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 2

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 2

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).

The Bridge as seen from the Brooklyn side 457 The Brooklyn Eagle Office and Bridge Tower. 459

View in Remsen Street, looking Westward. 462

Kings County Hospital .. 467

Penitentiary 476

66 Almshouse. 477

66 Lunatic Asylum 485ª

Soldiers' Medal . 502

(Reverse) 502

Sailors' Medal. 502

(Reverse) 502

Lincoln Monument, Prospect Park 508

City Seal of Brooklyn 564ª

Brooklyn's First Fire Engine. 568 Firemen's Monument in Greenwood Cemetery .. 578

Modern Steam Fire Engine. 593

Northern Entrance to Greenwood Cemetery 602 Entrance to Greenwood Cemetery, 1845. 603 Gardener's Lodge, Battle Hill, Greenwood. 603

Western Entrance to Greenwood Cemetery 605

The Canda Monument, Greenwood Cemetery 605

Williamsburgh Savings Bank 621

Kings County Savings Institution 623

Continental Insurance Building 630 Atlantic Docks and Basin 636

The Niagara Direct-Acting Pump 684

Columbian Iron Works 685

E. W. Bliss' Machine Shop and Foundries 689

E. W. Bliss' Residence, "Owl's Head" ... Facing 688 The William Cabble Excelsior Wire Works 696 The H. W. Peace Co.'s Vulcan Saw Works 699 704

Schwalbach & Obrig's Factory

E. G. Webster & Bro.'s Silver-Plating Works 707

Wm. Wall & Son's Rope and Cordage Works .. 718 Jolin Good's Ropemaking Machinery Establishin't 723 Wm. II. Mairs & Co.'s Paper Hanging Manuf'y. 724

Martin Worn & Sons' Furniture Warehouse. 731

J. S. Loomis' Moulding and Planing Mill 736

D. Appleton & Co.'s Book Bindery 739

Pearce & Hall's Hat Factory 746

The Union Porcelain Works and Wares 763

Hetfield & Ducker's Cracker Manufactory 770

Charles A. Schieren & Co.'s Manufactory. 781

George M. Eddy & Co.'s Manufactory. 793

O. F. Hawley's Manufactory 797

F. W. Wurster's Factory . 800

John J. Green's Monumental Works,

804

Brooklyn Clay Retort and Fire Brick Works

806

A. G. Jennings & Sons' Lace Works 808

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS-Continued.

PAGE.

Charles S. Higgins' Soap Manufactory 811

Charles W. Held's Piano Warerooms 812

First Place (M. E.) Church 1035

F. Rochow's Patent Compound Steam Engine .. 822

St. John's (M. E.) Church 1035

August Moll's Manufactory 823

E. M. Boynton's Saw and File Co. 823

Downing & Lawrence's Marine Railway. 824

Barney's Automatic Dumping-Boat.

826ª

Ketcham's Submarine Torpedo-Boat

828ª

Arms of the United States

"Sea-Breeze,"-Residence of S. F. Speir, M. D.

Facing

895

"Fenimore"-Residence of H. L. Bartlett, M. D.

Facing 896

St. Catharine's Hospital 928

Long Island College Hospital 929

St. Mary's General Hospital 934

Dr. Skinner's Residence

948

Memorial Prcs. Church. 1071

Packer Collegiate Institute 951

Adelphi Academy 954

S. John's (R. C.) College 955

Academy of the Visitation (R. C.) 957

Brooklyn Orphan Asylum .

973

First Building of the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor 975

Present Building of same. 975

The Graham Institution 976

The Brooklyn Nursery 977

The Baptist Home 978

Orphan House of the Church Charity Foundation. St. John's Hospital, Church Charity Foundation,

979

Newsboy's Home. 980

Home for Friendless Women and Children 983 Hebrew Orphan Asylum 984

Brooklyn Industrial Home

985

The Brooklyn Institute .. 1303

The Long Island Historical Society's Building .. 1305

The Pierrepont House 1359

St. John's (R. C.) Male Orphan Asylum. 991

First Reformed Church. 993

Greenpoint Reformed Church 996

Richard Shannon's Green-Houses.

James Dean's Green-Houscs 1365

Johnston Bros.' Stores (4 cuts) 1368

John Harrison's Grocery Establishment 1369

1370

The Present St. Ann's (P. E.) Church. 1000

Church of Holy Trinity (P. E.) 1002 Grace (P. E.) Church 1004

Church of the Pilgrims (Cong.) 1015

Plymouth Church (Cong.) . 1018

Plymouth Church Bethel (Cong.) 1021

Central Congregational Church 1025

Puritan (Cong.) Church.

1026

Sands Street (M. E.) Church 1030

C. H. Reynolds' Coal and Wood Yards. 1387

1077

Washington Avenue Baptist Church. 1078

Greenwood Baptist Church. 1079

Centennial Baptist Church . 1079

Sixth Avenue Baptist Church.

1080

Greenpoint Baptist Church. 1081

First Baptist Church (E. D.). 1082

St. Matthew's Eng. Lutheran Church. 1084

Church of the Savior (Unitarian). 1086

The Old Suydam House

1099

Mr. G. Frank E. Pearsall's Photograph Studio. The Eagle Office. 1181

1168

The Garfield Building 1300

Wechsler & Abraham's New Stores 1363

James Weir's Conservatories and Green-Houses .. 1364 1365

Lee Avenue Reformed Church 997

Cottage where the Lee Avc. Reformed Church originated 997

The Second St. Ann's (P. E.) Church. 999

A. & S. Haviland & Co.'s Stores

Henry Schade's Silver-Plating Factory 1372

Cowperthwait Co.'s Furniture Warehouses 1373

Jessc A. Crandall's Manufactory 1373

M. Webster & Sons' Warerooms 1374

Joseph J. Byers' Shoe Store 1376

William Harkness' Stores. 1379

Louis Bossert's Manufactory 1382

S. Tuttle's Son & Co.'s Coal Yards. 1385

Fleet Strect (M. E.) Church 1036

Willoughby Avenue (M. E.) Church 1038

Nostrand Avenue (M. E.) Church 1039

Grace (M. E.) Church. 1040

Central (M. E.) Church. 1041

Park Avenue (P. M.) Church 1043

The Art Association Building. 1136 Organ in Tabernacle Pres. Church, 1061 South Third Street Pres. Church .... 1065

The Old Franklin Avenue Pres. Church 1066

Lafayette Avenue Pres. Church 1068

Ross Street Pres. Church. 1069

Throop Avenue Pres. Church 1070

Noble Street Pres. Church 1072

First Baptist Church. 1075

Pierrepont Street Baptist Church

1075

Central Baptist Church.

Brooklyn Industrial School and Home (E. D.) .. 985 Inebriates' Home. 989

Simpson (M. E.) Church 1033

OUTLINE HISTORY

OF THE

STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAPTER I.

DISCOVERY OF NEW YORK-THE INDIANS OF THE FIVE NATIONS.

I 1524 John de Verazzano, a Florentine navigator in the service of Francis the First of France, made a voyage to the North American coast, and, as is believed from the account which he gave, entered the harbor of New York. No colonies were planted, and no results followed ; and the voyage was almost for- gotten.

Though discoveries were made by the French north from this point, and colonies planted by the English farther to the south, it is not known that New York was again visited by Europeans till 1609, when the Dutch East India Company sent Hendrick Hudson, an English- man by birth, on a voyage of discovery in a vessel called the "Half Moon." IIe reached the coast of Maine, sailed thence to Cape Cod, then southwesterly to the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, then, coasting northward, he entered Delaware Bay on the 28th of August. From thence he proceeded northward, and on the 3d of Sep- tember, 1609, anchored in New York Bay. On the 12th he entered the river that bears his name, and proceeded slowly up to a point just above the present site of the City of Hudson ; thence he sent a boat's crew to explore farther up, and they passed above Albany. September 23d he set sail down the river, and immediately returned to Europe.

In 1607 Samuel Champlain, a French navigator, sailed up the St. Lawrence, explored its tributaries, and on the 4th of July in that year discovered the lake which bears his name.

At the time of the discovery of New York by the whites, the southern and eastern portions were inhabited by the Mahican or Mohegan Indians ; while that por- tion west from the Hudson River was occupied by five

confederate tribes, afterwards named by the English the Five Nations, and by the French the Iroquois, and by themselves called Hodenosaunee-people of the Long House. The long house formed by this confederacy ex- tended east and west through the State, having at its eastern portal the Mohawks, and at its western the Senecas ; while between them dwelt the Oneidas, Onon- dagas, and Cayugas ; and, after 1714, a sixth nation, the Tuscaroras, southeast from Oneida Lake. Of these Indians, Parkman says that at the commencement of the seventeenth century, " in the region now forming the State of New York, a power was rising to a ferocious vitality, which, but for the presence of Europeans, would probably have subjected, absorbed or exterminated every other Indian community east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio."

" The Iroquois was the Indian of Indians. A thorough savage, yet a finished and developed savage, he is, per- haps, an example of the highest elevation which man can reach withont emerging from his primitive condition of the hunter. A geographical position commanding on the one hand the portal of the great lakes, and on the other the sources of the streams flowing both to the Atlantic and the Mississippi, gave the ambitions and ag- gressive confederates advantages which they perfectly understood and by which they profited to the utmost. Patient and politic as they were ferocious, they were not only the conquerors of their own race, but the pow- erful allies and the dreaded foes of the French and English colonies, flattered and caressed by both, yet too sagacious to give themselves without reserve to either. Their organization and their history evince their intrin- sic superiority. Even their traditionary lore, amid its wild puerilities, shows at times the stamp of an energy and force in striking contrast with the flimsy creations of Algonquin fancy. That the Iroquois, left under their own institutions, would ever have developed a civiliza- tion of their own, I do not believe."

These institutions were not only characteristic and curious, but almost unique. Without sharing Morgan's

OUTLINE HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

almost fanatical admiration for them, or echoing the praises which Parkman lavishes on them, it may be truly said that their wonderful and cohesive confedera- tion furnished a model worthy to be copied by many civilized nations ; while, so long as they were uncontam- inated by the vices of civilization, they possessed, with all their savagery, many noble traits of character, which would adorn any people in their public, social or domes- tic relations.

They made themselves the dreaded masters of all their neighbors east of the Mississippi, and earried their vie- torious arms far to the north, the south, and the east. Their dominance is thus eloquently pictured in Street's " Frontenac " :

" The fierce Adirondacs had fled from their wrath, The Hurons been swept from their merciless path ; Around, the Ottawas, like leaves, had been strewn, And the lake of the Eries struck silent and lone. The Lenape, lords once of valley and hill, Made women, bent low at their conqueror's will. By the far Mississippi the Illini shrank When the trail of the TORTOISE was seen on the bank ; On the hills of New England the Pequod turned pale When the howl of the WOLF swelled at night on the gale; And the Cherokee shook in his green, smiling bowers,

When the foot of the BEAR stamped his carpet of flowers."

It will hereafter be seen that the Iroquois acted an important part in the early history of the State.

Space will not permit a description of their league, or eonfederation, a sketch of their tribal relations, and their religious, social and domestie customs, or a history of their warlike achievements.

Only an allusion can here be made to the many dim and shadowy records of a pre-existing people of whom even a faint tradition scarce remains. These records con- sist of stone, or bone weapons, terra cotta implements or ornaments, that are oceasionally discovered, and of the remains of defensive works found here and there through the State. Many of these works have been levelled by the plough, and those that remain are slowly crumbling and passing to oblivion. Some of them, though they would not be regarded as models of mili- tary engineering at the present day, give evidence of an adaptation to the circumstances probably existing at the time of their building, and of skill in construction, which are not discreditable to their builders.

CHAPTER II.

NEW YORK UNDER THE DUTCHI-ENGLISHI GOVERNORS TO 1765.

I N 1610 another vessel was sent from Holland to trade with the natives, and in 1612 two more, soon after followed by others ; and a small fort and a few rude buildings were erected at the southern extremity of Manhattan Island, and the plaee was named New Amsterdam. In 1614 the States Gen- eral of Holland granted a charter to the merchants

engaged in these expeditions, giving exclusive privileges of trade for four years. The Hudson River had been ascended by Hendrick Christiansen, and a fort and trad- ing house erected near the present site of Albany, which was named Fort Orange.

In 1621 the Dutch West India Company was char- tered, and in 1623 settlers were sent thither. In 1626 Peter Minuit, as director-general or governor of the province, arrived with other settlers, and purchased the island of Manhattan from the Indians for trinkets of the value of about $24. In 1629 the company offered grants to patroons who should found settlements in the province (which had been named New Netherlands) of fifty or more adults, and several availed themselves of this offer. In 1633 Minuit was reealled and Wouter Van Twiller appointed in his place. During his administration the controversey coneerning jurisdiction was commenced between the Dutch and the English, who claimed the country on the ground of prior discovery by Cabot and the grant of James I. covering the territory.

In 1638 Van Twiller was succeeded in the gov- ernment of the colony by William Kieft. By rea- son of hostilities which occurred with the In- dians on Long Island in 1643-44, for which Kieft was censured, he was recalled, and succeeded by Peter Stuyvesant in 1647. The controversey concerning jur- isdiction continued during his administration, till, in 1664, Charles II. of England, regardless of the claims of the Dutch to New Netherlands, granted to his brother, the Duke of York and Albany, afterwards James II., the whole country from the Connectieut to the Delaware, including the entire Dutch possessions. A fleet was sent under Colonel Richard Nicolls by the duke to en- foree his claim, and on the 3d of September, 1664, the province was surrendered without bloodshed, and the government of the colony passed into the hands of the English.

Colonel Nicolls at once assumed the functions of gov- ernor ; the name New Amsterdam was changed to New York, and Fort Orange to Albany, laws for the govern- ment of the province were prescribed, and eourts for the administration of these laws established. In 1668 Governor Nieolls resigned, and was succeeded by Col- onel Francis Lovelace. England, at about this time, became involved in a war with Holland, which govern- ment sent a squadron to repossess its province in America. This squadron arrived July 30th, 1673, and the fort at New York was surrendered without resist- anee by Captain John Manning, who was in command. Captain Anthony Colve became governor; but his reign was short, for on the conclusion of peace between the two powers, February 9th, 1674, the province reverted to the English. A new patent was issued, eonfirming the first, and Sir Edmund Andros was commissioned governor. The despotic agent of a despotic ruler, he was unpopular with the people, and became involved in dif- fieulties with the neighboring eolonies. He was reealled,

NEW YORK UNDER ENGLISH GOVERNORS.

and his successor, Thomas Dongan, arrived on the 22d of August, 1683. In the autumn of the same year the first Colonial Assembly was convened, many needed re- forms were instituted, and better times than the colo- nists had ever known appeared to have dawned. The most important act of this Assembly was the adoption of a charter of liberties and privileges, or bill of rights. The hopes thus raised were soon disappointed. On the accession of James II. to the English throne he refused his confirmation of the privileges which had been granted while he was Duke of York, prohibited the Assembly, forbade the establishment of a printing press in the colony, and filled the principal offices in the prov- ince with Roman Catholics.

In 1687 a war broke out between the Iroquois and the French. The country of the former was invaded by the French, under De la Barre and M. de Nonville successively ; and, in retaliation, the Iroquois, twelve hundred strong, fell upon the French on the south side of the island of Montreal, " burnt their houses, sacked their plantations, and put to the sword all the men, women and children without the skirts of the town. A thousand French were slain in this invasion, and twenty- six were carried into captivity and burnt alive." Shortly afterward, in another attack, the lower part of the town was destroyed, and in all this the assailants lost only three.

In 1688 New York and the Jerseys were annexed to the jurisdiction of New England, and Sir Edmund An- dros was made governor of all. Governor Dongan was removed, and Francis Nicolson succeeded him. The government was vested in a governor and council, who were appointed by the king without the consent of the people.

In 1689 William and Mary ascended the English throne. Sir Edmund Andros was seized at Boston, and Jacob Leisler seized the fort at New York, under the pretence of holding it for the new sovereigns. During the two years of Leisler's usurpation the French and Indians made a descent on Schenectady, February 8th, 1690, and massacred about sixty of the inhabitants. The danger by which they were threatened induced the people,-who, though favorably disposed toward William and Mary, were opposed to Leisler-to submit to his authority for the time. On the arrival, in March, 1691, of Colonel Sloughter, who had been commissioned governor in 1689, Leisler at first refused to surrender the government to him. For this he was tried by a special commission, and sentenced to death. The governor, who refused to sign his death warrant, was persuaded, while intoxicated, to do so, and he was exe- ented before the governor had recovered from his in- toxication. Governor Sloughter died in July, 1691, after a weak administration of only a few months.

The colonial Assembly was again established during this year, and the oppressive laws which had been im- poscd on the colony repealed. In the interim between

the death of Sloughter and the arrival of his successor the chief command was committed to Richard Ingolds- by. In Angust, 1692, Benjamin Fletcher arrived with a commission as governor. Ile was narrow, violent, avaricious and bigoted, and his administration was a continual exhibition of these qualities.

In 1693 the French and Indians under Count Fron- tenac invaded the country of the Iroquois, killed some, and took three hundred prisoners. In 1696 he made another incursion, and ravaged a portion of the coun- try. The Indians retaliated by hostile incursions among their enemies, but the peace of Ryswick, be- tween France and England, terminated these hostilities.

Governor Fletcher was succeeded in 1698 by Richard, Earl of Bellemont, who died in 1701, and John Nanfan, the lieutenant-governor, succeeded him till the arrival of the next governor, Lord Cornbury, in 1702. The administration of this governor was chiefly distin- guished for religious intolerance; and he received the unenviable distinction of being the worst governor un- der the English regime. He was succeeded, December 18th, 1708, by Lord Lovelace, who died on the 5th of the following May. Under Lieutenant-Governor In- goldsby, who administered the government after his death, an unsuccessful expedition against Canada was undertaken. Gerardus Beekman succeeded him as governor pro tem., till June 14th, 1710, when the next governor, Robert Hunter, arrived. In 1711 another disastrous expedition against Canada was made, but in 1713 the treaty of Utrecht terminated the war between England and France, and put an end to Indian hostili- ties. In 1719 Hunter returned to England, and Peter Schuyler was governor, ad interim, till the arrival of William Burnet in 1720. On the accession to the throne of George II. Burnet was transferred to the government of Massachusetts, and succeeded, April 15th, 1728, by John Montgomery, who died July 1st, 1731. Rip Van Dam, by virtue of seniority in the council, was his successor till the arrival of William Cosby, the next governor, finished his administration and began one rendered memorable for its arbitrary proceedings and tumult, rather than for striking or important events. Cosby died March 10th, 1736, and was succeeded by George Clark, senior counselor after Van Dam, whom Cosby had caused to be suspended. Clark was commissioned lieutenant-governor in the following October. An antagonism had been growing during some time between the democratic and the aris- tocratic parties in the colonies. Clark at first sought to conciliate both, but in the end had the confidence of neither, and his retirement, on the arrival of his suc- cessor, Admiral George Clinton, September 23d, 1743, was but little regretted. The administration of Gover- nor Clinton was characterized by a continual conflict with the people, represented in the provincial Assembly. Unable by repeated prorogations and dissolutions to coerce them into submission, he resigned after an ad-

OUTLINE HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

ministration of ten years, and was succeeded, October 10th, 1753, by Sir Danvers Osborne. He was charged with still more stringent instructions than his predeces- sors, and met with still firmer resistance from the people. After an administration of a few days he committed suicide by hanging, probably because of the embarrassment by which he was surrounded, and grief for the death of his wife. He was suceceded by Lieutenant-Governor James De Lancey till the arrival, in September, 1755, of Sir Charles Hardy, who, though nominally governor, surrendered the duties of the of- fice into the hands of De Lancey. Governor Hardy resigned in 1757 and De Lancey became governor. He died on the 30th of July, 1760, and Cadwallader Colden, president of the council, took charge of the government. He was commissioned lieutenant-governor in August, 1761, and in October of the same year General Robert Moulton, who had been appointed governor, assumed the gubernatorial functions; but on the 13th of the fol- lowing month he left the administration of affairs in the hands of Colden, and went on an expedition against Martinique. Colden's administration continued till 1765.

CHAPTER III.

WAR WITH FRANCE AND COMMENCEMENT OF THE REVOLUTION.

A S early as 1722 a trading post was established at Oswego by Governor Burnet, with the view of establishing others farther west on the lakes, and securing the trade of the western Indians. To intercept this, and secure this trade for themselves, the French established a post and erected a fort at Niagara, with the design of extending a chain of mili- tary posts to the Ohio River, and thus limiting the English trade.

In March, 1744, war was declared between France and England, in which the colonies of New York and New England participated. During its continuance the country north from Albany was frequently ravaged by parties of French and Indians. Saratoga was burned, and nearly all the inhabitants either killed or made prisoners, and the village of Hoosic taken.

In 1746 an unsuccessful expedition against Canada was undertaken, for which the colony of New York furnished sixteen hundred men. Peace was concluded at Aix La Chapelle in 1748, and a period of nominal tranquility followed, though the frontier was desolated by savage parties, encouraged by the French.

In 1755, with the view of checking their encroach- ments, four expeditions were sent against them, two of which were in the colony of New York. One of them, that against Niagara, was unsuccessful, but the other,

against Crown Point, achicved a success, which was not, however, followed up.

It was not till 1756 that the English ministry aronsed from its imbecility and formally declared war. In the campaign of 1756 the English and colonial forces met with no success, but the two forts at Oswego were lost, with 1,600 prisoners and much war material. The campaign of 1757 was equally unsuccessful and disas- trous. Fort William Henry, on Lake George, with 3,000 men, fell into the hands of the French under Montcalm.

On the accession of William Pitt to the head of the British ministry in 1758 new energy was infused into their measures, and a fresh impulse given to the colon- ies. Success soon turned in favor of the English, and, with few exceptions, continued till Canada was sub- dued. Ticonderoga, Crown Point, Niagara and Quebec fell in 1758, and Montreal, Detroit, Michilimackinac and all other Canadian posts in 1760. A great obstacle to the prosperity of New York was removed by the conquest of Canada, which prevented further hostile incursions of French and Indians into its territory.

In 1763 a controversy arose between the colonies of New York and New Hampshire concerning the juris- diction over the territory between Lake Champlain and the Connecticut river, now comprising the State of Vermont. Proclamations and counter proclamations were issued, but the matter was finally referred to and settled for the time by the crown.

During many years the government of Great Britain had attempted to make encroachments on what the colonists regarded as their rights, but without success. The taxation of the people without their consent was sought to be accomplished in some insidious manner, and was steadfastly and watchfully guarded against by the colonists through their representatives in the col- onial Assembly. In 1764 the notorious stamp act was passed and its enforcement in the city of New York attempted. It was resisted by the populace ; the effigy of Governor Colden, who was charged with its execu- tion, was hanged and burned in the streets, and finally a quantity of the stamped paper was seized and con- sumed in a bonfire.

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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 2

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