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 27
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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
THE HAVEMEYER MANSION AT COLUMBUS CIRCLE As it appeared when used as a home and school for soldiers' children, 1864
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remains were interred in the churchyard of the first Presbyterian Church. Mrs. Kip d. before the Dom- ine and two sons and three daughters survived them.
Stephen N. Bayard was a subscriber and a pew- holder in the second House of Worship. He m. Mary, sister of Abraham K. Beekman, who survived her husband and d. Dec. 2, 1831, intestate and without issue. Bayard was much interested in the introduc- tion of canals in New York, and one of his early trips into the interior of the State took place in 1791, when he was accompanied by Jeremiah van Rensselaer, Gen. Philip van Cortlandt, and Elkanah Watson, with the object of scrutinizing opinions on the subject of inland navigation. Watson was a projector of the canal system and of agricultural societies. In 1814 Bayard had an office at 69 Pearl Street and a residence on the Bowery at the Two-Mile Stone.
Frederick Christian Havemeyer had previously attended divine service, but it is not known that he owned a pew before 1831. He lived at present Colum- bus Circle, having acquired in 1817 for $2100 blocks Nos. 23 and 24, which had been set off to Hyder Somer- indyck in partition. This land lay between 57th and 59th Streets from Broadway to Ninth Ave. and thereon he built his mansion. He and his brother William came from Germany in 1799 and were the ances- tors of the two branches of the family in New York. They founded the firm of Wm. and F. C. Havemeyer, which engaged in sugar-refining there in 1807, in Van- dam St., in which year the son of the junior partner, bearing his father's name, was born, and became the father of Henry Osborne Havemeyer. F. C. Have- meyer, Sr., d. intestate Sept. 20, 1841, leaving him sur-
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viving his widow Catherine and these children who were communicants, viz .:
Frederick C. Havemeyer, Jr., who after spending two years at Columbia College entered the paternal es- tablishment as an apprentice. In 1828 he became associated with his cousin William in the firm under the original style, and after the death of his father undertook the management of the latter's large estate. For some years he travelled thereafter, when he again entered business and in 1855 organized the firm of Havemeyer, Townsend & Co., which later became Havemeyer & Elder. In 1831 he m. Sarah Osborne, daughter of Christopher Townsend, one of his business associates.
Charlotte, wife of William I. Eyer.
Catherine E., wife of Warren Harriot. The name Harriot appears in the church records.
Susanna W., wife of Henry Senft.
Mary R., who intermarried with John I. Northrop in Feb., 1850.
Charles H., had a wife Mary.
Diederich M., had a wife Mary.
George L., had a wife Eliza.
Edward A., had a wife Sophia S. and d. s. p. April 2, 1853.
Certain lots of their father's realty purchase were sold as the result of a partition suit commenced in the Supreme Court Dec. 13, 1852. The Mansion was used as a home for soldiers' children during the Civil War.
Thomas J. Emmons had been m. by Dr. Gunn May 15, 1824, to Maria Shurtliff, and holds the palm for service, which extended over a period of forty-three years. His name appears first as a member in Oct., 1832, when he and his second wife, Emily Lindeman,
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joined the communion on confession. He was elected Deacon Jan. 21, 1838, and became Treasurer Nov. 29, 1843. In 1854 (Jan. 25) he was raised to the eldership; represented Consistory at Classis April 18, for the first time, and was appointed Clerk July 23, 1860. As Treasurer he was deputized to invest the proceeds of the sale of the original church lot the following month. The Board had met at his house desultorily, but beginning in 1868 it assembled there (No. 245 West 20th St.) regularly for fully two years, during which time the second House of Worship had been removed and the new Chapel opened for service. By his first wife, Maria, Mr. Emmons became the father of six children, viz:
William Thomas, Mary Catherine,
Horatio, were baptized by Dr. Gunn.
Maria; as she was ill the baptism was privately per- formed by Domine Kip in 1830.
Edward Augustus, bap. by Domine van Aken in 1836. Mary, bap. by Domine van Aken in 1838, the mother having died March 2d of that year.
The wife of Domine van Aken, Eliza W. Gulick, was taken into the fold Aug. 21, 1835, by certificate. On April 22, 1840, their son Gulick was born, and was baptized in September by John Knox, D.D. At the age of twenty-three he was m. by his father to Elizabeth Jennett, daughter of Capt. James and Jennett (Bogert) Kearny, in the presence of Archibald K. Kearny, Hamilton B. Holmes, and John Mc. Bogert. She was a descendant of John W. Kearny, who m. Anne daughter of Robert and Lady Mary (Alexander) Watts and d. in New York city Friday, May 24, 1907. Funeral services were held at Grace Dutch Reformed
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Church, 7th Ave, and 54th St., on the 27th at II A.M. Her husband joined the communion Feb. 6, 1856, served as assistant minister to his father for a time, was dismissed to the 23d St. Presbyterian Church in 1864, and d. Oct. 20, 1872. They had no issue. The Domine's brother John had two children baptized, according to the records: Alexander Gulick and Enoch. The former, when his uncle became incapacitated, was called in 1881 as associate pastor. Enoch m. Mary Farr Nov. 27, 1877, and his children, Enoch Chester and Harold, were baptized by the Domine.
The original owners of the territory which so largely composed Harsenville began to figure in the church history at an early period. James C. Somerindyke was m. by Dr. Gunn in 1817 and Mary Tates, his wife, became a member Aug. 4, 1837. On the same date a number of their children were baptized by Do. van Aken, viz .: Martha Elizabeth, Caroline, William Henry, Charles Lallemand and Whitfield Skellorn. Their first child, George, had been baptized in 1818 by Dr. Gunn. Domine van Aken married Caroline Somerin- dyke in 1850 to Thomas Shepherd and baptized her son Thomas Franklin in 1854. Cornelia Somerindyke of Haerlem, the wife of Arthur McCarter, joined the communion Nov. 14, 1835, and her husband followed her example Feb. 3, 1837. George W. Somerindyck, son of John Somerindike (in all of which ways the family name was spelled), the settler at Bloomingdale, joined May 1, 1840. He was the only one of his father's line who became connected with the church. The- ophilus Hardenbrook, whose brother William A. was the husband of George W.'s sister Margaret, was m. by Dr. Gunn. Another family who had large landed interests in the neighborhood, the Dyckmans, had
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removed from Bloomingdale prior to the founding of the Church.
The Leggetts were a branch of the noted West- chester family. Isaac Leggett of Bloomingdale m. Barbara, a daughter of Charles and Catherine Kelly, whose farm adjoined the Webbers tract on the south. This was a part of Wolfert Webbers's land mentioned in the chapter "The First Consistory," which Deacon Webbers sold to said Kelly in 1792. Catherine Kelly, the wife, d. July 3, 1800, leaving her husband and these children : Catherine Feitner, Barbara Leggett, and Mary, wife of Francis Child, Jr. Charles Kelly divided the tract vested in him into six lots, three fronting on the Bloomingdale Road and three on Verdant Lane, later Leggett or Feitner Lane. Two of these lots he conveyed to each of his three daughters above named. That to Barbara Leggett was dated 1798. John H. Dusenberry purchased a portion of it in 1825 (he had been m. to Sarah Leggett in 1818 by Dr. Gunn) and the balance was sold to David S. Brown in 1833. Mrs. Leggett joined the organization in 1840 and d. March 29, 1841, a widow, her husband having passed from earth during the previous year. Their children had been baptized by Dr. Gunn, to wit: John William, Kelly, Mary Ann, Jane, William Varian, Barbary Ann, Henrietta, and Tamar Varian. The Varian connection will be noted, Mayor Varian's mother being a Leggett of West Farms. Do. van Aken m. the above-men- tioned Tamar Varian Leggett to Charles Wilmott, both of Bloomingdale, in 1841.
Catharine Feitner received a deed of her portion in November, 1802. Her husband Francis Feitner, d. Jan. 4, 1833, and she Oct. 19, 1834. She left her sons Peter and Charles executors. Besides these elder children
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there were Elizabeth, wife of Balaam Ackerman, Fran- cis, Jr., George, Hannah wife of John Cornish, Daniel, and Catherine Ann. Domine van Aken m. Daniel, 1838, to Mahala Clinn and their daughter Mary Cathe- rine to Lawrence Deyo of Shawangunk, N. Y., 1864. The Feitners were of German ancestry. Of the sons John had a wife Hannah, and George Elsey, in 1835.
There were two Wilson families in Harsenville. The one of which we ken is that of Jotham who came from New London,, Conn. in his "teens." He m., 1827, Sarah, the daughter of Richard Darke, who was bap- tized by Dr. Gunn in 1815. In the Governor's room at City Hall hangs a copy of the Declaration of In- dependence in Mr. Wilson's handwriting, dedicated to the N. Y. Public School Society. His wife was born on the present triangle lying between 72nd and 74th Streets, Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, before the streets were opened. Wilson lived at 64th St. and the Bloomingdale Road and here all his children but one were born. It took two pews to accommodate his numerous progeny. Being a Baptist, none of the family were baptized by the minister and none became members. The names of the twelve children were Jotham, Jr., Richard, Monmouth, John b. in N. J., Maria, George, Emma, Charles, Elizabeth, Jacob, William, and Kate. Maria was m. by Do. van Aken in 1862 to Isaac D. Blake, a native of Boston, Mass., resident in New York. Her brother George has been for many years the genial Secretary of the N. Y. Chamber of Commerce. Monmouth Wilson was at one time a Fire Commissioner.
The Darkes were English and were never naturalized. Besides Sarah Wilson, who was the eldest of the family, Richard Darke and Maria his wife had Henry and Maria,
L ..
Very Mily
ers
Portrait and signature of Pelatiah Perit, Esq., 20th President of the Chamber of Commerce; reproduced by courtesy of Mrs. W. S. Gilman
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who were baptized by Dr. Gunn in 1815. Maria, the mother, died March 28, 1818, aged 37, and was buried in St. Michael's churchyard. Richard Darke, Jr., joined the communion Feb. 5, 1819, and a number of his children were baptized at St. Michael's in 1834. He d. that year and his widow, Elizabeth Holmes, entered the fold at Harsenville in 1853, and d. Apr. 16, 1859. John Darke and Margery Moore had John Moore, bapt. 1831 by Domine Kip; Mary Thompson, bapt. 1832 by Rev. John AlBurtis; and Helen Maria, bapt. 1833 by Rev. Wm. Labagh. Domine van Aken bapt. five children of Charles Darke, Sr. and Temperance Rebecca Hayden, his wife, in 1840 and another in 1841. He married George Darke and Mary Isabella Martin in 1841 in presence of Charles Darke and William B. Holmes. His wife was the daughter of George Martin who d. in 1831. Hannah Smith, his widow, joined Aug. 5, 1831, and was afterward the wife of James Ri- ker. Besides the daughter Mary Isabella he left a son Jonathan C. Martin. George Martin in 1819 acquired a portion of the John Horn piece of the Hopper Farm which was partitioned in 1845, one of the commission- ers appointed for that purpose being Thomas Addis Emmet.
The first mention the records make of Pelatiah Perit is in 1836, when he served on a special committee. He had that year purchased the Samuel Adams Lawrence property and moved into the Mansion with his second wife, Maria, the daughter of Daniel L. Coit of Norwich. who, for a short time, in the early part of the last century, was a merchant in New York of the firm of Howland & Coit. A Presbyterian by faith he took a pew at once and immediately entered into church work with enthusiasm. Then, at the age of fifty-one
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and childless, his interest in the orphans, who attended services there, grew during his residence contiguous to the Asylum and led him to teach Sabbath-school both at the institution and the Church. He was a power both by inclination and in a financial way. The son of John Perit, a merchant and a descendant of one of the earlier ministers of the French Huguenot Church of New York city, he was born at Norwich, Conn., his mother being a daughter of Pelatiah Webster, a Yale graduate of 1746 and a merchant in Philadelphia dur- ing the latter part of the XVIII century. Young Perit entered Yale at the age of thirteen (1798) and graduated four years later. He came under strong religious in- fluences while a student and at the close of his course expected to study for the ministry. This purpose had to be abandoned because of the partial failure of his health. In his nineteenth year he became a clerk in an importing house in Philadelphia, in the interest of which he made several voyages to the West Indies and South America. He used to describe the pleasure he experienced while escorting Alexander von Hum- boldt about the city on the explorer's arrival from Mex- ico, who came with introductions to the house where he was employed. In 1809 he removed to New York city and formed with a kinsman the firm of Perit & Lathrop. This partnership did not long survive, and Mr. Perit entered the house of Goodhue & Co., with which he remained connected until his retirement from business. This famous Quaker firm had an unsur- passed reputation in the shipping and commercial trade with merchants in widely distant countries, and had confidential relations with houses of distinction throughout the world. Mr. Goodhue had a country- seat in Bloomingdale Village as early as 1824. Its
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exact location has not yet been fixed. Mr. Perit's name never appeared in the title of the firm, but his connec- tion with it was well known. The part he had in con- ducting its wide correspondence kept him interested in the commercial progress of every country and led to the maintenance of a wide acquaintance in different parts of the globe. His business life developed an- other element of his character-an earnest interest in religious and philanthropic enterprises and particularly in everything which pertained to the advancement of Christian missions and the welfare of seamen. A mere enumeration of the unpaid positions to which he was called and to which he devoted a great deal of time would show how varied and how consistent were his labors for the good of his fellow-men. At different times he was President of the American Seaman's Friend Society, a trustee of the Sailors' Snug Harbor, and President of the Seamen's Bank for Savings. He was director, likewise, of many of the missionary and benevolent societies to which the Presbyterian Church gave its support. For forty years he was an officer of the American Bible Society, either as manager or vice-president. His one political office was in 1857, when the peace of the city was seriously endangered by a contest between the "Municipal" and the "Metro- politan" police. Appointed a member of the Board of Police Commissioners his fairness and good sense were serviceable in the restoration of order.
Mr. Perit served as twentieth President of the Cham- ber of Commerce, the influence of which was very marked during his term and especially in the early years of the Civil War. Two events which occurred at this time were very noteworthy and gave him an op- portunity to display his social abilities in a marked
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way, namely the reception of the Prince of Wales and that of the Japanese Embassy. His manners were reserved and dignified and his stature of nearly six feet and well-proportioned figure gave him a commanding presence when called on to preside at public meetings. He was a constant reader of reviews and historical and theological writings, but his chief title to fame is as a man of affairs, whose mind was inspired by an intelligent and systematic interest in the progress of mankind. He was a patriot who did much in leading the name and influence of his country to the support of the best ideas in religious, moral, political, diplo- matic and financial lines. The Calvinism of his Hugue- not ancestry and the financial bent of his grandfather were apparent in his long career. A few years before his death he began gradually to withdraw from business cares, and in 1859-60 sold his Bloomingdale property and built a house in New Haven, Conn. He died there March 8, 1864, but his widow survived for many years. In Hunt's Merchant's Magazine for April, 1864, can be found a commemorative discourse by Dr. Leonard Bacon.
The original Presbyterian Church of Bloomingdale was organized in 1853 through the instrumentality of Mr. Perit. Some members of the Church at Harsen- ville and others who had been affiliated with the Presby- terian Church or whose early training and inclination leaned toward that denomination met together for the purpose, and the society then and there formed maintained at first religious meetings in the houses of members. The only communicant of the Dutch Church who withdrew with Mr. Perit, as far as we know, was Jane Somerville. She had a pew there and joined Oct. 30, 1840, during the tenure of Domine van
COO
ORIGINAL EDIFICE OF THE PARK PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 1854 N. B .- The location of the present church as stated on page 381 should read 86th St. and Amsterdam Avenue
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Aken. Her children were at this time connected with the newer church. A modest frame edifice was built a few years after the organization "in the fields" near 84th St. and Eleventh (West End) Avenue. The approach was by way of present 85th Street, "across lots and around a little hill." The site was open on all sides and a view of the church was easily obtained from a distance. James Lenox assisted financially and otherwise in the enterprise, as did Dr. Patton, afterward of Princeton. The first pastor was I. S. Davison, D.D. Lewis C. Bayles was called March 12, 1862, and installed April 23. His parents lived in a Gothic cottage which stood on the northwest corner of 79th Street and West End Avenue until very recent times. Mr. Bayles was obliged to seek health in Cali- fornia and died, a young man, at San Francisco of consumption, Aug. 15, 1864. The Rev. Anson P. Atterbury, D.D., who had been connected with the society for a year previously, succeeded to the pastor- ate April 20, 1880. It was largely through his efforts that the present beautiful building of the Park Pres- byterian Church, at 84th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, was erected. It may appropriately be called a child of the Bloomingdale Reformed Church.
The records, in Domine van Aken's hand, say that Caspar Meier had "communed here for many years, but never fully united with us till now," Aug. 3, 1838. He had been elected Elder, June 2Ist, and served until his decease. The Consistory, following the custom, met at his house on occasion, and he officiated for a time as Clerk. He came of families well known and distin- guished. The eldest son of Diedrick Meier, Senator and afterwards Burgomaster of the city of Bremen, and his wife, the daughter of Diedrick Smidt, Burgomaster,
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he was born there Sept. 20, 1774. In his twenty- second year he took passage on the Olive, J. Hovey, Jr., master, bound for New York, where he arrived Sept. 7, 1796. In October, he obtained a situation with the house of Peppin & Satterthwait, merchants, at 87 Water Street, which he left nine months thereafter to enter upon mercantile life on his own account. He now returned to Germany to seek connections with business houses there. In his diary he notes the day of his return, Oct. 12, 1798, as the date of his establishment as a merchant, with a store in Gouver- neur Lane, near Water Street. In 1801, he married Eliza Catherine, daughter of the Rev. John Christo- pher Kunze, D.D., Pastor of the Lutheran Church, and granddaughter of the Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlen- berg, D.D., the patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America, and on Feb. 12, 1803, became a citizen. The following year he hired from the Fisher family their abode (the Somerindyck house at the Road and present 75th Street), where his eldest daughter was born. This experience with Bloomingdale was so agreeable that in 1807 he bought five acres on the river located between what came to be designated as 118th and 119th Streets, and built a summer residence which in 1812 became his permanent home. In 1823 he enlarged it to nearly twice the original size and later added a front gable in order to provide rooms for his two grandsons while on vacation. The arrangement of the grounds was formal according to the taste of the times; a lane led from the Bloomingdale Road gate in a straight line toward the front door, bordered by cherry trees and curved around a circle flanked by a hedge and flower garden. On either side of this lane were fenced pasture lots with borders of apple and pear trees, and a stable
Jan
Meren
Portrait and signature of Caspar Meier, Esq., founder of Oelrichs & Co., from the original painting in the Chamber of Commerce
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to the north. Fine large weeping willows stood around the house; hence the name "Willow Bank." A dense growth of forest trees extended down the steep slope to the river's edge, through which an opening allowed of a superb water view. The pro- perty remained thus with little change until con- demned for Riverside Park. Mr. Meier died there Feb. 2, 1839.
He was a director of the N. Y. Mutual Insurance Co. and a vice-president of the German Society, in the founding of which his father-in-law, Dr. Kunze, had been prominent. A member of the Chamber of Com- merce, his portrait painted in 1824 adorns its gallery. He also held the post of Bremen consul at this port from June 12, 1827, until 1837. The business which he founded became in 1800 C. &. H. H. Meier, the junior partner being his younger brother, who reached New York in 1799. The firm's name was changed in 1826 to Caspar Meier & Company, Laurence Henry von Post, whom he found in Bremen on one of his visits, having become a partner. In 1836, Herman Oelrichs was admitted. The surviving partners would have retained the style of the old house had the law of New York at that time permitted such use after the owner had ceased to be a member, so on Feb. 14, 1839, the title was changed to L. H. von Post & Oelrichs. The senior partner having died the following December, George Wm. Kruger was taken into partnership and the firm became Oelrichs & Kruger. On the latter's retirement in 1850, the name was again altered, to Oelrichs & Co. (composed of Herman and Edwin A. Oelrichs), which it has since retained. The business is now in the hands of Caspar Meier's grandson, Her- man Caspar von Post, who has been its senior since
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1861, and his great-grandson Gustav Henry Schwab. Mr. Meier's issue were :
Henrietta Margaret, b. 1804, m. by Dr. Gunn to Laurenz Henry von Post, May 24, 1827. Their son, Herman Caspar was baptized by the same minister May 24, 1828, the anniversary of the union. The father was the son of Simon Hermann von Post of Bremen, where he was born Feb. 3, 1800. He died at Havana, Cuba, Dec. 19, 1839, while on a trip for his health. His wife had died in 1836. Mr. von Post succeeded to the office of Bremen consul in 1837, which position was held by a member of the firm as long as the consulate existed at this port. After his death, Herman Oelrichs held it, after whom came Edwin A. Oelrichs and then Gustav Schwab. H. C. von Post married, in 1853, Jane Scott, daughter of William Whitlock, Jr.
Emily Maria, b. 1806, m. by Dr. Gunn to Albert Smith, M.D., who was born in 1798 and d. 1884. She had died in 1872.
John Diedrick, b. Dec. 22, 1807. He accompanied his brother-in-law, Mr. von Post, to Bremen in 1826 and there entered the office of H. H. Meier & Co., his uncle's firm. He received his education at Dr. Eigenbrodt's school at Jamaica, L. I., and afterwards at Columbia College. His father decided to send him abroad, so he remained at the latter institution but two years. Returning home toward the end of 1830, he entered the family office, where he became a partner in 1832. He died, unmarried, May 21, 1834.
Eliza Catherine, bap. by Dr. Gunn, 18 14.
Mary Kunigundi, bap. by Dr. Gunn, 1816. She m., 1841, James Punnett (1813-1870), President of the Bank of America. She d. 1902. She lived at "Wil-
Portrait of his wife Cornelia de Peyster Livingston By courtesy of the late Mrs. Charles Havens Hunt
LA Livingston
Portrait and signature of Gerard William Livingston, Esq.
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Among Old-time Families
low Bank" with her mother until her death in 1863, when the place was sold.
John Jasper of Londonderry, Ireland, settled in Harsenville in the early thirties. He lived on the west side of the Bloomingdale Road on the southwest corner of present 69th Street. He later bought land of Jacob Harsen on the Nevada Apartment site, and afterward the Isaac Caryl plot, which adjoined it on the south; and in 1847 built a two-story store which was the first brick building in the village and stood until the construction of the Nevada, which covered the block. Eventually he owned the entire triangle be- tween 69th and 70th Streets, the Road and Tenth Avenue, with the exception of the north corner, and sold his possession for $23,000 in 1874-5 to Rudolph Whitman. Domine van Aken officiated at his mar- riage to Catharine Thompson in 1837. Their first three children, viz., John, b. 1837, Maria, b. 1840, and George Washington, b. 1842, were baptized at St. Michael's Church; but the others, to wit, Robert Thompson, Harriet Ann, William Henry, Theodore Adee, Joseph Robinson, and Emma Angeline were baptized by Do- mine van Aken. John, the eldest son, served in the Board of Education for forty-five years, during part of which time he was Superintendent.
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