USA > New York > New York City > Leslie's history of the greater New York, Volume II > Part 54
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57
There remains one more name to be accounted for, although the territory designated by it has already come within our view among the original settlements. On Pelham Neck, and reaching beyond the limits of the city as at present constituted, was Anne Intehinson's ill-fated plantation situated. In the year 1654 Thomas Pell bonght from the Indian proprietors a traet of land including the townships of Westchester, Pelham, and New Rochelle, and in 1666 Governor Nicolls confirmed him in the possession by a patent. In another pic- turesque portion of the borough, at Fordham, settled a company of Huguenots, refugees from perseention in France, and in 1696 they organized a church and called the Rev. Mr. Montaigne as their own pastor, having before this worshiped in New York. All through the colonial period these various manors or plantations remained the choice and favorite seats of the magnates or nabobs of the provincial capital. Their owners stood high in the councils of the State, as did the Philipses and van Cortlandts; or men prominent in the service of the Governors, such as the Morrises and De Lanceys, acquired ex- tensive domains in this vicinity. Thus, as we have mentioned more than once. Morrisania became identified with the Morris family, and near West Farms was the seat of the De Lanceys. In those piping days of peace, before the Revolution, everything was contentedly and happily English, and there were no people more so than the Dutch magnates. Indeed, they liked their position so much that they were usnally to be counted among the loyalists during the Revolution. as in Leisler's days they strennonsly opposed and finally downed his " rabble " of commoners. A very good picture of this state of affairs, of life and sentiments in The Bronx from forty to fifty years before Independence was thought of, is afforded by Cooper in the introduc- tory chapter of " Satanstoe." " We always ranked," he makes his hero
500
HISTORY OF THE GREATER NEW YORK.
write. " among the gentry of the country." That is, there was money in the family, they were landed proprietors, and one or two gentle- men, the grandfather and father, had held, or were holding, commis- sions as captain or ensign in the army. " We happened to be in a part of Westchester in which were none of the very large estates. It is true, the Morrises were at Morrisania, and the Felipses, or Phil- ipses, had a manor'on the Hudson, that extended within a dozen miles of us, and a younger branch of the De Lanceys had established itself even much nearer, while the Van Cortlandts, or a branch of them, too, dwelt near Kingsbridge; but these were all people who were at the head of the colony, and with whom none of the minor gentry at- tempted to vie. As it was, therefore, the Littlepages held a very respectable position between the higher class of the yeomanry and those who, by their estates, education, connections, official rank, and hereditary consideration. formed what might be justly called the aristocracy of the colony. . Then the military serv- ices of the family stood us in for a great deal. In that day it was some- 1:46₦ thing to be an en- sign even in the mil- itia, and a far great- er thing to have the same rank in a regu- lar regiment." Such English families VAN CORTLANDT MANOR HOUSE. constantly inter- married with the Dutch people of the same condition, in all these classes of society, so that the two nationalities became thoroughly amalgamated.
Yet these rural quietndes even then could be disturbed by partisan agitations in the colonial capital nearby. We have told the story of the Zenger trial in our previous volume. In that connection, too, we learned how the unworthy Cosby, Governor of New York, deposed Lewis Morris as Chief Justice of the Province, and appointed James De Lancey to the position. This placed these eminent men at the head of parties bitterly opposed to each other: the popular party and the court, or governor's party, which had arisen even before the enlmina- tion of the trial, forced by the officials because the popular party had expressed itself very freely in the pages of Zenger's Journal about the conduct of the government. The same paper, in one of its earliest issues, contained a very full account of some exciting experi- ences attending the election for member of the Assembly in West-
501
HISTORY OF THE GREATER NEW YORK.
chester, where, as has been mentioned, both men had seats. Lewis Morris, now retired from his high office, presented himself as a candi- date; the De Lancey party put forward one William Forster, who had risen to competence and importance, after laboring for a while at teaching school. There were grave apprehensions and good grounds for believing that the court party would exercise frand, as they were entirely capable of it, and the machinery of the election was under the control of Cosby's creatures. The polling was to take place at East Chester, and fifty watchers were on the lookout for a surprise or other tactics all the night before election. At daylight and after electors rode in on horseback from every direction, till fully three hundred partisans of Morris had collected. They then rode to the polling place, two mounted trumpeters and two violins at the head of the procession, followed by four freeholders carrying a banner in- scribed with the words " King George " in golden letters on one side, and " Liberty and Law " on the other. Behind these rode the candi- date, the venerable Lewis Morris, past sixty years, but hale and hearty. Two " colors " were borne in his immediate rear, and then followed the rest of the cavalcade: They rode around the common or green at East Chester three times. About eleven o'clock the court's party candidate arrived, also attended by a large number on horse- back. He was Justice of the Common Pleas, and men said he had paid a hundred pistoles for the office. He was supported by the im- pressive presence of James De Lancey and Frederick Philipse. the Councilor; yet their followers numbered only one hundred and sev- enty. They in their turn rode around the village green, and as they passed each other De Lancey and Morris gravely bowed. At noon the Sheriff appeared, the housing and trappings of his horse of scarlet richly laced with silver. Ere long the polling began, voting being ritu roce in those days. It soon was manifest that Morris was in the lead, which was not at all to the Sheriff's liking. To neutralize or break the vote, he undertook to challenge those of the Qnakers, be- cause they refused to be sworn. In England they would have been allowed to vote on their affirmation, but here the conrt party managed to detract their thirty-seven votes from Morris. The trick, however, availed nothing, and the ex-Chief Justice was elected member of As- sembly by a large majority.
The Revolution came and swept disorder and discord throughout all this region. It could not but be that families thus constituted should divide. The Morrises were devoted to the patriot side, yet even Gonverneur Morris was very conservative at the first. The De Lan- ceys, especially Oliver de Lancey, as we have seen more than once. were virulently loyal. The Philipses, too, as has appeared in the case of Mrs. Beverly Robinson and Mary Philipse, Washington's supposed flame, Mrs. Roger Morris later, were loyal to the last, and entered into exile rather than endure the new state of affairs. In other fam-
502
HISTORY OF THE GREATER NEW YORK.
ilies there were often divisions of sentiment between members of the same household. Cooper, in his " Spy," drew incidents and scenes mainly from this region, and he himself was familiar with it by his residence at Mamaroneck. In the opening chapter the author says: " The county of Westchester, after the British had obtained posses- sion of the island of New York, became common ground in which both parties continued to act for the remainder of the War of the Revolution. A large proportion of its inhabitants, either restrained by their attachments or influenced by their fears, affected a neutrality which they did not feel. The lower towns were, of course, more par- ticularly under the dominion of the crown. . Great numbers, however, wore masks, which even to this day have not been thrown aside; and many an individual has gone down to the tomb stigmatized as a foe, while in secret he was the useful agent of the leaders of the Revolution: and flaming patriots had royal protections concealed un- der British gold." This gave Westchester a peculiarly sinister char- acter during the Revolution. Being " neutral ground " between the outposts of both armies, and subject to predatory expeditions from either side, this lawless state encouraged raids still more lawless than those imposed upon an army by the necessity of foraging. West- chester, therefore, became the home of the "Cowboys " or " Skin- ners," who robbed patriot and loyalist with fine impartiality, and would not stick at a murder or two in the course of an expedition. This was the state into which the region of The Bronx fell, after the British occupation of New York, or Manhattan Island, was assured. We have already noticed in the proper place special occurrences con- nected with the retirement of the American troops and the establish- ment of the British: the bold action on Montressor (now Randall's) Island; the exploit of Aaron Burr at De Lancey's seat near West Farms: the march of the British along the east bank of the Bronx River, and that of Washington on its west bank, toward White Plains; the raid at Kingsbridge, similar to Harry Lee's at Paulus Hook, and at about the same time. The prominent headland at Spuy- ten Duyvil received attention in the way of fortifications and a bat- tery: but these fell into the hands of the British.
As we approach our own days little remains to be said in addition to the rapid outline already given in the previous volume. The de- velopment of the numerous neighborhoods was similar, little differen- tiated from the growth of the other portions of the community more minutely detailed, and therefore not especially historic after we have gained a view of the dim days of original settlement and the more exciting days of the Revolution. Farms were cultivated, country- seats of the wealthy dotted the romantic shores of the Hudson and the Sound, older manors were divided up among multiplying heirs, or the suddenly nouveau riche, who could pay well for smaller portions. And thus things were in fine rural state when the city cast its arms
503
HISTORY OF THE GREATER NEW YORK.
about the several neighborhoods and came in with a new element of development. We have already glanced at some of these partienlar sections of the Bronx Borough. We have looked more than once at Kingsbridge, in the course of our narrative. Here was the earliest connection of Manhattan Island with the main, first by way of a ferry kept by a Johannes Verveelen, of whose high charges the Laba- dists complained in 1679; later (1693) by means of a bridge, built by Frederick Philipse at his own cost, in consideration of which he was allowed to charge a toll, and thus founding another source of revenue. This humble structure was the only one for a century and a half or more that afforded a passage to the North and East from New York. In 1756, as we saw, Washing- ton was fain to cross here to go to Boston; in 1824 Lafay- ette was escorted to this point on the same journey. We know what has been done since in the matter of bridg- ing the Harlem River: how that little wooden bridge of a few feet in length has been succeeded by a series of splen- did triumphs of mechanical and engineering skill. which now unite the two boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. aud span the widely separated heights of the ravine through which flows the Harlem. We need not tell again of the im- provements undertaken all along the course of the Har- lem, placing its shallow mud- Levis Morris banks upon convenient docks and wharves.
Fordham in the ancient days did not occupy a position aloft on the hills. It was a hamlet of scarce a dozen houses down by the river's edge on the east bank of the Harlem, just about where you hear the brakeman on the New York and Northern Railroad call out " Kings- bridge." The settlement dates its history from the arrival here of John Archer, or rather Jean Arcer, in the year 1671. The manor, as it was known and delineated later, stretched well over to the Bronx River. The name is not at all French, though so many Huguenots found a peaceful home here. Before either Verveelen's ferry or Phil- ipse's bridge, there was what was called a " wading place " near this spot: it was possible to ford the river or creek at low tide, and the
504
HISTORY OF THE GREATER NEW YORK.
hamlet on the bank opposite Manhattan naturally became known as the " hamlet by the ford," or Fordham. When the people ceased to cross here in the primitive way, settlement was diverted from the river side, and started up and over the hills.
At Fordham we have looked upon that most interesting and pa- thetie object, the little hut, the poverty-stricken home of one of our greatest, but our most unhappy, poets. Poe's Cottage will be pre- served in spite of the demand for a wider thoroughfare where the old King's Highway was content to wind throngh Fordham. You go up from the station to the left, a pretty steep climb and a pretty round curve. Then, where two roads meet near the top of the ascent, you take the right branching sharply off at almost a right angle, and do some more toilsome climbing, when, after passing some modern cottages, yon see almost in their front yard the pitiable ob- jeet of your pilgrimage. Let us not hasten away from it so quickly as we were compelled to do in a former chapter. One look into that cottage on a certain cold wintry day in 1847 will tell of the misery and penury borne there by sensitive souls. A woman tells the story of what was suffered there. Mrs. Poe's name was Virginia Clemm, and she was then in almost the last throes of consump- tion. " I saw her (Virginia) in her bedchamber. Everything was so neat, so purely clean, so scant, and poverty-stricken. There was no clothing on the bed, which was only straw, but had a snow- white connterpane and sheets. The weather was cold, and the sick lady had the dreadful chills that accompanied the hectic fever of con- sumption. She lay on the straw bed, wrapped in her husband's great coat, with a large tortoise-shell cat in her bosom. The wonderful cat seemed conscious of her great usefulness. The coat and the cat were the sufferer's only means of warmth, except as her husband held her hands and her mother her feet. As soon as I was made aware of these painful facts, I came to New York and enlisted the sympa- thies and services of a lady whose heart and hand were ever open to the poor and miserable. A feather bed and abundance of bedclothing and other comforts were the first fruits of my labor of love. The lady headed a private subscription, and carried them sixty dollars the next week. From the first day this kind lady saw the suffering family of the poet, she watched over them as a mother watches over her babe. She saw them often and ministered to the comfort of the dying and the living." This lady was Mrs. Marie Louise Shew (later Houghton). To her Poe addressed a letter, which it is impossible to read with dry eyes. It was dated Fordham, January 29, 1847, and has been pre- served in facsimile. He writes: "Kindest, dearest friend: My poor Virginia still lives, although failing fast and now suffering much pain. May God grant her life until she sees you and thanks you once again! Her bosom is full to overflowing-like my own-with a boundless, inexpressible gratitude to you. Lest she may never see you more, she
505
HISTORY OF THE GREATER NEW YORK.
bids me say that she sends you her sweetest kiss of love, and will die blessing you. But, come-oh! come to-morrow! Yes, I will be calm- everything you so nobly wish to see me. My mother sends you, also, her warmest love and thanks; she begs me to ask you, if possible, to make arrangements at home so that you may stay with us to-morrow night. I inclose the order to the Postmaster. Heaven bless you and farewell, Edgar A. Poe." Not long after the delicate, wasted frame of Virginia Poe was carried from the humble home to its last resting place. The family of the Valentines, still prominent in the social and church circles of Fordham, kindly permitted her to be buried in their own vault.
Quite other scenes-the practical instead of the pathetically senti- mental-have met us as we observed Mott Haven in a previous chap- ter. Ilere we saw the hands of a clattering industry convert the quiet corner of an ancient Patroonship into a hive of busy workers. Huge factories began to pour forth their smoke, and liquid iron was molded into various shapes of usefulness, while at the same time was formed a nucleus for human habitations, and a start was made of the conditions of a later city. Morrisania, again, redolent with the memories of the past, rejoicing in sturdy figures of popular leaders and democratic lords of the manor, we have seen changing to the aspects of city life. In 1873 all the sections we have thus rapidly run over again became New York. Increasing facilities of transportation have made them more and more really one with the lower sections of the city on its old island home. As late as 1884 it was still the lumber- ing horsecar, crossing the bridge at Third Avenue, and connecting with the terminal station of the "L" road at One Hundred and Twenty- ninth Street. Now not only do electric trolleys make swift progress to Fordham, West Farms, Port Morris, West Chester, and other places; but the elevated road itself has crossed by a bridge of its own, and carries the passenger far up toward Fordham. The broad four-track bed of the Harlem Railroad, sunk between its granite walls, has a system of rapid transportation for the localities bearing old names along its line. And so the spaces are filling up, and consolidation is getting realized in building and habitation as well as in the mere act of incorporation.
A word may be said about some of the later annexations. These include West Chester, the town that gave the name to the county. It reminds us, of course, of what is perhaps the oldest town in England, Chester, near Wales. Some of the many Englishmen, Cornell. Throg- morton, Pell, and their companions, must have been from that section. West Chester, the village and the town, glory in one of the oldest Episcopal Church organizations in Greater New York, even ante- dating old Trinity in Manhattan. The parish was formed by act of the Provincial Assembly in September, 1693. The first church was erected in 1700, succeeded by a second edifice in 1790, a third in 1855, and the
-
506
HISTORY OF THE GREATER NEW YORK.
present handsome one in 1879. The first Rector, the Rev. John Bar- tow, began his labors in 1702, and in 1794 the Rev. John Ireland, later so prominent in Brooklyn church affairs, became the incumbent here. A charter to " Saint Peter's Church in the Borough Town of West Chester," was granted by King George III. in 1762. It is not surpris- ing that the good people of Saint Peter's took occasion, in September, 1893, to celebrate their two hundredth anniversary with appropriate emphasis and celat. East Chester is another township and also an- other village, likewise embracing ever so many picturesque settle- ments with distinctiveness enough to deserve designation on the map. We can not lightly pass by Wakefield, however. It is very near the center of the line of utmost northern limits of the greater city, and contains Woodlawn Cemetery, an ornament well deserving of the city's boast. if Greenwood was worthy of a neighboring city's boast. It has an area of nearly four hundred acres, beautifully and expensively laid out by the art of the landscape gardener, assisted by many natural advantages, and has accordingly become a favorite burial place for the very wealthy fam- ilies of New York City. Here have been laid at rest ex-Mayor Have- meyer, and the notable Railroad King, Jay Gould. It is not under denominational supervision in any sense or extent. There are spots here and elsewhere in The Bronx which command a view of the Ilndson and of the Sound, and thus combine to delight the eye with the ravishing vistas that belong to both. The limits of the city, too, have thrown their lines beyond many of the islands in the Sound: Ilunter and Hart and City islands outside the forts, and Riker, the Brothers and such within, utilized, as we know, for the purposes of pleasure, both public and private, as well as for military and sanitary uses. And as we now regard the map of the city in this part of it. it is curious to observe how the southern shore of The Bronx matches the northern of the Queens Borough. Throgg's Neck meets Willett's Point, making with it another " Narrows " at a vital point for the ap- proach to the great city, and now also within its municipal control. as is the other at the south. Old Ferry Point in The Bronx greets Whitestone Point in Queens; while the Bronx River opens into a little bay, harmoniously opposite to Flushing Bay. Again the promon- tory at Port Morris unites with Lawrence (better known in the vicin- ity as Woolsey's) Point to confine the waters of Hell Gate, and form an interior " Narrows " for additional defense, if needed. The rushing waters of Hell Gate, and the broad placid expanses of the beginning of the Sound (sometimes called East River here) used to divide Long Island from the main of Westchester. They do not now so much divide as simply flow their tides between. An intra-mural waterway which, broad as it is, is a mere part of the city, like the canals and basins of the ancient namesake of the city on Manhattan that has now come to be so much more.
507
HISTORY OF THE GREATER NEW YORK.
Among all these innumerable neighborhoods, rustic, retired, sleepy, countrified, a wonderful transformation scene is now working. Whether one chooses one or the other for his study of the situation. the facts revealed will prove to be about the same, and will reward him with their abundant interest and significance. To tell the story of progress we need not speak of this or that church going up here or there; of this or that industry, inviting around it a cluster of wage-
-
-
A SCENE ON THE BRONX RIVER.
earners and dwellings for their comfort: of trolley-car lines extended, or avenues opened. Such details would leave but little impression on the mind as to what really was going on here. and how municipal ex- istence is asserting itself. But a walk through Woodstock, if you can still find it, or through Tremont or Fordham or West Farms or Wakefield, will reveal what city-making actually involves and what it realizes for the communities that have been swept within the cor-
508
HISTORY OF THE GREATER NEW YORK.
porate maw. They still have their names, and local reminiscences. but they are fading away: these, too, as well as their external aspects are slipping into the city that claims them. Yet before all is gone we behold curious contrasts. There are sudden revelations within the city of thecountry as it was, and aggressive assaults of the city-regulation city characteristics-upon the rural districts. Straight lines of enrb- stone duly laid, or blocks of houses prim and stiff, are succeeded in the twinkling of an eye by a charming piece of meadow; some undulating or winding road way deliciously regardless of the measuring tape; a pile of rugged rocks higher than a five-story flat-house, or some coy valley that yawns at your feet. There are houses as utterly void of a coun- try-air as any in the interminable miles of monotonous flats on Ninth Avenue along the Elevated road; and then again houses nestling among trees, and clung to lovingly by vines and honeysnekles, show- ing they were built when rural retirement was still possible, and garden surroundings were more than a dream. Yet has not the city been too inexorable. As was said in onr former volume, the principle of preserving large sections at whatever cost for parks was carried to a commendable execution in the new portions of the city even be- fore consolidation as it now is. Thus the beauties of the Bronx River have not been sacrificed and will never be lost. Poets may still wan- der upon its banks and celebrate its merits as they have done before. The glades and lakes and forest vistas above Kingsbridge will always retain their pristine charm, as when the unpronounceable Indian chief roamed and hunted there, and sold his land as often as he could. The advantages which nature bestowed upon the territory of the greater city will therefore have a practical remembrancer in these parks, to delight the people's eyes, to educate their taste, to minister to refined pleasure, and promote their health. And both in this par- ticular, which is the preservation of the country, and in the other particular, which is the destruction of the country, The Bronx presents an instructive picture, an object lesson, for all the other outside boroughs. This is what will go on in the others-in the open country of Queens, even in parts of Brooklyn, in the interior of Richmond or Staten Island. And thus the promise and the potency of the con- solidation of all these boroughs into one great city will at last have its fulfillment-and perhaps sooner than even the activities here wit- nessed warrant us to believe.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.