USA > New York > Queens County > Long Island City > History of Long Island City, New York. A record of its early settlement and corporate progress. Sketches of the villages that were absorbed in the growth of the present municipality. Its business, finance, manufactures, and form of government, with some notice of the men who built the city > Part 23
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27
177
HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND CITY.
who came to this country the same year; also a will of Sarah De Blanck, dated 1669, bequeathing all her property to her son Yan (John); a lieutenant's commission, given to one Pietor Monfort, and signed and sealed by Richard, Earl of Bellmont, dated January 20, 1698; and many other old and curious documents. Mrs. Duleken was educated in Long Island City and the New York Normal College, and was for years engaged in teaching. Was principal of the Bowery Bay school and as- sistant principal of one of the Long Island City schools.
Mrs. Duleken is fond of music. Occasionally she writes. Some of her poems have been set to music by her husband. A visitor to the pleasant home notices many souvenirs from friends and pupils; the autograph of Wilkie Collins, and among the photographs and written underneath, "Henry WV. Longfellow. In memory of a pleasant- December 21, 1877."
GARRET JAMES GARRETSON. - The Garretson family are among the earliest Dutch settlers, the name frequently pioneer history of In 1633 the Ion. was one of Govern- councilors on Man- In 1643 Philip first publie house tan Island, and is found among 1657 and as mem- Reformed Church Island. Judge scendant of Gerrit emigrated from the Rhine, in Gel- in 1660, and settled N. J. Garret I. of John Garretson the subject of this born on his Hillsborough, N. J. He was a Reformed Dutch town, L. 1. lle Rapalie, a direct Jores Jansen de of Rochelle, in refuge in Holland gious wars of the coming to this He settled at Fort Albany, and in New Amsterdam, CORD MEYER. ing on Long Wallabout, in the present city of Brooklyn. Garret James Garretson was born at Newtown, L. I.,
July 16, 1847. After an academic education received at the Flushing Institute, Long Island, he entered the office of Messrs. Marvin & Daniel, and was admitted to the bar in December, 1869. Since that date he has been actively engaged in the practice of his profession in New York City and in Queens County, in which field he has achieved a full measure of professional success. In 1877 Judge Garretson formed a co-partnership with Henry W. Eastman under the firm name of Eastman & Garretson, which was terminated by the death of the senior partner in 1882, when with two of Mr. Eastman's sons the co-partnership was continued under the firm name of Garretson & Eastman. Judge Garretson's practice has been largely connected with real estate, law, mortgage investments, the management and care of estates, and matters connected with the probate courts. He has
appearing in the New Amsterdam. Martin Gerritsen or Van Twiller's hattan Island. Gerritsen kept the built on Manhat- the family name the enumerated in bers of the Dutch on Manhattan Garretson is a de- Gerritsen, who Wageningen, near derland, Holland, at Bergen Point, Garretson, the son and the father of biography, was father's farm in Somerset County, clergyman of the Church, at New- married Catherine descendant of Rapalie, a native France, who took during the reli- sixteenth century, country in 1623. Orange, New 1626 removed to afterwards locat- Island, near the
178
HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND CITY.
been and is still executor and trustee of many large estates and the custodian of important financial interests.
Judge Garretson is much interested in educational work, and was for many years President of the Board of Education of Newtown. For the years 1873-4-5, he filled the office of School Commissioner for Queens County. In 1880 he became Surrogate of Queens County, and in 1885 was nominated and elected to the office of County Judge of Queens County. He served with great acceptance from 1886 to 1891, when he was re-elected for a further term of six years. In June 1896 he was appointed one of the commissioners for Greater New York, and in November of same year he was elected a justice of the Supreme Court of New York. He was, in 1876, married to Eliza, daughter of Henry W. Eastman, Esq., his partner and a prominent and successful member of the bar of Queens County and New York.
Judge Garretson possesses a keen and incisive intellect which penetrates to the marrow of a legal problem. Without any bold or abrupt statement foreshadowing his intended judgment, he reasons a question out by a process of subtle analysis which gives to every slip the character of a logical postulate. When the conclusion is reached you see at once why it becomes undisputable as an application of legal principles to established facts. It is this judicial quality of mind, ripened by experience on the bench, which has imparted so high a character to his decisions that lawyers feel in advance the futility of appealing from them. Not one of his judgments, while sitting as surrogate and passing upon these intricate questions of mixed fact and law belonging to the probate of wills, was ever reversed by an appellate court. His success in always adjusting the right principle to the right solution of the issue raised before him he owes to a happy organization of mind. Where the intellect, instead of being self-sufficient, is always guided by the law of conscience, silently yet steadily directing his judicial action.
With such an organization it would not be otherwise than that he should administer the office of County Judge without fear, favor or prejudice to any man. Before him all litigants stand as impartial suitors. Whether as indicted criminals or parties to a civil action he is equally considerate of their rights and ready to protect them in their vindication. Neither politics, nor local prejudices, nor denominational interests have any weight in his presence. He has no preferred claimants upon his judicial favors, and no counsel, however intimate, has access to his judicial ear out of court. Hence he never comes upon the bench, like so many of our judges, with a foreknowledge of the peculiar merits of one side of a controversy. Popular with the bar, because of his uprightness, his courtesy and his fearless adherence to the right at every stage of procedure; admired and respected by his fellow- citizens, as their re-election of him to the bench showed, he stands as a noble embodiment of those high moral qualities which constitute a great and an upright judge.
CORD MEYER was born at Maspeth, town of Newtown, L. I., New York, in 1854. He is the second of three sons of the late Cord Meyer, who came from Germany to this country in his youth. A few years after his arrival here, he started in business for himself as a manufacturer of charcoal, used in the process of refining sugar, of which he made a great success, which eventually induced him to enter the refining business himself as a member of the Williamsburg firm of Dick & Meyer, which, after many years of great success, was taken in the sugar trust at the time that corporation was organ- ized.
?
Our subject is largely interested in the bone charcoal business, and is president and principal owner of the Aema Fertilizer Company on Newtown Creek. For a time he was a special partner in the banking house of C. L. Rathborne & Co., but since the death of his father, which occurred in 1891, he has withdrawn that source to attend to his many private affairs. Politically, he is a Democrat, and takes great interest in all political affairs. He was the representative for five years, dating from 1884, in the Democratic State Convention, and a member and Secretary of the State Executive Com- mittee. He is a warm admirer of President Cleveland. In 1892 he was appointed by Gov. Flower one of the World's Fair Commissioners, and in October, 1893, he received the Democratic nomination for Secretary of State. Mr. Meyer is largely interested in real estate affairs of that beautiful village of Elmhurst, Long Island.
Mr. Meyer was educated at Old Brook School, Maspeth, after which he attended, and was graduated from Grammar School No. 40, New York City. After completing his grammar school studies, he attended the College of the City of New York for a period of two years. On October 9, 1878, he married Miss Cornelia M. Covert, who has borne him five children.
179
HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND CITY.
CHARLES G. COVERT was born at Maspeth, L. I., New York, September 30, 1826, and was a son of Underhill and Maria (Johnson) Covert, the latter being a daughter of Charles Johnson, who resided at Maspeth, near Covert Place. For his first wife he married Miss Nancy Leonora Aldrich, Newtown, October 29, 1841. Her demise occurred April 8, 1845, having borne him three children as follows: Underhill J., born October 19, 1848; Henry Aldrich, born September 29, 1842; and Charles Johnson, born March 27, 1845, the latter dying in infancy. On March 29, 1850, Mr. Covert married Miss Elizabeth Welsh, of New York City, who survives him, and who bore him four children. Mrs. Covert was born in New York, December 24, 1827.
In 1858 Mr. Covert was first chosen superviser. He was re-elected to the same position many times thereafter.
ALVAN T. PAYNE is the leading Attorney and one of the most pro- gressive citizens of Long Island City, who for nearly 30 years has been identified with its development and prosperity. In political affairs. he has been very active in serving the public, and in 1875 was elected to the New York Assembly from the Second District on the Democratic ticket and served during the centen- nial year 1876. While a member of that body, he was instrumental in securing the passage of only such bills as served the people, and was aggressive in preventing much bad legislation. He was the counsel to the Corporation of Long Island City during the period when the municipal affairs were managed upon business principles strictly. He ran for the office of District Attorney as an Independent Democrat in 1880 and was defeated by about 500 votes, while the regular ticket upon which his adversary ran won by over 2, 000. He was a candidate for the nomina- tion for County Judge at the last election to fill that office.
The town of Southhold, Suffolk County, where Mr. Payne was born, February 16, 1840, was also the birth- HON. THEODORE KOEHLER. place of his father, Thomas, and grandfather, Captain Benjamin Payne. The latter was a well-to-do farmer in that locality and followed his peaceful calling until the outbreak of the war, when he volunteered his services in defence of the colonies. From the ranks he rose to the position of Captain of his company and was present at many hard-fought engagements, taking a very prominent part in the battle of Long Island.
The great-grandfather of our subject was Rev. Thomas Payne, M. D., who was born in Columbia Co., N. Y., and completed his literary studies in Yale College, where he gained a fine education. In addition to engaging in the practice of medicine, he also held the first pastorate of the First Presbyterian Church Society organized in the town of Southhold. And, as it is inscribed on his tombstone, he ministered to the wants of the soul as well as those of the body.
The mother of our subject was a daughter of Rev. Ezra Haynes, a Presbyterian Clergyman, and a native of Columbia County in this State. Dr. Daniel Haynes, fone of her uncles, was a distinguished physician and poet.
180
HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND CITY.
The subject of this sketch was the youngest son and fourth child in the family. At the age of twelve years, he was a pupil in Brainerd Academy, Connecticut, and a teacher of primary classes therein. Later he became a pupil of Elizabeth Mapes, a renowned teacher on Long Island for many years, and of whom it was said that no lady of that period surpassed her in mental acumen.
Mr. Payne's ambition to enter Yale College was frustrated by his father's reverses in business, and at the age of sixteen, he began the study of law in the office of George B. Bradley, of Corning, now Justice of the Supreme Court. He was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-two years and shortly afterwards formed a partnership with Henry Sherwood, then a member of Assembly. He was elected a Justice of the Peace shortly after attaining his majority. In 1864 he was appointed United States Commissioner for the Northern District of New York.
In 1867 Mr. Payne removed from Corning to New York City and formed a partnership with his brother Oliver. His clientage in Long Island City having increased so rapidly, because of his residence there, he gave up his New York offices and devoted his whole time to his work there.
The success of Mr. Payne has been gradual and well merited. He is regarded as an able all- around lawyer in whose hands the confidences and interests of his clients were never misplaced or betrayed.
He has been retained in many noted cases, among them the Hoffman lunacy proceedings and afterwards in maintaining Mrs. Hoffman well. In the latter case he was paid $2, 500 for his services and he was then only about thirty years old ..
He was the managing counsel in the first case against Mayor Debevoise, contesting the validity of his election. An extraordinary circuit was appointed by Governor Dix for the trial of the action. Mr. Payne failed after a two weeks' trial, but subsequently, upon a re-election, Mr. Debevoise was ousted in an action brought by Mr. Payne in behalf of George Petry. He was also successful in the Almquist poisoning and divorce cases which for a long time attracted public attention.
Mr. Payne is counsel to the Queens County Bank. He is a trustee of Long Island City Savings Bank and has been its only counsel since its incorporation 'in 1876, and the bank during that period having invested hundreds of thousands of dollars upon his advice, never lost a dollar. He has the distinction of being the oldest practitioner in the city and the third oldest in the county. His son, A. T., Jr., is associated with him in the practice earried on in their commodious offices in the Savings Bank Building. His relations to the members of the bar have been cordial and fraternal, and he enjoys the confidence and respect of the Courts.
Mr. Payne is at the present time the President of the Queens County Bar Association. He is a member of the Masonic Order, and a member of St. John's Protestant Episcopal Church, of which he was for many years a vestryman. He is also a member of the Suffolk County Historical Society. In politics he is a Democrat. During the political vicissitudes of which the inhabitants of the city have passed through, he has been in the front rank of those who have at all times sought the city's welfare.
There has not been a time during the period of his residence in this city when it could be truly said that he cver violated a trust, either public or private.
HON. LUCIUS N. MANLEY is a native of the State of New York, having been born in Addison, Steuben County. He is the son of Nehemiah and Jane (Baker) Manley, the former a native of the State of New York, while the latter was born in Pennsylvania. The subject of this sketch, who was the only child of his parents to reach mature years, continued to live at home until he was sent to Alfred Academy, in Allegany County, N. Y., where he completed his education. He then made practical use of his knowledge by teaching school. For some time previous to this he had been de- sirous of turning his attention to the study of law, and began reading in the office of F. C. and J. W. Dinninny. In January, 1872, he was admitted to the bar in Buffalo, and in November of that year he began the practice of his profession in Long Island City, having entered into a co-partnership with A. T. Payne, and which was continued for one year. He then opened an office of his own, and con- tinued to transact business alone until 1887, when Charles A. Wadley became associated with him, the firm being known as Manley & Wadley.
Mr. Manley, for a period of four years, held the office of Justice of the Peace. He has also been a candidate for Mayor of Long Island City. In the fall of 1893 he was nominated on the Republican ticket as a member of the Constitutional Convention, and was elected from the First District. He served as one of the committee on charities, and also on the committee on Governor and State officers.
181
HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND CITY.
Judge Manley is a member of the Queens County Bar Association, of which he was Vice-President for some time. He is the second oldest practitioner in Long Island City. He is married and has four children.
CHARLES A. WADLEY was born in Clyde, Wayne County, N. Y., June 8, 1859, the son of Martin and Emily Butler (Wheeler) Wadley, the former a native of South Butler, Wayne County, New York, and the latter having been born in Ravenna, Portage County, Ohio. The Wadleys, sometimes spelled "Wadleigh," are an old New Hampshire family, tracing their ancestry back to England, from whence the first members of that family cmigrated to this country over a century and a half ago. Mr. Wadley spent the greater part of his childhood with his parents in Clyde, where he was educated in the High School of that place. At an early age he learned to work. His school days were often broken in upon, and interspersed with varions avocations ren- dercd necessary to enable him to support himself. At the age of twenty years he entered the law office of Vandenberg & Saxton (the latter now being the Lieutenant-Governor) as a law student, and con- tinued with them until September, 1882, when he came to New York City, and accepted a position as storekeeper with the firm of John Matthews, man- ufacturers of soda water apparatus, and continued with them until September, 1884, at which time he entered the law office of Judge L. N. Manley. Since 1883 he has made his home in Long Island City. September 23, 1886, he was admitted to the bar, in Brooklyn, and continued with Judge Manley until 1887, when he was taken into partnership, the firm becoming Manley & Wadley, and still continues the same. On March 1, 1894, Mr. Wadley was appoint- ed Assistant District Attorney for Qucens County, by District Attorney Daniel Noble, which office he now fills with general satisfaction.
On February 9, 1888, Mr. Wadley married Miss Lillie M. Salzman, of Clyde, N. Y. She died in Long Island City, February 28, 1892, leaving one child, Anna Lillian. On October 30, 1895, Mr. Wadley married Miss Eliza Lucretia Bostwick, of Philadelphia, Pa , and now resides at 158 Eleventh street, Long Island City.
HON. JACOB STAHL.
4
Mr. Wadley has always been a Republican, and cast his first vote for James A. Garfield. He is a member of Mariner's Lodge, No. 67, F. and A. M., of New York City.
JUDGE DANIEL NOBLE, District Attorney for Queens County, is a native of Long Island, and for many years has been one of its leading attorneys. He is active in the ranks of the Democratic party and has served in political positions of influence.
The Noble family is one of the oldest Puritan families in the country. The family progenitor, Thomas Noble, landed in Plymouth Colony soon after its settlement in 1620. In the last four gener- ations of the family there have been many attorneys. Daniel Noble, great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts. Solomon B. Noble, father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts, May 22, 1819. He attended school and fitted himself for college in his native town, and at the age of fourteen entered Williams College as a freshman. Notwithstanding his comparative youth, he took high rank, and was graduated with honors four years later with the class of '37, being at that time the youngest graduate Williams College ever had. For three or four years after finishing his education, Solomon Noble taught school, and in 1841 came to New York and entered the law office of the late Judge Betts. In three years he completed the course of reading and was admitted to the bar. Deciding to remain in New York, hc located his office at 111 Nassau street. He took a very active interest in politics as a Democrat, and became a member of Tammany Hall. HIc served two terms as a member of the Assembly. For
182
HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND CITY.
nearly a quarter of a century he practiced his profession in New York, and in 1868 he removed to Long Island City and occupied a fine mansion in Ravenswood. After practicing for a time, Mr. Noble formed a partnership with the late Judge Pearse, and a few years later the two partners were candidates against each other for the office of Judge of the City Court, which preceded the present Police Court and had superior powers. Mr. Noble was defeated by a very small majority. His next partner was Isaac Kugleman, which later on was dissolved. Mr. Noble then continued by himself until 1884, when he associated his son, Daniel, in business with him. He took a very conspicuous part in politics, and the last public office which he held was that of District Attorney, having been appointed to that position by his son, the subject of this sketch. In January, 1894, he entered upon the duties of his office, and was actively engaged in the same, when stricken with paralysis. He died at the home of his son, Daniel, in February, 1895. In 1854 Solomon Noble married Miss Agnes, daughter of John Nicolson, a prominent dry goods merchant of New York at that time. Mrs. Noble died in Ravenswood in 1874.
The subject of this sketch, Daniel Noble, was born in Brooklyn, December 25, 1859. He attended the private schools of Brooklyn until 1870, at which time he went to Germany to advance his educa- tion, remaining there until 1876. On his return he became a student of Columbia College, and soon thereafter entered the Columbia Law School, from which he graduated in 1881 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. About that time he entered into business with his father in Long Island City, they continued together until the death of the senior member of the firm, since which time our subject has practiced his profession alone. In 1892 Mr. Noble was elected judge of Long Island City, and in the Fall of 1893 was nominated and elected District Attorney on the Democratic ticket and endorsed by the Republican party.
Judge Noble married Miss Annie Moran, a resident of New York, but a native of Jersey City. He has an attractive home at No. 45 Woolsey street. Mr. Noble is a member of the Episcopal Church, an influential Mason, being a member of Advance Lodge, of Astoria. He is also a member of Knick. erbocker Yacht Club, of College Point; the Williamsburg Yacht Club, of Long Island City; the Astoria Athletic Club, the Long Island City Wheelmen, and is Librarian of the Queens County Bar Association.
REV. JAMES H. MITCHELL, Chancellor of the Diocese of Brooklyn, was born in Astoria, Queens County, N. Y., October 10, 1853. IIe attended the village school, also public school No. 40, of New York City, after which he entered the College of the City of New York. He afterwards attended Manhattan College and graduated therefrom with honors in 1874. In September of the same year he entered the Grand Seminary of Montreal, where he remained until his ordination as Priest, December 22, 1877. By the permission of the Right Rev. Bishop Loughlin he attached himself for awhile to the Sulpician Church of St. Patrick, Montreal, where he labored fourteen months. He was called to Brooklyn and made an assistant at the Cathedral on Jay street. He had charge of St. James Young Men's Catholic Association. In 1882, at the National Convention held in Boston, he was elected first Vice-President of the Catholic Young Men's National Union, and in the following year was elected to succeed Bishop Keane, as President of the organization. Father Mitchell held this office until 1891, when he declined a renomination. After the death of Bishop Loughlin, Father Mitchell was one of those named for the Bishopric, and on the appointment of Bishop McDonnell, he was made Diocesan Chancellor, with pastoral care of St. John's Chapel, the nucleus of the new Cathedral.
ELIPHALET NOTT ANABLE .- New Yorkers are so accustomed to associate with the western end of Long Island the idea of a great and populous city, that few are able to imagine, and fewer still to .remember, the time when farms and country residences occupied the site of Long Island City. The subject of this sketch, still in the prime of life, was born in one of the first houses built on the Hunter farm (from whence the name " Hunter's Point "), September Ist, 1857.
His father, Henry Sheldon Anable, was for over thirty years active and prominent in Queens County as one of the Committee on Incorporation of Long Island City, a commissioner for survey of the city and on the committee on improvements. He also had charge, in trust, of the improvement and sale of the Nott Lands, now part of Brooklyn, as attorney for Union College, to which institution they had been donated by President Eliphalet Nott.
The subject of this sketch, being named after President Nott, is naturally an alumnus of Union, having been prepared for college at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute. While in college he was a
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.