A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 62

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

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HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

teer, issued in 1798, briefly describes it as hav- ing "some elegant houses, which lie chiefly on one street."

Whatever history the district had, centred at the Ferry. Some means of transit between Manhattan and Long Island was necessary from the time the first house was erected on the latter, and the ferry therefore may be regarded as the first of the local institutions. When it originated, however, we know not ; but for two or three years the little traffic there was, was done by private boats owned on the Long Island side by the farmers and on the Manhat-

came into being from the trade between the two points. Certain it is that the first ferry was between the points above named. Ten years later, after it had passed from Cornelis's hands, the ferry trade had become so import- ant that the New Amsterdam authorities con- sidered it should be made to return them some revenue; but Gov. Stuyvesant refused to entertain the idea, although afterward he admitted the public character of the service by permitting it to be placed under certain regulations. These included a fairly regular service, some requirements for the

VIEW OF BROOKLYN 1N 1798 /AS SEEN FROM THE NORTH .

tan side by the usual boatmen who plied along the waterfront. The journey was a long and tedious one, for the currents were strong and were also treacherous enough to infuse a sense of danger into the ideas of whoever meditated the voyage.

Transit across the river was not long, how- ever, to remain a matter of chance, for in 1642 we find Cornelis Dircksen (Hoogland) ac- knowledged as ferry man. Probably there was no formal appointment. Cornelis kept a tavern in connection with his little farm at what after- ward became Peck Slip, and he owned a piece of land and a house near the present site of Fulton ferry on Long Island. Very likely he set up a tavern there, too, and so the ferry

comfort of passengers and a scale of charges, and in return for observing these rules, or rather for accepting them, the Ferryman enjoyed a monopoly of the traffic. The arrangement was certainly a very liberal one all round for the boatman, but then there seems, it is mortifying to say, some reason to believe that he had quietly to hand over a pro- portion of his earnings to Stuyvesant. This new arrangement, in spite of the Governor's "rake-off," proved so profitable that competi- tion for the privilege became excited, and in 1655 Egbert Van Borsum, who came here as skipper of the ship Prince William, leased the ferry from the Governor, agreeing to pay him 300 guilders per annum. He also got a patent

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THE STORY OF BROOKLYN VILLAGE.

for two lots on the Long Island waterfront, and there erected a structure which long served for both ferry house and tavern. Under him the place seems to have become quite a resort for the "roving blades" of the period. Egbert died about 1670, and for several years the tav- ern was run by his widow, while his son Her- manus attended to the ferry business. The house erected by the elder Van Boersum con- tinued to serve its varied purposes until 1700, when a new building was erected of stone. This structure was destroyed by fire in 1748, and was succeeded by the historic ferry-house which was in existence during the British oc- cupation in 1776. The ferry itself became a part of the municipal property of New York City under the Dongan charter of 1686. The legality of this charter was subsequently dis- puted, and led to interminable lawsuits, but the charter was confirmed by royal warrant in 1692. It was run, with varying success and on short leases (generally seven years) by private individuals, farmers and tavern-keepers mostly, as a separate holding; but the rent paid ad- vanced steadily so that by 1710 it brought to the corporation of New York an annual rental of £180,-the largest single source of income over which the local treasury rejoiced. But the fact that it was a New York institution was rather galling to the Brooklyn settlers and a cause of complaint from a very early period. Their complaints evoked no change, however, and the New York corporation in 1694 actually bought sufficient ground at the Brooklyn end and built the ferry-house.

In 1707 Cornelius Sabring, the owner of a farm in what is now known as South Brooklyn and member of Assembly for Kings county from 1695 to 1726, and therefore a man natur- ally possessing much local influence, tried to get permission from Gov. Cornbury to estab- lish a new ferry, and his request was backed up by quite a number of influential indorsers ; but the New York corporation stubbornly con- tested what they regarded as a movement both "unreasonable and unjust," and their opposi-

tion prevailed. This claim at ownership of the Ferry was one that became the more bitterly contested by Brooklyn as time went on and more stubbornly upheld by New York as the income increased. Even in 1745 they denied the rights of residents of Brooklyn to cross the river in their own boats and so transport- ing friends, or produce, and when one of these boatmen, Hendrick Remsen, appealed to a jury to establish his claim to such an apparently in- alienable privilege, the New York authorities contested the case bitterly. The jury before whom the action was tried found in Remsen's favor, and after a long interval the Supreme Court finally awarded him £118 14s 101/2d for damages and costs. The New York corpora- tion appealed the case to the King and Council, and somehow the matter there rested, for a final decision had not been rendered when the Revolutionary War broke out. It was alleged, however, that Remsen was quietly pacified with a gift of a house and parcel of land near Coen- ties Slip, in New York City. It is a matter of little interest now to go into all the details of the struggle against what used to be called the usurpation, by New York, of rights to the Long Island shore: it has no more interest to the reader of history at the present day than the disputes as to boundaries waged by some of the five Dutch towns so fiercely against each other ; indeed, in a sense it was in reality sim- ply another form of boundary dispute and as such has had its meaning, virtue, and force re- moved forever by the inexorable march of mod- ern progress and the soothing influence of con- solidation. The income from the ferry steadily advanced, and while we read of one or two of the lessees losing money it proved a steady source of revenue to the New York corpora- tion. In 1750 it brought £455, and in 1753 £650.

"In May, 1766," writes Dr. Stiles ("His- tory of Brooklyn" vol. III, page 527), "it passed into the hands of Samuel Waldron for five years at a yearly rent of £660, and in May, 1771, was renewer to him for another three

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HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

years, at £550 per annum. At the expiration of his lease in 1774 it was determined by the corporation that three ferries, viz., one from Coenties Slip to the landing place of Messrs. Livingston & Remsen [foot of present Joral- emon street : this ferry's buildings were burned during the Revolutionary War and it was then abandoned]; the second from Peck's Slip to land at Jacob Brewerton's wharf, or landing place, at Brooklyn ferry; and the third from the Fly Market (foot of Fulton street, New York) to the same landing place at the Brook- lyn Ferry. Accordingly, on the 12th of April, 1774, three several leases were duly executed for the term of two years, viz., to Elisha De Grushe, for the first-named ferry, and to Sam- tel Balding for the second-named ferry, at an annual rent of £120, and to Adolph Waldron for the third at an annual rent of £430. * * * In May, 1776, the whole ferry came under the control of Adolph Waldron, for two years, at £450 per annum. Waldron, being a Whig, left New York with the American army in 1776 and did not return until the close of the war. During the Britishi occupation of New York and Long Island the ferry was let by Mayor Matthew and Gov. Tryon to two of their Tory

friends, Van Winkle and Buckett, probably · for their joint benefit. Van Winkle is de- scribed as a very important-feeling man, who was accustomed to walk about in a silk morn- ing gown. They raised the fare to 6d, not so high a charge when we remember that wheat was then selling in New York at the ordinary rate of one guinea per bushel. After the evac- uation Capt. Adolph Waldron, by a lease exe- cuted June 23. 1784, resumed the ferry for five years at the yearly rent of £500. During the severe winter of 1783-4 it is said that he and his sons made considerable money by purchas- ing wood in Brooklyn and selling it in New York, where it was quite scarce."

In 1789 Waldron tried to have his lease re -. newed, but the corporation thought more money could be made by leasing the ferry building and licensing a number of boats to carry passengers and freight across the river. In 1795 a ferry was established by the corpor- ation between Main street, Brooklyn, to Cath- arine street, New York (long known as the New Ferry), and leased by William Furman and Theodosius Hunt, and with the mention of that transaction we may fittingly close this chapter.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

BROOKLYN.

FROM THE CLOSE OF THE REVOLUTION TO THE INCORPORATION OF THE VILLAGE -PRE- EMINENCE OF THE FERRY-THE BEGINNING OF THE NAVY YARD.

N the chapters of this work dealing with the Battle of Brooklyn and the events antecedent and subsequent to that land- mark in American history, the story of Brooklyn from the beginning of the Revolu- tionary movement until the British flag passed out of New York Harbor as an emblem of possession is fully told.

On March 7, 1788, Brooklyn was duly rec- ognized by the State Government as a town, a proceeding which was virtually a confirmation of the old royalist charter by the new republi- can order of things. There is no doubt that the changes caused by the Revolution and British occupation and evacuation had caused much havoc in the town, had brought all its real business interests to a standstill and laid waste much of the property of its residents. Hence some time, after peace was restored, was occu- pied in putting matters in order, in counting up losses and calculating future chances. The fact that in 1785 a fire department was organized shows that the beginning, at least, of the up- building movement was not long delayed. That it had fairly recovered itself by 1800-I was evident from the fact that the history of land- booming in Brooklyn was about that time in- augurated by the Sands brothers placing their once famous Olympia on the market,-a scheme which has already been fully detailed in this work. Quite a large accession to the

population was received from the tide of Irish immigration, which had even then set in to this country.

A still more significant evidence was the establishment, in June 26, 1799, of the first newspaper ever printed in Brooklyn, "The Courier and New York and Long Island Ad- vertiser," by Thomas Kirk, a bookseller and printer. It was not much of an effort, either in its literary or news aspects, its publication being prompted probably more to advertise its owner's business than anything else ; but it was a beginning. It lasted some four years, issu- ing weekly from its office at the corner of Ful- ton and Front streets. Kirk was also the print- er of the first book issued in Brooklyn, a pam- phlet containing General Lee's oration on Washington, in 1800. In 1806 (May 26) the condition of the journalistic field in Brooklyn was tested by a new venture-"The Long Island Weekly Intelligencer," issued by Robin- son & Little. On June 1, 1809, Kirk tried a fresh adventure,-"the Long Island Star ;" but in 1811 he sold it to Alden F. Spooner, who may be regarded, if not as the real father of journalism in Brooklyn, as at least its first suc- cessful exponent.

It is not a little singular that the first great industry to feel the benefit of the new national progress in Brooklyn was that of shipping and shipbuilding. In 1788 the Sarah, belonging to

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HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

the Sands brothers, opened the eyes of the local merchants to the advantages of Brooklyn as a port, and thereafter many larger vessels, main- ly in the West India trade, began to lie up at her wharves, while the connection with the coastwise trade steadily increased. From the Ferry to the Wallabout many wharves were built well out into the stream so as to permit large vessels to dock. Warehouses were erected close to the water-front, and other commerce sprung up in the same section. In 1798 a large trading ship was built on its water-front and in 1799 the frigate John Ad- ams, thirty-two guns, was launched at the Wallabout, right in the territory now included in the United States Navy Yard.

In a directory for 1796 we find in addition to the usual array of grocers and what may be called domestic vendors and tavern-keepers, livery-stable men, loading houses and carpen- ters, shoemakers and other tradesmen and storekeepers, such industries represented as rope-making, chair-making, gunsmithing, also a land-broker, a master builder, a copperplate printer, a lumber merchant, a brewer and a dyer, showing that by that time Brooklyn was prepared to meet any requirement of the exist- ing requirements of civilization. Later a floor- cloth factory and a cotton-goods mill were es- tablished. Other evidences of this civiliza- tion's requirement may be gleaned by the thoughtful from these facts: In 1806 the cage or watch-house was the object of consid- eration at a town meeting at which a regular night watch was organized, and in 1808 $1,500 was voted for the erection of a new poorhouse. In 1809 a visitation of yellow fever led to Brooklyn's being quarantined for a couple of months by New York, and in 1812 it was near- ly wiped out by a fire which started on Main street, near the ferry.

The extent to which the yellow fever epi- demic spread led to considerable feeling among the local physicians. With these professional healers the city was well supplied, and among them Drs. Ball, Wendell, Lowe and Osborne

were probably as well equipped as any of their brethren in New York. Dr. Lowe, who was a brother of the Rev. Dr. Lowe of the Dutch Reformed Church, possibly had the largest private practice in the town for many years. In 1815, when there was an epidemic of small- pox, Drs. Ball and Wendell announced their willingness to vaccinate all who so desired free of any charge, that is, we take it, all who were too poor to pay a fee, thus forestalling one of the most beneficent provisions of our modern Boards of Health.

In 1811 the circle of practitioners of the healing art in Brooklyn received quite an addi- tion in the person of the "Rain Water Doc- tor," although he was never recognized as be- longing to the circle. This curious charlatan, for charlatan he undoubtedly was, although he seemed to understand some matters of vital importance in combating disease better than his legitimate brethren, believed, or professed to believe, in the copious use of rain water as a remedial agent, and used a wide range of herbs in his treatment of diseases, believing them to be the natural correctives of all hu- man ills. He seemed to have no faith what- ever in what were commonly called drugs and was credited, according to popular rumor, at all events, with effecting some remarkable cures. These stories quickly spread and at- tracted large throngs of patients to Brooklyn, not only from various parts of Long Island but from New York and New Jersey, and his headquarters at the Black Horse Tavern, where is now the junction of Fulton and De Kalb avenues, became thronged with patients. All reports agree that his charges were exceed- ingly moderate, and it was said he even re- turned large fees handed him by grateful pa- tients who regarded themselves as cured of their ailments by his treatment. Nay, more, he even, it is said, placed a marble monument over the grave of one patient who had come to him too late for any earthly remedial methi- ods to be effective. A wonderful physician, truly! But we fear that in the stories we have

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BROOKLYN.

concerning him a good deal of current rumor is dished up as solemn fact. He continued in Brooklyn for about a year (1811-12) and then, probably because his methods were becoming stale and trade was falling off, removed to Providence, R. I., where he died in 1815.

During the time covered in this section, too, a great change was taking place in Brook- lyn,-the first of a series of similar changes which had often puzzled land speculators and set real-estate prices in a kaleidoscopic whirl. The centre of trade was shifting from the plateau on which old Brenckelen itself stood down toward the Ferry. Around that spot there had long clustered a collection of tav- erns, but now houses of entertainment and business establishments of all kinds struggled to get as near to the foot of Fulton street as they possibly could. It was in the Ferry dis- trict that the new comers who were steadily increasing the population settled, and the over- flow, instead of stretching back in the direc- tion of the present City Hall, pressed along the water-front until it reached Catharine Ferry. It has been estimated that in 1815 three-fifths of the total population of Brooklyn lay be- tween these two points. There were congre- gated the stores, and the professional men, while the rest of the town maintained its rural character. Old Breuckelen became, for a time, a suburb of the Ferry, just as were Bedford and Gowanus and Cripplebush and Red Hook. Even the most aristocratic dry-goods store was kept at the corner of Fulton and Front streets, and there Abraham Remsen dis- coursed of the latest fashions in gowns and bonnets, ribbons and laces, until the neighbor- hood itself began to become unfashionable. Remsen's establishment was the pioneer of the retail dry-goods business in Brooklyn, a busi- ness which now in point of magnitude is said to exceed that of Manhattan borough itself.

But while the Ferry district was thus pre- dominant an event occurred during the time covered by this chapter which was destined not only to preserve the name of the Walla-

bout section but to keep it distinct and pros- perons no matter what other changes might come. On the water-front of the bay was the shipbuilding establishment of John Jackson, surrounded by about a dozen houses where his workmen resided. He did a large, although somewhat intermittent business. In 1801 the United States Government bought Jackson's establishment and thirty acres of land, and thereon proceeded to lay out a navy yard. It is said that the price Uncle Sam paid for the property was $40,000. It was not until June I, 1806, however, that the Government fairly commenced work on the land, for then Lieu- tenant Jonathan Thorn was appointed Com- mandant and began putting the place in order for its new mission. He was retained there only for a year, being succeeded July 13, 1807, by Capt. Isaac Chauncey, who continued in control until May, 1813, when he was ordered to the Great Lakes and there entered upon that series of naval manoeuvres which made his flag ship, "The Pike," one of the best known boats in the American navy. Chauncey was followed at the Navy Yard by Capt. Samuel Evans, who held tlie office of Commandant un- til 1824. These three men were brilliant officers and have left enviable records in the Navy De- partment, and the annals of the country and their appointments show that from the first the government fully appreciated the importance of its Brooklyn property. Lieut. Thorn was killed on the Oregon coast many years after he left Brooklyn while in command of one of John Jacob Astor's trading ships.

The war of 1812 found Brooklyn not only determined to resist any recurrence of British occupation but united in the desire to uphold the position of the country without regard to the poor politics which had rendered a re- course to arms necessary. The story of Brook- lyn's share in that conflict (bloodless so far as she was concerned) has already been told and can here be dismissed with this passing refer- ence. But we may here be permitted to.

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say that, worthless and needless as that war was in many respects, it was im- portant in that it really united the coun- try into one grand and actual Federa- tion. Before it the States were little other than a union on paper ; they formed a nation, it is true, but it was a nation only in name; but the events which followed the declaration of war in 1812 made them a nation in reality. There- after the Government at Washington was rec- ognized as pre-eminent and the necessity for its solidity, strength and effectiveness was rec- ognized even by the most virulent upholder of the theory of State sovereignty. Some of the lessons of the war were speedily forgotten, notably that of the necessity of a strong navy ; but the imperative need of the central Govern- ment being powerful enough to meet every emergency and to direct the country amid the policies and jealousies of the nations of the world was never afterward lost sight of or ignored.

It was not until the middle of February, 1815, that the news that peace had been pro- claimed reached Brooklyn, and as soon as the excusable paean of joy over that event was ended the town resumed its forward march, and the march seemed more blithesome than ever before. It was not all work and no play any longer ; life was not taken so seriously as formerly ; tea houses were opened in every di- rection ; "gardens" where people could regale themselves with music, wine or beer in the open air were set out in all the main thorough- fares, the wharves took on new life and the market at the Ferry, beside the great liberty pole, the grand emblem of what had been won, was a daily scene of business excitement. Every occupation appeared to "boom;" an "era of prosperity" had arrived, and looked as if it had settled down for a long stay; all the local horoscopes seemed to promise that the town had a bright future before it, and all that

could be dreamed of as wanting was a form of local government which would work har- moniously and bring about quickly the best re- sults. No time was lost, for in December, 1815, a meeting called to consider the advisa- bility of seeking a charter of incorporation as a village. The sentiment at this meeting was so completely in favor of this step that a gen- eral meeting of the citizens was called, and at that gathering, Jan. 6, 1816, the matter was heartily indorsed and a committee was ap- pointed to draft a bill for incorporation and present it to the Legislature. This committee comprised Thomas Everitt, Alden F. Spooner, Joshua Sands, John Doughty and the Rev. John Ireland. The bill was laid before the Legislature within a few weeks, on March 13 it passed the Senate and on April 12 the As- sembly assented. The territory thus incor- porated under a village government was de- scribed as "beginning at the Public Landing south of Pierrepont's Distillery, formerly the property of Philip Livingston deceased, on the East River; thence running along the Public Road leading from said Landing, to its inter- section with Red Hook Lane ; thence along said Red Hock Lane to where it intersects the Ja- maica Turnpike Road; thence a northeast course to the head of the Wallaboght Mill- pond; thence through the centre of the Mill- pond to the East River; and thence down the East River to the place of beginning." The village was to be governed by a board of five trustees, who with three assessors were to be elected by popular vote each year. The board, when elected, was to select its own officials. To facilitate matters the first trustees were named in the act,-Andrew Mercein, John Garrison, John Doughty, John Seaman and John Dean, and these held their first official meeting on May 4, 1816. That meeting may be said to mark the beginning of the modern history of Brooklyn.

THE BROOKLYN SHORE 1N 1820.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

THE VILLAGE OF BROOKLYN.

T will have been noticed that what was incorporated as the Village of Brook+ lyn formed in reality only a portion of what had been grouped together as the town, and comprised little more than what formerly used to be spoken of as "the Ferry." It even left outside in the cold the old Breuckelen itself ; and the Wallabout and Bed- ford and the rest of the suburbs of the old Dutch town were permitted to get along as best they might. The trade was concentrated round the Ferry district, the population con- centrated there, and from there the expansion was destined to flow that was to bring all the scattered sections under one rule again, that was once more to link all their fortunes to- gether. But while the Village of Brooklyn was thus only a part of the whole, it was the part in which local history was made for the eighteen years during which the village char- ter remained in force.

Yet to all of what afterward became the extended city of Brooklyn the forces then at work in the village were big with import, for on the progress there made depended ulti-

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A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 62

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