THE OLD MERCHANTS OF NEW YORK CITY
        Second  Series

By  Walter Barrett, Clerk
     1863

     MERCHANT  DESCRIPTIONS

       CHAPTER  8

      There will be more knowledge conveyed in these chapters of the
antecedents of prominent merchants of New York, than in any other manner yet
attempted. How many will be informed for the first time that familiar names
in the haunts of commerce, and merchants in this generation, have been
familiar names among the same class for three or four generations back, and
the fathers, grandfathers, great grandfathers and double great grandfathers,
of men now known on "change," have been known in their day respectively.

      The London Times recently alluded to the fact, that there was no
aristocracy in this country except that of wealth. There never was a greater
mistake. There is as distinct an aristocracy here as in any land upon earth.
Since the power of entailing has been cut off, there is no way of keeping
property in the eldest son from generation to generation, and consequently
an aristocracy of wealth would have a brief existence. Wealth has power, and
can make itself exclusive. But it has no affiliation with the family
aristocracy, or of old descent, or of hereditary mercantile enterprise. Old
Henry Astor, the butcher, and John Jacob, the cake peddler, who became a
sagacious and far-seeing merchant, possessed great wealth; but there were
and are hundreds of families in this city, whose portals as an equal John
Jacob with all his wealth, nor Henry either, could not have crossed.

      We look back in this city 200 years, and not more. Before 1662 not
much was known about it. It was a small town, with few records. There are
few tombstones in our old churchyards recording names much before that date.
After 1665 there were two classes of the community____those that had come
here from Holland, or that were descended from the original Dutch. Another
Class was those of English descent. Such a one as I described the Lawrences,
John and Isaac, were of that family. Of the Dutch there are families older
by ten or fifteen years. The important persons here from the date of
settlement were merchants.

OLD  WOUTER  VAN  TWILLER

      Old Wouter Van Twiller, the first governor, was a merchant, or rather
a merchant's clerk, being regularly brought up in the West Indian Company's
counting-room, and that fact ranked him as the equal of an ordinary
merchant. Wouter was born in Nieuwkirk, and probably when he ceased to be
governor of our ancient New York he went back there. I do not know of any
Van Twillers that have kept up the name, and been engaged in mercantile
employment in this city ever since. Had they done so, they would have been
regarded as aristocracy, and would have moved in the very first circles, as
the Stuyvesant family has always done, whether poor or rich. The Stuyvesant
family would not have been quite as ancient by a few years. The descendants
of old Peter have always been engaged in commerce and trade. Their land
titles cannot be disputed. In  this country none but fools look across the
water for an ancestry.

      Old Van Twiller who used to get the people before the door of the fort
in the spring of 1633, break in the head of a barrel of wine, and get all
hands drunk, drinking toasts "to the health of the Prince of Orange and me,"
may have been a left hand son of the old Prince, or his father may have kept
a dance house in "New Church" village,____we don't care about that. The Van
Twiller family would in New York in 1861, only be allowed to date back to
the 16th of April, 1633, when their ancestors landed from the ship "De
Zoutburg," the first vessel of war that ever entered this harbor. People
here don't care what the ancestry was on the other side.

LAURENS/ LAWRENCE

      In my sketch of the head of the Isaac Lawrence family whom I knew, and
whose ancestors I stated to have landed in 1635, I might have added with
strict truth, that across the water, in England, the ancestors of those I
named, spelled it " Lanrens," and that the first of note of that race was
Sir Robert Laurens, of Ashton Hall, who accompanied King Richard (Coeur de
Lion) to Palestine, and at the siege of St. Jean d' Arc, Robert Laurens
planted the English banner of the Cross on the batteries of that town, for
which King Dick slapped him on the shoulder, and thus made him a knight.

      That would not do. It would make a family claim 670 years old, and
here we do not stand any such nonsense. We will go back to the landing in
America, and give credit for 220 to 226 years to a Lawrence or a Van
Twiller___to a Dutchman or an Englishman, from the above old stock, and when
I mention these names, I use them as samples of hundreds of families in this
city who can claim the highest social ancestry known here.

MERCHANT  BUSINESS  THAT  IS  HEREDITARY

      There is no ancestry known in this city higher than that of a
merchant, for it is the only business that is hereditary; and as hereditary
descents give crowns and coronets in Europe, so in America hereditary
merchants have their claim to honor.

      We have had eminent men in professions in this city during 200 years.
They have blazed out in their day and generation as lawyers, physicians,
clergymen, inventors, and then died without leaving a successor. It is a
rare occurrence that even a son has succeeded a father in his profession,
not so with merchants. There are mercantile houses who have father to son
succeeded each other in business from 1661 to 1861, and scarcely conscious
of it themselves. This seems singular and impossible, though I have frequent
evidences of it in my researches.

THE  KIERSTEDES
(Jacob, Martin, John, Christopher N., Henry J., James, Henry T.)

      It is easy to see how this can happen. We will take a merchant named
Jacob Kierstede, in 1660. He is doing business in Beurs street (Exchange
street;) it has been since 1637. He was born in Holland in 1615. He has a
son named Martin, and a clerk named Jan Cregiere. Jan Cortse Neetje, the
daughter of the older Kierstede, marries him. The firm becomes Kierstede &
Zoon, in 1670, and continued for twenty years. In 1700, old Kierstede dies,
and the firm becomes Jan Cregiere.

      Young Martin Kierstede was placed in the store of Peter De Groot, in
the Hoogh straat (part of Pearl,) as a clerk to learn the business, in 1670,
when fourteen years old. Seven years later, he became a partner with De
Groot, and married his niece. He succeeded to the business, and when De
Groot died, in 1700, he used his own name, and was in business until 1730.
He died in 1742, aged eighty-six years. He was succeeded in business by two
of his own clerks. His own son Abraham, born in 1679 was apprenticed as a
clerk to a Mr. Abeel, in 1695. In 1702, he became a partner, and the firm
was Abeel & Kiersted. He died in 1760. His business firm was merged into
Abeel & Co. (a son of the old partner in 1703 being its head,) in 1750.

      A grand nephew of this Abraham was in business in 1784, and kept in
business under his own name. Long after the Revolution, in 1790, he died.

      At that time other descendants of the old race were in business. Simon
was pawnbroker at 285 Broadway; James was a brass founder at 2 Chambers
street; and John Kept a hat store at 23 Courtlandt street, on the identical
spot or lot of ground where Horace H. Day, the celebrated India-rubber
dealer, erected a fine store a few years ago, and which he occupied until he
gave up business altogether. He still owns the property.

      John Kiersted, the hatter, had a son named John Jr., and the firm was
John Kiersted & Son. As late as 1806, the old man kept the store, and the
son moved to Greenwich village.

      Between 1810 and 1860, there have been two prominent Kiersteds that I
have known personally. C.N. became a partner with Warner & Kiersted, dealers
in paints, at 33 Broad street. 1820, the firm was Warner & Platt.
Christopher N. Kiersted was a merchant in 1812, at 245 Cuane street; then in
1817 he kept book accounts, as did many merchants, if unfortunate in
business. He afterwards went in with Warner. Thirty years ago he lived at 58
Broadway, and they kept at 33 Broad street. In later years they moved to 68
Broad, and changed the firm to Kiersted, Warner & Co. The same business,
although partners are changed is, I belive, still carried on in Beaver
street, near Broad. C. N. Kiersted is dead. He was a fine old man, and
thirty years ago was a most energetic and useful citizen.

      Henry J. Kiersted must have started in the drug business, in my old
favorite Fifth Ward, during the last war. At that time, or in 1812, Luke
Kiersted was a great man in the Fifth. He was a very red-faced man, and was
a pewterer and plumber at No. 4 Jew's alley, and in the rear of No. 40
Charlotte street.

      James Kierstead was an old Fifth Warder, and lived at 35 Walker
street, in the rear, and also in Lispenard street. Another, Hezekiah, was a
grocer at 9 Vesey street.

      Henry  T., started in 1814 in Murray street, near Broadway. Then he
moved to 38 Hudson, corner Anthony. In 1820, he moved up to 529 Broadway
corner of Spring street. He was there until 1856. I think now he is at 1339
Broadway, and that the firm is Henry T. Kierstead & Son. The senior must be
a very aged man. The Christopher N. of the old paint house must have left a
family. There are several eminent physicians of the same name. I suppose
they are his sons.

MANY  WHO KNOW  NOTHING  OF  THE  BUSINESS  OF  THEIR  ANCESTORS.

      I now return to the fact that there are many in the city who know
nothing of the actual business of their ancestors, or of such a statement as
that one of the name and blood has been in continuous business in New York
from 1637. That is, there never was time one of the number of the same name
was not a merchant or trader. There are fifty and perhaps one hundred such
cases. It applies to the Hoffman family____originally spelled Hofman. If the
firm was kept on direct from father to son, through a long course of years,
there would be curious old books and writings to show. In Europe,
Holland____itself for instance, or Amsterdam, many firms can show
account-books kept with their correspondents 200 years previous in New
Amsterdam and New York. There the same firm is kept up, and the law
sanctions it. Here it does not. But that is not the true reason. In New York
the "house" and the "store" are two distinct concerns. Probably Mrs.
Goodhue, the wife of Jonathan Goodhue, never saw, except by accident, the
vast accumulation of books connected within the years that her husband was
the head of Goodhue & Co. A young Goodhue succeeded his father in the same
business. Of course he is aware of the fact that his father founded a house.
But suppose he had been brought up in another commercial house, and become a
partner in that, and his father had died, he would not have succeeded to the
books and papers of his father's house. They would have gone to Mr.Perit,
the successor in business of Goodhue & Co. Now we have records; two hundred
years ago there were no newspapers. Hence, there are many names that are
directly descended from a highly rspected name, but of whom little is said,
because they have not like the Stuyvesant, De Peyster, and other families of
wealth, kept a record, and traced every one of the name.

      I have used one or two imaginary changes to show how easy it was for a
scattered business not to be traceable. I have never spoken to a Kierstead
in thirty years, that I know of. Yet I will venture a heavy wager, that all
of the name are directly descended from the original Kierstede (spelled with
an e,) one of whose daughters (Blandina) married worthy Pieter Bayard, a
dweller in de Breede Weg (Broadway,) a son of Nicholas Bayard, and nephew of
old Peter Stuyvesant, who arrived here May 27, 1647, and ancestor of Peter
Bayard, who can daily be seen on Broadway, between St. Paul's Church and the
Astor, after three o'clock, with a book in his hand.

      The Kierstedes are but one of many such. Even of those who kept
records in their families, they tell nothing about the business or labors of
the merchant citizen.

      I will venture to say, that at this moment the home of the most
eminent merchant in New York does not contain sufficient records of his
passing a career as a merchant, to light a cigar with. And should he die and
his business be closed, his "books, accounts and correspondence" of a life,
will become the property of the clerk or person who "liquidates" the
"business."

      I make use of all such information as is sent to me about old
merchants, or living merchants of the present day. I add to it____for there
are very few who have done business in this city of whom I do not know
somewhat. The more I know, the more interesting will be the sketch. If any
one is disposed to carp because I do not know all about the history of a
merchant, they should reflect upon the difficulty of actual knowlege of
affairs that most men keep a secret. The most secret class in the world, and
the most opposed to any sort of publicity about himself, is the great
merchant. Why should it be so?  While the politician, and the army and navy
officer, are anxious to keep their names constantly before the world, why
should the merchant who brings nations in every quarter of the world into
constant communication, and is opening up new sources of wealth, be afraid
of having all known about himself?

HEREDITARY  MERCHANTS

      Among the class that I may safely call hereditary merchants, is Peter
A. Schenck. His father, Peter A. Schenck, was an honorable grocer merchant
in Fly Market No. 26, before and after the Revolution in 1782; in 1795 he
moved to 66 Front Street.

      Young Peter H. was placed as a clerk in the counting house of Lewis
Simond & Co., who were among the heaviest houses after the Revolutionary
war. In 1792 they kept in Queen street, and when young Schenck was their
clerk, the store was kept at No. 4 William street, near Hanover Square.

A  BUSINESS  EDUCATION  WAS  SEVERE  IN  THE  OLD  TIMES

      Very few merchants of the old school brought up their own sons to
business in their own stores. A business education was a severe one in old
times. Every duty, from sweeping out the office to book-keeper, was minutely
exacted.  It was a regular apprenticeship to commerce, and it resulted in
making thorough merchants. The progress was as regular as clock work.
Sweeping  out office, doing errands, taking letters to post office, copying
letters, copying accounts, entering goods at the Custom House, delivering
goods sold, taking an account of goods received from the ships, keeping the
store-book, making sales, assisting the book-keeper, going out supercargo to
East or West Indies. I may add, the system of neatness and correctness in
reference to copying letters, when once acquired, follows a man through his
life. Old Archibald Gracie took ten times more pains with his clerks than is
taken in Columbia College. When they were set to copying letters, it was
read to  the first blot or error and then destroyed, and the unhappy clerk
was set at his task again, and made to copy correctly. This achieved, he was
promoted to making  "duplicates," and even triplicates of letters, and he
had the honor of knowing that his "fist" went to ports in the uttermost
parts of the earth,___for on the days of sailing ships, while one ship took
the "original" letter, succeeding vessels carried "duplicates" and
"triplicates" and not unfrequently the last reached their destination first.

      If I had a son, whom I wished to make a thorough-bred gentleman____a
man of the world and a man of business, I would send him to college three
years, and then let him spend five more in the counting-house of a heavy
merchant, where he should sweep out, and end by being a thorough
book-keeper.

      The discipline of the modern merchants is nothing to what it was fifty
years ago. Our merchants of great eminence before the Revolution, had been
brought up in English or Scotch counting-houses, and sent out here to
conduct
business.  Such was the case with Archibald Gracie, Thomas Buchanan,
Theophilachte and Richard Bache, Robert Murray, Francis Lewis, John and
Francis Atkinson, Lewis Simond, and other eminent merchants between 
1720 and 1820.


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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