USA > New York > Kings County > Flatbush > The social history of Flatbush : and manners and customs of the Dutch settlers in Kings county > Part 2
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CHARACTERISTICS OF HOLLAND SETTLERS. 23
there quaint pictures on its pages, that still remain to attest their love of reading, notwithstanding the neces- sity for their constant, plodding labor. They not only established Dutch schools at an early date, but they encouraged the study of English, when a knowledge of that language gave greater advantages to their children. In the old, worn Dutch dictionaries that lie on our upper shelves we find the proof that even the older peo- ple endeavored to improve themselves in English by the study of the "Groot Woordenboek," the great word- book, as the dictionary was aptly called : the " Groot Woordenboek der Engelsche en Nederduytsche Taalen ; nevens eene spraakkonst derzelver."
The children were thoroughly drilled in lessons upon the Bible, so that from their youth up they might be a God-fearing as well as a moral community. They were also thoroughly indoctrinated in the articles of their faith by the study of the catechism.
We find in the inventory of an estate of an old land- owner, born 1684, that among his other properties he had in his house eleven Dutch catechisms. Under the discipline of such training as this grew up the children of successive generations in the homes of our Dutch an- cestors, and, if they were not morally sound and hardy, there must have been great waste of precept and ex- ample.
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CHAPTER IV.
GRADUAL CHANGE FROM DUTCH TO ENGLISH.
AROUND these early settlers on Manhattan and on Long Island stretched an unknown continent in un- broken wilderness, save as here and there along the coast glimmered the lights of some small and widely separated settlements like their own. But it was not by these, nor yet by themselves, that their destiny was shaped. It was the cabinet intrigues of the Old World that gave them Dutch rulers or made them the subjects of an English king. The political broils, the international feuds and jealousies, or the open wars of Europe, were the pebbles thrown into the stream that in ever-widening circles reached and agitated the little towns that lay close to the shores.
The effect of change from Dutch customs, manners, and form of government to English was so slow as to be in process of growth almost imperceptible. At first the settlers built their houses of brick imported from Holland, and in many other ways, from force of habit, attempted the useless task of trying to make their new homes conform to those which they had left.
What is said in Bryant's "Popular History of the United States " about New York, in its period of transi- tion under the early English governors, was equally true of the little towns and villages around that city,
25
CHANGE FROM DUTCH TO ENGLISH.
settled at the same period and by the same people : " Its customs long remained those which its first settlers had brought with them out of the Dutch fatherland. Its architecture, most of its local names, and even its more common speech, were Dutch. Its domestic and social life was regulated by the customs of Holland. If it was simple and somewhat heavy, it was at the same time healthy, virtuous, and full of kindliness and hospitality. If the stout burghers moved slowly, thought only of the practical side of things, and went to bed at nine o'clock, they also worked steadily, governed their households wisely, and persecuted nobody. If they introduced for a brief period into their new home the law they brought from Holland of the great burgher-right and the lesser burgher-right, those who received the former were worthy of the dignity, and those who were confined to the latter valued their citizenship and educated their children none the less carefully."
Says one, sketching this period : "The settlement of Kings County and Manhattan Island was essentially Dutch, not only in its social, but in its political customs and institutions. . .. From 1620 to the close of the century Long Island was solely Dutch, and when after- ward the English took possession there was no social or domestic change."
It is probable that the energies of these pioneers were taxed to the utmost to obtain the comforts to which the civilization of the Netherlands had accustomed the Hol- lander ; for rude and meager as their surroundings were, compared to the luxurious abundance in the reach of every industrious householder of this age, yet they were far in advance of those of the same social status in many other countries of Europe.
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THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF FLATBUSH.
On this account they had the less time to waste upon the political changes, which had, after all, little per- ceptible effect upon their liberty and prosperity. Their language, their schools, their religious privileges were not interfered with. It was expressly stipulated that the Dutch, in capitulating to the English in 1664, should enjoy "liberty of their conscience in divine worship and church discipline." Also that they should " enjoy their own customs concerning their inheritance." The Dutch are essentially a law-abiding people, and as their English rulers secured to them all which their own home government had granted, they were willing to recognize their power and acknowledge their sovereignty. As open rebellion or unwilling submission would have done very little to change matters, we must admit that peaceful acquiescence was the wiser policy.
Says Dr. Morgan Dix, speaking of this period in the history of the Dutch settlers : "New Amsterdam was taken ; it became New York ; and the Church of Eng- land was planted where the Classis of Amsterdam had been the supreme and only ecclesiastical authority. But observe how scrupulously the rights of your fore- fathers were respected. There is nothing like it in his- tory ; never did conquerors treat the conquered with such deference and consideration. As far as possible the old customs were preserved ; private rights, con- tracts, inheritances were scrupulously regarded ; and, as for the Reformed Dutch Church, it seems almost to have been treated as a sacred thing. It was more than protected ; it was actually established by law by an English governor under English auspices. This was, perhaps, no more than a fair return for the good deeds done by your people. When your turn came to be un-
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CHANGE FROM DUTCH TO ENGLISH.
der the yoke, it was said to you in substance : 'You shall still be free ; not one of your old customs shall be changed until you change them yourselves ; by us you shall not be meddled with ; keep your places of wor- ship, your flocks, and all you have, in peace.' And so to their old church of St. Nicholas inside the fort did your people continue to wend their way in absolute security, though English sentries were at the gates ; and within the walls over which the standard of Eng- land waved did the good Dutch dominie speak his mind as freely as ever to his spiritual children ; nor was it until they had finished their devotions and with- drawn that the English chaplain ventured within the same house of worship to read his Office from the Book of Common Prayer. I see in this what does credit to humanity-kind consideration, mutual respect, and on both sides a study of the things that make for peace." Speaking of this, Brodhead says that the Reformed Church was virtually "established " in New York by its English rulers. The same generosity was extended to the Dutch on Long Island, and with similar results.
Under the English laws a constable and overseers were added to the town officers ; it was one of their duties "frequently to admonish the inhabitants to in- struct their children and servants in matters of religion and the laws of the country." This could not have been considered an unusual thing for those who were so eminently law-abiding, and who were accustomed to the same admonitions from their own rulers.
Thus it happened that gradually, and almost uncon- sciously, they glided along the smooth current which, from that day to this, has been changing them from Dutch to English.
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THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF FLATBUSH.
Looking back to their daily life, we find that they had many things to contend against which must have given them more uncasiness than this change, which was attended with so little inconvenience to themselves.
The cutting down of the forest and making their clearings was very different work from the agriculture to which they had been trained upon the polders, the rescued lands, of Holland ; nor was a knowledge of the dikes and drainage of the Zuyder Zee available in the dry and sandy farms "op 't ijlant Nassau."
A still greater cause of anxiety, however, must have come to them from contact with the savages who at this period peopled the continent. The uneasiness of the pioneer settlers in Plymouth and Jamestown must also have been felt in a slight degree by the set- tlers on Long Island, for in 1656 an order was given to erect palisadoes, so as to protect the town against the Indians, who lurked in the forest with tomahawk and scalping-knife.
It may have been that the peaceful Dutchmen of Kings County did not provoke the aboriginal settler to retaliation ; for, says B. F. Thompson, in his history : "The Indians on Long Island were less troublesome to their white neighbors than the Indians north of the Sound, nor does it appear that any formidable conspiracy ever existed among them to destroy the set- tlers."
George William Curtis, who can not be regarded as one biased in favor of the Dutch, said, in an address recently delivered at Deerfield, Massachusetts, that "the Dutch settlers, who never broke faith with the aborigines, suffered from them comparatively little trouble."
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CHANGE FROM DUTCH TO ENGLISH.
The land in the Dutch towns of Kings County was not wrested from the native tribes, but amicably ob- tained by regular purchase from its owners, the Canarsee Indians, who, in 1609, were the first to welcome Hen- drick Hudson to the shores of the New World.
Governor Stuyvesant, in 1647, prohibited the sale of strong drink to the Indians under a heavy penalty, to- gether with the "responsibility for all the misdemean- ors that might result from its use." He was also very peremptory in his charge that justice should be shown in all cases to the Indians.
" Both the English and the Dutch on Long Island respected the rights of the Indians. and no land was taken up by the several towns, or by individuals, until it had been fairly purchased of the chiefs of the tribes who claimed it," says another historian of Long Island.
There may have been less distrust on this account, for the inhabitants of Midwood did not keep even the vigilant guard which the law required ; and when, in 1675, the English held their court of sessions over this district, called by them the " West Riding of Yorkshire," and which included the five Dutch towns, we read that Midwood was much censured for having neglected to keep up the fortifications as safety demanded to insure protection against the savages.
In 1658 Flatbush was the county market-town. Here, also, was the seat of justice for the county ; here the courts were held ; here the sheriff lived, and the county clerk. Here also the schoolmaster dwelt, and the minister who preached at stated times in the five Dutch towns, and who from respect to his office was considered a most influential member of the settlement.
The change in regard to the civil importance of
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THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF FLATBUSH.
Flatbush has been recorded in Dr. Strong's history. In these pages we only propose to refer to the public rec- ords when they reflect light upon the home life of the people.
In regard to language, manners, and customs, the change has been in accordance with the progress of the age, as the people have been called to keep step in that advancing line of onward march in civilization in which the Anglo-Saxon race has led the world.
CHAPTER V.
NAME OF THE VILLAGE OF FLATBUSH.
AT its settlement in 1651 Flatbush was variously called Midwout, Midwoud, and Medwoud ; it is difficult to say why or when the change was made to Flatbush. Various opinions have been offered as to the meaning of the name.
In a paper read before the Historical Society of the State of New York, December 31, 1816, there is a con- jecture offered to the effect that, as Breuckelen and Amersfoort were, from their proximity to the water, earliest settled, and a space intermediate and about equi- distant between them remained as woodland, it was there- fore designated by the Dutch words " woud " or " bos," signifying woods, thereby becoming, "med woud," or middle woods. Or, as it was a plain-" vlachte," in order to distinguish it from the wooded heights-" Ge- bergte "-between this plain and Brooklyn, it was called the "Vlachte bos," or the wooded plain.
Teunis G. Bergen says that Medwoud and Oost- woud, now Flatbush and New Lots, were both named after villages in North Holland. There are others who give the name a different derivation, and say that it does not come from " woud," a forest, but from "woon "
32
THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF FLATBUSH.
or "woonen," to dwell, having reference to the people who lived in the middle district between the two settle- ments of Breuckelen and Amersfoort.
In the town records of 1681, New Lots is called Oost- woud, and Flatbush, Medwoud.
At a convention, held at Hempstead in 1665, Long Island and Staten Island were erected into a shire, and divided into districts called Ridings ; * Flatbush was in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It has been said that the name of Medwoud was changed at that convention. If so, the change was not generally accepted, for it was called Medwoud after that on many public occasions, and in many public documents.
All these names, Medwoud, Midwoud, Midwout, and Vlachte Bos, appear upon the old town records ; and in all the public writings they seem to be used interchange- ably, as we shall see.
On an old grant, signed by Governor Stuyvesant, bearing date 1661, and still in possession of the family to whom the land was given, the name of the town appears as Midwout. The first provincial seal of the New Netherlands is upon this grant : a shield bearing a beaver, proper, surmounted by a count's coronet, and encircled by the legend "Sigillum Novi Belgii." In another old Dutch writing of the same character, bear- ing date 1677, Flatbush is called Vlackebos. In a dis- pute as to the boundaries between Flatbush and Brook- lyn, which occurred in 1678, our people call Flatbush " onse Dorp Midwout." In a dispute as to the bounda- ries between Flatbush and Flatlands, which took place
* In 1633 the province was divided into counties, and the " ridings " were abolished.
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NAME OF THE VILLAGE OF FLATBUSH.
in 1688, the two towns are spoken of respectively as Midwout and Amersfoort.
In other papers relating to the boundaries of the Dutch towns, bearing date 1677, our people "von het bos," say, "Wij, gemeente von Midwoud," i. e., we, the commonalty, or community, of Midwoud. In other disputes relative to boundaries, bearing date 1666, the town is called Flackebos. In an old Dutch deed, among the town papers relating to taxes, dated 1676, the place is called Flackebos. In 1677, in an old paper written in in English, as few among the town records are, the set- tlement is called "Flatbush, alias Midlewood "; and subsequently through the paper it is called Midlewood.
In a paper among the old town records signed by Pieter De la Noy, and bearing date 1680, the village is called " Het Dorp Midwout." In another old paper, dated 1681, found among the town records, being a receipt for certain books transferred to the town by Joseph Hegeman, the date is given from Midwout.
In April, 1693, the Colonial Legislature passed an act changing the name of Long Island to Nassau Island, but the act did not affect the old name or make it per- manent, although sometimes in the old writings Flat- bush is spoken of as " op 't ijlant Nassau." The Indian names of this island were Paumanacke, Mattouwack, and Seawanhacka,* each of which names is variously spelled.
* Seawan-hacky means the "island of shells." Seawan was the name of their money, made from the shells which are abundant on the south- ern coast; the wampum, or the white, was made from the periwinkle ; the black was made from the quahaug. B. F. Thompson says, speaking of its value : "Three beads of black and six of white were equivalent to an English penny or a Dutch stiver."
3
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THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF FLATBUSH.
In a bill among some old family papers we read :
" I Bekome ontfangen te hebbe von R. Hegeman de somme von vyf pondt, etc.
"JACOBUS BEEKMAN.
" FLACKEBOS, Den 20 Ag't, A. D. 1717."'
In an old will, written in 1715, in English, we find the modern name appears :
"In ye first y' reign of our Sovereign Lord, George of Great Brittain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of ye faith, etc., etc., and in ye year of our Lord Christ one thousand seven hundred and fifteen, -, of Flatbush, in Kings County, on ye Island of Nassau, in ye Province of New York," etc. An old agreement, of more value than the above, we find dated, " Midwout, Oct. 1, 1718." In 1732 we still find the name of Mid- woud :
" Midwoud, Den 21 Augustes, A. D. 1732. Ont- fangen de somme dertigh gulden, etc.
(Signed) "PIETER STRYCKER."
Another old paper, dated " Anno dom 1745," speaks of the signer as being a resident of " Flatbush in King's County, on Nassau Island, in the Province of New York." A more intelligible, because not faded, writing, bearing date " Anno dom 1748," calls Flatbush Flacke- bos. In a will bearing date 1759 the town is called Flat- bush and the island Nassau.
We have copied from old writings these different ways of naming the village, not because the particular sources of information are in themselves of any value, but because they show how long, and upon what various occasions, the names seem to be used interchangeably
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NAME OF THE VILLAGE OF FLATBUSHI.
and somewhat at random. Through all these years the name might be written Midwout, Midwoud, Medwoud, Flackebos, Vlactebos, until it became Flatbush ; either name being at the option of the writer.
Thus for a century the names in their variations came down the stream of time together, side by side. We do not know upon what petty obstruction in the channel foundered at last the sweet rural name of Mid- wood, but some of the early years in the last century proved the bar over which it did not pass. It has been gradually lost sight of in the distance, and now we can only find it when we look back to the days when the village was shut in by the primeval forest, and the name so aptly described it as Midwood .*
Flatbush had at an early period names for its differ- ent sections. The north end was called "Steenraap " ; the center, "Dorp" ; the south end, " Rustenburgh."
The English of "steenraap" is stone-gathering, from steen, a stone ; raapen, to reap, implying that it was rough and stony, or a place where stones could be gathered. As the meaning of the word "raap" is a turnip, it may also mean, not a wild and rocky place, but where small stones, like turnips upon a cultivated
* It is curious to observe the changes in the Dutch names given by the Dutch settlers :
Hell Gate, supposed to be named from dangerous navigation, was formerly " Hellegat," after a river in Flanders. Breuckelen was named after a village in the province of Utrecht. Gravesend was not named by the English under Lady Moody, but was called s'Gravensande by Governor Kieft, after a seaport near the river Maas, signifying the Count's Sea-beach : graf or graven, counts; sande, a sandy beach. Just as the Hague, at first a hunting-seat of the Counts of Holland, was called s'Graven Hague, or the Counts' hedge or woods.
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THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF FLATBUSH.
field, lay thick upon the surface. This suggestion as to the derivation of the word is given by Teunis G. Bergen, whose close attention to Dutch names and their derivations makes it worthy of attention. The soil in the northern part of the town is rich, but the fields did at one time present a surface covered with small stones, such as might be described very properly by a word with such a derivation.
This name may, for another reason, have been applied to this portion of the town. There was at one time a brick kiln, "steenbakkery," upon the farm owned by Mr. John Lefferts. The name of steenbakkery was still applied as late as 1876 to the large pond formed by the digging out of clay for the bricks. The clayey soil made it almost impossible to drain the pond, and it was used by the school-boys in the town as a skating pond in winter, and always was known by them as the "steenbakkery." It was not until the hollow was filled up to make a causeway for the railroad from Nostrand Avenue to Flatbush Avenue that the pond began to dis- appear.
The land on the southern side of Kings County is remarkably free from rocks ; beyond the central ridge of the island there are none. There is said to be an Indian tradition to the effect that Satan threw all the rocks from Long Island across the Sound to Connecti- cut in a fit of anger ; if so, he certainly cleared this part of the island very effectually.
The middle of the town was called " Dorp," a village or country town ; that is, the village proper and the business center. The south end, of the town was known as "Rustenburgh," or the resting-place. With what peculiar fitness this name was given we can not say,
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NAME OF THE VILLAGE OF FLATBUSH.
unless the calm restfulness and repose of the landscape was impressive. It may have been, as the earliest set- tlers had each a portion of the open and unwooded land while the forest was being cut down in Dorp and Steen- raap, that they had their first homes in Rustenburgh ; thus this portion of the town may have been their tem- porary resting-place. But history in this instance, as is often the case in more important things, gives no answer to our questions.
The present name of the village is not an im- provement upon that first given ; and it is much to be regretted that the pretty village should not have re- tained the title applied so aptly by the old settlers- Midwood. It was appropriate in all its significations, whether referring to the people who lived in the middle district, or the little town in the midst of woods.
Looking down upon it from the highest point in Prospect Park, it is so shut in by trees and shrubbery that we might say, almost as appropriately now as two hundred years ago, it is Midwood still.
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CHAPTER VI.
DUTCH NAMES.
UNTIL this century the Dutch names from the fatherland were still given by the descendants of the settlers to their children. Some of us can remember names which were once household words in every fam- ily, as being the names of parents and grandparents, but which now are never heard. We can trace them through the county in their English translations ; but the origi- nals, like the old people who bore them, have died out.
We here furnish some of the names which are found constantly recurring in the old records of the town, to which we add the translations under which they now appear :
Aart (Arthur), Aries (Aaron), Arian (Adrian), An -. dries (Andrew), Bornt (Barent or Bernard), Christoffle (Christopher), Claes or Nicolaes (Nicholas), Dirk or Diederick (Richard), Guilliam (William), Hans, the nickname for Johannes (John), Joris (George), Jaco- bus (James), Lucas (Luke), Paulus (Paul), Pieter (Pe- ter), Roelef (Ralph), Wouter (Walter), Wilhelmus (Wil- liam), Yacob (Jacob), Jacques (James), Joost (George).
There are other names which were never changed by translation ; some of them are probably family names :
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DUTCH NAMES.
Wolfert, Gysbert, Volkert, Wynand, Lambert, Ger- brandt, Rynier, Myndert, Baltus, Rutgert, Harmanus, Ulpius, Jurian. Rembrandt was abbreviated to Rem, and under that form it was a name frequently given. There are other names which might have been trans- lated, but are still continued in their original form, viz. : Coert is probably Courtland ; Gerret is Gerhard or Ger- rard ; Evert is Everard ; Laurens is Lawrence or Loren- zo ; Teunis is Anthony.
The family name Denyse is from Denis, and is the contraction of Dionysius. St. Denis is Dionysius the Areopagite, converted by Paul's sermon on Mars Hill.
The family name Tiebout, at one time numerous in Kings County, is, in its translation, Theobald.
The English rendering of some of these names seems to us somewhat arbitrary. Cobus was a common nick- name for Jacobus ; it would seem natural to have the English translation of it, Jacob ; but we find that it has been always translated into James. In the patent ob- tained from James, Duke of York, by Governor Sir Edmond Andros, the Duke is called "Jacobus, Hertzog von York and Albany." From this we judge that this translation was the general one, and not a local render- ing by the farmers.
The names of the women seem to have undergone even a greater change than those of the men. The di- minutive je, pronounced as we do ia, is attached to most of the feminine names. In a dictionary published in Amsterdam, 1749, there are some pages devoted to " Naamen van Mannen en Vrouwen"-names of men and women. In this the author gives a most uncompli- mentary reason for the fact in the explanation that, "since the Female Sex is lookt upon as inferior to the
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