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 152

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 152

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Mr. Stranahan has been connected with the great East River Bridge from the outset. He was one of the first subscribers to the stock ; was a member of the Board of Directors of the New York Bridge Company, and has served continuously as a trustec since the work came under the control of the two cities. In the Board Mr. Stranahan has exerted a deep and far-reaching in- fluence. He has served continuously as a member of the Executive Committee, and upon nearly all the im- portant special committees appointed during the con- struction. His audacity and originality often led him to inaugurate many progressive movements. By those familiar with Bridge affairs, he is accredited with the responsibility for the change made in the plans for the superstructure, by which the four middle trusses in the main span were raised so as to permit the passage across the railway of a Pullman car of the ordinary

height. This change, which involved an additional weight of about 200 tons, excited much adverse criti- cism at the time, but future experience will, no doubt, justify the wisdom of the step taken.

Next, perhaps, to Mr. Stranahan's foresight, his most remarkable quality is his patient waiting for results, after once adopting his best judg- ment. He understands and is patient with the views of those of less experience, knowing that further opportunities of observation on their part will en- lighten them as to the truth. His management of the Park employees, during the twenty-two years of his control of the Department, was a practical exemplifica- tion of the civil service reform.

In their ignorance of his methods in this matter, the public sadly misjudged him, and clamored for changes, whercas actual knowledge would have led them to ap- prove his course. The practical proof that he carried out in these affairs the principles of civil service reform, is the fact that at the time that he left the Park Com- mission, the foreman and clerks had been in the De- partment for the whole of Mr. Stranahan's term, and even the laborers avcraged five years' service each. In his private business, also (the Atlantic Docks), the terms of service of his employees range from ten to thirty years. Quoting the Brooklyn Eagle :

" Like all other men who are active in the community in which they live, and who do more than their share toward developing and enlarging its material interests, Mr. Strana- han has always challenged the enmity and opposition of a class of men who do their share of the world's work by con- tributing to its inertia; by retarding a progress which might otherwise be dangerous."

A perception of the course of progress, as well as his public spirit, always leads him to acquiesce in it, even when in opposition to his own interests. Although one of the most active of the promoters of the Brooklyn Bridge, its completion was directly opposed to his in- terests as an owner in the ferries and proprietor of the Atlantic Docks. Yet he never faltered in his earnest support of this measure, so necessary to the prosperity of the city. Mr. Stranahan has never abused the con- fidence placed in him in any of the numerous trusts he has enjoyed, nor has his integrity ever for a moment been questioned. Whatever complaints have been made apply to his judgment, and in no degree to his good faith. No better instance could be given of his uprightness in the management of public funds, of his incisive methods of business, or of his anxiety to pro- tect the interests confided to him, than his action in turning over the affairs of the Park Commission to his successors in the Board. Said the Eagle :

"With the displacement of Mr. Stranahan and his associ- ates, and the incoming of the new Board of Park Commis- sioners, expert accountants were employed by the city to examine the books and vouchers of the Park Department, running over a period of two and twenty years. The ac-

601

BIOGRAPHY OF HON. J. S. T. STRANAHAN.

countants found that nearly eight millions and a half of dol- lars had been expended by the Park Commission, and that the books failed to balance, there being an apparent dis- crepancy of $10,604. The Controller notified Mr. Stranahan on the 12th inst. of the result of the labors of the expert ac- countants. On the same day, and on the mere statement of the facts, Mr. Stranahan drew his individual check for the full amount of the apparent deficit, and balanced the books. The letter accompanying the check is characteristic. In it no attempt is made to place the blame on anybody, to evade responsibility, or to divide it with others. Mr. Stranahan was the Park Commission, and he accepts the same responsi- bility for the conduct of his Department as if, in its direc- tion, nobody except himself ever had any part. How the deficit was brought about is not known. That it runs through many years seems certain. No attempt was made to carry it over by false book-keeping from year to year, and no effort was made to cover it up. That there has been an actual loss to the city is not even clear. The books, the ac- countants say, were carelessly kept. That this is so is made apparent by the fact that fourteen checks are found to have been drawn by the Department, which have never been presented for payment. These checks enter into the deficit, and their payment is provided for in the money paid over by Mr. Stranahan. If these checks be deducted, the actual de- ficit is but little in excess of eight thousand dollars."

Mr. Stranahan has, in daily life, a genial appreciation of others, a sympathetic manner, and a keen sense of humor. He has a wit, based in his clear picturing of thought, which enables him easily to shift some feature of it and turn the whole into comedy; or, when not humorous, to make his conversation striking and pictur- esque. It has been said of him by a previous writer : " Looking at his face, you see that he is a man having a far-reaching intellect, and viewing his work, you be- come aware that he has not less resources of energy. A wise legislator, a promoter of great public works, a comprehensive man of business, a philanthropist, and a Christian, he has in each of these stations done an able part, which will adorn coming history, as well as the record of his own times." In appearance, Mr. Strana- han has the bearing of a dignified gentleman, wearing his years with courtly grace, and showing no diminu- tion of his wonderful intellectual powers. Personally, he is one of the most agreeable men to be met with in Brooklyn, and is well liked by all who come in contact with him.

Mr. Stranahan has been twice married. His first wife, Mariamne Fitch, was a native of Westmoreland, Oneida county, N. Y., and was a daughter of Ebenezer R. Fitch. They were married in 1837, and resided for three years at Florence, in the above county, when they removed to Newark, N. J., where their two children

were born ; and, in 1845, came to Brooklyn. She was a most excellent wife and mother, and a conscientious Christian woman, and was admirably fitted to adorn the high social position which she filled. Active in every good work, and of rare executive ability, she was unanimously chosen to preside over the " Woman's Relief Association," organized in Brooklyn in 1862, as an auxiliary to the United States Sanitary Commission. Her exertions in the organization and conduct of the great Brooklyn Fair (which raised half a million dol- lars for the benefit of the Union soldiers) were so assid- uous that her health became undermined, and, though she lived some three years afterward, this was, no doubt, the cause of her death, which occurred in August, 1866, at Manchester, Vermont.

His second wife, Miss Clara C. Harrison, is a native of Massachusetts. Before her marriage, she was well known in the best educational circles in Brooklyn, where, for several years, she and another lady were associated as principals of a private seminary for the higher education of young ladies, which numbered in its catalogue two hundred pupils and fourteen teachers and professors of the various departments. She is a lady of marked literary ability and attainment, her education having had the directing influence of both those great educators, Mary Lyon and Emma Willard. She was graduated from Mrs. Willard's far-famed Fe- male Seminary at Troy; the school where mathematics, as high as mathematical astronomy, and trigonometry, as the introduction thereto, were pursued by young ladies, and where Mrs. Willard maintained, in the face of much opposition, the study. on the part of her gradu- ates, of the five volumes of Dugald Stuart's Mental Philosophy. She also took an active part in the great Sanitary Fair as a member of both the Committee on Art and the Committee on the Post Office and Drum Beat, a paper issued daily during the continuance of the Fair, and of which Dr. Storrs was editor-in-chief. From the Post Office many hundred letters were dis- pensed of greatly varied character. A volume of autograph letters, chiedly from statesmen conspicuous at the time, collected and bound by her agency, brought some hundreds of dollars into the treasury of the Fair. Since her marriage, she has thrown her influence into the charities of the city, and has been for ten years president of the Kings County Visiting Committee of the State Charities Aid Society; and, for eleven, corresponding secretary of the Society for the Aid of Friendless Women and Children.

602

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

THE CEMETERIES OF BROOKLYN.“

BY THE EDITOR.

NORTHERN ENTRANCE TO GREENWOOD (FROM WITHIN).

Greenwood Cemetery .- In 1831, Mount Auburn Cemetery, near Boston, was established; and, probably, its suceess inspired the idea of a similar enterprise for New York and Brooklyn.

The bills of mortality showed an annual interment of nearly ten thousand; with the prospect that, in fifty years, the aggregate would amount to millions. New York presented no eligible spot for a cemetery, and at- tention was turned to the large unoccupied traets near Gowanus bay. These wooded heights attraeted the attention of Mr. Henry E. Pierrepont as a favorable site, as early as 1832, in which year he visited Mount Auburn; and his favorable impression was strengthened by his visits to the most celebrated European eeme- teries during the following years.

* Although cemeteries do not properly form a department of the municipal government, they are for convenience, and, by a certain law of association, presented here in connection with parks .- EDITOR.

The matter was first presented to the public in the autumn of 1835, by Major David B. Douglass, in a publie lecture, at the suggestion of Mr. Pierrepont. In 1837, steps were taken toward the establishment of a cemetery. The commercial and financial disasters of that year, and the change that had come over the pros- peets of dealers in real estate, favored the project; and large owners of real estate, who had become interested in the cemetery, were found willing to negotiate. In- formal preliminary steps were taken by Mr. Pierre- pont and by Major Douglass, and a petition to the Legislature, in the winter of 1838, was followed by an aet of incorporation, passed on the 18th of April, in that year. It ereated a joint stock corporation, under the name of The Greenwood Cemetery, with a capital of $300,000, and the right to hold two hundred aeres of land. The gentlemen named in this aet were Sam- uel Ward, John P. Stagg, Charles King, David B.

THE CEMETERIES OF BROOKLYN.

603

ENTRANCE TO GREENWOOD CEMETERY, I'M.

GARDESER'S LODGE BATTLE HILL, GREENWOOD CEMETERY,

604

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

Douglass, Russell Stebbins, Joseph A. Perry, Henry E. Pierrepont and Pliny Freeman. The ground finally selected by Messrs. Pierrepont and Douglass, with the approval of their associates, comprised one hundred and seventy-eight acres, situated a little back of Gow- anus bay, and extending, as marked on the city map, from Twenty-first street to Thirty-fourth strect, and from Fifth avenue to the Brooklyn city linc. The owners of this property, valued at $134,675.50, agreed to receive their pay in cemetery bonds. The land thus purchased had belonged for several generations to the Bennet, Bergen, Wyckoff and Schermerhorn families, and had stood in their names from the first settlement of the country by their Dutch progenitors. The pur- chase was not effected without considerable difficulty; for, while most of the owners were found willing to enter into some reasonable arrangement, there were others among the old Dutch farmers of Gowanus who could neither understand, or be made to understand, why Mr. Pierrepont and his associates should need two hundred acres for a graveyard. An acre or two, at the most, had been the extent of all burial places which they had ever seen; and, when they found these gentle- men anxious to secure the collect, or pond, which now forms the beautiful Sylvan Water, they seriously sus- pected them of having discovered the whereabouts of hidden treasure.

The Common Council of the city recognized and con- firmed the powers and privileges conferred on the as- sociation, and, by proper action, secured it against in- vasion and disturbance by stopping all streets at its boundary.

The subscription books were opened on November 3d, 1838; the first meeting of the stockholders was held on the 24th of the same month, and the Board of Di- rectors, appointed thereat, held its first regular meeting on the 15th of December.

On the 11th of April, 1839, the charter was amended so as to convert the cemetery from a joint stock com- pany to a public institution, unconnected with any pur- poses of profit or gain to any individual whatever. Its whole surplus income is forever to be devoted to the embellishment and preservation of the cemetery.

The professional work of surveying and laying out the ground was begun in the winter of 1838; that of construction dates from May, 1839. In October of this year lots were first advertised for sale.

On the 5th of September, 1840, John Hanna was buried near the base of Ocean Hill, being the first per- son interred in Greenwood Cemetery.

Many embarrassments were experienced during the year 1841, and fears were even entertained of the ex- tinction of the institution ; but, in 1842, Mr. Joseph A. Perry accepted the management, and, thereafter aban- doning his private business, devoted the rest of his life to the establishment and completion of this most beautiful cemetery. Mr. Ferry died 26th August,

1881. The Trustees of Greenwood, in acknowledg- ment of his services and taste in the management and success of the cemetery, erected a memorial monument to his memory near the Northern entrance gate. All impediments were finally surmounted, and the grounds opened for interments; and, at the close of the year, twenty tombs had been constructed, and there had been, including removals, one hundred and sixty-two interments.

One hundred and seventy-five acres were enclosed; but it soon became evident that the two hundred acres originally intended would be insufficient for the grow- ing wants of two large cities. Measures were taken to improve and beautify the ground; and, in 1847, another tract of about sixty-five acres, on the southwestern side of the cemetery, and reaching from the Fifth avenue to the Brooklyn city line, was purchased from the heirs of Garret Bergen. In 1852, Greenwood was extended into the town of Flatbush, by the annexation of eighty- five acres of the fine forest ground to the eastern side; and in 1859, a piece of land, which cut into the south-east- ern angle of the grounds, and which contained about twen- ty-three acres, was brought into the cemetery, by which addition, its outline in that part is made square and com- plete. In addition to these larger accessions, many small parcels of ground, deemed essential to the con- venience and symmetry of Greenwood, have been pur- chased from time to time, until the cemetery now em- braces four hundred and fifty acres of available ground, lying in one compact body, and having a well-defined, and, for the most part, regular boundary. The entire cost of this land, exclusive of interest and assessments on property without the cemetery, and cost of opening and grading the Fifth avenue, has been $281,684.82, being $682.04 the acre.

Much labor and expense were required to redeem these grounds from a state of nature to the uses of af- fection and taste. To this labor the Trustees addressed themselves with an energy and discretion most admira- ble, and a taste most faultless.

A receiving tomb was also constructed, in 1853, as a place of temporary reception for bodies, and particular attention was directed to the improvement of several little ponds or lakes, with which the cemetery was dotted. They were cleared out and deepened, their borders graded, shaped, covered with verdure, and ap- propriately shaded. And when it was found that they were liable to changes which marred their beauty, or cven made them offensive, such as being rendered tur- bid by heavy rains, or dried up by summer heats, the trustees wisely determined to construct an artificial current, worked by steam pump force, by which the hitherto stagnant waters became a healthy circulating stream, furnishing a sure supply for all the ponds within the grounds.

An indexed register of interments was commenced in September, 1840, forming a vast catalogue of names,

THE CEMETERIES OF BROOKLYN.

605

WESTERN ENTRANCE TO GREEN-WOOD CEMETERY.

MONUMENT TO MISS CHARLOTTE CANDA (GREEN-WOOD CEMETERY).

606

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

any one of which can be found almost instantly, and the place of burial shown at once, a matter of great convenience when the immense number of interments is considered.

The clearing up, and subsequent grading of the grounds ; the construction of roads and paths, the labor on ponds and water works, excavation for tombs, and the digging of graves, the culture, manuring and sod- ding of large tracts, the frequent mowing and raking of more than three hundred acres of grass, and the con- stant care and toil required to keep so large a domain in complete order and repair, forms an immense aggre- gate of labor and expense.

The numerous, tasteful, and splendid monuments of this cemetery, its wealth of memorial marble and exquis- ite sculpture, cannot be described within the scope of this volume.

Thus briefly have we endeavored to trace the history of this noble enterprise, whose name and whose fame is so intimately associated with that of Brooklyn. The idea of this cemetery originated with men only one of whom (its President) now survives, 1883. To their wise, able and liberal-minded supervision, the cemetery owes no small portion of its unexampled growth and success. Amid indifference and discouragement, by private ad- vances of money and credit, by untiring personal exer- tions, with diligence and devotion, skill and efficiency, with unremitting care and nursing, they have watched over its gradual but harmonious development, and " their works do praise them."

The latest statistics of the cemetery will be found on page 520.

The history of Brooklyn would be incomplete with- out mention of one who for more than forty years was closely connected with its enterprise and progress.

MR. JOSEPH A. PERRY was the worthy descendant of a family whose character from the first has been marked by rare integrity and honor. From the records of Woodbury, Conn., for the past two hundred years, we find its representatives recognized leaders in every movement for the public good. They were professional men, and in the records of the clergymen, law- yers and physicians of the early times, no names are more honorably mentioned. "Among these leading spirits was Dr. Joseph Perry, who for nearly half a cen- tury adorned the profession of medicine. He was con- spicuous in aiding the soldiers in the Revolutionary struggle, and in curbing the impetuosity of the rampant Tories in our town. He died an honored citizen, at a good old age, leaving his son, Dr. Nathaniel Perry, fit representative of his father's virtues, to follow with reverence in his footsteps in every great and good work. Well did he bcar up his father's reputation, as the kind and skillful physician, the firm, considerate and effective friend, the Mason's champion, the friend

of charity and all good works, and that noblest of God's works, an honest man." (Centennial Address). It is interesting to note how this family likeness has marked each succceding generation, father passing on to son that best of all legacies, a pure character and an honored name.

JOSEPH ALFRED PERRY was born in Delhi, N. Y., May 19, 1807. His father, the Rev. Joseph Perry, was a clergyman of the Protestant Episcopal Church, as were several of his ancestors, and a man of broad sympathies and no ordinary piety. At the age of eleven, Mr. Perry left home and entered a store in New Haven, after which he went to Albany, where he was for seve- ral years a clerk in his uncle's store. About the year 1824, he came to New York and entered the office of his uncle, J. D. Beers. The house of J. D. Beers & Co. was then, perhaps, the largest banking establish- ment in the city, and it was here that Mr. Perry ac- quired those business qualities that made him so successful in after life.

Some years later, he began business for himself, and subsequently entered into partnership with Mr. Jacob R. LeRoy, as brokers in Wall street. His marriage, in 1834, with a daughter of Mr. H. B. Pierrepont, brought him into a family connection largely identified with all the growing interests of Brooklyn. It was about this time that the Green-Wood Cemetery was proposed. Mr. Perry was, from the first, one of its most interested friends and supporters. He is spoken of in its history as " one of the pioneers of the enterprise, and one of those men who, amid indifference and discouragement, by private ad- vances of money and credit, and by untiring personal exertions, had come to the relief of the embarrassed institution and helped to place it on a solid basis."

In 1842, a combination of circumstances occurred which resulted in the closing of his former business rela- tions, and his accepting a proposition from the Trustees to assume the management of Green-Wood Cemetery. From this time till the day of his death, Mr. Perry gave himself to this great work with all the earnestness and enthusiasm of his nature. Relinquishing all thought of private business, he cheerfully devoted the forty re- maining years of his life to making Green-Wood what it is to-day.

We find two names given special prominence in the History of Green-Wood Cemetery. "Henry E. Pierre- pont, to whose suggestion the Cemetery owes its origin, and from whom it received its first impluse, and Joseph A. Perry, to whose judicious oversight, cultivated taste, constant vigilance and unremitting care, it is mainly indebted for its completed beauty."

Mr. Perry's connection with the Brooklyn Ferry Com- pany is well known. He was one of the original incor- porators and directors of the South Ferry, in 1835, which was afterwards united to Fulton and other fer- rics under the title of the Union Ferry Company. With regard to his course in this connection, we cannot

THE CEMETERIES OF BROOKLYN.

607

do better than to give the action of the Board after his death :

Resolved, That the Directors of the Union Ferry Company desire to record on their minutes an expression of their pro- found sorrow for the death of their cherished friend and as- sociate, Joseph A. Perry, Esq., who departed this life on the 26th of August, 1881.

Mr. Perry has given his invaluable serviees in the manage- ment of the ferries between New York and Brooklyn for more than forty years, and during all that long period has been a Director of the Union Ferry Company under its differ- ent organizations. For thirty years he has been its Treasurer and Secretary, and for the last four years one of its two Man- aging Direetors. He has been ever faithful, constant, indefat- igable and most efficient in the performance of the various and onerous duties which have devolved on him. He com- bined very rare qualities, and in very rare degree. He had great executive ability, practical good sense and excellent judgment. The accounts and statistics of the company, of its business and affairs, were prepared and regularly kept by him with masterly system, fullness, skill and accuracy, and in the various proceedings respecting the ferries which at different times have been had before committees of the Leg- islature and other public bodies, his exhibits have been al- ways ready, full, exact and unanswerable.

In the conduct of the great trust which has been so long administered by this Board, Mr. Perry has been at all times a wise, firm and upright counsellor and actor. While judi- cious and cautious, he was also bold and straightforward, because he was absolutely honest.

He had large intellectual culture; his personal bearing was invariably courteous, modest, cordial and refined. He was a warm and faithful friend, was generous in private chari- ties, and earnest in promoting the religious and benevolent institutions with which he was connected. The members of this Board deplore his death and honor his memory.

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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 152

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