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 82
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A more recent work was the article on Brooklyn in John- son's Encyclopedia, published a few years ago-a very com- plete sketch ; and he also contributed articles on other topics for the same work.
Mr. Spooner's interest in public affairs dates back to his earlier years. When, on the 18th of November, 1830, the Hamilton Literary Society was organized, Mr. Spooner, then a youth of twenty years, was one of the active promoters of the movement, and was elected first president of the Hamil- ton. With him were associated at that time, in the organi- zation of the society, such men as Henry C. Murphy, A. A. Low, Seth Low, John T. Howard, Prof. Raymond-after- wards president of the Polytechnic and Vassar College- Joshua A. Van Cott and Hon. John Greenwood, of the City of Brooklyn."
One of the pleasantest instances in the literary career of Mr. Spooner was the semi-centennial of the Hamilton, on the evening of Jan. 19th, 1880, held in the Art Gallery on Mon- tague street. " As one of the founders of the society and its first president," says the Brooklyn Eagle, "Mr. Spooner was one of the honored guests of the evening, and there led in that old song so dear to all Hamiltonians,
'When we all ate the oyster-fries 'Way down at Johnny Joe's.'"
He was the writer of that song, and it has been sung at the annual banquets of that society for years. It carries the memory of many a gray-haired and revered citizen back to his younger days, and to the pleasures and companions of his youth.
Mr Spooner loved the Hamilton Society as a parent loves its offspring ; and he was always the hearty friend of the young men who, year after year, swelled its ranks and par- tieipated in its exercises.
His connection with the establishing of the Long Island Historical Society is one of the main features of his career. The idea was present in his brain long before the initial step was taken, and his name is signed to the call for the meeting licld on the 16th of Feb., 1863, when the project took shape and form, and he was among its first officers. He drew largely from the shelves of his own library to contribute to the infant library of the institution. He presented pictures and objects of interest to the gallery and museum of the so- ciety, and he was always its earnest, steadfast friend; and his
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leisure hours were largely passed in its alcoves. The follow- ing minute was adopted by the Board of Directors of the Long Island Historical Society, Oct. 11, 1881 ; as expressive of their sense of the loss which the society had sustained in his death :
" Alden J. Spooner, one of the councillors of this society, died suddenly in the month of August last. His life was most absolutely that of a Long Islander. He was born in Suffolk County, passed the greater part of his life in Kings, and died and was buried in the County of Queens. His tastes were always predominantly literary, and his busier years were di- vided between journalism and the practice of the law. He was a wide reader, and wrote with facility and finish in both prose and verse. He was a delightful companion, and abounded in anecdote, fun and genial humor. He was hu- mane and generous up to the full measure of his means. From early manhood down to his death, on the very verge of old age, he sympathized with all measures and efforts which aimed to make men wiser, better and happier in their lives. Beyond most of his contemporaries, he had a prescience of the rapid growth and prosperity of this city, and of its needs of libraries, lyceums, schools of art, and other institutions for culture and pleasure ; and he was always a prompt, eager and enthusiastic participant in all combined efforts to make adequate provision for such needs. The early Appren- tices' Library, the City Library, the Athenaeum, and the Hamilton Literary Association, are among his debtors, and should hold him in grateful and honorable remembrance. The circular which convened the earliest meeting for the or- ganization of this society was from his pen, and bears his name, and he was not only among the first, but among the most zealous of those to whose public spirit the society owes its existence. Prominent and active members of the existing institutions of the city -- who shared his genial companion- ship and liberal aims-have united to pay a parting tribute to his cultivated tastes, his broad humanity, his devotion to the welfare of the city and the island, and to his high char- acter for integrity in his relations to his fellow-men."
Mr. Spooner was also largely interested in establishing the Brooklyn Institute, on Washington Street. Indeed, there is scarcely one among the older institutions of Brooklyn in which he was not actively interested.
The latest offspring of his efforts in this direction was the Society of Old Brooklynites.
As a judge of art, Mr. Spooner had few superiors among am- ateurs. Painting and sculpture were equally a study with him, and he had an intelligent appreciation of their finer points.
In his later years he was engaged in collecting, arranging in chronological order, and uniting together a mass of his- torical incidents relating to Long Island, which he had been years in gathering. It was his intention, had his life been spared, to have written a comprehensive history of Long Is- land : but death came to him suddenly at his residence in Hempstead, on the evening of August 2d, 1881.
He never had any taste for politics, consequently never sought political distinction or official promotion. The only office he ever held was that of clerk of the Brooklyn City Court. As has well been said : "always too ready to yield to the advancement of others, he put aside positions he would have splendidly adorned with his magnificent intellect."
Mr. Spooner's life was one of spotless integrity, and the rigid honesty of his business dealings always secured him ab- solute confidence, not only with his clients, but with all classes of business men. He was a fascinating and instruc- ting conversationalist ; one of those persons in whose society intelligent men and women became still more intelligent. He could draw out persons, if there was anything in them to draw out ; if there was a subject about which they knew more than he did, nothing pleased him so much as to have it introduced. He seized quickly upon characteristic traits, and by an anecdote would put one in possession of the real char- acter of the man better than an extended biography.
His sunny, genial nature, rendered him a general favorite.
GENERAL PHILIP S. CROOKE .- Among the members of the Kings County Bar, whose life and career is identified with the legal and civil history of the county, was Gen. Crooke. He was born March 2d, 1810. After receiving a competent education he prepared himself for the bar of the Supreme Court of the State, obtaining his license to practice in May, 1833. He early became a resident of Flatbush, Kings County. where he practiced with marked success the remainder of his life.
Few men ever succeeded in inspiring the people with higher confidence in their integrity and abilities than he ; as an evidence of this he represented the town of Flatbush on the board of Supervisors of Kings County for nineteen suc- cessive years. Although the office of Supervisor is not one requiring the highest abilities to discharge it, eliciting no oratorical powers, and reflecting no distinguishing honors upon its incumbent, it is one of great importance. The Board of Supervisors is, in fact, the legislative body of the county, requiring in its members the strictest integrity, plain, direct, common-sense, practical judgment, and good business talents.
Speaking of the extraordinary length of time that Gen. Crooke represented his town on the Board of Supervisors, The Brooklyn Eagle used the following pertinent language.
" It would be difficult to express more in brief compass concerning his trustworthy qualities than is expressed in the fact that he was chosen for nineteen years to represent a people like those of the town of Flatbush. It may not distin- guish him for brilliant endowments, but it establishes the fact that he was a man held in the highest esteem by an en- lightened and enterprising people, to whom he was very in- timately known through the vicissitudes and associations of nearly a half century.
" After all that is said and done, there are no tributes of respect so serviceable and valuable, so likely to be deserved, as those implied in the continued confidence exhibited by a public man's neighbors in his integrity. Many circum- stances may conspire to deceive the general public in regard to a man. Plausibility may secure favor. Malice may pro- cure distrust. What neither malice nor plausibility can do, is to make honest people long mistake a rogue for a good- minded, honest man, if they have dealings with him from day to day, for any considerable space of time.
" The real aim of earthly ambition should be the desire to obtain and deserve the approbation of the faithful, sincere, intelligent people about him."
Gen. Crooke was one of those who thus wisely circumscribed their desire for applause, and yet his career at the Bar distin- guished him in no ordinary degree, and paved the way for high political honors.
Among Gen. Crooke's many business relations, we may name that of his partnership with John H. Bergen, which began about the year 1862. As we have said in another part of this work, "this relation was advantageous to both parties. The learning, industry and talents of young Bergen, the acknowledged ability, large experience and legal accom- plishments of Gen. Crooke, gave the firm a very high posi- tion." In the year 1867 the firm was changed by adding to it that eminent jurist, Calvin E. Pratt, now one of the jus- tices of the Supreme Court of this State. The new firm was styled Crooke, Pratt & Bergen. The legal standing of Judge Pratt added largely to the influence and popularity of the firm. In 1869, Mr. Pratt was nominated and elected a jus- tice of the Supreme Court of the State for the Second Judicial District-a position which he still holds by re-election. (His biography appears in another part of the work). The election of Judge Pratt brought another change to the firm, and N.
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H. Clement became a member. This new firm was known as Crooke, Bergen & Clement. This relation continued un- til 1873, when the senior member was elected a Representa- tive in Congress from the District, and the firm was dissolved. In Congress, Gen. Crooke was soon distinguished for those acquirements, talents, and for that moral worth and purity of character, which rendered him so popular at the Bar and as a private citizen.
He was a member of those committees to which were con- fided such subjects as were deemed of vital importance to the Nation. There are several reports prepared by him re- markable for their correctness, comprehensiveness and power. At the end of his term he returned to the practice of his profession in Brooklyn, which, as he used to say, had more attractions for him than any office which could be given him.
Gen. Crooke was a military man, and rose to his high rank in the Militia and in the National Guard. As commander of the 14th Regiment he distinguished himself as an able, popular and very valuable officer.
During the recent war, though not actively engaged in the field, he rendered most efficient service in raising and for- warding troops to the field. As Chairman of the Board of Supervisors of Kings County, his patriotism was prominently exhibited in everything that tended to promote the success of our army in the field.
It should be stated that Gen. Crooke represented Kings County in the Legislature as member of the Assembly for the session of 1864. It is a remarkable fact that five of Gen. Crooke's colleagues in that year were residents of Brooklyn. They were John O'Connor, Edward D. White, John C. Perry, Andrew Welsh and Jacob Worth. Angelo Newton, another member from Kings County, was from Williamsburgh, now part of Brooklyn.
In considering the character of Gen. Crooke, his claim to remembrance is founded mostly on his career as a lawyer, and his high integrity as a man. In the preparation and trial of a cause, he discovered great tact ; and although not what may be called an orator, he exhibited a mind of great energy and logical powers, enforced by a retentive memory, and a ready knowledge of the law. There was no man who understood the strong points of his own case, and the weak ones of his opponent's, better than he; he was seldom taken by surprise, or overthrown by coup d'état. He went straight to the point of his case in his own peculiar way, always powerfully protecting the rights of his clients. No circum- stance, no legal points, and no presumption which tended to their advantage, was ever overlooked by him.
We have said Gen. Crooke was not distinguished as an orator ; by this, we mean that he did not possess the brilliant imagination, the creative fancy and flexible rhetoric that constitute the admired orator ; but when he addressed juries, legislative or popular assemblies, he always commanded at- tention by his clear common sense, and ingenious reasoning.
One of his efforts that is remembered with pleasure, was his announcement of the death of that distinguished and elo- quent lawyer, Grenville Tudor Jenks, before the County Court of Kings County. While it is one of the shortest of the many and beautiful tributes paid to the memory of Mr. Jenks, it is, at the same time, one of the most appropriate and effective.
Gen. Crooke died at Flatbush, March 17, 1881, aged 71 years and 15 days. The intelligence of his death produced a pro- found sensation throughout the State, for his long, useful and prominent career had given him a State reputation.
In the relation of husband and father, citizen and friend, he was what may be termed, without affectation, a model.
He had faults - perhaps many ; but it is a beautiful principle of human nature to forget the weaknesses and frailty, and to preserve the memory of virtues and the accomplishments of the dead. Even so we make virtuc a principle that outlives the grave, always fresh, vital and attractive.
JOHN DIKEMAN was born at Hempstead, L. I., in the year 1795. His father was a small farmer. When about 15 or 16 years old, his son John removed to Brooklyn and entered a store as clerk. At that time Brooklyn was a small village, and did not extend beyond the site of the present City Hall. It was incorporated and governed by a Board of Trustees.
The business was neither profitable nor congenial to the young man, and he left Brooklyn and went to Philadelphia. where he engaged in business for a time. Returning to Brooklyn he began the study of law under the direction of Judge Radcliffe, at that time a prominent lawyer. The ex- act time he commenced his legal studies is not known, but it must have been in 1814.
Young Dikeman had few advantages for obtaining an education, and, like many others who have gained eminence in the legal profession, was compelled to rely upon his own energy and perseverance ; happily this was sufficient. The little schooling he had received poorly fitted him for the arduous work of a lawyer. But those were days when young men where not deterred by such obstacles. If he did not possess the requisite education, he studied, early and late, to obtain it. Public education at that time had not reached any thing like its present development, and schools were not numerous. Young Dikeman made good use of his opportuni- ties, and acquired an excellent common school education. During the time he was studying law he supported himself by teaching school. When he came to Brooklyn there was no public or district school in the village, and its educational facilities were confined to private institutions.
In 1816 he married Miss Susan Remsen. In May of that year the citizens united in establishing a common or district school. It opened on the 6th of May in the lower part of Thomas Kirk's printing office, on Adams street, near Sands. Mr. Kirk was the publisher of the first newspaper printed in Brooklyn. Dikeman was selected as teacher of the school, which opened with 70 scholars. There were at this time about 550 children in the village of sufficient age to attend school. In the course of the summer of 1816, a two- story frame school-house was erected on the corner of Concord and Adams street, on the site now occupied by public school No. One, and the school was removed there. From that school has grown the immense and complex public-school system of Brooklyn. Judge Dikeman was, therefore, the principal of the first public school opened in that city, and through his long and active life he never lost his interest in educational matters.
Nor were his efforts confined to secular affairs. He was a devout and earnest member of the Methodist Episcopal Church from early manhood, and in the Sunday-school of his day he was a constant and successful teacher. The early history of the Sunday-schools of Brooklyn is somewhat ob- scure, but it seems that there was a school of that character as early as 1816.
With ardent devotion young Dikeman pursued his legal studies until he was called to the bar. He decided to make Brooklyn the scene of his future professional career; accord- ingly he opened an office near the corner of Henry and Fulton streets, and by close attention to business, and the possession of a natural legal mind and method, his success did not long remain doubtful. His public spirit and enterprise were early exhibited in the interest he took in all public measures. He
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was elected clerk of the village in 1821, the first office he ever held. In the year 1824 his name appears to a public ordinance published by the trustees of the village, touching the cleaning of certain streets. At that time he was twenty- nine years old.
In the year 1830 he was appointed first judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Kings County. Under the Constitution of 1821 these judicial officers were appointed by the governor. As we have seen in another part of this work, that Court was abolished by the constitution of 1846, and the county court established in its place.
Judge Dikeman was an earnest and enthusiastic Jacksonian Democrat, and took a prominent part in the political affairs of Kings county, sustaining his party nominees on the ros- trum.
On the 27th of June, 1832, the Washington street Methodist Episcopal Church was organized. The new church was an outcome of the Sands street M. E. Church, which had grown too small for its accommodation. One colony had already left the parent church, establishing the York street M. E. Church, and now another scion of the vigorous old stock was success- fully transplanted. Judge Dikeman had received from con- ference the appointment of local preacher, in which capacity he frequently officiated. Active, earnest and progressive, Judge Dikeman left his religious Alma Mater, and went with the new colony, and his subsequent life is fully identified with it.
Judge Dikeman served five years as first judge of the county, with credit to himself and the satisfaction of the bar and the public.
In 1865 the Native American party was prominent in poli- tics and enlisted his sympathies. He received the nomina- tion from that party for the office of Member of Assembly from Kings county, and was elected. He discharged his legislative duties with fidelity and marked ability. At the close of his term he declined a renomination, and devoted all his time and energies to his profession, which was now extensive and very lucrative.
The city of Brooklyn was then growing rapidly, stretching out in all directions; new enterprises and institutions were springing into being in every direction.
In 1839 the New York and Brooklyn Ferry Company was organized, uniting under its management a number of the ferries which had previously been conducted by individual companies. Judge Dikeman was one of the original lessees and directors in the new company. It lasted until 1844, when the present ferry company was organized, and Judge Dikeman was out of the board of managers of the new en- terprise. His connection with it was terminated by an inci- dent which very well illustrates the uncompromising integ- rity of his character. Some time after the organization of the company the ferriage was raised to two cents. Judge Dikeman opposed this measure, contending that one cent was enough, but the measure prevailed and the fare was raised from one to two cents. The Judge sold his stock in the company because he could not be a party to what he con- sidered radically wrong.
The constitution of 1846 changed the method of choosing judges.
In 1863 Judge Dikeman was nominated for county judge of Kings county. He was elected, succeeding Judge Samuel Garrison, now deceased.
The term was for four years. His opponent was ex-Judge Troy. At the expiration of his office he was again nominated against Judge Troy, by the Democrats, and defeated. Thus terminated his connection with active politics. He also vir- tually withdrew from the practice of his profession.
When the Kings county Home for Inebriates was or- ganized, in 1867, Judge Dikeman was chosen first vice-presi- dent of the board of managers.
Judge Dikeman was a man of strongly marked character- istics. He was distinguished for the perseverance and decis- ion of his character, and for his self-reliance. He was con- sidered one of the best nisi prius lawyers at the bar, and was noted for his skill and acuteness in the cross-examination, esteemed for his sound judgment, keen discrimination, firm in his opinion. He died August 23d, 1879.
HON. HENRY C. MURPHY .*- There was one lawyer whose recent death has been widely mourned, whose legal career forms a large part of the history of Kings County bar for nearly half a century; whose political life during that period may be said to be its civil and political history; whose public spirit, liberality, taste and enterprise adorned his native city somewhat as Athens was adorned in the age of Pericles. This was Henry C. Murphy, a descendant of a long line of ancestors, whose immigration to this country ante-dates the Revolution by many years.
Prominent among these was Timothy Murphy, a native of Ireland, a man of letters, of fine literary attainments, a highly intelligent physician and surgeon. In 1766 he came to America, and became a resident of Monmouth County, New Jersey. A natural love of agricultural pursuits pre- dominating over his professional ambition, induced him to adopt, in his new home, the occupation of a farmer, in which he attained much success. At the period of his emigration he was unmarried, but he soon found in Maria Garrison-a grand-daughter of Richard Hartshorne, a distinguished official of New Jersey-a young lady whose personal and mental attractions gained his affections, and who became his wife. At the commencement of the Revolutionary war, Dr. Murphy entered the patriot army. Inspired by an innate love of liberty, he proved his devotion to his adopted country in those fields of strife where the " death bolts flew deadliest.' On the field of Monmouth, on White Plains, and in other battles, he exhibited valor of which his descendants have ever been proud.
Among his four sons was JOHN GARRISON MURPHY, the father of Henry C. Murphy. He enjoyed only the advan- tages for attaining an education which were afforded by the institutions of that early day.
Leaving school, he began learning the business of a mill- wright, in which he became eminently successful. Imme- diately after commencing business for himself, he was united by marriage to Miss Clarissa Runyon, of Princeton, New Jersey, and removed to the then small village of Brooklyn. This was in the Spring of 1808.
" As a mill-wright he was concerned in the construction or repairs of nearly all the old tide-mills which then existed in the neighborhood of Brooklyn, and in conjunction with Mr. Rodman Bowne he patented the machinery of the horse or team-boats which were used to cross the East River at the ferries, first at the Catherine or 'New ferry,' before the in- troduction of steam. He built all the machinery, not only for the horse-boats on the Brooklyn ferries, but for inany places throughout the United States, on the Mississippi River, and also in Canada."
Mr. Murphy possessed, in an eminent degree, the confi- dence of his fellow citizens, whom he served for many years as a Justice of the Peace, and as Judge of the Municipal Court,
* The writer is largely indebted to the eloquent and beautiful bio- graphical sketch of Mr. Murphy written by HENRY R. STILES, A.M., M.D., Editor-in-Chief of this history, from the pages of which he has been permitted to make extensive extracts.
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after Brooklyn became a city, and as school commissioner. In politics he was a staunch Jeffersonian Democrat ; few men wielded greater influence in the councils of that party in Kings County.
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