THE OLD MERCHANTS OF NEW YORK CITY
        Second  Series

By  Walter Barrett, Clerk
     1863

     MERCHANT  DESCRIPTIONS

       CHAPTER  23


JOHN  PINTARD  (continue)

      After the return of John Pintard from Newark, in the winter of
1804___05, he was appointed Clerk to the Corporation of New York, and City
Inspector. His office was in the City Hall, then at the corner of Nassau and
Wall street, where the Custom House now stands, and he lived at upper Reed
street, No. 11 (upper Reed, upper Chambers, or upper Duane, meant those
streets on the east side of Broadway).

      I think that the City Inspector office must have been created about
that time, as I have seen no mention of it previously.

      Dr. Francis made an address to the Historical Society in November,
1857, and he says: " Our enlightened founder, John Pintard, was personally
known, during a long life, to a majority of our citizens." The doctor then
goes on to say: " Examine for yourself the record of the office of the City
Inspector, and learn the obstacles he encountered to establish the
department of the city institution for the registry of births and deaths."

      While Mr. Pintard was "Clerk" and City Inspector, he was the fast
friend of the firemen of the city, and all the laws most conducive to their
advantage were drafted and recommended by him.

      In 1812, when there was a scarcity of change, the Corporation
appointed John Pintard to sign all the paper notes of a small denomination
that were issued at that time and during the war. I give here a fac simile
of those small bills of 4,6,9 and 12 1/2 cents.

      It is a singular coincidence that we are now approaching an era when
"shinplasters" (as those sort of issues were denominated in 1837) will be in
vogue again.

      I do not know why Mr. Pintard left the office of city inspector, but
he did leave it in 1809, and was succeeded by General Jacob Morton, who was
both clerk of the Corporation and city inspector in 1810, as Mr. Pintard had
previously been. Mr. Pintard was appointed secretary of the Mutual Insurance
Company in 1809, at no. 52 Wall street. This company was the oldest in the
city of New York. It was established in 1787, was chartered in 1798, and
re-chartered in March, 1809. When Mr. Pintard became its secretary, Robert
Lenox was president of it at the time, and Mr. Pintard's old friend, Gabriel
Furman, (who was afterwards its president) was a director. It was a fire
insurance company, upon the mutual plan, although not so at the present. He
was secretary of this company for twenty years, or until 1829. Afterwards
George Ireland was president, and A.B. McDonald, the successor of Mr.
Pintard, was secretary, and kept at 52 Wall street, until 1845, where it had
been from 1807, when it was in Pine street, opposite the old French church.
I believe it suffered a great loss in the terrible fire of 1835. In 1846,
the name was changed to the "Knickerbocker" Fire Insurance Company, but Mr.
Ireland and Mr. McDonald remained; and, in fact, the company was the same.
Mr. Pintard had died two years before, or it would have added one grief more
to his many, for he fondly loved old names as well as old faces. It is
creditable to that old company that they continued Mr. Pintard a director,
after he ceased to be capable of performing the duties of secretary, (he was
seventy years old when he resigned the office in 1829) and he had a desk in
the office as long as he lived, though in the last years of his life he was
almost blind___quite deaf, and his world was inside of himself___the old
world of the past. His deafness arose from having been blown up by
gunpowder, while celebrating the 4th of July, when young, and when
Independence day was young also. The old Mutual, under the name of
Knickerbocker, still fourishes. Mr. Ireland had been succeeded by Mr.
Tucker, a much esteemed citizen, and once alderman of the Eighth Ward.

      When the Mechanics' Bank was chartered in 1810, the leaders in it were
Gabriel Furman, George Ireland, Stephen Allen, Matthew L. Davis, John
Slidell and other friends of Mr. Pintard, and they insisted he should be
cashier. For reasons that I am not aware of, he would not take the position.
John Slidell, father of the rebel in Fort Warren, was made president, and W.
Fish was cashier.

THE  NEW  YORK  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY

      The Historical Society, now one of the most valuable literary
institutions in the world, and one that the city may well be proud of, owes
its existence mainly to John Pintard. Dr. Francis calls him "our enlightened
founder." It was organized in 1804, and was chartered by the Legislature in
1809. Dr. Francis, as well as Mr. Pintard, was one of its most efficient
members.

      A list of its officers in 1810 is worth looking at just fifty-one
years later:

Egbert Benson, President
Governeur Morris,  First Vice President
De Witt Clinton,  Second Vice President
Samuel Miller,  Corresponding Secretary
Charles Wilkes, Treasurer:
John Pintard,  Recording Secretary and Librarian.

                               Standing  Committee

William Johnson,
Samuel L. Mitchell
John Mason,
David Hosack
John McKesson
Anthony Bleecker
Gulian C. Verplanck

      All dead, I believe but the last. In 1807, the officers were the same,
except that Benjamin Moore was first Vice President and Brockholst
Livingston, second Vice President, and Daniel D. Tompkins was one of the
committee, and John Foster was Librarian. They have a portrait of Mr.
Pintard at the Historical Society rooms.

JOHN  PINTARD  (continue)

      Mr. Pintard was also a trustee of the New York Society
Library___another very old concern, having been established in 1772. Most of
the books were destroyed during the Revolution, but in after years it was
replenished, and is now as splendid a library as we have in the city.

      On the 19th of February, 1805, twelve persons assembled, at the
request of two or three individuals, who desired to extend the benefits of
education to poor children. Thus commenced the "Free School System" that is
bearing such glorious fruit. John Pintard was among the first in this humble
movement, which has had such magnificent results in the present public
schools of New YorkCity. There were subscribers from $5 to 10,000. Standing
on the list is John Pintard; but this is a small matter compared with the
value of his active personal services in perfecting the early movement.

      Mr. Pintard in 1807, took a very active part in the preliminary steps
that led the Legislature of the State to pass an act, April 3, 1807,
appointing Governeur Morris, Simeon De Witt, and John Ruthford, as
Commissioners of streets and roads in this city.

      Those commissioners did their work faithfully and well. They reported
on the 22d of March, 1811, and that splendid plan of avenues and streets was
started.

      I have mentioned that Lewis Pintard was one of the incorporators of
the Chamber of Commerce. John Pintard was one of its early members. In fact,
after the Revolutionary War, it lay dormant. It was Mr. Pintard who went to
work and revived it, giving it a new vitality, for it was almost dead.

      In 1817 he was elected secretary, and continued to perform those
duties until 1827, when he was sixty-eight. He was succeeded by John A.
Stevens.

      He was a prominent member of the American Bible Society; was one of
its founders in 1816. He was at one time secretary, and afterwards
vice-president for many years.

      He was secretary for a long time to the Brooklyn Steamboat Company, of
which William Cutting (father of Francis B.) was the principal stockholder.

      There never lived that man in the city who could start great measures
as John Pintard could do. He could indite a handbill that would inflame the
minds of the people for any good work. He could call a meeting  with the pen
of a poet, and before the people met, he would have arranged the doings for
a perfect success. He knew the weak point of every man, and he would gratify
the vanity of men and get their money, and accomplish his good purpose,
without any of them suspecting that they were merely the respectable names
and moneyed tools that Mr. Pintard required. Here is an instance. I will
here mention that he was the friend, from first to last, of De Witt Clinton,
and he could always get the latter to preside at a meeting, or give his name
for any purpose. He had faith in John Pintard.

SAVINGS  BANK  IN  NEW  YORK

       He was the propeller of the first meeting to establish a Savings'
Bank in New York. It was called at the old City Hotel in Broadway, Nov. 29,
1816. All his men were fixed, and it was:

      RESOLVED: That it is expedient to establish a savings' bank in New
York City.

      So far so good. Then Zach Lewis submitted a constitution___prepared by
John Pintard.

      Then a list of twenty-eight directors and officers was proposed and
carried. (Prepared by John Pintard.) The list of directors was headed by De
Witt Clinton and ended with John Pintard.

      It did not commence operations until the 3d of July, 1819, and then
John Pintard headed the "Attending Committee" for the month. When the
savings' bank got fairly under way, John Pintard withdrew, as was his usual
custom when he had achieved a great success. He kept away from it for some
years, but in 1828 the bank elected him its president, and he continued to
be so until 1841. When eighty-two years old, his frame began to give away
and he became blind. It was in 1842, when he ceased to be the bank
president, that he made his will, leaving his few earthly valuables to his
only surviving daughter, Mrs. Louisa H. Servoss, with whom he had made his
home for many years.

JOHN  PINTARD'S  PLACE  OF  BURIAL

      He died in 1844, aged eighty-six years, and his body was buried in the
family vault in St. Clement's Church, in Amity street. That church was built
in 1830. Mr. Louis Bayard was its rector for many years. To that same vault,
John Pintard, with pious and reverential hands, had removed the bones of his
parents, uncle, and grandparents from the old French graveyard that stood
between Pine and Cedar streets, near Nassau (opposite the post-office.) They
were all members of that church, and John Pintard, who was a good French
scholar, made the translation of the English Common Prayer Book, into
French, precisely as it is now used in the French Episcopal Church in this
city.

THE  ERIE  CANAL  PROJECT

      In 1811, the plan had been mooted for connecting the waters of Lake
Erie with the Hudson river by means of a canal. A bill in favor of it passed
the Legislature in 1811; between that and 1815 applications were made for
aid from the general government. During the war nothing could be done. The
whole affair hung heavily, when John Pintard went to work to get up one of
his great meetings of citizens. This was near the close of the year 1815.
The meeting was a great success, for immediately after, a law was passed,
appointing a board of commissioners to lay out the track of the Erie Canal
and DeWitt Clinton was made its president. On the 4th of July, 1817, the
first plough that opened a furrow was used. In 1825, the canal was
completed, New York then containing 160,000 people. On the 7th of September,
1825, the merchants and citizensof New York had a great meeting in the
chamber of commerce, in the Tontine coffee house, to make arrangements for
celebrating the completion of the great western canal. John Pintard was
appointed Secretary, and the following resolutions were submitted by W.W.
Woolsey. Of course, the whole programme was written by John Pintard___the
whole arrangement was his. The Resolutions are his style. The last one says:

      RESOLVED:  That a committee, consisting of the following gentlemen be
appointed to make inquiry, and to give public notice of the day on which the
great event will occur, and where the celebration should take place, and
that it be the duty of the committee to confer with the Corporation on this
subject, and take such measures as may be deemed necessary to call out a
full expression of public feeling, in relation to an event so important to
the interests of the community.
      RESOLVED: That the committee consist of fifteen members:  William
Bayard, John Pintard, Thomas R. Mercien, William W. Woolsey, M.M. Noah, John
Rathbone, Jr., Eldad Holmes, George Griswold, Joseph G. Swift, Campbell P.
White, Jonathan Goodhue, Cadwallader D. Colden, Isaac Carow, Silas Richards
and Lockwood Deforest.
                                              JOHN  PINTARD, Secretary

      The meeting then adjourned.
       I believe of all those name, not one is now alive. I have written
sketches of nearly all of them who were merchants.

      On the 28th of September, 1825, the merchants delegated John Pintard
and Thomas R. Mercien to go to Albany and meet the committee from all parts
of the state in reference to the celebration.

      The arrangements were all made, and the plan published was drafted by
Pintard.

      Mr. Pintard carried the bottle that contained the Lake Erie water that
was emptied into the Atlantic, as an emblem of the union of the great inland
water of the West, and the still greater outside Ocean.

      I need not add any details of what occurred. I alluded to it, to show
more of the character of John .

JOHN  PINTARD  (continue)

      De Witt Clinton never forgot him. He was mayor when Mr. Pintard was
city inspector. The attachment only ended when De Witt Clinton died, and the
last letter he ever wrote was in reply to our friend, Mr. Pintard. In the
letter he used this remarkable sentence: "I do not know that I have a
hostile feeling against any human being." The next day, in a fit of
apoplexy, he died.

      I could allude to many others of our best institutions that John
Pintard aided materially in founding. One was the House of Refuge, and
another
 the Merchants" and the Mercantile Library.

      The wife of John Pintard was a fit companion for him. She was a sharer
in his prosperity, as well as adversity.

      I have not space to enumerate all the performances of John Pintard for
the good of this city, any contemplated institution found a friend in him.
He was ever ready to aid it. He regarded money as water, except when it
would benefit the city. He pleasantly said to his friends, "I will be my own
executor," meaning that he would spend all he had for useful purposes while
alive.

      As an instance, he felt a deep interest in the general Theological
Seminary of the Episcopal church, founded in this city. He did everything
for it, laid out his plans, imported writings of the Fathers, and valuable
works at his own expense, and he went to everybody that he knew that he had
money. Among others, he applied by letter, to a very rich man named Jacob
Sherrard, who was a painter and glazier at No. 37 Broad. Jacob lived next
door at No. 35. Jacob had no children nor near relatives. He belonged to the
Dutch Reformed church. On the 18th day of a month he wrote him a letter
commencing with:  "Lord, let me know the end of my days."  John Pintard in
this most charming letter stated the claims of his favorite society, told
him much good could be done if it had money. He did not stop there. He
talked it all over with the wife of Jacob, and so convinced her that she
agreed to it, and what was the result? When Jacob died in 1820, the seminary
was his "residuary legatee," and benefited some $60,000. At his funeral,
John Pintard was one of the pall bearers.

      He was not less successful with George Lorrillard. Previous to making
a dead set at George, he wrote a letter to both Jacob and Peter Lorrillard,
asking them if they had any objection to his getting as much money as he
could out of their brother George, for the benefit of the Theological
Seminary. They replied in the most prompt manner, "No." Then he went at
George with a letter that was so convincing that George Lorrillard gave the
institution $25,000.

      He was not so successful with Dennis McCarthy. Most of us remember
when Dennis lived at 352 Broadway, second door from Leonard street, in the
Sixth Ward. His house was torn down to build up the Carlton house, that has
also gone down in its turn to make way for great stores. Dennis had stores
in Chambers, Chatham, and Market streets. He was a wholesale as well as
retail grocer. He was a Catholic. To him Mr. Pintard went, and stated the
claims the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum had upon him. He appeared to be
convinced. He had a wife, but no children, and no near relations. "Leave her
well off," wrote the active Pintard, "and leave the rest to the Catholic
Asylum, and your memory will be blessed." Mr. McCarthy thought so, too. He
had been the father of a beautiful daughter, but she had died. Dennis
McCarthy lacked the moral courage to make a will, and he died without one.
His property was in litigation for years. Distant relations made claim to
it.

      "Do all the good you can, young man," was his advice to every friend
who was younger than himself.

BANK  OF  NEW  YORK

      He was very active in old matters of the city. For instance, the Bank
of New York, though it was started in 1784, had no charter from the state.
It did business upon its own hook. After the war was over, the Legislature
doubted their power to charter a bank. However, after the constitution was
adopted in 1787 by the "United States," and after Congress had chartered a
United States Bank, our State Legislature concluded to charter two banks. It
did so. One was the Bank of New York, and the other the Bank of Albany. The
person most active in getting this matter arranged satisfactorily, was John
Pintard.

NEW  YEAR'S  DAY  OBSERVANCE,  AN  OLD  DUTCH  CUSTOM.

      When New Year's day arrived in 1790, General Washington had a house in
this city at No. 1 Cherry street. He was well aware that the receiving and
making of calls on New Year's day was an old Dutch custom. He liked it, and
he determined to add the power of his name as an example of the observance
of the time honored custom. Everybody in New York on that day called upon
the general and his lady. In the evening there was a grand levee, and both
the general and his lady was present.   He told John Pintard, who was
present:  "I am delighted. I have experienced the most intense gratification
in observing this good old Dutch custom. I am apprehensive that in time it
will be laid aside and rooted out, owing to the immense number of persons
who will come to New York on account of its favorable situation, but who
will have no sympathy with this time-honored Dutch custom and ceremony."

JOHN  PINTARD  (continue)

      John Pintard was the man who went to work and had the names of all
streets bearing foreign names changed___such as King, Queen, Duke, Princess
and Crown___to good republican names.

     He was one of the most active Sailors' Retreat friends.

     He wanted to die in harness as an officer of the Bible Society, and the
president of the Savings' Bank. The last was not his happiness, although his
own fault.

     We shall find in our city few such men as John Pintard, the last of his
race.

     Since writing the above the private papers of Mr. Pintard have been
placed in my possession. I am compiling a work, to be called "The Life of
John Pintard," It will be issued by Mr. G.W. Carleton, the Publisher, in
1863.

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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