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 17
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
..
* For a brief but more elaborate sketch of the churches in New York, see a little volume entitled, " A History of the Churches of all Denominations in the City of New York," by the Rev. Jonathan Greenleaf, 1816.
577
.
SECOND DECADE, 1840-1850.
by the astute Bishop Hughes, who appeared in behalf of the Roman Catholics.
The latter had complained that the books used in the public schools abounded with misrepresentations of the faith and practices of the Roman Catholics, and alleged that no alternative was left the latter but to withdraw their children from the schools or to change the system. To the latter task Bishop Hughes and his confrères applied themselves with great vigor. The bishop gave lectures in Carroll Ilall to immense audiences previous to the discussions before the common council.
Careful investigation had shown that the complaints of the Roman Catholics concerning the books in the schools were well founded. The society had done what it might to correct the evil. A committee of revision and expurgation at once freed the books of objectionable sentences. Taking this fact into consideration, the common council. by unanimous vote, sustained the remonstrance of the Public School . Society.
The Roman Catholics appealed to the Legislature, but a decision was not reached until 1842. The governor recommended as a remedy the extension of the State system to the wards of the city. In this view the Legislature concurred, and by act the common-school system which had prevailed in the State for thirty years was extended to the city of New York. The management of the schools was placed in the hands of inspectors, trustees, and commissioners elected by the people. The Public School Society and other corporations were allowed to continue their schools and participate in the public funds according to the number of their scholars, but such participation was prohibited to any school in which any religious sectarian doctrine or tenet should be taught, inculcated, or practised.
Both the contestants were disappointed. The friends of the Public School Society considered that the cause of public education had received a serious if not a fatal blow. The Roman Catholics regarded the new arrangement, excluding all religious instruction from the schools, as most fatal to the moral and religious principles of their children, and said, "Our only resource is to establish schools of our own."
The first board of education under the new act, passed April 11, 1842, was speedily organized. For about ten years afterward the Public School Society kept up its organization and its schools. Satis- fied at length of the superior excellence of the new system, the Public School Society dissolved in 1853, and some of its members took seats
578
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
in the board of education. That board has ever since had control of public instruction in the city of New York.
The board of education has carried on the great work of public instruction in the metropolis with singular ability and success. Public- school buildings with admirable appointments have risen in all parts of the city, and school accommodations have kept pace with the growth and wants of the population. At length the important necessity of providing a sufficient corps of trained teachers for the public schools led to the establishment of a daily normal school for such a purpose, in 1856, but it was sustained for only about three years .. For many years only a Saturday normal school attempted to meet the pressing demand. After the reorganization of the board of education, in 1869, it was resolved to establish a daily normal school for the training of female teachers on an adequate scale. A block of ground bounded by Fourth and Lexington avenues and Sixty-eighth and Sixty-ninth streets was secured, and thereon a magnificent building was erected. It was completed in the summer of 1873, and opened in September. It is known as the New York Normal College. Its career until now (1883) has been a perfect success. At the close of 1882 there were 1435 students in the college .*
The rapid growth of the city of New York and the crowded state of the churchyards which were the receptacles for the dead, presented to the inhabitants the necessity for an extensive burial-ground outside the city limits and beyond the line of its probable growth. Care for the well-being of the living and respect for the dead alike urged the duty which such a necessity implied.
The idea of a rural public cemetery appears to have been first developed at Boston, near which city Mount Auburn burial-place was opened in 1831. In that cemetery humanizing and elevating influences were displayed in the form of landscape gardening, and so 'not only relieving the burial-ground of its unpleasant features and associations, but rendering it attractive to the eye and delightful to the heart and understanding.
In 1832 Mr. Henry E. Pierrepont, of Brooklyn, visited Mount Auburn Cemetery. Impressed with its idea, and charmed by its
* The Normal College is under the direct control of a committee, of which William Wood is chairman. The president of the college (1883) is Thomas Hunter, Ph.D., with a full and efficient faculty and a large corps of teachers. All of the teachers outside the faculty are women. Miss Isabella Parsons is superintendent of the training department of the college, which comprises about six hundred pupils. The whole number taught in that department during 1882 was 1692. The building is elegant in design, four stories in height, and perfectly adapted to the work carried on within it.
579
.
SECOND DECADE, 1840-1850.
promises of beauty and moral influence, he resolved to urge upon the citizens of New York and the then rapidly growing village of Brooklyn the necessity of a similar burial-place in their vicinity. The next year visited Europe, and the impressions he received from the sight of beautiful cemeteries there heightened those made by his visit to Mount Auburn.
In 1834 Brooklyn was incorporated a city. Its growth, like that of New York, had been quite marvellous for three or four years. Mr. Pierrepont was one of the commissioners chosen to lay out new streets. While engaged in that duty he proposed a plan for a rural cemetery among the Gowanus hills, with which he had been familiar from his childhood. At that time Major D. B. Douglass, who had been an officer in the United States Army and was a distinguished engineer, was a resident of Brooklyn. Having, in 1835, completed the survey for the Croton Aqueduct, and not then professionally engaged, he was induced by Mr. Pierrepont to consider the project of a rural cemetery for the two cities. In a lecture which he gave in Brooklyn not long afterward, Major Douglass first presented the project to the public for consideration. ITis lecture seems not to have borne any visible fruit at that time.
Speculation in village and city lots was rife soon afterward, and absorbed public attention. The project of a cemetery was allowed to slumber. The financial troubles of 1837 paralyzed enterprise and busi- ness for a time, and it was not until 1838 that the project of a rural einetery was again brought to the public consideration. Mr. Pierre- pont and Major Douglass had quietly explored the ground on the Gowanus hills, selected the portion which seemed best suited to the purpose of a cemetery, and mapped the same with the names of all the proprietors of the land. A petition was presented to the Legislature in the winter of 1838, and on the 11th of April in that year an act of incorporation was passed creating a joint stock company, under the name of the Greenwood Cemetery, with a capital of $300,000, and the right to hold 200 acres of land .*
* * The pioneers in this enterprise who were the petitioners for the charter were : Sumnel Ward, John P. Stagg, Charles King, David B. Douglass, Russell Stebbins, Joseph A. Perry, Henry E. Pierrepont, and Pliny Freeman. Mr. Ward was of the eminent banking-house of Prime, Ward & King. Mr. Pierrepont is now (1883) the only survivor of these corporators of Greenwood Cemetery forty-five years ago.
The ground selected and purchased for the cemetery lay a little back from Gowanus Bay, and comprised 178 acres. Until its hills resounded with the roar of battle between the Americans, British, and Hessians, at the close of August, 1776, it had been a quiet, secluded, and wooded spot. When the land was purchased an old mill was standing on
580
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
The Greenwood Cemetery project was not popular at first, and its managers were annoyed by pecuniary embarrassments ; but these were ended in 1843. Through all its subsequent progress after its relief from financial troubles, the cemetery has been watched and nurtured with unwearied care and unremitting interest until it has attained to a magnitude and value far beyond any other institution of the kind .*
CALVARY CEMETERY, now the chief, burial-place for the dead of the Roman Catholic Church in New York, was established during this decade. The first burial-ground for this denomination was at St. Peter's Church, in Barclay Street. The second was in the grounds around and in the vaults under St. Patrick's Cathedral, and the third was in Eleventh Street. The latter having become filled, and intra- mural burials being forbidden, a farm was purchased on Newtown Creek, 1 .. I., and a portion of it was first consecrated for burial pur- poses in August, 1848. This great cemetery is situated about two miles from Greenpoint and Hunter's Point ferries. It is also accessible by the Long Island Railroad.
When the city limits were extended into Westchester County, Wood- lawn Cemetery, at Woodlawn Station, on the Harlem Railroad, was brought within the corporation limits. It is a beautiful and well-kept
Gowanus Creek, at the head of Gowanus Bay, the shores of which had been very little changed since the battle that raged near them more than sixty years before.
The Greenwood Cemetery Association was organized near the close of 1838 by the election of a board of directors, who soon afterward chose Major Douglass the first presi- dent of the corporation. Already there had been made an addition to the original pur- chase of thirty-three acres of land bought from a farmer, which included Sylvan Water, " the brightest gem" in the cemetery.
To secure the grounds from invasion by city streets it was necessary to have an outline plan of the selected territory in the hands of the city commissioners before the first of January, 1839. This desirable act was accomplished through the unwearied exertions of Mr. Pierrepont, and thus was secured immunity from such invasion for all time. An amendment of the charter changed the title of the managers from directors to trustees.
* In 1844 a colossal statue of De Witt Clinton in bronze, by H. K. Brown, was erected in Greenwood. It was the first of the kind ever cast in this country. Since that time statues and beautiful monuments have arisen in various parts of the cemetery, and add much to its attractiveness for visitors. These, with the skill of the landscape gardener con- stantly applied. have made Greenwood Cemetery (greatly enlarged in size) one of the most interesting and beautiful receptacles for the dead in the world. Its seal bears the beautiful device of Memory strewing flowers on the graves. The officers for 1882 were : Henry E. Pierrepont, president ; A. A. Low vice-president ; C. M. Perry, comptroller and secretary. The trustees were Henry E. Pierrepont, James R. Taylor, Benjamin H. Field, A. A. Low, J. Carson Brevoort, Arthur W. Benson, Alexander M. White, J. W. C. Leveridge, Benjamin D. Silliman, Henry Sanger, Royal Phelps, Gerard Beckman, . Frederick Walcott, James M. Brown, Charles MI. Perry.
581
SECOND DECADE, 1840-1850.
cemetery, comprising nearly four hundred acres. It is undenomina- tional. It has become the selected burial-place by many wealthy New York families, who have erected vaults and handsome monuments ture. Trains on the Harlem Road run to it from the Grand Central Depot every hour of the day.
During the second decade several benevolent and charitable institu- tions were established in the city of New York, the most important of which were St. David's Benevolent and St. David's Benefit socio- ties, New York Association for the Improvement of the Condition of the Poor, Women's Prison Association, St. Luke's Hospital, Prison Association of New York, Roman Catholic House of Mercy, and Hos- pital of St. Vincent de Paul.
ST. DAVID'S BENEVOLENT SOCIETY is an association composed of natives of Wales or their descendants. It was established in 1841, and was incorporated in 1848. It was really formed, by informal action, so early as 1835. The objects of the society are to afford pecuniary relief to the indigent and reduced members of the society, to all distressed Welsh men and Welsh women, and to those who have recently emi- grated to this country, as well as to those who have resided here for a longer period ; also to collect and preserve information respecting Wales and the Welsh people and their descendants in this country ; to cultivate a knowledge of the history, language, and literature of Wales, and to promote social intercourse among the members of the society. A committee on benevolence has charge of all matters pertaining to charitable ministrations and of the burial-grounds of the society .*
A Welsh society, formed a few years carlier, is called THE ST. DAVID'S BENEFIT SOCIETY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK. It was insti- tuted in 1835, incorporated in 1838, and reorganized in 1859. The object of this association is the mutual relief of the members of the corporation when, by reason of sickness or infirmities, any member shall require pecuniary relief. Welshmen and their descendants, and persons married to Welsh women, over the age of eighteen and under forty years, are eligible to membership. They must be residents within ten miles of the City Hall, New York. t
* The officers of the St. David's Benevolent Society in 1882 were: Hugh Roberts, president ; Evan Williams and John R. Price, vice-presidents ; John Thomas, treasurer ; W. H. Williams, recording secretary ; T. C. Powell, corresponding secretary ; Richard J. Lewis, counsel, and the Rev. D. Davies, chaplain.
+ The officers of the society in 18 2 were : Henry Perry, president : John Hughes, vice-president ; John Morgan, treasurer ; W. H. Williams, secretary.
582
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
THE NEW YORK ASSOCIATION FOR IMPROVING THE CONDITION OF THE Poon was organized in 1843, and incorporated in 1848. It was founded largely for the purposes of practically controlling the evils growing out of almsgiving without question, which often encouraged idleness and led to crime ; also to more effectually respond to the necessities of the really needy. It was acknowledged that the alms of charitable institu- tions and of private liberality were often injudiciously distributed for want of information concerning the character of the recipient. To guard against this evil a system of minute and careful investigation was devised, and the labor was so divided among many that it would not be burdensome.
The general plan of operations of the society is as follows : First. a general division of the city and county into districts ; next, a sub- division of the districts into numerous sections, and the appointment of a visitor to each section, when the field of labor is thus made so limited that he can easily give his personal attention to all the needy in his section. By this system the society embraces every street, lane, and alley in its quest and in its benevolent work. "It penetrates every cellar and garret and hovel, where the needy are found, and, irre- spective of creed, color, or country, ministers to all not otherwise provided for, in a way to benefit the recipient and promote the best interests of the community." *
This society at the outset was far-reaching in its labors for the poor. not confining its work to merely temporary relief from hunger or cold. It has labored to ameliorate the general condition of the laboring classes. It was mainly instrumental in the establishment of the Juve- nile Asylum in 1951, and the Demilt Dispensary the same year ; the North-western Dispensary in 1852 ; a public washing establishment in 1853 ; gave impetus to the movement which established the Children's Aid Society in 1554 : in founding the Workingmen's Home in 1535. and in the creation of other charities equally beneficent.
The visitors of the society are required to give only in small quanti- ties, in proportion to immediate needs ; to require cach beneficiary to abstain from the use of intoxicating liquors as a beverage ; such as have young children of suitable age that they be kept in school, and to apprentice those of suitable years to some trade or send them out to service, thus encouraging the poor to be a party to their own improve- ment and elevation. The first board of managers of the institution were leading citizens, who were active in various vocations. James
# " The Charities of New York," by Hugh N. Camp, p. 417.
.Ive N York
ury Svison
583
SECOND DECADE, 1810-1850.
Brown, of the banking-house of Brown Brothers & Co., was the pres- Hent ; * George Griswold, J. Smyth Rogers, M. D., James Boorman, William B. Crosby, and James Lenox were vice-presidents ; Robert B.
* James Brown was born at Ballymena, Antrim County, Ireland, on February 4, 1791. He died in New York City on November 1, 1877. His father, Alexander Brown, who was a prominent auctioneer of linens at Belfast, came to America in the year 1800 and settled in Baltimore with his wife and eldest son, William, leaving the three younger sous, of whom James was the youngest, in school in England.
In 1811 the commercial house of Alexander. Brown & Sons was established in Balti- more, where it still exists. The previous year William, who had gone to England for the benefit of his health, established a commercial house in Liverpool. James visited him in 1815, and soon afterward the brothers formed a partnership, under the name of Will- iam & James Brown, which subsequently, at the introduction of Mr. Joseph Shepley, of Wilmington, Delaware, became the eminent firm of Brown, Shepley & Co.
In 1862 William was created a baronet. He died in 1864, so that the two brothers were partners for about half a century.
In 1864 this firm opened a house under the same name in London, which still exists. The tie of relationship between the eldest and the youngest brothers was strengthened by the marriage of a son of Sir William with a daughter of James. The present baronet is a grandson of both Sir William and James Brown. Two of the baronet's brothers have been members of Parliament.
After the war of 1812-15 internal improvements caused a rapid growth in and concen- tration of business at Philadelphia, and in 1818 John A. Brown, another brother, estab- lished a branch house in that city under the name of John A. Brown & Co. For a time James took his brother John's place in Philadelphia, while the latter was obliged to return to Baltimore for a few years, but in 1825 he settled in New York City, and established the since famous house of Brown Brothers & Co., a house which has been associated with the most important financial operations in our country-a house distin- guished for its strength in all the elements which constitute a model business concern. In 1838 John A. Brown retired from the firm, and James, the youngest of the house of Brown Brothers, became its head, and so remained until his death. The name of each of the Brown brothers is associated with all that is honorable, enterprising, and upright in business, exemplary in religion, and beneficent in good works. The linen trade was for years their principal business, but from the beginning of their operations in Baltimore they were dealers in exchange. After about 1832 their business was wholly confined to dealing in exchange and banking. As an example of the financial strength and high character of the house, it may be mentioned that in the commercial revulsion in 1837 the firm held nearly $1,000,000 of American protested paper, besides other large amounts, and at the same time had to meet engagements in England amounting to nearly $10,000,- 000. Their own resources were, to a considerable extent, locked up in American seenri- ties and not immediately available. The English house effected a loan from the Bank of England for the whole amount of its engagements in that country, depositing securities to the amount of $25,000,000, all of which was redeemed within six months.
It is an interesting faet in connection with the history of the firm of Brown Brothers & Co. that when Alexander Brown came to this country cotton was not manufactured, and Baltimore was the great mart for the linen trade. The people of the Southern States were at that time the chief enstomers for linen.
James Brown was twice married-first to Laura Kirkland Benedict, daughter of the Rev. Joel Benedict, of Plainfield, Conn., who died in 1528. Her living children are .
-
584
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
Minturn, treasurer ; R. M. Hartley, corresponding secretary and agent, and Joseph B. Collins, recording secretary .*
At the middle of the second decade public attention in the city of New York had been directed in a special and earnest manner to the condition of prisoners of both sexes while in confinement and after their discharge. While in prison little was done or thought of outside the prison walls for their moral and spiritual improvement, and there prevailed in society an unchristian spirit which made the discharged convict, though ever so penitent and earnestly desirous of leading a better life, a hopeless outcast from the better social life, and denied the means for procuring a livelihood. Many a poor creature emerging from his or her cell, after imprisonment for the first time, filled with hope and high resolves, was crushed on the threshold by the im- placable heel of social ostracism. Millions of dollars were spent in laudable efforts to better the moral and spiritual condition of benighted people in foreign lands, but not one dollar to help the darkened soul coming out from prison walls and cloquently pleading for mercy and help to do well at our own doors.t
Sarah Benedict, widow of Alexander Brown, Jr., of London ; Louisa, wife of Howard Potter, and Margaretta, widow of James Cooper Lord. In 1831 Mr. Brown married Eliza Coe, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Coe, of Troy, N. Y., who, with two sons, George Hunter and John Crosby Brown, survive him.
Mr. Brown was a most exemplary man in his domestic and social relations, and of marked personal characteristics. From his childhood he was a devout worshipper of God and a lover of the sanctuary. This predominant feeling he impressed upon his entire household. To the deserving person or institution or cause which commanded his attention and his favor, he was always an abiding and munificent helper, and in this his children have followed his example. He was personally connected with the principal charitable institutions of the city. The most severe domestic afflictions tried his faith and his fortitude, but they never wavered for a moment, and he passed through a long life with the serenity of a firm Christian believer and worker, ever doing good in the service of his fellow-men and of his Divine Master and Friend.
* The officers of the association in 1882 were : Howard Potter, president ; R. B. Min- turn, treasurer ; John Bowne, secretary.
+ A single example will suffice to illustrate the effects of this social ostracism. The incident occurred in England many years ago. Two college students at Oxford, a noble- man and a commoner, hired a horse and gig and rode to Bristol, where they found them- selves without money or means to communicate with their friends. They sold their conveyance and started for the college, intending to pay the owner so soon as they should receive funds. They were delayed, and on their return were arrested for theft. The rank of the nobleman shieldled him from punishment, the commoner was transported to the penal colony of New South Wales for a term. When it expired he went to work there, married, amassed a fortune, and became eminent in society. More than forty years after his sentence he went to England on business. Chance brought him into court as a witness. He was about to step from the witness stand when one of the lev-
585
SECOND DECADE, 1840-1850.
Wise and benevolent-minded men and women in New York had long commiserated the condition of discharged convicts. Finally they took action in their behalf. Late in 1844 Eleazer Parmly, an eminent Antist, invited a few friends to his house to consider the matter. They issued a circular, in response to which a meeting was held at the Apollo Rooms on December 6th, with the Hon. W. C. McCoun in the «hair. Hon. J. W. Edmonds offered a resolution that it was expedient to form in the city of New York a prison association, and to nominate suitable officers therefor.
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.