USA > New York > New York City > Leslie's history of the greater New York, Volume II > Part 46
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rotation at each other's homes or places of business. But in 1843 prosperity seemed to warrant an outlay of some money, and a Town Hall was built at the very modest figure of $1,000.
The oldest, and still the strongest and most influential church in Fhishing is St. George's Episcopal Church, for, of course, the oldest religions society, that of the Quakers, would hardly desire to be classed among ecclesiastie establishments. In 1720 the Episcopal Society was first organized, under the stimulus of the London Asso- ciation for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts. Services were held for a long time in a guardhouse or blockhouse built for defense against Indians in the early days of the settlement. But in 1746 one Ralph Wentworth gave a half acre of land " west of the town pond " for the building of a church thereon, and then he gave a goodly amount of cash besides, so the edifice might be reared upon the site. The name of St. George was now bestowed upon the building and organization. In these early days Flushing formed one parish with Newtown and Jamaica, which relation continued until 1803. when Jamaica was sepa- rated from the compact. Six years later the three stood apart as in- dependent societies or parishes by themselves. The Methodists first gained an existence in the town among the colored people. who abounded here then as now. as the result of the seruples of the Quakers and their frequent manumissions for that reason. WILLIAM IN. A church was organized in 1811. Not till nine years later were efforts begun to effeet an organiza- tion among white people, these finally resulting in the erection of the first Methodist church on Washington Street in 1822. In 1843 they built a second church on Main Street, which in turn was superseded in 1875 by the present building on Amity Street, op- posite the Flushing Institute. The Roman Catholics, who are in strong force at Fhishing to-day, began religions services in 1826 in a small private house on Main Street. In 1841 lots were bought at the present site, corner of Union and Madison streets, and a frame building put up, which was replaced by the present edi- fice in 1856. It gives evidence of the lack of a Dutch element in the make-up of Flushing that no church of that order was organized until 1842. The first building stood on the corner of Prince and Washing-
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ton streets, and was constructed of the gray stone from the Black- well's Island quarries. A new and handsome structure was put up on Bowne Avenue, corner of Amity Street, in 1892. The Congregational- ists followed with society and church in 1851 and 1852, and the Bap- tists were still later, organizing in 1857.
As one steps off the train at the Main Street station in Flushing the first object that meets his eye is a large frame building, crowning the high ground rising with gentle slope from the street, a fine lawn dotted with noble trees in front. As one approaches this building its grand proportions grow upon the view. It is indeed somewhat the worse for wear-a coat of paint seems sadly needed. But nothing can take away from the impression it makes upon the beholder. Its lofty porch, supported by tall pillars of generous circumference, to which a flight of steps along its entire width gives access; the wings on either side, which leave this porch as a deep recess in the center; the wings and center both rising to a height of four stories; the depth of the main building, with an L extension on one side in the rear reaching back a hundred feet further-all have a decidedly imposing effect. None the less impressive is the finely cultivated garden covering nearly a whole city block, making an attractive display of horticul- ture as well as kitchen-gardening, rare plants and curious bushes suggesting the proximity of Flushing's famous nurseries. Naturally all this arouses the observer's curiosity and invites inquiry. This, then. is the celebrated Flushing Institute, founded by the Rev. William Augustus Muhlenberg. While still a young man, and after having served as Rector of an Episcopal Church in Lancaster, Pa., he made a casual visit to Flushing when St. George's Church was vacant. He was asked to become its Rector, but consented only to a provisional arrangement for six months. He had long contemplated devoting himself to the education of youth, having some original notions upon the subject. Ere the six months were over the opportunity for found- ing an institution and carrying out his ideas came to him, and on Au- gust 11. 1827. the cornerstone of the present building was laid. It was ready for occupancy in the spring of the following year. One purpose of Dr. Muhlenberg was the Christianizing of education, and so he wished the school he was founding to be called " The Christian Institute," but it was found expedient, while retaining the fact. to drop the name, and hence the name finally fixed upon was simply the " Flushing Institute." Aside from the religious influence Dr. Muhlen- berg aimed at and exerted in a salutary manner. it was his desire also to let instruction be accompanied by a paternal concern, and to foster the closest ties of affection between teacher and pupil. He succeeded in this aim to a remarkable degree, and his method was a revelation to the age in which he first put it into practice. When Dr. Muhlen- berg transferred his work to College Point, as will be noted below, some ten years or more afterward, the school at Flushing was aban-
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doned, but in 1845 Mr. Ezra Fairchild bought the property and carried over to the Institute a school which he had conducted since 1816 in New Jersey. After his death the work was taken up by his son. Ezra A. Fairchild, and his son-in-law, A. P. Northrop. The methods of instruction and of dealing with the boys were pursned by these gentlemen upon the same lines as those laid down by Dr. Muhlenberg, and the fame of the Institute became deservedly widespread. An in- teresting feature for a long time was the great number of youths from Cuba and the South American Republics who came here to be edu- cated. The improvements in public school education, and especially the rise of so many excellent free high schools in the county, have materially reduced the number of pupils who seek the advantages of school and social life which the Institute yet furnishes, under the guidance of the two gentlemen last named. But no citizen of Flush- ing will ever be reconciled to the disappearance from its streets of the noble and impressive structure and surrounding grounds. Not far from it the Roman Catholics boast of an institution that may well warrant their pride-the St. Joseph's Academy. Its buildings are of more modern style, its grounds beautifully laid out in shady walks and choice flower beds. While the Institute educates ouly boys and young men, the Academy confines itself to female education.
Flushing at one time promised fair to become a health resort, where people could indulge in drinking the " waters." In 1816 a mineral spring was discovered upon the land of one of its prominent citizens. Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell, whose name we meet more than once in New York history, himself a Long Islander, examined the water, and de- clared it to be a chalybeate (or iron) spring. Its medicinal properties were highly praised by him and other chemists and physicians, but either the spring gave ont or its tonic properties failed to materialize; at any rate, the sensation, momentarily aroused, soon died away. A more substantial claim to fame has been derived from Flushing's nurseries. The Prince nurseries were started as long ago as 1750 by William Prince, who called his enterprise the " Linnean Botanic Garden." He then cultivated a space of eight acres for the express purpose of raising young fruit and shade trees for sale. The bnsi- ness had already become celebrated at the time of the Revolution. so that General Howe, of his own motion, ordered a guard to be stationed at the nurseries, which was maintained till the end of the war. Yet not much occasion for the selling of fruit trees then oc- curred, and Mr. Prince was obliged to offer for sale thirty thousand young English cherry trees, which he suggested would serve well as hoop-poles. There is a note in President Washington's Diary, under date of October 10, 1789, which is of interest in the present connection. It begins: " I set off from New York abont 9 o'clock in my barge to visit Mr. Prince's fruit gardens and shrubberies 'at Flushing." It ap- pears, then, that these nurseries had already gained a high reputation,
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else the President of the United States would hardly have conde- scended to make a special visit to them. And he went attended by no mean company. " The Vice-President [sturdy John Adams]. Gov- ernor [George Clinton ]. Mr. Izard, Colonel Smith, and Major Jackson accompanied me." Truly a distinguished party. Hon. Ralph Izard was a member of Congress from South Carolina at the time, and was married to a New York lady, Alice De Lancey, a niece of the whilom Chief Justice, possibly herself a Tory at one time, as all her connec- tions were, but that sort of thing was now forgotten. "Colonel Smith " was Col. William S. Smith, who had married John Adams's daughter. He was a Long Island man himself, and may have been the one to induce these gentlemen and dignitaries to honor Prince with this visit. We can imagine what a stir the progress of such a company through the streets of the city must have made. Wash- ington was then living at the Franklin house, and no doubt they wended their way down the hill to the landing at Peck Slip, then much closer to Pearl (or Queen) Street than now. It was quite a trip for a rowboat of heavy build and loaded with passengers, and it would have been interesting to have had some details of their ex- perience in going through Hell Gate. It is possible, however, that the barge was only used to ferry them across the East River, and that carriages awaited them to WILLIAM A. MUHLENBERG, D.D. convey them via Brooklyn and Bedford and Jamaica. Yet the barge could have taken them almost as quickly, and as Prince's nurseries were near the head of Flushing Bay, on Bridge Street, the party could have been conveniently landed right there. Whether New York was excited at seeing the party go we know not. But Flushing was tremendously worked up over their arrival within its boundaries. It was not every day village people were privileged to look upon a real live President, with a Vice-President and Governor of a State thrown in. With a quiet, perhaps unconscious humor, Washington records the form of expression which their appreciation of the honor took: "The inhabitants of the place showed us what respect they could by making the best use of one cannon to salite." It must have been a rather dangerous piece of ordnance after all the salutes proper to the occasion had been fired: if we are correct, twenty-
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one guns would be required for the President; and no doubt a Vice- President and Governor each have their allotted mimber of shots in the appointments of gunpowder etiquette. But meantime that this solitary gun was banging away the President took careful note of the object of his visit. He evidently was not much impressed with what he saw. His expectations had been raised too high by too enthusiastic reports. " These gardens," he writes, " except in the number of young fruit trees, did not answer my expectations. The shrubs were trifling and the flowers not immerous." Now, was it that the Virginia planter had not risen to the largeness of the soldier and the statesman in Washington? Sometimes a weakness like that sticks to the biggest of men, and it is just possible that professional jealousy as a culti- vator of the soil himself prevented him from giving these New York nurseries their due.
In 1793 the gardens were enlarged, twenty-four acres being now de- voted to the culture of trees. As the 19th century came with its push and expansion of business effort, these nurseries also felt the impulse, and before 1839 sixty acres were needed to accommodate the growing undertaking. The other noted nurseries of the town are those of the Parsons, which were started in 1838 on the same plan as the Prince's. But changing times brought different demands. Between 1862 and 1865 great attention was given to the culture of grape vines. Later the Parsons became the sole growers of rhododendrons, and hardy azaleas, and made much of the culture of camelias. After 1872 the business was removed in great part to Kissenah Lake, but the old nurseries on Broadway, near Bowne Avenue, are still the pride and wonder of the village.
As has been stated in a previous chapter, the North Side branch of the Long Island Railroad was extended to and beyond Flushing in 1854. With increased and rapid facilities of communication with New York, the number of those who sought homes here quickly grew. Not only did the vicinity now, as before attract men of wealth who wished to find here a rural retreat in the summer. Business men of small means, clerks, and professional men, could dwell here all the year round. go to business in the great city in a short time every day, and be back home early in the evening. The two thousand souls constitut- ing the population in 1837 at the incorporation, had grown to ten thousand about 1880. Even in 1872 one of the Parsons brothers sold an acre of ground for $10,000. Streets were laid out upon the high ground eastward, and many small but elegant cottages were built upon them, and were eagerly sought by purchasers or tenants. With- in the present decade the trolley-cars have come to make direct and quick connection with Brooklyn, Williamsburgh. Long Island City, and the upper part of New York by means of the Astoria Ferry to Ninety-second Street. The affairs of the village were well managed by its officials, and improvements of streets, waterworks, gas, electricity,
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all contributed to make a residence here as comfortable while far cheaper than in the neighboring cities. It was, therefore, with consid- erable reluctance that the people of Flushing contemplated consolida- tion with the Greater New York. It is probable that a majority of Flushing voters opposed the project, but the vote of the other county- towns involved carried the day in favor of it.
College Point derives its present name from the attempt of Dr. Muh- lenberg, of Flushing, to expand his educational work. At first this region was in the possession of William Lawrence, a gentleman of note in Colonial days, descended from that sturdy " William Lawrence, of Flushing," who, in 1666, was fined by Governor Nichols for daring to criticise some of his measures under the Duke's Laws. After the Revolution a part of this property came into the market, and was bought by Eliphalet Stratton for $1,250. Hence for many years the settlement that grew up in the wake of business was called Strattons- port. In 1835 Dr. Muhlenberg bought a large tract of land here, hav- ing a water-front of over a mile, and rising landward into a broad and high hill, affording an extensive prospect of the East River above Hell Gate. It was proposed to erect a large building at a cost of $50,000 on the summit of this hill, and the cornerstone was actually laid on October 15, 1836. Here was to be conducted a regular colle- giate institution under the name of St. Paul's College, for the prepara- tion of young men for the ministry of the Episcopal Church. So with that design at least in mind. the enterprise was begun, and the neigh- borhood received the designation College Point, which it has ever since retained, although the college never was realized on the scale in- tended and is now no more at all. The financial crash of 1837 shattered Dr. Muhlenberg's hopes. A plain frame building for the Grammar School department was completed and work commenced in it in 1837. The college buildings, finished in a style much less expensive than at first intended, were ready for occupancy in 1840; and then the college classes, which hitherto had met in the Grammar School since 1838. were transferred to these. In 1846 Dr. Muhlenberg left the institu- tion to begin his career as rector of a free church, and founder of St. Luke's Hospital, hoping that other hands could carry on the plans he had so well established. But the college missed the master's hand, and before 1850 St. Paul's College had ceased to be. At Dr. Muhlenberg's instance and largely at his expense, a plank-walk across the marshes or salt-meadows had been constructed to connect College Point with its more vigorous neighbor Flushing. In 1855 an improvement was made in this direction by the building of a causeway between the two places. College Point was now developing as a manufacturing center. In 1854 Conrad Poppenhusen, a German, erected a factory here for the making of hard rubber knife-handles. Other kindred enterprises were established, that drew skilled laborers trained in Mr. Poppen- husen's factory from among his operatives. Ribbon mills, ultra-
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marine works, and a large brewery subsequently filled up the com- plement of business. A postoffice was assigned to the place in 1857. In 1880 the people were ready for incorporation as a village and though the part where the business had grown up had been known as Strattonsport, the title selected for the corporate name was that de- rived from the early educational undertaking. College Point. The population is overwhelmingly German, and among the industries greatly in evidence besides those mentioned are places of recreation or
ET CROISTE
BURR
A CREEDMOOR PRIZE.
beer gardens, to accommodate the crowds that seek on Sunday to quench their summer thirst while they breathe the country air. In 1868, through Mr. Poppenhusen's exertions, the Long Island Railroad extended a branch to College Point from Flushing. A line of steamers also made trips between New York and this place, but within recent years this has been replaced by a ferry between College Point and East 99th Street. This ferry is patronized to a great extent by the farmers of Long Island, who thereby save miles of trucking across the township of Newtown and the City of Brooklyn. Sometimes one can
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count as many as a score of heavy truek wagons upon one ferry-boat at a time, leaving no room, of course, for any other conveyance, and as the farmers stand waiting for their turn to go aboard, the line ex- tends sometimes nearly a mile back.
Near the northeastern extremity of the township of Flushing is the village of Whitestone, whither the railroad conducts from College Point, and to which more than one good road leads from Flushing. It is Whitestone that really can claim the honor of Lieutenant-Governor Colden's residence, for " Spring Hill " is on its western border; and here, too, was the farm or country-seat of Francis Lewis. Its name is said to be derived from a large white rock lying off shore opposite the place, and when there was question of a postoffice being established here in 1854 this was the name selected, although some enthusiastic admirers of De Witt Clinton had at one time desired to name it Clin- tonville. This circumstance shows that the settlement is not a mush- room growth of later times. In 1845 it was made the seat of an exten- sive business-the manufacture of tinware, japanned ware, toys, etc., carried on in Brooklyn since 1827. Eighteen buildings are needed to carry on the various operations, and hundreds of people find constant employment. The beautiful situation, too, has been drawing wealthy residents to this section since 1825. Close to Whitestone, a little east- ward, Willett's Point frowns upon us with its fortifications, grimly threatening any hostile approach to New York. In 1857 the United States Government bought one hundred and ten acres of land here as a reservation to be used for military defenses, and in 1863 twenty- six and a half acres were added to it. No work upon the post was commenced until 1862, when the Civil War was well under way. The Point, jutting far out into the river, and meeting the equally sharp promontory of Throgg's Neck, nature itself seemed to have devised here a plan for the effective defense of New York Harbor, just where the broad Sound ceases and narrows itself down to the estuary popu- larly called the East River. Such a coign of vantage ought long be- fore to have been fortified. The reservation was mainly used as a camp for recruits during the Rebellion, and in 1864 a hospital contain- ing fourteen hundred beds was temporarily erected here. After the war it was made the headquarters for a battalion of Engineers, and practically amounts to a school of instruction for that highly impor- tant branch of the army. General Rodenbough describes it as fol- lows: " The garrison is composed of some five hundred engineer sol- diers, who are constantly exercised in the duties of their special branch of service as well as in infantry drill. As a rule these men are of a high order of intelligence, and are required to become familiar with the principles of mechanics; to construct and lay bridges; to sink. explode, or take up torpedoes; to understand the nature and operation of high explosives, steam-engines, and electrical apparatus, as well as the duties formerly appertaining to sappers and miners."
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The post constitutes a sort of community by itself, having a school for officers' children, a library, a printing office, and a chapel, while the officers' families enjoy delightful social intercourse, and do not feel their isolation from the world.
Bayside is a little settlement in Flushing township, deriving its name from its situation on the west shore of Little Neck Bay. Doug- laston is nearer the head of the bay, and Little Neck, around the head and along the eastern bank, comes just within the precinets of Flush- ing. Creedmoor is noted for the grounds of the National Rifle Asso- ciation, where our marksmen of the National Guard learn to beat the records of the world. For the rest Flushing town is open country all the way to the line that divides it from Jamaica. Yet in those rustic qnietudes it must not be forgotten that a great municipality has gathered in the fields and hills and woods, before whose advance they must ere long disappear and be converted into a wilderness of brick and stone, laying low the hills, exalting the valleys, and making straight the crooked paths.
CHAPTER XIX.
QUEENS-JAMAICA AND HEMPSTEAD.
AMAICA, the township, would naturally remind us of Ja- maica the island, and bid us imagine some connection be- tween them in the naming. But the two came to resemble each other only because phonetically that of the township represents the old Indian name Jameco, by which was designated a tribe living in the vicinity. The first settlers of the town were Eng- lishmen, mostly from New England. They came here about the year 1656, and Thompson presents a list of twenty, presumably all heads of families, among them being such names as Denton. Townsend, Mes- senger, and others, which have maintained themselves through the intervening generations down to the present time. It was, of course. necessary for them to obtain permission to make a settlement within the bounds of New Netherland from the Director, Peter Stuyvesant. Four years later the success of the undertaking warranted the ex- tension of a patent, and the organization of town government on the Dutch pattern. Then it became necessary to select a name, and a Dutch one at that. But, strange to say, no place in Holland was selected for the honor of having a namesake here. Thompson, indeed. affirms that Rustdorp (he spells it " Rusdorpe ") is derived " from a town of that name in Holland." There may be a village somewhere bearing this appellation, but no place conspicuous enough to have suggested itself for adoption under the present circumstances. The term, too, is merely descriptive, and may have been fixed npon because it fitted the conditions of the new settlement. It means " Village of Rest." a rural retreat, " a lodge in some vast wilderness," and such, no doubt, " Jameco " was at the beginning. So much was this the case that in 1659 the people voted that in the harvest season the set- tlers should mow the grain " by squadrons-to wit: John Townsend and his squadron at the East Neck; Robert Coe and his squadron at the Long Neck; Nicholas Tanner and his squadron at the Old House. and Nathaniel Denton and his squadron at the Hawk-trees." This arrangement was obviously a prudential one, so that no solitary har- vester in a distant field should be suddenly attacked by savage muen or beasts. The " Old House " seems a misnomer in so new a country, but referred to one of the " Long " houses in which Indian tribes made their home, while the " Hawk-trees" were those in which hawks
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