THE OLD MERCHANTS OF NEW YORK CITY
        Second  Series

By  Walter Barrett, Clerk
     1863

     MERCHANT  DESCRIPTIONS

       CHAPTER  4

      The most interesting class of merchants for these chapters, are those
that connect the small port, and the mammoth city___the New York after the
war, with its 12,000 population, and forty years later, when it was the
greatest city of this continent, and had fairly commenced to be the greatest
city in the world.

      The personal history of the merchants of such a period has a charm at
the present time, eighty years later. There are aged men in this city, yet
alive, who were boys here in those days, 1780. Many who remember quite
distinctly events of ten or twenty years later, and who on holidays were
permitted to make country excursions from this city. A favorite one was to
cross the fields, jumping brooks and little streams, from where Chamber
street touches the Park north, north-west to a country tavern, about where
Spring street market, on the North  River, now is.

JOHN  B.  COLES

      He was a clerk with the great commercial firm of Thomas Buchanan & Co.
Only a few years later, however, Coles went into business on his own
account, at No. 12 Dock street (it ran from Broad to Hanover square, in what
is now Pearl street.) He was a large flour merchant in 1795. He moved from
No. 82 Pearl (no. 39 Great Dock street) to No. 1 South street, where he had
his store, and No. 1 State street, where he resided.

      If in the whole city of New York, such a combination of convenience,
health, pleasantness, and near to business, can be found, I do not know
where it can be. No. 1 State street and No. 1 South street. At both places
he could look upon the ships passing up both the North and East rivers. The
slip at Whitehall must have come up within a few feet of his house. He could
stand on his handsome door steps, whistle or hold up his finger, and in an
instant he would have had three or more of the original Whitehall bargeman
rowing up to him. Then he could go out with one, and have a row all around
the harbor, at that time without being run over by anything more furious
than a slow moving horseboat; for in those days, sixty years and odd ago,
there were no steamboats racing up and down, and but few ships entered the
harbor.

      Then, too, our wealthy old merchant could get up at daybreak, look out
of his window, and see what old cronies were walking upon the Battery. Then
he could stroll there before breakfast, and while drinking the glorious
breeze fresh from the salt sea, could shake hands with his constituents, for
John B. Coles was alderman from 1797 to 1801, the period I now write about,
as he was again in 1815 to 1818, also alderman  of the good old-fashioned
first Ward. In these days, all the wealth, aristocracy and dignity lived in
the first Ward and it was an honor to be its alderman.

      John B. Coles must have loved that locality. He lived at No. 1 State
street until 1810, when he moved to No. 2, giving up No. 1 to one of his
boys. He had several. U.C., Isaac U., B.U.,  W.F. and one John B. Jr. The
last lived at No. 1 State street, and in the year previous kept a flour
store at No. 32 Stone street. I think that one died in 1811 or 1812. Oliver
kept at 29 Old Slip, and afterwards Isaac U. kept there, but finally all the
sons kept at No. 1 South street. Then they took in a Mr. Morris, and for a
few years the firm was Coles & Morris. From 1812 until 1825, I do not think
old John B. Coles meddled with business much, but left it entirely to his
sons, and son-in-law, for Mr. Morris married a daughter, but in 1825 and
1826, the business was carried on under his name, and those of his sons do
not appear to have been connected with him.

      I think he died in 1826 or 1827. He probably was eighteen or twenty
years old in 1780, when he signed his autograph as clerk to Thomas Buchanan
& Co., and if he had lived until to-day, would have been a hundred.

      I have said that Mr. Coles did a flour business. He was in it, or his
sons, for a period of over forty-six years. He was a man much respected. He
was one of the directors in the Bank of New York. He was elected in 1806,
and continued year after year until 1820, and how much longer I do not know.
A merchant may be once elected a director of this time-honored old bank, the
first started in the State, in 1784, when Mr. Coles commenced business; but
to be re-elected year after year, is paying the highest tribute to any man's
capacity, integrity and character; for to be a director in that bank long,
one must possess all these.

      It would be difficult to say what benevolent society or moneyed
corporation Mr. Coles was not connected with. He gave his name to every good
work, and when he gave his name he worked for the institution. His
extraordinary activity in his younger days whenever any affairs of
benevolence were concerned______wherever suffering humanity was to be
relieved.

   ISAAC  COLES  AND  WILLIAM  COLES

      In 1827, his sons Isaac U. and William T. Coles, kept on the old
business, and like their father showed great good sense in keeping in the
old vicinity for residences. Isaac lived at No. 1 State, and William at
No.2, next to each other, for on the opposite side of State street is the
Battery, and of course the numbers are continuous. There they lived and
continued in business together at No. 1 South street until 1832, when Isaac
U. left his brother, and started business at 28 Front street. In 1833
William left business and State street. I am not certain that he died there.

      Isaac kept on business until 1834, when he moved from No. 1 State
street to 50 Bond, then becoming aristocratic. He gave up his store in Front
street in May, occasionally a marked house, from the fact that year after
year, it was hermetically sealed. From 1836, on a few years, I do not
believe it was ever entered.

  The memory of such men as John B. Coles ought not to die. But where has
aught been written about them, save my Old Merchants? These will not perish,
in this handsome book.  I do not claim to be perfect, or any way near it,
but this I do claim___I have done more to rescue from oblivion the names of
New York merchants, than any other author that has ever lived. I would do
more if I had the materials. There are many that exist which could be placed
at my disposal, and be made to serve a useful purpose. How many have family
record, ___documents connected with commerce,___statements of trade, lying
useless, from 1700 to 1800, that would be to Walter Barrett invaluable. I
would use such material, sift out chaff from wheat, and work it up into a
form that will be imperishable, as I have this.

THOMAS  BUCHANAN

      He was a king among merchants. He did a very large business, and his
firm must have been in existence for full fifty-five years. I know it was in
1766 as Walter & Thomas Buchanan. Between that date and the close of the
Revolution the firm changed, and it became Thomas Buchanan & Co. It is
likely that Walter was the partner, although for some cause unknown to me
ninety-five years later, his name does not appear.
      They separated in 1772, and Thomas then continued his mammoth business
on his own hook at 41 Wall street. Walter started a separate concern in
Liberty street. He kept there some years and then moved to his son Walter
W.'s residence at 4 Duane street, where I think he must have died about the
close of 1804. That son, Doctor Walter W., was a remarkable man. He lived in
Hudson street not far from Duane, No. 45, until the war. Then he moved away
and was gone until 1825. He came back to the city that year, and lived at
114 Grand Street, corner of Broadway. Again he disappeared, and I have no
track of him.

      Thomas Buchanan became very prominent on his own account from 1792 to
1809, when he took in his son George, and the firm was Thomas Buchanan &
Son. The firm kept at 44 Wall (just below the present Exchange) as late as
1816, when they removed their counting house to 4 Slote lane (now Beaver)
and his residence to No. 64 Broadway. George lived at the home of his
parents. In 1819 old Thomas died. Notwithstanding, the firm was kept up
until 1824, the business being conducted by George Buchanan. At that time it
was not necessary to change the style of a mercantile firm when a prominent
partner died. That year too, George disappeared from commercial life. The
old lady, Almy, the widow of Thomas Buchanan, continued to reside in the old
mansion, 64 Broadway, (just above Beaver) as late as 1832. I do not know
when she died. She was a fair sample of an old New York merchant's wife.

        It is almost impossible to tell how closely in every way, manner and
shape, Thomas Buchanan identified himself with the interests of the city, in
commerce, finance, charity, and every benevolent society.

      As early as 1792, he was one of the governors of the New York
hospital. In 1834 he was a director of the old United States Branch Bank in
this city, and continued so for many years.

PETER  GOELET

      Two of the sons of Peter Goelet, Peter P. and Robert Ratze, married
daughters of Mr. Buchanan, and consequently Peter Goelet of 1861, that lives
in Nineteenth street, is a grandson of both the noble old merchants.

      Margaret Roberts, formerly Margaret Buchanan, I believe is still
alive. His daughter Almy married a Mr. Hicks, and his youngest Thomas
Pearsall. Thomas Buchanan was buried from 64 Broadway, as Peter Goelet was
from 53 Broadway, when he died.

      There are no such funerals in these days. Grand old funerals___it was
worth living in those times, just to have the pleasure of going to the
stylish, comfortable funeral of an old Knickerbocker. Nothing of that kind
can be got up now. In the first place, we lack the negroes. In those days
the servants were all colored, and when their master was to be buried, they
were dressed in black, with white towels on their arms. All the rooms in the
house were flung open. Everybody received scarfs and gloves, and such wines!
There are no such wines now in existence as were to be had at an old
Knickerbocker funeral. Both Peter Goelet and Thomas Buchanan had Maderia
wine in their cellars one hundred years old. Dust, an inch thick, upon the
bottles. All the friends went to such funerals. So did acquaintances, for it
was only on such occasions that people could get wine to drink___the best,
even in those days of cheapness, $10 per bottle. Could it be had now, it
would be worth $100 per bottle; but it is not to be had. Such wine is not in
existence. Thomas Buchanan was in business when this city had but 10,381
souls. He was here through all the dark hours of the Revolution, and he
lived to see it grow to 120,000. He, modest merchant, little dreamed that it
was he and such as he, kings of commerce, that had made it grow so greatly,
and increase so vastly in wealth.

      Where are your Clintons___your Tompkins, Jays___your Burrs, Hamiltons,
and the names that adorn history____mere politicians or so called statesmen,
when compared with the creators of the wealth and the glory of the great
commercial city.

      The merchants were the bees that made the honey___the drones were the
statesmen that made the noise.

      De Witt Clinton has all the glory of the canal. He was the fly on the
coach wheel. The merchants of whom I spoke were the spokes, the axles, the
wheel itself. They had made money by commerce, and they lavished it in
building the great canal, destined to return its cost a hundred times to the
generous city and the generous merchants who planned and built it.

      It is such names that I am placing on an imperishable record. Even
tradition, in a few years, will forget the very names of the true founders
of this city, and such I rank those alluded to in this chapter.

JOHN  AND  FRANCIS  ATKINSON.

      Another old firm in 1780 was John and Francis Atkinson. They did a
very heavy importing business. Their store was at No. 223 Queen (Pearl)
street, about Burling slip. They kept on during the war, and Francis was
among the founders of the St. George's Society, in this city (1786). In
fact, he belonged to a St. George's Society that existed before the war. His
brother John became a member in 1788; and his nephew, John Jr., in 1809.
They kept their firm at 123 Pearl street as late as 1795. In 1801 John
Atkinson & Son kept on the business. Francis had retired. Their store was at
132 Pearl street, and they lived at No. 20 Courtlandt street many years. As
late as 1819 the firm was kept up at 167 Pearl street, and that year changed
to J. Atkinson Jr., and G.H. They lived upon Hudson square. Next year it was
Atkinson & Fleming. I think Augustus Fleming had joined the brother,____the
old John had died. The firm of A. & F.  was kept up as late as 1825, when
John Jr. removed to Wall street. He lived at No. 152 Greenwich street. The
widow of old John lived at No. 126 Chambers street many years, as late as
1830, and then they passed away from my memory.

      Twenty years ago I knew a tall man, who lived at 534 Pearl street, and
who was named Atkinson. He was a naturalist, and talented. I was well
acquainted with him then. Last night I met the same six-foot iron-gray head,
coming down Hudson street, and I have an idea that same man is a descendant
of the ancient English Atkinsons, the merchants before the Revolution.


Source:  The Old Merchants of New York City
Author:  Walter Barrett, Clerk           Second series
Publisher:  Carleton, Publisher, 413 Broadway
Entered according to the Act of Congress 1863
             _____________________________________

    Researched, Prepared and Contributed by Miriam Medina
                  For the Brooklyn Information Page


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