USA > New York > New York City > History of New York City : embracing an outline sketch of events from 1609 to 1830, and a full account of its development from 1830 to 1884, Volume I > Part 16
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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 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46
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FIRST DECADE. 1830-1840.
In 1857 the requirements of business caused the removal of the college to its domain on Madison Avenue, where it occupies a block bounded 1,; Madison and Fourth avenues. between Forty-ninth and Fiftieth streets. The old edifices on the " Church Farm" were demolished, and their site and the College Green are now occupied by streets and magnificent warehouses.
The debt of the college had increased to more than 823.000 at the time of the removal, but by the sale of its property in the lower part of the city and sixteen lots of the Botanic Garden, all of which had risen enormously in value, it rapidly reduced the debt, notwithstand- ing its greatly increased expenditures in money and the establishment of new departments. In 1863, for the first time in twenty years, its income was more than its expenses, and in 1872 the institution was entirely free from debt. President Barnard justly says :
" If, therefore, our college is to be called to answer at the bar of public opinion for the use she has made of the means at her command in advancing the higher education, it may fairly be claimed on her be- half that the inquiry should not extend beyond the last fifteen years. But within that period she may confidently challenge any institution of similar character, of this country or any other, to show a more honor- able record." *
In 1860 an arrangement was made by which the College of Physi- cians and Surgeons of the City of New York (which had been incorpo- rated with the Medical School of Columbia College in 1813) was adopted as the medical department of the latter institution.
Early in 1863 Mr. Thomas Egleston, Jr., proposed a plan for the establishment of a school of mines and metallurgy in connection with the college. It was adopted by the trustees, and the school went into operation in 1864. Mr. Egleston was appointed professor of mineralogy and metallurgy, and General Francis L. Vinton professor of mining engineering. To these professorships was added a chair of analytical and applied chemistry, which was filled by Professor C. F. Chandler. This department is a most important addition to the educational facili- ties offered by Columbia College. t
President Charles King having resigned early in 1864, the Rev. Frederick A. P. Barnard, S. T.D., was chosen to fill his place. Dr. Barnard has performed the difficult functions of that exalted office with signal fidelity and ability for nearly twenty years. He has had the
* President Barnard's " Annual Report made to the Trustees," May 1, 1882.
+ See " A Historical Sketch of Columbia College, 1751-1876," by Professor J. H. Van Amringe, prepared at the request of the National Bureau of Education.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
supreme satisfaction of seeing the institution grow continually wit unwonted and increasing vigor, displaying under his wise and officier .: administration strength and beauty in every part of its economy."
* Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard, D.D., LL.D., S.T.D., was born in Sheffield Mass., May 5, 1809. He is a lineal descendant in the seventh generation of Fran" .. Barnard, of Coventry, Warwickshire, England, who came to Massachusetts Bay in Io.a. and afterward settled first at Hartford, Conn., and then at Hadley, Mass. His moth. : was descended in the eighth generation from John Porter, of Warwickshire, who can. to Massachusetts Bay in 1626, and was a descendant in the sixteenth generation fro !! William de la Grande, a knight who followed William the Conqueror from Normandy into England in 1166. His son was grande porteur to Henry I. (1120-40), from which. circumstance he received the name of Porter, afterward borne by his family.
President Barnard's father was Robert Foster Barnard, of Sheffield, Mass., a lawyer .. repute and several times State Senator. His mother was Augusta, daughter of Dr. Joshua Porter, of Salisbury, Conn.
At the age of six years Frederick began the study of Latin. He was prepared for col. lege at fifteen, and entered Yale in 1824. At nineteen he graduated second in the honer list. Early in his college course he was distinguished, especially in the pure mathemat- ies and exact sciences, in which, before the close of his sophomore year, he was the recognized leader of the whole school.
On his graduation young Barnard became an instructor in a Hartford grammar school, where he formed the acquaintance of John G. Whittier, the poet, which ripened into warm friendship that has continued unabated for half a century.
In 1830 Mr. Barnard became a tutor in Yale College, but menaces of failing health caused him soon to resign. The next year he was an instructor in the Deaf and Dum! Asylum at Harttord, and in 1832 beld the same position in the New York Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb under the late Dr. Harvey P. Peet. While in this institution he prepared and published a volume embodying the results of his experience in teaching language, entitled .. Analytical Grammar, with Symbolie Illustrations." He also rendered important service to Mr. Peet in the preparation of the annual reports.
In 1837 Mr. Barnard accepted an invitation to the chair of mathematics and natural philosophy in the University of Alabama, at Tuscaloosa. That position he occupied twelve years, when he was transferred to the chair of chemistry and natural history in the same institution. During his connection with the university he built an astronomi- cal observatory for the institution, contributed frequently to the American Journal of Science and literary periodicals, and for several years had the editorial management (anonymously) of a weekly political newspaper published at Tuscaloosa.
In 1846 the governor of Alabama appointed Professor Barnard astronomer on the part of that State to assist in determining the true boundary line between Alabama and Florida. Each State appointed one commissioner and an astronomical adviser. The astronomer appointed by Florida failed to appear, and Professor Barnard was employed by both States. His report, submitted to the Legislatures of the respective States, was regarded as conclusive, and settled the long-pending boundary controversy.
During the excitement which followed the war with Mexico, when, in Alabama and elsewhere in the South, a strong desire for a dissolution of the Union was excited by demagogues, and with so munch violence that Union men dared not speak above a whisper in some places. Professor Barnard was invited by citizens of Tuscaloosa to deliver an oration on the 4th of July. He accepted the invitation, with the understanding that he
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FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840.
In the year 1867 the whole number of students matriculated at Columbia College (the School of Arts, the School of Mines, and the
should freely speak on the burning question of the day. He did so with a boldness and with logic which silenced the disunionists. The speech was published and widely circulated, and was one of the chief instruments in allaying the disunion craze in that region for years. His many public addresses on other topics-art culture, varied indus- tries, railroads, and other subjects of moment-created new social aspirations in that region, which led to permanent beneficial results.
In 1854 Professor Barnard accepted an invitation to the chair of mathematics and natural philosophy in the University of Mississippi, and he was the chief instrument in finally securing to that institution the benefits of a national endowment fund, of which it had been for many years deprived by neglect.
While Professor Barnard was attending a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science at Albany, in the summer of 1856, he was elected president of the University of Mississippi, a title which was changed to chancellor in 1858. He at once inaugurated measures for the moral and educational reform of the institution. This movement was in successful progress when the late civil war broke out in 1861. The university was soon afterward broken up, and Chancellor Barnard resigned his office. On his departure the board of trustees conferred on him the honorary title of Doctor of Divinity, he having taken orders in the Protestant Episcopal Church. He had received the honorary degree of LL.D. from his alma mater, Yale College, in 1859.
Dr. Barnard was refused a passport to his native State, and with his wife he remained a long time in Norfolk watching an opportunity for escape. When General Wool took that city in 1862, they went to Washington, where they were cordially received by Presi. dent Lincoln at a full cabinet meeting. Professor Barnard was soon afterward appoint- ed director of the map and chart department of the Coast Survey, the chief business of which then was the preparation of " war maps" almost daily.
In May, 1864, Dr. Barnard was elected president of Columbia College in the city of New York, and was inaugurated with much ceremony at the beginning of the college year in September following. In his admirable inaugural address President Barnard made valuable suggestions of improvements in the educational policy of the institution. In that direction he has labored incessantly, with the most satisfactory results ; and to-day he stands in the foremost rank of educators as a reformer of systems of learning. and as a champion for the higher education of women. Has kept constantly in view the idea of making Columbia College a true university. The condition of the institution now is the best commentary on the wise and efficient labors of President Barnard in its behalf. Its School of Mines is his offspring.
During his administration for nineteen years President Barnard has been conspicuous in labors in scientific fields outside of Columbia College. He was one of the fifty incorpo- rators of the National Academy of Seiences, and succeeded Agassiz as its foreign seere- tary. He was one of the ten United States commissioners to the Paris Exposition in 1867. and made an exhaustive report on the Machinery and Processes of the Industrial Arts and the Apparatus of the Exact Sciences. President Barnard visited Europe several times afterward.
President Barnard has taken great interest in the subject of the metric system of weights, measures, and moneys. At the request of Professor Henry and other eminent scientists, he called a meeting of gentlemen interested in international questions, for the purpose of forming an organization to promote the unification of the various discordant national systems of weights, measures, and moneys. An association was formed at Colum-
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
School of Law-established in 1858) * was five hundred and fourte. The number of matriculates in the three departments in the w .. . ending in May, 1882, was one thousand and fifty-four-an increase ! one hundred and fifty per cent.
The general college library contains more than twenty thousn. ! volumes. The total number of volumes in all the libraries of the inst: tution is about fifty thousand, nearly all selected in reference to the- wants of the various professors.
Columbia College has in all its faculties, including the president. about one hundred and twenty-five professors, instructors, and assist. ants, and the total number of students in all the schools averages fully fifteen hundred.
At the beginning of 1883 Columbia College had incurred a debt, in the construction of buildings on the Botanic Garden (the square bounded by Forty-ninth and Fiftieth streets and Madison and Fourth
bia College for this purpose in 1973, called the American Metrological Society, of which Dr. Barnard has been president until now (1883).
Dr. Barnard was the editor-in-chief of " Johnson's Cyclopedia," to which he contrib .. uted several original articles. He is an honorary member of scientific and literary sock. ties at home and abroad. In 1847 he married Margaret McMurray, daughter of Robert McMurray, Esq. (originally of Cumberland, England), his true wife and loving helpinat . for thirty six years. She has resided in this country since her infancy. "To the encouragement derived from her good sense, energy, and sanguine temperament, " her husband wrote to the author of this work, " I am largely indebted for whatever succes, may have attended me in life."
* The School of Arts is the nucleus of the college, around which the other schools have grown. The course of instruction embraces the branches that are commonly understood under the title of " a classical education."
The School of Mines constitutes the scientific department of the college, and is divided into five parallel courses of mining engineering, civil engineering, metallurgy, geology. and natural history ; also analytical and applied chemistry. The course occupies four years.
The Law School until recently was located in a building at the corner of Lafayette Place and Great Jones Street. The course occupies two years.1
There is also a School of Political Science, opened in October, 1880, and designed to give a complete general view of all the subjects, both of external and internal public policy. from the threefold standpoint of history, law, and philosophy. The full course of in- struction occupies three years. On the satisfactory completion of one year the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy is conferred ; on the satisfactory completion of three years. the degree of Doctor of Philosophy is conferred.
Columbia has also a grammar school, coeval with the college from its beginning is King's College.
The faculty of the Law School is composed of the president of Columbia College and five professors. President Barnard i- president of the Law School ; Robert Senftner, L.L. B. is secretary, and Herbert W. Grindal. B.S., is librarian.
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FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840.
avenues), of over $100,000, and will reach nearly $300,000 by Septem- ber, 1883. Its income, however, is nearly $40,000 more than its ordi- nary expenses, and this is continually increasing. The trustees desire to raise the institution to the dignity of a first-class university. On April 3, 1883, they gave to the public a detailed statement of the financial affairs of the college, and declared that it needed an endow- ment of $4,000,000 to accomplish the great object of their desire. The people of the great city of New York will furnish this sum.
Among the existing literary associations of the city, THE NEW YORK SOCIETY LIBRARY is the oldest. It was founded in 1754. The germ of the society may be found in a small collection of books called " The Corporation Library," founded during the administration of the Earl of Bellomont, in the year 1700. It constantly increased in size and importance until the year 1729, when it received a large accession from England.
The Rev. Dr. Millington, rector of Newington, England, bequeathed over 1600 volumes to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. The secretary of that society, in a letter dated Sep- tember 23, 1728, informed John Montgomeric, then governor of the Province of New York, that the Propagation Society intended to place the one thousand volumes in the city of New York as a library for the " use of the clergy and gentlemen" of the provinces of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut, and requested the governor to recommend the Assembly to provide a suitable place for the deposit and preservation of those books, and others that might be added to them. The Assembly made such provision in 1729. They were placed in the custody of the corporation of the city.
The greater portion of these books were on theological subjects, the choicest reading of that day, and the sending of those books to the city for such a purpose was acknowledged with gratitude as a gracious and generous act.
In 1754 a number of gentlemen of the city resolved to establish a public library. Subscriptions for the purpose were solicited, and very soon the sum of $1250 was subscribed, with which seven hundred vol- umes were purchased. They were all new books, and more miscellane- ous in their character. An association called the New York Society Library was formed. The price of a share was $12.50, and an annual fee of $1.50 was required of each shareholder. The new books were sleposited with the volumes of the Corporation Library and the books received from England. The collection was then known as " The City Library."
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
On November 25, 1772, Governor William Tryon granted the asso- ciation an act of incorporation, under the title of The Trustees of the New York Society Library. The charter confirmed the terms of mem- bership already determined on by the founders of the society, and the care of the institution was intrusted to twelve trustees, annually elected. It was empowered to hold property not to exceed, in yearly value, 84400, and to erect a building to be known as " The New York Society Library."
This institution was flourishing ; the number of its books was rapidly increasing, by donations and otherwise, when the war for inde- pendence broke out, in 1775. During the seven or eight years that the war raged (a large portion of that period the city of New York was occupied by British troops) the principal part of the books were scat- tered and destroyed.
The operations of the library were resumed in 1788, when the stock- holders elected a board of trustees, * and it was ever afterward a kindly fostered and cherished institution of the city. The Legislature con- firmed its charter in 1789. The library was deposited in the City Hall, and there it remained until 1795, when its growing importance de- manded more extensive accommodations.
New York City having been the seat of the National Government during the earlier years of its existence under the National Constitu- tion, and its sessions being held in the City Hall in Wall Street, the Society Library was for a while the library of Congress.
Additional subscribers having been obtained, land was purchased in Nassau street (a part of Joseph Winter's garden), between Cedar and Liberty streets, opposite the Middle Dutch Church (late the City Post- Office). There a substantial brick building was erected, and the second story was fitted up for the use of the library. It was one of the most conspicuous edifices in the city at that day. and to it the library was removed in 1795. There it continued until 1836, when the increasing commerce of the city compelled the trustees to seek another situation. The property in Nassau Street was sold, a lot was purchased on Broad- way, corner of Leonard Street, and while a building was being erected on it the library occupied the rooms of the Mechanics' Society in Chambers Street.
In 1840 the building on Broadway was finished, and the library was
* The following gentlemen were chosen trustees : Robert R. Livingston, Robert Watts, Brockholst Livingston, Samuel Jones, Walter Rutherford, Matthew Clarkson, Peter Ketteltas. Samuel Bard, Hugh Gaine, Daniel C. Verplanck, Edward Griswold, Henry Remsen.
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FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840.
removed to it. Thirteen years later this property was soll, and the library occupied rooms in the Bible House, at Eighth Street and Fourth Avenue. The lot on which the building it now occupies stands, in University Place, was purchased, and the edifice erected upon it was completed in the spring of 1856. The library first occupied it in May of that year.
The first catalogue, issued after its removal, printed in 1792, showed that the library then contained about five thousand volumes. In 1813 the number was thirteen thousand, and in 1830 nearly twenty thousand. It has received from time to time valuable donations of books and liberal bequests of money. The largest gift the library ever received was that of Mrs. Sarah II. Green, from the estate of her de- ceased husband, John C. Green. The amount was $50,000. It was presented in 1580, with a stipulation that the income from the fund should be used for the purchase of books, one half for costly illustrated works for " the John C. Green alcove," and one half for works for circulation. This alcove of books had its origin in a munificent gift of the late John (. Green, of the city of New York. A special attendant has charge of that alcove, so that its treasures may always be open for inspection. The income from ground rent of property owned by the society in Chatham Street is set apart as the income of the " John C. Green Fund."
The library now contains about eighty thousand volumes. Its shares (with annual dues commuted) are $150 cach, or by payment of $10 a year, $25. There is a reading-room connected with the library, open for the use of shareholders, and of strangers for one month when intro- duced by a member. Non-members are allowed to consult the books by the payment of twenty-five cents each time. The society has no debts .*
One of the oldest associations in the city of New York, vet in pros- perous and useful operation, is THE GENERAL SOCIETY OF MECHANICS AND TRADESMEN. It has certainly been in existence since 1784.
The first meetings of the society of which any records exist were held at the house of Walter Hver, in November, 1755, in King's Street. now Pine Street. In 1802 the society bought a lot (size 26.06 by 98.3 feet) at the corner of (present) Park Place and Broadway, vet in its possession, for the sum of $6325. The next year they erected a build- ing on the lot at a cost of about 823,000, making the whole cost a little
* The officers of the society in 1883 were : Robert Lenox Kennedy, president : Edward Schell, treasurer ; John M. Knox, secretary ; Wentworth S. Butler, librarian.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
more than $29,000. The premises now rent for more than $24,000 a year.
In 1792 a charter was obtained from the Legislature, and has been renewed from time to time. It was amended in 1821, to allow of the establishment of a school for the free education of the children of poor or deceased members, and a library for the use of apprentices. An amendment in 1833 provided for the setting apart of certain receipts as sacred to the purpose of disseminating literary and scientific knowl- edge. Another amendment in 1842 allowed its then free school to be- come a pay school for those who could afford to pay, and to allow the establishment of a separate fund for the support of the Apprentices' Library and Reading-Rooms.
THE APPRENTICES' LIBRARY was established in 1820. It then con- sisted of eight hundred volumes, most of which had been contributed by members of the General Society and philanthropic citizens. The library at first was only open in the evening, the books being handed out to the readers by members of a committee. It maintained a feeble existence for many years. In 1850 it contained about fourteen thou- sand volumes.
The vast increase in the value of the real estate of the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen so enlarged its income that for many years it has been enabled to strengthen every department of its work. especially the Apprentices' Library. From Benjamin Demilt the library received a bequest of $7500, besides his private library, a very valuable collection of standard works. Pierre Lorillard also be- queathed to the library fund 85000, which was entirely devoted to the purchase of books. On the first of January, 1883, the Apprentices' Library contained sixty-five thousand volumes, of which more than forty thousand are works of a standard character.
In 1832 the society bought a lot with a high school building on it in Crosby Street, where it had its headquarters until the completion, in 1878, of its present commodious four-storied building at Nos. 16 and 18 East Sixteenth Street. In 1533 the association estimated the value of its possessions at about 870,000 above all its debts ; owing to the enormous increase in the value of its real estate, the estimated value of its possessions in 1883 was about 8780.000. It has sixty-eight pension- ers --- nine members, fifty-five widows. and four children. During one year (1881-82) the total number of books drawn from the library was 163.436. The number of visitors to the reading-room during the same time was 36,000.
The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen is a most remark-
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FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840.
able example of the financial success in the management of an institu- non, while all its laudable purposes were carried out with vigor and fidelity .*
* The officers of the society in 1883 were : Daniel Herbert, president ; John H. Rogers and John H. Waydell, vice-presidents ; James G. Burnet, treasurer ; Thomas Earle, secretary, and James Woolley, collector.
CHAPTER VII.
THE NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY is one of the most remarkable
as well as useful institutions in the city of New York. It had just started on a prosperous career, after years of struggle, at the time we are considering (about 1826-30). It had recently cleared itself of debt, and was working vigorously in the cause to which it was devoted. namely, the collection and preservation of whatever might relate to the natural, civil, and ecclesiastical history of the United States in general. and especially to that of the rightfully called Empire State of the Repub- lic. This happy state of affairs had been brought about largely by the exertions of Frederic de Peyster, who was one of its most active and devoted members for more than half a century, and who with the aid of Governor De Witt Clinton had procured from the Legislature of the State a grant of $5000 for the benefit of the struggling association.
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