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 25
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Mr. Mills is a most remarkable man. His physical and mental energy was always marvellous, and he retains these characteristics now, at the age of seventy-five years. For thirty years he was an active member of the fire department of New York City, as a private, foreman, assistant engineer, and president of the department. He began the peculiar service by running with Engine No. 13, when he was a boy thirteen years of age. "For a number of years, " says Mr. Sheldon, "he acted as leader of the floor at the annual ball of the department, and also as treasurer of the ball committee. In a single night often he would be at the treasurer's office, would leave for the ball-room and show the firemen how to dance, would run with his engine to a fire, and then return and dance until morning.
Mr. Mills, in his prime, had a voice of wonderful power. "He had a throat like a lion," said an old fireman to Mr. Sheldon. "I slept in the attic of my house in order more easily to hear alarms of fire. I've
Sheldon's " Story of the Volunteer Fire Department, " p. 20.
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heard Zophar Mills's halloo from Pearl Street, when I was in bed in William Street, ' Turn out ! turn out ! Fire ! fire !' Of course when he yelled that. out I went. The tones of his voice had come to me through five blocks-from Pearl to Cliff Street, from Cliff to Vande- water, from Vandewater to Rose, and from Rose to William-say eight hundred feet at least, and they could be heard distinctly at that distance." On one occasion he ran all the way from Pearl Street to the Hell Gate ferry, at Eighty-sixth Street, and then crossed the river. Mr. Mills was born in the city of New York in September, 1809 .*
The New York Fire Department has always been prompt and ener- getic in responding to the public desires when any great parade of citi- zens was to take place, like that of the reception of Lafayette in 1824, the great canal celebration the next year, in honor of the revolution in France in 1830, the introduction of the Croton water in 1842, and the completion of the laying of the Atlantic cable in 1S5S.
In 1791 some members of the Volunteer Fire Department, at a con- vivial party, initiated measures for creating a fund called the " Fire Department Fund," for the benefit of indigent and disabled firemen. In the charter of the department, obtained in 1798, there was a provi- sion for the maintenance of such a fund. For a long series of years the recipients of the benefits were few, and a surplus was accumulated. It was invested in fire-insurance stock, and was all lost when the great fire of 1835 ruined many insurance companies. But the citizens of New York, appreciating the services of the department, came to the rescue, and contributed 824,000 toward a reinstatement of the fund. It experienced vicissitudes afterward, and the Legislature gave it aid at one time.
After the volunteer system was succeeded by a Paid Fire Depart- ment, this trust was confided to the Exempt Volunteer Firemen. It then amounted to 890,000 ; it is now (1883) over $130,000. The Paid Fire Department has a fund of more than $400,000. From time to time this fund of the volunteer firemen was increased by the pro- ceeds of entertainments freely given by theatres, etc. Among the most active promoters of that fund was the now venerable John W. Degrauw, who was an energetic fireman from 1816 to 1837. For many years he was president of the fire department. +
.** In December, 1853, on the retirement of Mr. Mills from the office of president of the fire department, a series of complimentary resolutions was passed, and in August, 1853, the representatives of that department presented him with a tea-service of silver which cost $1000.
+ John W. Degrauw was an active merchant at the beginning of 1883, although then
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The Association of Exempt Firemen was formed in 1841, for the purpose of protecting the benevolent fund of the department, for there had been at that early day some talk of a Paid Fire Department. In the fall of 1843 the name of the society was changed to " The Associa- tion of Exempt Firemen of the City of New York," with the avowed object of affording such aid to the fire department in the city as lay in their power. The first president of the association was Uzziah Wen- man ; the present (1883) incumbent is Zophar Mills, elected in 1876.
The bill establishing the Paid Fire Department in the city of New York was passed by the Legislature on the 30th of March, 1865. The department as a body had vehemently opposed the measure. It was intimated that the firemen would, in a body, resign and abandon their apparatus. There was much excitement in the city. On one engine- house were posted the words " To let ;" on another, " Closed in conse- quence of a death in the family ;" and on another, "Shut up for one vear ; occupants gone to Saratoga." The firemen met in most of the engine-houses to consider the situation, and most of them " took the
nearly eighty-six years of age, having been born in May, 1797, in the ward in which his store now is, No. 67 Washington Street. He is of Huguenot descent. His father and grandfather were soldiers during the whole of the old war for independence. He went into a store as clerk seventy-five years ago, and has been in business ever since.
" I'll tell you how I live," Mr. Degrauw said to the author of " The Story of the Vol- unteer Fire Department" in 1880. " I ride every day, and go to bed every night at nine o'clock. I get my dinner here [in his store-he lives in Brooklyn]-they send it to me from home -- and take a little drop of brandy and water. I'll show you my dinner to- day." He brought out a little basket containing a bottle of preserved berries, a cup of custard, and some bread and butter. "I go home for supper ; no meat, but a piece of toast, something light, and a cup of tea. Then to bed (unless somebody comes in), and half a wineglass of brandy or gin. I never chewed tobacco. I have smoked about all my life, but I've given that up now. At present I burn only two or three cigars a day."
Mr. Degrauw is a remarkable man. His memory goes back to the earlier days of this century, when " boys skated from Broadway near Pearl Street to the North River," and flew their kites on the green hills at Leonard Street, beyond the old hospital, " away out in the country." He helped cast up intrenchments at McGowan's Pass (now in Central Park), Manhattanville, and Brooklyn during the war of 1812. He served a term in the State Legislature, and at an early age became an active volunteer fireman. He has ever been a passionate lover of flowers, and he introduced the custom of decorating the coffin and the church with flowers at funerals. For thirteen years he was president of the old Brooklyn Horticultural Society. Of music too he is fond, and has been for many years a member of the executive committee of the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Mr. Degrauw was a volunteer fireman twenty years, a member of Company 16 during the whole time. For several years he was a trustee and president of the fire depart- ment ; chairman of the school committee of the Trustees' Fund provided for the educa- tion of firemen's children ; helped to make arrangements for the earliest firemen's balls, and secured benefits from the managers of theatres.
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matter philosophically." At a meeting at Firemen's Hall, on the first of April, Chief-Engineer Decker advised the firemen to continue their services to the city, and there was a most generous spirit displayed. By their conduct at that crisis the firemen of New York won the respect and gratitude of the citizens. The Volunteer Fire Department was disbanded, and the Paid Fire Department took its place. The property of the department was turned over to a board of fire commis- sioners, appointed by the governor of the State.
The changed conditions of the city made this revolution in the fire department necessary. The introduction of steam fire-engines dimin- ished the number of men necessary to the successful working of the machines. The rapid extension of the area of the city and other con- ditions made it advisable to have a fire department composed of men who would give their entire time to the extinguishment of fires.
The firemen of New York City have ever been ready to act promptly and bravely in defence of their country. In the war of the Revolu- tion, in the second war for independence, and in the late Civil War, their conduct, at home and in the field, was ever conspicuous."
The steam fire-engine was introduced into the city of New York in 1841. The frequency and extent of conflagrations in the city during the winter of 1839-40 called the attention of the citizens generally, and of the insurance companies in particular, to the subject of adopting more efficient means for extinguishing fires than the city possessed.
* Scores of anecdotes, amusing and pathetic, have been related concerning the conduct of New York firemen. The following characteristic one will suffice as an example :
" In Barnum's old Museum, on the present site of the Herald office, some firemen once appeared as actors in a play entitled The Patriots of '76. Barnum's manager had ob- served that the Lady Washington Light Guards, a target company composed of members of Engine Company No. 40, marched with considerable precision, having been drilled industriously. 'Why not get them to perform some of their evolutions in our new mili- tary play ? ' he thought. The idea was not distasteful to the men of the engine company, and they agreed to accept the proposal and turn over the proceeds of the engagement to some of their number who were out of work. In due time they appeared on the stage of the lecture-room of the Museum, some dressed as Hessians and Continentals, others as Indians, and one as Moll Pitcher, the famous heroine of Revolutionary days ; but while in the midst of a most exciting act the City Hall bell sounded an aların of fire. 'Boys,' cried their foreman, who was acting with them, ' boys, there's a fire in the Seventh Dis- triet !' The words had scarcely escaped his lips when his thirty comrades bolted from the stage, rushed up Broadway for their engine, and soon returned with it-the most extraordinary looking fire company ever seen in the streets of a civilized or uncivilized community, Moll Pitcher at the head of the rope, and a live Indian brandishing a fore- man's trumpet. On reaching the fire, followed by a motley and jeering crowd, they applied themselves earnestly to the brakes, while the manager in the Museum was endeavoring to explain to his audience the cause of his sudden dilemma."
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FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840.
The untiring efforts of the well-organized Volunteer Fire Department seemed insufficient to perform the arduous duties required of them, and general alarm pervaded the community.
At this juncture the Mechanics' Institute of the City of New York offered its gold medal-the highest honor within its gift-as a reward for the best method of applying steam as a motor for fire-engines. Several plans were submitted, and the award was given to Captain John Ericsson, an eminent Swedish engineer, who had recently come to America from England. He estimated the power of the engine which he proposed to be equal to that of 108 men. *
Boston, Philadelphia. Baltimore, and Cincinnati had steam fire- engines before New York, owing to the opposition of the Volunteer Fire Department in the latter city. It was seen that if four or five men could handle a machine, there was no use of having sixty men and several assistants to do the work. The occupation of the Volunteer Department would be gone. This opposition was effectual to prevent their introduction for many years. The chief engineer, so late as 1859, said to the common council that their introduction " would embarrass seriously the volunteer system."
Through the exertions of the underwriters a steam fire-engine appeared in the city in 1841. It was built by Paul Hodge & Co., in Laight Street. It could throw 10,000 pounds of water through a two and one eighth inch nozzle to a height of 160 feet a minute. But it was embarrassed in various ways by the practical opposition of the firemen. Nevertheless the steamers by their own merits finally con- quered all opposition, and when the volunteers perceived their intro- duction inevitable, they wisely concluded the new machines would be valuable auxiliaries of the hand-engines. In time the steamers su- perseded the latter, and now (1883) the city of New York possesses about fifty steam fire-engines and as many hose-tenders.
* Engravings of this engine, elevation and plans, were made by the author of this work, and published in Mapes's Repertory of Arts, Science, and Manufactures for October, 1840 ; also in the Family Magazine, edited by the present writer.
CHAPTER XII.
A T the beginning of the first decade the city of New York was furnished with an amended charter. A city convention, com- posed of five members from each ward (sixty-five in all), chosen by the people in pursuance of a recommendation of the common council, met in June, 1829, for the purpose of revising and proposing amendments to the charter. A series of amendments was agreed to, after a pro- tracted discussion. These were submitted to the people of the several wards, and approved by them in ratification meetings. Application was then made to the Legislature to ratify these amendments by law, and to make them a part of the charter. This was done on April ?, 1830.
The essential alterations in the charter consisted in a division of the common council into two distinct boards, consisting of a board of alder- men and a board of assistants, to sit and act separately, with concurrent and equal powers. These two boards constituted together the legisla- tive department of the municipal government. It provided that every law, ordinance, or resolution of the common council must pass both boards, and be submitted to the mayor before it passes, and if he, within ten days, returned the same with objections, it must be reconsid- ered, and pass both boards by a majority of all the members elected to each before it became a law of the corporation.
It provided for the choice, for one year. of one alderman and one assistant alderman in each ward. The two boards were empowered to direct a special election to fill any vacancy that might occur in their respective boards. Each board was given authority to compel the attendance of absent members, to punish members for disorderly be- havior, and to expel a member with the concurrence of two thirds of the members elected to cach board. Any law, ordinance, or resolution might originate in either board, and might be amended or rejected by the other.
It prohibited any member of either board from holding any office of which the emoluments were paid from the city treasury, or by fees directed to be paid by any ordinance of the common council, or from
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FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840.
being interested, directly or indirectly, in any contract, the expense of which should be paid by the city government.
Hitherto the mayor and recorder were ex-officio members of the common council ; the amended charter declared that neither of these officers should be a member of the council after the second Tuesday in May, 1831. The mayor, as before, was to be appointed by the gov- ernor of the State, by and with the consent of the State Senate ; but by the alteration of the charter, and by act of the Legislature, March 3. 1834, it was provided that the chief magistrate of the city should be chosen annually by the electors of the municipality.
The amended charter provided that in the absence of the mayor, or when there should be a vacancy in the office, the president of the board of aldermen should exercise the functions of mayor. The mayor was required to communicate to the common council at least once a year (oftener if required) a general statement of the condition of the city government, finances, and improvements, and recommend such meas- ures as he should deem expedient. The common council were prohib- ited from borrowing moneys on the credit of the corporation, except in anticipation of the revenue of the year, unless by a special act of the Legislature, and their intention to do so must be published two months preceding the charter election. It provided that the executive business of the corporation should be performed by distinct departments, which it was the duty of the common council to organize and appoint for that purpose.
This charter remained in force and unamended until 1849, excepting in the matter relating to the election of the mayor by the people. The first chief magistrate of the city chosen by the electors was Cornelius W. Lawrence, who was elected by the Democratic party in 1834.
For several years previous to the creation of this amended charter, New York had been governed by one body, composed of the mayor, recorder, and common council (the latter consisting of one alderman and assistant alderman from each ward), sitting in one chamber. The corporation was vested with the power of enacting municipal laws and of enforcing their observance, under proper penalties. The mayor. recorder, and aldermen were er-officio justices of the peace, having power to hold courts of General Sessions and to decide as to all offences coming under the cognizance of the regular justices of the peace. They were likewise included in the commission of Over and Terminer for the trial of capital offences, and were empowered to hold a court of Connon Pleas, which had been called the Mayor's Court. in which civil actions of every description were tried.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
In 1821 a permanent law judge was appointed to preside in the Mayor's Court, an act having been passed changing the name to the Court of Common Pleas for the City of New York. This act was drawn by John Anthon, then the most prominent practitioner in the Mayor's Court. The officer thus created was called the first judge, to hold office during good behavior, or until he should attain the age of sixty years. In 1822 the term of this office was changed to five years, and the power of appointment, theretofore lodged in the Council of Appointment, was vested in the governor of the State. The mayor, recorder, and aldermen were still authorized to sit in that court. but the first judge was empowered to hold the court without them ; indeed it was made his special duty to hold it. John T. Irving, a brother of Washington Irving, was the first judge appointed under this law, and the mayor in 1821-23 (Stephen Allen) ceased to preside in this court. In 1823 Richard Riker, the recorder, took the place of the mayor as the presiding judge of the Court of Sessions, and Irving sat as the judge of the Court of Common Pleas. This court was changed in 1846.
Judge Irving (born in 1778) was, in many respects, a model judge. He was remarkable for strict integrity, a strong love of justice, and for exact and methodical habits. He was attentive, careful, painstaking ; considered every case so attentively that his judgments were rarely reversed, and were uniformly treated by courts of revision with great respect.
Like his brother Washington, he had talent and taste for literary composition. He published in the newspapers, particularly in the Morning Chronicle, a Democratic journal started by his brothers, prose and poetical pieces, especially poetical attacks upon his political oppo- nents, remarkable for their point, brilliancy, and satire. When he became judge his conscientious application to his duties ended his lit- erary career, and no doubt shortened his life. At his death, which occurred in March, 1838, at the age of sixty, the bar of New York caused a handsome marble tablet, with his bust in relief and a suitable inscription in Latin, to be placed in the court-room. The following is a copy of the inscription :
" VIRO . HONORATO JOANNE . T . IRVING
QVEM . JVDICES . OFFICIO . MULTOS . PER . ANNOS . FUNCENTEM
ET . LEGVM . DOCTRINI . ET . MORVM . INTEGRITAS . FELICISSIMIE . CONDECORABANT IVRISCONSULTI . NEO . EBORACENSES . QVIBVS . ET . AMICI . ET . MAGISTRI
TAM . TRISTE . RELQVIT . DESIDERVAI H . M . PONENDVM . CVRAVERVNT."
Sung by se. I Permite.
- Vila
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FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840.
It was during the presidency of Judge Irving in the Court of Com- mon Pleas that New York presented a remarkable array of brilliant lawyers. In that court might have been seen Thomas Addis Emmet," Peter A. Jay, t Peter W. Radcliffe, Samuel M. Hopkins, John Anthon.+ Martin S. Wilkins, Elisha W. King, David B. Ogden, William Samson, William Slosson, Pierre C. Van Wyck, John T. Mulligan, Robert Bogardus, Thomas Phoenix, Joseph D. Fay, David Graham, Sen., Hugh Maxwell, John Leveridge, Ogden Hoffman (then rapidly rising in the profession), and others.
There was a Court of Sessions, a Court of Oyer and Terminer, a Marine Court, and ward district courts. The Court of Sessions was a tribunal for determining in all cases of felony and of offences committed within the city, and had power to appoint special sessions of the peace for the same purposes. The judges of the Court of Sessions consisted of the recorder and two aldermen ; that of the Court of Over and Terminer consisted of the recorder and aldermen, and was empowered to try all cases of treason, felony, and other inferior crimes. The Marine Court was a tribunal consisting of three judges, two of whom were
* Thomas Addis Emmet, LL.D., a political refugee from Ireland, was an eminent member of the New York bar. He was born in Cork in 1764, and died in New York City in November, 1827. An obelisk of white marble marks his grave in St. Paul's church- yard, near Broadway. He was a brother of the celebrated Irish patriot and martyr, Robert Emmet, and a son of a distinguished Dublin physician. He studied medicine in Edinburgh and law in England, was admitted to the Dublin bar in 1791, and soon rose to distinction in his profession. He was a leader of the league known as United Irish- men, and was one of the general committee of that body. During the outbreak in Ire- land in 1798 he was arrested, with others, and suffered imprisonment in Scotland more than two years, during which time he wrote a work entitled " Pieces of Irish History," on which he had been engaged, and illustrative of the condition of the Roman Catholics in Ireland, which was printed in New York in 1807. He was finally permitted to with- draw to France, where he was joined by his family, and came to America, arriving at New York in November, 1804. There he soon became distinguished in his profession as a laborious and successful pleader and finished orator. In 1812 he was attorney-general of the State of New York, but served only six months. In 1821 Columbia College conferred on Mr. Emmet the honorary degree of LL.D.
t Peter Augustus Jay was the eldest son of Governor Jolin Jay, and was his private secretary while governor and chief justice. He was president of the New York Histori- cal Society, and an active member of the New York bar. In 1816 he represented a dis- triet in the New York Assembly, and was recorder of New York City in 1812-20. Colum- bia College conferred on him the honorary degree of LL. D.
# John Anthon, LL.D., was a native of Detroit, where he was born in 1784. He was in the military service in the war of 1812. He was a most industrions lawyer, and tried more causes, it is said, than any other man, at the New York bar or elsewhere. He was instrumental in establishing the Superior Court in the city of New York, and the Law Institute. He was president of the latter at the time of his death, in March, 1863. He published several works of great interest to the legal profession.
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always present at a trial, or no legal decision could be obtained. It was empowered to try actions for debt to the amount of $100 or less, to determine seamen's wages to any amount, and in actions of assault and battery or false imprisonment among seamen and passengers. It was distinct from all other courts of justice ; it had no power to hold sessions of the peace, but as to keeping the peace its officers had the same power as other magistrates. The ward district courts tried ques- tions of debt and trespass to the amount of $50 ; also all petty cases, such as came under the cognizance of justices of the peace in towns. The sessions were held every day excepting Sundays and holidays. The district courts now are similar to those of 1830.
The duties of the police of the city at that time were regulated and discharged by three justices appointed for the purpose by the common council. The chancellor. justices of the Supreme Court, and members of the common council might attend the sessions of the Police Court, which were held every day excepting Sunday, and assist the police. justices. At least one police justice and the police clerk had to be in attendance at sunrise every morning to take cognizance of offences committed during the night against the peace and good order of the city. Besides the ordinary duties of examining persons brought up for breaches of the peace and other offences, and binding over the parties to be prosecuted at the sessions when that appeared necessary, the police magistrates possessed powers, in certain cases, similar to those exercised by aldermen of the city in certain cases out of the sessions, such as " illegitimate children, apprentices, servants, vagrants, vaga- bonds," etc. For these sessions they received the same fees as alder- men, besides a fixed salary.
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