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university'
The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library.
There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text.
http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924088998046
t^^^^S"-*^
THE
Civil, Political, Professional and Ecclesiastical
HISTORY
COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL RECORD
COUNTY OF KINGS
I
AND
THE CITY OF BROOKLYN, N- Y.
FROM 1683 TO 1884.
BY
HENRY R.'^TILES, A.M., M.D., Editor-in-Chief,
Formerly lAbrarian of the Long Islmid Historical Society ; Member of the N. Y. Genealogical and Biographical Society,
the American Ethnological Society, etc., etc.; Author of the "History of Brooklyn," "The Wallabout Prison
Ship Series," the "History and Genealogies of Ancient Windsor, Conn.," and other Historical Works.
ASSISTED BY i -, ■
L. B. PROCTOR, Esq., »™^ L! P ' BROCKETT, A.M., M.D.,
Author of '-'Bench and Bar of the State of N. Y.," "iiues of the Author of ''Our Western Empire," "-Our Country's Wealth and Inftri- State Chancellors of New Yorh," '^Lawyer and ClienU" "Life ence,'' " Geographix^al Historu of N. Y." and Geographical and
and Times of Thomas Addis Emmett," ''Lives of Statistical Editor of ""New American" and ^'Johnson's
Eminent American Statesmen,"' .Oyclopa^dla" and the "American Supplement to
etc., etc. Encyclopc&diu Britannica,^'' ete.^ etc.
WITH PORTRAITS, BIOGRAPHIES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
VOLUME L
NEW YORK: W. W. MUNSELL & CO.
PUBLISHERS.
UNIVERSITY \ LIBRARY
Copyright, 1884. ^A'. W. MUNSELL & CO.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Editor's Pebfacb ......
Outline Histoey of ti-ib State of New York . General History of Long Island ....
General History of Kings County ....
History of the Town of Flatlands
History of the Town of Brooklyn ....
As A Village, 1817-1834 ... . .
The First City of Brooklyn, 1834^1854 History of the Town of Gratesend ....
History of Coney Island . . . •
History of the Town of Flatbush . . . .
History of the Town of New Utrecht
History of the Town of Bushwick .... History of the Town of Williamsburgh . History of the Town of New Lots .... The Ecclesiastical History of Kings County, 1628-1800 The Bench and Bar of Kings County, 1668-1832
List of County Officials .....
LBGiSLATnrB Officers prom Kings County The History of the Board of Supervisors of Kings County The History of Education in Kings County, 1644-1822 Travel and Transit in Kings County . . . .
Stages and Eailroads .....
Brooklyn Ferries and Ferry Rights ...
The New York and East River Bridge The History op the Superintendents of the Poor . History of the Commissioners of Charities Annals of the Consolidated City of Brooklyn, 1855-1883 The Brooklyn of To-Day, 1883 ..... The Municipal History of the City op Brooklyn, 1834-1884
Department op Police and Excise
Department of Health . . . . .
Department op Fire and Buildings ....
Department op City "Works ....
Department of Parks . . . . .
(Cemeteries) ......
Department op Public Education .... Banking (By The Editor), and Insurance
By Rev. Anson Dubois, D. D. . By The Editor.
By liev. A. P. Stockioell.
. By Wm. H. Stillwell, Esq.
By Reo. R. G. Strong.
. By. Hon. T. G. Bergen.
. By The Editor.
a J J. M. Stearns, Esq.
By C Warren Hamilton, Esq.
By The Editor.
. By L. B. Proctor, Esq.
By L. B. Proctor, Esq. . By The Editor.
By L. P. Brookett, M. D. . . By The Editor.
. By B. B. Proctor, Esq.
By B. B. Proctor, Esq.
. By The Editor.
By B. P. Brochett, M. B.
By B. B. Proctor, Esq.
. By The Editor.
" 569, By Van Brunt Bergen, Esq.
By The Editor.
By Hon. T. Q. Bergen.
By O. H. Butcher, Esq.
Page. vi., vii.
18
43
64
80
139
145
156
189
212
255
270
293
306
327
338
366
372
377
409
419
419
435
447
463
494''
484
522
528
557
563
580
584
595
602
609
619
LIST OF PORTRAITS.
PAGE.
Ammerman, Albert 511*
Bauer, Paul 198
Broach, John 304
Beekman, A. J 626
Bergen, Hon. Tennis G- 268
Boerum, Henry 290
Bowne, Samuel 439
Campbell, Hon. Felix 415^
Conselyea, "William 290
Delmar, John 370
Driggs, Edmund 512*
Elliott, Charles B 371
Engeman, William A 206
Fisher, Francis B 519
Freeman, Rev. Bernardus 334
Gaylor, William H 580
Hazzard, William H 591
Howell, James 513
Hunter, John W 511
Humphreys, A. W 515°
James, Hon. Darwin R 416*
Kalbfleisch, Martin 504
Kiernan, Hon. John J 418"
Kingsley, William C 463"
Low, Seth 513"
Low, Hon. Seth 517
Lowe, Rev. Peter 336
McKane, John Y 209
PAGE.
Miller, Francis D., M. D 323
Murphy, Henry C 364
Murtha, Hon. William H 562
Patchen, Jacob 115
Peck, Edgar F., M. D 40*
Pierrepont, H. B 129
Perry, Joseph A 606
Pierrepont, Henry E 443
Polhemus, H. D 632
Powell, S. S 514
Ridley, Edward 210
Roebling, John A 458
Roebling, Washington A 458
Schroeder, Frederick A 512
Schenck, Isaac , 324
Sheldon, Henry 514*
Sprague, William E 579
Stranahan, James S. T 598
Stegman, Lewis R 369
Suydam, A. M 291
Tanner, James 521
Thomas, William M 582
Tuttle, Sylvester 305
Vanderveer, Stephen L 321
Vanderveer, Charles B ; 322
Van Sinderen, Rev. TJlpianus 336
Wallace, James P 507
Williams, John , 625
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE.
Map of Battle of Brooklyn 51
Battle Pass (Prospect Park) 53
Old Jersey Prison-Ship 57
Map of Wallabout Bay, 1776-83 57
Tomb of the Prison-Ship Martyrs 60
Plan of Brooklyn Fortifications, 1814 60
Autograph — Wolfert Garretse Van Cowenhoven . 66
" Elbert Elbertse Stoothoff 67
" Roelof Martense Schenck 67
" Pieter Claesen Wyokoff 67
" Steven Koers Vorhees 67
Map of Brooklyn Settlements, 1646 81
Map of the Bennett and Bentyn Patent 82
The De Hart, or Bergen House 83
The Vechte-Cortelyou House 83
The Schermerhorn House 84
Autograph — Cornells Cornelisen Cool 84
" Frederick Lubbertse 85
" Joris Jans Rappelye 87
PAGE.
Autograph — Catalyntie (Trico) Rappelye 87
" Hans Hansen Bergen 87
" Adam Brouwer 87
" Tennis Gysbertse Bogaert 89
" Michael Hansen 91
" Jacob Hans Bergen 91
" Claes Barentse Blom 91
View of Brookland, 1766-7 93
Cornell-Pierrepont Mansion (river front) 94
Map of Old Ferry, 1766-7 95
British Fort in Brooklyn, 1776 ' 97
British Camp Hut, 1776 93
View of Bedford Corners, 1776 99
View of Brooklyn, 1798 iq2
Map of Old Ferry District, 1816 109
Middagh House and Barn m
Guy's Brooklyn Snow Scene \i^
" Key to the same n^
Old Ferry Road between Prospect and Sands ... 115
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.— Continued.
TAOE.
Cornell-Pierrejjont Mansion (rear view) 129
The Fleet Mansion 133
Map of Old Brooklyn and Jamaica Turnpike. . . . 134
Map of Bedford-Corners, 1766-7 136
Map of Yellow Fever District, 1822 141
Map of Burned District, 1848 151
Autograph — Henry Moody 158
" Anthony Jansen (Van Salee) 158
Ancient Plot of the town of Gravesend, 1645 . . . 161
Autograph — George Baxter 164
" James Hubbard 164
John Tilton 164
" Mattenoah (Indian) 187
" Gutta Quoah (Indian) ; . _ 187
The Still well House, Gravesend 187
The Stryker House, Gravesend 188
The Johnson House, Gravesend 188
Residence of Rev. A. P. Stockwell 188
Fac-simile of old map of Gravesend and Coney
Island 190
Sea-Side Home for Children, Coney Island 197
Paul Bauer's West Brighton Hotel, Coney Island 198
Feltman's Oriental Pavilion, Coney Island 199
Mrs.Vanderveer's Bathing Pavilion, Coney Island 201
Depot P. P. & C. I. R. R J02
Observatory at West Brighton, Coney Island. . . 202
Sea Beach Palace Hotel, Coney Island 203
Bay Ridge Landing — Sea Beach R. R 203
Brighton Pier, Coney Island 204
Ocean Pier, Coney Island 204
Hotel Brighton, Coney Island 205
Brighton Beach Bathing Pavilion, Coney Island. 205
Bathing Pavilion, Coney Island 207
The Manhattan Beach Hotel, Coney Island 208
The Oriental Hotel, Coney Island 208
Residence of Edward Ridley, Gravesend 212
Old Ridley Mansion, Gravesend 212
Autograph — Hendry ck Reycke 217
" Cornells Janse Yanderveer 217
" Jans Strycker 217
" Leffert Pietersen 217
" Adrian Reyerse 218
" Peter Lott 218
" Adrian Hegeman 220
" Willem Jacobse Yan Boerum ...... 220
" Jans Sueberingh 220
" Jan Snedicor 220
" Jans Aertse Yan der Bilt 222
" Aucke Jans Yan Nuyse 222
" DirckJans 223
" Michael Hainelle 224
« Jacob Stryker 225
Melrose'Hall, Flatbush, 1883 228
Platbush Church, 1842 242
Erasmus Hall Academy, 1 850 251
« « " 1883 252
PAGB.
Autograph — Cornells Barentse Van Wyck 254
" Jacques Cortelyou 257
" Nicasius De Sille 258
Residence of Nicasius De Sille 259
The Miller Homestead 272
Autograph — Boudwyn Manout 276
Map of " Het Dorp," Bushwick 282
Old Bushwick Graveyard 283
The Devoe Houses 284
The Boerum House 286
Autograph — Johannes Schenck ; Private and
Official Seals of ; Silver Marks of 324-325
Autograph of Johannes Schenck, Jr 325
Schenck Family Arms 325
Autograph and Seal of Rev. Henricus Selyns. . . 331
The Second Brooklyn Church, 1766 332
Autograph of Rev. Y. Antonides 335
The Old Bushwick Church 337
The Third County Court-house, Flatbush. 341
Autograph — Carel De Bevoise 409
Old Ferry House, 1746 429
First Steam Ferryboat 434
Fulton Ferry, 1865 438
Atlantic Street or South Ferry House 440
The Hamilton Avenue Ferry House 441
The Montague Street Ferry House 441
The Old Grand Street Ferry, Williamsburgh. . . . 445
The First Brooklyn Ferry Master 446
Sectional View of East River Bridge 453
Elevation of Bridge 454
Plan of New York Approach to the Bridge 454
Plan of Brooklyn Approach to the Bridge 454
The Bridge as seen from the Brooklyn side 457
The Brooldyn Eagle Office and Bridge Tower. . . 459
View in Remsen Street, looking Westward 462
Kings County Hospital 467
" " Penitentiary 476
" " Almshouse 477
" " Lunatic Asylum 485"
Soldiers' Medal 502
" " (Reverse) 502
Sailors' Medal 502
" " (Reverse) 502
Lincoln Monument, Prospect Park 508
City Seal of Brooklyn 564*
Brooklyn's First Fire Engine 568
Fireman's Monument in Greenwood Cemetery. . . 578
Modern Steam Fire Engine 583
Northern Entrance to Greenwood Cemetery 602
Entrance to Greenwood Cemetery, 1845 603
Gardener's Lodge, Battle Hill, Greenwood 603
Western Entrance to Greenwood Cemetery 605
The Canda Monument, Greenwood Cemetery. . . . 605
Williamsburgh Savings Bank 621
Kings County Savings Institution 623
Continental Insurance Building 630
EDITOR^S PREFACE.
TN presenting to the public this HlSTORY OF KlNGS COUNTY AND THE CiTY OF BROOKLYN, ^ a few words of explanation and acknowledgment are due. The preparation of so large a mass of historical, biographical and statistical ijtformation as is contained in these pages {equivalent to nearly 4,000 pages octavo) was undertaken by the publisher in a spirit of enterprise and liberality, before unequalled in works of this character. By myself, the charge of its editing was accepted in a spirit of loyalty to the best interests of a city in which, for many years, I was a resident, and of which f had formerly been the historian. My long familiarity with the ground, atid my acquaintance with its leading citizens, encouraged me to believe that such a work would be most acceptable to them, and would secure their general interest and personal co-operation. The result has more than justified my anticipations.
From the moment of my entrance Upon the ivork, I have been cheered by a renewal of the same generous response to my requests for information, and by the same personal encouragement from all classes of citizens, which attended my former efforts in behalf of the History of Brooklyn.
The co-operative plan of authorship, as exhibited in the present volume, has this undoubted merit : that it secures, in each special department, the services and knowledge of those who are, or are naturally supposed to be, best qualified, by their peculiar aptitude in, or acquaintance with it, to present it in its fullest and best light. Thus we have, in this volume, the important subject of The Bench and the Bar, both of the County of Kings and of the City of Brooklyn; the History of the Boards of COUNTY SUPERVISORS, the SUPERINTENDENTS OF THK Poor, and the Commissioners of Charities, as zvell as the complicated details of Brooklyn's Municipal organiza- tion, traced with careful exactitude by the legally qualified mind and pen of L. B. PrOCTOR, Esq., the accomplished historian of the New York State Bar. The immense, but greatly underrated {and, by the U. S. Census authorities, greatly misrepresented) MANUFACTURING and INDUSTRIAL interests; the COMMERCE; the vast Real Estate and BUILDING interests of Brooklyn and Kings County, have here their first elaborate and honest setting forth, by Dr. L. P- Brockett, whose high reputation as a statistician and economist writer is widely recognized. The wonderful develop- ment of the Drama, Music and Art, zvith their associate interests, are for the first time dis- played in these pages, zvith true artistic enthusiasm, by GABRIEL HARRISON, ESQ., the well-known dramatist, author and artist. And so in other departments of our History — such as the PRESS, the Medical Profession, the Parks, Water Supply, etc, etc., of Brooklyn, and in the histories of the several CoUNTY ToWNS — the reader will find that we have enlisted' the aid of the best informed minds in our midst. To all these gentlemen — and to that still larger number whose names do not appear on our pages, but who have cordially assisted us in every way — are due not only our thanks, but those of the reading public ; thanks, indeed, which must assume a deeper meaning as Time adds value to the work which they have helped to make.
There have been but two disadvantages, or difficulties, in the completion of this history. One {and which, indeed, affects the Editor mostly) is due to the fact that to each writer his SPECIAL topic is apt to shut out all else from his view; he writes as if, and, indeed, is apt to think, his own subject is THE most important in all the book. Like the private soldier in battle, engaged in a hand-to-hand struggle, he can only see what is in his own immediate vicinity; all else being shut out of viezv by cloud and smoke. But the general in command, from, some eminence, surveys the whole field, and comprehends at a glance the relative movements and positions of his different divisions, and the results of his preconceived combinations. So the Editor, constantly bearing- in mind the general scope of the zvork, and the relations of its, several parts to each other, must bend his energies to maintain those relations and . to secure that harmony of detail zvhich are so necessary to the unity of the completed whole.
It IS in this spirit that the Editor-in-Chief has endeavored to conduct this History to its com- pletion , and if, here and there, he has been obliged to contract in one part, or change sometvhat in another, he has the satisfaction of feeling that his associates have, as a rule, yielded cheerfully to his wishes. He esteems himself particularly fortunate that, from the inception of the wprk to its close, the whole staff — both of ivriters and of those connected zvith other departments of the en- terprise— have seconded his every effort with the greatest alacrity, and have undertaken their sev- eral parts with a genuine enthusiasm and esprit du corps which has subordinated all personal feeling in one common purpose to secure the success of the History.
The other, and, in fact, the greatest difficulty under which the Editor and his associates have labored, has been the impossibility of keeping abreast of the growth of both County and City. Within the thirteen years which have elapsed since the History of Brooklyn was published, the grozvth in all departments of material interest has been at a rate almost unexampled by that of any other American city; and, during the progress of this work through the press, it has been almost beyond our power — even vuith the facilities and the large force of workers at our disposal — to record the improvements, changes and unforeseen developments which are daily occurring in this community . At this rate, the next History of Kings County will have to be dictated and writteTi by elec- tricity.
It only remains to say, in this connection, that the originally well-digested plan and arrange- ment of this History has suffered someivhat during its progress through the press. This has been occasioned, not only by the unexpected amount of material, but by the equally unforeseen develop- ment of certain industries and interests which called for far more space than had been allowed ; and which could, in some cases, only be accommodated by recourse to certain expedients known to book-makers. Among these ivas the use of inserted pages, lettered as well as folioed. Of these there are no less than 70 pages, which may be considered as so much additional gain to the sub- scribers. The work is also especially rich in biographies, containing a mass of personal and family history which sheds an inestimable light upon that of the County and of the City for over two hun- dred years. The portraits (embracing representatives from various departments of governmental, pro- fessional and industrial interests") with which these pages are embellished, coming as they do from the burins of the most eminent engravers of the day, will commend themselves to all who see them, not only as admirable likenesses, but as choice vuorks of art ; and the illustrations plentifully scattered through the volum-e possess the highest antiquarian, historical and artistic merit. Finally, to the Printing, Messrs. C. A. CoFFIN & Rogers, of 85 and 87 John street, New York, and to the Bind- ing, Messrs. A. S. Barnes & Co., Liberty, corner of Nassau street, Brooklyn, have given that care- ful attention which bespeaks their love for the City and County in which they are honored residents.
And now — over three years' labor ended — the Editor, conscious that this, in a measure, falls short of the IDEAL history which he had proposed to himself, may well say, as did valiant Capt. John Mason, in his introduction to his History of the Pequot War : " I wish [this task\ had fallen into some better hands, that might have performed it to the life. I shall only drazv the curtain, and open my little casement, that so others, of larger hearts and abilities, may let in a bigger light."
OUTLINE HISTORY
OF THE
STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAPTER I.
DISCOVERT OF NEW YORK THE INDIANS OF THE FIVE
NATIONS.
IN 1524 John de Verazzano, a Florentine navigator in the service of Francis the First of France, made a voyage to the North American coast, and, as is believed from the account which he gave, entered the harbor of New York. No colonies were planted, and no results followed ; and the voyage was almost for- gotten.
Though discoveries were made by the French north from this point, and colonies planted by the English farther to the south, it is not known that New York was again visited by Europeans till 1609, when the Dutch East India Company sent Hendrick Hudson, an English- man by birth, on a voyage of discovery in a vessel called the " Half Moon." He reached the coast of Maine, sailed thence to Cape Cod, then southwesterly to the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, then, coasting northward, he entered Delaware Bay on the 28th of August. From thence he proceeded northward, and on the 3d of Sep- tember, 1609, anchored in New York Bay. On the 12th he entered the river that bears his name, and proceeded slowly up to a point just above the present site of the City of Hudson ; thence he sent a boat's crew to explore farther up, and they passed above Albany. September 23d he set sail down the river, and immediately returned to Europe.
In 1607 Samuel Champlain, a French navigator, sailed up the St. Lawrence, explored its tributaries, and on the 4th of July in that year discovered the lake which bears his name.
At the time of the discovery of New York by the whites, the southern and eastern portions were inhabited by the Mahican or Mohegan Indians ; while that por- tion west from the Hudson River was occupied by five
confederate tribes, afterwards named by the English the Five Nations, and by the French the Iroquois, and by themselves called Hodenosaunee — people of the Long House. The long house formed by this confederacy ex- tended east and west through the State, having at its eastern portal the Mohawks, and at its western the Senecas ; while between them dwelt the Oneidas, Onon- dagas, and Cayugas ; and, after 1714, a sixth nation, the Tuscaroras, southeast from Oneida Lake. Of these Indians, Parkman says that at the commencement of the seventeenth century, " in the region now forming the State of New York, a power was rising to a ferocious vitality, which, but for the presence of Europeans, would probably have subjected, absorbed or exterminated every other Indian community east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio."
" The Iroquois was the Indian of Indians. A thorough savage, yet a finished and developed savage, he is, per- haps, an example of the highest elevation which man can reach without emerging from his primitive condition of the hunter. A geographical position commanding on the one hand the portal of the great lakes, and on the other the sources of the streams flowing both to the Atlantic and the Mississippi, gave the ambitious and ag- gressive confederates advantages which they perfectly understood and by which they profited to the utmost. Patient and politic as they were ferocious, they were not only the conquerors of their own race, but the pow- erful allies and the dreaded foes of the French and English colonies, flattered and caressed by both, yet too sagacious to give themselves without reserve to either. Their organization and their history evince their intrin- sic superiority. Even their traditionary lore, amid its wild puerilities, shows at times the stamp of an energy and force in striking contrast with the flimsy creations of Algonquin fancy. That the Iroquois, left under their own institutions, would ever have developed a civiliza- tion of their own, I do not believe."
These institutions were not only characteristic and curious, but almost unique. Without sharing Morgan's
10
OUTLINE HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
almost fanatical admiration for them, or echoing the praises which Parkman lavishes on them, it may be truly said that their wonderful and cohesive confedera- tion furnished a model worthy to be copied by many civilized nations ; while, so long as they were uncontam- inated by the vices of civilization, they possessed, with all their savagery, many noble traits of character, which would adorn any people in their public, social or domes- tic relations.
They made themselves the dreaded masters of all their neighbors east of the Mississippi, and carried their vic- torious arms far to the north, the south, and the east. Their dominance is thus eloquently pictured in Street's " Frontenac " :
" The fierce Adirondacs had fled from their wrath, The Hurons been swept from their merciless path ; Around, the Ottawas, lilse leaves, had been strewn, And the lake of the Eries struck silent and lone. The Lenape, lords once of valley and hill. Made women, bent low at their conqueror's will. By the far Mississippi thelUinl shrank When the trail of the Tortoise was seen on the bank ; On the hills of New England the Pequod turned pale When the howl of the Wolf swelled at night on the gale; And the Cherokee shook in his green, smiling bowers, When the foot of the Bear stamped his carpet of flowers."
It will hereafter be seen that the Iroquois acted an important part in the early history of the State.
Space will not permit a description of their league, or confederation, a sketch of their tribal relations, and their religious, social and domestic customs, or a history of their warlike achievements.
Only an allusion can here be made to the many dim and shadowy records of a pre-existing people of whom even a faint tradition scarce remains. These records con- sist of stone, or bone weapons, terra cotta implements or ornaments, that are occasionally discovered, and of the remains of defensive works found here and there through the State. Many of these works have been levelled by the jjlough, and those that remain are slowly crumbling and passing to oblivion. Some of them, though they would not be regarded as models of mili- tary engineering at the present day, give evidence of an adaptation to the circumstances probably existing at the time of their building, and of skill in construction, which are not discreditable to their builders.
CHAPTER II.
NEW YORK UNDER THE DUTCII- TO 1765.
-ENGLISH GOVERNORS
IN 1610 another vessel was sent from Holland to trade with the natives, and in 1612 two more, soon after followed by others ; and a small fort and a few rude buildings were erected at the southern extremity of Manhattan Island, and the place was named New Amsterdam. In 1G14 the States Gen- eral of Holland granted a charter to the merchants
engaged in these expeditions, giving exclusive privileges of trade for four years. The Hudson River had been ascended by Hendrick Christiansen, and a fort and trad- ing house erected near the present site of Albany, which was named Fort Orange.
In 1621 the Dutch West India Company was char- tered, and in 1623 settlers were sent thither. In 1626 Peter Minuit, as director-general or governor of the province, arrived with other settlers, and purchased the island of Manhattan from the Indians for trinkets of the value of about $24. In 1629 the company offered grants to patroons who should found settlements in the province (which had been named New Netherlands) of fifty or more adults, and several availed themselves of this offer. In 1633 Minuit was recalled and Wouter Van Twiller appointed in his place. During his administration the controversey concerning jurisdiction was commenced between the Dutch and the English, who claimed the country on the ground of prior discovery by Cabot and the grant of James I. covering the territory.
In 1638 Van Twiller was succeeded in the gov- ernment of the colony by William Kieft. By rea- son of hostilities which occurred with the In- dians on Long Island in 1643-44, for which Kieft was censured, he was recalled, and succeeded by Peter Stuyvesant in 1647. The controversey concerning jur- isdiction continued during his administration, till, in 1664, Charles II. of England, regardless of the claims of the Dutch to New Netherlands, granted to his brother, the Duke of York and Albany, afterwards James II., the whole country from the Connecticut to the Delaware, including the entire Dutch possessions. A fleet was sent under Colonel Richard Nicolls by the duke to en- force bis claim, and on the 3d of September, 1664, the province was surrendered without bloodshed, and the government of the^colony passed into the hands of the English.
Colonel Nicolls at once assumed the functions of gov- ernor ; the name New Amsterdam was changed to New York, and Fort Orange to Albany, laws for the govern- ment of the province were prescribed, and courts for the administration of these laws established. In 1668 Governor Nicolls resigned, and was succeeded by Col- onel Francis Lovelace. England, at about this time, became involved in a war with Holland, which govern- ment sent a squadron to repossess its province in America. This squadron arrived July 30th, 1673, and the fort at New York was surrendered without resist- ance by Captain John Manning, who was in command. Captain Anthony Colve became governor; but his reign was short, for on the conclusion of peace between the two powers, February 9th, 1674, the province reverted to the English. A new patent was issued, confirming the first, and Sir Edmund Andros was commissioned governor. The despotic agent of a despotic ruler, he was unpopular with the people, and became involved in dif- ficulties with the neighboring colonies. He was recalled
NEW YORK UNDER ENGLISH GOVERNORS.
11
and his successor, Thomas Dongan, arrived on the 22d of August, 1683. In the autumn of the same year the first Colonial Assembly was convened, many needed re- forms were instituted, and better times than the colo- nists had ever known appeared to have dawned. The most important act of this Assembly was the adoption of a charter of liberties and privileges, or bill of rights. The hopes thus raised were soon disappointed. On the accession of James II. to the English throne he refused his confirmation of the privileges which had been granted while he was. Duke of York, prohibited the Assembly, forbade the establishment of a printing press in the colony, and filled the principal offices in the prov- ince with Roman Catholics.
In 1687 a war broke out between the Iroquois and the French. The country of the former was invaded by the French, under De la Barre and M. de Nonville successively ; and, in retaliation, the Iroquois, twelve hundred strong, fell upon the French on the south side of the island of Montreal, " burnt their houses, sacked their plantations, and put to the sword all the men, women and children without the skirts of the town. A thousand French were slain in this invasion, and twenty- six were carried into captivity and burnt alive." Shortly afterward, in another attack, the lower part of the town was destroyed, and in all this the assailants lost only three.
In 1688 New York and the Jerseys were annexed to the jurisdiction of New England, and Sir Edmund An- dres was made governor of all. Governor Dongan was removed, and Francis Nicolson succeeded him. The government was vested in a governor and council, who were appointed by the king without the consent of the people.
In 1689 William and Mary ascended the English throne. Sir Edmund Andros was seized at Boston, and Jacob Leisler seized the fort at New York, under the pretence of holding it for the new sovereigns. During the two years of Leisler's usurpation the French and Indians made a descent on Schenectady, February 8th,
1690, and massacred about sixty of the inhabitants. The danger by which they were threatened induced the people, — who, though favorably disposed toward William and Mary, were opposed to Leisler-^to submit to his authority for the time. On the arrival, in March,
1691, of Colonel Sloughter, who had been commissioned governor in 1689, Leisler at first refused to surrender the government to him. For this he was tried by a special commission, and sentenced to death. The governor, who refused to sign his death warrant, was persuaded, while intoxicated, to do so, and he was exe- cuted before the governor had recovered from his in- toxication. Governor Sloughter died in July, 1691, after a weak administration of only a few months.
The colonial Assembly was again established during this year, and the oppressive laws which had been im- posed on the colony repealed. In the interim between
the death of Sloughter and the arrival of his successor the chief command was committed to Richard Ingolds- by. In August, 1692, Benjamin Fletcher arrived with a commission as governor. He was narrow, violent, avaricious and bigoted, and his administration was a continual exhibition of these qualities.
In 1693 the French and Indians under Count Fron- tenac invaded the country of the Iroquois, killed some, and took three hundred prisoners. In 1696 he made another incursion, and ravaged a portion of the coun- try. The Indians retaliated by hostile incursions among their enemies, but the peace of Ryswick, be- tween France and England, terminated these hostilities.
Governor Fletcher was succeeded in 1698 by Richard, Earl of Bellemont, who died in 1701, and John Nanfan, the lieutenant-governor, succeeded him till the arrival of the next governor. Lord Cornbury, in 1702. The administration of this governor was chiefly distin- guished for religious intolerance; and he received the unenviable distinction of being the worst governor un- der the English regime. He was succeeded, December 18th, 1708, by Lord Lovelace, who died on the 5th of the following May. Under Lieutenant-Governor In- goldsby, who administered the government after his death, an unsuccessful expedition against Canada was undertaken. Gerardus Beekman succeeded him as governor ^ro tern., till June 14th, 1710, when the next governor, Robert Hunter, arrived. In 1711 another disastrous expedition against Canada was made, but in 1713 the treaty of Utrecht terminated the war between England and France, and put an end to Indian hostili- ties. In 1719 Hunter returned to England, and Peter Schuyler was governor, ad interim, till the arrival of William Burnet in 1720. On the accession to the throne of George II. Burnet was transferred to the government of Massachusetts, and succeeded, April 15th, 1728, by John Montgomery, who died July 1st, 1731. Rip Van Dam, by virtue of seniority in the council, was his successor till the arrival of William Cosby, the next governor, finished his administration and began one rendered memorable for its arbitrary proceedings and tumult, rather than for striking or important events. Cosby died March 10th, 1736, and was succeeded by George Clark, senior counselor after Van Dam, whom Cosby had caused to be suspended. Clark was commissioned lieutenant-governor in the following October. An antagonism had been growing during some time between the democratic and the aris- tocratic parties in the colonies. Clark at first sought to conciliate both, but in the end had the confidence of neither, and his retirement, on the arrival of his suc- cessor. Admiral George Clinton, September 23d, 1743, was but little regretted. The administration of Gover- nor Clinton was characterized by a continual conflict with the people, represented in the provincial Assembly. Unable by repeated prorogations and dissolutions to coerce them into submission, he resigned after an ad-
12
OUTLINE HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
ministration of ten years, and was succeeded, October 10th, 1753, by Sir Danvers Osborne. He was charged with still more stringent instructions than his predeces- sors, and met with still firmer resistance from the people. After an administration of a few days he committed suicide by hanging, probably because of the embarrassment by which he was surrounded, and grief for the death of his wife. He was succeeded by Lieutenant-Governor James De Lancey till the arrival, in September, 1755, of Sir Charles Hardy, who, though nominally governor, surrendered the duties of the of- fice into the hands of De Lancey. Governor Hardy resigned in 1757 and De Lancey became governor. He died on the 30th of July, 1760, and Cadwallader Golden, president of the council, took charge of the government. He was commissioned lieutenant-governor in August, 1761, and in October of the same year General Robert Moulton, who had been appointed governor, assumed the gubernatorial functions; but on the 13th of the fol- lowing month he left the administration of affairs in the hands of Golden, and went on an expedition against Martinique. Golden's administration continued till 1765.
CHAPTER HI.
WAK WITH FRANCE AND COMMENCEMENT OF THE REVOLUTION.
AS early as 1722 a trading post was established at Oswego by Governor Burnet, with the view of establishing others farther west on the lakes, and securing the trade of the western Indians. To intercept this, and secure this trade for themselves, the French established a post and erected a fort at Niagara, with the design of extending a chain of mili- tary posts to the Ohio River, and thus limiting the English trade.
In March, 1744, war was declared between France and England, in which the colonies of New York and New England participated. During its continuance the country north from Albany was frequently ravaged by parties of French and Indians. Saratoga was burned, and nearly all the inhabitants either killed or made prisoners, and the village of Hoosic taken.
In 1746 an unsuccessful expedition against Canada was undertaken, for which the colony of New York furnished sixteen hundred men. Peace was concluded at Aix La Chapelle in 1748, and a period of nominal tranquility followed, though the frontier was desolated by savage parties, encouraged by the French.
In 1755, with the view of checking their encroach- ments, four expeditions were sent against them, two of which were in the colony of New York. One of them, that against Niagara, was unsuccessful, but the other.
against Crown Point, achieved a success, which was not, however, followed up.
It was not till 1756 that the English ministry aroused from its imbecility and formally declared war. In the campaign of 1756 the English and colonial forces met with no success, but the two forts at Oswego were lost, with 1,600 prisoners and much war material. The campaign of 1757 was equally unsuccessful and disas- trous. Fort William Henry, on Lake George, with 3,000, men, fell into the hands of the French under Montcalm.
On the accession of William Pitt to the head of the British ministry in 1*758 new energy was infused into their measures, and a fresh impulse given to the colon- ies. Success soon turned in favor of the English, and, with few exceptions, continued till Canada was sub- dued. Ticonderoga, Crown Point, Niagara and Quebec fell in 1758, and Montreal, Detroit, Michilimackinac and all other Canadian posts in 1760. A great obstacle to the prosperity of New York was removed by the conquest of Canada, which prevented further hostile incursions of French and Indians into its territory.
In 1763 a controversy arose between the colonies of New York and New Hampshire concerning the juris- diction over the territory between Lake Champlain and the Coimecticut river, now comprising the State of Vermont. Proclamations and counter proclamations were issued, but the matter was finally referred to and settled for the time by the crown.
During many years the government of Great Britain bad attempted to make encroachments on what the colonists regarded as their rights, but without success. The taxation of the people without their consent was sought to be accomplished in some insidious manner, and was steadfastly and watchfully guarded against by the colonists through their representatives in the col- onial Assembly. In 1764 the notorious stamp act was passed and its enforcement in the city of New York attempted. It was resisted by the populace ; the efligy of Governor Colden, who was charged with its execu- tion, was hanged and burned in the streets, and finally a quantity of the stamped paper was seized and con- sumed in a bonfire.
Through the influence of London merchants, whose colonial trade suffered by reason of the act, the odious law was repealed in 1766 ; but its repeal was followed by a declaration by Parliament of the right " to tax the colonies in all cases whatsoever." Troops were quartered in New York city, really for the purpose of enforcing the laws that Parliament might enact. Col- lisions occurred between these troops and the people, and the Assembly refused appropriations for their sup- port. Parliament declared the legislative powers of the Assembly annulled till compliance was had with the demands of the government. In June, 1767 a bill was enacted by Parliament imposing duties on certain articles imported into the colonies. This was followed
REVOL UTIOJSTAB Y EVERTS IJST JSTEW YORK.
13
by a revival of the non-importation agreement that had previously been entered into by the colonists, and again the influence of the English merchants procured the repeal of all these duties, except that on tea, which was retained by reason of a determination to assert and maintain the right of taxation.
Sir Henry Moore succeeded Governor Colden in I'zes, and his administration continued till his death, in
1769, when the government again devolved on Cadwal- lader Colden. Between the soldiers and those colon- ists who were known as the Sons of Liberty, animosities continued to exist, and finally, on the 1 8th of January,
1770, five years previous to the battle of Lexington, a collision occurred at Golden Hill, in New York city, in which several of the citizens were wounded.
In October, 1770, Lord Dunmore superseded Colden in the government of New York, and in 1771 he was transferred to the government of Virginia and suc- ceeded in New York by William Tryon, who was ren- dered independent of the people by a royal decree that his salary should be paid from the revenue.
The non-importation agreement was continued so far as related to tea, and the E^st India Company suf- fered severely in consequence. Doggedly determined to maintain the assumed right of taxation, the British gov- ernment abolished the export duty on such tea as was shipped to the colonies, thus enabling the company to sell it there cheaper than in England, and appointed consignees in the colonial ports for its sale. Regardless of this appeal to their cupidity, the people made such demonstrations of resistance that the consignees in New York resigned, and when an attempt was made to land a quantity of tea clandestinely, it was thrown overboard by the vigilance committee, and the vessel sent out of the harbor.
It is hardly necessary to say that in the other colonies the oppressive acts of the King and Parliament met with as firm resistance as in New York. The battle of Lexington was the signal for a general rush to arms throughout the colonies.
In New York city the arms in the arsenals were seized and distributed among the people, and a provisional government for the city was organized. Ticonderoga was seized on the 10th of May, 1775, by Connecticut patriots under Colonel Ethan Allen, and two days later Crown Point, both without resistance, and thus the command of Lake Champlain was secured.
The Continental Congress assembled on the 10th of May, and on the 22d of the same month a Provincial Congress assembled in New York.
In August an attack was made by the British ship of war " Asia " on a party who were engaged in removing some cannon from the battery in New York, and con- siderable damage was done to the buildings in the vicinity, but the guns were removed. In the autumn an armament was collected by General Schuyler at Ticon- deroga, and an expedition went against Canada. The
forts at Chambly, St. Johns and Montreal were taken, and Quebec was assaulted, but the colonial force was here repulsed and driven out of Canada.
CHAPTER IV.
EEVOLUTIONAEY EVENTS IN NEW YOEK THE STATE
GOVERNMENT ESTABLISHED.
EARLY in 1776 General Lee, with a force of twelve hundred men, occupied the city of New York. General Schuyler, with a small force, had dis- armed the tories of the Mohawk valley, and a like service had been rendered on Long Island by the New Jersey militia. About the first of July General Howe, who had previously evacuated Boston and sailed for Halifax, appeared off Sandy Hook with his army, where he was soon afterward joined by his brother, Admiral Howe, with a force of British regulars and Hessians, and Clinton and Parker, on their return from an unsuc- cessful attack on Charleston, making an aggregate force of about 30,000 men.
The Provincial Congress of New York adjourned to "White Plains, where it convened on the 9th of July, and ratified the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress.
On the 22d of August a British force landed on Long Island, and on the 27th a battle was fought, resulting in the defeat of the Americans, who, on the night of the 29th, favored by a thick fog, retreated to New York. The plan had been formed to capture New York, ascend the Hudson, effect a junction with a force from Canada under General Carlton, and thus cut off communication between the patriots of New England and those of the middle and southern colonies; but the precautions of Washington and the failure of Carlton frustrated the plan.
On the 15th of September General Howe took posses- sion of New York, and the Americans retreated to Har- lem Heights. General Howe sought to gain their rear, but Washington's movements frustrated his designs.
Opposed to General Carlton at the north was General Gates, who abandoned Crown Point and concentrated his forces at Ticonderoga. A small squadron was formed and placed on Lake Champlain under command of Arnold in August. An action took place in October between this squadron and the fleet which Carlton had prepared at St. Johns, in which the Americans were defeated and fell back on Ticonderoga. Not deeming it prudent to attack them there, General Carlton with- drew to Canada.
On the 21st of April, 1777, a State constitution was adopted, and under it George Clinton was elected gov- ernor, and he assumed the duties of the ofiice on the Slst of the following July.
14
OUTLINE HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
The principal object of the British in the campaign of 1777 was to carry out the cherished design of separat- ing the eastern from the southern colonies by controlling the Hudson River and Lake Champlain. Lieutenant- General Burgoyne, who had superseded General Carlton, was to force Ms way from Canada, and meet Sir Henry Clinton at Albany, while Colonel St. Leger was to ascend the St. Lawrence, and, with a force of loyalists and Indians, sweep through the Mohawk valley from Oswego and Rome, and join them at Albany.
In June Burgoyne moved on Ticonderoga, which the American commander, General St. Clair, evacuated. As the American army retreated some fighting took place, without decisive results, till at Bennington the Ameri- cans, under General Stark, achieved a victory over a detachment of the enemy under Colonel Baum, who was slain.
Colonel St. Leger advanced and invested Fort Schuy- ler, otherwise called Fort Stanwix, now Rome. The battle of Oriskany was fought, soon after which St. Leger abandoned his undertaking and returned to Canada.
General Burgoyne advanced to Saratoga, where he was surrounded, and on the 17th of October was com- pelled to surrender.
While operations were in progress in the vicinity of Saratoga Sir Henry Clinton sought to make a diversion in favor of Burgoyne. He proceeded up the Hudson, captured Forts Montgomery and Clinton, devastated the settlements along the banks of the river, burnt Kingston, and, on learning of the surrender of Burgoyne, returned to New York.
In the campaigns of 1778 and 1779 no very important operations were carried on in New York. The Indians of the Six Nations (except the Oneidas and a few others) were induced to carry on against the Americans their savage and cruel warfare, and devastation, slaughter and massacres were the result. To arrest these depredations General Sullivan, in the summer of 1779, with an army of 3,000 men, ascended the Susquehanna to Tioga Point, where he was joined by General Clinton with a thousand men. With these forces they penetrated the country of the savages, destroyed their towns, and laid waste their cornfields and orchards. Though not subdued by this punishment, they were so crippled that their inroads were less frequent and destructive afterward.
During the years 1780 and 1781 the Mohawk valley was the scene of devastation by the savages of the Six Nations, particularly the Mohawks, under their cele- brated chief Brant; but, aside from these. New York was not the scene of important hostile operations. The, year 1780 was made memorable by the treason of Arnold. This gallant officer had, for some irregularities in Philadelphia in 1778, been court-martialed and sen- tenced to be reprimande<l by the commander-in-chief. He apparently acquiesced in the sentence, but his pride was deeply wounded, and he thirsted after revenge. He
solicited and obtained command of West Point, and entered into negotiations with Sir Henry Clinton for the delivery of that fortress into the hands of the British. In the course of these negotiations Major Andre, of the British army, met General Arnold on the banks of the Hudson. In attempting to return he was captured, about thirty miles from New York, by three militiamen named Paulding, Williams and Van Wert, who refused his offered bribes, and delivered him to their commander. He was tried, condemned and executed as a spy.
The Revolutionary war virtually closed with the sur- render of Cornwallis and his army at Yorktown on the 19th of October, 1781. A treaty of peace was entered into on the 3d of September, 1783, and on the 25th of November in the same year the British troops evacuated New York.
After the United States had achieved their independ- dence, it was early perceived that the confederation, which had been established for a particular purpose, lacked that cohesive force which was requisite for an effectual national government. Measures were accord- ingly instituted, first for a revision of the Articles of Confederation, but finally the formation of a national constitution was determined on; and such constitution was formed by the convention in Philadelphia in 1787. After its adoption by the requisite number of States, it was ratified in convention by the State of New York, by a close vote, on the 26th of July, 1788, but with the recommendation of several amendments, which, however, were not adopted.
The difficulties arising out of the conflicting claims of New York and New Hampshire to the territory now comprising Vermont, which had been held in partial abeyance during the Revolutionary struggle, were finally settled by the admission of the disputed territory into the Union as a State, in 1790, under the name of Vermont.
By reason of indefiniteness and confusion in the original grants, Massachusetts claimed a portion of the territory of New York. This claim was settled by the cession to Massachusetts of all rights, except that of political sovereignty, over about one-fourth of the State. The largest tract of these lands, embracing what has been known as the Genesee country, was sold by Massa- chusetts for the sum of one million dollars.
CHAPTER V.
THE WAR OF 1812 BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND GEEAT BEITAIN.
AT the commencement of the present century difli- culties arose between this country and Great Britain concerning the rights of neutrals on the seas, and the aggressions of .the British became a subject of bitter animosity. In addition to other en-
THE WAR OF 1819.— THE CIVIL BEBELLIOK
16
croaohments, the English government claimed the right to search American vessels and impress into their service such of their crews as they chose to regard as British subjects. Outrages were committed in the enforcement of this pretended right, and for the suppression of the practice, and the vindication of the national honor, war became necessary; and it was declared on the 19th of June, 1812. To this measure there was a strong opposi- tion, both in New England and New York, and this opposition embarrassed the government to some extent in the prosecution of the war. An invasion of Canada was determined on, and for that purpose forces were collected in the vicinity of Plattsburg, on Lake Cham- plain, under General Dearborn, and at Lewiston, on the Niagara River, under General Van Rensselaer. A naval force was fitted up on the lakes, and Commodore Chaun- eey was placed in command of it. Unsuccessful attempts were made by the British fleet on Sackett's Harbor and Ogdensburg, while, on the other hand, the British vessel " Caledonia " was captured at the foot of Lake Erie. An attack was made on the heights at Queenston, on the Canadian bank of the Niagara, and though at first the Americans were successful, they were finally com- pelled to surrender. Nothing beyond slight skirmishing occurred in this quarter during the remainder of the year.
Early in the spring of 1813, a successful expedition to Canada was made from Ogdensburg, and in retalia- tion an attack was made on that place, some stores taken, several vessels destroyed and the property of citizens injured. In April a successful expedition was sent by General Dearborn against York, now Toronto. In May the British were driven from Fort George, on the Niagara River, near Lake Ontario, and the enemy's post on that frontier evacuated. Sackett's Harbor was attacked by the British, who were repulsed, and an unsuccessful attack was also made by them on the village of Black Rock.
The brilliant victory of Commodore Perry, on Lake Erie, was achieved on the 10th of September in this year, but the operations on Lake Ontario were less decisive. Late in the autumn an unsuccessful attempt was made to invade Canada under General Wilkinson. The American generals Izard and Hampton were repulsed near the border of Franklin county. In De- cember the British took Fort Niagara, and massacred a large part of the garrison and even hospital patients. Lewiston was burned, and the villages of Youngstown, Manchester, Schlosser and the Indian village of Tus- carora were devastated by the enemy. The village of Black Rock and Buffalo were also burned, and thus the desolation of the Niagara frontier was completed.
Early in 1814 an attempt was made by the British to capture some military stores at Oswego Falls, but with- out success. On the 3d of July, 1814, Fort Erie was taken by the Americans, and on the 25th a battle was fought at Lundy's Lane. In August Port Erie was
besieged by the British, who were compelled to retire about the middle of September.
The plan of a dismemberment of the Union, by pos- sessing Lake Champlain and the Hudson River from the north, and capturing New York, was again formed, and it was hojjcd that discontent and opposition to the war in New England, and possibly in New York, might lead to the conclusion of a separate peace with these States. The people, however, were fully aroused, and the defenses of New York were strengthened and strongly garrisoned. An invasion was undertaken from Canada, and a descent was made on Plattsburg by an army of 11,000 men under Sir George Prevost, but after a severe engagement on the 11th of September this army was compelled to retire with great loss. The British fleet, under Commodore Downie, was on the same day captured on Lake Champlain by Commodore Macdonough. No further invasion of this frontier took place. On the 24th of December a treaty of peace was concluded at Ghent.
No other interruption of the peaceful relations between this country and England has occurred. Some infractions of the neutrality laws have been attempted by people on the Canadian frontier, the chief of which took place during the Canadian rebellion, commonly known as the "Patriot war,'' in 1837-38.
What were known as the " anti-rent disturbances " commenced as early as 1839, and were not terminated till 1846. Laws were enacted to modify the process of collecting rents and to extend the time for " re-entry " on lands where rents were in arrears. Participators in outrages were pardoned, and quiet was finally restored.
The annexation of Texas to the United States led to hostilities between Mexico and this nation, and on the 11th of May, 1846, Congress declared that, by the acts of the Mexicans, war existed between the two nations. The Americans were victorious in all important engage- ments with the Mexican army, and the part taken by the troops from the State of New York was conspicuous and highly creditable to their valor.
From time to time the Legislature enacted laws con- cerning slavery, down to the year 1819. A law passed in 1799 provided for the gradual extinction of slavery in the State. " In 1817 a further act was passed decree- ing that there should be no slavery in the State after the 4th of July, 1827. Ten thousand slaves were set free by this act.''
The recognition of slavery in the territories of the United States was earnestly resisted during many years, and the controversy finally resulted in a gigantic civil war. On the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presi- dency, in 1860, on the platform of avowed hostility to the extension of slavery, and the failure to effect a com- promise by which the institution should be recognized or tolerated in any of the territories, the southern States determined to secede from the Union and estab- lish a separate government. The attack by the Con-
16
OUTLINE HISTORY OF THE STATE OF JVEW YORK.
federates, as these States styled themselves, on Fort Sumter, was tlie first overt act of the Kebellion, and its occurrence, in April, 1861, was the commencement of active hostilities. Before the close of that year the State of New York had placed in the field one hundred and fifteen regiments.
In July, 1863, during the execution of a draft ordered by Congress, an alarming riot occurred in the city of New York. The police were unable to check its pro- gress, and during several days the city was convulsed with lawlessness, rapine and murder. The outbreak was finally quelled by military force, but not until a large amount of property had been destroyed and many lives sacrificed. The war was prolonged till the spring of 1865, when it terminated with the complete success of the Union arms, and peace has since prevailed.
CHAPTER VI.
INTEENAL IMPROVEMENTS COKSTITTJTIONAL AMEND- MENTS SCHOOLS STATISTICS.
IN 1791 the Legislature ordered an exploration and survey to ascertain the most eligible method of removing obstructions from the Mohawk and Hudson rivers, with a view to improve their navi- gation by the construction of canals. The following year two companies were incorporated, styled the Northern and Western Inland Lock Navigation Com- panies, for the purpose of facilitating navigation by connecting Lake Ontario with the Mohawk and Lake Champlain with the Hudson by canals.
In 1810 a provision was made by the Legislature " for exploring the route of an inland navigation from Hud- son's River to Lake Ontario and Lake Erie." It was at first proposed to solicit aid from the general government to carry out this work, but in 1812 a commission re- ported to the Legislature that sound policy demanded that this should be done by the State. War with Great Britain interrupted the project.
On the termination of the war the project was revived ; and notwithstanding the formidable character of the undertaking, and the difiiculties in its way, through the untiring energy and perseverance of De Witt Clinton, an act prepared by him was passed in April, 1817, authorizing the construction of the work. This — ^the Erie Canal, as it is called — was commenced on the 4th of July in that year, and on the 26th of October, 1825, the first flotilla of boats left Buffalo for New York. The departure of the flotilla was communicated to New York in one hour and twenty minutes, by the discharge of cannon stationed within hearing of each other. This was then regarded as a rapid transmission of intelli- gence.
The first railroad in the State, that between Albany and Schenectady, was chartered in 1826 and completed
in 1831. Other roads through the central portion of the State were soon constructed, and railroad connection between the great lakes and Hudson River established. In 1851 these different roads were consolidated into the present immense New York Central Railroad ; and, sub- sequently, connection was established, through the Hud- son River Railroad, with the city of New York. In 1833 the New York and Erie Railway was commenced, but it was not completed till 1852. The enlargement of the Erie Canal to its present capacity was commenced in 1835 and completed in 1862. These constitute the main avenues of travel and transportation through the State, between its eastern and western extremities ; but connecting routes in every direction have come into existence, and the facilities for transportation and travel in this State are not excelled by those of any other. It is hardly necessary to call attention to the telegraph lines that ramify through all parts of the State.
It has already been stated that a State constitution was adopted in 1777. Several amendments to this con- stitution were adopted in a convention held for that purpose, and the new constitution was adopted early in 1822, at a popular election held for that purpose, by a majority of more than 33,000 in a total vote of 116,919. On the 1st of June, 1846, another constitutional convention met at Albany, and it continued in session more than four months. The amendments to the con- stitution adopted by that body were ratified by the people in the following November by a majority of more than 20,000 votes.
In 1867 another constitutional convention assembled, on the 4th of June, and continued its session, except during an adjournment of two months, several weeks into 1868. The amended constitution framed by this convention was submitted to the people in November, 1869, and resulted in its rejection, except the article making changes in the judiciary, by a majority of more than 66,000. The judiciary article was accepted by a small majority.
In 1872 a commission of thirty-two persons was appointed to propose to the Legislature amendments to the constitution. In 1873 several important amend- ments were recommended, and ratified at the election in 1874. It is a notable fact that, as changes have been made in the constitution of the State, the right of the elective franchise has been extended ; till now complete manhood suffrage is established.
In 1787 a law was enacted incorporating the Regents of the University of New York, and in their report for 1793 they called attention to the importance of insti- tuting a common school system. At different times, from 1787 to 1795, Governor Clinton called the attention of the Legislature to the same subject, and in that year an act was passed appropriating $50,000 annually for five years for the encouragement of schools. In 1805, after attention had repeatedly been called to the subject by the different governors, the Legislature passed an
G 0 VERWORS OF NEW TORK—POPULA TION.
17
act laying the foundation of the present common school fund. In 1812 the first common school system was adopt- ed, comprising substantially the features of the system as it existed up to 1840. Changes in this system have from time to time been made, till now the free school system of this State is believed to be, with scarcely an exception, the most nearly perfect of any in existence.
The State Agricultural Society, which has been pro- ductive of such great benefit, was organized at a con- vention in Albany in 1832. It was reorganized in 1841, and measures were adopted for raising funds and hold- ing annual fairs.
In 1836 the Legislature ordered a scientific survey of the State for the purpose of developing a knowledge of its geology, mineralogy and natural history. The pub- lished reports of this survey are qf very great value.
The following list of the governors, lieutenant-gov- ernors and presidents of the council who have admin- istered the government of the Colony and of the State of New York from 1629 to the present time, will be found convenient for reference.
Undbe the Dutch Regime — Directors General. — Adriaen Joris, 1623 ; Cornells Jacobsen, May, 1624 ; Willem Verhulst, 1625 ; Peter Minuit, 1626 ; The Council, 1632; Wouter Van Twiller, 1633; William Kieft, 1638 ; Peter Stuyvesant, 1647.
Undbk the English Regime — Colonial Governors, etc., 1664-73 — Richard Nicolls, 1664; Col. Francis Love- lace, 1667.
Under the Dutch again, 1673. — Cornells Evertse, Jr., Jacob Benckes, and Council of War, August 19; Anthony Colve, Sept. 19, 1673.
Undee the English Regime — Colonial Governors, eta. — Maj. Edmund Andros, 1674 ; Anthony Brock- holies (Commander-in-Chief), 1677 ; Sir Edmund An- dros, 1678 ; Anthony BrockhoUes, 1681 ; Col. Thomas Dongan, 1682 ; Sir Edmund Andros, August 11, 1685 ; Francis Mcholson (Lt. Gov.), October 9, 1688 ; Jacob Leisler, 1689 ; Col. Henry Sloughter, March 19, 1691 ; Major Richard Ingoldsby, July 26, 1691 ; Col. Benj. Fletcher (Commander-in-Chief), 1692 ; Richard, Earl of Bellemont, 1698 ; John Nanfan, (Lt. Gov.) 1699 ; Earl of Bellemont, 1700 ; William Smith (eldest Coun- cillor), 1701 ; John iSTanfan (Lt. Gov.) 1701 ; Lord
Combury, 1702 ; John, Lord Lovelace, 1708 ; Peter Schuyler (Pres.), May 6, Richard Ingoldsby (Lt. Gov.), May 9, and Peter Schuyler, May 25, and Richard In- goldsby (Lt. Gov.), June 1, 1709 ; Gerardus Beeokman, April 10 ; Brigadier Robert Hunter, June 14, 1710 ; Peter Schuyler (Pres.), 1719 ; William Burnet, 1720 ; John Montgomerie, 1728 ; Rip Van Dam (Pres.), 1731 ; Col. Wm. Cosby, 1732 ; Geo. Clarke (Pres.), 1736 ; Admiral Geo. Clinton, 1743 ; Sir Danvers Osborne, October 10, and James De Lancey (Lt. Gov.), October 12, 1753 ; Sir Charles Hardy, 1755 ; James De Lancey, (Lt. Gov.), 1757 ; Cadwallader Colden (Pres.), 1760 ; Major-General Robert Monckton, October 26, and Cad- wallader Colden (Lt. Gov.),-November 18, 1761 ; Major- General Robert Monckton, 1762 ; Cadwallader Colden, 1763 ; Sir Henry Moore, 1765 ; Cadwallader Colden, 1769; John, Earl of Dunmore, 1770; William Tryon, 1771 ; Cadwallader Colden (Lt. Gov.), 1774 ; WUliam Tryon, 1775 ; James Robertson, 1780 ; Andrew Elliott (Lt. Gov.), 1783.
Governors of the State : George Clinton, 1777 ; John Jay, 1795 ; George Clinton, 1801 ; Morgan Lewis, 1804 ; Daniel D. Tompkins, 1807 ; De Witt Clinton, 1817 ; Joseph C. Yates, 1822 ; De Witt Clinton, 1824 ; Martin Van Buren, 1828 ; Enos T. Throop, 1830 ; Wil- liam L. Marcy, 1832 ; William H. Seward, 1838 ; Wil- liam C. Bouck, 1842 ; Silas Wright, 1844 ; John Young, 1846 ; Hamilton Fish, 1848 ; Washington Hunt, 1850 ; Horatio Seymour, 1852 ; Myron H. Clark, 1854 ; John A. King, 1856 ; Edwin D. Morgan, 1858 ; Horatio Sey- mour, 1862 ; Reuben E. Fenton, 1864 ; John T. Hoff- man, 1868 ; John A. Dix, 1872 ; Samuel J. Tilden, 1874 ; Lucius Robinson, 1876 ; A. B. Cornell, 1880 ; Grover Cleveland, 1883.
The population of the colony and State of New York wasinl698, 18,067 ; 1703,20,665; 1723,40,564; 1731, 50,824 ; 1737, 60,437 ; 1746, 61,589 ; 1749, 73,348 ; 1756, 96,790; 1771, 163,337; 1790, 340,120; 1800, 586,756 ; 1810, 959,049 ; 1820, 1,372,812 ; 1830, 1,918,608 ; 1840, 2,428,921 ; 1850, 3,097,394 ; 1860, 3,880,735 ; 1870, 4,382,759 ; 1880, 5,083,173.
Of the total population there were in 1790, 21,324 slaves ; in 1800, 33,343 ; 1810, 15,017 ; 1820, 10,088 ; 1830, 75 ; 1840, 4.
GENERAL HISTORY
OF
LONG ISLAND
CHAPTER I.
A SKETCH OF THE TOPOGEAPHT, GEOLOGY AND NATURAL HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.
THE time has long since gone by when a belief in the sudden creation of the earth in its present form was generally prevalent. Once it was con- sidered not only heterodox but almost blasphe- mous for a man to avow his conviction that he saw, on the surface of the earth, indications of changes that occurred at a period previous to about six thousand years since. That continents, or even islands, should rise from the sea, become submerged, and emerge again in the lapse of immense time, was not deemed possible. Within the limits of historic time no record was given of more than slight changes ; and men had not learned to read the record which is written in the strata beneath the surface, and which science has made legible on the edges of those strata where they are visible. The man who ventured to assert that Long Island was once sub- merged, and that its emergence was of comparatively recent date, would have been regarded by some as im- pious and by others as mad. That period of ignorance has passed, and people have come to recognize the fact that, as far as the records of the past can be deciphered, the earth has been steadily changing, in the midst of its changing environments, and that, as far as science is able to peer into the future, changes will continue to succeed each other.
An inspection of the map of Long Island shows that it, as well as the coast south from it, had its birth from the sea, in what, geologically speaking, may be termed modern times ; and there are evidences of vertical oscil- lations of the surface here which may have caused a succession of partial or complete submergences and emergences. The island extends from east to west about one hun-
dred and twenty miles, and has an average width of about fifteen miles. Along the northern coast an aver- age elevation of about one hundred feet is found, though there are places where the hills are much higher. On this coast numerous " necks " of land and inlets or estu- aries of the Sound are seen ; and the water along this shore is deeper than on the southern coast. Between the heights along the Sound shore and the irregular range of hills which extend lengthwise through the island near the middle, for most of its length, and which are termed the backbone, the surface is in many places much broken. Harbor Hill, in North Hempstead, one of the highest points on the island, was found by actual measurement to be three hundred and eighty-four feet in height.
The northern coast of the island is indented by eight principal bays, or fiords, which extend inland from three to six miles and have a width of from half a mile to a mile and a half. In some places in these the water has a depth of from thirty to fifty feet, and the average depth is about twenty feet. South from this central range the surface slopes to the coast gradually, and so evenly as to have the appearance of a level plain.
Along the south shore are numerous shallow bays and inlets, especially toward the western extremity of the island. Along this shore also is a narrow sand beach, which incloses a bay, or rather a succession of narrow bays, for most of the length of the coast. This beach is crossed at different points by inlets, formerly called " guts " (Dutch " gat," or gate), which connect these bays with the ocean, and divide the beach into a suc- cession of long narrow beaches ; as narrow necks of land connect these beaches with the mainland and di- vide the long narrow bay into a succession of bays, some of which do not communicate vsdth the ocean. Outside these long narrow beaches is a shifting sand bar, and inside the bays are extensive salt marshes, or mea- dows. About forty miles of the eastern end of the island is divided by a succession of bays into two penin- sulas, each having an average width of about five miles
GEOLOGICAL STRUG TXTRE OF LONG ISLAND.
19
and the southern extending some twenty miles further east than the northern, though the last seems to be con- tinued to about the same distance by a succession of islands.
When the geological survey of the State was made — nearly forty years since — ^it was believed that the forma- tion of the island was due to the action of opposite and resultant currents, and probably its foundation on the primary rock which underlies it was thus laid, in a pre- glacial period. The Gulf Stream from the south, as it is believed to have flowed ; the Arctic current from the north, and the action of the tides in the Atlantic, all combined to bring hither and deposit the materials of which this foundation consists.
It is believed by geologists that the strata of rooks here were formerly from three hundred to one thousand feet lower than they now are. Then the southeastern shore of the United States was farther inland, and the Gulf Stream swept from the south parallel with and nearer to the base of the primary Atlantic chain of mountains than at present. Along the course of this stream, from Georgia to Maryland, extended a broad belt of primary rocks. These rocks, which were various in their character, were remarkably prone to disinte- gration, and the results of their wearing down were ex- tremely various.
These debrita were borne northward beneath the sur- face by the equatorial current, and deposited, as in its course northward this current became less rapid ; hence the deposits of various kinds that are found in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey. At this period the basin of the St. Lawrence and Pludson valleys was occupied by an inland sea, through which came the Arctic current, bringing its freight of debrita to be de- posited when circumstances favored its subsidence. The effect of the oblique meeting of those currents in the region of Long Island, when the force of both was partially spent, was to arrest their northward and southward flow, and to produce a gentle resultant cur- rent toward the east, with eddies that were influenced by the form of the sea bottom where the currents met, by storms that swept over the surface here, and by other storms at the north or south, which temporarily deflected, retarded or accelerated these currents. Thus, it was be- lieved, were the materials of the strata which under- lie Long Island, brought hither ; and thus in the result- ant comparatively still water and eddies were they de- posited; hence the lignite and the bones of marine and terrestrial animals that are found at great depths when wells are sunk and excavations made.
After the process of piling the foundation of the island on the sea bottom had gone on, in the way indicated, during indefinite time, the upheaval took place. Pre- vious to the adoption of the glacial theory it was be- lieved that icebergs floated hither, bringing the bould- ers, etc., that they had torn from their beds in the north, and dropped them, one by one, as they slowly melted
while circulating in the eddies here ; and that at a later period they became stranded or ran aground in shallow water, and there melted, leaving their entire cargoes to constitute the hills on the island as the surface was fur- ther upheaved. The researches of modern geologists seem to show that subsequent to the period spoken of, but in pre-glacial times, an upheaval occurred which carried the surface here from three hundred to four hundred feet higher than it now is, and that it remained thus elevated during the glacial period.
It is believed that during this time of elevation the Hudson River had its mouth eighty miles further to the southeast than at present, and that its course and the former littoral plain through which it ran, as well as the old coast lines, are traceable by soundings. During the time of elevation the ice period occurred, and it is thought that the terminal moraine of the glacier extended lengthwise through the island and far to the east along the New England coast, as well as west across New Jersey ; and that the drift material of the Island was brought by this agency from the regions to the north and west, where it existed in place. Thus were brought the deposits of clay, sand and gravel which are found especially on the north half of the island, and which often vary so greatly in their character, though sepa- rated only by short distances. Thus, too, were brought hither the boulders, some of which are of immense size. Kidd's Rock and Millstone Rock in the town of North Hempstead, Queens county, may be mentioned as ex- amples.
The primary rock which underlies the Island comes to the surface at Hell Gate and Hallett's Cove, on its northwestern extremity, and here the drift deposit lies directly on this rock. Elsewhere it is superposed on older deposits.
It is certain that since the glacial period a subsidence of the surface has taken place, and it is not considered impossible that several vertical oscillations have oc- curred. Mr. Lewis says: " If a depression of two hun- dred feet should take place, all of Long Island that would remain above the water would be a broken range of hills. With an elevation of two hundred feet Long Island Sound would be converted to dry land. The Connecticut and Hudson Rivers would roll along deeper channels, and discharge their waters many miles sea- ward ; while Brooklyn and New York would be inland cities." It is believed, as before stated, that the verti- cal oscillations in past time have carried the surface of the land here more than two hundred feet higher as well as lower than its present elevation. At present the sur- face is subsiding, though at the rate of only a few inches in a century. Evidences of this subsidence are found in abundance where excavations or borings are made, and in some instances where the bottom of the sea at some distance from the coast is explored. The stumps of submerged or buried forests are thus found, as well as other products of the former surface. Evi-
20
GENERAL HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.
dences of a former subsidence, much greater than at present, are found in the occurrence of marine deposits at points in the higher parts of the island.
It is helieved that every rood of the space from the central range of hills " has been the shore line of, first an invading, afterward of a receding ocean, and the scene of those great coast changes which waves produce." These changes, which occur from time to time now as the results of storm and ocean currents, it is hardly nec- essary to detail. As the swell rolls obUquely from the eastward along the coast the beach is modified by the deposit or the washing away of the san"d ; inlets to the bays are choked up and obliterated, and others break out at other points ; sand pits and beaches form, and southerly winds drift the sands on the island, to be again washed away by the waves.
Along the northern coast changes have taken place, and they are still going on, by shore erosion and the transportation of the detritus by storms and tidal cur- rents. Portions of the main island have been thus cut off and have become islands, and the material washed away has been deposited, sometimes at considerable dis- tance, to form shoals, beaches, or necks connecting what had thus been made islands with the shore again. Beaches have thus been formed and obliterated, inlets and channels have been excavated and again filled up, islands have been cut off and joined again to the island, or washed away, and changes, many of which are now difficult to trace and doubtless others that cannot now be traced, have in the lapse of time occurred. Some of the more recent of these may, however, be easily dis- cerned, and people whose lives have been spent here have been able to note many that have gradually oc- curred, or to remember others that were effected by vio- lent storms.
The species of animals which were found on Long Island when it was first discovered did not differ from those on the main land. Of course its insular condition prevented the annual or occasional migrations which oc- curred elsewhere by reason of climatic changes or other causes, and the complete extinction here of many of those species took place earlier by reason of that condi- tion. With the long stretch of sea coast which the island has, of course it was the habitat of all those species of aquatic birds which are found in this latitude. The island was annually visited, also, by those migratory land birds that frequent regions in this latitude ; and at the present time it is the annual resort of many species that attract hither sportsmen during each season. The mu- seum of the Long Island Historical Society has speci- mens of many of these species of animals and birds, and in this department it is proposed to make it quite complete.
By reason of the prevailing character of the soil, the botany of the island does not embrace as wide a range of species as are sometimes found on equal areas in the same latitude. Of the trees formerly covering large
portions of the island, the oak, pine and chestnut were the most abundant and valuable ; and it is said that the quality of this timber was far superior to that of the same species found elsewhere. Among the most valu- able species of timber growing on the island at present the locust occupies a prominent position. It it thought that Captain John Sands, who came to Sands Point about 1695, introduced this tree, from Virginia, about the year 1 700. Since that time it has spread extensively here. The quaUty of this timber grown here is greatly superior to that of the same species in the region whence it was brought. A few gigantic specimens of this tree are standing on the lawn at the residences of Mr. Bogart, of Roslyn, and of the late Elwood Valentine, at Glen Cove. Says Lewis : " It is believed that those on Mr. Bogart's ground, several now or recently at Sand's Point, and two in the dooryard of the old Thome mansion, at Little Neck, now occupied by Eugene Thorpe, Esq., are of the first imported and planted on Long Island." About eighty species of forest trees — indigenous and those that have become acclimated — are growing with- out cultivation on the island. Specimens of many of these species are now in the Historical Society's museum, in which a competent and energetic member of the so- ciety proposes to place a complete set of specimens of the flora and fauna of the island. An interesting article on the forest trees of Long Island will be found.in the Brooklyn Advance, May, 1883, from the pen of EUas Lewis, Esq.
CHAPTER IL
THE INDIANS OF LONG ISLAND TBRBITOET, CHAKAC-
TBEISTICS AND RELATIONS WITH THE WHITES.
By the late Alden J. Spooner, Esq.
BEFORE the settlement by the Dutch were the dark ages of island history. The wampum or wampum belts give no record of the red men's origin, migrations, wars or loves. Immense heaps of the broken shells of the quahog, or periwinkle, are their only monuments.
Every locality where one or more families were lo- cated had a name which gave designation to a tribe. The authorities on this subject have recognized thirteen tribes, as follows :
The Canaesie tribe claimed the whole of Kings County and a part of the town of Jamaica. They in- cluded the Marechawicks at Brooklyn, the Nyacks at New Utrecht, and the Jamecos at Jamaica. Their prin- cipal settlement was at the place called Canarsie, which is still a famous place for fishing and fowling, and was doubtless the residence of the sachem and a great por- tion of the tribe. In 1643 the name of the sachem was Penhawitz. In 1670 the deed of that part of the city
THE LONG ISLAND INDIANS— THEIR LANGUAGE.
21
of Brooklyn constituting Bedford was signed by Peter, Elmoliar, Job, Makagiquas, and Shamese, sachems. In 1656 the deed of Newtown was signed by Roworoesteo and Pomwaukon, sachems, supposed to have been of Canarsie. A confirmatory deed of land at Gravesend, in 1684, was signed by Cakewasco, Areunapoech, Arma- nat and Muskhesk, sachems, who called the Indian name of the place Makeopaca.
The RocKAWAT tribe was scattered over the southern part of the town of Hempstead, which with a part of Jamaica and the whole of Newtown constituted their claim. The greater part of the tribe was at Near Rock- away. Part lived at the head of Maspeth Creek, in Newtown, and deeds for land there were executed by the Rockaway sachem. This tribe had also a settlement of several hundred acres on Hog Island in Rockaway Bay. The first Rockaway sachem known to the Dutch was Chegonoe. Nowedinah was sacliem in 1648, Esk- moppas in 16V0, Paman in 1685, and Quaquasho or " the Hunter" in 1691.
The MoNTAUK tribe had jurisdiction over all the re- maining lands to Montauk, probably including Gardi- ner's Island ; and there seems to be evidence that to the sachem of this tribe was conceded the title and func- tions of grand sachem of Paumanake, or Long Island.
The Meeeick, Meroke, or Merikoke tribe claimed all the territory south of the middle of the island from Near Rockaway to the west line of Oyster Bay, and was in all probability at some former period a part of the Marsapequa or Marsapeague tribe. A part of the land in the town of Hempstead was bought from this tribe. They had a large settlement on Hick's Neck, and occu- pied the other necks between that and their principal site, where the village of Merrick now stands. Their sachem in 164V was Wantagh.
The Maesapequa or Marsapeague tribe had its prin- cipal settlement at Fort Neck, in South Oyster Bay, and thence extended eastward to the bounds of Islip and north to the middle of the island. Here were two In- dian forts, the larger of which was stormed by Captain John Underbill, in the service of the Dutch, in 1653, with great slaughter of the Indians. The remains of the fort have been encroached upon and covered by the waters of the Great South Bay. Tackapousha was sachem of this tribe in 1656 ; also chief sachem of the western chieftaincies of the island, after the division between the Dutch and the English.
The Matinecock tribe claimed jurisdiction of the lands east of Newtown, as far as the west line of Smith- town and probably to the Nissaquag River. This was a numerous tribe, and had large settlements at Flushing, Glen Cove, Cold Spring, Huntington and Cow Harbor. A portion of the tribe took part in the war of 1643, un- der Gunwarrowe ; but their sachem at that time remained friendly to the Dutch, and through his diplo- macy succeeded in establishing peace. Whiteneymen (one-eyed) was sachem in 1643, and Assiapam in 1653. |
The Nbsaquake or Missaquogue tribe possessed the country from the river named after them to Stony Brook and from the sound to the middle of the island. The extensive shell banks near the village of Nissaquag show that it was the site of a considerable settlement, and it was probably the residence of the sachem. Coginiquant was sachem in 1656.
The Setaloat or Setauket tribe claimed from Stony Brook to the Wading River and was one of the most powerful. Its members inhabited Strong's Neck and the banks of the different creeks, coves and harbors. Warrawaken was sachem in 1655, and Gil in 1675.
The CoECiiAUG tribe owned the territory from the AVading River to Oyster Ponds, and was spread along the north shore of Peconic Bay and over the necks ad- joining the sound. It probably claimed Robin's Island also. There is reason to believe that it was a numerous and powerful tribe. Momometon was sachem in 1648.
The Manhasset tribe peopled Shelter Island and probably Hog Island. This tribe, although confined to about 10,000 acres, could, if tradition is reliable, bring into the field at one time more than 500 warriors. Pog- gattatuck, brother of Wyandanch, was sachem in 1648, and Tokee or Youghco in 1651. His residence was on Sachem's Neck.
The Secatogde tribe adjoined the Marsapequas on the west and claimed the country as far east as Patch- ogue. The farm of the Willets at Islip is called Secca- togue Neck, and here is supposed to have been the prin- cipal settlement and probably the residence of the sachem, who in 1683 was Winnequaheag.
The Patchogub tribe extended its jurisdiction east from Patchogue to Westhampton, and as some think to Canoe Place. The main settlements were at Patchogue, Fire Place, Mastic, Moriches and Westhampton. To- bacus was sachem in 1666.
The Shinnecock tribe claimed the territory from Canoe Place to Easthampton, including Sag Harbor and the whole south shore of Peconic Bay.
The Indians of Long Island were designated on the Dutch maps Mohegans, and have been so called by his- torians. This is but a sub-title under the general term Algonquins, covering a great race of savages scattered over Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware and other States.
The Indians of the island were tall and straight, muscular and agile, with straight hair and reddish- brown complexion. Their language was the Algonquin, the highly descriptive tongue in which the apostle Eliot wrote the Indian Bible, and which was used by other missionaries. It was the language that greeted the col- onists at Roanoke, and the Pilgrims at Plymouth. It was spoken through twenty degrees of latitude and sixty degrees of longitude. Strange that a language which a century ago was spoken so widely and freely between the aborigines and the settlers should have so perished that it is doubted whether a man is living who can speak
22
GENERAL MlSTOHY OE ZOJSTG ISLAND.
it, or read the Indian Bible, so laboriously prepared by the apostolic John Eliot.
The Indian names of Long Island are said to be Sewanhacky, Wamponomon and Paumanake. These names, or at least the first two, seem to have arisen from the abundance of the quahog or hard clam, the shell of which furnished the wampum or sewant, which in the earlier times was the money of the country, as well as the material for the embroidery and the record symbols of the Indian belts. Matouwacs is the name given the island on the earliest Dutch maps. The deed to the settlers at Easthampton styles it Paumanake. Rev. William Hubbard, of Ipswich, in his history of New England, called it Mattamwake. In books and deeds it bears other names, as Meitowax, Metoac, etc. Sewan- hacky and Wamponomon both signify " the island, or place, of shells." Of Mattanwake, Judge Furman says : " In the Narragansett language mattan was a term used to signify anything fine or good, and duke or alee meant land or earth ; thus the whole word meant ' the good or pleasant land,' which was certainly highly characteristic of Long Island, even at that period of its early settle- ment."
The religious notions of the Long Island Indians are described in a communication from the Rev. Samson Occum, published in the collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society. His words are : " They believe in a plurality of gods, and in one great and good being, who controls all the rest. They likewise believe in an evil spirit, and have their conjurors or paw-waws." The ceremony performed by these characters was so odious, in the opinion of the whole people, that the Duke's Laws of 1665 enacted that " no Indian shall be permitted to paw-waw or perform worship to the devil in any town within this government." It is evident, however, that they still kept up their devil-worship at the visit of the Labadists in 1679-80. They also had divinities in the winds and waters. It is surprising how few tokens are found, in the shape of idols, or carvings of any kind, to signify a reverence for their gods. The only thing which has attracted particular attention is " the foot- prints of the evil spirit " — the impression of a foot on a boulder, now in the possession of the Long Island His- torical Society, which had lain upon Montauk Point from the earliest English knowledge, and probably for centuries before, and which was always an object of Indian veneration.
The lodges or wigwams of the Long Island Indians were fifteen or twenty feet wide, having a frame of two rows of poles bent together and covered with rushes, except along the ridge, where an opening was left for smoke to escape. This frame of poles was interlaced with the bark of trees, and continued to a length of 180 feet or more, as the families conjointly occupying the wigwam might require. Fires were built along the floor, each family having its own for cooking and for comfort in cold weather. The principal household
utensils were earthen pots and gourds for holding water.
The original fur and feather clothing of these savages gave place to cloth after the advent of Europeans. At first a blanket about the shoulders and a cloth hanging from a belt about the waist composed their costume, but they afterwards imitated the dress of the whites. All were fond of decoration. In early deeds from them there is a peculiar reservation of " the trees in what eagles do build their nests," doubtless in order to secure to them the feathers of the royal bird, which were among their valued adornments.
Their canoes were of different sizes, from the light shallop to those of sixty feet in length. They were wrought out of logs with stone axes, with the help of fire. Their pottery, of which specimens are found in the shell heaps, is of clay, mixed with water, hollowed out by the hand and baked. Most of the specimens are very inferior. Private collections abound in arrow- heads, stone axes, and the pestles and mortars which served them for mills. The Long Island Historical So- ciety has a collection of Indian relics, in which the only metallic instrument is an ax of native copper, unearthed a few years ago at Rockaway, together with a few stone axes and a quantity of spear heads, apparently buried for preservation.
Long Island was the great source of the supply of wampum or sewant — the Indian shell money, as well as the beads which they wore as ornaments or fastened to their clothing. Along the shores of the island immense deposits of shells once existed (some of which yet re- main), from which the blue portion forming the eye was carefully removed for making blue beads ; these were worth three times as much as the white, which were made from the inner pillars of the conch shell or peri- winkle.
Long Island will always be a monumental point in history as the place to which Hudson and his mariners first came as the key to open a world in commerce and civilization, to which the discoveries of Columbus were but the vestibule. The earliest account of the Indians of the island is that given by Hudson in the narrative of his voyage in 1609. On the 4th of September of that year he came to anchor in Gravesend Bay. He says the Canarsie Indians came on board his vessel without any apprehension and seemed very glad of his coming. They brought with them green tobacco and exchanged it for knives and beads. They were clad in deer skins, well dressed, and were " very civil." On a subsequent visit some of them were dressed in " mantles of feathers " and some in " skins of diver sorts of good furs. " Hudson states that " they had yellow copper and red copper to- bacco pipes, and ornaments of copper about their necks; " also that they had currants and "great store of maize or Indian corn, whereof they made good bread." They also brought liim hemp. Some of his men landed where is now the town of Gravesend and met many men wo-
WABS OF THE ISLAND INDIANS— THEIR SACHEMS.
23
men and children, who gave them tobacco. They described the country to Hudson as " full of great tall oaks,- and the lands as pleasant with grass and flowers and goodly trees as they had ever seen."
Doubtless the natives presented their very best festal appearance to the great captain of the " big canoe ; " though when, seventy years after (in 16'79-80), they were visited by the Labadist agents. Bankers and Sluyter, after contact with the early settlers, they had sadly degenerated ; and the best collection that has been made of their utensils and adornments fails to show any of the yellow copper ornaments.
The Dutch and English found the river Indians and the Long Island tribes greatly reduced by their conflicts with the more warlike Iroquois or Five Nations, who had laid them, under tribute. The powerful Pequots of Connecticut did the same before their own extermina- tion. After the coming of the Dutch, under a promise of protection by them, the Canarsies neglected to pay their tribute to the Mohawks, representing the Five Na- tions, and in 1655 the latter made a descent on Staten Island, where they killed 67 of the natives, and going thence to Gravesend, Canarsie and other places made a thorough butchery. A bare remnant of the Canarsies escaped to Beeren Island, and Mrs. Abraham Remsen left the statement that she made a shroud for the last individual of them. The consistory of the Dutch church at Albany, thereafter, for many years acted as agent for the Indians down the Hudson in the payment of their tribute to the conquerors.
The settlers at the east end of the island found Wyandanch, the grand sachem, at war with Ninigret, the sachem of the Narragansetts of Rhode Island. There had been retaliatory massacres on both sides. Ninigret struck the finishing blow on the occasion of the marriage of a daughter of Wyandanch to a young chieftain of his tribe, at Fort Pond, on Montauk. Knowing that all precaution would be overlooked in the revelry of the festive occasion, Ninigret came down in force upon his unprepared enemy ; slaughtered half the tribe, including the bridegroom, and bore away the bride as his captive to the mainland. This blow broke the power and the spirit of Wyandanch, who then, by a cession of Montauk, came under the government and protection of Easthampton.
Hereby hangs a romance which can not be done away with by any captious objectors, like those who have sought to resolve the story of Pocohontas into a myth. It is secured by deed. On a square bit of paper, written plainly in the old English character, framed and placed in the noble building of the Long Island Historical Society, is a conveyance to Lion Gardiner, then lord of the Isle of Wight or Gardiner's Island, of the great part of Smithtown, as a consideration for his services in regaining from Ninigret the captive daughter of Wyandanch ; the last named signed the deed, as also did his son Wyancombone, and the latter's wife.
Thompson ascribes the war between the Montauks and the Narragansetts to the refusal of the Montauk monarch to join in the plot for exterminating the Europeans. Roger Williams traced the war to the pride of the contending sachems. The Long Island chief, he said, was " proud and foolish ;" Ninigret, " proud and fierce."
Lion Gardiner, in his notes on Easthampton, says the Block Island Indians, acting as allies of the Narra- gansetts, attacked the Montauks during King Philip's war and punished them severely. The engagement took place on Block Island, whither the Montauks went in their canoes, and the latter on landing fell into an ambuscade. He says : " The Montauk Indians were nearly all killed ; a few were protected by the Engligh and brought away ; the sachem was taken and carried to Narragansett. He was made to walk on a large flat rock that was heated by building fires on it, and walked several times over it, singing his death song ; but his feet being burned to the bones he fell, and they finished the tragical scene as usual for savages."
T'he Long Island Indians joined the neighboring mainland tribes in the hostilities between them and the Dutch, which grew out of the murder of an Indian at New York in 1641. In 164.3 some Dutch farmers on the island ventured tp seize and carry off two wagon loads of corn belonging to the Indians ; the owners attempiting to defend their property, two of them were killed.
The Long Island and Hudson River Indians burning to avenge such outrages, more than two thousand of them rose in open war and made the greatest possible destruction of the property and lives of the settlers. A transient peace was patched up, the Canarsie chief Penhawitz being one of an embassy to New Amsterdam for that purpose. In a few months war broke out again, this time, it is said, on account of Governor Kief t's embezzling the presents for the natives by which the treaty should have been ratified. The savages, crossing to the island from Westchester county, de- stroyed the settlement of Mespat, now Newtown ; also the first house built in Brooklyn, that of William Adriance Bennett, near Gowanus. They then fell upon the settlement of Lady Moody at Gravesend, but were beaten off by a company of forty men, who had been recruited and disciplined by Nicholas Stillwell, and who were concealed in Lady Moody's log house. From the neighboring villages more than a hundred families flocked to New Amsterdam for protection. From these was raised a company of fifty men, who, under the famous John Underbill, participated in the massacre of over five hundred of the Indians in March, 1644, at Strickland's Plain, on Horse Neck, near Greenwich, Conn. As one of the results of this decisive blow, several of the Long Island chiefs went to New Amster- dam and made a treaty of peace.
In 1655 Hendrick Van Dyke, the late " schout fiscal "
24
GENERAL HISTORY OF LOITG ISZAJSTD.
of New Amsterdam, shot and killed a squaw who was stealing peaches from his garden. He was soon killed by the Indians in revenge. At the same time they per- petrated terrible massacres on Staten Island and in Kew Jersey, and spread terror on Long Island, though doing no damage there. Governor Stuyvesant ordered all persons living in secluded places to gather and " form villages after the fashion of our neighbors of New England," but little attention was paid to his command.
On the division of the island in 1650 between the English and the Dutch, the English taking the eastern, and the Dutch the western part, the jurisdiction of Grand Sachem Wyandanch was nominally divided, Tackapousha being elected sachem of the chieftaincies in possession of the Dutch, namely, those of the Marsapequas, Merricks, Canarsies, Secatogues, Rook- aways and Matinecocks. In the winter of 1658 the smallpox destroyed more than half the Montauks ; while Wyandanch lost his life by poison. The remain- der of the tribe, to escape the fatal malady and the danger of invasion in their weakened state, fled in a body to their white neighbors, who entertained them for a considerable period.
Wyancombone succeeded his father in the sachem- ship, and, being a minor, divided the government with his mother, who was styled the squaw sachem. Lion Gardiner and his son David acted as guardians to the young chief by request of his father. At Port Pond- called by the Indians Konkhongank— are the remains of the burial ground of the chieftancy, and here once stood the citadel of the monarch Wyandanch.
From the numerous array of tribes mentioned on a preceding page it is evident that the island was in the earlier periods of its history thickly settled by the Indians, who found support and delight in its ample resources of hunting, fishing and fowling ; but their position exposed them to invasion, and their stores of wampum tempted the fierce tribes of the mainland. They were evidently in constant fear of aggression, and at two points— Port Neck, at Oyster Bay, and Port Pond, Montauk— forts were built, capable of sheltering five hundred men. Governor Winthrop in 1633, refer- ring t\) Long Island, which had just been reconnoitred by his bark, the "Blessing," says, doubtless upon mere report : " The Indians there are very treacherous, and have many canoes so great as will carry eighty men."
But the natives soon dwindled in numbers and power upon contact with the whites. The Dutch at the west- ern end of the island, coveting their corn lands, soon found means to purchase and appropriate them ; while at the east end the Narragansetts drove the tribes into the arms of the English. All over the island their lands were bought at a nominal price from the too easy owners.
Their inordinate fondness for "fire-water" had a large share in their ruin. Rev. Azariah Horton was a
missionary to the Long Island Indians in 1741-44. He states that in 1741 there were at the east end two small towns of them, and lesser companies settled at a few miles distance from each other through the island. Up to the close of 1743 he had baptized 35 adults and 44 children. He took pains to teach them to read, and some of them made considerable progress ; but, not- withstanding all this, Mr. Horton in 1744 complained* of a great defection by a relapse into their darling vice of drunkenness, to which Indians are everywhere so greatly addicted that no human power can prevent it.
In 1761 the Indians had so diminished on Long Island as in some places to have entirely disappeared ; and the once powerful Montauks could muster but 192 souls. This number was reduced by the withdrawal of many who went to Brotherton with Rev. Samson Occum. This celebrated Indian preacher went, about 1755, to Montauk, where he preached and taught some ten years. He went to England and raised £1,000 for establishing schools among the Indians.
Rev. Paul Cuffee was another Indian preacher on the island. He was buried about a mile west of Canoe Place, where the Indian meeting-house then stood, and a neat marble slab has been erected to his memory by the Missionary Society of New York, which employed him. The writer has conversed with persons who gave testimony to his piety and the fervor of his eloquence. The Indian kings at Montauk have, for a century and more, borne the name of Pharoah or Pharo. This was doubtless conferred upon them by the first missionaries, who are also responsible for Solomons, Tituses and other Christian and classic names. A squaw who died recently at Easthampton, at a very advanced age, was named Hannali Hannibal. One of the Montauk Pha- roahs died about three years ago and his brother suc- ceeded him. He bore the traits of pure blood in the sallow complexion and long straight hair of his race. With the advance of settlements on the island the Montauks have faded away, till but a remnant of scarcely a dozen pure bloods remains on the reserved ''Indian fields " on the promontory of Montauk. Sub- ject to their reservations the whole promontory was recently sold in partition sale of the property to Arthur W. Benson, of Brooklyn, for $161,000.
The influence of their friends at Easthampton kept these Indians from taking part in King Philip's and other wars, and from being violently blotted out like most of their brethren. Elsewhere many of them have succeeded in whaling enterprises, and they have been ingenious in basket making. Some of those remaining around Montauk are useful sailors or domestics.
The Sliinnecock tribe, much modified by negro inter- marriages, still cluster about Southampton to the number of about 200. They are in general a worthy and industrious people, with a good school and much pride of character. Many will recollect the mourning which went abroad on the loss, in the wreck of the
DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT.
25
" Circassia," of that fine corps of sailors of the Shin- necock tribe, whose courage and manhness were of a high heroic type.
CHAPTER III.
DISCOVBEY AND SETTLEMENT OE LONG ISLAND- OF COLONIAL TIMES.
-HISTORY
THE names by which Long Island was called by the Indians were various. Among them were Mat- tanwake, Meitowax, Sewanhacky (Island of Shells), Paumanake, etc. By reason of its form the early settlers applied to the island its present name. The Colonial Legislature in 1693 changed it to Nassau, in honor of William of Nassau, Prince of Orange, and required that all legal instruments should- recognize that name. It never acquired more than a partial use, and though the act is unrepealed the name is obsolete.
It has been thought that this island was visited by John de Verazzano, in 1524, and from some of his descriptions it is surmised by some that he entered the harbor of New York, while others insist that his journal gives no foundation for such a belief. The first absolute discovery of Long Island by Europeans was made early in September, 1609, by Henry Hudson, an Englishman in the employ of the Dutch East India Company. He had sailed in the " Half Moon," from Amsterdam, on the 25th of the preceding March, in search of a northwest passage to India. After touch- ing at various j)oints on the coast north he sailed south to the mouth of Chesapeake Bay ; then, passing north, entered Delaware Bay, from which he again sailed northward and entered New York Bay on the 3d of September. During the week that he remained there a boat's crew, engaged in making explorations, , landed at Coney Island — the first portion of Long Island pressed by the foot of a white man. On the 6th, John Colman, of a party that was sent up the river to sound and explore, was killed and two others were wounded by a party of twenty-six savagCs in two canoes. The next day Colman's body was buried on the shore, and the place of his interment was named Colman's Point. By some this is believed to have been Sandy Hook ; by others, Coney Island. After the discovery of the island by Hudson the region was visited by pri- vate adventurers to trade, but in 1614 a decree of the States General forbade this and gave to the East India Company monopoly of this trade. In that year Adrian Block and Hendrick Christiance visited this region under the East India Company and built a fort and some dwellings on the island of Manhattan or Man- hattoes, as it was called by the Indians. Captain Block passed with his vessel through Hell Gate and sailed through the sound, and first discovered the insular con- dition of Long Island. Block Island, which was called
by the Indians Manissees, was named in honor of him. It is said that his vessel was accidentally burned, and that he built another on or near Manhattan in the sum- mer of 1614. If so, it was the first vessel built in the United States.
When English settlements were made in New Eng- land a rivalry at once sprang up between the English and the Dutch, each power striving to strengthen its authority by extending its settlements. Under these cu'cumstances the settlement of the western end of the island by the Dutch commenced. It is not known who was the first actual settler on Long Island. Settlements were made in Flatlands, Kings county, as early as 1636, possibly earlier. It is not probable that any settlement was made at the Wallabout prior to 1636. The name of this bay is corrupted from "Wahle Bocht" or " Waale Boght," which, according to the late Hon. Teunis G. Bergen, means " the Beach or Shore of the Cove ;" Sam- uel Ogden renders it " the Bend of the Inner Harbor." Settlers came and located as caprice or circumstance seemed to dictate, without any provision for local gov- ernment. At nearly the same time permanent settle- ments were made on the west of the island by the Dutch, and on the east by the English. Both pur- chased their lands from the Indians ; the English di- rectly, and the Dutch through their governors, who first extinguished the Indian title, then parceled out the land to individuals in various ways, or gave permits to pur- chase from the Indians.
On the west end of the island the Dutch in 1636 set- tled Brooklyn, first named Breuckelen after a town of that name in the province of Utrecht, in Holland; Plat- lands, first New Amersfort, after a place of the same name in Holland, also in 1636; Flushing, or in Dutch Vlissingen, also after a place of the same name in Hol- land, 1645; Flatbush, originally Midwout, after Mid- wout in Holland, 1651; New Utrecht in 1657, and Bush- wick, or Woodtown in 1660.
English immigrants were permitted to settle on terri- tory claimed by the Dutch on taking the oath of alle- giance to the Dutch government. Of the English towns under the jurisdiction of the Dutch, Hempstead was set- tled in 1643; Gravesend in 1645; Jamaica, originally Rusdorp, in 1655, and Newtown, first called Middlebury, in 1656. The jurisdiction of Oyster Bay, which was settled m 1653, was not during many years determined, but it finally came under Connecticut.
The Dutch towns appear to have been wholly under the control of the governor, whose will in all matters — general and individual, civil and ecclesiastical — was ab- solute. The English towns under Dutch jurisdiction were allowed to choose their own ofiicers, subject to the approval of the governor, to hold their town meetings, and manage their own matters as nearly like the eastern towns as circumstances would permit.
It was hardly to be expected that, in the exercise of power so nearly absolute, the representatives of their
26
GENERAL HISTORY OF LONG ISZAND.
High Mightinesses, as the States General was termed, should not at times yield to their caprices, their sympa- thies or antipathies, and do arbitrary and oppressive acts. In the case of Governor Stuyvesant, his tyrannical disregard of the people's rights led to the assembling (1653) of delegates from N. Amsterdam, Brooklyn, Flat- bush, Flatlands, Gravesend, Ne^vtown, Flushing and Hempstead, and the adoption of an address to the gov- ernor and council and States General, setting forth their grievances, and asking that they be redressed. To this no reply was given, though a protest was entered on theii- minutes against the meeting. When, in the same year, a second meeting assembled, the governor ordered them " to disperse and not to assemble again on such business."
A line had, in 1650, been established between the Dutch towns on the west and the English on the eastern end of the island, by four commissioners — two from the Dutch government and two from the united colonies of New England, although the New England colonists had at that time no jurisdiction on the island. This line ran southward across the island from the " westernmost part of Oyster Bay." Notwithstanding this arrange- ment, the Dutch governor continued to claim jurisdic- tion over Oyster Bay.
The people at about this time were sorely troubled by what were known as " land pirates " or outlaws, who had been banished from New England, and against these the Dutch governor failed to afford them protec- tion.
It may here be remarked that the administration of Governor Stuyvesant, from about 1656 to the conquest in 1664, was disgraced by a degree of religious intoler- ance, and especially by persecution of the Quakers, which rivaled, but which did not equal, that of the Puritans of New England, of whom it may truly be said that the principle of religious liberty never dawned on their minds. For this persecution he was rebuked by the authorities in Holland. These persecutions were re- newed about the commencement of the eighteenth cen- tury under the administration of Lord Cornbury, who in religious intolerance was fully equal to Peter Stuy- vesant.
In 1662 a new charter was granted to Connecticut, and this charter was interpreted to include the whole of Long Island. The eastern towns gladly availed them- selves of this interpretation, and in 1663 the English towns under Dutch jurisdiction resolved to withdraw from it and place themselves under that of Con- necticut. Soon afterward two commissioners were appointed by Connecticut to organize the government of that colony in these towns ; but it does not appear from history that they fulfilled their mission, and this unsatisfactory condition of things continued till the con- quest in 1664.
As has been stated, the settlements of the Dutch were limited to the western end of the island, and their
jurisdiction to a comparatively small portion of that end. The eastern end was settled by English immi- grants, under different auspices, and its settlement com- menced a few years later.
In 1620 King James I. of England granted to the Plymouth Company a charter for all the land between the 40th and 48th degrees of north latitude, extending from " sea to sea," which territory was termed New England. In 1636, at the request of King Charles I., the Plymouth Company conveyed by patent to William Alexander, Earl of Stirling, the whole of Long Island, and the adjacent islands. Earl Stirling appointed James Farret his attorney for the sale of his real estate, and authorized him to select for himself twelve thous- and acres of the territory. Farret selected Shelter Island and Robbin's Island in Peconic Bay, and in 1641 sold these to Stephen Goodyear, of New Haven. Soon after the death of Earl Stirling and his son in 1640, the heir of the latter, grandson of the earl, for a considera- tion of three hundred pounds, surrendered to the crown the grant from the Plymouth Company, and it was em- bodied in the grant to the Duke of York, April 2d, 1664, which thus described it: "And also all that island or islands commonly called by the several name or names of Meitowacks, or Long Island, situate, lying and being toward the west of Cape Cod and the narrow Higansetts, abutting upon the mainland between the two rivers, there called or known by the several names of Connecticut and Hudson's River."
In 1662 the Connecticut colony claimed Long Island under that clause in their charter of that year which in- cluded the "islands adjacent," and in 1664 sent a com- mission to the island to assert jurisdiction. The con- quest in that year put an end to their proceedings. With this exception no claim was made by any power to the eastern portion of the island between the years 1640 and 1644.
The eastern towns were settled by the English as follows : Gardiner's Island (annexed in 1680 to East- hampton) in 1639. It was purchased in that year by Lion Gardiner from the attorney-of Lord Stirling. Mr. Gardiner had previously purchased it from the Indians. This was the first English settlement, and Mr. Gardiner was one of the first English settlers in the State of New York. Southampton and Southold were settled in 1640, Easthampton in 1648, Shelter Island in 1652, Hunting- ton and Oyster Bay in 1653, though the latter was claimed by the Dutch, Brookhaven in 1656, and Smith- town in 1663.
Most of the settlers in these towns were previous im- migrants in New England, who crossed the Sound in larger or smaller companies and established independent settlements; which, as their numbers increased, came to be little republics, completely independent of all other powers. Although there were differences in the details, there was a general similarity among the goverments of the different towns. Each had its legislative exec-
TTNDER TSE DUKE OF YORK.
27
iitive, and judicial department. The people, assembled in town meeting, constituted the legislative department, and, in important cases, the judicial also. In that case the assembly was sometimes termed the General Court of the town. Two or three magistrates, a clerk, and a constable, constituted usually the ordinary judicial and executive functionaries of the town. Of course the people required no bill of rights or constitution to pro- tect them from oppression by their rulers, for they were their own rulers. They organized companies of citi- zen soldiers, erected and garrisoned forts when neces- sary, enacted and enforced laws to regulate, not only civil, but also social and religious, matters ; and, to guard against threatened vices, as well as to restrain existing evils, churches were erected, schools were established, and ministers and teachers were supported, by taxes on the property of the citizens, imposed by the people themselves in their legislative character.
It is hardly necessary to say that these original set- tlers were Puritans, and that, although they were not guUty of such manifestations of bigotry and intolerance as disgraced the Puritans of New England, they jeal- ously guarded against the introduction among them of innovations which would exert what they deemed a deleterious influence. They required of those who pro- posed to settle among them a probation of from three to six months, and if at the end of that time they were not satisfactory to the people they were notified to leave within a specified time. They were thus able to prevent undesirable people from coming among them, and to maintain their religious faith free from contami- nation by those holding heterodox opinions. To guard against the evils of intemperance, the sale of intoxicat- ing liquors was restricted under heavy penalties. The profanation of the Sabbath, lying, profane cursing and slander, were penal offences in most of the towns, and the whipping post, the stocks, pillory, etc., were in com- mon use. Thus, each town managed its own affairs, without any combination with neighboring towns, till the island came to be a part of New York in 1664.
In view of their exposed situation, and the difficulty of defending themselves against hostile attacks by the Indians or invasions by the Dutch, these towns, one by one, placed themselves under the protection of the New England colonies, without, however, subjecting them- selves to taxation by those colonies, or relinquishing to the slightest extent their self-government. Southampton did this in 1644, Easthampton in 1657, Brookhaven in 1659, and Huntington in 1660. These came under the protection of Connecticut. Southold and Shelter Island assumed the same relation to New Haven in 1648. Con- necticut and New Haven became united under a new charter in 1662, and these towns became a part of the new colony of Connecticut, sent representatives to the Colonial Assembly, and contributed toward the expense of the government. In the same year Oyster Bay also assumed this relation.
The oppression to which the people in the towns under the jurisdiction of the Dutch were subjected has been spoken of. The inhabitants of both the Dutch and English towns had submitted to the tyranny of their rulers because they saw no way of escape. In Novem- ber of 1663 the people of the English towns held amass meeting at Jamaica to consider their condition and de- vise means for their relief ; but, although no attempt to disperse them was made, no results were accomplished. They were therefore ready to welcome anything which promised relief.
Early in 1664 Charles the Second of England granted to his brother James, Duke of York, territory which included New Amsterdam and all of Long Island. An expedition was at once fitted out and sent under Colonel Richard Nicolls, who was commissioned deputy gov- ernor, to take possession of the colony. On his arrival at New York in August of that year he demanded of Governor Stuyvesant the surrender of his possessions, which was refused. Colonel Nicolls and the commis- sioners, Robert Carr, George Cartwright and Samuel Maverick, who had been sent with him to assist in the government of the colony, landed at Gravesend; and, at at a meeting held for that purpose, consulted with the people, and with Governor Winthrop, of Connecticut, and exhibited to them the royal grant to the Duke of York. He also issued a proclamation promising pro- tection and all the privileges of English subjects, and sent officers for volunteers in the western towns of the island. After consultation with his burgomasters and the people. Governor Stuyvesant, finding that the cur- rent of popular opinion set strongly in that direction, reluctantly consented to a surrender, and thus, without bloodshed, the government passed to the English.
The people of the towns on the west end of the island acquiesced in the change, relying on the promise of Governor Nicolls and the commissioners that they should enjoy all the privileges of English subjects — a promise which was not fulfilled. The eastern towns, however, which had been independent, and which were then a part 'of Connecticut, were not willing to sever their polit- ical relations with that colony and become subject to the Duke of York, and Connecticut at first maintained her claim to them. Governor Winthrop, who had been one of the commissioners to arrange the terms of surrender, " informed the English on Long Island that Connecticut had no longer any claim to the island ; that what they had done for them was for the welfare, peace and quiet settlement of his Majesty's subjects, they being the nearest organized government to them under his Majesty. But, now that his Majesty's pleasure was fully signified by his letters patent, their jurisdiction had ceased and become null."
In March, 1665, a convention of delegates from the towns assembled at Hempstead, in accordance with a proclamation of Governor Nicolls, " to settle good and known laws within this government for the future, and
28
GENERAL HISTORY OF LONG ISLAKB.
receive yo"" best advice and information at a gen^''' meeting." At this convention the boundaries and rela- tions of the towns were settled and determined, and some other matters adjusted. New patents were re- quired to be taken by those who had received their patents from the Dutch authorities, and it was required that patents should be taken by those who had never received any, as was the case with the eastern towns. These required a quit-rent — a relic of feudal customs — which was the source of much trouble, and the subject of abuse afterward. A code of laws for the government of the pr<)vince was also promulgated. These, which had been compiled at the dictation of the governor, were termed the Duke's Laws. They contained many of the provisions which had been adopted by the eastern towns, and many of the enactments would be looked on at the present day as curiosities. With some modifications they were continued in force till 1683, when the first Provincial Assembly held its session. Th ompson says : " In addition to other matters which occupied the con- vention at Hempstead in 1665, Long Island and Staten Island (and probably Westchester) were erected into a shire, called, after that in England, Yorkshire, which was in like manner divided into separate districts, denomi- nated ridings : the towns now included in Suffolk county constituted the East 'Riding;' Kings county, Staten Island, and the town of Newtown, the West ' Riding,' and the remainder of Queens county the North 'Riding,' of Yorkshire upon Long Island." The word " riding " thus used is a corruption of " trithing" — a third. The original names of some of the towns were changed to the present ones at this meeting, it is supposed. So highly pleased were the delegates at this convention with the prospect before them, under the assurances of the governor, that they adopted and signed an address to the king, pledging loyalty and submission in terms that were not pleasing to the people and that were criti- cised with such severity that the Court of Assize issued an edict forbidding further censure of these deputies, under penalty of being brought before the court " to answer for the slander."
Under the Duke's Laws the justices — one in each town — were appointed by the governor, as was also the high sheriff of the shire, and a deputy sheriff for each riding. Each town elected at first eight and afterwards four overseers and a constable, who constituted a Town Court, with jurisdiction limited to cases of £5 or less. They also assessed taxes and regulated miaor matters. Each riding had a Court of Sessions consisting of the justices, with whom the high sheriff, members of the council and secretary of the colony, were entitled to sit. It had criminal jurisdiction, and in civil cases its judgments were final m cases less than £20. The Court of Assize, which consisted of the governor, council, and an indefi- nite number of magistrates, had appellate jurisdiction in cases from inferior courts, and original jurisdiction in suits for demands above £20.
No provision was made for a legislature ; and, while this Court of Assize was nominally the head of the gov- ernment, the governor, who appointed the members of it, and who could remove most of them at his pleasure, really possessed unlimited legislative, executive and judicial authority. Thompson says : " In this court the governor united the character of both judge and legis- lator. He interpreted his own acts, and not only pro- nounced what the law was, but what it should be."
Although the people on the western end of the island became aware that the government under the Duke of York was framed on no better model than that under the Dutch governor, and those in the English towns that they were shorn of all their former privileges. Governor Nicolls exercised his powers so carefully and judiciously as to allay their discontent.
He relinquished the reins of government in legV and was succeeded by Francis Lovelace, who during his administration acquired the almost unanimous ill-will of the people. When, in 1670, a levy was made on the towns to raise money for repairing the fort at New York, nearly all of the English towns, by vote, refused to obey the order for the contribution or levy unless " they might have the privileges that other of his Majesty's subjects have and do enjoy." Thompson says: " The English colonists on Long Island brought with them the doctrine that taxes could only be imposed with the consent of the people by their representatives in a general assembly." It is not known that this tax was ever collected in those towns. This was the first open manifestation in this country of a spirit of resistance to the invasion of this right — a resistance which led, a cen- tury later, to the American Revolution.
The resolutions of refusal were laid before the gov- ernor and council, and were by them ordered to be pub- licly burned before the town house of the city. It is said of Governor Lovelace, that in 1668 he wrote to Sir Robert Carr in New Jersey, that to keep people sub- missive the best method was " to lay such taxes upon them as may not give them liberty to entertain any other thoughts but how they shall discharge them."
Had not the administration of Governor Lovelace come to an end by a sudden and unexpected event, he would probably have suffered the full consequences of the popular indignation which his disregard of the peo- ple's rights aroused. " The country, which had now been nine years governed by the Duke of York's depu- ties, and experienced in very full measure the ill effects of ignorance and indiscretion in the conduct of its rulers, came once more under the government of their ancient masters, the Dutch."
Between 1672 and 1674 the English and Dutch were at war, and in the latter part of July, 1673,a small Dutch squadron entered New York harbor, and Captain Man- ning, the commandant of the fort, surrendered it with- out resistance. For this act he was afterward sentenced to haye his sword broken over his head.
PRIMITIVE CUSTOMS.— CAPTAIN KIDD.
29
Captain Anthony Colve was, by the commanders of the squadron, appointed governor of the colony, and he at once set about the re-establishment of the authority of the Dutch government. In the towns that had be- fore been under the Dutch regime submission was readily made, but in the towns of the East riding his task was more difficult. Huntington and Brookhaven yielded after a time on certain conditions, but Southold, South- ampton, and Easthampton, rejected all overtures, and petitioned for admission to the colony of Connecticut. They were accepted, and when Governor Colve at- tempted to reduce these towns to submission by force, Connecticut sent troops to their assistance, and the Dutch were repulsed. In November, 1673, the New England colonies declared war against the Dutch, and made preparations for active hostilities. The conclu- sion of peace, early in 1674, between the English and Dutch, of course arrested their proceedings. On the restoration of the duke's government, these towns were unwilling to become subject again to a rule under which they had been oppressed. Resistance was unavailing, however, and they were compelled to submit to a repe- tition of the former despotic sway of the duke's gov- ernors.
Sir Edmund Andros became governor on the restor- ation of the duke's authority, and his administration, which continued till 1681, was even more despotic than that of Governor Lovelace. Colonel Thom.as Dongan succeeded Governor Andros. On his arrival, in 1682, he at once issued orders for summoning a general assembly. This was the result of a petition to the duke by the grand jury of the Court of Assize in 1681.
At the first session of this Colonial Assembly, in 1683, they " adopted a bill of rights, established courts of jus- tice, repealed some of the most obnoxious of the duke's laws, altered and amended others, and passed such new laws as they judged that the circumstances of the colony required." At this session the " ridings " were abolished, and the counties of Kings, Queens, and Suffolk, organ- ized. Another session was held in 1684, at which, among other acts, the court of assize was abolished, and another Assembly was summoned to convene in the fol- lowing year.
"Charles II. died February 6th, 1685, and the Duke of York succeeded him by the title of James II. ; as he determined to have as little to do with parliaments as possible, so it is probable that he revoked the power which he had given to his governors to call assemblies, and determined that they should rule the colony by his instructions alone, without admitting the people to any participation in the public councils." Under the gov- ernment of James no other session of the Legislature was ever held.
On the occurrence of the revolution in England which placed William and Mary on the throne, a party of sym- pathizers with that revolution, led by Jacob Leisler, seized the government of the colony, and during two
years matters here were in an unsettled condition. Long Island gave only a partial support to Leisler; and when, in 1690, he summoned a general assembly, no members from Suffolk attended and one from Queens refused to serve. It appears that Leisler attempted to use force against some portions of Long Island, which he declared to be in a state of rebellion, but that his efforts proved entirely unsuccessful.
The fate of Leisler is briefly recounted in the outline history of the State on preceding pages, together with the succession of Colonial governors who followed him. After the revolution of 1689-90, the Colonial govern- ment settled down on a basis, which continued, with but few changes, till the American Revolution. It is thus stated by Wood :
" The executive power was vested in the Governor, and the legislative power in the Governor, Council and Assem- bly, subject to the revision of the Bang, to whom all laws were to be sent within three months after their passage.
"The Council at first consisted of seven members (which number was afterwards increased to twelve), who were appointed by the King.
"The Assembly was composed of delegates from each county, chosen by the freeholders. Their number was regu- lated by law. The term of service was indefinite till 1743, when it was limited to seven years.
" The Governor could suspend members of the Council and appoint others, subject to the King's approbation. He had a negative on the acts passed by the Assembly and Council. He had power to summon, prorogue, or dissolve the Assem- bly, to appoint all public officers, and, with the consent of the Council, to establish courts of justice, to dispose of the public lands, and to disburse the public moneys raised for the support of the government."
It will be seen, at a glance, that this system of gov- ernment offered an open door for great abuse of power. The land sales, fees for new patents, and quit-rents, afforded revenues on which many of the governors grew rich ; and the absolute negative possessed by the Gov- ernor and the Crown rendered the Assembly almost powerless for the adoption of any measure not pleasing to them. The abuses of power, and the oppressions of the people which led to the American Revolution, are portions of the history of the whole country that it is not necessary to repeat here.
CHAPTER IV.
PRIMITIVE CUSTOMS, INSTITUTIONS AND INDUSTBIES
CAPTAIN KIDD.
THE customs of the early Dutch settlers on the west end of Long Island differed, in many respects, from those of the people who settled its eastern portions. Those of the former will be more par- ticularly spoken of in our general history of Kings County, which was distinctively Dutch in all its charac- teristics. The customs of the latter (Queens and Suffolk
30
GENERAL HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.
Counties), modified by the changes which two centuries have brought, and by the increasing cosmopolitanism of the American people, are yet, to a great degree, in vogue among their descendants, and still sufficiently indicate their Yankee origin. We touch then, in this brief chap- ter, only upon those features of social life, etc., which were in some measure common to the whole island ; premising that the peculiar circumstances by which these settlers were environed led to the adoption of some customs which have quite passed away, as these surroundings have given place to others.
Since very early times the species of gambling that is designated as turf sports has been very prevalent on Long Island, and files of old newspapers abound with notices of races that were to take place, or accounts of those that had occurred. Lotteries, also, were not only tolerated, but were often instituted to raise 'money for erecting churches, or founding religious or benevolent associations. The latter form of gambling is now pro- hibited by law, but whether or not the moral sense of the people will ever frown down the former is an unsolved question.
During many years whaling was an important indus- try on the southeastern coast of the island, and, at inter- vals along the shore, whaleboats were kept for launching whenever whales were sighted. Fueman, in describ- ing a tour around Long Island in old times, says that there might be seen "occasionally, at long intervals, small thatched huts, or wigwams, on the highest eleva- tions, with a staif projecting from the top. These huts were occupied, at certain seasons, by men on the watch for whales, and, when they saw them blowing, a signal was hoisted on this staff. Immediately the people would be seen coming from all directions with their whaling boats upon wagon-wheels, drawn by horses or oxen ; launch them from the beach, and be off in pursuit of the great fish. You would see all through this region these whaling boats turned upside down, lying upon a frame under the shade of some trees by the roadside, this being the only way in which they could keep them, having no harbors ; four or five families would club together in owning one of these boats and in manning them." So much a standard industry was this that shares in the results of the fisheries were sometimes made portions of the salaries or perquisites of clergy- men. In July, 1699, it was said "Twelve or thirteen whales have been taken on the east end of the island." In IVII, it was reported that four whales were taken at Montauk, eight at Southampton, two at Moriches, two and a calf at Brookhaven, two at Islip, and one drift whale that yielded twenty barrels of oil. In 1V21, it was said that forty whales had been taken on Long Island; but, in 1V22, onlyfourwere reported. In 1741, they were reported as being more abundant. The whales that formerly frequented this coast have long since been exterminated or driven away, though occasionally stragglers have been seen in comparatively recent times.
The New York Times, of Feb. 21, 1858, published the following from a correspondent in Southampton : "At noon to-day the horn sounded through the streets, which is the signal to look out for a whale. In a few minutes tough old whalemen enough had mustered on the beach to man several boats and push out into the surf in chase of three whales which were leisurely spouting in the offing. After an exciting but brief chase the lance touched the life of one of the three, who spouted claret and turned up dead. He was towed to the shore and will make — the judges say — forty barrels of oil."
The taking of shell-fish in the bays and on the coast has been an important and increasing industry ; and the capture of fish for the expression of oil and the manu- facture of fertilizers has come to be a business of some importance.
It was the custom of the Indians on this island, before its settlement by the whites, to annually burn the herbage on large portions of it, which were thus kept free from trees and underbrush. This enabled the early settlers to enter at once on the cultivation of the land, and to convert large tracts into common pastures. The arrest of the annual fires permitted underbrush to spring up in such profusion that the male inhabitants of the towns, between the ages of sixteen and sixty, were called out by the Court of Assize during four days of each year to cut away this growth. On the wooded portions of the island the timber was cut and converted into staves so rapidly by the early settlers that, Adthin the first twenty years, the towns instituted rules regulat- ing or prohibiting the cutting of trees.
At first the scarcity of circulating medium compelled people to make exchanges in various kinds of produce, and this method necessitated the fixing of the value of produce, either by custom or law. The Indian sewant, or wampum, was very much used in place of money, and both it and produce were used not only in business transactions but in the payment of taxes, fines, etc. By reason of the facility with which the material could be procured, the manufacture of wampum was sometimes engaged in by the whites, within the memory of some now living. John Jacob Astor employed men to man- ufacture it here, that he might send it to the northwest and exchange it with the Indians there for furs. The following schedule of the value of produce in the mid- dle and latter part of the seventeenth century, when this custom prevailed, is taken from Wood: "Pork per lb., 3 pence; beef, 2; tallow, 6; butter, 6; dry hides, 4; green hides, 2; lard, 6; winter wheat, 4s. to 5s. per bush.; summer wheat, 3s. 6d. per bush.; rye, 2s. 6d. to 38. 6d. per bush.; Indian corn, 2s. 3d. to 2s. 6d. per bush.; oats, 2s. per bush." Stock in 1665 was legally valued as follows: " Colts, one to two years, £3 each; two to three, £4 each; three to four, £8; horses four years or more of age, £12; bullocks, bulls or cows four years or upward, £6 each; steers and heifers, one to two years, each £1 10s.; two to three, £2 10s.; three to four
BEQIN-JSriNG OF TBE REVOLTTTION.
31
£4; goats, one year, 8s.; sheep, one year, 6s. 8d.; hogs, one year, £1. These were the prices fixed for the guid- ance of the town authorities in receiving produce, etc., in payment of taxes. Produce in place of a circulating medium continued in use till about 1700, when money had become sufiiciently abundant for the require- ments of trade. Board was 5s. per week; meals, 6d. each; lodgings, 2d. per night; beer, 2d. per mug; pasture per day and night. Is.; labor per day, 2s. 6d.
Previous to 1V93 no post office was established on the island and no mail was carried on it. A Scotchman nam.ed Dunbar rode a voluntary post as early as about lYVS. This was in violation of the law, but the neces- sity of the case caused the offense to be winked at. The people on the west end of the island were supposed to receive their letters from the post-ofiice in New York, and those on the east end from New London. Even as late as 1835, Fukman says, the mail stage left Brooklyn for Easthampton no oftener than once a week, and mail packages were often left and taken at designated places, such as a particular rock or a box nailed to a tree. Hotels were few then, and the hospitaUties of the peo- ple living along the route through the island were always readily extended to the few travelers who passed over it.
During the last decade of the seventeenth century, the seas of the Indies were infested with pirates, who preyed upon the commerce of all nations. In 1695, the celebrated Captain William Kidd, an Englishman, was commissioned by the King of England, and furnished by an association in that country with a ship and crew, to go in quest of the pirates. He sailed in 1696, and came to the coast of America, where for a time he did good service. At New York he took an addition to his crew, sailed to the East Indies and turned pirate. After ravaging the eastern seas he returned to the coast of South America, and pursued his piratical course to the West Indies ; and thence, after a career of robbery and piracy, came to the shores of Long Island. In 1699 he landed at Gardiner's Island (Easthampton), and in the presence of the owner, John Gardiner, under injunctions of secrecy, buried a . large amount of treasure, which was afterward recovered by the commissioners of the Earl of Bellemont, one of the association, who sent Kidd forth. The freebooter was apprehended, sent to England, tried, convicted of murder, and hung in chains at Execution Dock.
His career has been the subject of much romance and more superstition. It was believed that he buried much treasure besides that which was recovered; and the shores of Long Island have, again and again, been thoroughly searched and excavated by curious people, often with absurdly ridiculous cere- monies, but no treasure was ever known to reward their labors.
CHAPTER V.
BEGINNING OF THE EEVOLUTION POLITICAL ATTITUDE
OF THE THREE LONG ISLAND COUNTIES.
IT was on Long Island that the first protest against taxation without representation was made. In 1691 the first permanent Assembly of representa- tives of the people was established, and this was the first step in the direction of a free government in the colony of New York. The Colonial governors had possessed very large — almost absolute — power, and that power had sometimes been arbitrarily exercised. The people's money had been used at the discretion of the governors, and, it was believed, had often been misap- plied and embezzled. On application, in 1706, to Queen Anne, the Assembly was authorized to appoint a treas- urer to receive and disburse all money which was raised under its authority, and it accordingly " assumed general control of all the finances by making specific appropri- ations." In 1711 the Assembly denied the right of the Council (which was claimed) to alter revenue bills, asserting that the power of the Council flowed from the pleasure of the prince, personified by the commission of the governor ; but that the power of the Assembly, in relation to taxes, flowed from the choice of the people, who could not be divested of their money without their consent.
From this time forward there was almost constant struggle between the crown, through its representatives the governors, on one side, and the people, •through their representatives the Assembly, upon the other. The governors sought to vex and coerce the Assembly into compliance with their demands, or to punish what they considered contumacy and contempt by frequent prorogations and dissolutions. Under the absurd pre- text that the colony had been planted and sustained in its infancy by the mother country, the right of almost absolute control over it afterward was claimed. The conflict continued, with the result of constantly calling the attention of the people to the subject, and leading them to investigate the principles which lie at the foun- dation of just government, and the sources whence the powers of so-called rulers are derived. Thus they came to know and appreciate the value of their rights, and thus was nurtured and developed the spirit of resist- ance to the exercise of a power which they had come to believe had no just foundation. This conflict, between the spirit of liberty and the encroachments of arbitrary power, culminated in the resistance, on the part of -the colonies, to the oppressive acts of the Crown and Parlia- ment of Great Britain that inaugurated the Revolution.
It must be remembered that, during all this conflict the inhabitants of Long Island constituted a large pro- portion of the colony ; and, even in 1787, more than one- fifth of the tax of the State was assessed to the counties
32
QJENERAL HISTORY Of LONG ISLAND.
^
of Kings, Queens and Suffolk. The people of Long Island were as strongly opposed to the encroachments of the Crown as were those of other portions of the Colony ; but, by the force of circumstances, many were, or pretended to be, loyalists during the revolutionary struggle. Some, through fear of personal hardship, or loss of property, were induced either to remain inactive or to join the British cause. Others, and in no incon- siderable number, found, in their assumed loyalty, the opportunity of despoiling their neighbors and of bene- fitting themselves. The part taken by each of the three counties was singularly characteristic of the national traits and affiliations of those by whom they were respect- ively settled. The Suffolk County people, descendants of the original Puritans, in whom resistance to oppres- sion was an instinct, promptly presented a rebellious front to the invader. Says Field: "Out of its whole population of freeholders and adult male inhabitants, numbering 2,834 between the ages of sixteen and sixty, only 236 were reckoned as being of loyalist proclivities. The enrolled militia of the county exceeded 2,000, of whom 303 officers and privates were in the ranks of Colonel Smith's regiment, the best disciplined and armed on the island. It was the only one which could be con- sidered in any form to have survived the shock of the 27th of August, and only a small part even of this body ever did service after that fatal day." In Queens Coimty, with its mixed Dutch and English population, the loyal sentiment was always largely in the ascendant ; though there is but little doubt that the rebel feeling would have become dominant had circumstances favored. " The whole force of the Whigs which could be mustered under arms was insufficient to overawe their loyalist neighbors. Seventeen hundred and seventy able-bodied men among her citizens were enrolled on the roster of her militia, while only 379 were by the most stringent measures induced to appear in arms." Meetings were held in the different towns and districts, at which reso- lutions were adopted expressive of sympathy with the popular cause ; and committees of correspondence, as they were termed, were appointed to represent them in county conventions and to devise such measures as the welfare of the country seemed to demand. After the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress and the approval of this action by the Provin- cial Congress, the enthusiasm of the Whigs in this part of the island rose to a high pitch. Public demonstra- tions were made ; and, in one instance at least, the effigy of George HI. was publicly hanged and burned.
But the Dutch population of Kings County were very averse to engaging in the rebellion, which, from the first, promised to entail upon them serious conse- quences and probable ultimate failure. At a meeting of committees from the several towns of the county, held at Flatbush, in April, 1775, for the purpose of appointing delegates to a General Provincial Conven- tion, the town of Flatlands desired to " remain neutral ;"
and the subsequent attendance of the delegates of some of these Kings County towns was so irregular, and their zeal so lukewarm, that the Convention felt obliged to request their more regular attendance.
CHAPTER VI.
THE BRITISH OCCUPATION OF LONG ISLAND-
THB MAINLAND SMUGGLING SEEVICBS
OF GENERAL WOODHULL.
-RAIDS FROM AND DEATH
0'
N June 11th, 1776, the British army, which had a short time previously evacuated Boston, where it had been closely besieged by the Americans, sailed from Halifax for New York harbor. The strategic importance of this point had long been appa- rent to the British commander, and it had been foreseen by Washington that this would be the next point attacked. The plan of the British campaign was to possess New York and Long Island with an army of about 35,000 men ; then to ascend the Hudson river and effect a junction with an army of some 13,000 that was to pass the lakes, penetrate to the Hudson and descend that river. The eastern provinces were thus to be divided from the middle and southern, and active operations were at the same time to be carried on at the south, and thus the rebellion was to be crushed in a single campaign. The failure of the southern campaign before the arrival of Howe at New York and the inter- ruption of the Canadian army at the lakes, frustrated the British commander's plan for the speedy subjuga- tion of the rebellious colonies.
(A brief account of the Battle of Brooklyn, Aug. 27, 1776, may be found in the General History of Kings County.)
The defeat of the American forces in this battle removed the restraint which had kept in check the strong feeling of loyalty in Kings and Queens counties, and in the following autumn about fourteen hundred inhabi- tants of the latter county signed a declaration of loyalty and petition for protection. And when the people of Kings County found the island — and especially that portion of it which they occupied — abandoned by the American forces, it was not strange that they eagerly accepted the opportunity of withdrawing from a strug- gle in which they had no heart, and of seeking the mercy and protection of the now dominant power of England.
Stiles says: "On the 7th November, 1776, a large number of the freeholders and people of the county— availing them- selves of Lord Howe's recent proclamation of security of person and property to those who should remain peaceably upon their farms — submitted a very humble and loyal address to his Lordship, wherein they state that, ' reflecting with the tenderest emotions of gratitude on this instance of His Majesty's paternal goodness, and encouraged by the affec- tionate manner iu which His Majesty's gracious purpose hath been conveyed to us by your Excellencies, who have thereby
BRITISH OCCUPATION OF lOJSTG ISLAND.
33
evinced that humanity is inseparable from that true mag- Qanimity and those enlarged sentiments which form the most slaining characters,' they beg leave to represent that they have all signed the oath of allegiance.
' ' The submission of the rank and file was soon followed by that of a majority of the leaders ; and the militia of the county, in January, 1777, further testified their ' loyalty to their sovereign and zeal to the constitution' by voluntarily contributing the sum of £310 8s. toward the expense of a new battalion, at that time recruited by Colonel Fanning.
" After the evacuation of Brooklyn, the British, Hessians, Tories and refugees had unlimited range over Long Island, and were quickly joined by ' neutrals ' and ' fence gentry.' Most of the Whigs were absent with the army ; their wives, children and aged people alone remained at home, and their dwelhngs became the prey of these vsrretches who robbed friend and foe alike. The negroes, also, became their willing aiders and abettors, and frequently guided them in their pre- datory expeditions. The loyalists were all ordered to attend at British headquarters, at Bedford, to be registered ; after which they were directed to wear a red badge in their hats, as a protection and token of loyalty. They obeyed with ludicrous alacrity, and straightway the loyal badge flamed from every hat and cap in the county. Many ladies wore scarlet ribbons, while all the negroes, of course, were royalists and bedecked their hats with scarlet rags : and females even dispensed with their flannel petticoats to supply the unpre- cedented demand for cloth of the requisite hue.
' 'The protection afforded to the people by the royal authori- ties was paternal only in its severity. Long Island and the vicinity of New York City were kept under the most rigorous miUtary rule. Elections, except annual town meetings, were not allowed; the civil courts were suspended; and their functions arbitrarily dispensed either by a king's justice or a military officer. A sort of police court was opened in New York at the Mayor's office ; and, in 1780, a similar one at Jamaica, for the greater convenience of the Long Island peo- ple. The ferry at both the New York and Long Island side was placed under military guards ; every market boat had to have a yearly license from military headquarters ; and no farmer or other person could transport any provisions or goods to or from the city without a written pass either from the Mayor's office or from the colonel in command at Flat- bush. The prices of wood and of all commodities and farm produce was regulated by proclamation ; and the farmers, their wages and servants, were liable, at any time, to be im- pressed into the King's service, at a stipulated price. Wood- land and brushwood, and even fences, were remorselessly cut down by the British to be used for fuel and the building of fortifications ; and, when the wood was at length exhausted, and the inhabitants began to be straitened for want of it, the Hessians dug up the meadows for peat, despite the expos- tulations of the astonished and indignant Dutch farmers, who before long, however, had to admit that their unwelcome guests had, in this respect, rendered them a great service. The whole district occupied by the troops in Kings County -was a common, and most of the land remained unf enced until the British left the country. In the winter season every vil- lage was filled with British soldiers, wagons, etc., billeted most summarily in private houses or cantoned in temporary
huts."
Ondebdonk says concerning this: "Billeting of Soldiers.— During the summer British troops were oft' the island on active sei-vice : or, if a few remained here, they abode under tents ; but in virinter they were hutted on the sunny side of a hill, or else distributed in farmers' houses. A British officer, accompanied by a justice of the peace.
or some prominent loyalist, as a guide, rode around the country, and from actual inspection decided how many sol- diers each house could receive, and this number was chalked on the door. The only notification was : ' Madam, we have come to take a billet on your house.' If a house had but one fireplace it was passed by, as the soldiers were not intended to form part of a family. A double house for the officers, or single house with a kitchen for privates was just the thing. The soldiers were quartered in the kitchen, and the inner door nailed up so that the soldiers could not intrude on the household. They, however, often became intimate with the family and sometimes intermarried. The Hessians were more sociable than the English soldiers, and often made little bas- kets and other toys for the children, taught them German and amused them in various ways ; sometimes corrupting them by their vile language and raanners. Any misconduct of the soldiers might be reported to their commanding offi- cers, who usually did justice ; but some offences could not be proven, such as night-stealing or damage done the house or to other property. As the soldiers received their pay in coin they were flush, and paid liberally for what they bought, such as vegetables, milk, or what they could not draw with their rations. These soldiers were a safeguard against rob- bers and whaleboat men. Some had their vsdves with them, who acted as washerwomen, and sometimes in meaner capa- cities.
" From a perusal of the orderly book of General Delancey, it appears that he used every means to protect the persons and property of the inhabitants of Long Island from the out- rages of British soldiers. They were not allowed to go more than half a mile from camp at daytime (and for this purpose roll was called several times during the day), nor leave it under any pretext after sundown vidthout a pass ; but now and then they would slip out and rob. On the 11th of June, 1788, Mr. John Willett, of Flushing, was assaulted at his own house, at 11 o'clock at night, by persons unknown but sup- posed to be soldiers from having bayonets and red clothes, who threatened his life and to bum his house. The general offered a reward of $10 to the person who should first make the discovery to Major Waller ; and a like reward for the dis- covery of the person who robbed Mr. Willett on the 9th of June of two sheep, a calf and some poultry, as he was deter- mined to inflict exemplary punishment and put a stop to practices so dishonorable to the King's service. Again. March 9th, 1778, Mrs. Hazard, of Newtown, having complained that the soldiers of the guard pulled down and burnt up her fence, that was near the guardhouse, the general at once issued an order to the officer that he should hold him answerable there- after for any damage done the fences. So, too, if a soldier milked the farmers' cows, he should be punished without mercy ; nor should he go in the hayfleld and gather up new mown grass to make his bed of. Generally the farmers were honestly paid for whatever they sold. For instance, April 38d, 1778, they were notifled to call on Mr. Ochiltree, deputy commissary of forage at Flushing, with proper certificates and get payment for their hay."
In January, 1777, the American prisoners in New York were paroled and billeted on the people in Kings County. One of these. Colonel Geatdon, writes :
" The indulgence of arranging ourselves according to our respective circles of acquaintances was granted us, and Lieu- tenant Forrest and myself were billeted on Mr. Jacob Suy- dam, whose house was pretty large, consisting of buildings which appeared to have been erected at different times. The front and better part was occupied by Mr. Theophilus Bache and family from New York. Though we were generally
34
GENERAL mSTORT OF LONG ISLAND.
civilly enough received, it cannot be supposed we were very welcome to our Low Dutch hosts, whose habits were very par- simonious, and whose winter provision was barely sufficient for themselves. They were, however, a people who seemed thoroughly disposed to submit to any power that might be imposed on them ; and whatever might have been their pro- pensities at an earlier stage of the contest, they were now the dutiful and loyal subjects of King George III. Their houses and beds we found clean, but their living extremely poor. A sorry wash made up of a sprinkling of bohea and the dark- est sugar, on the verge of fluidity, with half-baked bread (fuel being very scarce) and a little stale butter, constituted our breakfast. At our first coming, a small piece of pickled beef was occasionally boiled for dinner, but to the beef, which was soon consumed, there succeeded clippers or clams ; and our unvaried supper was suppaan or mush, sometimes with skimmed mUk, but more generally with buttermilk blended with molasses, which was kept for weeks in a churn, as swill is saved for hogs. I found it, however, after a little use, very eatable, and supper soon became my best meal. Their reUgious, like their other habits, were unostentatious and plain ; and a simple, silent grace before meat prevailed at the table of Jacob Suydam. When we were all seated he suddenly clapped his hands together, threw his head on one side, closed his eyes, and remained mute and motionless for about a minute. His niece and nephew followed his exam- ple, but with such an eager solicitude that the copied attitude should be prompt and simultaneous, as to give an air of absurdity to what might otherwise have been very decent." Officers and soldiers " lorded it" over the people ; and, as a natural consequence, insubordination arose among the slaves, who ran away or became less respectful to their mas- ters whom they saw so humbled before the British officers. When we add to this the carousing, gambling, profanity and other camp vices which were introduced into the hitherto quiet villages by the presence of large bodies of troops, we can see that the people of Long Island were not to be envied. It is true that farmers flourished on British gold, obtained for such of their produce as had been spared them by marauders ; but, with few opportunities for its investment, they were obliged to keep it by them and were often robbed.' The churches, also, except those of the established faith, were freely occupied as prisons, hospitals, storehouses, and bar- racks for troops ; some were even wantonly destroyed.
During the remainder of the Eevolution, in order to insure the doubtful loyalty of a portion of the inhabi- tants, British troops, whose ranks were increased by enlistments from among the tories, wore sta- tioned at different points on the island, and against the lawlessness of these there was no protection. Robbery was still carried on by marauding gangs under the guise of Whig or tory partisanship ; and frequent raids were made by parties of Continental troops from the Connec- ticut shore of the Sound, although nothing occurred which can justly be dignified by the name of a battle. A few of these affairs may be mentioned bore. In November, 17Y6, three or four hundred troops crossed from New Haven to Setauket, where a sharp skirmish was had with a detachment of General Howe's troops. Eight or ten of the British troops were killed, and 23 prisoners and 75 muskets taken.
In April, 1Y77, an expedition was planned by General Parsons, the object of Mrl,ich was to destroy a quantity
of forage and provisions that had been collected at Sag Harbor. For that purpose a party of two hundred men, under Colonel Meigs, crossed the Sound from New Haven on the 23d of May, in whaleboats. They secreted their boats about three miles from Sag Harbor, marched to the village, arriving at 2 a. m. ; impressed guides, by whom they were conducted to the quarters of the com- manding officer, whom they captured; forced the out- post by a bayonet charge and proceeded to the wharf where in three-fourths of an hour, although under the fire of an armed schooner, one hundred and fifty yards away, they burned twelve brigs and sloops, one hun- dred and twenty tons of hay, and a quantity of grain and destroyed ten hogsheads of rum and a quantity of merchandise. They also killed six of the enemy, took ninety prisoners, and returned after an absence of a little more than twenty-four hours without the loss-of a man. For this service Congress presented a sword to Colonel Meigs, and General Washington in a letter com- plimented General Parsons.
In August, 1777, General Parsons organized an expe- dition of about one hundred and fifty men to break up a British outpost at Setauket, where a Presbyterian church had been fortified by surrounding it with an embankment six feet in height, and placing swivels in four of the gallery windows. After an engagement of two or three hours, with the loss of only four men. Gen- eral Parsons withdrew, fearing his retreat might be cut off by the capture of his sloop and boats. It is a nota- ble fact that one of the volunteers in this expedition, Zachariah Green, was twenty years after installed as minister of this same church.
In the autumn of 1780, Major Benjamin Tallmadge planned and successfully executed one of the most audacious exploits accomplished on the island during the war. At Smith's Point, Mastic, on the south side of the island, an enclosure of several acres had been made, triangular in foi-m, with strongly barricaded houses at two of the angles, and a fort, ninety feet square, protected by an abattis, at the other. The fort was completed and garrisoned by about fifty men, and in it two guns were mounted. On the 21st of November Major Tallmadge embarked at Fairfield, Conn., with eighty dismounted dragoons, and landed at 9 in the evening at Mount Sinai, where the boats were secured. They attempted to cross the island, but a ram storm drove them back to their boats and kept them till 7 the next evening, when they again set out. At 3 the next morning they arrived within two miles of the fort (which was called Fort George), and arranged to attack it simultaneously at three points, which was done. A breach was made, the enclosure entered, and the main fort carried at the point of the bayonet, with- out the firing of a gun, the two other attacking parties mounting the ramparts at the same time with shouts. They were fired on from one of the houses, but they foi-eibly entered it and threw some of their assailants
SER VICES AND DEATH OF GENERAL WOODHULL.
35
from the chamber windows. With none killed and only a few slightly wounded, they destroyed the fort, burned a vessel and took fifty-four prisoners and a quan- tity of merchandise, with which they returned. A party of ten or twelve, with Major Tallmadge, visited Coram and burned some four hundred tons of hay. For this exploit Major Tallmadge was commended in a letter by General Washington.
A year later Major Tallmadge sent a party of 150 under Major Trescott to destroy Port Slongo, in the northwestern part of Smithtown. The force crossed from Saugjituck River in the night, attacked and de- stroyed the fort, which was garrisoned by 140 men, burned the blockhouse, destroyed two iron guns, killed four and wounded two of the enemy, took twenty-one prisoners, one brass field piece and seventy muskets, and returned with none killed and but one seriously wounded.
In 1778 a fort was erected on Lloyd's Neck by the British for the protection of wood cutters and defense against raiders from the mainland. An unsuccessful attack was made on this fort on the 12th of July, 1781, by a force of French under Count de Barras, assisted by American volunteers. In this affair a few of the assailants were wounded and one or two killed.
During the British occupation of Long Island, illicit trade was carried on between the people and in Con- necticut, by means of many ingeniously devised plans.
Previous to the separation of the colonies non-impor- tation associations had existed, and the patriotic colo- nists had accustomed themselves to drinking sage and sassafras tea and wearing homespun. After the sepa- ration no motive of patriotism stood in the way of in- dulgence in the use of British goods, and with the facili- ties which the long stretch of the north coast, with its numerous estuaries, inlets and harbors, and the narrow Sound beyond, afforded for smuggling, it is not surpris- ing that Yankee shrewdness should elude the sleepy vigilance of government olBcials, and the people of Con- necticut come to be well supplied with goods that had been brought from New York ostensibly to supply the wants of loyal Long Islanders. All the ordinary devices of smuggling were resorted to, and even collusions were entered into with the so-called piratical whaleboat men, and stores were robbed and the goods taken across the Sound, the owners, of course, sharing the profits of the adventure. In many cases government ofiicials winked at this trade, because it supplied necessaries that were difficult to procure otherwise. In some instances it was believed they were secretly interested in the transac- tions. By reason of the long Sound-coast of Suffolk county, and the secret rebel sympathies of many of its inhabitants, a large share of this trade was done through that county.
The self-sacrificing patriotism, the meritorious ser- vices, the pure, unselfish life and the tragic death of Gen- real Nathaniel Woodhull, together with the fact that
events identified him with a^^the counties on Long Island, render a brief sketch of him appropriate here. He was born in 1729 at Mastic, in Brookhaven, received a sound education and early displayed those mental traits that qualified him for public usefulness. In 1753 he entered the army, and in the French and Indian war of 1754-60, held the position of Major. He was at Ticonderoga under General Abercrombie, and was with General Brad- street in the expedition against Fort Frontenac and the reduction of that fortress. He did important service in the exjDedition from Schenectady to the Oneida's carrying- place in the same summer; and in 1760, having been promoted to the rank of colonel, he went in command of the 3d regiment of New York troops in the expedi- tion against Canada. On the termination of hostilities he was discharged with the troops of the province, and returned to private life. In 1769 he was made a mem- ber of the Colonial Assembly from Suffolk county, and he continued a member of that body till the dissolution of the Colonial government in 1775. He was chosen a delegate to the Provincial Congress in May, 1775 ; and in August of the same year was made president of the Congress, and acted in that capacity till August 10th, 1776. He was, also, in August, 1775, appointed briga- dier-general of the militia of Suffolk and Queens coun- ties. On the 10th of August, 1776, he obtained leave of absence from the Provincial Congress. On the 24th, two days previous to the battle of Long Island, he was ordered by the Convention to take command of a force of militia and " use all possible diligence to prevent the stock and other provisions from falling into the hands of the enemy." Pie discharged this duty to the best of his ability with his meager force, driving beyond the reach of the enemy all the cattle that could be col- lected, at the same time making known to the Conven- tion his inability to maintain himself with the force at his command. The unfortunate issue of the battle of Long Island, and the impracticability of sending the desired reinforcements, will be remembered. In the hope of sending these, however, and in accordance with his sense of honor and duty, he did not make a final retreat ; but, on the 28th, ordered his troops to a point four miles east of Jamaica, where, in the afternoon, he attempted to join them. A thunder storm arrested him some two miles from this town, at the tavern of Increase Carpenter, and he was overtaken by a party of dragoons and infantry, guided by some tories. Wood says : " The general immediately gave up his sword in token of surrender. The ruffian who first approached him (said to be a Lieutenant Huzzy), as is reported, ordered him to say ' God save the King.' The general replied ' God save us all ' ; on which he most cowardly and cruelly assailed the defenseless general with his broadsword, and would have killed him on the spot if he had not been prevented by the inter- ference of an officer of more honor and humanity (said to be Major De Lancey of the dragoons), who arrested
36
GENERAL HISTORY OF LONG ISEANB.
Ms savage violence." He was removed to Jamacia, his wounds were dressed, and with other prisoners he was confined till the next day in a stone church. He was then sent to Gravesend, and confined with eighty others, in a vessel that had been used for the transportation of live stock, with no provision for comfort or health. Thence he was removed to a house in New Utrecht. Here it was found his injuries necessitated amputation of his arm. Previous to the operation he sent for his wife, and made arrangements for the alleviation of the suffering of the American prisoners at his own expense. Mortification soon succeeded the operation, and on the 20th of September he died. Wood says of him : " With personal courage he possessed judgment, decision and firmness of character, tempered with conciliating manners, which commanded the respect and obedience of his troops, and at the same time secured their confidence and esteem."
CHAPTER Vn.
THE WAE OF 1812 NAVAL OPEEATIONS ABOUT LONG
ISLAND.
ON the 18th of June, 1812, a formal declaration of war against Great Britain was made by the "United States.
In the latter part of 1812 and early in 1813 British cruisers were stationed on the American coast. From the files of a paper called War, which was pub- lished in New York at the time, it appears that, on the 19th of January, 1813, a British 74, two frigates and a gun brig were stationed off the entrance to New York harbor, and on the 26th it was stated that this fleet had been augmented, and several prizes taken. Commo- dore Lewis, in command of the flotilla in New York harbor, attempted to go down, but was prevented by the ice. It was not till the 20th of March, 1813, that the entire coast of the United States, with the ex- ception of Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, was declared in a state of blockade.
In April of that year, it was stated that a Bi-itish 74 and several jjrivateers were cruising in Long Island Sound, that they had captured a number of coasting vessels, and that " the naval force now in this harbor is sufiioient either to capture or di-ive them off, but for some unaccountable reason the ' LTnited States' and ' Macedonian ' have been suffered to lie upward of . three months at the navy yard entirely dismantled ; our enemy when occasion requires can fit out a ship of war in three weeks, or even less time."
In June, 1813, the daring privateer, " Governor Tompkins," of New York, came through the Sound. Off Fisher's Island she was chased by the enemy's squadron cruising there, but escaped.
Peime relates, that " in June, 1813, while a British
squadron under Commodore Hardy lay in Gardiner's Bay, a launch and two barges with 100 men attempted to surprise Sag Harbor in the night. They landed on the wharf, but, an alarm being quickly given, the guns of a small fort were opened upon them with such effect that they had only time to set fire to a single sloop, and retreated with so much percipitation as to leave a large quantity of guns, swords and other arms behind them. The flames were speedily extinguished, and no other injury sustained."
In September of the same year a flotilla of thirty gun- boats, under Commodore Lewis, passed through Hell Gate to Sands Point, in quest of some armed vessels of the enemy that were cruising in the Sound. The weather was not favorable for close action, and after a few shots at long range the flotilla anchored; a frigate, which had drawn away from its consorts returned, and the enemy's ships retired eastward.
November 16th, 1813, Admiral Warren, commanding the blockading squadron, issued a proclamation in which he declared a blockade of " all that part of Long Island Sound being the sea coast lying within Montauk Point, or the eastern point of Long Island, and the point of land opposite thereto, commonly called Plack Point, situated on the sea coast of the main land; together with all the ports, harbors, creeks, and entrances of the East and North rivers of New York, as well as all the other ports, creeks, and bays along the coast of Long Island and the State of New York," etc.
In 1813, the "Amazon," Captain Conkling, of Hunt- ington ; the " Sally," Captain Akerly, of Cow Harbor ; and the " Arago " and " Juno," Captain Jones, of Brook- haven, were captured in the sound by the British vessels " Acasta " and "Atalanta." During the same year a British fleet entered and remained some time in Gardi- ner's Bay.
In May, 1814, the sloop " Amelia," bound for Rhode Island, laden with rye, pork and flour, was made a prize by a barge from the British ship of war " Bulwark." One of the owners of this sloop was, with two or three other men, suspected of treason. They were tried and acquitted.
In August of the same year a small schooner was chased on shore at Rockaway by the boats of the block- ading squadron, and set on fire. The fire was extin- guished, though those engaged in extinguishing it were several times fired upon.
In 1814 the British vessels "Pomona "and "Dis- patch," arriving off Setauket hai'bor, sent seven barges into Drown Meadow Bay, where they captured the ves- sels " Two Friends," " Hope," " Herald," and " Mercan- tile," and burned the " Oneida," which were all anchored in the bay.
Boat crews from the blockading squadron entered through Rockaway Inlet, and committed depredations on the inhabitants near the shores of Jamaica Bay; and to protect against such attacks a block-house was erected
ROADS AND RAILROADS ON LONG ISLAND.
3^
at the inlet. In the General History of Kings County an account is given of the erection of defensive works in Brooklyn.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE CONSTRUCTION OF WAGON EOADS AND RAILROADS ON LONG ISLAND.
AT first, highways were established in the different towns according to the apparent necessities of the dwellers in those towns, without reference. to the convenience of the people elsewhere. No thoroughfares were projected till a long time afterward, and the irregularity of the roads was such that guides were necessary, in some places, to conduct strangers from place to place. These roads were often facetiously termed " cow-paths," because of their irregularity, which is still a noticeable feature of the ordinary highways.
In view of the urgent necessity which had come to be felt for better facilities for travel, the Legislature in 1704 enacted a law, by which three commissioners in each of the counties on the island were appointed to lay out a road four rods in width, from Brooklyn ferry to Easthampton. Twenty years later, by another act of the Legislature, commissioners were appointed " for better clearing and further laying out of the roads on the island." By action of these commissioners the direct road from Brooklyn to Easthampton was established. This road ran through the center portion of the island, and during many years it was the main thoroughfare between New York and the " east end." As time went on, parallel roads were opened, both north and south, from this, and turnpikes were established between differ- ent localities.
As late as 1764 the first post-route was established through the island, and it was called " the circuit." The mail was carried (on horseback) once in two weeks east- ward through the north part of the island, returning along the south shore.
About the year 1847 what has been termed the Plank Road mania began to prevail through the country, and it reached its height about 1850 or 1851. The level surface of Long Island afforded better facilities for the construction of these roads than existed in many regions, and within three or four years after the first was built they had greatly multiplied in all parts of the island, and a new era of travel was thought by some to have dawned. The impracticability of these roads, however, soon became apj)arent, and here as elsewhere the mania subsided almost as rapidly as it had arisen. The projection of new roads ceased, and those which had been constructed were abandoned or converted into turnpikes and then into common highways. Of the many that came into existence none remain as plank roads.
Long Island has a railroad system that fully meets the wants of its inhabitants and affords ample facilities for pleasure seekers from abroad to visit the seaside resorts along its southern shore. The sole reliance of the roads on the island for support is on local patron- age ; none of them are parts of thoroughfares that open into regions beyond, though the Long Island Railroad has established ferries to New London, Conn., to Block Island and to Newport, connecting thus with Boston and the Eastern States. These ferries have not proved very profitable, as they could not be maintained in the winter, and the route was liable to other serious objec- tions.
The first railroad constructed on Long Island was that from South ferry in Brooklyn to Jamaica. This was opened for travel April 18th, 1836. In the same year the Long Island company commenced the exten- sion eastward of this road, and in 1837 it was in opera- tion to Hicksville. In 1841 it reached Suffolk Station, and on the 25th of July, 1844, the first train of cars passed over it to Greenport, a total length of ninety- five miles.
From Hicksville a branch was opened to Syosset in 1854, and an extension completed to Northport in 1868, and thence a road was completed to Port Jefferson in 1872. Branches were also constructed from Mineola to Hempstead and to Locust Point, and from Jamaica to Far Rockaway.
In 1869 the Sag Harbor branch was built, diverging from the main line at Manor Station, passing through the Hamptons and terminating at Sag Harbor. The road from Hunter's Point to Flushing was opened in 1854, and it was subsequently extended to Manhasset. A road was also constructed from Hunter's Point to Whitestone.
On the south side a road was opened from Jamaica to Babylon in the autumn of 1867, and extended to Patohogue in 1868. Branches of this road were also built. A. T. Stewart constructed a road to Garden City, and this was extended to Babylon. Other roads and branches sprang into existence, and a competition arose that was not conducive to the prosperity of the roads.
A consolidation of these roads under the control of the Messrs. Poppenhusen by leases and otherwise was effected. Lavish expenditures were made and much business was done, but the management was not suc- cessful, and in 1877 Thomas R. Sharp was appointed receiver of the consolidated corporation.
In the latter part of 1880 a controlling interest in the Long Island Railroad passed into the hands of a syndicate of Boston and London capitalists, at the head of which is Austin Corbin, under whose man- agement the road has come.
Within a comparatively recent time several roads for the conveyance of passengers to and from the summer resorts on the south coast of Long Island have come into existence.
38
aENERAL HISTORY OE LOJSTG ISLAISTD.
All of the roads before mentioned, as well as the Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad, the Long Beach Rail- road, the Manhattan Beach Railroad, roads to Rook- away Beach and to Woodhaven, and new branches or extensions to Babylon, and to Montauk Point, where an immense hotel is now in course of construction, to connect with a line of very fast ocean steamers, in- tended to make the European voyage in five days, are now under the control of the Corbin Company. Some of the branch roads have been discontinued and others extended. The main track is laid with the best steel rails, and the running time of the fast trains will be about two and a quarter hours.
CHAPTER IX.
THE AGRICULTURAL CAPABILITIES AND DEVELOPMENT OP LONG ISLAND.
WHATEVER may be the general impression of the value and fertility of the lands of Long Island, they do and will command a price far in excess of soils equally fertile but which are not situated near a great market. Easy, cheap and uninterrupted water communication with a center of trade aggregating a population of nearly two millions, will always make Long Island a place of peculiar in- terest to tillers of the soil. The vast and increasing demand of the city of New York for vegetables and fruits of a perishable nature, as well as the peculiar adaptation of the soil for their culture, has already made Kings and a large portion of Queens county one immense garden. Previous histories of the island are nearly silent upon this, the chief business of its in- habitants.
The early settlers of Long Island, coming as they did chiefly from the New England colonies, naturally followed the same system of tillage and rotation of crops to which they had been accustomed. Probably the first settlers found sufiicient cleared land for their purpose ; as, according to early traditions, there was much cleared land, or land not covered with timber, besides the great plains. They very soon discovered that success depended upon the appHcation of manures. As early as 1653 the first settlers, by the terms of the patent from the Dutch governor for the lands they occupied, were required to pay to the government one- tenth of the revenue arising from the ground manured. This tax for the town of Hempstead amounted in 1657 to one hundred schepels of wheat (the Dutch bushel of three pecks). In 1651 Hempstead produced from the proceeds of the servants' labor, corn, beef, pork, butter, tobacco and staves, which were exchanged for liquor and merchandise.
Cattle were imported for breeding as early as 1625, and a cow in New York was worth £30. The abund-
ant grass on the plains doubtless turned the attention of the early settlers to the raising of stock. But as yet there were few or no fences ; so herdsmen were hired by the town to take care of the cattle from the 11th of May till the 23d of October, when the Indian harvest would be wholly taken in and housed. In 1667 the town of Hempstead hired Abraham Smith to keep the cattle from destroying the corn planted in the plain called " the field," and he was to have one and a half bushels per acre paid him for this service. So import- ant was this office deemed that the conditions of agree- ment were entered at large on the town book. A half hour after sunrise, at the blowing of a horn, the owners of cattle drove them from their several pens into one common herd, when they were taken under the care of the cow-keeper and his dog, and driven on the plains. He was to keep them from going astray, or wandering in the woods, or getting on tilled land ; to water them at some pond at reasonable hours ; to drive them weekly to the south meadows, and then bring them home half an hour before sunset, that they might be milked. For this service (in 1658) the hire was twelve shillings sterling per week in butter, corn and oats. The calves were cared for by another keeper, who was required to water them twice a day, drive them to the salt meadows once in two weeks, and put them in an inclosure at night to protect them from the wolves. After a while cow-herds were dispensed with, and it ■ was found necessary to fence the pasture lands. Thus, Cow Neck in 1669 was fenced from Hempstead Harbor to Great Neck, as the turnpike now runs. Rockaway had, in 1690, a fence running from the landing across to Jamaica Bay. Each proprietor had the right to put cattle in the pasture ground in proportion to the length of fence he had made. At that time cattle were sold to butchers in New York, and exported alive to the West Indies. In 1658 cattle were bought on the great plains to be shipped to the colony of Dela- ware. In 1678 the city of New York consumed only four hundred beeves.
Sheep were not introduced until a later date ; in 1643 there were not over sixteen in the whole colony of New York. In 1670 sheep were pastured on the plains, under the care of a shepherd, who had directions not to let them go over half a mile in the woods, for fear of their being lost or destroyed by wolves. Each pro- prietor had an ear-mark for his own sheep, which was recorded in the town book. In 1737 the New York Gazette says : " Vast losses have been sustained in this colony, and those adjacent, by the death of cattle for the want of fodder, and many persons have been almost ruined thereby. We hear from Long Island that five thousand head of cattle have been lost this winter, besides sheep and lambs innumerable."
Corn, wheat, rye, oats, flax, wood for fuel, fat cattle and sheep were for nearly two hundred years, or until the beginning of the nineteenth century, the staple pro-
CAPABILITIES AND DEVELOPMENT.
39a
ducts of the island, and the chief source of income. During the Kevolutionary war, a tory advised the Brit- tish ministry to land forces destined for the subjugation of the colonies on Long Island; " for," said he, "it is one hundred and thirty miles long, and is very fertile, abounding in wheat and every other kind of grain, and has innumerable black cattle, sheep, hogs, etc. ; so that in this fertile island the army can subsist without any succor from England. It has a fertile plain twenty- four miles long, with a fertile country about it, and is twenty miles from New York ; and from an encamp- ment on this plain the British army can, in five or six daySj invade any of the colonies at pleasure. The spot I advise you to land at is Cow Bay. " The suggestion was acted upon. The English army occupied Long Island, with New York city as its headquarters, for nearly seven years; and drew its supplies of fresh and salt hay, oats, straw, wheat, rye, corn, buckwheat and firewood from our island. Eor an encouragement to farmers to raise plentiful supplies of fresh provisions, vegetables and forage for the army, the British com- mandant forbade all persons from trespassing, or breaking down or destroying fences, or carrying away produce from the owners. In 1780 the requisition on Queens county was for four thousand five hundred cords of wood.
Since the advent of the present century, and within the memory of many now living, radical changes have been made in the system of agriculture, in the crops produced, fertilizers applied, machinery employed, domestic manufactures and manner of living. There are many localities in Suffolk and a few in Queens county, in which, from their peculiarity of position, primitive farming is still followed — that is, corn upon old sod, followed by oats the second year, which is succeeded in the fall by either wheat or rye, with which clover and timothy seed are sown. Then good crops of hay are cut for from three to five years; it is then pastured one or two years, and the same routine repeated.
With the growth of New York and Brooklyn arose the demand for vegetables, milk, hay, straw and such articles of a perishable and bulky nature as cannot be profitably transported long distances. Hence we see that the area necessary for their production has ex- tended, not only eastward, over nearly two counties, but the country for miles around, every harbor which indents the shores of Long Island, as well as near every depot of its railroads, has been put under contribution to supply the demand. Consequent upon this change, the product of cereals is greatly reduced, and stock- raising is mostly abandoned as a source of profit.
Nearly all the produce raised within twenty-five miles of New York is carted in with teams by the proprietors, in the night. The largest part is sold at wholesale to dealers or middle-men, between midnight and daylight, chiefly in the vicinity of Washington market, which until recently was the center of the
retail as well as the wholesale trade. A few years ago, in consequence of the great throng of market wagons, which for years had greatly impeded business in the lower part of the city, a market was established in the vicinity of West Twelfth street and Tenth avenue. Those who do not sell at wholesale remain until day- light, when the retail trade begins. The grocers then come for their daily supply. Produce sent by water or rail is consigned to commission dealers.
Twenty-five years ago all the milk supplied by Long Island was produced within so small a distance from the city that it was taken in in wagons. Market gar- dening becoming more profitable, the area of milk production was gradually extended eastward along the lines of railroad ; until, at the present time, it has assumed immense proportions. Swill milk is still pro- duced largely in the subiirbs of Brooklyn ; but that industry is by common consent ruled out as an agri- cultural pursuit.
The selling of hay was the first innovation upon the old system of stock raising as a source of income. The old theory that unless the hay and corn were fed upon the land its fertility would be reduced, was soon ex- ploded ; and the wisdom of the new enterprise was de- monstrated by the fact that the returns from the sale of hay were so much greater than from the sale of stock, that the farmer could afford to buy stable manure, street sweepings, lime and ashes from the city to apply to his land. The benefits of liberal expendi- tures for these fertilizers in market gardening are still more apparent. Gaano and artificial or manufactured fertilizers have been largely used with good results ; but stable manure is the great staple maniire for mar- ket gardeners, for they raise double crops each year, a draft no land can endure without constant manuring.
On the margins of creeks along the south side of the island are immense shell banks left by the Indians ; these clam, or quahaug, shells have been burnt and the lime used profitably. The fiah called menhaden, how- ever, has been most largely employed. Thompsoit, in his history of Long Island, published in 1839, estimated that a hundred million were annually taken for that purpose. He says : " The profusion of this species of fish and the consequent cheapness of the article will probably always insure its use in those parts of the island where they abound." But the establishment of factories for extracting oil from them has long since precluded their use ; although the refuse is dried and sold under the name of fish guano.
Montauk Point is about 20 miles long and contains nine thousand acres. It has been owned in common by about forty individuals in shares. It has never been tilled or used for any purpose other than pasturage of cattle, horses and sheep ; each owner being entitled to place upon it seven cattle, or forty-nine sheep, per share. About two years since the entire area was sold to Arthur Benson, Esq., of Brooklyn.
40a
GENERAL HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.
There are more ttan one hundred square miles, or seTenty thousand acres, of salt meadows bordering the bays and harbors of Long Island. From these marshes immense quantities of hay are taken, which, with corn stalks, is largely used for wintering young stock and dry cattle. There are three kinds of grasses growing upon them, distinguished by the names of sedge, salt and black grass.
The scarcity and advance in the price of farm labor, as well as the advantages attending their use, have caused the introduction of the best farm implements and agricultural machinery. Stones are used to some extent as fencing material where they are available, but by far the largest part of the island is entirely des- titute of stones large enough for the purpose. Chest- nut timber is abundant on all the rolling woodlands, and furnishes the material for about all the farm fences.
The cranberry has recently been introduced in many parts of Suffolk county, with great success. The soil and the conditions are favorable, and this industry pro- mises, in a few years, to become an important one.
The Hempstead Plains, which, through a mistaken, policy, have until recently been held as public domain, are susceptible of remunerative cultivation. The soil is a dark, rich vegetable mould or loam from one to three feet in depth. The hollovts which cross the tract at regular intervals appear to have been ancient water-courses. There is another and still more exten- sive tract extending eastward from the Plains, reach- ing to the bead of Peconic Bay, which, like Hempstead Plains, has hitherto suffered from an entirely unwar- rantable and mistaken aspersion of the character of its soil and consequent adaptation to cultivation.
As all previous histories of Long Island have* wittingly or unwittingly perpetuated this erronous im- pression, we take pleasure in presenting an ample refu- tation of the same, in the form of an autobiographical sketch of Dr. Edgak F. Peck, who speaks ex cathedra on this subject, and who represents the enlightened sentiment of the present day, as regarding these much- abused Long Island lands.
The central and northern portions of the island have a soil rich in the mineral elements and phosphates essential to plant growth. In many places, particu- larly at Brentwood and Central Islip, there is a fine
* We make but one exception, viz., that of Mr. James B. Coopeb's brief History of the Town of Babylon, contained in the History of Suffolk County, recently published by Munsell & Co., the publishers of this work, and which is as follows ;
" With the exception of the sand dunes which border the Atlantic Ocean, and a narrow ridge of hills known as the Half-way Hollow Hills, the surface of the town is remarkably level." ■' The center portion, consisting of level plains, up to forty years ago was covered with pine forests. Since railroads have been operated through these pine-lands numerous fires have occurred, mostly kindled by sparks from locomotives, causing great destruction to the timber, and there are now only found thick tangled scrub oaks and stunted pines. Only a smaU portion of this kind of land is under a good slate of cultivation. The soil is mostly a sandy loam. The land is easily cleared, and is adapted to the growing of grain and root crops, and probably in a few years large tracts wUl be cleared and cultivated."
substratum of clay that holds the moisture and pre- vents leaching, the rich yellow loam being almost entirely destitute of sand. These clay deposits are fre- quently of a quality not excelled by any in America for building-brick; and abundant strata, fully equal to the best grades of Europe for pottery, have recently been discovered in Suffolk County. Hence wheat, potatoes, cabbage and other strong growing crops are more successfully grown than on the alluvial portions of the island.
EDGAK FENN PECK, M.D.
Edgar Eenn Peck, M.D., was born September 20tb, 1806, in the town of Amenia, Dutchess County, State of New York. His father, Henry Peck, was a native of Milford, Conn., and son of Michael Peck, a descendant of Joseph Peck, who came over witk Davenport's colony to New Haven in 1638, and after residing awhile at New Haven, settled in Milford about 1641. The house he built and lived in in Milford stood two hundred years, and was occupied by his descendants until it was taken down ; his descendants are in Milford now, on the paternal land. The mother of Dr. Edgar Fenn was Julania Chapman, daughter of Zervia Strong and Nehemiah Chapman, of Sharon, Conn., and a direct descendant by his English wife of Elder John Strong, of Northampton, Mass.
The parents of Dr. Edgar Fenn removed from Amenia, when he was very young, to the northern part of the State of New York, to "Washington County, and were there during the war of 1812, and were in Salem in 1816, '17, and '18; and Edgar went to school in the Washington Academy, one of the most distin- guished academies in the State; he was in the English depart- ment under T. N. Allen. George W. Bethune, the " Yorker Boy," as he was called in school, was in the classical department in the Washington Academy; he was also in the sabbath school with John and Mary Williams, who became the wife of Dr. Bethune. He attended the church and sabbath school of the Eev. Dr. Alexander Proudfit, God bless his name and memory. Early in 1818 the family returned to Sharon, Conn., near his grandfather Chapman's, in the eastern part of the town .
I now propose to change the form of narrative, and to speak and write in the first person. I was twelve years old when we returned, and here among kindred and friends of great merit, of religion, learning and good schools, which I attended in the win- ter, and worked in the summer mostly upon the farm; and here I acquired a most thorough knowledge of farming, for which I had a great desire.
I always thought a farmer's life was the most useful and most happy. The immortal Washington said that "Agriculture " is the most healthful, the most useful, and the most noble " employment of man." The first work of the Lord, after the great creation, was to plant a garden, to the east ^of Eden. I would have been a farmer, but I had no means to buy a farm, and my kind father had none to give me; but I acquired great skill for a youth upon the farm. I learned to plough and to hoe, to plant and to sow, to reap and to mow; I learned to bud and graft when fourteen years old; I learned to raise trees from tree seed, acorns, hickory nuts, and keys from the great sugar maple; I learned by observation and analogy when a boy, by seeing or finding acorns and hickory nuts under the trees, in the spring, sprouted, and seeing the young tree-plants under the sugar maple, and the apple seeds, sprouted under the apple trees ; it occurred to me if those nuts and tree seeds were planted, they would grow ; I tried it, and they did grow. I had never heard or read anything about plant- ing tree seed ; the only thing I had ever read was that '' Tall oaks from little acorns grow." There was nothing said about planting them..
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CAPABILITIES AND DEVELOPMENT.
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I had a very strong desire from my childhood for knowledge and learning, a thirsting after knowledge, and I spent all my time, when not at work, with my books and studies, and won- dered if I would ever become a learned man, and be good and useful. It was seldom that I ever spent any time in play and pastimes ; I had no time to spare. I never played a game of cards, or checkers or chess, never saw a game of billiards played in my life, was never in a theatre but twice, and then not to see the play through. I adopted total abstinence in 1824, two years before Dr. Beecher preached his immortal sermons against intemperance in Litchfield in 1826. I knew Dr. Beecher well in my youth. There were two men then in Connecticut who were my beau ideals as men and divines — Lyman Beecher, of Litchfield, and the Eev. Joel Hawes, of Hartford. My pious and excellent mother used to think that boys ought not to drink cider after it had fermented, and in compliance with her wish I abandoned it. I had never heard any temperance speech, or read any temperance paper; I had read but one book on tem- perance, the Bible; that I had learned from childhood by the teaching of my mother. She had instructed me on the great sin of drunkenness and its terrible punishments, declared by the Lord.
In 1826 I commenced the study of medicine, in the office and under the tuition of a relative, my cousin Dr. Clark Chap- man, a man of learning and great skill as a physician. Dr. Chapman is now living, at the age of eighty-six, in Groton, Tompkins County, N. Y. I had a task before me, one that re- quired great industry, prudence and self-denial, to pursue my studies and to support myself, which I did by teaching school a part of the time.
As a medical student, I took up the subject of intemperance, and the effect of alcohol on the human system, as opened by Dr. Beecher. I read everything that I could find on the subject, and gave special attention to diseases directly resulting from strong drink, particularly to delirium tremens, which was not then well understood — nor its treatment. I soon had the reputation of being very successful with hard cases of alcoholic disease in the different medical offices I was in during my studentship, as I was in more than one, and the hard cases were handed over to me, particularly delirium tremens, "the trembling delirium," and 1 was very successful in treating it. My first medical lectures were attended in the College oi Physicians and Surgeons. I was licensed to practice, at Fairfield, January 30th, 1830 ; and I im- mediately entered practice in my native County of Dutchess, at Hyde Park, as a partner with the late Huntting Sherrill, M.D., then President of the Dutchess County Medical Society, and one of the principal physicians and surgeons of the county. My thorough study and under practice whilst a student had qualified me for full practice. That able, eminent Professor, David Hosack, M.D., whose country seat was at Hyde Park, showed me great kindness by giving me access to his extensive medical library, and instruction on any question I asked.
In 1831 I removed to New York, and took an office at No. 96 Duane street, near Broadway, so as to be between the Hospital (then on Broadway, between Duane and what is now "Worth street) and the College of Physicians and Surgeons, then in Barclay street near Broadway, that I might have access to, and the advantages of both of these great medical institutions. The situa- tion or position, was central and most advantageous. I soon found myself in practice, and made the acquaintance of the leading medical men of the city, the President and professors of the College, from whom I received great kindness and attention.
On the approach of the Asiatic cholera I revived my reading on that terrible disease, to make myself thoroughly acquainted with all that could be known about it. I had five years before read all that could be found of its history in the foreign and American medical journals, and as it came to New York conster- nation and dismay fell upon the city; all business was suspended, and multitudes fled to the country.
" Come when the blessed seals. That close the pestilence are broke. And crowded cities wail its stroke ; Oome in consumption's ghastly form. The earthquake shock, or ocean storm. And thou, oh I Death, art terrible."
A special medical council was formed by the city authorities, consisting of twelve of the most eminent physicians of the city, with Dr. Alexander H. Stevens, the President of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, at its head; and I received an appoint- ment under this council to take charge of the medical stations in the Twelfth Ward, and the hospital formed on Eighth street; and