USA > New York > Queens County > History of Queens County, New York : with illustrations, portraits, and sketches of prominent families and individuals. > Part 6
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Between 1672 and 1674 the English and Dutch were at war, and in the latter part of July 1673 a small Dutch squadron entered New York harbor, and Captain Manning. the commandant of the fort, surrendered it without re- sistance. For this act he was afterward sentenced to have his sword broken over his head.
Captain Anthony Colve was by the commanders of the squadron appointed governor of the colony, and he at once set about the re-establishment of the authority of the Dutch government. In the towns that had before been under the Dutch regime submission was readily made, but in the towns of the East riding his task was more
difficult. Huntington and Brookhaven yielded after a time on certain conditions. but Southold, Southampton and Easthampton rejected all overtures, and petitioned for admission to the colony of Connecticut. They were accepted, and when Governor Colve attempted to reduce these towns to submission by force Connecticut sent troops to their assistance, and the Dutch were repulsed. In November 1673 the New England colonies declared war against the Dutch, and made preparations for active hostilities. The conclusion of peace, early in 1674, be- tween the English and Dutch of course arrested their proceedings. On the restoration of the duke's govern- ment these towns were unwilling to become subject again to a rule under which they had been oppressed. Resist- ance was unavailing, however, and they were compelled to submit to a repetition of the former despotic sway of the duke's governors.
Sir Edmund Andros became governor on the restor- ation of the duke's authority, and his administration, which continued till 1681, was even more despotic than that of Governor Lovelace. Colonel Thomas Dongan succeeded Governor Andros. On his arrival, in 1683, he at once issued orders for summoning a general assembly. This was the result of a petition to the duke by the grand jury of the court of assize in 1681.
At the first session of this colonial Assembly, in 1683, they "adopted a bill of rights, established courts of justice, repealed some of the most obnoxious of the duke's law's, altered and amended others, and passed such new laws as they judged that the circumstances of the colony re- quired." At this session the "ridings" were abolished, and the counties of Kings, Queens, and Suffolk or- ganized. Another session was held in 1684, at which, among other acts, the court of assize was abolished, and another Assembly was summoned to convene in the fol- lowing year.
"Charles II. died February 6th 1685, and the Duke of York succeeded him by the title of James II .; as he de- termined to have as little to do with parliaments as pos- sible so it is probable that he revoked the power which he had given to his governors to call assemblies, and de- termined that they should rule the colony by his instruc- tions alone, without admitting the people to any partici- pation in the public councils." Under the government of James no other session of the Legislature was ever held.
On the occurrence of the revolution in England which placed William and Mary on the throne a party of sympathi- zers with that revolution, led by Jacob Leisler, seized the government of the colony, and during two years matters here were in an unsettled condition. Long Island gave only a partial support to Leisler; and when, in 1690, he summoned a general assembly, no members from Suffolk attended and one from Queens refused to serve. It ap- pears that Leisler attempted to use force against some portions of Long Island which he declared to be in a state of rebellion, but that his efforts proved entirely unsuc- cessful.
27
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DUTCH SETTLERS.
CHAPTER IV.
CUSTOMS, CHARACTERISTICS AND INSTITUTIONS OF THE EARLY LONG ISLANDERS.
HE customs of the early Dutch settlers on the west end of the island were in many respects quite different from those of the people who settled other parts of it. An account of some of them is given by Mr. Furman in his "Antiquities of Long Island," from which most of the following brief sketches are condensed.
At first most of those on the north side or middle of the island buried their dead in private or family burial grounds, without monuments. On the south or level portion interments were made in the churchyards, and even in the churches in some instances. The governors and colonial Assembly in 1664 and 1684 enacted laws against this practice. Their funerals were quite different from those of the present time; wines and liquors and cold collations were provided for the guests, and often linen scarfs, gloves, funeral cakes etc. were distributed among them. Funerals were thus made very expensive, and often bore a strong resemblance to joyous feasts. It was also customary for young men, on arriving at their majority, to convert the first money they earned into gold and lay it aside to defray the expense of a respect- able funeral should they die early. Another practice was to lay aside for each member of the family a linen shirt, handkerchief, etc., and never suffer them to be worn, but keep them clean to bury them in. In case a woman died in childbed a white sheet, instead of a black pall, was spread over her coffin as she was carried to the grave.
They took especial care to provide for the education of their children. The teachers were appointed only on the recommendation of the governor, and their duties were very accurately prescribed. In modern times a teacher would smile to find that his contract required him to instruct the children in the common prayer and catechism; to be chorister of the church; to ring the bell three times before service, and read a chapter of the Bible between the ringings of the bell; to read the Ten Commandments, the articles of faith, and set the psalm after the last ringing: to read a psalm of David as the congregation were assembling in the afternoon; to read a sermon, in the absence of the clergyman; to furnish a basin of water for the baptisms, report to the minister the names and ages, and names of the parents and sponsors of the children to be baptized; to give funeral invitations, toll the bells, serve as messenger for the consistories, etc., etc., and to receive his salary in wampum, wheat, dwell- ing, pasturage and meadow. Such were the provisions of a contract with a Dutch teacher in 1682.
The practice of nicknaming prevailed among them and even in the public records are found such names as Friend John, Hans the Boore, Long Mary, Old Bush, and Top Knot Betty. The same practice prevailed among them
that is found among the Swedes now, of taking the par- ent's Christian name with "sen" or "son" added to it, and for this reason it is often difficult to trace genealogies.
Both negro and Indian slavery prevailed on Long Isl- and. Not many records are left of cruelty on the part of masters toward their slaves, and it is believed that the "peculiar institution" here did not possess some of the opprobrious features which characterized it in the south- ern States. A species of white slavery also existed here as elsewhere. Indigent immigrants sold their services for definite periods, during which they were as much the sub- jects of purchase and sale as veritable slaves. Frequently advertisements appeared in the papers offering rewards for fugitive negro or Indian slaves.
At the time of the negro plot to burn New York some of the slaves on Long Island were suspected of complic- ity; and it is recorded that one was sentenced "to be burnt to death on the 18th of July 1741."
What was termed samp porridge (from the Indian seaump-pounded corn) was made by long boiling corn that had been pounded in a wooden mortar-a process that was learned from the Indians. What was known as "suppaan" was made in the same way from more finely ground meal. The same dish was called suppaan by the Palatines. who afterward settled in the Mohawk valley. These mortars or pioneer mills, as they were sometimes called, were at first the only means the settlers pos- sessed of converting their corn into coarse meal, and the process was called niggering corn, because the work was usually done by negro slaves. In the absence of shops or manufactories, which have so universally come into existence, every farmer was his own mechanic. He was, by turns, mason, carpenter, tanner, shoemaker, wheelwright and blacksmith; and the women manufactured their cloth from flax and wool, fre- quently, it is said, taking their spinning-wheels with them on afternoon visits to each other. Houses and their fur- niture among these people in early times were quite dif- ferent from those of the present day; white floors sprinkled with sand, high-backed chairs, ornamented with brass nails along the edge of the cushioned seat and leathern back; pewter and wooden plates and dishes- which were preferred by the conservative old Knicker- bockers long after the introduction of crockery, because they did not dull the knives-and silver plate among the wealthy were the common articles of furniture. This silver plate was in the form ot massive waiters, bowls, tankards, etc., and had usually descended in the family from former generations as an heirloom. Sometimes china plates were seen hanging around as ornaments- holes having been drilled through their edges and ribbons passed through by which to suspend them. Punch, which was a common beverage, was drunk from a common bowl of china or silver, and beer or cider from a tankard. The wealthy Dutch citizens had highly ornamented brass hooped casks in which to keep their liquors, which they never bottled. Holland gin, Jamaica rum, sherry and Bordeaux wines, English beer or porter, beer from their own breweries and cider were common drinks in early
28
GENERAL HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.
times. When a wealthy young man among these settlers was about to be married he usually sent to Maderia for a pipe of the best wine, a portion of which was drunk at his marriage, another portion on the birth of his first son, and the remainder was preserved to be used at his funeral. Tea drinking was a custom of later date. The custom of visiting each other on Sunday afternoons long prevailed; but the clergy and the strictest of the laity, influenced perhaps by the views of their New England neighbors, came to regard it as an evil, and it was grad- ually discontinued. Furman says: " It seems more like Puritanic rigor than as an exhibition of Christian feeling to break up such kindly and social meetings as these, after the religious services of the day had been performed."
Previous to 1793 no post office was established on the island and no mail was carried on it. A Scotchman named Dunbar rode a voluntary post as early as about 1775. This was in violation of the law, but the necessity of the case caused the offense to be winked at The people on the west end of the island were supposed to receive their letters from the post-office in New York, and those on the east end from New London. Even as late as 1835, Fur- man says, the mail stage left Brooklyn for Easthampton no oftener than once a week, and mail packages were of- ten left and taken at designated places, such as a particu- lar rock or a box nailed to a tree. Hotels were few then, and the hospitalities of the people living along the route through the island were always readily extended to the few travelers who passed over it.
Under the colonial government nearly all marriages on the island were under a license from the governor-a prac- tice which increased his income and added to the expense of entering the matrimonial state. Marriage by publica- tion of the banns seems to have been held in disrepute. In 1673 there was an officer at New York whose duty, which extended to Long Island, was to hear and deter- mine matrimonial disputes. He was styled "the first commissary of marriage affairs." Such an officer at the present day would lead a busy life.
Many of the amusements, sports, and fireside enjoy- ments of the people here, as well as their religious customs and superstitions, were transplanted from the native countries of the original settlers. The origin of many of these in the remote past is lost; but customs often out- live the ideas which gave birth to them. On the annual return of Christmas the yule log and Christmas candles were burned among the English settlers as in ancient times in "merrie England " and the Dutch celebrated the holi- days with still greater zest after the manner of their fore- fathers in the Netherlands. St. Nicholas, or “ Santa Klaas," was regarded among the Dutch children as a veri- table personage, and they had a hymn in the Dutch lan- guage which they sang on the occasion of their Christmas festivities, the first line of which was, " Sanctus Klaas goedt heyligh man " (St. Nicholas good holy man). The prac- tice which was introduced by these Dutch settlers of hav- ing their children's stockings hung up to be filled by Santa Klaas is far from being extinct. New Year's eve and the first of January were formerly celebrated in a
noisy way by firing guns at the doors in a neighborhood, when the neighbors thus saluted were expected to invite their friends in to partake of refreshments and then join them to thus salute others till all the men were collected together, when they repaired to a rendezvous and passed the day in athletic sports and target firing. It was finally deemed necessary to arrest, by legal enactments, this practice of firing guns on these occasions. When the style was changed the Dutch here at first refused to recognize the change in their celebration of these festivals. New Year was never celebrated with greater cordiality and hospitality than by these people, and their old custoins are plainly traceable in the manner of keeping the day still in vogue here.
St. Valentine's day, called among the early Dutch here "Vrouwen dagh " or women's day, was a time of great hilarity among the young people. One peculiarity in their manner of celebrating it is thus described by Fur- man: " Every girl provided herself with a cord without a knot in the end, and on the morning of this day they would sally forth, and every lad whom they met was sure- to have three or four smart strokes from the cord be- siowed on his shoulders. These we presume were in those days considered as 'love taps' and in that light answered all the purposes of the 'valentines' of more modern times."
Easter day, or " Pausch " (pronounced Paus), was ob- served by religious services as well as merrymakings, and these continued through Easter week. Among their customs was that of making presents to each other of colored eggs, called Easter eggs, and this still prevails among some of their descendants.
" Pinckster dagh," or Pentecost, was once celebrated by the Dutch here on the first Monday in June by good cheer among neighbors, among which soft waffles were peculiar to this festival.
Among the Dutch people in the days of slavery the custom prevailed of presenting the children of their fe- male slaves, at the age of three years, to some young member of the family of the same sex, and the one to whom the child was presented at once give it a piece of money and a pair of shoes, and this event was often fol- lowed by strong and lasting attachments between these domestics and their destined owners.
Of the domestic, social and religious customs of the English or New England settlers on Long Island it is unnecessary to speak. Some of these customs, modified by changes in the surroundings of these people during more than two centuries, and by'the increasing cosmopol- itanism of the American people, are still in vogue among their descendants-faint traces of a bygone age, but sufficiently distinct to indicate their Yankee origin. These characteristic Yankee customs are generally known.
The peculiar circumstances by which these settlers were surrounded led to the adoption of some customs which have quite passed away as these surroundings have given place to others.
Since very early times the species of gambling that is designated " turf sports " has been very prevalent on
29
THE WHALE FISHERY-PRICES OF STANDARD COMMODITIES.
Long Island, and the files of old newspapers abound with notices of races that were to take place, or accounts of those that had occurred. Lotteries too were not only tolerated but were often instituted to raise money for erecting churches, or founding religious or benevolent associations. The latter form of gambling is now pro- hibited by law, but whether or not the moral sense of the people will ever frown down the former is an unsolved question.
During many years whaling was an important industry on the southeastern coast of the island, and at intervals along the shore whaleboats were kept for launching whenever whales were sighted. Mr. Furman, in describ- ing a tour around Long Island in old times, says that there might be seen "occasionally, at long intervals, small . thatched huts or wigwams on the highest elevations, with a staff projecting from the top. These huts were occupied, at certain seasons, by men on the watch for whales, and when they saw them blowing a signal was hoisted on this staff. Immediately the people would be seen coming from all directions with their whaling boats upon wagon wheels, drawn by horses or oxen, launch them from the beach, and be off in pursuit of the great fish. You would see all through this region these whaling boats turned upside down, lying upon a frame under the shade of some trees by the roadside, this being the only way in which they could keep them, having no harbors; four or five families would club together in owning one of these boats and in manning them." So much a standard industry was this that shares in the results of the fisheries were sometimes made portions of the salaries or perquisites of clergymen. In July 1699 it was said: " Twelve or thir- teen whales have been taken on the east end of the island." In 1711 it was reported that four whales were taken at Montauk, eight at Southampton, two at Moriches, two and a calf at Brookhaven, two at Islip, and one drift whale that yielded twenty barrels of oil. In 1721 it was said that forty whales had been taken on Long Island, but in 1722 only four were reported. In 1741 they were reported as being more abundant. The whales that formerly frequented this coast have long since been exterminated or driven away, though occasionally strag- glers have been seen in comparatively recent times. The New York Times of February 27th 1858 published the following from a correspondent in Southampton: "At noon to day the horn sounded through the streets, which is the signal to look out for a whale. In a few minutes tough old whalemen enough had mustered on the beach to man several boats and push out into the surf in chase of three whales which were leisurely spouting in the offing. After an exciting but brief chase the lance touched the life of one of the three, who spouted claret and turned up dead. He was towed to the shore and will make-the judges say-forty barrels of oil."
The taking of shellfish in the bays and on the coast has been an important and increasing industry, and the capture of fish for the expression of oil and the manufac- ture of fertilizers has come to be a business of some im- portance.
It was the custom of the Indians on this island before its settlement by the whites to annually burn the herbage on large portions of it, which were thus kept free from trees and underbrush. This enabled the early settlers to enter at once on the cultivation of the land, and to convert large tracts into common pastures. The arrest of the annual fires permitted underbrush to spring up in such profusion that the male inhabitants of the towns between the ages of sixteen and sixty were called out by the court of assize during four days of each year to cut away this growth. On the wooded portions of the island the timber was cut and converted into staves so rapidly by the early settlers that within the first twenty years the towns insti- tuted rules regulating or prohibiting the cutting of trees.
At first the scarcity of a circulating medium compelled people to make exchanges in various kinds of produce, and this method necesitated the fixing of the value of produce, either by custom or law. The Indian sewant or wampum was very much used in the place of money, and both it and produce were used not only in business transactions but in the payment of taxes, fines etc. By reason of the facility with which the material could be procured the manufacture of wampum was sometimes engaged in by the whites within the memory of some now living. John Jacob Astor employed men to manufacture it here, that he might send it to the northwest and ex- change it with the Indians there for furs. The following schedule of the value of produce in the middle and latter part of the seventeenth century, when this custom pre- vailed, is taken from Wood: "Pork per lb., 3 pence; beef, 2; tallow, 6; butter, 6; dry hides, 4; green hides, 2; lard, 6; winter wheat 4s. to 5s. per bush .; summer wheat, 3s. 6d. per bush .; rye, 2s. 6d. to 3s. 6d. per bush .; Indian corn, 25. 3d. to 2s. 6d. per bush .; oats, 2s. per bush." Stock in 1665 was legally valued as follows: "Colts, one to two years, £3 each; two to three, £4 each; three to four, £8; horses four years or more of age, £12; bullocks, bulls or cows, four years or upward, £6 each; steers and heifers, one to two years, each {I Ios; two to three, £2 ros .; three to four, £4; goats, one year, 8s .; sheep, one year, 6s. 8d .; hogs, one year, f1. These were the prices fixed for the guidance of the town authorities in receiving produce, etc., in payment of taxes. Produce in place of a circulating medium continued in use till about 1700, when money had become sufficiently abundant for the re- quirements of trade. Board was 5s. per week; meals 6d. each; lodgings, 2d. per night; beer, 2d. per mug; pasture per day and night, Is .; labor per day, 2s. 6d.
About the commencement of the present century President Dwight traversed the island, and said of it that by reason of its insular situation the people must always be contracted and limited in their views, affections and pursuits, that they were destitute of advantages that were calculated to awaken and diffuse information and energy, and if such were to spring up here they would emigrate, and that it must continue for an indefinite period to be a place where advantages that were enjoyed elsewhere would be imperfectly realized. Eighty years have passed, and one has only to glance
3º .
GENERAL HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.
over the island to see that his predictions have been very "imperfectly realized." Instead of becoming an intellectual waste by reason of its insularity, it has come to be the abode of wealth, refinement and intelligence, in a degree quite equal to that of any region in the country.
eral Johnson at the southern extremity of Lake George. In this regiment it is believed were many from Long Island. On the reception of the news of the battle of Lake George the inhabitants of Queens county sent a thousand sheep and seventy cheeses to the army, as a The salubrity of its climate, its proximity to the great , token of their approbation; and the county of Kings raised £57 6s. 4d. for the transportation of these sheep to Albany.
commercial metropolis of the country, the excellent fa- cilities for travel and communication which its railroad system affords, and its unsurpassed pleasure resorts and watering places, combine to make it one of the most de- sirable places of residence in the country; and year by year people avail themselves more and more of these ad- vantages.
CHAPTER V.
THE PARTICIPATION OF LONG ISLAND IN THE WAR WITH FRANCE.
ONG ISLAND was not the theater of hostil- ities during the French and Indian wars. Military operations were carried on along what was then the northern frontier of the colony, and each of the belligerents sent hos- tile expeditions into the territory of the other, but no force of the enemy ever penetrated to this vicinity.
Only very imperfect records remain of the names and deeds of those from Long Island who had part in this war. It appears by an extract from the Assembly journal, made by H. Onderdonk jr., that in the war against France which had been proclaimed in 1744 an act was passed in 1746 to raise £13,000 " for further fortifying the colony of New York, and for canceling the bills of credit. The quota of Queens was £487 95. 5d .; that of Kings £245 18s .; that of Suffolk £433 6s. 8d. yearly for three years." In June of the same year Jonathan Lawrence, of Queens, and James Fanning, of Suffolk, were authorized to raise recruits. "In July Fanning had one hundred men mus- tered, of whom Hempstead sent seventy-eight and Jamaica twenty-two, under Captain Wraxhall."
In August of the same year it was stated: "Five com- plete companies of the force raised in New York and Long Island for the expedition against the Canada border are now embarked for Albany, on their way to the place of rendezvous."
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