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 19
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Mr. Ivison was in business in the interior of the State, before railways and expresses were established, and he visited the city of New York twice a year for the purpose of purchasing goods. There he made the acquaintance of Mark H. Newman, a bookseller at No. 199 Broadway, and a most estimable man. He was the first publisher who suc- ceeded in making a connected and graded series of school-books. Mr. Ivison made his store a depository and packing-place for his goods for several years. To it he carried his parcels, generally with his own hands. In 1846 Mr. Newman's health began to fail, and he said to Mr. Ivison :
" I have noticed that you are not ashamed to carry your own bundles. Now I want you to come and take part in my business ; the opportunity is a good one."
Mr. Ivisou went home and laid the matter before his family and friends. The result was the acceptance of Mr. Newman's proposal, and they became business partners, the connection ending only with the life of the latter, seven years afterward. Mr. Ivison formed other business connections afterward, and was always blessed in having excellent men as partners. To these and the employes he was like the head of a family, always sunny in temper. Indeed, he was never known to speak harshly to a partner ; he was never sued by or sued any one, and always paid one hundred cents on the dollar. In a word he was always a model business man.
Mr. Ivison has been twice married-first to Miss Sarah B. Brinckerhoff, and second to Miss Harriet E. Seymour-and has been blessed with six children. He spends a greater portion of the year at his beautiful country-seat at Stockbridge, Mass., where he is sur- rounded by a charming domestic and social circle.
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SECOND DECADE, 1840-1850.
A few years before the establishment of the Free Academy in New York-a people's college-Bishop Hughes had planted the seed of the famous Roman Catholic St. John's College at Fordham, now within the city limits. He saw and was pleased with an estate known as Rose Hill, on which were an unfinished stone house and an old wooden farm- house. Behind these was a productive farm, and through a wood back of that flowed the little river Bronx. In front of the houses was a beautiful slope of nearly twenty acres, fringed with elms. The bishop bargained for the estate. The price was $30,000, and to fit the build- ings for students would cost $10,000 more. He had not a dollar of the purchase money, but he knew his constituency and had strong faith in their zeal. He was not disappointed. The money was soon raised by subscriptions, at home and abroad, and by loans.
The college was opened in the stone building in June, 1841, with the Rev. John McCloskey (now cardinal) as president. A large building. the first of the structures which now constitute the college edifices, and the church were begun in 1845. The buildings of the college are not yet completed on the extensive scale contemplated, but even now present an elegant and imposing appearance .*
Only two clubs besides the Century and two scientific associations were formed in New York during the second decade. The clubs were the New York Yacht and the Americus clubs. Both appear conspicu- ous in the social history of the city of New York, and both are still in existence. The scientific associations are the American Ethnological Society and the American Numismatic and Archaeological Society.
THE NEW YORK YACHT CLUB was formed in 1844. On the 30th of July the following gentlemen met on board the schooner Gimerack for the purpose : John C. Stevens, Hamilton Wilkes, William Edgar, John C. Jay, George I. Schuyler, Louis A. P. Depau, George B. Rollins. James M. Waterbury, and James Rogers. The club was organized and the following gentlemen were elected its officers, at a meeting at Windust's, on March 17, 1845 : John C. Stevens, commodore : Hat- ilton Wilkes, vice-commodore ; George B. Rollins, corresponding secretary ; John C. Jay, recording secretary, and William Edgar, treasurer.
The first regular regatta in the United States took place on the 17th of July, 1845, in which the following yachts participated : Cygnet, 45
* The officers in 1882-83 were : Rev. Patrick F. Dealey, president ; Rev. Patrick A. Halpin, vice-president ; Rev. Nicholas Hanrahan, treasurer. There are ten professors and fourteen teachers. All of the former and most of the latter belong to the order of Jesuits.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
tons ; Sibyl, 42 ; Spray, 37 ; La Coquille, 27 ; Minna, 30 ; Newbury, 33 ; Gimcrack, 25 ; Lancet, 20 ; Ada, 17.
From that time until the present a regatta has been sailed every year, with the exception of 1861, and for the last twenty-six years there has been a squadron cruise to neighboring ports.
Men of wealth and leisure having a taste for out-door sports were not then, as now, numerous in the city of New York, and the club struggled for popularity a long time before it won the prize. Its vessels were models of elegant naval architecture, and attracted the notice of public men, and in 1848 Congress instructed the Secretary of the Navy to permit these vessels to be licensed in terms allowing them to proceed from port to port, provided they should not transport goods and passengers for pay. The Secretary was also instructed to prescribe the colors of the flags and signals of the yacht fleet, which in 1850 did not much exceed a dozen vessels.
It was several years before the regattas attracted much public atten- tion. Finally reporters of the newspapers made these occasions sub- jects for quite long and attractive notices, and at length the regattas became very popular, and have remained so.
The most notable event in the history of the New York Yacht Club occurred in 1867, when an ocean race took place between three vessels of the fleet-namely, the Henrietta, belonging to James Gordon Bennett, Jr. (who entered the club ten years before, when he was a lad) ; the Vesta, owned by Pierre Lorillard, and the Fleeting, be- longing to George Osgood. They were sailed by their respective owners. They crossed the Atlantic in the race. The Henriette was the winner, making Bennett famous in two hemispheres. Prophets of evil had predicted that these comparatively tiny craft would go to the bottom of the sea instead of sailing to the coast of England.
Mr. Bennett was beaten in a similar race in 1870. Ilis vessel was the Dauntless, and his competitor was Mr. Ashbury, of the Royal London Club. Mr. Bennett, for certain reasons, took the longer route, and outsailed his competitor by several hundred miles, it is said, but Mr. Ashbury first passed the stake-boat and won the race. At one time the racers were three hundred miles apart.
The association became possessor of a handsome club-house at Clifton, Staten Island, in 1868, where it has a restaurant and billiard- room.
The New York Yacht Club is the pioneer of yachting in America, and nearly all, if not all, the notable achievements of American yachts have been performed under its auspices and by the yachts of the club.
597
SECOND DECADE, 1840-1850.
In 1855 Commodore Stevens resigned because of ill-health, old age, and the wear of service for more than half a century. So early as 1802 he was the builder, captain, cook, and "all hands" of the little yacht Dicer : he ended as commodore of a fleet whose flagship, the Maria, carried her pennant one hundred and fifty feet above the surface of the sea.
The number of members of the New York Yacht Club since its organization is about 1800, and the list of members in 1883 numbered 250. The fleet numbers about 130 vessels, steam and sail .*
Quite different has been the history of the other famous club, the AMERICUS. It was organized in 1849 for a purpose similar to that of the New York Yacht Club. It finally became more of a social, con- vivial, and political club, swaying, at one time, vast influence in the politics of the city of New York and of the State. It was modelled after the old English clubs, and sought its enjoyments chiefly in summer. The members finally fixed their headquarters at Indian Harbor, Long Island, on the shore of the Sound, where in time a mag- nificent club-house was built. There they held their annual camps from July until September.
The Americus Club owned all the vessels of its fleet in common ; none were owned by individuals. At one time it possessed many sail- ing vessels and several. steamboats. The latter were employed in con- veying members and guests between New York and the camping- ground. In the winter the club gave a ball or two in the city, but found their chief fraternal enjoyment at the meetings of the Blossom Club, formed in 1864, and composed of congenial spirits.
The Americus Club was at the culmination of its glory in 1970-71, when William M. Tweed, the notorious plunderer of the city treasury. was its president and treasurer. It was at that time the magnificent club-house was built, at a cost of $300,000, and which was by far the finest of its kind in the country. It was constructed of wood. in Gothic style. The grand parlor was 72 feet long and 30 feet wide, and the reception-room, known as the Tweed Room, was gorgeously furnished.
The entertainments at the club-house were on a scale of princely munificence. The cost of such entertainments was not less than $40,000 a season. Some called the club-house " Hotel de Tweed." The average number of guests each day-" elegant loungers," politi-
* The officers for 1883 were : James D. Smith, commodore ; Anson Phelps Stokes, vice- commodore ; E. M. Brown, rear-commodore.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
cians and retainers-was one hundred and fifty, all partaking gratul- tously of the hospitalities of the club.
But there soon " came a frost, a killing frost." The Tweed Ring. so called. was broken into fragments and scattered in dishonorable exile. "To discuss the Americus," says Mr. Fairfield, " is to discuss William M. Tweed, socially and politically. He made the organization what it was in the days of its prosperity, when governors, mayors. legislators for the whole State of New York, were elected at Indian Harbor. When he fell, it fell." *
THE AMERICAN ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY was formed in the city of New York in 1842, and this city is its permanent headquarters. Its founder's were Albert Gallatin, John Russell Bartlett, George Folsom, Alexander I. Cotheal, the Rev. Francis L. Hawks, Theodore Dwight, the Rev. Edward Robinson, Charles Welford, Dr. William W. Turner, Henry R. Schoolcraft, Alexander W. Bradford, John L. Stephens, and Frederick Catherwood. The two gentlemen last named had just com- pleted their second exploration in Central America. Their explora- tions suggested the society.
Mr. Gallatin was chosen the first president of the society, and continued in that office until his death in 1819. Mr. Alexander I. Cotheal was its president in 1883. Mr. Henry T. Drowne has been its secretary and librarian for several years.
A kindred association is the American Numismatic and Archeologi- cal Society, founded in 1858 and incorporated in May, 1865.+ The prime objects of the society are the cultivation of the science of numis- matology, the promotion of the study of American archaeology, and the collection of coins and medals and specimens of archaic remains. The society has had a steady and healthful growth from the beginning. That growth has been rapid for two or three years, and the society is assuming, in the character and number of its membership, its rightful place among the most honored scientific associations of the day.
One of the very important institutions working for the benefit of the
* " The Clubs of New York," by Francis Gerry Fairfield, p. 210.
+ The founders were Edward Groh, James Oliver, Dr. Isaac HI. Gibbs, Henry Whitmore. James D. Fosketti, Alfred Boughton, Ezra Hill, Augustus B. Sage, Asher D. Atkinson, M.D., John Cooper Vail, W. H. Morgan, Thomas Dunn English, M.D., LL.D., and Theophilus W. Lawrence. The corporators were Frank HI. Norton, Isaac J. Greenwood. John Hannah, James Oliver, F. Augustus Wood, Frank Leathe, Edward Groh, Daniel Parish, Jr., and William Wood Seymour. The officers for 1883 were : Daniel Parish, president ; Robert Hewitt, Jr., A. C. Zabriskie, and Algernon S. Sullivan, vice-presidents ; William Poillon, secretary ; Benjamin Betts, treasurer ; Richard Hoe Lawrence, librarian ; Charles H. Wright, curator.
SECOND DECADE, 1840-1850.
trading classes is the MERCANTILE AGENCY. With the rise of the credit system as applied to the sale and distribution of merchandise, it carly Taxaune evident that in order to gain information regarding the business standing of dealers at points remote from the great centres it would be necessary to carry the division of labor still further. It was seen that one man giving his entire time to the work of looking after the stand. ing of dealers could accomplish more with greater economy and thor- onghness than was possible for any number of merchants to do each for himself.
The panic of 1837 resulted in the shattering of the credit system, and the need of a mercantile agency such as had been established in England was pressingly felt. The underlying principle of such an agency may be expressed in five words-to promote and protect trade. By its admirable machinery it obtains marvellously correct information of the status of business men everywhere, and imparts this information to all proper inquirers. By this means the healthiness of the credit system is promoted, and protection against fraud and loss is afforded.
In response to this new demand, the work of procuring information as to the standing of dealers came to be a distinct business, and in the United States alone has the mercantile agency reached a full develop- ment, consequent upon the wide extent of the country. Lewis Tappan, of New York, was the first man who carried this idea into practice. His experience as a dispenser of credits in the house of Arthur Tappan & Co., silk merchants, did much to fit him with information concerning the status of merchants far and near. He established a mercantile agency in 1841, and was a pioneer in the business.
In the course of time Mr. Tappan associated with himself in the business, as a partner, Benjamin Douglass, a most energetic and sagacious man, and a few years later Robert G. Dun entered the firm, first as a clerk and then as a partner, giving it great additional strength. The business and power of this agency, working for good in the mercantile world, was rapidly developed into vast proportions. The house of Tappan & Douglass was succeeded by that of Robert G. Dun & Co. This house is still favored with the controlling wisdom. skill, and high personal character of Mr. Dun,* who has been at its head nearly a quarter of a century.
* Robert Graham Dun is a native of Chillicothe, Ohio, where he was born in 1-26. He is of Scotch descent. His education was as liberal as the locality in which his youth was spent could afford. He was engaged for a few years in a general store. About 1-51 he Writ to New York and became a clerk in the mercantile agency of Tappan & Douglass, to the latter of whom he was related. Very soon Mr. Dun's ability and induence in the
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
Several years after Mr. Tappan established his mercantile agency, John M. Bradstreet, a lawyer of Cincinnati, came to New York, and engaged in the same business. At first his establishment simply gave opinions concerning the business standing of persons inquired about, and its reports were, a comparatively few years ago, comprised in a circular sheet of three or four pages. These reports in 1883 occupied a book of over seventeen hundred pages. Soon after the establishment of this agency, Mr. Bradstreet admitted his son to an interest in it. The elder Bradstreet died in 1863. In 1876 the business was incorpo- rated, and soon afterward Charles F. Clark was called to the presidency of the new organization, which position he yet held in 1883. The company occupies spacious apartments on Broadway, near Chambers Street.
affairs of the concern were felt and recognized, and in 1854, on the succession of B. Douglass & Co. to the proprietorship, he became a member of the firm. On the retire- ment of Mr. Douglass in 1859 the firm name became R. G. Dun & Co., and so remains.
During the period from 1860 until now, the progress of the business has been most remarkable. It has kept pace with the growth of the trade of the country. There is no city in the Republic of any importance in which a branch establishment of Dun & Co.'s agency may not be found, and everywhere confided in by the best merchants and bankers. There is no hamlet so remote as not to furnish sources of information, or from which to derive guidance as to whom it is safe to trust or wise to avoid.
Facts given to the writer concerning the operations of the house of R. G. Dun & Co. will illustrate the vast increase and extent of the mercantile agency business. It is stated that the patronage of this famous house has grown from a subscription of less than 1000 in 1853 to 20,000 in 1883, and the value of its services are so appreciated that individual firms pay from $100 to $5000 a year. The latter amount is paid by firms having enor- mous business, and largely dependent for guidance in their transactions upon the infor- mation derived from this ageney. It is also stated that the names reported by the ageney, inserted in a book and published four times a year, "in solid column of agate type would measure over a mile and a half.". Also that the postal account has hitherto averaged $100,000 a year, the telegraph account $10,000 to $50,000 a year, and the number of employés and correspondents directly engaged in contributing to the compila- tion of the reports is not less than 25,000. Also that the inquiries of a single day answered by mail or telegraph are frequently not less than 10,000. These facts show how powerful is this institution in the business world. They tell also of a master mind controlling this vast machinery. It is accomplished by a man of method and great executive ability continually exercising the virtues of patience, right-doing, fidelity to engagements, strict integrity, persistence, and frankness and manliness in all things.
Gec E Ferine, N.Yorn
Fordyce Banken
CHAPTER I.
ITHIE city of New York at the beginning of the Third Decade (1850-1860) had a population of 515,547, an increase of about 200,000 in ten years. The population had considerably more than doubled in twenty years.
The compact part of the city had greatly extended northward in the space of ten years, the buildings being pretty closely packed as far north as Thirty-fourth Street, or three and three quarter miles from the Battery. The old country road that passed over Murray Hill from Fourth Avenue and Twenty-ninth Street to Fifth Avenue at Fortieth Street was not yet closed. The writer remembers walking up that road in 1845 with some friends from the country, to show them the distributing reservoir at Fortieth Street (then the " lion" of the city), and picking blackberries growing by the side of the highway at about the intersection of (present) Thirty-fifth Street and Madison Avenue. Nearly opposite the reservoir was a small country house built of wood, painted yellow, and surrounded by trees and shrubbery, where ice- cream and other refreshments were furnished to visitors of the reser- voir. A little farther south, on the west side of Fifth Avenue, stood the grand house of W. Coventry Waddell, solitary and alone, in the midst of fields, and attracting much attention because of its peculiar style of architecture.
In 1850 constant communication was kept up between the business portion of the city and its picturesque suburbs by steam ferry-boats. over four hundred omnibuses, and the city section of the New York and Harlem Railroad, which extended to the City Hall Park. One line of omnibuses took passengers to near the Astoria Ferry on the East River, and another to Bloomingdale and Manhattanville on the Hudson River. Bloomingdale was then a pleasant little village about five miles from the City Hall, and Manhattanville was two miles farther north. East from Bloomingdale, near the centre of the island, was the village of Yorkville, and near it was the receiving reservoir of the Croton water-works, in the midst of a rough, sparsely populated region.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
At this period the railways of the country had greatly multiplied and expanded, and were then traversing about 20,000 miles in various directions, opening vast tracts of isolated regions to the influence of traffic. Of these roads there were great lines converging to New York City, which were either constructed or were rapidly a-building. These were the New York and New Haven Railroad, then recently opened and uniting with the New England railways ; the Hudson River and Harlem railroads, not yet extended to Albany, which was their final destination, there to connect with the Central Railroad penetrating the West. There was also the New York and Erie Railroad, completed to Port Jervis, and beyond which would tap the coal-fields of Pennsyl- vania and touch the borders of Lake Erie ; also the Pennsylvania, the Camden and Amboy, and the Somerville and Easton railroads, all cross- ing New Jersey into Pennsylvania from the city of New York.
These railroads were already pouring immense wealth into the lap of the great city on Manhattan Island, increasing enormously its trade and commerce and social advancement. In the course of this decade its population was increased nearly 300,000. At the middle of the decade (1835) it had reached nearly 630,000. Its foreign commerce had amazingly increased. The total value of the exports and imports of the district to and from foreign countries, which was a little more than $114,000,000 in 1841, amounted in 1851 to $260,000,000. At the middle of this decade it amounted to 8323,000,000.
In 1830 there were numerous steamboats plying between New York and other places in all directions, and lines of ocean steamships con- necting New York with many foreign ports by a strong social and commercial tie. Steamboats ascended the Hudson to the head of tide- water and intermediate places, went eastward as far as Fall River and to all the intermediate New England ports ; also to points on the New Jersey coast and into the Delaware River. At the same time squad- rons of sailing vessels, barges, and canal-boats were thronging in the slips of the city, and beside its wharves were forests of masts and spars of vessels of every kind and nationality intent on trade of every con- ceivable variety. The harbor meanwhile was alive with water-craft, and there was a continual ebb and flow of a tide of vessels at the strait known as the Narrows, between Long and Staten islands, the open gate between the harbor and the ocean, eight miles south of the city. This strait is guarded by fortifications on each side and a fort (Lafay- ette) in the middle of the passage, while " watch and ward " is kept over the harbor within by fortifications on three islands-Governor's, Ellis's, and Bedloe's. The harbor is twenty-five miles in circum-
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THIRD DECADE, 1850-1860.
ference. Entrance to it by way of the East River is also guarded by fortifications.
With its wonderful growth and increase of business the city had furnished ample facilities for carrying on trade by means of water- craft. In 1850 it possessed one hundred and thirteen piers-fifty-eight on the East River and fifty-five on the Hudson River. The piers and shipping on the two rivers are separated by the long stretch of the Bat- tery, at the southern end of the city and the island. To accommodate the rapidly augmenting population, 1618 buildings were erected in the city in 1849. That was 1100 more than in 1839. The largest number of buildings erected in one year previous to that time was in 1836, the year after the great fire, when 1882 buildings were put up, a large proportion of them in the " burnt district."
In 1850 the city possessed fifteen public markets for the distribution of food among the inhabitants, besides almost innumerable private "stalls" all over the city. These markets were : the Catharine, at Catharine Slip, foot of Catharine Street, founded in 1786 ; Washington, in Washington Street, between Vesey and Fulton streets ; Gouverneur, corner of Gouverneur and Water streets, East River, and Greenwich, corner of Christopher and West streets, all founded in 1812 ; Centre, in Centre Street, between Grand and Broome streets, 1817 ; Essex, in Grand, between Essex and Ludlow streets, 1818 ; Fulton, at the foot of Fulton Street, East River, and Franklin, at Old Slip, East River. 1821 ; Clinton, between Washington, West, Spring, and Canal streets, and Manhattan, in Houston, corner of First Street, 1821 ; Chelsea, on Ninth Avenue, at Eighteenth Street ; Tompkins, on Third Avenue. between Sixth and Seventh streets, founded in 1828 ; Jefferson, on Sixth Avenue, corner of Greenwich Avenue, 1832 ; Union, junction of Houston and Second streets, 1836 ; and Monroe, junction of Monroe and Grand streets, established in 1836 .*
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