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 66

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 66

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The barn of the DeBevoise house is precisely as the Hes- sians of General Rahl had left it-warm and comfortable in a plentiful neighborhood, which these warriors of so much per head soon learned to appreciate and fully to enjoy. To the sound of the drum they trampled down, in 1776, a new clay floor ; and, this accomplished, they eat, drank and smoked out their long occupation. Of the English tongue, they learned but little from the natives of Bushwick, who, indeed, knew little of it themselves ; all spoke in Dutch, and in secret they cleaved together until the war was over. Few of them returned to Europe; many remained in Bush- wick ; Louis Warner, who lived near Cooper's glue factory, Hendrick Plaus, and Christopher Zimmerman, who, for many years, was miller at Luquere's mill, were of this number, and are yet well remembered. The Prince of Hesse made money by their absence ; a Hessian lost to him was a clear gain-such being the terms of bargain and sale of that Princely Potentate with Royal George III., of England. It was a glorious bargain for all parties, save to King George, who had to pay expenses."

On Bushwick avenue, near the north-east corner of that avenue and North Second street, was the old Beadel house, now used as a grocery-store ; and several other old houses long remained in the immediate neigh- borhood of the church. North-west of the church and close to Bushwick creek was the residence of Abram Van Ranst, a lieutenant of the Kings County Militia, who fled, with his family, to Harlem, at the time of the battle of Brooklyn. His house became the head-quar- ters of Mr. Pherson's corps of refugees and tories.

Het Kivis Padt, or the Cross-roads, on Bushwick avenue, between Johnson and Adams streets, long re- tained several of the old houses which clustered there in the olden time.

The inhabitants residing along the water-side (Het Strand of the olden day) at the close of the Revolution, were Martin Kershow, David Miller, Charles Titus, Andrew Conselyea, Thomas Skillman, Francis Titus, William Bennett and John Titus. Speaking of the Titus family, JOHN M. STEARNS, Esq., says :

"But as we passed northerly along the shore, we came to an ancient tavern, since fronting on First street, just south of Grand, on land conveyed to Francis Titus by Isaac Meserole, prior to 1758. By whom this celebrated public house, known for generations as the 'Fountain Inn,' was built, I do not know. Its site was devised by Francis Titus to his son, Charles, who was known as old ' Charlum Titus,' and who kept this place for many years. Of a Saturday night, the settlers usually gathered around its bar, and con- tributed to a weekly carousal, and bacchanal songs, such as should have startled the sensibilities of a Christian people.

As a general result, in less than half a century, three-fourths of the farms in town had changed hands through the ruin wrought by the influence of the Fountain Inn. Passing this noted inn, our pathway leads past the old Titus Homestead, where the Francis Tituses, for three generations, lived and died. Here we pause to relate an incident illustrative of human gratitude and human selfishness. Teunis Mauritz Covert died at Monmouth, N. J., seized of the land since known as the old Titus Homestead, many years previous to 1719. Francis Titus had married his widow, and brought up his children. The eldest son, Teunis Covert, under the laws then prevailing, was the sole heir of this farm, to the exclu- sion of all his father's younger children. On the 16th of May, 1719, this Teunis Covert makes a deed of this farm to Francis Titus, his 'loving father-in-law,' for his care and expense in bringing up the grantor and his father's other children ; and then described the home and farm as occupied by the grantee, containing fifty-eight acres, &c. This land continued in the possession of Titus for over thirty years, but the generous step-son was not remembered in the step- father's will, made some thirty years afterwards. Devising a large estate to the testator's own children, to wit: Francis, Charles, Jan, Johannes and Titus Titus, and charging there- on legacies to his daughters, Antie, Hellena, Elizabeth, Janetje, Hyeotte and Christina, reserving an estate for life or during widowhood, to his wife, Elizabeth-yet, his step- children are all forgotten ; and this Elizabeth he turns out to poverty if she marries again. The step-son, who gen- erously gave up his estate, an inheritance from his ancestors, received not even an honorable mention when the recipient of his benefaction made his last earthly preparation for his death-bed.

Pursuing our way along the East River shore, we come to the old homestead of the Wortmans, who, for nearly a hundred years, had an honorable name among the denizens of Bushwick, and only ceased to be mentioned as leading citizens about 1780. This old homestead is now represented by a more modern domicile near Bushwick creek and Second street, on property now of General Samuel I. Hunt. The farm originally had ninety-six acres, some forty acres of the western part having passed to one William Laytin, and by him was sold to Francis Titus, mentioned above. The remainder was owned by one William Bennett, and was devised by him to his son William, as to the northwestern part, and to Jacob Bennett, as to the southeasterly part. The former passed to William Vail, and through him to the wife of Samuel I. Hunt ; the latter was afterward known as the farm of Frost, O'Handy, Butler and Sinclair."

Subsequently, but prior to 1798, were erected the houses of Peter Miller and Frederic Devoe. In 1798, also, William Van Cotts resided at the Sweede's Fly. One by one, however, these old farm-houses have dis- appeared before long rows of modern brick dwellings.

The Boerum House, on Division avenue, between Broadway and Kent avenue (see cut on next page), and the Remsen house, on Clymer street, near Kent avenue, long remained as mementoes of the past.

Old Bushwick Mills-both tide mills .- Luqueer's (later known as Master's), erected in the year 1664, by Abraham Jansen, who received a grant of the mill-site and privileges, was, with the exception of Brower's mill, on Gowanus creek, the first established in the present city of Brooklyn. It stood on a branch of Maspeth (Newtown) creek, near the junction of

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

Grand street and Metropolitan avenuc. "A few years since," says Mr. T. W. Field, " there was no more striking scene near the metropolis than the view at this point. As the road to Jamaica struck the marsh, a rude bridge, with the most fragile railing which ever deluded a tired passenger to lean against it, crossed a narrow strait in the mill-pond. A few rods to the left stood an unpainted hovel dignified with the name of the Mill, against the side of which, and dwarfing it by comparison, hung suspended the gigantic whcel. Close to the bridge stood another tenement whose meancr appearance made the mill-house respectable. This was the toll-house, one of a class of structures which are only less universally detested than the quarantine and the pest-house. Across the broad level marsh, nearly a mile in width, rose the hills of Newtown, covered with their tall forests, amid which,here and there, open spaces of cultivated lands checkered the green expanse with squares of brown earth or crops of various colors. Through the green salt - meadow, the slumbrous tide-wa- ter currents wound their unseen cours- es; and, in the midst of the verdure, rose the broad sails of vessels, which ap- peared as incongru- ous with the green meadow as would a western prairie over which tall ships were sailing. A mile or more to the right, on an- other branch of Maspeth kill, stood another structure, known as Schenck's mill, the site of which is only known by tradition, so completely have its ruins been concealed by alluvial deposits, swept by the rains from the cultivated fields around." Near at hand, behind the house of Mr. Nicholas Wyckoff, was still the little burying-ground where slept all of that name who heard the clatter of the mill and the splash of the sluggishly turning wheel. " The Schencks were of old Bushwick, from its settle- ment in the primitive times, when the Newtown tide- water ebbed and flowed to the boundary of the little plot ; but now the rail-track bounds the cemetery on the one side, and the gas-lamps of Brooklyn illuminate it by night ; evidences of modern habits quite incon- sistent with the notions of those who spent their quiet lives to the sound of the old Schenck mill-the site of which is hardly in the traditions of the venerable Nich-

olas Wyckoff himself. The old road from John Eden's store on Metropolitan avenue around its junction with Newtown and Brooklyn retains its Knickerbocker aspect with singular tenacity ; the more wonderful because the road is a frequented thoroughfare, but traffic glides past in silence and respects the repose of houses formerly much disturbed by the military tramp of the Revolution." Sixteen head-stones occupy the Schenck Cemetery ; the remaining inscriptions are pre- served in STILES' History of Brooklyn, ii, 378, but more particularly in a valuable article, by WMr. O'GOR- MAN, Esq., Town Clerk of Newtown, in L. I. Weekly Star for January 14, 1881.

The physician of old Bushwick was Dr. Cornelius Lowe, who enjoyed the practice of Bushwick, New Lotts and a part of Newtown. He was an ardent patriot, unmarried, boarded with Alexander Whalley and died about 1830.

He was succeeded by Dr. George Cox, who boarded in the Rev. Dr. Basset's family, removed to Wil- liamsburgh after it became a village, and became con- nected by marriage with the Miller family.

Greenpoint since the Revo- lution. - Isolated by its peculiar posi- tion between New- town and Bushwick creeks, and occu- pied only by a few large farms, GREENPOINT, or I.P.DAVIS-SPEER.S " Cherry-Point," as it was formerly called, may be said to have enjoyed an almost sepa- rate existence from the rest of the old township of Bushwick. It contained, during the Revolutionary period, and for years after, only five (Dutch) families, each having its own dwelling-house, its own farm, and its own retinue of jolly negroes in field and kitchen.

THE BOERUM HOUSE.

On the shore of Newtown creek, on present Clay street, between Union and Franklin avenues, resided JACOB BENNETT, whose father, then quite an old man, owned and lived upon a farm on the opposite side of the creek, which he subsequently gave to his son-in- law, Mr. Hunter, from whom it derived its present name of Hunter's Point.

Some years after the war, another Bennett house was erected near the present bridge, and was subsequently sold to a Yankee by the name of Griffin; but this, like- wise, has disappeared before the march of improvement.

287

GREENPOINT SINCE THE REVOLUTION.

On the edge of the meadows near the north-east corner of the present Oakland and Freeman streets, on premises since owned by James W. Valentine, stood the old PROVOOST dwelling, which was the original Capt. Peter Praa house. See page 274.

On the river bank, between India and Java strects, was the old ABRAHAM MESEROLE house; which was originally built more than one hundred and sixty years since, although the western part of it was added about 1775. John A. Meserole, a descendant of the original proprietor and a Revolutionary patriot, had possession of the place at the time of the Revolution. A troop of Hessians were quartered in the house, and made free with all the live stock on the farm, except one cow, which the family hid in the woods, in a nook since occupied by S. D. Clark's grocery store. A building known as the Baisley house was afterward erected on this estate, on the present Huron street, near Franklin.

On Colyer street, near and east from Washington, stood the house of old JACOBUS COLYER, the worthy ancestor of all of that name in this vicinity.

The last of the series of these originals was the resi- dence of JACOB MESEROLE, near Bushwick creek, on Lorimer street, near Norman avenue.

These five buildings, with their barns and barracks, and the old slate-enclosed powder-house, below the hill (on the spot since covered by Simonson's ship-yard, and which was afterwards removed as an undesirable neighbor), constituted the whole of Greenpoint settle- ment.

Cherry Point was almost isolated because of a pecu- liar lack of facilities for communication with the outer world. The only road, from there to any place, began at old Abraham Meserole's barn, ran diagonally across, north-east to the east end of Freeman street, then past the Provoost premises,then south to Willow Pond,thence along the meadow to the Cross-roads, and from that point to Wyckoff's woods, so to old Bushwick church " round Robin Hood's barn " to Fulton Ferry, where the wcaried traveler embarked in a ferry-scow for Coenties slip, at the city, and was thankful if he arrived there in safety, it being a little more than he had reason to expect. As for going to Astoria, it has been described as being something like taking a journey to the Moon ; there being no road thither, until the erection of the Penny-bridge, in 1796, which let the people out into the mysteries of the island, and left them to feel their way around in the woods to Astoria. Each farmer, however, owned his boat with which he conveyed pro- duce to the New York market; and, for all practical purposes of intercommunication with each other or with their friends in Newtown, Bushwick or Brooklyn, they used the boat much more frequently, perhaps, than the road.

The modern history of Greenpoint dates from the year 1832, when Neziah Bliss, in connection with Dr. Eliphalet Nott, purchased some thirty acres of the

John G. and Peter Meserole farm. In 1833, he bought the Griffin farm; and in 1834 he caused the whole of Greenpoint to be laid out in streets. In 1838 he built a foot-bridge across Bushwick creek. At about the same time the Point was re-surveyed, and the Ravens- wood, Greenpoint, and Hallet's Cove turnpike was in- corporated. This road, which was opened in 1839, ran along Franklin strect, and was subsequently continued to Williamsburgh. Although, even as late as 1853, this road was not graded, it proved to be the opening door to the growth of Greenpoint.

The first house-builder was John Hillyer, the mason, who boldly broke ground in the field on India street, in November, 1839; the edifice, a substantial brick one, be- ing sufficiently completed to admit of his occupying it with his family, in June of the following year. A few months after, Mr. Brightson commenced building on two lots in Java street, and almost simultaneously, three other buildings were begun, viz .: a building, which afterwards became an inn, well remembered by the oldest inhabitants of Greenpoint as Poppy Smith's tavern ; the residence of Mr. Archibald K. Meserole, on the hill, north side of Eagle street, between Frank- lin and Washington streets; and the store-house, after- wards Vogt's paint shop, built by Cother & Ford for A. K. Meserole.

From this time buildings increased so rapidly as to defy the most active historian to keep track of their erection.

Many of these houses stood up on stilts, bearing very much the appearance of having been commenced at the roof and gradually built downward, a sufficient number of stories being appended to reach the ground. This style of building, peculiarly characteristic of Greenpoint in the earlier days, obtained mostly on the locality known by the people of that day as " the Or- chard," and, also, in Java, Washington and Franklin streets, and was rendered necessary by the extreme depth of the mud, always the great drawback of the place.

Trade at Greenpoint commenced in the store-house above spoken of. David Swalm succeeded the first tradesman here.

A coal-yard was opened at the foot of Freeman street, on the East River, at the projection of the shore which originally gave Greenpoint its name. This establishment was purchased, in 1849, by Abraham Meserole, who transferred the business to the corner of Java and Franklin streets ; and the yard was speedily followed by other lines of industry, and by various manufactories.

A Union Sabbath-school was established in the au- tumn of 1845, under the superintendence of William Vernoon; and sessions were held at various places in the village. The Episcopalians commenced here in 1846. The Methodist, Baptist, and Dutch Reformed denominations commenced their distinctive church or-

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

ganizations in 1847, and were followed by the Univer- salists and Roman Catholics in 1855.

The profession of medicine was first represented in Greenpoint by Dr. Snell, from Herkimer county, N. Y., who settled here in 1847. He was followed in 1850 by Dr. Job Davis, and he, in turn, by Doctors Pecr and Hawley, Heath, Wells, and others.

The first magistrate and constable were appointed about 1843.

Mrs. Masquerier, in 1643, opened the first school. This good woman's ministrations were finally sup- planted by the public-school system; and in 1846, a school-house was erected on the hill east of Union ave- nue, between Java and Kent streets, and which was first presided over by Mr. B. R. Davis. This was the commencement of School No. 22.

In 1850 a ship-yard was established by Mr. Eckford Webb (since Webb & Bell) ; and the first vessel con- structed was a small steamer called the Honda, whichi was made to ply upon the Magdalena river of Southı America. Since that day he has constructed many vessels. Other ship-yards were established, until ten or twelve were at one time in active operation, turning out every variety of craft, from the humble skiff to the largest wood and iron steamers.

In September, 1852, the Francis' Metallic Life-Boat Company was incorporated, with a capital of $250,000, and erected a large and commodious factory. They had a successful career, until the repeal, by Congress, of that section of the steamboat law respecting life- boats, when the demand fell off, and, so did the com- pany.

The ferry between the foot of Greenpoint avenue and the foot of Tenth street, New York, was estab- lished, in 1852, by Neziah Bliss, and soon afterwards transferred to Mr. Shepard Knapp. Previously, all water communication with New York had been by skiffs, at a charge of four cents per passenger.

In 1853 the Greenpoint Gas Light Company was in- corporated, with a capital of $40,000, and a patronage at the outset of twenty-six customers. In the summer of 1854, what was projected as the Greenpoint and Flushing plank-road was first used. The intended ter- mini of this road were the Greenpoint ferry and a point on the Astoria and Flushing railroad, half a mile from the latter place. By reason of the opposition of some Dutch farmers along the proposed route the road was not completed according to the original design; but united with the Williamsburgh and Newtown road at the end of Calvary cemetery.

(The history of Greenpoint, subsequent to 1854, is included with that of the consolidated city of Brook- lyn).

Arbitration Rock .- We have thought desirable to place in permanent form, by re-producing it in these pages, the substance of a very interesting article by WILLIAM O'GORMAN, Esq., the antiquarian town-clerk,

of Newtown, published originally in the Long Island Weekly Star, concerning this historic land-mark be- tween Old Bushwick and its neighbor, Newtown.

"Arbitration Rock" marked the final end of that famous fight between Newtown and Bushwick, which raged with unabated fury, from the days of Governor Stuyvesant, in 1660, to 1769. Stuyvesant loved Bush- wick. He hated Newtown. He bequeathed a legacy of rancor to the two towns ; but he also opened up a field on which all the brave sons of either town could display their determination to defend their boundary rights.

In Governor Cornbury's time the dispute between Newtown and Bushwick had waxed hot and furious to a white heat. It suited the Governor to a charm. He "saw" twelve hundred acres in it-he "discovered sinister practices," he realized "pernicious conse- quences."

The Bushwick men claimed that their boundary extended to the straight line which ran from the Old Brook School to the northwest corner of Ja- maica. The Newtown men claimed that their bound- ary ran from the " Arbitration Rock" to the same point ; or more clearly to be understood-the New- town men claimed up to the present dividing line between Newtown and Brooklyn, where the city lamps shine on old Mrs. Onderdonk's house.

It is a long walk on a hot day from the Old Brook School to Mrs. Onderdonk's house beyond Metropolitan avenue : the longer it was, the more acres it would give to Lord Cornbury, the Governor of the province. The evidence was very conflicting between Newtown and Bushwick. The boundary line oscillated between them like a pendulum, from the arbitration rock to the Old Brook School, and so for years it had vibrated back and forward, but fastened to the same suspension point on the East New York hills in the Cemetery of the Evergreens. It was a large gore of land, and con- tained 1200 acres of land for Lord Cornbury. There were riots between the Bushwick men and the New- town men, and some houses were burnt and some houses were torn down. Governor Lord Cornbury, of all men, hated "anarchy ;" and he considered it to be the duty of an impartial Governor to remove the cause of such anarchy. He decided that the gore lot of 1200 acres belonged neither to Bushwick, nor to Newtown. He also decided that the tract of 1200 acres belonged to himself, the Lord Cornbury.

He was surrounded by a body of able counselors- Arma Bridgens, Robert Millwood, William Huddle- stone, Adrian Hoogland, and of course Peter Praa- Peter Praa from Greenpoint, always keen after real estate ; and among these disinterested persons, or in- struments, in vulgar eyes, the Governor divided the 1200 acres of Newtown land. Newtown, at this un- expected juncture, had need of trustworthy men, and on the 6th of May, 1706, the township vested all their

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ARBITRATION ROCK.

powers of defence in Richard Alsop,* Joseph Sackett, Thomas Stevenson and William Hallett. This law- suit lasted twenty years, and the Town House and all the public lands of the township had to be sold to fee the lawyers, a useful precedent for future Newtown officials who may have to carry on law-suits. The re- sult of that law-suit was not decisive ; the boundary line between Newtown and Bushwick remained un- decided until the 7th day of January, 1769, on which day the dividing line was run out to the full satisfac- tion of Newtown, and so remains to the present day.

What became of the grantees after Lord Cornbury's recall is not positively known ; Newtown fought them under the name of the "Faucouniers" from 1712 to 1727, in a suit in which Richard Alsop and John Coe were plaintiffs on behalf of Newtown. Peter Praa, of Greenpoint, had sold out his patent two days after it was granted. Peter was too sagacious to trust to such titles ; but the name of Bridgens, true to its instincts, broke out again in 1873, as a plaintiff in the celebrated ejectment suit against the property owners of Laurel Hill, so sensationally got up by Weston, the walker. In the columns of the Sun he had provided an old oaken chest with an ancient will in it, both of which little adjuncts made up a little romance only to be spoiled by the fact of the same will having been in printed form for twenty-five years previously, and con- tinuously in every house on Laurel Hill. So history repeats itself.

The following report terminated the dispute of a century :

"Pursuant to an act of the Governor, Council and General Assembly, appointing John Watts, William Nicoll and Wil- liam Nicoll, Jr., Esquires, or the major part of them, or the survivor or survivors of them, Commissioners to run out and ascertain a line of division between the Counties of Kings and Queens, as far as the townships of Bushwick and New- town extend :- We, the said Commissioners, having called the parties before us, and duly heard and considered their several proofs and allegations, do adjudge and determine that the Division Line aforesaid, shall be and begin at the mouth of Maspeth Kills, or creek, over against Dominie's Hook, in the deepest part of the creek, and so run along the same to the west side of Smith's Island, and so along the creek on the west side of that island TO AND UP A BRANCH LEADING OUT OF THAT CREEK TO THE POND OR HOLE OF WATER NEAR THE HEAD OF MR. SCHENCK'S MILL POND ; AND FROM THENCE EASTERLY TO A CERTAIN ROCK COMMONLY CALLED THE 'ARBITRATION ROCK,' AND MARKED N. B., a little west- ward of the house of Joseph Woodward; and from said rock running south twenty-seven degrees, east to a heap of stones with a stake in the middle known by the name of the 'Arbitration Heap;' and from thence in the same direct line up the hills or mountains until it meets the line of

* In this connection we cannot but allude to a serles of exceedingly Interesting papers, by Mr. O'Gorman in the L. I. Weekly Star, of March and April, 1880, on the ALSOP FAMILY, of Newtown, whose ancient mansion, rich In Colonial and Revolutionary history, stood on the edge of Newtown Creek, near the Penny Bridge. It was de- molished In October, 1879, and its site, as, also, that of the Alsop family burying-ground, is now within Calvary Cemetery grounds.

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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 66

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