HISTORY OF QUEENS COUNTY with illustrations, Portraits & Sketches of Prominent Families and Individuals. New York: W.W. Munsell & Co.; 1882. pp. 258-328. History of Queens County enter name and hit return
LONG ISLAND CITY.
Long Island City, the seat of justice of Queens county, comprises the localities long known as Astoria, Hunter’s Point, Ravenswood, Dutch Kills, Blissville and Middletown. The more populous of, these places are still geographically distinct, the spaces- intervening between them not having been built up as yet, and the new city name is by many ignored in consequence. The city is located on Long Island, opposite the upper part of New York. It is bounded southeast by Newtown, of which it was originally a part. On the south it is separated, from Brooklyn by Newtown Creek. The East River forms its western and northern boundary, and Blackwell’s, Ward’s and Randall’s Islands lie opposite this city. North Brother, South Brother and Berrien’s Islands are included within the city limits. Astoria, in the northern part of the city, extends along the shore of the East River. It was long known as Hallett’s Cove, and was afterward named in honor of John Jacob Astor. The place contains many charming suburban dwellings, some of which are old and almost all of which are very well located. The boulevard is a drive which extends through the village parallel with the shore, and which is skirted on the water side with residences having water front and between which delightful views of the river and the islands in it may be obtained. There are several manufacturing enterprises located here. Hunter’s Point is a great oil- refining depot and the locality of many manufacturing interests. The refineries extend more than a mile along the East River front. The depots of some of the Long Island railroads are located here, the place being the distributing point for travel by rail and railway freight traffic for Long Island. Ravenswood, lying between Hunter’s Point and Astoria, contains numerous suburban residences, many of which are surrounded by handsome grounds. Dutch Kills was an early Dutch settlement. The population is now small and somewhat scattered. Blissville, situated east of Hunter’s Point, hear Calvary Cemetery, the great Roman Catholic burying ground of New York and its suburbs, is a small and not very populous village, containing some manufacturing concerns of more or less importance. Middletown, near the eastern border of the city, is a small settlement which was more prominent years ago than it is now. The Bowery, at the northeast corner of the city, was an early Dutch settlement. Long Island City is connected with New York by a number of ferries, from 92nd street, New York, to Astoria (with horse railway connections with Ravenswood, Hunter’s Point and other parts of the city to the south), and from the foot of James slip and of East Thirty- fourth street, New York, to Hunter’s Point, with street railroad connections with various parts of the city. The population was 15,587 in 1875, and 17,096 in 1880.EARLY SETTLERS AND THEIR DESCENDANTS;
RICHARD BRUTNELL.
Nearly two centuries and a half have elapsed since the beginning of the settlement by whites of the territory now included in the corporate limits of Long Island City. As early as 1640 the attention of colonists had been directed thither. As nearly as can now be ascertained the spot first occupied was at the junction of the kill of Mespat (Newtown Creek) and Kanapaukah Creek (Dutch Kills), on either side of the mouth of the latter. On the east side was the plantation of Richard Brutnell, nearly a hundred acres in extent. Brutnell was born in Bradford, England. A few years later he removed to Hempstead. This property was deeded to Brutnell in July 1643, and later passed into the possession of William Herrick, whose widow subsequently married Thomas Wandell, who became the purchaser in 1659, adding fifty acres to it for which Richard Colefax had obtained a patent in 1652. This estate later became known as the Alsop farm, having been inherited by Richard Alsop, a nephew of Wandell, in 1691, at the latter’s death. The name of Alsop has become extinct in the neighborhood and the farm has been sold, a large part of it now being known as Calvary Cemetery. The old Alsop house stood just outside the city limits.BURGER JORIS- THE DUTCH SETTLERS.
On the west side of Dutch Kills Creek, at its mouth, was the plantation of Tymen Jansen, who had been a ship carpenter in the employ of the West India Company and who received a grant of this land about the time of the grant to Brutnell. The farm of Jansen was purchased several years later by Joris Stevensen de Caper, the ancestor of the Van Alst family. To this estate he added subsequently a neighboring plantation, which had been granted March 23d 1647 to Jan Jansen, from Ditmarsen, in Lower Saxony, from whom the family of Ditmar descended. Next to the Tymen Jansen plantation, to the north, lay the land of Burger Jorissen, who took out his "ground- brief" July 3d 1643. According to Riker, "Burger Joris" (the name appears to have been abbreviated in time) was a native of Hersberg, in Silesia, and came to Rensselaerwyck in 1637, being by occupation a smith. There he lived for about five years, and then bought a vessel and became a trader on the Hudson, but he eventually settled on his farm at Dutch Kills. "During this absence it appears" he rented his bouwery and stock, consisting of goats, etc., to Robert Evans and James Smith. "Prior to 1654 he had erected a tide- mill on his farm, and the creek was on that account named Burger’s Kill. He died in 1671, aged 59. He was evidently a man of character and ability, as he was repeatedly called to assist in the civil government of the town. He married, in 1639, Engeltie Mans, from Compst, in Sweden, and had sons: Joris, born 1647; Hermanus, born 1652; Claes, born 1657; Johannes, born 1662; and Elias, born 1664. These took the patronymic Burger, and in fact the father was sometimes called Mr. Burger. They settled in New York, and from them the Burger family of that city is descended. Burger Joris’s farm was sold to John Parcell, the progenitor of the Parcell family, and. subsequently was owned by Abraham and William Paynter. The "out plantations" of this period, which fell within the territory of the present city, were farms lying along the East River at Hunter’s Point and above that locality (which was then called Dominie’s Hook). They had been granted by the government of New Netherland, on the prevailing conditions of tenure, to a number of planters, most of whom were Dutch. One of the most noted holders of "out plantations," however, was the Englishman William Hallett, who was granted a good sized farm at Hell Gate, and who is spoken of somewhat at length hereafter. "Dominie’s Hook" as early as 1643 gained its name from its owner, Dominie Everardus Bogardus, the first minister of New Amsterdam, whose widow, Annetie Jans (whose name slightly modified is very familiar to- day from its connection with certain famous real estate claims), obtained a deed for the property, which was then estimated at one hundred and thirty acres, on the 26th of November 1652.THE HUNTER HOMESTEAD.
CAPTAIN PRAA’S ESTATE.
The children of Mrs. Annetie Praa Bennett had originally inherited this estate from their grandfather Captain Peter Praa. This gentleman was of an ancient Huguenot family, but was himself born in Leyden, Holland, and came to this, country in 1659, the family having gathered their household effects and fled out of the reach of religious persecution, to which they, in common with all others of their faith, were at that time subjected. As a. military officer Captain Praa was especially distinguished. Being otherwise a man of considerable note in his time, and the possessor of a vast amount of real estate, his name was a prominent one among the patroons of that day. Not only upon the shores of Long Island was he the owner of an extended tract of land, reaching from Ravenswood to Williamsburgh (and including what is now called Green Point) on one side, and to the outskirts of Bushwick on the other; but he had much valuable property in New York city and the surrounding colonies and townships.A MISSING DEED- THE JANS ESTATE.
Some curious and even romantic facts it is said have come to light in more recent years with regard to his ownership of a large district in an adjoining State, the title deeds of which were lost to the family for so many years that even their existence was forgotten, until one day a descendant of one of Captain Praa’s daughters, having occasion to destroy an old piece of furniture, found a secret drawer attached to it, covered by a piece of tin, and within it she most unexpectedly discovered the long lost title deeds of her forefather’s estate. This claim was also said to cover a large amount of property in the heart of New York city, and a goodly tract of land in Newburgh, N.Y., with about 50,000 acres of valuable land in New Jersey. Upon the basis of this discovery an association of the heirs of Peter Praa was formed, and the matter put into the hands of lawyers, who seemed, at least, eminently busy; but we have good reason to believe the lawsuits have never been satisfactorily settled, since the claimants are to this day as far off as ever from any pecuniary benefits which those long lost title deeds should legally have afforded them. It was in 1697 that Captain Praa became the purchaser of "Dominie’s Hook," which was the earliest name of "Hunter’s Point." He bought it from the heirs of Anneke Jans, widow of Dominie Everardus Bogardus, who in 1652 had received the grant of this land from Peter Stuyvesant, then governor of the colony of New York. This Dominie Bogardus was the first Dutch minister settled in New York city, and was afterward drowned on his return to Holland with Governor Kieft. The children and heirs of Anneke Jans Bogardus had afterward received a confirmatory patent from the English Governor Nicolls, dated March 1669. All of these ancient grants or patents have had the good fortune of being carefully kept and handed down from one generation to another. The original Nicolls patent is now to be seen in the library of Union College, Schenectady, having been presented by the late Hon. Clarkson N. Potter, a grandson, of Dr. Eliphalet Nott, who so long presided over that institution. In a letter to the writer Mr. Potter says: "Like all the papers which were issued when Matthias Nicoll was secretary of the province, it is a beautiful specimen of clerical work, and in perfect preservation." It was during his interesting researches into the early history of the "Old Farm," as it was familiarly designated, that Mr. Potter came into possession of many ancient papers, yellow- tinged with time, but important in the primitive history of Long Island City. From this gentleman’s records we have also a boundary of the demesne, which is likely to prove of historical value and interest in the future. "The original farm," wrote Mr. Potter "consisted of 212 acres. It was in its early days almost an island, bounded on the north by a ditch on the salt meadow south of Ravenswood, partly by a run of water called Jack’s Creek, which ran east and then curved to the south and thus formed the eastern boundary of the farm; south by Newtown creek, and’ west by the East River."THE NAME OF HUNTER’S POINT.
People in recent times have frequently desired to learn why this locality was called a point. The explanation is a very characteristic and natural one. It received the appellation from a prominent ledge of rocks which jutted out into the East River, the last one forming a distinct point, which could be seen from a distance and became a sort of landmark to vessels passing up and down the river. These rocks, which in days of modern progress were either built upon by the ferry owners or destroyed, were useful in early years as a private boat landing when the tide in Newtown Creek was too low for a nearer approach to the homestead by that more convenient water route. Captain Peter Praa at the time of his purchase of this farm (first called Dominie’s Hook, then Bennett’s Point and afterward Hunter’s Point) had his family residence on the opposite side of Newtown Creek, upon a portion of land bounded also by the East River, and which is now familiarly known under the name of Green Point. In 1684 Captain Praa married Maria, daughter of Jacob Hay and widow of a staunch Knickerbocker named Joost Molenaer. The Praa family consisted of five daughters, nearly all of whom survived their father. The eldest seems to have remained unmarried. The second sister, Maria, became Mrs. Wynant Van Zandt, and was widely known and admired in the social circles of the period as a belle and a very beautiful woman. The remaining sisters were married, one to a Messerole, and another to a Provost; and Annetie Praa, who was born in 1694, became the wife of William Bennett. To the children ‘of this daughter, whom he survived, Captain Praa bequeathed their mother’s home (the Dominie’s Hook purchase), which thereafter took the name of the resident family and was recognized as "Bennett’s Point." A peculiar and interesting feature of Captain Praa’s will was his thoughtful care of an old family servant. To this favorite negro, as he was called, was left a small piece of land originally belonging to the Dominie’s Hook territory, but which was in itself almost an island (for it bore the name of "Jack’s Island"), being situated on high ground nearly isolated from the mainland by a branch of Newtown Creek passing through and around the adjoining salt meadows. This bit of land was given to his favorite negro servant "as long as he lives, to maintain himself out of it." And Jack dwelt there as lawful sovereign of his little island for many years after his kind master was gone, and supported himself and family (as the records tell) by fishing and clamming, and finally died at an advanced age, leaving his name associated with creek, orchard and island, with its kindly memories to be handed down to posterity.JACOB BENNETT.
In 1767 Jacob Bennett, a son of Mrs. Annetie Praa Bennett (or rather Bodet, for, having early lost her first husband, she had married again), bought the family residence and adjoining land from his brothers and sisters, and he lived in the old homestead until his death, in 1817, at the ripe age of 94 years. That this gentleman of the olden time was contented never to roam very far from the delights of his own fireside may be inferred from the fact that, although in the habit of sending a boat every day to the city for marketing and other family purposes, he could never be persuaded to visit New York in person, having a natural unconquerable fear of catching the smallpox!CAPTAIN GEORGE HUNTER.
After the demise of Mr. Bennett the old farm by his will became again an inheritance in the female line, and Was given to his daughter Mrs. Anne Hunter and her husband Captain George Hunter, who some time after their marriage had settled in New York city. After some family troubles, arising out of an unsuccessful contest of Mr. Bennett’s will by the residue of his heirs, Captain Hunter and his wife returned to the old home, which they occupied for the remainder of their lives. Mrs. Hunter died there, March 10th 1833, leaving a family of eight children, three of whom, her sons Jacob, John B., and Richard B., were by her will appointed executors of the estate. The ancient homestead had now long been known as Hunter’s Point. Captain Hunter died in October 1825. He was a man greatly admired, esteemed and beloved. He was a model of manly virtues, and when after his marriage he gave up his seafaring vocation, to become a shipping merchant in New York, no name stood higher than his among the mercantile interests and community. In the city and land of his adoption he had thus become a highly honored citizen, and there is a true legend of his wedding day to the effect that upon that happy occasion the shipping merchants of New York celebrated the event by a universal hoisting of their bunting in the harbor and vicinity. It is one hundred and four years since that auspicious wedding day! New York city then only covered the lower part of Manhattan Island; but a vivid picture is before us of the fair young wife and her chosen partner in life’s journey, as, gazing adown the river from the windows of their ancestral home, they are made aware of the fact that the little city lying so pleasantly in the distance is decked with such gorgeous festal attire in honor of their union. From the windows of this time-honored family mansion, how many scenes of note and interest were previously and afterward witnessed! There were occasions of social and family festivities, when it was a cheering and pretty sight to behold the shores of Newtown Creek lined with the boats of neighbors and friends as they came from miles around, to attend a christening or a wedding. One reminiscence of this sort may be particularly mentioned: Upon the visit of the minister of that section (an event which in those days occurred only once in a prolonged period, on account of the wide circuit under a "dominie’s" charge and the difficulties of traveling) several affianced couples took advantage of the opportunity and were married under the friendly roof of the ancient homestead; and a number of children from households of the neighboring farm- houses received the sacred rite of baptism, the font used during the services being a silver bowl, still in existence and preserved by the family as a memorial of the occasion.NOTEWORTHY INCIDENTS.
During the stirring events of the Revolutionary war here was a "Point Lookout" from which could be distinctly viewed the maneuvers of the enemy. Gazing forth from their airy hill-top the household beheld with sorrow the capture of New York city by the British, September 13th 1776. History tells us that the first division of the royal army, under Cornwallis and others, embarked from the head of certain waters called Newtown Bay, where they were out of sight of their opponents. Numbering five ships of war, on their entrance into the East River they went over to Kipp’s Bay. Forts were already erected there by the Revolutionists and troops stationed for their defense, but the firing from the ships caused them to be abandoned, and the British took possession. This locality, called "Kipp’s Bay," is now that part of New York city lying opposite and above Hunter’s Point ferry. It was afterward offered to Captain Hunter for a few hundred pounds purchase money, and he was tempted to risk the speculation; but his prudent helpmate dissuaded him from it, being firmly persuaded in her mind that this proposed acquisition of real estate would never prove a paying investment. A daring robbery took place in the old Hunter homestead shortly after the close of the Revolution. As one of the members of the Bennett family was rowing homeward one evening he observed a strange boat on the shore, a little distance from the house. An old negro servant who accompanied him immediately scented danger, remarking to his master, "There must be robbers in our house- let us scuttle the boat!" This praiseworthy precaution was at once taken. As they neared the dwelling the marauders had already tied in his chair old Mr., Bennett, father- in- law of Captain Hunter, and were threatening to burn him unless he revealed where his money was kept. After successive efforts they succeeded in finding about $6,000, together with some other valuables and articles of family silverware, when the signal of alarm was given by the observing party without, and soon a multitude of friends and neighbors were seen hastening by creek and shore to the rescue. In dismay the daring intruders now sought their boat as a means of speedy flight, but as they put off from the land it filled with water, and hurriedly jumping from it they followed a track across the meadows, in their hasty exit leaving behind them, hidden in the sedge, the money they had stolen and the silverware. One of them was arrested soon after the occurrence. A large reward was offered by Captain Hunter for the capture of the whole party, but they were never found. The whole of this story we think has never before been told. As it gives an instance of a woman’s bravery under peculiarly trying circumstances, we think it deserving of notice in the present record. At the time of this bold robbery the wife of Captain Hunter Was lying ill in a room adjoining that of her father. She dared not make any outcry for fear of instant butchery to herself and aged father; and in seeming quietly submitted to their depredations. But while these ruffians were joyfully inspecting the treasures they had gained, weak, ill and terribly frightened as she was, Mrs. Hunter managed to leave her sick couch and possess herself of another large sum of money that was lying in a drawer near by. This she secreted more securely in a corner of the bed curtain. This duty effected she became unconscious, just as she had realized the flight of the robbers and that help was close at hand. She afterward described this marauding party as men who were handsomely equipped in military accoutrements, such as were worn at that time by British officers. An officer’s sword, which was found in the meadows at the time, gave assurance of a higher rank in rascality than the outward circumstances of life might have warranted.THE HUNTER HEIRS AND ESTATE.
After the death of Mrs. Anne Hunter, in 1833, her family continued to occupy the old homestead about two years. The daughters with one exception had married, and resided in their own homes in the adjacent city. The elder sons, Jacob and John B., had also long since been recognized as prominent citizens in New York, while their youngest brother, Richard B., had located on an adjoining section of the Van Alst farm lands, which he had purchased from his father-in-law, Henry Van Alst. This locality at present forms an eastern district of Hunter’s Point, and is still owned and resided upon by Jacob B. and George H. Hunter, the sons of Richard, who died about twenty- one years ago. In the natural division of family interests and the changes induced by time and progress- and also by the will of Mrs. Hunter, which provided that her estate should be divided among her children within three years after her death- it most fortunately happened that an offer of purchase came about this period (1835) to Jacob Hunter, the eldest son and acting executor, from General Jeremiah Johnson, who proposed to buy Mrs. Hunter’s farm in behalf of Dr. Eliphalet Nott, president of Union College, Schenectady. The business arrangements were concluded between General Johnson and Jacob Hunter June 13th 1835, and with the deed thereby given the ancient homestead and its broad adjacent lands passed forever out of the possession of the old- time owners. It was a change necessitated by the march of progress and modern improvements. . The picturesque hill- top, with its antique homestead and the characteristic rocky (though evermore mystical) "Point," stretching out its stalwart arm as if in mute prophecy toward the opposite friendly shores of New York city, have all disappeared from human vision. Yet, the thoughtful spirit cannot but ask while musing over the history of Hunter’s Point- was not that rocky ledge jutting far out into the river intended as an omen to the multitudes of travelers and pleasure- seekers who in coming years should cross and recross certain ferries, hereafter to be planted upon the spot where nature had previously stationed these rocks as sentinels of the past and sybils of the future? Daily, hourly from these ferries at the present day, what busy excited throngs are coming and going- some to the gardens and farm lands of Newtown, Flushing, Whitestone and the adjoining "north side" region, others to Jamaica, Rockaway, Coney Island, Long Beach, Shelter Island and the Hamptons, with their tempting allurements to the enjoyment of the seashore!JACOB HUNTER.
Jacob Hunter, who was the last representative in the original family line of ownership associated with Hunter’s Point, was a gentleman of quiet, genial nature, possessed of excellent financial abilities and a soundness of judgment that caused him to be much valued as an adviser and friend. In personal appearance he was exceedingly fine looking, with a dignity of manner that betokened a gentleman of the olden school. His life proved a singularly fortunate one in every respect. He seemed one of those who are born to success in whatever they undertake. At the time of his death he was the possessor of a goodly share of real estate in the city of New York. Honorable and benevolent in all his dealings, his popularity was often shown by the avidity with which his fellow citizens would have placed him in offices of trust and responsibility, whose honors he invariably declined; not because he did not appreciate the high esteem in which he was held by his coadjutors, but from a modesty peculiar to his nature which fain would have thrown the official mantle upon shoulders which he deemed better, fitted to wear it. The only public position which he was ever induced to accept was an office in the eleventh regiment New York State artillery, of which he became commander at an early period of his life. He seems thus to have been the only one of his family who had inherited the proclivities of their ancestor, Captain Peter Praa. Born in the year 1791, we find him when scarcely out of his boyhood serving actively in the war of 1812. When the war was ended he continued to belong to the military corps, serving in an official capacity with such men in his ranks as Prosper M. Wetmore, Thomas M. Adriance and Joseph Hopkins, who, continuing to serve until toward the close of his life, became commander- general of all the forces of New York city. In the year 1821 the cares of business obliged Mr. Hunter to resign his position as captain in the eleventh regiment of artillery, which was in later years merged in Company D of the New York seventh. His sincere regret on leaving is expressed in a letter which has been carefully preserved, and in which he says: "Circumstances over which I have no control oblige me to take this step, while inclination strongly pleads to detain me in the ranks. But rest assured that while absent from my accustomed post I shall still watch with interest from the distance, and should any emergency occur I can only add that when my country calls it will ever find me ready to follow." That pressing hour of need came not again until the war of the Rebellion, when Mr. Hunter was 70 years old, and consequently too far advanced in life to take any active part in the contest. Thus the antique sword rested in its scabbard, watched over and cared for as a family relic, until about a year ago, when it was thought best to accept an honorable abiding place offered it in the relic- room of the veterans of the New York seventh regiment at their new and elegant armory at the corner of Sixty- seventh street and Fourth avenue, New York city. In the year 1815 Mr. Hunter married Miss Charlotte Lahy, a young English lady of ancient and noble family connections, her father being the nephew and adopted son of General Gwynn, who was aide de camp in the courtly retinue of King George III. Outliving his wife ten years, Mr. Hunter died September 30th 1875, when he had attained to the advanced age of 84 years. A family of four children survived him, one of whom still resides in the old family mansion in Twenty- ninth street, purchased by her father more than a quarter of a century since. These, with their own especial connection and descendants, were from the only family of the name known in connection with the earlier history of the metropolis and its immediate vicinity.WILLIAM HALLETT.
The "out plantations" received a valuable accession to their population in the person of William Hallett, who, December 1st 1652, obtained a brief for a hundred and sixty acres of land which had previously been in possession of Jacques Bentin (Bentyn) a member of Director- general Van Twiller’s council. It was described as "a plat of ground at Hellegat, upon Long Island, called Jacques’s farm, and, beginning at a great rock that lies in the meadow, goes upward southeast to the end of a very small swamp, two hundred and two rods; from thence northeast two hundred and thirty rods; on the north it goes up to a running water, two hundred and ten rods." Mr. Hallett was born in Dorsetsllire, England, in 1616; he emigrated to New England, settling at Greenwich, Conn.; thence he removed to Hell Gate about the date mentioned. In 1655 his house and other buildings there were destroyed by the Indians and he removed to Flushing. The next year he was appointed sheriff, but "was deposed by Stuyvesant," says Riker, fined and imprisoned for entertaining the Rev. William Wickenden from Rhode Island, allowing him to preach at his house, and receiving the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper from his hands. Disgusted at this treatment, Mr. Hallett, on the revolt of Long Island from the Dutch, warmly advocated the claims of Connecticut; and, being sent as a delegate to the general court of that colony, he was appointed as commissioner or justice of the peace for Flushing. Afterward he again located at Hell Gate." The date of his return is perhaps indicated quite nearly by an additional land purchase which he made later.LAND PURCHASED AT HALLET’S COVE AND ELSEWHERE.
Mention is made of the "purchase by William Hallett sen., of the town of Flushing," August 1st 1664, of "a large tract of land near Hallett’s Cove, from Shawestcont and Erramorhar, Indians residing at Shawcopshee, upon Staten Island, upon authority of Mattano, then sagamore, and in the presence of two Indians, Warchan and Kethcanaparan, and Randell Hewitt, John Coe, Jonathan Rite and Edward Fisher." It is described as "beginning at the first creek, called Sunswick; westward below Hell Gate, upon Long Island, and from the mouth of the aforesaid creek south to a markt tree fast by a great rock; and from that said markt tree southward, fifteen score rods, to another markt tree, which stands from another little rock a little westward, and from that markt tree east right to the point of an island which belongs to the poor’s bouwery; and from the point of the island belonging to the poor’s bouwery round by the river, through Hell Gate, to the aforesaid creek westward, where it began. Also an island which is commonly called Hewlett’s Island, which island the aforesaid Hewlett did formerly live upon; as also all other islands within the tract of land aforementioned." December 5th 1664 the sagamore Mattano, "chief of Staten Island and Nyack," confirmed- the above sale and acknowledged to have received in full payment for the land "fifty- eight fathom of wampum, seven coats, one blanket and four kettles." This transaction is recorded in the office of he secretary of state, Albany (Deeds, II., 74, 75.) This tract was called by the Indians "Sintsinck," and it embraced nearly the whole of Hell Gate Neck. It (or so much of the aforesaid Indian deed or purchase as bad not been disposed of to others by ground- brief or patent) was afterward confirmed to Hallett by the English governors Nicolls and Dongan. Therefore this sale did not affect the several grants to individuals lying within the limits of this territory described. In 1667 Mr. Hallett began a suit against Captain Thomas Lawrence for the recovery of Berrien’s Island, which the latter had obtained a patent for, but Hallett’s claim was not admitted. As Mr. Hallett no longer held himself amenable to the government of New Netherland, it is improbable that he consulted Stuyvesant in making this purchase.ABRAHAM RYCKEN- THE HEWLETT FAMILY.
That he did not do so is indicated by the fact that on August 19th 1664 Abraham Rycken, a planter on the northern border of the town, obtained from the director-general a patent for Hewlett’s Island. This island was so named in honor of the ancestor of the Hewlett family of Long Island (probably Lewis Hewlett, a native of Buckinghamshire, England), who at an earlier day had been driven from it by the Indians, who destroyed his house and other property. Recognizing the authority of the Dutch governor to dispose of the island, Governor Nicolls confirmed it to Rycken, December 24th 1667. It was afterward owned by the descendants of the original patentee, and has long been known as Riker’s Island, the old name having gone out of use.THE SITE OF ASTORIA- INDIAN OWNERS.
Hallett’s purchase at Hell Gate Neck included much of the territory later incorporated as the village of Astoria. The original proprietor lived there to the age of about ninety, and was foremost in many early improvements. He divided his property at that point in 1688 between his sons William and Samuel, the former receiving the lands south of the road Since forming Greenoak Street, St. George’s Place, Welling and Main streets and Newtown avenue, the latter the lands lying north of that road. It is probable that the Indians who sold Hell Gate Neck to William Hallett were of the Canarsie tribe, a clan of reputed power whose jurisdiction extended over the whole of Kings county, the islands in Hell Gate, and, O’Callaghan says, some part of Newtown. A large tract of land including the southwestern portion of the present city was deeded "to the inhabitants of Newtowne, alias Middleburg," by Pomwaukon and Roweroenesteo of the above tribe, July 9th 1666.PLANTATIONS AT GREEN HOOK.
In the direction of Newton’s Point, or the Green Hook, thirty years ago the property of Mr. Woolsey, were the small plantations owned by Jan Jacobson Carpenel (otherwise called Jan Van Haerlem) Adrian Derickse Coon, Hendrick Jansen Van Dueren, Lieven Jansen and Simon Joost. These five lots, contained in strips of about fifty acres each, abutted on the river or meadow, and extended back west- southwest some three hundred Dutch rods, to the Great Swamp, also called Lubbert’s Swamp. The briefs for these lots all bore date in 1653 or 1654, and were afterward bought up by Major Thomas Lawrence, who also obtained from Governor Nicolls, August 23d 1665, a patent for the small island adjoining, commonly called "Round Island," now known as Berrien’s Island; which, together with "a neck of land" included in the patent to Adriaen D. Coon, was afterward possessed by Ezra N. Berrien. Thomas Lawrence was the youngest of three brothers. The others were John and William, who came to America from England in 1635, landing in Massachusetts but soon removing to New York. Both were men of ability and enterprise. Thomas came at a later date and became, as has been seen, a somewhat extensive landowner in the northern part of the present city. H was very prominent in military matters, locally, during the stormy times consequent upon the removal of Governor Andros. Berrien’s Island was purchased a Timothy Wood, in 1727, by Cornelius Berrien, and has since been known by his name.GERARDY- CRAYE- THE GREENOAKS- OTHER PIONEER NAMES.
The Green Hook, since known as the G.M. Woolsey farm, was patented to Jean Gerardy, November 5th 1653. On the same day Teunis Craye took out a brief for the Polhemus estate, and another had been granted three days earlier to Philip Gerardy for the Dr. Ditmars farm. March 7th 1654 Annetie Jans Bogardus obtained a patent for forty- two morgen and fifty- four rods of land lying adjacent to the Pot Cove, and which later was included in the estates of Squire John and Major Richard Lawrence. John Greenoak, the ancestor of the family of that name, came to Newtown early in the eighteenth century, from England, and in 1717 married Mary Lawrence, who after his death married Joseph Hallett in 1728. His son John Greenoak located on the farm near Hallett’s Cove afterward owned by the Messrs. Higgins, carpet manufacturers. He was three times married, his first wife having been Jemima Hallett. His son John Greenoak came into possession of an estate at Hallett’s Cove, afterward known as the H.F. Blackwell place. His wife was Lydia Hallett. Nothing more has been attempted in the foregoing sketch than to give some account of the early settlement of the territory now included within the borders of Long Island City. No effort has been made to pursue the subject beyond what may properly be termed the pioneer period. The date of beginning was so remote and the sources of information have been found so meagre that no claim is made that all who deserve mention in the preceding pages have been referred to. What has been written is offered with the explanation that it is as nearly complete as it can be made, and in the hope that it will in some measure add to the interest of an article which has been prepared more especially to trace the growth and development of Long Island City than to give an account of early affairs of old Newtown. Among the more prominent families in different portions of what is now Long Island City in the past may be mentioned the Blackwells, Halletts, Lawrences, Lents, Ditrnars, Suydams, Greenoaks, of Astoria; Bennetts and Hunters, of Hunter’s Point; Paynters, Tottens, Millers, Delafields, Gibbses, Parcells, at Ravenswood; Van Alsts, Bragaws, Rapelyes, De Witts, Brinkerhoffs, De Bevoises, Duryeas, Morrells, Alsops, Polhemuses, Van Marters, of Dutch Kills, Willings, of Middletown. Of many of these families descendants are now living in the city, and some of them rank among its most prominent citizens.EARLY LAND TROUBLES.
The year 1700 gave, says Riker, "publicity to a dissatisfaction of certain inhabitants of Hell Gate Neck because they were excluded from a voice in the disposal of the common land of the town; a right which the original purchasers, their heirs or assigns, had hitherto continued exclusively to enjoy. A bill was accordingly brought before the Assembly, on the 30th of October 1700, entitled ‘An act for quieting, settling and confirming the legal rights and possessions of Thomas Lawrence, William Lawrence, Robert Burgess, Bergoon Bragaw, Henry Martensen, George Van Alst, John Lawrence, Andrew Van Alst, Johannes Van Alst, John Parcell and other ancient freeholders, possessors of land and inhabitants of Hell Gate Neck, within the bounds of Newtown, on Long Island, now called the Island of Nassau; and vacating all under patents, privately obtained, of any of the said land, against the just rights of said freeholders, and other the inhabitants of Newtown having rights.’ After the third reading this bill was rejected on the first of November. "The same bill, or one with a similar title, was introduced to the Assembly September 23d 1701 and submitted to a committee, which reported in favor, provided that nothing therein contained should be understood to affect the patents of the towns of Flatbush and Brooklyn, with which the people of Newtown were yet at issue. The bill accordingly passed the Assembly, on the 14th of October, but it met with defeat in the council. Upon this second failure a bill was filed in the court of chancery. The purchasers of Newtown took prompt measures to resist this procedure, and met on February 9th 1702; the record of which meeting states that Captain Thomas Lawrence and certain other persons have put a bill in chancery against several of the freeholders’ patents within the township of Newtown, and, as is supposed, against the patent that includes the whole town, in order to destroy the said patents and make them void and of no effect; to prevent which the town chose a committee of three to employ counsel and act in their defense. The means thus taken were successful, and the residents of Hell Gate Neck, determined not to be thwarted in their purpose, drew up the following petition, and presented it to the governor and council on the 11th of May 1703: "To his excellency Edward Viscount Cornbury, Her Majesty’s Captain- General and Governor- in- Chief of the province of New York, and territories depending thereon, in America, and Vice- Admiral of the same, &c., in council: The humble petition of several of the free holders and inhabitants of the town of Newtown, in Queens county, on the Island of Nassau, sheweth: That Richard Nicolls, Esq., in the year 1666, being governor- general of this province under the Duke of York, granted unto Captain Richard Betts, Captain Thomas Lawrence, and others, as patentees for and on behalf of themselves and their associates, the freeholders and inhabitants of said town, their heirs, successors, and assigns, a parcel of land then commonly called by the name of the town of Newtown, bounded as in the said patent is more particularly expressed, given to the said patentees and their associates, their heirs, successors and assigns forever. That your excellency’s petitioners, or those they claim under, being at and before the time of the granting of said patent actually possessed of and entitled to houses, lands tenements, and hereditaments within the bounds of the said patent, as well as several other persons, and thereby entitled with them to such lands which were then d and remained in common, hoped and behave had the advantage of said patent in common amongst the rest of the patentees; but so it is, may it please your excellency, that Samuel Moore, Thomas Stevenson, Joseph Sackett, Edward Hunt and John Way, with several of the inhabitants of the said town, of their own heads, without any power or authority for their so doing, have from time to time, as they think fit, assembled and met together, and given away, sold and disposed of great parts of the said town lands lying in common, as aforesaid, without the consent of your excellency’s petitioners, or without any allowance to them for their right and interest therein, contrary to all justice and equity. Your excellency’s petitioners therefore humbly pray that your excellency in council will please to order the said persons to be summoned before your excellency, and require them to bring with them all such books, papers or other things- as are in their or either of their custody, possession or power, relating to the premises, in order that the same may be fully discovered, and that your excellency, being particularly informed of the hardships your petitioners lie under, may grant them such redress as in your wisdom you may think fit. And your excellency’s petitioners, as in duty bound, shall ever pray, &c. "This petition was signed by William Lawrence, John Lawrence, John Van Alst, George Van Alst, William Parcell, John Parcell, Jacob Fyn, Roelof Pietersen, Thomas Skillman, Cornelius Bries, Andrew Van Alst, Peter Praa, Daniel Lawrence, Jonathan Lawrence, Syrach Titus, Peter Lott, Teunis Titus, William Post, John Coe, Jacobus Harcks, John Hart, Rebert Coe, Jonathan Coe, and David Coe. "Pursuant to the prayer of the petitioners the council summoned the clerk of Newtown to produce the books and papers of the town, which were given into the hands of three gentlemen of the council to examine the same and report how far the said books and papers do make out the allegations contained in the petition. These gentlemen rendered a report on January 6th 1704, upon which the council directed a second examination of the records to be made by a new committee." The members of the first committee were Rip Van Dam, Gerard Beekman and Caleb Heathcote. The second was composed of Sa. Sh. Broughton, Thomas Wenham and Matthew Ling. They rendered a report to Lord Cornbury, dated New York, February 3d 1704, in which, after referring to the report of the former committee and the "allegations of the petitioners and those petitioned against," they stated: "We find that before the granting of Colonel Nicolls’s patent to the town of Newtown a society of people had purchased and did occupy and enjoy a parcel of land commonly called and known by the name of the town of Middleburg, and that the said Colonel Richard Nicolls, by his patent bearing date the sixth day of March one thousand six hundred and sixty- six, did confirm to them the said purchase, and adjoin certain out plantations, not any ways concerned in the purchasing of the aforesaid tract of land, and made them all one township without any distinct reservation of the properties of the said purchasers entire to themselves; notwithstanding which the inhabitants of Middleburg (afterward called Newtown) have acted distinct as to the sale and disposal of the lands purchased by them, or those under whom they claim, and have by themselves, at their own proper charges, maintained suits at law to maintain the bounds and title of their said purchase, without any contribution from the out- plantations. And we do further find that the Lawrences and Coes and some few others of the petitioners were original purchasers of the said town of Middleburg, and have had their proportionable shares of the said purchase laid out to them; and particularly that the father of William Lawrence, one of the petitioners hath transferred his right in the said purchase to one George Wood, as appears by the books of said town that it appears to us that the matters complained of now by the petitioners were stirred in Colonel Dougan’s time, who, by his patent dated the five- and- twentieth day of November one thousand six hundred and eighty- six, likewise makes them one township, but reserves to the original purchasers of the town of Middleburg their distinct right to the said lands to them and their heirs only. And we do further find that the books of the town of Newtown have been very imperfectly kept, but that on the whole it does appear to us that the said patent granted by the said Colonel Dongan was issued on mature consideration, and that ever since the granting thereof the patentees have acted according to the settlement of the said patent, and that all parties have rested satisfied under the said grant without any complaint made by them until the exhibiting of the said petition. They do not seem to us to be guilty of the matters therein alleged against them." February 10th 1704 a final hearing of the case before the council was had, when it was decided that "the subject matter of the petition was frivolous" and it was rejected. This seems to have been one of those unfortunate disagreements which seem almost inseparable from the process of settling new sections and vesting the title to the land in individuals after it has long lain in a body under the ownership of a company or association. That the inhabitants of Hell Gate Neck imagined themselves really wronged is more than indicated by the persistency with which they all and severally urged their claim. Once settled, the disagreement was soon lost, sight of in the march of improvement.A TRAGEDY OF LONG AGO.
The following account of the cold- blooded murder of seven people, committed within the present borders of Long Island City nearly a century and three quarters ago, is extracted from Riker’s "Annals of Newtown": "Very near the present settlement of Middletown there lived a thrifty farmer, William Hallett jr., who held a portion of the land which his paternal grandfather had purchased of the natives. Near neighbors there were few or none, but his domestic hearth was enlivened by the presence of five children and a fond wife who was expected soon to add another to their store of conjugal comforts. In the family were two colored slaves, a man and wife, the former an Indian. Incensed, as was said at the time, because they were restrained from going abroad on the Sabbath, the woman meditated revenge and assured her husband that if he would only kill the whole family then the farm and everything pertaining to it would become his own. He at last yielded to the wicked suggestion and accomplished the atrocious deed while his victims were asleep. It was on Saturday night, the 24th of January 1708. Hoping to screen, themselves from suspicion they concluded to be the first to announce the tragedy, and with this intent the female fiend, the prime instigator of the deed, set out early the next morning for Hallett’s Cove. Entering a house, her first exclamation was: "Oh, dear! they have killed master and missis and the children with an axe, and only Sam and I have escaped." The truth, however, was too palpable and the guilty creature soon confessed who was the real murderer. Both were straightway arrested and lodged in Jamaica jail. Tidings of the affair were at once sent to Governor Cornbury, who immediately issued a special warrant to the judges, before whom, at Jamaica, the prisoners were arraigned for trial, and being found guilty they were executed on the plains east of that village on Monday February 2nd in the presence of a large concourse of spectators. The woman was burnt at the stake. Her accomplice was hung in gibbets and placed astride a sharp iron, in which condition he lived some time; and in a state of delirium which ensued, believing himself to be on horseback, would urge forward his supposed animal with the frightful impetuosity of a maniac, while the blood oozing from his lacerated flesh streamed from his feet to the ground. How rude the age that could inflict such tortures, however great the crime committed. Mr. Hallett was a son of Captain William Hallett, then one of His Majesty’s justices of the peace. He was in the prime of life and had served the town in various public capacities. The event which so prematurely terminated his life and those of his family produced a strong sensation in the province, and a law was passed shortly after, making mention of the occurrence and entitled "An act for preventing the conspiracy of slaves." The dwelling where the murder was committed is still (1852) remembered by many, it having remained until the beginning of the present century. It was built of brick and stood in the hollow on the west side of the road, opposite the late residence of Mr. Marks and within a few feet of the small house now erected there. The well which belonged to these premises remains still in use. With this spot the juveniles were wont to associate the idea of ghosts and hobgoblins; it was noted as the scene of marvelous appearances witnessed by the timid traveler at the dim, mysterious hour of twilight, and was often pointed at by’ the passing school boy as "the haunted house." By some it is stated that the assassination of the Hallett family was only part of a plot among the slaves of the vicinity to possess themselves of the property of their masters. There must have been some evidence in support of this theory, for it is related that on Tuesday, February 10th, a week and a day after the execution of the murderers, two negro men were put to death for complicity in the crime and several others had been arrested and were awaiting trial. Yet, had the murderous movement been a general one it would doubtless be recorded that still others were punished. In the absence of such a statement it is fair to presume it was not.REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS.
In common with other portions of Long Island the territory now embraced within the limits of the city was the scene of stormy, events during the Revolutionary war. Some of the more prominent of these are referred to herein. On the morning of August 29th 1776 the British light dragoons from Jamaica scoured Newtown, "and while it was yet early," wrote Riker, in his "Annals of Newtown," "guided by one George Rapelye, a loyalist, came along the poor bowery and halted at Jacobus Lent’s (late Isaac Rapelye’s) to get some bread. Brandishing their naked swords they declared that they were in pursuit of that d- d rebel, Dr. Riker. The doctor had spent the night in visiting different sections of the town and tearing down Howe’s proclamations, that none might be mislead and induced at this critical juncture to remain and accept British protection instead of hastening to the support of the American arms. The females at Mr. Lent’s were terrified at the ferocious appearance of the light horse, and, observing the greediness with which they broke and ate the dry bread, Balche, a colored woman, innocently inquired of her mistress whether they would not eat them. They dashed off toward Hell Gate, but the doctor had escaped in a boat to Barn Island and thus eluded the demons in human form." August 31st General Robertson, in command of a British force, was marching from Brooklyn, via Bedford and Cripplebush, to Hell Gate to oppose General Lee, who was reported to be landing there with an army. When he arrived at Hallett’s Cove, finding no enemy, he took up his quarters at William Lawrence’s place (known later as Whitfield’s and Halsey’s) and encamped his army of 10,000 in tents on the hill and in Hallett’s lot. At that time nearly the whole English army was within a few miles of there. Says Riker: "The East River now only separated these hostile legions of Britain and the army of Washington. Two such combatants were not calculated to remain inactive in such close juxtaposition longer than was required to recover from the confusion of the recent battle. Indeed, no sooner had General Robertson made an encampment at Hell Gate and his cannon arrived than a battery was planted on a point of land at Hallett’s Cove, which opened on Sunday September 1st at Horn’s Hook, on New York island, and being returned in a spirited manner an incessant firing was kept up on both sides the whole day, during which the enemy threw above a hundred shells, killing one of our men and wounding several. Some of the American shot fell on the land of William Lawrence, but it is not known what damage the British sustained. This cannonading continued for several days, by which the enemy were so emboldened that on Tuesday they crossed in considerable numbers to Blackwell’s Island, but the shot from our batteries proving too warm for them they soon recrossed the river." In the meantime the British troops made frequent incursions upon the contiguous portions of the island and a number of residents of Whig proclivities were made prisoners and subjected to detention and indignity. General Robertson’s army, a little after the middle of September, vacated Hell Gate, which was invested by the Hessians under General De Heister, who in company with General Clark was quartered in the house of William Lawrence. The Hessians remained three weeks and then left to join in the movement against New York. Late in the fall of 1780 the British frigate "Hussar," bound for New England with pay for the British army, in attempting to pass Hell Gate, struck the Pot Rock, and, floating as far as Morris Island, "there filled," according to Riker, "and sunk in deep water, carrying down several of the crew, who were drowned." In a note he added: "Since the Revolution several attempts have been made to raise and search this vessel, under the impression that the military chest had not been removed. As far as disclosed nothing has been recovered except fragments of the wreck, a few pieces of cannon, some cases of bottled wine spoiled by the sea water, etc. A specimen of canister shot taken up from the ruins is in possession of the compiler, who visited the spot during a recent attempt to explore the wreck. She lies in very deep water, has fallen to pieces, and is nearly imbedded in mud. It is said that this vessel lay anchored in Hallett’s Cove one or two days before she attempted to pass the gate, and that circumstances favored the belief that the money she contained was smuggled ashore during that time and then the vessel purposely run upon the rocks to sink her and conceal the embezzlement. If this be true, much useless labor has been expended upon the wreck." The Prince of Hesse’s infantry, under Captain Aldenberg, were quartered in the fall of 1779 at John Morrell’s at Dutch Kills. Another force of Hessians was quartered near Jacobus Riker’s, with orders to supply itself with fuel from the lands of William Lawrence and Peter Rapelye, both of whom were patriots. The next fall and winter that part of Long Island City at Dutch Kills, once the land of John Bragaw, later William Gosman’s, was the camping place of Lord Cornwallis’s regiment, the thirty- third, who are known to have occupied huts on Bragaw’s domain. "There is an order," wrote Riker, "dated December 20th 1780, demanding John Bragaw and five of his neighbors to cart the provisions of said regiment till further orders. Very likely, too, they were the grenadiers called ‘Macaronies,’ for their neatness, who, according to Mr. Onderdonk, lay at the Kills. They are represented as large, noble- looking fellows; one of their captains, Hildebrand Oakes, was billeted in Mr. Bragaw’s family, a portly, handsome man, who after the war returned to England and became a distinguished officer in the British service. The members of this regiment were destitute of the usual facings upon their coats, of which they had been deprived, it was said, for having lost their colors in an engagement. Their huts were fifty feet long and of a rectangular form, thus being open at the south to admit the sun’s rays, the roof thatched and the three sides sodded up to the eaves to keep off the northwest wind. The inner wall was of square hewn logs, and in the center of the enclosure formed by the huts the soldiers were wont to parade and perform military evolutions. Those huts were also occupied for a time by the new raised corps," as were called the provincial forces mustered by order of Sir William Howe, "to suppress the unnatural rebellion." During the spring of this year the 37th regiment of grenadiers, under Colonel Sir Eyre Coote, K.B., was encamped at Hell Gate. In the Tall of 1781 the Royal Foresters, under Colonel John Connolly, were stationed near Hell Gate. Lieutenant Barry, one of their officers, died of fever in October 1781, and was buried with the honors of war at Hallett’s Cove. The Foresters passed the winter there. Also during this fall a part of the British Legion lay at Hell Gate, and a division of the Queen’s Rangers went into winter quarters, on the farm owned by George Brinckerhoff and later by William Bragaw. Thus it will be seen that some portions of the present city were long under the sway of the British forces, and patriot residents participated in the effects of the general depredations visited by the soldiers and tories on persons of their way of thinking throughout Long Island. That the constant presence of the enemy was oppressive may well be imagined, yet it must not be forgotten that many leading citizens were allied to or at least favored the British cause, and that opinion was much divided in those days upon subjects of public interest. It is safe to say that royalists and patriots alike gladly hailed peace after the long period of war through which all had unhappily passed, and the absence of the soldiery was regarded as a cause for rejoicing. One point in the present city was one of unusual interest in those days. That was the tavern of Peter Fitzsimmons, in widow Betts’s house at Hallett’s Cove, a hostelry much resorted to by soldiers, refugees and royalists.EARLY BUSINESS ENTERPRISES.
The business center of the present city was at first at Astoria, or Hallett’s Cove, as that locality was long called, At a quite early day William Hallett established a lime- yard at Hallett’s Cove. In the same vicinity, on the north side of the ridge, clay was dug from which the Halletts made bricks in considerable quantities. In 1753 Captain Jacob Blackwell and Joseph Hallett put up a grist- mill on Sunswick Creek, Hallett’s Cove, which was furnished with two runs of stones and bolting appliances. Whether the bolting machinery was propelled by water or hand power cannot now be ascertained, As the dam necessarily obstructed the passage of boats on the creek, a canal, the course of which was traceable more than a century later, was opened some distance above, across to the river, with a gate at either end for the convenience of George Van Alst, John McDonough and John Greenoak, who found it necessary frequently to pass by boat. In 1756 Captain Blackwell became sole proprietor of this mill, and some years later he sold it to Hendrick Suydam, who operated it for many years after the Revolution. Among the many refugees who came to the section during the Revolutionary war was one Peter Fitzsimmons, a merchant, who after the war retired to St. John, New Brunswick. In the spring of 1782 he opened a tavern at the house of the widow Betts, on the Grant Thorburn property of a later day, which was announced in Rivington’s Gazette. He informed the public that he also had the ferry on the opposite side, at Horne’s Hook, and kept "horse- boats and small boats for passengers. Ferriage for man and horse, 2s.; horse and chaise, 4.s.; cattle, 2s.; passengers, 1s." Henry F. Blackwell was for many years the only merchant in the village. Later the business which he established was carried on by Blackwell and Curtis. The first postmaster in the village was Daniel Andrews. The present manufacturing interests of the city are considered elsewhere. Former enterprises at Astoria not now in existence were Blackwell & Co.’s turpentine manufactory, Smith, Stratton & Co.’s varnish factory, John Hunt & Co.’s hat factory. The old carpet factory which was long well and widely known. This was established about 1840, perhaps a little earlier, by Richard Clark, who occupied the stone building now a portion of the works of the "Hyde. Manufacturing Company," and some wooden buildings. Soon afterward the business passed into the hands of Mr. Higgins, who conducted it until late in 1851 or early in 1852, when the wooden buildings were burned. John McAloney, who had been superintendent of the works for Mr. Higgins, re-established the business on a small scale very soon afterward, and in 1853 built the brick building yet standing, together with other buildings and improvements. Arthur Donnelly was his partner until the spring of 1854. From this date until the fall of 1857 Mr. McAloney carried on an extensive business alone; but he became embarrassed financially and did only a very small business until the fall of 1858, when he resumed the enterprise on an extensive scale, and continued it with more or less success until the year 1873. This establishment was for years a very prominent business interest.PROFESSIONAL AND WELL KNOWN PEOPLE.
The first physician at Astoria was Dr. Hersey Baylies, who died there after a practice of thirty- five years. A homoeopathist came later, who in time inherited some property in Canada and removed thither. Dr. Connor, a well remembered local practitioner, died during an epidemic of ship fever. Dr. Hutton, who also died in Astoria, was well known in his time. Drs. Trask sen. and jr., Dr. Baylies jr., and Drs. Chamberlain, Taylor and Baur are the later and present physicians. Samuel Stevens, Mr. Bartow, Robert Benner and A.P. Ditmars were early lawyers in Astoria. The present resident members of the legal profession are Messrs. Shipman, Larocque, Benner & Son, F.E. Blackwell & Brother, Foster, Conkling and Stearns. Mrs. Mary Cornell, widow of Isaac Cornell, is a daughter of Richard Cheeseman, the second sheriff of Queens county, and now resides in Astoria. Her husband served in the war of 1812, and was stationed at Fort Greene. Mrs. Cornell is the recipient of a pension on account of said service. Any extended reference to Astoria would be incomplete without mention of Stephen A. Halsey, who did so much toward the improvement of the village that by many he is spoken of as having been its "father." He was born in New York city, in 1798. In 1834, having purchased a house in Flushing, he took up his residence there, and having almost daily to pass Astoria on his way to and from the city, he was led by the beauty of its situation to buy land and remove there, which he did in 1835. As soon as he was located he devoted himself vigorously to the work of public improvement. He built dwellings, put up buildings for factories, stores, carpenter and blacksmiths’ shops, and induced the mechanic, the tradesman, the baker and the butcher to occupy them and settle in the place. It was through him that the locality was called Astoria, in honor of John Jacob Astor, he proposing to Mr. Astor so to name it on condition that the latter would make a donation to a young ladies’ seminary then in course of erection there, which Mr. Astor did. Mr. Halsey was prominent in the movement which led to the incorporation of Astoria, and he was elected a trustee of the village for many consecutive years. In the building of most of the churches in the village, notably those of the Reformed and Presbyterian denominations, Mr. Halsey was liberal and helpful. The large stone mansion on Fulton street near the ferry, now the residence of Judge Monson, was built by Mr. Halsey, of stone quarried within a few yards of where the building stands, and was finished in 1840. He purchased the ferry to 86th street, New York, called in old times Home’s Hook ferry, and improved it for the better accommodation of the public. The numerous trees which beautify that portion of Long Island City were most of them planted by Mr. Halsey or through his influence. He was instrumental in securing the passage of the bill for the public school of Astoria and in putting it in operation. He died in 1875. An early physician at Hunter’s Point was Dr. L. Graves, who died there about two years since. Dr. Z.P. Dennler came at a comparatively early date, and is still living there. Dr. Burnett is a prominent resident physician. The first resident practitioner at Dutch Kills was Dr. Byer, who was succeeded by Dr. De Witt Hitchcock some three years ago. Early attorneys at Hunter’s Point were William E. Pearse and D.B. Penfield. Solomon B. Noble came early and is still practicing there. Other resident lawyers are Ralph Burnett, Lucian N. Manley, A.T. Payne and Isaac Kugelman,REMINISCENCES OF THE LATE EDWIN MILLS.
The following, called "A Little Sketch of what Astoria was Twenty- five Years Ago," and dated October 1st 1866, was found among the papers of the late Edwin Mills, long prominently identified with the leading local interests: "Twenty- five years ago to- day I moved to Astoria, and I have occupied the same house ever since. There are now but six families living in the same houses they then occupied, to wit: Henry Smith, Mrs. R.M. Blackwell, Mrs. Blossom (then Mrs. H.F. Blackwell), Miss Bragaw (where C.W. Strang now lives), Miss Davis, in Greenoak street, and Captain Bounty. "There were two churches, the Episcopal, Rev. J.W. Brown rector, and the Reformed Dutch, Rev. A.H. Bishop pastor. Both pastors long since died and both churches have been cut in two and enlarged. There were two hotels, both at the ferry. Captain How kept the house now occupied by Mr. Wilson; Captain Tinker the stone house opposite. Both were well kept for those days, and did a prosperous business. At that time Eighty- sixth street and Third avenue were in splendid traveling condition; the teams from Flushing all coming this way, it was no uncommon thing to see ten or twenty hay and market wagons waiting for their turn to cross the ferry. It was customary then for many of the best citizens, middle- aged and even old men (not boys), to spend a portion of almost every evening at one of the hotels, play a few games of dominoes and take one or more of Captain Tinker's celebrated brandy punches (not half a dozen glasses or a pailful of lager or ale, as is the custom nowadays). They went home and spent the balance of their evening with their families. These were all respectable, temperate men. On Christmas and New Year’s eves they invariably had a raffle for poultry and would stay a little later and indulge a little more freely. This custom would probably be condemned at the present day as setting a bad example to the rising generation, but it had this good effect- it rendered the hotels more respectable, better kept and more quiet and orderly, and kept boys from frequenting them; in fact boys at that time had not got the idea that hotels, strong drink and cigars were meant expressly for them. "I think of but two families living west of Perrott avenue. There were living in that part of the village at that time Dan Tuttle and Sammie Fagan. Mr. Halsey was living in the house now occupied by Captain Munson; Mr. Bolles was living with him. Mr. Bishop lived in the house now occupied by Mr. Tier; a Mr. Mount in Mr. Reboul’s house. There were no other houses in Perrott avenue."REMINISCENCES OF JOHN BRAGAW.
"The ‘water- side,’ now Ravenswood, was owned by William Payntar 2nd, Joseph Totten and Colonel Gibbs. The place of the latter was known as the Delafield homestead. The owner from whom it received this name was known as Lord Delafield, and, as the stately mansion, still standing, would indicate; the farm was then a lordly place. "Dutch Kills, which lay on both sides of the creek of that name, was as choice a spot of earth as any one need wish for. On the east side of the creek the farms extended from its bank back from half to three- fourths of a mile and comprised about 100 acres each. Commencing at Newtown Creek on the south, they were owned successively by Francis Duryea, whose farm is now included in Blissville, Charles Debevoise and John Debevoise, until the De Witt or Brinckerhoff place was reached, and beyond that were the farms of Abraham Payntar and Abram Rapelyea. All of these places are now held by Messrs. Thompson and Foster, Union College, and R. Lennox Kennedy. In the progress of city improvements the steam plow has made sad havoc with these farms, having lowered the grade of portions of them from 30 to 40 feet. Next was the farm of William Payntar 1st. North of that was the Richard Bragaw place. On the west side of the creek were the two Van Alst places and the James Lorremore, the Gardner and the Jacob Polhemus farms. "In those days Dutch Kills was an Arcadia. Each family owned and cultivated its own farm and each owned from two to four slaves. The latter were practically members of the family to which they were attached. They were reared with the children of their masters, and in sickness or health had a certain home and plenty to eat and wear; were well taken care of and required to do only a reasonable amount of work. The negroes had their Sunday preaching by their own preacher, gathering regularly for service in large numbers. When a slave was dissatisfied with his master he demanded a ‘pass’ for a certain number of days to look for a new place, and if he found one his old master and his prospective one settled the matter between them and the ownership of the negro changed. When the emancipation act went into effect, and the negroes got their freedom and changed their homes and mode of living, rum and idleness soon nearly extinguished the whole local race of them. "The farmers were very independent in those days. They had no rent or interest money to pay and taxes were light, averaging from 10 to 20 cents per acre; with a fair degree of industry they were enabled to fill their barns and cellars to repletion. The old Ryerson mill was a great convenience to them, as it obviated the necessity of carrying their grists far. There was a neighborhood school- house a rod square, with the lot around it three feet larger each way, the school in my day scarcely numbering at any time as many as fifty scholars. The teacher was paid $200 per annum and boarded around. The people were compelled to go to Newtown village to church, and there was neither a tavern nor a blacksmith shop at the Kills. I am the only one of my generation, out of all the native born inhabitants of the 3d ward, living in the ward and in the house in which he was born, and there are very few of the succeeding generation similarly circumstanced. "The communication with the city of New York was by means of row boats from the old dock near the old school- house, and in the season this was quite a mart of commerce. What with the nightly departure of the market boats for the old fly market, and the arrival of the ‘manned boats’ laden with manure for the farmers, it was really a lively place. The manure was mostly street dirt from New York, and for wheat, corn and grass was then considered very valuable. One other way to the city was over the penny bridge to Grand street ferry, Williamsburgh, about four miles. The river was crossed in horse boats. I remember a voyage made by myself as captain and a negro boy as crew and all hands, to the site of the present Bellevue hospital with a boat load of rye. The place was then called ‘Bridewell.’ There was a treadmill there for grinding grain for the use of the prison only. That was before the city bought Blackwell’s Island. In my early days we had one weekly paper, brought to us from Brooklyn by a man on horseback. "Crime was a thing hardly known in this community. The whole machinery of the court consisted of a constable, who was judge, jury and executioner. The criminals were chiefly negroes and were few in number. There were few crimes graver than chicken- stealing. Chickens were indispensable in darkey jollifications. The thieves were readily detected and caught. The constable would arrest them, tie them to a tree and whip them on the bare back. As he almost invariably punished them with nothing more formidable than a twig, they never suffered much, except the disgrace of being known as chicken thieves. For the support of this simple judicial system the town was taxed at the rate of about $1 per day, a man’s wages during harvest. There was no appeal from the decisions of the court."ASTORIA- INCORPORATION, BOUNDARIES AND OFFICERS.
The following is a copy of a document on file with the records of the late village of Astoria in the office of the mayor of Long Island City, entitled "An act to incorporate the village of Astoria, passed April 12th 1839." "The people of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: "Section 1. The village hereby incorporated shall be composed of all that part of the town of Newtown which lies within the following lines and bounds- to wit: Commencing on the East River at the point of intersection between the farms of John Lawrence and Charles Richmond and following the dividing line of said farms to the land of Stephen Hallett, deceased; thence following the line between said John Lawrence’s land and the land of said Stephen Hallett, deceased, to the land owned by Henry F. Blackwell and G.C. Furman; thence following the line dividing last mentioned land of the before mentioned John Lawrence to the land of one Rapelye, deceased; thence along the division line of the last mentioned land and land of the before mentioned Blackwell and Furman, to the land of Jeromus J. Rapelye; thence along the line dividing land of the said Jeromus J. Rapelye and land of the before mentioned Rapelye, deceased, to the land of James McDonald; thence along the line dividing the land of said James McDonald and land of the before mentioned Jeromus J. Rapelye, to the Flushing avenue; thence crossing the Flushing avenue and following the line dividing land of said James McDonald from land of Dr. Baylies, to the Newtown avenue; thence crossing said Newtown avenue and following the south side of the said avenue to the land of Abraham Polhemus; thence following the line dividing said Polhemus’s land from land of the before named James McDonald, to the land now or late of Lewis Hartman and others; thence along the line dividing the land of said Hartman and others and the land of said James McDonald, to land of Samuel Stevens; thence along the line dividing land of said Samuel Stevens from the land of said James McDonald and the farm of Samis, to land of William R. Prince; thence following the line that divides the land of said William R. Prince from the farm of said Abel Samis, to the ridge road; thence crossing the ridge road to the land of Richard Clark and following the line dividing the said Richard Clark’s land from the farm of the before mentioned Abel Samis, to the land of William R. Prince, known as the McDonough farm;’ thence following the line dividing said McDonough farm from the land of said Richard Clark and of H.L. Penfield, to other lands of said Richard Clark; thence along last mentioned line to the land of Jacob Polhemus; thence along the line dividing land of said Jacob Polhemus from land of before ‘mentioned Richard Clark, to Sunswick Creek; thence following the middle of the channel of said creek to Hallett’s Cove or Bay; and thence following the line of the cove and East River at low water mark to land of John Lawrence at the place of beginning- shall hereafter continue to be known and distinguished by the name of the ‘Village of Astoria,’ and the freeholders and inhabitants residing in said village, are constituted a body corporate by name of the trustees of the village of Astoria. "Section 2.- The corporation hereby created shall possess all the powers and privileges and be subject to all the restrictions and limitations which are granted to or imposed upon the trustees of the village of Angelica by the act incorporating that village, May 2nd 1835." The first charter election for the village of Astoria was held at the house of Benjamin Franklin Shaw, June 11th 1839, from 5 to 6 o’clock p.m. The following officers were elected:. Homer Whittemore, Robert M. Blackwell, William H. Bolles, Alfred R. Mount and Stephen A. Halsey, trustees; Henry F. Blackwell, Hersey Baylies and John B. Reboul, assessors; William T. Payntar, treasurer; William T. Payntar, clerk; James O. Jackson, collector and constable. After the counting of the ballots the board of trustees organized in the same room in which the election had been held. Homer Whittemore was chosen president. Trustees have served as follows: Homer Whittemore, 1839, 1840, 1843- 48; Joseph M. McJinsey, 1841; Stephen A. Halsey, 1839, 1842, 1863; Nathaniel Felbey 1849, 1850; Josiah M.Whitney, 1851,1856, 1857,1869: W.J. Townsend, 1852; Henry Baylies, 1853; C.R. Trafford, 1854, 1855, 1864; John R. Morris, 1858; John McAloney, 1859, 1860; A. Gallatin Stevens 1861; Gabriel Mace, 1862; Charles W. Strang, 1865; R.M.C. Graham, 1866- 68; W.R. Taylor, 1870 and until Astoria lost its corporate identity in Long Island City.THE IMPROVEMENT OF HELL GATE.
Hell Gate is the name given to the narrow ship channel between Long Island and Ward’s Island which connects Long Island Sound, by means of the East River, with New York Bay. It is of sufficient depth to permit the passage of the largest vessels at either tide were it not for numerous reefs and sunken rocks and the swift changing eddies of the tide among them. Owing to these obstructions Hell Gate was impassable for large ships and very dangerous for smaller craft. It was the scene of many wrecks and of great destruction of life and property. It will be remembered that it was on Pot Rock (which is now being mined, preliminary to its destruction) that the English ship "Hussar" was wrecked. The removal of these destructive obstacles to navigation was an urgent necessity, not only to open a shorter and safe commercial highway to the east, but also to facilitate the defense of New York city in case of war and blockade. "The United States government and the merchants of New York city had turned their attention to this, object long before any effective means of removing submarine obstructions was known. In 1848 Lieutenants Commanding Charles H. Davis and David Porter of the navy made a careful survey of Hell Gate, and pointed out the Gridiron as the most dangerous reef and the Pot and Frying- Pan Rocks, Way’s Reef and the Bread- and- Cheese Reef, by Blackwell’s Island, as also very dangerous. They recommended that the first three named be destroyed by blasting. Lieutenant Davis further advised that the middle of the channel also be cleaned out by blasting, but Lieutenant Porter questioned the feasibility of this operation. He proposed the destruction of part of Hallett’s Point Reef. He also advised that the large reefs should be faced with walls or piers, conforming to the outline of the rocks and provided with spring fenders that would turn vessels striking against them into the channel. No effective method of submarine blasting was then known, and these officers suggested no new devices for carrying out the provisions of their report. The first effort at opening the channel was made in 1851, when about $14,000 was contributed by the citizens of New York and expended in surface- blasting different rocks in Hell Gate. M. Maillefert, the inventor of the method, superintended the work. His p]an consisted simply in exploding charges of powder on the surface of the rocks by means of the electric current. At first this method was successful, but after the rough projections of rock were removed and a smoother surface reached it was very difficult to go deeper. Although M. Maillefert accomplished a valuable work his method proved wholly insufficient to remove any considerable portion of the obstructions. In the following year Congress was induced to appropriate $20,000 to carry on the work. Of this sum $18,000 was consumed in lowering Pot Rock two feet. In 1856 the advisory council to the "commission relative to the encroachments and preservation of New York Harbor" in their report upon the improvement of Hell Gate recommended that Pot Rock, the Frying-Pan, Way’s Reef, part of Hallett’s Point Reef and numerous small rocks near shore be removed by drilling, instead of by the Maillefert process, and that sea walls be erected, similar to those proposed by Lieutenant Davis. No improvements were, undertaken, however, for several years. In 1866 Brevet Major- General Newton of the United States Engineers was commissioned to examine Hell Gate. He made a survey and reported to Congress the following year. In 1868 Congress made the first appropriation ($85,000) for carrying out General Newton’s plans for the work. The contract for the removal of Pot and Frying- Pan Rocks was awarded to Sidney F. Shelbourne. He worked unsuccessfully upon these rocks with a machine driven at first by water power and afterward by steam. It was finally destroyed by a collision. The Maillefert contract expired with the year 1869. After Way’s Reef had been lowered to the depth of 1754 feet and Sheldrake to 18 4- 5 feet, General Newton assumed control of the work. In May 1871 a scow drilling-machine was put in operation, after long and careful experiments to determine, the proper weight of drills and size of points, and also upon the explosive power of nitro glycerine. The Frying- Pan was leveled in July 1872. August 5th work was commenced upon Pot Rock. Forty holes were blasted. During the work sixteen collisions occurred here, and two of the vessels were sunk. Work was then suspended until stricter regulations should be enforced upon pilots. Way’s Reef was removed to the depth of 26 feet below mean low tide during 1874. Hallett’s Point Reef was a particularly dangerous obstruction in the east channel, as it did not leave sufficient seaway for vessels floating down with the ebb and steering clear of Flood Rock. It also created dangerous eddies at either tide. The reef was of semi- circular form, 720 feet across and extending 300 feet into the channel. Since surface blasting had proved of so little avail it was determined to sink a shaft down into the rock and cut diverging lateral tunnels that should penetrate the rock in all directions, something like the workings in a coal mine. The walls of the tunnels were then to be charged with explosives, these to be connected with an electric battery, the water admitted, and the charges fired. On the 8th day of July 1869 was commenced the construction of a coffer dam, which was of irregular pentagonal form, reaching out 95 feet on the rock with a breadth of 145 feet at the shore. A shaft 95 by 105 feet was sunk 33 feet below mean low water. Ten tunnels were then driven into the rock and connected by cross- cut galleries at regular intervals. These tunnels extended from 51 to 126 feet before any of the transverse sections were made. They radiated from a center, and the galleries formed concentric lines around the shaft. As the distance between the tunnels increased additional branch tunnels were excavated, until the whole number was 35. There were 10 galleries, whose mean distance apart was 25 feet. The area covered by the tunnels and shaft was 2 5/8 acres. The number of piers left standing was 172. The total length of, tunnel was 4,857 feet, and of galleries 2,568 feet, making 7,425 feet in all. The inclination of the tunnels was raised so as to leave an average thickness of 10 feet between the mine and the water above. Constant pumping was necessary to keep the tunnels free from water. Great care had to be exercised not to leave too thin a roof and not to break through the roof by too heavy explosions. The variable inclination and foliation of the rock- a hard hornblende gneiss, with intersecting quartz veins- greatly enhanced the difficulties of the work. Of the total expense blasting represented 46 percent., and the removal of the rock to the shaft 17 per cent.; 47,461 cubic yards of rock were excavated and carried away through the shaft. When the works were ready for the explosion which was to destroy the remaining shell of the reef the pillars and roof were charged with thousands of small deposits of explosives, which were connected with an electric wire, except a certain number which were to be exploded by the concussion. In the later part of the work the engineers in charge were John Newton, lieutenant- colonel of engineers, brevet major-general; James Mercur, captain of engineers; Joseph H. Millard, first lieutenant of engineers; Julius H. Striedinger, civil engineer, assistant; Bernard F. Boyle, mining engineer, overseer; James I Quigley and Robert S. Burnett, assistants. On the day before the blast the water was let into the tunnels by means of a syphon over the side of the dam. All precautions were taken to insure the success of the explosion. A bomb- proof was erected for the protection of the batteries, 24 in number, and the wires were conducted over a plate in the bomb- proof in order to effect the simultaneous ignition of all the charges. Wires were laid to the shore, where the key for completing the circuit was located. The plate before mentioned was suspended over the cups of a battery containing mercury, and when the projections on the under surface of the plate dropped into the cups the electricity would be generated to explode the mine. This suspended plate was dropped by a current from the shore. After all the preparations had been completed with great care the 24th day of September 1876 at high tide was selected as the time for firing the charges. The day being Sunday, and the event having been announced in all the newspapers, an enormous crowd- probably greater than has witnessed any other spectacle in this region- gathered at all the favorable points of observation in New York city and on the neighboring islands, while speculators reaped a harvest by providing seats on boats, which lay as near the mine as was deemed safe. Signal guns fire according to a published plan warned the spectators when to expect the explosion. A few minutes before 3 in the afternoon the little daughter of General Newton, at her father’s direction, pressed the key of the battery, and in less than two seconds a tremor of the ground was felt, a sound, sharp though not loud, was heard, and great columns of water were thrown up 50 feet or more over the area of the excavation, together with fragments of rock and a dense black cloud of smoke and mist and the gases formed by the explosion. A chorus from the whistles of the steamboats hailed the crowning act in the great enterprise, and many of the small boats hastened to be first at the spot where the dreaded reef had been. The vibration of the earth was slight, as predicted by General Newton, yet was felt in New York. The immediate result was more satisfactory than had been anticipated. The rock was broken up into finer portions than was expected, which rendered its removal comparatively easy. Submarine dredges were soon put in operation and the higher portions dragged down into deeper water. In this work the remainder of the appropriation which had been made by Congress was expended.THE INCORPORATION OF LONG ISLAND CITY.
The westerly portion of the township of Newtown, extending from the limits of Brooklyn on the south to Long Island Sound on the north, separated from New York only by the East River, could not fail to become a place of considerable importance in point of population and the increased value of its property. The extraordinary growth and importance of the two great cities of New York and Brooklyn have within the last quarter of a century given such an impetus to property within twenty miles of New York as was never before witnessed around any cities of the world. This extraordinary development could not fail to reach that portion of the town of Newtown which is now called Long Island City. The terminus of the Long Island Railroad having been located at Hunter’s Point, the ferries having been established for nearly all important points in New York, Calvary Cemetery having been selected as the burial place of the Catholics of the city of New York, numerous and wealthy corporations and individuals having established manufactories on a most extensive scale along the banks of Newtown Creek and on the easterly shore of the East River, all conspired to increase the population and the value of property in this vicinity. Already there existed the two important villages of Astoria and Ravenswood, and the surrounding districts, though occupied as farm lands, had a large population. In addition to these there soon sprang up the villages of Hunter’s Point, Dutch Kills, Laurel Hill and Blissville; so that in 1869 there was a population of 15,000 inhabitants living between the old Bowery Bay road and the East River. As the population steadily increased and houses were erected on the farm lands without the laying out of streets, sewers, or water- mains, the roads soon became impassable; and, the town government being unable to supply the much needed improvements for want of legislative authority, the people suffered, and many of them petitioned the Legislature for relief. For many years the town had been heavily taxed for improvements which were forced upon the people through the influence of officials and politicians who, it is said, were sometimes unscrupulous in their charges, and in auditing their accounts. The expenses arising therefrom, together with the war debt, created grave cause of complaint by the people. The residents of that portion of the town now called Long Island City felt this oppression all the more because, as they alleged, their portion of the town had been for many years unfairly assessed. Those who paid most of the taxes complained of the manner in which elections were held and improvements made, and of the general administration of the government of the town. Fifteen years previous to the incorporation of Long Island City a number of liquor dealers of the town of Newtown formed a combination to resist through the courts the enforcement of the liquor law of the State. They finally succeeded. They continued their organization, but changed its object to politics, and were commonly known by the name of the "Newtown Ring." It became powerful and therefore successful; it controlled the elections, and it was stated that the votes polled were seldom counted, that the leaders of the ring declared those persons elected whose election they considered most advantageous to themselves or their party. A criminal having influence with the members of this ring would rarely be arrested for minor offenses, and if arrested his conviction was almost impossible. Exorbitant fees were charged and audited by officials for imaginary services. The district was the prey of thieves and the worst elements of the neighboring cities of New York and Brooklyn, and the number of town constables was entirely inadequate to the wants of the district. Among all these the greatest want felt was a sufficient supply of good water. For many years during the summer months the people were obliged to go over into Brooklyn for water to cook their meals. The water; obtained through many of the pumps in Hunter’s Point was evidently but the drainage of marsh lands. In the summer of 1874 there were 207 cases of typho- malarial fever traced by physicians to one pump in Seventh street near Central avenue. During seasons of drought there was but one pump in Third street to supply the wants of nearly 4,000 people, and not unfrequently from 50 to 100 persons might be seen awaiting their turn for water from this pump, and it was generally from two to three o’clock in the morning before all had obtained it. The citizens had frequently drafted charters and applied to the Legislature in the hope of obtaining local legislation to remedy these difficulties, but without avail. In the spring of 1870 they made another attempt. The charter for the incorporation of Long Island City was introduced in the Assembly by Mr. Baldwin, April 1st 1870, but like similar ones it made but little progress. A meeting of the citizens of all political, parties was held in Foster’s Hall to consider the question of incorporation and the passage of the charter. The hall was densely crowded. At this meeting a committee was appointed to wait on Father Crimmin, pastor of St. Mary’s church, and request him to address the meeting in relation to the incorporation of the district and the passage of the act. Father Crimmin consented and went to the meeting. .He spoke at length on the necessity and the advantages of the incorporation of the district. His views were indorsed by all present, and after he had withdrawn resolutions were adopted in favor of the passage of the bill and requesting Father Crimmin to go to Albany and to take in charge the advocacy of the act. Means were contributed to defray the necessary expenses and the engrossing of the bill. A petition was secured and signed by about 2,700 residents and free- holders. Father Crimmin went to Albany. He encountered grave opposition at every step, but succeeded in passing the bill through the Assembly and the Senate. It was strongly opposed before the governor. A day was fixed for the hearing of both sides. Those opposed were present with a delegation and a remonstrance signed by 72 landed proprietors, and their case was argued before the governor by able counsel. Father Crimmin inreply presented the signatures of 2,700 freeholders, and had as a delegationpresent the gentleman who secured the names to the petition and who were readyto testify to the genuineness of the signatures. The argument in favor of the charter was made by ex-Governor Lowe, of Maryland. The result was that the bill was signed May 6th 1870 by Governor Hoffman. Although some advantages were gained by the passage of this charter its provisions were entirely inadequate, and the appropriations allowed were entirely insufficient for the thorough organization of a municipal government and the maintenance of the public schools. Abram D. Ditmars, of Astoria, first mayor of Long Island City, and many other leading citizens desired that ‘sufficient appropriations should be obtained for the support of the public schools and the maintenance of a police force, and also that the powers conferred by the charter should be such as to enable the city to take measures for the introduction of a sufficient supply of good water, and to make a survey of the whole city. Accordingly about the beginning of 1871 the mayor appointed a committee of seventeen charged with the duty of drafting a revised charter, which should secure more fully the advantages of local self-government and the much needed improvements. The bill was completed, and was introduced in the Senate by Senator Frost during the session of 1871, and became a law April 13th that year. This law, with some modifications which have since been made, constitutes the charter of Long Island City at the present time. The development of Long Island City was but a part of a great plan which Father Crimmin had conceived not only for that locality but for the whole of Long Island, and to which he had intended to devote the energies of his whole life. In an interview which our historian had with the reverend gentleman in relation to Long Island he stated that his plan was, after the improvement of Long Island City, to endeavor to have the law taxing bonds and mortgages repealed, if not for the whole State at least for Long Island City (for, he said, millions of dollars had left the State of New York and sought investment in the State of New Jersey because of this tax); to urge the construction of the iron bridge across the East River at Blackwell’s Island, and by means of railroads over this bridge to connect every city and hamlet on Long Island directly with the great west, and thus to give it every advantage held by the remainder of the State; to open Newtown Creek to Flushing Avenue and Dutch Kills Creek and Sunswick Creek to the upland; and to run a railroad from Blackwell’s Island bridge to the head of Newtown Creek, thence to a grand central depot in the center of Brooklyn, connecting by freight trains with Gowanus Bay, Erie Basin, and other important and accessible water fronts. Since the construction of the elevated roads in the city of New York he sees an advantage in connecting these elevated railroads with the tracks over the Blackwell’s Island bridge, and thence to the various watering places on the shores of Long Island.CITY AND WARD BOUNDARIES.
The boundary line of Long Island City, "beginning at a point formed by the intersection of the easterly boundary line of the city and county of New York with the centerline of Newtown Creek," runs "thence easterly along the center line of said Newtown Creek to the westerly side of the Penny Bridge (so - called); thence northerly along the westerly side of the Bushwick and Newtown turnpike to the road on the southerly side of Calvary Cemetery, known as the road to Dutch Kills; thence along the center of said last named road to the southerly and westerly side of Calvary Cemetery as far as the boundaries of said cemetery extend; thence northerly along the said cemetery to the center of the road leading to Green Point along the northerly side of said cemetery; thence easterly along said last mentioned road to the intersection of the same with the road leading from Calvary Cemetery to Astoria; thence northerly and north- easterly along the center of said road, Dutch Kills road, Woodside avenue, Bowery Bay road, to the easterly boundary line of land formerly of Isaac Rapelye, on the northerly side of said Bowery Bay road; thence along the line of said Rapelye land to the Bowery Bay; thence along Bowery Bay and the sound to the northerly boundary line of the town of Newtown; thence northwesterly and southwesterly along said boundary line to the easterly boundary line of the city and county of New York; thence southwesterly along said last mentioned boundary line to the place of beginning." The new city was divided into five wards, described as follows: First Ward (Hunter’s Point)- "All that portion of the city lying between the center of Newtown Creek on the south, the westerly boundary line of Long Island City on the west, the center of Nott avenue and Boundary street on the north and the center of Dutch Kills Creek on the east." Second Ward (Blissville).- "Beginning at the junction of Newtown and Dutch Kills Creek, running thence easterly along the center of said Dutch Kills Creek to Boundary street; thence along the center of Boundary street to Jackson avenue; thence easterly along the center of said Jackson avenue to the easterly line of Long Island City; thence southerly along said boundary line to the southerly boundary line of said city and at the center of Newtown Creek; thence westerly along the southerly boundary line of said city to the place of beginning." Third Ward (Ravenswood).- "Beginning at a point on the westerly boundary of Long Island City, at its intersection with the center line of Nott avenue when extended on its present course to the said westerly boundary line of Long Island City; running thence northerly along said boundary line to its intersection with the center line of Sunswick Creek; running thence easterly and southerly along the center of said creek to the center of Pearce avenue; thence easterly along the center of said Pearce avenue to the center of First avenue; thence southerly along the center of said First avenue to the center of Webster avenue; thence easterly along the center of Webster avenue to the center of Jackson avenue; thence southwesterly along the center of Jackson avenue and Nott avenue to the point or place of beginning." Fourth Ward (Astoria).- "Beginning at a point in the westerly boundary line of Long Island City, at its intersection with the center line of Sunswick Creek, running thence northerly along said westerly boundary line to its intersection with the center line of Franklin street, when extended on its present course to the said westerly boundary line; thence easterly along the center of Franklin Street to the intersection of Flushing avenue; thence easterly along the center of said Flushing avenue to the easterly boundary line of said city at the center line of the Bowery Bay road; thence southerly along the said easterly boundary line to the center of Jackson avenue; thence southwesterly along the center of said Jackson avenue to the center of Webster avenue; thence westerly along said Webster avenue to the center of First avenue; thence northerly along the center of First avenue to the center of Pearce avenue thence westerly along the center of Pearce avenue to the center of said Sunswick Creek; thence northerly and westerly along the center of said creek to the point of beginning." Fifth Ward (Bowery Bay).- "All that portion of the city lying between the northerly boundary line of Long Island City on the north, the easterly boundary line of said city on the east, the westerly boundary line of the same on the west, and the Fourth ward on the south, together with all the islands opposite thereto and comprehended in the town of Newtown." The islands belonging to Long Island City are known as North Brother, South Brother and Berrien’s.THE CITY GOVERNMENT.
The first charter election of Long Island City was held July 5th 1870. Abram D. Ditmars was elected mayor. The following named persons were elected aldermen from their respective wards: First ward, Henry Rudolph, Patrick Lonergan; Second ward, Francis McNena, William E. Bragaw; Third ward, George H. Hunter, George H. Williams; Fourth ward, James R. Bennett, John Weigand; Fifth ward, Edward H. Hartshome, William Carlin. The board of aldermen organized July 8 1870. Mayor Ditmars was chosen president Egbert Conwith clerk. Robert T. Wild was appointed superintendent of streets, James Dennen as deputy; Anthony S. Woods, city marshal; J.L. Francen, sealer of weights and measures; Thomas Dewey and John Fautry, police constables. There were at first the departments of "finance," "law," "public works," "police and health," "education," "fire," "water" and "assessment." The "fire" and "water" departments have since been consolidated, reducing the number from eight to seven. The city officials in 1881 were as follows: Mayor, Henry S. De Bevoise; corporation counsel, J. Ralph Burnett; commissioner of public works, Russell Wright; treasurer, John R. Morris; deputy treasurer, William H. Morris; city clerk, Alexander Moran; deputy city clerk, Henry Van Alst; sanitary inspector, Dr. R.W. Taylor; register of records and assistant sanitary inspector, Conrad Deistel; captain of police, Anthony S. Woods. The board of ‘police and health is organized as follows: Richard Armstrong (president), Charles McNamara, Andrew Murray; The board of water and fire commissioners: Henry S. De Bevoise (president), Russell Wright, S.J. Kavanagh, Charles W. Hallett, F.H. Wolcott; The board of assessors: George H. Paynter (president), Charles B. Lathrop, James Gallagher; The board of education: Sylvester Gray (president), John Metz, James McBride, Henry C. Johnson, Henry P. Titus. Under the provisions of the charter there were at first two aldermen elected from each ward. Under an amendment passed during the legislative session of 1871- 72 three from each ward were elected until the passage of an act in 1879 reduced the number to one from each ward and two at large, the total since then being only seven. The aldermen in 1881 were: Patrick Lonergan, first ward; S.J. Kavanagh, second ward; Michael Donnelly, third ward; John L. Morris, fourth ward; Nicholas Nehrbauer, fifth ward. Aldermen- at- large: First district (first, second and third wards), Henry Rudolph; second district (fourth and fifth wards), August Rassiga. S.J. Kavanagh was president of the board. Abram D. Ditmars was the first mayor of Long Island City. He was elected July 5th 1870. In April 1873 Henry S. De Bevoise was elected to succeed him. Mr. Ditmars was again elected in April 1876, but soon resigned. John Quinn became acting mayor and served until succeeded by the present incumbent of the office.HENRY S. DE BEVOISE.
Hon. Henry S. De Bevoise, whose portrait is shown in the steel engraving on the opposite page, and whose early ancestry is more fully given in the De Bevoise family history on pages 317 and 318 of this work, is better known as Mayor De Bevoise of Long Island City He was born February 14th 1841; at the old homestead of his father, Andrew, in Long Island City. In this old place several generations of this illustrious family, first saw the light, and for over 160 years the old roof has been their shelter. Many are the memories that cluster around this spot, and if we could interview the stately old trees as well as the mayor’s young friends we might learn more of the generations that form the line of his descent from the original Carel De Beauvois, who settled in Brooklyn in 1659; for these venerable old locusts were here in a very early day. Under their branches the Hessians were camped in 1778, and one of them was used as a gibbet to hang the beeves which were killed for the use of the soldiers. The largest is literally filled with bullets and bullet holes which have been left by the knives of curiosity seekers. On this farm the early days of young De Bevoise were spent, and in the common school of thirty years ago the foundation of his education was laid. So rapid are the mutations which time works that, although that is but a third of a century ago, there are scarcely any left of those who were boys when Harry, as they used to call him, was a schoolboy. At the age of 14 he was placed in an academy in New York, and from this time he made rapid progress. When he was barely 21, he graduated with honors at the University of the City of New York, receiving the degree of LL.B. In the interim he had also completed a law clerkship in the office of the late Judge Ambrose L. Pinney, and after taking his degree he was admitted to the bar as attorney and counsellor at law. By business of a different character his attention was about this time diverted from the profession. He and his relatives were owners of a large tract of real estate which is now included in Long Island City. These lands were purchased by New York capitalists, and Mr. De Bevoise was selected by them as the proper person to represent their interests in improving and developing the property. The duties connected with this important and ever increasing trust are still properly discharged by him. Mr. De Bevoise came, into politics as a Democrat, in 1871, being then appointed city clerk, and in the mayoralty contest of the following year he was called to the head of the city government. Serving three years, he was defeated in 1875; but his competitor resigned in the following year and Mr. De Bevoise was elected to the vacancy. Again in 1878 he was elected mayor, and in 1880, the tenure of the office having been changed, he was elected for the term on which he is now serving. It is useless here to elaborate upon the high esteem in which he is held by the best people of his city, for by repeatedly calling him to administer the greatest trust within their gift they have already made their approval of his course and their confidence in his ability and integrity a matter of record.THE FIRST WARD AND OTHER IMPROVEMENTS.
At the incorporation of Long Island City that portion which is now known as the first ward had a large and enterprising population, which was rapidly increasing. There were no grades established by law, and buildings were erected according to what was supposed might be the future grades of the streets. There being no sewers there were but few cellars in the district which were not frequently flooded, either from surface drainage or from the action of the tide; and in many cases cellars were never without stagnant water. As a consequence the inhabitants suffered greatly from malarial, pulmonary, and rheumatic diseases, and notwithstanding that many had suffered and expended a great deal, and had lost many of their relatives from these causes, still the people bore these hardships, and suffered these privations apparently with resignation, and made no sufficient effort to remedy these evils. Early in 1870 Father Crimmin matured plans for the’ improvement of a district formed of portions of the first, second and third wards of the city, which should benefit the largest area of upland and include the smallest amount of land subject to tidal overflow, and at the same time secure the drainage of those portions of marsh land having no sufficient outlets. The boundaries of the contemplated district were Harris avenue, Purves street, the Long Island Railroad and the East River. This plan would have continued the streets and avenues to the third ward, made travel and improvements uninterrupted between two large districts of upland, and would render available sufficient territory for building purposes to accommodate twenty thousand inhabitants. He proposed to raise the grade so that an efficient system of sewerage might be had, and to afford well drained cellars to all the houses in the district. So great was the magnitude of this work, from the number of buildings to be raised, the cost of sewers, the transportation of dirt to fill the streets and avenues, paving, curbing, guttering, flagging, etc., that he did not venture to speak of the matter publicly, and for four years his plans remained unknown except to himself and one other person. In 1871 an act was passed by the Legislature creating, a commission commonly called the "survey commission," to provide for the laying out of streets, avenues, roads and parks in Long Island City. To the passage of this act and its subsequent amendments Father Crimmin gave a strong support, feeling that they were so many steps toward the public improvements he desired~ When this commission was about to fix the grades, the system of sewerage and of surface drainage, he revealed for the first time his plans. He consulted a number of civil engineers, principal among whom was Peter G. Van Alst, as to the advisability and the probable cost of the project. He next consulted with the larger landed pro. prietors as to the advantages of such an improvement to the property in the district, and all agreed that it would not only be advisable ,but necessary and greatly advantageous to the property in the district. There remained but to consult the smaller property holders. This could not be done without drafting a document expressing the plan of improvement in detail, and the holding of a public meeting at which it should be publicly read and explained and a vote taken upon its adoption. Accordingly, a bill entitled "An Act to Provide for Improvements in and adjoining the First Ward of Long Island City" was prepared. The boundaries of the proposed district were altered: they include less upland and a much larger area of land subject to tidal overflow. Time has demonstrated the propriety of the change. A real estate call was issued requesting all the property owners of the district to assemble at Rosner’s Hall for the purpose of considering the’provisions of the proposed improvement act. The hall was densely crowded, there being nearly five hundred persons present. The meeting having been called to order, William Bridge, who was elected secretary of the meeting read the document. On motion it was then unanimously resolved that Father Crimmin, should address the meeting in relation to the provisions of the bill. He discussed the bill, section by section, in a discourse which lasted two hours and twenty minutes, after, which the question was on the adoption of the proposed bill. A vote was taken and it was unanimously adopted. The document was forwarded to Albany, was introduced in the Assembly by Hon. James M. Oakley on the 23d of March 1874, and soon became a law. The commissioners under the improvement act were Peter G. Van Alst, Henry S. Anable, Robert M.C. Graham, William Bridge and James Dennen. Contracts were entered into at exceedingly low prices for the performance of the various works specified in the act, and were carried on with the greatest satisfaction and dispatch, until what was once a sunken and forbidding locality was raised to a healthy, handsome and flourishing town, with its streets and avenues neatly paved with Belgian block, with a perfect system of sewerage, and’ an excellent supply of good spring water- advantages which in a few years greatly increased its population and doubled the value of property. Other portions of the city, notably Steinways, have been improved by commissions duly appointed and empowered. A portion of the city was appointed under the management of the Fulton and Main street commission. The work of none of the other commissions has been as important as that of the first ward commission, though that of some of them has been rewarded with flattering results.THE CITY WATER SUPPLY.
The most important improvement which followed the passage of the revised charter was the introduction of Henry S. De Bevoise succeeded Abram Ditmars as mayor of Long Island City. He lost no time in urging upon the newly appointed water board the introduction of a sufficient supply of water for those portions of the city which could not otherwise secure it. The Holly system of water- works was adopted, and a contract entered into by the water board for the necessary machinery. A well was sunk fifty feet in diameter, about forty feet in depth below high water mark, where a large supply of excellent water was found. In addition to this four- inch pipes were driven thirty- four feet into the sand below the bottom of the well. These pipes became so many flowing wells and added greatly to the supply from veins of water far below those that flowed into the well. Thus it was that the supply of water was at once freed from all surface draining and vegetable matter, which could not be secured by any other system. A large quantity of iron pipe was purchased for water mains and laid throughout the districts intended to be supplied. The machinery was delivered and an engine house was erected near the well. During all these preparations the water board and those who had favored the Holly system encountered great opposition from the people, not only from those who could not be expected to understand the nature of the system, but also from many of the most intelligent and influential men in the city. The system was almost universally condemned, the capacity of the well, was entirely underrated, and it was often asserted that the supply would not be sufficient for a few families, The quality of the water was condemned, and it was generally believed that the machinery would never be seen in operation. Those who were willing to admit the efficiency of the Holly system under other circumstances, believed that in this case, it was not worth while to go to the expense of making water connections with the mains, as the well would be pumped dry in a few hours. The machinery, however, was soon placed in position, the pumps connected with the water in the well began to draw upon its supplies, and it was demonstrated that the well yielded over one million gallons per day. This quantity soon increased to 1,200,000- per day. The water, having been analysed by eminent chemists, proved to be the best and coldest water introduced by mains into any of the cities of the United States. It is now admitted by all that the system has proved a marvelous, success. The water board of Long Island City, having but limited means, could not enter upon a plan of water- works sufficiently extensive to meet the future wants of a large and populous city. With the greatest care they husbanded their means and gave to the people the best possible results from the funds placed at their disposal. In order that an extra supply of water might be at hand in case of fires a series of 4- inch pipes were driven to a depth of fifty feet in the sand along the base of the bill near the edge of tide- water. These were connected above by a horizontal pipe leading to the engine house, to which in case of emergency the pumps might’ be attached, and thus a greatly increased supply of water might be secured.THE FIRE DEPARTMENT.
A volunteer village fire department was established in Astoria, probably as long ago as 1850, and at a later date a similar one was organized at Hunter’s Point. The fire department of Long Island City was organized May 5th 1871, and such apparatus as was at that time owned by these two old departments became a part of the property of the new city department. The board of fire commissioners in 1871 was composed of William Mulligan (president), James Laws and James Stephenson. The first chief engineer of the city fire department was John M. Snyder. His successors have been Daniel K. Lester, George Casey and James Comisky the present incumbent. The fire department is now under the management of the following commissioners Henry S. De Bevoise, mayor; Stephen J. Kavanagh president of the board of aldermen; William McBride Charles W. Hallett and Russell Wright, commissioners of public works. The department has four hand engines, three hook and ladder trucks and seven hose carriages. The hose companies are seven in number and are known as "Mohawk No. 1," "Empire, No. 2," "Rambler, No. 3," "Hope No. 4," "Jackson, No. 5," "Union, No. 6" and "Steinway, No. 7." There are four engine companies, "Jackson, No. 1," "Protection, No. 2," "Franklin, No. 3" and "Hunter, No. 4. The three hook and ladder companies are called respectively, "Active, No. 1," "Live Oak, No. 2" and "Friendship, No. 3."EDUCATIONAL HISTORY.
Previous to 1721 those families living at Dutch Kills, at Hallett’s Cove and at other points now within the limits of Long Island City, depended for school privileges on Newtown village, which had occasionally has teachers temporarily and where the first regular school was established in 1720. On account of the distance these schools had been to the sections mentioned practically valueless. Feeling the deprivation to which the children were subject, several leading citizens formed the design of starting another school, at Middletown and, associating for that purpose, they built a school house upon a piece of ground appropriated by Joseph Hallett. May 20th 1721 this gentleman executed a deed admitting Samuel Hallett, Samuel Moore, Joseph Moore, Thomas Skillman and Isaac Bragaw as joint owners with himself of the premises, which he thus described: "Thirty foot long and twenty foot broad, in my lot lying next to George Brinckerhoff’s woodland, for the use and benefit of a school-house, now erected and standing thereon by the roadside from Hallett’s Cove to Newtown; to be equally enjoyed by them and their heirs severally, and me and my heirs, forever, having, all and every of us, our heirs and every one of them, the same equal share, right and title to the above said land and school house, and full power and authority to send what number of children we think fit." "This was looked upon," says Riker, "as a hazardous undertaking, and one which none for many years were found ready to incur the expense of imitating. Indeed, the advantages of education and intelligence were as yet too little understood to be valued except so far as they seemed to bear on the promotion of business and the acquisition of wealth." This house, having been sold, perhaps about 1845, formed the kitchen to the dwelling occupied a few years later by the widow Tilton. An incident connected with the old school- house which occurred about seventy years ago is thus given by Riker: "This was the discovery by one of the school boys of a bag of gold to the value of $840, which had belonged to one John Kearns, who had taught school here during the Revolution. The money was taken possession of by the teacher, whose name was Neal; but the neighbors, hearing of it, collected, and took him before William Leverich, Esq., by whose order the money was forced from him. Owing, however, to some irregularity in the proceeding, Neal prosecuted the several persons engaged in searching him, including the justice, and recovered damages for assault and battery; while N. Moore, as administrator for Kearns, sued and obtained the money." In 1734 several individuals living in Hell Gate Neck combined and erected "a small house for a school to be kept in for the education of their children," on the river road, near Berrian’s Point, where John Lawrence had presented "one square rod of land" as a site for the building and which, February 24th 1735, he deeded to his associates, Joseph Moore, Thomas Lawrence, Cornelius Berrian, William Leverich and Hendrick Wiltsee. A school- house stood on the ground for a hundred years or more, and at last lost its identity by occupancy as a e dwelling.AN ENGLISH AND CLASSICAL SCHOOL.
An English and classical school was established at Hallett’s Cove, under the patronage of the leading inhabitants, but at precisely what date cannot now be known. The following announcement of the teachers appeared in the New York Mercury of April 26th 1762. How many years thereafter the institution was in existence is very uncertain: "TO THE PUBLIC.- This is to give notice to all whom it may concern, That William Rudge, late of the city of Gloucester, in Old England, still continues his school at Hallett’s Cove, where he teaches Writing in the different hands, Arithmetic in its different branches, the Italian method of Book- keeping by way of Double- entry, Latin and Greek. Those who choose to favor him may depend upon having proper care taken of their children, and he returns thanks to those who have already obliged him. The school is healthy and pleasantly situated and at a very convenient distance from New York, from where there is an opportunity of sending letters and parcels and of having remittances almost every day, by the pen. LI augers. Letters will be duly answered directed to the said William Rudge, at Hallett’s Cove. "We, who have subscribed our names, being willing to continue the school-master, as we have hitherto found him a man of close application, sobriety and capable of his office, are ready to take in boarders at 18 pounds per annum: Jacob Blackwell, Jacob Hallett Jr., Thomas Hallett, Jacob Hallett, Jacob Rapelye, John Greenoak, Samuel Hallett jr., William Hallett, Richard Hallett, Richard Berrian, Richard Penfold, William Hallett, John McDonough." How long this educational enterprise was in existence cannot now be ascertained. It is stated that from time, in later years, other private schools of more or less influence were established at Astoria. No particulars concerning them can be obtained and it is probable they were in character and scope much like the schools in vogue in villages throughout the country contemporaneously with them. Through the influence of Stephen A. Halsey and other prominent citizens good schools were established at Astoria and at Hunter’s Point and in other portions of the city as now bounded, which were largely attended and did their part in paving the way for the present splendid public school system of Long Island City.THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
At the time of its incorporation the city contained three public schools, known as numbers 3, 4 and 11 of the schools of Newtown. From such records as have been preserved it is found that No. 3 was established as a free school in 1850, by an act of legislature passed March 16th of that year. The site consisting of eight lots of land, was given to John B. Reboul and others constituting the board of education, by Stephen A. Halsey, of Astoria, and the school thereon established has proved to be one of the most successful educational institutions on Long Island. The first board of education was exceedingly fortunate in its appointment of Benjamin Mason to the principalship of the school, and under his efficient management of more than twelve years there graduated many who speak with just pride of their connection with this school during the time it was under his charge. His successors as principals have been Messrs. Ketcham, George A. Everitt, A.W. Melville, E.A. Lewis, C.F. Carroll, N.H. Durnond, Rev. Mr. Rodman and C.W. Gould. From its organization school No. 4 does not seem to have taken a very prominent rank among the schools of Newtown, though it has not failed to supply a long felt want to a very large class of children in the district known to- day as Dutch Kills and Blissville. No. 11, the school in the Hunter’s Point district, was established as a free school March 2nd 1861. It was about this time that Hunter’s Point began to assume considerable importance as a manufacturing and business center, and its consequent increasing population furnished the necessity for a school. In April of that year Union College, through its agent, H.S. Anable, leased for a term of five years a brick building on Sixth Street, to be used for school purposes. The first board of school trustees of this district organized March 22nd by the election of Freeman Hiscox as president. Isaac Sterns was at once chosen teacher of the newly established school. At s meeting of the board April 25th following Mr. Sterns was allowed an assistant, and Miss Mary B. Walker was elected to that position at an annual salary of $50. This does not seem to have been an extravagant expenditure of public money when it is remembered that the rental of the building in which the school was held was $1,200 a year. The revised charter of 1871 provided for a board of education for Long Island City, to be appointed by the mayor. Under the provision of this act the board as originally appointed consisted of George Petry, Safferin D. Allen, Willy Wallach, John Fahnestock and Lewis J. White. The board organized by the election of Mr. Fahnestock as president, and at an early subsequent meeting Alanson Palmer was elected superintendent. Without any unnecessary delay the efforts of the department were directed to devising a complete, systematic and graded course of study, which should include all the English branches usually taught in grammar schools. With but slight modifications this course has served admirably to the present. As early as 1873 it became the duty of the board to increase the school facilities by opening a new school in the third ward, or Ravenswood district of the city. In October a suitable building was leased and in December the school was put in operation. The attendance at once arose to above 300 and it has been maintained at about that figure since. In 1877 three additional schools were established, two in what is now known as the fifth ward and one in Blissville. The upper fifth ward or Steinway school grew out of an urgent necessity for the establishment of educational opportunities to the rapidly increasing population of the Steinway settlement. It was due largely to the generous aid of William Steinway that the district was enabled to construct and furnish one of the finest school buildings on the island, with seating accommodations for about 500 pupils in well- ventilated and lighted rooms. The lower fifth ward or fifth ward primary school serves principally as a relief to old No. 3 or the Astoria school. The Blissville school, besides relieving the overcrowded condition of old No. 4, supplies a demand which existed for more convenient and accessible local educational facilities. All of the efforts of the board of education are at present directed to the maintenance and improvement of the seven schools above referred to, and though it has not always been able to meet all the requirements of the educational department, it has the satisfaction of knowing that these efforts have generally been seconded and always appreciated by the public at large. The fact that during the last ten years the increase in the daily average attendance has been more than 100 per cent, greater than the increase in the population of the city attests the care and efficiency with which the schools have been managed and the interest and confidence with which they are regarded by the public. The following persons have been officially connected with the board of education since its organization in 1871: 1st ward- George Petry, Thomas McMahon, Sylvester Gray; 2d ward- Safferin D. Allen, Anthony Pirz, Anthony Goldner, David Bartley, Patrick McKeon, John Metz; 3rd ward- Willy Wallach, Dennis J. Holland, Daniel Donnelly, Benjamin P. Thompson, Daniel O’Callaghan, Michael McBride; 4th ward- John Fahnestock, Henry C. Johnson, Josiah M. Whitney; 5th ward-- Lewis J. White, Joseph Larocque, Henry C. Titus. The following named commissioners have served as president of the board: George Petry, Sylvester Gray, John Fahnestock, Henry C. Johnson, Josiah M. Whitney, Henry P. Titus. Alanson Palmer was secretary of the board in 1871- 74 and 1875-81, Edward F. Magee, 1874 and 1875. Besides the principals named in our mention of No. 3 or the Astoria school, the following persons have served since 1871, or are serving in such capacity in the other schools of the city at the present time (1881): 1st ward- W.H. Sieberg, Erastus Crosby; 2d ward- E.A. Barnes, William Silliman, P.R. McCarthy; 3rd ward-- Edward F. McGee, P.R. McCarthy, Miss, L.A. Salter; 5th ward primary school- Rebecca A. Stafford; Steinway school- Miss Georgie Swezey.THE BIBLE WAR.
The educational history of Long Island City would scarcely be complete without mention of a local dissension known as "the Bible war." Early in 1871 the mayor appointed a committee of seventeen to revise the charter of Long Island City and to draft a school law. To Rev. John Crimmin was assigned the duty of drafting the powers and duties of the common council and the school law which now form portions of the revised charter. The original draft of the school law, read by Father Crimmin before the committee of seventeen, contained a paragraph excluding all religious exercises, such as the reading of the Bible, the singing of hymns and the recitation of prayers, from the public schools. While the document was in general highly commended, this particular paragraph caused no small amount of discussion; and as on all religious questions all parties are tenacious of their belief, so also in this case did they hold firmly to their various opinions. After a full discussion of the matter in public the question of the adoption of the paragraph was brought to a vote, and the paragraph was adopted by a majority of the committee. Two Catholics only voted in favor of its adoption, viz., Father Crimmin and Anthony Pirz. The paragraph was afterward stricken out by a member of the senate. Father Crimmin offered no opposition to the passage of the bill so long as nothing was inserted to authorize religious exercises in the public schools. The bill having become a law, the board of education appointed under its provisions in 1871 was composed of three Protestant and two Catholic gentlemen, who unanimously adopted by- laws enforcing the usual religious exercises of the public schools. This course naturally aroused Catholics to opposition. They felt greatly aggrieved. Father Crimmin counselled the parents to observe moderation but to hold firmly to their rights, to keep entirely within the law, and, under any provocation, not to violate the peace. He first advised that the Catholic children should not enter the school until the religious exercises were over. Some of the children were expelled, and others threatened with expulsion for non- attendance. He then advised the parents to send their children to school at 9 o’clock; that under the direction of their parents they could legally object to the religious exercises, and if the children were expelled he would appeal the case to the State superintendent of public instruction. Many of the Catholic children in the first ward and some in the second ward schools objected to the religious exercises and were expelled. Three large boys, John Dennen, James Clark and John Colton, too big to be ejected, were placed under arrest because they resisted the principal in his efforts to eject a pupil, Miss Katie Dennen, who had objected to the religious exercises. The boys were subsequently discharged. Although Father Crimmin had determined to appeal, he did not desire to do so until all hopes of convincing the board of education of the illegality and injustice of their course had failed. The board, however, decided as a compromise to omit the singing of hymns and the recitation of prayers and to read only the Ten Commandments and the Lord’s Prayer. Father Crimmin would not accept this compromise, because, as he stated, Catholics could not take part in a non- Catholic religious exercise or willingly be present at it. An informal offer was made to substitute the Catholic version of the Scriptures for the Protestant version in the schools. Father Crimmin objected, saying that the school board could not legally enjoin the reading of either, and that he would never consent to inflict a grievance upon his neighbor of which he himself had complained. In these views he was sustained not only by Catholics but by many Protestants. The board of education, feeling that they had made all the concessions consistent with their rights in the matter, ordered the principal of the first ward school to insist on the reading of the Scriptures, and to expel those children who objected or refused to attend during the reading. On one occasion some of the members of the board of education, the city superintendent and a number of prominent citizens attended the religious exercises in one of the classes in the first ward school. The exercises opened with the reading of a portion of the Scriptures by the principal. Two of the Catholic children of the class objected. A consultation was held among the officials and the citizens present on the course to be pursued. It was resolved that all the children present opposed to the reading of the Scriptures should be expelled. This information was conveyed to the children and all opposed to the reading of the Scriptures were ordered to stand up, whereupon 42 of the 45 children in the class- some of them Protestants- arose and were expelled. The feeling was intense. Public meetings were called and resolutions adopted censuring the action of the board of education. The board of school trustees of the first ward passed resolutions giving the free use of the school building to all denominations desiring to give religious instruction to their children, before and after school hours, in order to settle the difficulty amicably. The board of education opposed this plan and persisted in the course they had adopted. Before appealing to the State superintendent Father Crimmin drafted the following memorial, which was signed by a large number of citizens and presented to the board of education as a last’ resort: Long Island City, Dec. 29th, 1871. To the Honorable Board of Education of Long Island City: Gentlemen,- We the undersigned residents and citizens of this city respectfully petition your honorable body for the repeal of that portion of section 18, article 12 of the by- laws of the board of education which reads as follows: "The daily opening exercises shall consist of the reading of a portion of the Holy Scripture without note or comment; and we further petition your honorable body that no religious instructions, prayer, hymns, or other religious exercises be permitted in the public schools during school hours, for the following reasons: First- Because we, as members of the Catholic Church, cannot join in religious exercises with non- Catholics, even when the exercise is the same in substance and in form. Second- Because the religious exercises hitherto held in the public schools, and the religious instruction given therein have been and are still condemned by our highest ecclesiastical authority as corrupt, false and heretical. We are forbidden to read, or to attend the religious instructions and the prayers which our children are obliged to attend in the public schools. Third- Because, as freemen, we have the natural and inalienable right to hold to this belief, and to live according to its teachings. Fourth- Because as rational and responsible beings we have a natural and inalienable right, to dictate to our own children, during their minority, what shall and what shall not be their religious convictions; how and why and what they shall believe and practice in religion; and we hold that no human power or authority, whether it be ecclesiastical or civil, can justly claim this right, or justly exercise this power, except with our consent. Fifth- Because we, as citizens of the State of New York, have a constitutional right to hold, to enjoy, and to practice this religious belief; and we hold that, under the constitution of this State, we cannot be legally deprived of any right or privilege secured to any citizen of this State on account of religious convictions, or the exercise or enjoyment thereof. Sixth- Because we, as residents of Long Island City, have a legal right, according to section 24, title 9 of our city charter, to send our children to the public schools of this city, and the only conditions required by law in order to entitle children to the benefits of our public schools are: first, that they shall be residents of this city; secondly, that they shall he of the ages between four and twenty- one years. Their attendance to religious instructions, exercises, or practices is not imposed as a legal condition to entitle them to the benefits of such public instruction; and if it were it would be unconstitutional and therefore not binding. Seventh- Because we, as taxpayers, believe that the employment and payment of officers and teachers by the civil authorities, for the dissemination and maintenance of Protestant religious instruction, exercises and practices, in our public schools during school hours, and the forcing of attendance on the part of the children to religious instructions which teach mysteries that require an act of supernatural faith to believe them, which are beyond the reach or demonstration of human reason, and which are given as holy and sacred, as the teachings of a divine authority, without any proof or evidence to the child or to the parent of the child of these mysteries, or that such instructions or exercises are holy or divine or by divine authority; in a word, that they must be accepted without note or comment, is an assumption and an outrage on the part of civil authorities against the rights of conscience, and against the organic law of this State. It is giving the school boards a right and a power greater than has been given by the State to its government in its organic laws, by and through which alone the school boards can have an existence. It perverts public institutions to private ends. It prostitutes the public funds to the interests of a particular class. It institutes anarchy in the State, foments disunion, discord and bitter prejudice in the minds of fellow citizens, and brings odium and disgrace upon the whole system of public instruction. We, therefore, pray your honorable body to take prompt and decisive action in the matter which we lay before you, to the end that we and our children may no longer suffer from a public insult and injustice, which we have borne patiently for many years, to the end that our children may as speedily as possible enter our public schools and participate in all their exercises without protest, and to the end that not only our children, but the children of every class and denomination of our fellow citizens may profit by the maternal generosity, solicitude and justice of this State, without suffering insult or injustice on account of their race, their color, or their creed." This petition having been denied by the board of education, Father Crimmin drafted the appeal to the State superintendent in the names of some of the parents whose children had been expelled. Nearly forty affidavits were taken and put in evidence. A copy of the appeal was served on the board of education, who put in an answer. The case was decided in favor of the appellants by the memorable decision of Hon. Abram B. Weaver, then State superintendent of public instruction, by which the reading of the Bible and other religious exercises were forbidden in the public schools of Long Island City during school hours. This ended a long and exciting controversy. Although the decision was the cause of deep chagrin to many at the time, it was soon felt as a source of great satisfaction and harmony for all. In justice it must be stated that all denominations bore with each other charitably and patiently until the decision was obtained, and nowhere in the State are all denominations more harmoniously united on the support and government of their public schools than in Long Island City.JOURNALISM.
The first journalistic venture within the limits of Long Island City was the Astoria Gazette, started in 1853 by William S. Harrison, and continued about eighteen months. Mrs. Ritchie began the publication of the Astoria Herald in 1864. It was a short- lived concern. October 20th 1865 the first number of the Star appeared on Central (now Vernon) avenue, Hunter’s Point. At that time Hunter’s Point had assumed considerable business importance, and was rapidly growing. The place had an air of thrift and promise that led the publisher, Thomas H. Todd, to hope that an excellent field for journalism was opening there. The Star from the outset slowly but steadily grew, and at the time of the incorporation of Long Island City it was numbered among the best managed and most successful newspapers on the island. So remarkable and satisfactory had been the growth of the Weekly Star that in the spring of 1876 the publisher was induced to establish the Long Island city Daily Star, which has from that time been regularly issued, and is now classed among the most valued and solid enterprises of the city. Like all other ventures in daily journalism the first few years of its existence were trying in the extreme, entailing heavy expense and incessant labor, but persistent effort finally carried the day and its projector at the close of the fourth year was rewarded by seeing his scheme upon a paying basis. To- day the Daily and Weekly Star has one of the best appointed offices to be found in the vicinity of New York. It occupies two extensive floors in the building at 71 Borden avenue, with steam presses, and every necessary appliance for the prompt and thorough transaction of a printing and publishing business.THE LONG ISLAND COURIER.
The Courier was first organized June 10th 1875, as the organ of the democracy in Long Island City and Queens county. Unfortunately the democracy in Long Island City were divided into two factions, one opposed to the Administration and the other identified with it. The courier espoused the cause of the Administration, and despite the reverses of the political whirligig it has always been recognized as the fittest advocate of the democracy throughout the county. Since its organization it has been the official paper of Long Island City, and for three years of its existence it has been recognized as the official paper of the county, despite the fact that there are fifteen Democratic newspapers in the county. Two years ago the ownership of the paper was merged into the Courier Publishing Company, and has continued as such ever since. Its business prospects are most flattering and it commends itself to the community. The Review, a daily paper, was published by H.W. Love from 1872 to 1875. In 1874 J.R. Botts published the Long Island City News, a paper which did not long exist. The Long Island City Press was issued in 1875 or 1876 by J.J. Rice, and its publication was continued about three years. In 1876 B.G. Davis began the publication of a small paper which had an existence of only a few months. The Long Island Beobachter, Charles Keruitz editor and proprietor, was established at Astoria in 1876, and is printed entirely in German. The Astoria Chronicle was issued in 1880 and published a few months by Johnson & Nichols. It was non- partisan at the outset, but during the ensuing campaign be strongly Democratic.FLORISTS AND SEEDSMEN.
The first florist and seedsman in Long Island City was Grant Thorburn, who was in the business many years at Astoria. It is probable that the next was W.C. Wilson, on Flushing avenue, who is yet extensively engaged in the business. Gabriel Marc, now at Woodside, was formerly in this business on Grand street, making the cultivation of roses a specialty. Adjoining the gardens of Mr. Wilson are those of Mr. Leach. Mr. Witham is located in the Ravenswood portion of the city. Those mentioned have been the principal florists and seedsmen of the past and present, though at various times several persons, mostly Germans, have engaged in the business in different parts of the city.THE LONG ISLAND CITY SAVINGS BANK.
This, which is the first and only monetary institution in Long Island City, was incorporated in the early part of’ 1876. It was organized April 18th 1876 with the following officers: Sylvester Gray, president; John Appleton, first vice- president; H.S. Anable, second vice- president; J. Harvey Smedley, secretary. The trustees were Sylvester Gray, William Krumbeck, John Bodine, Jonathan Peck, James Corwith, Hugh M. Thomas, William H. Bowron, Francis Pidgeon, H.S. Anable, William Bridge, Henry R. White, J.A. Smith, Alfred L. New, Lewis Graves, Richard Bragaw, John Horan, John Appleton, George Petry, Charles H. Rogers, John B. Woodruff, Isaac Van Riper, J. Harvey Smedley, John Claven and William T. Wardwell. The bank was organized by the leading capitalists and business men of Long Island City with a view to retaining for home investment the large amount of capital which had formerly been deposited in various New York banks. Most of the deposits are loaned out to parties in Long Island City and do their part in aiding the advancement of the place. The officers elected at the date of organization have served continuously to the present time. There have, however, been some changes in the board of trustees. The present members are as follows: Sylvester Gray, John Appleton, H.S. Anable, J. Andrew Smith, James Corwith, Isaac Van Riper, Lewis Graves, John Claven, John Horan, William Bridge, J. Harvey Smedley, Charles H. Rogers, George Petry, Henry R. White, John B. Woodruff; Alfred L. New, H.M. Thomas, Francis Pidgeon, D.F. Atkins, Francis McGee, D.S. Jones, C.J. Dillon and John Green. The bank is located at the corner of Jackson avenue and Third street.LODGES.
Astoria Lodge, No. 155, I.O.O.F., was instituted at the rooms of William Green, in Astoria, October 10th 1850, with the following first officers and charter members: John L. Boyd, N.G.; Nathaniel Tilbey, V.G.; William P. Bowden, secretary; James Campbell, treasurer; John Brackley, William Williamson and H., Curthberson. The successive noble grands prior to 1863 were: John Brackley, William P. Bowden, James Crosley, William Crouthers, Charles Diestel, Thomas Duncan, Nathanie Tilbey, William H. Green, Theodore Hollenberg, Joseph E. Hollingsworth, John Korfman, C.R. Morris, John R Moons, Charles Risdale, William Williamson, John J Whitehead, James M. Whitcomb and M. Willis. Georg Maskull and Julius J. Umshlag served in 1863; John H Comfort and John Mackie in 1864; James A. Matlack and William Underdown in 1865; John L. Morris and E.A. Cadwell in 1866; John M. Snyder and John Simpson in 1867; James Campbell and D.M. Munger in 1868 James Smith and John Peterson in 1869; James O’Rourk and Chris.Maskull in 1870; Daniel Patten and James Hempstead in 1871; Thomas Gillespie and Thomas Snediker in 1872; Emanuel Pascal and James Campbell in 1873; Chris. Carr and Charles W. Hallett in 1874 John A. Mittz and John H. Phillips in 1875; James Campbell and Frank A. Rutsler in 1877; Theodore Drake and James Henderson in 1878; Ed. E. Schurrer and George Vanderhoff in 1879; Henry T. Banks and Clark E.E. Smith in 1880. The present officers (July 1881) are: Hugh A. Smyth, N.G.; Charles R. Suckings, V.G.; Clark E. Smith, R.S. John Korfman, treasurer; John L; Morris, permanent secretary; Charles W. Hallett, James Campbell and Clark E. Smith, trustees. Anchor Lodge, No. 324, I.O.O.F. was instituted June 11th 1872, and chartered August 22nd following. The officers in 1881 were as follows: Charles D. Crawley, N.G., Martin Blessenger, V.G., Frank Shinkle, secretary; John B. Patterson, permanent secretary; John T. Brown, treasurer. Long Island City Lodge, No. 395, I.O.O.F.- This lodge was instituted June 11th 1874. It works in the German language and assembles every Tuesday evening at Odd Fellows’ Hall, Long Island City. The charter members were: Charles F. Weitzel, John Koch, John Kron, Wilhelm Waugenstein, Herrmann Wuesthoff, Frederick Gemp, John Theobald, Charles Reichert, Jacob Kirchner, Frederick Gubler, Frederick Breling, Heinrich Smith, Louis Joneck, Ernst Heinsohn, Ernst Gochring, Justus Wolf, Henry Hilbers, Ferdinand Reichert, Thomas Hornung and Adolph Kuhn. The first officers were: Charles F. Weitzel, N.G.; Johr Koch, V.G.; John Kron, recording secretary; Herrmann Wuesthoff, permanent secretary; Wilhelm Waugenstein, treasurer. The successive noble grands have been as follows: Charles F. Weitzel, John Koch, John Kron, Herrmann Wuesthoff, John Theobald, Henry Hilbers, Charles Reichert, Henry Rudolph, Oscar Ohning, Henry Schmidt, Christian Craemer, Robert Wolf and Charles Lueth. The officers in July 1881 were: John Conrad, N.G. Ernst Mertin, V.G.; George Foche, recording secretary Robert Wolf, permanent secretary; Charles Frangot Springer, treasurer. Island City Lodge, No. 586, F. and A.M. (Hunter’s Point).- Island City Lodge was organized under dispensation August 22nd 1865, and instituted June 18th 1866 with the following named charter members: James Corwith, Jacob Rockwell, Henry Rudolph, John P. Gilbert, Willet Ryder, Benjamin C. Lockwood, William Hindley, John Gregory, William Hirst, Henry R. Williams, William Ogbourne, Jess Jackson, John Soltan, Neil Nelson, Andrew P. Sander, Thomas Fry, Charles W. Lawrence, John R. De Witt. The first officers were: James Corwith, Master; Jacob Rockwell, S.W.; Henry Rudolph, J.W.; John P. Gilbert, treasurer; Willet Ryder, secretary; Benjamin G. Lockwood, Sr. D.; William Hindley, Jr. D.; John Soltan and William Ogbourne, M.C.; John Gregory, tiler; John Gregory and William Hindley, trustees. James Corwith, Jacob Rockwell, James N. Bartlett, Sylvester Gray, Alfred L. New, Henry D. Newcomb, John Rockwell, William Dickson and William W. Meiners have been the successive masters. The officers in July 1881 were: William W. Meiners, Master; John J. Turner, Sr. W.; Charles E. Stockford, Jr. W.; Sylvester Gray, treasurer; J. Robert Laws, secretary; A.H. Kemble, Sr. D.; George W. Pierce, Jr. D.; John T. Brown and Charles R. Stevenson, M. of C.; Theodore Hildebrand and D.S. Jones, stewards; Richard Armstrong, marshal; Rev. William A. Granger, chaplain; F.B. Barrett, organist; William Hirst, tiler. Island City Lodge meets Monday evenings at Smithsonian Hall, at the corner of Vernon avenue and Third street. Advance Lodge, No. 635, F. and A.M. (Astoria).- Advance Lodge was organized February 22nd 1867, with the following charter members: John R. Clark, John E. Oloff, Edwin A. Cadwell, James . E. Torrey, Caleb J. Frances, Charles Cranfield, James M. Whitcomb, William M. Berger, Charles Risdale, Edward C. Graham, Cornelius R. Morris, Robert T. Wild, Charles C. Howell, E. T. Jenkins, Martin Willis, William B. Wilson, John L. Morris, - Umshlag, Benjamin .Malliefert, Charles L. Mann and Joseph Curtis. The successive masters of the lodge have been John R. Clark, John E. Oloff, John Fahnestock, Edwin A. Cadwell, R.M.C. Graham, F. Rutsler; W.M. Berger, C. Cranfield and C.W. Hallett. The officers in July 1881 were: C.W. Hallett, Master; W.K. Moore, senior warden; John E. Oloff, junior warden; George W. Clark, secretary. Meetings are held in the hall of the lodge on Fulton Street, Astoria, every Tuesday evening. Division No. 2 of the Ancient Order of Hibernians was organized early in 1873, with five charter members. The membership is now large. The officers of the division in July 1881 were as follows: Andrew McGarry, president; Thomas Scully, vice-president; Andrew Gaffney, recording secretary; Charles Cameron, treasurer.CHURCHES OF LONG ISLAND CITY.
ST. GEORGE’S EPISCOPAL, ASTORIA.
Riker states in his "Annals of Newtown" that "an Episcopal church was erected at Hallett’s Cove in 1828 and incorporated a few years later" as St. George’s Church. From another very reliable source we learn that the house of worship of this church was built in 1832. However this may be, the church is an old on and has long been prominently known. The first to preach in the building is said to have beer Rev. George A. Shelton. He .was followed by Rev. Samuel Seabury, who did not long remain and was, a good many years later, rector of the Church of the Annunciation, New York. The church being too poor to sustain a rector at that time, Riker is our authority for the statement that Mr. Shelton, of Newtown, consented in 1832 to devote to it a portion of his labors, and officiated for between four and five years; when, the membership having increased, the church was enabled to call Rev. John Walker Brown, of Schenectady, N.Y., a graduate of Union College, who was probably the first regular rector of the parish. A man of high intellectual attainments, he was greatly beloved by his congregation for his fervent and unobtrusive piety. His health failed and, in the hope of recovering it by a change of climate, he left home in November 1848 on a voyage to the Mediterranean. At Malta his illness increased, and he died April 9th 1849. In his memory a tablet bearing the following inscription was placed in the church: "This tablet is erected as an affectionate tribute to the memory of Rev. John Walker Brown, who for many years, replenished with the truth of God’s doctrine and adorned with innocency of life, both by word and good example, faithfully served his Master as rector of this parish. He was born August 23d 1814, and died in the island of Malta on the 9th of April 1849, in the 35th year of his age. He sleeps in Jesus." Mr. Brown was succeeded by Rev. T. Reeves Chipman, of LeRoy, N.Y., who died at White Plains, N.Y., January 1st 1865, in his 54th year, after he had resigned the rectorship of the parish. Rev. Robert William Harris, D.D., was his successor and is the present rector. The above sketch embraces all of the data concerning the history of this church which the writer has been able to obtain from various sources after diligent inquiry. If the sketch is not as complete as may to some appear desirable it is only because he failed to secure the aid of certain persons whose co- operation would have been invaluable in such an undertaking.PROTESTANT REFORMED DUTCH CHURCH, ASTORIA.
This church was organized July 11th 1839, by a committee of the classis of Long Island, consisting of Revs. Strong, Campbell and Garretson. The original members were Abraham Polhemus and wife, Mrs. Sylvanus Morris, John S. Bussing and wife, Grant Thorburn and wife, and William Shaw. Rev. G.J. Garretson, pastor of the churches of Newtown and Jamaica, preached on the occasion of the organization, at which time Abraham Polhemus was elected elder and John S. Bussing deacon. The church edifice was originally built by persons belonging to the Reformed and Presbyterian churches. Previous to July 1839 an occasional service was held in it, conducted by the pastors of the Reformed and Presbyterian churches of Newtown. In the summer of 1839 measures were taken to secure regular worship in the village for such as were not attached to the Episcopal church. It was therefore proposed that the edifice should become the property of the Presbyterians or of the Reformed church. The proposition was made to the Presbyterians in the village and neighborhood that they should take the building and organize the church- paying the debt of $3,000 which had been incurred in the erection of the building. The proposition was declined. Persons in connection with the Reformed church then took the building, with the full consent of all who were in connection with the Presbyterian church, and paid its debt. Half of the amount was paid by a gift of $1,500 from the Collegiate Reformed church of New York. Rev. A.H. Bishop commenced preaching as a stated supply to the new organization October 20th 1839. The church was regularly received under the care of the classis of Long Island January 7th 1840. November 11th 1840 Rev. A.H. Bishop was ordained as pastor of the church and he officiated as such until April 20th 1853, when the pastoral relation was dissolved owing to Mr. Bishop’s ill health. July 17th 1853, Rev. William H. Ten Eyck was installed pastor of the church, Rev. E.S. Porter, of Williamsburgh, preaching on that occasion. Mr. Ten Eyck remained until 1874. May 27th, that year, Rev. M.L. Haines was installed as pastor by the north classis of Long Island and he has continued to fill that office to the present time (1881). The church has 100 families connected with it and 220 members. The Sunday- school has had as superintendents Messrs. Robert Benner, Frederick Whittemore and T.A. Lancashire. It has more than 300 scholars and a library of 300 volumes. A new Sunday- school building containing infant class room and church parlors was built in the summer of 1880, and dedicated November 28th 1880.CHURCH OF OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL, ASTORIA.
The Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel was organized August 20th 1840, by Rev. Michael Curran. At that time he resided in Harlem and attended semi-monthly the missions at Astoria, Flushing, Jamaica and Rockaway. Two lots of ground, were originally donated to the parish for church purposes, one by James O’Shea, of New York, and one by Mr. Anderson, a prominent Episcopalian, also of New York. Another lot was subsequently procured for burial purposes and it is yet in use. At the formation of the parish 118 persons, of whom sixteen were not Catholics, contributed $819.25 toward the erection of a church. The building then erected was a frame structure, to which an addition was subsequently built by Father Phelan, doubling its size. It is now used as a Sunday- school room and has a capacity for accommodating 500 children. It stands on the corner of Van Alst and Trowbridge streets. The first secretary of the church was James O’Donnell, who after a short time was succeeded by Michael Tuomey, who is still living in Astoria. He states that the first collection amounted to $2.31; the second, owing to the severity of the weather, to sixty-nine cents. At that time the system of pew rents had not been introduced and the pastor’s salary came from what was termed "quarter dues." Michael Tuomey was succeeded in the secretaryship by Owen Deane, who was succeeded in May 1849 by Hugh Shiels, now living on Flushing avenue. Ex- alderman John Mitchell was afterward secretary, and upon his resignation was followed by John Arnold. Among the records of the church appear the names of Rev. Messrs. Wheeler, McGovern, Conlin and McClery as having administered the sacraments of baptism and matrimony during the pastorate of Rev. Michael Curran, who died in October 1856. Rev. John Brady was the next pastor. He remained in Astoria until some time in 1858, when he was transferred to Greenpoint. Rev. James Phelan then assumed the duties of the pastorate. During Mr. Phelan’s pastorate the present church edifice was built. It is of brick and is located at the corner of Newtown and Crescent avenues. The corner stone was laid September 9th 1871 and the church was dedicated August 7th 1873. Its total cost was about $30,000. Theorgan which it contains was manufactured to order and is worth about $3,000. Early in March 1880, after a pastorate of twenty- three years, Rev. Mr. Phelan died of pneumonia. He was succeded by Rev. P.F. Sheridan, who was appointed to the pastorate April 25th 1880, and who died in July 1881. His successor, the present pastor, is Rev. William McGinniss. May 1st 1881 an acre of land adjoining the church property, on which was a dwelling, was purchased for a parochial residence. The church property now comprises two acres of land extending from Newtown avenue to Flushing avenue. The total value of these lots with the old church, the new church, the parsonage and other improvements is not far from $50,000, upon which is a mortgage of $10,000. The congregation numbers about 1,200, and has a Vincent de Paul Society to look after the poor, and a Sodality of the Blessed Virgin for young ladies, of whom fifty are members.PRESBYTERIAN, ASTORIA.
The Presbyterian church, Astoria, is finely located, being built on the brow of the hill on Franklin street, facing the west. The church was organized May 11th 1846 by the Presbytery of New York, with the following named members, 17 in number: Bayard and Mariette Boyd, Andrew and Julia Maria Comstock, Albert S. and Eliza Clement Cone, Thomas B. and Almira Miner, Henry S. and Sarah C. Mulligan, James S. and Ann Eliza Polhemus, Henry and Sarah Smith, John H. and Sarah A. Smith and Sally Smith. The congregation first met for worship in the old district school- house that stood on the hill on Main street east of St. George’s Episcopal church. The corner- stone of the first church edifice, which is still standing, was laid November 30th 1846, and the building was dedicated June 11th 1848. The first pastor was the Rev. Frederick G. Clark, chosen in August 1846, who entered upon his labors on the third Sunday of October 1846, and was installed May 28th 1847. He remained as pastor five years, when he resigned to accept a call from New York city. The second pastor, Rev. Benjamin F. Stead, was called in 1852 and installed July 4th of that year, Rev. J. Goldsmith, D.D., of Newtown, and Rev. J.C. Lowrie, of New York, taking part in the services. His first sermon in this church was from the text "Behold I stand at the door and knock," etc. He continued his pastorate till his death, February 15th 1879, just one week before his sixty- fourth birthday. The third and present pastor, Rev. W.A. Barr, was installed June 19th 1879. The church and lecture room were enlarged during the year 1857. There is a fine Meneely bell in the tower weighing 927 pounds. The organ is a very sweet-toned instrument, built by Beach. The cost of the original church building was $10,000. In two and a half years from the time of organization the number of members had grown from 17 to 87. The Sabbath- school has ever been prosperous. At one time there were two Sabbath- schools connected with the church, numbering in the aggregate some 300 scholars.ST. THOMAS’S (EPISCOPAL) CHURCH, RAVENSWOOD,
was organized October 29th 1849, being set off by consent from the parish of St. George’s, Astoria. The wardens were William Nelson and Samuel J. Beebe, and the vestrymen John H. Williams, George Brooks, Charles H. Seymour, Warren Kimball, Henry J. Brooks, Samuel Brown, Horatio Nelson and Edward H. Jacot. In 1850 Rev. E.R.T. Cook was called as rector. He resigned in the following November and Rev. J.M. Waite was called as rector in February 1851. In May 1853 the church edifice was enlarged. Mr. Waite resigned the rectorship in June 1856 and in October following Rev. S.W. Sayres was called. He resigned in June 1864, and Rev. John Cornell was rector from August 1864 to April 1867. In December 1867 the church building and all its contents were destroyed by fire. In July 1868 the corner stone of a new church, was laid by Rev. W.F. Morgan. Rev. W.W. Batteshall was rector from September 1867 to December 1868; Rev. Charles H. Vandyne from March 1869 to June 1870; Rev. S.B. Newby from November 1879 to January 1873; Dr. Osgood was temporarily in charge of the parish in 1873. Rev. William S. Adamson was rector from August 1874 to September 1879, and Rev. J.O. Drumm from November 1879 to July 1880. In April 1881 Bishop Horatio Southgate assumed temporary charge. At present (January 1882), St. Thomas’s church is without a rector, services being conducted by temporary supply. The present vestry consists of wardens- Alfred Nelson and Andrew Findlay. Vestrymen- John G. Freeman, Orison B. Smith, Edwin Aspinall, Solomon B. Noble, D.S. Jones, A.C. Frey, Horace Barnes, Jay L. Smith. The number of communicants is about 25. In the Sunday- school there are 50 children and 10 teachers.GERMAN SECOND REFORMED PROTESTANT, ASTORIA.
The attention of the north classis of Long Island was called to the wants of the German population residing in the town of Newtown at an extra meeting of the classis, held in the lecture room of the Reformed Dutch Church of Williamsburgh, January 19th 1854. The classis appointed Rev. Messrs. Thomas C. Strong and William H. Ten Eyck, a committee to take the oversight of the German population in the town of Newtown, and authorized them to present this field to the board of domestic missions as fully recommended by the classis as a most important opening calling for immediate action. This the committee did and a commission was made out for Mr. John Boehrer to labor as a missionary in this field for six months. He very soon entered upon his work. At a stated session of the classis held September 20th 1854 an application was received from 24 German residents at Astoria praying for the organization of a church. Rev. Messrs. W.H. Ten Eyck, John W. Ward and Giles H. Mandeville were appointed a committee to effect the organization, which they did October 8th 1854, under the title of the German Second Reformed Protestant Church of Astoria, L.I. They examined and received the following persons: Philip Becker, Andrew Riehl, Conrad Schenck, John Jost Moenberger, Peter Green, Michael Claus, Conrad Webb, Henry Kral, Maria Lautenschlager. John Bruder and his wife, Helene Rott, were also received by certificate from the German Reformed Church, of Houston street, New York. Conrad Schenck and Conrad Webb were chosen elders, and Andrew Riehl deacon. Mr. Boehrer continued to labor as a lay missionary, both in Newtown and Astoria, until December 5th 1855, when he was licensed to preach. His labors as a licentiate missionary continued until April 1856. From the fall of 1856 until the summer of 1861 Rev. Conrad Dickhaut statedly supplied the German church at Newtown, rendering occasional services at Astoria. He was succeeded September 29th 1861 as a stated supply by the Rev. John Wenisch, who, November 4th 1861, was received as a member of classis by certificate from the south classis of New York. Mr. Wenisch was installed pastor for Newtown and Astoria June 21st 1863. During Mr. Boehrer’s time Sabbath services had been held in the village court- house. When Mr. Wenisch began his labors at Astoria the consistory of the Reformed Dutch church gave him the privilege of holding service statedly on Sabbath afternoons in their lecture room. The Second church continued to occupy it in this way until the erection and dedication of its own house of worship. The need of better accommodations had long been felt, and on the 5th of December 1865 a meeting of the consistory was held at the house of Rev. W.H. Ten Eyck to consider the subject. Steps were taken and resolutions adopted to secure funds for the purchase of lots and the erection of a church building. John J. Bruder and Henry Mencken were appointed a committee and the Rev. Mr. Ten Eyck was requested to help them raise, money. Four lots on Second avenue were bought, and an edifice was built, which was dedicated June 23d 1867. On the following Sunday C.D.F. Steinfuhrer, a candidate for the ministry, who, had just finished his studies at New Brunswick, N.J., was ordained and installed as pastor of this church, Rev. J. Wenisch having resigned and gone to West Newark, N.J., in the latter part of December 1866. Mr. Steinfuhrer is still pastor of this his first choice. November 1st 1868 a parochial school, in which both English and German are taught, was established. This school is under the supervision of the pastor and the consistory of the church. It has achieved good results and continues to exercise a healthy influence. The parsonage, next to the church edifice, was built in 1871. In 1873 the connection existing between this church and the German Second Reformed Church of Newtown was by mutual request dissolved. Since 1874 this church has been numbered among the self- sustaining churches of the north classis of Long Island. The membership at present (1881) is about 200. An equal number of scholars attend in the Sunday- school. The average attendance of the parochial school is from 50 to 60. The pastor is president of the Sunday- school and the principal of the parochial school, assisted in both by able teachers. The "Frauenverein," a society of ladies and an auxiliary of the church, has existed for about 10 years and is doing a noble work in the interest of the congregation. The members meet semi-monthly at their different homes and spend together sociably a few hours in the afternoon sewing, reading, etc. The proceeds of their work are contributed either to the maintenance of the church or to the relief of the poor among them. The presidents of this society have been : Mrs. D. Roeder, Mrs. Anna Mencken and Mrs. Louise Steinfuhrer. The value of the church property is about $10,000. The condition of the church is prosperous and promising.ST. JOHN’S PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH,
HUNTER’S POINT. This church was established about the year 1867. It was practically an offshoot of St. Thomas’s church, Ravenswood, and was due in great measure to the gifts and efforts of the late William Nelson. In Hunter’s Point Mr. Nelson was the owner of considerable property, and foreseeing the growth of population the neighborhood he resolved to provide for its religious and educational wants according to the tenets and usages of the Protestant Episcopal church. He therefore gave an eligible plot of land in what is known as Seventh street for the erection of a church, and with this a large contribution in money toward the building of the same. Through the instrumentality of Mr. Nelson and his family a number of other subscriptions were obtained, and ultimately the present church was erected, at a cost of about $15,000. The church is a frame building, designed in the gothic style, and is very harmonious and complete in all its proportions. At present it is without a proper chancel, but a chancel arch was originally built, and at a comparatively small cost the church might be completed by the addition of a chancel, with an organ chamber on one side and a vestry on the other. There is accommodation for about 350 persons. All the seats are free, and the church is supported by the offertory and by voluntary contributions. The basement of the church is fitted up for a Sunday- school, with a room for an infant class, and another for a library, etc. In the church there is an organ, and another in the school; and both church and school are well supplied with the necessary books and utensils for worship and instruction. The property is deeded forever to the Protestant Episcopal church in the Long Island diocese. It has been consecrated according to the usages of the church, and is entirely free from debt. During his lifetime Mr. Nelson was a generous supporter of the church, and the removal of his family, after his death, inflicted upon it a heavy loss. There have been several rectors in charge of this church and parish during its existence of fifteen years. The first was the Rev. Mr. Neilson, and then in succession came the Rev. Messrs. Appleton, Stadermeyer, Mulholland, Turner and Cartwright. The latter clergyman had charge of the parish for about five years, during which time he made great efforts to improve the church property and extend the interest of the parish. His labors were attended with much success, and his retirement from the parish has been felt as a heavy loss. Mr. Cartwright is a journalist of considerable experience and power; and the large demands made upon him in his editorial capacity have prevented him from devoting his full time to his parochial work. In retiring from the parish Mr. Cartwright received a complimentary address signed by the wardens and vestry of the parish, acknowledging in graceful terms the able and devoted service he had rendered to the parish in the pulpit, in the school in the visitation of the people, in the payment of church debts, and the improvements of church property, and expressing deep regret that he had felt it to be his duty t sever his connection with the parish. The present vestry of the parish consists of: J.J. Turner and D. Fitzpatrick, wardens; C. Crawley, treasure: W. Marshall, clerk; and R. Armstrong, D. Hitchcock, McIlroy, J.H. Livingston, A.T. Payne and F. Hall, vestrymen. According to the last report presented to the diocesan convention there were in the parish 87 families, comprising 220 individuals, while the contributions of the parish for church purposes during the year amounted to $1,676.50, There has been a large and flourishing Sunday- school in connection with the parish, consisting of about 150 scholars and 15 teachers, with a library of more than 200 volumes. In addition to the services and school in St. John’s church, the late rector, the Rev. T.S. Cartwright, opened a mission school and service at Dutch Kills, which under his able superintendence attained much vigor, and promised very satisfactory results. By some of the members of the parish it has been suggested that the church should be removed from its present location to a more eligible site in the neighborhood of the court- house, at the junction of Eleventh street and Jackson avenue. This would undoubtedly be a more central position, and the suggestion of a removal, if not made, was warmly supported by the late rector. But his retirement from the parish will interfere with the realization of that project.METHODIST EPISCOPAL, HUNTER’S POINT.
The Methodist Episcopal church of Hunter’s Point was organized in March 1860, by a few members who had been previously identified with the Methodist Episcopal church of Greenpoint and whose names the writer has been unable to learn. The place of meeting was in the public school building. The house of worship of this church was dedicated in 1864, Rev. John F. Booth, then of Greenpoint, officiating. It is a frame building on Sixth street. In 1877 it was placed on a higher foundation, on account of an elevation of the grade of the city, and a Sunday- school, lecture and class room was finished in the basement. The value of the church property is about $7,500. The total indebtedness of the church at this time (1881) is about $1,800. The first superintendent of the Sunday- school was Thomas L. Butler. The number of scholars present at the first session was about 5. The present membership is about 160. The number of volumes in the library is 150. The following named pastors have successively served the church: Revs. B.F. Downing, 1862, 1863; Benjamin Wilson, 1864; Joseph Henson, 1865, 1866; Samuel W. King, 1867- 69; Alexander Graham, 1870- 72; Nathan Hubbell, 1873; Henry C. Glover, 1874- 76; Alexander Graham, 1877- 79; Edward H. Dutcher, 1880; William W. Gillies, the present incumbent.ST. MARY’S, HUNTER’S POINT.,
The Catholic population living in the westerly portion of the township of Newtown, extending from the limits of Brooklyn on the south to Long Island Sound on the north, until 1868, belonged to the parish of St. Anthony, Brooklyn, and to the parish of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Astoria. The growing importance of the locality between Webster avenue and Brooklyn, on account of the great advantages offered by railroads, ferries and manufactories located there, induced many families of moderate means to leave the city of New York, to purchase lots, and to settle at Hunter’s Point, Dutch Kills and Ravenswood. The majority of these later settlers were Roman Catholics. In 1865 a plot of ground 100 by 150 feet, on the corner of Central avenue and Fifth Street, was purchased b) Rev. John Brady, pastor of St. Anthony’s church, Brooklyn, for church purposes. December 24th 1868 Rev. John Crimmin, then assistant priest at the church of St Vincent de Paul, Brooklyn, was placed in charge of the new congregation and parish of St. Mary’s, Long Island City. The district set apart for the new parish comprised that portion of the town of Newton bounded on the north by Webster avenue, on the east by Dutch Kills Creek, on the south by Newtown Creek, and on the west by the East River. The trustees of St. Mary’s church at this time were Rt. Rev. John Loughlin, Rev. John F. Turner, vicar- general, Rev. John Crimmin, pastor, Edward Brown and Matthew Smith. The school trustees kindly gave the use of the public school- house to the Catholic people as a place of worship until services could be held in the proposed new church. An effort was made to purchase a site for a church at or near the center of the above described district, but the property was not then graded and could not be secured. It was therefore concluded to buy four additional lots adjoining the property on Fifth street, and to build a frame structure which should serve as a temporary church until a more suitable location could be secured, and afterward to transform the temporary church into a parochial school- house. Accordingly four additional lots were bought by Rev. John Crimmin as the site for the temporary church. There were then ten full lots, 25 by 100 feet, at the corner of Central avenue and Fifth street, the original cost of which was $8,000. A brick house, on the southeast corner of East avenue and East Third street was bought by Father Crimmin as a residence, for the sum of $3,800. The plans and specifications for the erection of the new church were prepared by P.C. Keely, architect, Brooklyn. James Dennen, of Long Island City, was awarded the contract for building the edifice. The church is a frame building, 60 feet wide within the buttresses by 100 feet in depth, with clere story. It has a tower and steeple 115 feet in height, surmounted by a gilt cross. The ceiling in the nave is 57 feet high. Services, were first held in the unfinished edifice Sunday April 11th 1869, and the church was dedicated by Bishop Loughlin on the Feast of the Assumption, Sunday August 15th of the same year. The building cost about $24,000, and was at the time the largest edifice in Queen’s county. To meet the expense of so great undertakings with only comparatively a small and poor congregation required great efforts and sacrifices on the part of both pastor and people. Many of the congregation neglected their own business in order to devote their time to the raising of funds to defray the expenses. Large sums of money were collected from outside sources, and although the adult Catholics of the district numbered only about 600, they raised $23,000 within one year. In the spring of 1873 Father Crimmin, with the consent of the board of church trustees, bought from the trustees of Union College ten lots of ground at the corner of Jackson avenue and Twelfth street, the location which was sought in 1869. He afterward succeeded in securing seventeen adjoining lots, to be held and used for church purposes, the cost of which was about $43,000, most of which was secured by bond and mortgage. On this property Father Crimmin built a new brick pastoral residence 26 by 50 feet and three stories high, with basement and attic. The grounds were enclosed and ornamented with shade trees. He also erected three frame houses on Jackson avenue, with stores, the revenue of which was to aid in paying the interest on the property. It was the intention to build on this property a larger and more substantial church than the one erected on Fifth street. During Father Crimmin’s residence in Long Island City he suffered from frequent attacks of typho-malarial fever and congestive chills, which brought on asthma and weakness of the eyes. His constitution had been greatly impaired by these attacks, and, although he had labored hard and employed all his influence to secure those improvements which would remedy the causes of disease in the district, still he succeeded in obtaining those improvements only when his system was so shattered that a change to a more healthy climate became necessary in order to regain the health which he had lost. In 1878 he was prostrated by simultaneous attacks of typho-malarial fever, pneumonia and congestive chills which caused paralysis of the limbs and increased the weakness of the eyes. His physicians advised him to reside in Colorado until his health should be restored, but owing to the long continuance of the paralysis of the limbs and the approaching winter it was decided to postpone his journey until spring. Meanwhile, on the 1st of January 1879, after a residence of ten years in Long Island City, he was placed in charge of the church of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception, Brooklyn, and Rev. John Maguire was sent to St. Mary’s, Long Island City. Rev. John Crimmin was born in the County of Cork, Ireland. When he was about five years of age his parents emigrated to America and settled near Poughkeepsie, N.Y. They were farmers and Father Crimmin received all his early education in the country district schools of that vicinity, until he entered the old and famous institution of learning, Mt. St. Mary’s College, Emmittsburgh, Maryland. Here he remained five years and received the degrees of Bachelor and Master of Arts. In 1863 he went to France and entered the theological seminary of St. Sulpice, Paris. Here he spent four years, and having completed his theological course he was ordained priest at Meaux on the 29th of June 1867. On the 24th of December 1868 he was sent to build the church and take charge of the congregation known a St. Mary’s, Long Island City. In, his teaching Father Crimmin strictly adheres to the principles and the practices of the Roman Catholic church. He regards the negligence of parents in the religious instruction of their children and the formation of their consciences as the greatest of our present social evils. As a citizen he had been from his boyhood an abolitionist and a firm supporter of republican principles, and especially the equality of all men before the law.CHURCH OF THE REDEEMER, ASTORIA.,
The Church of the Redeemer, Astoria, is situated or the corner of Temple street and the Crescent, occupying a frontage of two hundred feet on each street. It is beautiful building, of early English gothic, built of dark granite, one hundred and six feet long, with recessed chancel, organ chamber and tower. The first meeting, called to take the preliminary steps for the formation of the parish, was held August 19th 1866, Rev. A.T. Twing, D.D., officiating in the morning, and the Rev. Walton W. Battershall in the evening At a meeting held the 27th of the same month the parish was regularly incorporated as the rector, church wardens and vestrymen, of the Church of the Redeemer Astoria. The following persons were duly chosen wardens and vestrymen: Wardens, James Welling and Wi1liam Mulligan; vestrymen, Edward W. Hewitt, James W. Carrington, George B. Sargent, James M. Carrington, Edward M. Hartshorne, Theodore W. Hewitt, Edwin A. Montell and George Miller. The Holy Communion was administered for the first time in this parish, to 7 persons, September 2nd, by Rev. William D. Walker, of Cal. vary Chapel, New York. September 27th the parish was admitted into union with the convention of the diocese of New York. October 30th the vestry tendered a unanimous call to the rectorship the Rev. Edmund D. Cooper, and December 2nd 1866 he entered upon his duties as rector of the parish. At this time he found the seventeen communicants, with a few other devoted friends, worshipping in a room since known as the drug store of Mr. Lange. Six months having expired, so earnest, zealous and prayerful was the spirit manifest among the members, and so steady and sure was the growth of the congregation, that an enlargement of the ball was rendered necessary. In the meantime land had been purchased and arrangements made for the erection of a church building, the corner stone of which was laid by Rev. Dr. Morgan, rector of St. Thomas’s church, New York, in the unavoidable absence of the bishop. The church was built by Messrs. Hollingsworth & Meserole, Mr. Hallett, of New York, being the architect. On Sexagesima Sunday 1868 the first service was held in the church, the sermon being preached by Rev. Dr. Haight, of Trinity, Church, New York, Rev. Dr. Morgan preaching in the evening. So great an undertaking by a congregation so small and feeble was not completed without great exertion, toilsome solicitations, and severe discouragements, and even then was left heavily burdened with debt, the indebtedness being not less than $24,000, and the church was without organ chamber, large organ, Sunday-school building, tower or chimes. The years 1872 and 1873 witnessed the erection of the organ chamber, the completion of the tower, and the placing therein of a chime of bells, through the liberality of the late Mr. Trafford. The year 1874 saw the completion of the organ chamber and the introduction of a grand organ from the house of the Messrs. Odell, of New York. The Sunday- school, under the management of the only two superintendents from its first organization (William Mulligan and John B. Moore) had by this time outgrown its accommodations, and an effort was made, though attended with great difficulty and depression (caused by the death of R.S. Fanning, its ardent supporter), to erect a suitable building of stone. The effort was crowned with success, and the building now stands as a memorial to that departed friend. The following is an extract from the rector’s 13th annual sermon, preached on the first Sunday in Advent 1879, upon the occasion of the freeing of the church from debt: "There have been more special providences in the history of this parish, than in that of any other that I have ever known. During the first twelve years, in addition to the value added to the church property, to which allusion has been made, through the liberality of the bondholders, the Ladies’ Church Aid Society, special contributions, the regular quarterly collections, the mite chests, and one bequest, the $24,000 indebtedness of 1868 was in 1878 (just ten years) reduced to $8,000. This indebtedness (although greatly diminished) was a burden, an incumbrance and a stumbling block in the way of many good works which might otherwise have been done, and positively prevented our offering of this church to God as a free will offering. In expressing these feelings to a warm friend (and, member of the church) he promptly offered all his bonds (the bonds issued were of $100 each) if so desirable an object could be attained. His example was followed by another, and another, and another, until I was enabled to say to the vestry that five gentlemen, aided by the Ladies’ Church Aid Society, the Sunday- school and the Grain (a society of young ladies) would guarantee $4,000 or one- half of the entire debt, provided the remaining $4,000 could be raised. A committee was appointed and it only remains for me to tell you that they have accomplished more than they set out to do. There is not to- day upon this parish one dollar, or one penny’s indebtedness. The church is still prosperous and free from debt. The work of the church during the fifteen years of existence may thus be briefly summed up: Nearly 400 persons baptized, nearly 300 confirmed, 50 marriages and 160 burials, and the number of communicants increased from 17 to over 300. The rector still stands in his place, and the church has ‘a Sunday-school numbering nearly 300 scholars and 25 officers and teachers, with a property which has cost over $50,000, as will be seen by the following statement: cost of church edifice and ground, $32,500; cost of organ chamber and organ, $5,177; cost of tower and bells, $10,020; cost of Sunday- school building, $7,056; total cost, $54,753; amount paid for support of parish, $69,406; total amount expended, $124,159. Of this amount the Ladies’ Church Aid Society have raised $18,185. The church was consecrated December 4th 1879. The congregation being standing, the senior warden, William Mulligan, presented to the bishop the instrument of donation, when the concluding act of consecration took place, the prayers being said by the bishop, and the sentence of consecration was read by the Rev. Dr. Drowne. The communion service following was read by Dr. Scarborough, bishop of New Jersey, the gospel being read by Bishop Southgate. Rev. George F. Seymour, D.D., LL.D., bishop of Springfield, Ill., was the preacher.ST. RAPHAEL’S, BLISSVILLE.,
The ground on which this church stands was bought in 1867 and the church was built thereon in 1867 and 1868. The building, so far as completed, cost, including the steeple, about $40,000. It was built under the management of Father Theodore Goetz, the first pastor, who organized the church in 1867. The building was found to be unsuitable for the congregation and had to be taken down. A new edifice is being built at this time (September 1881) by Father Matthias Farrelly, the present pastor. This structure is 60 by 138 feet in size. The membership of St. Raphael’s is about 2,000.EAST AVENUE BAPTIST, HUNTER’S POINT.,
This church is on East avenue at the corner of Eighth street. The first meeting of persons interested in the Baptist cause in this neighborhood was held in Smithsonian Hall, January 27th 1869. The church was organized April 10th of the same year. The nine original members were: Rev. J.S. Ladd and wife, Saxton. Mount and wife; C.E. Comstock, Phebe Ann Tewksbury, Abbie Lash, Mary Ann Combes and Horace Waters. They worshipped in Smithsonian Hall until the present church edifice was built. Rev. Wayland Hoyt, D.D., preached the first sermon in the new place. The church was organized under the leadership of Rev. J.S. Ladd, then serving as missionary of the Long Island Association. The first regular pastor was Rev. W.B. Smith, who served the church three years. The second was Rev. William F. Benedict, who remained two years. He was succeeded by Rev. William A. Granger, who was called in September 1874 and is now (1881) completing the seventh year of his ministry. The church edifice is a frame structure with brick basement and slate roof, gabled. Its value is $25,000. It was dedicated March 8th 1871 by Dr. Fulton, of Boston, and Dr. Evarts, of Chicago. Its seating capacity is about 800. One of the finest baptisteries in the land is in this church. It is of the finest polished marble, and was the gift of Mrs. Horace Waters, of Brooklyn. The first session of the Sunday- school was held January 27th 1869. The first superintendent was Horace Waters. The number of scholars was about 30. The last report of the school, February 5th 1881 shows a membership of 170, arranged in 20 classes. The present superintendent is A.L. New; the assistant superintendent is the pastor, W.A. Granger. The prospects of both church and school are promising. The members are thoroughly united, earnest and active. The church is entirely free from debt. The First German Baptist church, at Dutch Kills, was the outgrowth of a Sunday-school which was organized in the garret of a house near the present house of worship, with Herman Lekamp as superintendent, in 1870. The church was built about 1876, by William Diehl. At first this organization was a mission of the First German Baptist church, of New York. Rev. H. Schaffer was pastor. The name of the body has been changed and it is called Grace Mission of the East Avenue Baptist Church.ST. PATRICK’S ROMAN CATHOLIC, DUTCH KILLS.,
In 1870 a meeting of the Roman Catholic residents of Dutch Kills was held to take preliminary steps toward the erection of a church in the neighborhood. Thomas Doyle was elected chairman, Daniel O’Callaghan secretary, and Thomas Dobbins treasurer. A few hundred dollars were raised; four lots of ground on the corner of William and Henry streets were purchased and a small edifice was erected thereon. Rev. Father Goetz acted as temporary pastor, upon whose application’ Bishop Loughlin appointed Rev. Father M.M. Marco permanently. The Very Rev. Father Turner, V.G., in the absence of Bishop Loughlin, officiated at the dedication. It was during Father Marco’s term that the present pastoral residence was erected. In 1874 Father Marco was removed and his place was filled by Rev. John M. Kiely, now pastor of the Transfiguration church, Brooklyn. Rev. Ignatius O’Brien succeeded Father Kiely as pastor in September of the same year, and remained until his death, which occurred November 23d 1878. The church has been removed to a site on Crescent street, between Wilbur and Paynter avenues, adjoining the pastoral residence. It has been greatly improved and enlarged, having a seating capacity of 775. There are several religious confraternities attached to the church. November 23d 1878 the present pastor, Rev. L.F. Toner, became Father O’Brien’s successor.THIRD METHODIST EPISCOPAL, DUTCH KILLS.,
The Third Methodist Episcopal Church of Long Island City had its inception in a Sunday- school, which was opened in a room on Jackson avenue November 19th 1871, by T.L. Stewart, assisted by his daughter and E. Wooley. A preaching service was soon after instituted and continued with considerable regularity. The first preacher was Rev. R.H. Lomas. He was succeeded in May 1872 by Rev. B. Simon, who served the church until March 1878. Rev. A. Nixon then served one year. He was followed by Rev. R.H. Lomas, who returned to the pastorate and remained two years. In the spring of 1881 he was succeeded by Rev. J.H. Kirk. The trench for the foundation of the present building was dug June 26th 1875, and the church was dedicated March 19th 1876, by the late Bishop E.S. Janes. It is a frame building on a stone foundation and is surrounded by a neat picket fence. About the close of the year 1879 two class rooms were added to the building. The value of the church property is about $2,500. The Sunday- school numbers about 90 scholars and has over 300 volumes in its library. T.L. Stewart was the first superintendent.REFORMED, DUTCH KILLS.
Many of the early residents at Dutch Kills were members of the Reformed Church of Newtown, but as the population increased the want of some local organization and place of worship was felt. A Sunday-school was formed at a comparatively early date and met in the school- house east of the creek, near Skillman avenues Benjamin Thompson of Ravenswood acting as instructor. As soon as the school trustees elected under the city charter assumed the duties of their office, the privilege granted many years ago of holding Sunday- school and religious meetings in school- houses was revoked, and subsequent sessions as well as services for worship were held in the barn of John W. Payntar. For several summers prior to the erection of the present church edifice the board of domestic missions of the Reformed church sent students from the theological seminary at New Brunswick to preach to the people during their vacations and to perform all manner of missionary labor among them. These missionaries were Rev. Messrs. Hart, Garretson, Pebender and John Van Neste. It was owing to the labors of the latter and the generosity of Mr. Payntar that the present church was built. The former took upon himself the trouble of raising funds by subscription, and the latter donated a lot with a frontage of 75 feet on Academy street. The building which cost a little more than $4,000, was completed in the spring of 1815. The pulpit, organ and pews were donated by John I. De Bevoise, another generous friend of the cause. A regular church organization was effected April 12th 1875 when the edifice was dedicated. John W. Payntar and Jabez Harris were chosen elders and Thomas Payntar deacon. The first pastor, Rev. William Perry, was installed the same day. He resigned September 1st following, and was succeeded by Rev. G.R. Garretson, who was installed December 1st and resigned April 1st 1877. October 17th following the present pastor, Rev. E. Gutweiler, was installed. The members of the church at the time of its organization were Mr. and Mrs. John W. Payntar, Mrs. E. Van Alst, Anna Van Alst, Thomas Paynter, Georgiana Paynter, Mary E. Payntar and Mr. and Mrs. Jabez Harris. The first superintendent of the Sunday- school was Thomas Paynter. Its present membership(1881) is 115. Its library contains 300 volumes. The sessions are held in the basement of the church, which has been fitted up for that purpose within the past year.ST. JOSEPH’S GERMAN CATHOLIC, ASTORIA.,
St. Joseph’s German Roman Catholic church is under the pastoral care of Rev. H. Pauletige. The house of worship is a frame structure in which services were first held in July 1880. It will seat about 200 persons.METHODIST EPISCOPAL, ASTORIA.
At Astoria is a flourishing Methodist Episcopal church which is under the pastoral care of Rev. J. Howard Hand. The writer has used his utmost endeavors to obtain an authentic history of this society but has failed to secure the co- operation of those whose aid was indispensable to him in this design.THE NEW YORK AND LONG ISLAND BRIDGE COMPANY
was chartered by the Legislature of New York on the 16th of April 1867, with thirty five corporators, among whom were the engineer, Isaac D. Coleman, its principal promoter, and Hon. Archibald M. Bliss, afterward its first secretary. The political combinations by which the charter was secured were made, it is said, by Harry Genet, as the complement of the similar enterprise, the Brooklyn bridge, which had just then been authorized. It was, moreover, the opinion of many engineers and far seeing men of business, that the location of the Brooklyn bridge did not serve the purposes of so great and expensive a work, they reasoning that, as it could not take railway train because of its necessarily high grades, and that even if the grades could be overcome, no paying road could be built, over or under ground, through twelve miles of New York and five miles of Brooklyn streets for other than the merely local rapid transit, which alone that bridge would serve. It could thus not be made the part of any system of through transport between Long Island, or even Brooklyn and the rest of the United States; but would be occupied, to the utmost of its capacity, by the local passenger traffic of western Brooklyn and southern New York city. However speculative may have been the purposes of some among the prime movers in the enterprise, there was a conviction among thinking men that Long Island should be suitably connected with the mainland, for every class of transportation; and that the bridge for this purpose should be so located from the center of New York city to the western center of the Island, as to give the shortest railway route into Long Island and into Brooklyn, through the less encumbered business streets of New York and the open lands of Long Island, and cross the East River at its narrowest point, where foundations for its piers could be located on rock in place at or near the surface of the water. To secure the shortest and most direct route and insure the shortest spans possible it was necessary to cross Blackwell’s Island, and after an exhaustive examination Mr. Coleman selected the site south of Seventy- seventh street, New York, and running parallel with it and nearly at right angles with the river to Ravenswood. The selection of the locality was most creditable to Mr. Coleman’s judgment and engineering ability, as it secured the shortest possible line to Long Island and Brooklyn, utilized Blackwell’s Island, with its two narrow channels, for two of its four main pillars; reduced the spans to the minimum’ in length, consequently in cheapness; found rock at the surface of the water for all of the piers, and at once insured a bridge of great strength and rare cheapness, factors of so great value in such an undertaking and so little understood, except by engineers. Most of the time between 1867 and 1871 was occupied by Mr. Coleman and the officers of the company in surveying many different routes for the bridge and in finally adopting the present one, and surveying the lands and lots to be taken and giving the necessary legal notices. A few thousand dollars were subscribed in small sums and appropriated, anti Mr. Coleman expended a still larger sum from his private means. The enterprise was evidently languishing because it was said "to be in the hands of the politicians." They had, no doubt, intended to bond the counties of New York and Queens, and perhaps Suffolk; and the people, considering it a public interest, neglected or discouraged private subscription to the stock. About this time, 1871, the Legislature granted another charter, for similar purposes, to the "New York and Queens County Bridge Company," among whose corporators was Colonel R.M.C. Graham, since then, and still secretary of the New York and Long Island Bridge Company. The new company held one or two meetings and elected officers, but in the same year virtually disbanded, holding no further meetings, performing none of the acts required by its enacting law, and thus lapsing by~ limitation. During this time Mr. Graham obtained from Mr. Genet and his friends all of their right and title to the New York and Long Island Bridge Company’s charter; and Mr. Coleman having died, sought new parties, and reorganized the company On a purely commercial basis. Among these gentlemen were : Messrs. William Steinway, John T. Conover, Archibald M., Bliss, R.M.C. Graham, H.C. Poppenheusen, O. Zollikoffer, Pliny Freeman, Oswald Ottendorfer, Ed. J. Woolsey, Gotlob Gunther, Charles A. Trowbridge, Hermann Funcke, Edward Einstein, Abraham D. Ditmars, Willy Wallach, C. Godfrey Gunther, Charles F. Tretbar, Charles H. Rogers, John C. Jackson and Henry G. Schmidt. Later, in 1876, Thomas Rainey became a stockholder and was elected to the direction. The board elected consisted of the twenty- one of these gentlemen who obtained an amendment to the charter conferring additional powers for obtaining right of way and extending the time for the commencement of work from April 16th 1871 to June 1st 1879. William Steinway was elected to the presidency of the company and a general plan of action was adopted; but little actual progress was made up to 1873, when the great commercial crisis of that year supervened, prostrating nearly every such enterprise of the country, and creating the universal distrust that smothered industry up to 1880. Notwithstanding this disheartening depression the new company made a move, toward the end of 1874, and appointed a commission of engineers, consisting of General J.G. Barnard, General Quincy A. Gilmore and Oliver Chanute, empowered to formulate the necessary engineering rules and data, and invite plans and proposals from the best talent of the country among engineers and bridge builders; and to this end offer three prizes, for the best plans, of $1,000, $500, and $250. The committee’s circular presented an excellent norma of engineering for a very strong and first- class bridge structure. From twelve to fifteen designs were presented in 1875 and 1876; some of unquestionable merit, and others less meritorious or wholly unadapted to the situation. The committee considered these designs during 1876 and 1877, and finally in 1877 presented their report, recommending certain features of these plans, but none as decidedly superior to all others. At a special session of the board, and upon the pressing advocacy of Mr. Chanute, but not on the real merits involved, the plan of Mr. McDonald (an excellent plan for certain localities) was adopted for the first prize; that of Captain Eads for the second prize, and that of Mr. Flaad for the third. The only director taking actual issue was Dr. Rainey, who maintained that any suspension, and especially the trussed cable system of a London engineer, presented by Mr. Morris, was better than any Cantilever, or other bridge cut in two in the middle; that so long and high a bridge should be under the control of a cable in some form; and that this ingeniously designed but ugly Cantilever was the most untried and experimental of all the plans presented. An able and exhaustive report had been presented to the board in 1875 by Charles Bender; and Mr. Harding, besides resurveying the whole route and verifying the work of Mr. Coleman, collated a large number of plans and presented them in elaborate detail to the company before the board of engineers was constituted. After this report of the board of engineers was adopted the company paid all of the salaries and prizes; and finding no one disposed to embark in the undertaking made no further effort; but closed its office, stored its records, and awaited the opportunities of the future. Mr. Steinway, having lost a brother, being disheartened at the indifference of those in interest, and compelled to give his whole attention to his private business, proposed to Dr. Thomas Rainey, whose tastes and attainments led him in that direction, that if he would take the bridge interest in hand he would give him his entire support- a promise kept to the letter. With similar assurances from other members of the board he was elected to the presidency of the board in November 1877, again in 1879, and again in 1880; serving three years, and devoting 1879 and 1880 entirely to the interests of the company. During this time he vainly sought to interest Mr. Vanderbilt, Messrs. Drexel, Morgan & Co., of the Long Island Railroads, and the various parties to the elevated railroad system. Mr. Vanderbilt thought it a good enterprise, but had enough, was "run to death," and wished rather to curtail than extend his business. Messrs. Drexel, Morgan & Co. also thought well of it and considered it indispensible to the Long Island railroad system- in fact that without it these roads would never properly develop or prosper; but said they were not railroad men, and wished to sell and realize on their investment. The elevated railroad men said that they had enough to do in New York, although everybody else sees that the splendidly built Second avenue line is a complete failure without this bridge, and a singularly good investment with it. While exhausting one by one these sources of capital, Dr. Rainey pursued a fixed purpose to interest with him the great bridge building firm of Clarke, Reeves & Co., of Phoenixville, Pa.; and at the same time make careful estimates by the engineers of this house of several of the different plans proposed, and especially of that presented by Mr. Morris and the plan of Mr. Fidler, of London. During the examination a new plan was suggested by Messrs. Clarke & Bonzano, at the suggestion, it is said, of Mr. Shreve, which was evidently superior to all others, and which was consequently adopted. To enable Dr. Rainey to enlist the hearty co-operation of Clarke, Reeves & Co. be proposed to the board his resignation from the presidency, and a contract with the company for furnishing right of way and building a first- class double track railway, carriage and walkway iron bridge, and receiving payment for the same in the total securities of the company. This contract was realized on the 3d of December 1880, Charles A. Trowbridge having been elected to the presidency; and the detailed contract contemplated, with Clarke, Reeves &, Co., was made on the 25th of March 1881. Dr. Rainey commenced work on the following day, on the Ravenswood pier, and he has now completed a large and expensive coffer- dam in the East River, within which he is building the first pier; a work of great difficulty in view of the very rapid currents, and the near passage of many large steamers. The charter of the company would have expired on the 20th of June 1879; but owing to Dr. Rainey’s assiduous efforts it was amended by the Legislature in 1879 and the time extended to the 1st day of June 1885. Dr. Rainey improved the occasion of this amendment to have section 10 repealed, which gave to Queens and New York counties the right to purchase the bridge when completed; and the section so amended that the height of the bridge, at the middle of each channel of the East River, should be at least 150 feet above average mean tide- a change necessary to shinning and which neutralized the opposition of those who had so long and bitterly antagonized the Brooklyn bridge. This amendment further required that work should be commenced on or before the 1st day of June 1881. An attempt was made in the spring of 1880 to abridge this time for commencing, but the spirit of fairness and good sense in the Legislature discountenanced the move against a body of men who had spent their own money only, and labored sedulously, not to speculate and sell their charter, but to unselfishly enlist capital in the undertaking. So far is this true that none of the corporators receive any pecuniary benefit whatsoever from the transfer of their property, except such as accrues from the stock and bonds which they have purchased; discharging thus a high public trust in an honorable and praiseworthy manner. Dr. Rainey has secured the co- operation of first-class citizens, and has pledges of $1,600,000 of his stock. He is unwilling, however, as the responsible financial head of the enterprise, to prosecute work on a large scale, or employ this amount of the money of his friends, until another million dollars is secured, which, with his bonds, will enable him to realize the work without risking the million and a half named; a precaution to which no reasonable person can object. He estimates that the revenue from this bridge, with the lowest and most encouraging tolls, will be, above all expenses, more than $2,000 per day, which will’ pay six per cent. each on $6,000,000 of stocks and $6,000,000 of bonds. The St. Louis bridge, with several competitors along the Mississippi, with a city much smaller than Brooklyn at one end and nothing at the other, with a very short and rich ferry in active opposition, takes in considerably more than $2,000 per day*; so that if the Ravens-wood bridge can be actually built for $6,000,000, of which there is not room for a doubt, even at only $2,000 per day receipts it becomes an excellent and safe investment, and as such eminently merits the special attention of Queens county, of which it is by far the greatest and most vital public interest. Of course it strikes the unprofessional thinker as strange that this bridge should cost only six millions while the Brooklyn bridge, only three-fifths as long, will cost probably fifteen or sixteen millions, and the St. Louis bridge cost nearly fifteen millions. In explanation Dr. Rainey says: "Our four piers are placed on rock at or near the surface of the water. Were it necessary to sink our foundations by caisson as deeply as those of the Brooklyn and St. Louis bridges, they would cost us at least $6,000,000 more. Then our two spans (of 734 feet and 618 feet, aggregating only 1,352 feet) leave the total spans just 244 feet shorter than that of the Brooklyn bridge. Now, the division of these 1,352 feet into the two short spans makes the proportionate cost per foot much smaller than if they were longer, according to a well- known law, that if short spans are doubled in length their cost will increase not as the double, but more nearly as the squares of the length; at the same time that when long spans are doubled, as our two into nearly the one at Brooklyn, the cost increases at a much higher ratio, somewhere between the squares and the cubes. We thus save in our two short spans at least $3,000,000 over the cost of the Brooklyn bridge. Again, our land will cost $1,000,000 less, making the total $10,000,000 less than the Brooklyn or the St. Louis bridge; each of which is only three- fifths as long as ours. Thus favored by nature we can accomplish with six what cost each of them fifteen millions of dollars; a fact that shows the superior paying capacity of our enterprise as compared with other bridges of similar magnitude and importance." In this connection we may appropriately introduce a biographical sketch of the gentleman who is conducting this great enterprise.THOMAS RAINEY.
Thomas Rainey, of Ravenswood, was born December 9th 1824, at Yanceyville, Caswell county, North Carolina; his ancestral families being Rennie, Hunter, Murray and Hendrick, Mrs. Hendrick, who was Ruth Murray, having lived to the age of 103 ½. He was educated at the Classical Academy of that place, up to 1842, when he went to the western part of Missouri. He taught for two years, pursuing scientific studies and medicine. He abandoned medicine, without graduating, in 1845-6, and commenced 1ec~firing on mathematics, a favorite pursuit, which he continued for five years. In 1849 he published at Cincinnati a large work on Arithmetic by Cancellation, Geometry, etc., with a large amount of engineering data, which was stereotyped and sold very largely in the west. He then became interested in popular education, and edited and published the Western Review for two years. In 1850 he was elected secretary of "The American Association for the Advancement of Science," at New Haven, Professor Agassiz being then elected its president. In 1851 the national Whig committee got him to establish a campaign organ for the State of Ohio, the Daily Republican, which closed with the Scott campaign. He came to New York in 1852, and in 1853 the consulate of Bolivia was established for him, at the request of Bache, Maury and others, for purposes of scientific inquiry in that country, and he was appointed and confirmed by the Senate; but the clamor of the party organs caused him to resign in 1854, when he went to the Amazon and remained one and a half years. He made several trips to and from Brazil in 1874, 1875 and 1876 and endeavored to establish steam communication with Brazil, which he abandoned only after the crisis of 1857, although he had a unanimously favorable joint Senate and House report on the 1st of March 1857 for $240,000 annually for ten years. In 1857 he went to Europe in quest of material for his work Ocean Steam Navigation and the Ocean Post (Appletons, New York, and Trubner, London; see Allibone’s Dictionary of. Authors) and while awaiting the renaissance of industry went in 1858 on the frigate "Niagara" to Liberia as special diplomatic agent of the United States, and among other things urged on our government placing steam cruisers on the coast in place of the useless sailing vessels, and a vigorous suppression of the slave trade. While in Europe in 1857 he was nominated and confirmed by the Senate secretary of legation to Brazil. Declining this he was renominated in the same year; declined again, and was offered the mission to Portugal by Mr. Buchanan, which he also declined. In 1859 Dr. Rainey went again to Brazil, and established the great American ferry running from Rio de Janiero to Nictherohy, Sao Domingos, Santa Anna and Paqueta; building twelve steamers and large permanent works in the Open Bay. He did all of his own engineering, both hydraulic and marine, for which his previous con amore studies had well fitted him. He returned to this country in 1874, still retaining his interests in Brazil, and in 1875 married Miss Grace Priscilla Ogden, daughter of the elder. Samuel Governeur Ogden, so well known to old New Yorkers. Dr. Rainey, or Mr. Rainey, as he prefers being called, became a member of the board of the New York and Long Island Bridge Company in 1876; was elected president in November 1877, again in 1878 and again in 1879. During the latter year he became very active in its affairs; and, devoting his whole time to the enterprise, has attained the results noticed in the preceding article. He is a persuasive and effective public speaker, a strong and earnest writer, and a man of generous impulses and ceaseless energy.MANUFACTURING.
Long Island City is the center of large manufacturing industries; and with its almost unequaled advantages for the promotion of trade it has a certain prospect of rapid development and increasing prosperity. The city covers an extensive area and presents some of the most eligible building sites to be found in the State of New York. With the East River flowing by its side and several ferry boats regularly crossing it is accessible to every part of New York, while the street cars as readily connect it with Brooklyn; and by several lines of railway it has direct and speedy communication with all parts of Long Island.THE GREAT OIL ENTERPRISES.
The present business activity of the city is due in a large measure to the presence and operations in its midst of the Empire and Standard oil works, which there carry on, on a gigantic scale, all of the various processes of refinement of petroleum. These works have been in operation about ten years, during which time the proprietors have been gradually improving their premises and extending their accommodations. An idea of the extent and importance of these works may be gained from the following condensed extracts from an article published in The Bulletin (a New York trade journal) in November 1880: Both the Standard and the Empire oil works are situated on the East River, in close proximity to New York, and with every convenience for loading and unloading ships. The Empire works are bounded by Nott and Vernon avenues and West and Division streets. An area of twelve acres is covered by these works, which have a clear water frontage of over a quarter of a mile. In these works are as many as fifty tanks, with a capacity of at least 10,000,000 gallons; while the capacity for turning out crude oil amounts to the enormous average of 16,000 barrels per week. From 400 to 500 hands are employed in the different departments, and so thoroughly is the business systematized and arranged that all the separate interests are kept distinct, and yet perfectly united. The pay- roll of the works amounts to the handsome sum of $200,000 per year; and as an illustration of the vast expense incurred in carrying on such an extensive industry it is almost enough to say that in the item of coal alone as much as 200 tons are consumed weekly. The crude petroleum which is used in these works is conveyed from the oil regions of Pennsylvania in tank cars to the city of New York. It is then pumped by means of large force pumps through pipes, which are sunk under the East River, directly into a number of large tanks at the works. These pipes commence at the oil terminus station of the Hudson River Railroad at Sixty- fifth street, run through Sixty- fifth street to Eighth avenue, thence through the sunken road through Central Park to Fifth avenue and Sixty- fifth street, thence across the city to the East River at Sixty- third street, thence across the west branch of the East River, thence through the grounds of Blackwell’s Island about one mile, thence across the east branch of the East River, thence across the canal between the Empire and Standard works, thence through the streets of Hunter’s Point and across Newtown Creek, and thence through Newtown, connecting with several other refineries. These pipes have been in constant use for several years. The capacity of some of the tanks is not less than 1,500,000 gallons. From them the oil is pumped into stills, where it is evaporated and manufactured into all the different grades of petroleum. These vary from the regular 110 degrees burning test oil, which is manufactured expressly for export, up to the first quality of illuminating oils. The process of distillation and refinement is one of peculiar delicacy, requiring the minutest care and a perfect chemical or scientific knowledge and arrangement. In the Standard works there are in like manner all the various processes carried on which are necessary, from the first reception of the crude petroleum in the pipes laid under the East River to its final exportation to distant lands. More than 400 hands are employed in the works, and an average of $200,000 is paid away in wages every year. This vast sum is exclusive of the other large, expenses in coal, wood, machinery, etc., all of which show what an enormous capital is required, and of what essential advantage such works may be to the city in which they are located. The authorities of the Standard, like those of the Empire works, are anxious that nothing should be left undone that might contribute to the success of their enterprise, to the comfort of their employes and to the local interests of the city; hence their yard, their buildings, their offices, their tanks, etc., are, all designed and constructed with a view to commodiousness, safety and durability; and thus they entitle themselves to public confidence and respect. The proprietors of these great works are fastidiously anxious that nothing that may be detrimental to health and comfort should be carried on there. They have requently tried new experiments; they have adopted new designs; they have employed new agents; they have expended large sums of money; and if scientific skill or practical knowledge or even supercilious criticism can suggest any expedient that may prove more practical and efficacious they would not hesitate to try it, regardless of expense and labor.THE STEINWAY ENTERPRISES.
In 1870 and 1871 Steinway & Sons bought several adjoining plots of ground at Astoria, comprising about 400 acres, over a mile long, and having a water frontage on the East River of more than half a mile, opposite One Hundredth street to One Hundred and Twentieth street, New York city. The property is but four miles from their New York manufactory (which occupies a whole block on Fourth and Lexington avenue, Fifty- second to Fifty-third street), six miles from the City Hall, New York, and but two and one- half miles from the Central Park, New York. In 1872 improvements were begun by the erection of a steam saw- mill, iron and brass foundries, boiler and engine houses, and a large building for the drilling, finishing and japanning of the full iron frames and other metal portions used in the construction of the Steinway pianofortes, which are manufactured, under the sole and special supervision of the firm, instead of being bought, ready made, of outside parties, as by other piano makers. Each of these new buildings is three stories high, and all are constructed in the most permanent and substantial manner, of brick and stone. They are located between the canal and the west side of Blackwell street, forming a hollow square, with a frontage of 312 feet and a depth of 200 feet. The water front, on the canal, is occupied by a substantially constructed dock and bulkhead, 384 feet in length; also inclosing a basin, 100 feet wide by 300 feet in length, which is constantly stocked with millions of feet of logs, designed for sawing into required thicknesses for manufacturing purposes. At the saw- mill all the lumber, rosewood and various other kinds of wood used in the construction of a Steinway piano, is sawed under the personal supervision of a member of the firm, and every faulty portion immediately cast aside. The iron foundry is specially built for the casting of full metal frames for pianofortes. Only the choices brands of metal and coal are used, and after lengthy and costly experiments Steinway & Sons have succeeded ii producing metal closely resembling cast- steel, of fully double the strength of ordinary cast-iron, and yet of comparative lightness. These qualities produce in the Steinway piano an increase of vibratory power; and the advantage of remaining longer, better and more firmly in tune than any other instrument produced. In 1873 Steinway avenue (a thoroughfare running parallel with the East River, through the center of the Steinway property, upward of 6,000 feet, and through Long Island City for over four miles), and several other streets were improved, graded and macadamized, sidewalks were laid, and beautiful shade trees were set out by Messrs. Steinway & Sons; the avenue is undergoing completion throughout Long Island City, simultaneously with the erection of factory buildings and the grading and sewering of the streets. Buildings, mostly of brick, were erected by Messrs. Steinway and others, all neat and substantial dwellings and stores, each house being supplied with pure water from the Long Island City water works; and in addition to this great convenience, the Messrs. Steinway have completed a most perfect sewerage, according to the admirable plan of Long Island City. There are now (1881) 130 dwel1ing- houses, with a population of over 1,200 at Steinway; the population is rapidly increasing, and buildings are being erected constantly in various parts of the village, including a number of pretty and substantial villas, located on the high ground in the easterly part of the village, and affording a fine view of the East River. The post- office department at Washington has just established a post- office in the village, under the name of "Steinway," Queens county, N.Y., which is located on Steinway avenue, corner of Bowery Bay road.
THE WILLIAMS VENEER- MILLS.
VARNISH AND PAINT MANUFACTORIES.
The firm of Edward Smith & Co. is claimed to be the oldest and certainly is one of the largest and most favorably known concerns engaged in the manufacture of varnish in the United States. The original firm, from which the present one descended in a direct line, was established in 1827, the title then being P.B. Smith & Co.; the office and salesroom was at 202 Bowery, New York, and the manufactory in the open air beneath the apple trees that grew in the famous "old orchard" at what is now the corner of First avenue and Sixth street. In 1844 P.B. Smith retired and the firm name was changed to Smith, Stratton & Co., under which title the business was continued until 1851, and at the death of Nathan Smith the firm became Smith & Stratton. In 1859 Mr. Stratton died and Edward Smith, the senior partner of the original firm, conducted the business, with the assistance of John A. Elmendorf, who has acted in the capacity of general manager of the business since 1853. Again the firm name was changed to Smith & Elmendorf. We find no record of any individual or firm having been engaged in the manufacture of varnish in this country prior to the establishment of the firm of P.B. Smith & Co. in 1827; although some coach painters had made experimental lots of a gallon or so for their own use, and some of their earliest production may have been sold to other parties. Mr. Smith’s early experiments were the first to achieve such success as to warrant the investment of capital and the establishment of the varnish manufacture as a business. The inflammable and combustible qualities of the materials used in those days, and the crude and imperfect appliances for manufacture- entirely devoid of all the modern safeguards against explosion and fire- rendered the manufacture of varnish in a building so unsafe that it saw deemed best not to attempt it under cover; consequently the first varnishes were all made in the open air and at the risk of life and limb. Within a few years the "old orchard" began to be improved. Streets and avenues were soon laid out and buildings of various kinds erected and occupied, but the tenants were greatly alarmed at their constant danger from fire and explosion; and soon complaints were made to the city authorities, and the firm was compelled to move its works to another locality. The first varnish, factory ever built in America was then erected by the firm at Astoria, but they were not permitted to remain there long; for as New York grew in population so did Astoria, and the inhabitants began to make complaints of the dangerous establishment. In 1856 the firm bought lots and built the first factory building on Hunter’s Point, and there the factories of the, firm still remain. Other manufactories pursuing equally dangerous occupations, or such as are generally deemed to be such, followed their lead in this great enterprise, and since the Smith varnish works were built millions of dollars have been expended in building on the Point. It is probable that to- day as many hazardous manufactories are centered there as at any other place in this country. The hazard of the business (though it made several changes in location of its works necessary) and the high wages demanded by the men employed have greatly increased the cost of the production of varnish; but this was not the only difficulty the firm had to encounter. These fathers of varnish manufacture in the United States not only had the old famous brands of England and France to compete with, but they met with a stronger foe in the distrust with which their products were received. Gradually, however, their business increased, and in a short time the consumers pronounced Smith’s varnishes to be "equal to imported varnishes of like grades. From a small foundation an immense business has been built up, involving the investment of large capital and giving employment to hundreds of men. The firm has never been content to rest upon past success; it has always been and is now full of life. The business is under the management of Mr. Elmendorf who is continually striving for better results than have been attained heretofore. To the practical skill gained in many ‘years’ experience as manufacturers the makers have added whatever knowledge they could gain from outside scientific researches. Much time and capital have been expended by the firm in expensive experiments relating to combinations of materials and different processes of manufacture, and every improvement has been made in mechanical appliances that would in any way conduce to a reduction of the cost of its productions. Since the death of Edward Smith, which occurred in 1878, Professors C. Huntington and Alexander Maitland have become members of the firm which is now composed of Chester Huntington, John A. Elmendorf and Alexander Maitland. The works have lately been renovated and supplied with a new engine of more power, which enables the firm to manufacture the finest quality of coach color as well as varnish. The office and salesroom of this firm is at 158 William street, New York. James McGuiness, varnish manufacturer on West avenue between Fourth and Fifth streets, had previously been engaged in the manufacture of varnish at Gowanus, Kings county, and in 1859 came to Hunter’s Point, where he erected his factory in 1859 and 1860. He has done a somewhat extensive business, manufacturing for firms supplying the trade with varnishes under their own trademarks. Meyer, Lowenstein & Co. and E. Calman & Co. are also extensive manufacturers of varnishes at Hunter’s Point. The New York office of the first- mentioned firm is at 80 Beekman street, and that of the latter at 299 Pearl street. Pratt & Lambert, manufacturers of coach, car and house varnishes, baking Japans and Pratt’s liquid dryers, are among the most prominent manufacturers of Long Island City, and their goods command an extensive sale, and are so widely and so favorably known as to require no commendation in this connection. They manufacture a number of specialties, among which are Pratt’s patent liquid dryer for drying paints and oils, and also a marine paint for the bottoms of ships. The quality of this paint is such that nothing belonging to the vegetable or animal kingdom can adhere to it. These gentlemen are successors to the old firm of A.W. Pratt and A.W. Pratt & Co. The house now consists of A.W. Pratt, H.S. Lambert and Charles Pratt, the latter a special partner. A.W. Pratt has manufactured varnish since 1853. The rapid growth of the enterprise has necessitated the enlargement of the works three times, and the firm determined on doubling their capacity during the summer of 1881. The large trade and the eminence this firm have gained are due to two things, viz, the equality of their goods, and personal attention to their business. They employ the most skilled workmen and best materials. The business office of the firm is at 110 John street, New York city. George Hopper In 1881 established, the Long Island Paint and Color Works, which are located on the corner of Tenth street and West avenue, Astoria. Eight men are daily employed in these works and are able to turn out 500 tons of paint per day. Different grades of paint are manufactured. Oil refined paint is a specialty.FOUNDRIES AND MACHINE SHOPS.
Long Island Iron Works are the outgrowth of an enterprise established about sixteen years ago by Robert O’Hara at the foot of Seventh street, and conducted on a small scale some eleven years in a shop 25 by 50 feet, which was destroyed by fire. A new shop of the same size was immediately erected on the old site. About a year later an addition 25 by 50 feet was made to the shop and the hand- power tools were replaced by machinery driven by steam. About 1878 the business facilities were doubled by the erection of another shop building, 50 by 100 feet, in which was put more new machinery. John W. Rowland, who had for some years been Mr. O’Hara’s business manager, and to whose tact the growth of the enterprise was in no small degree due, became a partner in the concern in February 1880, the firm being known as O’Hara & Rowland till the following October, when Mr. Rowland, by the purchase of Mr. O’Hara’s interest, became sole proprietor, Mr. O’Hara retiring from business. In November 1880 ground was purchased at the foot of Sixth street, where the buildings occupied by the Long Island Iron Works were erected. After the business had been removed from the old shops they were almost entirely torn down. Under the ownership and management of Mr. Rowland the business is signally prosperous. Land and marine steam boilers- of every description are manufactured, also tanks, stills, pans, vats, filters, gasometers, retorts, sugar pans, hop- jacks, single and double bottom iron mash tubs, iron surface coolers, steep tanks for malt houses, iron beer kettles, acid blowers, vapor pipes, varnish and tar kettles, condensers, settling pans, smoke pipes, agitators, lard kettles, mixers, vacuum, upright and horizontal oil and tar stills, and all other iron works for fertilizers, saleratus and varnish factories, chemical works, gas houses, oil and sugar refiners, brewers, maltsters and every manufacturing business. Patterns, castings and fittings of all kinds are made and repairs of all kinds are promptly attended to. Mr. Rowland is a practical engineer and machinist. The New York office of the Long Island Iron Works is located at 150 Nassau street; the works at the foot of Sixth street, Long Island City. Long Island City Foundry Sixth street and West avenue; Joseph McGee is proprietor. Heavy and light castings of every description are manufactured, and machine and pattern- work is done. The business was es.tablished in 1863, by George Kniffen, who was succeeded by Thomas Cassidy about seven years later. In 1874 Mr. McGee bought the foundry, and he has since owned it, and conducted the enterprise with such success that an annual business averaging about $75,000 is done, giving employment to about thirty men. Edward W. Howell, machinist and engineer and manufacturer of marine, stationary and hoisting engines, and mill and mining machinery, on Sixth street, between Vernon and West avenues, came to Long Island City from Nova Scotia in the fall of 1879. In February 1880 be established his present business, which has gradually increased until it ranks among the foremost of similar enterprises in the city, giving employment to from six to twelve hands at various seasons. Among enterprises similar to the above may be mentioned the shops of the Long Island Railroad Company and some smaller establishments doing a limited business in various parts of the city.THE PRESTON FERTILIZER COMPANY.
The principal office of the Preston Fertilizer Company is at Greenpoint. The officers of the company are: Edward Preston, president; Henry Preston, superintendent of the factory at Point Comfort, N.J.; Edward Preston superintendent of transportation; Alfred I. Preston, superintendent of the factory at Blissville. The business to which the proprietors of this house are the successor was founded by Henry Preston in 1843, he being chief among the pioneers who established the industry in the United States. The factory he started, with a monthly product of ten tons, has had its yield gradually increased to 1,000 and more. Ripe in years, Henry Preston died in 1878. His eldest sons, Thomas J. and Henry Preston jr., were his surviving partners in the late well known firm of H. Preston & Sons. The three other sons, Alfred I., Edward and Charles W. Preston, were made executors of their father’s will and legatees of his half in the business. The five sons subsequently associated themselves with their father’s old friend Charles Harriman, in the formation of a corporation under the general manufacturing laws of New York, the six being the only stockholders, the capital being ample, all paid up in cash, with abundant resources at command to extend the manufacturing facilities indefinitely. The firm manufactures ammoniated bone super- phosphate, ground bone or bone dust, bone- sawings or sawdust, acid- phosphate or super- phosphate (not ammoniated), dissolved bone, dried fish guano, coarse, fine and pulverized bone black, calcined bone and bone knife- handles. The principal factory is at Blissville. Here bone- boiling, bone- sawing for knife- handles which are furnished to cutlery establishments, calcining bones and manufacturing bone- black, and the grinding, mixing and chemical processes are carried on in extensive buildings, affording employment to a large force of men. Here the company has abundant docking facilities, and, employs its own propellers. The bone- black made here is extensively employed in sugar refining and the manufacture of blacking and for various chemical purposes. The Blissville factory was established by George Moller. It passed into the hands of H. Preston & Sons in 1861. The works have since been enlarged. At Point Comfort, on the New Jersey shore, the company has recently built another extensive factory, also a long dock, and there also is the company’s fish factory.ELEGANT CABINET WORK.
Gust. Autenreith, manufacturer of plain and fancy cabinets, cases and general woodwork, Vernon avenue and First street, has been for thirty years in business as a manufacturer, removing from New York to Hunter’s Point in May 1867, when he purchased his shop, locally known as the "glass- house," tore down a portion of it and erected substantial shops contiguous to it. He early was extensively engaged in manufacturing sewing machine cases, making the first ones used by the Singer company and continuing to manufacture for that well- known firm until its business was removed to the west. Mr. Autenreith is now making cases for silks, threads, needles, clocks and regulators, and other varieties of light and fine cabinet work. The manufacture of refrigerators was for years a leading department of his general business. He has never had partners in his business in the usual sense of the word, but from time to time has had others associated with him in the manufacture of certain specialties. The property of Mr. Autenreith occupies over two acres of ground and has a water front of 1,265 feet, now all occupied, a portion by Robertson’s saw- mill, built in 1880, the rest by the New York Cedar Ware Company; The dock on which these enterprises are located was built about two years ago, at which time Mr. Autenreith graded up the low ground between his factory and the river, and generally improved the locality for manufacturing uses. C.B. French, successor to C.H. Lambkin & Company, manufacturer of telephone cabinet work, pen, pencil, needle and medicine cases and all kinds of cabinet work, at 46 and 48 West avenue, began business March 1st 1879 at the corner of First street and Vernon avenue, as a member of the firm above mentioned. Mr. Lambkin withdrew from the enterprise January 1st 1881, and Mr. French, who had all along been the active and practical manager, became sole proprietor. The business was established on a small scale, but grew slowly until January 1881. Since that date, under Mr. French’s sole management, its growth has been very rapid. The business during 1881 averaged $10,000 per month or more. About thirty- five men were employed. A specialty is made of wood mountings for telephones. Large numbers of cases for Clark’s O.N.T. Thread company and for Milward’s needles are manufactured; also cases for Brown’s soaps.CANNERS OF FRUIT AND VEGETABLES.
John Romain began the business of canning fruit and vegetables at Hunter’s Point about eighteen years ago. He removed to his present location at Dutch Kills about twelve years ago. The establishment is one of the most complete of its kind and is supplied with the best machinery and appliances. Mr. Romain puts up about 1,000,000 cans of fruit annually and employs some 85 hands. The factory is under the supervision of Edward King, who has had an experience of about twenty- two years in the business. It is probable that Mr. Romain leads all other manufacturers in the amount of tomatoes and asparagus which he places on the market. Pryer Brothers In 1869 W.H. Pryer began the manufacture of pickles, vinegar and catsup at Bowery Bay, and he did a small business until 1873, when he removed to Astoria. At this time the firm of Pryer Brothers was formed, M. Pryer purchasing an interest in the business. Ground was leased on Mills street, south of the Ninety- second street ferry, and a factory built thereon. In the summer of 1880 the firm removed their business to a building they had erected on land which they had purchased, lying on the same street, north of the ferry. An idea o the extent to which the manufacturing facilities of this firm have been increased may be gained from the fact that at the beginning only two bushels of pickles could be made at a time, while the present capacity of the factory is twenty- five barrels. The business has all along been very prosperous and is now being largely, increased. Erie Preserving Company incorporated and organized in 1873, with a capital of $25,000, which was increased to $50,000 in 1876, and at a later date to $ 100,000. The company has large packing houses at Ravenswood and at Buffalo, Brandt and Farnam, Erie county, that at Ravenswood being very large. At each of the four central depots a can- manufacturing department is maintained, employing from 75 to 80 hands. In preserving apples the company claims to have distinguished itself more than any other similar concern. All the large fruits are preserved at these various establishments, such as peaches, pears, quinces and pineapples, and also cherries, all kinds of berries, pumpkins, squashes, etc. Jams, jellies, preserves, marmalades and fruit butters are manufactured, of assorted varieties and flavors- and put up in attractive packages. The officers of the company are: Benjamin Fenton, president; W.W. Hammond, vice- president; James Fenton, secretary and manager of the Buffalo house; S. Fenton jr., assistant treasurer, New York. Hudson & Co., packers of canned goods, factories at the corner of West avenue and Third street, Long Island City, and at Locust Valley, Long Island, are prominent manufacturers. The members of the firm are W.H. Hudson, William Bridge and John Gregory. They began operations in the spring of 1878. The enterprise is under the personal supervision of Mr. Hudson, who has had twenty- five years experience in the canning business. All kinds of fruit and vegetables in their seasons are packed; also meats and poultry during the winter season, for the European markets. Among the well known vegetable specialties of this firm, popular with the trade, are their "Oyster Bay Asparagus," "Long Island Tomatoes," and "Locust Valley Sweet Corn." The establishment is supplied with the best machinery, and in one department the numerous cans used are manufactured. From fifty to seventy- five hands are employed during the packing season. The products of the factory are sold principally to wholesale dealers in New York, Boston and Philadelphia and find a ready sale. The business has grown with great rapidity. In 1880 it amounted to $75,000 or $80,000 and promised to be much larger in 1881.OIL- CLOTHS- DYEING.
The Hyde Manufacturing Company began business in East Newark, N.J, as manufacturers of oil- cloth in 1876. Their factory was burned in 1878 and they removed their business to Astoria, occupying the shops vacated by John McAloney as a carpet factory. A large and constantly increasing business has been done here. It now (1881) aggregates about $100,000 annually. It is expected that it will be largely increased, if not doubled, during the coming year. The establishment is under the supervision of Louis Frey, superintendent, who has had an experience of thirty years in the manufacture of oilcloth. Three thousand yards a day can be turned out. The varieties include those known to the trade as "table," "enameled," and "star" oil- cloth. Five good sized buildings, besides several small ones, are occupied, and about 17,000 square feet of flooring are brought into requisition. In the spring of 1881 the Hyde Manufacturing Company was succeeded by E.P. Tappey, who had been the junior partner in the concern. King & Ingram, dyers and dealers in cotton yarn, for the trade, began business in 1872, at the corner of Broadway and Van Alst avenue, making extensive additions to the old factory buildings, which had fallen into their hands. The establishment is fitted up with the best and most modern appliances for carrying on the business, and twelve men are employed. The aggregate of the business of this firm in 1880 was $60,000.VARIOUS CHEMICAL MANUFACTORIES.
E.W. Abendroth, whose factory is at Blissville, is one of the three manufacturers of tartaric acid in the United States. The raw material for this staple drug is known as "argols," and is imported from France. The other factories are in Philadelphia and Brooklyn respectively. That of Mr. Abendroth is the newest and most completely fitted up of the three. Much of the machinery in it was imported from Germany, where tartaric acid is manufactured in considerable quantities. Mr. Abendroth has an office at 28 Cliff street, New York. Standard Chemical Company, manufacturing chemists, is chartered under the laws of the State, and was organized in 1876 or thereabout. The factory is in Long Island City; the general office at 14 Pearl street, New York. There have been and still are other establishments in the city where chemicals of different kinds are manufactured. Some of them are small and have been in operation only a limited time. More definite information concerning them could not be obtained.POTTERY AND DRAIN PIPE.
Long Island City Pottery is at the foot of sixth street. Drain, sewer and, water pipes and chimney tops are manufactured. The business was established in April 1865, by John Smith, who was the sole proprietor and manager until his death, June 25th 1878. The business then passed into the management of John Smith jr., who died November 3oth 1880. It has since been carried on by his widow, under the personal management of E.S. Kelly, who has been employed about the establishment for the past seven years. Quite an extensive business is done, the pipe from this pottery being sold throughout the State of New York, Twelve hands are employed. Hunter’s Point Pottery established by Joseph Newbrand, the present proprietor, in 1874. Enameled earthen and stone ware, fancy flower pots for garden and apparatus for chemical purposes were formerly manufactured. Since January 1880 chemical apparatus had been made exclusively. Three hands are employed. The factory is located at the foot of West Sixth street. F. Ibert pottery business established on West Sixth street, in April 1880. In July following it was removed to near Central avenue and Eighth street. He makes white-lined pipkins for the trade. This business, like others of a similar character in Long Island is small.MARINE RAILWAYS.
Marine Railway of Long Island City was built in 1855, by the Marine Railway Company of Hunter’s Point, of which William Tyson was president. At the incorporation of Long Island City the name of the company was changed to the Marine Railway Company of Long Island City. In 1867 Mr. Tyson bought the entire business, of which in 1870 Henry L. Tyson became the active manager. William Tyson died May 22nd 1880, since ‘which time Henry L. Tyson has continued to conduct the business as the representative of the estate of the deceased proprietor. An important business has been done in docking ships for repairs, repainting and general renovation. Van Winkle Marine Railway at Astoria is also well known. Ship- building has been carried on there more or less extensively. The favorable location of Long Island City for such work enables many carpenters who would not otherwise be constantly employed to engage with profit in boat and ship building and repairing.GRAY’S REFRIGERATORS.
A very prominent business and manufacturing enterprise in Long Island City is the "Eureka" refrigerator manufactory of Sylvester Gray, on East Fourth street. The "Eureka" refrigerator has a galvanized wrought- iron bottom and is unquestionably the best made for all practical purposes. Mr. Gray, with many years’ experience in the manufacture of refrigerators, gained in the employ of H.L. Mace & Company, of New York, began business for himself in 1862, successfully putting in operation some original plans and applying some original ideas and devices to the construction of refrigerators. That they were as practical as original is attested by the popularity of the "Eureka." Mr. Gray is strictly in the wholesale line, manufacturing for the trade, and is doing a large and rapidly growing business, the demand for his refrigerators increasing year by year.VAN IDERSTINE’S WORKS- MISCELLANEOUS.
P. Van Iderstine, renderer of tallow and dealer in hides, began business in 1855. The factory is supplied with seven kettles, with a capacity of from 6,000 to 9,000 pounds each, and six presses that will hold 3,200 pounds of fat each. With these facilities 30,000 pounds of fat can be melted daily. The process employed by Mr. Van Iderstine is the most approved one in use, condensing all steam through a jet from the kettles. Eighteen men are employed, and the establishment is under the management of J.M. Thompson, who has been in the business as long as any man in the Union now actively engaged in it. The tallow is sold to the trade, and for the past ten years the scraps from the establishment have been shipped to London. The distillery of Gaff, Fleischman & Co. was established in 1858, by other parties. In 1866 Gaff, Fleischman & Co. purchased it and they have since owned it. The shirt and clothing manufactory of John Appleton at Dutch- Kills is an important and prominent enterprise, in which considerable capital is invested, and which gives employment to quite a number of persons. We have now written more or less at length of every important or representative industrial enterprise in Long Island City of which we, were able, to procure reliable data from, any source. It has not been deemed expedient to cumber our pages with accounts of insignificant manufacturing enterprises such as are to be found in larger or smaller numbers everywhere.ADVANTAGES AND PROSPECTS.
Long Island City occupies a water frontage of about ten miles, four miles off the East River immediately opposite the upper and growing part of the city of New York, three miles on Newtown Creek and three miles on the sound. As a point for manufactures and commerce no location could be more appropriate. It is surrounded by navigable water, on three sides of the parallelogram which it forms, and is penetrated by creeks which afford access by canals and basins into the interior. The improvements made and being made at Hell Gate by the federal government, coupled with the opening of the Harlem River for navigation directly from the Hudson at Spuyten Duyvel Creek, will give to Long Island City peculiar prominence. Outgoing and incoming commerce through Long Island Sound will find there a convenient depot where the grain, can readily be transhipped which will pass down the North River from the canals and directly through the Harlem River without the long circuit around the Battery. Its municipal affairs are in a very favorable condition. Its entire city debt amounts to only about $1,000,000, being an average of less than $50 for each inhabitant, or less than half the proportion of New York, Brooklyn, Poughkeepsie and other cities of the State. This debt of $1,000,000 includes the war debt, and the total expense of water works furnishing an ample supply of pure water derived from wells in the heart of the city and distributed through over thirty miles of pipe. Like all other great cities Long Island City has its "West End." The beautiful village of Astoria included within its limits, filled with elegant dwelling houses and villas, is the place of residence of large numbers of New York’s most prominent business and professional men and retired capitalists. The southerly portion of the city, or that included in the first and second wards, is well calculated for business and manufacturing purposes. It adjoins Brooklyn and is directly opposite Thirty-fourth street, New York; it is the converging point of the network of railways extending over all Long Island, and also of all the horse car lines of Long Island City. Manufacturing facilities, building lots and water front in this section are daily becoming more and more in demand. This part of the city is composed mainly of two large estates- that of the trustees of Union College and the estate of James Thomson, which are being graded and tastefully laid out. From their proximity to New York and Brooklyn and the moderate prices of building lots, large numbers of thrifty people have flocked thither from the overcrowded cities to secure or to build more retired and comfortable homes for their families. Between these two estates, at the junction of the first, second and third wards, and on the line of Jack son avenue, is located the new Queens county court- house, which was built at a cost of $300,000 in 1874. The population of Long Island City is about 20,000; from its location and facilities, it is readily apparent that in the early future it must rank with the large cities of the United States.BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
JOHN C. JACKSON
THE DE BEVOISE FAMILY.
The subjoined account of the family of De Bevoise is extracted from "Riker’s Annals of Newtown." It will be noticed that in the following article the name is spelled Debevoise except in the instance of Carel, who spelled it de Beauvois. The change in orthography from de Beauvois to Debevoise has been followed by other changes in dividing and capitalizing the latter word, so that now different benches of the family write it variously de Bevoise, Debevoise, De Bevoise and De Be Voise, and attention is called to the fact that in sketches of several of the family of the present generation and that only just passed away the writer has adopted the orthography in use by each of the branches thus represented, and in the title of this article that which seems to be the most common. Carel de Beauvois was a highly respectable and well educated French Protestant, who came from Leyden, in Holland. He was of a family whose name and origin were probably derived from the ancient city of Beauvais, on the river Therin, to the northwest of Paris; but there is reason to suppose that he himself was a native of Leyden. He arrived at New Amsterdam in the ship ‘Otter,’ February 17th 1659, accompanied by his wife, Sophia Van Lodensteyn, and three children born to them in Leyden and now aged eight, six, and three years respectively. His literary merits and acquaintance with the Dutch language soon acquired for him the situation of a teacher, and in 1661 he became ‘chorister, reader and schoolmaster’ for the people of Brooklyn, at a salary of twenty- five guilders and free house rent. He afterwards served as public secretary or town clerk, which office he held till 1669. His children were Jacobus first; Gertrude, who married Jacob W. Van Boerum; Catharine, who married Jacob Hendrickse Haste; and Cornelia, who married Gerrit G., Dorland. I. -Jacobus Debevoise, only son of Carel, was born at Leyden." In early manhood he embraced religion and joined the church at Brooklyn of which he was afterward a deacon. He married, June, 12th 1678, Maria daughter of Joost Carelsz, and died in the early part of the next century, his widow surviving him. They had sons Carel second, born 1680; Joost, born 1683; Jacobus, born 1686; and Johannes, born 1689. Jacobus married, in 1715, Sarah, daughter of Joris Remsen, and died on his farm at Bedford, aged about four score. His children were Jacobus (who died in 1751, and whose only daughter, Engeltie, married Isaac Degraw of Brooklyn) and George, who was born in 1720, married Sarah Betts October 18th 1746, and inherited all his father’s estate at Bedford. Joost married, in 1707, Mary, daughter of Joris Remsen; remained a farmer in Brooklyn, and died a few years before the Revolution, in advanced age. He had issue: Jacobus; Phebe, who married John Johnson; Mary, who also married; Anna, who married Johannes W. Wyckoff; Elizabeth, who married Peter Cowenhoven, and Sophia, who married Albert Nostrand. Jacobus inherited his father’s farm at the Wallabout; married in 1736 Maria Garretson, and died prior to the American war. His children were: George; Samuel, who died without issue; Ida, who married Ferdinand Suydam; and Mary, who married Garret Van Duyn. George last named married Elizabeth, daughter of Jeremiah Vanderbilt, and died at the Wallabout in or prior to 1784. Issue: Maria, who married Captain Jackson; Catharine, who married John Van Alst; Phebe, who married Jacob Ryerson; Sarah, who married Jeromus Ryerson and John Cozine; and Ida, who married in succession two persons of the same name, Francis Titus. II. -Carel Debevoise, son of Jacobus 1st, married Margaret Meserole, and became a notary public in Brooklyn, fully sustaining the prominence in civil and church relations which the family enjoyed for a long period in the above town. From 1752 to 1761 he was county judge. He lived on the premises (later)of his great-granddaughter, Mrs. Prince. His sons were : Jan 4th, Jacobus, Carel 3d and Johannes. Jacobus was born in 1709, and resided at Gowanus, where he died in 1766. His first wife was Maria Van Housen, whom he married in 1736; his second was Mary Stillwell, who survived him. He had issue: Charles; Richard; Margaret, who married Charles Doughty of Brooklyn, afterward member of Assembly; Ida, who married John Godfrey Muller of New York; Adriana and Mary. Of these Charles remained at Gowanus and had issue James, Wynant, and others. Johannes was town clerk of Brooklyn, and a somewhat important citizen. He married, June 15th 1749, Hannah, daughter of Thomas Betts of Flatbush, and died November 19th 1792, having had issue : Thomas, Charles, Margaret and Hannah, all of whom died single but Margaret, who married Dr. John Duffield, a surgeon in the American Revolutionary army. They were the parents of Susan Duffield, who married Captain Charles K. Lawrence; Anna, who married Captain Christopher Prince; and Margaret, who married first Captain Archibald Thompson and secondly Samuel A. Willoughby, Esq., of Brooklyn. III. -Carel Debevoise, son of Carel 2nd, married, October 9th 1736, Eve, daughter of Coert Van Voorhees, of Gravesend, and became a farmer in Bushwick on the property now of Charles I. Debevoise, Esq. He died in 1757, and, his widow in 1793, aged 74. His children were: Margaret, born May 9th 1738, who married Pete Colyer; Nelly, born March 16th 1740, married Carel Debevoise; Carel, born February 5th 1742; Maria, born March 21st 1744, married John Devoe; Anna, born June 26th 1746, married Dr. Andrew Van Allen and Jon Debevoise; Coert, born October 28th 1748; John, born April 14th 1751; Catharine, born March 22nd 1753, married John Buskirk; Jacobus, born January 31st 1755 and Isaac, born July 10th 1757. Carel married Maria Van Houten and had sons who (for many years have been) deceased. Coert married Elizabeth Sloat. Jacobus married Aletta, daughter of John Rapelje, and was the father of John and Charles Debevoise, living (1852) at the English Kills. Isaac married Jane, daughter of Jonis Debevoise, and Magdalena, daughter of Tunis Schnenck, and was father of George, of the English Kills (1852), and Charles I. Debevoise aforesaid, (at one time) supervisor of Bushwick, the latter by the second marriage. John married Jane, daughter of Moses Beegel by his intermarriage with Jane, daughter of Frederick Van Nanda, and located at Fresh Ponds, in Newtown, where he died March 15th 1829, and his widow August 20th 1847, aged 90. They had issue: Jane, born November 8th 1776, who married James Titus and Daniel Lake; Eve, born October 7th 1770, died unmarried; Sarah, born June 44th 1781, now (1852) the widow of Charles G. Debevoise; Moses, born July 2nd 1783, married Maria, daughter of Peter Duryea, and died December 12th 1831 (leaving children: Peter, John, Sarah Ann and Charles); Charles I., born February 21st 1785, married Maria, daughter of Johannes Covert, and died August 26th 1831 (having issue: John, Rebecca Ann, Covert and Cornelius); Ann, born April 26th 1793, married Charles Debevoise, Cripplebush; and John, born March 3d 1798, who married Cornelia M., daughter of Cornelius Van Cott, and resided (1852) at Fresh Ponds, having served the town as supervisor. IV. -Jan Debevoise, son of Carel 2nd, born in 1704, at Brooklyn, and married Jane, daughter of Lieutenant Joris Rapalje, of Newtown, in which town Mr. Debevoise located, being the first of his family who came to this township and the ancestor of most of the name since resident there. His farm was that lately (1852) occupied by George Pine. Having been esteemed as a good man and useful as an elder in the Dutch church, be died April 26th 1777, aged 73 His widow died August 25th 1781, aged 74. Their children were : Carel, Joris 5th, Jacobus, Daniel, Johannes 6th, and Cornelius. Daniel died unmarried in his 82nd year, February 14th 1819. Cornelius died unmarried October 8th 1773, aged 27. Carel married his cousin Nelly, daughter of Carel Debevoise; was a worthy deacon of the Dutch church, and died June 9th 1792, aged 64. His widow died March 23d 1806, aged 66. They had issue: Jane, who married Isaac Rapelye; Eve, who married Francis Duryea; and Agnes, who married Folkert Rapelye. Jacobus married Maria, daughter of Abraham Cook, and settled at Cripple-bush. He died October 5th 1813 in his 80th year, having bad issue: John, born March 10th 1759, married Elizabeth daughter of Charles Titus (and was the father of Charles Debevoise, now living at Cripplebush, and his brothers, James, Francis and John); Abraham, born September 3d 1763, married Jane, daughter of Garret Kouwenhoven, and had sons Garret and James; Charles, born October 14th 1765, who married Leah, daughter of John Titus; Gabriel, born January 19th 1775, married Mary, only child of Coert Debevoise and lives (1852) in Bushwick; and Jane, born March 16th 1777, who married Hermanus Stockholm. V. -Joris Debevoise, son of Jan 4th, served prior to the. Revolution as a deacon in the Newtown Dutch church. He died in his 72nd year, July 9th 1802, having been thrice married- 1st to Ann, daughter of Abraham Rapelje, who died childless; 2nd to Nelly Schenck, of Cow Neck, 3rd to Anna, daughter of Carel Debevoise and widow of Dr. Van Allen. By the last he had issue Charles G. and by the second John, Susannah, who married Abraham Duryea, and Jane, who married Isaac Debevoise of Bushwick. John married Eve, daughter of Andrew Van Allen, and died, in his 56th year, November 25th 1822, having had issue: George, living (1852) in Flushing township; Andrew and John, who (1852) occupied portions of the paternal farm at Dutch Kills; Ann, who married John Oakley; and Ellen, wife of John I. Van Alst. Charles G. married Sarah, daughter of John Debevoise, and died in his 52nd year, March 22nd. 1836, his Sons John and George possessing (1852) his farm at Dutch Kills. VI. -Johannes Debevoise, son of Jan 4th, was born February 28th 1742, and lived at Fresh Ponds. He married Sarah, daughter of Abraham Rapelje, who dying November 3d 1766 he married, secondly, Adrianna, daughter of Jacob Remsen. She died on February 19th and he on February 20th 1812, and both were interred together. His children were: John, born June 13th 1766, who married, but died without issue April 2nd 1818; Jacob, born August 11th 1771, died February 15th 1786; Sarah, born February 4th 1773, died August 8th 1775; Jane, born August 26th 1776, married Theodorus Kolyer; Charles and Catherine, twins, born March 22nd 1778, the former died single May 9th 1819, the latter married William Morrell; Sarah, born August 16th (married and survived) John Burroughs; Isaac, born January 14th 1783 (lived at Fresh Ponds in 1852); Adriana, born July 27th 1785, married Cornelius M. Ditmas; Nelly, born October 15th 1787, died unmarried; Anna, born November 2nd 1789, who was the first wife of C.N. Ditmas; and Jacob, born September 26th 1792, who married Catalina, daughter of John Ditmars, and resided (1852) at Newtown." The foregoing is the complete genealogy of the De Bevoise family as published in 1852 by Riker, and referred to as correct by the present De Bevoises of Queens county. Biographical sketches of a number of the name are presented on other pages, and the above is to a great degree prefatory to and explanatory of each of them. It is probable that there is not a more numerous family on Long Island, and it is remarkable that without an exception the De Bevoises have been and are men of worth, highly esteemed by their fellow citizens, and that for generations the name has been prominent in the civil and political history of Queens county.JOHN I. DE BEVOISE.
CHARLES H. ROGERS.
PETER VAN PELT.
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