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 8
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and they took off the body and run it in a large bag on the platform set on the wheels. It was then long deem- ed as at its ne plus ultra ; whereas now it is a load of itself for a four horse stage ! At that time the post al- ways went to and fro from the "Blazing Star," vis a vis Staten Island, now unknown as a great thorough- fare.
General Washington's residence in New-York was at the house now the Franklin Bank; to that house he once went in procession. The house was kept by Osgood, and was then No. 1, in pre-eminence.
The house No. 176 Water street, was the first in New-York to change leaden sashes for wooden ones ; leaden ones were general. Even Trinity church had its leaden panes put in after the fire of 1778.
Dr. Hosack's map, showing the grounds of New-York as invaded by water from the rivers, marks " Rutger's Swamp," as united to the East river by a little creek a little to the eastward of Rutger's Slip.
At Corlear's Hook he also marks much marsh ground, uniting to the river by a small creek.
Beekman's Swamp is also united to the East river by a little creek next south-west of Peck's Slip.
Governor's Island, originally called Nutting Island, because of the quantity of hazel and other nuts growing there, and furnishing the winter's supply to the citizens. In later times, says Knickerbocker, it was cultivated in gardens for the use of the colonial governors-" once a smiling garden of the sovereigns of the province."
It was originally a part of Long Island, however it may now appear to the eye on beholding so wide a separation by deep water. This widening and deepen-
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ing of the Buttermilk Channel has been caused by the filling in of the south side of the city.
An old gentleman is now alive who remembers tha', as late as 1786, the Buttermilk Channel was then deein- ed unsafe even for boats to pass through it, because of the numerous rocks there. It was, however, so used for a boat channel, through which boats with milk and buttermilk, going to New-York market from Long Island, usually made their passage. My mother has told me that when she first entered New- York harbour. then a girl, she was surprised to see all the marke: boats traversing the East river rowed by robust women without hats or bonnets-their heads fitted with close caps-two rowers to each.
The same gentleman who told of the channel as 1.c noticed it in 1786, had his attention called to it then by a Mr. Van Alstine, upwards of eighty years of age, wi.o said that he remembered when Governor's Island was separated from Long Island only by a narrow creek, which was crossed upon a log raised above the nigh tide, and having staked logs for a footway through the marsh then there on each side of the creek.
William Richards, of Philadelphia, famous there for pickling sturgeon, went on to New-York before the revolution, to plant lobsters in the neighbourhood of New-York; before which time they chiefly imported them from Rhode Island. He had a vote of thanks of the Assembly many years afterwards. Lobsters after this probably became naturalized about Harlem.
In 1756 the first stage is started between Philole !- phia and New-York, by Mr. Butler; three d .:: 3 through.
In 1765 a second stage is announced to travel 1, ..
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tween New-York and Philadelphia, to go through in three days, being a covered Jersey wagon, at 2d. a mile -owned in Philadelphia.
In 1766 another stage, called " the Flying Machine," to go through in two days, "in good wagons and seats on springs," at 3d. a mile or 20s. through. This also owned in Philadelphia.
In 1756 the first British "Packet boats" commence from New-York to Falmouth ; each letter to pay four penny weights of silver.
All newspapers went free of postage before the year 1758. It was then ordered that by reason of their great increase, they should pay 9d. a year for fifty miles, and 1s. 6d. for one hundred miles.
In 1755 the mail was changed from once a fortnight to once a week.
Mr. M'Cormick, of Wall street, remembered when " Burnett's Key" extended from Wall street up to Maiden lane, in one entire line of front, and projecting out from Water street, beyond any other line of wharves. It was the bathing place of the city boys and of himself.
In 1702 New-York was visited with a very mortal sickness. Isaac Norris' Mss. letter says, " the great sickness-Barbadoes Distemper or Yellow Fever-as we had it in Philadelphia three years before. Some hundred died there, and many left the town ; so that as we passed it, it was almost desolate."
In. 1743 a yellow fever, as it was called, visited New- York-" not imported ;" but like it was at Philadel- phia three years before ; they had black vomit and spots. Vide R. Peters' Mss.
In digging for a lamp post, at the north-east corner of Reed street and Broadway, they were surprised to
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get up several human bones, and thus leading to the re- collection of the former fact, that between that place and Chamber street was once the area of the negroes' bury- ing ground ; it was on a descending hill, inclining north- ward'
In Lyne's Survey of New-York, he marks a lane called " Old Windmill Lane," laying between present Courtlandt and Liberty streets, extending from Broad- way to present Greenwich street, and thence north- westward towards the river side, where the Windmill must have stood. It was then the most northern street on the western side of Broadway ; all beyond was the · king's farın.
The same survey fills up the head of present Broad- way, with a long rope-walk, and a long line of trees, reaching from present Barclay street as high as the hospital.
At that time there was at the foot of the present Chamber street, on North river, a distinguished public garden and Bowling Green.
Among the names of streets changed, are these :- present Pine street was called King street ; Pearl street was Queen street ; Cedar street now, was Little Queen street ; Liberty street was Crown street, importing the Crown supplanted by our self-rule since. The western end of Garden street, was a hill called Flatten-barrack- a celebrated place for the boys in winter to sled down hill. Present Beaver street, east of Broad street, was Princess street ; present Stone street, east of Broad street, was Duke street ; Pearl street, near Broad street, was Dock street ; John street now, east of William street, was called Golden Hill. The hill once there at its intersection with Cliff street, gave rise to the name of
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that street along the Cliff. William street, at its south- ern end, was called South street-say from Maiden lane to the East river. 1
There was, until a few years ago, a very large and notable wide-spreading tree at the Hall, at the corner of Wall and Broad streets. Under its shade was once a very clamorous public meeting, in the year 1794, to oppose Jay's treaty. It had in earlier years been a grateful rendezvous for holiday negroes. A gentleman and correspondent, who saw it cut down to make place for a rum vault, says, I could not but wish a curse on every rum cask which should ever usurp its place, wish- ing they might burst and scald the worms instead of the livers of men. There, says he, I had thirty years before listened to the stories of those Dutch worthies, Doct. Anthon, C. Ham, and J. Nichie, smoking their pipes in a· summer evening under its shade, and bringing back the days and the tales of the negro plot and Indian wars, &c.
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.
" A different face of things each age appears, And all things alter in a course of years."
I AM indebted for the following ideas of "Men and Manners once," as seen in the middle state of life gene- rally, by facts imparted to me by the aged, to wit :-
The Dutch kept five festivals, of peculiar notoriety, in the year : say Kerstydt, (Christmas); Nieuw jar,
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(New Year), a great day of cake; Paas, (the Pass- over) ; Pinzter, (i. e. Whitsuntide) ; and San Claas, (i. e. Sainst Nicholas, or Christ-kinkle day). . The ne- groes on Long Island, on some of those days, came in great crowds to Brooklyn and held their field frolics.
The observance of New Year's day (Nieuw jar) is an occasion of much good feeling and hospitality, come down to the present generation from their Dutch fore- fathers. No other city in the union ever aims at the like general interchange of visits. Cakes, wines, and punch abound in every house ; and, from morning till night houses are open to receive the calls of acquaint- ances, and to pass the mutual salutations of a "happy New Year," &c.
It was the general practice of families in middle life, to spin and make much of their domestic wear at home. Short gowns and petticoats were the general in-door dresses.
Young women who dressed gay to go abroad to visit, or to church, never failed to take off that dress and put on their home-made as soon as they got home ; even on Sunday evenings when they expected company, or even their beaux, it was their best recommendation to seem thus frugal and ready for any domestic avocation. The boys and young men of a family always changed their dress for a common dress in the same way. There was no custom of offering drink to their guests; when punch was offered, it was in great bowls.
Dutch dances were very common; the supper on such occasions was a pot of chocolate and bread. The Rev. Dr. Laidlie who arrived in 1764, did much to preach them into disuse ; he was very exact in his piety, and was the first minister of the Dutch Reform-
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od Church who was called to preach in the English language.
The negroes used to dance in the markets, where they used tomtoms, horns, &c. for music. They used often to sell negro slaves at the coffee-house.
Ail marriages had to be published beforehand, three weeks at the churches, or else, to avoid that, they had to purchase a license of the governor :- a seemingly singular surveillance for a great military chief! We . may presume he cared little for the fact beyond his fee.
Before the revolution, tradesmen of good repute worked hard ;- there were none as masters, mere look- ers-on ; they hardly expected to be rich; their chief concern in summer was to make enough a-head to lay up carefully for a living in severe winter. Wood was even a serious concern to such, when only 2s. 6d. to 3s. a load .*
None of the stores or tradesmen's shops then aimed at any rivalry as now. There were no glaring allure- ments at windows, no over-reaching signs, no big bulk' windows; they were content to sell things at honest profits, and to trust to an earned reputation for their share of business.
It was the Englishmen from Britain who brought in the painted glare and display. They also brought in the use of open shops at night, an expensive and need- less service !- for who sells more in day and night, where all are competitors, than they would in one day if all were closed at night ?
In former days the same class who applied diligently in business hours, were accustomed to close their shops and stores at an early hour, and to go abroad for exer-
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cise and recreation, or to gardens, &c. All was done on foot, for chaises and horses were few.
The candidates for the Assembly, usually from the city, kept open houses in each ward, for one week ; producing much excitement among those who thought more of the regale than the public weal.
Physicians in that day were moderate in their charges, although their personal labour was great. They had to make all their calls on foot, none thought of riding. Drs. Baylie and M'Knight, when old, were the first who are remembered as riding to their patients. , Dr. Attwood is remembered as the first physician who had the hardihood to proclaim himself as a man mid- wife ; it was deemed a scandal to some delicate ears, and Mrs. Granny Brown, with her fees of two to three dollars, was still deemed the choice of all who thought " women should be modest !"
" Moving day" was, as now, the first of May, from time immemorial.
They held no " fairs," but they often' went to the " Philadelphia Fairs," once celebrated.
At the New Year and Christmas festivals, it was the custom to go out to the ice on Beekman's and such like swamps to shoot at turkeys ; every one paid a price for his shot, as at a mark, and if he hit it so as to draw blood, it was his for a New Year or Christmas Dinner. A fine subject this for Dr. Laidlie's preaching and refor- mation !
At funerals, the Dutch gave hot wine in winter ; and in summer they gave wine-sangaree.
I have noticed a singular custom among Dutch fami- lies ;- a father gives a bundle of goose quills to a son, telling him to give one to each of his male posterity.
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I saw one in the possession of Mr. James Bogert, which had a scroll appended, saying, " this quill, given by Pe- trus Byvanck to James Bogert, in 1789, was a present in 1689, from his grand-father from Holland."
It is now deemed a rule of high life in New-York that ladies should not attend funerals ; it was not always so. Having been surprised at the change, and not be- ing aware of any sufficient reason why females should have an exemption from personal attention to departed friends, from which their male relatives could not, I have been curious to inquire into the facts in the case. I find that females among the Friends attend funerals, and also among some other religious communities.
I have been well assured that before the revolution, genteelest families had ladies to their funerals, and es- pecially if she was a female; on such occasions - \ " burnt wine" was handed about in tankards, often of silver.
On one occasion, the case of the wife of Daniel Pho- nix, the city treasurer, all the pall-bearers were ladies ; and this fact occurred since the revolution.
Many aged persons have spoken to me of the former delightful practice of familes sitting out on their " stoopes" in the shades of the evening, and there salut- ing the passing friends, or talking across the narrow streets with neighbours. It was one of the grand links of union in the Knickerbocker social compact. It en- deared and made social neighbours ; made intercourse on easy terms ; it was only to say, "come sit down." It helped the young to easy introductions, and made courtships of readier attainment.
I give some facts to illustrate the above remarks, de- duced from the family of B- with which I am per-
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sonally acquainted. It shows primitive Dutch manners. His grandfather died at the age of sixty-three in 1782, holding the office of alderman eleven years, and once chosen mayor and declined. Such a man, in easy cir- cumstances in life, following the true Dutch ton, had all his family to breakfast, all the year round, at day-light. Before the breakfast he universally smoked his pipe. His family always dined at twelve exactly. At that time the kettle was invariably set on the fire for tea, of Bohea, which was always as punctually furnished at three o'clock. Then the old people went abroad on purpose to visit relatives, changing the families each night in succession, over and over again all the year round. The regale at every such house was expected as matter of course, to be chocolate supper and soft waffles.
Afterwards, when green tea came in as a new luxury, loaf sugar also came with it ; this was broken in large lumps and laid severally by each cup, and was nibbled or bitten as needed !
The family before referred to actually continued the practice till as late as seventeen years ago, with a steady determination in the patriarch to resist the modern in- novation of dissolved sugar while he lived.
Besides the forgoing facts, I have had them abun- dantly confirmed by others.
While they occupied the stoopes in the evening, you could see every here and there an old Knickerbocker with his long pipe, fuming away his cares, and ready on any occasion to offer another for the use of any passing friend who would sit down and join him. The ideal picture has every lineament of contented comfort and cheerful repose. Something much more composed
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. and happy than the bustling anxiety of " over business" in the moderns.
The cleanliness of Dutch housewifery was always extreme ; every thing had to submit to scrubbing and scouring ; dirt in no form could be endured by them : and dear as water was in the city, where it was gene- rally sold, still it was in perpetual requisition. It was their honest pride to see a well-furnished dresser, show- ing copper and pewter in shining splendour, as if for or- nament rather than for use. In all this they widely differed from the Germans, a people with whom they have been erroneously and often confounded. Roost fowls and ducks are not more different. As water draws one, it repels the other.
It was common in families then to cleanse their own chimneys without the aid of hired sweeps; and all tradesmen, &c. were accustomed to saw their own fuel. No man in middle circumstances of life ever scrupled to carry home his one cwt. of meal from the market ; it would have been his shame to have avoided it.
A greater change in the state of society cannot be named than that of hired persons. Hired women, from being formerly lowly in dress, wearing short gowns of green baize and petticoats of linsey-woolsey, and re- ceiving but half a dollar a week, have, since they have threbled that wages, got to all the pride and vanity of "showing out" to strangers as well drest ladies. The cheapness of foreign finery gives thein the ready means of wasting all their wages in decorations. So true it is, that
"Excess, the scrofulous and itchy plague, Taints downward, all the graduated scale !"
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The Quarterly Review has preserved one fact of menial impudence, in the case of the New-York girl telling her mistress, before her guests, that " the more you ring the more I won't come !"
General Lafayette, too, left us a compliment of dubi- ous import on his late formal entre at New-York, when seeing such crowds of well-dressed people, and no re- mains of such as he had seen in the period of the revo- lution -- a people whose dress was adapted to their con- dition-he exclaimed, " but where is the people ?" em- phatically meaning, where is the useful class of citizens, " the hewers of wood and drawers of water ?"
" Al are infected with the manners and the modes It knew not once."
Before the revolution, all men who worked in any em- ploy always wore his leathern apron before him, never took it off to go in the street, and never had on a long coat.
We are glad to witness the rise of new feelings among the Dutch descendants, tending to cherish, by anniversa- ry remembrances, the love and reverence they owe their sires. For this object, as they have no " landing day," they resort to their tutelary protector, Saint Nicholas : on such occasions decorating themselves or hall with orange colored ribbons, and inscribing " Oranje Boven," and garnishing their table with " Malck and Suppawn," with rullities, and their hands with long stemmed pipes.
We are sorry we do not know the history better than we do, of a saint so popular as he is, with only his name of St. Claes to help him. He seems however to be the
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most merry and jocose in all the calendar. The boys all welcome him as " the bountiful Saint Nick," and as ·" De Patroon Van Kindervreugd ;" i. e. the patron of children's joy.
" A right jolly old elf, with a little round belly, Which shakes when he laughs, like a bowl full of jelly."
All we know from Knickerbocker, is what the figure of Hudson's Guede Vrouw represented him as attired " in a low brimmed hat, a large pair of Flemish trunk host. and a very long pipe."
In 1765 the best families in New- York entered into certain sumptuary laws to restrain the usual expenses and pomp of funerals.
MEMORIALS OF THE DUTCH DYNASTY.
" Dwell o'er the remembrance of former years !''
HAVING said that the office of the common counc !! contains no records of the city preceding the conquest by the British, I shall add here some tokens of the fact, that there are numerous collections of Dutch records now existing in the archives of state at Albany fur- nishing a rich mine of antiquarian lore for some future explorer.
" Yet still with memory's busy eye retrace Each little vestige of the well-lov'd place !"
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OF OLDEN TIME.
T'he Records thus speak, viz :-
Fort .Amsterdam (at New-York) is repaired and finish. ed in 1635.
Paulus Hook is sold by Governor Keift, in 1638, to Abraham Isaacs Plank, for 450 guilders.
For scandalizing the governor, one Hendrick Jansen, in 1633, is sentenced to stand at the fort door, at the ringing of the bell, and ask the governor's pardon.
For slandering the Rev. E. Bogardus, in 1638, (Pas- tor of the Reformed Church then in the fort) a female is obliged to appear at the sound of the bell at the fort, and there, before the governor and council, to say, "she knew he was honest and pious, and that she lied falsely."
Torture was inflicted upon Jan Hobbes, who had committed a theft. The evidence seemed sufficient, but it was adjudged he should also make his confession by torture.
For drawing his knife upon a person, one Guysbert Van Regerslard was sentenced, in 1638, to throw him- self three times from the sail-yard of the yatch, the Hope, and to receive from each sailor there three lashes.
The wooden horse punishment is inflicted, in Dec. 1638, upon two soldiers : they sit thereon for two hours. This . was a military punishment used in Holland. He strode a sharp back, and his body was forced down to it by a chain and iron stirrup, or a weight, fastened to his legs.
Goat milk and Goats appear as a subject of frequent inention and regulation.
Cases of slander often appear noticed ; such as that Jan Jansen complains of Adam Roelants for slander, whereupon it was ordered that each party pay to the use of poor the sum of 25 guilders each.
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HISTORIC TALES
,
Tobacco appears to have been an article of cultivation, and of public concern and commerce. Van Twiller had his tobacco farm at Greenwich. On the 5th August. 1638, two inspectors were nominated to inspect " tobac- co cultivated here for exportation ;" and on the 19th August, same year, it is recorded that because of. " the high character it had obtained in foreign countries," any adulterations should be punished with heavy penalties. [This agrees with the fact at Philadelphia county : there they also, in primitive days, sixty years after the above facts, cultivated tobacco in fields.]
.A cattle fair was established, to be held annually on the 15th Oct. and of hogs on the 1st Nov., beginning from the year 1641.
Tavern-keepers ; none of them shall be permitted to give any supper parties after nine o'clock at night. In case of any Indian being found drunk, his word, when sober. shall be deemed good enough evidence against the white person who made him so.
The oath of allegiance was to be taken by all officers of government as a " test act," by swearing "to main- tain the reformed religion, in conformity to the word of God and the decree of the Synod of Dordretch." - Un-
· der such solemn obligations to duty, it is scarcely to be wondered at, or even condemned, that the officers in au- thority, overlooking the mild spirit of the gospel of peace. and adhering to the letter and the oath to the Synod. &c. should be led out to persecution. We therefore find, for we may tell a little of the truth in this matter, that in 1657 sundry Quakers, " for publicly declaring in the streets," were subjected to the dungeon, &c .; and Robert Hodgson was led at a cart tail, with his arms pinioned, then beaten with a pitched rope until he fell ;
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afterwards he was set to the wheelbarrow to work at hard labour. This continued until the compassion of the sister of Governor Stuyvesant being excited, her in- tercession with that governor prevailed to set him free. About the same time John Bowne, ancestor of the pre- sent respectable family of that name, was first impri- soned and next banished for the offence he gave as a Quaker. It was an ordinance of that day, "that any person receiving any Quaker into their house, though only for one night, should forfeit £50! Little did they understand in that day, that "the sure way to propagate a new religion was to proscribe it."
Good Dr. Cotton, in common with good Paul of Tar- sus, were both persecutors, " haling men and women to prison," and saying, "If the worship be lawful, (and they the judges !) the compelling to come to it compelleth not to sin ; but the sin is in the will that needs to be forced to christian duty ! So self-deceiving is bigotry and in. tolerance.
There are some fine relics of the Gov. Stuyvesant above referred to, still preserved in his family, valuable to a thinking mind for the moral associations they afford. I saw them at the elegant country mansion of his descendant Nicholas William Stuyvesant, to wit :-- a portrait of Stuyvesant, in armour, which had been well executed in Holland, and probably while he was yet an Admiral there. His head is covered with a close black cap, his features strong and intrepid, skin dark, and the whole aspect not unlike our best Indian faces ; a kind of shawl or sash is cast round his shoulder ; has a large white shirt collar drooping from the neck ; has small mustachios on his upper lip, and no beard elsewhere shown. As I regarded this quic: remains of this once
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