A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 70

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

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surroundings of the park at the Plaza are most artistic and a constant source of delight to the eye. Beside the entrance stands a bronze statue of Mr. Stranahan, erected dur- ing the lifetime of that most estimable gen- tleman as an evidence that Brooklyn was not ungrateful for the many years of toil .and thought he had given to her best interests. The park contains several other memorials. notably the bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln,

MUNICIPAL ARCH, ON THE PLAZA, BROOKLYN.

erected by Brooklyn in memory of those of her sons who fought in the Civil War. This pile is now surmounted by a bronze quadriga by Macmonnies, the Brooklyn sculptor whose home has been in Paris for many years, and the whole structure is one of those artistic achievements which give distinction wherever they are seen. Beside this memorial is one of the modern wonders,-an electric fountain, --- and across the Plaza is a splendid bronze statue of General G. K. Warren. The whole

erected on the Plaza in 1869 by a popular subscription, but afterward removed to its present site beside the lake, busts of Beetho- ven, Mozart, Washington Irving, Thomas Moore and John Howard Payne, and a pair of bronze panthers which guard the entrance at Third street. There are within the enclo- sure some eight miles of drives, fourteen miles of pedestrian roadways and a lake covering about sixty-one acres, while from the top of Lookout Hill is one of the most interesting

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THE ERA OF THE CIVIL WAR.

panoramic views to be seen in or around the Greater New York. Flocks of sheep nibble the grass on the meadows, swans and other water fowl make their homes on or beside the lake, a deer paddock and a bear garden add to the interest or amusement of visitors, while . on the top of a low hill is preserved sacredly an old Hebrew burying ground placed there long before the park was thought of. As it stands to-day Prospect Park is eminently a people's popular resort. It is used for games, rambles and rest, and in summer music is pro- vided twice a week to lighten the hearts of the multitude. In the park all tastes are grati- fied. One can mingle with the passing throng or find solitude as deep and as quiet as though a thousand miles away from a busy, bustling, prosperous city, with its accompanying noises and distractions.

Thanks to the forethought and public spirit shown in the acquisition and develop- ment of Prospect Park, Brooklyn possesses a magnificent variety of such resorts, some of which are even yet only in course of prepara- tion for the public needs. Forest Park, for instance, some 550 acres, mainly of woodland. on the heights between Ridgewood Park and Richmond Hill, will be a source of delight to all lovers of the artistic and beautiful when the plans now in process of unfolding are completed or nearly so, and Dyker Beach Park, 144 acres, at Fort Hamilton, will be prized as a beach resort. Bedford Park is now contained in four acres of the Spanish Adams estate and boasts an old colonial man- sion, and Tompkins, City, Winthrop, Ridge- wood, Canarsie Beach, Cooper, and a dozen others all scattered through the borough, as well as open spaces innumerable, show that the builders of Brooklyn have been thorough- ly mindful of a city's necessities in the way of breathing and recreation places.

To describe these in minute detail would be going beyond the province of this work, but a few lines may be devoted to Fort Greene Park (sometimes called Washington Park).

We have already mentioned the acquisition of a Fort Greene Park, a portion merely of the present enclosure. In 1847 the people peti- tioned the Legislature for the necessary au- thority to purchase all the land generally spo- ken of as Fort Greene, so that it might be re- served as a park, and as soon as this authority was obtained the land was secured and laid aside for public uses. It contains thirty acres and has cost the city, for land, improvements and maintenance, something like $2,000,000;

"OLD JERSEY" PRISON SHIP.

but even this great expenditure has proved a splendid investment, for with the exception of Prospect Park Fort Greene has become the most frequented and generally used of the city's pleasure grounds. It is at once a memo- rial, a tomb and a playground. It was one of the central points in the line of defense at the battle of Brooklyn. It was before that crisis thickly wooded, but when the issue came the wood on its crest was hurriedly cleared and a fortification was constructed on which five guns were mounted. It then received the-

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HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

name of Fort Putnam. During part of the battle of August 27, 1776, General Washing- ton stood there and watched the progress of the conflict with an agonized heart as he realized only too surely, as soon as he learned that the line of defenses had been turned, that victory was not to rest with his forces. In the War of 1812 it again formed a link in the chain of defenses, and was then christened Fort Greene. In one of its slopes is the tomb in which lie the bones of the Patriots who died in the prison ships in the Wallabout during the Revolution and were originally buried with scant ceremony, or rather with brutal lack of ceremony, in the sandy soil of its shore. The park is now handsomely laid out in walks, lawns, terraces, and is completely enclosed by a stone wall. From its highest point a splen- did view may be obtained, while for nine or ten months in each year it affords a pleasant place of quiet relaxation for all classses of promenaders.

Brooklyn's entire system of public parks, now under a single head-a Park Commission- er-has a combined area of 1,649 acres. In ad- dition many of the driveways, such as Ocean Parkway, Eastern Parkway, Fort Hamilton avenue, Bay Ridge Shore Drive, Eastern Parkway, Bay Parkway and others are vir- tually to a great extent public parks and are used as such. These driveways are in the care of the Park Commissioner, and form an ag- gregate of roads and drives, including all va- rieties of scenery, of some forty miles.

As the city extended the street railways continued to multiply and push out in all direc- tions, sometimes indeed anticipating the line of progress by pushing their rails into what seemed a wilderness. In 1862 the Coney Island Railroad from Fulton Ferry to the beach was completed, covering a distance of eleven miles and forming the longest car line in the city. In one particularly important de- tail the Brooklyn street cars were far superior to those of New York at that time, the former .being heated by small but sufficient stoves

which maintained a comfortable degree of heat even in the bleakest weather. But in most other respects, in frequency, regularity and what might be called ubiquity, Brooklyn's sys- tem of transit was then far superior to that prevailing on Manhattan Island.

Brooklyn, nowever, had need of all such facilities, for her business was extending in all directions and homes were springing up in all sorts of suburbs, in spite of the war-cloud which hovered over the land all through the years covered by this chapter. In fact while private enterprise may have to some extent hesitated, and undoubtedly did so, the city itself scemed to press forward with conceiv- able improvements. On December 4, 1858, a water supply from Ridgewood was first used, although it was four months later, April 27 and 28. 1859, before the people found time and opportunity to appropriately celebrate the improvement, which they did by a monster parade, listening to orators and illuminating the city. Before the close of the next year a site was secured on Montague street, at a cost of $41,000, and the erection of the Academy of Music was begun by a corporation with a cap- ital of $150,000. The building was opened in January, 1861, and has since been the scene of many a brilliant and historic gathering.

The intellectual interests of the city were not forgotten. In 1857 the Mercantile Library Association was formed ; and the Young Men's Christian Association, organized in 1853, was soon noted for the success of its work. In 1855 the number of churches was computed at 113, with several in course of construction, and indeed it would be a curious year in the story of Brooklyn that could pass without sev- cral such edifices being erected. The steadily increasing rise in the value of land on Man- hattan Island and the difficulty of access to its remoter parts, which then practically meant all of it north of Thirty-fourth street, made many of her manufacturers take advantage of the cheap land in Brooklyn or its immediate vicinity, where there was also excellent transit

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THE ERA OF THE CIVIL WAR.

facilities much more moderate than in Manhat- tan. Land could be bought in the neighbor- hood of Brooklyn, in extent enough whereon to erect a factory and surround it with a group of workers' houses, for less than such a block could be rented on Manhattan within an hour's team travel of the City Hall. So in and around the city, notably in Greenpoint and Williams- burgh, factories of all sorts began to spring up, steel works, shipbuilding works, sugar works, printing offices, breweries, chemical works, color works, oil refineries,-it is diffi- cult to enumerate them all,-and each of course had an influence not only in attracting new residents but in developing the city in their respective sections. As fast as popula- tion increased the system of street transit kept pace. Even the Wallabout district, swampy, unkempt, and ill favored in many ways, felt the influence of the tide of manufactures and enjoyed a share, and the result was that as a manufacturing city Brooklyn, even before the war cloud had been dissipated, felt impelled to claim no mean rank among the beehives of the Union. The policy of the city was to attract such additions to its midst and to make the most liberal arrangements possible to retain them. It also realized the immense advantage it possessed in its water-front and was slowly but surely utilizing it so as to attract as much commerce as possible. The Atlantic Basin had already proved a financial success and had of itself opened up for use a section of the city which had previously been known only to the lone fisherman, the farmer, and the market gardener.

Shortly after the beginning of the period we are treating in this chapter the Erie Basin on Gowanus Bay was begun and in spite of the perilous times and several unavoidable delays was pushed through and completed, and opened for business October 13. 1866. It is a magnificent shelter, covering now 100 acres and protected by a semi-circular breakwater measuring about a mile. It includes ten piers of various sizes, grain stores with a capacity

of 3,000,000 bushels, and stores for saltpetre, chloride of potash and other chemicals as well as general merchandise. Several floating grain elevators are always found in it and each win- ter about 700 canal boats are laid up in its shelter and many of our yachting devotees keep their crack boats there when the racing season is over. It was of course built by pri- vate enterprise but the enterprise was primar- ily brought about by a desire to aid in the de- velopment of the city, a desire which seems to have inspired, to more or less degree, the life of every one who has resided in Brooklyn long enough to rank as one of its citizens. The Erie Basin was a commercial success from the be- ginning and so continues, although it has shared in the evil fortunes of the Brooklyn Wharf & Warehouse Company, to which its ownership was transferred when that un- wieldy and badly managed trust was formed in 1895. On Jan. 9, 1901, a disastrous fire occurred at the Erie Basin, destroyin ? one of its piers and two vessels, besides a great quan- tity of stores, involving a financial loss, it was estimated, of about $500,000.

Another notable improvement in the same direction was accomplished by the Gowanus Canal Improvement Commission, which was called into existence by act of the Legislature in 1866. Under it the historic creek, widened and deepened, became a genuine water high- way, a mile long in its main line with several branches, carrying what might be called the sca-power right into the city. Along this canal brick, lumber, coal and other yards were soon located, the moderate cost of the land as well as the ample loading and docking facilities commending the whole line of the improve- ment to those dealers in bulk who could handle their goods either in the way of receiving or shipping by a water route. A boat could leave a brickwork on the Hudson, for instance, and carry its load right to Baltic street, Brooklyn, whence it could easily be transported to any part of the city, saving time and money in transporting and handling. In 1867 a similar

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improvement was effected in the Wallabout district, and it may be said that Brooklyn is as well supplied with internal waterways as any city on this side of the Atlantic.

From 1866 to 1870 was a time of marked development in the history of Brooklyn. The war was over, it was a time of upbuilding, re- building everywhere, sometimes a little fever- ish and uncertain, it is true, but in the main healthy and in the direction of repairing the damage and the waste and the delay brought about by four years of disunion, war, hate, and waste of blood, brain, and treasure. In 1867 3,539 new buildings were erected, and in 1868 3,307, a lesser number certainly than that of the previous year but many of the structures of a much more costly character. In 1867 six- teen miles of water pipes were laid and four- teen miles of sewers, giving the city 210 miles of water pipes and 134 miles of sewers. In 1869 there were 150 miles of sewer pipes and 22.4 miles of water pipes. In 1864 the assessed valuation of the real estate in the city was $103,593,072 ; in 1865, $106,470,308; in 1866, $113,941,366; in 1867, $122,748,954; in 1868, $131,271,141 ; in 1869, $179,064,130; and in 1870, $183,822,789. It must be remembered that the assessed valuation was about one-half of the real market value. These figures are more eloquently illustrative of the material progress of the city than any words could pos- sibly be.

But the city had its drawbacks. On the map it had about 500 miles of streets, but 011 only about half of these were there any houses, and on little more than a quarter was there sewage provisions. Around the ferry the pop- ulation was congested,-far too much so for health, and on the less crowded streets the san- itary arrangements so necessary for the pub- lic welfare were absent. A hcute might be found standing on a street, the only dwelling un a block, and beside it would be a swamp, while the water for domestic purposes was pro- curel from a well, without the slightest

thought as to where the water came from or what it passed through. Even in the heart of the city sanitation in the poorer dwellings was almost unknown, or at best deemed only a lux- ury for the rich. It has already been seen how easily from this cause Brooklyn had received several dread visits of cholera, and in 1860 it found itself in the grasp of an epidemic of yel- low fever, which, it was claimed, was brought to the port by some ship or ships from the South. How it did originate, however, is not very clear ; but there is no doubt of the stern fact that forty-six cases of the disease were re- ported and of these thirty-four were found on Congress street. In 1866, however, there came an even more dreaded visiter, cholera, of which there were reported 816 cases. Of these 573 ended fatally, and there were also reported 142 fatal cases of what was described as cholera morbus. The greatest number of cases and of deaths occurred in the Twelfth ward, between the Atlantic Basin and Gowanns Bay, where there was a total absence of sanitary provi- sions, of abundance of wells and a scarcity of water mains. That the disease did not spread over a wider territory and with even more ter- rible results was due to the heroic exertions of the medical profession, whose labors during the anxious months of July, August and Sep- tember were beyond all praise. Through the demands of the physicians a hospital for the treatment of cholera patients was opened at the corner of Van Brunt street and Hamilton ave- nue, and later a second one, in the City Park. Brooklyn had already become conspicuous for the excellence of its medical service, and dur- ing this period it came to the front with re- markable brilliancy. In 1856 the Central Dis- pensary was established, and in 1858 the Long Island College Hospital and Dispensary was organized, the St. Peter's Hospital Dispensary in 1864, St. Mary's Hospital in 1868, and sev- eral other institutions having for their primal object the care of the sick were started on their mission of practical charity and love during the period.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL LIFE.

LITERATURE-BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY-REV. DR. CUYLER-REV. DR. TALMAGE -FATHER MALONE.

N literature the city made little progress as a producer, although as a reading centre its importance was everywhere recognized. Such of its sons and daughters as displayed literary ability found the best and readiest market for their wares in other places, and those of its residents who were practically active in literary work be- longed in reality to Manhattan Island or were simply birds of passage temporarily in Brook- lyn. This was the case with John G. Saxe, one of the most popular American poets of his day but whose memory, since his death, at Albany, in 1887, seems to have been gradually reced- ing into the dark mist of time, where so many bright and fragrant memories become forgot- ten. It cannot be said that Brooklyn showed any sign of the possession of a literary cult then any more than it does now. It has been held that Oliver Bunce Bell wrote his "Ro- mance of the American Revolution" and his "Bachelor's Story" in Brooklyn; but both of these are now hardly regarded as literature as time has robbed them of the popularity they once enjoyed. Still Bell could hardly be claimed as having done anything to confer lit- erary eminence on Brooklyn. His interests centred in New York. Frederick Saunders, too, wrote most of his "Salad for the Social" and his earlier "Salad for the Solitary." as well as several of his other books, in his home in Brooklyn, but he carried the manuscript to

New York, where his days were spent and where his real work was done. Brooklyn con- tained only his "bedroom." Much of Alden J. Spooner's best work was done during this period, and he and Senator Murphy and Ga- briel Furman and Gabriel Harrison and a few others might, had they so desired, have won some measure of literary fame for the city they loved so well, but either they did not so desire or the fates were unpropitious, or they wanted a leader and those who might have been leaders like Beecher, or Murphy, or Storrs, were too busy with other matters to attempt to found a literary forum.

In a literary sense the greatest of all these names, the one who might have formed and attained leadership in a literary guild and so given Brooklyn some degree of individuality in the world of letters, was the last named, -- Gabriel Harrison,-a man of many and bril- liant parts but whose every effort seemed des- tined to lead to financial failure. Born in Phil- adelphia, in 1825, he settled in New York in 1831 with his father and early conceived a pas- sion for becoming an actor, inspired in that direction by seeing a performance by Edwin Forrest at the Park Theatre in 1832, it is said, although children of seven years of age are not generally bothering much about a vocation to carry them through life. However this may be, he made his first appearance as an actor in Washington in 1838, taking the part of Othello

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in Shakespeare's famous tragedy. For some time he was interested in photography by the Daguerre process and did work which won the praise of the inventor himself; but there was no money in it. In 1845 he became a member of the Park Theatre Company in New York and in that position lent effective support to Charles Kean. Mr. Furman's active connec- tion, publicly, with Brooklyn dated from 1848 when he first appeared at the Garden Theatre in a round of characters, and so endeared him- self to many of its best people that he was persuaded to make it his home. In 1851 he or- ganized the Brooklyn Dramatic Association, and, with the exception of a year or so when he managed the Adelphi Theatre in Troy, Brooklyn henceforth continued to be his home and the constant scene of his labors. In 1863 he opened the Park Theatre, when he pro- duced most of the popular operas and high- class dramas of the day with a conscientious regard for the correctness and completeness of every detail, as well as the ability of every actor, in a manner that was far ahead of the usual run of such things in America. This endeavor, while praised on every hand, in- volved a degree of expense which the returns did not warrant, and he was compelled to re- tire from the management under a cloud of in- debtedness. Thereafter he acted as manager of the Brooklyn Academy of Music and in that capacity contrived to struggle along for a time.

From his early years Harrison had excelled as an artist and his interest in art had led to his appointment as secretary of the Brooklyn Academy of Design, for which institution he raised enough money to free it from a load of indebtedness and to put its art schools on a satisfactory footing. His own artistic' work was then winning recognition and he was en- abled to dispose of as much of it as he cared to finish and put on the market, but his con- scientious scruples of only sending forth the very best of which he was capable or which seemed to him to come nearest to his high ideals, kept him from realizing all that his

brush might have brought him. As an artist his best known work is a portrait of Edwin Forrest as Coriolanus, although some of his landscapes are worthy of a generous meed of praise. But his main business from the time he left the Academy of Music was that of a man of letters. In 1872 he organized the For- rest Club of Brooklyn, with the idea of its be- coming a literary and dramatic society of some influence, but it passed away after an existence of a few years sans accomplishment. In the same year he published "The Life and Writ- ings of John Howard Payne" (Albany, 1872), and it is to his efforts that Brooklyn is indebted for the bust of that author which now adorns Prospect Park. He adapted Hawthorne's "Scarlet Letter" for the theatre and wrote "Melanthia," a tragedy, as well as a number of dramas, most of which were produced on the stage but failed to obtain any hold on the public and are now forgotten. After doing a good deal of literary work of one kind or an- other his health failed and he was laid aside for several years by nervous prostration, dur- ing which he accomplished little except a graphic chapter on the drama in Brooklyn for Dr. Stiles's work, the "History of Kings Coun- ty." In 1887 he became : teacher of elocution in Brooklyn and so continues.

The story of the newspaper press during the period was abcut as barren of incident as the general literary field was barren of living results. The Eagle had obtained a standing as the leading local newspaper in point of cir- culation and influence and zealously and worthily strove not only to increase its grip but to strengthen it. In this it succeeded to a greater extent than even its owners probably anticipated. There was a constant issue of new literary street and family papers which fluttered for a brief time and then disappeared, filling during their existence no felt want and passing away without leaving any sign. There were, too, several attempts made to establish new daily or weekly newspapers without cap- ital or connection or public purpose, and meet-

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ing with the usual fate. "The Signal," in has 67,906 volumes, and there are quite a 1855, ran a brief course of six weeks as an number of smaller institutions the uses of which are free or available by payment of a small sum. evening paper and then ceased; and the same year saw the beginning and end of "The Brooklyn Independent," a weekly organ In Brooklyn, too, is one of the latest and most effective developments in the way of a really useful public library which, while it is still in the experimental stage, seems certain of success in application and rich success in results. The Brooklyn Public Library has for its object the development of a municipally controlled institution on the lines of the largest possible free circulation of books, and under the new regime has progressed rapidly. Its municipal control gives to Brooklyn the honor of proclaiming as her own the only municipal library in Greater New York. The Long Island City Library, while being conducted upon the same lines, is much less extensive, and the New York Free Library is still to some extent under corporative control. The defini- tion of a free library, as given by the State Board of Regents, voiced by Mr. Melvil Dewey, is "one owned and controlled by the city." which was to proclaim the views of men who were bereft of a party and wanted to find shelter somewhere again. "The City News," begun in 1859, for a time was looked upon as a successful competitor of "The Eagle," but whatever measure of success it had was of but brief duration, and in 1863 it was consolidated with "The Union." That paper was first issued Sept. 14, 1863, as a Republican organ and had a marked measure of success while the war lasted. After that it began to decline and in 1870 its original owners disposed of it to Henry C. Bowen, and Stewart L. Woodford (afterward Minister to Spain) became its editor. In 1872 the proprietorship again- changed hands and Theodore Tilton became editor. In 1866 "The Brooklyn Argus" ap- peared, as a weekly, becoming a daily in 1873, and it continued to be published until 1877, when it was merged in the "Union," which then became the "Union-Argus."

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A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 70

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