USA > New York > New York City > The Memorial History of the City of New York: From Its First Settlement to the Year 1892, Volume III > Part 20
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
On May 6 these thirteen trustees met for the election of their officers, when De Witt Clinton was chosen president; John Murray, vice-president; Leonard Bleecker, treasurer; and Benjamin D. Perkins, secretary. The next step in the movement was an elaborate appeal to the public to aid the enterprise by the contribution of the funds re- quired for the securing of suitable quarters for the school and for the
1 Bourne's " History Public School Society," p. 5.
168
HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
payment of teachers. The funds did not rapidly accumulate, owing to various serious impediments, so that fully a year elapsed ere the work of the school could finally begin. It is of interest to observe that the subscription list is still preserved among the archives of the society, and shows the name of De Witt Clinton leading, with the sum of two hundred dollars opposite to it. As a result of such liberality, the trustees felt justified in appointing a teacher and renting apart- ments. The pioneer teacher was William Smith, and the place where his labors began a house in Madison street, which was then called Bancker. On May 19, 1806, teacher and scholars met under these humble auspices. But few were there that first day. After some days, however, the number had risen to forty-two, and the increase kept on till larger accommodations became imperative. Even before the school had initiated its exercises, in April, 1806, Colonel Henry Rutgers1 had given a lot on Henry street for a school building, and soon after gave the adjoining lot besides, the whole of the property being valued at $2500. Still, as the work increased, the society felt cramped for means. An appeal to the legislature was again made in January, 1807, resulting in an act which set aside a certain portion of the excise duties for the support of the school. Nor was the corpora- tion of the city itself slow in coming to its aid. The quarters in Madison street having become inadequate, and no funds being as yet in hand for building a house on the Henry street lots, the "city fathers" presented a building adjoining the almshouse, together with five hundred dollars for putting it into proper shape for this new purpose. Thus came into existence school No. 1, standing on Chat- ham street; it was provided not only with rooms for classes, but also with dwelling apartments for the teacher's family. On April 28, 1807, Mr. Smith and his pupils began their sessions here, and before the year closed the number of children in attendance had risen to one hundred and fifty. The further account of this interesting movement must now be left to a subsequent chapter, and in its more minute details to another volume.
The first ten or more years of the present century were character- ized by a noticeable extension in the number of church buildings, or the improvement and enlargement of those already built. Some of these events took place within the seven years belonging to the scope of this chapter. The first church that claims attention is none other than that in Garden street (now Exchange Place), the third edifice of this kind in the order of erection on this island, but really the earli- est that can be called worthy of the name in point of architecture or
1 This same generous lover of education later known by his name. The Rev. Dr. Howard Crosby. gave $5000 to Queen's College at New Brunswick. for several years a professor in the college, was his grandnephew.
N. J., whence that college has ever since been
169
THE OPENING OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
proportions. De Vries, the voyager, could find no more exalted term for the building at 33 Pearl street, erected in 1633, than that of " barn," as compared with the neat New England meeting-houses; and the church in the fort, while of brick or stone, and superior to the former, was not such as to impress the beholder. Hence the "old" church in Garden street, built of brick trimmed with stone, when it was opened for service in 1693, was a conspicuous feature of the little town, and quite outstripped the earlier structures that occu-
NEW-YORK AT THE BEGINNING OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
pied Trinity's site. After undergoing extensive repairs, with some remodeling, in 1766, and again after the Revolution, the church was taken down completely, and an entirely new and much finer building erected on the spot in 1807. This stood until it was swept away by the great fire in 1835; and with a little care in the tracing we may look upon its ecclesiastical descendants to-day. After the fire the congregation determined to separate into two societies. One part built a church in Murray street; the other went to the corner of Washington Place, on the east side of Washington Square, adjoining the New-York University. Its noble proportions, double towers, and walls cut into embrasures at the top, as if it were a castle or a fort, are still to be seen. But denominationally it no longer represents the original congregation, as it was sold to the Methodist Episcopal people. For its denominational representative one has to look to the church on the corner of Madison Avenue and Thirty-eighth street, the successor of the Murray street church. Crowded out by the march of business, this society moved to the corner of Fifth Avenue and Twenty-first street; but, again pursued by that church-devouring demon, their handsome edifice there was sold, and the building at Thirty-seventh street, formerly occupied by a Protestant Episcopal congregation, purchased.
170
HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
In the year 1803 there was held in this church the last regular or stated service in the Dutch language. The Holland tongue had been the first to convey to heaven the worship of pious hearts in prayer and praise. In it had been sounded forth the gospel in the ears of men from the very beginning of colonization in 1626. Even after the English conquest in 1664, a whole century elapsed before the Dutch congregation called an English-speaking pastor. But after the Revo- lution the disappearance of the Dutch from ver- nacular usage was very rapid. Yet in 1789, when the old Dutch pastors were too aged to continue their services, and when Drs. Livingston and Linn were preaching eloquent- ly in the national tongue, to the delight of auditors of their own and other communions, it was still thought expedient, for the benefit of a certain portion of the communi- cants, to call a pastor who should dispense the ordi- 9. A. Swingston nances in Dutch. For this purpose the Rev. Gerardus Kuypers (after- ward D. D.) was called from Paramus, New Jersey, and the ancient Garden street church set apart for these services. In 1803, however, the audiences attending them had grown so small that Dutch preach- ing was abolished, and Dr. Kuypers thenceforth, until his death in 1833, preached in English. Thus ceased public divine worship in a language which had conveyed pious emotions to the throne of grace for an unbroken period of one hundred and seventy-seven years. But in 1866 the generosity of the collegiate church enabled a Dutch church to be organized for the modern emigrants from Holland who had made New-York their abode, and hence at this very time regular worship in the ancient mother-tongue is still conducted upon this island, whose shores it was the earliest to bless with the beneficent message of salvation.
As has been already intimated, one of the most striking indications of local changes induced by the growth of our city, of the invasion of business houses into the regions of homes, is afforded by the history
171
THE OPENING OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
of many of our church societies. Who would connect the stately tem- ple, graceful in exterior, beautiful and rich in interior, and thronged with hearers under the pastorate of the Rev. Dr. Abbot E. Kittredge -standing on the corner of Madison Avenue and that broad trans- verse avenue, Fifty-seventh street - with the locality of Franklin street, near West Broadway? Yet if we take two steps back in its annals-first to a period of seventeen years of existence (1854-1871) in Twenty-third street, and then to its origin-we shall reach that down-town region. And the founding of that church in 1807, it must not be forgotten, marked an era in church development for the Re- formed (Dutch) denomination in this city. Hitherto there had been no congregation of this order, except under the care of that collegiate organization whose history dated from 1628. The "North West Church," as it was called, in Franklin street, was the first congre- gation that was independent and separate. Its first pastor was the Rev. Christian Bork, a unique character. He had come over among the German mercenary troops hired by England to subdue her colo- nies. He had concluded to cast in his fortunes with the liberated country after the war. The rough soldier was converted, entered the ministry, and became a preacher of great spiritual force, whose labors, continued through fifteen years, were eminently successful.
Embracing within our view a territory which then seemed entirely unwarranted to be entitled to consideration as a part of the city, an account of local events during this period must include the founding of two more Reformed churches, one in Greenwich village, the other at Bloomingdale. In 1803 the dwellers at Greenwich began to think the journey to the church in Garden street, or to that in Nassau street, or even to that in Fulton street, rather too long, and accord- ingly they established a church of their own. The yellow fever panic, which sent the people by scores into this neighborhood, no doubt stimulated the enterprise, and may have been the real occasion for it. But after the panic subsided the church remained, and the curious observer may look upon its lineal descendant to-day on the corner of Bleecker and West Tenth streets, now in possession of a colored Bap- tist congregation. Bloomingdale church1 may also have owed its origin, in 1805, to the exodus from the city caused by the fear of the yellow fever, which prevailed in that year and in 1803. A large piece of ground given for a parsonage by a devoted elder finally became the means of preserving this society from extinction, when this part of the city began to assume the attractive appearance it now pre-
1 Bloomingdale is the onomatopoetic change from the Dutch Bloemendaal. The lower point of the island being called after Amsterdam, other points in the vicinity received names to correspond with the vicinity of the ancient Dutch city. Thus Har-
lem was named after the city of Haarlem (its name was New Harlem, or Nieuw Haerlem, originally). A beautiful village near Haarlem, noted for its horticultural nurseries, gave the name to Bloe- mendaal, or Bloomingdale.
172
HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
sents. The laying out of the Boulevard demanded the destruction of the old church; but the immense value which the elder's gift attained a few years since has enabled this people to place in the view of New- York denizens, on the corner of the Boulevard and Sixty-eighth street, a fine example of church architecture as the successor of the humble village church of the fifth year of the century.
During the period now under consideration the activity in the way of church-building of de- nominations other than the Dutch Reformed and the Epis- copalian was in abeyance or suspense-to be revived, how- ever, almost immediately sub- sequent to it by the Presbyte- rians. Notable among Episcopal churches erected about this time are St. Stephen's, on the corner of Broome and Chrystie streets, built in 1805, following in the AmLinn. wake of population which went northward more rapidly on the east side than on the west; and Grace Church, on the corner of Broadway and Rector street, built in 1806, on the site formerly occupied by the Lutheran church. Indeed, it seems rather surprising that a church of the same order should thus have been placed beneath the very shadow of Trinity.
Far away from all these churches, clustered and almost crowded together within so limited an area below Vesey and Beekman streets, there was erected in 1807 a church which has thus far escaped that "march of improvement" to which the others have all succumbed. Grace Church (down-town), St. George's in Beekman street, Christ Church in Ann street, St. Stephen's in Broome street, are no more to be found upon the sites that knew them once. Even Trinity is not what then it was, though it occupies the same historic spot; but, together with St. Paul's, St. John's on Varick street stands unim- paired and unchanged, a monument of earlier times. To a dweller at Cologne, whose unequaled cathedral reared its walls skyward six hundred years ago, a building eighty-five or one hundred and twenty- six years old (the ages of St. John's and St. Paul's respectively) may seem a very recent product. We of New-York, however, are fain to congratulate ourselves that these edifices still abide, when every
173
THE OPENING OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
other church built so long ago, and many of those erected much more recently, have disappeared.
Trinity Church farm, once, as is known, that of thrifty Anneke Jans, stretched along the North River nearly to Thirteenth street. About half-way between the parent church and the extremity of this extensive property a site was selected for a new church in 1807. It seemed a very unwise selection to many. It added to the surprise occasioned by placing a structure which it was reported would cost two hundred thousand dollars so far out of town, that so unwhole- some a location should have been fixed upon. For there was nothing but a marsh to cover the space now occupied by that "palace of industry," the freight depot of the New-York Central Rail- road,-to be thus named, not indeed for the beauty or re- finement of its structure or contents, but for the ceaseless stir of business and the re- markable concentration of a vast traffic. As the beautiful edifice of the church, with its pillared portico, rose on the one hand, the resort of snakes THE BAYARD COUNTRY HOUSE IN HARLEM. and frogs, and possibly mosquitos, was gradually made to assume the attractive appearance of a carefully laid out park, dimly recalled now by the generation of middle-aged men and women. In the course of years the wisdom of the choice of location was vindicated, as the handsomest residences of the town crowded around the park. Dingy and dilapidated as these are in their fallen state to-day, they still have enough about them to attest their earlier elegance. And far above the changed surroundings the noble steeple of St. John's rears its graceful, tapering form, showing the flight of time, and sounding the hours amid the noisy din, as in the past amid the rural quiet.
To enlarge on the frequent visitations of the yellow fever scourge would constitute a very dreary duty for the historian of the metropo- lis. In the previous chapter, those of the last decade of the eighteenth century have been duly noticed. The first decade of the nineteenth saw their recurrence in many a summer. But that of 1803 deserves especial mention, because it afforded the gratifying spectacle of the courage and devotion of the city's chief magistrate, Edward Living- ston. In 1801, after twelve years of able service, Richard Varick was removed from the mayor's office as a result of the complete overthrow of the Federalist forces. The council of appointment placed Edward
174
HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
Livingston in the chair, the youngest brother of Chancellor Living- ston, who had begun the practice of the law in New-York city in 1785. The Livingstons had cast in their sympathies with the Repub- licans, or Democrats, hence upon a member of that family the choice of the party in power naturally fell. Fortu- nately, while politics often ruled the hour then, as now, in such selections, they were then, as not now, al- most always worthily made. In personal character, in legal and executive ability, in social standing and so- cial fitness,-no small consideration in those days,-a better choice could hardly have been made. The first event of note in Mayor Liv- ingston's term was the laying of the founda- tion-stone of the pres- ent City Hall, in the park, the historic com- mon of Revolutionary times, a more careful description of which belongs to a subse- quent chapter, which ST. JOHN'S CHURCH, VARICK STREET. shall record its com- pletion. In 1803, in the month of July, the yellow fever struck the city, so very small in population as compared with that of to-day, but so much less pre- pared to prevent the spread of an epidemic. Mayor Livingston conceived it to be his duty to remain at his post, superintending the methods of relief, and ministering to the poor or ill-provided of his private means. His visits to hospitals and infected homes at last brought him down as one of the victims. Daily crowds surged toward the door of his house, at No. 1 Broadway, to inquire the progress of the dread malady, to offer assistance, to repay in some manner the kindness and the courage which had caused him to fall
175
THE OPENING OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
before the scourge. His life was spared, and a long career of useful- ness and distinction followed, the threshold to which, however, was another severe adversity. Duality in office was not forbidden in those times, and Mayor Livingston was also United States district attorney. While he was ill a dishonest clerk had made away with large government funds under his care as attorney. He at once sold all his property to make good the loss; boldly started out on a new search after fortune in the territory recently purchased from France under the advice and by the negotiation of his brother, the former chancellor, then min- ister to France; gained fame and wealth in New Orleans by his distinguished legal talent ; was sent to Congress, and un- der President Jackson rose to be secretary of state.
On the resignation of Mayor Livingston in 1803, the influ- ence of the Clinton family (who, with the Livingstons, divided the patronage of the Democratic party) secured the appointment of De Witt Clin- ton as his successor. He was the son of General James Clin- ton, and thus the nephew of Governor Clinton. He had dulivingston begun public life as private secretary to the latter, and, although educated for the legal profes- sion, he preferred politics. He was at the present juncture United States senator, but resigned his seat, as the office of mayor of New- York was both more important and vastly more lucrative than that of senator. The man has made such a mark in the history of the city and the State that it is needless to make more extended bio- graphical mention of him. Every great enterprise for the public good brings his name to the foreground. We have already indicated his connection with the founding of the public-school system of the city. At a brief accession of power by the Federalists in 1807, De Witt Clinton was removed from office. Then the well-known name of Marinus Willett for a year figures at the head of the municipal government. It was most interesting that the descendant of the earliest mayor of New-York should thus have been invested with the office exactly one hundred and forty years after the other's retirement.
176
HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
In the year 1804 a bill was passed by the legislature of the State which instituted some important changes in the chartered privileges of the city. The agitations for such changes had been started two years before, when letters began to appear in the public prints, calling attention to some of the defects of the old charter, dating back to Montgomerie's time, or 1730. It was complained that suffrage was not sufficiently distributed, that freeholders were allowed to vote, but without restricting them to any one ward, so that a man owning small pieces of property in every ward was entitled to vote in each. From letters in the newspapers, the agitation went on to the calling of public meetings, several of which were held at Adams's (later Union) Hotel, or Assembly Rooms, at 68 William street. At these, other modifications besides the removal of the above grievances were proposed, the principal (although rejected) being that the mayor's office be made elective, and salaried, instead of subject to payment by indefinite fees. As usual, party and faction played their part in these discussions, and the motives of both promoters and opponents of the measure were impugned. A committee of citizens waited on the common council, on January 17, 1803, asking that body to join in a petition to the legislature to pass a law effecting the desired changes; but the council not only rejected the proposal, but sent a petition asking that the charter be left intact. The citizens then sent an independent request directly to Albany. A bill was drawn up in accordance therewith, and passed the assembly on March 16, 1803. The next year it was taken up again, and now became a law on April 5, 1804. Among its provisions were the following: that the annual charter election should take place on the third Tuesday of November; that the voting should be by ballot, instead of viva voce as hereto- fore; that the election might continue for more than one day, if neces- sary; that polling-places should be appointed in each ward; and that no person could vote in any other ward than the one in which he resided. The election of a mayor by the people was still distant full thirty years.
As having a very pertinent bearing upon the development of the commerce of New-York city, it must not be forgotten that during the very years now under notice the nation's relations with the pirati- cal Barbary powers of the Mediterranean were being adjusted, and were finally put into a condition more honorable than that in which they had been left at the close of the preceding century. It was time that something should be done to teach these barbaric peoples a wholesome lesson regarding our power, when it had come to such a pass that one of these despots sent word to the president that our payment of tribute meant as much as that we were his servants. On the strength of this unpalatable but not very unreasonable theory, he
177
THE OPENING OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
had peremptorily sent one of our vessels of war to Constantinople to bear his country's quota of revenue to the Sublime Porte. In May, 1801, Tripoli's ruler cut down the flag-staff of the United States con- sulate,-an act equivalent to a declaration of war. Immediately a squadron of four vessels was despatched to the scene, under the command of Commodore Richard Dale. A second squadron followed in February, 1802, composed of six vessels, under Commodore Richard V. Morris. But neither of these armaments accomplished anything very decisive. As events progressed the government and the people became more and more enthusiastic and energetic, and determined to push hostilities to the point of the complete and final humiliation of these insolent sea-robber states. In these endeavors many a name came into prominence, and many a deed was done by our navy of which our nation was proud. The war gave rise practically to the American navy. It showed what great possibilities were in existence for the future of this branch of our service. Another war, close at hand, and on a more worthy and dignified scale, raised the navy to the height of fame; but this little war on pirates was its stepping- stone and preparation. In 1805 a force of no less than twenty-four vessels, under Commodore John Rodgers, was present in the Medi- terranean. Tripoli succumbed, the other "powers" were thoroughly alarmed, and on June 4, 1805, a treaty was effected which gave secu- rity to our shipping in these waters, and allowed commerce to repair the cost of the war and the previous losses by piracy.1
Brief mention may be made of several items which belong to the local history of this period, and which are of interest, but which will naturally obtain more extended treatment under appropriate mono- graphs in another portion of this work. Columbia College continued to flourish under its republican name and in the republican atmo- sphere of its present surroundings. In 1801 the Rev. Charles Wharton was its president, but was succeeded ere its close in this position by Bishop Moore. In 1807 was organized its now famous adjunct, the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Originally, however, this insti- tution was not connected with Columbia, being established as a rival to its " medical faculty." Later the two schools were combined into one; but again, subsequently, a separation took place, the College of Physicians and Surgeons remaining with Columbia. As an out- growth of the benevolent enterprise which had founded the New- York Hospital several years before, there was added to its buildings, in 1807, one for lunatics. Fourteen years later the fine structure for such patients at Bloomingdale, still under the management of the hospital, was completed, situated on the ridge overlooking the Hud- son on one side, and Harlem Plains and the East River on the other.
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.