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 48
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* The 250 acres included the late Myer homestead, in the angle formed by the forking of the road from Kingsbridge, together with the Isaac Day plot 11% acres, the William Molenaor 17 acres, the Lawrence or Wagstaff 28 acres, the Samson A. Benson or Race Course farm, Mount Morris Park, Elizabeth Benson 25 acres and Samson Benson 45 acre tract. (See notices of Myer and Benson families, and App. J., Ist Division.)'
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HISTORY OF HARLEM.
their language and church service, intuitively they sought out the place and society where these advantages could be best se- cured and enjoyed. A few of the wealthier families remained here, as the Tourneurs, Montanyes, Delamaters, and De Voes, held either by property ties, or intermarriage with the Hollanders, to whom by degrees they became assimilated.
The court proceedings are curious and quite enjoyable, as ex- hibiting the prevailing causes of dispute between neighbors, the usual grounds of legal action, and the court customs and juris- prudence of the times. Not less valuable are the court records as an index of the public morals. Cases of trespass, slander, and breach of the peace were indeed too common, but flagrant crime was almost unknown. Not a single manslaughter, or action for divorce, or bastardy, or a clear case of petty larceny, is reported for the entire half-century under review. The case of arson by a slave, as before noticed, and the beating to death of a negro child in June of this year (1687), are not to be cited as against the general devotion to law and order, which indeed was shown in both these cases by a prompt report to the mayor, and in the last case, an inquest ; though no particulars are given, not even the name of the party implicated. The doings at town meetings also prove beyond question the capacity of this early community for self-government, and for handling the perplexing questions which came up from time to time. No superior ability is shown in the advanced periods of the town's history.
Did not the scope of this volume limit it to the "origin and early annals" of the town, it would be easy to find in the varied exigencies of succeeding times much food for sober thought. The Leislerian troubles ; how deeply they affected some Harlem families! The arbitrary suspension of the local court for eight long years after the colonial government was settled in 1691 ; what embarrassment it caused, till it was finally restored after long soliciting the General Assembly! Unswerving friends of the Dutch Church, with what alarm they beheld the efforts of Col. Morris and others to introduce the English service, through the ministrations of Rev. Henricus Beys! And then grave questions and difficulties attended the distributions of the common lands. Coercive measures taken by the King's Receiver-General, in 1713, to levy quit rents not justly chargeable, subjected six of the prin- cipal inhabitants to legal prosecution in the Court of Chancery. Other questions which arose respecting their lands could only be settled by a reference to the Supreme Court. And the Pipon- Gouverneur imbroglio, and questions growing out of it, kept the
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HISTORY OF HARLEM.
whole town disquieted till finally ended in 1747. Then came the sad discords and division in the Church between the Cotus and the Conferentie. A desultory warfare with the Corporation of New York, concerning the "Commons," began with the century and ended only the year before the Revolution .* And a volume of itself might be written upon those seven years of unprece- dented trial, under the galling domination of British and Hessian soldiery, before the distressed inhabitants could realize the bless- ings of independence. Aside from these and a few similar pas- sages, their history as a community is meagre during the colonial period proper. The recovery from the ruin of war, and the suc- cessive steps by which a sparsely settled rural district was trans- muted into the teeming city, with its wonderful concomitants of churches, schools, railways, parks, boulevards, etc .- which latter change may be dated from the sale of the Commons in 1825, and the first disposal of some of the farming lands as city lots-forms a history of much and varied interest, but still within the knowl- edge of the living, and easily traced as compared with that of the obscure initial period to which this volume is chiefly devoted.
Not to enlarge, therefore, upon these more modern times (though some of the matters touched upon and others pertain- ing to these periods will claim attention either in the succeeding chapter on the patentees, or in the notes or appendix), the social condition, at and after the period under review, presents some interesting features yet to be noticed. -
The inhabitants, in their ways and mode of living, preserved all the characteristics of Fatherland. Wedded to their plain and primitive habits, the portrait of our early Dutch yeomanry, as others have drawn it, is here true to life, with but slight retouching.
The village seats or scattered farm-houses : let us enter one, bidden welcome by mine host, smoking his evening pipe, in his wonted seat on the porch. An air of hospitality has the prem- ises, even to the old well, with watering-trough beside it, which, placed conveniently before the house, with mossy bucket hung from the primitive well-pole, invites the gentle kine to come freely to water, or the wayfarer to stop and slake his thirst. These houses have begun to be constructed with greater regard to permanence, and even to style, being solidly built of stone, and of more ample dimensions than formerly, though only
. The history of this tract is particularly set forth in the Deduction of the Title to Harlem Commons, forming pages 117 to 175 of a volume prepared by the late Isaac Adriance, and entitled "Conveyances on record in the Register's Office by Dudley Selden, from the 1st January. 1825, to the 1st January, 1838. Printed by Alexander S. Gould, 144 Nassau street. N. Y., 1838." It contains maps of the com- mons, as divided into city lots.
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HISTORY OF HARLEM.
of one full story. The low ceilings, still void of lath and plaster, expose the heavy oak beams as roughly hewn, or, if taste has dictated, planed and beaded. Similar taste sometimes demands wainscoting, either plain or in panels, around the rooms and hall, and up the broad stairway, with its oaken balustrade, leading to sleeping-chambers in the loft. Outer doors, swung upon heavy strap hinges, are invariably divided in halves horizontally, the upper one usually open by day in the warm season, for the admis- sion of air and light. Above it perhaps is a sash, with three or four small panes of thick green glass, blown with a curious knob or swell in the centre. The panes in the windows measure not over seven by nine inches, and are sometimes set in leaden cross- bars, being protected by strong, close shutters, instead of the less secure modern blinds. The fireplace, with usually no jambs (but having supports built into the wall), gives ample room for all around the fire. Thus suspended, as it were, overhead, the chimney mouth opens wide and flaring to catch the fugitive sparks and smoke, and forms a convenient place in which, at the proper season, to hang up hams, sausage, and beef to cure. If the fireplace is built with jambs, these are often faced with glazed earthen tile, imported from Holland, on which are pictured Bible stories and other scenes. These amuse and instruct the juvenile part of the family, who make it a favorite pastime to study out the curious designs. The last of these ornamental fireplaces now recollected was in the Peter Benson stone house, which stood in 109th Street, between 2d and 3d Avenues, and was demolished in 1865.
Plain and substantial were their dwellings, and in perfect accord with the manners and tastes of the occupants, which were simple, unaffected, and economical. Slow and deliberate in what they did, it was made up by patience and application. And no people could have been more independent of the outside world. The farmer burnt his own lime, tanned his own leather, often made all the boots and shoes worn by himself and family, and did much of his own carpenter and wheelwright work. Their help in the heavy farm work was mainly African slaves, who, at this time, numbered as one to four whites.
Primitive were their methods of farming; it was not the era of iron ploughs, horse-rakes, and reapers. The scythe was used in mowing grass. The cradle was then unknown, and instead of which all grain was cut with sickle, or with the sith and hook. The sith had a blade similar to that of the scythe, but only half as long, to which was attached a snath of about
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HISTORY OF HARLEM.
the same length, having at the other end a loop like that of a shovel-handle. The hook was made of a slender wooden stock, three feet long, from the end of which ran out at a right angle a small iron prong about eight inches long. When used the hook was held in the left hand near the middle, where, to prevent its turning, was a socket for the thumb to rest in, the prong being turned from the person. The hook, pressed against the standing grain, served to hold it in place, while it was cut by a swing of the sith, which was held in the other hand. The cut grain was thus left leaning against that still uncut, till the reaper, or his attendant following after him, gathered and bound it into sheaves. Nothing was deemed more important than to cut and lay in a good supply of salt hay, which was then thought indispensable for the healthy subsistence of cattle through the winter. It was for this reason that a piece of salt meadow was regarded as a necessary appendage to every farm, and was not less valuable in view of the early settlers than so much upland.
The children were brought up to those habits of industry which the parents themselves found so profitable. The sons were invariably given a useful trade, and the daughters well taught in all household duties. While the men were engaged in the out-door work of the farm, the women, in short gown and slippers, the common indoor dress, were as busy at their special avocations. The spinning-wheel was brought out and set in motion as soon as wool and flax could be prepared in the fall, and so each family made its own "homespun," as it was termed, both white and colored, to supply its members with clothing; while she was considered but a poor candidate for matrimony who could not show her stores of domestic linens, and other pro- ducts of her maiden industry. The dames, so saving were they of their time, usually took their spinning-wheels on going to spend a social afternoon with a neighbor. Nor were the females unwill- ing to help in the field during the busy season of harvest, or corn- gathering. Side by side with their fathers, brothers, and hus- bands, they vied with them in raking hay or carrying sheaves ; and their presence gave a charm to the merry time of husking. Broom and scrubbing brush, with a periodical whitewashing, frequently tinted yellow or green, kept their apartments cleanly and neat. The carpet, when first introduced, called in derision a dirt-cover, was in those days unknown here. The bare floors, as scrupulously clean as the bare table on which they ate their meals, were regularly scrubbed, then sprinkled with the fine beach sand which was brought to the city by the boat-load, and peddled
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HISTORY OF HARLEM.
in carts through the streets and roads of the island. On clean- ing-day it was spread moistened in little heaps over the floor, the family being taught to tread carefully between them. To disturb these would sadly mar the economy of the good housewife, and maybe provoke some good honest scolding in Dutch. The next day the sand, now dry, was swept in waves, or other figures, by drawing the broom lightly over it. It was in truth but a sample of the general tidiness which ruled the premises.
Living so largely within themselves, they knew little of the dangers and diseases incident to luxury and indolence. Their clothing, bedding, etc., all of their own homespun, most that their table required the farm supplied, to which a mess of clams or fish often gave variety ; but no dish, with the Dutch farmer, could compete with his speck en koole, pork and cabbage.
Their pride was of a kind that was no bar to pleasure, if their only coach was a common wagon, or perchance an ox-cart! Home-made linsey-woolsey gave content equally with the finest imported fabrics, and, says a contemporary, "though their low- roofed houses may seem to shut their doors against pride and luxury, yet how do they stand wide open to let charity in and out, either to assist each other or relieve a stranger." Another bears this testimony: "They are sociable to a degree, their tables being as free to their neighbors as to themselves." And hospitality could not do too much for the guest if welcome; the acme only reached if he tarried for the night, when, soon after sunset, he was snugly ensconced in the best bed, made of softest down, and between homespun linen sheets, from which, if cold, the chill was taken by the indispensable warming-pan! At the same time the idea of warming the church was yet unfledged, nor was this provided for till early in the present century, when a stove was introduced. Before this, each church-going matron took to comfort her her little foot-stove and her Dutch Bible with silver clasps! Intermarriages among the resident families was the rule, and he was thought a bold swain truly who ven- tured beyond the pale of the community to woo a mate. And with the unaffected welcome, a keen-eyed scrutiny also awaited the blushing bride, on her first arrival from the charming vales of Bloomingdale, the hills of Westchester, or rural home at Bergen, Hackensack, or Esopus. When friends gathered socially, or happened to meet, as at the village tavern, conversation run- ning in mellifluous Dutch, turned, as usual with farmers, upon their crops, or on horses or cattle, or modes of farming, unless some special topic intruded. With the good Juffrouws, church
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HISTORY OF HARLEM.
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matters and the dominie's last visit were always in order. Not many survived who could speak from personal recollection of the Fatherlands ; yet we cannot misjudge of the themes on which a few gray heads could still dilate, with all the effect of eye- witnesses or actual participants. Good Joost van Oblinus,-the thrilling incidents of the French invasion of Flanders, his escape with parents to Holland, sojourn at Mannheim, second flight before French invaders, and final adieu to the dear shores of Europe. Mrs. Tourneur, in tender childhood a victim of that cruel war, and driven with others of her family from her native Hesdin, probably on its capture by Louis XIII., in 1639; her's was a tale of trials, of which we have but the veriest outline. And Mrs. Delamater, the daughter of a refugee, depicting her young life at Canterbury, and the humble abode where she was born and reared, whence also, on the quiet Sabbath, she was wont to accompany her parents to the grand old cathedral, and down by a flight of stone steps into the solemn crypt or vault, where the French and Walloons used to meet for divine service, a privilege long before granted them by good Queen Bess. And Frederick De Vaux, or De Voe, who lived to a patriarchal age, and probably was the last survivor of the refugees experimentally familiar with persecution and hair-breadth escapes in fleeing his native land; facts still among the lingering traditions of his family.# Now Bogert and the Jansens grow mellow over the good old times at Schoonrewoert; or the other trio, Meyer, Dyck- man, and Bussing, draw parallels between the soils or productions of Harlem and their native Bentheim, so famed; or again the
. Frederick de Vaux, the ancestor of the De Voe family, has already had a partial
notice. Born on Walloon soil, as records inform us, tradition has handed down some touching particulars of the flight, the pursuit of bloody persecutors, and the escape into Holland. . How long Frederick de Vaux sojourned at Mannheim is un- known, but long enough to obtain citizenship. He emigrated in 1675, bringing a pass- port from the authorities of that place, a copy of which is given on a former page. He was then a widower, but in 1677 he married Esther, daughter of Daniel Tourneur. To the lands in Westchester, since the Cromwell farm, gotten with his wife, he added. as we have seen, the Bickley tract, or De Voe's Point. He also provided his sons. Daniel and Abel, with large farms at Fordham and New Rochelle, Living in his later years among his several children, he died in New Rochelle, in 1743, at the vener- able age of about 90 years, and was buried on the farm of his son Abel. His children were Frederick. Daniel, Joseph, Abel, Rachel, who married Johannes Dyckman; Esther. married Levi Vincent: Susannah, married Andrew Nodine; Mary, married Evert Brown and Joshua Bishop; Leah, married Nathaniel Bailey; Dinah, married Louis Guion and Tobias Concklin; Judith, married Johannes Barhite, and Abigail, who died unmarried. Daniel De Voe settled in Fordham, and Abel in New Rochelle, upon the farms conveyed to them by their father before his death. Joseph removed.to the city of New York, where he died. in 1764, leaving a family. Frederick, the eldest son. succeeded to the paternal estate at De Voe's Point, under a deed of June 13, 1721. and where he died in 1753. He married twice, and had children Frederick (3d of the name), Daniel. David, John, Thomas, Abraham, Abigail, Hester, Sarah. Mary and Leah. This old and respectable family is now widespread and numerous. The brothers. Isaac, Thomas Farrington. James, Moses (of Fordham), John Appleby (deceased), George W., and Frederick W. De Voe, are sons of the late John De Voe, of New York, who died August 29, 1853, aged 68 years, having attained the same age as his father, John De Voe, of Yonkers, or Philips Manor. who died September 24, 1824. being the son of Frederick De Voe, 3d. aforesaid. To the estimable Col. Thomas F. De Voe, of New York, we are indebted for many of these particulars.
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HISTORY OF HARLEM.
well-companioned Waldron and Verveelen live amid former scenes in busy old Amsterdam,-the shop-keeper's son, perchance, garrulous over shrewd bargains in trade, and the "book-printer" of the Teerketels-steeg, once more among his type and forms, and, as of old, throwing off from his new press, which his townsman Blaau, the map-printer, and former assistant to Tycho Brahe, had brought to such perfection, fresh sheets of learned folios, full fifty impressions per hour! But should conversation chance to turn upon some controverted question, either of politics or theology, and the latent fire once kindle, the dispute was sure to run high; for only then their tobacco-pipes lost the power to soothe,-that solace alike of their working and their leisure hours, and by no means confined to the males ; but yet the good dominie set the example !
Large productive farms, and a convenient market for all they had to sell, led to certain wealth, and no thriftier farmers were to be found anywhere. They were proud, too,-of their broad acres, fine stock, lands well tilled and barns well filled! But not the alluring example ever before their eyes could win them to the display and ceremony of city life ; though the latter, simplicity itself as compared with the demands of modern fashion, sets in stronger contrast the style of living, so unpretentious yet rational, which obtained in even the wealthier families, as the Waldrons, Meyers, Bensons, and Bussings. English modes and manners could make but slow advance among a people so tenacious of the Holland tongue, who for half a century later kept their records in Dutch, and their accounts in guilders and stivers .*
This picture of the former times, so rudely drawn and void of limner's art, is yet worthy of thoughtful study. As every age has had its virtues as well as its vices, things which men admire and emulate, so the initial days of our colonial history teem with instructive lessons in all that pertains to manly aims and right living, the study of which is calculated to make one wiser and better. If the present effort to restore a knowledge of the Harlem founders shall subserve so useful a purpose, and the sequel to their history, as now to be given in that of the patentees and their families, shall in any degree contribute to the same result, we may count our labor not wholly lost.
* In 1688 the valuation of real estate in the several wards of the city of New York was as follows:
Out Ward, Harlem Division.
£1,723
do. Bowery Division.
4,140
North Ward.
7,625
West Ward.
9,600
East Ward.
9.648
Dock Ward.
16,241
South Ward.
29,254
CHAPTER XXIV.
NOTICES OF THE PATENTEES AND THEIR HEIRS OR SUCCESSORS.
BENSON.
WITH those whose recollections of Harlem run back a gener-
ation or more, to the time when it yet retained all the charms of a quiet rural suburb,-ere "trade's unfeeling train usurped the land and dispossessed the swain,"-the name of this locality finds almost a synonym in that of Benson; so largely identified was this respectable family with the history and landed interests of the town. Standing first in alphabetical order, we cheerfully accord it the precedence, which it may properly claim among these genealogical notes .*
Captain Johannes Benson, the first of the family to locate here, is not named in Dongan's patent, as he was not then a resi- dent, nor till some ten years after; but, purchasing the Bogert farm, he thereby acquired the rights of a patentee, before the final division of the common lands, in which he shared; and his descendants continued, as we shall see, among the largest pro- prietors at Harlem till it ceased to be an agricultural community. His father, Dirck Bensingh, as commonly called, was not a Hol- lander, but a Swede, according to the tradition in the family, as old Lawrence Benson used to say; and this is borne out by the original form of the name. Perhaps, to be more exact, Dirck was a Dane. We have traced him from Groningen to Amster- dam, and thither, with his wife, Catalina Berck, to New Amster- dam. Here he bought a house and lot near the fort, August 23, 1649, and the next year another on Broadway. On June 29, 1654, at his desire, the Director and Council allowed him "to leave this
* These sketches do not claim to be complete genealogies, but are designed to preserve, in the case of each family, enough of its history to interest its living mem- bers, and to enable many of them to identify their connection with the parent stock: while others, wishing to perfect their line of descent, will here find a valuable be- ginning for such a work. As serving to elucidate the land titles, by showing the trans- mission of real property in the several families, and this, by including all the paten- tees, necessarily embracing all the lands within the township or patent lines, these sketches have a special importance. The result of many years' search among authentic records. they are believed to be substantially correct and reliable, whether as geneal- ogies or otherwise; any venerable hearsay or family traditions, so called, to the con- trary notwithstanding.
It may be noted that in numerous instances throughout these pages the number and not the names of the children of certain descendants are given. By referring to the New Harlem Register the names of these children and their descendants will be found.
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BENSON FAMILY.
place to promote his own affairs." Going to Fort Orange, he built upon a lot granted him October 25, 1653, and proved him- self an industrious and worthy citizen. He worked as a carpenter on the new church built in 1656; in 1658 he loaned the deacons 100 guilders. He died February 12, 1659. Three years later Dirck's widow married Harman Tomasz Hun.
Dirck Benson's children were Dirck, born 1650; Samson, born 1652; Johannes, born February 8, 1655; Catrina, born 1657, who married Doctor Reynier Schaets and Jonathan Bradhurst; and Maria, born 1659, who married Volckert van Hoesen. The three sons of Benson grew up in Albany much respected, and all. became church members. Samson set up a pottery, and was known as the "pottebacker." Dirck became a skipper on the Hudson, sailing the sloop Eendraght between Albany and New York. Johannes was probably an innkeeper, for in 1689, when apprehensions existed of a French and Indian invasion from Canada, a committee of safety, of which Lieutenant Johannes Benson was a member, directed "that the people of Patcook do make their retreat to Johannes Bensing's upon occasion." Raised to a captaincy soon after, he performed useful service during those fearful times. The midnight massacre at Schenectady, Feb- ruary 8, 1690, in which their brother-in-law, Doctor Schaets, then a justice of the peace at that place, was slain, together with one of his sons, and the continuance of French and Indian hos- tilities, quite unsettled the Bensons and their families (for the three brothers were now married), and they finally transferred their residence to New York, Dirck in 1693, and Samson and Johannes in 1696, when the public alarm became so great as to cause many such removals.
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