A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 58

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 58

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Prouince this 19th of December in the fort Amsterdam in New Netherland. 1645.

Signed WILHELM KIEFT.

Endorsed,-Ter ordonnantie van de Hr Directr Generael & Raden van Nieuw Neder- landt. CORNELIS VAN TIENHOUEN,

Secretary.

The only fault to be found with this docu- ment was the loose way in which the bour.d- aries were set forth. This was amended to a certain extent in the patent issued in 1670 by Gov. Lovelace, and the limits were still more closely defended in Gov. Dongan's patent, is- sued in 1686. In the latter document the quit rent to be paid by the town was fixed at "six bushels good winter merchantable wheat," a tax that was felt to be comparatively light, and therefore-as is usual in such circumstances -- just and equitable.

On being armed with Kieft's patent Lady Moody and her friends lost no time in proceed- ing to the land awarded them and beginning operations by laying out a town site. Concern- ing this the late Rev. A. P. Stockwell wrote:

In view of the natural advantages which the town possessed, they no doubt hoped to make it, at some future day, a large and im- portant commercial center. From its situation at the mouth of "The Narrows," and with a good harbor of its own; with the ocean on the one side, and the then flourishing village of New Amsterdam (New York) on the other, there did indeed seem to be good ground for such an expectation. But unfortunately, as the event proved, Gravesend Bay, though afford- ing secure anchorage for smaller craft, would not permit vessels of large tonnage to enter its quiet waters with perfect safety; and so the idea of building a "city by the sea," which in extent, wealth, and business enterprise, should at least rival New Amsterdam, was reluctantly abandoned.

However, with this end in view, as the work begun would seem to indicate, they com- menced the laying out of the village. Select- ing a favorable site near the center of the town, they measured off a square containing about sixteen acres of ground, and opened a street around it. This large square they afterwards

1 0

Com moll

yara

Common

10 3.

2 -

1645

Ye ANCIENT PLOT OF Ye LOWNE OF S'GRAVESENDE

yard

COM1HON

yard

Comenon

Loff s / off 1h 1.23 doy was5

2 -

(Copied from the Original in the Town-Clerk's Office.)

361

GRAVESEND.

· divided into squares of four acres each, by opening two streets at right angles through the center. The whole was then enclosed by a pal- isade fence, as a protection, both against the sudden attacks of hostile Indians, and the depredations of wolves and other wild animals which were then common upon the island. Upon one of the oldest maps of the town, on file in the clerk's office, we find a perfect repre- sentation of the village-plan as originally laid out. From this we learn that each of the four squares was divided into equal sections, laid off around the outside of each square and fac- ing the outer street. These were numbered from one to ten, in each of the four squares. This gave forty sections in all; and thus one section was allotted to each of the forty patent- ees. By this arrangement every family could reside within the village, and share alike its palisade defence. In the center of each square was reserved a large public yard, where the cattle of the inhabitants were brought in from the commons, and herded for the night for their better protection. At a later period, if not at this early date, a small portion of each square was devoted to public uses. On oife was the church, on another was the school-house, on another the town's hall, and on the fourth the burying ground. The farms, or "planters' lots" as they were then called, were also forty in number, and were laid out in triangular form with the apex resting in the village and the boundary lines diverging therefrom like the radii of a circle * * * *. From the fact that the village was divided into forty lots and that forty farms radiated therefrom, we have natur- ally inferred that there were forty patentees. If this be so, one of them very early in the history of the town must have dropped out of the original number, either by death or remov- al, or, as tradition has it, forfeiting by his prof- ligate life all his right, title, and interest in the property allotted to him.

It seems, however, from the records that only twenty-six persons up to 1646 had settled with Lady Moody in Gravesend and taken part in laying out the town, and that the full quota of forty according to the plan was filled up by subsequent arrivals.

The first troubles met with came from the Indians, who appear to have held rather obnox- ious views as to the settlement from the first.

Every man was ordered to be armed and equipped to meet a possible, even probable, at- tack at any moment, and was also required to keep a certain part of the palisade surround- ing the town in thorough repair. When the palisade was being built in 1646 an attack was made unexpectedly, and the best the settlers could do was to escape to Flatlands. Lady Moody's house, probably because it was the most conspicuous in the settlement, was most frequently marked out for attack, and Nicholas Stillwell, who seems in time of such trouble to have assumed command, had a difficult task in repelling the savage warriors. The towns- people for a time became despondent over the outlook. Stillman himself returned to New Amsterdam and saw no more of Gravesend until 1648, when he bought a town plot, and even Lady Moody had serious thoughts of go- ing back to her property in New England. But a peace was finally patched up between Gov. Kieft and the Indians and Gravesend was al- lowed to take up the thread of its story without more trouble.

Another Indian incursion, the last on rec- ord, took place in 1655, when a fierce attack was made on the town; but although the set- tlers could not drive the foe away, on account of their numbers, they made a gallant defense behind their palisade and kept the red-skins at bay until relieved by a force of military from New Amsterdam. From the first the settlers, according to their lights, tried to deal honestly with the aboriginal owners of the soil. Even before Kieft's second patent was issued in De- cember, 1645, they had secured by purchase a deed from the Indians, and in 1650 and 1654 they secured other deeds covering the land on Coney Island. In 1684, when all trouble was at an end, they secured another deed from the red men, for all the lands in Gravesend, in ex- change for "one blanket, one gun, one kettle." Surely the principle of fair dealing could go no further!

The municipal history of Gravesend began almost with its settlement. In 1646 the first

362

HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

three "approved honest men" elected as Jus- tices were George Baxter, Edward Brown and William Wilkins; Sergeant James Hubbard was elected Schout, and John Tilton (who had accompanied Lady Moody from New Eng- land) was chosen to be Town Clerk. All these elections were approved by the Governor. Town meetings were held monthly, and at one, held Sept. 7, 1646, it was decreed that any holder of a lot who by the following May had not erected a "habitable house" on it should forfeit the lot to the town. Such matters as the repair of the palisade, registry of what are now called vital statistics, the defense of the town, the morals and habits of the citizens, and the humane care of live stock, were the subjects most generally discussed. All the in- habitants were compelled to attend these town meetings when summoned by the beating of a drum or the blowing of a horn. Infractions of the laws were tried before justices and the penalties at first were fines which were for a time put into the poor fund, but after 1652 were placed in the treasury for general pur- poses. In 1656 the people passed a stringent liquor law which prohibited entirely the sale of "brandie, wine, strong liquor or strong drink" to any Indian, under a fine of fifty guilders for a first offense and double that amount for a second. No more than one pint was to be sold, at one time, even to white people. This law was rigidly enforced in spite of the difficulty of proving its violation. The laws regarding the preservation of the sanctity of the Sab- batlı, as might be expected, were very rigid. It seems strange to record the fact that at one time in Gravesend a town meeting ordered a bounty of five guilders to be paid for every wolf killed in the township. The town court attended to all petty criminal or civil causes, but the criminal cases were comparatively few, and slander and assault seemed to be the pre- vailing weakness of the more demonstrative citizens. In 1650, for these decadents, as well as for petty thieves, the stocks were brought into requisition and continued a favorite mode

of punishment until the nineteenth century was well advanced. In 1668 the town received quite a boom by the settlement in it of the Kings County Court of Sessions which had previously met in Flatbush. This body con- tinued to dispense justice in Gravesend until 1685, when it returned to its former home.

It is singular that in an essentially religious community like Gravesend, and a community the earlier records of which are more complete and methodical than those of any other town in Kings county, there should be any dubiety about its first place of worship ; but such is the case. An effort has been made to show that a Dutch Reformed Church, or congregation, was established in 1655, and the church now exist- ing of that body claims a history dating from 1693; but both these dates are manifestly wrong. In 1655, and even in 1692, the Dutch was the language used in the service of that body, and we must remember that Gravesend was an English community. In 1657 Dominie Megapolensis, in a report to the Classis of Am- sterdam, said that at Gravesend they reject "infant baptism, the Sabbath, the office of preacher and the teachers of God's Word, say- ing that through these have come all sorts of contention into the world. Whenever they meet together the one or the other reads some- thing to them." These were very probably Lady Moody's own views and show why no early church was founded in the settlement at all. In 1657 Richard Hodgson and several other Quakers reached Gravesend and were kindly received, but there is not the slightest reason for supposing that Lady Moody adop- ted all of their tenets and became a member of the Society. That would have been a depart- ure from her own First Principles and she was not the sort of woman to make such a change. That the Quakers found a resting place at Gravesend is certain; it was founded for just such a refuge ; and in 1672, when George Fox was on his American tour, he also stopped at the town, where he found several of his people and held "three precious meetings." But it

363

GRAVESEND.

was not a Quaker settlement, nor, like Flat- bush, a Dutch Reformed settlement. There is no mention in the records of the church at Flatbush of a congregation at Gravesend until 1714, though it is possible that for many years before some of the citizens attended wor- ship in Trinity Church, New York, and that the authorities there, at intervals, sent over a clergyman to hold services in the town. From 1704 there is evidence that the ministers at Flatbush considered Gravesend part of their bailiwick and receipts were formerly extant showing that Gravesend paid a share of the Dominie's salary from 1706 to 1741. In 1714, after Dutch had ceased to be the sole language used in the Reformed churches, an agreement was entered between the people of Gravesend and the church at New Utrecht for a share in the services of the ministers who visited the last named town. It is probable that when this short-lived arrangement went into effect a church building was erected. It seems certain that one was in existence in 1720, when it was called "the meeting-house" and was apparently ready to house a preacher of any denomination who came along. The Rev. Mr. Stockwell, who patiently investigated this subject, did not believe that any separate congregation of any religious body was organized in Gravesend prior to 1763. That body was the Reformed Church, and as the records were kept in Dutch until about 1823 we may readily understand that the English-speaking citizens had little share in its foundation or in its progress.

In 1763 a new meeting-house was built on the site of the first one, a little oblong building with high pitched roof, surmounted by a bel- fry. Inside was a plain box-like pulpit with a huge sounding board. Underneath one side of the gallery was the negro quarter, reserved solely for the use of the colored brethren. "This old church," wrote Mr. Stockwell, "within the memory of those now living was without stoves or any other heating appliances. The women carried foot-stoves, which, before service, they were very careful to fill at the

nearest neighbor's, while the men were com- pelled to sit during the long service with noth- ing to generate heat but the grand Calvinistic preaching of the Dutch dominie, or the antici- pation of a warm dinner after the service was over!" Whitefield preached twice in this little tabernacle, which continued in use until 1833, when it gave way to a more modern structure. which, with many improvements, is still in use.

In 1767 Martinus Schoonmaker became pas- tor of the little congregations in Harlem and Gravesend, receiving as salary from the last named £35 a year and preaching at frequent intervals. In 1783 he became minister of the Collegiate Church. with his headquarters at Flatbush, and after that held services in Gravesend once in each six weeks, and Graves- end continued to be part of the care of the Flat- bush ministers until 1808, when the Collegiate arrangement ceased. It was not until 1832, however, that the Gravesend church acquired a settled pastor, and in that year the Rev. I. P. Labagh was installed. In 1842 he was sus- pended from the ministry for refusing to rec- ognize the authority of the Classis, and for holding opinions deemed unorthodox, and the Rev. Abram I. Labagh was installed in his place. This pastorate continued for seventeen years, and in 1859 the Rev. M. G. Hanson was called to the pulpit. He resigned in 1871 and a year later the Rev. A. P. Stockwell was called. This gentleman devoted much care to the study of the civil and ecclesiastical history of Graves- end, and to a sketch from his pen the present chapter of this work has been greatly indebted. He continued to minister to this church until 1886 when he retired and devoted himself mainly to literary work until his death, in Brooklyn, in 1901. He was followed in the ministry of Gravesend by the Rev. P. V. Van Buskirk, who still retains the charge, and who has labored most successfully and won the love of his large and steadily growing congregation, as well as of the entire con- munity in which he has ministered so long and so faithfully.

364

HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

We have seen that in one of the squares in the original plan of Gravesend a place was laid aside as a burying ground, and it was prob- ably used as such when occasion required. The earliest record extant, however, concerning this now venerable God's-acre is contained in the will of John Tilton, dated Jan. 15, 1657, in which he devised land "for all persons in ye Everlasting truthe of ye gospel as occasion serves for ever to have and to hold and to make use of to bury their dead there.". It is thought that the land thus deeded adjoined the original burying ground and Tilton's bequest was in reality an addition and at once incorporated within its boundaries. It was probably part of the original lot, which Tilton received when he settled at Gravesend with Lady Moody. The oldest stone extant now bears the date of 1676, and many of the inscriptions discernible are in Dutch. One plain rough stone, hardly read- able, was thought by Teunis C. Bergen to mark the grave of Lady Moody ; but this was merely an antiquary's fancy. From the form- ation of Greenwood Cemetery the Gravesend burial ground began to fall into disuse and in- terments in it have now practically ceased. There is another burying ground in the town- ship,-Washington Cemetery,-laid out in 1850 and inclosing about 100 acres, which is mainly used by Hebrews.

Regarding the dwellings which early ex- isted in Gravesend, the Rev. Mr. Stockwell said :

It may be interesting to know the style of house which afforded shelter and protection to the early settlers. If the following is a fair specimen, it will not strike us as being too elab- orate or expensive, even for that early day. Here is the contract for a dwelling, as entered by the town-clerk upon his record :

"Ambrose London bargained and agreed with Michah Jure for his building him a house by the middle of June nexte, and to paye the said Michah 40 gilders for it-at the time he begins a skipple of Indian corne, at the raising of it 10 guilders, and at ye finishing of it ye rest of the said summ. Ye house to be made 22 foote long, 12 foote wide, 8 foote stoode with a petition in ye middle, and a chimney, to

laye booth rooms with joice, to cover ye roof, and make up both gable ends with clabboards, as also to make two windows and a door."

This man, London, was rather a speculator, and soon disposed of this house, and made an- other contract for a larger and still more com- modious one; the contract price for building it being $44. John Hawes was the builder and his contract was to build "I house framed uppon sills of 26 foote long, and 16 foote broad and 10 foote stoode, with 2 chimneys in ye middle and 2 doors and two windows, and to clabboard only ye roof and dobe the rest parte." The price was 110 gilders, or instead, "one Dutch cow."

But, if their houses were built more with reference to their comfort and actual necessi- ties than for display, the same was true of their household furniture and personal effects, as will be seen from the following inventory of the estate of John Buckman, deceased, dated in the year 1651, and signed by Lady Moody as one of the witnesses. Among a few other ar- ticles appear the following: "I Kettle, I Fry- ing Pan, I Traye, I Jarre, I pair breeches, I Bonett, I Jackett, I Paile, 2 Shirts, I Tubbe, I Pair shoes, 2 pair ould stockings, 9 ould goats, money in chest, 32 gilders."

The first roads to these houses were mere wagon paths, rough and unkempt, although the roads, or streets inside the palisades in the town square, appear to have been well kept, and were regarded as the best to be seen any- where. The outer roads were made simply by merely clearing away the brush, and their boundaries were kept defined mainly by the traffic. At times, however, the town meeting took a hand in their improvement, as in 1651, when it was agreed that "every inhabitant who is possessed of a lot shall be ready to go by the blowing of ye horn on Thursday next to clear ye common ways." In. 1660 a highway was laid out from the town to the beach. By 1696 Gravesend was connected with Flatbush and Flatlands and New Utrecht by rough but serv- iceable roads, and the King's Highway, still extant among a wilderness of new streets, was laid out about the same time.

365

GRAVESEND.

Notwithstanding all its advantages of mag- nificent soil, a settled community, perfect free- dom of conscience and proximity to the even then great commercial centre, the progress of Gravesend was slow. It had, it would appear, at one time some pretentions to commercial dignity on its own account, for in 1693 it was declared one of the three ports of entry on Long Island; but even with this distinction it continued to make tardy progress. In 1698 its population was only 210, including 31 men, 32 women, 124 children, 6 apprentices and 17 negroes. By 1738, forty years later, the total number had increased to 368, of which 50 were negroes. In 1790 it boasted 294 whites and 131 negroes. Probably when the Revolutionary War broke out it contained in round numbers a population of 350, white and colored.

That war, as in the case of the other towns in Kings county, may be said to mark the cen- tral point of the history of Gravesend. Many of the troops were landed on its ocean front on that memorable morning in August, 1776, when the British movement began. It was supposed that from its English antecedents, Gravesend would be even more pronouncedly Tory in its sentiment than the other towns in its part of Long Island ; but the opposite seems to have been the case. In the battle of Aug. 27th the Patriot fighters from Gravesend are said by the local historians to have given a good account of themselves, although their losses were small as their knowledge of the country enabled them to escape from the de- feat and return to their homes in safety, while others who escaped in the melee were captured or killed by roving bands of the enemy. The tide of war soon carried the troops away from Gravesend. But during the entire British oc- cupation of the island the town was in a condi- tion of perpetual trouble and excitement. Prisoners and soldiers were billeted upon the people without ceremony, the soldiers robbed with apparent impunity and lawless bands of thieves made frequent descents upon farm- houses and stripped then of their valuables

and provender. It was truly a reign of terror for the peace-loving people while it lasted, and Patriot and Tory seemed to have suffered alike from the horrors of military rule. That the people were peaceably disposed is very evident from the fact that several of the Hessian sol- diers remained in Gravesend after peace was declared and assumed all the duties of citizen- ship, and, it is said, with credit to themselves. On October 20, 1789, General Washington, then President, visited Gravesend and held a sort of levee in the town square. As might be expected he was devotedly welcomed and with his visit we may consider the early history of Gravesend fittingly brought to an end.

Having thus presented the leading facts in the opening annals of Gravesend, the story of a particular section which to a certain extent has always maintained a separate history, and the name of which is known throughout the civilized world, even in places where Long Island's Gravesend was never heard of, may here be fittingly considered. This is the famous Coney Island, the first disposal of which to a white man has already been mentioned in this chapter. Op Dyck tried to realize on his pur- chase by selling his eighty-eight acres of sand dunes, brush and waterfront to the Gravesend people in 1661, but they declined to purchase, alleging that it was theirs already by right not only of their town patent but of a deed of pur- chase in 1649 from Cippehacke, Sachem of the Canarsies (in which the island was called Nar- rioch), and also of another deed, dated May 7, 1654, in which (in exchange for 15 fathoms of seawant, 2 guns, and 2 pounds of powder ) they obtained from the Nyack Indians, who claimed to be the real owners, not only a conveyance of Coney Island, but a strip along the shore near the old village of Unionville, which afterward involved the town in much vexatious litiga- tion. Failing thus to dispose of it, Op Dyck sold his claim to Derick De Wolf, the transfer bearing date October 29, 1661. In the follow- ing year De Wolf, who had obtained from the West India Company in Amsterdam a monop-

366

HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

oly for the manufacture of salt in New Neth- erland, erected his plant on the island and com- menced operations. Incidentally he warned the Gravesend folks to cease from pasturing their cattle on Guisbert's Island, or using it for any purpose. This so enraged these usually quiet and peaceable citizens that they marched to the island, overrun the establishment, tore down the palisade and manufactory and made a bonfire of their ruins, and threatened to

clearly set forth. Still there seems somehow to have remained a doubt, and in 1684 a new conveyance was obtained from the Indians and the whole was placed beyond any pretence of future question by the terms of Governor Dongan's patent of 1685, and Coney Island continued to be a part of the territory of Gravesend until the town government itself was wiped out of existence by the Moloch- like march of modern improvement. The

THE STRYKER HOUSE, GRAVESEND.

silence the remonstrances of the man in charge by throwing him on top of the burning pile. This put a stop to the enterprise; and, al- though De Wolf sent a remonstrance to Am- sterdam, and their High Mightinesses ordered Stuyvesant to protect the salt-maker in his rights, the Governor did nothing in the mat- ter. In fact, he openly took the side of the Gravesend people in the dispute, and so the trouble continued until the advent of Governor Nicolls wiped out the monopoly. In Governor Lovelace's charter, or patent, issued in 1671, the right of Gravesend to the island was

island's destinies being then so far settled, it was, in 1677, laid out in thirty-nine lots of some two acres each, and so divided among the people. They agreed to fence it in and plant it only with "Indian corn, tobacco or any summer grain," and when not so used it was to be in common a feeding place for cattle.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 58

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