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 9
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 | 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
These medals were made of white metal. Some were of silver. There were also fifty-one gold medals struck and sent to European monarchs and other distinguished men. They were presented by a committee composed of Recorder Richard Riker, John Agnew, Thomas Bolton, and William A. Davis.
So ended the celebration of the completion and opening of the Grand Erie Canal. It was the beginning of the fulfilment of the prophecy of Joel Barlow in his " Vision of Columbus," published in 1787, in which, alluding to the great discoverer, he wrote :
" He saw, as widely spreads th' inchannelled plain, Where inland realın for ages bloomed in vain, Canals, long winding, ope a watery flight, And distant streams and seas and lakes unite.
" From fair Albania, toward the setting sun, Back, through the midland, length'ning channels run ; Meet the fair lakes, there beauteous towns that lave, And Iludson's joined to fair Ohio's wave."
It was also the dawning of a brighter day in the history of New York-its entrance upon its marvellous career of growth and pros- perity. The prophecies of the earnest friends of the canal, that the im- petus it would give to business of every description in the city and in the interior of the State would speedily produce a wonderful increase in the commerce and wealth of both sections, was speedily fulfilled, and in a measure beyond the expectation of the most sanguine dreamer.
In 1812, when the project had but lately assumed a really tangible shape by the appointment of canal commissioners, these men (Gov-
79
FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840.
erneur Morris, Stephen Van Rensselaer, De Witt Clinton, Peter B. Porter, and others) gave the following prophetic utterance :
" Viewing the extent and fertility of the country with which this canal is to open communication, it is not extravagant to suppose that, when settled, its produce will equal the present export of the United States [858,000,000]. Will it appear improbable that twenty years hence [1832] the canal should annually bring down 250,000 tons ?"
Twenty years after the completion of the canal (1845) there came upon it to tidewater 1,107,000 tons of produce, valued at 845,000,000, and the tolls amounted to $2,500,000. In 1872, the year before the great panic depressed business, the value of property transported on that canal, notwithstanding a three-track railway is laid parallel with it, was about $168,000,000 .*
In the same year when the Erie Canal was completed, and not more than a fortnight before the great celebration of the event in the city of New York, the first ripple of the tide of emigration from Scandinavia appeared. It consisted of a band of Norwegians, 53 in number, who
* At the time of the completion of the Erie Canal, De Witt Clinton was fifty-six years of age, having been born in March, 1769, at Little Britain, Orange County, N. Y., and died at Albany February 11, 1828. He was a son of General James Clinton, and nephew of the eminent first governor of the State of New York, George Clinton.
He was admitted to the bar in 1788, but never practised much. For several years he was the private secretary of Governor Clinton, and the champion of his administration through the public press, being a chaste, vigorous, and prolific writer, and a sound states- man in early life. For several years he was the leader of the Republican or Democratic party in the State of New York. Mr. Clinton was a member of the State Assembly in 1797, of the State Senate 1798-1802, of the United States Senate 1802-03, and mayor of the city of New York 1803-07, 1809-10, 1811-14. He was also a member of the State Senate 1805-11, lieutenant-governor of New York 1811-13, and being opposed to the war of 1812-15, was the peace candidate for the Presidency in 1812. He was governor of the State of New York 1817-22 and 1824-27.
By his wisdom, sagacity, and public spirit, De Witt Clinton did more than any other citizen to promote the growth, prosperity, and good name of the city and State of New York. He was active and efficient in every good work, whether municipal, benevolent, literary, philosophical and scientific, moral and educational. He was one of the found- ers of the American Academy of Fine Arts, of the New York Historical Society, of the public-school system of New York State and city, and was one of the powerful supporters of the canal policy of the State from its inception. He did more than any other man, privately and officially, in the face of fierce opposition and implacable ridicule, to push forward to completion the great Erie Canal, which gave a new birth, as it were, to the commercial metropolis of the nation. And yet. while the public parks and squares of New York are displaying statues of distinguished Americans and Europeans, no person has yet (midsummer of 1883) proposed the erection in the Central Park, or elsewhere. of a statue of DE WITT CLINTON, the brilliant statesman, the profound scholar, and the munificent benefactor of the commercial metropolis of the nation !
80
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
came in a vessel of their own. She was a small craft. They landed in New York, and sold their vessel for 8700. Like Cortez, who when he landed with his followers in Mexico burned the ships that brought them thither, they came to stay.
This was the first Scandinavian emigration to our shores, save the Swedes who came in the seventeenth century, and there was none other until 1836. In the latter year Bjorn Andersen, father of the Nor- wegian scholar R. B. Andersen, who was a Quaker, came to New York with two shiploads of coreligionists, who fied from mild persecutions in Norway. They proceeded to the Western States. This was the beginning of the ever-increasing stream of emigration from Scandinavia to Western and North-Western States and Territories of the Republic- Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Dakota-where they now number more than 1,500,000 persons.
CHAPTER II.
TI WIIE new social elements which had been gradually infused into the life of the city of New York for many years previous to the com- pletion of the Erie Canal were much more conspicuously displayed immediately after that event, in an energetic and daring spirit of busi- ness enterprise.
That spirit had for its solid basis and wise regulation and restraint the conservative elements of the old order of things -- the Knickerbocker Age, as it has been called-the time when the Dutch spirit of broad charity, thrift, economy, liberal benevolence, and steadiness in all things prevailed. That life was characterized by the practise of the sterner virtues : equable lives, common-sense, indomitable persever- ance in every undertaking, whether for personal benefit or for the public welfare ; contented industry, the establishment of institutions of religion, benevolence, science, art, and literature ; in solid intel- lectual cultivation, and in quiet dignity, courtliness, and refinement of manners on all occasions.
" Knickerbocker frugality," says a late writer, " was a blessing to such of the present generation who can trace their genealogy on Man- hattan Island for a century, while those whose titles date back only fifty or sixty years possess millions of substantial reasons to be thank- ful. They have not toiled, neither have they spun ; yet while they have slumbered in idle comfort their inherited acres have changed to city lots, and city lots, no matter how situated, represent dollars and produce income." *
The Knickerbocker's Sabbath symbolized in a degree the conspicuous characteristics of Knickerbocker life : steady, conservative, dispassion- ate, orderly, and devotional.
The Knickerbockers regarded the Sabbath as truly the Lord's Day- a day to be devoted specially to the service of God, and not to temporal pleasures and enjoyments-entertainments and mere recreation. In
* Dayton's " Last Days of Knickerbocker Life in New York."
4
82
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
household affairs as little labor as possible was performed. As a rule, the meals on Sunday were cold collations of the baked meats of Satur- day, and so the servants were allowed to rest. Attendance upon public worship was general and punctual. Three times a day were seen staid processions in the streets of men, women, and children going to or returning from places of divine worship. Friends, when they met, gave only a nod of recognition. Few vehicles were seen in the streets, for omnibuses and street-cars were then unknown, and coaches were seldom out on Sundays. Every precaution was taken to prevent disturbance of worshippers by noises in the streets. So agreed was public opinion on the subject of the holiness of the Sabbath and the necessity for its religious observance, that the few gay young men who disregarded it and took rides into the country beyond Murray Hill and Bloomingdale rather shyly avoided the more public thoroughfares. These sinners were often the subject of earnest intercession at evening prayers.
In some churches the methods were as inflexible as cast-iron. There were no instruments of music heard ; the singing was inharmonious ; the opening prayers were as long as sermons, and the sermons. were rigidly doctrinal, protracted, and tedious.
The Middle Dutch Reformed Church (late the city Post-Office) was one of the oldest and most noted of the places of public worship on Manhattan Island. Its interior arrangements were in strong contrast with the church edifices of to-day. The pulpit was very spacious, occupying the space between the two entrance doors to the church. It was reached by a flight of carpeted stairs on each side of nearly a dozen steps, with mahogany balustrades. Over the pulpit was suspended a sounding-board to send the voice of the preacher in full force to his hearers. Upon the pulpit was a square cushion of velvet for the Bible to rest on, with heavy silk tassels at each corner. The pews, with straight, high backs and narrow seats, forbade all lounging, or even real comfort ; they seemed to have been contrived for doing penance.
On each side of the pulpit in special pews sat the six elders and six deacons, in a position to bring the whole congregation under their in- spection. "These twelve men," wrote a regular attendant on the service there sixty years ago, " seemed to the youthful and irreligious portion of the congregation the incarnation of cold, relentless piety. deserted of every human frailty. When one rose, they all stood up ; when one sat down, they all followed suit, as if acted upon simultaneously by an electric wire. Their black dress-coats seemed to have been made by one tailor ; their white neckeloths cut from one piece of cambric, washed, ironed, and fokted by the same laundress :
-
1
yours Respectively Thuntion with 1
83
FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840.
the bow-knots, even, seemed to have been adjusted by the same hand." *
When the sermon began the twenty-four eyes of the dozen elders and deacons were fixed on the minister, and the younger portion of the congregation felt a relief, for irregularities would not be seen by these devout worshippers while the sermon lasted. "They sat as motionless as statues," says Dayton. "The terrors of the bottomless pit pro- claimed by the uncompromising Brownlee ; the beatitude of the blest hopefully dwelt on by the gentle Knox ; the pressing invitations to repentance heralded in powerful tones by the more youthful and impulsive De Witt, were alike unavailing to produce the slightest variation in the stereotyped countenances of these twelve leading dignitaries of the Middle Dutch Church."
There was no organ. In the space under the pulpit stood the choris- ter with a tuning-fork, who pitched the tune and led the congregation in singing, sometimes twelve stanzas with the Doxology. In that capacity chorister Earl served the church many years.
Now, how changed ! The architecture of the church edifices, the sermons, the music, and the Sunday demeanor of deacons and elders and other subordinate adjuncts of the church service have been trans- formed. As a rule the sermons are short moral essays on the beauty of holiness, the love of God and man, and exhortations to be more and more Christlike in daily life. Dayton may have drawn the contrast with a rather free pen when he wrote ten years ago : "Smiling clergy- men delight their listeners ; smart, dapper elders and deacons, with beaming countenances, gay neckties, and jewelled shirt-fronts, are the admiration of the young. No chorister and tuning-fork, but instead a charming prima donna, sustained by a tenor and basso of acknowl- edged operatic reputation, is hidden from public gaze by the rich curtains of the organ-loft, where she warbles with exquisite skill the choicest solos of modern art, while the new school reclines on velvet cushions, so enchanted by the performance that were it not for some vague, misty associations connected with the day and place, it wouldl be acknowledged by the clapping of jewelled hands and a floral tribute."
Then the psalms and hymns were so clearly enunciated in church singing that no listener was puzzled ; now some church choirs so muffle the words in pronunciation that no listener can follow them in- telligently without a book. Was not the exasperated hearer justified
* Dayton's "Last Days of Knickerbocker Life in New York."
84
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
when, after trying in vain to follow the words so disguised, wrote on the fly-leaf of a psalm-book :
" If old King David should, for once, To this good house repair, And hear his psalms thus warbled forth, Good gracious ! how he'd swear."
The Puritanic Sabbath, with all its order and solemn gravity and its rigid observances, has also been transformed. To a large portion of the inhabitants of the metropolis to-day the interior of a church is a less familiar place than the theatre or concert-room.
Knickerbocker life was like its Sabbaths : steady, orderly, calm, real, devoted to a purpose, and always marked by unswerving observ- ance of all ethical requirements. It was distinguished by plodding, un- tiring industry, accompanied by generous thrift, which always secured a competence for the time of old age. Speculating schemes were sel- dom conceived or undertaken. Their tastes were sensible, their desires were moderate, and their wants were comparatively few ; and society was not made feverish by rivalries in the structure of mansions or in equipages and entertainments. The ladies were modestly attired, often in rich stuffs, but plainly made up. Indeed, there were not deft fingers enough then to have met a tithe of the requirements of fashion in dress in our generation, for the sewing-machine was not yet in- vented. Only the tiny needle wielded by expert fingers performed the labor on every garment.
Knickerbocker life was marked by the best features of genuine hospi- tality, heartfelt, unostentatious, and informal. Hospitality so adminis- tered to-day would be regarded as parsimonious, if not stingy and selfish. While it was on occasion far-reaching, the chief sphere of its operations was the circle of relations by blood or marriage. Its princi- pal power and beneficence was generated in the home, where the wife and mother reigned as queen. In those days homes-genuine homes- abounded. Frugality was the rule, extravagance the exception. Frugality was the sceptre that ruled all hospitality, and order, cleanli- ness, abundance. and good taste distinguished all entertainments. Parental authority was supreme in all things, and filial love and obedi- ence everywhere abounded. Overflowing social pleasures were tem- pered by wise moderation.
The tables of the Knickerbockers were very simple in the variety of their viands, but prodigal in quantity. Generally there was a bountiful repast of meats or poultry, or both, with vegetables. These constituted
1
85
FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840.
one course, and were followed by pies, puddings, tarts, wine, and fruit -apples, nuts, and raisins. All of these viands were prepared under the direct supervision of the mistress of the household, for she was too well instructed in cooking matters and too jealous of the good name of her cookery to delegate this business to hirelings.
The finest furniture then in general use, in kind and quantity, would now be called mean. There were, of course, exceptions. The parlors and drawing-rooms were furnished with stiff, high-backed, and ponder- ous mahogany chairs, upholstered with shining hair-cloth coverings and standing at measured distances along the walls of the rectangular rooms. There were rocking-chairs of the same pattern ; also sofas of the same materials, with rounded seats and hard rolls at each end, which were dignified with the name of pillows-pillows of stone ; a high mahogany " secretary," with a bookcase with glazed doors standing upon it ; a pier-table for the family Bible, a commentary, and a psahin- and hymn-book ; a pier (and possibly a mantel) mirror ; a modest chandelier for the use of wax or sperm candles (for illuminating gas had not yet set the city in a blaze of artificial light);# a heavy and spacious mahogany sideboard, well furnished with dumpy decanters filled with Madeira wine, Santa Cruz rum, and cordials, of which the favorite was called "perfect love." These were flanked by baskets of dough- nuts and crullers, free to all, and symbolized the universal hospitality. "I went to housekeeping in 1820," said the venerable John W. De- grauw, an octogenarian merchant, to the writer, "and the largest item of our expense in furnishing the building was for a sideboard and an elegant collection of cut-glass to put on it." A spindle-legged piano- forte (nearly all forte), perhaps the most extravagant piece of furni- ture in the room, nearly completed the outfit. The windows were veiled with green Venetian, inside blinds, and modest curtains, while on the walls hung family portraits, a " sampler" from the skilled fingers of a loving feminine friend or relative, and in the houses of the more wealthy one or more fine paintings, generally copies from the works of the old masters ; also a few choice engravings.
* Illuminating gas was first permanently introduced into New York in 1825. Its intro- duction had been unsuccessfully attempted in 1812. The New York Gas Light Company was incorporated in 1823. with a capital of $1,000,000. The extent of its privileges was limited to the city below Canal and Grand streets. Pipes were first laid under Broad- way from the Battery to Canal Street. Prejudices had to be encountered, and for several years the progress of lighting the city by gas was slow. In 1830 the Manhattan Gas Light Company was incorporated, with a capital of $500.000, for the purpose of lighting the upper part of the city. The method soon became popular. To-day almost the entire island has a network of gas-pipes beneath its surface.
86
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
The fireplaces in these houses were bordered by slabs of variegated Italian marble, the shelves supporting high silver candlesticks with snuffers and tray, and china vases on pedestals filled with artificial flowers, and sometimes with natural grasses.
Most of the better class of dwellings were elegantly finished with solid mahogany doors and wainscoted with oak or other woods. The ceilings were high, the rooms spacious, and even the country-seats that dotted the island here and there were beautifully laid out with well-cul- tivated gardens and lawns. A fine house on Broadway could then be rented for eight hundred dollars.
In these houses there was solid domestic enjoyment. Great oak or hickory logs burned on huge brass andirons in the spacious fireplaces, filling the rooms with a soft and soothing ruddy glow, for anthracite was not in common use, and few persons indulged in the luxury of Liverpool coal. Hundreds of sloops and schooners from Hudson River towns and from Connecticut and Long Island, laden with fuel, filled the slips in autumn in the North and East rivers, and those who could afford it would buy a sloop-load of oak or hickory wood in the fall and have it sawed and piled in the cellar for the winter.
It was the habit of many families to have the servant man saw and pile the wood, and to give him as a perquisite the proceeds of the sales of the ashes, then a considerable sum. This privilege sometimes quick- ened the ambition and cupidity of servants, and impelled them to make ashes faster than a prudent housekeeper would permit. The eminent merchant, Stephen B. Munn (who died in 1856), used to tell the story of this propensity in an old negro servant of his. Munn had put into his cellar a cargo of fine hickory wood. He was aroused one night by a fearful roaring in the kitchen chimney. He rushed to the kitchen, where he found the old negro fast asleep before a blazing pile of wood. On demanding what this meant, the dazed old man, suddenly aroused from slumber, said, " I-I-I'se making ashes, to be sure, master."
The domestic amusements of the Knickerbockers were simple and pleasant. In the summer tea-parties and quilting-parties, and in winter "apple cuts, " were the staple domestic amusements of the young peo- ple. Assemblies or balls, or " publics, " as they were called, held at early hours, and the theatre and circus constituted their most expensive amusements. At their home-parties the chief refreshments offered were apples, nuts, doughnuts, cider, and mulled wine.
These simple and healthful homes-healthful for mind and body -- have passed away.
Some of the solid old furniture yet remains with families of Knicker-
87
FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840.
hocker descent, but it is generally concealed from view in garrets or storerooms. Its presence in the extravagantly furnished apartments of to-day would be an unmistakable indication that there had been a family back of it.
The barriers which guarded these homes of more than half a century ago have been broken down by those twin enemies of domestic happi- ness, luxury and pride, and to-day few adult persons in the city of New York are living in mansions wherein they were born. Society has be- come restless and migratory, and every member seems to be impelled to motion by a persistent voice like that forever heard behind the " Wan- dering Jew"-Go on !
The modest, unostentatious, and true home of sixty years ago has given place to structures and interior decorations and furnishings which rival the creations of Aladdin with his wonderful lamp. The fashion- able quarters of the city now present long lines of real palaces-lines of marvellous specimens of skilled labor and artistic taste, without and within. Are these structures and their furnishings homes in the sense of the best meaning of that precious word ? How many families who now occupy these palaces-these temples of luxury-will be their occu- pants even at that period in the near future when the resounding bell of Time shall toll the knell of the departing nineteenth century ? Of many residents of the city who were boys in its streets fifty years ago, it might be truthfully recorded :
" The city, he saith, is fairer far Than one which stood of old : It gleams in the light all crimson bright With shifting glimmers of gold. Where be the homes my fathers built, The houses where they prayed ? I see in no sod the paths they trod, Nor the stones my fathers laid. On the domes they spread, the roofs they reared, Has passed the levelling tide : My fathers lie low, and their sons outgrow The bounds of their skill and pride."
The chief, indeed the only elegant promenade for the citizens in the Knickerbocker days was the Battery, an irregular (in outline) piece of level ground fifteen or twenty acres in extent at the foot of Broadway and facing the harbor of New York. It was shaded with trees, trav- ersed by irregular gravelled walks, and beautified by more irregular plots of grass. It was furnished with benches along the sea-front and occasionally in other parts of the ground ; and there, late on summer
88
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
afternoons and early evenings, might always be seen crowds of well- dressed people and flocks of happy children, enjoying social intercourse and invigorating sea-breezes on sultry days. It was a fashionable resort and a genuine luxury for all.
State Street, which skirted the land side of the Battery, the vicinity of the Bowling Green and Marketfield and lower Greenwich streets, from all of which glimpses of the harbor might be obtained, were the chosen places of residence of some of the wealthier and fashionable citizens. Mr. Edgar, a famous dry-goods auctioneer sixty years ago, built a house on Greenwich Street, a few doors from Battery Place, which was admired by all people of taste ; and next to it Luman Reed, an extensive wholesale grocer and a great patron of the fine arts, erected a splendid mansion adjoining Edgar's. It was filled with fine paintings and other works of art. No. 1 Broadway (demolished in 1882), a spacious mansion clustered with historic associations of the period of the Revolution, was the residence of Edward Prime, of the great banking-house of Prime, Ward & King. Next to it had been the residence of Robert Fulton. Stephen Whitney, a wholesale grocer, who at his death left an estate worth several million dollars, occupied one of a row of spacious brick houses fronting the Bowling Green fifty years ago. Whitney's was on the corner of State Street. At the other end of the row, corner of Whitehall Street, lived John Hone, of the great dry-goods auction house of Philip and John Hone. They had amassed a fortune and dissolved partnership in 1826, when Philip had built a fine mansion on Broadway, near Park Place, and was then, or just before, mayor of the city. The whole neighborhood of the Bowl- ing Green was occupied by some of the wealthiest and most enterprising business men in the city.
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.