USA > New York > Essex County > Bloomingdale > The New York of yesterday; a descriptive narrative of old Bloomingdale, its topographical features, its early families and their genealogies, its old homesteads and country-seats, the Bloomingdale Reformed church, organized in 1805 > Part 11
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On the 30th of April, 1859, Dr. Harsen addressed a com- munication to the Trustees of the College of Physicians and Surgeons announcing his intention to found an annual prize of a gold medal, of the value of fifty dollars, together with the sum of one hundred dollars in money, to be awarded for the best written report of Clinical Instruction, at the New York Hospital, and, at the same time, engaging to defray the expense of a die for the medal. On the 20th of May 1860 he again wrote to the Board of Trustees that "believing that an enlargement of the fund established by me to promote the study of medical and surgical prac- tise in the New York Hospital would more completely fulfill the objects sought to be attained, I have increased the amount of said fund, to enable the Committee to award two additional Prizes, consisting of a silver medal, with fifty dollars in money, and a bronze medal with twenty- five dollars in money." This most liberal offer met with the most cordial co-operation of the Board of Trustees
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and their hearty thanks were tendered to the donor. The services of an artist of great merit, Mr. Müller, were secured and under the auspices and good taste of the Committee, (Drs. Buck and Delafield), a die was designed and com- pleted which is an honor to American art. The medal bears on its obverse a head of the donor; on its reverse is represented a clinical group, at the New York Hospital; both after photographs from life. Dr. Harsen, at the suggestion of the Faculty, adopted the plan of a bronze medal for each prize and the respective sums of one hun- dred and fifty, of seventy-five, and of twenty-five dollars, in money, to designate the order of merit. He had the satisfaction of witnessing the successful carrying out of his purpose and was present at the first distribution of the prizes of the Harsen Fund.
He had by his will bequeathed to the College of Physicians and Surgeons sixteen lots of ground at Seventieth Street and Eighth Avenue and a legacy of $400,000 for the establishment of a hospital, in con- nection with the College. After the capture of Fort Sumter and the full inauguration of the war, his mind became depressed at the gloomy prospect of disunion, with all its concomitant evils. This led him to fear lest, in consequence of the anticipated depre- ciation of real estate, and all other property, he might not be able to make that provision for his family which he desired, whereupon he changed his purpose and revoked these munificent bequests. As Dr. Adams says, who can fail to honor the intention, even though from the force of circumstances, it was not possible to put it in execution? During the War he was an active member of the "Soldiers' Lint and Bandage Society" and the "Surgical Aid Society," to which he contributed largely of his time and money.
In August, 1862, the Doctor's condition changed
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from that of robust health, dyspeptic symptoms set in, his mental depression increased, and some difficulty of articulation and an unsteadiness of gait were noticed. His strength rapidly declined until at the end of December he gently breathed his last. "Thus passed away from earth" says the Memoir, "at the age of 55 years a man of generous impulse, of high social po- sition, favored by fortune, esteemed by his fellow- men; truly, a man of honor and of noble aspirations." Funeral services were held at St. Bartholomew's Church. His will bequeathed sixty thousand dollars to different societies and institutions; among them ten thousand dollars to the New York Eye Infirmary, ten thousand dollars to the Northern Dispensary, and a like sum to the New York Society for the Relief of Widows and Orphans of Medical Men. A marble bust of the donor by Müller has been placed in the building of the former institution, while the Northern Dispensary has erected a marble tablet, with his pro- file, by Launitz, in medallion, to evince their appre- ciation of the Doctor's thoughtfulness. Resolutions of respect and condolence were passed by the above Societies and in addition by the Academy of Medicine, the New York Historical Society, the St. Nicholas Society, the United States Trust Company, in which deceased had been a member of the Board of Trustees from its organisation, the Greenwich Savings Bank, of which he was First Vice-President and the Firemen's Insurance Company of which he was a director.
Doctor Harsen was born in the homestead. Al- though his brother and some of his sisters were baptized in the Church his name does not appear on the records. An appropriate ending to this sketch is found in the chapter entitled "Bloomingdale-
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Last View of Harsenville," in From the Battery to Bloomingdale:
September, 1873 .- Five years ago, I [Mrs. Greatorex]" made my first picture of this old home of the Harsen family. The lane leading to it from the Bloomingdale Road (now the Boulevard) is rougher and has a larger growth of weeds than it then had; but the place is kept neatly and its tenant for forty-five years, Madame Canaux [should be Canal] comes to the door with the same kind welcome. We beg to sit with her in her kitchen, so cool and bien propre, where we find shade from the intolerable heat and glare and from its windows we look at the Hudson and the opposite shore of Guttenberg. The sloops and steamboats pass up and down the river, over which the soft golden haze (first indication of the coming autumn) is hanging. We can forget the hard pavements and the weary rows of new houses on the other side and think, as we see around us the fields, the trees and the broad peaceful river, that we are still in unaltered Bloomingdale. · Madame's husband rented this house and the farm belonging to it and they began their life of honorable and lowly toil. She had brought with her from Havre her skill in fine laundry and the making-up of delicate laces. The husband tilled the ground, making it a pro- ductive and profitable market-garden. She worked for the ladies in the neighborhood as well as for some families in the city and her remembrances of and comments upon some of the grandes-dames of the time were both clear and sharp. . . We must leave Madame Canaux now, having much to say of the Harsen house and its owners. The hall is the most interesting part of the dwelling, with a wooden arch and low ceiling. It is roomy and sub- stantial and with furniture to correspond with its age, it might yet be made a comfortable dwelling; and as we have said, the view from the west side, where the picture shows the distant trees and a bit of the river, is very lovely,
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and still almost unobstructed. The Harsen fam- ily had borne earnest share in the work of the early colony and of the settlement and progress of the City of New York. Their old home, behind its foreground of ruder houses, rocks and trees, still rises tranquil and sheltered; but its history as the home of the Harsens is forever closed and past.
Philip Webbers
This family came from Amsterdam. Wolfert Web- ber or Webbers, the pioneer, a putative scion of royalty, reached New Amsterdam early in its history with his wife Anna, daughter of Jan Walles deceased. His father bore the same name and his mother Annetje Selijns, the daughter of Neisgen Selijns the widow of Hendrik Coek or Koeck, mentioned the daughter in her will of May 25, 1610. On April 2, 1650, he was granted by Stuyvesant a piece of land lying "beyond the Fresh Water," between the land of Cornelis Jacobsen Stille and the valley or meadow ground. This farm was located between present Chatham (Park Row) and Madison Streets and ran from Pearl to James Streets. This district took its name from the beautiful pond long known as the Kolch, corrupted by the English into Collect, and which the Dutch usually spoke of as the "Versche water," or fresh water. The outlet into the East River flowed through a consider- able expanse of swamp and meadow land, the latter being designated as Wolfert's meadows and the low land as Wolfert's valley. In 1657 he complained that his neighbor Stille had torn down the partition fence repeatedly. Both brought charges at the trial, in- volving the breaking of another fence in the valley, the stealing of the "hammer of the plough" and the wheel of a wheelbarrow. The Worshipful Schepens Jan Vinje and Willem Beekman were directed to inspect
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the premises and to issue such orders as the occasion required. Numerous entries in the Court Minutes are found in which Wolfert was a party. For instance: this curious complaint was entered against Judith Verleth.1 in 1655: Wolfert stated that she had for a long time pestered him. She came with her sister Sara over to his house last week and beat him and afterwards threw stones at him. He pleaded that said Judith be warned to let him live quietly in his own house. On May 8, 1657, we find that Nicholas Verleth complained of Webber about a pile of stone, saying, "If anybody removes what belongs to another without his knowledge it is thieving. My father de- posited some stone by the Fresh Water Pond before his own door and Webber removed it, whereupon we had words and Webber promised to deliver other stone instead; we want him ordered to bring back to this same place the same stone." The Court directed said stone to be returned within eight days. Again, Webber undertook in the same year to prevent Albert Albertsen, the employer of his son, from sending him on business to Pavonia (Jersey City), inasmuch as the agreement was that he should be employed only in the capital. Because of the danger to be expected " both by water as from the Indians, of which he has had a sample" he demanded that the defendant be ordered to employ the son in the city or else to send him back home. Should any misfortune happen him, either in passing over the river or from the savages or otherwise, he, as his father, had done his duty in giving this notification and would avenge himself on
1 Judith was the daughter of Casper and Judith Verleth, and in 1666 married Nicholas Bayard. Nicholas, her brother, married Anne Stuyvesant.
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defendant. The latter stated that he had hired the boy to reside with and serve him, unconditionally, which statement the plaintiff controverted and was ordered to produce proof at the next Court day. This ends the case as far as the records define.
In 1655 his "little daughter," Sara, was captured by the Indians, but was released with those first set free. Two old Bibles which she had received from her captors and which had been claimed and taken from her after her return home became the subject of a con- troversy. Her mother averred at the investigation in November that they had been wrongly taken by defendant's wife. The latter's husband testified that certain handwriting therein proved them to have been his books " before the late trouble with the Indians." The Court ordered restitution but required defendant to pay the girl 5 guilders for "the carrying of, and incurred trouble with, the said Books." On January 12, 1656, said money was deposited and on the next day Webber accepted and received it for his daughter. She married (1) April 1, 1661, Laurens van der Spiegel, a young man from Vlissengen, a man of considerable property, says Valentine's History of the City of New York, who on the reconquest by the Dutch, became a Schepen Aug. 17, 1673. The ceremony took place at the house of the bridegroom's aunt, Christina Capoens, widow of Capt. Jacob Hey, who had become the wife of David Jochemsen from Amsterdam, August 5, 1659. Her will, dated June 17, 1687, names her " cousin," Hon. Rip van Dam, Merchant, as an exe- cutor. He married Sara van der Spiegel, born Dec. 16, 1663, daughter of Laurens and Sara Webbers, on Sept. 24, 1684. The latter married (2) Johannes Provoost, widower of Sara Staets, June 25, 1685. He
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had been the first Comptroller of the Windmill, near the North River shore and Assistant Commissary of Stores at New Amsterdam. On his removal to Fort Orange (Albany) in 1656, he had served as Town Clerk, dating from Sept. 28th of that year, to which office he had been reappointed Oct. 6, 1673. At the date of his marriage he returned to the capital and there he married (2) Anna Mauritz, widow of Domine Wilhelmus van Nieuwenhuysen.
In Sara's will 1685 she designated "her cousin, the honorable and well-learned Domine Henricus Selijns" as tutor and guardian of her minor children. He was the father of the Protestant Reformed Dutch Church hav- ing secured its charter-the first issued in the colony -and at his death in 1701 was the minister at New York. His second wife was Juffrou Margaret de Riemer, widow of the Hon. Cornelis Steenwyck. He sustained a high character as an able and faithful minister and was distinguished for his literary acquirements. Steen- wyck served as Schepen, Burgomaster, Mayor, Orphan Master, and Councillor of New Netherland. Margareta Selijns, the Domine's widow, in her will bearing date Jan. 25, 17II (Vide N. Y. His. Soc. Abstracts, 1893, page 115) makes this provision :
To the children of Wolfert and Arnout Webber, the pictures of the father and mother of my late husband, Domine Selijns and the pictures of my said husband and his brother and his when they were children. And the picture of the father and mother of my said husband's first wife. All of which pictures are to be sold at auction and the highest bidder among the said grantees and the money to be divided among them.
The famous Anneke Jans has been claimed in some quarters to have been an aunt of the above devisees.
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It is asserted that she and Wolfert Webber, Sr., had the same father, viz., Jan Webber. Her mother and the mother of Marritje Jans [married (1) Thijmes Jansen, (2) Dirck Corneliszen, Aug. 28, 1646] was then Trijn Jansen (or Jonas) the first mid-wife at New Am- sterdam. This Holland custom was transferred to New Netherland about 1630. The daughter, Marritje, by the first wife, married Govert Loockermans, July II, 1649 and this would seem to account for the Webber- Loockermans relationship. Marritje Jans was sent to the Colony at the expense of the West India Com- pany and arrived with the first emigrants. The con- nection between her and the Webbers is explained in yet another way in The Goede Vrouw of Mana-ha-ta, which states that she was accompanied to New Am- sterdam by her son who was called Wolfert Webbers and two young daughters, with the additional informa- tion that these young people were said to be the grand- children of William IX., Prince of Orange. With the peculiar fashion of the day the last name of the family is spelled and rendered capriciously, sometimes being written Jans, at other times Jonas, while the son of Marritje Jans is called by the name of Webber. Not- withstanding the confusion it is a well authenticated fact that Annetje Webber (Jans) was the daughter of Marritje Jonas.
On May 3, 1660, an order was issued in council per- mitting the houses of said Wolfert and of Thomas Hall to remain and a village or hamlet to be formed near the bouwery of Augustyn Heerman or that of the Director-General on Manhattan Island (Calendar of Dutch MSS., p. 196). Wolfert and Hall owned a tract of land there in common. The latter entered com- plaint that the former put more stock on it than he
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was entitled to, and on Mar. 23, 1662 judgment was granted plaintiff and defendant was ordered to fence his share (vide, Ibid., p; 87). Webbers had con- siderable realty east of the Bowery besides the home- stead plot above mentioned (vide map in Hoffman's Estates and Rights, opp. p. 226). The latter property was confirmed by Governor Nicolls to Annette, his widow, June 18, 1670. It is known as No. 17 on the map in Valentine's History, etc., opp. p. 379, and became the Roosevelt Farm.
Beside the daughter Sara, Wolfert had two sons, Wolfert and Arnoúlt and two daughters, Anne and Hester. On Feb. 28, 1664 he and his wife, together with Sara and her husband, representing Hester and Arnout joined in conferring powers of attorney upon Anne, all of whom were co-heirs of Sara Depier, widow of Jan Walles, deceased at Monfoort for the purpose of receiving their inheritance (vide Hol. Soc. Year Book, 1900, p. 157). Hester Webbers of Amsterdam married Oct. 10, 1666, Pieter Abramszen van Deúren, and Anne of New York married Jacques Fonteijn of Boswijck, May 20, 1689. The eldest son Wolfert married Geertje Hassingh (Harsen) or, as she was also called, Grietje Warnardus. No record of the marriage has been found. Their children are noted in the Church Records, as follows:
Warnard,3 bap. Nov. 13, 1666. Wits. : Bernardús Hassing and Anna Wallis.
Anna, bap. July 4, 1671. Wits .: Laurens van der Spiegel and Aeltje van Couwenhoven. She m. Jacques Fon- teijn of Boswijck (Bushwick) as above stated. Both were living near the Fresh Water.
Hillegond, bap. March 25, 1674. Wits. Aernout Webbers and Hillegond Megapolensis. This sponsor was the
WOLFERT WEBBER'S BIBLE Printed at Dordrecht, 1710, reproduced by courtesy of Henry Vidal, Esq.
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daughter of Johannes Megapolensis, the Domine, who at the age of 39 was sent from Holland by the patroon in 1642 to officiate as minister at Rensselaer- wyck. His wife and four children, one of them Hille- gond, accompanied him. Her namesake became the wife of Philip Menthaer (Minthorne) of Vlissengen July 19, 1696.
Johannes, bap. Dec. 12, 1677. Wits. : Pieter Abrahamszen van Duúrsen and Saertie Webbers.
Bernardús, bap. Nov. 25, 1680. Wits .: Hendrik Corneliszen and Rebecca Idens.
Either this Wolfert or his father was at the colony on the Delaware in 1662 (vide Doc. His., N. Y., vol. xii., p. 381). Wolfert, Jr., served as Magistrate of Haerlem 1 in 1674, appointed Aug. 16th, under the Dutch and after the English conquest was Assistant Alderman in 1685, was named as such in the Dongan Charter the following year, and represented the Out- ward in 1688, 1689, and again in 1706 and 1707. He and his wife joined the Church in 1689 (Holland Soc. Year Book, 1896). A survey of "35 acres lying upon ye Island Manhattan at ye sand hills near the Bouwery laid out for Wolfert Webbers, Henrick Cornelius, and Bastiaen Elson" was made Oct. 26, 1677 by Ro: Ryder, Surveyor (Calendar Land Papers, p. 137).
That the founder selected a habitation better than he knew is evident from a survey of Washington Irving's well-known and appreciated narrative of the Golden Dreams of Wolfert Webber. The tale proceeds in this wise:
The Webber dynasty continued in uninterrupted
1 The Court of Haerlem was erected Aug. 16, 1660. The Treaty of Westminster signed Feb. 9/19, 1674, terminated the Dutch control.
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succession, and never did a line give more unquestion- able proofs of legitimacy. The eldest son succeeded to the looks as well as to the territory of his sire; and had the portraits of this line of tranquil potentates been taken, they would have presented a row of heads marvellously resembling in shape and magnitude the vegetables over which they reigned. The seat of gov- ernment continued unchanged in the family mansion :- a Dutch-built house, with a front, or rather gable end of yellow brick, tapering to a point, with the customary iron weather-cock at the top. Everything about the building bore the air of long-settled ease and security. Flights of martins peopled the little coops nailed against its walls, and swallows built their nests under the eaves; and every one knows that these house-loving birds bring good luck to the dwelling where they take up their abode. In a bright sunny morning in early summer it was delectable to hear their cheerful notes, as they sported about in the pure sweet air, chirping forth, as it were, the greatness and prosperity of the Webbers.
The apocryphal tale goes on to relate that Wolfert Webber did not continue to remain satisfied with his lot. The stories told at the tavern of the treasure buried by Capt. Kidd and other pirates got on his nerves. He began of nights to dig up his garden to the loss of the crops and soon he began to feel the pinch of poverty. With the consequent fall in ma- terial resources grew the fever of finding this hidden wealth. In this endeavor he and "a little dark mouldy man of medicine" whom he took into his confidence, went in a cockleshell of a skiff one inky night to the shores of the island lying opposite Hell- gate to a spot where rumor asserted golden stores were
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concealed. Their adventures should be read to re- ceive full appreciation. Suffice it to say that dis- appointment with a large D perched on their banners and the expedition returned home with no compen- sation for their trouble. But gradually the city spread its suburbs around the Webber domain. Houses sprang up to intercept their prospects. The rural lanes in the vicinity began to grow into the bustle and populousness of streets; in short, with all the habits of rustic life, the family began to find them- selves the inhabitants of a city. Before many months had elapsed, a great bustling street passed through the very centre of the Webber garden, just where Wolfert had dreamed of finding treasure. His golden dream was accomplished; he did indeed find an unlooked-for source of wealth; for when his paternal lands were distributed into building lots and rented out to safe tenants, instead of producing a paltry crop of cabbages, they returned him an abundant crop of rents; inso- much that on quarter-day, it was a goodly sight to see his tenants knocking at his door, from morning to night, each with a little round-bellied bag of money, a golden produce of the soil. The ancient mansion, instead of being a little yellow-fronted Dutch house in a garden, now stood boldly in the midst of a street, the grand house of the neighborhood, for Wolfert enlarged it with a wing on each side and a cupola or tea-room on top, where he might climb up and smoke his pipe in warm weather. So he waxed old and rich and corpulent and Wolfert's dream was at last realized.
Arnoult 2 Webber of Amsterdam, married (1), Aug. 25, 1669, Ariaentje (Jannetje) Ariaens or Adriaens, a young woman from Brabant. They lived in 1686 near the Arme Bouwery (Poor Farm) and were members of
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the church that year. He owned and conveyed the Great Kill Farm in 1713, before it became the property of Matthew Hopper, in which family it remained for over seventy-two years. Issue:
Wolfert,3 bap. Nov. 14, 1670. Wits .: Wolfert Webbers and Anna Wallis.
Marritie, bap. Oct. 19, 1672. Wits .: Pieter Abra- hamsz van Duúrsen and Sara Webbers.
Adriaen, bap. Nov. 18, 1674. Wits .: Laurens van der Spiegel and Anna Wallis.
Wolfert 3 married Grietje (Margaret) Jacobs (Stille) Oct. 29, 1697. He was a large landholder in lower Bloomingdale. It is indeed possible that some of the wealth acquired as related in Irving's tale enabled the family to purchase these lands. His wife joined him in 1748 in conveying a plot near the Great Kill which became part of the Norton inheritance. He owned, besides, an immense tract on the east side of the Bloomingdale Road from 4Ist Street nearly to 49th Street, bounded north by the Hopper farm and east to Sixth Avenue and again on the west side of the Road from 43d Street to beyond 45th Street meeting the river at 51st Street. His heirs, viz .: Arnoút Webbers and Sarah, his wife, Jacob Webbers and Margaret, his wife, Frederick Webbers and Lena, his wife, Cornelius Webbers and Jannetje his wife, Ariente van Arden (late Ariante Webbers), Altie Somerindicke (late Altie Webbers) and Margaret Webbers, daughter and heir of his deceased son John, conveyed this entire property, Oct. 6, 1759, for £1500 (L. 42, Conv. 27). It does not add to the joy of mundane affairs to dwell on what the fates have in store nor what might have been, but had this territory been retained, the Webbers would have outclassed many
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present day landed proprietors. Wolfert's golden dreams, in this instance miscarried. In 1740, his sons, Arnout, Frederick, Cornelus, and Isaac were admitted as Freemen. Issue:
Aernout, 4 bap. May 22, 1698. Wits. : Wolfert Webbers, Sr., and Classje Jacobs, m. Sarah Romein, Oct. 7, 1733, who was the widow of Samuel Minthorn whom she m. Sept. 30, 1727. Arnout's will dated Aug. 3, 1776, was proved in 1784 (L. 37, Wills, 187). All the children detailed below are mentioned therein with the exception of the first named. He had a grand- daughter, Grace Stilwell, also. Issue:
Margrietje,5 bap. April 21, 1734. Wits .: Wolphert Webbers and Ariaantje Webbers, wife Jo- hannes van Norden; m. William Laffra, Mar. 10, 1761 and d. before 1776; no issue.
Hillegonda, bap. Nov. 28, 1736. Wits .: Philip Minthorne and Annatje Ral his wife; m. Nov. 9, 1760, David Banta.
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