USA > New York > New York County > Harlem > Revised History of Harlem (City of New York): Its Origin and Early Annals. : Prefaced by Home Scenes in the Fatherlands; Or Notices of Its Founders Before Emigration. Also, Sketches of Numerous Families, and the Recovered History of the Land-titles > Part 19
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 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93
Such an ordinance was a necessity. The history of settlement on these Flats, up to this record, presented but a series of adver- sities, and it was time to arrest these single-handed attempts to plant bouweries, costing as they had so many valuable lives. Need we recount the gloomy roll of the dead ?- De Forest, the pioneer, the respected Van Rossum, the excellent Beeck and Kuyter, the industrious and worthy Teunissen and Swits! Governor Roden- burg, one of Kuyter's partners, also died about this time. Claessen of Hoorn's Hook. after his visit to Holland for redress of personal grievances charged upon Kieft and Stuyvesant, returned no more to his plantation. Willem Bont and Matthys Jansen had gone to Fort Orange, as also Dr. Montagne, who with exhausted means
* Tobias Teunissen, with no such culture as shone forth in Kuyter, yet possessed measurably those sterling qualities needed to battle manfully with adversities, and he deserves honorable mention among those pioneer settlers by whose toils and sacrifices the way was paved for the ultimate success of the settlement. His widow married Thomas Verdon, of Brooklyn, where both joined the church in 1661. Her son, Teunis Tobias, born in 1651, was living in 1692, on his farm at Gowanus ( Deeds. Brooklyn, vol. i, 313), but search and inquiry fail to trace him farther. Perhaps his descendants compose the Tobias family, found trom an early date in the states of New Jersey and New York.
i
1
Hondrich De Förogi
[June 7, 1636)
tacotrisvan Puntiry
C
La montagne:
Jackimpingty
Caash de Forças
Will: Ber Quand
Commesios Csapói Reiro
166
HISTORY OF HARLEM.
and no prospect of any returns from his wasted bouwery, had glad- ly accepted the honorable position of vice-director at that place .*
Bereft of inhabitants and desolated by firebrand and toma- hawk; the current rumors of Indian threats which still agitated the public mind; the prohibition against isolated settlements ; and the complications arising in regard to the interests and estates of the persons slain in the late massacre; were so many barriers in the way of any immediate effort to rescue these fertile plains and primeval forests from the wilderness of nature.
* Sibout Claessen, first proprietor of Hoorn's Hook, showed strength of character by his resolute stand against the assumptions of Stuyvesant. It accords with the belief that his parents were Friesans,-most stalwart and strong-minded of Nether- landers,- and had removed to Hoorn before his birth; for Sibout was no doubt cousin-german to Harck Siboutsen, from Langedyk, on the river Kuinre, in the district of Zevenwolden, or Seven Forests. See "Cronkhite Family," Annals of Newtown, p. 316. Claessen married, in 1645, Susannah, daughter of Tan Van Schunen- burgh and widow of Aert Teunisz Van Putten, before noticed. After returning from Holland he lived in New York till his death, in 1680. He left 1,000 guilders, wampum value, to the Dutch church, of which he and wife were members, and his remaining estate on the decease of his wife to - her daughters by Teunissen, viz., Wyntie, wife of Simon Barentsen, and Susannah, wife of Reynier Willemsen.
CHAPTER XI.
1656-1660.
NEW HAERLEM FOUNDED; ITS COURT AND CHURCH.
AN interesting period in our history is that which gave origin to the village of Harlem. This inviting section of Manhattan was to be peopled and cultivated; but by some new and more efficient mode than that already tried, fruitful only in unrequited labor, the waste of property, and the loss of precious lives. It could only be done by the direct aid of government. The farm owners were nearly all dead; their estates insolvent. La Montagne and Swits, having had large advances from the public stores to supply the wants of their families, were deeply indebted to the company: Swits in the sum of seven hundred guilders, to satisfy which, with "other debts," he left nothing but his ruined bouwery. Dr. La Montagne, as early as 1652, was reputed to be owing the company "several thousand guilders." As Vice-Direc- tor, his salary of six hundred florins, with an extra allowance for board of two hundred florins per annum (increased in 1659 to three hundred), proving inadequate to his support, things had gone from bad to worse, and were fast tending to that crisis in his affairs which, in 1662, wrung from him the touching admission to Stuyvesant, that he had not the means of providing bread for his family, and being sixty-eight years of age, was reduced to penury and want.
The Kuyter heirs were in no better case, and "divers persons interested in the estate" began to clamor for its settlement. Pro- ceedings to this end were begun soon after Mrs. Kuyter's death ; when, on a petition from Gov. Stuyvesant, "relative to certain share belonging to him," the burgomasters ordered "that an in- ventory be taken of the lands, houses, and other effects of the deceased Jochem Pietersen Kuyter, and of his widow, she having remarried, and being now dead; so that his Honor, as well as the other private creditors, may obtain justice." Next came a claim, preferred against one of Mrs. Kuyter's sureties by Cornelis De
168
HISTORY OF HARLEM.
Potter, for a balance due him, which was to have been paid in grain from the farm; but the court rejected the demand, upon the ground that "the grain had been destroyed in the troubles with the Indians," and De Potter had covenanted not to hold the bail re- sponsible for any default arising from such losses.
Two years passed, when the plans having matured for closing up the estate of "Jochem Pietersen Kuyter and Leentie Martens, his wife, killed by the Indians," their city residence on the Heere Graft was put up at public sale by the administrators, January 12th, 1658, and struck off to one of the schepens, Hendrick Jansen Vander Vin, later a resident of Harlem, to whom, on February 14th, the burgomasters gave a deed.
As to the Zegendal lands and others adjacent, the Director and Council, with a just regard for all the interests involved, both of a public and private nature, resolved upon forming a village there, by laying out suitable building and farming lots, to be sold to settlers at a fixed price per morgen, and to apply the moneys so derived for the benefit of the late proprietors, their heirs or creditors. The Van Keulen tract, besides the Kuyter lands, was to be disposed of, with the Swits bouwery lying between them : and the cleared portion of the latter was fixed upon as the village site.# As Stuyvesant owned a fourth part of the Kuyter tract.
* Cornelis Claessen Swits, whose history, with that of his father's, as before related, challenges romance, had 10 children, of whom reached maturity only Claes, born 1640; Isaac, born 1642; Jacob, born 1645; Apollonia, born 1648, and Cornelis. born 1651. His widow had one or more children by her second hushand, Albert Leenderts. Apollonia Swits married Jan Thomasz Aken, and their daughter married Vincent Delamontagne. Claes Swits was accidentally killed at Albany iu 1663. Cor- nelis joined the church at Kingston, Ulster County, in 1678, was afterward an elder. and died 1734, in the town of Rochester, leaving only his widow, Jannetie, daughter of Tjerck De Witt.
Isaac Cornelissen Swits, the only son, as far as is known, who left descendants. was familiarly called "Kleyn Isaac," or Little Isaac. He settled at Schenectady, where his posterity have been among the most respectable residents. By his wife Susanna, daughter of Simon Groot. he had eight children, of whom need be named only Cornelius. Simon and Jacob: all of whom left descendants. At the sack of Schenectady by the French and Indians, February 8, 1690, Isaac, for the second time became a captive, he and his eldest son Cornelius, aged about 12 years, being taken with other prisoners to Canada; but after five months' captivity Isaac escaped. reaching Albany July 9, and was soon followed by his son. Governor Leisler shortly after gave Swits a commission as lieutenant of militia. While he was in Canada a fort was built in his lot in Schenectady, in lieu of which he was granted 1,000 acres along the east side of the Mohawk, for which he also got a deed from the Indians .August 16. 1707. He survived this only about a month, but this purchase was con- firmed to his son Cornelius, as his heir at law. by patent of April 14, 1708. Cornelius in 1702. married Hester Fisher, and lived in Albany. Simon married Gesina Beek- man, in 1711, and resided in Schenectady. The other brother, Jacob Swits, of Schenectady, born 1695, married. 1719, Helena De witt, of Esospus, by. whom he had issue: Isaac, horn 1720; Andries, 1723; Susanna, 1726; Jannetie, 1727: Abra- ham, 1730; Cornelius, 1733. and Maria, 1737. . Abraham, known as Major Swits, at eighteen years, distinguished himself for his courage on the day of the Bockendal battle, when the Indians killed 12 of the best men of Schenectady. In the Revolu- tionary war he held a commission as "First Major of the Regiment of Militia. of which Abraham Wemple is Colonel," dated June 20, 1778. Two of his sons bore arms in that struggle, viz., Walter and Jacob. the latter afterward Major General of the state militia. After the war Major Swits resided in a brick house on the north corner of Maiden Lane and State Street. In this house was born his grand- son, the late F. N. Clute, of Herkimer, who always spoke with interest of his grand- father Swits. Major Swits died August 17, 1814, having had thirteen children, nine
.
169
HISTORY OF HARLEM.
he reserved his share, probably to avoid unpleasant complications ; so that only 150 morgen of this tract were to be laid out into lots. These lands being deemed ample for the wants of the proposed village for some time to come, the Vredendal or Montagne farm was not as yet included ; in fact, it was held that "it could not be thence conveniently cultivated, being over a kill."
The government had another important object in view besides that of obtaining its dues, or promoting the settlement of this district. This was to enhance the safety of the city of New Am- sterdam, as would naturally result from planting a strong village, with a garrison, on this frontier end of the island. But in carry- ing out this design, as already hinted, neither the honest efforts of the late owners to comply with the terms of their grants by improving their lands, neither their misfortunes and heavy losses, were lost sight of. True, these lands had been granted subject to the imperative condition that the soil should be brought under til- lage. By such means were the resources of the country to be developed, its growth promoted. Not to comply with this con- dition was ordinarily to forfeit the grant, even though a patent had issued; in which case the government felt warranted, and usually did not hesitate, to reclaim the land and give it to others as it pleased. But as manifest injustice would result from apply- ing the above rule of forfeiture to the specific cases under consid- eration, where the unfortunate proprietors had done what they could and had failed through no fault of their own, it behooved the government, in whatever action it might take touching these lands, to have a proper regard for the interests of the said pro- prietors, while exercising the usual prerogative of the civil power, the right of eminent domain, or that of judging how far private interests and convenience must yield to the public necessities ; and, under the Dutch rule. it had always been held "that a private farm or plantation ought never to be prejudicial to a village." How far this measure was agreed to by the parties interested, does not appear : but it certainly commended itself as the readiest way to make these otherwise useless lands yield them some returns, whereby to relieve their indebtedness to the government and others. It was this injunction of circumstances that called forth the following ordinance :
The Director-General and Council of New Netherland hereby give by his last wife, Margaret, daughter of John Delamont, whom he married November 22, 1760. Their son Jacob, born November 3, 1762, was father of the late Rev. Abraham J. Swits, of Schenectady, and their daughter. Susanna, born June 12, 1766, became wife of Nicholas F. Clute, and mother of Mr. Frederick N. Clute aforesaid, who was born at Schenectady, March 12, 1797, and died December 15, 1879. See Pearson's Schenectady Settlers.
170
HISTORY OF HARLEM.
notice, that for the further promotion of agriculture, for the security of this Island and the cattle pasturing thereon, as well as for the further relief and expansion of this City Amsterdam, in New Netherland, they have resolved to form a new Village or Settlement at the end of the Island, and about the land of Jochem Pietersen, deceased, and those which are adjoining it. In order that the lovers of agriculture may be encouraged thereto, the proposed new Village aforesaid is favored by the Director- General and Council with the following Privileges.
First: Each of the inhabitants thereof shall receive by lot in full own- ership, 18, 20 to 24 morgen of arable Land; 6 to 8 morgen of Meadow; and be exempt from Tenths for fifteen years commencing next May; on condition that he pay within the course of three years, in instalments, Eight guilders for each morgen of tillable land for the behoof of the interested, or their creditors, who are now or formerly were driven from the aforesaid Lands, and have suffered great loss thereon.
Secondly: In order to prevent similar damage from calamities or expulsion, the Director-General and Council promise the Inhabitants of the aforesaid Village to protect and maintain them with all their power, and, when notified and required to assist them with 12 to 15 Soldiers on the monthly pay of the Company, the Village providing quarters and rations; This whenever the Inhabitants may petition therefor.
Thirdly: When the aforesaid Village has 20 to 25 Families, the Director-General and Council will favor it with an Inferior Court of Justice; and for that purpose, a double number is to be nominated out of the most discreet and proper persons, for the first time by the Inhabitants, and afterward by the Magistrates thereof, and presented annually to the Director-General and Council, to elect a single number therefrom.
Fourthly : The Director-General and Council promise to employ all possible means that the Inhabitants of the aforesaid Village, when it has the above-mentioned number of Families, will be accommodated with a good, pious, orthodox Minister, toward whose maintenance the Director- General and Council promise to pay half the Salary, the other half to be supplied by the Inhabitants in the best and easiest manner, with the advice of the Magistrates of the aforesaid Village, at the most convenient time.
Fifthly: The Director-General and Council will assist the Inhabi- tants of the aforesaid Village, whenever it will best suit their convenience, to construct, with the Company's Negroes, a good wagon road from this place to the village aforesaid, so that people can travel hither and thither on horseback and with a wagon.
Sixthly: In order that the advancement of the aforesaid Village may be the sooner and better promoted, the Director-General and Council have resolved and determined not to establish, or allow to be established, any new villages or settlements, before and until the aforesaid Village be brought into existence; certainly not until the aforesaid number of Inhabitants is completed.
Seventhly: For the better and greater promotion of neighborly cor- respondence with the English of the North, the Director-General and Council will at a more convenient time authorize a Ferry and a suitable Scow near the aforesaid Village. in order to convey over Cattle and Horses; and will favor the aforesaid Village with a Cattle and Horse Market.
Eighthly: Whoever are inclined to settle themselves there or to take up Bouweries by their servants, shall be bound to enter their names at once. or within a short time, at the office of the Secretary of the Director- General and Council, and to begin immediately with others to place on
* The words in the original are, "tot meerder recreatie en uytspanninge van dese Steede .Amsterdam," etc.
-
171
HISTORY OF HARLEM.
the land one able-bodied person, provided with proper arms, or in default thereof, to be deprived of his right.
Thus done in the meeting of the Director and Council, held in Fort Amsterdam, in New Netherland, on the 4th of March, Aº 1658
The number of applicants for the land being sufficient to war- rant a beginning, ground was broken for the new settlement August 14th ensuing; between which date and September 10th was completed the preliminary work of surveying and staking out the lands and village plots, etc. Hilarity and good cheer marked the occasion, for one of those present was Johan Vervee- len, not till five years later a resident, but who acted as tapster, regaling the company with generous potions of his New Amster- dam beer.
The village was laid out adjoining the Great Kill or Harlem River, taking for the principal street what had apparently been used before as a road by the ill-fated Swits and others, or at least an Indian trail. Touching the river (about 125th Street) just north of a small cove, where a ferry to Bronckside, or Morris- ania, was soon established, it lay "about east and west," con- tinuing beyond the village, on much the same course, till it reached the north branch of Montagne's Kill. A second street, north of the former (distant at the river end fifteen Dutch rods), was laid out in the same direction, as far as found necessary. Being broader than the other, it was called the "Great Way," but since that day has been better known as the Church Lane, with its old homesteads and rows of stately elms; of all which, however, there now remains scarce a trace, save upon the maps. Between these two streets were located the erven, or house lots, lying in two ranges, a central line dividing those facing one street from those facing the other, as in modern fashion; but the lots were nearly square, and measured about ninety- three English feet in depth, with a frontage somewhat less ; while cross-streets formed these into blocks containing four lots each. It should be said that the erven toward the west end exceeded considerably the depth stated, owing to the fact that the two main streets did not preserve their parallel, the south- ern, at a point between the second and third cross-streets, sud- denly diverging about eight degrees from a direct line. Larger plots laid out on the north side of the Great Way, though some were subsequently built upon, were designed only as tuynen, or gardens, one for each of the erven. They were described as five by twenty Dutch rods, or one-sixth of a morgen, but were meted out by liberal measure (the case also with the erven), and
172
HISTORY OF HARLEM.
being soon extended in the rear and otherwise enlarged. came to be reduced to half the original number, and to contain one morgen or two acres .*
To each erf, or house lot, was laid out upon Jochem Pieter's Flat a lot of bouwlant, or farming land. These were simply staked off and numbered, the lots running from the river into the woods westerly; No. I lying against the rear of the tuynen, at the south end of the range, and No. 25 at the north end. These lots were laid out for six morgen, but were soon after en- larged a little and the number reduced, as we shall see. These twenty-five lots were the only farming lands taken up at first. In form like all those subsequently laid out for the same pur- pose, they were made narrow and long, and butted either on the river or creeks,-a favorite mode of dividing up land, borrowed from Holland, but here having its peculiar advantages. The farmers liked this water privilege, as they were long in the habit of removing their produce from the field to their barns in the
* The Church Lane, like a faded picture almost reft of power to recall the lovely reality, still lives, with its air of rural repose, in the memories of a few who. in their juvenile days trod its grassy paths to the old Dutch church, which stood near the Harlem River, on the south side of the Lane, in a corner of the old cemetery removed in 1868. Extending from the river, where on its north side stood the Judah house, on its south the Benson house, this ancient road, cutting the modern blocks diagonally, struck Third Avenue at 121st Street, then crossing where was since the Park to Sylvan Place and 120th Street, turned southward just beyond that point and joined the original Harlem and New York road, or continuation of the lower village street, which in early times extended west to the little Mill Creek (north branch of Montagne's Kill) and across to Harlem Lane, now Avenue St. Nicholas.
The church, the second which had occupied that spot, was taken down in 1825. a new one being built on the present site, then part of the Church Farm. The old vane, bearing the date 1788, when the former house was erected, was taken care of and may still be seen on Judge Ingraham's barn, in Second Avenue. See note on The Reformed Church. The Benson house, aforesaid. yet in good repair, standing cornerwise to the upper side of 125th Street, late occupied by Mr. J. K. Cowperthwait. but early in this century the home of Lawrence Benson, then or Capt. Bailey, and later of Judge Morrell, marks the situation of a much more ancient house,-that of the original settler, David Demarest. The Judah house, which stood opposite, on the north side of the Lane, was deserted long before it was pulled down in 1867, but had been a tasteful structure for the times, and was owned prior to the Revolution by Peter R. Livingston. Kept as a tavern just after the war for some years by the noted patriot, of whalebone fame. Capt. William Marriner, who also ran the ferry to Morrisania, it was also known as the Ferry House. It was bought in 1822 by Mr. John Moore, and became his residence. Both the above were originally stone houses, of one story. but had been raised to two. Before the present century, the erven, or ancient village house lots (on one of which is the Benson house; the church and graveyard having occupied two others), had nearly all lost their buildings, and become pasture-lots, or been thrown into the adjoining fields,. by closing up the lower street before named. the river end only being kept open; while the tuynen, or one morgen lots, on the north side of the Church Lane, being joined two or more in a plot, and built upon, had come to form the best part of the village, the homes a century ago of the Bussing, Waldron, Livingston, and Myer families, succeeded later by those of Sickels, Chesterman. Brady, etc. The Myer house, of stone, one story and very old, was removed by Judge Ingraham when 125th street was opened, on which it stood. The Brady house, a frame building, erected by John Livingston some years before the Revolution, was torn down in 1863. The stately frame house with heavy columns, yet standing at Second avenue and 124th street. was built by the late James Chesterman. in 1821, on the side of the old stone Waldron house. The old Bussing house occu- pying the plot next the Church Farm, was destroyed in the Revolution, and on the same spot after the war John S. Sickles built the house still standing on 123d street, north side. just west of Second avenue, it having been turned to line with the street. This property descended, in 1804, from Sickles to his grandson, John S. Adriance, who sold it, June 7th, 1820, to Christopher Heiser.
I
173
HISTORY OF HARLEM.
.
village by means of canoes and scows, until suitable roads were made. Again, the laborers had less fear of the Indians, when working near each other, in a common field ( for it was a full half century before they built division fences) as, always having their guns with them, there was a better chance, if attacked, to unite in defending themselves. And tradition adds that they used the ingenious precaution of planting each particular crop in a continuous row across their several lots, that the workers need not be very far apart while engaged in cultivating or har- vesting their crops.
Salt hay was thought indispensable for the cattle; hence a small parcel of marsh or meadow, usually about three morgen, was set off to each lot of bouwland. That all might be sup- plied, these had to be taken wherever found,-on Little Barent's and Stony Islands; on the other side of Harlem River; about Spuyten Duyvel, and in the Great Meadow, upon Sherman's Creek. The meadows in the Bay of Hellgate were reserved to the church, to be used or rented for its benefit, with the bouw- land in the village, set apart to the same use.
With its first advent into life and activity, the infant settle- ment received its name, fitly taken from a famous old city of North Holland. It was called Nieuw Haerlem; conferred, no doubt, by Stuyvesant, who seems always to have exercised that right, though usually a formal request coming from the people gave it the look of a courtesy paid to their chief ruler. Its selec- tion was such as could neither flatter any one settler, nor excite the jealousy of others, as none of them were from Haerlem. Perhaps the semblance in the two localities first suggested it. New Haerlem and New Amsterdam, like the two great cities after which they were named, lay apart "about three hours'. jour- ney ;" or so thought two observing tourists of that century. Old Haerlem. watered on its eastern side by the gentle Sparen, and girt about landwise by groves "of shadowy elms," for beauty and extent unrivaled in Holland. where are few forests, might well have dictated a name for a situation so similar. But more suggestive was its history. To the Hollander the word. Haerlem was the synonym for all that was virtuous and heroic. During the memorable siege sustained by that fated town, when for seven long months the choicest troops in the Spanish army were foiled by the intrepidity of its citizens, women vieing with the men in bearing arms, was displayed a patriotism worthy the loftiest flights of the poetic muse. And though Haerlem fell, there went up from the merciless slaughter of its brave but van-
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.