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 II > Part 12
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 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53
The war with Mexico was ended by treaty concluded in February, 1848, and in the same month gold was discovered in California, a province acquired by the treaty-a discovery which speedily led to the founding of a powerful State on the Pacific coast. A man named Marshall, employed by Captain Sutter, who owned a mill on the American Fork of the Sacramento River, discovered gold while digging a mill-race. The metal was soon afterward found in other places, and during the summer of 1848 rumors of the fact reached New York City. These rumors were not generally believed until a trustworthy message came that there was gold enough in California to pay all the expenses of the war with Mexico.
In December, 1848, President Polk in his annual message to Congress officially announced the wonderful discoveries of the precious metals in California, and early in 1849 thousands of gold-seekers were on their way to the modern Ophir. Around Cape Horn, across the Isthmus of Panama, and over the great central plains of our continent men went by hundreds. Gold was soon found in every direction in California. Hundreds also flocked thither from Europe and South America, and Chinese came from Eastern Asia to dig for gold. The dreams of the early Spanish voyagers, and those of the English who sought gold on the shores of Labrador and up the mid-continent rivers, have been more than realized. This was the beginning of the discoveries of the immense mineral resources of the Western States and Territories of our Republic.
In this great early migration to California the citizens of New York bore 'a conspicuous part, and very soon it became the chief receiver of the precious metals sent to the Atlantic coast for coinage at the mint or exportation to Europe. During that carly migration hundreds of
feet. It is an obelisk. The smooth surface of the shaft is broken by raised bands, on which, in bronze letters, are the names of the battles in which General Worth was dis- tinguished in the war of 1812 and in the war with Mexico. On the lower section of the shaft are representations of military trophies in bronze in relief.
533
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
energetic men went from the city of New York. Business of every kind was abandoned ; families were left without fathers, husbands, and brothers, in the wild scramble for gold, the visions of which almost dazed men. Some made fortunes, but a vast majority who rushed blindly to the Pacific slope were disappointed. Many returned home, but many remained, and at the end of three years from the time the tide of emigration began to flow thither, California had a mixed popu- lation of over 250,000 human beings, and had become an independent State of the Republic. When the gold fever had somewhat subsided, and political, moral, and religious consideration directed public atten- tion to California, New York City contributed very largely many efficient instrumentalities in forwarding the great work of building up an enlightened and prosperous State.
It has been observed that during the great fire of 1835 the Post- Office was removed from the Exchange building in Wall Street. It was temporarily established in a brick store in Pine Street, near Nassau Street. There was then such a demand for buildings in that neighbor- hood that it was almost impossible to obtain a good place for the Post- Office. The corporation offered the Rotunda, in the Park, built for Vanderlyn for the exhibition of panoramic paintings. It was accepted, and when this acceptance was known there was great indignation expressed by business men because of the removal of the Post-Office so far up town. The Post-Office remained in the Rotunda for about ten years.
Much dissatisfaction was continually felt and expressed by citizens of all classes because of the location of the Post-Office. A letter delivery was established at the new Exchange, but this gave little relief. Finally the Middle Dutch Reformed Church, in Nassau Street, was pur- chased by the government and converted into a city Post-Office, and the first mails were placed in it early in January, 1845. There the Post- Office had its location while the great tide of business and population was flowing up town, until the completion of the spacious Post-Office building at the southern end of the City Hall Park. #
* The new Post-Office building, situated at the southern end of the City Hall Park, is one of the largest and most conspicuous structures in New York. It is triangular in shape, five stories in height (one story in the mansard roof), besides a basement and sub- basement. In the latter are the engines and other machinery used in running the eleva- tors connecting the different floors and in heating the building. The architecture is a mixture of the Doric and the Renaissance, and the material of the walls is a light-colored granite from Dix Island, Maine. The girders, beams, etc., are iron, and the structure is re- garded as absolutely fire-proof. It was completed at a cost of between $6,000,000 and $7,000,000, and was first occupied September 1, 1877.
SECOND DECADE, 1840-1850.
. The postal facilities in the city are admirable. Besides the General Post-Office ther .. were nineteen sub-stations, at the beginning of 1883, under the control of the Postmaster. There were about one thousand lamp-post boxes, from which collections were made from twelve to twenty times a day and night in all parts of the city below Fifty-ninth Street. The city mail is conveyed between the Post-Office and the stations by the elevated rant. roads and by wagons.
The following exhibit, kindly furnished to the writer by the Postmaster at New York. H. G. Pearson, Esq., will indicate the vast amount of work performed at the Post-Office during the year ending January 1, 1883 :
There were delivered, through lock-boxes and by carriers, 253,528,362 pieces of of- dinary mail matter, divided as follows : 159,245,025 letters, 38, 735, 751 postal-cards, and 55,537,586 of other matter. There were handled in the distribution department, including receipts, a total of 541,615,572 pieces. These were contained in 523, 477 lock- pouches and 562.173 sacks, besides a very large number of pouches, cases, and sacks of registered letters and supplies, and pieces in transit to and from other offices, making a total of ponches, cases, and sacks of 2,321,572. The heaviest day's work was on De. cember 20, 1882, when 10,147 mail-bags of every kind, with their contents, were landled.
The amazing growth of the population, and especially of the business of the city, during the past thirty years is conspicuously indicated by the following comparative statement : The number of letters, newspapers, circulars, etc., delivered in New York City by lock-boxes. carriers, etc., in 1853, was 3,927,936 ; the number of letters, newspapers, postal-cards and circulars delivered in the city by lock-boxes and carriers in 1882 was 129, 637,537 ; increase, 125,637,587. The gross receipts of the National Post-Office Department in 1853, includ- ing those from the 23,546 post-offices then established in the United States, was 6,255,- 586. The gross receipts of the New York City Post-Office in 1882 were $4,331, 705.
There were posted at the New York Post-Office during the year 1882, 21,999, 144 pounds of " mail matter of the second class" (newspapers aud periodicals sent by pub- lishers and news agents to subscribers), equal to 10,995 tons. The postage received on this matter amounted to $439,802, a daily average of $1322.
CHAPTER V.
A T the close of the second decade there were 224 church edifices in the city of New York, including those of all denominations of Christians, Hebrew synagogues, and of miscellaneous congregations. There were 41 Protestant Episcopal church edifices, 33 Presbyterian, 31 Methodist Episcopal, 26 Baptist, 15 Dutch Reformed, 13 Reformed Presbyterian, 13 Roman Catholic, 7 Congregational, 3 Unitarian, 5 Lutheran, 3 Associate Reformed Presbyterian, 2 Welsh, 1 Protestant Methodist, 12 miscellaneous, 9 synagogues, and + Friends' (or Quaker) meeting-houses. The aggregate number of church edifices in the city in 1883 was about four hundred and seventy-five.
THE DUTCH REFORMED CHURCH.
The most ancient of the church organizations in the city of New York is the Dutch Reformed. There were members of that Church among the traders on Manhattan Island as early as the year 1620, and it is believed that among the colonists who arrived there in 1623 a church organization was effected in 1626. There are regular records since 1639.
The Dutch built a large square fort on the southern end of Manhat- tan Island, on the ground now known as the Battery. In it were several houses, and in 1642 a church edifice was erected at the south- east corner of the fort. It stood there nearly one hundred years. In 1741 it was consumed by fire, and not again rebuilt. This edifice was constructed by order of Governor Kieft, by John and Richard Ogden. It was built of stone and roofed with split oaken shingles, which were called " wooden slate." The cost of the edifice was about $2000. It was 52 feet in width, 70 feet in length, and 16 feet in height. Before this they had a little barn-like structure in which they worshipped.
The city (first New Amsterdam, and after the English occupation New York) grew apace, and in 1690 there were nearly eight hundred and fifty families there. The city stretched northward, and a new
1
1
535
SECOND DECADE, 1840-1850.
church became a necessity. There was at that time a short, narrow street called Garden Alley, running parallel with the present Wall Street, from Broad Street eastward. The grounds here had been laid out and cultivated with much taste, hence the name-Garden Alley, then Garden Street. It is now Exchange Place. A church was built there in 1693. It was considered rather too far out of town. This was afterward called the South Church when two other Dutch Re- formed churches were built north of it.
The Garden Street Church was built of wood, of octagonal form, with a tower and steeple in the centre of the roof. It was enlarged and repaired in 1776, and in 1807 was rebuilt of stone, 66 feet long and 50 feet wide. A large congregation continued to assemble there until 1813, when it was separated from the Collegiate Church and became a distinct charge, and the Rev. James M. Matthews was installed its pastor. He was its sole pastor until 1834, when he was chosen chan- cellor of the University of the City of New York, and the Rev. Mancius IIutton was installed as colleague pastor. This ancient church edifice was devoured by the great fire in 1835, as we have observed. The last sermon ever preached in it was delivered to fourteen hearers. A new church was built on Murray Street, corner of Church Street. It was opened for service in the spring of 1838, with the Rev. J. M. Macauley as pastor, Messrs. Matthews and Hutton becoming colleague pastors of a new church adjoining the University.
Again the increasing population of the city made it necessary for the Dutch Church to erect another edifice farther north. A more spacious structure than either of the former ones soon appeared on Nassau Street, between (present) Cedar and Liberty streets. It was opened for worship in 1729, and was known as the New Church. It was built of stone, 100 feet long and 70 feet wide, with a steeple and bell. It had no gallery, and the ceiling was a single arch without pillars. So it remained until 1764, when a gallery was built on three sides, and columns were put up to support the roof. It was closed as a place of worship during the old war for independence. The British removed the pews and used the building first as a hospital and then as a riding- school. It was reopened and repaired after the Revolution. In time business crowded families out of its neighborhood until, in 1844. there was scarcely a member living within easy walking distance of it. It was then determined to abandon it as a place of worship. It was sold ' to the National Government and converted into a city Post-Office.
A farewell meeting was held in the church on Sunday evening. August 11, 1844, when the Rev. Dr. Knox, the senior pastor of the
536
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
Collegiate Church, preached, and the Rev. Dr. De Witt,* one of the pastors, presented an outline history of the church. He pronounced the benediction in the Dutch language. For many years the edifice
* Thomas De Witt, D. D., was descended from the eminent Holland family of that name. His father was Thomas De Witt, a soldier of the French and Indian war and of the old war for independence, who, in 1782, married Elsie Hasbrouck, of Huguenot lineage. Thomas, their fifth and youngest child, was born near Kingston, Ulster County, N. Y., on September 13, 1701. His preparatory education was at the Kingston Academy, and when he was little more than fourteen years of age he entered the sophomore class at Union Col- lege. Before he was eighteen he graduated, became a communicant of the Dutch Reformed Church, and began the study of theology under Rev. Dr. Brodhead, of Rhinebeck, Duch- ess County. In 1810 he entered the divinity school of Rutgers College at New Brunswick, N. J., and was graduated in 1812. The same year he was ordained at Poughkeepsie a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, and accepted a call to the pastorate of the united churches at New Hackensack and Hopewell, in Duchess County. He had a wide field of labor, and he cultivated it with untiring zeal and gratifying success. So great were the promises of abundant fruit that he twice declined the offer of a professorship in Rutgers College. He remained in charge of the Hopewell congregation, which became separated from that of Hackensack, until 1827, when he was called to the pastorate of the Collegi- ate Dutch Church in the city of New York.
Dr. De Witt married Eliza Ann Waterman, of New York, who was as lovely in character as she was beautiful in person. She was his loving companion and efficient and judi- cious helpmate in all things, until her spirit was suddenly called home not long before his own death, in May, 1>74. For more than forty-five years Dr. De Witt was loved. honored, and revered as a pastor and a citizen by all classes of men of every creed, and at his funeral elergymen of nearly all denominations were the pall-bearers.
In the summer of 1846 Dr. De Witt visited Holland and England with his eldest daughter. He was never so long absent from his pulpit. He was always at his post of duty of every kind, whether in the Church or in the various religious and benevolent in- stitutions of which he was a manager.
With all his varied labors, he always seemed to have leisure, and to no appeal for his help did he ever say, " I have not time." He was an active and most useful member of the New York Historical Society, of which he was second vice-president ten years, first vice-president twenty years, and in 1870, when he was nearly fourscore years of age, he was chosen president, served two years, and then declined a re-election.
When old age began to lay its burdens upon him, Dr. De Witt resigned his position as stated preacher, yet he retained the office of senior pastor of the Collegiate Church until his death, when he was succeeded by Dr. Vermilye, who yet (1883) holds that posi. tion. His latest publie aet was the dedication of the new church edifice on the corner of Forty-eighth Street and Fifth Avenue, when he was eighty years of age.
Dr. De Witt suffered sore afflictions in the loss of children by death : also of his wife, when he was in the eighty-second year of his age. Yet such was his sublime faith in the goodness and wisdom of his Maker, and his overflowing gratitude for mercies, that he never murmured. When his only son, a promising young man, suddenly died, a friend, hearing of it, hastoned to the house of affliction. The stricken father met him at the door. The friend said, "Oh, Doctor, can this be true ?" The aged saint, with serene composure, said, "We must remember the mercies." At the burial of his wife in Green- wood, as the coffin was lowered into the grave, there burst from the lips of the venerable husband the uncontrolled worls which thrilled every heart of the multitude of friends
δΈ
537
SECOND DECADE, 1840-1850.
had been known as the Middle Dutch Church. because another, farther north, had been erected on William Street, between Fulton and Ant streets, and called the North Dutch Church.
The latter named church edifice was of elegant architecture, built of the same materials and of the same size as the Middle Dutch Church. at a cost of about $60,000. It was recently torn down. It had a high steeple. This church was first opened for public worship in May. 1769. The ground on which it stood was given for the purpose by John Harpending.
The principal cause which led to the erection of this church was the radical change of substituting the English for the Dutch language in the public worship. Until a few years before the building of this edifice, all the services were held in the Dutch language. But the increase of English-speaking people in the city, and the increasing use of English among Dutch families made it apparent that unless that lan- guage were introduced into the Dutch churches the attending congre- gations would rapidly decrease, especially the younger portions of them. At last it was proposed to call from Holland a minister who could preach in Dutch and English. The proposal excited bitter hos- tility. Great strife arose, and even the power of the law was invoked to prevent the innovation, but without effect.
The call was made, and the Rev. Archibald Laidlie responded to it, arriving at New York in 1764. He was a native of Scotland, but had been called to Holland to minister in the Scotch Church at Flushing. He occupied the pulpit of the old Middle Church with great acceptance. The congregation increased so rapidly that three years after his installa- tion it was found necessary to build a new church edifice for English- speaking worshippers. The ground was given, and the North Dutch Church was built.
At the first service held by Dr. Laidlie in the Middle Dutch Church, all but the singing was conducted in English, the congregation being unacquainted with English psalmody. Jacobus Van Antwerp, the "fore-singer," led. The house was densely packed with people, and many climbed up in the windows. The last discourse in the Dutch language in the city of New York was preached in 1803, to a very small number of hearers.
who stood around : " Farewell, my beloved, honored, and faithful wife. The earthly tio that united us is severed. Thou art with Jesus, in glory, and He is with me ; by His grace I shall soon be with thee. Farewell !'
In all the relations of life. Dr. De Witt was a bright example. He was truly a great man. He died on May 19, 1874.
.
538
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
In the North Dutch Church was begun, under the auspices of the Collegiate Church,* in the season of great financial trouble in 1857, those remarkable religious services known as the Fulton Street noon prayer-meetings, originated by Jeremiah Lanphier, and yet (1883) con- tinued. These will be noticed hereafter.
From the beginning of this century until the period we are consider- ing the Dutch Reformed Church established many new congregations and erected church edifices as the city extended northward. A church was built at Bloomingdale in 1805, five miles from the City Hall. It was erected by Jacob Harsen, on his own land, and was dedicated by the Rev. Dr. John HI. Livingston.
The Greenwich Street Church was a small wooden structure built in 1802, between Amos and Charles streets, It was sold in 1826 to a society of Reformed Presbyterians, who had it removed entire, with a spire containing a public clock in motion at the time. During its migration to Waverley Place a congregation was gathered in it and a sermon was preached to them.
The Franklin Street Church was between Church and Chapel streets. Its first pastor was the Rev. Christian Bork, who was a Hessian soldier captured with Burgoyne in 1777, and converted under the preaching of the Rev. Dr. Livingston in a barn. The Houston Street Church was the result of missionary work for a destitute population. The Broome Street Church was erected on the corner of Broome and Greene streets, and the Orchard Street Church was built between Broome and Delan- cey streets.
The Colored Reformed Dutch Church did not succeed, and a church edifice was never erected. Such was the case with the Vandewater
* The Collegiate Church consists of three congregations under but one ecclesiastical jurisdiction, the ministers officiating alternately in the three churches. It is the centre of power and government in the Dutch Reformed Church in New York, and is the oldest and wealthiest corporation in the metropolis. It was chartered by William III. in May, 1696. This royal charter was ratified by the Legislature of the Colony of New York in 1753, and by the Legislature of the State of New York in 1781 and 1805. The control of the corporation and its large property is vested in a legislative body of twenty-four persons, each of the three churches belonging to the society being equally represented in it, and is known as the consistory. The ministers of the Collegiate Church are called to it for life, and may be removed only for cause.
The oldest of the Collegiate churches is in Lafayette Place, and known as the Middle Church ; the second is at the corner of Fifth Avenue and West Twenty-ninth Street, and known as the Holland Church ; and the third is at the corner of Fifth Avenue and West Forty-eighth Street. At the close of the second decade the Collegiate Church embraced about five hundred families and a membership in communion of nearly fifteen hundred persons.
1
539
SECOND DECADE, 1840-1850.
Street Church. They were both soon disbanded. The Manhattan Dutch Church was the result of missionary labor. The edifice stand- ing near the Dry Dock was built by Presbyterians, and purchased by the Collegiate Church in 1833, when a congregation was formed. It was known for many years as the Young Men's Mission Church. The Rev. D. Van Kleek was the first minister. A new edifice of brick was built and opened in 1843.
The Ninth Street Church, on Ninth Street, between Broadway and the Bowery, formed a very convenient location for a large portion of the congregation of the Collegiate Church who had removed to that part of the city. The Twenty-first Street Church, near Fifth Avenue, was built on ground given by the family of the deceased Rev. Jolm F. Jackson.
Such, in brief, is a history of the Dutch Reformed churches proper, existing at the close of the second decade, in 1849. There was a church established at Harlem at a very early date, but it is uncertain whether it was in connection with the Collegiate churches. There was a church there as early as 1686. The first trustworthy record of it begins one hundred years later. It is believed the services were con- ducted in the Dutch language at Harlem as late as 1784. In 1883 there were twenty Reformed Dutch churches in the city, some of them elegant structures. Perhaps the finest is the one on the corner of Forty- eighth Street and Fifth Avenue, of which Rev. Dr. Coe is pastor.
There, was also a German Reformed Church in Nassau Street, between John Street and Maiden Lane. The building had formerly been used as a theatre. The first minister (1758) was the Rev. Mr. Rozencrantz. The congregation was composed of Germans who had attached themselves to the Dutch Reformed Church because they could understand the Low Dutch language, or had joined the Lutherans where the services were conducted in German. They were Calvinists. They adopted the name of the German Reformed Congregation of New York. Before the Revolution they formed a connection with the Collegiate Church. In 1765 they built a new church edifice on the same spot. About 1822 they sold the property and built a new church on Forsyth Street. For many years there were bitter controversies in the church between the Lutheran and German Reformed ministers, : and the law was evoked to settle the question as to the rightful posses- sion of the property. The Court of Errors decided that the Lutherans had the right of possession.
In 1823 a difference arose in the Dutch Reformed Church. Several ministers and churches, principally in Eastern New Jersey, withdrew
540
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
from that communion. A church of the secessionists was organized in New York City in 1823, calling themselves the True Reformed Prot- estant Dutch Church. They built a house of worship on King Street. and at the close of the second decade they had no fellowship with the main body of the Reformed Dutch Church.
The school of the Reformed Dutch Church in New York City is the oldest educational institution in the United States. It was founded in 1633, and has been in constant operation (excepting a few years. 1776-83) until the present time, a period of two hundred and fifty years. The history of this famous school is exceedingly interesting. Allusion to this institution has already been made in Chapter XVI. This school was under the care of the local government at New Amsterdam for many years, and was a cherished institution. The Dutch municipality was too poor to build a school-house, and the school was held for many years in the City Hall, at the head of Coenties Slip.
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.