Civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the County of Kings and the City of Brooklyn, N. Y., Part 170

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909.
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : Munsell
Number of Pages: 1360

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Of these we do not intend to speak further; but rather to confine ourselves, within the very limited space at our disposal, to a brief and rapid glance at the names and works of those who may be said to form the literary element of Brooklyn Society, in this year of our Lord, 1884.

Directing our attention first, as in duty bound, to the ladies, we may note :

Miss EDNA DEAN PROCTOR, the poet and author of that charming book of travels, " A Russian Journey," resides in Brooklyn, a member of the household of her relative, Mr. Charles Storrs, of 23 Monroe Place. She is a native of New Hampshire.

As a writer Miss Proctor has been before the public for many years, and her fame as a poet has grown steadily. Her poems were collected in 1867 and pub- lished in a small volume; a new and enlarged edition will contain her later productions. She has written some of the most beautiful poems in the language. They are distinguished alike for lofty imagery and pure sentiment, and have a permanent place in English literature. Her " Heaven, O Lord, I cannot lose," has been spoken of by crities as "one of the finest poems of its kind to be found in any language; and as the most magnificent hymn in the language." Another of her poems, " Holy Russia," published some years ago, during the life of the Czar Alexander made her many warm friends in Russia, where she had traveled exten- sively. Her " Russian Journey," was the outcome of a memorable tour made in 1867 and it has no superior as a narrative of travels, for its pictures of domestic life and character. Miss Proctor is more a child of the Orient than a daughter of New England, and hence was pre- eminently fitted to appreciate the peculiar features of the Russian people, who are Greek in religion, and are possessed of widely varied characteristics as a nation. But if she is in appearance Oriental, with her lustrous eyes, dark hair, and marked repose of manner, she is an American patriot, passionate in her admiration of her country and its institutions. Her war lyries will stir the hearts of yet unborn generations and move to sympathetic loyalty the descendants of the "boys in blue." Intuitional and sympathetic, shie touches the finest chords of the heart, and her poems have a flavor and a beauty that linger with the reader long after the perfeet lines are unremembered. Her genius makes her akin to the finest aspirations of her kind, and she rarely is unmindful of great events or the leaders who create them. Recently, she has published a poem, "El Mahdi, to the Tribes of Soudan," which has aroused in all classes of her countrymen a strong sympathy for the hero of the desert. Catholic and tolerant in her own nature, she recognizes the finer qualities of her fellow- beings and she makes them what her fancy sees they can be.

As a writer, she is painstaking and conscientious to a degree, and her polished sentences need no retouches when onee they have passed from her hands.

In her character, Miss Proctor is strong and beauti- ful. Hers is a sympathetic and loyal nature, actively helpful and beneficent, and kind to the core of her being. To few women are given the friendships which she possesses; to not all are given such a friend as she. In the zenith of her powers, with aspiration and strength renewed, her future stretches out before her a long season of work and reward, of recognition and fruition, even to the morn of the perfect day.

Upon the editorial staff of the Eagle, there was, un- til lately, a lady, Mrs. LAURA C. HOLLOWAY, widely known as the author of " The Ladies of the White

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House," a work which has had a phenomenal success in this country and England. Mrs. Holloway is a daugh- ter of the South and became acquainted with the editor of the Eagle, Mr. Kinsella, through a letter of intro- duction from ex-President Andrew Johnson. Mr. Kinsella's friendly interest, aronsed then in her, con- tinued unabated through life, and she remained a trusted co-worker with him until his death. Mrs. Holloway had fairly won her way in journalism when she became a member of the Eagle staff, and has likewise been successful in other fields. As a lecturer, she lias charmed the intelligence and culture of Brooklyn in its crowded Academy of Music, and in a western lecture tour received solid recognition of her ability and popularity. Mrs. Holloway is the author of several popular subscription works, and is a frequent contribu- tor to magazines. After the death of Mr. Kinsella, she resigned her position on the Eagle, to devote herself exclusively to writing books, among which may be mentioned " An Hour with Charlotte Bronte;" and " American Fortunes, and the Men who have Made Thein," from the advance sheets of which we have been permitted to glean, in condensed form, our sketch of Charles Storrs, on page 1158.

Mrs. EMILY C. FORD, wife of Gordon L. Ford, Esq., and granddaughter of Noah Webster, the lexico- grapher, is the centre of a charming literary circle, and draws about her, by her talent and amiability, some of the most brilliant minds of the city. Slight in person, her pale features are the embodiment of intellect and refinement. Her publications consist of "My Recrea- tions " (1872), a volume of poems, and numerous essays, critical articles, stories, etc., in The New Englander, The International, The Galaxy, Harper's Bazar and Weekly, the Atlantic, the Century, the Brooklyn Advance, and other magazines; also, in the Evening Post, Brooklyn Union, and Independent.

Mrs. J. H. CUTTER is the principal stockholder in, and contributor to, the Manhattan, over the signature of " J. Heard." She has written several serials, be- sides numerous fugitive pieces.

Mrs. Helen S. CONANT, wife of S. S. Conant, writes most of the Book-Notices for Harper's magazines; she has written, also, the " Princes of German and Spanish Literature " in Harper's Half-Hour Series ; the " Butterfly Hunters;" and is a large contributor to various periodicals.

Mrs. KATE UPSON CLARK, of 575 Quincy street, is the editress of Good Cheer, a handsome weekly, pub- lished at Greenfield, Mass., with the especial mission of supplanting bad and weak literature among the poor, and which has already attained a circulation of 100,000 copies. She also edits the Woman's department (called "the Helping hand") of the Philadelphia Weekly Press, and is a frequent contributor to Harper's various publi- cations, to Lippincott's Magazine, the Independent, Christian Union, Congregationalist, Wide Awake, Our

Little Ones, Outing, etc., etc. Mrs. Clark was born in Camden, Ala., in 1851; her mother was Priscilla Max- well, for many years principal of a large female scini- nary in Alabama. Her father, Edward Upson, a native of Connecticut, was one of the book-selling firm of Strickland & Co., of Mobile. In 1856, the members of this firm were warned to leave the state, and a reward offered for their bodies, " dead or alive," because they had sold Uncle Tom's Cabin, and The Life of Fred Douglass. This affair created much excitement at the time, and was one of the most important forerunners of the war. Mr. Upson fled to Milwaukee, where his daughter continued (at the Female College) the educa- tion which had previously been begun in Massachusetts, and graduated in 1869 from Wheaton Seminary, Norton, Mass., and in 1870 from the Normal School, Westfield, Mass. Then followed a year and a half of teaching at the Central High School, at Cleveland, Ohio; and in January, 1874, she became the wife of Mr. Edward P. Clark, at that time managing editor of the Spring- field Republican, but at present connected with the Brooklyn Union.

Mrs. Clark did not begin her authorial career until 1878, when the commendations bestowed by competent editorial critics, upon a contribution to Harper's Bazar, incited her to devote her time chiefly to the writing of fiction. This she began to do in the autumn of 1880; and though the subsequent editorial duties which she assumed, together with her duties as wife, housekeeper, and the mother of three healthy boys, do not afford that leisure requisite for the higher classes of literary work, yet they have not quenched her enthusiasm, nor lin- dered her in the careful and conscientious doing well of whatever she takes in hand.

Mrs. OLIVE THORNE MILLER Writes for children mostly, contributing to various juvenile publications, and issning books on Natural History for the young. She was born in Auburn, New York, in 1831; married in Illinois in 1854; removed to Brooklyn in 1877. She began writing-for children's publications-in 1870. In 1874, her scattered papers were collected to form her first book, Little Folks in Feather and Fur. Her second book, Nimpo's Troubles, after running as a serial in St. Nicholas, was published in 1880, by E. P. Dutton & Co., New York. In 1881, the same house issued her Queer Pets ut Marcy's, and in 1883, Little People of Asia.

Mrs. MARY E. VAN DYNE is the editor of Harper's Young People, writing much and well for its columns. Mrs. ALICE WELLINGTON ROLLINS is a writer of poems, and a regular contributor to Harper's. Miss ALICE FENN, daughter of Harry Fenn, has written a number of articles for different magazines, which her father has illustrated; one, on "Surrey," appeared in Harper's Magazine; while others have been printed in the Century and in other publications. Mrs. HELEN CAMPBELL edits a department in Our Continent; and

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Mrs. KATE IHILLIARD has written several admirable fugitive poems.

In the Social History of Flatbush, 1882, by GER- TRUDE LEFFERTS VANDERBILT, and which has already passed to a second edition, we have a most valuable local history, executed with that fidelity and indefin- able eharin which only a woman's mind and pen eould weave around such a subject.

MARGARET ELIZABETHI SANGSTER, nee Munson, was born February 22d, 1838, in New Rochelle, N. Y., and has been a frequent contributor to current religious literature for the past fifteen years. Most of her life has been passed in Brooklyn, though part of her child- hood was spent in Patersou, N. Y. She is associate editor of the Christian Intelligencer, and writes, with more or less regularity, for Harper's Bazar and Young People, The Congregationalist, Sunday School Times, and the publications of the American Tract Society. Iler published works are Poems of the Household, Hours With Girls, May Stanhope and Her Friends, Miss Dewberry's Scholars, Home and Heaven, Fire Happy Weeks, aud Splendid Times. She also edited and compiled a Mannal of the Missions of the Re- formed Church in America, of which she is a member, and in whose Foreign Mission Work she takes a deep interest.

Turning now to the gentlemen of the Guild of Let- ters, we find :

Mr. GEORGE W. BUNGAY, author of the well-known lyrics published in the Evening Post, Home Journal, and leading magazines. He is, also, a strong supporter of the cause of temperanee, and wields a forcible pen in its behalf.

Mr. DAVID M. STONE, editor of the Journal of Com- merce, has also done some excellent literary work, aside from his paper, but his interests are more particularly identified with New York. This is also the case with Mr. S. S. CONANT, literary editor of Harper's Weekly, whose high standard of excellence is due not ouly to his perfect taste, but to his facile pen as well. He has conducted for the Harpers all their copyright cou- troversies for a number of years.

Rev. T. P. CONANT is well known as a Hebrew scholar and Bible translator.

FREDERICK SAUNDERS, author of Salad for the Solitary, and librarian of Astor Library, New York, and OLIVER B. BUNCE, author of Bachelor Butterfly, are also residents of Brooklyn.

The genial and humorous poet, JouN G. SAXE, has been, for many years, a resident of Brooklyn, as is, also, WILL, CARLETON, the author of "Farm Ballads" and other home poems which have struck so responsive a cord in the hearts of the American people.

ALLAN FORMAN is the editor of the Brooklyn Ad- rance, which is devoted exclusively to Brooklyn, aud has become a decided success. He also writes children's

stories for Harper's and the Appletons, besides doing daily journalistic work. A young man yet, he has al- ready won an enviable reputation, which his brilliancy and industry will angment.

By his dramatization of Hawthorne's "Scarlet Let- ter;" lis "Biography of John Howard Payne," now in press; and, last but not least, the very elegant and complete "History of the Drama, Music and Art in Brooklyn," contributed to this volume, Mr. GABRIEL HARRISON, long a resident of this city, has fairly "won his spurs " as an author of whom Brooklyn may well be proud.

STEPHEN M. OSTRANDER, Esq., a lawyer by profes- sion, and a loeal historian by instinct, has been a fre- quent contributor of Kings county historical material to the pages of the Advance.

P. L. SCHENCK, M. D., has issued the Historical Sketch of the Zabriskie House, Flatbush, 1881; and a Genealogy of the Schenck Family of L. I .; both exceed- ingly interesting and valuable little works.

HOMER L. BARTLETT, M. D., of Flatbush, though he has given the world no written volume, has, by his frequent and valuable historieal and semi-legendary essays in the publie press, proved his ability to enrich our county literature, as we trust he will do at no dis- tant day. Ilis accomplished wife also wields a trained and facile pen, in occasional ephemeral papers and essays.

JAMES CLANCY, of the Star, who published an inter- esting book on the "Tombs " in New York, is a resi- dent of Brooklyn.

Some of our most notable hymn-book compilers and music composers are or were Brooklynites.

Among the compilers .are Rev. CuAs. S. ROBINSON (First Presbyterian), editor of "Songs for the Sanctu- ary" and many others; Rev. CHAS. CUTIIBERT HALL (Dr. Robinson's successor in First Presbyteriau), " Evangelical Hymnal;" Rev. HENRY WARD BEECHER, " Plymouth Collectiou;" Rev. Drs. A. R. TuoMrsox and ZACHARY EDDY, "Hymus of the Church;" Rev. Dr. CHAS. H. HIALL and S. B. WINITELY (Trinity), Pro- testaut Episcopal "Hymnal With Tunes;" Rev. GEO. E. THRALL, " Episcopal Common Praise;" Dr. Thrall also edited the " Union Prayer Book " for Reformed Protestant Episcopal Church.

Among composers are Dr. Jos. P. HOLBROOK, " Wor- ship in Song," etc .; J. E. SWEETSER, " Pilgrim Melo- dies;" U. C. BURNAP, " The Polytechuie," " Hymns of Prayer and Praise," ete .; THEo. E. PERKINS, " Mouut Ziou Collection," etc .; SIGISMUND LASAR, "Evangelical Hymnal;" S. B. WHITELY, " Hymnal With Tunes."

In the educational department of literature we may mention Prof. JAS. II. WORMAN (late of Adelphi Academy), author of a series of text-books in German, Freuch and Spanish. Prof. A DE RANGEMENT (Adel- phi), Dr. Worman's colleague in preparing French I books; Rev. E. P. TnwING, " Vocal Culture ; " Miss

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IDA P. WHITCOMB, "Topical History Charts;" Prof. ALPHONSO WOOD, a series of Botanical text books; Rev. JOHN MARSH, D. D., Epitome of Ecclesiastical His- tory; THOMAS MONK, a series of drawing-books. All the above musical and educational works are from the press of Messrs. A. S. Barnes & Co., well-known residents of Brooklyn.

Educational works by Dr. L. P. BROCKETT, and Dr. CIAS. E. WEST, are elsewhere noticed.

Besides these, we have D. W. FISH's series of Mathe- matical books published by Ivison & Co .; Supt. CALVIN PATTERSON's grammar and spelling-book (Sheldon & Co.); Professors REID & KELLOGG (Polytechnic), a grammar (Clark & Maynard); WILLIAM SWINTON, his- tories, geographies, readers, etc. (Ivison & Co.), and grammars (Harper); J. J. ANDERSON, Histories (Clark & Maynard); Dr. J. C. HUTCHISON, Physiology (Clark & Maynard); Miss M. E. THALHEIMER (late of the Packer), Summary of History; PETER ROUGET, Prin. of one of our Public Schools, an Arithmetic.

We also have, in the line of medical authorship, "The Opium Habit and Alcoholism," by F. II. HUBBARD, M. D., and Dr. E. C. MANN's exceedingly valuable work on "Psychological Medicine."

Nor must we forget, in passing, to pay our meed of remembrance to a distinguished educational writer, now deceased:

JAMES BATES THOMSON was born in Springfield, Vt., in 1803. His earlier years were spent on his father's farm, with only such advantages of education as were attainable in the district school and the village academy ; but, at the age of sixteen he had commenced life as a district school teacher, seeking thus to prepare himself for college. To this purpose he clung unwaveringly, and after many hardships and some delay from a pain- ful affection of the eyes, he entered Yale College, in 1830, and graduated with honor in 1834. From 1835 to 1842, he taught an academy of high grade in Nan- tucket, Mass., and in the latter year removed to Auburn, N. Y., two years after his marriage. In Auburn he was engaged, at the urgent request of President Day, in the preparation of an abridgment of his Algebra, which was so well and favorably known to the last generation of scholars in our academies as " Thomson's Day's Al- gebra." He also engaged with great zeal and success in the organization and conducting of "Teachers' Insti- tutes," which have accomplished so much for improve- ment in the methods of teaching in our public schools. His remarkable ability in imparting mathematical in- struction led to his removal to New York city in 1846, where he prepared a series of mathematical text-books, which under the names of " Thomson's Series of Arith- metics, Algebras, Geometry," etc., won for him a great fame, and which attained to a very large circulation. In 1854, Hamilton College conferred on him the degree of LL.D., and in 1882, the same degree was conferred again by the University of Tennessee. He removed to

Brooklyn in 1868, and having changed his publishers, he commenced soon after thic preparation of a new mathematical series, in which he determined to embody the latest and most complete improvements in arrange- ment, methods of instruction, and practical application of mathematical processes to commercial use. He was eminently successful in this attempt; far more so, it is no more than fair to say, than any of his numerous competitors. His careful and thorough investigation, and his vast fund of mathematical acquirements, con- stantly increased by study, deserved and won for him a great success. His industry and pluck were amazing. For eight years he was a great sufferer from a form of rheumatism which rendered active locomotion impos- sible; but though often racked with pain, his eye was not dimmed, nor his mental force abatcd; and his daily limit of six hours' labor was performed as regu- larly, and with as perfect expression of his ideas, as if he had never suffered a pain. His wife and daughter, both excellent mathematicians, rendered him great assistance in the details of his work. He also prepared several other works, and was a large con- tributor to educational journals. He died June 22, 1883.

Our city also claims as its son, MR. JOHN B. Mc- MASTER, whose History of the People of the United States has lately attracted much attention. Mr. Mc- Master was born at Brooklyn, L. I., June 29, 1852. His grandfather was Robert Bach, a prominent Brooklyn merchant, in the days when that city numbered 16,000 souls. His father was James McMaster, a native of New York State, and, till the war opened, a banker and planter at New Orleans. Mr. McMaster's early years were spent in New York. Here he was educated in the public schools, and graduated from the College of the City of New York in 1872. For a year he taught English grammar in that institution as a Fellow, but, in 1873 he set out to become a civil engineer, spent some time in Virginia and Chicago, and when the panic came on, returned to New York to go on with the history, for which materials had been collecting since 1870. Some reviews have attributed to him the works of the late John Richard Green as a mnodel. But the plan of the first volume of the "History of the People of the United States" as it now exists, was drawn in

1871, and much of the material arranged, when, in 1874, Mr. Green's first volume appeared. As the book now stands, it has been twice written entirely from end to end, and some of the chapters from three to eight times, as the acquisition of new material seemed to require. In 1877, Mr. MeMaster, was appointed In- structor in Civil Engineering at Princeton College.

LINUS PIERPONT BROCKETT, M. D., the eldest son of Rev. Pierpont Brockett, for fifty years a Baptist min- ister in New England, was born in Canton, Conn., Oct. 16, 1820; received his early education at Hill's Acad- emy, Essex, Conn., and the Conn. Literary Institution

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

at Suffield; entered Brown University in 1837, but, owing to impaired health, did not gradnate; obtained his medical education at Washington, D. C., New Haven, Ct., and New York; graduated, M. D., in 1843, and since 1846, has devoted himself mainly to literary.pur- suits. In 1857, he received the honorary degree of M. A. from Amherst College. He has published many works of large circulation among which are the follow- ing: Geographical History of New York, 1847; Me- moir of James Edward Meystre, 1855; The Pioneer Preacher, 1857; History of Education, 1859; History of the Civil War, 1865; Life of Abraham Lincoln, 1865; Our Great Cuptains, 1865; Camp, Battle Field and Hospital, 1866; Woman's Work in the Civil War, 1867; Men of our Day, 1868, and an enlarged edition in 1872; Woman; her Rights, Wrongs, Privileges and Responsibilities, 1869; The Year of Battles; a History of the Franco-German War, 1871-'2; Epidemic and Contagious Diseases, 1873; The Silk Industry in America, 1876; The Cross und the Crescent, 1877, &c., &c. He has also edited numerous works; was from 1856 to 1862, on the edi- torial staff of the New American Cyclopa dia; from 1861 to 1875, one of the editors of Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia; and from 1872 to 1877, one of the edi- tors of Johnson's Universal Cyclopa dia. He has writ- ten also numerous review and magazine articles, and is now editing the new geographical monthly, De. scriptive _America. He completed, in 1879, a Ilis- tory of the Bogomiels, the Baptists of the East, from the 5th to 15th century, and has in hand a Life of Christ, on which he has been engaged for over eight years. He has resided in Brooklyn twenty-five years.

We come now to our local historians, a class of writers who, though their works may not gain the eclut which attends other literary productions, still fill a very important place in the history of any community.

In the year 1824, GABRIEL FURMAN (see biography page 349), a native of the town, published a little volume which he modestly entitled "Notes on the History of Brooklyn," and which, for that day, pos- sessed great merit as a local history. He had an intuitive and prophetic sagacity as to the importance of describing, recording, and fixing the dates of many things which could change with progress and be for- gotten; and but for his "Notes," published in 1824, it would now be well-nigh impossible for us to trace the beginnings of our " goodly-heritage."

Contemporaneous with him, and older in years, was that worthy citizen, Gen. JEREMIAH JOHNSON, himself a connecting link between Brooklyn's Past and Present, all of whose contributions to local history, however, were in the form of articles in newspapers aud magazines, To his excellent memory and writings, both published and in manuscript, all succeeding his- torians have been indebted. His biography will be found on page 147.

BENJAMIN THOMPSON, the historian of Long Island, in 1843, and the Rev. NATHANIEL S. PRIME, his snc- cessor in the same historic field in 1845, each gave interesting but necessarily brief résumés of Kings County and Brooklyn history; while THos. P. TEALE'S somewhat seanty "Chronicles," in Spooner's Directory for 1848 ; and J. T. BAILEY's "Historical Sketch," in 1840; the Bushwick and Williamsburgh sketches, by C. S. SCHROEDER, in the Long Island Family Circle, 1852; SAMUEL REYNOLDS' "History of Williams- burgh," published as an adjunct to the Williamsburgh Directory of 1852 ; and Mr. F. G. FIsII's History of St. Ann's P. E. Church, 1845, and Rev. Dr. STRONG'S History of Flatbush, in 1842, completes the list of our earlier local histories.

Ten years later, 1863, the formation of the Long Island Historical Society gave a new impetus to his- torical and antiquarian research in this county, and upon Long Island. Among its founders, and most ae- tive in the field of authorship, were Hon. HENRY C. MURPHY, ALDEN J. SPOONER, Esq., Hon. TEUNIS G. BERGEN, THOMAS W. FIELD, and the editor of this history, who alone remains to inscribe upon its pages the record of that progress to which his departed asso- ciates so much contributed.

The years 1863-'67 were full of literary and historic enterprises and labors. SPOONER put forth a new and annotated edition of Wood's History of Long Island, to which he prefaced a loving memoir of his old friend the author ; and, with Henry R. Stiles (under the guise of the Faust Club), he published, also, a new edition of Furman's Notes, with Memoir and Notes. FIELD reprinted Garden's Anecdotes of the Revolution, in three stately volumes, and subsequently his Histori- cal and Antiquarian Scenes in Brooklyn and Vicinity, 1882 ; and his Battle of Long Island, for the second vohne of the Historical Society's Collections. MURPHY translated and edited, for the Historical Society, the Journal of the Labudists, which forms the first volume of its Collections ; and BERGEN put forth his Bergen Genealogies, etc. (See page 268).

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Civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the County of Kings and the City of Brooklyn, N. Y., Part 170

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909. Publication date: 1884 Publisher: New York : Munsell Number of Pages: 1360

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909.
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : Munsell
Number of Pages: 1360