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 27

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 27

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The Long Island Star, of February 14th, 1811, con- tains a petition to the Legislature for the establishment of a Bank in Brooklyn. The great inconvenience of crossing the ferry in bad weather, on days when notes fall due, is particularly dwelt on by the petitioners. There was, at this time, only one dry-goods store in town, which was kept by Abraham Remsen, on the cor- ner of Old Ferry (now Fulton) and Front streets; and the mails passed through Long Island only once a week. The publication of the Long Island Star was relinquished by Mr. Kirk, on June 1st, to Alden Spooner.

In July, 1811, the census of Long Island estimates the population of Brooklyn as being 4,402.

1812, June 11. News was received in Brooklyn of the Declaration of War between the United States and Great Britain. (Sce Chapter VIII, of History of Kings County.

BROOKLYN FROM ITS INCORPORATION AS A VILLAGE.

(THE VILLAGE AS IT APPEARED SEVENTY-SEVEN YEARS AGO.)

N OTIIING of historical importance occurred in the town of Brooklyn during the year 1812, except a serious fire on the east side of Main street, near the Old Ferry. Inadequate facili- ties for crossing the river prevented the early arrival of firemen from New York with their machines, and im- provements in this respect were strongly recommended.

The subsequent introduction of team and steam-boats, upon both of the Brooklyn ferries, gave the much-needed facilities for succor from New York, and consequently largely diminished the risks to which Brooklyn had, hitherto, been exposed by fires.

In 1813 an enterprise originated which ultimately re- sulted in the establishment of the first public school. A

number of charitable ladies of the village formed an or- ganization and established a school known as the Loisian Seminary, named after Lois, the grandmother of Timothy the Apostle. The object of the association was to teach poor children reading, writing, arithmetic, knitting, and sewing, gratis. The teachers were twenty- four young ladies, members of the society, who attend- ed in rotation, two each week. One of the regulations of the seminary was as follows:

" It will be necessary that the presiding Trustee ob- serve that the children attend punctually, no trifling excuse to be admitted, and that they are kept clean, and behave in a decent manner."

This school continued for five years. Some of the

106

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

teachers married, others tired of their duties, and finally a lady was engaged to teach at a salary. In 1817 Mr. Andrew Mercein had requested of the lady mana- gers that a teacher might be employed at a salary and the school be converted into a public school, which could only be done under the then-existing laws by showing that the school was conducted by a teacher or teachers who had been drawing pay. This was agreed to, and Mr. Mereein and his associates in the enterprise then transferred the school-which had been held in the houses of the members of the society, without any permanent building-to a small framed house on the corner of Concord and Adams streets, which was subse- quently removed to make room for the present build- ing, occupied by Public School No. 1.

The principal events of the year 1814 are spoken of elsewhere. They were the introduction of steam ferry- boats on the Brooklyn Ferry, and defensive measures adopted in view of the war then in progress.

During the winter of 1815-16, small-pox prevailed to some extent in Brooklyn, and several deaths from the disease occurred. It is worthy of record that Drs. Ball and Wendell, by advertisement, offered their gratuitous services for the vaccination of such as desired.

1816, January 6th, a public meeting was held for the organization of a public school. At this meeting An- drew Mercein, John Seaman and Robert Snow were chosen trustees. At a subsequent meeting measures were taken for the purchase of a site and the erection of a school-house.

On the 8th of the same month a public meeting of the freeholders and inhabitants of the town of Brooklyn was held at the public house of Lawrence Brower, "to take into consideration the proposed application for an incorporation of Brooklyn." On the following day, Messrs. Thomas Everit, Alden Spooner, Joshua Sands, Rev. John Ireland, and John Doughty, who had been appointed a committee to draft the required petition and bill, met at the residence of Mr. Hez. B. Pierrepont, and proceeded to perform the important task assigned to them.

April 12. The act incorporating the village of Brook- lyn passed the legislature of the State.

That portion of the town of Brooklyn, thus set aside as a distinct government, had previously been known as the fire district, established in 1801, and was described as " beginning at the Public Landing south of Pierre- pont's Distillery, formerly the property of Philip Liv- ingston deceased, on the East River; thence running along the Public Road leading from said Landing, to its intersection with Red Hook Lane; thence along said Red Hook Lane to where it intersects the Jamaica Turnpike Road; thence a north-east course to the head of the Wallaboght Mill-pond; thence through the cen- tre of the Mill-pond to the East River; and thenee down the East River to the place of beginning."

Messrs. Andrew Mercein, John Garrison, John

Doughty, John Seaman, and John Dean, were named, by the act, as the first trustees of the village, to remain in office until the first Monday in May, 1817, when an election was to be held by the people.

On the 29th of April these gentlemen took the oath of office as trustees, and held their first mecting on the 4th of May following.

In March, 1816, a Sunday-school was " in operation in the village of Brooklyn," with more than seventy scholars. It was " under the management of four sup- erintendents, a standing committee of seven, and a num- ber of (volunteer) teachers, male and female." The design of the institution was declared to be the eombin- ing " of moral and religious instruction with ordinary school learning." The parents and guardians of the children who attended were requested to indicate what catechism they wished them to study, and the hearty co-operation of all the ladies and gentlemen in the vil- lage was asked for the school. It appears that the prin- cipal founders of this school were Andrew Mercein, Robert Snow, Joseph S. Harrison, John Murphy, and Joseph Herbert. Success followed the efforts of these benevolent and philanthropic men, and the " Brooklyn Sunday-school Union Society" was soon afterward or- ganized.

The school was at first held in Thomas Kirk's print- ing office, a long, narrow, two-story frame edifice, on the westerly side of Adams street, between High and Sands; but it was now removed to the school building of Distriet School, No. 1, on the corner of Concord and Adams streets. As far as is known, this non-sectarian effort was continued till 1818, when the Episcopalians commenced a Sunday-school of their own, which, with temporary intermissions, has continued to the present time. The union effort seems to have declined; but it was revived about 1812, and simultaneously other sectarian schools sprang up, all of which, as well as the union school, were prosperous.

During the first year after the incorporation of the village a seal was adopted, and many ordinances were passed, of which spaee will not permit a record here.

An effort was made to procure the passage of an act so amending the charter as to enable the trustees to fill all vacancies occurring in the board, and to restrict the right of suffrage to freeholders in votes for raising taxes. This was looked on by the people as an invasion of their rights, and so strong a remonstrance was sent to the legislature, that nothing more was heard of the pro- posed amendments.

Brooklyn Seventy-Seven Years Ago .- Before tracing further the history of Brooklyn, it seems desir- able to present a brief sketch of the village as it appeared in 1816, and, with not much change, for about fifteen years thereafter. Should such a sketch fail to attract some people at the present, it is safe to predict that it will be read with increasing interest as time goes on.

Brooklyn, as seen from the New York side of the

107

BROOKLYN SEVENTY-SEVEN YEARS AGO.

river, during the first third of the present century, pre- sented features of simple rural beauty, strongly in con- trast with its present imposing aspect. Around the " Old (now Fulton) Ferry " there was a clustering of houses, taverns, stables and shanties, which had grown up since the earliest establishment of a ferry at that point, and which formed the nueleus of a considerable business activity. From the ferry-slip (with its horse- boat, its one steam-boat and its row-boat accommoda- tions, but with no such accommodations as the present ferry-house affords, and with no bell save the resonant throat of the ferryman), the old country road, the " king's highway" of the colonial and revolutionary periods, straggled crookedly upward and backward, out past the old Dutch church, out through Bedford Corn- ers, and away beyond Jamaica, even to Montauk Point; being, in fact, the great highway of travel of Long Island itself. As far as the junction of this old road (now Fulton street) with the new road (now Main street), which eame up from the "New Ferry " (as it was even then ealled, although it had been established some twenty years), it was tolerably well lined with buildings of various shapes and sizes. Pert-looking Yankee frame edifices rudely intruded their angulari- ties among the hump-backed Duteh houses quaintly built of stone, or of small imported Holland bricks. Yet one and all wore such an unpretentious and neighborly look, under the brooding shadows of the noble trees, with which the village abounded, that it was plainly evident, even to the most casual observer, that no pre- monition of the future greatness, so soon to be thrust upon them, had as yet disturbed the minds of their oceupants.

Less than a quarter of a mile to the left of the " Old Ferry " was the " New Ferry " to Catherine street, New York; and the road (or present Main street) which led from it up the hill, till it met the "Old Ferry road" (now Fulton street), was beginning to show a respeet- able number of frame buildings-all, however, of com- paratively recent origin. Beyond this ferry and street the land stretched northwardly (broken by Mckenzie's, Vinegar, and other hills before mentioned) to the verge of the Wallabout bay, where John Jackson had a ship- yard, and eight or ten houses for workmen. Adjacent to this was the infant United States Navy Yard (estab- lished in 1801); while beyond, along the curving shore of the bay, were the farms of the Johnsons, Sehencks, Remsens, Boerums, and others.

On the right of the Old Ferry, and with an abrupt- ness which, cven at this day, is scarce conecaled by the streets and buildings covering it, rose the northernmost corner, or edge of that portion of the present city known as ""The Heights," stretching southwardly to near the foot of the present Joralemon street. The face and brow of this noble bluff were covered with a beautiful growth of cedar and loeust, while its base was eonstant -. ly washed by the waves of the East river. From its

summit the land stretched away in orchards, gardens and pasture, out to the old highway (Fulton street). The Indians named it in their expressive language "Ihpetonga," or "the high sandy bank." To the early villagers it was known as "Clover Hill," and its owners (at that time Messrs. Cary Ludlow, the Hickses, Waring, Kimberly, Middagh, De Bevoises, Pierrepont and Jor- alemon) resided upon their respective farms in a state of semi-seclusion, almost prophetie of that social aristoc- raey which has sinee claimed "The Heights" as exelu- sively its own. From this elevated plateau the eye rested upon a panoramic scene of unsurpassed beauty ; the city of New York, with its glorious bay ; Staten Island, with the numerous lesser islands studding the bosom of the harbor ; the Jersey shore, with the Orange mountains in the background ; further to the southward was Red Hook with its old mills ; the scattered farm- houses nestled around the bay ; Yellow Hook, and the forest slopes of Greenwood.

The Village .- In taking a view of the village as it then was, the portion along the old highway (now Ful- ton street), as far as the present City Hall, first claims attention.

At the "Old Ferry " landing, which was then situated much farther inland, and to the southward of the pres- entlower ferry-slip, was a dock (Map A, 3), on one side of which were steps for the accommodation of the wherry, or row-boat passengers; while on the other, or upper side, the larger boats or seows landed their freight; and, after the steam-boat was placed on the ferry, it was known as the "steam-boat slip."

Some fifty or sixty feet from the slip was a flag-staff, or liberty-pole, of which Burdet Stryker, the butcher, who occupied a stand in the neighboring market-build- ing, was the custodian.

It is related by Col. De Voe, that when this liberty- pole became dangerous from decay, Mr. Stryker sought to raise funds, by subseription, for a new one. He ap- pealed to some of the "Society of Friends," who declined to subseribe because they were opposed to liberty-poles. He appealed to his old "boss," Thomas Everit, the Quaker, who at once told him that he was opposed to liberty-poles ; but, at the same time, he would give ten dollars to assist in taking down the old one. It is hardly necessary to add that he succeeded in raising the required amount.

In the middle of the street, about fifty or sixty feet east of the flag-staff, stood the old market, a long, shab- by, wooden structure, the head of which was opposite Carll's stables, near Elizabeth street. It was slightly raised above the level of the street, had a rounding roof, and contained six stalls, or stands, one of which is re- membered to have been oceupied by Burdet Stryker, another by John Doughty, another as a fish-stand, etc. The locality was a sort of rendezvous for all the butch- ers, of whom, from the immemorial, there had been a large number resident in Brooklyn. Many of them had

108

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

their slaughter-houses near by, and every morning came down to the ferry-stairs with their wheelbarrow-loads of nicely-dressed meats, which they trundled aboard the boats, barrows and all, and were ferried over to the city. The old market, also, was the great resort of the sport- ive blacks, who formed no inconsiderable portion of the population of Brooklyn, at that carly day. They were much employed by the butchers and others, and were fat, sleek and happy fellows, generally on the best of terms with their masters and " all the world besides," and full to overflowing of the waggery and tricks for which the Dutch negroes have always been noted. At the market, also, these negroes celebrated their annual "Pinkster" holiday, which corresponded to their masters' " Paass " festival. The old building finally became so dilapidated as to be a nuisance, and was torn down one night, in 1814, by a party of young men and boys. It was a public institution, and the "market fees" were always collected by William Furman, one of the over- seers of the poor, and who occupied a large double frame house (Map A, 1), with a long, high piazza in front, which stood on the site of the present City Railroad Company's elegant cdifice. The house then stood right in front of the ferry-stairs, which led down on the lower side of the slip ; and, in the basement nearest the water, he kept an oyster-house, where, for the charge of twelve-and-a-half cents, one could be furnished with as many finc roasted oysters as he could eat at a sitting.

WILLIAM FURMAN, or " Judge Furman " as he was called, was of a Newtown family ; came here soon after the Revolu- tion; was one of the founders of the New (or Catharine street) ferry ; first judge of the county, 1808-1823 ; a village trustee in 1817 ; several years a supervisor ; member of State leg- islature, 1827 ; a warm friend of Governor Clinton ; presi- dent of the Brooklyn Fire Ins. Co .; and, in many ways, identified with the interests of the village. He died in 1852, aged 86 years. He was the father of Gabriel Furman, the talented lawyer and historian of Brooklyn, who was born in the above-described house in January, 1800.

Adjoining the western side of Furman's house, on the corner of the beach under the Heights (now Furman street), was a small shanty kept as a sort of opposition fish and oyster-house, by another Furman.

Between Furman's house and the corner of the pres- ent Columbia street there had originally been, in the early colonial times, a cattle-yard or enclosure, wherein were confined the cattle brought down from the Island for sale in the New York markets, and which were often delayed, by stress of weather, from crossing the East river for days together. It is probable that this cattle- yard (represented in the view of the Brookland Ferry House, in 1745-See Chapter on Ferries) originally ex- tended to Doughty street, for there is evidence of there having been a public landing place at the foot of that street. On the site of this yard, adjoining to Furman's dwelling, there was, at the time spoken of, a two-story frame house, with dormer windows and a long front

stoop, occupied by John Bedell as a " stage-house " and grocery. Next to this (Map A, 5) was a large brick sta- ble, with slate roof, said to be the best on the island. On the corner of the narrow lanc, now called Elizabeth street, was a very old brick building (Map A, 8), of ante- revolutionary date, owned by John Carpenter and sub- sequently occupied by Daniel Mott as a tavern. Mott was burned out in January, 1814, by a great fire which involved some of his neighbors, between his place and the river, among whom were Thomas Everit and John Bedell. After this, for many years, the ground was oc- cupied by a temporary structure used as a grocery, until the crection (about 1832) of the brick edifice known from that day to the present as "Carll's stables."

Across the lane stood the old stone tavern (Map A, 9) to which Benjamin Smith removed after he was burned out of the "Corporation House," on the opposite side of the road (Fulton strcet), in 1812. It was a two-story stone edifice, of about fifty feet front, with its bar and sitting-room on the corner next the lane, and a sign, swinging before the door, proclaimed it to be " The Traveller's Inn. By Benjamin Smith." It was after- wards known as "Smith and Woods," and, at a later date still, was kept by Samucl Birdsall, the father of Mr. Thos. W. Birdsall, and was a noted stopping-place for the Quakers when they came to Brooklyn. At times, it was said, as many as a hundred and fifty horscs munched their oats, stamped their feet and whisked away the flics, in the stables of the inn, and great was its fame among the " broad-brims." It was also the place of deposit for the New York newspapers, which were brought over in small boats, and left here for delivery to subscribers ; for, in that day, the post-office confined its operations simply to the transmission of letters. Next above Smith's was James W. Burtis's feed-store (Map A, 29); and a tavern (also Map A, 29) kept by Martin Boerum, a son of an old citizen of Brooklyn, who owned a large farm near the Wallabout. Upon his father's death, Martin assumed charge of his patrimonial farm, and sold out his tavern-stand to John Hunter, a rough, jovial man, who (by virtue of having formerly been a member of the "Horse artillery " of the county) em- blazoned upon his sign the rude delineation of a mounted artilleryman, above the words "Hunter's Hotel."

Next to Hunter's, and about opposite to Front street, was Selah Smith's tavern (Map A, 30), a double frame building, erected in 1780, and framed entirely of oak, even to the rafters. Furman's Manuscripts record (in 1824), that, "in digging the cellar of this house, a large rock was found, in endeavoring to sink which, it slipped, and one of the workmen fell under it, and there his bones remain to the present day;" which legend, of course, gives to that building and its present successor an indubitable right to have a ghost of its own.

Along the easterly side of the tavern ran the alley leading to the stables in the rear, and the gateway at

109

its entranee was spanned by a huge areh, formed out of a whale's jaw-bones, and painted blue. Selah Smith died in the early part of the year 1819, and the business was continued by his widow, Ann. Adjoining the other side of the alley was the ancient two-story briek building, with a very high stoop (Map A, 31), oeeupied

MAP A.

STREET.

MAIN

HENRY (orAert) ST

4-2

BUCKBEE'SAL

FRONT ST.

HICKS

STREET

DOCK ST.

MªKENNEY LANE

VINE ST

WILLOW

STREET

MARKET

COLUMBIA STREET

STEAMBOAT SLIP

FULTON SLIP

EAST RIVER

MAP OF THE OLD FERRY DISTRICT OF THE VILLAGE IN 1816.

The dotted lines indicate old roads, lots and estates. FIG. 1, the Ludlow Estate ; FIG. 2, the Hicks Estate; FIG. 3, the Middagh Estate. The smaller figures are alluded to in the text.

as a residenee by BURDET STRYKER, the father of ex- Mayor F. B. Stryker, tallow ehandler and butcher, his shop being in the basement.

He was a native of New York City ; born in 1769 ; served his apprenticeship with that good old Quaker butcher, Thomas Everit, Jr., near the Old Ferry, Brooklyn ; and, on arriving of age, set up for himself in the village, where he continued in business during his life-time. His slaughter- house was, at first, in Douglity street, and he had a stand (No. 60) in the old Fly Market, New York ; afterwards he

was a tallow-chandler, in Brooklyn. In 1794 he was one of the eight firemen chosen by the citizens, at annual town meeting, to man the new fire-engine, the second one in the infant fire department of Brooklyn. He was iden- tified with the establishment of Methodism in Brooklyn, being one of the trustees of the newly incorporated Methodist church in Sands street. He was much interested in military matters, being captain of the village militia company, the " Republican Rifles," which subsequently, during the war of 1812, volunteered, and performed a tour of duty at New Utrecht, with much credit. He was an ardent poli- tician of the Jeffersonian school, and a member of the celebrated " Tammany Society, or Columbian order," being one of the "Wallabout committee," in 1808, to make arrangements for the sepulture of the martyrs of the prison-ships, at the Walla- bout. Subsequently, he left the democratic ranks and espoused the cause of De Witt Clinton, with whom he was on terms of con- siderable intimacy. He had a peculiar aversion to the practice of "splitting tick- ets," against which he was wont to inveigh with great warmth, insisting, in his sput- tering Dutch way, that folks "should take de tail, mit de hide." Though eccentric, he was noted for his philanthropy. On the several occasions when Brooklyn was visited by the yellow fever, and small-pox, he distinguished himself by his fearless, patient and thorough devotion to the sick. When friends and family fled from the touch of the pestilence, then Burdet Stryker ap- peared at the bed-side of the sufferer, and, regardless of color, social position, and condition, he nursed them tenderly as if STREET they had been his own " kith and kin ;" 1 and, if needs be, as frequently happened, he performed the last sad offices and buried MIDDAGH them with his own hands. He died in 1825.

On the opposite or northerly side of Fulton street, between the river and Front street, was the ferry-tavern, or "Cor- poration House," the nearest building to the river. As late as the elose of the revolutionary period, the high-water FURMAN ST. mark of the East river, north of the ferry, extended nearly to the westerly line of Front street. Between the Cor- poration House and the ferry-stairs, during the revolutionary period, there was a frame building, together with a barn for stabling, both of which were enelosed within the tavern-yard. After the elose of the war, Capt. Adolph Waldron, the former oeeupant, returned from the exile to which his politieal principles had foreed him, and resumed his ferry and tavern leases, which he carried on for some years thereafter; being sueeeed- ed, in 1789, by Capt. Henry Dawson, one of the three new ferrymen that year appointed by the corporation of New York.

STREET

DOUGHTY STREET

POPLAR

ELIZABETH ST

EVERITT STREET

OLD. _ FERRY-ROAD (Now FULTON ST)

BROOKLYN SEVENTY-SEVEN YEARS AGO.

-JAMES ...... ST -...

110

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

The tavern was next found in the hands of Capt. Benjamin Smith, who was burned out, as before stated, in 1812 ; but in 1816, the block between the ferry and Front strect had been much extended by filling in, and its appearance totally changed by the erection of a line of buildings, mostly occupied by stores, taverns and stables.

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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 27

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