USA > New York > New York City > Historic tales of olden time; concerning the early settlement and advancement of New York city and state. For the use of families and schools > Part 5
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OF OLDEN TIME.
came across a solitary hunter. Savage as he was, it was a cheering sight, because he was human. Man loves man of every form when found in solitude. Oc- casionally they came across tokens of encampment, known by the signs of former fires, the tramp of cattle, and the fragments of their feast. The very sight of such remains was cheering, and set all the company in good humour and fine spirits. But when once in a long while they could see in the distance the curling smoke of a log hut and a little clearing, their rejoiced spirits triumphed aloud. It hardly mattered who they were, the sight of white faces were so welcome ; but if they had also gentleness and goodness to recommend them, mutual hospitalities were unbounded.
At Canandaigua one of the families made arrange- ments to remain and settle, but the other two families, allured to still stronger hopes by more distant settle- ment, determined to keep on to the Genessee river. To this they were more especially inclined by the descrip- tions and the promised guidance of some friendly Se- neccas. Taking leave of their former companions and the few other white settlers found there, they once more put forward in their former method of march, and, under many renewed difficulties of going up to the head of streams, or having to pass them by slight bridges or rafts, they at length arrived at the long sought lonely home, placed near the banks of the now beautiful Genessee. Here vegan a new era of toil, enterprize, and skill. Their business now was to fell trees and cut their logs for their future dwelling, and to locate it near a spring. At the same time the boughs, in their leaf, were set up pointing like the pitch of a roof to serve as a temporary shed and shelter for sundry articles taken out of the
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HISTORIC TALES
wagons. The log house of one story being constructed, and placed north and south as their domestic sun-dial, and covered over with a stave roof; having a wide chimney made of stones and clay, into which a log of ten feet length could be rolled for fuel ; the doors were left purposely so wide, that the horse could draw in the log by a chain, and leaving his load, pass out at the opposite side. Such a house was destined in time to be a kitchen, when they could construct a better one adjoining. In the mean time one great room below, with a ground floor, served " for parlour, kitchen and hall;" and the loft above made one general chamber of rest, with here and there a coverlid partition pendant between the different sexes. Now the family being housed, " the clearing," - of vital importance to their future support and nourish- ment, was set upon. Along the outer margin the trees were cut down and rolled inward towards the centre, so as to break the line of communication with the adjacent woods. Then the whole was set into one general con- flagration, so as to kill the trees and provide an opening for the rays of the sun upon the land. Smoke and the perils of fire were endured as well as they could. When sufficiently burnt out, the plough and the hoe were set into the soil to prepare for planting corn and other need- ful grain. The women too had their concern to make. out their little garden spot, where they might set in their garden seed : such as sallad, beans, peas, onions, cab- bages, &c., and their intended nursery of apple seeds, and peach, plum and cherry stones ; for in such a state every thing is to begin. As time advanced, all these primary arrangements were enlarged, and comforts were increased. The men and boys laboured all day, and at night the girls spun and the boys knit. Their evening
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hours were talked down pleasantly with fond remem. brances of former homes, and fond hopes of future pros- perity. When Sabbath came, they all united in hearing the perusal of the family Bible, or in reading family sermons ; and the hymn book was used for its remem- bered song of Zion. Now they had no church, no merry chime of bells, no pastoral guardian. They felt this the more keenly because of its absence. Three families then constituted the total of all the settlers ; but these were friendly, and mutually helpful when urgent occasion required. The Indians would come occasion- ally to look on, saluting always with a friendly " Itah," or good be to you. Often deer were started, sometimes shot. Bears were sometimes seen and hunted off. Smaller game were always at hand to shoot, and in the stream the finest fish abounded.
By and bye new settlers came along in families one by one. They were always warmly welcomed and diligently assisted to make their log structures. In the spring and fall was a period of harvest, of honied sweet from the juice of the maple tree. The sugar camp as : it was called, made an occasion of cheerful gathering, especially among the children, who loved to partake from the sugar pans. When the winter came, the fall of snow was deep and lasting ; abiding all the winter several feet deep, and requiring occasionally the use of snow shoes. To make paths and roads in cases of deep snow, they had to arrange their cattle and drive them in lines of two a-breast to the places required. They had then no mills to grind their grain, and made use of a wooden mortar, formed from a hollowed log set on end, to which they applied a pestal attached to a sweep like the pole of a well. In giving a domestic picture of
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such a frontier family, we must not forget to show how the children were sometimes employed. They had no school, but they were not idle ; they had snares and traps about in the woods, where they often succeeded to snare game. Partridges and rabbits they so caught in abundance. Raspberries, blackberries, goose- berries, and huckleberrics, grew in rich abundance, and afforded them delightful repasts. They had squir- rels and rabbits which they had tamed. The cat, too, was diligent, and often brought in her captures, calling by her known cry the children around, and laying down ground mice, squirrels, &c. At one time the boys found a brood of young raccoons, which, being brought home, were all domesticated by good-natured puss. By and bye their joy was made complete by the arrival of an old soldier escaped from Indian captivity, who gladly made his home among them, and used to amuse their evenings by telling the family circle of his many hair breadth 'scapes. He loved a story and loved a song ; and with these sweetly he beguiled the hours. Some of his tales of suffering captives among the Indians were full of pathos and interest, filling the heart and extorting a tear.
At length population and improvement encreased. Pleasant villages and cottage clusters were seen in the midst of the wilderness, and houses for the worship of God, and schools for the instruction of children, rose where, not long before, the wild beast had his range or his lair. What had begun as little and lonely dwel- lings, " few and far between," came in time to be the nucleus around which gathered other settlers and form- ed a town. At this early period of adventure came out the original settlers,-the two Wadsworths ; men who,
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from the rough beginnings above described, have come to possess an estate now worth two millions of dollars, having a farm of meadow and upland of 1700 acres, a flock of 8,000 sheep, 600 horned cattle, and all other things in great abundance. What a country and what a change in a few short years !*
How changed the scene, since here the savage trod 'To set his otter-trap, or take wild honey, Where now so many turn the sod. Or farmers change their fields for money.
How short the time, and how the scenes have shifted, Since Wadsworth explored this wild land, And mid primeval woods, prophetic scann'd This rare position and its destiny.
* As late as the years 1810-11, there was only a weekly mail between Canandaigua and Genessee river ; carried on horseback, and part of the time by a woman ! 'Twas only in 1815 that the settlers about Rochester made up a private fund for a weekly mail to Lewiston ; and it was but a year before, that the road itself (along "the ridge") was opened by a grant of the legislature of $5,000; before that it was impassable.
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OLDEN TIME :
RESEARCHES AND REMINISCENCES
CONCERNING
New=York City.
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THE object of these researches has been to present a picture of the city, and of the manners and customs of its inhabitants, as they stood in days lang-syne ; when the city was yet small, and the habits of the people simple, plain, and frugal. In fulfilling this design we have endeavoured so to distribute the topics under vari- ous heads, as would best instruct our youth in the facts to which we solicit their attention. . In some cases we give the names of sundry aged persons, from whom we de- rived our information ; intending thereby to convince the reader, that the facts related have been sufficiently sup- ported by such ancient New- York citizens as once knew them to be true.
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INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL VIEWS OF THE CITY,
As scann'd with bird-eye view.
THE city " stretching street on street," as in her pre- sent grandeur and magnitude, enrols a total population of 180,000 souls ; a collection of about 30,000 houses ; a tonnage of 300,400 tons-this is exclusive of 10,500 tons of steam-boats ;- and an assessed value of property (including 37 millions of personal estate) of 114 mil- lions of dollars; her lighted and paved streets, lined with houses, extend to Thirteenth street, on the North River side, to the dry dock on the East River side, and to Thirteenth street on the Broadway and Bowery streets. All its modern streets are straight and wide, graduated to easy and gradual ascents or descents ; and where formerly very narrow lanes existed, or crowded edifices occurred, they have either cut off the encroaching fronts of houses, as in William street and Maiden lane, or cut through solid masses of houses, as in opening Beekman and Fulton streets. They have widened the bounds of the city, both on the North and East rivers, by building up whole streets of houses, at and beyond Greenwich street on the western side ; and at and from Pearl street on the eastern river. The value and magnitude of these improvements, all redeemed from the former rivers once there, are really astonishing to the beholder.
There is every indication to evince the fact, that New-York was in primitive days the "city of hills ;"
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. such verdant hills, of successive undulation, as the general state of the whole country-part of the island now presents. Thus, at the extreme south end of the Broadway, where the ancient fort formerly stood, was an elevated mount, quite as elevated as the general · level of that street is now before Trinity Church, and thence regularly declining from along that street to the beach on the North River. The hills were sometimes precipitous, as from Beekman's and Peck's Hills, in the neighbourhoods of Pearl street and Beekman and Fer- ry streets, and from the middle Dutch Church in Nassau street down to Maiden lane ; and sometimes gradually sloping, as on either hills along the line of the water, coursing along the region of Maiden lane. Between many of the hills flowed in several invasions of water : such as " the canal," so called to gratify Dutch recol- lections, which was an inroad of river water up Broad street ;- and up Maiden lane, flowed another inroad, through. Smith's marsh or valley ; a little beyond Peck's Slip, existed a low water-course, which in high tide water ran quite up in union with the Collect, (Kolck) and thence joining with Lispenard's swamp on North River side, produced a union of waters quite across the former city : thus converting it occasionally into an island, and showing a reason for the present lowness of the line of Pearl street as it traverses Chatham street. There they once had to use boats occasionally, to cross the foot passengers passing over from either side of the high rising ground ranging on both sides of Pearl street, as that street inclines across the city till it runs out upon Broadway, vis a vis, the hospital.
These details of mere streets are necessarily dull, and indeed not susceptible of any further interest than
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OF OLDEN TIME.
as they may serve as metes and bounds within which to lay the foundation of more agreeable and imaginative topics, to grow upon the reader as the subject advances.
PRIMITIVE NEW-YORK.
We backward look to scenes no longer there.
A PERSPECTIVE map of New-York, in 1673, as pre served in Du Simitiere's Historical Collection, in the Philadelphia Library, and latterly illustrated by J. W. Moulton, Esq., from his researches among the Dutch records, gives us a pretty accurate conception of the outline features of the city at the time when it became, by the peace of 1674, permanently under British do- minion, and thence gradually to wear off its former ex- clusive Knickerbocker character.
At that time almost all the houses presented their gable ends to the street; and all the most important public buildings, such as "Stuyvesant Huys," on the water edge, at present Moore and Front streets ; and the " Stadt-huys," or City Hall on Pearl street, at the head of Coentie's Slip, were then set on the fore-ground to be the more readily seen from the river. The chief part of the town of that day lay along the East River. (called Salt River in early days), and descending from the high ridge of ground along the line of the Broad- way. A great artificial dock for vessels lay between "Stuyvesant Huys," above referred to, and the bridge over the canal at its debouche on the present Broad
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street. Three " Half Moon Forts," called "Rondeels," lay at equi-distances for the defence of the place ; the first at Coentie's Slip and the third at the " Water Gate," or outer bounds of the then city, being the foot of the present Wall street, so called from its being then shut in there by a line of palisades along the said street, quite over to the junction of Grace and Lumber street, where the North. River limits then terminated in a redoubt.
One of the original Philadelphians, Wm. Bradford, the first printer of Philadelphia, has left us a lively pic- 5 ture of the city of New-York as it stood about the year 1729, being his publication from an original survey by James Lyne. The one which I have seen (a great rarity considered) at the city commissioner's, should be, I should think, but a reduced copy, inasmuch as the Mss. " Annals of Philadelphia," show that in the year 1721, the son of the above Wm. Bradford, (named Andrew) advertises in his "Mercury" the sale of a " curious prospect of New-York, on four sheets of pa- per, royal sizc." What an article for an antiquary !
By the map aforesaid, it is shown in 1729, that there was no street beyond the Broadway, westward, but that the lots on the western side of that street descended ·severally to the beach; that from Courtlandt street, northward, all the ground west of Broadway was oc- cupied by trees and tillage, and called the "King's Farm." The eastern side of the city was all bounded by Water street, having houses only on the land side, and its northern limits terminating with Beekman street. At the foot or debouche of Broad street were two great docks, called West and East Dock, as they lay on either side of said Broad street ;- they occupied the
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ground now built upon from Water street, nearly out to South street, and from the east side of Moore street nearly up to Coentie's Slip. Between present Moore street and Whitehall street lay the " Ship Yards," and all along where now tower stately trees in the Battery promenade, lay numerous rocks forming " the Ledge," having the river close up to the line of the present State street fronting the battery. How wonderful then is the modern extension of this city, by carrying out whole streets and numerous buildings to places before sub- mersed in water !- thus practising, with signal benefit, the renowned predilections and ingenuity of their trans- atlantic ancestors !
ANCIENT MEMORIALS.
"I'll note 'em in my book of memory."
THE Mss. documents and recorded facts of New-York city and colonial history, are, it is said, very voluminous and complete. Mr. Moulton's history declares there are one hundred volumes of folio, of almost unexplored Mss. among the records of state. What abundant material for research must these afford whenever the proper spirit for their investigation is awakened !
I am myself aware that the city itself is rich in " hoar antiquity," for I have ascertained that numerous books of records are of ready access to such congenial minds as can give their affections to the times by-gone. Many of them are of the old Dutch dynasty, and have had no
HISTORIC TALES
translator. For instance, there are in the county clerk's office a book of records of 1656 ; another of 1657 ; or- ders of the burgomasters in 1658 ; another of their re- solutions and orders from 1661 to 1664. There are also somne books of deeds, &c. While I write these facts, I do it with the hope that I am addressing myself to some youthful mind who will feel the inspiration of the sub- ject, and resolve to become a student of Dutch, and at some future day to bring out, through his researches, the hidden history of his Dutch forefathers.
It would be "a work of supercrogation" to aim at the general translation of such a mass of papers ; but it is really surprising that hitherto no "ardent spirit," greedy of " antiquarian lore," should have been inspired to make his gleanings from them. A judicious mind, seeking only the strange or the amusing of the "olden time," might with a ready facility extract their honey only, and leave the cumbrous comb behind. I myself have made the experiment. I found in the office of the common council the entire city records, in English, from the year 1675 downwards to the present day. From the first volume, embracing a period of sixteen years, (to 1691,) I was permitted to make the following summary extracts. These, while they furnish in some instances appropriate introduction to sundry topics in- tended in these pages, will also show that but a very small portion of the whole mass is desirable for the en- tertainment of modern eyes, and therefore not to be sought after ; it is even satisfying and useful to know how little need be known.
I give the following from " the Minutes," consecutive- ly as they occurred ; to wit :
October, 1675; the canoes of the Indians, where-
OF OLDEN TIME. 81
soever found, are to be collected to the north side of Long Island, as a better security to the inhabitants in case of their having any purpose to aid the Canadian enemies. This shows the Indian dread of that day. At the same time it is ordered that all Indians near New- . York should make their coming winter-quarters at Hell Gate, so as to be ready for controul or inspection.
It is ordered, that because of " the abuse in their oyle caske" on the east end of Long Island, there shall be a " public tapper of oyle" in each towne where the whaling design is followed. Thus evincing the former business of whalers in those parts.
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Governor Andros orders, that by reason of the change of government, the inhabitants shall take an oath of al- legiance to their new sovereign. There are only thirty- six recorded names who conform !
The mayor, on the approach of new year's day, com- mands the disuse of firing guns.
The city gates are ordered to be closed every night at 9 o'clock, and to be opened at day-light. The citizens in general are to serve their turns as watchmen, or to be fined. No cursing or swearing shall be used by thein. They are carefully to go frequently towards " the bridge for greater safety." [Meaning, I take it, the bridge at the great dock at the end of Broad street.] Every citizen, for the purpose of guard, is always to keep in his house a good fire-lock, and at least six rounds of ball.
The rates of tavern fare are thus decreed and order- ed :- for lodging 3d. ; for meals Sd. ; brandy per gill 6d. ; French wines, a quart, 1s. 3d. ; syder, a quart, 4d. ; · double beere, a quart, 3d. ; and mum, a quart, 6d.
The mayor proposes that they who own convenient
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HISTORIC TALES
land to build upon, if they do not speedily build thereon, it shall be valued and sold to those who will. This be- ing proposed to the governor, who as military chief, always had a control in the semi-militaire city, the same was afterwards adopted. How valueless must have been lots then, since so estimable, which could thus " go a begging" in 1675 !
In 1676 all the inhabitants living in the streete called the Here Graft, (the same called Gentlemen's Canal once, and now Broad street), shall be required to fill up the graft, ditch, or common shore, and level the same.
" Tanners' pits" are declared to be a nuisance within the city, and therefore it is ordered they shall only ex- ercise their functions as tanners without the towne. This ordinance will account for the numerous tanneries once remembered in Beekman's swamp, now again driven thence by encroaching population ; but the premises still retained as curriers and leather dealers, making the whole of that former region still a proper leather towne.
It is ordered, for the sake of a better security of a sufficiency of bread, that no grain be allowed to be dis- " tilled. How many wretched families of the present day could now profit by such a restraint, who abound in whiskey and lack bread ! .
It is ordered that innkeepers be fined, from whose houses Indians may come out drunk ; and if it be not ascertained by whom, the whole streete shall be fined for the non-detection. A sure means, . this, to make every man " his neighbour's keeper."
A fine of twenty guilders is imposed on all Sabbath breakers. The knowledge of such a fact then may afford a gratification to several modern associations.
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OF OLDEN TIME.
Ir. 1676 is given the names of all of the then property holders, amounting to only 300 names, and assessed at 15 dollar a pound on £09,695. This is a curious articie in itself, if considered in relation to family names or relative wealth. What changes since " their families were young." The English names of John Robinson, John Robson, Edward Griffith, James Loyde, and Geo. Heathcott, appear pre-eminently rich among their co- temporaries.
In 1676 it is ordered, that for better security of sea- sonable supplies, all country people bringing supplies to market, shall be exempt from any arrest for debt. The market house and plains (the present " bowling green" site) afore the fort shall be used for the city sales.
It is ordered that all slaughter-houses be removed thenceforth without the city, "over the water, without the gate, at the Smith's Fly, near the Half Moone." Thus denoting " the water gate" near the present Tontine'on Wall-street, beyond which was an inva- sion of water, near the former " Vly market" on Maiden lane.
Public wells, fire ladders, hooks, and buckets are or- dered, and their places designated for the use of the city. Thus evincing the infant cradling of the present robust and vigorous fire companies. The public wells were' located in the middle of such streets as Broad- way, Pearl street, &c. and were committed to the sur- veillance of committees of inhabitants in 'their neigh- bourhoods, and half of their expense assessed on the owners of property nearest them. Will the discovery of their remains, in some future day, excite the surprise and speculation of uninformed moderns ?
A " mill house" is taxed in " Mill street lane." Thus
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HISTORIC TALES
indicating the fact of a water-course and mill seat (probably the bark mill of Ten Eycke) at the head of what is now called " Mill street." Thus verifying what I once heard from the Phillips family, that in early times, when the Jews first held their worship there, (their synagogue was built there a century ago) they had a "+ living spring, two houses above their present lots, in which they were accustomed to perform their ablutions and cleansings according to the rites of their religion.
1 In 1776 all horses at range are ordered to be brand- ed and enrolled ; and two stud horses are " to be.kept in commons upon this island."
'T'ar for the use of vessels, is to be boiled only against "the wall of the Half Moon," meaning the Battery wall.
All the carmen of the city, to the number of twenty, are ordered to be enrolled, and to draw for 6d. an ordi- nary load, and to remove weekly from the city the dirt of the streets at 3d. a load. The dustmen showed much spunk upon the occasion, and combined to refuse full compliance. They proposed some modifications ; but the spirit of " the Scout, Burgomasters, and Sche- pens," was alive and vigorous in the city rulers, and they forthwith dismayed the whole body of carmen, by divesting all of their licence who should not forthwith appear as usual at the public dock, pay a small fine and make their submission. Only two so succombed, and a new ence of carmen arose. Those carmen were to be trusty men, worthy to be charged with goods of value from the shipping, &c. ; wherefore all Indian and negro slaves were excluded.
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