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 8
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SECOND DECADE, 1840-1850.
Fillmore was its candidate for President of the United States, it was dissolved.
There was a reaction the year following the election of Harper. The Democrats elected William F. Havemeyer mayor, and nearly all the aldermen. During the remainder of this decade the Whigs and Democrats alternately elected their candidates for mayor. The Demo- erats elected Andrew H. Mickle in 1846, but in 1847 the Whigs gained the ascendency and elected their candidate, William V. Brady. Mr. Havemeyer was re-elected in 1848, but the next year the Whigs were again triumphant, electing Caleb S. Woodhull mayor. It was in the latter year (1849) that an amended charter was granted to the city, which changed the day of the charter election from the first Tuesday in April to the first Tuesday in November, the day of the State election.
During this decade and a part of the preceding decade the courts, especially that of Common Pleas, in the city of New York underwent modifications. In 1834 an associate judge of the Court of Common Pleas was created, who was vested with all the powers of the first judge. To this position Michael Ulshoeffer was first appointed. On the death of Judge John T. Irving, in 1838, Ulshoeffer was appointed first judge, and Daniel P. Ingraham associate.
parties. He accepted the office as an important trust, and discharged its duties in the same spirit.
But his life was pre-eminently that of a business man. The industry, integrity, and sound judgment by which he had won success were also his characteristic qualities as senior member of the prosperous firm. Every morning he visited each department of the establishment, with a sharp eye to every business detail, but with here and there a helpful word and everywhere the kindliest humor. Many of the most eminent authors and literary men of the time had become associated with the house, and their reminis- vences of Mr. Harper's sage counsel and quaint humor would fill a volume. But espe- cially the young and as yet unknown author had occasion to remember the appreciation and encouragement received in the counting-room where he first met the oldest of the Harper Brothers.
The late afternoon and evening Mr. Harper devoted to domestie duties and pleasures. Besides the members of his own family, he in his home frequently met and entertained others, gathered together by accident-for he seldom, if ever, gave any formal parties.
Mr.,Harper lived to be seventy-four years old. But in physical and mental vigor he seemed at least twenty years younger. He was perfectly erect, with scarcely a gray hair on his head. He was twice married. He left one son by his first wife-Mr. Philip J. A. Harper, now the senior member of the house of Harper & Brothers. By his second wife "he left two daughters and a son.
The portrait of Mr. Harper given in this work is engraved from the photograph taken on the afternoon of the fatal accident. The fac-simile of his signature under the portrait is from his autograph appended to a document signed by him just before he left his office on that day. It was the last writing from his hand.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
An additional associate judge was created in 1839, vested with all the powers of the other judges, and William Inglis was appointed to that position. Charles P. Daly succeeded Judge Inglis in 1844. The court thus constituted -- a first judge and two assistant judges-re- mained until the adoption of the revised State Constitution in 1846. By the fiat of that Constitution the Court of Common Pleas and the Superior Court of New York City were specially excepted from the general judicial reorganization of the State ; but by an act passed the following year it was provided that the terms of the judges of both courts should expire on the 17th of January thereafter (1845), and that an election of judges by the people, for each of the courts, should take place in June preceding. It was also provided that the terms of the judges elected should be classified in terms of two, four, and six years. to be determined by lot, and that the election of all judges thereafter in either of the courts should be for six years. In June, 1847, all of the existing judges of the Court of Common Pleas were elected. The allotment was as follows : Michael Ulshoeffer, two years ; Daniel P. Ingraham, four years, and Charles P. Daly, six years. *
* Charles P. Daly, LL.D., was born in the city of New York October 31, 1816. He is a descendant of the Roman Catholic branch of the O'Daly's of Galway, a family notable in Irish history for its many scholars, bards, and legislators. His father came from the north of Ireland, established a tavern, first on the spot where the Tribune building now stands, and afterward near the Park Theatre. It became a place of great resort for theat- rical people. After his death, his son Charles, who had been educated at a private school, determined to earn his own living. He procured employment in Savannah, but becoming dissatisfied with his employer he went to sea, first as a cabin-boy and then as a sailor before the mast. In this pursuit he continued fully three years, when he returned to New York and apprenticed himself to a mechanic. Having an ardent thirst for learning and a strong desire for mental improvement, he soon joined a debating society, and became distinguished for great ability in debate and correctness and fluency in speech.
Young Daly attracted the attention of an eminent member of the bar, who advised him to study law, offering to pay the expense of his tuition at Union College. The young mechanie was unwilling to incur such a heavy obligation. Soon after this offer was made his master died. He was legally released from the bonds of his indentures. but he felt himself morally bound by them, and he served his master's widow faithfully until he was twenty-one years of age. Then he began the study of law with the gentle- man who had advised him to make it his life profession. His extraordinary progress in his studies enabled him, by a relaxation of rigid rules in his case, to be admitted to the bar in 1839, at the age of twenty-three years. He rapidly rose in his profession, was elected to the Legislature in 1843, and in 1814, on the recommendation of Governor Marcy, he was appointed a judge of the Court of Common Pleas in the city of New York. He has held that position ever since, by appointments and successive elections.
In 1857 Judge Daly was raised to the head of the Court of Common Pleas. During the forty years of his judicial service no whisper of a suspicion of dereliction of duty on the part of Judge Daly has ever been heard ; no charge of unfairness nor hint of corruption
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SECOND DECADE, 1S10-1850.
By the act of 1847, and by the code adopted in 1848 and amended in 1549, 1851, and 1833, the Court of Common Pleas in New York City exercised unlimited jurisdiction in law and equity, when the defendants reside or are personally served with process in the city of New York.
has ever been made by politieal partisans, or that he was the willing instrument of any class of politicians. His ermine mantle is free from the least stain. He enjoys the con- fidence and respect of all citizens, and he is justly regarded as a representative of the highest moral and intellectual tone of the society of which he is a member. Judge Daly is an earnest, plodding, persistent investigator and searcher after truth, a patriot of broad views, and a churchman without bigotry or uncharitableness.
Judge Daly visited Europe in 1851, and was received warmly by cultivated men every- where. In England he won the friendship of Lord Brougham, and on the continent of the Chevalier Bunsen and Baron Humboldt. In a letter to Bunsen concerning Judge Daly, Humboldt wrote : " All that you communicated to me about him I have found confirmed in a much higher degree. Few men leave behind them such an impression of high intellect upon the great subjects which influence the march of civilization."
Judge Daly had won a national reputation before his visit to Europe, by his admirable course in administering justice to the Astor Place rioters. He was called upon to pre- side at the Court of Sessions. In his charge to the jury the young judge said a mob was a despot, and rioting was a crime against law and order. Men who stir up a popular tumult to advance their own selfish ends, he said, must take the consequences, as do other criminals. To the astonishment of the multitude who sympathized with the rioters, the criminals were convicted under the clear rulings of the court, and their leader was sent to the penitentiary.
When the Civil War broke out, Judge Daly stood firmly, not only in support of the government, but of justice toward all. In the case of the captured " privateers" at the beginning of the strife, and of the " Trent affair" some months afterward, he gave the law to the President and his cabinet so forcibly and clearly that the government was pre- vented from making most serious blunders.
In 1867 Judge Daly was an active member of the New York State Constitutional Con- vention. He was a leading member of the Judiciary Committee that reported the present judiciary system of the State of New York. His addresses before the convention were admirable historical reviews. He is one of the founders of the American Geographical Society, and one of its most worthy members. The position of its president he has held many years. When he took the chair the society was in a languishing condition : under his energetic administration it has become one of the most flourishing and useful institutions of the metropolis-the object of his constant care. At the rooms of the society and at his own hospitable mansion, he receives the most distinguished travellers and philosophers from other lands, and his hand is ever open with generons gifts of work or money for the advancement of science and learning in all their aspects. His annual addresses before the society rank foremost among the geographical literature of our time.
Judge Daly is an enthusiastic admirer of dramatic literature, poetry, and music, and his sweet tenor voice when he sings after a quiet family dinner is genuine melody. In 1856 he married Miss Maria Lydig, a lady of high social position, and prominently known ever since for her labors in connection with private and public charities. Their beautiful home is the resort of cultivated people of both sexes. The judge's interest and activity in the various societies and institutions in the city-literary, seien- titie, and artistic -never flags. His industry is remarkable, his temperate and regular
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
It has also jurisdiction against corporations created by the laws of the State which transact their general business in the city ; also against foreign corporations upon any cause of action arising in the State. By an act passed in 1834 this court possesses jurisdiction in special proceed- ings for the disposition of the real estate of infants, when such property is in the city of New York.
By this code the Court of Common Pleas is made a court of review for the judgments of the Marine or district justices' courts of the city, and its decision upon and appeal from any of these courts is final. It also has the exclusive power of remitting fines imposed by the Court of Sessions as penalties .*
The charter of the city of New York, amended by act of the Legis- lature, passed April 7, 1830, was again amended by the act of the Legislature, passed April 2, 1849, to take effect on the first day of June ensuing. The amended charter provided, as we have observed, for holding the charter election on the first Tuesday in November (the day of the State election), the terms of the respective officers chosen to begin on the first Monday in January next ensuing ; also that the mayor and aldermen should be elected annually as before, but to hold their office for two years instead of one, while the assistant aldermen should be elected every year as before.
The charter also provided for the creation or permanent establish- ment of nine executive departments, the heads of which should con- stitute a portion of the city government, to assist the magistrate in ruling the city. They were to form a sort of cabinet ministry for the mayor, who could at any time summon them to his assistance in the administration of the government of the city. These departments were to be --
1. The Police Department, with the mayor at the head, and a bureau, the head of which was to be known as the Chief of Police.
habits are proverbial, and his love of books and of research is a passion which he grati- fies. His is one of the choicest private libraries in the city. Although Judge Daly is one of the busiest of men, he is one of the most social of men. He is always ready to see his friends, and the deserving applicant for his bounty is always listened to patiently, and is never turned from his doors empty-handed.
Judge Daly is the author of many published works, comprising addresses, essays, histories, and biographies. Among these is a learned " Historical Sketch of the Tribunals of New York from 1623 to 1846." also " The Nature, Extent, and History of the Surrogate Court of the State of New York," " A Comparison Between the Ancient and Modern Banking Systems," " History of the Settlement of the Jews in North America," etc.
* See Chief Justice Daly's erudite " History of the Court of Common Pleas for the City and County of New York, with an Account of the Judicial Organization of the State from 1623 to Iste."
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SECOND DECADE, 1840-1850.
2. The Department of Finance, of which the chief officer was to be denominated the Comptroller of the City of New York. The depart- ment was to have three bureaus, the heads of which were to be called, respectively, the Receiver of Taxes, the Collector of the City Revenue, and the Chamberlain of the City of New York.
3. The Street Department, the chief officer of which was to be called the Street Commissioner ; the department to have one bureau, the head of which was to be called the Collector of Assessments, and another bureau, the chief of which was to be known as the Superin- tendent of Wharves.
4. The Department of Repairs and Supplies, with four bureaus, the heads of which should be called, respectively, Superintendents of Roads, Repairs to Public Buildings, and of Permits, and Chief Engineer of the Fire Department. The head of the department was to be known as the Commissioner of Repairs and Supplies.
5. The Department of Streets and Lamps, under a Commissioner of Streets and Lamps, with three bureaus, the chiefs of which were called, respectively, Superintendents of Lamps and Gas, of Streets, and of Markets.
6. The Croton Aqueduct Board, the chief of which should be de- nominated President, Engineer, and Assistant Commissioner, with a bureau. the head of which was to be called the Water Register.
7. The City Inspector's Department, the chief officer known as City Inspector.
S. The Almshouse Department, the chief officers known as Gov- ernors of the Almshouse.
9. The Law Department, the head of which was to be called the Counsel for the Corporation, with a bureau known as that of the Cor- poration Attorney.
It was provided that the heads of these several departments, except- ing the Croton Aqueduct Board, should be elected every three years by the people. They were all subject to the legislative regulation and direction of the common council.
The year 1845 was marked by several noted conflagrations in the city of New York. One of these was exceeded in destructiveness only by the great fire of ten years before. On the morning of February 5th, about four o'clock, during the prevalence of a terrible snow-storm, a fire broke out in the counting-room of the Tribune building. It was discovered by the pressmen in the basement, who, like the compositors in the upper story, had barely time to escape with their lives. Mr. Graham (one of the proprietors of the Tribune) and a clerk were sleep.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
ing in the second story, and escaped by jumping out of a window into snowdrifts below. So deep and drifted was the snow that it was impossible to drag fire-engines through it-indeed some of them could not be gotten from their houses for a long time -- and the hydrant nearest the Tribune building was so frozen that it could only be opened with an axe. That building and the one adjoining, on the corner of Spruce and Nassau streets, were destroyed, with all their contents.
On the 25th of April the Bowery Theatre was destroyed by fire for the fourth time, about six o'clock in the evening. The fire broke out in the carpenter's shop of the theatre, and before an iron safety door could be closed, spread rapidly to the scenery within the building. In less than half an hour the theatre was a smoking ruin. It was sup- posed the fire was the work of an incendiary. The loss to the proprie- tor, T. S. Hamblin, was about $100,000.
At midsummer, 1845, the third great fire in the city occurred. The other two were the conflagrations of 1776 and 1835. On the morning of July 19th smoke was seen issuing from the third story of an oil-store on New Street, a small avenue between Broadway and Broad Street, extending from Wall Street to Beaver Street. The time of this dis- covery was just before dawn. The person having charge of the fire- alarm bell at the City Hall failed to ring it for a time, and when a sufficient force of the department, which if summoned promptly could have smothered the flames, arrived at the scene of the kindling con- flagration, it was beyond their control. Perceiving that the oil-store could not be saved, the firemen directed all their energies to save the buildings near it, but could not. The flames communicated to an ad- joining carpenter's shop, and spread rapidly.
At No. 35 Broad Street, opposite the starting-point of the fire, and connected with a building on New Street by a wooden platform, was the large store of Crocker & Warren, in which was a great quantity of saltpetre. By the omission to close tightly an iron shutter of this store, the fire was communicated to it by means of the platform, and the contents of that structure became a terrible force in spreading destruction. An official report of this fire, made by a joint special committee of the common council, alluding to the scenes at this build- ing, says :
" The assistant foreman of No. 22 engine. Mr. Waters, had not advanced more than three feet within the building, in which he had not before noticed fire or smoke, when there issued toward him from the first story a dense smoke, which compelled him and all the others present to retire from the building. . . . A few minutes after this a report was heard in Crocker & Warren's, resembling the discharge of a common horse-pistol
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SECOND DECADE, 1840-1850.
necompanied with a puffing sound like that emitted from a locomotive when first set in motion, and followed by the issuing from the first story of a thick, black smoke, which shot out as from a gun, and reached nearly across Broad Street in a horizontal body. Then immediately a bright flame was propelled in a similar manner from the same place neross Broad Street, and struck the honses on the opposite side. Then followed, at inter- vals of a few seconds, ten or twelve successive explosions, each louder than the other. and each accompanied with a shoot of brighter light through the flame, which, com- mencing with the first explosion, poured continuously out until the building from which it emanated was destroyed.
" While these explosions were occurring the firemen of Engine No. 22 say they heard some one exclaim, ' Run, No. 22, for your lives ; the building is full of powder !' . While most of them were in the act of running, a grand explosion took place, with a sound compared by one witness to a clap of thunder. It was accompanied with an immense body of flame, occupying all the space in Broad Street between Beaver and Exchange streets. It instantly penetrated at least seven buildings, blew in the fronts of the oppo- site houses on Broad Street, wrenched shutters and doors from buildings at some dis- tance from the immediate scene of the explosion, propelled bricks and other missiles through the air, threw down many individuals who had gone as far as Beaver Street. spread the fire far and wide, so that the whole neighborhood was at once in a blaze, and most unfortunately covered up the hose through which the streams of water had been playing upon the fire. After this the firemen could with difficulty obtain any control over the conflagration."
The force of the explosion was tremendous. Within two hours one hundred and fifty buildings were in flames. In one direction the flames had crossed Broad Street and extended almost to Wall Street, and in the other direction had reached the Bowling Green, at the foot of Broadway. The ravages of the fire extended from Broad Street below Wall Street to Stone Street, up Whitehall Street to Bowling Green, and up Broadway to Exchange Place. Three hundred and forty-five buildings were destroyed. Augustus L. Cowdrey, a fire- man, and three other persons were killed, and Engine No. 22, whose members fled in time to save their lives, was nearly destroyed by the force of the great explosion.
The value of the edifices consumed, with their contents, was esti- mated at from $6,000,000 to $10,000,000. The long-debated question among scientific men, " Will saltpetre explode ?" was settled by a voice of thunder uttering a vehement argument on the affirmative side,*
* In this conflagration a cherished relic of the past was destroyed. It was the bell of the " Old Jail "-the famous Provost prison during the occupation of the British from 1776 to 1783. When that old lock-up was remodelled and became the present Hall of Records, that bell was placed on the Bridewell, at the west side of the City Hall, as a fire-alarm bell. On the destruction of the Bridewell the old bell was allowed to continue its association with the fire department by being placed in the cupola of the Naiad Hoce Company, in Beaver Street. On the morning of July 19, 1815, it gave its last warming (f
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
In no respect is the progress of the city of New York more emphat- ically illustrated than in the contrast between 1833 and 1883 as regards fire-insurance facilities, processes, and resources.
Fifty years ago only about eighteen fire-insurance companies were in existence in New York City. In 1883, on July Ist, there were forty- eight local companies. In 1833 the total fire-insurance capital was but little over $6,000,000. Now the New York City companies have $17,434,000 cash capital, with surplus assets of $22,680,493 besides, making a total of $40,114,513.
Then only a single company-the Globe (long since defunct)-could boast of $1,000,000 capital. Now no less than five New York City companies possess $1,000,000 capital each, with important surplus funds in addition ; and a single company-the Home -- with a cash capital of $3,000,000, can exhibit more assets than the combined capitals of all the New York companies of 1833.
The entire premium receipts of the cighteen companies of 1833 did not reach the sum of $1,000,000 per annum, whereas the premium income of the forty-eight New York companies now doing business was, for the year 1882, $15,027,548, of which at least five companies could report having received over $1,000,000 each during the year ; and one (the Home) reported premium receipts to the enormous amount of $2,745,663, or more than one sixth of the entire premium receipts reported by the forty-eight city companies.
Between 1$33 and the end of 1835 seven additional companies, with $1,700,000 more capital, came in to make the total fire-insurance capital of the city nearly 88,000,000, and (as the event proved) to lend what little aid they could to moderate the ruin which followed in the wake of the great fire of December, 1835. By that fire from $15,000,000 to $20,000,000 worth of property was annihilated, and all but seven of the twenty-five local fire-insurance companies were made insolvent. The few companies that remained alive had but little more than $1,000,000 capital left between them all. Under a law passed specially for their encouragement, however, several companies were reorganized with new capital to the aggregate of $3,500,000, and once more the New York companies could claim nearly $6,000,000 of capital, all told, as a guaranty of their promises of indemnity to sufferers by fire.
The fire of July, 1845, swept away over $6,000,000 worth of property,
danger and destruction to sleeping citizens. The house of the Naind Hose Company was consumed in the great configration, and the old bell perished with it.
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SECOND DECADE, 1840-1850.
and with it many of the companies, cutting down the capital of the New York and Brooklyn companies combined to about $1,000,000. For several years thereafter the fire-insurance field seemed to dis- courage rather than invite the investment of further capital. But in 1849 the passage of a general insurance law opened a new vista to promoters and investors ; and from that year on to 1876, with scarcely an exception, new companies continued to be annually organized (and withdrawn), the largest number existing in any one year being in 1867, when ninety-one New York fire-insurance companies reported net assets to the amount of $28, 615,535.
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