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 2
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The masked ball was given by Mrs. Henry Brevoort in the spacious mansion on the corner of Ninth Street and Fifth Avenue, now (1883) occupied by Charles de Rham. It was then on the northern border of the city. All the residences of fashionable people at that time were south of Tenth Street.
This ball was regarded as the most notable affair in fashionable society at that time. It was attended by the elite of the city, in fancy dresses, dominos, and masks. Among the most attractive young women of the city who were present was Miss Matilda Barclay, the beautiful daughter of Anthony Barclay, the British consul, who lived in College Place, and who was dismissed for raising recruits in this country for the Crimean war. There was also in attendance a gay young South Carolinian named Burgwyne, who had won the affections of Miss Barclay, but was distasteful to her parents. At the ball Miss
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fully engaged may be mentioned the proceedings connected with the famous Cleopatra expedition against Cuba in 1851 ; the celebrated Lemmon slave case in 1853, in which he represented the State of New York ; the Parrish and the Gardiner will cases, and the Beecher-Tilton case. Of Mr. Evarts's personal and intellectual characteristics, a late writer observes :
" In person he is tall and slender ; he is fragile almost to attenuation, and so far from suggesting the idea of a vehement orator. he impre-se- one as a man of retired. scholarly tastes. Tall, thin, anquiar, long- headed, with a square and prominent forehead. dark-haired and dark-skinned, with a face perfectly smooth but thin, cadaveron-, shrunken. deep-set gray eyes, a promiment nose, and a square, decisive, finely chiselied chin. He has a clear, sharp, ringing voice, though it is not powerful or musical In making his points he is lucid, precise, and cogent, seldom rhetorical or ornamental. . . . His sentences are long and faultless, and freighted with words which show that profound thought is selecting felicitous vocabulary as it goes along. Ile has a fine humor, but it is the humor of cultivation, not the coarse fun of the vulgar. His ap- peals to the intelligence of juries are the highest in their tone, the broadest in their scope, and the deepest in their power of any made in modern times. Webster was not more logical, Story was not a more thorough lawyer, Choate not a more brilliant verbalist, nor Sumner a firmer believer in moral power."
Geo E Ferme NYCK
*
Maria Detrit
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FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840.
Barclay appeared as Lalla Rookh, and Burgwyne as Feramorz. They left the festive scene together at four o'clock in the morning, and, without changing their costumes, were married before breakfast. This elopement was a topic for town talk for a month, and it cast such odium upon masked balls that no other was attempted by reputable families for many years afterward .*
Several existing social and benevolent institutions were established during this decade or were endued with renewed vitality. Among these was THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, established nearly fourscore years ago. It had languished for several years, but when New Englanders flocked into the city of New York after the completion of the Erie Canal, and infused the spirit of enterprise, business energy, and thrift of their section into the social and commer- cial life of the city, the society felt the thrill of rejuvenescence and be- came wide awake. For nearly fifty years it has been a flourishing and popular social institution.
The New England Society of the City of New York was organized on May 6, 1805, with James Watson as its president, Jonathan Burrell as its treasurer, and Samuel Hopkins secretary. It was organized as a charitable and literary association. It was specially designed to com- memorate the landing of the " Pilgrim Fathers," the first English emigrants who made a permanent home in New England. It was also designed to promote friendship, charity, and mutual assistance among its members, for the creation of a library, and for other literary purposes.
* At one of the clubs recently, an elderly gentleman, who had lived about forty years in Europe, revived, in conversation, some interesting recollections of New York about 1840. He recalled the fancy ball (and its stirring episode) given by Mrs. Brevoort, and spoke of the simplicity of social life, even at that late day, compared with that of the present time. He said :
" We thought there was a goodly display of wealth and diamonds in those days, but, God bless my soul, when I hear of the millions amassed by the Vanderbilts. Goulds, Millses, Villards, and others of that sort, I realize what a poor little doughnut of a place New York was at that early period. The dinner hour was three o'clock, and on the occasion of a dinner party it was postponed till four. Livered servants were un- known, although a man-servant (generally of the colored race) was a matter of course in every gentle- man's establishment. Pretty waiter girls, with jaunty caps and embroidered aprons, had not been discovered. The first private carriage, with coachinan and footman in livery, was almost mobbed when it drove down Broadway. It belonged to Andrew Gordon Hamersley, who died the other day, and would be looked upon in these days as an exceptionally quiet turnont. but it ma le a sensation and cansed many ominous shakes of the head and much turning up of the eyes among the older people. Mrs Jacob Little afterward appeared in a very showy carriage hned with rose-color. and a darky coachman in blue livery on the box but nobody looked at the coachman when madam was inside, for Mrs. Little was young and extremely pretty when she married old Jacob. . . . Young ladies walked out on summer afternoons in gingham dres-es. with straw bounets, winte stockings. and iow ties or slippers. Co-education had not been thought of then. bnt co-recreation was indulged in to any extent. and boys and girls played tay together or Columbia College green and on the wood sidewalks of Park Place withont injury to their morais or man- ners. They were real boys and miris in those days ; they worked hard and they played hard. I don't see any like them m the streets or parks just now. '
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
The membership consists of any descendant of a New Englander of good moral character, of the age of eighteen years and upward.
The by-laws of the society require the annual festival to be held on the 22d day of December each year-the anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims on the coast of Massachusetts in 1620 from the Mayflower -unless that day should be Sunday, when the festival must be held the next day. That occasion is always most attractive, and is noted for the sumptuousness of the material banquet and the exquisite viands of the intellectual feast.
The society has a committee on charity, to distribute and expend all moneys appropriated by the board of officers for charitable purposes. The beneficiaries of the society are the widows and children of deceased members who may need assistance. . These are entitled, for five suc- cessive years, to an annuity from the funds of the society to the full amount the deceased member has actually paid ; but the annuity is in no case paid to a widow who shall marry again or to children able to support themselves .*
THE SAINT NICHOLAS SOCIETY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, composed of old residents of New York City and their descendants, was formed early in 1835. Several gentlemen, residents and natives of the city, held a meeting at Washington Hall, corner of Broadway and Chambers Street, on the evening of February 14th, when Abraham Bloodgood, an old currier and leather merchant, then over seventy years of age-a remarkable man -- was called to the chair, and Wash- ington Irving was appointed secretary. Judge Irving briefly stated the object of the meeting to be the consideration of the expediency of forming an association for the purpose above mentioned. Dr. Manley offered a resolution that it was expedient to do so. It was adopted, and a committee, consisting of Peter Schermerhorn, John T. Irving, A. R. Wyckoff, Hamilton Fish, Dr. Manley, and Washington Irving, was appointed to prepare a constitution and by-laws.
An adjourned meeting of citizens was held on the evening of Feb- ruary 21st, at the same place, when a draft of the constitution was pre- sented by Mr. Schermerhorn, and it was determined that the title of the association should be The Saint Nicholas Society of the City of
* The officers of the New England Society of the city of New York, 1882-83, were : Marvelle W. Cooper, president : Stewart L. Woodford, vice-president ; Horace Russell, second vice-president ; J. Pierpont Morgan, treasurer, and L. P. Hubbard, secretary. The directors are Charles H. Isham, Cornelius N. Bliss, Daniel G. Rollins, Julius Catlin, Jr., Locke W. Winchester, Brayton Ives, Charles B. Stockwell, Daniel Robinson, Noah Davis, Noah Brooks, Angustus G. Paine, L. G. Woodhouse. Levi M. Bates, George W. Smith, James H. Dunham, Chandler Robbins.
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FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840.
New York. It was at the same time resolved that the society should In. " composed of those persons present at the adoption of the constitu- tion who shall sign the same and pay the sums thereby required, and of such other persons as shall be admitted members according to the provisions of the constitution." Qualifications for membership were defined as follows in the constitution :
" Any person of full age, in respectable standing in society, of good moral character, who was a native or resident of the city or State of New York prior to the year 1785, or who is the descendant of any such native or resident, or who is a descendant of a mem- ber of this society, shall be eligible as a member. But whenever, and as long as there shall be, five hundred members of the society, no one shall be elected to membership unless he be the descendant in the oldest male line of a member or former member."
It was determined that the anniversary meeting of the society should be on the 6th day of December, unless it should fall on Sunday, when the meeting should be held on Monday.
On the 28th of February, at a full meeting at Washington Hall, the constitution was adopted, and the society was organized by the choice of the following gentlemen as officers of the society : Peter G. Stuyvesant, president ; Abraham Bloodgood, first vice-president ; Washington Irving, second vice-president ; Gulian C. Verplanck, third vice-president ; Peter Schermerhorn, fourth vice-president ; John Oothout, treasurer ; Hamilton Fish, secretary ; William A. Lawrence, assistant secretary ; the Rt. Rev. Benjamin T. Onderdonk and the Rev. Robert McCartee, chaplains ; William HI. Hobart and Edward G. Ludlow, physicians ; Hugh McLean and John W. Francis, consulting physicians. There were twelve managers. The society was incorpo- rated April 17, 1841.
The first anniversary dinner of the society was at the City Hotel, on Broadway, December 6, 1836. The first Paas festival was held on Thursday in Easter week (April 11) in 1844. That year the society adopted the custom of having annual addresses. It had adopted a flag in 1839, which was the original tricolor with the arms of the city of New York in the centre."
The objects of the Saint Nicholas Society are to afford pecuniary relief to indigent or reduced members and their widows and children : to collect and preserve information respecting the history, settlement.
* The officers of the society in 1883 were : Abraham R. Lawrence, president : Nathaniel Bailey, first, Carlisle Norwood, Jr., second, Cornelius Vanderbilt, third, and John C. Mills, fourth vice-president ; Edward Schell, treasurer ; Charles A. Schermerhorn, secretary ; Henry Erskine Smith, assistant secretary ; Rev. Thomas E. Vermilye, D.D., and Rev. Noah H. Schenek, D. D., chaplains ; Drs. Dubois and Cheesman, physicians, and Drs. Anderson and Bogert, consulting physicians.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
manners, and such other matters as may relate thereto, of the city of . New York, and to promote social intercourse among its native citizens.
THE SAINT NICHOLAS CLUB OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK is an association formed for the purpose of collecting and preserving information respect- ing the early history and settlement of the city and State of New York, and to promote social intercourse among its members. It was organized in 1875. It adopted a constitution in June of that year, and appointed the following named gentlemen its officers : James W. Beekman, president ; James M. McLean, vice-president ; Edward Schell, treasurer ; John C. Mills, secretary, and a board of trustees. The society was incorporated May 12, 1875, with the title of The Saint Nicholas Club of the City of New York. The eligibility of a candidate for membership is determined by the conditions prescribed by the Saint Nicholas Society, and its members are mostly members of the last-named society. This is one of the most agreeable and flourish- ing social institutions in New York .*
THE KNICKERBOCKER CLUB is a social organization composed of a class of citizens similar to that of the St. Nicholas Society and St. Nicholas Club. Many of its members are members of these asso- ciations. Its club-house is at 249 Fifth Avenue. Its organization includes the usual executive officers, an executive committee, and a board of twenty-one governors. The officers for 1883 were Alexander Hamilton, president ; Alonzo C. Monson, vice-president ; William D. Morgan, treasurer ; and Frederic Bronson, secretary.
Among the notable seminaries of learning in the city of New York is the RUTGERS FEMALE COLLEGE, first established in 1838 as the Rutgers Female Institute. It owes its existence largely to the exertions of the late Rev. Joseph P. Thompson, who had been for several years at the head of a similar institution in the city of Albany, and the Rev. Isaac Ferris, D.D. Removing to the city of New York, Mr. Thompson per- ceived the need of such a seminary in that city, and earnestly advo- cated the erection of one. Generous men heeded his recommendations. A paper, dated February 9, 1838, was circulated for subscriptions of money to accomplish the object. It was obtained, and in April follow- ing the Legislature granted an act of incorporation constituting the Rutgers Female Instituce. That name was given because William B. Crosby, Esq., the adopted son and heir of Colonel Henry Rutgers.t
* The officers of the club chosen for 1882-83 are : Frederic Depeyster (since deceased), president : James M. McLean, vice-president ; Edward Schell, treasurer ; Charles A. Schermerhorn, secretary, and twenty-one trustees.
+ Henry Rutgers was of Dutch extraction. His grandfather came from Holland, and
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generously gave the land on Madison Street for the site of the building. At that time there were only two institutions of learning in the city of New York incorporated-namely, Columbia College and the Univer. Mix of the City of New York.
The corner-stone of the edifice for the Rutgers Female Institute was Isit on the 20th of August, 1539. on which occasion the mayor of the aty. Aaron Clark, delivered an address. This building was dedicated en April 27, 1839, in the presence of a crowded assembly. There were devotional exercises and a dedicatory address by the Rev. Dr. Ferris, the president of the board, who was placed at the head of the institu. tion. On Monday morning. May 6. 1:39. the doors were opened for the reception of students.
" Never shall I forget," said Professor Charles E. West, LL. D., in an address, "the excitement of that day. Pupils accompanied by their parents came in crowds. There was the little girl of four years. to take her first lesson in the alphabet : and the young lady of sixteen, who had completed her education according to the standard of the schools. It is hardly possible to describe the enthusiasmn of the people in favor of the institute. The Institute ! the Institute ! was on everybody's lips. Visitors came in crowds to attend its Friday afternoon exercises in the chapel."
The question to be solved was how to make this popularity perma- nent. It was wisely resolved to make its teachings broad, thorough, and practical. The first gerins of chemical and philosophical illustra . tion were gathered there and expan led into one of the best appointed laboratories in the country. Classes went into the fields to gather and study flowers and minerals ; manufactories were visited by the pupils : the daguerrian process, then just introduced into the country, was taught by appropriate apparatus : Morse's telegraph was soon set up and worked in the laboratory, and chemical experiments of the most interesting kind were made. Music. drawing, and painting received special care. Under such auspices was this school for the higher edu ration of women established about forty-four years ago, and in Isto
occupied a farm on the East River shore of the island of Manhattan. There Henry was born, in 1745. He was graduated at King's now Colatis College in 1766 : entered the continental army in 1776, was in the battle a: White Plains, served through the war, and rose to the rank of colonel. In person he was stesishly attractive, Ins piety was cut- spicnous, and his benevolence was widely illeszstel Colonel Rutgers never married. but adopted as his son and heir the late WELLas B. C. osby. the father of Dr. Howard Crosby, of New York, and Professor WIA H. O br. of Poachkeepsie. Colonel Rutgers died on " the Rutgers estate" in 1%. C+ years. Light years after his death his adopted son honorel kis met .: : Le to the new institution.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
there were five graduates. The president of the institute was the Rev. Isaac Ferris, D. D. ; the treasurer, William H. Falls ; secretary, J. K. Herrick. The principal of the department of instruction was Professor Charles E. West, LL. D., which responsible situation he held until 1851. Dr. Ferris held the presidency of the institute for seventeen years, until called to the chancellorship of the University of the City of New York.
Nineteen years after the passage of the charter of Rutgers Female Institute, the Legislature gave it a new charter (April 11, 1867) chang- ing its name to Rutgers Female College. It gave the institution authority to confer degrees and exercise all the functions of colleges and universities, excepting the granting of diplomas, which would entitle graduates to enter any of the professions. Professional training is neither sought nor intended as a part of its work.
The residence of the college was transferred, in 1860, to more ample quarters and a more desirable location, on Fifth Avenue, opposite the Croton distributing reservoir, between Forty-first and Forty-second streets, where in 1867 this " college for women" was inaugurated. It had been stimulated to this loftier aspiration by the example of the College for Women opened two years before by Matthew Vassar at Poughkeepsie. At the inauguration alluded to the first president, Chancellor Ferris, and the first principal, Dr. West, were present, and stirring addresses were pronounced by Dr. Howard Crosby and others.
The college secured an advisory board of thirty-three distinguished persons in various parts of the country, and the institution in its new character was carefully organized. Its first degree was conferred in 1870 .*
The institution was again removed in 1882, and is now at No. 58 West Fifty fifth Street, where it has, in addition to its collegiate course in English, modern languages, classics, science, and mathematics, an academic department for younger pupils, and a kindergarten for children.
* The officers of the board of trustees for 1882 were : the Rev. Samuel Burchard, D.D., president ; Charles H. Smith, secretary ; Jacob B. Tallman, treasurer. The faculty con- sisted of S. D. Burchard, D. D., president and professor of mental and moral philosophy ; Miss E. P. Clarke, principal and professor of mathematics and the Latin language, and -Daniel G. Martin, Ph. D., professor of geology and natural history. The duties of pro- fessor of chemistry and physics were temporarily in charge of the professor of geology.
*
三.
morskich
CHAPTER XXV.
THERE are two Protestant theological seminaries in the city of New York-namely, The General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and The Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, of the Presbyterian Church.
THE GENERAL THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY is a creation of the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America. So early as 1-14 a joint committee of both houses of the convention was appointed to report a plan for the establishment of such an institution. An able port on the subject was made to the convention assembled in Trinity Church, New York, in May, 1817. It was adopted, and a series of resolutions, drawn by Bishop Dehon, of South Carolina, declared it expedient to establish a general theological seminary, to be under the supervision and control of the General Convention. It was decided that it should be located in the city of New York, and a committee was appointed for the purpose of carrying out the measure involved in the project. " It was in the city of New York, in Trinity Church, on Tuesday, the 27th day of May, 1817, in the morning, that the General Theological Seminary was born."
1 plan foreshadowing the character of the institution and its profes- sorslaps was presented by Bishops White, of Pennsylvania, and Hobart. of New York, in 1818. Very soon afterward Dr. Clement C. Moore,* son of Bishop Moore, made the munificent donation of a whole square of land on which the seminary now stands, on the condition that the buildings should be erected thereon. The Rev. Drs. Turner and Jarvis
* C'lement Clarke Moore, LL. D., was born in the city of New York in July, 1779, and did at Newport, R. I., in July, 1863. He was a son of Bishop Moore, and graduated at Columbia College in 1798. He became a professor of Hebrew and Greek literature in the Protestant Episcopal Seminary in New York in 1821. In 1850 he received the title of emeritus professor. Dr. Moore was the pioneer, in this country, of the department of Hebrew and Greek lexicography, having published a Hebrew and Greek lexicon in 1809. He was the author of the famous ballad beginning,
"'Twas the night before Christmas."
In Isit he published a volume of poems. He also published a volume of his father's
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
were appointed professors, and the seminary was opened in May, 1819, with a class of six students. Among these were the late Bishops Doane and Eastburn, and Dr. Dorr. The students met the professors first in a room in St. Paul's Chapel, afterward in the vestry-room of St. John's Chapel, and then in a building on the north-west corner of Broadway and Cedar Street.
Failing to secure sufficient funds for the support of the seminary in New York, it was removed to New Haven in September, 1820. Bishop Hobart and leading men in the diocese of New York consented to this measure only on the understanding that steps would be immediately taken for the establishment of a diocesan school in New York. With characteristic energy, Bishop Hobart opened his diocesan school in less than six months. The next year (1821) Jacob Sherrod, of New York, dying, left a legacy of $60,000 for a seminary in New York. This enabled the General Convention to remove the institution back to New York.
In the permanent establishment of the seminary in the city of New York the chief credit is due to Bishop Hobart, who had as associates and advisers in the work, and as personal friends and admirers, the best legal talent and social influence of the city. The seminary was reopened in New York in February, 1822, with twenty-three students. It was incorporated in April following. Funds came in slowly, yet the trustees, with hope and faith, had the corner-stone of the east building laid by Bishop White in July, 1825. It was first occupied in 1827. The west building was ordered in 1834, and was first occupied in 1836. The site was then, and is now, one of the most healthful in the city of New York. At that time it was in a rural district, far removed from the busy mart, with a pleasant outlook westward over the bright waters of the Hudson, which flowed up to the borders of the present Tenth Avenue.
Pecuniary embarrassments harassed the trustees from the beginning. The purses of churchen did not readily open, and when it became known that Frederick Khone, of Philadelphia, had left a large legacy to the seminary, those purse-strings were drawn tighter, with the belief that it would be immediately available. That legacy was subject to a life interest, and the seminary was compelled to wait twenty-four years for the funds. The city rapidly grew toward the seminary grounds, and it was burdened with constantly increasing and heavy assessments and taxes. Then came the unfortunate " tractarian schism" in the church, and the seminary was often made a battle-ground of the parti- sans. It seemed at one time as if the enterprise must be abandoned
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