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 158
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The first officers were Edmund Driggs, President ; and J. D. Burtnett, Secretary. The Board of Direc- tors was composed of prominent men of the city.
Though it suffered severely in the great fires which, from time to time, have visited the country, its pros- perity has been continuous. It has increased its capi- tal to $250,000, has erected the handsome building it now occupies on the northeast corner of Broadway and First streets, and has accumulated a net surplus of over half a million dollars. Its agencies are established throughout a large portion of the country.
Edmund Driggs is still its President; N. W. Meser- ole, Secretary; and W. H. Brown and F. H. Way, As- sistant Secretaries. Of the first Board of Directors, five are still active members, viz .: Edmund Driggs, Richard Berry, Daniel Maujer, William Marshall and Nicholas Wyckoff.
Nassau Fire Insurance Company .- This com- pany was incorporated February 3d, 1852, with a cap-
ital of $150,000 in shares of $50 each. Since that time the capital stock has been increased to $200,000.
Its list of the first Board of Directors was composed of many names of men who have had much to do in shaping the character of our city, and in aiding to es- tablish and maintain the good name of Brooklyn insti- tutions. Among them are Mayors S. S. Powell, Samuch Smith and H. C. Murphy.
Its first officers were : William M. Harris, Presi- dent; and A. J. Beekman, Secretary. In 1869 Mr. Harris died, and Thomas B. Jones was elected President, and William T. Lane chosen as Secretary.
The Nassau has been conservative in its methods, choosing to confine its business chiefly to local risks. This policy has placed it on a solid footing. Its char- ter, which expired by limitation February 3d, 1883, has been extended by the State Insurance Department for another term of thirty years. Its present offices are located at the corner of Court and Remsen streets.
The Phenix Insurance Company .- In February, 1853, it was decided to organize a fire insurance com- pany with the above name, with a capital of $200,000, in shares of $50 each. The organization was completed September 10th, 1853.
Stephen Crowell was elected the first President, and he has since been re-elected to that position every year. Philander Shaw was the first Secretary, and has since continued to hold that office. In 1875 he was chosen Vice-President.
The first certificate of stock was issued to Henry Holt for 10 shares. The first policy was issued to Rev. Evan M. Johnson for "$2,000-on each of the two four- story, brick, tin roof, coped dwelling houses situate on the east side of Adams street, commencing 120 feet south of Johnson street, Brooklyn."
The company began business at 345 Fulton street. In May, 1862, it removed to the corner of Court and Montague streets. In October, 1867, it purchased and removed to Montague Hall, on Court street. The old building was removed, and the present large and impos- ing " Phenix " building erected on its site.
Its capital is now $1,000,000.
Its officers are: Stephen Crowell, President; Philan- der Shaw, Vice-President and Secretary; William Charters, Assistant Secretary; and Edward Hazel- hurst, Secretary of Brooklyn Department.
The company has a large agency business throughout the country.
Lafayette Fire Insurance Company .- This com- pany was organized in 1856, and was named in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette. Its capital was placed at $150,000, in shares of $50 each. Its Board of Directors comprised many of the best known business men of that time. The first officers were: Alden S. Crowell, Pres- ident; and Anson S. Palmer, Secretary.
The company's place of business has been on Fulton street, opposite the City Hall; except temporarily, dur-
630
HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.
ing the erection of the Phenix building, in which it now has elegant offices.
Its business has always been conducted with caution, its managers preferring security and solidity to a widely extended business with increased hazard.
The company, for a time had only a local office, but has since established agencies in some of the larger cities. Its present officers are: Herbert Giroux, Presi- dent; George W. Hunt, Secretary; E. S. Terhune, As- sistant Secretary.
Montauk Fire Insurance Company .- This com. pany was ineorporated in 1857, with a capital of $150,- 000, in shares of $50 each, which was, in 1874, increased to $200,000. Its office was originally in the building on Court street, where the "Garfield" now stands. John J. Studwell was the first President, and Edwin Beers the first Secretary.
The Montauk has consistently followed the plan of its original founders in confining its business almost entirely to the locality of its birth; and has, under pru- dent management, been successful.
Its present officers are: Daniel F. Fernald, President; William Ellsworth, Vice-President; George F. Malby, Secretary; George Gill, Assistant Secretary.
Mechanics' Fire Insurance Company .- The organization of this company was perfected May 7th, 1857, with Daniel Chauncey, President; Walter Nichols, Secretary; and Walter K. Page, Assistant Secretary.
Its first Board of Directors, which was large, was composed of the leading mechanics, builders, merchants and business men of Brooklyn.
It is worthy of note that of the original forty-one directors twelve are now living, and seven of these are still members of the Board.
The company commenced with a cash capital of $150,000, but in 1881 its capital was increased to $250,000, its field of operations extended, and agencies established in the large cities, and to a considerable extent in the Middle and New England States.
At first its office was temporarily located where the building of the Continental Insurance Company now stands, until its rooms in the Mechanics' Bank building were ready for occupancy, when it removed to its pres- ent quarters on Montague street. In April, 1866, Dan- iel Chauncey resigned the presidency, and John H. Baker was elected to that office, Mr. Chauncey con- senting to remain as Vice President, which position he held until his death in January, 1883. In December, 1881, John K. Oakley was elected President, in place of Mr. Baker, deeeased. The present officers of the company are: John K. Oakley, President; Henry N. Brush, Vice-President ; Walter Nichols, Secretary ; Merrit Tuttle, Assistant Secretary.
Kings County Fire Insurance Company .- Oct. 18, 1858, was the date of the organization of this Com- pany, with a capital of $150,000-in shares of $20 each. Its first officers were A. S. Crowell, President, and O.
R. Ingersoll, Secretary. Its business is mostly local, having agencies in a few of the larger cities only. Its first offices were under the Mariners' and Citizens' Bank, until, in 1870, it erected the fine building now occupied for its offices at No. 87 Broadway, E. D., at a cost of $90,000.
No better proof of the ability of the Company's management is needed than the statement showing a net surplus considerably larger than its capital. Its present officers are E. T. Backhouse, President; Henry Pope, Secretary; William E. Horwill, Assistant Sec- retary.
Fireman's Trust Insurance Company .- This Company was organized March 15, 1859, with a capital of $150,000-in shares of $10 each.
Its first President was George Hall, and its first Sec- retary, William Burrell. The Company commenced business at No. 9 Court street, whence it removed some years later to No. 201 Montague street. It confines its business to this locality strictly, with offices in New York and Brooklyn.
The present officers are Dwight Johnson, President; E. B. Wood, Secretary; B. F. Van Voorhis, Assistant Secretary.
It is evident, when we take into consideration the immense and constantly inereasing insurable wealth of Brooklyn, that the resources of the local companies are entirely inadequate for the proper protection of the city against loss and damage by fire, as is seen by the following figures: Of dwellings and furniture there are over two hundred millions of dollars in value ; of
CONTINENTAL. BROOKLYN BUILDING.
manufacturing interests, having in value of plant and machinery, more than two hundred million dollars, and in amount of annual product, over two hundred and fifty million dollars; and to these must be added
631
BANKING AND INSURANCE.
churches, halls, theatres and public buildings of immense cost, aggregating several millions dollars in value.
A city of such wealth has naturally proved an at- tractive and profitable field for the operation of fire in- surance corporations, other than those to which special attention has been directed.
Among the carliest to establish departmental offices here were the GERMANIA, HOME, and CONTINENTAL Companies of New York. In 1868, the Continental established itself in Montague strect; and a few years later, in response to the encouragement given by the large and constantly increasing business coming to it, erected for its own use the elegant building on the cor- ner of Court and Montague streets. Other companies soon followed, so that at the present time there are represented here, either by offices or agencics, more than fifty in number, having over $100,000,000 of assets.
LIFE INSURANCE COMPANIES.
These institutions are justly ranked as among the most useful of civilized society, as the benefits there- from arc available for all classes of the community. But two life insurance companies have their home in Brooklyn. A brief sketch of each is given below.
The Brooklyn Life Insurance Company was or- ganized in 1864, and commenced business in July of that year. Its organization was due principally to the efforts of Mr. Christian W. Bouck, who was clected as President, and served in that capacity up to 1877, when he was succeeded by the present incumbent, Mr. Wil- liam M. Cole, of this city.
The original board of officers comprised Mr. Chris- tian W. Bouck, President; Mr. Abram D. Polhemus, Vice-President; Mr. Richard HI. Harding, Secretary; Daniel Ayres, M. D., LL. D., Medical Director; and Augustus Ford, Counsel, all residents of this city.
In 1867, the Secretary, Mr. Harding, died, and in the same year was succeeded by Mr. Wm. M. Cole, who re- mained as Secretary nntil he succeeded Mr. C. W. Bouck as President in 1877; and Mr. Cole, in turn, was succeeded as Secretary, upon his elevation to the Presidency, by William Dutcher, who had been with the company almost from its organization in various clerical capacities.
The first Vice-President, Mr. Abram D. Polemus, resigned in 1870, and was succeeded by Mr. William H. Wallace, the present official. These have been all the changes in the board of officers during the history of the Company.
The board of directors has, from time to time, com- prised, and now comprises, gentlemen whose business undertakings and social standing have been largely in- terwoven with the history of Brooklyn; whose names are known throughout the breadth of the city; and whose efforts have ever been in the direction of the
welfare and good repute of Brooklyn. Isaac Van An- den, Hosea Birdsall, Amos F. Hatfield, Augustus E. Masters, Christian W. Bouck, Curtis Noble, Abram D. Polhemus, Samuel S. Powell, David M. Chauncey, Daniel Maujer, Harry Messenger and Edward Anthony, are names which every resident of Brooklyn remem- bers with respect and interest. The Company has al- ways been essentially a Brooklyn institution.
This Company was originally organized with $125,- 000 capital, but now has over one million and a half of dollars of assets, and is distinguished as one of the most conservative and carefully managed institutions in the country. At the official examination of the Company it was specially and officially noted that the "investments couldn't be improved. No better class of securities could be found anywhere. They are uni- formly first-class, and could not be reduced a dollar, because of the prudence displayed in making them." The Company has always had an excellent reputation for those points of careful and prudent management which commend such institutions to intelligent public favor.
Its offices are located at 20 Nassau street, New York City.
The Home Life Insurance Company. - In 1860, a movement was made for the establishment of a Life Insurance Company, which was successfully car- ried out, and an organization effected April 28, 1860. The company was named the HOME. Its capital was $125,000, in $100 shares. The following were chosen Directors : P. C. Cornell, John Sueden, E. A. Lambert, T. Messenger, James How, J. W. Greene, G. S. Stephenson, J. S. T. Stranahan, J. E. Southworth, C. A. Townsend, C. J. Sprague, H. E. Pierrepont, J. P. Martin, S. E. Howard, L. B. Wyman, W. S. Griffith, G. A. Jarvis, J. G. Bergen, Jolın Halsey, T. Polhemus, Jr., A. P. Capwell, H. B. Claflin, A. B. Baylis, John D. Cocks, H. Dollner, S. B. Chittenden, A. A. Low, Czar Dunning, Wm. II. Cary, Samuel Smith, T. Carl- ton, M. F. Odell, L. Roberts, Nehemiah Knight, J. Milton Smith, Isaac H. Frothingham.
The first President was Walter S. Griffith; Secretary, Geo. C. Ripley ; Treasurer, Isaac H. Frothingham ; Counsel, Albert B. Capwell.
William J. Coffin, who entered the Company's em- ploy at its organization, and afterwards became its Secretary and Actuary, died suddenly in its New York office Sept. 10, 1877, leaving a record of "singular ability and faithfulness." The Company commenced business on the corner of Court and Joralemon streets, and subsequently removed to its present location, 179 Montague street. It has an office at 254 Broadway, New York.
Its officers for 1882-'83 are George C. Ripley, Presi- dent; Chas. A. Townsend, Vice-President; I. H. Froth- ingham, Treasurer ; Joseph P. Holbrook, Secretary ; Wm. G. Low, Counsel.
632
HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.
SAFE DEPOSIT COMPANIES.
The Long Island Safe Deposit Company .- Of late years a demand has grown up for institutions established expressly for the safe keeping of valuables. The first was chartered in New York city, in 1861. In 1869, the Long Island Safe Deposit Company was in- corporated, and erected a fire-proof building on the northwest corner of Fulton and Front streets, in the
ERECTED
THE LONG ISLAND SAFE DEPOSIT COMPANY.
city of Brooklyn. The safes are very large and thick, built entirely above the first floor, on a granite founda- tion, and fitted with the most approved burglar-proof combination and time locks. Within the vault are placed the private safes, several hundred in number, fitted with combination locks, not one of which can be opened without the use of two keys, one kept by the
individual, and one by the Company. Storage is also provided for pictures, statuary, silverware, and other valuables of bulk. Private rooms are provided where depositors, at any time, may examine papers and se- curities in sechision. Directors : John Lefferts, Presi- dent ; Edward D. White, Vice-Pres .; Charles E. Bill ; Abraham J. Beekman ; Peter C. Cornell ; Sidney Cornell ; Abraham Lott ; Henry E. Pierrepont ; Wil- liam Sinclair ; James L. Moore ; George A. Thorne ; James How ; Henry P. Morgan ; Garret Bergen ; Edward Whitehouse ; John French ; John D. Prince ; Daniel D. Whitney ; Ezra L. Bushnell ; George W. Bergen; John B. Woodward ; Stephen Taber ; Thomas HI. Messenger ; Henry K. Sheldon; William M. Van Anden ; John Ditmas, Jr. ; Thomas H. Messenger, Treasurer ; Abraham I. Ditmas, Secretary.
The Brooklyn City Safe Deposit Company was incorporated, in 1872, with the following Direc- tors : Abraham B. Baylis, George N. Curtis, Jacob Cole, John P. Rolfe, William Marshall, Daniel Chaun- cey, William P. Libby, Samuel Sloan, Jacob I. Bergen, John Halsey, James S. Rockwell.
A large and convenient building was erected on the corner of Clinton and Montague streets, in June, 1873, and the company commenced business. The vaults are constructed in the most thorough and massive manner, are fire and burglar-proof, and the safes are provided with the double key escutcheon ; constant communication with police headquarters, and continual watching day and night make deposits absolutely safe.
The present officers are: HI. N. Brush, President ; S. II. Herriman, Vice-President ; Leffert L. Bergen, Sec- retary. Directors : Daniel Chauncey, John P. Rolfe, William Marshall, Jacob I. Bergen, Wm. P. Libby, Jacob Cole, Daniel Ayres, M.D., Isaac Carhart.
HENRY D. POLHEMUS, the youngest son of Theo- dorus and Rebecca Polhemus, was born at the old Pol- hemus homestead, on Gowanus Lane (now Fifth avenue and Carroll street), Brooklyn. In carly life, he entered the store of Fox & Polhemns, in New York, in which bis brother was a partner, and which has been continued to the present time, and is known as the firm of Brinkerhoff, Turner & Co., in which Mr. Polhemus is interested.
Mr. Polhems is the last of the male descendants of the Rev. Johannes Theodorus Polhemus, the first preacher in Kings county, who settled in Flatbush, 1654. (See chapter on Ecclesiastical History of Kings County, pages 327 and 328). He is now connected with several prominent financial interests of Brooklyn, being a director of the Long Island Bank, the Nassau Fire Insurance Company, the American District Telegraph Company, and other institutions.
themes
THE COMMERCE OF BROOKLYN.
BY
L. P. Brackett M.L.
U NLIKE any other great seaport of our country, or the world, Brooklyn and the county of Kings has no separate existence as a port of entry; but, while possessing an unrivaled water front, with the most magnificent docks and piers in the world, and an unlimited capacity for expansion, till it inay be able to receive and store the entire products of a continent, it suffers the humiliation of knowing that all this vast commerce is credited to New York City; and that there does not exist cither in the New York Custom House, the reports of the Produce Exchange, or the New York Chamber of Commerce, or, indeed, in the records of any government or mercantile office, the data for giving to Brooklyn its quota of credit for her share in this immense traffic, which has no rival on this side of the globe.
Yet our statistics of the Brooklyn commerce as com- pared with that of New York-statistics collected with infinite labor and pains, and the comparison of the business of the largest shipping houses with the returns of the commerce of the port of New York, officially rendered, show the following facts, viz .:
1. That the arrivals and departures of shipping, both sail and steam, at the wharves, piers and docks of Brooklyn, are to New York arrivals and departures as 9 to 7.
2. That the grain receipts and shipments at Brook- lyn warehouses, and by ships loading and unloading at Brooklyn piers, docks and wharves, are in proportion of 76 to 24 of those of New York.
3. That the proportion of receipts and shipments of provisions is very ncarly 80 for Brooklyn to 20 for New York.
4. That the receipts of raw sugars and molasses, from all quarters, go to the Brooklyn warchouses for transfer to the Brooklyn sugar refineries, almost wholly; hardly ten per cent. being received in New York.
5. That the receipts and shipments of cotton are nearly one-half at and from Brooklyn warehouses.
6. That the greater part of the petroleum oils, all cx- cept those for the refineries on the Jersey side, come
through the Standard Oil Company's pipes to the refin- eries in Williamsburg and Long Island City, and the shipments to foreign and to other American ports, go from the refineries direct on ship-board, without touch- ing New York city, either in receipt or shipment. The whole, or ncarly the whole, of the petroleum traffic be- longs to Brooklyn.
7. The proportion of the receipts and shipments of general merchandise are the most difficult to ascertain. There are many large warehouses in New York which have, for a long term of ycars, received the bulk of certain articles known under this general denomina- tion; but it is doubtful if there are not more in Brook- lyn. In general, it may be said, that the greater part of the imported dress goods and dry goods come to New York warehouses; that, of imported metals-iron, steel, copper, lead, zinc and tin-about two-thirds come to Brooklyn; that teas and raw silk come generally to New York; but coffec, spices, cocoa, chocolate, flax, hemp, jute, cordage and the materials of which it is made, argols, medicinal barks, crude camphor, chemi- cals, bleaching powder, medicinal gums,dyewoods, dried and salted fish, guano, gypsum and fertilizers gener- ally, India rubber, indigo, madder, oils, sulphur, bread- stuffs, bristles, dried fruits, glass, leather and manufac- tures of leather, paints, potatoes, salt, provisions, salt- petre, secds, soda and salts of soda, manufactures of tin, tobacco, and perhaps of spirituous liquors, watches, wool and woolen rags, belong more properly to the Brooklyn warehouses; while books, paintings, jewelry, perfumery, paper, cabinet furniture and woods, musi- cal instruments, etc., etc., arc more generally sent to the New York warchouses. In general merchandise, while the bulk is very largely on the side of Brooklyn, as nearly as can be estimated, taking the average of the past three years, New York city has about 44 per cent. of the values, and Brooklyn about 56 per cent. This covers the whole imports, and much of the ex- ports. We may remark, however, that the limited ex- tent and moderate storage room of the New York warchouses, which are contiguous to the docks and
634
HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.
provided with elevators, and other means of rapid loading and unloading, causes all of our exports which are of considerable bulk, to be brought to the Brooklyn warehouses, which are of immense and constantly in- creasing extent, and lying directly at the edge of the docks and piers, and can transfer entire cargoes to ves- sels without employing a single truck. Thus, one of the great shipping houses occupy 52 large warehouses, all on the Brooklyn side, besides extensive covered piers, still more convenient for loading and unloading. Another has 28 such warehouses. This is particularly true of the loading and unloading of grain for export. We have stated the amount of grain handled in Brook- lyn and put on board vessels at Brooklyn docks, as 76 per cent. of the whole; but we do not mean to be under- stood that the remaining 24 per cent. goes into New York warehouses. Not at all. We have serious doubts whether, as matters are now arranged, 1,000,000 bushels of grain go into New York warehouses in a ycar; that from the Erie, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, Lackawanna & Western R. R.'s comes to Hoboken, or Jersey City, and is taken up by elevators there in the warehouses on the Jersey side, and from thence trans- ferred to the ships. That from the Erie, Delaware and Hudson, Morris and Raritan canals, and from Albany barges, sailing vessels and steamers, goes mostly to Brooklyn direct, or is picked up by the floating ele- vators, and loaded on vessels either at Brooklyn or New York wharves and docks. The New York Central and Hudson River R. R. has one or more clevators of its own, but very much of the grain brought on its cars is lightered or brought by floating elevators direct to the Brooklyn warehouses.
In regard to the grain receipts and shipments, Brooklyn has virtual control of the trade. All of the regular grain warehouses recognized by the New York Produce Exchange are in Brooklyn, All of the float- ing elevator companies are officercd by Brooklyn men, and all of these elevators-thirty-four in num- ber-start from Brooklyn and bring grain for the Brooklyn warchouses, or load it upon vessels at the Brooklyn wharves. The president of the largest of these companies (the International), Mr. Annan, who controls 22 of these floating elevators, two of double capacity, is also a partner in the great grain house of Hazeltine & Co., the occupants of Dows', the Colum- bia, and the Kelsey stores.
The interests of Mr. George D. Puffer, President of the New York Floating Elevator Company, who run five floating elevators, are also wholly identified with Brooklyn. The same is truc of Messrs. Heuberer, Knapp & McCord, W. D. Mangam's Son, Marsh, White & Co., and S. M. Cornell, who own, together, seven floating elevators. The entire storage capacity of all the stationary elevators in New York city, in- cluding those of the New York Central and Hudson River R. R. Co., is only 3,340,000 bushels, of which
the New York Central is 2,300,000 bushels. Those of Jersey have a capacity of 3,000,000 bushels. Neither of them is ever full. The Brooklyn stationary eleva- tors have a capacity of 20,000,000 bushels, and, as the Produce Exchange reports show, handled over 150,000,- 000 bushels of grain in 1882, and more than 200,000,- 000 bushels in 1881. But the grain trade, large as it is, is only one item of Brooklyn's commerce. Below Fulton Ferry, and between that and Fortieth street, South Brooklyn, are nearly twenty firms, many of them controlling large blocks of warehouses and pier sheds, who do a general merchandise business, some of them handling mainly imported goods, others both imports and exports. One of these houses already re- ferred to, Messrs. G. C. and J. P. Robinson, in 1882, in their 52 warehouses, received and shipped merchan- dise valued at $105,000,000. Another, F. Woodruff & Co., as the average of three years in their 28 ware- houses, handled $53,000,000. The receipts and ship- ments of the whole twenty firms can hardly be less than $325,000,000, and may exceed that amount.
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