USA > New York > New York City > Leslie's history of the greater New York, Volume II > Part 51
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The place where the interview was to occur was well selected. The utmost point held by the Americans nearest the British lines was Perth Amboy, where Mercer lay with his flying camp. Directly op- posite on Staten Island stood, and yet stands to-day, the Billop House. It was owned and occupied by Christopher Billop. As far back as 1668 the original Christopher Billop had obtained a grant of over a thousand acres at this southwestern extremity of Staten Island as a reward for a very peculiar service. There was a dispute then, as there was long afterward (of which more anon), whether Staten Island belonged to New York or New Jersey. The Duke of York announced his decision that all islands lying in the river or harbor of New York which could be circumnavigated in twenty-four hours should be his. Billop was then in port, in command of a small ship called the Bent- ley. Without saying anything about it in advance, he quietly pro- ceeded to sail around Staten Island, and sneceeded in circumnavigat- ing it within the prescribed period. The Duke was much gratified by this feat, and gave him the traet mentioned, including the site of the present village of Tottenville. He called the plantation the " Manor of Bentley." after his good ship. Later Billop settled on the property and built the house, but after showing himself in the light of a critic of authority and an accuser of Andros, he disappears from view. He had married a Miss Farmer, the sister of Thomas Farmer, who was Judge of the Court of Sessions in Richmond County in 1711. From
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this marriage there issued only one child, a danghter, Eugenia Billop, who married the oldest son of Thomas Farmer-that is, her own cousin. Upon her inheriting the Billop estate he adopted also the family name, and in this way did the name come down to later times. At the Revolution there was again a Christopher Billop, a man of con- siderable importance, who had been a member of the Provincial As- sembly, and who was now Colonel of a regiment of loyal militia. He made himself quite obnoxious to the patriots, at one time having a gunboat under his direction which went up and down the Staten Island Sound; whereupon an expedition was organized one summer during the war to capture him, which succeeded perfectly.
The historical pilgrim of the present day may yet look upon the quaint old structure which was the home of the Billops. Leaving the station at Tottenville, a walk or ride of but a few minutes will bring him to the rear of the " old stone house," which is the term he had better apply to it if he wishes to be guided to it by any stray citizen or hackman. Rough, irregular stones, evidently picked up from the surrounding fields, and solidly set in mortar, constitute the walls, which are very thick. In front it rises to a height of two stories, a piazza reaching to the top of the second tier of windows, with roof sup- ported by square wooden pillars. Its dimensions are about forty by forty, and toward the rear the roof slopes rapidly down to within eight or ten feet of the ground. It faces the water, standing directly op- posite Perth Amboy, and obliquely across from the opening of the Raritan River. The lawn, not well kept now, slopes down gently toward the bank, with four enormous old willows adding charm to the historic surroundings. One great old willow is also found in the rear, and other noble old trees on the north side.
It is said that the conference between the committee of Congress and Lord Howe took place in the room on the ground floor at the northwest corner. As the soldiers had used the place as a barracks, it was not in the best condition, but everything was made ship- shape in this apartment, furniture being sent over from the fleet by the Admiral. When Franklin, Adams, and Rutledge arrived at Am- boy, they found Lord Howe's barge awaiting them. in charge of a British officer of high rank, who was to remain as a hostage within the American lines while they crossed over to Staten Island. They refused to allow him to remain in such capacity, thus paying a grace- ful compliment to Lord Howe to begin with. At the landing at the foot of the lawn the Admiral himself received them, and conducted them ceremoniously through the line of guards to the house. The con- ference, as is known, came to nothing. Lord Howe could make no promise of redress of grievances except on condition that the colonies should return to their allegiance. This, of course, was out of the question without distinet guaranties that the things which had made that allegiance intolerable should be remedied or removed. Four
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days later New York was taken, and thus began for Staten Island. as for the other portions of the Greater New York, that occupation by the enemy which was not to end till the evacuation of 1783.
During this occupation the patriots were frequently annoyed by raids made into New Jersey by the loyalist soldiers stationed on Staten Island. Most of these men had fled from the opposite shore. and were thus perfectly acquainted with the country. They were commanded on these expeditions by Col. Edward Vaughn Dougan, a descendant of the Governor. In August, 1777, General Sullivan de- termined to make a bold raid into Staten Island to punish these men for the atrocities so often committed. Under cover of night Colonel Ogden, with two regiments, moved from Elizabethport to a point opposite the mouth of Fresh Kills. It took all night to trans- port the troops across, but at day- break on August 22 they landed, to the great surprise of the enemy. In a few minutes the troops stationed there, under Colonel Lawrence, were put to rout, the Colonel and eighty minor officers and men being made prisoners. Advancing toward Ross- ville, between which and Tottenville were stationed some troops under Colonels Dongan and Allen, these. too, were driven from their positions and forced to fall back to Prince's Bay, where they took a position be- hind intrenchments too strong to as- sail. Ogden now went back to Ross- ville, awaiting a junction with Sul- CONFERENCE AT THE BILLOP HOUSE. livan as previously planned; but the other division failing to come at the time expected, he deemed it wise to transport his troops and prisoners back to the other side of the Sound. In the meantime Sullivan had not met with such good fortune as Ogden. He found the enemy pre- pared for him. Smallwood, with his Marylanders, was to be guided to the rear of the forces assigned to them. but treachery or stupidity brought him directly in their front. Thus delay was occasioned which prevented the junction with Ogden, and deprived the remaining troops of the boats which had served their comrades in crossing back to safety. The whole of the enemy's troops stationed on the island were now upon the invaders, and Sullivan had to sacrifice nearly his entire rear guard. In this engagement, although terminating disastrously. the Marylanders again covered themselves with glory as on Long Island. Though deceived by their guides, and compelled to make a direct attack in front, they drove back their opponents, and took their
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stand of colors. In the last moments, when Sullivan's position had grown desperate, the retreat was covered by abont eighty of Small- wood's regiment, commanded by Majors Stewart and Tillard. They stood their ground till all but themselves had been ferried across to Elizabethport. More than once the enemy's overwhelmingly larger numbers were driven back before their assaults. Slowly they retired, till at last they were within twenty rods of the bank. At last the British brought up their artillery, and the boatmen refused to return to bring over these devoted heroes. Observing this, and powder and shot being nearly exhausted, they at last surrendered, even then several escaping by swimming, and only about forty being made prisoners.
We would naturally expect that during the winter of 1779-1780, when the bay was frozen over, there would be considerable military activity again on Staten Island. Its watery boundaries surrounding it as a moat does a castle, were now of no avail, and at any unguarded point the patriots might make an assault at will. The British in New York were very apprehensive of an attack on the city, but none was made. The expectation with regard to Staten Island, however, was not disappointed. Lord Stirling, with twenty-five hundred men. crossed the ice on sleighs at Elizabethport on the night of January 14, 1780. A little east of Port Richmond the men were divided into two parties, one going on to New Brighton, and the other proceeding up Mill Lane, now Columbia Street, in West New Brighton, intending to surprise a body of new recruits stationed near a mill at the head of the pond. But Tory adherents had given warning of their ap- proach, and as the British were intrenched behind strong defenses, it was not thought advisable to waste time in an assault. After spending all of the 15th and its following night upon the island, in snow waist deep in most places, the patriots retired in good order before the enemy, who had been re-enforced from New York. A party of horse charged the rear guard, but they were gallantly repulsed. No greater loss occurred than was inevitable under the circumstances, many men being disabled by the fearful cold; and although sleighs were provided and all those that could not walk were put into these, Stirling feared that a few might have been missed. There was quite a hot action at the old octagonal church at Port Richmond; so fierce was the conflict here that, as one who engaged in it afterward told one of the pastors of the church, the perspiration streamed from the men in spite of the excessive cold, while the church was riddled with bullets and not a whole pane of glass remained. The most successful part of the expedition was that conducted by Lieutenant-Colonel Marinns Willett, the hero of the Broad and Beaver Street episode in 1774. Immediately after the whole column had crossed over to the island, a party under his command was sent to. surprise the troops at Decker's ferry, near the mouth of Fresh Kills. The corps there were
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warned and escaped, but the ferryhouse, which had been used as a garrison place, and some eight or nine small vessels were destroyed; while a goodly quantity of blankets and other useful military stores were captured.
It will not be profitable to recount the many raids, murders, rob- beries, and other outrages which marked a state of war on the island, so abundant because the opposite shores of the narrow Kill of Sound marked the frontiers of hostile countries. In regard to these unhappy occurrences, it was a matter of give and take on both sides, the blame for cruelty or rapacity being applicable with great equality to either side. We are glad, therefore, to hasten on with our narrative to that fortunate day when war was all over, and the last of the enemy was seen npon our shores. On November 25, 1783, the British evacuated New York, the troops remaining there being taken to the ships in the harbor. On December 5, Admiral Digby sailed away with the fleet. Standing upon their loftiest hills the people of Staten Island gazed far out upon the ocean after the receding ships, some re- joicing in the establishment of peace and independence secured, some grieving for the departure of relatives and friends, who had favored the King and were now banished from the country.
CHAPTER XXL.
RICHMOND, OR STATEN ISLAND-PRESENT CENTURY.
N order to be incorporated into one municipality with the other Boroughs of the Greater New York, it was essential that Staten Island should be a part of New York State. As one looks at a map of the enlarged city, and beholds com- pact centers of population like Hoboken, JJersey City, Bayonne, mak- ing one continous line of habitation and business along the other shore of the Hudson and almost touching Staten Island; as one looks a little further afield and sees Hackensack, Paterson, Newark. Eliza- beth, crowding closely up against the others, and realizes that these, too, are made by the traffic of the metropolis-one can not but regret, if the consolidation was intended to do justice to the real greatness of New York as a commercial capital, that these dependencies in a neigh. boring State could not have been included; so that by the mere enn- meration of all this population it might be announced to the world that here was a metropolis in the Western Hemisphere still more near- ly equal to the metropolis of the Eastern Hemisphere and of the world. But the invisible line of State division bars the others out. That line embraced Staten Island within the jurisdiction of New York. and hence consolidation could cast the municipal mantle over the beauti- ful isle across the Bay. Yet it was not until well into this nineteenth century that it was finally settled that New York could claim the island.
No sooner had the Duke of York secured the Province of New Netherland than Lord William Berkeley and Sir George Carteret asked and obtained a patent for all that part of it west of the Hudson River. This division of his newly conquered territory disgusted Gov- ernor Nicolls very much. It did not increase the enjoyment of James himself, especially when it became a question whether Staten Island lay west of the Ihudson River or not. The Dutch looked upon the Narrows as the mouth of that river; in which case Staten Island necessarily lay on its western bank. It was, however, contended that the Staten Island Sound was only another month or outlet of the Hudson. The Duke himself was perplexed, and we have observed how he sought to extricate himself from the dilemma, and how Cap- tain Billop, in 1668, practically demonstrated that a twenty-four hours' sail would be sufficient to circumnavigate the island, and thus
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made it James's own. Still minds remained unsettled on both sides. The Jersey proprietors at times claimed it, at times did not. The Duke's party was in the same vacillating condition. Philip Carteret, Sir George's brother, took out a patent for land on the island from Nicolls, of New York. Dongan, when he had purchased his manor at West New Brighton from Palmer, deemed it best to fortify his title to it by getting a patent for the same property also from the owners of East JJersey. The dispute as to jurisdiction was bequeathed as a legacy from the colonial period to the times of independence.
RICHMOND COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
What the Provinces had contended for, that still the States strenu- ously contested against each other. It added to the friction of the days of the Confederation, when State stood over against State four- ishing sovereign rights and threatening utter dissolution and extinc- tion for the Republic. But even the compact of the Federal Constitu- tion, which made the States one family, inseparable, with a common sovereignty over all into which much of each one's individual sover- eignty had been absorbed-even this did not stop the quarrel about Staten Island between New Jersey and New York. It doubtless seemed to the smaller State that her big sister could afford to lop off
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this island so convenient to her own shores. The nineteenth century opened, and still the debate hung. Now, in 1807, commissioners were appointed to consider the question; it only gave an opportunity for angry discussion withont an issue. Twenty years later a second com- mission, composed of men from both States, met, and met only to part without results. But now the end was near. Six years after the second conference, in 1833, the dispute was settled by mutual conces- sions. New York conceded to New Jersey exclusive jurisdiction over the waters on the west side of the island, whereas the claim to the island had hitherto carried with it, as in the case of Manhattan. a claim to jurisdiction as far as low-water mark on the opposite shores of Jersey. New York obtained the same privileges over most of the Lower Bay, as far as Sandy Hook; and Staten Island was acknowl- edged to be indisputably hers.
At the first census taken by the young Republic. in 1790. Staten Island showed a population of 3,838 souls. In 1800 this had not in- creased by quite a thousand, the figure then being 4,564. Eight years before, the stimulus of a new life of independence and federal organ- ism having stirred up even its ouce all too loyal inhabitants, Richmond County resolved to build a Court House. A tax of nearly eight min- dred dollars was distributed among the freeholders, which sum was to defray the expense of erection, and in October. 1794, it was ready for occupancy. It was later made into a dwelling. with a piazza very much like that of the Billop House, and its site is opposite the hotel calling itself Richmond County Hall. But as population and wealth increased greater things were attempted, and in 1828 the county officers occupied a new building that compares favorably with any other of the kind in rural districts.
It is somewhat singular that in all this county, with its many settle- ments, duly named and tenacious of their titles, which are often pic- turesque, or otherwise interesting from historical associations, there should have been no efforts made to secure incorporation as villages until very late in the century; and that even then only two or three were serions enough about it to go on with the measure to its com- pletion. In 1823 the Legislature passed an act which granted the privileges of incorporation to Richmond, the county-seat. Some per- sons must have made application for it; but the people cared nothing for it. for the organization failed to take place, and has never since been effected. A similar account must be given of Tottenville, that village by the river and the sea opposite Perth Amboy. It is a village only in name, not officially. As late as 1869 the Legislature at Albany was asked to give it regular incorporation, and the act became law on April 28 of that year. It did not meet with a response at home be- cause of some objections to the charter. Therefore an amended char- ter was passed April 14, 1871; and alas! the record says: " This char- ter also became inoperative through the failure of the people to ap-
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prove its conditions." You may have the privilege to elect a board of village trustees, and constables, and all the rest; but if these are not elected, or, if elected, do not qualify or organize, you are still minus a village. Another abortive experiment at village-making was that in the case of Edgewater. This is, indeed, a very pretty name, and the corporation was meant to include a good deal of territory, well-occupied at that. Clifton, Stapleton, Tompkinsville, were all to contribute of their territory and population, to make a place of considerable importance, as large as many a Western " city." The act of incorporation passed in 1866; nine wards constituted the vil- lage; but a defect in the charter made a new one necessary in 1867. Each ward elected its trustee, and Mr. Theodore Frean was chosen President of the Board. But when the new state of things was well under way, a desire for former conditions began to spring up. As a result, the number of amended charters shows a curious array of fig- ures, as we note them by the years: 1870, 1872, 1873, 1874, 1875, 1877, and 1884. The charter of 1875 cut down the nine wards at one fell swoop to tiro. But 1884 came to the rescue, and restored the number to five. As we look upon the map of the Greater New York to-day, we find the name Edgewater applied to a mere neighborhood, a little back and southwesterly from Stapleton. But if one look very closely there will be found a fainter lettering which seems still to embrace the three places above mentioned. It would be curious to know how many persons in every ten have heard of Edgewater, as compared with those who know of Tompkinsville, Stapleton, and Clifton. In the same year that Edgewater was first be-chartered, or 1866, the two other incorporated villages started on their career. New Brighton's charter bears date April 26, 1866; its four wards were to embrace a territory two and a half miles long and one mile wide. The measure was carried into effect, the first election being held on May 22, and Augustus Prentice was chosen its first President. The village limits only took in half of Castleton township at the beginning. This prov- ing burdensome to the rest of it, the village and township were made coterminous in 1872. Two days before the act which began village life in the regular way for New Brighton, a similar measure passed for Port Richmond. But for some unaccountable reason the blunder crept in of appointing trustees by the enacting bill, instead of leaving their election to the people. So it did not go into effect until remedied in 1867. Then an election was held, the Board of Trustees organized. the officers qualified, and Port Richmond was a village indeed. The first President was Captain Nicholas Van Pelt, and it is remarkable that he was elected year after year for fourteen years, until his death in 1881.
From these events in the municipal history of the county and island. we turn now to those of a more general character, which will take us back again to earlier decades in the century. The war of 1812, which
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saw so much precautionary activity in other parts of the Greater New York, left Staten Island comparatively unmoved. Only at Prince's Bay was anything done in the way of throwing np defenses, whence destruction was to be hurled at any English fleet that might appear in the Lower Bay. A blockhouse was erected on the hill, whose stones afterward served the nseful purpose of fitting ont the more pacific structure of the lighthouse. The French war seare of 1798 had se- enred for New York from Alexander Hamilton an elaborate plan of fortifications at the Narrows. Nothing was done about these then. When this later war was on hand, a feeble attempt to carry out these plans was made on the site of the present splendid fortresses, a mere earthwork being thrown up. But war's rumors remained only such for New York and its harbor, and the threat gone, no attention was paid to what here might be accomplished till several years subse- quently.
At this time Staten Island was honored as being the place of resi- dence of a man prominent in the State and in the Union, who had borne high offices in both. When thirty-two years old, in 1807, Daniel D. Tompkins was elected Governor of the State, running against Mor- gan Lewis, who had served since 1804. He served through more than three terms, and was upon his fourth when, in 1816, he was elected Vice-President on the same ticket with James Monroe. His second term as Governor was signalized, in 1812, by his proroguing the Legis- lature, a thing never done before or since. At the close of his second term as Vice-President Mr. Tompkins retired to private life, and took mp his home permanently on his farm or conntry-seat on Staten Island. Its location suggests itself sufficiently by the familiar name of Tompkinsville. Here he dispensed an elegant hospitality to friends, and often entertained men of distinction at home and abroad. At his house Lafayette stayed overnight in 1824, when New York was preparing its surprise for him. Governor Tompkins died in June, 1825, when only fifty-one years old. (Portrait. p. 183.)
Ten years after Fulton sailed up the Hudson with the Clermont, the boon of a steam ferryboat finally supplanted the " periaugers," or " yachts," that were wont to furnish their passengers a delightful sail of three or four hours from the " watering place " at or near Tompkinsville to the foot of Whitehall Street, New York. On No- vember 29, 1817, commenced running the Nautilus, " intended to ply regularly," and, of course, for a consideration; but that heyday she carried passengers without charge so that they might taste the joy of a rapid passage of perhaps one hour. Her hours of starting from the Whitehall Dock were fixed at 7 and 10 in the morning, and 1 and 5 in the afternoon. It took another ten years to put two boats on the route. But inevitably any reference to the ferriage system between Staten Island and New York calls to mind a youthful enterprise grap- pling the problem of transportation in the old way, resulting in a
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career always connected with methods of transportation, but carrying them to the highest perfection of facility and rapidity, and building up a colossal fortune which has become the wonder of the world. The name of Staten Island can never be divorced from the fame of the Vanderbilts. Cornelius Vanderbilt was born near Stapleton, May 27. 1794. He was descended from that John Aertsen van der Bilt, or van den Bilt (or Bylt), who settled at Flatbush, Long Island, in 1650. Just north of the city of Utrecht there is a place called Den Bilt. As so many other people in Kings County came from the province of that name (whence Flatlands was called Amersfoort, and whence also New Utrecht, still in vogue), perhaps Jan Aert- sen came from that neighborhood, and he was therefore distinguish- able from other Aertsens as coming from Den Bilt (or Bylt, or Bildt, -- for the Dutch stood not upon the order of their spelling in those early days). Jacob van der Bilt (or Van der Bilt, or Van Derbilt, or Van Der Bilt, ad libitum ), a grandson of the original set- tler, bought from his father, in 1718, a farm on Staten Island, to which he took his young wife Eleanor. Cornelius Van Derbilt (for so he chose to write it) was the great-grandson of this grandson of Jan Aertsen, of Flatbush. When he was sixteen his mother wished to cure him of the seagoing fever by offering him one hundred dollars with which to buy a boat, if he would achieve a certain piece of work about the farm within a given time. It is needless to say that even then what the youthful Vanderbilt undertook he accomplished. The hundred dollars became his, and also the boat, with which he entered upon the ferry business, carrying passengers to New York City for eighteen cents a piece, a price selected, doubtless, because it repre- sented about a shilling and a half. The boy was father to the man. He made money rapidly by close attention to business; at the end of one year he not only gave the hundred dollars back to his mother, but added a thousand to it for safe-keeping. The war of 1812 had now come about, and it gave the youthful ferryman additional opportuni- ties for enterprise and earnings. In 1817 Fulton died, but the monop- oly which had been bestowed properly enough upon him and Living- ston was still very much alive. A steamboat line was established be- tween New Brunswick and New York, which necessarily had to run through New York waters, and therefore came into conflict with the monopoly. The owner of this line went on doing business and fight- ing the monopoly at the same time, and he made Vanderbilt, in 1817, Captain of one of his steamers, the Mouse of the Mountain. Thus began the Commodore's connection with steam navigation, where- with, and all its marvelous successes and accumulations of millions. Staten Island history hath nothing specially to do. But when that for- tune had reached into the tens of millions, astounding the whole civil- ized world, the career of another Vanderbilt commenced, who was also closely identified at first with Staten Island. It is a familiar story
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