USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > A history of the city of Brooklyn and Kings county, Volume I > Part 5
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WHEN Stuyvesant, followed by the principal burghers, made his first public appearance in New Amsterdam, the people saw that the new Director had but one leg, the other, which he had lost in the wars, having been replaced by a wooden affair, laced with silver bands. His manner was soldierly, and excited from those who looked askance at him the remark that his stride was " like a peacock's, with great pomp and state." Moreover he was accused of keeping the burghers bareheaded for several hours, though he was covered, " as if he were the Czar of Muscovy."
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Peter Stuyvesant 1 was the son of a clergy- man of the Reformed Church. He was a " self-made " man, having had a hard struggle from his boyhood. He had fought in the ser- vice of the West India Company against the Spaniards and Portuguese in South America. For a time he was Governor of the Island of Curaçoa, and it was while making an attack, during this command, on the Island of St. Thomas that he lost his leg. He had mar- ried, at Amsterdam, Judith, the daughter of Balthazzar Bayard, a French Protestant who, like so many others who came to America, had fled to Holland to escape persecution.
When Stuyvesant declared in his first speech at the Fort that he would govern the colony " as a father does his children," he gave some hint of the view of the situation which he was inclined to take. However fatherly and generous were his feelings toward the peo- ple whom he was to preside over, he intended to be master of the situation.
The people who greeted the new Director
1 " No other figure of Dutch, nor indeed of Colonial days is so well remembered; none other has left so deep an impress on Manhattan history and tradition as this whimsical and obstinate, but brave and gallant old fellow, the kindly tyrant of the little colony. To this day he stands in a certain sense as the typical father of the city." - Theodore Roosevelt, New York, p. 26.
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with much cordiality, and who in this demon- stration were influenced as greatly by the feel- ing that any change must be for the better as by any definite expectation that Stuyvesant would be better than Kieft, had suffered from so many influences that tended to disorganize and disconcert them that the new Director found them in no very promising state. In- deed, he found New Netherland in a "low condition."
Breuckelen and her sister settlements were as yet merely farming communities. New Amsterdam itself had begun to present some of the characteristics of a town. Extending as far as the present line of Wall Street (from which fact the street gets its name), it was thickly settled within a narrow area toward the point. The houses were rough, the streets unkempt. " Pig-pens and out-houses were set directly on the street, diffusing unpleasant odors. The hogs ran at will, kept out of the vegetable gardens only by rough stockades." 1
If the physical condition of the town offended Stuyvesant, so, also, did the moral condition. The new Director called for a "thorough reformation." There must be an end of drunk- enness, Sabbath-breaking, and the selling of
1 Bayard Tuckerman, Peter Stuyvesant, p. 62.
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liquors to the Indians. Stuyvesant saw the necessity of conciliating the Indians, and the efforts which he made to this end were gratify- ing to the Long Island settlers.
To protect the outlying settlements from the incursions of the savages, and to provide means for the payment of the annual presents and perquisites to the Indians, Stuyvesant consented to give the various towns repre- sentation in the government. The grand old democratic principle of taxation and represen- tation going hand in hand was thus recog- nized. It was these sentiments, which early took root in Breuckelen, that resulted in the Revolutionary War, and established the fact that taxation without representation was unjus- tifiable. As a result of this consent, an elec- tion was held in Breuckelen and the other towns, and eighteen of the most respectable and honored men in the community were chosen, from whom nine were selected by the Director and Council as an advisory board. They were to confer with the Director and Council and to promote the welfare of the peo- ple. They were also to consult upon all meas- ures proposed by the Director and Council, and to give their advice. The Director was empowered to preside at all meetings of this
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board. The members held seats in the Coun- cil, taking turns weekly, three sitting at a time ; on court days acting in a judicial capacity to try cases and render judgment.
The administration, at least in its earlier years, saw an increase in the rate of immi- gration. During Stuyvesant's administration many stone houses appeared in New Amster- dam, and on Long Island came an improved class of habitations.
The houses of the Dutch period, and of the later period that imitated the primitive archi- tecture of that time, are among the most inter- esting objects of study that remain on Long Island. The first Long Island houses had re- sembled those of the Indians. Very soon after- ward the character of the dwellings became more solid and permanent, and after the In- dian war came comfortable one-story houses, thatched with straw, and with big stone chim- neys. Most of the Dutch houses on Long Island, even in later times, were of wood. A brickyard was established at New Amsterdam in 1660; but in those days it was thought that the baking of brick of greater thickness than two inches could not be effectual, and building with such small brick as then came from the maker was very expensive.
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The one-story Dutch houses generally had an " overshoot " roof, which formed now one and now two piazzas. Very often a seat was placed at each end of the porch; and when the weather permitted, this sheltered place was generally occupied by the family and vis- itors of an evening. There are a number of these fine old Dutch houses still standing within the limits of the county and city.
The interior of the Dutch houses was gen- erally as solid and simple as the exterior. The big fireplace was one of the most important features of the house. Those who could afford it often had the mantel front set about with glazed Holland tiles. These tiles had pictures moulded on them, and very often the whole series of pictures around the fireplace opening would tell stories from the Bible. " The chil- dren grew to know these pictures, and the stories they told, by heart; and when they gathered about the hearth of an evening, and the tile pictures glimmered faintly in the light of the big wood fire, grandfather would open the great family Bible on his knees and read some of the stories over again for the hun- dredth time."
In the best room of the house stood the mountainous bedstead, as grand as the owner
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could afford to make it. Underneath was the trundle-bed, which was pulled out at night for the children to sleep on.
" The pillow-cases were generally of check patterns; and the curtains and valance were of as expensive materials as their owner could afford; while in front of the bed a rug was laid, for carpets were not then in common use. Among the Dutch the only article of that sort, even up to the time of the Revolution, was a drugget of cloth, which was spread under the table during meal-time when, upon 'extra occa- sions,' the table was set in the parlor. But even these were unknown among the inhabit- ants of Breuckelen and the neighboring towns. The uniform practice, after scrubbing the floor well on certain days, was to place upon the damp boards the fine white beach sand (of which every family kept a supply on hand, renewing it by trips to the seashore twice a year), arranged in small heaps, which the members of the family were careful not to dis- turb by treading upon; and on the following day, when it had become dry, it was swept, by the light and skillful touch of the housewife's broom, into waves or other more fanciful fig- ures. Rag carpets did not make their appear- ance in this country until about the beginning of the present century."1
1 Stiles, History of Brooklyn, vol. i. p. 229.
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The Dutch did not use tables save for the kitchen or for the service of meals. The table dishes were of wood and pewter, though a few people kept some china on the sideboard for " company." As tea was a luxury which very few had much of, the tea cups were very small. For display, silver tankards, beakers, porrin- gers, spoons, snuffers, and candlesticks were in favor. Clocks were extremely rare, the primitive hour-glass doing service in most houses. " Of books," says Stiles, "our ances- tors had but few, and these were mostly Bibles, Testaments, and Psalm-Books. The former, many of which still exist among the old fami- lies, were quaint specimens of early Dutch printing, with thick covers, and massive brass, and sometimes silver, corner-pieces and clasps. The Psalm-Books were also adorned with sil- ver edgings and clasps, and, when hung by chains of the same material to the girdle of matrons and maidens fair, were undoubtedly valued by their owners quite as much for the display which they made as for their intrinsic value."
In every family was a spinning-wheel, - sometimes four or five. The dress of the peo- ple, like so many other Dutch things, closely resembled that of Hollanders at home. The
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ordinary dress for men was a blouse or jacket, and wide, baggy trousers. Justices and other officials wore black gowns. The Sunday clothes of men as well as women were often gorgeous in color and effect. The ladies frizzed and powdered their hair, wore silk hoods in place of hats, and squeezed their feet into very high-heeled shoes. The dandies of the day wore long coats with silver lace and silver buttons, bright vests or waistcoats, vel- vet knee-breeches, black silk stockings, and low shoes with silver buckles.
On holidays the people made a gay-looking company. Christmas was a happy festival with them always. In those early days people had to depend upon such family festivities even more than do later generations having many sources of amusement away from home. It was from the Dutch that American children learned to say Santa Claus, and it was from them that Americans learned that fashion, which has still not entirely died out, of making calls on New Year's Day.
One of the prudent customs of the Dutch settlers was to begin, so soon as they came of age, to lay by money for their funeral expenses. No Dutchman wanted to be a burden upon any one if he could help it, even when he died,
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and this practice of laying by gold or silver pieces to pay the expenses of proper burial became very general. A Dutch funeral was one of the most singular features of life among the people. After the minister had seated himself beside the coffin and the company was duly assembled, the sexton or servants would appear with glasses and decanters, and wine would be given to such of the guests as cared to drink. Funeral cakes and other victuals were handed about in the same way, and then pipes and tobacco were brought in. The eating, drinking, and smoking being fin- ished, the minister would rise and make his address and prayer, and then the sexton and minister would lead the procession to the burying-ground.1
1 " Among the Dutch settlers the art of stone-cutting does not appear to have been used until within comparatively a few years, with but few exceptions, and their old burying-grounds are strewn with rough head-stones which bear no inscriptions ; whereas the English people, immediately on their settlement, introduced the practice of perpetuating the memories of their friends by inscribed stones. Another reason for not finding any very old tombstones in the Dutch settlements is that they early adopted the practice of having family burying-places on their farms, without monuments, and not unfrequently private burials, both of which the Governor and Colonial Legislature, in 1664 and 1684, deemed of sufficient importance to merit legislative interference, and declared that all persons should be publicly buried in some parish burial-place." - Furman, Antiquities of Long Island, p. 155.
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A people so prudent about matters of fun- eral expenses were likely to be prudent about other affairs of life coming earlier in the list. Young men were generally careful about sav- ing money with which to get married, and the young women spun and sewed for many months getting ready the linen which they were in the habit of providing for the house- keeping.
Furman instances this inventory of the goods a Breuckelen bride brought to her hus- band : " A half-worn bed, two cushions of ticking with feathers, one rug, four sheets, four cushion covers, two iron pots, three pewter dishes, one pewter basin, one iron roaster, one schuyrn spoon, two cowes about five years old, one case or cupboard, one table."
That the course of true love, as it is ob- served after marriage, did not always run smooth, is shown by the early appointment in New Amsterdam of a " First Commissary of Marriage Affairs."
In this era marriage was surrounded with many difficulties, and required both time and patience to secure its accomplishment. The following curious document is the form which was used in 1654 to secure a marriage license : -
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To the right Honourable the Lordships the Magistrates of Gravesend :
DEAR FRIENDS - Whereas, on the date of this 10th day of February, 1654, a peticion is presented to the cort hereby, Johannes Van Beeck, that the banns (of matrimonie) between him and Maria Varleth, may bee hear regis- tered and bee properly proclaimed, and wee hav understoode that the same Johannes Van Beeck ande Maria Varleth had prevusly too this maide procklemation of thare banns throgh youre cort att Gravesende wich (under Koncison) is contrarie too the stile and cus- tomes of oure Faderland. Itt is oure requeste to youre honourable cort in case such an oc- kacion should ockur in futur, that wee mai bee inn formed kincerneing the same, inn order on ether sydde to preventee all impro- priertys, which allso wee engaige too doo on our parte spechally iz the praktize and cus- tome off our Faderland that any one shal maike three procklamations inn the plaice ware his domercile is, ande then he maye bee maryed werever hee pleases, wherein wee ar ande remaine your right Honourable Lord- ships' affectionate friend.
ARENT VAN HATTAN.
Bye order of thee Burgomasters and She- pens of New Amsterdam. Attest
JACOB KIPP, Sec'ty.
AMSTERDAM IN NIEW NETHERLANDS, this 10th day of February, 1654.
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The next step taken by the candidates for matrimony was their appearance before the Court. This event in the old manuscripts is recorded as follows : -
" Casper Varleth and Johannes Van Beeck appeared inn cort and praed most ernestly thatt onn thee perticion and remonstrance konserning the marriage between Johannes Van Beeck and Maria Varleth presented too the Burgomasters and Schepens may be dis- posed off, and in konsequence of the Bench note being kompleate itt iz posponed untill Thursda next, soe az inn thee meantime too notifie the other Lordships.
" Johannes Van Beeck appeared in cort and requested az before thatt acion maye bee had onn his peticion, offering furthermore iff thort nesary att thee time ande the okeacion too bee readie to affirme under oathe whatt he stated inn his peticion, repeating especially three con- versacions hadd with his Excellencie Petrus Stuyvesant."
The subject-matter of the petition was im- portant, and could not be hastily passed upon. The Burgomasters deliberated for three days, and doubtless viewed the subject in every phase and light imaginable. At last they reached a conclusion which cannot be better presented than in the precise language of the decision rendered : -
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" Bye the Burgomasters and Shepens of · niew amsterdam - having been seen and ex- amined the peticion as presentede too our cort, onn the roth ande 16th days of this month, tochinge the bonds off matrimonie between Joh Van Beeck and Maria Varleth. Thare- fore wee inquire into,
" First - Who frome the beginning was the institutor of marriage, ande also whot the apostels off thee Gentiles teaches thareon.
" Secondly - The proper and attaned age of Johannes Van Beeck ande Maria Varleth.
" Thirdlie - Thee consente off the Fathure ande Mothure off the Dauter.
" Forthly - The distance and remoutnes beetweene this and oure Faderland, together withe thee calamiters relacion betweene Hol- land and England.
" Fifthly - Thee danegur in such case aris- ienge ffrom long retardacion, betweene these too younge persons beecominge publick blame being attachede to the fammelys onn either sidde.
"Our Shurlogans ande wise Jurists doo saye korectly onn such mattus, that wee must nott commit any lesser sinns too avoyde grater ones; tharefore wee thinke (with due submis- sion) thatt bye suteable marrage (the apostel inn his epistel to the Heebrues calls the bedd undefiled honurable) both thee lesser ande thee grater crimes are preevented. Tharefor
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thee Burgomasters and Shepens off the city of Niew Amsterdam doe judge thatt thee afforeseyde younge persons haveing mayde thare proper Ecklisiastical proclamations with the earlyst opportunitie, and that they folloe it upp with thee bonds of matrimonie immedi- atelie tharafter.
" Done at the Stadt House inn Niew Am- sterdam in Niew Netherlands this 19th Feb- erary, 1654.
" ARENT VAN HATTAN, MARTIN KRIGIER,
P. L. VANDUGRIST, WILH. BEECKMAN,
PIETER WOLFERSON, JOSH. P. R. RUYTER,
OLOFF STEVENSEN."
The social life of the New Netherlands was in many respects characteristic of the hard conditions of life in any new country, but in many respects it was peculiarly different from that of New England. "The sharp and strong contrasts in social position," says Mr. Roose- velt,1 " the great differences in moral and ma- terial well-being, and the variety in race, lan- guage, and religion, all combined to make a deep chasm between life in New Amsterdam and life in the cities of New England, with their orderly uniformity of condition and their theocratic democracy." In fact, democratic as the Dutch theory was, the actual condition of 1 New York, p. 29.
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the Dutch colony was aristocratic in its char- acteristics. " The highest rank was composed of the great patroons, with their feudal privi- leges and vast landed estates; next in order came the well-to-do merchant burghers of the town, whose ships went to Europe and Africa, carrying in their holds now furs or rum, now . ivory or slaves ; then came the great bulk of the population, - thrifty souls of small means, who worked hard, and strove more or less suc- cessfully to live up to the law; while last of all came the shifting and intermingled strata of the evil and the weak, - the men of incur- ably immoral propensities, and the poor whose poverty was chronic."
The picturesqueness of the population was accentuated by the presence of a growing num- ber of negro slaves which a Dutch vessel had been the first to bring to America.1 But, as we shall see later, slavery never was welcomed as an institution in this region, and never gained a firm foothold. Tobacco culture and other causes, which operated to the encourage- ment of slavery in Virginia and Maryland, did not appear in the northern colonies; where, moreover, the temper and taste of the people
1 A Dutch war-ship sold twenty negroes into the colony of Virginia in August, 1619.
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were not such as to make easy the develop- ment of slavery.
As in early New England, the domestic and social affairs of the Dutch colony were always intimately associated with religious tra- ditions, and, as in New England, the theory of religious liberty found a varying and often a grotesque application.
The early theory of the colony was that of complete religious liberty, and at no time was there an intolerance comparable to that which prevailed among the Puritans, who sought liberty but yielded little; but the laws of the colony favored the Protestant Reformed Church, and it alone. To be sure, the West India Company commended freedom of belief, and the early Governors, partly, doubtless, be- cause they were too busy with other matters, and partly because occasion had not yet arisen, caused little trouble by any attitude toward questions of faith or worship. But when the colony grew to considerable proportions, and the mixture of races brought about by the advertised liberality of the Dutch settlements began to bring up the social and religious questions inevitable in such a community, there were many clashings and disputes and bitternesses.
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Stuyvesant was as definite and immovable in his ideas about church-going as about every- thing else. He believed in established author- ity, and personally resented the impertinence of people who saw fit to take a position at vari- ance with what seemed to be set forth and settled by the established power. When the Lutherans, in 1654, sought to hold meetings of their own, Stuyvesant reminded them of the duty of attending the good Dutch church, and refused them premises for their meetings.
Appeal to Holland, whose position Stuy- vesant's mental methods certainly did not rep- resent in this instance, forced the Director to let the Lutherans alone; and possibly the rebuke was responsible for the fact that the Anabaptists on Long Island escaped serious trouble shortly afterward. But Stuyvesant hated the "cursed Quakers," with whom he had many bitter differences, going so far as to hang up one preacher by the arms and lash him for defying his authority.
Of Catholics Stuyvesant had an even greater horror. In 1654, he passed an ordinance for- bidding the keeping of Ash Wednesday and all other holy days, as "heathenish and popish institutions, and as dangerous to the public peace."
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To the intermittent religious squabbles brought on by the determination of Stuyvesant to stick to the letter of the law rather than to take the popular Dutch view of moderate leniency, the West India Company finally put a stop by ordering Stuyvesant to " let every one remain free so long as he is modest, moderate, his political conduct irreproachable, and as long as he does not offend others or oppose the Government." These terms, rather than any ever offered by Stuyvesant, represent the real sentiment prevalent among the Dutch people.
In the ship which brought over Governor Minuit, in 1626, came two ziekentroosters, or " comforters of the sick," who were frequently found filling positions as assistants to ordained clergymen. By these two men the early reli- gious services of the New Amsterdam colony were conducted until 1628, when another ship from Holland brought out Jonas Michaelius, who was sent by the North Synod of the Netherlands. It was Michaelius who " first established the form of a church " at Man- hattan. He was succeeded five years later by Everardus Bogardus, whose congregation left the upper loft of the horse-mill for a small building dedicated to church service. In
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1642, a new stone church was built within the Fort, and in the year of Stuyvesant's coming Bogardus was succeeded by Dominie Johan- nes Megapolensis, who led the church for twenty-two years.
Meanwhile the Long Island settlers who wished to attend divine service were obliged to cross the river to New Amsterdam. In 1654, however, Midwout (Flatbush), which had begun to assume an importance as a settlement that promised to give it the position that Breuck- elen afterward assumed, established a church. An order was issued in February, 1655, re- quiring the inhabitants of Breuckelen and Amersfoort (Flatlands) to assist Midwout " in cutting and hauling wood " for the church. The Breuckelen people objected to working on the minister's house, but were forced, under the Governor's order, to assist throughout the work.
This first church in Kings County, built un- der the supervision of Dominie Megapolensis, John Snedicor, and John Stryker, occupied sev- eral years in the building ; but that it was used before its completion is indicated by the fact that in August, 1655, Stuyvesant convened the inhabitants to give their opinion as to the qualifications of the Rev. Johannes Theodorus
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Polhemus as a " provisional minister," and to decide what salary they would pay him. The report of the Schout was that the people ap- proved of Mr. Polhemus, and that they would pay him 1,040 guilders (about $416) a year.
Polhemus belonged to "an ancient and highly respectable family " in the Netherlands, had been a missionary in Brazil, and had come from. that country to New Amsterdam. He was a devout Christian, and his faithfulness does not seem to have been questioned, but when, in 1656, the magistracy of Midwout and Amersfoort sought permission to request vol- untary contributions from the three Dutch towns, Breuckelen protested, declaring that " as the Rev. John Polhemus only acts as a minister of the Gospel in the village of Mid- wout, therefore the inhabitants of the village of Breuckelen and adjacent districts are disin- clined to subscribe or promise anything for the maintenance of a Gospel minister who is of no use to them." By way of showing their good will to Mr. Polhemus personally, they urged that the minister might be permitted to preach alternately in Breuckelen and Midwout. If this were done they were " very willing to con- tribute cheerfully to his support, agreeable to their abilities."
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