USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York : its origin, rise, and progress Vol. III > Part 26
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monalty in common coun- cil convened." The sketch was made from near the corner of White Street and Broadway, looking toward Canal Street, and, however Corporation Improvements. [From an original etching by John P. Emmet ; copied through the courtesy of his son, Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet.] exaggerated, is a clever illustration of the confusion of affairs consequent upon removing eminences in the herculean endeavor to perfect the site of a great city like the New York of to-day.
The city records afford picturesque glimpses of the details of the labor. Streets were pushed through a block or two in length one year and allowed to rest the next. Springs and rivulets impeded progress and were finally choked into subordination to the laws, and buried without ceremony. Litigations arose involving the rights and privileges of citi- zens, and questioning the vast extent and complexity of powers assumed by the corporation. The investigation of land-titles was troublesome, and
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FARMS AND PRIVATE ESTATES.
the settlement and collection of assessments upon individual property attended with an incalculable amount of hinderance and vexation.
The entrance-gate to the Bayard country-seat was on the Bowery road, and the location of the private avenue called Bayard's Lane was nearly on the line of Broome Street, until torn away by the cartmen. The prop- erty had been very much cut up by military works during the Revolu- tion. From it, also, in anticipation of the great future for real estate, lots had been sold fronting on Broadway, and some few buildings erected, although chiefly of an inferior class-so long as the discordant action relat- ing to the digging of the ditch in Canal Street continued. Poplar-trees were planted in 1809 along the line of Broadway between Spring Street and Art Street, now Astor Place. The other farm of Nicholas Bayard, known as the West farm, comprising one hundred or more acres, and bounded on the north by Amity Lane and the Herring farm, on the east by Broadway, on the south by the line of Prince Street, and on the west by what was the Henry and Elias Brevoort farm prior to 1755, extended irregularly south- west to McDougall Street. Having been mortgaged, and fallen into the hands of trustees, it was laid out into lots and streets, and sold in parcels. Another farm belonging to one of the Brevoort family extended from Tenth Street to Fourteenth, and from the Bowery on the east to a part of the old estate of Sir Peter Warren on the west.
The property of this English nobleman of the former century, Sir Peter Warren, embraced not less than two hundred and sixty acres, ninety-one of which rested upon the line of Christopher Street on the south, and that of Ganesvoort Street on the north, bounded by the old Greenwich road on the east. He married the daughter of Stephen De Lancey and grand- daughter of Stephanus Van Cortlandt, the first lord of the Van Cortlandt manor, who had great possessions. The estate became vested in Rich- ard Amos, John Ireland, and Abijah Hammond, chiefly under Lord Willoughby, who married Sir Peter Warren's daughter.1
The commissioners, Gouverneur Morris, Simeon De Witt, and John Rutherford, in their task of laying out the whole island of Manhattan to Kingsbridge into streets and avenues, under the act of 1807, encountered the most novel and unexpected difficulties. Numerous farmers and mechanics of small means had purchased plots of land in various places, laid out and cultivated gardens, and erected comfortable dwellings. When they discovered that the city was about to run streets wherever it pleased, regardless of individual proprietorship, and that their houses
1 See diagram in the Appendix to Murray Hoffman's Treatise upon the Estate and Rights of the Corporation of the City of New York, Vol. III. For sketch of Sir Peter Warren's mansion overlooking the Hudson, see Vol. I. p. 588.
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and lots were in danger of being invaded and cut in two, or swept off the face of the earth altogether, they esteemed themselves wronged and out- raged. At the approach of engineers, with their measuring instruments, maps, and chain-bearers, dogs were brought into service, and whole fami- lies sometimes united in driving them out of their lots, as if they were com- ISAAC VARIAN mon vagrants. On one occasion, while drawing the line of an avenue directly JACOB HORN through the kitchen of an estimable old woman, who had sold vegetables 1 BAI MATTHEW DIKEMAN for a living upwards of twenty years, - they were pelted with cabbages and UNITED MAG artichokes until they were compelled JOHN HORN ___ .. to retreat in the exact reverse of good POTTERS FIELD order. They adopted the method of - parallel streets across the island, num- EASTERN POST ROAD bering towards the north from Hous- ton Street, at which point their special CHRISTOPHER MILDERBERGER 23ST. labors began. The streets were inter- sected with avenues one hundred feet 'JOHN HORN HORN wide, extending to the extreme north- ROAD 1 M. DIKEMAM J. HORN 22 ST. 1 ern limit of the island, twelve of which numbered eastward from First Avenue, 1 the remainder to the east being desig- - 121 ST. JACKSON nated by the letters of the alphabet, A, B, C, and D. In their report, under AV. ATES GILBERT CODTANT date of March 22, 1811, the commis- BLOOMINGDALE 201ST. sioners explained why they had set 5 TH, apart space for an immense reser- 1 voir, believing the city must sooner or 19 ST - ---. later be supplied with water from the - MANETTA / WATER ---! / 4-8 ST. - -- country above the Harlem River; and IISAAC VARIAN - they half apologized for having pro- - .- T.BURLING vided for a greater population than BRANCH / LOWMAN S was collected at any spot this side of ENST BANK N MANHATTON China, while they did not presume " the grounds north of Harlem Flats 14 TH. AV. Diagram. would be covered with houses for cen- [Showing condition of a part of Broadway in 1810.] turies to come." The avenues were arranged to extend south as far as the boundary marked out by the statute with the exception of Fourth Avenue, which was lost in Union Square
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STREETS AND AVENUES.
at Fifteenth Street. The commissioners were perplexed at this place. The Bowery road curved somewhat in passing through the present site of Union Square, and from about Sixteenth Street pursued a straight course towards Bloomingdale. The meeting of so many large roads at one point naturally involved considerable space for security and convenience. Broad- way had been opened in an undeviating straight line from the Battery to Tenth Street, from which point a slight divergence westward was per- ceptible ; and it seemed desirable to continue this great central thorough- fare along the line of the Bloomingdale road. By straightening Fourth Avenue into the Bowery road, a narrow, irregular, shapeless tract of land was left open. If the cross-streets should be laid through it, as else- where, it would be cut into morsels and rendered valueless. Owners of property in the vicinity differed widely in their wishes and opinions concerning it. While attempting to regulate Broadway in 1806 it was found necessary to call in assessors to settle claims for damages. Some time must elapse before any of the contemplated cross-streets could be opened, in any event; thus the troublesome subject was allowed to rest. In 1815 an act was passed appointing Union Place, as it was called, which was occasionally used as a Potters' Field, for public purposes. But its only ornamentation for the following ten years was a miserable group of shanties. It was as late as 1832 before the city corporation resolved to have it enlarged and regulated; and not before 1845, after one hundred and sixteen thousand dollars had been expended upon it, were the elegant mansions projected which in the course of events re- ceived an influx of fashionable residents, rendering this charming square for more than a decade the Court end of the city.
The farm of Henry Spingler, some twenty-two acres, extended along the west side of the Bowery road from Fourteenth Street to Sixteenth. He had purchased it in 1788 from the executors of John Smith for nine hundred and fifty pounds sterling, it having been originally a part of the large estate of Elias Brevoort, purchased by Smith twenty-six years be- fore. The Brevoorts divided up and sold other portions of their landed property both above and below, and a succession of suburban residences were established in the vicinity - many of which, however, were removed in consequence of the line of Fourth Avenue cutting diagonally through them. The mansion of Henry Brevoort fronted the Bowery road, and, according to the plan of the commissioners, Eleventh Street would occupy the same site. He resisted the opening of the street with such determina- tion and effect that although ordinances were passed in 1836 and in 1849, they were rescinded. To this day the block remains undisturbed, Eleventh Street having no passage-way between Broadway and Fourth Avenue.
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
The homestead property of Henry Brevoort extended back from his house to a point between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
Adjoining the Brevoort farm was the notable estate of Andrew Elliott, son of Sir Gilbert Elliott, Lord Chief Justice Clerk of Scotland, who was receiver-general of the province of New York under the Crown. This also fronted the Bowery road, and the handsome mansion he erected before the Revolution stood back so far that Broadway, when cut through, clipped its rear porch. It was the property and residence of Baron Poel- nitz at the time of the adoption of the Constitution of the United States, who sold it in 1790 to Robert Richard Randall. The latter resided here until his death. By his will, made in 1801, he established one of the most munificent charities in the country for the support of aged, infirm, and worn- out seamen, chiefly on the basis of this estate ; he directed the erection of an edifice to be called the "Sailors' Snug Harbor," by which name the property was known for many years. The buildings, for good and suffi- cient reasons, were erected on the north shore of Staten Island in 1833.
The junction of the Bloomingdale road with the Old Boston Road, at what is now Madison Square, left another piece of corporation land in a deformed and unsightly condition. It had been used in early times as a Potters' Field, but in 1806 the city ceded it to the United States govern- ment for the erection of an arsenal, and it was thus occupied until 1823, when an institution of which we shall speak more at length hereafter was founded upon its site.
Notwithstanding the election combinations and conflicts of the period, comparatively few changes occurred from year to year among the alder- men of the city. Men of ability and position were required for the management of municipal affairs, those who commanded the respect and confidence of the community at large. Each alderman looked after the interests of his ward, and gave personal attention to the enforcement of the laws within its limits. Indeed, an alderman was then really and truly a guardian of the city. And no graver responsibility ever devolved upon a corporate body of citizens than that of providing for the prosperous future of New York while yet its site was largely but a picturesque and diversified landscape. During the early years of the century such names appear on the lists of "City Fathers " as Robert Lenox, Mangle Min- thorne, Jacob Le Roy, Stephen Ludlow, Henry Brevoort, George Janeway, Wynant Van Zandt, Robert Bogardus, Samuel Torbet, Jacob Mott, Samuel Kip, John Slidell, Benjamin Haight, Jasper Ward, Joseph Wat- kins, John Hopper, and Simon Van Antwerp. Many of the aldermen served from six to a dozen years in succession ; as, for instance, Peter Mesier from 1807 to 1818; Augustus H. Lawrence from 1809 to 1816;
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COLONEL NICHOLAS FISH.
Elisha W. King from 1810 to 1815, and again from 1818 to 1824 ; Samuel Jones from 1809 to 1817; Reuben Munson from 1813 to 1823; and Colonel Nicholas Fish from 1806 to 1817.
The death of Lieutenant-Governor Broome in 1810 necessitated the choice of a successor, and De Witt Clinton consented to accept the nomi- nation. This was a matter of surprise to those who had not supposed he was willing to admit himself to be of less political consequence than Tompkins, the governor; and Clinton was, moreover, the mayor of the city, deriving emoluments equal to fourteen thousand dollars per annum. A section of the Republican party, called "the Martling Men," afterwards the "Tammany party," from their place of rendezvous in " Martling's Long Room," Tammany Hall, opposite City Hall Park, met immediately upon hearing of De Witt Clinton's nomination, determined upon his defeat, and, after passing resolutions, with a preamble to the effect that they believed Mr. Clinton was cherishing interests distinct and separate from the general interests of the Republican party, and bent "upon estab- lishing in his person a pernicious family aristocracy," they nominated Colonel Marinus Willett for lieutenant-governor, and appointed Dr. Mitchill, Matthew L. Davis, John Ferguson, Teunis Wortman, and others, a committee to promote his election. Mangle Minthorne, the father-in- law of the governor, presided at this meeting. The Federalists nominated and supported Colonel Nicholas Fish as their candidate for lieutenant- governor.
The election occurred in April ; and such was the disposition of Clin- ton's opponents in the city, and the popularity of Colonel Fish, 1811. that while Clinton received but five hundred and ninety votes, and Willett six hundred and seventy-eight, Fish actually received two thousand and forty-four. But despite the vigorous efforts of many gentle- men of great influence and weight of character to detach from Clinton the support of his party, the estimation in which he was held by the Republicans in other parts of the State, and the general confidence his talents and integrity had hitherto inspired, prevented any serious results, and he was elected. He filled the position of lieutenant-governor of New York until 1813, during which time he was the peace candidate for the Presidency of the United States, receiving eighty-nine electoral votes in opposition to Madison.
Colonel Nicholas Fish was the Revolutionary officer who has been frequently mentioned heretofore ; he was in the confidence of Washington, and regarded as an excellent disciplinarian. In 1797 he became president of the New York Society of the Cincinnati. He was a New-Yorker by birth, and a lawyer by profession ; also one of the most active members of
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
several of the early religious literary and benevolent institutions of the city. He was at this time about fifty-three years of age, a representative citizen, of elegant scholarship, refinement, and good breeding. His wife was Elizabeth Stuyvesant, the great-great-granddaughter of Governor Stuyvesant, and a descendant through her mother, Margaret Livingston, of the first lord of Livingston manor. Peter Gerard Stuyvesant, after- wards president of the Historical Society, and Nicholas William Stuy- vesant were her brothers ; and Mrs. Benjamin Winthrop and Mrs. Dirck Ten Broeck were her sisters. The lawyer and states- man, Hon. Hamil- ton Fish, who was governor of New York in 1850, and Secretary of State during the eight years' administra- tion of President Grant, was the son of Colonel Nicho- las and Elizabeth Stuyvesant Fish, born in New York City in 1809.
The city was visited by a terri- ble conflagration in May, 1811, a fire breaking out in Chatham Street, near Duane, one Colonel Nicholas Fish. Sunday morning, which consumed between eighty and one hundred good buildings. The firemen were baffled by the wind in their exertions to check the flames, and the scene became very exciting and impressive. The Brick Church was in danger, its spire being lighted by the flying embers ; and all eyes were turned in that direction. Presently a sailor appeared on the roof of the edifice and climbed up the steeple hand over hand, clinging only to the rusty, slender iron of the lightning-rod. The perilous ascent was watched with breathless anxiety by the vast multitude collected in the
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THE GREAT FIRE OF 1811.
vicinity. He must hold on, or fall and perish. If he should succeed in reaching the part of the steeple that was blazing, what could he do ? How, unaided, extinguish the fire ? Neither hose nor bucket could be sent to his assistance. The crisis came swiftly, and a prolonged shout rent the air as the brave man, firmly grasping the lightning-rod with one hand, caught his hat from his head in the other and with it literally beat out the flames with strong, quick, nervous, incessant blows. When his work was accomplished he slowly and safely descended to the ground, and quickly disappeared in the crowd. A reward was offered for the hero who performed the noble, daring, and generous act, but he never came forward to claim it. The cupola of the old jail, which stood on the spot now occupied by the Hall of Records, also took fire, but the building was saved through the exertions of one of the prisoners.
In the midst of the desolation caused by the burning of so much prop- erty, public attention was divided between the report of the com- missioners concerning the internal navigation of New York and 1811. the aggressions of Great Britain. It would be in vain to inquire who first conceived the prodigious idea of connecting Lake Erie with the Atlantic Ocean. Nor would the original thought, if traced to its native brain, reflect special credit upon the individual proprietor, unless he did something towards the execution of the project. Many intelligent and scientific New York men had opportunities for acquiring all the knowl- edge connected with the matter, and the notion was undoubtedly com- mon to hundreds at the same time. The embargo and consequent prostration of commerce, together with the substitution of non-inter- course, and the general belief that the country was rapidly drifting into another war with its ancient enemy, created an intense desire for the open- ing of a direct route of communication between the tide-waters of the Hudson River and the western lakes.
Experiments had been tried to improve the navigation of the Mohawk with small canals and lockage some time before the close of the last century. Christopher Colles was several times before the Legislature with enterprises for the public good, all of which were thought too mighty for the public resources ; 1 he received some encouragement, however, in relation to connecting the Mohawk with Lake Ontario. General Philip
1 Christopher Colles, the philosopher, was born in Ireland in 1738, and died in New York in 1821. He was left an orphan at an early age, and was educated by the Bishop of Ossory, upon whose death in 1765 he left Ireland for America. In 1773 he delivered a series of lectures in New York upon inland lock navigation, and in 1774 he proposed to build a reservoir for New York City.' He surveyed the country of the Mohawk prior to 1785, and published a book on roads through New York ; he also subsequently published a pamphlet on inland navigable communications. He was one of the eminently useful men of his day and generation.
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
Schuyler was one of the most efficient promoters of the important meas- ure, which developed finally into the great canal system of New York.1 He studied out a plan of locks to overcome the descent in the Mohawk at Little Falls, and as the success of the project would depend largely upon the favor with which it was received by the Dutch settlers, he visited the region and, calling a meeting at a country tavern, unfolded his views. His audience listened attentively. The astute Dutchmen perceived the advantages, and were pleased with the prospect of the Mohawk's bearing the commerce of the State past their own doors, but they did not under- stand how the boats could ascend the Little Falls. The general explained the principle of locks in vain. They shook their heads and shrugged their shoulders. They liked the general, and would take his word for almost anything, but they could not be made to believe that water would run up hill. The unsatisfactory meeting was finally adjourned, the Dutch- men going to their beds, and the general retiring to worry over his failure. All at once he arose, and lighting his candle, took a knife and a few shingles and went into the yard, where he dug a miniature canal of two different levels and connected them by a lock of shingles. Then provid- ing himself with a pail of water he summoned the Dutchmen from their beds, and pouring the water into the ditch, locked a chip through from the lower to the upper level. " Vell ! vell ! General !" the Dutchmen cried, "now ve understands, and ve all goes mit you and the canal !"
The works at Little Falls- a canal about two and three fourths miles in length, with five locks - were completed in 1796. Governor George Clinton had recommended to the Legislature in 1791 the policy of " tak- ing measures to facilitate the means of communication with the frontier settlements "; and during the same session an act was passed by which commissioners were directed to survey the section between the Hudson River and Wood Creek, and to report an estimate of the expense of making canals between the two points. During the same year Elkanah Watson journeyed through the State and published essays which influ- enced public opinion greatly in favor of canals. In 1792 an inland navi- gation company was incorporated, the act being draughted by General Schuyler, who was chosen its first president. Thomas Eddy, the philan- thropist, Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, Barent Bleecker, Elkanah Watson, and Robert Bowne were among its most active and important members. So herculean a task did it appear to build a canal of a few miles in length, that the company was allowed fifteen years to accomplish its objects. But, succeeding in the enterprise at Little Falls, it soon con-
1 Memoir by Cadwallader D. Colden ; Randall's History of New York State ; Eastman's History of New York ; Letter from General John Cochrane to the author.
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THE CONTEMPLATED ERIE CANAL.
structed a canal of a mile and a quarter in length at the German Flats, and completed a canal connecting the Mohawk with Wood Creek in 1797 - in all less than seven miles. Some years afterwards its improvements had so far progressed that a boat might pass from Schenectady into the Oneida Lake; but the great expenditure necessitated heavy tolls, and these canals were little used. Land carriage and the natural rivers were generally preferred.
Prior to 1800 no definite idea of a canal from Lake Erie to the Hudson appears to have existed. The company above mentioned only aimed to improve the natural water-courses. In the summer of 1800 Gouverneur Morris visited some property of his own and some that had been confided to his care by others in the northern parts of the State, and extended his journey to Montreal, thence down the St. Lawrence to Lake Ontario, and by land to Lake Erie. He wrote to John Parish in January, 1801 : " hundreds of large ships will, at no distant period, bound on the billows of these inland seas. The proudest empire in Europe is but a bawble compared to what America will be, must be, in the course of two cen- turies ; perhaps of one! One tenth of the expense borne by Britain in the last campaign would enable ships to sail from London through the Hudson River into Lake Erie. As yet, my friend, we only crawl along the outer shell of our country." To Henry Lee he wrote before the end of the same month upon the subject of making "a conquest of the finest country on the earth" through commodious internal naviga- tion, similar in character but on a much more extended plan than that which he said had been " feebly and faintly attempted by a private com- pany between the Mohawk and Lake Ontario."
The remarkable topography of New York became a favorite topic of conversation, and the practicability of the canal a fixed fact in the minds of many influential citizens as the years rolled on. Gouverneur Morris, Jesse Hawley, and James Geddes of Onondaga wrote frequently upon the subject for the press. In 1810 James Geddes reported to the surveyor- general, Simeon De Witt, the result of a survey made by himself, which was communicated to the Legislature. Jonas Platt at once proposed a resolution, which was promptly supported by De Witt Clinton and unani- mously adopted, appointing Gouverneur Morris, Stephen Van Rens- selaer, William North, Thomas Eddy, and Peter B. Porter, commissioners "to explore the whole route for inland navigation, from the Hudson River to Lake Ontario, and to Lake Erie." This was accomplished dur- ing the summer and autumn of the same year.
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