USA > New York > New York City > History of New York city from the discovery to the present day, V.1 > Part 22
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already expressed much sympathy at our want of wood, was so much affected that he immediately left the room.
" The next day, as I was looking out of the window, I saw quite a number of wagons full of chopped trees, standing. still in the street. Each wagon contained two cords of wood. I went into the room where the pastor, Mylius, sat with the children before the fire-place, in which the last stick was burning, and said to him : 'Never before have I been envious ; but now, the distress and pain which these poor children suffer, make me so; for just now there has come to our very door four wagons filled with wood. How happy would I be if I only had some of it!' Scarcely had I thus spoken, when a servant brought me a message from Major Brown, stating that he had sent me these loads of wood with his compliments, and begging us to send to him whenever we should again be out of fuel. Imagine my joy, and my eagerness to thank our guardian angel. I had scarcely seen his face, as the lying-in cham- ber of milady had been so dark. Some days after, I was at a ball where he .also was expected to be present. He had been described to me as a man with a very prominent turned-up nose. For such a person, therefore, I looked attentively; but I was obliged to look for a long time, because the excellent man kept continually out of the way, that I might have no opportunity to thank him. At last, however, I found him, and thanked him right heartily. He then told me that up that time he had known nothing of our necessity, but that when he heard my story he had not been able to go to sleep quietly the whole night. through fear that the dispositions which he had already made for our relief would not arrive sufficiently speedy. These 'dispositions' consisted in giving the order to cut down some of the trees in the great avenue * in front of the
Probably, the present Wall Street. All the principal highways of the city were adorned at this period with luxuriant :' ade-trees. A celebrated traveler,
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city; and when this proceeding was objected to on the ground that it would make considerable damage, he replied, that it was much better to spare a few trees than to have a family, who had served the King with so much zeal, suffer from want. He further told me that in future we must, under all circumstances, whenever anything was wanting that it belonged to the commissary to supply, apply directly to him. This acquaintance was of great advantage to us. My husband was supplied with many kinds of provisions ; with Indian meal, part of which we used for bread and part for cake, and also with salted meat, which latter article, however, was entirely useless to us, as we received more than we could consume; and it often was so uneatable that I gave it away to get rid of it, especially since our servants were also supplied with the same kind of food. The major, accordingly, advised us to pursue the same plan in this regard as the other generals, viz .: to exchange our meat for boxes of tallow and candles of spermaceti (which burn better and are more beautiful than those of wax), and also for butter, which they did gladly, as they were obliged to supply the soldiers with meat. By this means, we saved considera- ble. We were now no longer troubled for the want of
who visited New York just previous to the arrival of Governor Tryon, thus describes the various kinds then growing in the city : " In the chief streets there are trees planted, which, in the summer, give them a fine appearance, and, dur- ing the excessive heat at that time, afford a cooling shade. I found it extremely pleasant to walk in the town, for it seemed quite like a garden. The trees which are planted for this purpose are chiefly of two kinds ; the water-beech is the most numerous, and gives an agreeable shade in summer by its large and numerous leaves. The locust-tree is likewise frequent ; its fine leaves and the odorifer- ous scent which exhales from its flowers make it very proper for being planted in the streets near the houses and in the gardens. There are likewise lime- trees and elms in these walks, but they are not, by far, so frequent as the others. One seldom meets with trees of the same sort adjoining each other, they being in general placed alternately." The last of these trees in Wall Street was cut down in 1866. A portion of its trunk (preserved as a sacred relic) is to be seen in the old English chop-house, on Thames Street, known as " Old Tom's."
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wood, for they broke to pieces an old and worthless ship in order to furnish us with fuel, and from this time we received weekly two cords of fire-wood.
" Throughout the whole winter, Generals Phillips, Trvon, and Patterson were our constant friends and guests, and every week we gave a gentleman's dinner party. This was all that we could afford to do, as everything was so terribly high in the city. At the end of the winter, General Tryon sailed for England; but, just before his departure, he sent to my house magnificent furniture, tap- estry, carpets, and curtains, besides a set of silk hangings for an entire room. Never shall I forget the many marks of friendship which I have received from almost every one of this excellent nation; and it will always be to me a source of satisfaction to be able at any time to be of use to the English, as I have learned by experience how pleasant it is to receive kindness from foreigners.
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" About this time our friendly relations began with our excellent friend General Clinton, who was the General- in-Chief of the English army in the Southern provinces of America. As is the case with every Englishman, it was at first very difficult for our acquaintance to ripen into intimacy. His first call upon us was one of ceremony, as he came as General-in-Chief, attended by his entire staff. As his general appearance and conversation were agreea- ble, I said to his friend, General Phillips, that I regretted that he had treated us with so much ceremony, and that a more friendly manner would have better accorded with our feelings. Afterward he invited us out to his country- seat to spend the summer, an invitation which was accepted. His country residence was magnificent, a most beautiful situation, orchard and meadows, and the Hudson River running directly in front of the house. Everything was placed at our disposal, including fruits of the most delicious flavor ; indeed, of this latter article we had more
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than we could eat. Our servants feasted on peaches even to satiety, and our horses, which roamed through the orchards, eagerly ate the fruit from the trees, disdaining that upon the ground, which every evening we had gath- : ered up and given to the pigs to fatten them. It seems almost incredible, but nevertheless it is true, that with nothing but this fruit we fattened six pigs, the flesh of which was capital, only the fat was somewhat soft. Peach, apricot, and other fruit-trees are raised here with- out espaliers, and have trunks as thick as those of ordinary trees.
" Not far from us were the Hell Gates, which are dan- gerous breakers for those ships that pass through them up the river. We often saw ships in danger, but only one was wrecked and went to pieces during our stay at this place.
" General Clinton came often to visit us, but in hunt- er's dress, accompanied by only one aid-de-camp. On one of these occasions he said to us : 'I feel confident that you look upon me more as a friend than a stranger; and as I feel the same toward you, you shall always be regarded by me as such.' The last time he came to see us, he had with him the unfortunate-as he afterward became- Major Andre, who, the day afterward, set out upon the fatal expedition in which he was captured by the Ameri- cans and afterward hung as a spy. It was very sad that . this pre-eminently excellent young man should have fallen a victim to his zeal and his kind heart. which led him to undertake such a precarious errand instead of leaving it to older and known officers, to whom properly the duty belonged, but whom, on that very account (as they would be more exposed to danger), he wished to save. " We passed much of our time at this most agreeable place, but our contentment was broken in upon by a malignant fever that prevailed in New York, and of
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which in our family alone, twenty fell ill, eight danger- ously. Among these eight were my husband, and my daughter Gustava. One can imagine my grief and appre- hension; day and night I did nothing but divide my nurs- ing between my husband and daughter. The former was so ill that we often thought he would not survive the day; and Gustava had such violent paroxysms of fever that she entreated me, when she was shivering with the ague, to lay myself upon her, at which times she violently shook me, together with her bed, although she was only nine years old. It frequently happened that those sick of the fever died in these fits of shaking, and every day persons would tell me of fifty or sixty fresh burials, which cer- tainly did not tend to raise my spirits. The heat which the sick suffered was so intense that their pulse beat one hundred and thirty-five times in a minute. All our serv- ants were sick, and of course I was obliged to do every- thing. I was then nursing my little America, and had neither opportunity nor desire to lie down, except while giving her the breast. At such times I lay down upon the bed and fell asleep. At night I was often busied in making for my patients a lemonade of salts of wormwood, mixed with lemon-juice, sugar, and water; by which means, as all the sick in the house had them, I used up, in the space of two weeks, two full boxes of lemons, each box containing five hundred.
" We remained the entire summer of 1780 upon this lovely estate. Two Miss Robinsons came to share our loneliness and enliven our little company. They remained with us a fortnight previous to our return to the city, when the news of the arrival of a ship from 1780.
England, bringing over the latest fashions, took them back again to the town. On our return to the city I scarcely recognized them in their odd and actually laughable garb, which a very pretty woman, just over from England, had
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imposed upon them and the other New York ladies. This lady was with child, and did not wish it to be known. Accordingly, she made them think that in England they wore bodices that were parted in the middle, whereby the points stuck upward, hoops as large around as those of a hogshead, and very short cloaks tied up with ribbons, all of which they believed implicitly, and copied after .*
" Upon our return to New York we were received in the most friendly manner, and our friends vied with each other in making the winter pass most pleasantly. My husband, General Phillips, and their aids-de-camp, were finally exchanged in the autumn of 1780, but the rest of the troops captured at Saratoga remained prisoners.
"Gereral Clinton, partly through friendship to my husband, and partly out of attachment to our present duke, wished to place General Riedesel in active service, where he could serve to advantage. He, therefore, by virtue of .the power which an English general has in his own army, appointed him Lieutenant-General, and gave him the corresponding English allowance ; which, on account of the dearness of everything (by reason of which we had difficulty in making both ends meet), proved very acceptable to us. At the same time he gave him a com- mand at Long Island, which island lies opposite New York, being separated from it by only a narrow channel called
* The taste for fashionable frivolity and display seems to have been the only thing unaffected by the privations of that gloomy winter. Eugene Law- rence, in speaking of New York city at this time, in a paper read before the New York Historical Society, January 6th, 1857, says : " Meanwhile, in the midst of all this suffering and want, the city streets were filled with the fash- ions and the luxuries of Europe. The ladies crowded William Street, and the merchants spread out the most costly wares. French silks, captured in some unlucky vessels, sold readily at extravagant rates. Lutestrings and poplins. brocades, and the best broadcloth of England, were shown on the counters of William Street and Wall; and it is a curious circumstance, that, through all the war, William Prince, of Flushing, continued his advertisement of fruit and flowers, of magnolias and apricots, and of the finest grafts and the rarest seeds."
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the East River. I was not able during the winter to be with him, as the house in which he had his quarters was not habitable for me, as it was possible to heat only a few rooms in it. My husband, accordingly, went back and forth, which he easily did all winter, as everything was quiet. The autumn before he was appointed to this post, he had a severe relapse of his old complaint, caused prob- ably by a cold which he caught by going in sea-bathing while heated. He suddenly became perfectly stiff, and could not speak; and had it not been for friend Colonel Wurmb, who fortunately was in his room, it might, per- haps, have been all over with him. The doctor immedi- ately opened a vein and rubbed him strongly, and God once more spared him to me; but his cramps, oppressions, headaches, and drowsiness increased. All the physicians gave it as their opinion that the climate thoroughly disa- greed with him, and that he never would be any better as long as he remained in the Southern provinces of North America. Still, there was nothing else for us to do. My husband could not think of receiving permission to leave, and was, therefore, obliged to remain at his post.
" In the spring of 1781, I also settled down on Long Island, where we, although pretty lonesome, might have lived perfectly contented if we only could have been without solicitude ; but, as the river was not 1781.
frozen over, the Americans constantly attempted surprises in order to take prisoners. Major Maybaum was drawn out of his bed, and we knew that they aimed to do the same thing with my husband. Our house was situated close to the shore, and was perfectly isolated, so that if they had overcome the watch, they could easily have carried him away. Every one was therefore constantly on the watch. Throughout the entire night, at the slightest noise, he would wake up and place himself in readiness for an attack, and thus he lost considerable sleep. I also became
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so accustomed to watching, that daylight would often sur- prise me, when I would lie down and catch a few hours' sleep; for it was only when my husband believed that I was wide-awake and on guard, that he would allow him- self to sleep, so terrible was to him the thought that he might again be taken prisoner. We had from our house a magnificent prospect. Every evening I saw from my window the City of New York, entirely lighted up; and, as the city is built close to the shore, I saw its reflection in the water. We heard, also, the beating of the drums ; and, if everything was particularly still, even the calls of the sentinels. We had our own boat, and could cross over in it to New York in a quarter of an hour."
During the Revolution, the house No. 1 Broadway-to which allusion has been made on a preceding page-was the head-quarters and general rendezvous of the British generals and other army officers .* In like manner,
* Connected with the house No. 1 Broadway, built in 1742, and now the oldest house in New York city, there is quite an amusing reminiscence. Previous to this year (1742) the site was occupied by an old tavern kept by a Mrs. Kocks, built fifty years before by her husband, Pieter Kocks, an officer in the Dutch service, and an active leader in the Indian war of 1693. Connected with this personage there is an interesting as well as amusing episode. According to Judge Daly, in The Historical Magazine for January, 1871, it appears that in 1654 this same Pieter Kocks, then a single man, residing in New Amsterdam, brought an action, in the Court of Burgomeisters and Schepens, against Anna Van Vorst, who is described as a maid living at Ahasimus, for a breach of promise of marriage mutually entered into between them, in confirmation of which he had made her certain gifts. It would seem, however, as the record states, that the lady had misgivings, and was not disposed to marry him. On her part, she proved, by two witnesses, that he had agreed to give her up, and had promised to give her an acquittal in writing. But the court would not excuse her ; "as the promise of mariage," says the court, "was made before the Omnipotent dod, it shall remain in force;" and they held that neither should marry any other person without the approval of the court; that the presents should remain with the lady until they were married, or until, by mutual consent, they were exempted from the contract ; and they were equally condemned in the costs of the suit. This Anna Van Vorst is supposed to have been a daughter of the first emigrant by Vrouwtje Ides, and was the ancestor of our fellow-citizen Hon. Hooper C. Van Vorst.
Since speaking of this house on page 152, a writer in the New York Eren
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the BEEKMAN HOUSE (the site of the present Journal of Com- merce Building) was at the same time the head-quarters of the British naval officers. This continued to be so during the entire war, and, indeed, had been so before the Revolu- tion. Admirals Charles Hardy (Admiral of the Blue) and John Digby (Admiral of the Red) were often here. The
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late King of England, William IV, who, as the Duke of Clarence and a midshipman, came over here with Admiral Digby, in the St. George, in 1782, made this house his place of resort on shore. His German tastes were shown by his taking every occasion, when off duty, to skate on the Kolck or Collect Pond (now the site of the
ing Post has given currency again to the story that it was built by Captain Kennedy. Let this question be forever set at rest. The Watts family acquired the ownership to the property of No. 1 Broadway through Sir Peter, Admi- ral Warren, who, as stated on page. 152, built the house. Captain Archi- bald Kennedy, who, late in life, succeeded to the Scotch Earldom of Cassilis, married a daughter of John Watts-a niece of Sir John Johnson's wife, nee Miss Mary Watts-and by this marriage acquired the property in question. This is all the connection that Kennedy ever had with the house in dispute.
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Tombs). His companion on these occasions was Gulian Verplanck *- the grand-uncle of the late Gulian C. Verplanck-who once rescued him from drowning when he had broken through the ice and fallen into the Pond. The changes which have taken place from time to time in the lines of roads and streets, have greatly altered the aspect of the entire neighborhood. The calm and quiet life of the ancient Hollanders in this locality has given place to scenes of which they had little dreamed. Within a stone's-throw of the Journal of Commerce Build- ing, Wall Street, with its fibers stretching out into every part of the civilized globe, controls the destinies of millions of human beings. Where the good Mrs. Beekman and her five daughters attended to their household duties in the old Dutch -kitchen, a steam-engine now drives a printing- press. Where they sat waiting for news from "home" by ships that were months in coming, editors now sit, and receive in the afternoon the morning's news in England and Holland. ¡
At length a definite treaty of peace was entered into by the United States and Great Britain on the 3d of Sep- tember, 1783; and on the 25th of November of the same year- just seven years, two months, and ten days 1783. from the time the British had occupied New York in triumph-Washington entered the city at noon-at the
* Afterward President of the Bank of New York, in which office he contin- ued until his death, in 1799.
+ William Beekman had a country-seat three miles from the City Hall, and a house on his plantation in the lower part of the city. His down-town house was located on the spot which is now the site of the Journal of Commerce building. The old road to the fort, from the ferry on the East River, then at Peck Slip, ran along the shore nearly to the foot of Wall Street, when it turned and passed the Beekman House, which was probably erected with reference to this highway. In 1712, a negro riot broke out near Hanover Square, and Adrian Beekman (a son of Gerard, who had been owner of this and other property), rushing out of his residence to help quell the insurrec- tion, was stabbed by a negro. As a result of this riot, nineteen slaves Were executed.
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same time that the British troops, having, as they sup- posed, prevented the immediate hoisting of American colors, by knocking off the cleats and greasing the flag- staff on Fort George, evacuated the city and sailed slowly down the bay. But this device availed them little. New cleats were at once nailed to the pole; and before the British disappeared in the offing they heard the thun- ders of American cannon, proclaiming, as the Stars and Stripes were. run up, the downfall of British supremacy in America !
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THE BOWLING GREEN AND FORT GEORGE IN 1783.
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CHAPTER VIII.
A HISTORY of this period would be incomplete without an allusion to the newspapers published in the City of 'New York before and during the American Revolution.
The first newspaper published in New York city was the New York Gazette, established by William Bradford in October, 1725, just twenty-one years subsequent to the establishment at Boston of the first newspaper pub- 1725.
lished in America-the Newsletter. It was printed on a half sheet of foolscap, with large and almost worn- out type. There is a large volume of these papers in the New York Society Library, in good preservation. The advertisements do not average more than three or four a week, and are mostly of runaway negroes. The ship-news was diminutive enough-now and then a ship and some half-dozen sloops arriving and leaving in the course of the · week. Such was the daily paper published in this, the commercial metropolis of America, one hundred and forty- six years ago !
Eight years after the establishment of Bradford's Gazette, the New York Weekly Journal was commenced by John Peter Zenger, and was distinguished for the raciness of its advertisements .*
* One of these advertisements was as follows :
"Whereas, the wife of Peter Smith has left his bed and board, the public are cautioned against trusting her, as he will pay no debts of her contracting. " N. B .- The best of garden seeds sold by the same Peter Smith, at the sign of the Golden Hammer."
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The third paper published in New York was called the Evening Post. It was commenced by Henry De Forest in 1746. It was remarkable chiefly for 1746. stupidity, looseness of syntax, and worse orthography, and died before it was able to walk alone.
In 1752, the New York Mercury was commenced, and, in 1763, the title was changed to the New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury. This paper was established by Hugh Gaine at the sign of the Bible and Crown, Hanover Square. It was conducted with taste and ability, 1752. and became the best newspaper in the colonies. 1763. In 1763, Gaine was arraigned by the Assembly for pub- lishing a part of the proceedings without permission, and withal incorrectly. He was a gentleman of a kind spirit, and never had the power to withhold an apology when it was asked ; he accordingly apologized, was reprimanded, and discharged.
As the storm of war drew on in 1775, the Mercury contained a series of patriotic papers, under the signature of the " Watch-Tower." But as the British drew near to New York, the patriotism of Gaine began to cool; and, during the whole course of the Revolutionary War, his Mercury afforded very accurate indications of the state of the contest. When with the Whigs, Hugh Gaine was a Whig; when with the Royalists, he was loyal. When the contest was doubtful, equally doubtful was the politics of Hugh Gaine. In short, he was the most per- fect pattern of the genuine non-committal. On the arrival of the British army, he removed to Newark, but soon returned to the city, and published a paper devoted to the cause of the Crown. His course was a fruitful theme for the wags of the day ; and, at the peace, a poetical petition from Gaine to the Senate of the State, setting forth his life and conduct, was got up with a good deal of humor. His paper closed with the war.
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Another paper, called the New York Gazette, was com- menced by Wayman, the former associate of Parker. In 1766, Wayman was arrested and imprisoned for a 1766. contempt of the Assembly, upon no other charge than that of two typographical errors in printing the speech of Sir Henry Moore, the Governor of the colony. One of these errors consisted in printing the word never for ever, by reason of which the meaning of the sentence was reversed. The Assembly; however, was more rigid in this case, from the suspicion entertained that this error was intentional; but such was clearly not the case.
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