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 96

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 96

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He has been for several years president of the East Brook- lyn Savings Bank, the growth and prosperity of which has been remarkable. He was one of the founders of the Bush- wick and East Brooklyn Dispensary, of which he was presi- dent for a number of years. As treasurer of the Brooklyn Bureau of Charities, of which he was also a founder, he has the satisfaction of seeing it develop upon a sound working basis.

He was also chosen a member of the executive committee of The Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, also of The Good Samaritan charity, and is a member of the advisory and finance committees of The Brooklyn Industrial

School Association, one of the city's most practical efforts to teach the children of the poor how to help themselves.

For six years he served as a Brooklyn Park Commissioner, and for more than eight years he has been the secretary of the New York Board of Trade and Transportation, out of which has grown the State and National Anti-Monopoly Leagues. It is a fact of historic importance that Mr. James called the preliminary meetings resulting in the organization of the Kings County Anti-Monopoly League, whose influence has since been strong in the right direction.

For eight years, Mr. James, associated with others, who saw the giant strides of Monopoly as exemplified in the tyr- anny and injustice of our great railroad corporations, labored at Albany in an effort to have a Board of Railroad Commis- sioners appointed, and at last their patience and perseve- rance were rewarded in March, 1883, at which date the first Board was organized, and from which great results are con- fidently anticipated, for the benefit of the people of the State of New York.

He was a member of the committee of " One Hundred " in the years 1872-3, and took part in its efforts for municipal reform, and in the preparation of the existing charter of the city of Brooklyn.

He was a member of a committee appointed by citizens, at a meeting held at the Polytechnic Institute, December 4, 1876, and had charge of the corps of volunteer visitors in the Fourth District during the winters of 1876-7 and 1877-8, whose duty it was to visit families applying to the Commissioners of Charity of Kings County for out-of-door relief. This was one of the first steps taken by the citizens to correct the great abuses in the Department of Charity in Kings County. With a few others, who were a self-constituted committee, he took an active part in the effort which resulted in the breaking up of the system of out-of-door relief.

For fifteen years Mr. James served in the militia of the State of New York, seven years being a private in the Seventh Regiment, and eight years on the staff of the Eleventh Brigade, General J. V. Meserole commanding.

But one of the most successful fields of labor in which he has engaged, is that of the Mission Sunday School work. He has been a practical philanthropist from boyhood, for at the age of eighteen he commenced visiting the poor and needy in the outlying parts of the city, and gathering the children into a Sabbath school, in which noble work he has continued for thirty-one years. For twenty-seven years he has been the superintendent of this Sabbath school-the Throop Avenue Mission-and has had the pleasure, in con- nection with a band of self-denying teachers, of developing it to its present prosperous condition.

The outgrowth of this work, humble in its inception, has been, thus far, two flourishing churches and four Sabbath schools.

Mr. James' public career has not been that of a politician; but, with that fidelity to known duty, which has always been a distinguishing trait in his character, he has never shrunk from manfully doing what he considers every citizen's duty in primaries and ward meetings ; taking that interest in the honest and righteous government of the land which is rightly termed patriotic. His unselfish devotion to the public inter- est, his wide grasp of thought and range of knowledge, coupled with his irreproachable, unspotted commercial ca- reer, did not escape the notice of an observant community, and in 1880 he was urged to be a candidate for Congress, but though appreciating the high honor intended, he declined, because of the stress of his many other duties.

However, in 1882, he was unable longer to resist the call to a higher sphere of duty, and having been unanimously nom-

Darum R James

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BOARD OF SUPERVISORS.

inated by acclamation at the Republican Convention in Dis- trict Number Three, was duly elected by a majority of 2,398 as its Representative to the Forty-eighth Congress, where scope will be given him, not only to represent his constitu- ents ably and faithfully, but to influence legislation in the broader field of a Nation's needs, as questions incidental to every feature of her growth come up for discussion.

Esteemed alike in the mercantile, the philanthropic, and the most refined social circles of these great centres of wealth and intelligence, for his many excellent qualities of mind and heart, Mr. James can look back over a long career of usefulness to his fellow men ; while the threshold of the fu- ture invites to new fields of toil and conflict, where the du- ties of a statesman will be required of him in his unselfish service to his country.

Presidential Electors .- Under the Constitution, each State chooses as many Electors of President and Vice-President as it has Senators and Representatives in Congress. These Electors were first appointed within thirty-four days before the first Wednesday of December of every fourth year, and are required to meet on that day, at the State Capitol, as an Electoral College. They elect a President and Secretary from their number, sit with open doors, and record their proceedings in a journal. One Elector is designated in each Congressional District, and two others to repre- sent the State at large. They are, however, all elected upon one general ticket.

The State of New York, at the time of the first presidential election, not having ratified the Constitu- tion, chose no Electors; consequently, the State did not have the honor of casting its vote for George Wash- ington at his first election as President of the United States, although he was inaugurated in its metropolis. In 1792 the New York Legislature directed Electors to be chosen in the same manner as Senators in Congress, and fixed the time of their meeting at Poughkeepsie. Each Senatorial district being entitled to three Elec- tors, except the southern-which included the county of Kings-which was entitled to four. In 1829, the mode of electing Electors by Districts was changed to that now in use; the time of their election is now fixed in all the States, except South Carolina, on the Tuesday after the first Monday of November; in that State the Elec- tors are still appointed by the Legislature, as they for- merly were in this State.

From the adoption of the Constitution down to 1812, a period of twenty years, there was no Presidential Elector chosen from the county of Kings, though there were three chosen from the county of Suffolk, four from Queens and one from Richmond counties.

The first Elector chosen from Kings county was Cornelius Bergen, November 9, 1812. The next was John Garrison, chosen November 4, 1828.

Henry Waring, chosen November 6, 1832.

Philip S. Crooke and Electus B. Litchfield, chosen November 2, 1852.

Amos P. Stanton and James Kennedy, chosen 1856.

Edwards W. Fiske, chosen November 6, 1860.

James S. T. Stranahan and George Richards, chosen November 8, 1864.

Isaac Van Anden and George L. Fox, chosen No- vember 3d, 1868.

Simeon B. Chittenden and Horacc B. Claflin, chosen November 5, 1872.

Thomas H. Rodman, Edward Rowe and Thomas D. Jones, chosen November 7, 1876.

William H. Beard, Joseph C. Howland and Ditmas Jewell, chosen November, 1880.

Regents of the University .- The office of Re- gent of the University was first created by an act of the Legislature, passed May 1, 1784, amending the Charter and changing the name of Kings College to Columbia. The citizen members of the Board were named in the act, several officers appointed, ex-officio, and each denomination in the State was allowed to appoint one clergyman, but it is not known that any availed themselves of the privilege. The Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney- General, Speaker of Assembly, Mayor of New York and Mayor of Albany were, and still are, ex-officio members of the first Board of Regents, though now the Superintendent of Public Instruction is a member, by virtue of his office.

Matthew Clarkson and Rutger Van Brunt were members of this Board from the County of Kings.

It being found that a quorum could not be assem- bled, in consequence of the distance of the residence of the respective incumbents, the system was changed November 12th of the same year, and new appoint- ments made, constituting a second Board of Regents. John Vanderbilt was appointed member of this Board. This system continued but little over two years, when, being found inoperative, it gave way to the present one, created April 13, 1787, and has been continued, without material change, until the present time.

The Board consists of nineteen persons, elected by the Legislature, in the same manner as Senators in Congress. They hold their office for life, have no salaries, and among other duties, inspect the Acad- emies of the State, prescribe rules for rendering their returns, apportion the money annually distributed among them, and report to the Legislature the statisti- cal returns of colleges and academies, the power of filling vacancies in the office of presidents of colleges and principals of academies, appoint professors of the Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons, etc., etc.

There appears to have been no Regent of the Uni- versity appointed from Kings county from 1784 until February 5th, 1861, when J. Carson Brevoort, LL.D., of Brooklyn, was appointed.

County Superintendents of Common Schools. On the 17th of April, 1843, a law, creating the office of County Superintendent of Common Schools, was enacted. It directed the appointment, by the Board

418ª

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

of Supervisors in each county, of two Superintendents, whose term of office was to be three years. Under this law Theodore F. King and Samuel E. Johnson were elected Superintendents of Common Schools for Kings County.

On March 13, 1847, this office was, by an act of the Legislature, abolished. Under the laws of 1856 a bill passed the Legislature, creating the office of School Commissioner, to be elected by ballot, at gen- eral elections. The first election under this law took place in November, 1859.

School Commissioners elected in Kings County under this Act .- John Carpenter, Homer L. Bartlett, Frederick C. DeMund, Voorhees Overbaugh, Timothy M. Ingraham, C. Warren Hamilton.

School Commissioners elected in 1876 till 1879 .- C. Warren Hamilton, East New York; Thomas W. Field, City Superintendent, Brooklyn.

Commissioners from 1879 to 1883 .-

County Treasurers .- This office has existed from the formation of the government down to the present time in all the counties of the State. Before the adop- tion of the constitution of 1846, County Treasurers were appointed by the Boards of Supervisors in the several counties. Since then they are elected by the people.

The following is a list of the County Treasurers elected since the adoption of the Constitution of 1846:

Ebenezer W. Peck. Nov., 1848

Crawford C. Smith.

1850

James M. Seabury'

1853

Thomas A. Gardinert. 1862

Samuel S. Powell. 1877

Gilliam Schenck. 1879

Henry H. Adams

1881

HON. JOHN J. KIERNAN, State Senator and Chairman of the New York Senate Insurance Committee, is a native of the district comprising a large portion of Brooklyn and three Kings County towns, which he represents, and in which he was raised and educated. Senator Kiernan entered on the struggle of life as a clerk in the Western Union Telegraph office. He was there when the first successful Atlantic cable began to flash instantaneous intelligence between the hemi- spheres, and the notion occurred to him to utilize that great medium for financial and commercial purposes. He prompt- ly placed himself in communication with active spirits at all the great European business centres and the principal cities on this continent, and soon opened a news agency in Wall street. From his office there he began forwarding hourly to such bankers, brokers and merchants as he secured as sub- scribers, news from all over the world calculated to affect trade or monetary affairs. His bright idea met with the de- velopment and brought him the prosperity it was worthy of, and "Kiernan's Wall Street Financial News Bureau " is one

of the leading institutions of the city. It was not much of a surprise to "the Street" when, some years afterwards, there appeared in every down-town office and place of business of any importance an automatic telegraph instrument, rolling off on a roll of tape full details of the movements, as they occurred, interesting to the business community. For this extraordinary product of the age the public is indebted to Mr. Kiernan. As an outgrowth of his furnishing financial news for all parts of the world, came the business of news- paper advertising, and he became a member of the firm of Frank, Kiernan & Co., an agency which now transacts a large share of the financial, insurance and general commercial ad- vertising of New York and other cities. In politics he is a Democrat of the most pronounced and orthodox sect, and has spared neither labor nor expense in support of his party in Kings county; but he never occupied any public position before now. In his late Senatorial canvass, Sen- ator Kiernan ran largely ahead of his ticket, receiving 8,316 majority in a total vote of 31.606 Mr. Kiernan was married in 1866, and was left a widower with four children a year ago, by the death of a lady whose pleasant face was well known to everybody interested in works of charity and piety in the City of Churches.

The following extract from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle of May 12th, 1883, speaking of the Honorable Senator, is well worthy of reference, indicating, as it does, the sentiments of all good citizens : .

"The Senator is one of the most characteristic men sent by Brooklyn to the Legislature in many a day. Nature did not make him to be lost sight of in a crowd. Alert, level-headed, companionable, outspoken, and with no end of courage, even when wrong, he attracts attention as naturally as many other men drop from any eminence they may be set upon into obscurity. He is a man of large means, gained by hon- orable exertion and wholly by his own efforts ; and it is not the least of the things to his credit that his less fortunate neighbors all bear testimony that in his case, at least, money has not changed the manner or spoiled the heart. Made up in this way, it was quite certain, when he took his seat in the Senate, that he would not return with a record which any considerable number of men would agree to either praise or blame in bulk. That he has done several things which the Eagle is quite sure he ought not to have done, our readers know; but there is no man who will dream of attributing an improper motive to him. There never was the slightest dan- ger of his going wrong through any sordid influence. His weakness does not lie in that direction. But there was some danger of his erring through good nature, and in that way he has erred. The measures like his bill for the reorganiza- tion of the Excise Board, which have made him the subject of considerable adverse criticism, he defends with the utmost frankness on the ground that he is a Democratic partisan, and believes in seizing the patronage for the benefit of the party. Knowing that the Republicans had pursued a simi- lar course when they had the power, he could see no reason why he should not follow their example, on the principle of what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. As the Eagle has dealt with this view of the case a good many times heretofore, it is not necessary to enter upon any refutation of it now. What, however, is to be said of Mr. Kiernan as a legislator, local political matters apart, is that he, from first to last, is pre-eminently the representative in the Senate of the business interests of both cities, and of the commerce of the port. He early addressed himself to the work of abol- ishing our absurd Usury law, of exposing the abuses of the insurance receivership ring, and of guarding our warehouse system against the attacks made upon it by men who, under

* James M. Seabury re-elected each subsequent term,

t Thomas A. Gardiner also re-elected.

Ing , AH Futche

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BOARD OF SUPERVISORS.

pretense of serving the people, were striking at the public welfare. By his exertions in these respects he has made the two cities and the State his debtors."

What was thus said of Senator Kiernan by the Eagle, Brooklyn's leading paper, fitly expresses the high estimation in which he is held by his fellow citizens. This newspaper, though opposing some of the bills advocated by him, thus closed the editorial from which we have made extracts above :

"He comes back to his constituents as clean as when they elected him, and with, upon the whole, an increased title to their confidence."

Registrar .- The office of Registrar of Deeds is the oldest in Kings county. The Registrar now has charge of records of deeds, mortgages and all conveyances touching the alienation of real estate; and his is a most important office. When it was first established the Registrar had charge of and recorded all deeds, wills, and inventories of property.

The office was first created in the county of Kings, by the colonial Governor-General, in the month of November, 1679. The first book for recording deeds, wills, etc., was opened December 3d, 1679, a little over two hundred and five years ago.

The first deed of land in the county of Kings was recorded December 3d, 1679. The following is a copy of this venerable record, with the entries made by the Registrar :

"This bill of sale was recorded at the request of Mr. Thomas Barker, the third day of December, 1679."

Know all men by these presents, that I, Floris Willemsen, farmer, inhabitant of Flatbush alias Midwoot, in the West Ryding of Yorkshire, on Long Island, doe own and confess for me, my heirs, executors and administrators and assigns, to have alienated, bargained and sold, and set over and delivered unto Thomas Barker, inhabitant of the West Ryding of Yorkshire, on Long Island, to him, his heirs, executors, administrators and assigns, all my housing and land and meadow within the jurisdiction of Flatbush, on the south side of the hill, near to Mr. Richard Betts, his land, with a lot of meadow near the third hill, by Hendrick Strykers Lott of meadow, with all the winter corn that is in the ground, and all orchards, wells. fences, with all privileges and appurtenances thereunto belonging or shall hereafter belong to the said land and meadow; the upland is three score acres of upland. And I doe further engage to bring up and deliver a copy of the said land out of the secretary's office at New York. And I doe own to have received full satisfaction for the said housing and land and premises of the said Barker; and I doe promise and engage to warrant and defend the sale of the premises against any person or persons whatever, except a farr invasion, and for the true performance of this, my act and deed, I have hereunto set my hand and seal.

Was signed FLORIS WILLEMSEN KROM. [Seal]

A true copy, per Peter Smith, Clerk. Signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of us,

November the 4th, 1679.

Witness, ELIAS DOUGHTY, WILLIAM MORRIS.

It will be seen by the foregoing, that Peter Smith, by his signature affixed to the said deed, was then the

acting clerk of the county; but when and by whom appointed there is no record to show.

The first clerk or Registrar of the county, of whose appointment there is any record, was JOHN KNIGHT, appointed March 20th, 1683, by Col. Thomas Dongan, Licut .- Governor and Vice-Admiral of the colony of New York.

The following is a verbatim copy of Mr. Knight's commission as clerk and register :

"COLL. THOMAS DONGAN," Lieut .- Governor and Vice- Admiral under his Royal Highness, Duke of York, and dependensys in America. By virtue of a power devised unto me, I do hereby authorize and appoint you, John Knight, to be clerk and register for Kings county, and to act and officiate in the said employ as a clerk or register ought to do according to law and practice, this commission to be in force during my will and pleasure only.

Given under my hand and seal at Fort James, in New York, this twentieth of March, 1863.

THOMAS DONGAN.

A true coppie, ex'd the 5th day of April, 1884, by JOHN KNIGHT,

Passed the office, JOHN SHRAGG, Register.

Secretary.

The first will ever recorded in Kings County is a curious document. It is what may be called a nuncupative or an unwritten will, made verbally to two witnesses, and afterwards reduced to writing, sub- scribed and sworn to, and then recorded the same as though duly probated. There were no Surrogates or Judges of Probate, at this time, nor any commissioners of deeds; and wills, deeds, mortgages and all convey- ances that now require recording, were (at the request of two respectable citizens known to the clerk) placed on record in one book.

The will to which we have alluded is dated April 10, 1685, and is in these words :

"No all men by these presents, that we underwritten, Jan. Tennisse and Pieter Hendricks, carpenters, do certify and declare, upon ye request of Mistress Hendrickse Stockells, widdow of Mister Michael Hainelle, deceased, that the said Hainelle, at the time that we, deponents, were building ye wind mill within ye jurisdiction of Brewklin, for the above said Mister Heinelle, that the said Mister Heinelle then being sickly and lying before ye fire, in his house, but by his full understanding, for so much we could see, did desire and recommend us underwritten that in case he came to depart from this world and go to a better, that we should be helpful to his widdow, and to give her encouragement for building and finishing ye said wind-mill; and further, that it was his will that after his death which he did expect soon, his widdow should be possessor and remaine in possession of ye whole estate until remarriage, and that his widdow before the performing of an other marriage, if she did contract thereof, should part with ye half of ye whole estate for ve use and behoof of ye children, and the said Mister Heinelle did decease but five days after that time, all of which we declare to be the truth, and willing to take oath upon this our deposition also past at Fflackland this 2d day of March, 1685.

Tester,

RANDOLPH EVANS,

JAN AERTSAN.

Signed, JAN TENNISSE, PIETER HENDRICKS.

420ª

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

Fflacklands, in Kings county, the 2d day of March, 1684, came Jan Tennisse and Pieter Hendricks and made oath that the within affedavit is true before us.

ELBERT ELBERTSON,

Received for record ROLLOFF MARTENSE.

this 8th day of April, 1685. John Knight, Cl'k.

The following curious document was recorded April 4, 1689; and is very important as exhibiting old land- marks and boundary lines :

" To satisfy whom it may concern, that I being with Mister Jacobns Coertland about the twentyeth day of November, 1684, Imployed by brewkland and fflatbush to view and rnn ont ye line between ye two townes to the South of ye hills ffound that ye line rnn fformerly by Cap't. Jacqnes Cortel- you and Mister Stillwell is right and just which we both being agreed give in our approbation of ye same.

"Staaten Island in the PHILIP WELLS, County of Richmond, Surveyor.

the 4th day of Aprill, 1689.

"Recorded by order of summe of the inhabitants of Brewcklyn." (See page 216 .- EDITOR.)

An old mortgage recorded August 7, 1686, begins as follows:

"To all Christian People to whom this present writing shall come, Pieter Giliemsen, of Flatbush, in Kings County, and Margaritiem, his wife, send Greeting in our Lord God Everlasting. Know ye that for and in consideration of the sum of one hundred and eighteen ponnds, twelve shillings current money, to them in hand paid by Maria Van Rensllar, of ye town of Albany, widow, &c., have sold, bargained," &c., &c.

The description of the lands mortgaged is then given, and the mortgage closes in these words:

" In witness whereof the said Pieter Giliemsen and Margaritiem, his wife, have herennto set their hands and seals at New York the first day of January, in the second year of the reign of onr sovereign, Lord James the Second of England, Scotland, ffrance and Ireland, King, defender of the faith, &c., and in the year of our Lord one thonsand six hundred eighty and five six."

This mortgage was dated July 20, 1686, and re- corded August 7, 1686. We have given the first mortgage which was recorded in Kings County; the following is the first appraisement of property of a de- cedent recorded in the county.

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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 96

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