USA > New York > Kings County > Gravesend > History of the town of Gravesend, N.Y. > Part 8
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THE STILLWELL HOUSE.
and bought a farm. Soon his wife died, and he re- turned to Gravesend. Happening one day to meet a worthy maiden, Katrina Stillwell, while she was in the act of milking the cow, being struck with her modest beauty, and perhaps also with her worth as a frugal helpmeet for a farmer, he at once proposed marriage to her on the spot; and after one night for careful de- liberation, he was accepted. From this marriage sprang the present Van Sieklen family, which is the third generation.
Richard Stillwell, whom we left in possession of the property, occupied the old house till his death, when it was conveyed to his son Daniel, whose heirs still hold it. Mr. Stillwell lived in the old house for some years, when he built a fine residence in striking contrast to the low-roofed, side-shingled house of his fathers:
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ANCIENT HOMESTEADS.
After this the old house was occupied by his farmer, and continues so to be used to this day. It is a vener- able structure, probably over a century old, and is still in a fair state of preservation.
THE STRYKER HOUSE .- This is another of the old land-marks of Gravesend. We can only trace it back three generations, to Cornelins Stryker, who, at his death, left it to his son Derick.
After his death, it continued to be the family resi- dence for over 30 years. In 1861, when the youngest child, Cornelius D. Stryker, became of age, the farm was divided, and the widow bought the interest of the other heirs in the old house.
Some ten or fifteen years later, she sold the house to her son-in-law, Mr. David Jones, the present owner. It begins to show plainly the marks of age. Its history
THE STRYKER HOUSE.
must reach baek nearly, if not fully, a hundred years. Like the Stillwell House, it is built after the Dutch fashion of the early times; it is one story, with extend- ing eaves on either side which form a kind of piazza, and with the living, sleeping and working rooms mostly on the ground floor.
What is remarkable about this honse is that the roof has never been renewed, and the shingles, though very much dilapidated and open to the weather, are still the same that were laid when the house was first built ; probably long before the oldest person in town was born. An outlay of a few hundred dollars wonkl make it good for many years to come.
THE JOHNSON HOUSE .- This house was built by Barrent Johnson, from whom it descended, through his son, to the late Barrent Johnson, for many years Asso- ciate-Justice of the Court of Sessions, whose heirs now hold it. This house, though not so ohl as the others mentioned, is far older in appearance and more dilapi- dated, and shows the sad negleet of years. It is fast passing into an uninhabitable condition.
To look at these old honses, one would think they were built to last, not for years, but centuries.
The large, heavy timbers then used, which were ent
a year before needed, and well seasoned, would now ?... considered almost too cumbersome for a five-story fac- tory.
THE JOHNSON HOUSE.
This old house is especially noteworthy, because it stands, on what. will be seen by the old map, to have been originally the "Bowery of ye Lady Moody," and is no doubt very near the site of her early residence. It is situated, like the other two mentioned, near the center of the village.
It eannot fail to awaken in the mind of one who knows anything of its history, grateful thoughts of the noble woman who took so grand and memorable a part in the early settlement, defence and prosperity of the town.
COTTAGE OF REV. A. P. STOCKWELL .- This cottage is situated a little distance from the village, and near the Ocean parkway, which connects Prospect Park with the ocean. It was built by Rev. A. P. Stockwell. pas- tor of the Reformed Church at Gravesend, in 1882, for his private residence. Mr. Dixon of Brooklyn was the
THE RESIDENCE OF REV. A. P. STOCKWELL. architect, and Mr. John Y. MeKane, of Gravesend, the builder.
It has been greatly admired for its architectural beanty, and the convenience of its internal arrange- ment. It also specially shows the contrast between the present style and arrangement of dwellings, and that of a Inindred years ago, and the advance which has in these years been made.
·
I. TORY OF THE TOWN OF GRAVESEND.
HISTORY OF CONEY ISLAND.
BY
EsQ.
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T OPOGRAPHY. About 7 miles sontherly from New York city, at the extreme entrance to its harbor, facing the Atlantic Ocean, and separated from Long Island by a narrow creek, is an island about 5 miles long, varying in width from a few hundred feet to three-fourths of a mile, which, within the last few years, has become celebrated as the watering-place of New York and Brooklyn-CONEY ISLAND. It com- prises about 80 acres of arable land; its southerly bor- der is an ocean-washed beach of fine white sand, and its northerly border, along the creek, which divides it from the mainland, is mainly salt-inarsh or meadow. The present Coney Island has been formed by the grad- ual aggregation, in times past, of several separate tracts; and, until the beginning of the present century, the western portion of the present island was the only part known by that name. Its Indian name was Narrioch, and it extended from Norton's Point easterly, to near the site of Rich. Ravenhall's establishment; and, when first discovered, was much broader north by south than now, (scc the Narrative of the Labadists, 1679-80, and THOMPSON's History of Long Island). This Narrioch, the original Coney Island, was bounded east by an in- let connecting the bay and ocean, and separating it from Coney Hook, a peninsula of the mainland extend- ing south to the ocean. A ditch was dug through the salt-marsh of Coney Hook, from Brown's creck east to Hubbard's creek, making Concy Hook an island; thence- forth known as Pine Island, from its being rather heav- ily timbered with pine, oak and cedar. Eastward from, and adjoining Pine Island, was Pine Island Inlet, sep- arating Pine Island and Guisbert's Island. Paul Bauer's West Brighton Hotel occupies part of the site of this inlet, which was an almost direct southerly continuation of Hubbard's creek. Next easterly to this inlet was Guisbert Island, the largest of all the divisions of Coney Island, and which contained all the arable land; being, therefore, often called in the Gravesend records "the island." In front, and on the sontherly side of Guis- bert's Island, was the "Great Pond," a considerable
t sheet of water, discharging into the ocean at its west- . erly end, nearly in front of Bader's Hotel at the Ocean Parkway; and, at the other end, opening into Sheepshead Bay, east of "Windmill Hill," on Manhattan Beach. This pond and these inlets were the main approaches into Sheepshead Bay from the ocean. The outer shore
of this pond was a low, flat sand-bar, skirting the entire front of Guisbert's Island, on the ocean. Easterly of this bar and Guisbert's Island, was another inlet, known as Plumb Beach Inlet, and separating these portions of Coney Island from Pelican Beach, then a part of Barren Island. By the filling up of Phinnb Beach Inlet, and the breaking through the beach of another inlet much further cast, Pelican Beach has become a part of Coney Island.
Discovery. Coney Island was first visited by Ver- azzano, in his discovery of this region, in 1527 and 1529. It would seem, from De Laet's, and also from Juet's narratives of the voyage and discovery of Henry Hnd- son, in 1609, that this was one of the places at which they landed and had interview with the savages.
Settlement. In 1643 Gravesend was settled by Lady Moody and friends; but, before the date of the see- ond or confirmatory patent granted them in 1645, several persons took up farms within what became afterwards . the town-boundaries, and for which they held individual patents. In May, 1643, Antonie Jansen Van Salee took a patent for-land, of which the larger portion was at the extreme westerly part of the town (near Union- ville), and the balance was a strip running southerly therefrom, which the English settlers also claimed. They had also undertaken to extinguish the Indian title to the land granted the town, by direct purchases from the natives. The earliest of these, November Ist, 1649 had been that of Narrioch (the original Coney Island), from Cippehacke, sachem of the Canarsies. But the Nyack Indians also claimed ownership of this; and Francis de Bruyne, who had succeeded to the owner- ship of the Jansen Van Salee farm, insisted npon his right to the strip, which lay between its two portions. Anxious to fortify their elaim to this, as well as to Nar- rioch, which they had come to look upon as their own (though Kieft's patent only gave them the privilege of pasturing on it), they obtained from the Nyacks, May 7th, 1654 (for 15 fathoms of seawant, 2 guns, 3 lbs. of powder), a conveyance of Coney Island, and the dis- puted neek of land; which latter was an inheritance of litigation to the town of Gravesend, some of the suits arising from it being yet pending in the courts. Guis- bert Op Dyek, the original patentee of Coney Island, being Commissioner of Provisions for the colony of North America, neglected to occupy his patent; but.
DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT OF CONEY ISLAND.
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FAC-SIMILIE COPY OF A PORTION OF "A PLOTTE OFF YE SITUATION OF YE TOWNS AND PLACES ON YE WEST END OF
of the Jansen Van Salee patent) and'the Town of Gravesend. See pages 158 and 13 !.
LONG ISLAND TO HEMPSTEAD BOUNDS. LAID DOWNE BY ME, HUBBARDE, JULY 3d, 1666.
This map is alluded to by Dr. STRONG in his History of Flatbush, page 23: and it Is also Illustrative of the disputes between De Bruyn (owner
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Copia May 26th 1883 finger orginal you State Library, My Samuel 26, Michoy
this copy.
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF GRAVESEND.
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afterwards, being thrown out of public employment, began to think how he could realize upon it. In Au- gust, 1661, he presented to the Director and Conneil a petition setting forth that the people of Gravesend were in the constant use of " a certain little island, sit- uate between the tide-creek and Coney Island, and now called Guisbert's Island," and were very anxious to pur- chase it for pasturage of their cattle, and praying that he might be allowed to dispose of it to that town. But, as the Council took no notice of his petition, and the Gravesend people apparently were less anxious than he represented, to purchase land of which they were already virtually in possession, Op Dyck finally, October 20, 1661, having failed to sell to them part of the ground claimed in his patent, sold the whole of it to Dick De Wolf, a merchant of New Amsterdam, who had obtained from the Amsterdam Chamber of the W. I. Company, the exclu- sive privilege of making salt in the Nieuw Netherlands. De Wolf promptly established his salt-works on the is- land, and his agents ordered the Gravesend peopleto cease pasturing their cattle, or making hay thereon. This rous- ed the ire of the Gravesend settlers, who " laid waste his garden, tore down the surrounding palisades and burned them completely, threatening to throw the foreman of the work, who reproved thein, on the top of the burn- ing pile." The matter, being brought before the Direc- tor and Couneil, was by them decided favorably to the English ; but, on reference to the Conneil of the W. I. Company, at Holland, that body (jealous of English in- fluences, as is evident from their instructions to Gover- nor Stuyvesant) ealled for all the papers in the case, desiring meanwhile that a gnard of "two or three soldiers " should be sent to take possession of De Wolf's house, ete., in the name of the Company, and to "prevent further robberies and outrage." Stuyvesant, however, who was no friend to Guisbert Op Dyck, the original patentee, and who had good reason to keep on the best of terms with the Gravesend people, mani- fested no especial haste to comply with the orders of his superiors. For, in January, 1664, the directors of the W. I. Company again wrote to him complaining of his delay ; which, however, continued until the transfer of the Nieuw Netherlands to the English in September of that year, disposed finally of the fortunes of the first manufacturing enterprise ever established within the limits of the present Kings county.
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By the new charter which the English Governor Nicolls granted Gravesend in 1668, Coney Island (Nar- rioch) was not embraced within the town-limits; and this, with similar defects relating to the town's disputes with De Bruyne, was sought to be rectified in a patent obtained by the town, in 1671, from Governor Love- lace. Having thus considerably enlarged their bounds and perfected their title, the Gravesend people (1670) entertained the project of dividing Guisbert's Island ; which was not done, however, until October, 1677, when, by Samuel Spieer, Samuel Holmnes and Ralph Cardall,
appointed a committee for the purpose, it was divided into thirty-nine parts or shares, of about two acres each. The inhabitants then agreed " that the said island shall be fenced and planted only with Indian-corn, tobacco or any summer grain, and not else ; that the cattle may have the benefit of feeding until the beginning of the third month, or until the meadows are through, and then in the latter part of the year, when tobaeco and Indian corn are housed, and the said land is to be thrown open to commons, when the major part will use their land no longer, as being worn out." The lots and names of owners in this division were :-- 1, Thomas Til- ton ; 2, Samuel Holmes ; 3, John Lake ; 4, William Compton ; 5, Samuel Spicer ; 6, James Hubbard ; 7, John Tilton ; 8, John Bowne ; 9, John Griggs : 10. John Lake; 11, Barent Juriansen ; 12, Obadiah Wil- kins ; 13, Samuel Holmes ; 14, Ralph Cardell ; 15, John Bowne ; 16, Thomas Delavall ; 17, John Tilton. Jr. ; 18, John Cooke ; 19, Nicholas Stillwell ; 20, Peter Symson ; 21, Richard Stillwell ; 22, John Tilton, Jr. ; 23, Thomas Delavall ; 24, Samuel Spicer ; 25, Barent Juriansen ; 26, John Griggs ; 27, Samuel Spieer : 28. Charles Bridges ; 29, Thomas Delavall ; 30, John Lake ; 31, Ann Wilkins ; 32, William Williamson ; 33, John Emans ; 34, Ralph Cardell ; 35, John Poland ; 36, John Applegate ; 37, Samuel Holmes ; 35, Samnel Spicer ; 39, William Goulding.
By the new conveyance from the Indians, in 1654. and the confirmatory charter obtained from Governor Dongan, 1685, Coney Island was fully secured to Graves- end.
The Labadist travellers have left us a clear descrip- tion of Coney Island, as they saw it in 1679; "The outer shore of this [Long] Island has before it several small islands and broken lands, such as Coney Island ('t Conijnen Eylundt), a low sandy island of about three hours cireuit, its westerly point forming with Sandy Hook, on the other side, the entrance from the sea. It is oblong in shape and is grown over with bushes. Nobody lives upon it, but it is used in winter for keeping cattle, horses, oxen, hogs and others, which are able to obtain there sufficient to eat the whole win- ter, and to shelter themselves from the eold in the thickets. This island is not so cold as Long Island, or the Manhatans or others, like some other islands on the coast, in consequence of their having more sea-breeze, and of the saltness of the sea breaking upon the shoal-, rocks and reefs, with which the coast is besct."
Subsequent Divisions of the Island .- Follow- ing the rule established in the original division of the Gravesend settlement, viz : thirty-nine shares or por- tions (there were in the first division forty shares, one of which was for a school-house), the balance of the present island was, from time to time, divided among the Gravesend inhabitants, always in thirty-nine shares ; viz: as we have seen, in 1677. Guisbert's Ihned : 1761, meadow at east end of Gui bert's Island ; Phaab I-
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DIVISION OF CONEY ISLAND-ROADS-PIRACY.
land ; 1766, "Sedge Bank " (Manhattan Beach) ; 1766, the " middle division of the island" (present W. A Engeman, Brighton Beach and Race Track), etc. The two latest divisions were made in 1815 and 1821.
The Town's Commonage Leases of Coney Island .- By agreement of its inhabitants and free- holders in town-meeting assembled, the town had, from time to time, leased Pine and Coney Islands, in seven- year leases (reserving for the freeholders " the privilege of fishing, grazing, fowling, hawking, gunning, hunting, cutting off and carting off any sort of timber," etc.), to the following persons : 1702, John Griggs : 1720, Rich- ard Stillwell ; 1727, Thomas Stillwell ; 1731, Richard Stillwell ; 1733, Capt. John Cannon, mariner, of New York ; 1789, the islands were let in three divisions, to the highest bidders, viz., Abraham and John Emaus, and John Van Cleef ; this arrangement continued an- nually (the lessees being Emans, Van Cleef, Jones and Voorhis) until 1803, when the town directed the Com- missioners of Highways to " let, for one season, at pub- lic vendue, to the highest bidder, all the undivided mowing-meadows or commons " in the town, ete .; "the sand on Plumb Island and Pine Island beaches " to be let by contraet, the rights of Gravesend people to sand being protected.
Roads on Coney Island .- A road to the island was made in 1734, from the record of which it appears that the inlet between Coney Island and Coney Hook (Pine Island) had, by this time, become so shoal that the road was laid right along the beach without regard to it, and yet the two islands are divided by it-thus fixing the time when the process of filling up this inlet was going on ; and that Coney Hook had become sep- arated from the main land and had become an island. Thomas Stillwell, a very prominent citizen of Graves- end in that day, and who had beeome the owner of all the thirty-nine lots on Guisbert's Island (constituting all the arable land on Coney Island), conceived the idea that, by eutting a diteh from Hubbard's to Brown's creek he would secure an excellent pasturage for his eattle, near his farm. At this time a considerable trade had arisen between New York and the residents on Jamaica Bay, whose boats went outside of Coney Is- land, in their trips to and from New York. Stillwell, by personal visitation of his Jamaica friends, convinced them that the opening of a ditch or eanal through his property would give them an inside route to New York ; and finally, they all assembled, on a given day, and dug the eanal-known to this day as " Jamaiea Ditch." It was a success-giving the market-boats not only a shorter, but a nineh safer and easier way to the city.
By successive town-orders it was ordered (1735 and '49) that no one should mow sedge, or grass, upon Coney Island before the 1st September ; in 1752, that no wood or timber should be cut off ; and, in 1761, a division was made of the meadow on east end of Guisbert's Island. In 1763 another road was laid out along the
north side of middle division of Coney Island. Ahon: the year 1820, the project of a new and more diret: road to Coney Island began to be agitated ; for, up : that time, the only route to Guisbert's or Jolin- n- Island was by fording the creek (if the tide happen- to be low), and then westerly along the southerly -id- of Guisbert's Island. John Terhune, then Supervisor of Gravesend, proposed that the town should bnili what is now popularly known as " the shell road ; " but it was eventually done by private enterprise.
The Gravesend and Coney Island Road and Bridge Company was incorporated March 22, 1823, by legis- lative act, with a capital stoek of 300 shares of $20 each, and empowering John Terliune, Van Brunt Magaw, John S. Gerritson, and their associates, to open a road three rods wide through the meadows (between land at present of Jamies A. Williamson, and land lat. of Stephen HI. Stillwell, deceased,) and to construct a bridge over the ereek. The enterprise, however, grew upon the hands of the projectors, who soon saw the necessity of providing a hotel for visitors to the Island. Additional capital-stock was authorized by act of legis- lature in 1826 ; five directors were authorized by an amendment aet, in 1829, and the road and bridge were built, and a site proeured from Court Van Sicklen, on which they ereeted the "Coney Island House," and leased the same to a Mr. Tooker for three years. This property, in 1827, was sold to John Terhune, who, the same year, sold a half to his brother Abraham, and it ultimately passed, with John's half, into the hands of Peter Lott.
Piracy. The Tragedy of the Brig Vineyard. -Coney Island is connected with a tragedy of the s.a. well-nigh forgotten by even the older residents of the vicinity, but which was the cause of intense excite- ment at the time. On the 9th November, 1520. the brig Vineyard cleared from New Orleans for Phila. delphia with a cargo of cotton, sugar and molass .s. and 854,000 in specie (all Mexican dollars), consigned to Stephen Girard, Esq., of the latter city. The officers and crew of the brig were William Thornby. Captain ; Mr. Roberts, Mate ; Charles Gibbs (alias Thos. D. Jeffers), Aaron Church, James Talbot. John Brownrigg, and Henry Atwell, scamen ; Robert Dawes (age 18 or 19), cabin-boy, and Wansley, a young Delaware negro, steward and cook. When the brig had been five days out at sea, and was off Cave Hatteras, the negro steward informed some of the others of the money on board ; and, with Gibbs. Church, Atwell and Dawes, planned to kill the captain and mate, and possess themselves of the specie. On the night of March 23d, between 12 and 1 o'clock. as the captain was on the quarter-deck, aud the boy Dawes was steering, the negro Wansley came up on deck, and, obeying a pre arranged call from Dawes to come and trim the binnacle-light, as he passed behind the eaptain felled him with a pump-brake, and killed Lin. by
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF GRAVESEND.
repeated blows. Gibbs then coming up, he and . Wansley finng the captain's body overboard. Roberts, the mate, who was below, came up the companion way to ascertain the cause of the commotion, and was attacked by Church and Atwell, who failed, however, (through nervousness) to accomplish their design upon him. IIe retreated to the cabin, where he was followed by Gibbs, who, not being able to find him in the dark, returned to the deck for the binnacle-lamp, with which he re-entered the cabin, accompanied by Church, Atwell, and the boy Dawes; and Roberts, being speedily overcome by their blows, was dragged upon deck and hurled into the sea-still alive, and able for a while to swim after the ship, begging for mercy. Talbot, who, in his terror at what was going on, had sought refuge in the forecastle, and Brownrigg, who had fled aloft, were now called by the conspirators and offered their lives and equal share in the booty if they kept silent. It is needless to say that they joyfully accepted the terms thus unexpectedly offered them. The conspirators then rifled the vessel, divided the specie; and, under direction of Gibbs, who, from his being the only one understanding navigation, assumed command of the vessel, their course was laid for Long Island. When within 15 or 20 miles off Southampton light, the vessel was scuttled and fired, and they took to their boats ; Gibbs, Wansley, Brownrigg and Dawes, with about $31,000 of the money, in the long- boat, and Church, Talbot and Atwell, with about $23,000, in the jolly-boat. The wind was blowing a gale, and in attempting to cross Duck (or Rockaway) Bar, the jolly-boat upset, and its occupants, with their share of the booty, were lost. The occupants of the other boat were compelled, by fear of a similar fate, to lighten their boat by throwing overboard all but $5,000 of their stealings ; but finally succeeded in reaching the shore of Pelican Beach, then part of Barren, now of Coney Island. Their first care was to dispose temporarily of the specie by burying it in a hole (dug with an oar) in the sand at a considerable distance from the shore, each taking out sufficient for his immediate wants. Food and lodging were their next most pressing wants, and meeting, on Pelican Beach, with Nicholas S. Williamson, of Gravesend, they told him a pitiable tale of shipwreck, and, getting from him the needed directions, they passed on to Dooley's Bay, on the northwest shore of Barren Island. Here resided John Johnson and wife, and his brother William, who kindly received and cared for the ship- wrecked mariners, and gave up to them for the night their own room and beds. Brownrigg and the Johnson brothers thus happened to occupy chairs in the living- room ; and as soon as the other inmates of the house were asleep, Browurigg revealed the whole matter to the two Johnsons. In the morning, after getting such breakfast as the place afforded, the pirates desired the Johnsons to take them over to the hotel at Sheepshead
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