USA > New York > Bronx County > The Bronx and its people; a history, 1609-1927, Volume I > Part 3
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The crystalline rocks of Greater New York have been deeply com- pressed and their original horizontal extension may have undergone a contraction of more than a mile, which was the result of crustal shortenings over the whole of the earth's sphere. Of course, the effect of such a contraction would be to throw up the more or less horizontal beds into hills or mountains of inclined strata, bringing about at the same time internal mineral changes and structural changes connected with the metamorphism of the beds. Such horizontal contractions have been considerable in the geological history of the earth. De la Beche has shown that contorted and inclined beds would require, if reduced to a level surface, much more room, and that if stretched out into flat sheets they would invade adjoining areas. Professor Heim computed that the Alps, toward the north, have been thus compressed, and the horizontal shrinking of the superficies of the earth at this point has been something like seventy-four miles, or "one-half of the original horizontal extent of the component strata, which have been corrugated
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GEOLOGY AND TOPOGRAPHY
and thrown back upon each other in huge folds, reaching from base to summit of lofty mountains." Such a contraction in the New York area has resulted in the upward projection of high hills, or monticules, which may have attained altitudes of over four thousand feet, and which have disappeared through prolonged weathering, leaving the present inconspicuous relief of the surface. The merely mechanical or local elevation has been accomplished slowly, though even that slowness of ascension probably was associated with periodic movements, and it has been exaggerated or reduced by continental uplifts and depressions. In these hills the stratified beds, or their metamorphic equivalents, have been thrust up on end, or at steep angles; shearing forces have been exerted upon them, and included igneous intrusions, have participated. along with their enclosing schists, in the folding and plication, and there has not been wanting readjustments by faults and dislocations. Fossils within the limits of Greater New York are found, in place, only in the Cretaceous beds of Staten Island, though the drift areas, in which occur transported boulders from fossiliferous horizons in New York State, have furnished an interesting and extended series.
Professor Dana regarded the Westchester County area that included The Bronx as topographically a southern portion of the Green Mountain elevation; that the grade of metamorphism followed the same rule to the north-that is, it is of the greatest intensity to the eastward and to the southward. It is in accordance with this that the least degrees of metamorphism are found in the limestone and associated schists of the vicinity of Peekskill, in the northwest corner, while along the central and eastern portions, and in the western also, south of the Croton, the crystallization is commonly very coarse; that the limestones have the same kind of associated rocks-that is, of mica, schists and gneisses- as the eastern and more metamorphic portions of the region in Connec- ticut; that the limestones have a like paucity in disseminated minerals and similar occurring species with those of Connecticut; and that the ordinary normal trend of the rocks is very nearly the average trend of the beds of limestone and associated rocks in the Green Mountain system. Professor Dana's conclusions are to the effect that the lime- stone of Westchester County and New York Island and the comform- ably associated metamorphic rocks are probably of Lower Silurian age.
The soils of the area are made up of the abrasions and disintegration of the gneiss, feldspar and limestone rocks, with considerable districts largely composed of sand and more limited areas of clay. As a whole the soil may be called a light loam, such as is generally favorable to the growth of cereals. The valleys have the addition of vegetable matter and are productive of the rich natural grasses which abound here. The
Bronx-2
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THE BRONX AND ITS PEOPLE
hillsides have suffered from washing by heavy rains, but yield abundant crops to good cultivation. About the hill tops and along the summits of the ridges the rocks generally crop out, so that these localities are mostly left to be covered with forest growths, adding greatly to the beauty of the scenery. In some places there are peat swamps where ancient lakes have been filled with the accumulation of vegetable matter and the growth of sphagnum moss. This peat, when pressed and dried, makes excellent fuel. The differences in elevation and exposure, to- gether with the variety of soils, cause a remarkably large flora. Most of the boulders deposited by glacial action are of granite and have been brought from Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Some are of con- glomerate, from across the Hudson River, and others have great numbers of shell fossils.
CHAPTER II THE EARLIEST RECORD OF INHABITANTS
The earliest history of The Bronx is also the earliest history of New York and the area surrounding it. The land had not yet taken form in the European imagination. Its contact with Europe began in the first spectacle it presented to the first European visitor roaming along its coast. The beginning of the idea of America in the European mind began with the perception of that coast and the imagination of its hinterland. Knowledge of the country grew as the first settlers on Manhattan ventured inland and became familiar with the topography that rose westward and northward from the sea. As their knowledge of the region grew its history came into being. America was some- thing to be learned and studied before it became exploited and was able to serve as a home. The early knowledge was a vague thing, with- out detail, without distinct feature, without marked character. Even when New Amsterdam was a community in being there was still no Bronx, no Westchester, no clear hinterland. The situation was there in its primeval vesture. Gradually it became marked ground as navi- gators bent their eye on the coast as they passed through the Sound. It was seen to be favorable for settlement, sheltered, proximate to New Amsterdam, the river valleys rich in promising loam, the trees, the flowers, the verdure, pleasing to the eye. It was easy to imagine a growing hamlet thriving in peace in the clearings of the forest near the quiet waters; and so in time settlers moved northward over the Harlem or came down from Connecticut or Rhode Island.
The Borough and its Ancient Territory-Let us first, however, get quite clear concerning the area we are dealing with, for The Bronx as it is at present constituted is more recent in its formation than the early history to which we are here referring. At present the city of New York is divided for administrative purposes into five boroughs : Manhattan, the original city of New York upon the island of Man- hattan; Brooklyn, the old city of that name in the county of Kings; Queens, in the county of the same name, adjoining Brooklyn; Rich- mond or Staten Island; and The Bronx, the borough lying north of the Harlem River. On November 1, 1863, the county of Westchester was formed. Its western boundary was the Hudson River; its north- ern, Dutchess (now Putnam) County ; its eastern, the Connecticut Col- ony and Long Island Sound; its southern, the East and Harlem rivers
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THE BRONX AND ITS PEOPLE
and Spuyten Duyvil Creek. The Borough of The Bronx was included within the county of Westchester until 1874 for the western part of the borough, and until 1895 for the eastern part. Up to those dates the history of The Bronx is the history of the county of which it formed a part. The county also included the islands contiguous to its shores. By the act of the State Legislature, March 7, 1788, all the counties were divided into townships. 'There were only twenty-one of these in West- chester County, following very closely the lines of the ancient manors and patents. What is now The Bronx was formerly included within the towns of Yonkers, Morrisania, Eastchester, Pelham, and West- chester.
The township of Yonkers was a part of the Philipseburgh Manor, which was sequestrated by the State in 1779, on account of the dis- loyalty of its owner, Colonel Frederick Philipse. The part of the town- ship within the borough was known as Lower Yonkers; and it re- mained a part of the original township until June 1, 1872, when the city of Yonkers was incorporated. At the same time the portion of the township lying south of a line drawn from the northwest corner of the land belonging to the Sisters of Charity, known as St. Vincent de Paul, due east to the Bronx River, was set off as a new township under the name of Kingsbridge. It remained a part of the Yonkers township un- til December 16th of the same year, when the selection of town officers was perfected. Its northern boundary was the line given above, from the Hudson River to the Bronx; its southern, the northern line of the ancient manor of Fordham, from the Harlem River at East 230th Street to a point on the Bronx River between First and Second avenues, Wil- liamsbridge, and Spuyten Duyvil Creek; its western, the Hudson River. Morrisania was the most sparsely settled section of the county, and the reason for its erection into a township is not very clear. The pre- dominant influence may have been the work of its owner, Lewis Morris, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. The new consti- tutional government had gone into effect in New York in 1789, but the site of the national capital remained a topic of discussion. Morris con- sidered his manor to be an ideal site for such a capital; apparently the idea that New York would grow and swallow it up as a mere parish did not occur to him or to anyone else at the time. On October 1, 1790, the Congress in session at New York was to determine the location of the new capital, and Morris memorialized it in favor of Morrisania.
In the opinion of Morris the manor of which he was the owner was more advantageously situated for their (the members of Congress) resi- dence than any other place that had hitherto been proposed to them, and much better accommodated with the necessary requisites of con- venience of access, health and security. He claimed "that vessels from
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THE EARLIEST RECORD OF INHABITANTS
the four Eastern States may arrive at Morrisania through the Sound, in the course of a few hours, and that ships from the Carolinas and Georgia may perform voyages to Morrisania with much more safety and despatch than they can to the ports of Philadelphia and Annapolis, not being incommoded with tedious passages of two hundred miles each up bays and rivers which often consume a fortnight or three weeks- passages rendered házardous by rocks and shoals, and annually ob- structed by ice." Others of the claims of Morris were: "That Morris- ania is so situated that vessels may arrive from, or proceed to sea, some- times in six hours ... and that this passage, from the quantity and saltness of the water, has never been totally impeded by ice;" "that Morrisania has always been noted for this particular (health and salubrity), that the fever and ague is unknown, and that persons from other places, emaciated by sickness and disease, there shortly recover and are speedily reinforced in health and vigor;" "that Morrisania is perfectly secure from any dangers either from foreign invasion or in- ternal insurrection;" "that Morrisania being distant only twenty miles from the State of Connecticut, and eight miles from the city of New York, that it therefore can be amply protected by the hardy sons of New England on the one side, and the inhabitants of the populous city of New York on the other; that as the chief defence of this country in future must be by its militia ... there are more fighting men within a sweep of thirty miles around Morrisania than perhaps within the same distance around any other place in America as there are many populous places which contain large proportions of inhabitants who are prin- cipled by religion against bearing arms, and other places which contain negro inhabitants who not only do not fight themselves, but by keeping their masters at home, prevent them from fighting also." The ambition of Morris to have his manor erected into the national capital was not fulfilled and a new city arose on the banks of the Potomac, while by act of the Legislature on February 2, 1791, Morrisania ceased to be a sepa- rate township. Previous to 1848 there were a few settlers; but around this period the Irish and the German immigration figures became large and not a few of the new settlers made their home on the banks of the Harlem.
Bounds of Townships-The bounds of the township at both cre- ations, that of 1788 and that of 1855, were the same as those of the ancient manor. The northerly line, which was the southerly line of Fordham Manor, began at Harlem River immediately south of the pres- ent High Bridge, and extended east to Union Avenue between East 170th and 171st streets. Its eastern boundary was practically Union Avenue to Bungay Creek, which it followed to the East River. Its other
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THE BRONX AND ITS PEOPLE
boundaries were the East River, Bronx Kills, and Harlem River. The township of Eastchester, created in 1788, had for its western boundary the Bronx River; on the north, Scarsdale; on the east, Hutchinson's River; on the south, Black Dog Brook and a line drawn from the head of the brook on the line of 229th Street to the Bronx River. When the city of Mount Vernon was incorporated in 1892, the township of East- chester was divided into two parts, entirely separated from each other by the newly formed, intervening city. The southern piece was the smaller; and when the question of annexation was submitted to the people in 1894, the inhabitants voted to be taken into the city of New York. Pelham township was what remained of Pelham Manor. It was triangular in form, New Rochelle being its base or northerly line, and the two sides being the Sound and Hutchinson's River. It also in- cluded Hunter, Twin, Hart, High, and City islands. The portion taken for the city of New York is almost entirely within Pelham Bay Park. The part annexed to New York was the ancient Anne Hoeck, or Pell's Neck, and Rodman's Neck, as well as the islands referred to. The town- ship of Westchester, created in 1788, included all the rest of the land now within the limits of the borough; the ancient manor of Fordham, the West Farms tract, and all the land between the Hutchinson River, the Bronx River, and the Sound, with a northerly boundary at the East- chester line from Black Dog Brook to the Bronx River. This included about one half the borough. The town was further increased by the accession of Morrisania, February 22, 1791. It remained intact until May 13, 1846, when the township of West Farms was formed out of its territory. West Farms, created in 1846, comprised all the land west of the Bronx River, as far as the Harlem River, lying south of Yonkers, until December 7, 1855, when the township of Morrisania was once more formed from its territory. It thus included the manors of Morris- ania and Fordham and the West Farms patent of 1663.
The annexation of a part of Westchester County to the city of New York was a question that arose long before any formal action was taken by the authorities. As early as 1864, it was proposed to unite the town- ships of Morrisania and West Farms under a special city charter; but the objections of the inhabitants of West Farms defeated the project. In 1869, one of the Tweed members of the Legislature from Mount Vernon proposed the annexation of a large part of the county to the city ; but as the action was taken without any reference to the wishes of the inhabitants or their immediate representative, Senator Cauldwell, he arose in the Legislature and announced that in a few days he would introduce a bill "to annex the city of New York to Morrisania"-a piece of sarcasm that had in it an echo of the high hopes formed for Morris- ania in an earlier day. Later on the senator was particularly energetic
.
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THE EARLIEST RECORD OF INHABITANTS
in advocating annexation and bringing it about. In the autumn of 1872 the people of West Farms and Morrisania came together and in the year that followed the bill referring the annexation to the people was en- acted. Owing to disputes among the officials the bill provided that the streets should be placed under the Park Department, a scheme that worked more harm than good to the newly annexed district until the streets were put under a special Department of Street Improvements of the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth wards. On January 1, 1874, the townships of Kingsbridge, West Farms, and Morrisania became a part of the city of New York, and were formed into the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth wards. The new wards were also spoken of as the Annexed District; they constitute that part of the borough lying west of the Bronx River and comprise twelve thousand three hundred and seventeen acres.
At the election of November 6, 1894, the question of the limit and area of the Great New York then contemplated was submitted to the inhabitants of the localities affected, including Westchester, Eastchester, Pelham, and the city of Mount Vernon. The result of the referendum showed good majorities for annexation in Eastchester and Pelham, while Mount Vernon and Westchester voted against annexation, the former by a large majority, and the latter by a majority of one. The adverse majority in Westchester was so small that it was ignored by the annexationists; and on July 1, 1895, the whole section east of the Bronx River became a part of the city of New York, forming part of the Twenty-fourth ward. It comprises nearly fourteen thousand acres, making the total area taken from Westchester County by the annex- ations twenty-six thousand and seventeen acres, or a little over thirty- nine square miles.
Greater New York-On January 1, 1898, the charter of the Greater New York went into effect, and the whole annexed section north of the Harlem River became officially known as the Borough of The Bronx-taking its name from the river that ran through it. The char- ter arranged that in educational and some other official matters it should act in common with the Borough of Manhattan. On January 1, 1902, the revised charter of the Greater New York went into effect. It gave a certain amount of autonomy to the different boroughs, especially in the matter of local improvements, though many acts of the local boards are subject to the Board of Aldermen or Board of Estimate and Appor- tionment, or both, when the outlay authorized by the local board ex- ceeds two thousand dollars. The local boards of The Bronx are com- posed of the borough president and the aldermen of the local improve- ment districts. There are four such districts in the borough: The
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THE BRONX AND ITS PEOPLE
Twenty-second, or Morrisania; the Twenty-third, or Chester; the Twenty-fourth, or Crotona; and the Twenty-fifth, or Van Cortlandt. When the two annexations took place the sections ceased to be parts of Westchester County and became parts of New York County. In the matter of congressional, senate, assembly, and judicial representa- tion, however, portions of the borough were at first attached to West- chester County ; though there is now separation. The borough consti- tutes the eighteenth congressional district. There are eight aldermanic districts, and four local school districts, each having its own board. The borough is allowed two municipal courts where civil cases may be tried in which the value in controversy does not exceed two hundred and fifty dollars. There are also two police magistrate's courts for the settlement of minor cases of crimes and misdemeanors and for preliminary hearings in cases of felony. For police protection the borough is divided into nine precincts. The great increase in the population and the consequent erection of buildings to accommodate the inhabitants, with the transfers of property and other matters of record in relation to real estate, became so great in volume that, on April 28, 1903, a committee was appointed by the North Side Board of Trade to bring before the State Legislature the formation of a new county to be called Bronx County. In January following, a bill to form such a county was introduced, but it failed to pass. It was introduced in every subsequent Legislature, but it was de- feated. Extraordinary meetings and agitations took place in the autumn of 1911, with the result that an act passed by the Legislature of 1912 authorized the formation of Bronx County, the matter to be decided by a referendum to the voters of the borough. The question: "Shall the territory within The Borough of The Bronx be erected into the County of Bronx?" was accordingly submitted to the voters at the general elec- tion in November, 1912, and a majority of the votes cast were in favor of the creation of the county. The constitutionality of the act was ques- tioned on the grounds that the Legislature had no power to submit the question to the voters, since New York State, being a representative de- mocracy, the people of the State act through their representative in the Legislature ; and secondly, that the question should have been submitted to the voters of the entire County of New York, instead of only to the voters of The Borough of The Bronx. The act was declared unconsti- tutional by the Appellate Divisions of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, but the decision was reversed, on March 21, 1913, by the Court of Appeals. In an administrative way the creation of the County of Bronx meant that The Bronx would have its own courts, its own offices for recording deeds, mortgages, and other papers affecting real and personal property, its own offices where wills of its residents could be probated, and its own Sheriff's and County Clerk's offices.
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THE EARLIEST RECORD OF INHABITANTS
From all this the reader will gain an idea of the territory we are dealing with, its background, the alteration of boundary, its alternate shrinking and expansion, its general association with the larger con- tiguous territory in which for our purpose it may be regarded as the core. It will thus be plain that the history of New York and the history of Westchester County have a very great deal in common with the his- tory of The Bronx.
Aboriginal Inhabitants-And now with regard to the inhabitants of the region before it became settled by the white man. The European discoverers of North America, writes James Wood, found the continent peopled with millions of human beings, of types analogous to those of the Old World, and with characteristics almost equally varied. In stature they covered a whole range, from the dwarf-like denizens of the far north to the vigorous inhabitants of other sections, whose height averaged in the men fully six feet. In activity and courage they excited the admiration of their discoverers. Their color was unique and was imagined to resemble that of copper; but further investigation showed that this color varied greatly. Some of the natives were found to be nearly as dark as negroes, while in other sections they were almost as fair as Caucasians. They spoke many different languages, which showed striking analogies in their grammatical construction, with equally strik- ing disparity in their vocabulary. The goal sought by Columbus and the other European navigators who first came in contact with the aborigines of America was, of course, India, and imagining that the territory of the Atlantic coast constituted the outlying provinces of Asia and India they called the inhabitants of the new land Indians.
Various conjectures have been made as to the length of time during which man has occupied the American continent and the geologists and evolutionists are still busy with the query. Apart from the length of time required for the production of new languages, and from the con- siderations of the ethnologists, there are facts connected with human existence on this continent that indicate a period of almost inconceiv- able antiquity. Of the animals found in the New World none were identical with those known in the Old, and in the vegetable kingdom the same rule appeared to hold. Maize and tobacco were cultivated in every portion of the country where the climate suited their require- ments, while cotton was grown in a section necessarily more limited in area. We may reasonably suppose that man existed here for a long time before he discovered the fitness of maize for food and for a much longer period before he began its cultivation; and then it must have re- quired centuries to introduce it to general cultivation over nearly a hun- dred degrees of latitude in the two continents. It is well known that
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THE BRONX AND ITS PEOPLE
plants change their characters very slowly ; but maize, tobacco and cot- ton had so long been subjected to the transforming influences of culti- vation as to have lost all resemblance to their original forms, so that they could no longer be identified with the wild species. The force of this consideration is heightened when we remember that, in this transforma- tion, these plants became entirely dependent upon cultivation for their existence. In some portions of the continent the great length of time that man has existed here is shown moreover in the remains of artificial structures still preserved; though these in the main have been found in localities far removed from the territory with which we are dealing.
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