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 65

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 65

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old Holland settlers), in a little hollow where it would be protected from the sweep of the dreaded north wind. The airy sites and broad prospect, which so entice the occupants of Brooklyn soil, had no attractions for the phlegmatic and comfort-loving Dutch race. The old farmers quietly hid their houses away in the little valleys and turns of the road, much as a cautious fowl erceps into a hedge and construets its nest for a long inen- bation. Hendrick Suydam, like his brother, the stout Lambert Suydam of Bedford, captain of the Kings County troop of horse, was a sound whig; though com- pelled, from his situation in the midst of the British camp, to take the oath of allegiance or suffer the con- finement of a fetid and infected prison, with numbers of his Bushwick neighbors. He could not, however, obtain his freedom from an infection seareely less pestif- erons than the other alternative, the lodgment, in his house, of a squad of Hessian soldiers. So filthy were their habits, that, in the summers succeeding their oecu- pancy of the houses of Bushwiek, Brooklyn and Flat- bush, where they had been quartered, a malignant fever ensued, which carried off numbers of the inhabitants. In consequence of their peculiar habits, so abhorrent to the fastidious neatness of the Dutch, these Hessians were termed the Dirty Blues. During the occupation of the Suydam house, a Hessian captain, for want of other occupation, or possibly to spite his Dutch host, chopped with his sword several large pieces from one of the side posts of the doorway. As a memento of the old troublous times, and to keep green the memory of the wrong's which so deeply embittered him, the old whig would never permit the defacement to be repaired. With true Dutch pertinacity, in the same humor, his descendauts have very commendably preserved the tokens of the detested occupation of their domicile by a foreign enemy, and the marks of the Hessian sword are still apparent."

The greatest trouble experienced by the farmers dur- ing the war, was from the tories, or cow-boys, who were amenable to no law, and influenced by no motives of humanity or honesty. Old Mrs. Meserole, who lived on Greenpoint, used often to say that, though residing alone with a young family around her, she was never molested by the British officers, or their men ; but she lived in constant dread of the tories.

Rappelje's tavern, at the Cross-roads, was the favor- ite rendezvous of these robbers; and, as long as they infested the towns, there was no quiet or safety in the land. After the British left the country, they disap- peared, many of them going to Nova Scotia.

A battalion of guides and pioneers, composed of three companies, were quartered in the town of Bush- wiek, from 1778 until November, 1783. They were a set of notorious villains, collected from almost every part of the country, and organized under the command of Captains MePherson, Williams, Van Allen and Purdy. Williams and Purdy were from Westchester

281

BUSHWICK DURING THE BRITISH OCCUPATION, 1776-'83.

county, Van Allen from Bergen county, N. J., and Me- Pherson from the south. This command supplied the British army with guides and spies for every part of the country; and, whenever an expedition was organized to attack any place, drafts were made on this battalion. After the peace, these men dared not remain in this country, and were not wanted in Britain. Nova Scotia was their only place of refuge, and thither they went, where proper provision was made for them by the British authorities.

After the provisional treaty of peace, these guides returned to quarters at Bushwick. They numbered about one hundred and fifty under command of Capt. McPherson, and were encamped on the farm of Abm. Van Ranst, then an exile. The dwelling, which stood about one hundred and fifty yards northward from the Bushwick church, was occupied by the captain himself, who kept a guard of honor, and a sentinel constantly stationed at his door. In this connection we may re- late the following anecdote, as given in the Manuscript Recollections of GEN. JOHNSON :

"In the month of August, 1788, on a fine evening, seven young whigs were together along the shore opposite to Cor- lears hook, the tide being then quite high. Two British long- boats had drifted on the shore, where they had lain for some time. It was proposed to take the boats up Bushwick creek and lay them on the meadow of John Skillman, as prizes, which was forthwith done. A few days afterwards, in the month of September, several of the party, being at the Fly Market in New York, were told that Capt. McPherson had caused the boats to be removed to his house, and had pur- chased paint and other material with which to put the boats in order for his own use. It was immediately resolved to re- move the boats, that night, from the captain's quarters. A gallon of shrub, some crackers and a salmon were purchased for the expedition, a small hill on John Skillman's land was designated as the place of rendezvous, and nine o'clock was named as the hour. Three of the party brought up a boat with oars to row away the boats with; and, at the appointed hour, the whole party, consisting of William Miller, Joseph and Francis Skillman, John Bogart, John Conselyea, Francis Titus and the writer, were assembled at the appointed place, It was a beautiful moonlit evening and the soldiers were playing about the fields. The little party of whigs regaled themselves with their provisions, until about ten o'clock, when two of their number ventured to reconnoitre, and re- turned with the report that the boats lay near the house, that a party were dancing and frolicking there, and a senti- nel was at the door. Meanwhile, a dark cloud was rising in the west, foreboding a violent storm. It came on, and then we went, took up the boats, carried them over a stone wall, and dragging them about one hundred and fifty yards, launched them into Skillman's creek. When we took the boats the sentinel at the door had deserted his post; we found a fine marquee pitched near by, which was trembling in the rising storm. I cut a few sky-lights in the top, and then severing the weather braces, which sang like fiddle strings, it fell prostrate. So violent was the lightning and rain, that we did not see a living person, besides ourselves, before we were out of Bushwick creek with the boats, which we took up the river to John Miller's, opposite Blackwell's island, and left them in his barn, returning to Francis Ti- tus's in our boat, at sunrise. In passing down Bushwick

creek, one of our prizes filled with water, but we did not abandon her. On our arrival at the mouth of the creek, the storm was over, the moon shone brightly again, and we were hailed by a sentinel who threatened to fire upon us, to which we answered roughly, and passed on our way.

"The next day all Bushwick was in an uproar. The Yan- kees were charged with infringing the treaty of peace; the sentinels and guards who lay in Mr. Skillman's barn, within fifty yards of the place where the boats were launched, were charged with unwatchfulness. It was not known who took the boats, before November 25, 1783. The act was caused by the feeling of resentment which the whole party had against Captain McPherson. He was a bad man, and when his sol- diers were accused by neighbors with thefts, and other an- noyances, retorted upon their accusers with foul language, etc."

Mr. WM. O'GORMAN, in his admirable antiquarian sketches, in the Long Island Weekly Star, under date of October 8, 1880, says: "The old Skillman House, which may be considered to have been the headquar- ters of the expedition, is still standing, in Frost street, between Lorimer and Union avenue. Its exterior is altered from the old Dutch pattern to modern shape, but the interior is characteristic of the first settlement. Thirty years since the eye of the tourist often took pleasure in viewing the fine old house of former days, standing as it then did on a grassy knoll well planted with large trees. At that period the spring tides used to cover the marsh up to the garden of the house; and, by sunset at such times the landscape shone with the splendor of primitive time. But sad is the change for the landscape; more or less the salt mead- ows are being filled in and the spring-tides visit it no more. The back of the house now fronts on the street, and the old hall door (in two sections) now guards the rear entrance. Of the Van Ranst homestead nothing remains but the foundations, still to be seen on lots Nos. 245 and 247 Withers street, near Kingsland ave- nue, five blocks away from the Skillman House. The headquarters of McPherson and his spy-battalion were, until their removal two years since, the guard-lodge of the Cannon Street Baptist Cemetery."

Upon the occasion of the evacuation of the city of New York by the British army, and its occupation by the Americans, November 25th, '83, a number of the inhabitants of Bushwick met and appointed December 2d, as the day, and the banks of the East river, in full view of the city, as a place of rejoicing, and sent an address and invitation to Washington, who returned a courteous reply-given at length, in STILES' History of Brooklyn.

Among the patriots of Bushwiek, we may here re- cord the names of John Provost (grandfather of Hon. A. J. Provost), who escaped the pursuit of a detacli- ment of British soldiers on Greenpoint, and was obliged to secrete himself for three days in Cripple- bush swamp ; during which time he sustained life by milking the cows which pastured there; of John A. Meserole, who was taken and confined in the Pro-

282

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

vost jail at New York; of John I. Meserole who was mistaken for John A., while out gunning in a skiff, and arrested as a spy, but subsequently released; and of Abraham Meserole, another member of the same family who was in the American army. Jacob Van Cott and David Miller were also in the service, and taken pris- oners. William Conselyea was taken during the war, and hung over a well and threatened in order to make him confess where his money was; Nicholas Wyckoff was engaged in vidette duty with a troop of horse; and Alexander Whaley was one of those decided characters of whom we should be glad to learn more than we have been able to ascertain, in spite of much inquiry and research. Hc was a blacksmith, residing at the Bushwick Cross Roads, on land forming a part of Abraham Rapalye's forfeited estates, and which he purchased at the commissioners' sale, March 21, 1785. (Liber VI, Convey. Kings Co., 345). The building which Mr. Whaley occupied was erected by himself, on the south side of the present Flushing avenue, his liberty-sign pole rising from a little knoll some twenty feet west of the house. His blacksmith-shop was on the site of the present house, east of the old Whaley house. He died at Bushwick, in February, 1833, in the eighty-eighth year of his age. Bold, faithful, and patriotic, and odd withal, he made his mark upon the day and generation in which he lived. His obituary notice (all too brief) says that "he was one of the pioneers of American liberty; being one of those who assisted in throwing the tea overboard in Boston har- bor. He was the confidential friend of Washington, and in all the relations of life he always did his duty."

Several estates were confiscated, among which were those of Williams, Rapalje and others; the owners finding it convenient to go to Nova Scotia.

Although opposite political opinions were frequently entertained by different members of the same families, it is worthy of remark that they always acted honestly towards one another. Though a great number of the inhabitants of Bushwick were whigs, the royalists even were men of peaceable character and integrity. This fact, as recorded by a venerable eye witness of the Revolution, speaks volumes in favor of the ancestry of Bushwick.

Bushwick, from the Close of the Revolution to 1854 .- There were in Bushwick, at the close of the Revolution, three distinct settlements, or centres of population, each retaining its old Dutch name, and very much of its old Dutch quaintness of appearance. These were het dorp, the town plot, first laid out by Gov. Peter Stuyvesant, in 1661, at the junction of North Second street and Bushwick avenue; het Kivis padt, since known as the Cross roads, at the crossing of the present Bushwick avenue and the Flushing road; and het strand, or the strand, along the East river shore.

Het Dorp, or the town plot of Bushwick, was the

centre of town life, towards which all the principal roads of the settlement verged; and, in every direction, as the citizen receded from it, he receded from civiliza- tion.

MAP D.

AINSLEE

DEVOE

NORTH 2ND

CONSELYEA

SKILLMAN

JACKSON

WITHERS

FROST

BUSHWICK AVE.

...

DEVOE

METROPOLITAN

ORIENT

KINGSLAND !

OLIVE

ST.

MASPETH

BANZETT

ST.

SHARON

AVE.

BULLION

BENTON

PARKER

BENNETT

AMOS

MORGAN

AVE.

HET DORP, OR BUSHWICK GREEN.

1. Bushwick Church.

2. Town-House.

Devoe Houses.

3. School House.

6. Conselyea House.

7. Old Bushwick graveyard, indicated by dotted line.

The remains of ancient Bushwick, says the Newtown Anti- quary, Mr. WM. O'GORMAN, " cluster around the Dutch Re- formed Church on the confines of North Second and Hum- boldt streets, Brooklyn, E. D., where the animosity of Governor Stuyvesant planted them in 1661, to gratify his hatred against the English Kills of Newtown. On March 14th, 1661, he probably emerged from the old Conselyea House on Humboldt street-irascible old man that he was- supporting a heavy dinner on his historic wooden leg, rather unsteadied from heavy lager, and pronounced and christened the new village ' BOSWIJCK,' which the moderns have made Bushwick, the Low Dutch name for 'heavy woods.' The venerable homestead of the Conselyea family stands angle- ways to Humboldt street; with its front looking,as of yore,on old Bushwick Church, its rear to Jackson street. It is worth a visit. Part of the building has been lately cut away. The last occupant of the name was 'Aunt Katty,' widow of And'w J. Conselyea. She died in 1873, and the family of Conselyea departed with her coffin through the old portals of the home- stead, never to return. A writer of that day thus describes the rooms left vacant: 'The window sills are of sufficient ca- pacity to seat three men comfortably, and are each one foot in depth; the window sashes are the same as were originally placed here, with nine small 6x7 panes of glass in each sash.

GRAHAM

AVE.

HUMBOLDT

ST.

....

AVC.

AVE.

HIET DORP, BUSHWICK GREEN.

283

The ceiling of this room is particularly worthy of notice. It is supported by five ponderous beams that measure 14}x7} inches in thickness, and are twenty feet long. They are painted brown, and give the room rather a gloomy appear- ance. The flooring is of boards that are 17 inches in width, and these broad boards always mark a house as very ancient. The old cupboard of 150 years ago was removed to Jamaica, and is now preserved in the house of John Conselyea, of that township; it was and is yet an ornamental piece of furni- ture.""'

The old Bushwick church was an octagonal edifice, standing on the site of, and facing the same way as the present one. Its portrait will be found in the Ecclesi- astical History of Kings County. The wrinkled and homely old one-story town-house, and the school-house on the opposite side of the Wood-point road, which leads from the church to a point of woods on the meadows, near Van Cott and Meeker avenues; the group of one-story Dutch cottages, with their long curved sloping roofs, marking the entrance of Kyckout lane, which connected Bushwick church with Kyckout or Lookout point, on the East river, crossing Grand street near Tenth; all thesc formed a scene of primitive Dutch life, exceedingly at- tractive from its simplicity and almost grotesque quaint- ness. And, so it remained until 1835. In 1840, the old church (Map D, Fig. 1), was replaced by the present edifice. In 1846, Maspeth avenue was opened to Newtown, and several houses erected upon it, this side of the creek. The old town-house yet stands (Map D, Fig. 2), and around it centre the memories of the ancient, civil, ecclesiastical and educational glories of Bushwick. In front of it (or more probably of its predecessor), contuma- cious John of Leyden was exposed to the public gaze, ignominiously tied to a stake, with a horse-bridle in his mouth, a bundle of rods under his arm and a label on his breast, stating that he was a writer of lampoons, etc. Here, too, a thief was once punished by being made to stand under a gallows, with a rope around his neck and an empty sword scabbard in his hand ; and here, also, saddest sight of all, a venerable clergyman of the town, who had incautiously married a couple without observing the formalities demanded by the law, was condemned to flogging and banishment ; a sent- ence, however, which, in consideration of his gray hairs, was commuted to that of exile from the town.

" Long after the Revolution, the old town-house con- tinued to be the high seat of justice, and to resound with the republican roar of vociferous electors on town meetings days. The first Tuesday in April, and the fourth of July, in each succeeding year, found het-dorp (now Anglicized to Bushwick Church), suddenly meta- morphosed from a sleepy little Dutch hamlet into a brawling, swaggering country town, with very dc-

bauched habits. Our Dutch youth had a most enthusi- astic tendency and ready facility in adopting the con- vivial customs and uproarious festivity of the loud- voiced and arrogant Anglo-American youngsters. One day the close-fisted electors of Bushwick devised a plan for easing the public burden, by making the town- house pay part of the annual taxes ; and, accordingly, it was rented to a Dutch publican, who afforded shelter to the justices and constables, and by his potent liquors contributed to furnish them with employment. In this mild partnership, so quictly aiding to fill each other's pockets, our old friend Chris. Zimmerman had a share until he was ousted, because he was a better customer than landlord. At last the electors of Bushwick grew tired of keeping a hotel, and sold the venerable struc- ture to an infidel Yankec, at whose bar the good do- minie could no longer feel free to take an inspiriting cup before entering the pulpit; and the glory of the town- house of Bushwick departed." (FIELD).

The school-house which stood near (Map D, Fig. 3), was occupied by a district school until within a few years past-latterly under the charge of the Board of Education.

In sight of the church, and covering the present

V.P.DAVISE SPEER.

OLD BUSHWICK GRAVEYARD.

junction of Parker street and Kingsland avenue, was the ancient graveyard of the original Dutch settlement, for many years unused and its few remaining monu- ments neglected, broken and almost undecipherable. In 1879, Isaac De Bevoise, grandson of Isaac, who was here buried, undertook the pious duty of removing such remains as were left. He collected seven large casket-boxes of bones, whose identification was impos- sible ; besides a few remains which were identified by neither coffin-plates or headstone. He estimated them at 250 skeletons, and he remarked that all had sound teeth-save the one tooth which used to hold the Dutch pipe. The work of removal was done at the ex- pense of the old families, under the direction of the Consistory of the Church ; and the boxes are deposited under Bushwick Church. The few inscriptions in this

284

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

old burial-plaee have been preserved by STILES, in Ilist. of Brooklyn, ii. 374 ; and by Town-Clerk WM. O'GORMAN, in the L. I. City Weekly Star, Dec. 31, 1880.

From the old burying-ground, and looking along the old Woodpoint road, the two venerable De Voe houses might be seen (Map D, 4 and 5), standing (on either side the old road) between Parker and Bennett streets, near De Bevoise avenue. They are well de- pieted in the accompanying sketeh taken in the fall of 1867.

Hogan !

THE DE VOE HOUSES, AS SEEN FROM THE OLD GRAVEYARD.

On De Bevoise avenue was the old De Bevoise house, later known as the residence of Charles I. De Bevoise. Here, again, we must let our Newtown friend, Town-Clerk WM. O'GORMAN deseribe :

"The ' Manor House' on Meeker Avenue is a good point to stroll from, when historically inclined, towards old Bushwick township. Here wound its way the Woodpoint road to the old town dock ; and here, within sight of each other on oppo- site sides of Meeker Avenue, are the Wyckoff and DeBevoise homesteads. Each of them has its history, antedating the Declaration of Independence by many years. But each house has likewise a middle history, connecting the past gen- eration with the present by two living and hearty links. *

* * In the Manor house we see the birth-place of Nicholas Wyckoff, President of the First National Bank. He was Supervisor of Bushwick town. Step across Meeker Avenue, and on the edge of the open lots stands the old DeBevoise house. Charles I. DeBevoise was born in that house, and he too became a Supervisor of Bushwick township. We believe they are the only representatives of Bushwick now remaining. " Bushwick, from its birth under the old Dutch Governor Stuyvesant, was a lively little township, and much prone to irritate her neighbors. In fact she was a thin wedge driven from Greenpoint to the ocean, right through the extremities of several sleepy towns ; and, as her humor was, she con- stantly kept one or other of them awake. The Supervisor of

little Bushwick of that date must be active, of an aggressive turn of mind, but withal good-humored, and endowed with the vitality of perfect health. These were the sine-qua-nons demanded of all candidates in her elections; which were a species of Olympic games once a year to her.

"The competitors were many, and to be successful was esteemed of great honor. Charles I. DeBevoise and Nicholas Wyckoff bore off these honors in their day. In their stock of health they out-distanced all competitors. It is doubtful if either of them has lost a tooth-they are neither of them venerable-they are merely men containing some eighty years of accurate recollections and of the best health. This represents their physical condition, the only province of the tourist. Their reputation as citizens is known of all." [Mr. Wyckoff died while these pages were passing through the press .- Editor.]

"The "Wyckoff House " was erected by Theodorus Polhemus, of Flatbush, who married Anna Brinckerhoff here, and here settled. He afterwards became the chosen representative of Bushwick in the Con- gress and Conventions, from 1775 to 1777. He died in 1781, and after Independence his children sold out to Peter Wyckoff, the father of the President of the First Na- tional Bank. But the Wyckoffs still held, and still do hold, their ancestral farm on the boundary-line between Brooklyn and Newtown, beyond Metropolitan Avenue. The ex-Supervisor resided there; while the Polhemus-Wyckoff estate, with its old house, has passed to the stranger."

Of the genealogies and romanees of the Polhemus and connected families of Schencks, Rikers, Remsens and Lar- ramores, the TOWN-CLERK diseourses most genially and instructively.

" Thirty years since and the Manor House grounds on Meeker avenue presented a Baronial appearance ; the Wyckoff woods and the Wycoff-Polhemus house had retained all its companion trees, barns and out-houses. Two immense poplars stood sentries at the gate on the Woodpoint road ; they have yielded to time, and are no more. In the last stages of their decay, our thoughts often reverted to the times when the Bushwick farmers carried their produce to the old town-dock past the same trees and watched the growth of the young saplings newly planted.

Thirty years ago, and nothing was disturbed along the Woodpoint road, on its way to the town-dock of Bushwick ; but, in 1880, all is uprooted, and the town-dock itself and its tide-water are traversed over by the horse-cars. The specta- tors of the old poplars never dreamt of such changes; but the Wyckoff house is now, as ever, a farm-house.

The DeBevoise house is also on the old Woodpoint road ; and, for generations, was the homestead of the DeBevoise family, of Bushwick, descended from Carel DeBevois, the Huguenot, who became the first school-teacher and town- clerk of Brooklyn. It still belongs to Charles I. DeBevoise, and in that house he was born, and there, too, he was mar- ried-once, if not twice; and we believe history records that his father, Isaac DeBevoise, did also endure similar experi- ence of these changes in life. The ex-Supervisor resides in the large mansion adjoining the old house, nor have his eyes ever failed, for upwards of eighty years, to rest on the place

285

OLD BUSHWICK MILLS.

of his nativity-which circumstance is rather a unique ex- perience of constancy in this our land of change. The Schenck family, of Brooklyn, are closely entwined with these DeBevoises, of Bushwick ; in proof of which, on a window of the old house, remains the name of a bride from that family, cut on her wedding-day, immediately be- fore she had assumed her new name of DeBevoise. The fifth generation are now represented in continuous residence from Carel DeBevoise, of 1736, who was a farmer, and the first of the name in Bushwick, to Charles I., and his son, Isaac DeBevoise ; and, still later, to a six-year old boy, the son of this last Isaac.

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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 65

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