USA > New York > Kings County > Flatbush > The social history of Flatbush : and manners and customs of the Dutch settlers in Kings county > Part 21
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For twenty years, dating from 1832, a Sunday-school teachers' prayer-meeting was held weekly at the house of Mrs. Maria L. Lefferts.
Catechetical Lessons.
Until the conclusion of Dr. Strong's pastorate, it was customary to collect the children of the congrega- tion together once a week during the summer for cate-
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RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES.
chetical exercises. On these occasions they were obliged to repeat the lessons they had committed to memory from the Westminster and Heidelberg Catechisms. This was probably the last remnant of the custom, established as early as 1682, of having the children instructed "on every Wednesday and Saturday, in the common prayers, and the questions and answers in the catechism, to en- able them to repeat them the better on Sunday before the afternoon service."
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CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION-1776.
DURING the War of the Revolution Long Island was held by the British under military rule. After the dis- astrous Battle of Flatbush, Kings County was in a most lawless condition. It is almost impossible to realize the picture of devastation this village presented at that pe- riod. The cattle belonging to the farmers had been driven by command of the American officers into Queens and Suffolk counties, to prevent their falling into the possession of the invaders, and the grain, the produce of the year, was stacked in the fields and burned for the same reason. The houses of those in the northern section of the town were burned. In the line of march of the British, and over the district of hills and woods which embraced or bounded the area of the battle-ground, were strewn the bodies of the dead who had fallen either in battle or in irregular fighting in the hills and hollows, for there was no quarter given by the Hessians. It is probable that some of these were never buried, for bones were frequently found long after the engagement, and the superstitious avoided a locality said to be haunted. During that dreadful August many of the inhabitants fled from their homes, which were taken possession of by lawless adventurers. The sick
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THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.
and wounded were placed in the church, and the want of attention to their suffering condition caused the whole air to be infected. In the autumn a camp fever became epidemic, and proved very fatal. The grass grew in the streets ; all business was at an end ; the wet autumn which succeeded a hot summer added to the filth of the encampment, and the want of many of the common comforts of life caused almost constant ill- ness, even among those who escaped the fever. Amid all their sickness and poverty they were constantly har- assed by petty exactions from which there was no appeal ; their fences and even their farming utensils were used for firewood ; their horses were taken from before the plow ; their cattle were driven away or butchered ; their fowls were stolen ; and frequently small parties of soldiers on the march took temporary possession of their houses, driving out the owners if the room was needed. As a sort of practical joke, the feather-beds were some- times emptied into the wells. The dark cherry-wood cupboards were dismantled, and from the shelves the horses of the cavalry officers were fed. It was useless to seek redress ; none could be had.
To make the scanty supply still more inadequate, the whole town was filled with soldiers. Some of these were of the roughest class. These were billeted upon the peo- ple without their consent, and often in opposition to their express wishes. For a regiment of Waldeckers no compensation was ever given. Even where Congress promised two dollars per week, there was very little prospect at that time that it would be paid; and the Continental money, which was a legal tender, was much depreciated.
There was no safety from thieves either day or night,
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THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF FLATBUSH.
but the loss of property was small compared to the danger to life and the constant feeling of personal in- security. A band of men of notoriously bad character constituted a company under the name of the "Nassau Blues," and were in possession of the Court-house. They not only helped themselves freely to the property of the inhabitants, of whom they were called the "Guard," but they were the terror of respectable people.
Is it to be wondered at that under these circum- stances the people became disheartened, and that in their dispirited condition they considered further resist- ance as useless ?
The inhabitants of Suffolk and Queens counties were comparatively safe in their resistance, but there was not a county in the State that suffered more than Kings, and there was not a town in Kings County that was more exposed than Flatbush. The people here, equally with the other colonists, resisted the encroach- ments and taxation of their foreign rulers ; they also at first had their meetings and expressed their sympathy with the general uprising. On April 5, 1775, a meet- ing was held at Flatbush, at which deputies were ap- pointed for choosing delegates to the Continental Con- gress to be held at Philadelphia in May. From Flatbush, David Clarkson, Adrian Voorhees, Jacobus Vandeven- ter, and John Vanderbilt were appointed, and May 20 the magistrates and freeholders met in Brooklyn to co- operate with the freeholders of the city and county of New York, and other meetings for a similar purpose were afterward held.
There was a great change in the surroundings of the people after the Battle of Flatbush. The withdrawal of Washington's army left the inhabitants so entirely at
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THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.
the mercy of the enemy that there is no doubt that the majority of them considered the cause hopeless and further resistance useless.
We differ from Mr. Stiles with regard to an assertion he makes respecting the county towns at this period. He says that "a greater degree of peace and order pre- vailed in the country towns than in Brooklyn"; also that the farmers had " the twofold advantage of receiv- ing a high price for their produce and pay for boarding the prisoners," and that, " the inhabitants returning to their desolated and long-deserted homes, their first ef- forts were directed to the cultivation of their lands." As to the pay for boarding the prisoners, only 7s. per week for a room for officers, and 1s. 4d. for privates, or $2 per week for board, was all that Congress promised. Food was very scarce, fuel still more so ; the negro ser- vants were in a state of insubordination ; no regard was paid to the disinclination of the people to accept these boarders, and no notice was taken of the protests of such as felt themselves unable to provide for them. " Boarding the prisoners" under such circumstances was neither desirable nor profitable.
As to the cultivation of the land in Flatbush, it was conducted under great disadvantages. The horses had nearly all been stolen ; those that escaped detection on the part of officers or men were liable at any moment to be taken from the plow. The tools had been stolen or burned by foraging parties for kindling camp-fires. The farm laborer was scarcely to be had for hire, and the negro slave preferred the lighter work of grooming the cavalry horses, or following the brilliant red troops of his Majesty.
Before the close of hostilities some of the inhabit-
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THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF FLATBUSH.
ants of Kings County were enabled to furnish the pe- cuniary aid which was so much needed to carry on the war. This was done at the risk not only of property but of life.
Dr. Strong says that the amount of money lent to the State by the Whig inhabitants of Flatbush can not be fully ascertained, but it is supposed that, before the termination of the war, not far from $200,000 in specie had been furnished by the Whigs of Kings County.
CHAPTER XXIX.
WORK FOR THE SOLDIERS.
DURING the late rebellion the ladies of Flatbush were active in preparing relief for the sick and wounded in camp and hospital. The following are some of the articles made by them and forwarded for use in the army : Havelocks, 1,100 ; haversacks, 312 ; night-shirts, 105 ; flannel shirts, 97; cotton shirts, 500; dressing- gowns (double), 26 ; knit socks (woolen), 60 pairs ; draw- ers, 161 pairs ; handkerchiefs, 772. Towels, " house- wives," clothing (not new), lint, old linen, bandages.
The amount handed in from the Kings County table at the time of the Sanitary Fair in Brooklyn has been estimated as follows :
Kings County (country towns) amount of sale at table. $3,974 00 Contributions in cash. 2,988 03
$6,962 03
From newspaper accounts published during the war we find Flatbush credited with the sum of $2,543.99, and also, at a later period, with that of $2,188.05, as contributions in cash.
Additional to the work of the ladies at their sewing society, there were also forwarded from Flatbush large quantities of stores and delicacies for the wounded in the hospitals.
CHAPTER XXX.
TOWN-HALL.
THE Flatbush town-hall was erected in 1874-'75, under the supervision and according to the direction of the Board of Improvement. This Board consisted of the following gentlemen, residents of Flatbush : Judge John A. Lott, John J. Vanderbilt, Philip S. Crook, Jacob V. B. Martense, Abraham J. Ditmas, John Lef- ferts, and Dr. John L. Zabriskie.
The town allowed the Board of Improvement forty thousand dollars for the purchase of land and for the erection of a building suitable for the purpose. This money was put out at interest, and for this sum and the interest upon it the town-hall was built.
The Building Committee consisted of John Lefferts, John J. Vanderbilt, and Dr. John L. Zabriskie. The architect was John Y. Culyer, the builder William Vause.
The land on Grant Street was considered a suitable site, and a handsome brick building was completed there in the autumn of 1875. It gave general satisfaction, and received much praise for its tasteful exterior and the convenience of its interior arrangements.
The Board not only completed the building for the sum specified, but also, in addition, put in the gas-fix-
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TOWN-HALL.
tures and all the furniture which would be needed for use in the building. These extra expenses overran the amount allowed for this purpose. The town would have been willing to indemnify the Board for the extra sum expended, and the Board would have been perfectly justified in asking for it, as this furniture was a matter of necessity in the use of the hall ; yet these gentlemen were so disinclined to have any business committed to them cost more than the sum for which they had stipu- lated to have it done, that they refused to have this money refunded from the public treasury, and paid the extra expense incurred from their own private funds.
Upon the occasion of transferring the completed building to the town authorities, the gentlemen on this Board of Improvement took an honest pride in know- ing that this hall had cost the town no more than the forty thousand dollars (principal and interest) which had been given them to spend ; that it was well and substantially built ; and that the work had in no way been slighted, but had been done in the best manner, and the completed structure was in every way suitable for the purpose required.
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CHAPTER XXXI.
OUR DUTCH FOREFATHERS.
I.
THE old-time manners and customs are almost for- gotten ; it is right that that they should be, for they are not in accord with the life of to-day; but it is pleasant to recall what our fathers said and did in the long past. It is like wandering through a garden in winter, where we find the faded leaves of flowers once beautiful, but now dry and sere and never to be revived, let the sun shine on them ever so brightly.
Have you ever wondered why our ancestors came to this country ? I have. The New England people came for religious liberty, and other settlers in the East or South sought civil advantages. But the Netherlands spared her people these excuses. They were not driven out by persecution ; nowhere could Hollanders have found more comforts than in that little triangular bit of earth which they called home. They had good schools for their children, freedom of worship in fine churches, social intercourse in comfortable homes.
NOTE .- Mrs. Vanderbilt had intended to revise these articles (Chapters XXXI-XXXIII), which at the request of friends have been added to this edition, but weakness resulting from a severe stroke of paralysis has prevented her from doing so. This accounts for the apparent want of care in their preparation.
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OUR DUTCH FOREFATHERS.
What induced them to brave the horrors of this wilder- ness ? We are glad they came here, but why did they come ? It was as if to-day you and I should declare our intention to take our families to settle in Patagonia, or to colonize Zululand. Even in that case we should find good steamers for our journey and many mitigating comforts on the way. But think of weeks and weeks tossing on the water in those old Dutch galleons, which must have rolled and pitched on the ocean swell and twisted about until the delirium of seasickness nearly crazed the tempest-tossed passengers. They had no tempting delicacies, no oranges, no lemons, no nice glass of jelly, no strengthening cup of beef tea after their days of sickening nausea. The conditions must have been dreadful. The salt pork and hard biscuit, and all the cold, crusty, hard, dried-up messes which they offered poor Janitje and little Seytje and home- sick Hans, and perhaps the groot-vader and groot- moeder as they lay moaning in their narrow berths. Think of those weeks of wretchedness, you who look forward to six, eight, or at most ten days of ocean life, with steward and stewardess propping you up on deck in your steamer chair, padding rough edges with cush- ions and rugs, and pampering your appetite with all sorts of tempting delicacies brought to you on deck upon a tray daintily spread with a pretty napkin.
Well, well ! our good Dutch mothers and fathers never dreamed of such comforts. They were not to be had even by their high mightinesses von Orange and Nassau, nor even by the Heeren Staten General ! Much less by Claes and Hendrik, by Jannetje and Femmetje, and the hardy little children they brought with them from Amsterdam, Delft, Utrecht, and Leyden. Think-
ยท
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THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF FLATBUSH.
ing over why they came, we still find it quite unaccount- able under the circumstances.
They did not decide thoughtlessly. Our people always acted after mature deliberation ; that was char- acteristic. I dare say they talked it over for weeks whenever they met in market or church. Perhaps at the door of the Groote Kerk of St. Lawrence, in Rotter- dam, it was whispered that Joast and Jannetje, just married, were going in the next ship that sailed to settle along the great river that Hendrick Hudson had discovered. Or, awaiting the hour for service at the Cathedral at Utrecht, Claus said that the yeffvrouw had had a letter from her son Evert, who had journeyed to 't eylant Nassau, a goodly place where rich farm lands might be had almost for the asking. The letter, in the peculiar script of that age, on coarse, yellow paper, was passed along from the Kouenhovens to the Wyckoffs, the Lotts, the Van Wycks, the Verbrants, the Ten- broecks, the Van der Veers, the Van Warts, the Van Wickellins, the Van Brunts, and all the Vans in North Holland, until like a spent ball it buried itself along the canal at Amsterdam, doing a great deal of damage on its way, if that may be called damage which made the people eager to accept the inducements offered by the Dutch West India Company, and take up lands for farms in the New World. "Hope springs eternal in the human breast " even in placid Holland, and fathers and mothers began to think that their little Annetje and Trintje and Brom and Dirk might have more room in New Amsterdam or in Fort Oranje or in the long clover reaches on the great river.
So mother-love consented for the sake of the chil- dren (it is always so), and father counted out the pieces
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OUR DUTCH FOREFATHERS.
of gold and silver stored up in the great carved chest, and they took passage in the "Gilded Otter," the " Gilded Beaver," or the "Spotted Cow," these being the favorite ships of that time. What a different coun- try this must have seemed from that which they had left ! There work on canals and in windmills, mending dykes and fighting the menaces of the boisterous North Sea, fishing, boating and shipbuilding, and pumping out the water that forever threatened the land. There were always chances for going around the world, and the life of the sailor was offered to any young man of energy who tired of the monotony of home life.
In America this was all changed. The land which they had purchased must be cultivated if they wanted food. Their houses must be built, and stockades must surround their little settlements if they would be safe from attacks of the Indians. Even if disposed to idle- ness, which very few were, the laws were rather arbi- trary in enforcing industry, for so long ago as 1659, by order of the "Noble and Right Honorable Lord and Director General and Counsel of the New Netherland," it was ordained that "every one of what condition or quality soever he may be should cultivate, build, and live on the lot he had obtained . . . on penalty of for- feiture of his lot."
I notice that when their settlements began, the old independent spirit, which had been nurtured in their long war for liberty, showed itself at an early date-to be exact, "in the year of our Lord one thousand, six hundred, nine and forty "-in an application to the " Noble High and Mighty Lords, the Lord States Gen- eral of the United Netherlands, our Most Illustrious Sovereigns," against " the harsh proceedings " of the
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THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF FLATBUSH.
West India Company. They ask for a suitable Burgher Government, resembling somewhat " the Laudable Gov- ernment of our Fatherland."
Now is not that characteristic ? They begin at once to protest against the slightest infringement of their personal liberty and the imposition of taxes of any kind by that somewhat despotic power, the West India Com- pany. And what think you is one of the motives urged upon their High Mightinesses ? " We pray and hope," they say, " that the name of New Netherland and the conversion of the heathen, which ought to be hastened, shall move their H. M. hereunto." From this you see that among the earliest of their public acts they write a petition to have theirs like the " Laudable Government of the Fatherland." There is patriotism for you! And they plead as an argument to this end the conversion of the heathen, and therein we find that spirit of missions which has ever characterized our Reformed Dutch Church.
II.
In 1604 proposals were first drawn up for the estab- lishment of a West India Company. A little later dele- gates were sent by the States of Zeeland to consult with deputies from Amsterdam, Dordrecht, Delft, Rotterdam, Haarlem, Leyden, and other Dutch cities, to draw up a charter to be submitted to the States-General. The trade was to be for thirty-six years along the coast of Africa, from the Tropic of Cancer to the Cape of Good Hope, and to America from the Straits of Magellan to Terra Nova. This long sweep of coast line certainly gave unlimited opportunities for our amphibious Dutch ancestors to " follow the sea." But it was not until Hendrick Hud-
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OUR DUTCH FOREFATHERS.
son in 1609 steered the " Half Moon " along the "great North River of New Netherlands " that public attention was called to the settlement of this part of the country. It was not until 1621 that the charter of the West India Company was obtained ; operations were begun two years later.
The Walloons, who were French Huguenots, estab- lished a colony on Long Island in 1624. By intermar- riage they became so identified with the Dutch that it is only by the French names among our people and on our church records that we can trace them. I think that those of us who bear the names of Rappelje (with its various spellings), Messerole, Du Bois, Messereau, Duryee, Debevoise, De Forrest, and possibly Cortelyou, are descendants from this Walloon stock and their Dutch neighbors.
In 1626 the island of Manhattan was purchased for the sum of sixty guilders, or twenty-four dollars. In 1630 the colony of Killiaen van Rensselaer was planted, and a few settlements were begun soon after at Albany and along the river. The colony was at this time in a critical condition. The West India Company had shown such arbitrary power, alternating with neglect, that the settlers were discouraged and their number decreased. There were troubles as to the boundary lines of the colonies, and Indian depredations kept them in a state of constant alarm. Director Keift resorted to the highly impolitic measure of taxing the Indians, and a long and ruinous war was the result.
A crafty Indian from Haverstraw had stimulated the savages to rise and massacre the Dutch. The Wap- pingers, from the river about half way between the Manhattans and Fort Orange, with whom the Dutch
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THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF FLATBUSH.
had never had any dispute, were the first to begin hostilities. Under these grievances the colonists made an appeal to the States-General. Their cry was pa- thetic. They say, " Our cattle are partly burned and killed and the remainder conveyed to the Fort, where for want of forage they must starve through the coming winter if not immediately slaughtered. The houses have been, for the most part, fired and destroyed. Those yet standing are in danger of being also burnt. These Indians kill off our people one after the other. The corn and other produce is burnt and little or noth- ing saved ; not a plow can be put this fall into the ground. If any provisions should be obtained at the east from the English, we know not wherewith we poor men will pay for them."
In another remonstrance to the Noble Lords they plead thus for help : " Daily have these barbarous sav- ages murdered men and women in our houses and fields. With hatchet and tomahawk they have struck little children dead in their parents' arms, or have taken them away into captivity. We wretched people must skulk with wives and little ones that still are left in pov- erty together by and around the Fort, where we are not one hour safe. We turn to you, supplicating for God's sake, to forward to us by the earliest opportunity such assistance that we may not be left a prey with women and children to these cruel heathen. We have left our beloved fatherland, and unless the Lord our God had been our comfort we must have perished in our misery ! "
My brothers and sisters of Dutch ancestry, is not that pitiful ?
The West India Company, bent upon making for-
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OUR DUTCH FOREFATHERS.
tunes in the fur trade, neglected the colonists. Great suffering was the result. It was not so much the pros- perity of the colony that was sought by the West India Company as it was profitable bargains with the Indians, and these were not slow to take advantage of the un- settled state of the colony. They even taunted the Dutch, seeing that their complaints were disregarded, by saying that "they had neither sachem nor chief," alluding to their country as being a republic. Now these people who are crying in their despair to the fatherland are your ancestors and mine !
It seems to me that we sometimes forget what our people suffered in order to prepare for us this goodly heritage. We sit in comfort and enjoy the prosperity that has come to us through their patient endurance. We look up at the beautiful spire of the Forty-eighth Street church, New York, we admire the handsome interior of that and of the Twenty-ninth Street church. We praise our fine churches in Brooklyn, in the river towns, and in Albany and western New York. We are happy in our beautiful homes through the States of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, but we hardly realize that they have cost suffering and bloodshed and caused the pathetic appeals we have here recorded. It is New England historians who have written of the greatness of Holland and the heroism of the Hollander. Our people have almost seemed indifferent, so little do they say about it. The suffering and woes of Puritan and Pil- grim have been enlarged upon. We admire their heroism as we read of what they endured, and so we should, for they deserve it. But our people had suffering and showed patient endurance and heroism as well as those New England people who, Mrs. Hemans says, 22
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THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF FLATBUSH.
" sang amid the storm, on a stern and rock-bound coast, on the wild New England shore ! "
Doubtless our people sang also on our coast. I do not see why they should not, although there has not been much said about it. They had voices to sing as well as the Pilgrims.
I have no doubt but that they got out their Dutch Psalm-books and sang the forty-sixth Psalm as it is there written. Or perhaps they expressed their faith in their old hymn,
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