USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > A history of the city of Brooklyn and Kings county, Volume II > Part 7
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A circular was prepared, and invitations extended to architects to submit plans. The plans were to be deposited with Albert H. Os- born, clerk of the Board of Supervisors, on or before June 3, 1861. A large number were submitted, some coming from St. Louis. The plan of King and Tackritz of Brooklyn was finally accepted.
In March, 1861, the special committee ap- pointed by the Supervisors purchased the land on which the present building stands for $70,000. The land having cost $70,000, only $30,000 was left of the sum directed to be raised to purchase the land and erect the build- ing. As that was insufficient for the purpose, the aid of the Legislature was again invoked, and the passage of an additional act obtained,
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authorizing the Supervisors to borrow, on the credit of the county, an additional sum of $100,000 to be expended under their direction for the erection of a building or buildings, for the use of the courts and county offices.
In 1858 the expense of supporting the alms- house, and the several institutions connected therewith, was $158,604.66. Including expen- ditures for out-door relief, the aggregate cost of supporting the poor of the county was $192,079.77. The average number of inmates during the year ending August 1, 1858, was 1495. The cost for the support of each of them was $106.09, or $2.04 per week. This was a decrease on each as compared with the previous year.
The expenses of the several departments were as follows : Almshouse, $36,530.15; hos- pital, $51,755.19; lunatic asylum, $33,068.26 ; nursery, $20,571.31 ; store, $605 ; miscellane- ous, not including temporary relief, $ 16,074.07.
The total number remaining July 31, 1857, was 1274; number admitted during year, 8570; number of infants boarded out during year, 123; number temporarily relieved, in Brooklyn, Western District, 20,793; Eastern District, 11,661 ; Flatlands, Flatbush, and New Lots, 378; New Utrecht, 108; making a total
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THE CITY OF BROOKLYN
of 32,940; and the total number relieved and supported wholly or in part during the year ending July 31, 1858, was 41,623. The popu- lation of the county was at this time about 254,000. The number relieved was 16} per cent. of the population.
It may be interesting to state the number of persons remaining in these institutions at the termination of previous fiscal years. The official statement is as follows: 1849, 494; 1850, 592 ; 1851, 662 ; 1852, 873; 1853, 969; 1854, 1156; 1855, 1533; 1856, 1347; 1857, 1274; 1858, 1239.
The number admitted to the hospital during the year 1858 was 2299, of whom 148 were born in the hospital.
During the seven years from August 1, 1850, to August 1, 1857, there were 235 cases of small-pox, of which only 35 died. Of those admitted into the hospital during 1857 and 1858, 565 were born in the United States, 1261 in Ireland, and 369 in Germany. On the 31st of July, 1858, there were 268 patients in the lunatic asylum. In 1850 the number in the asylum was only 91. The nursery had, in 1858, 11I boys and 103 girls; total, 214.
On the 31st of July, 1862, there were in the almshouse, 373; in the nursery, 260; in the
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lunatic asylum, 366. In 1863 there were 404 in the almshouse; in the nursery, 217; and in the lunatic asylum, 396.
The total number relieved and supported, in whole or in part, for the year ending July 31, 1863, was 22,879. The population of the city at the time was 295,000. The net cost was $141,640.52.
Mayor Hall was succeeded by Samuel S. Powell, who served for three terms. During his occupancy of the Mayor's chair many sig- nificant advances were made in the growth of the city. In April, 1857, the Metropolitan Police law went into effect. By this enact- ment the counties of New York, Kings, West- chester, and Richmond, and the towns of New- town, Flushing, and Jamaica were placed under a single system of police. The first commis- sioners from Brooklyn were J. S. T. Strana- han, James W. Nye, and James Bowen.
Ridgewood water was supplied to the city through mains which were opened on Decem- ber 4, 1858. In April of the following year the event was marked by a public demonstra- tion. The Brooklyn Academy of Music was incorporated in 1859, and the collegiate depart- ment of the Long Island College Hospital was opened.
CHAPTER XII
THE PERIOD OF THE CIVIL WAR
1861-1865
Election of Mayor Kalbfleisch. The Call for Troops. The Militia. Filling the Regiments. Money for Equip- ment. Rebuking Disloyalty. War Meeting at Fort Greene. Work of Women. The County sends 10,000 Men in 1861. Launching of the Monitor at Green- point. The Draft Riots. Colonel Wood elected Mayor. Return of the "Brooklyn Phalanx." The Sanitary Fair. Its Features and Successes. The Calico Ball. Significance of the Fair. The Christian Com- mission. Action of the Supervisors of the County. The Oceanus Excursion. Storrs and Beecher at Sum- ter. News of Lincoln's Death. Service of the Na- tional Guard. The "Fighting Fourteenth." The Newspapers. Court House finished.
THE sense of impending and imminent danger, which made itself felt throughout the country in the winter of 1860-61, was strongly apparent in Brooklyn, and when the crash came the city was not unprepared in any sense.
It was only a few days after the election of Martin Kalbfleisch as Mayor1 that Brooklyn
1 Martin Kalbfleisch was elected Mayor on the Democratic ticket, receiving a majority of 5136, in a total vote of 28,280, over his opponent, Frederick Scholes.
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was startled by the news that Fort Sumter had surrendered.
The announcement occasioned intense ex- citement throughout the city. In a remark- ably short space of time the strength of the city's loyalty to the Union cause made itself felt. Those who sympathized with the South, or who were wavering in their allegiance, were made to feel the necessity for modifying their views, or for avoiding any sign of dis- loyalty. The national flag appeared in every quarter of the city. Its absence was noted wherever that absence could be construed into a sign of unpatriotic feeling. Crowds threat- ened violence to Southern sympathizers. The Mayor urged moderation, and the early ex- cesses of patriotism soon passed.
Meanwhile, volunteers flocked to the flag. The four militia regiments in the Fifth Bri- gade were the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Twenty- eighth, and Seventieth. At the time of the alarm the regiments were not numerically strong. Less than 300 men were in the Thir- teenth; less than 200 in the Fourteenth; the Twenty-eighth and Seventieth were somewhat stronger.
At the call of the President the regiments rapidly filled. Captain W. H. Hogan organ-
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THE PERIOD OF THE CIVIL WAR
ized an artillery company. In the Eastern District, the Forty-seventh Regiment was or- ganized, with Colonel J. V. Meserole in com- mand. Amid enthusiastic demonstrations the Fourteenth left for the front in May, 1861.
The scenes during the first hours of the war period were those characteristic of every community in which the Union sentiment was strong and unquestionable. Every class in
the community made response. Plymouth Church, from whose pulpit had come the loyal and stirring oratory of Henry Ward Beecher, subscribed $1000 toward the equipment of the local regiments. A sum equally gener- ous came from the Pierrepont Street Baptist Church. The Union Ferry Company offered to continue the salaries of any of its em- ployees who might volunteer, thus assuring the safety of their families. Local business men and corporations gave similar demonstra- tions of patriotism. The appropriations of the Common Council began with a provision for the disbursement of $75,000 for the relief of the families of those who should volunteer. The Kings County Medical Society resolved that its members should attend gratuitously the families of volunteers.
There were signs of lukewarmness in cer-
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tain quarters, and definite manifestations of sympathy with the South; but these met with decisive rebuke whenever they appeared. The Navy Yard was threatened, or was supposed to be threatened, by incendiary rebel sympa- thizers, but prompt action prevented the possi- bility of any form of attack.
A war meeting at Fort Greene drew out 50,000 people, and elicited demonstrations of hearty patriotism. A corps of Brooklyn women volunteered as nurses, and lint societies were organized by energetic women who undertook to supply equipment for the nurses. Women in the Clinton Avenue Congregational Church supplied over fifteen hundred yards of banda- ging to the Twenty-eighth Regiment, which, amid great enthusiasm, followed the Thirteenth to the front. Brooklyn was largely represented in the organizing of the Twenty-first New York Volunteers. The organization of the Forty-eighth New York, under Colonel Perry, the First Long Island Regiment, the Nine- teenth New York Volunteers (East New York), and the Fifth Independent Battery followed.
In 1861 the city and county sent out 10,000 men. The draft of 1862 rather staggered the city at its first coming, but the rally was en- thusiastic, and the patriotic work proceeded.
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THE PERIOD OF THE CIVIL WAR
The armories of the city became centres of loyal activity.
The new fighting engine, the Monitor, was launched at Greenpoint in January, 1862. In March the novel iron craft had her struggle with the rebel Merrimac in Hampton Roads.
Greenpoint sent over a company to the Thirty-first New York Volunteers.
In 1863 the local militia, or National Guard, included the Thirteenth Regiment, under Colonel Woodward; the Twenty-third, Colo- nel Everdell; the Twenty- eighth, Colonel Bennett; the Forty-seventh, Colonel Meser- ole; the Fifty-second, Colonel Cole; the Fifty- sixth, Colonel Adams. In the Southern trips, such as those made by the Twenty-third and the Forty-seventh regiments, the National Guard performed excellent service aside from the heavier duty in action.
The New York draft riots of 1863 naturally affected Brooklyn very closely, not only in such instances of mob violence as the firing of the grain elevators in the Atlantic Basin, but in the menacing and really dangerous move- ments incident to the reign of terror. Brook- lyn volunteers lent important aid in the de- fense of the State Arsenal in New York.
To facilitate recruiting in the county, the
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Supervisors, in November, 1863, resolved upon acquiring a loan of $250,000, and $300 bounty was afterward paid to each recruit.
Mayor Kalbfleisch was succeeded as Mayor in 1864 by Colonel Wood, who had organized the Fourteenth Regiment, was wounded and captured at the first Bull Run, and was re- leased by exchange in 1862.
The return of the " Brooklyn Phalanx," the First Long Island Regiment, under Colonel Cross, in January, 1864, was the occasion for an immense demonstration. The regiment had taken part in fourteen battles, and came home with 234 men out of 1000.
An event of the war period that is to be regarded as of the highest significance, not only for the relation it bore to the necessities of the war, but to the progress of the city, was what is known as the great Sanitary fair.
This Brooklyn and Long Island fair was instituted by the War Fund Committee of Brooklyn and Kings County, and the Woman's Relief Association of Brooklyn, which was known as the Brooklyn Auxiliary of the
United States Sanitary Commission. The fair committee was organized with A. A. Low as president. Arrangements for cooperation between all the churches and private and
CRUISER BROOKLYN, BUILT IN 1858
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THE PERIOD OF THE CIVIL WAR
public societies in the city were efficiently perfected, and a public meeting was held at the Academy of Music in January, 1864. Meetings to promote the same object were : held at Flatbush, Greenpoint, and elsewhere. Buildings were erected adjacent to the Acad- emy to give shelter to the Museum of Arts, a restaurant, a department of relics and curios- ities, and quarters for the "Drum Beat," a journal published during the fair, under the editorship of the Rev. Dr. Storrs and Francis Williams.
The fair opened on Washington's Birthday with a great military parade. The Academy presented a brilliant spectacle. The art dis- play in the Assembly rooms was a triumph in the art annals of the city; the New England Kitchen ingeniously duplicated the features of a colonial New England domestic scene.
On March 11 the fair closed with a mem- orable calico ball. In the hall of manufac- tures was a huge broom, sent from Cincinnati, and bearing this inscription : "Sent by the managers of the Cincinnati Fair, Greeting : We have swept up $240,000 ; Brooklyn, beat this if you can." Brooklyn's reply, in the words of an individual respondent, was: " Brooklyn sees the $240,000, and goes
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$150,000 better." Such, indeed, were the superb figures of profit from this remarkable enterprise.
The fair has been much extolled for its in- fluence on the city itself. " The first great act of self-assertion ever made by the city of Brooklyn," is a typical comment on the event. However the fair may be regarded in this light, it was a brilliantly successful effort. The service of the Women's Relief Association, of which Mrs. J. S. T. Stranahan was the dis- tinguished leader, was in the highest degree admirable.
The Christian Commission for Brooklyn and Long Island, to act in concert with the United States Christian Commission, was or- ganized in March. Before the close of the war this commission had sent out 1210 Bibles and parts of the Scriptures; 4033 psalm books and hymn books ; 50,544 magazines and pam- phlets; 177,520 newspapers and periodicals, and other printing, making up a total of 1,078,304.
The Supervisors of the county repeatedly took measures to stimulate volunteers. In July (1864) the Board directed its bounty committee " to pay to any person furnishing an accepted volunteer or recruit for three
THE PERIOD OF THE CIVIL WAR 125
years' United States service, the sum not ex- ceeding $300, the same as paid to any drafted man furnishing a substitute, and to be paid upon the like certificate of the United States officer, and without regard to the person fur- nishing such recruit being liable to be drafted into the United States service."
In July, shortly after the laying of the cor- ner-stone of an armory in the Eastern District, the committee began paying " hand-money " prizes of $175 and upward to persons bring- ing recruits. In September the news that Kings County was " out of the draft " was hailed with great satisfaction.
Early in 1865 the evidences that the war was drawing to a close clearly appeared. A party of excursionists which left Brooklyn, in April, on the steamer Oceanus, learned at Charleston of Lee's surrender, and witnessed the restoration of the flag on Sumter. The Rev. Dr. Storrs and Henry Ward Beecher were present and spoke. The party heard of Lincoln's assassination before reaching home.
The tragedy of Ford's Theatre, by which the strong hand of Lincoln was taken from the government of the nation, threw the city into profound gloom. The War Fund Com- mittee opened subscriptions, which were lim-
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN
ited to one dollar from each person, and the result of this prompt, patriotic, and well-man- aged movement was the statue of Lincoln by Henry K. Brown, which occupies a command- ing place in Prospect Park Plaza.1
The record of Brooklyn's National Guard organizations is an honorable one. The Thir- teenth Regiment (National Guard), the first company of which, known as the Brooklyn Light Guard, was organized as long ago as 1827, had for its first colonel Abel Smith. The call of President Lincoln in 1861 elicited a unanimous offer of service from the Thir- teenth, which went farther south than any other New York regiment, save the Eleventh. It formed a part of the left wing of McClellan's army. When the regiment was called into active service for the third time, John B. Woodward was in command.2
The Fourteenth Regiment has the distinc- tion of being the only one of the National Guard regiments that served throughout the war. It left for the front under command of
1 The statue was unveiled in October, 1869. A. A. Low presided, and the presentation address was made by James P. Wallace, on behalf of the War Fund Committee. The oration was by Dr. Storrs.
2 Mr. Beecher was appointed chaplain of the Thirteenth Regiment in 1878. Dr. Storrs had already occupied this post.
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THE PERIOD OF THE CIVIL WAR
Colonel Alfred M. Wood. At Bull Run, at Gettysburg, in the Wilderness, and elsewhere, it performed heavy and prolonged service. In twenty-one battles its mettle was tested, and the record made by the " red-legged devils" is a brilliant and honorable one.
The Twenty-third Regiment was the out- growth of one of the Home Guard companies of the war period. It was summoned to Har- risburgh, Penn., in 1863, being then in com- mand of Colonel Everdell. The subsequent history of the regiment has been one of steady rise in efficiency and distinction.
The Forty-seventh Regiment, organized, as already stated, under the leadership of J. V. Meserole,1 was called to Washington, and was recalled after thirty days' service in conse- quence of the draft riots, in which, with the Forty-third, it performed valuable service.
The Third Battery was organized in 1864, by Major E. O. Hotchkiss.
Brooklyn is estimated to have contributed 30,000 men to the guards and armies of the Union during the war; but this estimate would not represent the highly creditable ex- tent of the city's support to the great cause which saw its triumph in 1865.
1 Colonel Meserole was made brigadier-general in 1868.
4
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN
During the years of the war the voice of the Brooklyn press gave no uncertain sound. The " Eagle " had become a lusty leader of public opinion. The " Times " on the other side of the city was making for itself a creditable name. The " Daily Union," established in 1863, voiced the ardor of the Union cause with energetic patriotism. German readers found in the "Long Island Anzeiger,"1 started in 1864, cordial support to every good North- ern principle in a strain worthy of the young journal's editor, Colonel Henry E. Roehr, who had been one of the earliest volunteers, and won many honors at the front. In 1872 Colo- nel Roehr began the publication of a German daily paper, the " Freie Presse."
On the 7th of April, 1863, the Legislature passed another act authorizing the Supervisors to raise a sum not exceeding $125,000, to be used in the erection and furnishing of the Court House building.
The ground on which the Court House stands is 140 feet on Fulton and Joralemon streets, by 351 feet deep. No better location
1 The same name had been chosen by Colonel Roehr's father, Edward Franz Roehr, for a newspaper first issued in 1854, and running for one year. Edward Roehr's Williams- burgh printing office and bookstore also sent forth a Masonic journal called Der Triangel, which flourished for twenty-five years.
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THE PERIOD OF THE CIVIL WAR
could have been selected. The building was constructed under the direction of the Board of Supervisors, of which body the late General Crook was chairman. The building commit- tee were Samuel Booth, Charles C. Talbot, William H. Hazzard, Charles A. Carnaville, Gilliam Schenck, and George G. Herman. The architects were Gamaliel King and Henry Teckritz.
The ground was broken October, 1861, and the corner-stone was laid May 20, 1862, by the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Ma- sons of New York, Daniel T. Walden of Brooklyn officiating as Grand Master. Ad- dresses were made on the occasion by Mayor Kalbfleisch, representing the city; General Crook, president of the Board of Supervisors, representing the county ; Judge John A. Lott, for the judiciary ; and Dr. Storrs delivered an eloquent address.
Owing to the unsettled condition of the country, during the Rebellion, the work did not advance rapidly. The price of materials increased, and labor commanded war prices. Many of the contractors declined to proceed, and new and less advantageous contracts had to be made. The price of the carpenters' work alone was increased $5000, and the
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN
feverish state of the times added more than $ 100,000 to the expense. The total cost of the building, land, and furniture was $551,757.28.
The building is erected on the site of the old Military Garden. When the land was purchased and the building erected, there were some old buildings between it and Boerum Place. The Court House was placed on a line with the street, in order that it might not be hidden by the adjoining structures. It is a great pity that the Supervisors did not see that in the process of time the adjoining land would be owned by the county. Had they thought of this, they could have placed the edifice twenty feet further back from the street, and thereby greatly improved its appearance.
It is to be noted that the Court House was constructed within the sum appropriated. Its manner of construction is in striking contrast to the methods pursued in New York. It stands to-day a monument to the integrity and capacity of the Board of Supervisors, and all in any wise concerned in its construction.
The building was finished in February, 1865, and thrown open to public inspection on the evenings of February 28 and March I, 1865.1
1 In connection with the cupola of the City Hall, a very
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THE PERIOD OF THE CIVIL WAR
interesting incident occurred in 1852. It was noticed that this feature of the building swayed, and needed to be strengthened. The necessary steps were taken to render it firm and secure. At the time the men were engaged in the work the court of oyer and terminer was holding a session in the room known and distinguished as the Governor's room, Judge N. B. Morse presiding. One day while the court was engaged in a criminal trial, a beam which was being raised slipped from the rope, and fell upon the roof above the court-room, causing the plas- ter and ceiling to give way. At once the court officers, jurors, and spectators became alarmed; some ran for the door, some for the windows, and others sought refuge under the tables. Judge Morse took a position by one of the windows, and, shaking his fist at the audience, exclaimed, "The wicked flee when no man pursueth." A few of the frightened ones got on their knees and fervently prayed. The prisoner at the bar was the only one unmoved. - S. M. O.
CHAPTER XIII
BROOKLYN AFTER THE WAR
1866-1876
Administration of Samuel Booth. Metropolitan Sanitary District created. Cholera. Erie Basin Docks. The County Institutions and their Work. The Gowanus Canal and the Wallabout Improvement. The Depart- ment of Survey and Inspection of Buildings. Estab- lishing Fire Limits. Building Regulations. Prospect Park. The Ocean Parkway. The Fire Department. The Public Schools. The East River Bridge. Early Discussion of the Great Enterprise. The Construction begun. Death of Roebling. The Ferries. Messages of Mayor Kalbfleisch. Erection of a Brooklyn Depart- ment of Police. Samuel S. Powell again Mayor. A New City Charter. Movement toward Consolidation with New York. Henry Ward Beecher. Frederick A. Schroeder elected Mayor.
WHEN Samuel Booth entered the office of Mayor in 1866, the city of Brooklyn, in com- mon with other communities throughout the country, was suffering from the results of the strain imposed by the war and its resulting incidents ; and the fact that his own party was in the minority in the Board of Aldermen did not lighten the burden of the Mayor. Not-
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BROOKLYN AFTER THE WAR
withstanding these political conditions no veto by Booth was overridden by the Board.
In February of this year the Legislature created a metropolitan sanitary district corre- sponding to the metropolitan police district, and a board of health composed of the police commissioners, four sanitary commissioners, and the health officer of the port of New York. Brooklyn was represented in this board by Dr. James Crane, as sanitary commissioner, › and T. G. Bergen as police commissioner. Dr. John T. Conkling was made assistant sanitary superintendent, and Dr. R. Cresson Stiles was made deputy registrar of vital sta- tistics for Brooklyn. To this force six sanitary inspectors were added.
This movement represented the practical beginnings of that interesting modern system of sanitary inspection and regulation by which the cities of New York and Brooklyn have in recent years attained such improved condi- tions. The movement had been urged by the prevalence of cholera in Europe, and the new board found occasion to make great exertions to prevent the entrance of the disease here. The disease appeared in New York in April, and Brooklyn's first case was reported on July 8. In spite of the precautions the disease
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN
gained considerable headway in sections of the city where the sanitary conditions were worst, and the total number of cases in Brooklyn reached 816. More than a quarter of the total number of cases occurred in the twelfth ward. The number of deaths in the city reached 573. The cholera hospital, opened at Hamil- ton Avenue and Van Brunt Street in July, was closed on October I.
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