The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884 Volume I, Part 105

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed. cn; Brockett, L. P. (Linus Pierpont), 1820-1893; Proctor, L. B. (Lucien Brock), 1830-1900. 1n
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : W. W. Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1114

USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884 Volume I > Part 105

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).

SAMUEL BOWNE was born at Pelham Point, West- chester County, New York, in 1790. He was de- scended from the Bowne family of Flushing, Long Island, and the Pell and Rodman families of West- chester County.

After the death of his father, his mother removed with her family to the City of New York, and Samuel and Rodman Bowne at an early age acquired a knowl- edge of commercial and shipping interests, and com- menced business together at Catharine Slip.

In 1809, Rodman and Samuel Bowne purchased the New or Catharine Ferry, with all the boats, and ap- purtenances. At that time, passengers and freight were transported across the river to the foot of Main street, Brooklyn, by sail and row boats.

As the traffic of the ferry increased in importance, the two brothers devoted their time, energy and means to this enterprise, making Brooklyn their home, and dis- playing an unusual unanimity of purpose, which brought with it a marked degree of success.

In the year 1814 they had horse-boats built by Buck- master, of New York.

On page 433 we have quoted a notice of these boats, which appeared in the Long Island Star of Wednes- day, April 6th, 1814:

This was the first horsc-boat used on the river, and Catharine Ferry took the lead in the transportation of passengers and freight, and effected a revolution in ferry navigation.

The Paulus Hook boats were propelled by steam power ; and, after the introduction of the horse-boat referred to, the Fulton Ferry, as required by their lease, used a steamboat which cost over $30,000. Steamboats

were "expensive and troublesome, frequently getting out of order.

The Evening Post, of August, 1814, said in relation to the horse-boat :

"It is calculated to supersede the necessity and expense of steam, particularly for those short ferries."

The owners of Fulton Ferry were required, by their lease, to put another steamboat on their ferry, in 1819. They petitioned the Common Council of New York for leave to substitute a horsc-boat, which leave was granted ; and one after the pattern of those on Catha- rine Ferry was introduced and used after 1818. At that time, the horse-boat was as good as a steamboat ; and in times of ice, better. The second steamboat was not put on the Fulton Ferry until 1827. Steamboats were first introduced on Catharine Ferry in 1822. In the year 1824 the proprietors of Catharine Ferry in- troduced on the river the first single-hull steamboats. One was named the George Washington, the other the Independence.

Samuel and Rodman Bowne are referred to in the following quotation from an official document, embody- ing the report of the Ferry Committee of the Board of Aldermen of New York in regard to renewing their lease, dated March 28th, 1842.

"It is worthy of consideration that the present lessees of the Catharine and Main Street Ferry are not a numerous body of stockholders, upon whom a loss, large or small, might be averaged without serious inconvenience. They are, as appears by their petition, two in number. They have spent their youth and manhood, and have grown grey upon the ferry which they now occupy. They commenced their busi- ness with oars and sails, and have passed uninterruptedly as tenants of the Corporation, through all the various improve- ments in ferry navigation for the period of thirty-three years, and always to the entire satisfaction of the successive Com- mon Councils to which their applications for renewals have been made. While, therefore, these individuals ought not to receive any privileges or indulgences unwarranted by the public interests, the Common Council should not demand, as a condition of renewing their lease, a sum that, while it overrules a fair remunerating rent for this Ferry, may result in loss and detriment to them. The proximity of the Catha- rine and Main street to the Fulton Ferry, the last conducted by a powerful, numerous and wealthy combination, adds force to the arguments that caution should be used in impos- ing a rent which may prove exaggerated."

Samuel Bowne was of medium height, strongly and compactly built, and capable of great endurance.

He possessed great energy, was persistent of purpose and devoted to his business, rarely absenting himself. Strict integrity was his marked characteristic; and the esteem and confidence of his numerous employees and of the general community were his in the fullest mea- sure.

Atlantic Street, or South Ferry. In 1825, Charles Hoyt and associates, who were largely inter- ested in property in South Brooklyn, petitioned the

440

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

Corporation of New York for a new ferry between Old Slip, in that city, and Joralemon strcet dock, on Long Island.

The opposition of New York landholders, who feared the competition of cheap Brooklyn lots, with their own property, served to defeat this proposition, in the com- mittee to which it was referred. The assigned reason was that their contract with Messrs. Cutting & Fulton, pledged the Corporation not to permit any ferry to be established, south of Catharine Slip, to Brooklyn, dur- ing the time of that lease. A legal question was raised as to whether the word Brooklyn in that contract signi- fied the incorporated village, or the town of Brooklyn. Brooklyn people took the former view, which was sustained in written opinions by such authorities as

under pressure of the representatives of the upper wards, the petitions were denied by a vote of 9 to 5. Satisfied, at last, that no arrangement could be effected with the corporation of New York, the citizens of Brooklyn, in 1835, appealed to the Legislature. An act vesting the right of granting ferries in an impartial tribunal, was drawn, and was, after varying fortunes, on the eve of being passed, when the city of New York presented a remonstrance, in which, under mask of a liberal feeling towards Brooklyn, she consented to the establishment of another ferry south of Fulton street.

But when, subsequent to the adjournment of the Legislature, the corporation of New York were desired to fulfill their pledge, that body, instead of locating the New York landing at Old Slip, as had been desired

ATLANTIC STREET, OR SOUTH FERRY.

Chancellor Kent, Samuel Jones and Benjamin F. But- ler; and in 1827, the Ferry and Law Committees of the Common Council, reported jointly in favor of the estab- lishment of a new South Ferry, under condition that the lessees should indemnify the corporation against all damages under their covenant with the Fulton Ferry Company.

Finally, in 1833, the Fulton Ferry Company con- sented to the establishment of a new ferry, on condition of a yearly payment to them of $4,000, during the con- tinuance of the Fulton Ferry lease.

A new petition was now presented to the Common Council, and their committee reported that an addi- tional ferry, south of Fulton street, was called for by. public convenience. When brought up for discussion, however, other arguments and objections, of more or less ingenuity, were brought forward, and finally,

and expressed, placed it at Whitehall, the southernmost part of the city, a place manifestly inconvenient and unsuited to the wants of the public. On September 1st, 1835, therefore a lease for a ferry, from Whitehall Slip, New York, to, or near to, the foot of Atlantic street, Brooklyn, was granted to Lyman Betts, Conk- lin Brush, Charles Kelsey, Joseph A. Perry, Clarence D. Sackett, and Alpheus Sherman, for a term commenc- ing with the completion of the ferry accommodations at Whitehall, to May 1st, 1839, at a yearly rent of $1,000, and the city of Brooklyn, which erected piers for the ferry, at the foot of Atlantic street, charged seven per cent. on the disbursements of the corpo- ration.

The ferry was first opened for travel on May 16th, 1836. At the expiration of its first lease in 1839, the South Ferry was united to, and leased, with the Fulton

441

FERRIES.

Ferry to the New York and Brooklyn Ferry Company. The rental of the united ferries was $12,000. These leases were again renewed May 1st, 1844, by

FERRY HOUSE AT FOOT OF HAMILTON AVENUE.

the same corporation, then organized as the Brooklyn Union Ferry Company, at an annual rent of $30,500.

In 1854, its lease was renewed by the incorporated Union Ferry Company of Brooklyn, by which it has since been retained.

Hamilton Avenue Ferry. The ferry from the foot of Hamilton avenue, Brooklyn to the Battery, New York, was granted to the lessees and trustees of the Union Ferrics, Henry E. Pierrepont and Jacob A. Leroy, November 6th, 1846, at the nominal rent of $1,000 per annum (" for the better accommodation of funerals and passengers to Grecn- wood Cemetery "), at the solicitation, and for the benefit of the Atlantic Dock Company, who guaranteed the Union Ferry Company against any loss, in consequence of the trustees not having a legal right to run other ferries in connection with the Union.

Though run economically, the ferry lost $25,000, during the five years it was so run, which amount was rc- paid by the Atlantic Dock Com- pany. The affairs of the Company were at length wound up, and the franchises and property passed into the hands of the Union Ferry Com- pany, by whom it has since been run.

Wall Street Ferry .- Mr. Geo. S. Howland, in. 1846 made the first attempt to establish what is now known as Wall Street Ferry. He was a large owner of real estate in East Brooklyn, to which the line of Montague street and Myrtle avenue were a direct ap- proach. In order to open this approach he purchased

from the Pierrepont estate the remaining portion of their property on Montague street, removed the old Pierrepont Mansion, then standing on the line of the street, built a tunnel through the Heights, a stone bridge over Furman street, and graded the street to the river.

In these operations he associated with himself Messrs. William H. Packer, J. H. Prentice and Edgar J. Bartow. In the subsequent struggle to obtain the Ferry franchise, these gentlemen were greatly assisted by Mr. H. E. Pierrepont, who, though in no way interested pecuniarily, with his usual devotion to the best interests of the public, entered, heart and soul, into the project.

The application for a lease failed in the New York Board of Alder- men, owing to the opposition of property-holders in Wall street, and was then taken before the Com- missioners of Ferries, appointed under the act of 1845. The application to the Commissioners included a lease for the three old ferries, Fulton, South, and Hamilton avenue, and after much opposition on the part of New York, and some litigation, was at length allowed. When Howland & Co., finally determined to seek a lease from the city authorities, to avoid further opposition they

FERRY HOUSE AT FOOT OF MONTAGUE STREET.

sought it under other names, and it was finally granted to J. Sharp & Co., December 1st, 1853. Proving un- profitable, it was united to the Union Ferry Company and continued by them, though at an annual loss.

442

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

Over the five ferries conducted by the Union Ferry Company (the Fulton, Catharine, Wall, South and Hamilton Avenue), the passages made by individuals in a year, are estimated (including those who cross in vehicles), at 45,000,000-a number nearly equal to the whole population of the United States. When, to this, is added the number who cross the other ferries, from the eastern district of Brooklyn, the ag- gregate is indeed formidable, and the proper accom- modation and security of so many lives becomes a consideration of the highest importance. The mana- gers of the Union Ferry Company, as citizens of Brooklyn, and deeply interested in its welfare, as principal tax payers, with a full sense of the magni- tude of the trust committed to their care, have every motive to do their work well. On the five ferries not less than twelve hundred and fifty crossings of the river are made daily. The almost incredible immunity from accidents which these ferries have enjoyed for a period of over thirty years, is largely due to the pecul- iar skill, care, sobriety and fidelity of the pilots-a class of men carefully trained on the boats for this po- sition, and so rigidly sifted, that not more than one in twenty-five is ultimately accepted by the company.

The boats at present (1883) run by the company are seventeen in number ; large, strong and superior ves- sels in every respect, and regarded as models for other establishments. So strong are they, indeed, that no less than seven of them were required and taken by the government for war vessels during the recent civil war ; heavy batteries were mounted upon them, and they performed important and constant service-prov- ing, by their efficiency, the models of the famous " double-enders " built by the government during the war. Two of them, the Somerset and Clinton, after the close of the war, were repurchased by the company, and are now doing daily duty on the Wall street ferry.

Of these 17 boats, 14 are kept constantly running, and 3 are held in reserve, as relief boats, when either of the others needs repairs. The smallest is 500 tons, and the largest 658 tons. The smallest is 148 fect, and the largest 172 feet long. They have all powerful engines ; are heated by steam and lit by gas, and pro- tected against any danger of accident by fire, by every appliance that ingenuity or experience could suggest. The cost of these boats is from $50,000 to $77,000 each. When we consider that the services of nearly 400 men in all departments of labor and superintendence, are re- quired ; that repair-shops, spare boats, coal-depots, etc., must be maintained ; that large sums must be annually paid for leases to New York, and for private slips in both cities, besides the great and constant depreciation by wear and tear ; we can readily understand, that the five ferries, united, can be conducted at less expense than they could be separately, and that the union of these ferries is indispensable, in order that the five may be sustained by the receipts of all.

The Union Ferry Company, as at present managed, is no monopoly, but in fact the converse of a monopoly, inasmuch as under this system the five ferries are run at the lowest fare consistent with efficiency and safety; their revenues form a common fund which is applied to the support of all, so that the people of every sec- tion arc afforded their ferry accommodation at a uni- form price.

The Fulton ferry, as we have before shown, is the only one which more than defrays its expenses from its receipts ; and the other four ferries arc now sus- tained by the profits derived from that ferry.

In addition to these five ferries, the Union Ferry Company are connected with the history of the Gou- verneur and Roosevelt street ferries,

The Gouverneur Street Ferry, from Bridge street, Brooklyn, to Gouverneur strect, New York, was established by Messrs. Smith & Bulkly. In December, 1853 (together with the Wall, Catharine and Roosevelt ferries), it was united to the Union Company. Its lease expiring in September, 1856, was not renewed, and the ferry was discontinued January, 1857. .

The Roosevelt Street Ferry, from Roosevelt street, New York, to Bridge street, Brooklyn, was com- menced with three boats in June, 1853, by Mr. F. C. Havemeyer and others, who ran it, until December, 1853, when united, they sold out to the Union Ferry Company at $140,000, being a loss of over $30,000. In 1860, it was sold and run between Roosevelt street, New York, and South Seventh street, Brooklyn, E. D., by the Brooklyn Ferry Company, at an annual rental of $3,000, In 1867, a new ten years' lease was executed to the New York and Brooklyn Ferry Company, at $4,900 per annum,

Brooklyn Ferry Houses .- At eight of their land- ings the Union Ferry Company have erected commo- dious and even elegant buildings, the total cost of which has been about $395,000. Of those which are located in Brooklyn we present views. The present edi- fice at the foot of Fulton street was built in 1871 from designs by Mr. W. B. Olmsted, and cost, with founda- tions $138,000: Besides the waiting rooms, it contains the general offices of the company, store rooms, and a spacious Directors room in the second story. It is ap- propriately ornamented by a fine bronze statue of Robert Fulton, in a niche in the front of thic tower.

The Catharine Ferry building was designed by the same architect and erected in 1874, at a cost of $45,000.

The ferry house at Hamilton avenue was designed by Eidlitz, cost $32,000, and was built in 1861.

The Wall Street Ferry building was built by the original lessees of the ferry in 1853, but has been modi- fied and improved by the present company.

The present ferry buildings at the foot of Atlantic street, were designed by Mr. W. B. Olmsted, were erected in 1865, and cost $42,000.

Henry Cherreport

443

BIOGRAPHY OF HENRY E. PIERREPONT, Esq.

HENRY EVELYN PIERREPONT, Son of Hezekiah B. Pierrepont, Esq. (whose portrait and biography will be found on page 129 of this work), and his wife, Anna Constable, was born August 8th, 1808, on Brooklyn Heights, in the old Pierrepont mansion, memorable as having been Gen. Washington's head-quarters during the battle of Long Island. He has, from his youth, been one of the most active and useful members of the community, and associated in the management and pro- motion of its interests and institutions. He was at an early age sent to the boarding sebool of Mrs. Melmoth (see page 131), in what is now known as South Brook- lyn, and in 1819 to one of the best schools that has been known in the city of New York, eondueted by a French Emigre, M. Louis Bancel, where he remained for seven years, and among other acquirements, besides a general education, beeame thoroughly eonversant with the French and Spanish languages.

On leaving this academy, he was, and until 1833 con- tinued to be, constantly engaged in aiding his father and brother in the management of large landed interests in Brooklyn, and in the northern part of the State. In the latter part of that year, he visited Europe, making an extensive tour. This was before railroads had super- seded stage coaches, and diligences, and he consequently saw the regions he visited more thoroughly and delib- erately, than can be done by tourists now-a-days. He was in England during the agitations and riots, caused by the famous Reform bill. The letters which he took made him acquainted with persons very distinguished in rank and office, and gave him unusual facilities for social intercourse of most interesting eharaeter.

During his absence in Europe, Brooklyn had been transformed from a village into a city. A detailed plan of streets and squares becanie at once necessary, and Mr. Pierrepont was one of a committee, appointed by the corporation, to prepare such plan. Having carefully examined those which had been adopted in Edinburgh, Marseilles and Carlsruhe, three of the best arranged citics in Europe, he sought to provide for Brooklyn a similar system, including among others, two diagonal avenues which he recommended, one from the corner of Fulton and Sands street to Bedford, and the other from the City Hall toward New Utrecht and Bath. He pro- posed also the laying out of 200 acres on Gowanus Hills for a rural cemetery; and also selected a site on Oeean Ridge, as suitable for an Astronomieal Observa- tory, then contemplated in Brooklyn. It was found, however, that the plan for the laying out of the eity, by the citizen's committee, eould not legally be enforced. Commissioners were then, in 1835, appointed by the Legislature, whose plan, which was mainly that of the eitizen's committee, was established by the Legislature as the permanent plan of the City. It omitted, how- ever, the diagonal avenue towards Flatbush, but in- cluded the other avenue which Mr. Pierrepont had suggested, from the City Hall to New Utrecht; but it

was afterwards abandoned, as it would have passed through the ground seleeted for Greenwood Ceme- tery.

Mr. Pierrepont took much interest in providing a cemetery suitable for the city, and while abroad, in 1833, studied earefully the arrangements of Pere La Chaise in Paris, and the Campos Santos in Italy ; both of which he regarded as inferior to Mount Auburn at Boston, which he visited in 1832; and whieh, especially by the character of its grounds, suggested to him the special fitness of the beautiful hills of Gowanus (with every part of which he was familiar), on which Green- wood Cemetery has sinee been established. With a few other gentlemen, aided by the accomplished engineer, Major D. B. Douglas, he labored assiduously for five years in effeeting that result. The enterprise was much impeded by the financial embarassments of the country in 1837, but the organization of the company was finally effected, and the cemetery received its charter in 1838. Mr. Pierrepont was its Vice-President ; and, on the retirement of its first President, the late Robert Ray, Esq., Mr. Pierrepont was appointed in his place. The late Joseph A. Perry, Esq., after its organization, devoted his whole life to the perfection of this beauti- ful necropolis, than which it is believed there is none in the world more beautiful. His excellent judgment, skill and admirable taste, ably seeonded from the beginning by Mr. Pierrepont, has made it what it is.

Mr. Pierrepont's life has been one of trusts, of which few men have earried a larger burden. He was among the early promoters, and has been at all times one of the most active Directors of the Brooklyn Savings Bank and the Brooklyn Hospital ; also of the Or- phan Asylum, and the other establishments of the Church Charity Foundation, and Trustce of its endow- ment funds. He was the first President of the Aca- demy of Music and of the Brooklyn Club ; director of the Brooklyn Trust Company ; of the Home Life Insurance Company ; of the Long Island Historical Society, and one of its building committee ; a patron of the Mercantile Library and of the Art Association; Warden of Grace Church; Delegate to the Long Island Episcopal Convention; and also of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. As manager, dur- ing 23 years, of the real estate and the finances of the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church, he redeemed the Institution from great embarassments, and did not resign his laborious post until it was in good condition. He is a Trustee of the Episcopal Fund; Trustee of the property belonging to the Diocese of Long Island, and President of Greenwood Cemetery.

Perhaps none of Mr. Pierrepont's services to the City has been more steady and important than that which he has rendered in connection with the ferries, which are so absolutely vital to the welfare of Brooklyn. In connection with the very able gentlemen, who have composed its board of directors, he has labored at all

444

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

times for the result which they have so conspicuously achieved, of creating and maintaining the most admir- ably conducted ferries in the world. On the death of his father he was appointed a Director in his place, and made Vice-President of the company and Chairman of its Executive Committee, and has continued in the active management of the ferries for more than forty years. During seventeen years, he and the late Mr. Jacob R. Le Roy were the lessees of the ferries from the City of New York. He has always given his time and services, as have the other Directors (except the three, who as its officers were occupied exclusively in its business), without fee or reward, or ownership of its valuable stock. As we have stated, on page 425, the first ferry to Long Island was established in 1638, from the present Peck Slip to the present foot of Fulton street, Brooklyn, and Cornelius Direkson (Hoaglandt) was the first ferry-master. He had a farm of sixteen acres on the Brooklyn side, near the ferry, and came at the call of a horn which liung against a tree, and ferried passengers across the river in a skiff, for the moderate charge of three stivers in wampum.

The son of Cornelius Dirckson Hoaglandt married Elizabeth, daughter of Joris Janssen de Rapalie. Their son, Adrian Hoaglandt, married Anna Byvanck, whose daughter, Belitie, married James Renaudet, of Philadelphia, Sept. 10, 1714.

Their daughter, Ann Renaudet, married Townsend White, whose daughter, Ann White, married Wm. Constable. Wm. Constable's daughter, Anna Maria, married Hezekiah B. Pierrepont.

Thus, their second son, Henry Evelyn Pierrepont, who has, for over forty years, been connected with the management of the Brooklyn ferries, has descended on the maternal side, in the seventh generation, from the first ferry-master.

We have named duties and action enough for one man's burden, but have named only the ligliter labors of Mr. Pierrepont's life. The very large landed prop- erty of his father, in the Counties of Oswego, Lewis, St. Lawrence and Franklin (some 500,000 acres of wild land), and in Brooklyn, required in its superintendence, development, sales and improvements, incessant vigi- lance, toil and good judgment; and in its partition, una- voidably protracted and complicated legal proceedings. For these services (other than those at law) he was par- ticularly trained, and educated by his father (since whose death, in 1838, the main charge has devolved on him), and made expert in surveying, mapping, and conveyan- cing, and in keeping the accounts with settlers, who were very numerous, on the Northern lands. Among the works he executed on the Brooklyn estate, was the excavation of Furman street; the building of a retaining wall of 775 feet in length, to sustain the Heights; the placing of a bulkhead on the water front, filled from the earth of the Heights, by which five acres of valua- able wharf property was created. This great load of

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.

The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884 Volume I, Part 105

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed. cn; Brockett, L. P. (Linus Pierpont), 1820-1893; Proctor, L. B. (Lucien Brock), 1830-1900. 1n Publication date: 1884 Publisher: New York : W. W. Munsell & Co. Number of Pages: 1114

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed. cn; Brockett, L. P. (Linus Pierpont), 1820-1893; Proctor, L. B. (Lucien Brock), 1830-1900. 1n
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : W. W. Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1114