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 26

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 26

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" Father and mother, do not mourn

Over your only son ;

He never did you any good,

And now he gets his doom-doom-doom-doom."

The officers often treated their men cruelly. General Johnson remembered to have seen Captain Westerhauge and Lieutenant Conrady beat a corporal with their swords on his back, over his waiscoat, so that he dicd the next day. They beat the man about two in the afternoon. He was standing : the captain first gave him a number of blows, and then the lieutenant com- menced ; but before he had finished the man was too feeble to stand, and the captain stood before him and held him up. The man then laid down on the grass, while the surgeon's mate examined his body, which was a mass of bruised and blistered flesh. His back was roughly searified by the surgeon's mate, and he was

then removed to a barn, where he died the next day -- never having uttered a word from the moment of the first blow. Mrs. Peter Wyckoff, mother of Mr. Nicholas Wyckoff, President of the City Bank of Brooklyn, and a daughter of Lambert Suydam, a brave officer in the Continental Army, informed Dr. Stiles, in 1861, that she distinctly remembers, when a school-girl at Bedford, having seen British soldiers tied up to a tree, in front of the house of Judge Lefferts, and flogged.

Among the patriotic deeds of the adherents of the American cause in Kings County were the loans of money furnished to the State Government by them. It was effeeted in the following manner : Lieutenant Samuel Dodge and Captains Gilleland and Mott, of the American army, had been captured at Fort Montgomery, and were confined as prisoners, under a British guard, at the residence of Barent Johnson, in the Wallabout. Dodge was exchanged in the course of a month, and reported the practicability of borrowing specie from Whigs in Kings County, mentioning Johnson as one who would risk all in the undertaking. It was there- fore agreed that confidential officers should be exchanged, who were to act as agents in these trans- actions. Colonel William Ellison was fixed upon to receive the loan. He was exchanged in November, 1777, and conveyed $2,000 in gold to Governor Clinton, a simple receipt being given. In this manner, before 1782, large sums had been loaned to the State. In 1780, Major H. Wyckoff was hid for two days in the upper room of Rem. A. Remsen's house, in the Wallabout, while the lieutenant of the guard of the "Old Jersey" British prison-ship was quartered in the house. Remsen loaned him as much as he could carry, and conveyed him in a sleigh, at night, to Cow Neck, from whence lie crossed to Poughkeepsie.

The patriotism of many of New York's bravest soldiers was poorly rewarded by the passage of a legislative act, May 6th, 1784, levying a tax of £100,000 upon the Southern District of the State, a portion of which could be paid in State serip, which the soldier had received for his services, and liad sold to speculators for from two to six pence per pound. The serip, it is almost needless to say, immediately rose to the value of ten shillings on the pound, leaving a very handsome profit to the speeulators, who had invested it largely in the purchase of confiscated estates.

Brooklyn from the close of the Revolution to the War of 1812. Brooklyn's share in the actnal hostilities of the Revolutionary War has been already given in our chapter on the General History of Kings County. For the first few years succeeding the war, but little of interest occurred in the town. Its in- habitants doubtless found plenty to do in repair- ing the ravages which their property had suffered during a seven years' hostile occupation. Yet the spirit of improvement was astir ; and, in 1785, the staid old Dutchmen who worshipped in the ancient

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

edifiee in the middle of the road at "Brooklyn Church," as well as the few but loyal Episcopalians, who had set up their Ebenezer in John Middagh's barn, on the corner of Henry and Poplar streets, found a denominational rival in the little handful of stout- hearted "Independents," who erected a small place of worship on the ground now oeeupied by "St. Anne's Buildings," on Fulton street. In this year, also, were the beginnings of the " Brooklyn Fire Department."

Brooklyn was recognized as a town under the State government Mareh 7th, 1788.

That the people were in favor of the preservation of order and the enforcement of the law, is evident from the fact that at a town meeting in April, 1794, it was " Resolved, that the Supervisors raise the sum of £10, 13s., 6d., which money has been expended for the pur- pose of building a cage and stocks."

The "New," or Catharine street, ferry, was established in the summer of 1795 by William Furman and Theo- dosius Hunt. A bell "for the use of the town of Brooklyn " was purchased at a cost of £49, 4s., which sum was raised by subseription. It was hung in a small eupola on the top of Buekbee's hay seales, which stood on the southerly side of Fulton street, elose by " Buek- bee's alley, now Poplar place, a crooked alley running from Poplar to Fulton street, between Henry and ITieks streets.

A theologieal sehool was established in the spring of 1796, at Bedford, by the Rev. Dr. John Henry Living- ston of the Reformed Duteh Church. It had only a brief existenee.

View of Brooklyn in 1798 (as seen from the North).

Rev. Jedediah Moore's " American Gazetteer," pub- lished in 1798, thus briefly disposes of Brooklyn : "A township in Kings County, N. Y., on the west end of Long Island, having 1,603 inhabitants, and 224 are eleetors, by the State eensus of 1796. There are a Presbyterian ehureh, a Dutch Reformed ehureh, a pow- der magazine, and some elegant houses, which lie chiefly on one street. East River, near a mile broad, separates the town from New York."

On the 6th of June, 1799, the " Courier and New York and Long Island Advertiser," the second paper ever published on Long Island, was commenced at Brooklyn, by Thomas Kirk. It was a small, dingy

sheet, purporting to be published "every Wednesday morning," and possessed little or nothing of interest to us of the present day.

1800. In an old scrap-book of this date, in the pos- session of the family of General JEREMIAII JOHNSON, is preserved what may be called the first written history of Brooklyn. It consists of newspaper slips, undoubt- edly eut from the columns of Thomas Kirk's paper, "The Long Island Courier," to which are added numer- ous manuseript corrections, notes, and even whole pages of new matter, in the well-known handwriting of Gen- eral Johnson, to whom it is probably not an error to attribute their authorship. That this eareful arrange- ment and revision of these papers was made with a view to their republieation in pamphlet form, is apparent from the fact that they are preceded by a title-page in Ms., " A Topographical View of the Township of Brooklyn, in Kings County, State of New York (mnotto), Brooklyn : Printed by Thomas Kirk. 1800." The series consisted of about six papers, which form an interesting, though diffuse, pot-pourri of historieal faets, speeulations, etc., from which a few samples are selected.

"Kings County," says the author, " contains 4,495 inhabit- ants, including 621 electors ; 930 of these are free white males, of ten and upwards ; 700 free white males under that age ; 1,449 free white females ; 1,432 slaves, and 46 free persons not enumerated. The inhabitants are chiefly of Dutch extrac- tion. Some are attached to their old prejudices ; but, within a few years past, liberality and a taste for the fine arts have made considerable progress. The slaves are treated well, but the opinion relative to their freedom is yet too much influ- eneed by pecuniary motives. It would cer- tainly redound to the honor of humanity, could that blessing be effected here."

The town of Brooklyn at this per- iod-and, indeed, until the incorporation of the village of Brooklyn-was divided, for eeelesiastieal, sehool, and other pur- poses, into seven distriets, retaining the same names which had deseended from the "neighborhoods," or hamlets, of the earlier settlements, viz .: "The Ferry " (het Veer); the " Red Hook (de Roede Hoek) ; " Brooklyn " (Breuckelen) ; "Bedford " ( Betfort); "Gowanus " ( Goujanes or Gou- anes); "Cripplebush " (het Creupelbosch); and "the Wallabout " (de Waal-boght).

After defining the boundaries of the town, and enum- erating these distriets (See Stiles' History of Brooklyn, i, 381), he mentions :

" OLYMPIA," a tract of land which, he says, "was surveyed and laid out in streets as long ago as the year 1787, and then intended as a city; its progress has been arranged according to the plan, and begins to have the appearance of regularity. It lies to the east of Brooklyn Ferry, and is bounded by the Wallabout and the East River."

This was evidently the Comfort and Joshua Sands estate; purehased by them, in 1784, from the Commis-

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FROM THE REVOLUTION TO THE WAR OF 1812.

sioners of Forfeiture-it having been the property of John Rapalje, the loyalist. John Jackson's Remsen estate was also included within the bounds of the pros- pective village. The author then proceeds to say that

"The holders of this tract [i. e., Messrs. Sands and John Jackson-Ed.] appear to be desirous to encourage the under- taking, by their willingness to dispose of lots at a reasonable price. * * * This village, contemplatively a city, com- prehends at present an extent of land within the following boundaries, viz .: Beginning at two rocks called 'The Broth- ers,' situated in the East River, from those to Brooklyn Square [the neighborhood of the old Dutch Church], through James street to Main and Road streets, to the seat formerly the residence of the Rev. Mr. Johnson, now Red Hook road [corner of Fulton avenue and Red Hook lane], from thence across the Wallabout, then to the East River to the place of beginning. This tract of land is better situated than any other near New York for the counterpart of that city. It is certain that, on the southern side of Brooklyn Ferry ["the Heights."-Ed. ] the hills are so high, and such astonishing exertion is necessary to remove them, that Brook- lyn Ferry can never extend any great distance upon that quarter, and all improvements must necessarily be made in Olympia. Add to this the want of disposition in the propri- etors of that soil to sell any part of it. And, moreover, Olym- pia and Brooklyn Ferry must always continue to increase in a ratio with New York, unless some exertion of their own is made. But as that city can never extend further southward, but is continually progressing a contrary way, it is evident, if the former position be true, that Olympia must receive the whole progress which otherwise would be given to Brooklyn Ferry.

"Olympia is extremely well calculated for a city; on a point of land which presents its front up the East River, sur- rounded almost with water, the conveniences are almost manifest. A considerable country in the rear affords the easy attainment of produce. A pure and salubrious atmosphere, excellent spring water, and good society, are among a host of other desirable advantages. As regards health in particular, it is situated on the natural soil-no noxious vapors, genera- ted by exhalations, from dock-logs, water, and filth sunk a century under its foundations, are raised here. Sand and clay for building are in the village. Stone is brought from a short distance. Timber, lath and boards are to be had on the spot. In fact, almost every article for building is afforded here as cheap as in New York. Could the inhabitants once divest themselves of their dependence upon that city, and with unanimous consent resolve that their own village should prosper, there requires no supernatural agent to inform us of the consequence.

" Want of good title has been alleged by some against building here [an allusion to the Rapelje estate-Ed.] ; but it is ascertained, and from undoubted authority, that none was ever clearer or less entangled, and that reports here circu- lated what truth is obliged to deny.

"The principal streets of this village are sixty feet, but the cross-streets are not so wide. They are not yet paved, though a vast number of pebbles may be had there. Latterly, it ap- pears to have had the appearance of a regular town. Edifices are erecting, and other improvements constantly making. When we observe the elevated situations, the agreeable pros- pects, the salubrity of the atmosphere, and the contiguous- ness to New York, with many other interesting advantages, it may claim, perhaps, more consideration than any part of the township."

The sagacity of the author is manifest from the fol- lowing (the italics are our own-Ed.) :

" It has been suggested that a bridge should be constructed from this village across the East River to New York. This idea has been treated as chimerical, from the magnitude of the design ; but whoever takes it into their serious considera- tion, will find more weight in the practicability of the scheme than at first view is imagined. This would be the means of raising the value of the lands on the east side of the river. It has been observed that every objection to the building of this bridge could be refuted, and that it only wanted a combina- tion of opinion to favor the attempt. A plan has already been laid down on paper, and a gentleman of acknowledged abilities and good sense has observed that he would engage to erect it in two years' time."

"It has also been observed that the Wallabout would form an excellent navy-yard. Should such a plan be carried into execution, it would considerably increase the importance of this place. As a retreat from New York in summer, Olympia would furnish many superior excellences over other places- such as its vicinity to that city, the opportunity of freighting and unloading vessels during the period of fever, the sale of goods to the yeomanry who are fearful of entering the city, etc. [Here a mutilation breaks the narrative.] * * * often the resort of the inhabitants of New York in their pedestrian excursions. This village has no peculiar privileges of its own. Joined with several townships, it supports two ministers."

In speaking of manufactures, he says : " With respect to ' Olympia ' and Brooklyn Ferry, which are the principal vil- lages in this township, they produce scarcely any thing of the manufacturing kind but what is useful in common life. There are eight grist-mills in this township, which grind by means of the tide in the East River. Some of these mills are employed to grind grain for exportation, others to supply the neighboring farmers. Cables, cordage, lines, and twine are spun and laid to considerable profit. A new patent floor-cloth manufactory is about to be introduced. * * * Brewing and distilling, with a capital, might be carried on to advan- tage. Nails are afforded very cheap. Chair-making, too, answers extremely well. Besides these, there are all the dif- ferent mechanical trades peculiar to settlements of this kind."

In regard to literature and education, he says : "There are three schools in the township-one at Bedford, one at Gow- anus, and the other at the Brooklyn Ferry. This last claims the preference, having been established a considerable length of time, under the superintendence of trustees. There are about sixty scholars, who are taught the common rudiments of education, with English grammar, geography, and astron- omy. Two preceptors have the immediate direction. A beautiful eminence to the east of Brooklyn Ferry will afford an eligible situation for an academy." Thomas Kirk's news- paper, The Courier, then in its first year, is favorably men- tioned ; and, it is stated, that there are "no libraries, or places for the sale of books in the town." "There is but one society, properly speaking, in this township, and that is the Masonic. This, which is the first and only Lodge in the county, was erected in 1798 in Olympia, at the corner of Main and James streets."

A brief outline of some of the main points of early Brook- lyn history is given, and reference is made to two volunteer companies, " whose uniform is as handsome as their conduct is patriotic." A powder-house and arsenal are said to be "already established." In the Appendix to this compilation, General Johnson strongly advocates the establishment of a village corporation, concerning the advantages of which he discusses fully and eloquently; considering it "now proper

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

time that a corporation for Olympia should commence its operations, and particular appropriations be made for exten- sive market-places, a square for an academy, another for a promenade, others for public buildings of different sorts, as churches, court-houses, alms-houses, ete., and not to sleep on an ideal prospect." And, long before the venerable author was gathered to his fathers, he had seen the more than reali- zation of his "ideal prospect."

The spirit of speculation, as will be seen from the above glowing account of " Olympia," had begun to agitate the minds of the Brooklynites, and it received no inconsiderable impulse, in 1801, from Mr. John Jackson's sale to the United States of forty acres of the Wallabout, including the old mill-pond, for the hand- some sum of $40,000. Shortly after this, a portion of the estate of Comfort Sands, contiguous to the lands of Mr. Jackson, was sold, and Jackson street was opened to Jackson Ferry. About this time, also, the suppres- sion of the rebellion in Ireland eaused the emigration to this country of many persons who had been engaged in that unfortunate struggle, some of whom came to New York. A portion of these refugees, who had a little property, were induced to purchase lots on Jackson's land, at a spot to which-cleverly appealing to their patriotism-he had given the name of " Vinegar Hill," in honor of the scene of the last conflict of that mem- orable rebellion.

On the 2d of April, 1801, the village of Brooklyn was incorporated as a fire district, by an act entitled “An Act to vest certain powers in the Frceholders and In- habitants of part of the Town of Brooklyn, in Kings County," etc., the 6th section of which is of much im- portance, inasmuch as it authenticated the copies of Old Road Records, then recently transferred from the County Clerk's office to the office of the Clerk of the Town.

Crime and vice seem to have made fresh and increas- ing inroads upon the primitive simplicity of this old Dutch town ; for, in 1805, the town took measures to determine the location and ascertain the expense of erecting a " cage, or watch-house ;" whether a rebuild- ing of the old one, or an additional one, is somewhat uncertain. At the same meeting, the foremen of the fire-engines were authorized to establish and regulate a " Guard, or Night-Watch within the Fire Distriet, by and with the consent of the majority of the inhabitants."

1806. In the columns of The Long Island Weekly Intelligencer, published by Robinson & Little, Book- sellers and Stationers, corner of Old Ferry and Front streets, October 9th, vol. i., No. 15, are the advertise- ments of Thomas Langdon, dealer in boots and shoes ; Henry Hewlet, general merchandise, near the Old Ferry ; John Cole, coach-maker ; Dr. Lowe "at the Rev. Mr. Lowe's, corner of Red Hook Road " (present corner of Fulton street and Red Hook Lane); and Wil- liam Cornwall, merchant tailor, corner of Front and Main streets, near the New Ferry. Five apprentices are wanted at Amos Cheney's Ship-yard ; William Mil-

ward, Block and Pump Maker, is located " at the Yel- low Store, on Joshua Sands', Esq., wharf, between the Old and New Ferries ;" while Benjamin Hilton sells china, glass, and earthenware, "at New York prices," in Old Ferry street, in the house formerly occupied by Mr. Derick Amerman. Land and property is advertised by Henry Stanton, corner of Front and Main streets ; by Robert M. Malcolm, corner of Washington and Sands streets, and by Thomas Lalliet. Joel Bunce, Postmaster, advertises the address of 53 letters uncalled for in his office.

In the issue of October 23d, is the advertisement of Augustine Eliott, "Taylor and Lady's Dress-Maker," in old Ferry street ; and five verses of original poetry, " after the manner of Burns," extolling the beauties of, and the splendid prospect to be obtained from, " Brook- lyn, or Mckenzie's One Tree Hill." This hill was located on Pearl street, between York and Prospect streets. All around that portion of Brooklyn, north of Washington and west of Sands street, was a series of hills, some of which were covered with grass and had a few trees ; others were of sandy soil, with here and there a slight covering of grass, and with some button- wood trees, while others still were nothing but sand- hills. Mckenzie's Hill, the most noted of these, was a fine green elevation, crowned with a single gigantic but- tonwood tree, and afforded a beautiful view of the city and harbor of New York. It was marked, as were many of the surrounding hills, by the traces of intrenchments and fortifications thrown up by the British during their occupation of the Island ; and was finally levelled about 1807-9, in order to fill in the wharves built out over the flats in the river, to the northwest of Main street. Another rather noted hill was located some distance farther west (bounded by Front, Adams, and Bridge streets, near the water-line of the East River), and was a barren, sandy eminence, on which every pebble or stone seemed to have been calcined by some extreme heat, while three or four feet below the surface were found regular layers of ashes, mingled with bits of char- coal, and vitrified stones and sand. All of these hills have now disappeared-that known as " Fort Greene, or Washington Park," being the only one which remains.

In August, 1808, the town was one day startled by the explosion of Sands' Powder Mill, which was situ- ated in the vicinity of the present Jay and Tillary streets. Fortunately, it happened between twelve and one o'clock in the day, when the people were all at din- ner-consequently no lives were lost, although forty kegs of powder were lost. The recently erected stone church, belonging to St. Anne's Episcopal Society, was considerably damaged, its walls being somewhat weak- ened, and the windows badly broken. An adjoining ropewalk was also levelled to the ground. This year the sum of $1500 was appropriated by the town for the ereetion of a new "Poor-house."

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105

INCORPORATION OF THE VILLAGE-1812-1816.

1809, March 17th. "The Brooklyn, Jamaica and Flatbush Turnpike Company " was incorporated. The Company, during the year, paved Main and Old Ferry streets in the village.

In June of this year the Long Island Star was estab- lished by Thomas Kirk. The number for June 22d contains, among other advertisements, one by George Hamilton, who kept a select school " where students were taught to make their own pens."

September 7th, John Gibbons announces that he has opened an Academy for both sexes, at the place lately occupied by Geo. Hamilton, where the various branches of education are " taught on unerring principles." Also " Mrs. Gibbons will instruct little Girls in Spelling, Reading, Sewing and Marking." An evening school for young men is proposed, and " N. B. Good Pronun- ciation."

During the months of July, August and September, of this year, the yellow fever prevailed in Brooklyn, which gave rise to a long and wordy newspaper war between the physicians of the village, Drs. Osborn, Ball, and Wendell. On the 27th of September, De Witt Clinton, Mayor of New York, issued a Proclamation, announcing the disappearance of the disease, and the resumption of the ordinary intercourse between that city and Brooklyn, which had been interdicted by his previous proclamation of 2d of August. Twenty-eight persons had died of the fever in Brooklyn, all of whom were under twenty-eight years of age. It was at first thought that the contagion was brought in the ship Concordia, Captain Coffin, on board of which vessel the first case and death occurred. But in the long and very able report of Dr. Rogers, the Health-officer of the Board of Health of New York, which was published in

December, after the subsidence of the disease, the epidemic in Brooklyn was imputed to purcly local causes.

Brooklyn, at this time, was well supplied with private schools. Onc Whitney kept school opposite the Post- office; there was also the Brooklyn Select Academy, taught by Mr. John Mabon, and having as trustees, Messrs. Joshua Sands, S. Sackett, and H. I. Feltus. Platt Kennedy's scholars were advertised to hold an ex- hibition on Christmas Eve, at the Inn of Benjamin Smith, a large stone building on the east side of the road, opposite the old "Corporation House."

The industrial interests of Brooklyn were at this time represented by I. Harmer's Floor-Cloth Manufactory; Chricton's Cotton-Good Manufactory, employing eight to ten looms, and three or four extensive Rope-walks; furnishing work to over one hundred persons.

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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 26

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