USA > New York > Staten Island > History of Richmond County (Staten Island), New York : from its discovery to the present time > Part 23
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HISTORY OF RICHMOND COUNTY.
John, Smith, Job and James Hetfield, Elias and Sammel Mann and Job Smith, all of New Jersey.
At the close of the war, Staten Island, New York island, and a part of Long Island, were peculiarly circumstanced; through- ont the country the several state governments, and the minor county and town governments under them had been organized, and were in full operation, except in the connties mentioned ; these had been under the control of the British military au- thorities, and whatever civil government they had continued to be under the English laws ; any attempt to organize a gov- ernment which had the least tincture of republicanism would not have been tolerated a moment ; therefore, when the English evacuated the country, the government which had directed its destinies for a century, was, so far as these counties were con- cerned, annihilated as it were in a day, and the people, without any previous instruction or experience, were suddenly brought under the influences of a new code of laws. It would be inter- esting to trace the steps taken by the people of the island to acclimate themselves to the political atmosphere which they were thereafter to inhale, but here the resources fail.
In proportion to its population, Perth Amboy contained more tories than any other place within the limits of the state of New Jersey. Many of them enlisted in the regiment known as the Queen's Rangers, and in the several companies composing Colonel Billop's regiment. We have been able to obtain the names of but two of the captains of the companies, viz .: Abra- ham Jones, a native Staten Islander, and David Alston, an Englishman or Scotchman by birth, but for years before the war a resident of New Jersey, in the vicinity of Rahway, and, after the war, of Staten Island. Many of the Britishi officers, in all parts of the country, remained after the cessation of hostilities, but many more of the rank and file. This was particularly so on Staten Island, and many of the families now residing here are the descendants of these officers and soldiers. There were not as many tories on the island at the close as at the beginning of the war.
It is, after all, a donbtful matter whether there were many of the people on Staten Island who were really tories from prin- ciple. The Seaman and Billop families, and two or three others not quite so prominent, were all beneficiaries of the British government; they were the proprietors of large and valuable
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HISTORY OF RICHMOND COUNTY.
estates bestowed upon them for merely nominal consideration; they were also the incumbents of lucrative offices, which gave them a power and an influence which otherwise they would not have possessed. The British officers, both of the army and navy, were lavish of their gold, and the people of the island, so far as money was concerned, were never in better circum- stances. The temptation then to infringe the resolutions of the provincial congress, prohibiting all intercourse with the vessels of the enemy, was irresistible, more especially as the congress was powerless to enforce its own ordinances, or to punish the infraction of them.
The injustice and cruelty of the British during the war, and the frequent disrespect of their own promises, often repeated, as well as the inhumanity with which they treated the American prisoners who fell into their hands, had caused many to regret the step they had taken in publicly advocating the cause of the crown, and gradually they became converts to the cause of their native country, so that when the end came, there were few left who declined to take the oath of allegiance to the new government, and fewer still who were so infatuated with royalty as to abandon their property and the land of their nativity, to follow its fortunes. Of this latter class we have been able to find but two families, the Billops and the Seamans. The property of these families was confiscated and sold by Isaac Stoutenburgh and Philip Van Courtland, com- missioners of forfeiture for the Southern district of New York. On the 16th day of July, 1784, they sold to Thomas McFarren, of New York, the Manor of Bentley, containing 8503 acres for £4,695 ($11,737.50) forfeited to the people of this state by the attainder of Christopher Billop. The boundaries given in this conveyance are as follows: "Bounded southerly by the Bay or water called Prince's Bay, westerly by the river that runs be- tween the said Land and Amboy, Northerly partly by the Land of Jabob Reckhow and partly by the road, and Easterly partly by the road and partly by the Bay." The land was then occu- pied in different parcels by different individuals as follows: 373 acres by Samuel Ward; 200 acres by Albert Ryckman; 50 acres by John Manner; 50 acres by Edmund Wood; 50 acres by An- drew Prior; 25 acres by James Churchward; 673 acres by Benja- min Drake; 233 acres by Joseph Totten; and 113 acres by Jacob Reckhow.
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HISTORY OF RICHMOND COUNTY.
On the same day, the same commissioners sold to the same individual, for €1,120.16 ($2,802), about eighty acres of land in the town of Castleton, consisting of eight lots, all bounded southerly by "'a road leading from the Rose and Crown to Don- gan's Mill," which tract of land was forfeited by the attainder of Benjamin Seaman.
On the 30th day of April, 1785, the same commissioners sold to Cornelius C. Rosevelt, of New York, two hundred acres of land, more or less, for £3,000 ($7,500), forfeited to the people of this state by the attainder of Benjamin Seaman, the same being then in the possession of Paul Michean.
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OLD BRITISH FORT.
The policy of the government of the United States appears always to have been of a pacific and conciliatory character toward its enemies. after they had been subdued and rendered powerless for evil. All tories, as well as foreign foes, were permitted to take a position among the citizens of the country upon taking the oath of allegiance. All animosities were buried, and the descendants of a great number of these re- pentant royalists, now residing on the island, are ignorant of the position their ancestors took in the great political ques- tions which agitated the country a century ago.
Some marks of the British occupancy of the island have remained to designate the localities of their encampments and
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HISTORY OF RICHMOND COUNTY,
the scenes of some of their active operations. One of the most conspicuous of these evidences is the old fort which oc- cupies a commanding hill to the west of Richmond. The site overlooks the valley in which mainly lies the village. The embankment encloses a space about fifty feet square and is situated near the brow of a hill which descends by a steep slope nearly three hundred feet to the salt marshes which lie at the base. The earth works, now beaten down by the ravages of a century, are still several feet in height, in the form of a square, facing the three directions in which the hill overlooks the surrounding country, while the entrance to the fort was from the fourth side, on the northwest, where the natural grade renders approach easy.
More than thirty years ago Major Howard found a consider- able excavation in or under the hill that rises just west of Nau- tilns Hall at Tompkinsville. Being anxious to know its origin, he made numerous inquiries but without success until he was referred to an old black man, about eighty years of age, who, on being shown to the spot, explained that it was the saw pit where the British sawed timber for their barracks. The negro liad often seen them engaged in that work. The hills were covered with a thick growth of heavy white oak timber which the British cut away, and subsequently pine and cedar came in and occupied the ground. The British had here a cantonment for seven thousand men extending along the foot of the hill and up the ravine partially followed by the present course of Arietta street. The timber was cut down to build these barracks. The troops were here for seven years, and as the old black man remarked, "On fine days and in summer the hills would be just covered with the red coats."
As late as 1832 the remains of some of the dwelling places of the Hessian soldiers were distinctly to be seen along the Richmond road, at the foot of the hill in the rear of Stapleton. These consisted of excavations in the side of the hill, eight or ten feet square, which had been covered with planks or pieces of timber, upon which earth or sods were placed to form roofs. The fronts had been boarded up, and probably the sides. How they had been warmed in winter or whether they had been warmed at all was not apparent. They must have been miser- ably dark, damp caves, but probably, in the opinion of their English masters, good enough for Dutch mercenaries.
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HISTORY OF RICHMOND COUNTY.
In closing this chapter of revolutionary history, we can per- haps give no more lifelike pictures of those times in general than may be gathered from the substance of interviews with living witnesses who gave their impressions and recollections of many scenes and events that passed under their notice. The facts gathered at a few such interviews with persons then liv- ing at advanced ages, but now long since dead, were noted down by Professor Charles Anthon, more than thirty years ago-about the years 1850 to 1853; and from the notes of those interviews we have condensed the most interesting items referring to the revolution, in the following paragraphs. These facts are given as nearly as may be to the manner and form of their development in the interview, without regard to any order in matters of time or topic, or even harmony of state- ment.
From a conversation with Captain Blake, March 15, 1851 : He was about 13 years old when the British landed. It was three or four days before any of them were seen where he lived. Then four soldiers came along and said they wanted something to eat. When they had finished they each threw down a half dollar, to the great surprise of the people. The soldiers in gen- eral behaved at first very well, paying for everything that they took, but when they came back from Jersey they stole every- thing they could lay their hands on. In general the people were well treated. Fifteen pence was the price for a dozen eggs. The currency used was principally English. Dollars passed for 4s. 6d. The soldiers were very liberal. All the vacant buildings were occupied by them. At Ryers' there was a "Fives' Court," a kind of game at which the British officers spent a great deal of time in playing. During this time a man by the name of Housman occupied the old Dongan manor house. The Hessians wore large whiskers, coming up to the corners of the mouth. He once saw two Hessians receive two hundred lashes apiece. They used to come around and buy cattle. The Forty-second regiment lay in Bodine's orchard. They were Scotch and wore the Highland uniform. The Het- fields were all robbers. There were several brothers of them. They frequently brought over thirty or forty head of cattle from Jersey to the British. On one occasion they threw a man into a hog-pen and required him to eat corn. On his refusal to do so they took him out and hammered his toe-nails off.
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HISTORY OF RICHMOND COUNTY.
Decker's house was on the site of the Port Richmond hotel (now St. James). It was of brick. At the time of the invasion under Sullivan the Americans burned it. The Dutch church was burned on the same occasion. Mr Blake's father was cross- ing the mill-dam, and when he reached the west side he came all at once among the Americans. They remained there until the British troops appeared with light-horse. They fired and killed a light-horseman, then ran away through the woods like so many frightened horses.
From an interview with Rev. Dr. Van Pelt, June 5, 1851 : A man stopped at his house about the year 1804, he then living in the Port Richmond hotel. That man said he was in the en- gagement at the Dutch church. The weather was cold, but the heat of the action caused them to sweat profusely. The church, which was like a haystack in form, was completely riddled by balls. Dr. Van Pelt said that when the war broke out there were two other Dutch churches on the island ; one in Westfield and another at Richmond. The latter had just been completed when the war broke out. It was a frame building, and the British used it gradually up for firewood. Judge Micheau was a witness of this, but was afraid to say anything, lest he should be suspected of disaffection. The few on the island who were attached to the American cause belonged generally to the Dutch church. Many persons living here professed attachment to the British, but secretly sent very valuable information to General Washington. A Mr. Latourette was engaged in carrying wood to the city during the hard winter of 1779-80, as long as a pas- sage remained open, and would often enable American officers de- tained as prisoners in the sugar house to escape. It was neces- sary for every one who wished to leave the city to present him- self to General Howe for permission to do so. Latourette would go before the general with these officers in disguise, and say, " General, I have brought you a fine load of wood. and am go- ing directly down for more ; I have some countrymen here who would like to go with me." The general would give them a hasty look and say, "Let them all pass." Then they would go aboard the boat and make sail for Staten Island. At the mouth of the kills an armed vessel was stationed to examine all boats that passed, but Latourette being well known was allowed to pass without examination under the plea that he was in a hurry to bring another load of wood to General Howe.
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HISTORY OF RICHMOND COUNTY.
So having the officers secreted in the vessel he was able to land them safely where they could easily effect their escape.
From an interview with Mrs. Bird, November 22, 1851, she then being 91 years of age :- She was 15 years old when the British landed. They landed mostly at Van Buskirk's dock. As they were landing they interchanged rifle shots with the Americans on the opposite shore of the kills. The first she saw of the British was a body of Highlanders who came marching up into the Clove (where she was living), from the direction of Van Duzer's ferry in quest of lodging. Some of them were quartered in their barn. She lived with her adoptive father, Thomas Seaman, whose house at that time was the first one on the left, as you turn out of the clove road into the Little Clove, General Knyphausen was a very fine looking man and used to ride à great white horse. The Hessians were all fine looking men. Their dress was nearly all blue, and both dress and ac- contrements were very heavy. Some wore beards and some did not. During the war the people along the north shore did not dare to burn lights at night, even in cases of sickness or other extreme need, lest they should be suspected of showing signals to the rebels. People in general had to be very discreet, and keep their months shut. "Parson Charlton" of St. Andrew's church wore a very white wig. The " Rose and Crown" was a public house during the war, and the headquarters for that part of the island. The "Black Horse" was also a tavern then. The Queen's Rangers were then stationed at the point since called the "Telegraph." There was a Presbyterian meeting house in the west quarter, which the British first converted into a hospital and then destroyed,
From an interview with Mr. Isaac Simonson, December 26, 1851, he being 90 years of age :- The camp on Staten Island be- fore the revolution, to which the troops came on their return from Canada, in the time of the French war, was at the quaran- tine or watering place. At the time of the revolution, General Howe, within a few days after landing, employed Isaac Decker, a noted man and a great friend of the British, who was a captain of the light horse, to go all over the island and direct the farm- ers who were willing to dispose of their cattle or sheep, of which there were a great number on the island, to drive them to the watering place. None were taken by force. When the farmers had brought them they were all paid by the officer
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HISTORY OF RICHMOND COUNTY.
whose duty it was to attend to that business. When these cat- tle arrived at the watering place they were turned into the fields of the " Glebe," among the young oats and wheat, and mowing grass. Gnards were stationed to watch them, as the fences were all destroyed, not a rail being left in three months. At that time things were very cheap. After the British came prices more than doubled.
The next day after the British landed, Mr. Simonson, with some other boys, went down to what is now Port Richmond to see them. They landed during the night. When the fleet ap- proached the Lower bay they anchored outside of Sandy Hook to wait for pilots to bring them in. The same Isaac Decker, before mentioned, was a fisherman, and with others of the same occupation who accompanied him, went down and brought in the ships. Decker piloted them to a landing place, and landed himself in the first boat. The spot was called the "White Rock." The exploit made Decker suddenly famous in a local way. The church at Port Richmond had eight corners and then went up high to a balcony, above which was a steeple which contained a bell. The sides were shingled from the ground up. The soldiers lived in it. The building finally blew down, no one being in it at the time. The Isaac Decker spoken of lived in the house known as Decker's which was burned at the time of Sullivan's invasion. At that time the Americans burned this house and three vessels, also Dongan's or John Bodine's barn, in which the British had a hospital, which was afterward rebuilt after the same model and on the same foundation, by John C. Dongan. When the Americans had got out of the woods and on the meadows they halted, while the forts on the Jersey side near Elizabethtown fired on the British, who were still on the upland and had no cannon. Cole's ferry was the same as Van Duzer's and Darby Doyle's.
After the revolution all about the quarantine grounds was commons. Colonel Billop was a tall, slim man. His father-in- law, Seaman, owned a large tract in the manor, off which he sold the wood. Toward the latter part of the revolution he had teams cutting and carting there. The inhabitants commonly worked on the roads on Saturdays. One very warm day Mr. Isaac Simonson remembered working in company with others on the road that runs down from Four Corners to the north side, when Colonel Billop and Colonel Seaman came along, riding on
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HISTORY OF RICHMOND COUNTY.
horseback. They stopped and chatted with the road-master, and gave something to the men, as was then customary, but the men were dissatisfied with the smallness of the gift.
John and Peter Latourette lived at Fresh kill. They were great patriots, and when the British came, fled to Jersey, whence they used to make visits in whale-boats to the island. Many of the inhabitants of the island were placed in confinement by the British, on account of being whigs. Among these were
Hezekiah and Abraham Reckhow, brothers of Mr. Simonson's wife's mother. They were both at first confined in the guard- house in the fort at Dr. Westervelt's, but her father succeeded in getting the former out, as he was subject to fits. Abraham was taken from the guard-house to the prison ship, "Jersey," where he suffered greatly. Mrs. Peter Woglam was put into the same guard-house for standing np for her husband, but having friends on the other side who interceded for her. she was released. Those Staten Islanders who were thus confined were principally from the west quarter (Westfield). The guard- house mentioned was very dark and partly under ground. General Skinner lived within or about a hundred yards north from the fort. The British had redoubts all along the heights. There were no prisoners kept at the fort that was located near the site of the pavilion. The property at the entrance of the kills was occupied by Judge Ryers as a farm before the war. He sold it to Buskirk. It was not a regular ferry till the war, when one Mackatee hired it.
Joshua Mersereau was the first militia colonel on Staten Is- land. The old colonel was no friend to the British, but to his country. The enemy were after him two or three times. He had notice of their coming and hid himself in a swamp. The Hetfields were a rough set of men "and feared neither God nor Devil." Cornelius, their leader, held a major's commission from the British. They accused Ball of being one of those who killed Long. Ball was a trader who brought things such as poultry, beef, and the like from the Jersey side. The Het- field's caught him and took him to Mackatee's. They took him at Squire Merrill's, and intending at first only to make a prize of his wagon load of beef, poultry, etc., they told him to go on and they would follow with his wagon, but he would not leave it. They took him to General Skinner, at the fort at the Narrows, but he would have nothing to do with him, but told
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them, "He is your prisoner ; do what yon please with him." They took him across the kills ; got a table from Ham Britton's at the mill on this side ; placed the table under a big tree and stood Ball upon it; then, having fastened a noose about his neck and tied it to a limb, they kicked the the table from beneath his feet and hung him till he was dead. Mrs. Simonson saw it from the Staten Island side. Jake Hetfield kicked the table from under the feet of Ball. They all belonged to Jersey, ex- cept one called "Tow-head Jim," who was also born in Jersey, but served his time as a ship-carpenter on Staten Island. Long was the man who was hove into the hog-pen. He was on the British side, and was caught in Jersey. John and Cornelius Hetfield were both afterward tried for the murder of Ball, but neither was condemned. The Hetfields were not all brothers. Cornelius was an only son. He was a fine looking man, with dark hair, fair skin, and fine, ivory-like teeth. His father was very rich, and Cornelius was either brought up a minister, or at any rate received a fine education. He was very active and strong, and he would preach and pray like a minister. (The name is spelled sometimes Hetfield and sometimes Hatfield.) He had one sister, who married a man by the name of Blanchar. The large property which his father left to Cornelius Hetfield was transferred to his brother-in-law to prevent its confisca- tion.
The night when Hetfield and his party burned the church in Elizabethtown they came back and had a meeting in the large mill at Port Richmond. They went in there and Hetfield preached a sermon, and prayed like a minister. Hilliker bought this old mill, which was a large building containing a dwelling house, and had two runs of stone. It afterward caught fire and burned down. Hilliker built a smaller one in place of it, and that was burned, after which another was built. Daniel Selter was a great friend of the American cause. He was almost the first settler at Fayetteville, and built a public house there and cleared away the woods during the revolution. Col. Aaron Cortelyou kept a store where Edward Taylor since lived. It was this store that the negro Anthony Neal broke into, or was accused of breaking into and was hung for the offense.
From an interview with Mr. Peter Wandel, January 8, 1853 : When the British first landed on the island they destroyed all the fences, and when they went to Jersey proclamation was
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HISTORY OF RICHMOND COUNTY.
made to put them up again, but when they returned they de- stroyed them again. The forts abandoned by the British were never occupied by American soldiers. The buildings that were in them were afterward gradually removed. There were bar- racks, and in the fort at the Narrows there was a magazine nn- der ground, made of timbers laid very close together, like a wall. This was built a year or two before the end of the war. After the evacution of New York city by the British they made no stay on the island. They left things here in a very damaged state. All was commons about the quarantine grounds. Cor- nelius Hetfield was a noble looking fellow, but capable of do- ing almost anything. He was, probably, not under General Skinner's command, but a kind of commander himself. He ought to have been hung. He, however, went to Nova Scotia after the war. Smith Hetfield was a great bully. The refugee post on Bergen Point was opposite to Port Richmond. There was a whole company there. Wandel once came near being made a prisoner by Hyler. He was with others on the banks fishing when Hyler, with his party in three boats, came upon them and took several of them. He probably would have taken the whole fleet of twenty-two fishing boats had it not been for the interference of an armed schooner that happened to pass.
An appeal was afterward made to the governor, and he sent down a gun boat, and the next time they went down to fish the gun boat kept Hyler off. When Stirling came upon the island Peter Wandel, then a youth, served in the fort that stood back of Dr. Westervelt's, as a volunteer for the occasion. For this his father gave him a good whipping. Stirling could have taken all the forts in half an hour had he known their weakness and scantiness of provisions and ammunition. But instead of doing this he strung his troops all over the island. They were ex- tended all along the heights, the snow being four feet deep, and the weather intensely cold. The light horse went along the north shore in pursuit of them, and took some prisoners, but not many. No reinforcements came to the forts that day, but subsequently two hundred sleighis came down, and Ned Beattie, one of the Hetfield gang, availed himself of the opportunity to bring down a barrel of rum. The ronte they followed in coming down from the city was first to cross from the Battery to Powle's hook, and then come down over the flats and along
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