A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 88

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

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About the middle of the last century As- toria became noted for its nurseries and gar-

dens, the leader in that business being Grant Thorburn, whose grounds were once the most extensive of any devoted to the raising of gar- den seeds to be found in the country. Thor- burn's gardens were near the river,-the Soh- mer piano factory now stands on part of the property, and he himself was postmaster of Hallet's Cove for some time, and assisted in the organization of the Reformed Dutch Church in 1839. A useful man, the founder of a local industry and one who made a con- siderable mark in the world of letters, it is worth while to recall the salient features of Thorburn's career before he became connected with Astoria.

In the "Statistical Account of Scotland," vol. I, page 495, is the following brief notice :

"Mr. Grant Thorburn, seedsman, New York, the original 'Lawrie Tod,' though a na- tive of Newbattle parish, where he was born on the 18th of February, 1773, lived in Dal- keith from his childhood until he sailed for New York on the 13th of April, 1794. He is a man of great piety and worth, though of a remarkably lively and eccentric character. He visited Dalkeith in 1834, when he published his "Autobiography," which he dedicated with characteristic singularity and elegance to Her Grace the Duchess of Buccleuch."

It did not suit the purpose for Mr. Peter Steele, the gifted schoolmaster who in 1844 wrote these words, to give any indication of Thorburn's career in Scotland. Political feel- ing then ran very high and political resentment was very bitter, and the teacher could not, had he so inclined, say a word commendatory of Thorburn's early life without bringing upon his own head the ill will of the Buccleuch family and its adherents. So like a canny Scot he acted the part of the Highlandman's parrot, which "thocht a guid deal and said naething ava." Thorburn learned from his father the trade of a nail-maker, and became quite an expert at it long before his apprenticeship was past. Like most of the Scottish workmen of the time,-a time when the old order of things

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was fast changing and the governing powers tried to quell the popular advance and the popular aspirations with trials for treason, se- dition and the like,-Thorburn became deeply interested in politics, and in Dalkeith was prominent among those who advocated Par- liamentary reform and a generous concession to the claims of the people to a voice in the conduct of affairs. The result was that when opportunity offered he was arrested for trea- son, and after a short time in prison was re- leased on bail. This arrest made him a marked man and blocked any prospect of his making his way in the world, so, believing that the star of freedom blinked bonnily across the sea in the new republic which had thrown off the yoke of the same Parliament he had protested against, Thorburn left Scotland, and, settling in New York, tried to earn his living at his trade of nail-making. It, however, did not promise much for the future, and in 1801 he started in business as a grocer at 20 Nassau street. "He was there," writes Walter Bar- rett, "some ten or twelve years, and then he moved to No. 22, and about the time of his removal, in 1810, he changed his business and kept garden seeds and was a florist. He estab- lished a seed-raising garden at Newark, but it proved unsuccessful, and thereafter he con- fined his attention to his business in New York and acquired considerable means." In 1825 he secured land and opened his garden in Astoria, where he built a home for himself.

From the beginning of his American career almost Thorburn became known for his kindly heart. and he did much practical good in a quiet way, not only among his countrymen, but among all deserving people whose needs touched his sympathy or aroused his com- passion. For many years his store in Liberty street was not only a lounging place for the merchants who bought flowers, but for the practical gardeners who grew them, and his place became a sort of clearing house for the horticulturists in the city, and every Scotch gardener who arrived in New York from the

old country made Thorburn's place his head- quarters until he found employment, and hun- dreds used to say that the advice and informa- tion they received from him at that critical stage in their careers were of the most incal- culable value to them through life. In 1854 Mr. Thorburn in a sense retired from business and returned to Astoria. From there he moved to Winsted, Connecticut. and finally to New Haven, Connecticut, where he died in 1863.

Mr. Thorburn possessed considerable lit- erary tastes, and under the nom de plume of "Lawrie Tod" wrote in his later years at fre- quent intervals for the "Knickerbocker Maga -- zine" and other periodicals. He gave to John Galt much of the information which that ge- nius incorporated in his story of "Lawrie .. Tod; or, Settlers in the New World," and his published books of reminiscences, notably his "Forty Years' Residence in America" and "Fifty Years' Reminiscences of New York," still form interesting reading. So, too, does a now scarce volume published in 1848, under the title of "Lawrie Tod's Notes on Virginia, with a Chapter on Puritans, Witches and Friends." This book is one of those contribu- tions to American social history which will become of more value as time speeds on, al- though its importance will be more appreciated by the student than by the general reader.

Until the incorporation of Astoria as a village it progressed on somewhat slow yet eminently satisfactory lines. In fact, it was re- garded as prosperous. After incorporation it progressed more rapidly. The "horse" ferry gave way to a steamer in 1839, and in 1853 a gas company was organized and many other improvements were introduced. Its advan- tages as a residential village were kept well before the people and every inducement was offered to people likely to become good citi- zens to settle. It was a quiet, orderly com- munity, a home community, a law-abiding, peaceful community : and even after the forma- tion of Long Island City, of which it became a ward, when other parts of the township:

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HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

were offering protection to blacklegs and swindlers, when the liquor dealers united openly to defy the law, when it was loudly boasted that in Long Island City a man might even defy the law and escape justice, Astoria held aloof from the maelstrom of license and crime and pursued the even tenor of her way, conscious that if other members of the family had thrown open their doors to crime she at least had preserved her name unsullied. But it cannot be said that her incorporation with Long Island City proved for Astoria's benefit ; how she will fare in the Greater New York still remains to be seen.

An event which for a time attracted the attention of the entire country, and indeed of the scientific world, to Long Island City was the blowing up of Hell Gate so as to provide a clear channel for navigation. This event be- longs to the annals of Astoria because the main obstructions destined to be removed lay .off her shore line and the operations were directed from headquarters established in her territory. The wonderful story of that great engineering enterprise has been so often fully told that there is little need of plunging into the details in these pages. Suffice it to say that the work was begun in 1870 by the United States Government and placed under the direc- tion of General Newton. For six years the work progressed, and after some minor ob- structions had been removed every effort was directed to the destruction of Hallet's Reef, the most dangerous in the whole passage. A shaft had been sunk and passageways cut out in the interior of the rock until its whole extent was opened up. Into holes drilled into these passageways 52,2061/2 pounds of dynamite and other explosives were inserted, a network of electric wires connected the whole with a series of batteries on shore, and these again were controlled by a single wire operated by a button. The work was pro- nounced complete, and on Saturday, Septem- ber 23, 1876, water was let into all the pas- ; sageways and on the following day the little

daughter of General Newton touched the but- ton and in two seconds Hallet's Reef was a mass of broken rock. The whole scheme had worked to perfection, almost exactly accord- ing to the schedule of the engineers. Flood Rock was afterward destroyed in the same way and several smaller obstructions were successfully removed. Hell Gate with its dan- gers is now a thing of the past, and this was amply demonstrated in the early summer of 1901, when a United States war vessel of the first class successfully passed through a chan- nel which formerly was deemed too dangerous to be attempted in time of peace except by

HELL GATE.

river craft manned by river pilots, and was always dangerous. Readers of Fenimore Cooper's interesting novel, "The Water Witch," will recall a most thrilling descrip- tion of the passage through Hell Gate as it was in the days before Uncle Sam undertook to remove its dangers.

To the student of American municipal mat- ters the history of Long Island City as a dis- tinct community during its existence of some twenty-eight years. is an interesting study, if a somewhat nauseous one. It is not intended to follow its details here, for, excepting for the purposes of such study, the story is really purposeless ; so a few details will suffice. As

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the new city became the legal center of Queens county it became the seat of the law courts and so attracted quite a new order of business to the whilom Hunter's Point, a class of busi- ness which it still holds. To accommodate this legal business it was deemed necessary to build a court house. One was authorized in 1872 and in 1875 it was completed and opened. The original cost was fixed at $150,000, but the actual cost was $278,000, and the local poli- ticians thought it escaped them too easily at that! The first election under the charter was held on July 5, 1870, when Abram D. Dittmars was elected Mayor, but the charter proved unworkable and full of faults, so that within a year a second charter had to be given the city. Each of the five wards were repre- sented by three Aldermen, but in 1879 the number was reduced by limiting the wards to one city father each, while two were chosen by the city at large. Henry S. Bebevoise was elected the second Mayor in 1873, and in 1876 Mr. Dittmars was re-elected, but soon re- signed. The most famous of all the Mayors,- famous for his vulgarity, his defiance of law and his aptitude for holding votes,-was Pat- rick Jerome Gleason, the last of the city's own 1 ulers, and who, after a curious career, be- · came a political nonentity, a bankrupt, and died poor and heartbroken early in 1901. One of the newspaper accounts of his career said :

"Patrick Jerome Gleason, who in late years was never mentioned without his emblem, the battle-axe, being spoken of in the same breath, was a unique figure in American poli- tics. For years he practically carried Long Island City in his vest pocket and was the autocrat of the place. He was its Mayor for three terms, runing over eight years, and from the time of his appearance there until his death his name was constantly before the public in one form or another.

"Gleason was fond of notoriety and liked to talk about himself and his deeds. He de- · clared that the laborer and school children had in him a champion, and in the fight for more

school-houses he continually led the van. One of his latest feats was to write an autobiogra- phy, which it was his intention to publish in book form. He could not keep it long enough, however; he said it was too good for that,- so he gave it to the newspapers a chapter at a time.

"It was in the parish of Drum and Inch, County Tipperary, the birthplace of Senator John Morrissey, that Patrick J. Gleason was born. He said in his book that he had a twin brother and six other brothers and one sister. Patrick was the pigmy of the family, and he stood six feet one inch when he had attained his growth.

"In May, 1862, when the Civil War was raging, Gleason came to this country. He used to tell that he had not been here two days when he was assaulted by two volunteer firemen, and he added, 'we had to be separated by a policeman.'

"Mr. Gleason's twin brother became a member of Mosby's guerrillas, but Patrick elected to stand by the Stars and Stripes, al- though the Ninety-ninth Regiment, in which he was a lieutenant, never got to the front. The next step in his career was as a distiller in Flushing, but the plant was confiscated by the Government and Gleason found himself bankrupt. He became a bidder for a street railroad through Williamsburgh into Long Island City, and got a franchise. Then came his first plunge into politics at the time of the Greeley campaign, when he was defeated for the Assembly.

"With a capital of fifty cents, Gleason thought of California as a haven, and he said he went to a friend to borrow $150, telling him he need never expect to see it again. The friend gave him $300 and he went to the Golden Gate. He had brothers in San Fran- cisco, and finally sold his distillery secret for $5,000, dabbling in stocks and increasing his capital to $32,000. He heard that some one was trying to get his franchise in Williams- burgh, so he came East, built his road, acted

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as conductor, driver, president and general superintendent, and began to increase his roll- ing stock.

"It was as Mayor of Long Island City that Gleason came into the greatest prominence. He was a strong supporter of consolidation, and when the Greater New York was finally an accomplished fact Mr. Gleason announced himself as a candidate for Mayor of the greater city. The battle-axe was his emblem on the ballot, but his candidacy was looked upon as a joke."

With the story of this interesting person- age, whose name for fifteen years or so was the most familiar one in Long Island City, we might fittingly close this chapter, for in one sense he was its most representative citi- zen, in that he could for many years rally a

majority of its votes to his assistance to sup- port his schemes. But before closing it may be proper to recall one locality which practi- cally has passed out of existence. Dutch Kills still has a quasi-existence in local talk, although it has legally been wiped out, but Middletown, on the eastern boundary line of the city, seems to have been entirely passed into the forgotten. In the Revolutionary era it came into prominence from the movement of the British troops, Sir Henry Clinton and General Robertson having their headquarters there for brief periods, just as Lord Corn- wallis seems to have had a brief station at Dutch Kills. But historic tradition alone is not enough to give vitality to a place, and so Middletown gradually fell from its one-time prominence and is now practically a memory.

YACHTS.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

SUMMER RESORTS.

A COSMOPOLITAN PLEASURE RESORT-HEALTHI, EXCITEMENT, SOCIETY AND SOLITUDE - MODERN BARONIAL ESTATES-PATCHOGUE-PECONIC BAY-THE LAND BOOMER AND THE RAILWAY.

L ONG ISLAND, throughout its whole extent, might most fittingly be styled the garden of New York, or Greater New York, the amusement and recreation ground of America's greatest city. It gratifies every taste. The lover of quiet can find it in abundance, can settle down in places apparently so far removed from the din of commerce, the roar and bustle and struggle of humanity, that he might easily imagine himself a thousand miles away from any habitation excepting his own and hear no sound save the hum of the bee, the twitter of ·the bird, or the musical duet of the katydid when night falls and darkness closes in on the little world to which he has resigned himself. If he wants society and fun and frolic and excitement, he can find it in abundance at many a popular caravansary, where he can be associated with people from all parts of the world, get the newest hints as to social life and study the most recent fad in the fashiona- ble world. If a sportsman, he can find full use for rod and gun; and if he desires to fish in the deep blue sea, the waters of the Atlantic or of Long Island Sound are ready at his com- mand. The fishermen can find no place where a day of more genuine fun can be had than in Jamaica Bay, or he can have a day worthy of being remembered by engaging in snipe shooting at Westhampton ; if he wants excite-

men with his sport, let him spend a day or two in an open boat off the Great South Bay; if he be of the quiet, contemplative, philosophical kind, Izaak Walton description of a sport, a gentle "angler," why, such places as Sayville are ready to receive and welcome him. If a golfer, the finest courses in the world are at Babylon, Quogue, Flushing, Port Washing- ton, the Shinnecock Hills and a dozen other places. If a polo expert, he will find many noted players in the Meadow Brook Club, one of the most famous sporting organizations in the land, whose kennels are a sight to see and whose annual hunting record is the best and most exciting in the country. If a bicy- clist, he has only to secure a little tag and go meandering over some of the finest cycle paths to be met anywhere in this vale of tears and of spent tires and smashed wheels. He may even enjoy scorching now and again, and, most wonderful of all, will never once in his jour- ney on the island be denounced as a nui- sance. Sea-bathing, rolling and tumbling in the breakers or floating lazily in still waters is everywhere at command or within easy reach; and some of the most magnificent stretches of sandy beach to be found any- where are of frequent occurrence along the whole extent of the South Shore. The har- bor facilities for yachting purposes are unex- celled, and the sport, one of the grandest ever

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HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

invented by human agency, is enjoyed to the full by the dwellers on the island. No pret- tier sight can anywhere be found than the snug harbors of Port Jefferson or Shelter Island during the height of the season. If one is of a poetic mind, loves to realize how small an atom he is in the cosmopolis, he can sit on the rocks at Montauk Point and mourn the glories of a vanished race, a royal race, and realize the mutability of earthly greatness and comprehend his own insignificance as he watches the wide expanse of horizon and sees the wide limitless expanse of water kissing the rocky coast when in placid mood, or hurl- ing against it with resistless fury when the angry fit is on.

A rare place indeed is Long Island for all sorts and conditions of men, and the beauty of it all is that every section of it is within easy reach of America's metropolitan city, Greater New York, part of which, indeed, is now on the island itself. Even to the so- journer, with only an hour or two to spare, the attractions of the island are open. Coney Island is less than an hour's distance by water, or even by the trolley, and a ride on some of these vehicles really carry the visitor through a stretch of ground more crammed with historical interest than can be found in ·an hour's ride even in history-burdened Con- tinental Europe. We traverse the scene of the Battle of Brooklyn and through old vil- lages, now, however, so sadly modernized and annexed that only glimpses here and there of the relics of other days present themselves. But we, in spite of changes, do pass through Flatbush and Flatlands and Gravesend, and each of these names recalls to the student of modern history a flood of treasured mem- ories. Coney Island itself is a picture, a unique "city of the sea," with its bands, its noise, its touts, its shows, its merry-go-rounds and its cafes and saloons. A little bit vulgar, some people call it; possibly they are right ; but there are many tastes in this world to be gratified, and every taste that is right and

proper and in keeping with morals and ethics has to be catered to. Coney Island has but one mission, and that is to please the public ; and as it is visited every year by about a million persons it can hardly be said not to fulfill that mission. But people who think it vulgar, who find it not to their taste, can pass it by and go on to Manhattan Beach and the Oriental, where they can listen to classical music, hear now and again an opera or bur- lesque, associate with the salt of the earth, be waited upon by Austrian dukes and Italian counts rigged up in swallow-tailed coats, eat the culinary masterpieces of French chefs, and see a grand display of fireworks before as- cending to their bedrooms to be lulled to sleep with the gentle moan of the deep blue sea. In the season "the sport of kings," as horse racing is called, can be enjoyed at Sheepshead Bay or at Gravesend. Another resort near at hand is Rockaway, a long stretch of sand lying between Jamaica Bay and the ocean; while east of it, on the same stretch of sand, is Arverne, with its huge hotel and cottages, a center of social pleasure for three months every year.

The trolley system of Brooklyn is one of the most comprehensive to be found anywhere, and by it one may journey over very considera- ble distances of interesting country for a cost that is almost nominal. From Brooklyn Bridge to Jamaica is perhaps the acme of cheap and pleasant traveling, and so in the trip from the Broadway Ferry to Flushing or North Beach. Jamaica is the railroad center of the island, Flushing one of its old historic towns, and North Beach a summer show place; and to get to each of these places the cars pass through a wide extent of varied country, some- times more or less thickly populated, some- times so thinly peopled that the car bowls along with increased speed, irresponsive to the beauty of the surroundings or the story of the wayside, so as to make up the time lost in threading its way through the city's streets. Traveling by trolley is a delightful

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SUMMER RESORTS.

pleasure on a warm day, for the car itself "makes a breeze," as the conductor tells us, and there is a certain degree of excitement or exhilaration always obtainable when one is bowling along through an open country, now passing a village, now a church, now a green field, and ever and anon dashing through some little collection of pretty villas, the beginning of some future popular summer resort.

But the trolley has its drawbacks; and as we look at the motorman we realize what a wide difference there is between that mechani- cal development and the old-fashioned stage- driver of our younger days. The motorman is a part of the machinery, and nothing more. The stage-driver was a gentleman, and, in his way and so far as his observation went, a scholar and a philosopher. He could tell you the story, the romance, of every field as he passed it by, name the owners of each house, tell you how much the head of each family was worth, relate all sorts of village scandal and gossip, and point out the scene of every re- markable occurrence within his view for a hundred years back! Your motorman is a different personage. He attends strictly to business, and his business is to get his car to the end of his route and nothing more. We question if there is a motorman in Brooklyn who could point out to you a bit of the ground fought over in the Battle of Brooklyn in 1776, or who ever heard that such a battle had ever been fought. His mind is fixed on other things.

The resorts on Long Island are very nu- merous, and all of them seem to grow in popu- larity year after year. We can not recall one that has gone back to its primitive condition of solitary wildness: although most of them have their ups and downs, their good years and their bad ones, the story is one of steady progress all along the line. Some seasons the "gilded youth" of both sexes prefer one place to another, and forsake, say Shelter Island for Glen Cove : but new arrivals take the place of the departed ones, and the story

of success goe's steadily on. There is more reason for this than appears on the surface. The people who really make these resorts are the dwellers in the large cities, and as these increase in population year after year so does the cry for summer homes, and summer breathing places increase. Then Long Island fills the bill. It is so easily reached and yet affords such a welcome change! But, more than all that, its schedule of prices are mod- erate, and a man can spend a season at one of its best hotels as cheaply as he can in such establishments anywhere. Land is cheap, and a site for a dwelling is not costly, nor is labor extravagant in its demands. A man can choose a site overlooking the seashore or in some picturesque nook in the center of the island, all for a moderate cost, while he can have his provisions from New York or from some of the towns on the Connecticut shore as cheaply and promptly as though he were still a dweller in the busy haunts of men. He can enjoy city privileges and rural felicity without drawing more heavily on his purse than though he never stirred away from the noise and clamor of a city. Long Island is every year becoming an island of homes in the sense that Brooklyn used to be called a "city of homes." It is drawing to itself all classes of the community,-the millionaire and the clerk, and the mansion and the cot- tage, both find congenial surroundings.

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A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 88

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