History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 204

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1354

USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I > Part 204

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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

pany of intending miners who had disagreed, and were eager to divide their property and separate. He offered them one hundred and fifty dollars for it, which they accepted on condition that they should have a day to remove their other possessions. He had no sooner bought it than he took a lump of chiar- coal and marked on the tent in large letters "For Sale," and in two hours had sold it for two hundred and fifty dollars, to the amazement of the previous owners, still sitting under its shade, who had not thought of the simple device of advertising their desire to sell.

When San Francisco harbor was filled with ships deserted by their crews, Huntington was offered large quantities of ship's bread at a very low price, and bought all he could get, foreseeing that some day all thesc ships would sail away home and would then need supplies; and when this came to pass, and he sold at a great advance, those who had thought him foolish wondered they had not foreseen the event also. Old Californians say that in those early days, when anybody in Sacramento was "stuck" with a consignment of something which had no sale, he went to Huntington, who was pretty sure to buy if the ar- ticle was cheap enough, and very certain, after a while, to resell it at a haudsome profit. Those who knew him in those days say that he was always con- tent with a fair profit; that he soon became knowu as a man who never misrepresented the article he wished to sell, and that his customers increased rapidly because he left them also the opportunity to make a good profit. There is a story told of him that he once bought several hundred grain cradles, which had lain for a long time in the owner's loft. Huntington un- packed them, showed them on the street, and pres- ently, as he had foreseen, there was a brisk demand for them. They went off "like hot-cakes" at eighteen dollars apiece. "You might get thirty for them," said a friend; "are you not making a mistake?" "Not at all," replied Huntington ; "I paid five, and I want to sell them all, don't you scc? They are too bulky to keep. It is better to let others have a chance also to make some money." No doubt his experience and training as a country merchant in Otsego County was of great advantage to him in those early and busy Sacramento days, when he turned his hands to every- thing, and knew, as by iutuition, what his customers would like, and how to arouse as well as to meet a popular demand.

One thing remains to be said : he retained his carly New England habits; he did not drink, nor sinoke nor gamble; he slept in his store, and was up and at work before the earliest of his clerks. He was scru- pulously honest, and to use a phrase current in those days in Calfornia, he "did not allow anybody to run over him." The miscellaneous business, begun in a tent, grew by-and-by into a permanent hardware store at 54 K Street, in Sacramento, where Hunting- ton sold all kinds of miners' supplies. Next-door to him Mark Hopkins kept store also, until one day he

sold out and thought he would retire. The two men had become acquainted. Hopkins, from the hill country of Massachusetts, and Huntington, from the neighboring parts of Connecticut, found they had many ideas in common, political and religious, as well as business ideas; and naturally, in that new country, they became friends and, before long, part- ners in business, constituting the firm of Huntington & Hopkins. "He was the truest man I ever knew," said Mr. Huntington of his old partner, a few years ago; "he had the clearest head in California; but for the mere work of buying and selling goods in those early days he was no better than a child. He had no taste for it, and left it to me; but there were many things of greater importance than mere buying and selling which Mark Hopkins could do far better than any of us." The two partners never had even the ripple of a disagreement in all their many years of close business and social intimacy. They were friends in the truest and deepest sense, and this friendship has been among the pleasantest and most important of the influences which made up Hunting- ton's life.

By 1856 the firm of Huntington & Hopkins had accumulated what was then, even in California, a handsome fortunc. Their house was one of the most solid on the coast; they were known as shrewd, care- ful and very wide-awake business men; their rule was to ask a high price for everything, but to sell only a good article-the best in the market. They avoided all hazardous speculative transactions, aud "stuck " to hardware. Mr. Hopkins once told the present writer: "We never owned a dollar of stock in a minc, never had a branch house, never sent out a drummer to get business, and never sued a man for a debt."

But Huntington & Hopkins were not merely or only business men. Both took a lively interest in politi- cal questions, though always avoiding what is called politics. They were Free-Soilers and Republicans at a time when the wealth and social influence in the State were mostly on the Democratic side. Natur- ally, No. 54 K Street presently became a place where leading Republicans met to discuss the news and plan opposition to the Democratic party, and in a small upper-story room in 54 K Strect, the Times, the first Republican newspaper of California, was begun, un- der the editorship of James McClatchey, one of the ablest publicists in the State, and now editor of the Sacramento Bee. But, besides hardware and politics, another subject was much discussed at 54 K Street in those days-a railroad across the continent. This was the great question which then agitated every cabin in the State. How to get a railroad across the Sierra Nevada range was the great difficulty, and California was deeply stirred when an engineer named Judah, who was, as they said, "Pacific Railroad crazy," gave out that he had found a long and easy ascent by the way of Dutch Flat, which was practi-

THE HUNTINGTON HOMESTEAD, THROGG'S NECK, RESIDENCE OF C. P. HUNTINGTON.

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WESTCHESTER.

cable for a road. Judah was an enthusiast. He called public meetings and solicited subscriptions to enable him to make a thorough reconnoissance, and mer- chants and miners, and eveu women, gave, according to their means, ten, fifty or a hundred dollars for this object. At last came the Presidential election of 1860, and the rumble of war, and everybody buttoned up their pockets. The scheme was abont to fail. The public had something else to think of. San Fran- cisco, where the Democrats and Southern men wanted a southern line, turned its back on poor Judah. Mat- ters seemed to have come to au end, when Hunting- ton came forward with a new proposition.

"I will be one of seven, if Hopkins agrecs, to bear the expense of a careful and thorough survey," said he; and the result was, that at a meeting held at 54 K Street, seveu men entered into a compact that they would pay ont of their own pockets all the needful expenses of a complete survey for a railroad across the mountains. Of these seven, Judah, the engineer, presently died, and another dropped ont. The five who remained were helped by a few outside subscrip- tions, but so visionary was the enterprise believed to be at that time that a Sacramento banker, who desired to help it, felt himself obliged to decline aid on the express ground that the eredit of his bank would suf- fer if he were known to have business relations with so wild a scheme. In this way the Central Pacific Railroad Company was organized, with Leland Stanford as president, C. P. Huntington as vice-president, and Mark Hopkins as treasurer; and the latter once said, years afterwards, that about this time he often thought they "had more railroad in 54 K Street than would be good for the hardware business." They were de- termined not to be swamped, and agreed to pay cash for all that was done; to keep no more men at work than they could pay every month, and to make every contract terminable at the option of the company. The time came when this policy saved them.

Mr. Huntington went to Washington when the company was formed, to see to the conditions of the government charter then before Congress; and before he departed for the East, the five middle-aged business men, who had undertaken this huge enterprise, gave him a power of attorney to do for them and in their uame anything whatsoever-to buy, sell, bargain, con- vey, borrow or lend, without any condition except that he should fare alike with them in all that con- cerned their project. From this time forward Mr. Huntington's labors were mostly in the East. He re- mained in Washington, looking after the Pacific Railroad Bill, until it was at last passed and signed, and his opinion of the adventure on which this launched him and his associates was not different from that of the general public; this opinion, as well as a singular courage and determination on his part, were well expressed in the telegram in which he an- nounced to his partners his success : " We have drawn the elephant; uow let us harness him." Having tele-

graphed this message, he instantly went to New York to begin arrangements with hesitating and doubting capitalists for feeding the ravenous beast. It was now that all his qualities of persistence, courage, financial ability and knowledge of men were brought to the test. The government bonds were promised only upon the completion of certain miles of road; the capitalists of New York would not take the bonds of the road until some part of it was in operation ; stock subscriptions came in too slowly to help out and Huntington saw failure staring him in the face. But his courage and determination rose with the cmer- gency. Instead of going begging among speculators, or pledging his bonds for material, he boldly an- nounced that he would not part with the bonds ex- cept for money-cash ; and that he would not sell any at all unless a million and a half were taken. His boldness won; but when the required amount was bid for, the purchasers timidly desired some further secu- rity, and Huntington, without a moment's hesitation, made himself and his four partners personally respon- sible for the whole amount, and it was on this pledge of their private fortunes that the first forty miles of the Central Pacific Railroad were built. But even then, so great were the straits of the enterprise, that when Huntington returned to Sacramento, after com- pleting this first loan, and buying and shipping rails and other needed material, he found the treasure- chest so low that it was necessary cither to diminish the laboring force on the work or raise more means. Once more he was equal to the emergency. "We have no time to lose," he said, "and we must do it ourselves; Huntington & Hopkins can keep five hun- dred men at work on the road for a year at their own charge ; how many will the rest of yun undertake?" And it was agreed that the five partners should main- tain ont of their private fortunes eight hundred men on the works for a year. That resolution greatly di- minished their troubles; for before the year was over they received their government bonds and their credit was established.

But for Huntington this was only the beginning of worries aud labors which would have ernshed any man only a little weaker or less able than he. It was his task to remain in the East, not only to raise money, but also to expend a great deal of it for ma- terial and supplies. All the rails, locomotives, pow- der and various other material for the road were bought by him, and shipped around Cape Horn or across the Isthmus. Ilis transactions brought him into contact with all sorts of people in New York and other Eastern cities, and it is still told of him that when some one who did not know him came to him in 1862 with an offer of a handsome commission if he would deal with him, Huntington replied: "I want all the commissions I can get, but I want them put in the bill. This road has got to be built without any stealings;" and his bold refusal to be fleeeed by sharks, and his straightforward ways of conducting

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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

business, gained credit for him and his partners, and secured for himself the high and honorable rank he enjoys as one of the few really great financiers of this country.

Allotted space does not permit a narration of the vast labors of Mr. Huntington in building the South- ern Pacific Railroad, and the Chesapeake and Ohio and its adjuncts-constituting together a continuous line four thousand miles long from San Francisco, the dominant harbor of the Pacific coast, to Chesapeake Bay, the finest natural harbor on the Atlantic; nor of the other great systems of transportation by land and water over which his control is primary and di- rect. It is said that the total length of railroads com- pleted and in progress, now intrusted to the charge of C. P. Huntington, is, in round numbers, something over ten thousand miles.

Mr. Huntington continues to live, during the win- ter, in New York, where he manages the affairs of his railroads and other great enterprises. He is largely interested in over seven of the great steamship lines of the country, is one of the founders and directors of the Metropolitan Trust Company, of New York, and has a place on the directory of the Western Union Telegraph Company. He does not go mnch into gen- eral society, but keeps a hospitable house of his own on Murray Hill. He spends about seven months of every year at his charming country-scat at Throgg's Neck, on Long Island Sonnd, whence he can reach his business and return every day. In person he is tall, of a vigorous build, with grayisli-blue cyes, an aquiline nose, and a firm, solid jaw, which feature in him resembles that of General Grant. His favorite in-door relaxations are reading and whist, of which game he is an excellent player. He has formed a large and well-selected library, and has a familiar and constant acquaintance with the best books in it. He is a lover of poetry and a student of history, particu- larly of modern history, and has known admirably how to use his scant leisure. He has also gathered a large and very valuable collection of paintings, and is pretty certain to be seen at any notable sale of pic- tnres, not only in New York, bnt in other Eastern cities, bidding judiciously, but unhesitatingly, paying a long price for a good work of art. Hc was, until recently, not only a skillful, but a very daring horse- man, and while he was building the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, parts of which run through an ex- tremely difficult country, he was noted for his horse- manship, even among the people of that region of horsemen. Friends and business acquaintances know him as the possessor of a shrewd wit. He is an admir- able story-teller, and knows how to settle a dispute with an apposite illustration almost as well as the late Mr. Lincoln. His years and labors have not told heavily upon him, and have not robbed him either of his physical activity or of his gay humor, which makes him a pleasant companion and friend. He has always had the capacity to bind friends to him

by strong ties, and to get the best and most zealous service out of those he employs, who know him as one who exacts the strict fulfillment of duty, but who also generously rewards faithful service. In business he is careful and laborious, but an excellent administrator. He has the capacity to do a great deal of work in the hours he gives to it, and he has always been wise enough to redeem some part of his daily life from business cares and devote it to his family and to his library, where most of his evenings are spent. "Neitlı- er cast down nor elated" might very well be his motto; for neither has his great and fortunate career spoiled him or changed the simple habits of his life, nor have the vicissitudes of fortune been able to dis- turb his equanimity.

His country residence, at Throgg's Neck, is a refuge and great source of pleasure to him. From the broad verandah of the house a neatly-kept lawn slopes away under the branches of noble trees down to the water of the Sound, and here, on a clear day or a pleasant evening, Mr. Huntington, a gentleman of command- ing stature, dressed in black and wearing a black skull-cap, may often be seen strolling up and down in conversation with friends, or watching the stcam- boats and sailing-vessels as they pass, rarely otherwise than in a genial humor, and always ready with his jovial story and generous laughlı. His beautiful es- tate, consisting of some thirty-odd acres, was pur- chased from F. C. Havemeyer. This gentleman had expended a great deal on its embellishment; and Mr. Huntington, securing the best talent and sparing neither time nor money, has continued to adorn and improve the house and lands until at present-with its system of water, its gas-works, its private wharf, at which large vessels are occasionally moored, its sta- bles, conservatories, farm buildings, pastures, shady walks, gardens and flowers-it is a model residence and a place well fitted to divert the fancy, restore the strength and rest the heart of one so earnest and un- sparing of himself in work.

CHAPTER XXI. MORRISANIA.1

BY FORDIIAM MORRIS.

THE town of Morrisania was formed from West Farms December 7, 1855, incorporated as a village in 1864, and, in 1873, was annexed to New York City. It embraces the villages of Morrisania, Mott Haven, Port Morris, Wilton, East Morrisania, Old Morrisania, West Morrisania, South Melrose, East Melrose, Woodstock, Claremont and Eltona. The lines of division between these places are, however, being lost in the extension of the streets, and they now scarcely possess a geo-

1 For the early history of Morrisania, including the manor and the Morris family, see the preceding chapter on the town of Westchester.

THE WHARF.

FMC

RESIDENCE FROM THE NORTH VIEWS AT THE HUNTINGTON HOMESTEAD.

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MORRISANIA.

graphical existence. By the act of the supervisors of the county creating the town of Morrisania, the north line began at Harlem River, near the present AAqueduct High Bridge, and extended east to Union Avenue, which was practically the east bounds of the Morrisania Manor. Its east boundary was Union Avenue, continued to the head of Bungay Creek and thence to Harlem Kills, and its south and west boundaries, the Harlem River and Kills. The division between the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Wards is now extended along the old division between the town- ships of West Farms and Morrisania, cast to the Bronx.

On April 22, 1864, the town was divided into four wards, in each of which three trustees were elected for two years, at the same time as the supervisor. When it was set off from West Farms the assessed valuation of property was $1,788,840.

Gouverneur Morris, elected iu 1856, was the first supervisor of the towu. William Cauldwell was eleeted in 1857, and served until 1870, when he was succeeded by Silas D. Gifford. In 1871 Mr. Cauldwell was again clected. In 1872 John H. Hopkins was choseu, but the uext year Mr. Cauldwell began an- other term, during which annexation took place.

It may be mentioned here that, before the selection of the site on the Potomac, a very strong feeling ex- isted in favor of locating the capital of the nation at Morrisania. The files of the New York Historical Society contain the draft of a petition which Lewis Morris forwarded to Congress on that subject. It bears uo date, but must have been written shortly prior to 1790, when Congress had the question of a site under consideration. It is as follows :

" To his Excellency the President and the Honorable the Members of the Congress of the U'nited States of .Imerica.

"The Memorial of Lewis Morris, of Morrisania " Respectfully Sheweth.

" That your Memorialist has heard that Congress intend, on the first Monday in October next, to fix on some proper place for their future permanent residence, and that propositions are to be given in from dif- ferent places in order that the most eligible choice be made on that day.

"That your Memorialist therefore is induced to address your Hon- orable body in behalf of the Manor of Morrisania, in the State of New York, and humbly conceives and hopes that it will fully appear evident to Congress that the said Manor is more advantageously situated for their residence than any other place that has hitherto been proposed to themu, aud much better accommodated with the necessary requisites of convenience of access, health and security.

"That the convenience of access to Morrisania from most of the parts of the United States is much more easy, safe and expeditions than to any other place as yet proposed for the residence of Congress ; that ves- sels from the four Eastern States may arrive at Morrisania through the Sound, which separates Long Island from the main, in the course of a very few hours, and that ships from the Carolinas and Georgia may per- formt voyages to Morrisania with much more safety and dispatch than they can to the ports of either Philadelphia or Annapolis, not being incom- moded with tedious passages of two hundred miles each np Bays und Rivers which often consume a fortnight or three weeks-passages rendered hazardons by rocks and shoals, and annually obstructed by ice.

" Aud that Morrisania is so sitnated that vessels may arrive from or proceed to sea, sometimes in six hours, and at no time can be detained by contrary winds or tide more than 4x hours, and that this passage, from the quantity and saltness of the water, has never been totally in- peded by ice.

" That your Memorialist conceives that the health of the place proposed and the salubrity of its air are points highly worthy of attention aud consideration, and that your Memorialist is therefore happy to add that

Morrisania has always been noted for this particular, that the fever und agne is there unknown, and that persons from other places, emaciated by sickness amt disease, there shortly recover and are speedily rein- stated in health and vigor.

" That your Memorialist concoives that Morrisania is perfectly seenro from any dangers either from foreign invasion and internal insurrection, that no naval force can arrive at Morrisania without passing by New York, and of course possessing that city, or without attempting a pas- sage of 100 miles through the Sound, which separates Long Island from Connecticut, which for a fleet is impracticable, and that Morrisania be- ing distant only twenty ntiles from the State of Connecticut, and eight from the City of New York that it thereforo can be amply protected by the hardy sons of New England on the one side, and the inhabitants of the populous City of New York on the other ; that as the chief defence of this country in future must be by ils militia, that there- fore the number of fighting men which might at a short notice be collected at each place proposed onght in some measure to be ascertained-that by reason of the lands in the neighbourhood of Morrisania being parcelled out into small farms, and the vicinity of sev- eral towns, together with the city of New York, there are more fighting men within a sweep of thirty miles around Morrisania than perhaps within the same distance around any other place in America, as there are many populons places which contain large proportions of inhabit- ants who are principled by religion against bearing arms, and other places which contain many negro inhabitants who not only do not fight themselves, but by keeping their masters at home, prevent them from fighting also." 1

RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH .- Morrisania was asso- eiated with the parish of Westehcster until 1840, when Gouverneur Morris founded the present paro- ehial Church of St. Ann's, the first building in the town devoted to worship. It was incorporated July 20, 1841, at which time Robert Morris and Lewis Morris were wardens, and Jacob Buckhout, Daniel Deveau, Benjamin Rogers, Benjamin M. Brown, Ed- ward Leggett, Lewis G. Morris and Harry M. Morris, vestrymen. On the preceding July 17th, Gouverneur Morris conveyed the church and the ground on which it stands to the rector, wardens and vestry, only re- serving the two vaults in which repose the remains of his mother and father. The conditions of his gift were that the church cdifiee "shall be devoted to the service of God according to the rites and ceremonies of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, and shall not be used for any other purpose whatsoever ; that such of the pews as are marked in the plan annexed to the deed as 'free' shall never be sold or rented, but shall remain free, so that all persons coming to the said church to worship therein may freely use and occupy the same." The land conveyed with the church could only be used for the purposes of a parsonage and a garden and a site for sheds, and the residue as a cemetery or bury- ing-ground. No rector or minister conld be called or employed to officiate during the life of the donor, with- out his previous consent in writing. The donor also prohibited the premises from being mortgaged. The march of improvement has cut up all the surrounding property into streets and avennes, and in a few years St. Ann's will be like old St. Mark's in the Bowery, a rural church in the midst of a city. In vaults be-

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History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 204

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co. Number of Pages: 1354

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1354