Civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the County of Kings and the City of Brooklyn, N. Y., Part 172

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

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Nor can we overlook the small but interesting collec- tion of dramatic works, relics and bric-a-brac, owned by GABRIEL HARRISON; although he some years ago gave some of his greatest treasures in this line to the Long Island Historical Society. These consisted of early editions of many celebrated plays, MS. "parts" used by eminent actors, old play-bills, etc., etc.

American book illustrators have mostly to call to their aid the professional " inlayer," of whom, as has been well said by one who knows whereof he speaks, " there are but three in this country worthy of mention- Messrs. Trent, Toedteberg and Lawrence, all of Brook- lyn. The work turned out by these gentlemen is of the first order, far superior to that of the best English and French inlayers." Mr. Trent, we believe, has been longest engaged in this business.

Mr. Toedteberg is not only a "professional," but is himself an accomplished scholar, and an illustrator of books on his own account, forming a collection which, in many points, rivals those of some of his best patrons.

" Among all the private illustrators of American literature," as Mr. Treadwell justly observes in his Bibliomania, " none are entitled to more credit than Mr. AUGUSTUS TOEDTEBERG (of No. 333 Bridge street). Born in Germany, in a little village in the Kingdom of Hanover, in 1824, he came to New York in 1844, and with all the disadvantages of foreign birth and a foreign tongue, he occupies the position to-day of one of the most accomplished illustrators in America." His copy of that favorite of all private book-illustrators, IRELAND's " Records of the New York Stage," is prob- ably the finest extant. It contains over 5,000 portraits, views and dramatic drawings, etc .; also about 1,000 rare play-bills, and is truly a stupendous as well as valuable affair. His masterpiece of illustrated treasures, however, is the "Narrative of Nell Gwynne," with 542 illustrations by contemporaneous artists, and of which 22 are portraits of Nell. It is rich in rare proofs bc- fore the letter and makes three volumes, large folio. The feature of Mr. T.'s collection is the exceedingly choice character of his selections of prints, both as re-

gards their illustrative appropriateness and historic valuc, and their artistic merit.

We cannot forbear adding that his daughter, Miss EMMA TOEDTEBERG, has for the past fifteen years most admirably filled the position of First Assistant Librarian to the Long Island Historical Society.

In connection with books, ctc., we must not overlook JOHN KEESE, well known, in years gone by, to the older book-lovers of both Brooklyn and New York. His genial humor and ready, sparkling wit rendered the book auctions of Messrs. Cooley & Kcese (at successively 157, 191 and 377 Broadway, New York) as entertaining as a theatrical performance. People attended their sales frequently with no intention of buying, simply to be amused. He lived on Atlantic street, Brooklyn, and his memory is well embalmed in a volume from the Appletons' press, written by his son, entitled " John Keese, Wit and Literature," and which, we believe, has already passed to a second edition.

JOSEPH SABIN, who resided in the Eastern District, and for many years kept an Americana book-store on Nassau street, which was the resort of all book-lovers, is also well deserving of more than a passing notice. He was born in Braunston, England, in 1821, and when fourteen years old was apprenticed to a prominent bookseller in Oxford, where he soon developed such an expertness and judgment in the valuation of books and prints that he was intrusted with the buying as well as with the selling of them. Upon the expiration of his apprenticeship-having had considerable experience in the cataloguing of books for sale-he fancied he could do a good business as a book auctioneer; and, to that end, he formed a partnership with one of the sons of a Mr. Winterborne, an architect and builder of Oxford, and began business as bookseller and auctioneer. The business prospered, and in 1844 he married the sister of his partner, and published his first work, The Thirty- nine Articles of the Church of England, with Scriptural Proof's and References, which he issued anonymously, but which soon attracted the attention of the Oxford students, by the great research of its annotations. In 1838, with his wife and two sons, he came to this coun- try and settled in Philadelphia, buying a farm on Chesnut Hill, and himself becoming general assistant and salesman with the well-known publisher, Geo. S. Appleton, who soon learned to appreciate him at his full value. In 1850 he engaged with Cooley & Keesc, book-auctioneers, in New York city, as general assist- ant, his duties being principally to catalogue books to be sold, in which his experience as an expert was very valuable; and, occasionally, he aided in the sales. In 1851 he made his first important library catalogue, that of the collection of Dr. Samuel Farmer Jarvis. In 1852 he entered the employ of Bangs Bros., in Park Row, where he remained five years, and where, among others, he catalogued the E. B. Corwin Library, the sale of which may be said to have first drawn atten-

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tion to the subjcet of " Americana " in this country, and which gave to Mr. Sabin the idea of the great work to which he subsequently devoted so much of his life. In 1856 he made a premature attempt at business on his own account, in Canal street, but finding himself "ahead of the times," as far as the rage for collection of rare books was concerned in New York, he removed to Philadelphia, and there did a finc business (mostly southern) until the Civil War broke out. He then (1861) returned to New York, and (with N. A. Jennings, under the firm name of J. Sabin & Co.) opened a book auction store in 4th street, where one of his first eus- tomers was Wm. E. Burton, the celebrated actor, whose library of 6,154 volumes he catalogued and sold. In 1863 Mr. Sabin retired from the auction line and estab- lished himself in the purchase and sale of rare books and prints at 84 (subsequently removing to No. 64) Nassau street; establishing a branch house in London (in charge of his two eldest sons), and making annual trips to Europe in search of books, etc. In April, 1879, he retired from aetive business, in order to give his en- tire time to the compilation of his great work, the Dio tionary of Books Relating to America from its Dis- covery to the Present Time. This stupendous work contains the title of every book or traet, in any language, relating to, or even slightly referring to, America, alphabetically arranged, and, besides the title, the number of its pages and plates, its size, with notes by Mr. Sabin, and (if rare) a reference to where copies may be found. It was begun in 1856, but the first volume was not published until 1867, and he was engaged upon the thirteenth volume (which brings the catalogue down to the letter P), when death closed his labors, June 5, 1881. We are glad to learn that this important undertaking, though delayed, is not abandoned, and that there are hopes of its being ulti- mately completed.

As a cataloguer of libraries, Mr. Sabin's name is imperishably connected with the history of our greatest American collections, which have, from time to time during the past thirty years, passed under the hammer. Among these may be named the "Waltonian " li- braries of Rev. Dr. Bethunc, and of E. B. Corwin (1856); of Andrew Wight (1856); of John A. Rice, which brought $44,000; of Mr. Menzies, which brought $50,000; of Thos. W. Field, of Brooklyn (1874); of Francis S. Hoffinan, of Philadelphia; of John Allan, the private illustrator; of Edwin Forrest, the tragedian; Wm. E. Burton, the actor, ete., ete. The great Brin- ley sale, which brought over $100,000, he conducted (although he did not catalogne it), with remarkable skill. His knowledge of books, both as to contents, arity and market value, was incredibly accurate; for example, it is said of him that he appraised the Irving Brown library, which sold for about $11,000, at within $10 of the amount it brought at anetion. At a book- sale, Mr. Sabin was invaluable. He could point out, in

a few words, just what made each book valuable, and could give, from memory, a rapid synopsis of the con- tents of many of the rarer works. He had crossed the ocean twenty-five times, and each time had paid his passage by the profits made on some stray bar- gains picked up at the London book-stalls. Mr.

Sabin's erowning honor, however, as a bibliophile and book-dealer, was his honesty. His advice to customers was always in favor of buying "the best editions;" and while his judgment as to books could always be implicitly relied upon, it was not influenced by considerations of self-interest. Be- sides the great Bibliography above referred to, Mr. Sabin published the American Bibliophilist for several years, and issued many reprints of curious works on American history.

The scientists of Brooklyn, like the authors, arc identified with it mostly by residence ; their material interests being mainly in the busy metropolis aeross the river.

Among those who deserve more than a passing no- tiee at our hands (did our space permit), arc certain civil engineers. Earliest on the roll is the name of

Brig .- Gen. JOSEPH G. SWIFT, Chief Engineer of the U. S. Army, from 1812 to 1818, whose biography has been well written by Maj .- Gen. G. W. Cullum, was first identified with Brooklyn, as having planned and superintended the erection of the extensive line of de- fensive works designed to eover New York and the western end of Long Island from naval attack by the British in 1814 (See page 61). Hc scems from this time, to have been a resident and extensive property- holder in the then village, until serious financial dis- asters in Wall street compelled him, in 1826, to relin- quish all but his honor. To him, also, Brooklyn is much indebted for the establishing of its present water front. He died, aged 82 years, at Geneva, N. Y., July 23, 1865, after an exceedingly active and useful life. " Born at the close of the American Revolution, and dying at the termination of the American Rebellion, he lived through a most momentous period of history, and was himself a prominent actor in the proud drama of our national existence. His military earcer began with that of the Military Academy at West Point, which he fostered in its feeble infaney; and he lived to see, in its developed maturity, the sons of his cherished Alma Mater directing the high destinies of his coun- try on victorious fields in Canada, Florida, Mexico, and within the wide domain of our Southern border. Amicable and sincere, spotless in integrity, staunch in friendship, liberal in charity, Gen. Swift was a model gentleman, a true patriot, and a Christian soldier."

Maj. DAVID B. DOUGLASS was peculiarly identified with the city's growth and improvement, in its carlier civic days. He was born in 1790, at Pompton, N. J .; grad. at Yale College; in 1813 entered the army as Second

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LITERATURE AND SCIENCE.

Licutenant of Engineers, and saw actual service in the Battle of Niagara, and in the defence of Fort Erie. After the war he became Assistant Professor at West Point; in 1819-'20, served as Astronomieal Surveyor in the Commission for settling the North-western Boundary of the U. S., and about the same time was appointed Professor of Mathematies in the Military Academy.

In 1823, he was transferred to the chair of Civil and Military Engineering. To this seience, then compara- tively new among us, Major Douglass devoted himself with ardor and success. In 1831, he resigned his post at West Point, removed to Brooklyn, and became Chief Engineer of the Morris Canal. Soon after, lie was chosen Professor of Civil Architecture in the University of. New York, and made the designs for its college building.

In the summer of 1833, he began his surveys for the work of supplying New York with water. His first report was submitted in the autumn of that year, and clearly proved the feasibility of bringing a supply from the Croton River. Acting on the plans and estimates which he furnished, the city government, in 1835, resolved to build the aqueduct. Appointed Chicf Engineer by the Board of Commissioners, Maj. Douglass proceeded to lay out the line of the aqueduct, and to complete his plans. He had accomplished the prelim- inary work when he was superseded. That this was not owing to any want of confidence in his judgment or skill, may be inferred from the fact that lis plans were adopted and carried out by his successors.

In the autumn of 1835, Maj. Douglass gave a public lecture in Brooklyn on the capabilities and prospects of the young and rising city. Mr. H. E. Pierrepont, to whom he applied for hints on the occasion, suggested the idea of a large rural cemetery, with an astronomi- eal observatory on its grounds. The Major accepted the suggestion, and enlarged upon it in his lecture. This is believed to have been the first public presenta- tion that was made of the subject. In 1838, Major Douglass aided in selecting the portion which seemed best suited to the purpose of a cemetery ; and the same year an Act of the Legislature was passed incor- porating the Green-Wood Cemetery. From 1838 to 1840, Major Donglass was much occupied with the affairs of Green-Wood. He made a topographical sur- vey of the grounds, and was associated with Mr. Pierrepont in the negotiation for the purchase of tlic grounds from numerous owners, which was attended with much labor and trouble.

In 1841, Maj. Douglass was appointed President of Kenyon College, at Gambier, Ohio, and entered on his duties.

In 1848, he resigned and returned to New York. During the next four years he was employed as a lee- turer, and turned his taste and skill to account in de- veloping the landscape features of Staten Island, in

laying out the Albany Cemetery, and also thic Protes- tant Cemetery, at Quebce.

In 1844, he was appointed Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in the college at Geneva, N. Y., where he dicd October 21, 1849, and was buried at Green-Wood .*

SILAS LUDLAM, the oldest surveyor in the city, was born in New York, and eamc to Brooklyn in 1827. He had learned surveying with his father, Stephen Ludlam. A map of the village of Brooklyn, published by Hooker in 1827, shows the settled portion of the village in stip- ple, from which it appears that a line through Clark and Concord streets to the Wallabout pond comprised the settled portion, and even this part contained many vacant lots. Fulton strect was paved only to Middagh; above it was a turnpike on which toll was exaetcd. Mr. Ludlam's first work was the laying out of the Duf- field estate, between Fulton and what are now Wil- loughby and Duffield streets and the Wallabout. From this beginning, in 1827, he continued with the Middagh, the Remscn, the Pierrepont, the Jackson, and other farms until he has been over a large portion of the 3d, 4th, 11th, 10th, 9th, 20th, 21st, and 23d Wards. He is still actively engaged in his profession.

Of WM. T. MCALPINE, the engineer, who was mainly connected with the introduction of the Ridgewood Water Supply to Brooklyn, we have no notes ; or of Gen. WARD B. BURNETT and JAS. P. KIRKWOOD, also eminently identified with the same great publie under- taking. Of Maj. ROBERT VAN BUREN, the present able engineer in charge, whose biography we have given on page 594, we present a portrait on the following page.

The ROEBLINGS, father and son, who have so recently linked their names impcrishably with the great bridge which unites Brooklyn to the metropolis, have been elsewhere noticed (see pages 458 and 460). With this same wonderful structure, morcover, is linked (sce page 447) the name of

Col. JULIUS W. ADAMS, who was born in Boston in 1812. His ancestors were among thic oldest of the New England families ; he has the commission held by onc of them in the royal forces under George III, and also the commission under which he fought in the patriot army, at Bunker Hill. Col. Adams was educated at West Point, resigning in 1832; he acted as civil engineer under Majors McNeil and Whistler. He was connected with the construction of many railroads, in- cluding the N. Y., Prov. & Boston R. R., the Great Western of Mass., the N. Y. Central, and the Erie Rail- roads. He designed the famous Syracuse viaduct on thic Erie road; also the Cascade bridge, one of the longest single-arel wooden bridges ever built, covering a chasm 300 feet wide at a single span. He was also engineer of various railroads in the West.

*Condensed from the History of Green- Wood, written by N. Cleveland, A. D. 1866.

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Iu 1856 he returned to Brooklyn to devise the system of sewerage for the eity. During the war he served two years as colonel of a Long Island regiment ; and has sinee been connected with various important works as construeting or consulting engineer. For nine years he was Chief Engineer of the Department of City Works of Brooklyn, and had much to do with the water supply of the city. Col. Adams is entitled to the honor of being the first to devise a feasible plan for bridging East River, as the following extract from the report of the Executive Committee of Bridge Trustees shows: "The projeet of building a bridge aeross the East River, al- though for many years the subject of more or less public discussion, was not seriously taken up until six or seven years ago, when Col. Adams, through the instrumentality of Mr. Kingsley, projected a plan for a suspension bridge. Afterward, through the same ineans, John A. Roebling submitted another plan, which was the one finally adopted." (See, also, page 448.) Col. Adams' plan design was of two elliptical, iron latticed, open tubes, each 18 feet and 24 feet high, placed side by side, connected by lattice trusses of the same depth and width of the tubes, on the top and bottom, in the center and on the sides, giving, with trussed girders, a platform

of 50 feet at top, another of 28 feet wide midway of the tubes, and a third of 20 feet wide at the bottom. The whole to be. supported by chains, with links of steel plates, 10 or 15 feet long, admitting of renewal at any time without interrupting travel. As Col. Adams had never built a suspension bridge, while Col. Roebling had built several, the latter received the appointment of chief engineer, and the bridge was built after his plans. Col. Adams is now engaged by the city of New York.

Notices of the able staff of engineers connected with the building of the great East River Bridge will be found on page 460.

GEN. J. V. MESEROLE is another civil engineer who is widely and favorably known in connection with sur- veys and maps in the Eastern Distriet. Born in 1834, he studied civil engineering in the office of Mr. Betts, the foremost surveyor of his time in that section. A fellow-student was Mr. G. R. Van Alst; after the death of Mr. Betts in 1853, the two students formed a partnership to carry on the business, which continued for several years, when Mr. Van Alst removed to Long Island City. Gen. Meserole has done much and im- portant work in laying out streets in the 15th and 16th Wards, establishing grades, dividing estates into lots,

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LITERATURE AND SCIENCE.

etc., also in relation to the docks and wharves, pier lines, etc.

Among other Brooklyn and Kings county gentlemen of this profession, we may be allowed to mention :

NOYES G. PALMER, East New York, Civil Engineer and Surveyor. Born in Madison Co., N. Y., 1822; estab- lished since 1849, in the town of New Lots ; has held the office of Superintendent and Surveyor of Cypress Hills Cemetery for twenty-six years. Mr. JOHN SHAW, 0 216 Skillman street, is, at present, Superintendent and Chief Engineer, under the Board of Charities at Flatbush.

Turning now to the Naturalists of our city, we notice, first among them :

COL. NICHOLAS PIKE. A native of Newburyport, Mass., he comes of a line of ancestors ever prominent in the military, clerical and civic annals of the United States. Settling at an early age in Brooklyn, he has married and grown up with the place, identifying himself strongly with all its interests; especially with those of a scientific nature. In 1849, he contributed largely to Prof. Harvey's great work on American Algæ-the Nereis Borealis Americana-and was Presi- dent of the Natural History Society of Brooklyn. Actively engaged in mercantile pursuits, he has al- ways pursued scientific researches with unremitting industry. In 1852, he was appointed U. S. Consul- General to Portugal ; and, amid his well-performed official duties, he yet found time to enrichi his native land with the results of his scientific observations. He sent home cuttings of a species of olive, quick of growth and easily adapted to our climate, and reported elaborately on the methods of its growth, etc .; he inves- tigated (at the request of the Portuguese Government) the grape disease, then largely affecting the wine-crop of that and other European countries; and his official report thereon, published by the United States Govern- ment, attracted universal attention and commendation in the various official and scientific circles of the eon- tinent.

In 1856, he was elected a corresponding mem- ber of the London Zoological Society; and, also, Honorary Vice-President of the " Societe Univereslle pour l'encouragement des Arts et de l'industrie." In 1859, he was appointed by the Portuguese Government as one of the Jurors of the Universal Exposition of that country, being the only foreigner on the Board; and was afterwards chosen President of the Board for the distribution of the prizes. During his residence in Portugal, he opened correspondence and exchanges with many of the leading naturalists of Europe, and added largely to his collections of Alga, ferns, etc. In 1858, he was made an honorary member of the Mil. ton Club, London; and, in 1860, returned home, ac- companied by the best wishes of all with whom he liad been associated, and, also, a handsome service of silver from the merchants of Oporto.

Shortly after his return, the war of the Rebellion broke ont, and true to the military instinets of his family, his services were at once tendered to and accepted by the Government. Recruiting troops, conducting a camp of instruction at Williamsburgh, addressing public meet- ings, etc., lie labored with might and main, and was commissioned Lieut .- Colonel of the 96th N. Y. He was also elected Captain of the "Light Guard," a :. old crack corps of Brooklyn, and assisted actively in the organization of the 13th, and in the securing of the old City Hall (cor. Henry and Cranberry sts.), as an armory for the military-the first in Brooklyn. He is also one of the oldest members of the Old Guard of New York.

In 1863 he was elected president of the New York and subsequently of the Brooklyn Photographic Soci- ety, gave letters on photography and the chemistry of the arts, and instructed a school of young officers about proceeding to the front on staff service, in the pro- cesses of photographing battle scenes, forts, eartlı- works of the enemy, etc .; and, in 1865, he addressed the Long Island Natural History Society on the influ- ence of light upon vegetation when reflected through a colored medium, showing experiments made on the growth of different cereals under blue-glass, which, years later, created such a furor. In Nov., 1865, he donated to the Long Island Historical Society his splendid collection of Alga, in 10 or 12 portfolios-the labor of 25 years-representing the marine flora of a coast-line of 20,000 miles ; a costly herbarium of the ferns of Long Island and of Portugal; also a collection of zoophytes and a nearly complete collection of the birds of Long Island, and a number of works on natural his- tory.

In 1866, he declined the U. S. Consulship to Amoy, China; but, shortly after, his wife having died, accepted the consulship for Mauritius and its dependencies. He arrived there June, 1867, at the very time when a terrible epidemic fever was raging throughout the Island. His prompt and arduous labors in behalf of his sick countrymen were followed by a severe and almost fatal attack of the fever, but, on recovery, he forwarded to the Goverment, at Washington, an exhaustive and valuable scientific report on the epi- demic, published in the Annual Report of the Depart- ment of Foreign Relations, for 1868. He also for- warded collections of the alga of Mauritius to Prof. Dickie, of Aberdeen, and that eminent savant's report upon them was published in the Transactions of the Linncan Society, of London. He also collected over one thousand fishies of the Indian ocean, among which have been discovered 27 new species and several new genera. Over 400 of these fish were sketched and mostly eolored from life by him. While at Mauritius he published a volume entitled Sub- Tropical Rambles in the Land of the Alphanapteryx, and another volume on its fauna and flora. His abilities as a naturalist

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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 172

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