opportunities and advantages for profitable investments, which were eagerly caught up by the uninitiated, until by this time (1836) real estate in Williamsburgh actually exceeded its present value.

Finally the bubble burst, and in the crash which followed-known as the "General Com- mercial Crisis of 1837," Williamsburgh suf- fered deeply. A perfect business paralysis ensued, which seriously shattered the founda- tions of real and substantial property. Be- tween cause and effect, intervening circum- stances delayed the ultimate catastrophe to collateral investments: so that not until 1839 or '40 did Williamsburgh fully realize that the prestige of her second founders was lost. The fourteen model dwellings were followed by no similar erections; here and there a half fin- ished building, abandoned by its owner, sug- gested the vanity of all human hopes; the noise of the axe and hammer was stilled throughout the village. From 1840 to 1844 the Court of Chancery was fully busied in clearing away the rubbish of private bank- ruptcies from investments made in these lots, that they might stand discharged from judg- ments and liens in the hands of responsible capitalists, and in a condition for improvement.

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But healthful legislation and increasing fa- cilities of access gradually restored business to its wonted channels. So rapid was the progress of the village that in less than ten years its population had doubled, and its ulti- mate position as a city became a fixed fact in the public mind. For, during the period (1835-1844) when political and financial his- tory had been so unhappy, social, religious and educational advantages had rapidly in- creased and helped to lighten the general gloom. In 1837 the Episcopal Church was organized in the city; in 1838 the Williams- burgh Lyceum was established; in 1839 the Baptist denomination gained a foothold; in 1840 the opening of the Houston Street ferry opened a convenient transit to residents em- ployed in the great manufactories along the eastern water front of New York City; the village press was augmented by the advent of The Williamsburg Democrat; and the first omnibus line was established. The village cen- sus gave a population of 5,094. In 1841 the Roman Catholic denomination established it- self in the Dutch village neighborhood; and the Odd Fellows organized a branch. In 1842 the First Presbyterian, and in 1843 the First Congregational Church, was commenced ; while during 1843-'4 the place became a fa- vorite resort of the "Millerite," or Second Advent craze. In 1844 an amended village charter was adopted, under which three trus- tees and one collector were chosen for each district. From this point up to 1850 the so- cial, educational and literary interests of the village assumed more definite proportions and vigor, while the number of church organi- zations was rapidly increased in each of the denominations, and the Williamsburgh Bible Society was formed. In 1848-'9 appeared the first village directory, published (as also the year following) by Henry Payson, and con- tinned by Messrs. Samuel and T. V. Reynolds, the increase of population from 1845 to 1850 being 19,448. The year 1851 saw the estab- lishment of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank, the Williamsburgh Dispensary, the Division Avenue Ferry and three new churches.

Williamsburgh now aspired to be a city. Several motives conspired to this result. The village government had often exercised doubt- ful powers in matters of public improvement. Its several charters, subjected, as they were by the courts, to the strictest construction, were found to allow of too little discretionary

power to be always available in emergencies which were constantly arising. Again, the Village Trustees being mostly men of limited business experience, could not readily work up to a technical and strictly constructed law. It is due, however, to the old Village Trustees, to say that their carelessness, as to the pro- visions of the charter, oftener arose from an over-ambition to serve the public in its need- ed improvements of the village than from any corrupt motives of personal profit. And, not infrequently, they found themselves, as a board, involved in litigations initiated by the very persons who had petitioned for improve- ments, and whose property was benefited thereby, perhaps to even double the assess- ments charged to it for the expenses. An un- wise fostering of the fire department, for the sake of its political influence, also gave undue influence to the rowdy element of the popula- tion, which soon showed itself in an increased turbulence of the town meetings, at which alone legal taxes could be ordered. This, with the impossibility of getting, in the town meeting, a fair expression of the real public voice-since the meetings could be so "packed" as to leave nine-tenths of the village voters out on the sidewalk-led to legislation for the establishment of a Board of Finance, which should determine the amounts to be raised for specific objects and provide for their insertion in the tax levy.

Such a Board was created March 1, 1849, by act of Legislature, and consisted of the President and Trustees of the village, with the Town Supervisor and nine other men espe- cially elected for the purpose. But this did not suffice ; and finally the required city char- ter, drawn by Mr. S. M. Meeker, village Counsellor, received the sanction of the Legis- lature April 7. 1851 ; the election for city offi- cers was held in November following, and the charter went into effect January 1, 1852.

The names of public streets frequently ex- press fragments of local history. Some are only to be interpreted by traditions. Men who lav the foundations of a city, or map the loca- tions so to be occupied, are apt to respect a Scripture example in calling their cities "by their own names," or by the names of favorites and friends. Bushwick had no verv conspicu- ous men ; so, when it became the site of a fu- ture town, no local denizen had sufficient sym- pathy with the matter to wish to couple his name with what seemed so absurd a project.

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Thus, in old Williamsburgh no streets pre- serve the memory of the Titus, the Miller, the Meserole, the Devoe, the Berry families, nor even that of its founders, Morrell or Wood- hull. Mr. Dunham sought, indeed, to apply his name to the present Grand street; or, at least, to sixty feet wide of the southern por- tion of it. But the widened street, as a cen- ter line of departure in the designation of all the streets, took the more significant name of Grand street. And Woodhull street, in desig- nating the streets by numbers, was succeeded by "North Second" street. All the regular streets of the village were designated by num- bers, except Grand street and the lane known as Water street, a portion of the old road along the East River shore ; and a street laid out on the Commissioners' map as "River street," whose site was over the waters of the East River, has been closed.

In the designation of the streets First street ran along the East River, Second street was parallel or nearly parallel to it, and so the streets were numbered as we went east from the East River up to Twelfth street; and north from Grand street the first street having the same general directions was North First street. The old Jamaica turnpike, from the old Ferry out, was North Second, and so on to North Thirteenth street, at or along Bushwick creek; then, south of Grand street and running in the same general direction, though not ex- actly parallel, South First street to South Eleventh street, at the old Brooklyn line. In the use of numerals there was a certain degree of convenience; but strangers were often con- fused by confounding First street with North First, or South First, etc.

But it is in the present Fifteenth and Six- teenth Wards that we find the streets desig- nated by historical names. Lorimer commem- orates the middle name of John and James Lorimer Graham, two famous land-jobbers there in 1836. Ewen street was named after Daniel Ewen, City Surveyor, residing in New York, who surveyed both the old and new vil- lage. Graham avenue still flatters the above named Grahams. Smith street commemorated Morgan L. Smith, and Bushwick avenue was the boundary. between Williamsburgh and Bushwick. North Second street was extended on the map of the new village to Bushwick. Powers street, in the present Fifteenth Ward, was named after William P. Powers, a clerk in the office of John L. Graham, who was made

nominal proprietor of 939 lots for the con- venience of their sale and conveyance to pur- chasers ; also of several other parcels of land. He appears on the record as the greatest land- jobber of the period. While, however, the prof- its belonged to others, the responsibilities and losses were sometimes fathered on him. But he has always borne the character of an up- right, honest and cultured gentleman. Ainslee street was namer after Mr. James Ainslee, who for many years administered local justice in Williamsburgh. Devoe street represented the Devoes, who owned a block or two of land adjoining North Second street on the South: side, and whose home was in Bushwick, and not Frederick Devoe, whose farm was on the East River shore. Going north of North Sec- ond street, or the old Jamaica turnpike, the first street parallel to it is Conselyea street, whose eastern portion runs through the farm. late of Andrew J. Conselyea, and about an acre of land of William J. Conselyea, his brother; hence the name. Skillman street, now Skillman avenue to distinguish it from Skillman street in old Brooklyn, derived its name from John Skillman, Sr., who lived and died on the same farm, at or near the present residence of Charles M. Church, son-in-law to John Skillman. Jackson street was probably named from Daniel Jackson, who, in connec- tion with Graham and Reuben Withers, had some landed interests in Williamsburgh. Withers street was named after Reuben With- ers, late proprietor of the Houston Street Ferry. Frost street was named from Edmund Frost, who was associated with Handy, Sin- clair and Butler in a tract of land in the Four- teenth Ward. Richardson street was named for Lemuel Richardson, whose worthy name is elsewhere mentioned as one of the pioneers in building up Williamsburgh. Sanford street (changed to Bayard) was in honor of Edward Sanford, a distinguished lawyer associated with John L. Graham in many real-estate transactions. His name had been applied to a street in the Seventh Ward, Brooklyn ; hence. the change. The substituted name was proba- bly taken from the name of a street in the city of New York.

Going south from Grand street, Remsen street was named after Abraham A. Remsen, who owned land at its junction with Union avenue. There is another Remsen street near the City Hall, old Brooklyn, and the name of the E. D. street was changed to Maujer street

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in respect to Mr. Daniel Maujer, who, about the time, represented the Fifteenth Ward as Alderman.

Nicholas Wyckoff, the late worthy Presi- dent of the First National Bank, has his name perpetuated in Wyckoff street. Stagg street, with its homely name, has doubtless outlived its patron, who is probably known to but few, if any, of the existing citizens. Scholes street represents the family of James Scholes, de- ceased, late of what is now the Nineteenth Ward. Meserole avenue was named from the Abraham Meserole through whose farm it ran, and not from Abraham Meserole, hus- band of Maria Miller, of the present Thir- teenth Ward. Johnson street, or avenue, commemorates the memory of the late General Jeremiah Johnson. Boerum street was named from old Jacob Boerum, who had a farm of fifty-eight acres within the limits of the pres- ent Sixteenth Ward, Brooklyn. This farm was the subject of the great Cleveland law- suit. McKibben street was named after John S. Mckibben, who caused a map of a part of the Jacob Boerum farm, as the land of Mckibben and Nicholls, to be made and filed. Sigel street, which (on changing the name of duplicate streets in Williamsburgh by the Common Council of Brooklyn) superseded Marshall street, was in honor of General Sigel, of the Civil war. Moore street was named for the late Thomas C. Moore, a manufacturer of wire sieves and netting, who owned lands in that neighborhood. Varette street was named from Lewis F. Varette, a land speculator, who operated on the sale of village lots there and elsewhere. Cook street was probably named from an old resident near the Cross Roads. Debevoise street (covering a part of the old Brooklyn and Newtown turnpike, by the Cross Roads) was named from Charles Debevoise, who lived on Flushing avenue, near the western terminus of this street.

The custom of perpetuating the names of the oldest inhabitants by those of streets is more marked in the old city of Brooklyn than in Williamsburgh. In the latter place many whose names are thus perpetuated were really residents of the city of New York, and inter- ested in Williamsburgh only as speculators.

From 1817 until 1852 the local government of Williamsburgh was carried on by a Presi- dent and Board of Trustees. By a law which

passed the Legislature in April, 1851, it was raised, on January 1, 1852, to the dignity of a city, and Dr. Abraham J. Berry was elected the first Mayor, the population being at that time about 45,000. The possession of a city charter at once added influence and strength to the community, and it began to expand with bewildering rapidity. In 1852 the Farm- ers and Citizens' Bank was incorporated, with a capital of $200,000, and the Williamsburgh City Bank with a capital of $320,000. In the following year the Mechanics' (Manufac- turers' National) Bank was formed, with a capital of $250,000, and these financial institu- tions, with several local fire insurance com- companies, gave force to the idea of the citizens that Williamsburgh was destined to become the business center of Long Island. New churches were organized in almost all denomi- nations, and twenty-five Sabbath-schools, with 4,600 registered pupils, showed that the active element in the city's growth was not unmindful of the higher interests of the community. Everything was hopeful, and a roseate hue col- ored every move by the municipality. Ex- penses were increasing rapidly, much more so than the local revenues warranted, but then the future was bright with promises. Thirty miles of streets had been opened up, paved and flagged, and that itself was boasted about as being a grand item, even though the treas- ury was empty.

The curse of the new city, as it was in a lesser degree that of the village, was its poli- tics. A class of men forged to the front who lived off the spoils, and these were urging the city fathers to rush into all sorts of rash expenditures,-expenditures far beyond the financial ability of the local treasury to meet, and the municipal indebtedness began to pile up in a way that caused thinking people to desire a halt. But the politicians in office could not halt even if they had desired, which is doubtful, for those not in office had to be provided for, while their dependents,-those who by their votes gave them the power they

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enjoyed,-had to be "looked after." The fire department, for instance, being an excellent vote-getter, was carefully nourished by the lo- cal authorities until the city had a system far beyond its needs ; but, then, each fire company was a powerful factor in local politics. In 1852 the Williamsburgh Water Company was organized, and proved the beginning of the end, for it was its extravagance and grasping methods that, more than aught else, turned the eyes of the Brooklyn people to the city that was rising into prominence on their border and to the dangers which its exigencies sug- gested and presented. The water company, so011 after it was incorporated, proceeded promptly to buy up some sources of supply on the south side of the island, for which Brooklyn had been cautiously negotiating, and its scope of action promised still further to interfere with the future development of the water department of the City of Churches. The condition of things that presented itself to Brooklyn was not a pleasant one, for it was seen that all the local schemes of improve- ment were apt to be hindered by the new city, which was rapidly increasing in population, in ambition, in a knowledge of the wiles of local statesmanship, and in debt. Then arose in Brooklyn, quietly at first, a sentiment for an- nexation. It was felt that two such city gov- ernments, under the existing conditions, could not, side by side, maintain amicable relations or possibly work hand in hand for the mutual benefit of their respective cities, and that they would gradually but inevitably drift into more and more pronounced opposition, involving each other, in the end, into countless rash ex- penditures, perhaps even into a condition of financial bankruptcy. There was no need, for instance, it was agreed, for the cost of two municipal establishments, while under one re- trenchment, economy and progress might be- come practical watchwords. Such were some of the arguments put forth in Brooklyn in favor of annexation. They were indorsed by many in Williamsburgh, but the bulk of the

population there was not ready for any such sweeping change as self-annihilation.

On January 1, 1854, William Wall, the head of a local cordage factory, a man who had risen from the ranks by his own industry and shrewdness, became the second and last Mayor of Williamsburgh. He desired to institute a term of rigid economy, and tried to introduce something like business principles in the man- agement of the affairs of the city; but the Aldermen were decidedly practical politicians, versed in all the arts which that phrase im- plies, and had no patience with such notions. Mayor Wall would not yield to their ways, or their wiles, or their demands, and the num- ber of his vetoes became such as to win for him the attention of almost the entire com- munity, and especially of all interested in municipal progress. Still the Aldermen perse- vered in carrying on a campaign of spoils, and Mayor Wall, even by the most rigorous application of the powers vested in him, could not wholly arrest their schemes of plunder and extravagance. So, as the only avenue of prac- tical, early, and complete relief that presented itself, he threw himself with all his energy into the annexation movement. Strengthened by this, the advocates of annexation, or con- solidation as it was sometimes called, caused a bill to be prepared, which passed the Legis- lature, and on January 1, 1855, the city of Will- iamsburgh passed officially out of existence and became simply a section of Brooklyn, and of the history of that city the further story of Williamsburgh is a part. In dealing with Brooklyn we will speak further of this con- solidation, but here we may say that the new city not only included Brooklyn and Will- iamsburgh, but also the whole of the town- ship of Bushwick, and including the section, almost distinct in itself, one time called Cherry Point, but which by that time had been known- as Greenpoint, and which now became Brook- lyn's Seventeenth Ward.

For many years after the Hessians had simply became ugly memories, Cherry Point

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pursued the even tenor of its way and floated along the current of life with typical Dutch placidity and evenness. The change to mod- ern conditions and development came about in unexpected fashion and mainly through the tireless energy of one man, and that man not a native-Neziah Bliss. Bliss was born in 1790, at Hebron, Conn., and his life was that of a typical Yankee adventurer. After some business experience in a store in New Haven, he removed in 1810 to New York City, where he made the acquaintance of Robert Fulton, the pioneer steamboat builder, and won the confidence and friendship of that great in- ventor. A year later Bliss went to Philadel- phia, where, with Daniel French, he became connected with a company that proposed con- structing a steamboat to ply on the Schuylkill. At the same time he found employment in a book store and in other clerical work, for, al- though the boat project proved a mechanical success, there was little money in it. In 1817 he removed to Cincinnati, where he organized a company and built the first steamboat ever seen there, the General Pike. It plied be- tween Cincinnati and Louisville, and proved a money-maker. Mr. Bliss sold out his interest in her in 1819 and went to New Orleans. His business career, however, need not here be closely followed ; he had the usual alterna- tions of success and ill luck incidental to all pioneers, and a pioneer he essentially was.

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A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 56

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