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 37
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At the close of the Civil War, late in the spring of 1865, the record of the city of New York in relation to its contributions of men to the national armies during the conflict was a proud one. The population of the city at the beginning of the war was over $00,000 ; in 1865 it had diminished to less than 727,000. The war had depleted it. It had furnished to the army 116,382 soldiers, at an average cost for each man, for bounties and for the family relief fund, $150.47, or an aggre- gate of over $5,827,000.
The sad news of the assassination of President Lincoln and the mur- derons attack on Secretary Seward, which reached New York before
* The St. James, St. Nicholas, Metropolitan, Fifth Avenue. Hartford, Tammany, United States, and Lovejoy's hotels; and the Astor House, La Farge House, Howard House, New England House, and Belmont House.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
the dawn of April 15, 1865, gave the citizens a terrible shock. Every heart seemed paralyzed for a moment. The telegraph announced the death of the President at about seven o'clock. Instantly tokens of grief were seen in all parts of the city. The humble dwelling of the poor, the mansion of the rich, the shop of the artisan, the stately ware- house of the merchant, and the vessels in the harbor, were all draped in mourning within an hour. At noon there was an immense assem- blage of citizens at the Cutsom-House, the collector, Simeon Draper, presiding. The multitude were addressed by Generais Garfield, Butler. and Wetmore, Judge Pierrepont, D. S. Dickinson, and ex-Governol King. A committee of thirteen was appointed * and sent to Washing- ton to tender sympathy and aid to the government. From that time until after the funeral of the President business in the city was sus- pended and business places were closed.
On the day of his death (Saturday) that event was the topic of dis- course in the Jewish synagogues, as it was in the Christian churches on the following day. The funeral services took place at the White House on the 19th of April. Then the body was taken to the Capitol and lay in state until the 21st, when the funeral train set out for the home of the dead President in Illinois, by way of New York, Albany. and Buffalo.
Preparations for the reception of the body had been made in New York City. It was conveyed to the rotunda of the City Hall amid the chanting of 800 singers and placed on a superb catafalque. The city church bells were all tolling a funeral knell, and the Park was filled with a vast sea of sorrowing human faces. There the body lay in state until the next afternoon. During the whole twenty-four hours a slowly moving stream of men, women, and children flowed through the rotunda to look upon the face of the dead Chief Magistrate of the nation. A military guard protected the body, and the German musical societies performed a solemn chant in that august presence.
On the 25th of April the body of President Lincoln was taken from the city of New York. It was escorted to the railroad station by a procession nearly five miles in length. In that line were about fifteen thousand soldiers and two hundred colored citizens. In the afternoon thousands of citizens gathered at Union Square to listen to a funeral oration by George Bancroft. At the same place William Cullen Bryant pronounced a eulogy.
* Moses Taylor, Jonathan Sturges, William E. Dodge, Hamilton Fish, Moses H. Grinnell, William M. Evarts, Charles H. Russell, Edwards Pierrepont, Sammel Sloan. John J. Astor, Jr., F. B. Cutting. R. M. Blatchford, and Charles H. Marshall.
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FOURTH DECADE, 1860-1870.
On the disbandment of the army in 1865 the survivors of the many thousand citizens who had gone to the field returned to their homes. The event presented a rare spectacle for the nations. In the space of one hundred and fifty days the vast multitude of soldiers had been transformed into citizens, and had resumed the varied and blessed pur- suits of peace." Thereby the population of New York was suddenly greatly increased.
In 1866 a most salutary advance was made in New York City in the direction of sanitary reform. Ever since the prevalence of the cholera in 1849, and its reappearance in the city in 1855, the need of a health organization with more ample powers had been felt. In 1865 the cholera was raging in Europe, and apprehensions were felt in New York that it would cross the sea. It was that apprehension which caused the movement resulting in the creation of the Metropolitan Sanitary Distriet by the Legislature of New York in the winter of 1866. That district included the counties of New York, Kings, Richmond, and a portion of Westchester. Within it was created a new Board of Health for the city. t The old board consisted of the mayor and members of the boards of aldermen and councilmen.
As was anticipated. the cholera crossed the ocean .. A ship from Liverpool arrived at Sandy Hook in April, 1866, with several malig- nant cases of cholera on board. These were transferred to a hospital ship, and the remainder of the ship's company were quarantined.
This plague broke out in the city almost simultaneously. in May, at points five miles apart. It gradually spread over the city, in spots where most filth and bad drainage were found. So efficiently did the new Board of Health employ its enlarged powers that in the whole city, including the shipping and the floating population, only 460 persons died of cholera. At the same time there were over twelve hundred deaths in the hospitals and penal institutions on the islands. The pestilence disappeared in October.
So efficient has been the Board of Health and so skilful in its man- agement, that since the cholera in 1865, that disease or scarcely any other has appeared in the city as an epidemic. The board consists of the president, the sanitary superintendent, the health officer of the
* The whole number of men who had been enrolled for duty was 2.656,591, of whom 1,490,000 were in actual service. The disbandment of this vast army began in June, and by mid-autumn 750,000 officers and men had been mustered out of the service.
| The first board consisted of six sanitary commissioners, the health officer, the police commissioners, sanitary superintendent, sanitary inspectors, etc. Jackson S. Schultz was president of the board, Benjamin F. Manierre treasurer, Emmons Clark secretary, and three physicians - namely, Drs. Crane, Parker, and Stone.
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port, and two commissioners, one of whom must have been a practising physician for five years. The commissioner not a physician is the president of the board. The commissioners are appointed by the mayor with the consent of the aldermen. The sanitary superintendent is the chief executive officer of the board. A corps of medical inspec- tors is employed for the cure and prevention of disease, in the inspec- tion of tenement and other houses, and for the enforcement of health laws and the sanitary code. There is also a vaccinating corps, a corps for disinfection, and a corps for meat and milk inspection.
The Health Department has a bureau of vital statistics, to which is assigned the duty of keeping a record of all the births, marriages, and deaths in the city, and of compiling the annual tabular statements of these. Every physician is required to give a certificate of the death of any person under his charge, with sex, age, place of nativity, whether married or unmarried, and cause of death. On the presentation of this to the bureau a burial permit is granted. According to the report of this bureau for 1852 the death-rate in the city that year was 31.08 of every 1000 of the population. The chief cause of this comparatively high death-rate in New York is undoubtedly the tenement-house system, where overcrowding and foul air is the rule and not the excep- tion. *
The Board of Health could do little toward effecting a sanitary reform in the tenement-house system. Its evils had become so great that at length the citizens, led by the medical fraternity, were aroused to action. A public meeting was held at the Cooper Union in Feb- ruary, 1879, the mayor presiding. A committee of nine + was appointed to devise means for improving the sanitary condition of tenement houses. That committee acted promptly. It procured from the Legislature an act giving increased power to the Board of Health. A SANITARY REFORM SOCIETY was organized, composed of prominent citizens, and its labors, in conjunction with the efforts of the Board of Health, have already produced a marvellous change in the tenement- house system. That society is vigilant and active, and it promises to relieve the city of one of its most dangerous evils .;
* The officers of the board for 1883 are : commissioners, Alexander Shaler (president). Woolsey Johnson, M.D., William M. Smith, M.D., Stephen B. French, M.D .; secretary. Emmons Clark ; sanitary superintendent, Walter D. F. Day, M.D.
+ The following named gentlemen composed the committee of nine : HI. E. Pellew, W. Bayard Cutting, R. T. Auchmuty, D. Willis James, Charles P. Daly, Cornelius Vandet- bilt, W. W. Astor, James Gallatin, and F. D. Tappen.
+ The founder of this society is JJames Gallatin. He was its first president, with Honey E. Pellew, vice-president ; Richard H. Derby, M.D., secretary ; D. Willis James, treas-
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FOURTH DECADE, 1860-1870.
The enormous expenditures and waste of the Civil War and the vast issues of paper currency amazingly stimulated every industrial pursuit in the country. New York in a special manner felt the influence of the new order of things. Wages of every class of workers, whether with the brain or the hand, were suddenly and largely increased. The pier of every product of the farm and workshop was raised many per cent, and the plentifulness of money increased the number and ability of purchasers. Merchants whose annual sales were valued at thousands of dollars now sold hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of goods in a year : manufacturers enlarged their premises, and new establish- w.nis sprang up in abundance to meet the increasing demand. The anis of every kind felt the influence of " flush times." Charitable and ! nevolent institutions were multiplied in the city, and found generous gevers. During this decade the magnificent charities of the metropolis were increased in number, power, and influence for good.
The ample means for the gratification of asthetic tastes and for intellectual cultivation and enjoyment which the new order of things lead produced caused unexampled activity in the realm of art and litera- ture, and in the succeeding decade. New York City, in its extravagant and elegant architecture without and within. in style and decoration. o's public and private libraries. its fine-art institutions and public and private picture galleries, rivalled the older cities of Europe in these udications of wealth and refinement.
To the Civil War and its immediate antecedent and collateral events may fairly be attributed the introduction of a new feature, if not a new vrat or a new school, in the art of sculpture. Those events inspired a young man who had only lately suspected that he possessed a genius for art to follow his " good angel." who led him to the creation of small groups of figures illustrative of simple, touching scenes in the Ivory of the time in which he lived. It was his modest entrance upon the beautiful path by which he speedily reached the goal of fame and fortune.
That young man was John Rogers, a descendant of the Smithfield martyr, then about thirty years of age. His beautiful plastic groups astonished and pleased. and won unbounded admiration. He carried " high art" into the abodes of the humble as well as the exalted. The subjects touched a chord of sympathy in every human heart. He drew
wer ; Charles E. Tracy, counsel. These constituted the executivo committee, and with " were associated a board of directors : R. T. Auchmuty, S. D. Babcock, W. Bayard " Charles P. Daly, Bowie Dash. Adrian Iselin, Jr., John T. Metcalf, M.D., 4 1 Potter, F. D. Tappen, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and William E. Dodge, Jr.
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from the heart ; his pictures went to the heart. He revealed human nature in its sweetest aspects. Ile took a high position in the realm of art at the beginning as an inventor and a reformer. It has been truly said that " no single agent has done so much to educate a popular taste for genuine art as John Rogers's delicate and beautiful genre pictures in clay. They are at home alike in the boudoir of the rich and the cottage of the humble. In city and country, among high and low, they are enshrined with a respect and love that amount to some- thing like veneration. They are poetical, but not mystic. They are not above the average intellect of mankind."
Mr. Rogers has been justly called " the people's sculptor." He is well known and admired in Europe. For more than twenty years he « has occupied bis special field of art alone .*
* John Rogers was born in Salem, Mass., October 30, 1829. He was educated at a New England common school. In his youth he was restless ; he engaged in varione avocations, and at the age of nineteen became a machinist in Manchester, N. H., and worked at that trade about seven years, wholly ignorant of the divinity within him. One day, while in Boston, he saw a man making images of clay. The sight was a revelation. It deeply impressed him, and he determined to try to imitate the artist. Although work in the shop was so urgent that he was compelled to labor fourteen hours a day, he found time to try some experiments in modelling. He transferred to clay the conceptions of his mind while at his daily task. He yearned for a sight of the works of the great masters in Italy, but his pecuniary circumstances denied him the privilege.
In 1857, when Mr. Rogers was twenty-eight years of age, after working at his trade six months in Missouri, he was thrown out of employment. He came East, procured some funds, went to Paris and Rome, and after studying art in France and Italy for about eight months, he retmned to America with his mind richly freighted with precious memories. He found employment in the office of the city engineer of Chicago, and every moment not required in his business he gave to efforts in his chosen field of art. He produced a group of small figures called " The Checker Players," which was exhibited at a charity fair got up by some benevolent ladies in Chicago. It attracted great attention, and was praised by crities for its faithfulness in details, a characteristic of all his works.
Feeling conscious of his powers, Mr. Rogers now resigned his situation in the office of the city surveyor and devoted himself to art. He soon produced a group which he called " The Slave Anetion." This was first introduced to the public in New York City in 1860. The times were propitions. The agitation of the slave question was then very violent. The sentiment of the little group appealed to the sympathies of multitudes of people, yet it was denied a place in a public art exhibition because of its subject. It attracted wide attention. When the Civil War broke out, soon afterward, the genius of the new born artist, consonant with his patriotism, laid hold of the occasion, and most interesting groups illustrative of current history grew up under the eager touch of his skilful fingers. He began his career in New York in the most unpretentious manner. He took an attic room on Broadway, and issued this business card : " John Rogers Artist, Designs and Executes Groups of Figures in Composition at his Studio, 5:" Broadway, Room 28. N. B .- They can be seenrely packed for transportation."
These groups are mole of a peculiar composition, and are produced and reprodu by a simple process. They are originally modelled in clay by the hand of the zanet r.
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FOURTH DECADE, 1860-1870.
The comparatively new feature in the aspect of the fine arts, popu- Lily known as chromolithography, or color-printing by the litho- graphic process, has been brought to great perfection in the city of New York since the beginning of this decade. One of the most extensive and best equipped establishments in the city engaged in this business is that of the Hatch Lithographie Company, founded by the eminent engraver on steel, George W. Hatch, mentioned in a former chapter. Mr. Hatch probably did more than any other man in the development of the lithographie art. Indeed every department of the. fine arts felt the touch of his genius. Ile associated with himself his eldest son, G. W. Hatch, Jr., in the lithograph business, and very soon, by the employment of the best workmen in every department. the firm of G. W. Hatch, Jr., & Co. became so pre-eminent in the per- fretion of their work that the national and municipal governments be- came their constant customers.
In 1856 G. W. Hatch, Jr., died, and his only surviving brother. Warner D. Hatch, became the partner of his father. On the death of the latter, in 1866, this younger son became the head of the establish- ment, and so remains. Very great improvements in the business had then been made, especially in the department of color-printing, which the house has made a specialty. Greater improvements have since
A mould from the model is taken and a bronze copy is cast from that, from which moulds are prepared for subsequent copies made of composition.
Rogers's groups soon became very popular. Their exquisite execution and his rare judgment in the selection of subjects commended him to cultivated people, and their exceedingly low price put them within the reach of families of moderate means.
In 1882 Mr. Rogers undertook a task which he had never ventured upon before --- namely, the production of a heroic equestrian statue. It is a portrait of General John F. Reynolds, who was killed in the battle of Gettysburg. He received the commission without competition from the Reynolds Memorial Association, composed of officers of the Army of the Potomac. Mr. Rogers put up an atelier at Stamford, Connecticut, and within it, in little over a year, he completed the model. in plaster, which is most satis- factory, and is praised as an admirable work of art. Few artists are equal to the task of making an equestrian statue, and hence Mr. Rogers's trimph is all the greater. It is to be cast in bronze, and to ocenpy a conspienons place in the city of Philadelphia.
Mr. Rogers was married in 1865 to Miss Harriet M. Francis, by whom he has seven children! In person he is rather slender. His expression, from a combination of pecul- iar features, is of the most interesting character. Like all men of true genius, he is modest, yet possesses the dignity which self-consciousness of power imposes. His famous groups are numerous. Among the most notable are " The Council of War" --. Lincoln, Stanton, and Grant ; " One More Shot ;" " Taking the Oath ;" " Coming to the Parson ;" " Checkers up at the Farm :" " It is so nominated in the bond"-Shylock, Portia, . Antonio, etc. ; and his three illustrations of the story of " Rip Van Winkle," in which the features of the hero of the tale are those of Joseph Jefferson, the great dramatic in. personator of that character.
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been made. In 1866 it had 100 hand presses and 150 men employed. and yet it could not meet the demands upon it. Some of the chrome. lithographs produced by this establishment at that time have hardi. been surpassed since in the perfection of imitations of oil paintings. The productions of the house attracted customers from all parts of the country. Great acquisitions of skilled labor and machinery were soon made to the establishment to meet the public demand, and in the year 1868 the Ilatch Company introduced into this country the first stea !! lithographie press. It was made in London, and was imperfect in many parts, but was capable of making 4000 to 3000 impressions daily. while 250 impressions by the hand press were considered a fair day's work. The introduction of the steam press produced a revolution in : the business.
The firm procured a more perfect machine from Paris, and yet it was not satisfactory. Then the great printing-press manufacturers. R. Hoe & Co., were employed to construct a machine. The result Was perfeet success. The iron bands of the machine took hold of the paper with the delicacy of touch of a woman's fingers, and it was adjusted to the picture on the stone with accuracy surpassing the skill of the best workman, while the whole machine moved with the perfection of a watch.
It seemed doubtful whether work enough could be found to keep the steam press busy. It has never been idle. Three years after the Hoe press was introduced, Hatch & Co. had six of them in use, with a capacity for printing 30,000 sheets daily; in 1883 the company had twelve steam presses in constant operation, which produced an average of 60,000 impressions a day.
The lead (or graphite) pencil holds a most intimate, indeed an essou- tial relation to the fine arts, as the chief implement in the production of designs of every kind, whether in the service of the painter. the sculptor, or the architect. The best lead pencils formerly known to artists were those of the pure graphite of Borrowdale, Cumberland. England, discovered in 1564 ; but those mines were exhausted more than a hundred years ago. At about the middle of the last century Caspar Faber began the manufacture of lead pencils of superior quality at Stein, near Nuremberg, Germany. His son, Anthony William Faber, succeeded him in 1501, and founded the house of A. W. Faber. which name is perpetuated. A manufacturing branch of the great house (which is the largest of the kind in the world) was established in the city of New York in 1861. The head of it, Eberhard Faber, came to the city in 1855 and established a mercantile branch of the house, in
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RA Macy
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FOURTH DECADE, 1860-1870.
which is now centred the large trade in pencils over the whole United States, in Canada, Mexico. South America, and the West India Islands.
The parent establishment of A. W. Faber, at Stein, is now enormous in extent, constituting a whole village of factories and a populous com- munity. The proprietors have built churches, established schools and kindergartens, a library, a savings bank, and places of amusement, for the moral, religious, intellectual, and social benefit of their army of employés. They have branches in London and the principal cities on the continent, and the Faber pencil is known and sought after in every part of the civilized world.
The American branch factory was established by Eberhard Faber at the foot of Forty-second. Street, and he became the pioneer of a new industry in the city. This factory was burned in May, 1872, and Mr. Faber built another in Greenpoint, which has since been in operation. At a later date he established a cedar-vard and saw-mill at Cedar Keys, Florida. As business increased he enlarged the factory, and manufactured not only pencils of every variety, but pen-holders, slates, and slate-pencils, india-rubber goods, vellum tracing cloth, gold pens, pencil-cases, and almost everything connected with the stationery trade, except paper and blank books. At present the business absorbs the entire product of an india-rubber factory in New Jersey. The mercantile branch of the house moved to the elegant and spacious building Nos. 718-720 Broadway in 1877. In March, 1879, Eberhard Faber died, and his son, John Eberhard Faber, is now at the head of the American branch of the great house."
The goods of this house, of every kind, are so superior that it has received the highest awards at all international exhibitions.
* John Eberhard Faber is a native of New York City. He was educated at Columbia College, but before finishing the course of study (class of 1878) he went to Stein and took a position under his uncle at the head of the great mannfactory there. There he acquired a thorough knowledge of the French language. On the death of his father, in March, 1879, he returned to New York and became the head of the house in this city. He is a most energetic and sagacions young man, and sustains the good business name of the house of A. W. Faber.
CHAPTER IV.
D URING this decade several institutions, charitable, benevolent. and social. were created or put on sure foundations. Among these the New York Society for the Relief of the Ruptured and Crip- pled and the Home for Incurables appear specially conspicuous.
Through the exertions of Dr. James Knight and Mr. R. M. Hartley, who were earnest co-workers of the Society for Improving the Condi- . tion of the Poor, eminent members of the medieal profession and others became interested in the establishment of an institution for the relief of poor persons who were afflicted with hernia. Careful inquiry had revealed the fact that a large percentage of the population of the city was suffering from this cause. A society for the establishment of such an institution was organized in March, 1863, under the general laws of the State, and a full board of managers was chosen." The house of Dr. Knight, on Second Avenue, was rented, and he was appointed resi- dent physician and surgeon. Mrs. Knight superintended the domestic affairs of the institution, and their daughter taught the juvenile inmates the ordinary branches of education without compensation. During the first year the number of patients treated was 828.
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