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 II, Part 56

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co
Number of Pages: 1345

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 II > Part 56

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He was the first, also, in one of his vigorous politi- cal letters to the press, to tell the story of Uncle Abe's having been a rail-splitter-a circumstance which, though in itself insignificant, furnished to the Repub- lican party the most powerful political war-cry of that campaign.

Hon. Leonard Swett, of Illinois, who headed the Republican electoral ticket, always affirmed that it was Mr. George B. Lincoln who first gave courage to the people of that state to believe that their favorite could be elected.

In the first dark hour of the Rebellion, when Wash- ington was threatened, Mr. Lincoln volunteered (the only representative of Brooklyn), and bore arms in the celebrated "Clay Guard," until the arrival of troops from the North. Appointed, by his great name- sake, postmaster of Brooklyn, Mr. Lincoln was fore- most in the support of the government, and in assist- ing and providing for the comfort of the troops enter- ing upon, or returning from the field. In 1864, he was a delegate to the Baltimore Convention, which nom- inated Andrew Johnson as Vice-President; and, in 1865, was re-appointed postmaster of Brooklyn, at the urgent request of many of its first citizens. In 1868, he was appointed, by Gov. Fenton, a member of the Metropolitan Sanitary Commission, of which, shortly after, he became the President, an office which he held until the abolition of that commission in 1870 (see page 564).

It was during his presidency, and largely through his strennous endeavors, that the slaughter-houses were driven from the city limits of New York and Brook- lyn, and that business confined to the improved ab- batoirs in Jersey City.

The eldest of Mr. Lincoln's sons, George B., Jr., was Adjutant of the 67th Reg't. N. Y. S. V., and en- gaged in most of the battles of the Potomac Army; and was subsequently on Gov. Fenton's military staff. The youngest, Frederick S., was for some time a mas- ter's mate in the navy, and subsequently appointed to the United States Naval Academy. Their mother,

Mrs. Lincoln, rendered comfort and valuable service, both in the hospitalities of her own home, and in the army hospitals, to the defenders of the Union.

In 1866, Mr. Lincoln was succeeded by THOMAS KIN- SELLA, Esq., who was nominated by President Johnson, but not being confirmed by the Senate, was succeeded on May 1st, 1867, by Col. SAMUEL H. ROBERTS, and the post office was once more removed to its present location in Washington street. The present office was erected and occupied within twenty-nine days after its commence- ment. In 1868, Colonel Roberts was succeeded by ANTHONY F. CAMPBELL, Esq., and in May, 1869, ex- Mayor SAMUEL BOOTH, Esq., became postmaster, serv- ing until 1874.

During the year last mentioned the post office at Williamsburgh, of which C. C. TALBOT, Esq., was post- master, and the post office of Greenpoint, of which SAMUEL S. FREE, Jr., was postmaster, were consoli- dated with the main office of Brooklyn. Mr. Booth retired from the postmastership and C. C. Talbot, Esq., was made postmaster of the consolidated offices. Janu- ary 1st, 1878, Col. JAMES MCLEER was appointed post- master and has served continuously since. When he became postmaster he found the office a mere appen- dage to the New York department. Nearly all the mails despatched from Brooklyn were sent to that office, where they were overhauled and forwarded to their destination. Col. McLeer failed to understand why this should be the case. He concluded that the third city of the Union, within easy reach of the termini of the great railways of the country, should not be com- pelled to rely on the New York office for the dispatch of its mails. Thoroughly determined to secure inde- pendence for the Brooklyn office, quietly, but with characteristic energy, he applied himself to the work. He found that the people of Brooklyn were compelled to wait for the delivery of the great Southern mails until 11 o'clock in the morning. Under the old system this city -- the seat of the United States District Courts, with a vast jurisdiction, the United States Revenue Office, having vital business relations with the whole of Long Island and Richmond County, and collecting from the industries of those counties nearly four mil- lions of dollars a year-was compelled to await its mails from Washington and the great cities of the Atlantic seaboard until they underwent the slow pro- cess of filtration through the New York office. Colonel McLeer proposed that this should cease and that these important mails should be delivered at the Brooklyn office direct from the railway depots of Jersey City, thus enabling him to receive and deliver them at 7:30 A. M. Here the Annex boat was brought into requisi- tion, and through its agency so manifest an improve- ment was secured that it was soon extended to the West and Southwest mail routes; so that now all mails for the Atlantic and Gulf states and for many of the

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Western States are dispatched and received direct, to great saving of time and the decidedly better security of the mails. The postmaster gradually applied this sys- tem to the Eastern, Northern and Western mails, making up pouches or packages direct for the various railway post offices and railway route agents, thus secur- ing direct dispatch without loss of time through the New York office. This whole matter of receiving and dispatching mails is now conducted as independ- ently at the office in Washington street as it is at any first-class office in the country. And it is controlled solely by the postmaster and the Superintendent of the Railway Mail Service, whose office is in New York city. Very little Brooklyn mail, except some for the Northwest, is now handled at the New York post office. Col. McLeer also instituted numerous much-needed im- provements in the collection and delivery of the mails, which he has perfected to such a degree as to render both branches of the post office work very effective. When he became postmaster there were only thirty-eight clerks and eighty-nine carriers, and about 14,000,000 pieces of mail were handled by the office annually. At this time (1884) fifty-five clerks and one hundred and forty-one carriers are employed. The city, for facili- tating mail distribution, is divided into five districts. The main office embraces all that part of the city west of Bedford avenue, south of Flushing avenue and east of Macomb street and Gowanus canal ; Williamsburgh station embraces all that part of the city lying east and north of Flushing avenue and Broadway and west of the Manhattan Railway and Meeker avenue ; Green- point station embraces the whole of the Seventeenth ward; Van Brunt station embraces all that part of the city lying west of Macomb street; Brevoort station embraces all that part of the city lying east of Bed- ford avenue and south of Broadway and Flushing avenue.

The assistant postmaster is Col. Charles B. Morton ; the superintendent of Williamsburgh station is William B. Hopkins; the superintendent of Brevoort station is Louis Baur ; the superintendent of Greenpoint station is Edward Brooks; the superintendent of Van Brunt station is Edward P. McManus; the chief clerk is Col. William H. DeBevoise; the superintendent of mails is William H. Cunningham ; the superintendent of car- riers is William B. Maas; the superintendent of the money order branch is Barrett V. A. Lyon, and the superintendent of the registry branch is Thomas M. K. Mills.

The annual report of postmaster McLeer, for the year 1883, recently issued, shows that during the year the total number of pieces received and dispatched was 75,586,445. The total postal receipts for the year amounted to $352,296.54, being an increase of $34,220 .- 86 over the previous year. The money order business reached the sum of $1,504,090.02. The increase over 1882 was $168,728.57.

COLONEL JAMES McLEER, Postmaster of Brooklyn, was born in Brooklyn in December, 1840. The out- break of the civil war, in 1861, found him a student in the law office of the lamented General Philip S. Crooke, awaiting the attaining of the majority that would entitle him to admission to the bar, for which he had already passed a successful examination. But the demands of country and the impulses of patriotism proved stronger than the promise of a successful pro- fessional career; and the call to arms found Col. McLeer among the first to enroll himself in the ranks of Company C, of the Fourteenth Regiment, which was mustered into service for the period of the war by General McDowell, May 23d, 1861. The young soldier, now beginning his active military career, was one of the first detachment of Union troops which crossed the Potomac to the Virginia shore, and took possession of the grounds in the vicinity of Arlington House, to which point the regiment subsequently followed and went into camp. On the 16th of July the offensive campaign against the Confederacy opened, the forward march was begun, and on the 21st, the Fourteenth had reached Centreville. On this date occurred the fateful battle of Bull Run, in which engagement the Four- teenth received its " baptism by fire." Crossing Bull Run at Sudley's Ford, the regiment went into action and unintermittingly fought for four hours and a half, but was at length forced to retire, the enemy being re- inforced by the arrival of fresh troops. Three times during the engagement the regiment occupied the spot opposite the Henry House, whose character is fittingly described by the designation of "slaughter pen," on the third occasion re-capturing the guns of Rickett's battery, but afterward being obliged to abandon them for lack of support. During one of these charges Colonel McLeer was seriously wounded in the head and right arm. He remained in the hospital, most of the time delirious, for many weeks. Before his wounds were finally healed, however, he insisted upon rejoining his regiment, under the stimulus of the intelligence of a forward movement about to be undertaken by the Union forces, and participated in all the engagements and the terrible marches and countermarches of the campaign in Virginia, of 1862, up to and including the battle of Grovetown, in which engagement Colonel McLeer was again so severely wounded that his escape from death seems well-nigh miraculous. The battle occurred on the 29th of August, the Fourteenth occupy- ing the left of the first line of the Union forces, which extended from the Warrenton road to a belt of woods just beyond the left of the regiment. Col. McLeer, while in the act of firing his rifle, received a shot in the left arm, just above the elbow, tearing the flesh, shattering the bone, and causing it to fall useless at his side. Recovering quickly from the shock, with wonderful nonchalance he said, "Well, I'll have one more shot, anyway;" and with his right arm alone he

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COLONEL JAMES MCLEER.

brought the piece to his shoulder, aimed and fired. But as the bullet sped from the barrel, a second shot shattered his right leg, and caused him to fall helpless to the ground. While thus grievously wounded, the tide of battle ebbed and flowed over the place where Colonel McLeer lay. Time after time the enemy charged in mass, in lines three and four deep, stumbling over the wounded until it seemed as if the little life remaining in their mutilated forms would be trampled out of them. To these succeeded the stragglers-the prowling coyotes of every battle-field-robbing the wounded and rifling the bodies of the dead of valuables and clothing. The young soldier felt that he was dying; the shock of the double wound had been very great; he was gradually growing weaker from loss of blood, and as night began to settle down over the terrible scene, he felt that his time had come. Suddenly the thought suggested itself, that if he could stop the

profuse bleeding from the arm he might possibly live through the night; and taking his handkerchief from his pocket, and inserting one corner in his teeth, he succeeded eventually in tying it around the wounded arm, and partially quenching the flow of blood. During the night, with others, he was removed by a soldier of the Thirteenth New York Volunteers, to a place of shelter in the woods. With the break of day the battle recommenced. Quick and fast the shells began to play around the group of wounded men, of which Colonel McLeer was the central figure, cutting off the branches above their heads and dropping in dangerous proximity to their retreat. In this emergency it was determined to endeavor to signal the battery that there were wounded in that part of the wood; and one of the Fourteenth ac- cordingly ripped off the leg of his red pantaloons, which was held up by one of the less seriously wounded of the number in hopes of attracting attention. To this day

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Colonel McLeer is unaware as to whether the signal was understood or not; but the fact remains that the direc- tion of the fire of the battery was almost immediately changed; and to this incident the survivors of that night attribute their escape from almost certain death. Throughout the day the battle raged backward and for- ward, the wounded lying close to the ground to escape the bullets which flew past them almost constantly, until late in the afternoon, when, with others, Col. McLeer was found and removed to an old stone house; the half of a shelter tent, held at either corner by a soldier, being made to do duty as a stretcher. Here a student surgeon insisted upon amputating Col. McLeer's wounded leg and arm, much against the Colonel's will; and it is possible that had he not been driven off by rebel missiles he would have done it, nolens volens. Reaching the hospital, under the promise that his leg would be saved if possible, Colonel McLeer submitted to the amputation of his arm. Thanks to his splendid physical condition, after the lapse of within a few days of a year, Colonel McLeer was discharged from the hospital, his leg saved, but helpless as an infant; in which condition he was brought home, and so continued for nearly two years. On the return of the Fourteenth to Brooklyn, he was carried to a carriage and rode in the procession on the occasion of the enthusiastic recep- tion which was extended the regiment on its arrival from the seat of war.

The subsequent military record of Colonel McLeer is too recent to require recapitulation here. Upon the reorganization of the Fourteenth as a National Guard regiment he was elected First Lieutenant of Company C, heing afterward appointed Quartermaster on the staff of Colonel Fowler, and subsequently promoted Major, Lieutenant-Colonel, and Colonel of the regiment, which latter position he still holds.

In 1865, Colonel McLeer was elected City Auditor on the Republican ticket. In 1869, he was a candidate for Street Commissioner and, as was conceded, was elected, but did not serve. In 1873, he was appointed United States Pension Agent for the district of Long Island, with the addition of the payment of all the naval pensions for the state of New York, and served until 1875, when the office was consolidated with that of New York. On his retirement from this position, he received a very complimentary letter from the United States Treasury Department upon the exceptional correctness of his accounts. He was appointed Post- master of Brooklyn by President Hayes, in December, 1877, and entered upon the duties of his office January 1st, 1878. A comparison of the present condition of the post office with that of the past shows clearly how much those who send and receive letters in Brooklyn are indebted to his zeal, industry and intelligence. Only those who have a special interest in the receipt and distribution of letters in Brooklyn can have even a faint idea of the radical changes and marked improve-

ments which have taken place in the postal service during the two years of Col. McLeer's administration just past. The number of those familiar with its organization and practical operation is comparatively limited, but the results achieved have already made themselves very widely felt.

Colonel McLeer has been actively identified with the Grand Army of the Republic from its institution, having been one of the charter members of the first Post instituted in Kings county-Post 4. He has held the office of Post Commander, was on the staff of General Sickles when the latter was Department Com- mander, and has been a delegate to every State Conven- tion of the Grand Army in New York. He has been very active in the promotion of the benevolent work of the soldiers' aid societies, and has given largely of his time and means to assist disabled veterans and the widows and orphans of deceased soldiers to secure pensions, without other fee or reward than the con- sciousness of accomplishing an act of Christian charity.

Assessment and Collection of Internal Rev- enue in Kings County .- Under the law creating the offices of Assessor and Collector of Internal Revenue, Kings county was divided into two districts corres- ponding with its congressional districts; the Second In- ternal Revenue District consisting of the sixth, eighth, ninth, tenth, twelfth, fourteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth wards of Brooklyn, and the outlying townships of the county; and the Third District con- sisting of the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, seventh, eleventh, thirteenth, fifteenth, nineteenth and twen- tieth wards of Brooklyn. In March, 1871, Kings, Queens, Suffolk and Richmond counties were consti- tuted the First Internal Revenue District of the State of New York. May 20, 1873, the office of Assessor was abolished; the entire local business since then has been transacted in the office of the Collector.

The offices of Assessor and Collector in the Second and Third Districts were established in 1862. The suc- cessive Assessors in the Second District were JOHN WIL- LIAMS, JAMES R. ALIBAN and ALBERT G. ALLEN ; the successive Collectors were ALFRED M. WOOD, R. S. TORREY and JAMES FREELAND. The successive As- sessors in the Third District were WILLIAM E. ROBIN- SON, THOMAS WELLWOOD, SAMUEL T. MADDOX, MICHAEL SCANLAN and JAMES JOURDAN ; the successive Collec- tors were HENRY C. BOWEN, H. CALLICAT, E. T. WOOD and GORDON L. FORD. The Assessors of the First Dis- trict, after the consolidation, and until the abolition of the office, were JAMES JOURDAN and OLIVER T. LEACH; the Collectors have been JAMES FREELAND and (since January, 1880) RODNEY C. WARD. The Internal Revenue offices have been located most of the time in the Hamilton building, on Court street, Brooklyn. The organization of the department in he First District, in January, 1884, was as follows: Rodney C. Ward, Col-

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lector ; Edward B. Fowler, Chief Deputy Collector ; Oliver C. Patterson, Cashier; Alexander H. Doty, Dep. uty- Collector and Bond Clerk ; Robert Anderson and Dora B. Robinson, Book-keepers; Jolin Q. A. Strachan, Clerk and Messenger; Granville W. Harman, Chief of Division Deputies; Philander J. Hawkins, Charles H. Baylis, Samuel S. Aymar, Charles R. Phillips, Charles E. Bostwick, William M. Rome, Enoch Jacobs, Eben- ezer H. Disbrow, Edward E. Bowen, Charles Schurig, Samuel Bowden, Robert J. Morgan, Charles O'Donnell, Wm. P. Pickett, and W. B. Dugan, Division Deputies ; William H. Whitlock, Chief of Spirit Department ; John A. Biggs, John H. Burleson, Jacob David, George A. Eden, Samuel V. French, Myles McLanghlin, G. W. Middleton, H. M. Craft, Samuel T. Waterhouse, James Woodhead, United States Gaugers ; T. F. Bloomfield, James B. Collins, Robert S. Cooke, M. Fitzgerald, John A. Gardner, Jr., Joshua A. Garrison, James Greenwood, Lemuel C. Nodine, Elias W. Thompson, and William Josiah, United States Storekeepers.

The Navy Yard is located upon Wallabout bay, on lands originally forming a portion of the old Remsen estate, purchased, in 1781, by Mr. John Jack- son and his brother, Samuel. John Jackson's portion having a good water-front, he established a ship-yard, where he built a large merchant ship, the Canton; and afterwards a small frigate for the United States, called the John Adams, which, after doing good service in the war of 1812-14, was burned by its commander, September, 1814, off the Maine coast, to escape cap- ture by the enemy. In 1800, the Secretary of the Navy, having his attention called to this ship-yard as being well adapted for a first-class navy yard, ap- pointed agents to effect its purchase, but they gave a preference to Bennett's Point, Newtown creek. Joseph Bennett, the owner, refusing to sell, Mr. Jackson, February 7, 1801, sold his property for $40,000 to the United States government, which took possession on the 23d of that month. Later (1824) the United States purchased the piece of land now occupied by the Naval Hospital, from the widow and other heirs of Martin Schenck. This addition contained about thirty-five acres, and the price paid for it was $7,650.

By these two purchases, the government became pos- sessed of the land on the east and also on the west side of the Wallabout, and needed only to obtain the intervening plot of ground in order to make the site of the navy yard complete. August 14, 1848, Fred- erick Griffin and his wife, Catharine, conveyed to the United States, in consideration of the sum of $285,000, all the land between the former purchases of the gov- ernment and bounded on the water side by low water mark, and on the city side by Flushing avenue. March 1, 1867, the government bought of William Ruggles and others, for $90,000, an irregular piece of land, with its water-front situated on the northerly corner of

the yard, lying at the foot of Little street. The total price paid for all of these purchases was $426,707.50.

This property was originally but a waste of mud- flats, swamps and creeks, excepting only the hill on the western side, upon which the Commandant's house now stands, and that on the eastern side where the hospital is located. High water then reached the point about where the lower end of the building known as that of Provisions and Clothing now stands, and thence, in a circular line, as far as the foot of Sands street. From Sands street, along the present navy yard, as far as Flushing avenue, and thence as far as Clinton ave- nue, extending into the present City Park, was a large mill-pond, empty at low water ; from thence along Flushing avenue to the hospital hill, down the bay and near the line of Washington avenue, there was no solid ground. The present Kent avenue basin was on the line of what is known as Schenck's creek. A toll-bridge spanned the mill-pond mentioned, from Sands street to Flushing avenue, near Hampden street; its locality be- ing now solid ground within the precincts of the Navy Yard.

Along the front of the Navy Yard extends Wallabout bay, where, during the Revolutionary war, the British prison-ships were moored, and where, for eight years (1776-84) the British ships wintered. The horrors committed on board those prison-ships are matters of history. On the beach of the bay, as well as in the ravine, near Remsen's dock, were buried those patriots who fell victims to the British cruelty which prevailed on board the old Jersey and other prison-ships; till the whole length of the shore in front of the vessels was one vast graveyard, in which the interments were made so carelessly that the incoming tide often washed out the remains, scattering the bones to bleach in the sun along the low beach. The old Jersey, the most noted of the prison-ships, is thought to have been moored near where the northern part of ship-house No. 1 is now built. Fully 11,000 persons are supposed to have perished on board the old Jersey alone. What the aggregate mortality of all the prison-ships was, will never be known. In September, 1878, work- men, while digging to plant an anchor, near the north- ern corner of ship-house No. 1, exhumed portions of two skeletons, the skulls of which were in a state of good preservation, the teeth being perfect, and which were reinterred at Fort Greene.

The Navy Yard is enclosed on the land side by a high wall, within which are the various mechanic shops required in building and repairing vessels ; a large and costly dry-dock ; large buildings to cover ships of war in process of construction, extensive lumber ware- houses, several marine railways, and immense stores of ammunitions of war. Upon an eminence, a little to the eastward of the yard proper, is a U. S. Marine Hospi- tal for the care of the sick, aged or disabled seamen belonging to the navy. This building, which is faced

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with white marble, presents a fine architectural ap- pearance. Adjoining it, in the rear, a small but taste- ful graveyard offers a quiet resting place to those who die in the hospital. In appropriate juxtaposition with the hospital is an extensive laboratory for the manufacture of medicines for the navy. The chemical and mechanical arrangements of this laboratory are remarkably adapted to their use; the laboratory being the only institution of the kind possessed by any govern- ment. The grounds belonging to the hospital estab- lishments comprise some thirty-five acres. Upon Park avenne, a little south of the Navy Yard, are extensive Marine Barracks, etc. The Naval Lyceum, estab- lished in 1833 by officers of the navy, is a literary in- stitution, which has a decidedly interesting history of its own. It has a library and museum, both of which are prized and contributed to by friends of the navy in all parts of the world.

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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 II, Part 56

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed Publication date: 1884 Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co Number of Pages: 1345

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co
Number of Pages: 1345