CopiglitW. 
 
 COPWIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
THE 
 
 Eastern District 
 
 OF 
 
 Brooklyn 
 
 WITH 
 
 irilu6tration6 anO /llbapg 
 
 BY 
 
 EUGENE L. ARMBRUSTER 
 
 "Remove not the ancient landmark, which th}' fathers 
 have set."— Prov. XXII.. 28. 
 
 jS/ 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 191 2 
 
Copyright, 1912 
 
 BY 
 
 EUGENE L. ARMBRUSTER 
 
 Published May 7th, IQ12 
 
 CCI.A314404 
 
Contents 
 
 Page 
 
 Introduction 9 
 
 Nassau River 11 
 
 The Original Plantations 18 
 
 Town Records 21 
 
 Bushwick Village 27 
 
 Greenpoint 31 
 
 Cross-Roads Settlement 33 
 
 Williamsburgh 34 
 
 The Bushwick and Ridgewood Sections 45 
 
 Bedford 55 
 
 Cripplebush 56 
 
 East New York 56 
 
 Beyond the Newtown Creek 63 
 
 Bushwick Church 67 
 
 Original Ecclesiastical Organizations 79 
 
 Burying Grounds 85 
 
 The Early Days of the Eastern District Schools: 
 
 Bushwick Schools 88 
 
 Williamsburgh and Greenpoint Schools 92 
 
 Bedford School 97 
 
 Wallabout School 98 
 
 The Wyckoff Farm 99 
 
 Roads and Transportations 102 
 
 Police Force 107 
 
 Fire Department 109 
 
 Picnic Grounds 112 
 
 Hotels 113 
 
 The Press 114 
 
 Banks 115 
 
 Peck Slip 115 
 
 Statistics 117 
 
 Wards ..... 119 
 
4 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Page 
 
 Map Showing the Original Plantations 121 
 
 Municipal Government 123 
 
 Ridgewood Section in Queens Borough of To-day 125 
 
 APPENDICES 
 
 I. Indian Deed of Bushwick, 1638 129 
 
 11. Governor Nicolls' Patent, 1667 130 
 
 III. Governor Dongan's Patent, 1687 131 
 
 IV. Muster Roll of Bushwick Militia, 1663 132 
 
 V. Rate List of Bushwick, 1675 134 
 
 VI. *' " " 1676 135 
 
 VII. " " " 1683 137 
 
 VIII. List of Men in Bushwick Who Took the Oath of 
 
 Allegiance in 1687 138 
 
 IX. Census of Kings County in 1698 139 
 
 X. The Improved Lands in Bushwick, 1706 141 
 
 XI. Bushwick Division of the Regiment of Militia in 
 
 Kings County, 17 15 143 
 
 XII. A List of all the Inhabitants, 1738 144 
 
 XIII. A List of Slaves, 1755 146 
 
 XIV. Taxable Valuation, Bushwick, 1805-1854 147 
 
 XV. Taxable Valuation, WilHamsburgh, 1840-1854 148 
 
 XVI. Laws Relating to WilHamsburgh 149 
 
 XVII. The Solid Men of WilHamsburgh, 1847 153 
 
 XVIII. Inscriptions on Tombstones in Original Graveyard, 
 
 1861 155 
 
 XIX, Inscriptions on Tombstones in Schenck Family 
 
 Burial Ground, i860 156 
 
 XX. Inscriptions on Tombstones in Bushwick Church 
 
 Yard, 1880 i57 
 
 XXI. Obsolete Street Names in Eastern District 158 
 
 XXII. Origin of Some of the Street Names 172 
 
 XXIII. Obsolete Street Names in East New York 174 
 
 XXIV. The Ferries 1 77 
 
 XXV. Notes on the Several Settlements 179 
 
 XXVI. BibHography 188 
 
List of Illustrations and Maps 
 
 Page 
 
 Map of Williamsburgh Village, 1827 (folding). . .opposite page 34 
 
 Map of Williamsburgh, 1845 (folding) opposite page 118 
 
 Original Settlement, 1 660 14 
 
 Map of Bushwick Village, 1660 16 
 
 Town Dock 28 
 
 Masters' Mill 29 
 
 Duryea House 30 
 
 Map of Town of Bush wick , . , 32 
 
 Old Grand Street Ferry and Fountain Inn, 1797 35 
 
 Junction of Broadway, Flushing Avenue and Graham Avenue 36 
 
 Burr & Waterman's Block Factory 37 
 
 Literary Emporium 38 
 
 Phoenix Iron Works 39 
 
 Terry's Iron Foundry 40 
 
 Miller Homestead 41 
 
 Remsen House 42 
 
 A. & H. Kemp's Brick Block 42 
 
 Boerum House 43 
 
 Williamsburgh Gas Works 44 
 
 Ferry Landing, Grand Street, 1835 44 
 
 Suydam House 47 
 
 South Bushwick Church 51 
 
 Map of Ridgewood 53 
 
 Van Nostrand Farm House 54 
 
 The Last of the Lefferts Houses 55 
 
 Schenck Homestead ■ 57 
 
 Holder's Three-Mile House 59 
 
 Howard's Inn .... 60 
 
 View of Old Payntar House 66 
 
 Block-House Erected in 1660 69 
 
 Bushwick Church and Town House 71 
 
6 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Page 
 
 Bushwick Church in 1850 74 
 
 Dutch Reformed Church of Williamsburgh 80 
 
 St. Mark's Church 82 
 
 First Baptist Church of WiUiamsburgh 83 
 
 Presbyterian Church of WiUiamsburgh 84 
 
 The Devoe Houses and Part of Ancient Graveyard 86 
 
 Bushwick District School No. 3 90 
 
 District School No. 2 of Williamsburgh 91 
 
 "3 " 91 
 
 " 4 " 93 
 
 Primary School No. i 94 
 
 " " " 2 94 
 
 " 3 95 
 
 " " " 4 96 
 
 Colored Public School 96 
 
 Grammar School 97 
 
 Wyckoff Homestead 99 
 
 Northern Liberties Engine House no 
 
 Williamsburgh Bell Tower in Flames in 
 
 Peck Slip Ferry, New York, 1850 116 
 
 Map Showing the Original Plantations 120 
 
PREFACE 
 
 THE title of this book is "The Eastern District of 
 Brooklyn," and the book contains a number 
 of articles dealing with the past of the various neigh- 
 borhoods within the present Eastern District. Some 
 of these articles have appeared in the Brooklyn Daily 
 Times. 
 
 If a history of the City of New York will ever 
 be written, its compiler will look around for historical 
 matter relating to the old towns, now forming parts of 
 the metropolis, and this book was written that the 
 Eastern District of Brooklyn may be represented then. 
 
 Its favorable situation was noticed bv Governor 
 Kieft, and he acquired the land from the Indians at a 
 time when New York City was confined to the south- 
 ernmost end of Manhattan Island; and its great future 
 was foreseen by the founders of Williamsburgh a 
 century ago. 
 
 Not every town on Long Island can be a next-door 
 neighbor to Manhattan Island, but Nassau County is 
 to-day as close to New York City as Kings County was 
 then, and sooner or later Suffolk County will hold this 
 same position. But in bringing far-off Suffolk closer, 
 the Eastern District will gain, as it has gained so far, 
 in this process. 
 
 The 13th, 14th, 15th, i6th, 17th, i8th, 19th, 21st, 
 23d, 25th, 26th, 27th and 28th Wards had a popula- 
 
8 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 tion in 1910 of 857,778. The Ridgewood section in 
 Queensborough is to-day an integral part of the East- 
 ern District, for the borough line can only be traced 
 on paper, and thus the population of the Eastern Dis- 
 trict is to-day close to the one million mark. 
 
 It may be well to give here the history of the 
 title of the book. The Eastern District was created 
 when the consolidation of Brooklyn, Williamsburgb 
 and Bushwick took place, in 1855. It included Will- 
 iamsburgb, Bushwick and North Brooklyn. The 
 Western District included the remainder of the 
 enlarged city. Between the Eastern District and the 
 built-up part of the Western District lay the extensive 
 region known as the 9th Ward, sparsely settled. The 
 denominations Eastern and Western Districts were 
 soon abolished, and gradually the 21st, 23d and 25th 
 Wards were set off the old 9th Ward; and these three 
 wards increased in population simultaneously with the 
 Eastern District, and had at all times more interests in 
 common with it than with the Western District. 
 
 The 26th Ward was never a part of the Western 
 District, but a town by itself until annexed in 1886 by 
 the late City of Brooklyn. 
 
 The annals of the City of Williamsburgb and of the 
 towns of Bushwick and New Lots were closed when 
 these communities became parts of the City of Brook- 
 lyn, and no attempt has been made to deal with them 
 after that period. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 THE following pages contain a series of sketches 
 relating to the early days of the various localities 
 that now constitute the Eastern District of Brooklyn. 
 They also tell of the hardships and trials which the 
 settlers had to endure until they could gain a perma- 
 nent foothold in the territory around the Newtown 
 Creek; and how, after several attempts had come to 
 disastrous and disappointing ends, the village of Bos- 
 wijck was formed. This was the first step in develop- 
 ing this section of the metropolis. 
 
 Adrian Block, a navigator in the service of the 
 Dutch, had erected in 1613 a trading-post, consisting 
 of four huts, on the island of the Manhattans across 
 the river, which was later supplanted by a more sub- 
 stantial structure, built upon an elevated point, that 
 served as a storehouse and fort. Its south side faced 
 the upper bay, where large black rocks were visible at 
 low tide. Toward the north a lane led to a point on 
 the East River, which had been found to be the most 
 convenient for a ferry-landing to connect with the 
 Long Island shore. This trading-post, and later 
 the fort, was the only point from which the set- 
 tlers could expect any assistance in case of an attack 
 by their red-skinned neighbors, but as yet there had 
 been no occasion to look for help, the white men and 
 the red men lived in peace together. 
 
TO THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Director-General Willem Kieft purchased in 1638 
 the territory of the later town of Bushwick from the 
 Canarsee Indians for the West India Company, and 
 " the new charter of Freedoms and Exemptions, " which 
 was granted two years later, brought new settlers to 
 the land on the Long Island shore of the East River. 
 Kieft was the owner of a tobacco plantation on the 
 west side of the island of the Manhattans, called by 
 the Indians Sapohanikan, which means " over against 
 the pipe-making place." On the opposite shore of the 
 North River was Hopoakanhaking, /. ^., "at the 
 tobacco-pipe-land " — the present Hoboken. To this 
 point the Indians brought the peltries, which they col- 
 lected in the interior, and hence conveyed them in 
 their canoes to Manhattan Island, landing in a cove 
 north of the Director's plantation. In an evil hour 
 Kieft ordered some of his men to the tobacco-pipe- 
 land and another band to the Indian village, Rechtauk, 
 situated two miles north of the fort on the East 
 River, — the present Corlear's Hook, — while both 
 places were occupied by some fugitive Wesquaesgeek 
 Indians, and had them cruelly slaughtered, men, 
 women and children, under cover of night. When 
 the savages found out that the white men had com- 
 mitted the outrage, which they had first believed to be 
 the work of an hostile Indian tribe, about a dozen of 
 the neighboring tribes of River Indians rose up against 
 them and attacked the several plantations. This took 
 place in 1643. 
 
NASSAU RIVER 
 
 Nassau River is the waterway first known as Mis- 
 pat Kil and, more recently, as Newtown Creek. The 
 usefulness of the river will be greatly enhanced in the 
 near future by the construction of a channel through its 
 entire length of a uniform width of one hundred and 
 twenty-five feet and a depth of eighteen feet. But 
 even at the present day its tonnage is greater than that 
 of the Erie Canal or the Hudson River. Its length is 
 about four miles, its natural depth is twelve feet at the 
 mouth, gradually falling to four feet at the head of 
 navigation. In the early days its shores presented a 
 beautiful sight. In the background were the hills 
 covered with trees. In the swamps below, the stream 
 and its tributaries had their rise. Broadening on its 
 way, the stream flowed quietly between wooded eleva- 
 tions and further along through lowlands until it 
 mingled its waters with the Salt or East River. A mile 
 further up the East River, the tides from the east and 
 west met, and the backing up of these tides caused the 
 stream to overflow the marshes; and this fact led the 
 Indians to name the waterway " Mispat " — that is, an 
 overflowing tidal stream. 
 
 In the neighboring forests the deer and the wolf 
 had their habitations. On the head of the stream was 
 the village and cornfield of a small band of red men, 
 known as the Mispat tribe. Near its mouth a few 
 
12 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 adventurous Noormans had established themselves, 
 clearing the land and trading with the Indians. 
 
 In 1638 Governor Kieft purchased the land near 
 the creek, and the new Charter of Freedoms and 
 Exemptions, published two years thereafter, providing 
 that "all good inhabitants were allowed to select 
 lands and form colonies," attracted settlers to this 
 neighborhood. Thus a small band of former residents 
 of the Plymouth colony, under the leadership of 
 the Rev. Francis Doughty, settled in 1642 near the 
 Indian village. In the Indian uprising of the fol- 
 lowing year, caused by a most barbarous act of 
 the governor, the Mispat settlement, as many others, 
 was laid in ashes and some of the settlers were 
 killed, while others made their escape to the fort on 
 Manhattan Island. After peace was restored several 
 of the planters returned to the place. A new com- 
 mander, Petrus Stuyvesant, took charge of the Dutch 
 Colonies in 1647, and he employed every means to 
 secure new colonists for the destroyed and deserted 
 plantations. 
 
 In 1655 the savages again became restless, and the 
 settlers near Mispat Kil found it necessary for their 
 mutual safety to abandon the exposed dwellings 
 standing upon the several plantations and to remove 
 their families and belongings to a central point, which 
 could be more effectually defended. Thus they formed 
 in the next spring a village upon an island situated in 
 Mispat Kil, for which the Fiscal of New Netherland, 
 Nicasius de Sille, had received a patent. They named 
 the settlement New Arnheim, in honor of the native 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 3 
 
 place of De Sille. The island was then known as 
 Smith's Island, after an earlier resident, and its pres- 
 ent name is Furman's Island or Maspeth Island. Here 
 they were in a more secure position and the new set- 
 tlement prospered. Still some of the farmers con- 
 tinued to live upon their plantations. Eldert Engel- 
 bertse, residing at an isolated place near the creek, 
 with his wife, and two men employed by him, were 
 murdered in 1659 by three Raritan Indians, who had 
 become acquainted with the fact that there was some 
 " wampum " in the house. 
 
 While the site of New Arnheim, surrounded as it 
 was by water, was well chosen for a place of refuge 
 for a small band of settlers during trouble with the 
 Indians, it was not the proper place for a village. So 
 when in 1660 fourteen Frenchmen with an interpreter 
 came before the governor to petition him for land on 
 which to settle, Stuyvesant took them across the river 
 and selected a plot of land between the Mispat Kil and 
 Noorman's Kil (the later Bushwick Creek). In doing 
 this he was no doubt guided by a personal interest. 
 His own farm on the Manhattan Island side of the 
 river extended from present Fourth Avenue to the 
 East River shore, and the newly established settlement 
 on the Long Island side was directly opposite his 
 farm, the river flowing between the salt meadows of 
 the two tracts of land. Thus he must have felt more 
 secure from attacks by the Long Island Indians by 
 having this out-post between them and his own farm. 
 However, the land between the two creeks was an 
 ideal location for a village site. Along the line of an 
 

 SNW ■•■■.■■■■■•.-,v.--.i- 
 
 km ®iiiiii 
 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN I 5 
 
 old Indian trail a road was laid out in the centre of 
 the village plot, which, in course of time, could be 
 extended towards either creek. On both sides of the 
 road the house-lots were laid out, twenty-two in num- 
 ber, divided by lanes; in the rear of the house-lots 
 were larger parcels, known as garden-lots. These 
 house-lots and garden-lots were enclosed with pali- 
 sades. Outside the stockade and extending to the 
 creeks was the farm-land, cut up in long, narrow strips, 
 in equal number with the house-lots. In the absence of 
 roads, the farmers were thus enabled to move their 
 crops in boats. To every house-lot in the village was 
 attached the right to a certain part of the common 
 lands or salt meadows. These meadows were taken 
 wherever found, and in the following year the magis- 
 trates petitioned for more meadow land for the use of 
 additional settlers, and Governor Stuyvesant ordered 
 the New Arnheim settlement to be broken up, being 
 an obstacle to the growth of the new village of Bos- 
 wijck, and the island was given to the latter. Boswijck 
 was the name bestowed upon the place by the gov- 
 ernor. This grant caused a legal fight, which was 
 carried on for over a century between the towns of 
 Newtown and Bushwick. In 1769 Smith's Island was 
 ceded to Newtown, and other disputed lands, now 
 forming the Ridgewood section of Queens County,, 
 were also decided to be a part of the town of New- 
 town. 
 
 Near the Duryea house on Meeker Avenue, Hum- 
 phrey Clay operated a ferriage across Newtown Creek 
 as early as 1670. During the Revolutionary War 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN I 7 
 
 British warboats sailed up and down the creek, carry- 
 ing dispatches from Headquarters at Newtown; and 
 ■even during the War of 181 2 American gunboats 
 patroled the creek. There was a primitive bridge 
 further up the creek in the days when Clay's ferry was 
 in existence, and after the War of 181 2 a bridge on 
 piles was built on Meeker Avenue. In 1836 a new 
 bridge was built on stone piers, in connection with a 
 turnpike road; the toll on this bridge was "a penny," 
 and was collected at a place near the Duryea house, 
 hence the name, "Penny Bridge." In 1853 a ferry 
 was established, running from East 23d Street, Man- 
 hattan, to the Calvary Cemetery landing on Newtown 
 Creek. 
 
 At that time the creek, with the several gristmills, 
 and the farms bordering thereon, differed in no way 
 from the rural scenes, which are often seen as typical 
 of Holland, except for the hills in the background. 
 But since then the mills have vanished, and factories 
 and coal yards have taken their places and commer- 
 cialism in general, with no eye for landscape beauty, 
 has taken hold of the territory. The water of the 
 creek has been polluted to such a degree that the 
 name of Newtown Creek has come into ill-repute, and 
 it is well that the waterway, when cleansed and 
 improved, will be known by the euphonious name of 
 Nassau River. 
 
THE ORIGINAL PLANTATIONS 
 
 The first settlers in the territory of the later town 
 of Bushvvick seem to have been mostly Scandinavians; 
 Hans Hansen, Cornells Jacobse Stille, Claes Carsten- 
 sen, Jan de Zweed (the Swede), one Wilcox and 
 Herry Satley. They were on the ground before the 
 land was purchased from the Indians by the West 
 India Company. 
 
 The earliest recorded Indian deed for land to an 
 individual in Kings County is the one to Jacob Van 
 Corlear for " flats " in Flatbush and Flatlands in 1636; 
 but the earliest recorded Indian deed for land in the 
 county to the government, that is, the West Indian 
 Company, was for the land between Brooklyn and 
 Mespath — the territory of the later town of Bush- 
 wick — dated August ist, 1638. 
 
 The Company now issued patents to the settlers, 
 who were in possession of tracts of land, as well as to 
 newcomers, as may be seen from the following entry 
 upon the Dutch records: " Divers freemen request by 
 petition to the Council conveyance of the lands which 
 they are cultivating at present. The request of the 
 petitioners is granted on the condition that they shall, 
 after the expiration of ten years from the commence- 
 ment of their plantations, annually pay to the Com- 
 pany the tenth of all the produce, which God shall 
 bestow on their land. Also in future, for a house and 
 garden a couple of capons yearly." 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 9 
 
 Hans Hansen's land extended from the Kil of Joris 
 Rapalie through a part of the towns of Brooklyn and 
 Bushwick to the Newtown Creek. Along the river 
 Cornells Jacobse Stille's land was patented to the then 
 proprietor, Lambert Huybertse. The next plantation 
 was Reyer Lambertse's; then came Claes Carstensen, 
 the Noorman, and David Andriese. Between the two 
 last named and Hans Hansen lay the land of Jan de 
 Zweed, Between Bushwick Creek and Newtown 
 Creek was the land of Dirck Volkertse, the Noorman, 
 formerly Wilcox's plantation, and along the Newtown 
 Creek toward Hans Hansen's land lay the land pat- 
 ented to Gysbert Rycken and Abraham Rycken. 
 These two plantations were probably never occupied 
 by the patentees. Abraham Rycken leased some land 
 in 1643 to one Hutchinson, but the land seems to have 
 reverted to the West India Company on the ground 
 that it was not continually under cultivation. Abra- 
 ham lived in New Amsterdam, as is recorded in a 
 document of 1642. He married a daughter of Hendrik 
 Harmensen, a planter at the Armen Bouwerij, or Poor 
 Bowery, in the town of Newtown, and received a 
 patent for a plantation in that locality in 1654. Thus 
 these lands of the Rycken brothers were vacant, when 
 in 1660 a company of Frenchmen petitioned the gov- 
 ernor for land for the site of a village, and the latter 
 gave them the greater part of the tract. 
 
 In a petition to the governor and council, made by 
 some of the inhabitants of the village in 1663 regard- 
 ing a fence, stretching from Newtown Creek to Bush- 
 wick Creek, mention is made of the remnant of land 
 
2 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Still in possession of the company: "While there yet 
 remains a small tract of the company's land, which 
 would be included within that fence, etc." 
 
 South of Hans Hansen's plantation the land was 
 granted in 1661 to the villagers for common wood- 
 land, and was known as the Boswijck Nieuw Loten, or 
 the New Lotts of Bushwick. 
 
 Across the Brooklyn line Joris Jansen de Rapalie's 
 plantation, called by the Indians, " Rinnegaconck," 
 extended from Wallabout Bay (originally Walboght, 
 probably from wal, meaning rampart — protection from 
 assault or danger; and boght — bay or gulf) south 
 probably to Nostrand and DeKalb Avenues. He had 
 purchased the land from the Indians in 1637, and 
 received a patent for it in 1643. The Cripplebush 
 patent, adjoining the Bushwick line, was granted in 
 1654. The land south of the Cripplebush patent was 
 patented to Elias Boudinet in 1708. Part of the land 
 west of Boudinet's patent, between the Flatbush line 
 and Rapalie's line was patented to ten settlers of the 
 Wallabout region in 1661, and the southern-most part 
 was used as common land by the inhabitants of the 
 town of Brooklyn. 
 
 By the division of all the common land of that 
 town in 1690 this particular section was allotted to the 
 residents of the Gowanis settlement. 
 
TOWN RECORDS 
 
 In his history of Long Island, Thompson says 
 " The increase of population in this neighborhood was 
 so small as not to acquire a municipal character 
 before the year 1648, at which time application was 
 made to the governor for a patent or groundbrief. 
 One was accordingly issued, under which the inhab- 
 itants remained until the conquest of New Netherland 
 in 1664." 
 
 There is at this time no evidence that such a patent 
 was issued in the old Dutch documents at Albany. 
 The Bushwick town records, which were in existence 
 at the time when Thompson compiled his history, have 
 been destroyed since. 
 
 When Bushwick became part of the City of Brook- 
 lyn the records were, in accordance with an article of 
 the charter of the enlarged city, deposited in the City 
 Hall. They were sent there in a movable bookcase, 
 which was coveted by some municipal officer, who 
 turned its contents upon the floor, whence the janitor 
 transferred them to the papermill. 
 
 The older records had been kept in the Dutch 
 language and were difficult to decipher; some, how- 
 ever, had been translated by the late General Jeremiah 
 Johnson, and these have come down to us. 
 
 February 14, 1660, Peter Stuyvesant, Director- 
 General, and his High Council, of New Netherland, 
 ordain that the outside residents, who dwell dis- 
 
2 2 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 tant from each other, must remove and concentrate 
 themselves within the neighboring towns, and dwell 
 in the same, because we have war with the Indians, 
 who have slain several of our Netherland people. 
 
 February i6. As fourteen Frenchmen with a Dutch- 
 man, named Peter John De Wit, their interpreter, 
 have arrived here, and as they do not understand the 
 Dutch language, they have been with the Director- 
 General and requested him to cause a town plot to be 
 laid out at a proper place, whereupon His Honor fixed 
 upon the 19th inst. to visit the place and fix upon a 
 site. 
 
 February 19. On this day the Director-General 
 with the Fiscal Nicasius De Sille and His Honor, Sec- 
 retary Van Ruyven, with the sworn Surveyor, Jacques 
 Corteleau, came to Mispat and have fixed upon a 
 place between the Mispat Kil and Noorman's Kil to 
 establish a village, and have laid out by survey twenty- 
 two house lots, on which dwellings will be built. 
 
 March 7. The first house being erected near the 
 pond, William Traphagen with his family and Koert 
 Mourison came to dwell in the same. Other houses 
 were erected during the year. 
 
 March 14, 1661. The Director-General visited the 
 new village, when the inhabitants requested His Honor 
 to give the place a name, whereupon he named the 
 town "Boswijck." [From "bos," meaning a collec- 
 tion of small things packed close together, and from 
 " wijk " — retreat, refuge, guard, defend from danger.] 
 
 At this time the order was renewed: " That all the 
 citizens, who dwell within the' limits and jurisdiction 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 23 
 
 of the town of Boswijck, and already have village-lots, 
 shall remove to the same, according to the order of the 
 Director-General," and it is added, "That all persons 
 whatsoever who dwell outside of the village, attend 
 to the danger they may be in, by remaining where 
 they be." 
 
 By order of the governor, six men were chosen by 
 the people, from whom he selected three, viz. : Peter 
 Jan DeWit, Jan Tilje and Jan Comlits, to whom he 
 committed the provisional administration of the justice 
 of the village. 
 
 In May, 1661, the magistrates petitioned the gov- 
 ernor for more meadow land for the use of new 
 settlers, saying, "we have chosen ten men to make a 
 search for more meadow land which, as far as we 
 know, is not already disposed of by deed. There are 
 only a few meadows for the use of the inhabitants of 
 our village near their lands, but them they need them- 
 selves, and we have no others; of which we have not 
 informed them. But the aforesaid ten men explored 
 the meadows, where every person mows, who arrives 
 first — common meadows — viz. : near Smith's Island six 
 morgen ; in the same neighborhood four morgen ; adjoin- 
 ing the land of Eldert Engelbertse, who was killed 
 by the savages, three morgen; near the two lots of 
 Severy Oesis, who also was murdered by the savages, 
 five morgen ; further toward the woods in Fresh Vleyen 
 four morgen; — in all twenty-two morgen." As they 
 said that it would be impossible for the new arrivals 
 to reside in the village without obtaining the meadow 
 lands, the request was granted, provided that these 
 
2 4 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 lands were not found to be included in any previous 
 patent. 
 
 In 1661 Stuyvesant ordered the New Arnheim set- 
 tlement to be broken up, and in the next year even the 
 deserted and decaying hovels there were ordered to be 
 removed, to prevent their being occupied by any 
 person, and the island was granted to Boswijck. 
 
 In 1662, also, Hendrik Barent Smith, who still 
 remained outside of the village, was ordered to remove 
 to the latter within twenty-four hours, or else the 
 magistrates were authorized to demolish his dwelling. 
 
 The twenty-three inhabitants of the village, who- 
 signed the petition to the governor in 1661 for meadow 
 land, new roads, etc., must be considered the pioneers 
 of the place. They were: Peter Jan de Wit, a Dutch- 
 man, who emigrated in 1652, and had acted as inter- 
 preter for the fourteen Frenchmen; Evert Hedeman,. 
 from the land of Schouwenburg; Jan Willemse Yssel- 
 stein, Jan Tilje, or Le Teller, a Frenchman; Ryck 
 Lydecker (leidekker — slater), Hendrik Willemse Bak- 
 ker (bakker — baker), Barent Gerretse, from ZwoU in 
 Oberyssel; Jan Hendriksen, Jan Cornelissen de Zeeuw 
 (de Zeeuw — the Zeelander), Barent Joosten, from Wit- 
 mont in Emberland, a "ridder" or knight, emigrated 
 in 1652, a man of means, who in later years sold to 
 Albert Coertsen the Anthony Janse de Sale plantation 
 in Gravesend, of two hundred acres, for $15,000; 
 Frangois Du Puy, from Calais in France; Johannes 
 Casparse, Francisco de Neger, Pieter La Mothe, 
 
 Charles Fonteyn, Herry, a Frenchman; Jean 
 
 Catjouw, a Frenchman; Jean Maliert, a Frenchman; 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 25 
 
 Hendrik Janse Grever, Gysbert Thonissen, Jost Cas- 
 parse, Willem Janse Traphagen, a Frenchman; Dirck 
 Volkertse, a Norwegian or Noorman, a carpenter by 
 trade, who had obtained a patent in 1645 ^^^ twenty* 
 five morgen on the East River and Mispat Kil, which 
 he sold in 1653 to Jacob Hay, but still resided in 
 Boswijck. 
 
 The Dutch settlements, in general, began by indi- 
 viduals settling in a certain neighborhood, each one 
 by himself, and as they grew more numerous, the gov- 
 ernor appointed magistrates with more or less power, 
 as he judged proper, without any uniformity as ta 
 their number or title of office. Their duty was to see 
 that the fields were fenced and the fences kept in 
 repair; to open a common road through the settlement;^ 
 to erect a blockhouse or other public building; to 
 attend to the division of the lands, that were held in 
 common; provide for the security of the settlement; 
 and decide all differences. Cases in which sums of 
 over fifty guilders were in dispute could be appealed 
 to the Director-General and Council. As noted in the 
 town records above, Stuyvesant appointed three mag- 
 istrates for the village in 1661, and thus Boswijck 
 attained the dignity of a town. On another visit in 
 1663 Stuyvesant gave orders to appoint a Town Mili- 
 tia to keep a close watch on the new settlement. A 
 company of four divisions was organized. Each divi- 
 sion, consisting of ten men, was on duty, alternatel)^ 
 every night, to guard the village. Ryck Lydecker 
 was made the captain. 
 
 By the conquest of 1664 Long Island was incor- 
 
26 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 porated with the colony of New York, and became 
 subject to the Duke of York. 
 
 Richard Nicolls, governor under the Duke of 
 York, convened a meeting on the first of March, 1665, 
 at Hempstead Plains, of two deputies from every town 
 on Long Island, and two from Westchester, for the 
 purpose of organizing the government, settling town 
 limits, etc. , 
 
 Bushwick was included in the West Riding of 
 Yorkshire. 
 
 The several towns were recognized, and were 
 required to take out patents from the governor for the 
 lands which they had purchased within their limits. 
 
 From then until 1690 Boswijck, Breuckelen, Mid- 
 wout, Amersfoort and New Utrecht constituted a sepa- 
 rate district under the appellation of the " Five Dutch 
 Towns." A register was purposely commissioned by 
 the governor for this district to take the proofs 
 of all documents that were required to be recorded 
 at the "Office of Records" in New York City, 
 where certificates were issued with the seal of this 
 office. By an act of 1692 this power was vested in the 
 governor or a delegate appointed by him. 
 
 Thompson says: " Many defects had been discov- 
 ered in the charter granted by Stuyvesant, the people 
 of Boswijck, at a town-meeting assembled for the pur- 
 pose in 1666, appointed a committee to wait upon 
 Governor Nicolls ' to solicit him for a new patent 
 and to request that the boundaries of the town might 
 be more expressly defined and set forth therein.'" 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 27 
 
 This patent was obtained on the twenty-fifth of 
 October, 1667. Governor Thomas Dongan issued 
 another town patent in 1687, and Governor Cornbury 
 one dated 1708. 
 
 The town of Bushwick was recognized by the Laws 
 of the State — general act — on the seventh day of 
 March, 1788. 
 
 BUSHWICK VILLAGE 
 
 " Het dorp," or the village plot, was the point from 
 which the Eastern District of Brooklyn has spread 
 further and further, and of all its territory this spot 
 retains most of its original simplicity. Here the 
 graveyard of the early settlers was laid out, but has 
 long since disappeared; later the church was erected. 
 Across the Woodpoint road stood the Town House, 
 which is supposed to have been the first edifice reared 
 in the county for the exclusive use of town govern- 
 ment, and in the rear of the church was the school- 
 house. Froni here the road led to ' ' het hout punt, " or 
 the Woodpoint on Newtown Creek, where was the 
 town dock from which the farmers loaded their pro- 
 duce from wagons to sail or row boats, and conveyed 
 them to the city market. From the Woodpoint road 
 branched off another road leading to Noorman's Kil, 
 where Pieter Jansen Trinbol in 1662 "had made a 
 concentration of four families," so that the villagers 
 of Bosvvijck might bring their canoes and " schuiten " 
 (boats, barges) to his landing. 
 
 A third branch of the road, "the mill road," led to 
 the mill on the head of Newtown Creek. The first 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 29 
 
 mill structure was erected by Abraham Jansen Tim- 
 merman (Timmerman — carpenter) in 1664, and a mill 
 was still standing on that point, near Metropolitan 
 Avenue, close to the tollgate, a. half a century ago. 
 This was known then as Masters' Mill, and prior to 
 that as Luqueer's Bushwick Mill. 
 
 The Kijkuit Lane meandered from the village to 
 the Kijkuit on the strand. 
 
 MA5TEK5'Mil-L ON 5\TB of ORICIMAL 
 BU5MWICK MILL . 
 
 1850 
 
 The Mansion house stood on the Woodpoint road. 
 Its site is now part of the roadway of Monitor Street, 
 near Egert Avenue, close to the junction of Meeker 
 Avenue. The house was erected by Theodorus Polhe- 
 mus, who was born in 1719, and came from Flatbush 
 to Bushwick. He died in 1781, and his children sold 
 the house with its beautiful grounds, barns, and out- 
 houses to Peter Wyckofl. It became the residence of 
 the Wyckoff family for some years. The house was a 
 
30 
 
 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 large frame structure, and was half a century ago used 
 as a tavern, and was still known as the Mansion house 
 or Manor House. On the grounds ball players gath- 
 ered from every-where, and also "target shooters" 
 had their games. 
 
 The Van Ranst house stood on present Withers 
 Street, near a branch of the Bushwick Creek. 
 
 fOoT OF MEEfCER, AVEfs/l/E NEAR N EvVTO WW CRE£ K 
 
 The Conselyea house was west of Humboldt Street 
 and north of Skillman Avenue. 
 
 The Baedel house stood on the north-east corner of 
 Bushwick Avenue and Metropolitan Avenue. 
 
 The Debevoise house was on the Woodpoint road, 
 on the opposite side of the Mansion house. 
 
 The Skillman house stood on Frost Street, west of 
 Lorimer Street. 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 31 
 
 The Devoe houses were on either side of the Wood- 
 point road between Parker and Bennett Streets. 
 
 Tiie oldest house near the village plot still standing 
 is, undoubtedly, the Duryea house, at the foot of 
 Meeker Avenue, near Newtown Creek. Joost Durie, 
 born in 1650, was a Huguenot, who emigrated from 
 Mannheim, in the Palatinate on the Rhine, in 1675, 
 and settled at first in New Utrecht, and then on the 
 land on Newtown Creek, where he died in 1727. 
 
 GREENPOINT 
 
 Also called the Cherry Point, or the Orchard, was- 
 the land to a great extent cleared of woods by the 
 Indians for their cornfields between the Bushwick and 
 Newtown Creeks. Here lived for some years Dirck 
 Volkertse, the Noorman, in a stone house on the 
 north side of Bushwick Creek, which latter was named 
 after him, "the Noorman's Kil," on land granted to 
 him in 1645. Indian burial grounds, found when the 
 streets were graded, bore evidence that the Indians 
 had a settlement here. During and after the Revolu- 
 tion the whole section comprised five farmhouses and 
 the powder house. 
 
 On the shore of Newtown Creek stood the house of 
 Peter Bennett, near the East River shore. Close to the 
 meadows, near present Oakland and Freeman Streets, 
 was situated the home of Captain Pieter Pra, later 
 known as the Provoost house, built of stone; it burned 
 down about eighty years ago. On the river bank near 
 Java Street was standing the Abraham Meserole house,. 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN :^^ 
 
 built about 1700. The Jacobus Colyer house stood 
 near Calyer Street, near present West Street, and the 
 Jacob Meserole house on Lorimer Street, near Norman 
 Avenue and near Bushwick Creek. 
 
 The Woodpoint road was the only road that con- 
 nected Greenpoint with the outer world, therefore the 
 farmers here had to depend mostly upon their row- 
 boats. 
 
 In 1837 the Greenpoint, Ravenswood and Hallett's 
 Cove Turnpike road was opened — the Franklin Street 
 of to-day — which was later extended to Williams- 
 burgh. In 1838 a foot bridge was built across Bush- 
 wick Creek. In 1853 the ferry to Tenth Street, New 
 York City, was opened. 
 
 CROSS-ROADS SETTLEMENT 
 
 An old lane led from Bushwick Village into the 
 New Bushwick Lands. Just at the beginning of this 
 tract of land a settlement had come into existence 
 during the eighteenth century at about the junction of 
 the present Bushwick and Flushing Avenues, which 
 was known as " het kruis pad," or Bushwick Cross- 
 Roads. Later there stood here Alexander Whaley's 
 blacksmith shop. Whaley was a man of great respect- 
 ability and a personal friend of Washington. He was 
 of English descent and born in Montville, in the New 
 England States, in 1746, and died here aged 94. This 
 settlement extended in later years to the Cypress Hills 
 Plank Road. 
 
34 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 WILLIAMSBURGH 
 
 Dense thickets covered hundreds of acres of bog 
 and low land extending from Wallabout Bay to New- 
 town Creek and extended through the central part of 
 the town of Bushwick. This region was known as 
 "het kreupelbosch" (kreupelbosch — thicket, copse), or 
 Cripplebush. The scrub-oak or cripplebush predom- 
 inated here. The land formerly was probably the site 
 of a forest, whose trees were later supplanted by these 
 bushes, which protected the ground from being dried 
 up by the sun. Over the morasses led narrow trails, 
 known to the redskins and the wild beasts, but treach- 
 erous to strangers. Between the Cripplebush and the 
 East River shore was the site of the later Williams- 
 burgh. 
 
 On the Nicolls' map, 1664-1668, settlements along 
 the East River shore are marked by huts, drawn 
 roughly. At the mouth of " Mashpack Kil " (New- 
 town Creek), three huts; at the mouth of Noorman's 
 Kil (Bushwick Creek), two huts. Opposite Corlear's 
 Hook, six huts, of which three are double huts and at 
 "the ferry" (present Fulton Ferry), six huts. Judg- 
 ing from the number and size of these huts, the set- 
 tlement opposite Corlear's Hook, the place where 
 Williamsburgh rose later, was the largest. Between 
 this settlement and the ferry is a creek marked Wal- 
 baut; no huts indicate that there was a settlement here 
 near the shore. 
 
 At the time Bushwick Village was laid out by 
 Stuyvesant an attempt was made to found another 
 
' M w i c 
 
 n r 
 
,.l- ll>rTm.'l^' .•I'll,,- (r«,,,..S„r,,)rJ/:>"''-' 
 
 
PI o 
 
 A MAP 
 
 TILLAOE or 
 
 WILLIAMSUVRGH, 
 
 KI:Y0S CODilTV. IV. v., 
 
 »/liirtmlr,^Orawd.umt,nmfmnlhFWtlDiaHHt 
 
 
 UUII 
 
 
 ISA 
 
 4c riKTn, 
 
 
 t the tupettiaio 
 
 of llENRV PAVSO^f, Ctwk of 
 
 •fud V. 
 
 sgp. Kovcmbcr. IWi 
 
 
 wcni population 
 
 of WJ«,m.bu,,fc. . 
 
 "W" 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 ♦♦ 
 
 
 
 O 
 
 
 
 i^_ 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 35 
 
 village at the strand along the river shore. The con- 
 dition of this land was not found favorable for a settle- 
 ment; drinking water was scarce and, in consequence 
 of this fact, only a place of refuge was established 
 upon the high bluff along later Fourth Street — now 
 Bedford Avenue — near present South Fourth Street, 
 for the farmers scattered along the shore, in case of 
 
 OLD GRAND STREET TBRRY -WILLI AtASBVRGH 
 
 /» MD TOUWTA l/V IN 
 
 ■7f7 
 
 sudden attacks by the Indians. A small settlement 
 along the water front was in existence at the time of 
 the Revolution, known as " het strand." 
 
 During the seven years of British occupation the 
 woods and thickets, in fact, almost every tree in the 
 towns of Bushwick and Brooklyn were swept away by 
 the wasteful deprivations of the British soldiers. 
 
36 
 
 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 After the war vegetable gardens and orchards took 
 the place of the forests. The strand settlement was 
 connected since 1797 with Corlear's Hook, the site of 
 the former Indian village, Rechtauk, by a rowboat 
 ferry, operated by James Hazard, who lived at Cor- 
 lear's Hook. At the beginning of the nineteenth Cen- 
 
 JUNCnOAj OF BROAdWAY.nUSHINC ANd 
 GRAHAM AVENUES. 
 
 tury two attempts were made to start a village at the 
 strand by Richard M. Woodhull and Thomas Morrell, 
 respectively. The first mentioned named his enter- 
 prise Williamsburgh (Williamsburgh was named for 
 Colonel Williams, U. S. Engineer, who surveyed the 
 place), and the latter bestowed the name of Yorkton 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 37 
 
 upon his settlement. Each place had a ferry landing. 
 The Yorkton Ferry gradually obtained the preference 
 of the public, but the people had become used to the 
 expression, "going to Williamsburgh," and thus this 
 name remained and Yorkton became obsolete. In 
 1827 the village of Williamsburgh was incorporated, 
 and its limits extended in 1835. 
 
 In 1836 a new ferry was started, running from the 
 original Long Island ferry landing, Peck Slip in New 
 
 
 York City to South Seventh Street, Williamsburgh. 
 The ferry to Brooklyn had been removed to a slip fur- 
 ther south. This ferry soon became the favorite route 
 to Williamsburgh. On reaching the Long Island shore 
 a traveler was sure to find a roadhouse where he could 
 get a good meal and a fresh horse to start on his jour- 
 ney into the interior of the island. 
 
 In 1840 Williamsburgh was cut off from Bushwick 
 and incorporated a distinct township. 
 
38 
 
 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 On January ist, 1852, the City of Williamsburgh 
 came into existence, and on January ist, 1855, the 
 cities of Brooklyn and Williamsburgh and the town of 
 
 Bushwick were consolidated and incorporated as the 
 City of Brooklyn. 
 
 In the sixties Broadway was altered; the former 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 39 
 
 Division Avenue had then been known for a few years 
 as Broadway, but now South Seventh Street, and the 
 part of South Sixth Street from present Bedford 
 Avenue to Hewes Street were widened at a cost of 
 
 
 c/fe^ifr^ «/^i^?-^^ >^^i^4<5 • 
 
 $400,000, and became parts of one continuous road, 
 while that section of Broadway which was cut off 
 received its old name, " Division Avenue." 
 
40 
 
 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 The Roosevelt Street ferry now ran one of its boats 
 to the landing place at the foot of the new main road, 
 and Broadway became the most important street of the 
 district. 
 
 When the stage lines and, later, horse-car lines were 
 established their termini were at Broadway ferry. The 
 
 TeRfks TRCN TOUfJORY 
 
 
 •3Sx> ^>^i 
 
 / / oT^ 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 41 
 
 m 
 
 South Side Railroad also ran a dummy line fro 
 Bushwick Depot to this point. 
 
 Jan, the Swede, one of the original squatters, built 
 his house at the head of the Swede's Kil, a branch of 
 the Noorman's Kil, near present Grand and Rodney 
 Streets. 
 
 The Fountain Inn was standing on Kent Avenue, 
 near Grand Street. 
 
 The Miller homestead was located upon the Kijkuit 
 bluff, and was demolished in i860, when the highland 
 was leveled. 
 
REM5EM House 
 
 ON CtYMER STREET HCAR KEntaveni/e 
 
 Mi^ *^!^!iatii4im!smnn^M ^^ 
 
 C7 >^ J/ A:^.ti.,^.r^^ /^^^^/^/^rw^ 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 43 
 
 The Remsen house was standing on Clymer Street, 
 near Kent avenue. 
 
 The Col. Francis Titus house stood on present 
 Kent Avenue, near North Sixth Street. 
 
 The Woertman homestead was situated on Bush- 
 wick Creek and Second Street. 
 
 BOEKUn HOUSE 
 
 The Boerum house, on Division and Kent Avenues. 
 
 The Williamsburgh City Hall was situated on South 
 Second Street, near Bedford Avenue, next door to the 
 present Gas Company office. In the sixties the hall 
 was converted into dwelling houses. During the 
 latter days of the existence of the City of Williams- 
 
44 
 
 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 ;^a^. 
 
 
 burgh a new City Hall was in use. This building is 
 also still standing in the rear of 365 Wythe Avenue, 
 between South Fourth and South Fifth Streets. 
 
 ■^lai. 
 
 t^» 
 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 45 
 
 THE BUSHWICK AND RIDGEWOOD 
 SECTIONS 
 
 The Bushwick and Ridgewood sections embrace 
 the 27th and 28th Wards, and have a population of over 
 150,000, not including the large territory beyond the 
 Queensborough line, which forms an undetachable 
 part of the Ridgewood Section. 
 
 The 27th and 28th Wards were, until 1892, parts of 
 the Eighteenth Ward, which had a population of 2,601 
 in 1855; 4,317 in i860, and 23,986 in 1880. In i860 
 there were six hundred and thirty-two dwellings within 
 this ward, and the most densely populated part was what 
 is now known as the Eighteenth Ward. Very little has 
 been written on the history of these particular parts of 
 the city. When the several histories of Brooklyn 
 were compiled the Bushwick and Ridgewood sections 
 were either farm lands or isolated "neighborhoods," 
 with picnic grounds here and there, and thus never 
 received any attention. The territory between the 
 Cross-Roads settlement and the Green Hills or 
 Cypress Hills, which latter formed the boundary line 
 of the town of Bushwick, was knov.^n in the early 
 times as the New Bushwick Lotts, and consisted of 
 meadows and woodlands. 
 
 When Stuyvesant visited Bushwick village in 1661, 
 he granted to the settlers a large tract of land adjoin- 
 ing, as pasturage for their cattle, extending from the 
 east side of Smith's Island, southward to the hills, 
 along the hills westward to the heights of Merck's 
 
46 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Plantation, from said heights northerly by Merck's 
 plantation to Bushwick (village), being a four-cornered 
 plot of land. 
 
 The compiler has no doubt that this plot of land 
 embraced the New Bushwick lands. The line along 
 the Newtown side is, in a general way, identical with the 
 Queens Borough line of to-day, with the exception, 
 that Smith's Island has since been ceded to Newtown, 
 the hills are still in their place, the Cemetery of the 
 Evergreens covering the part in question; Merck's 
 plantation was at Cripplebush, and probably extended 
 to present Broadway. 
 
 The first house erected here, of which we have any 
 record, was the Suydam house, built about 1700, before 
 the Bushwick Road was in existence. About this time 
 the common lands of the town, /. <?., "the New Bush- 
 wick Lotts," were finally divided among the several 
 freeholders; and one of these, at least, as far as can be 
 judged now, was enterprising enough to settle upon 
 his property in the forest. 
 
 In the Brooklyn Corporation Manual of 1867 it is 
 stated that the house w^as erected by Leffert Lefferts 
 about 1700, but this is evidently erroneous; more likely 
 it was built by one Van Nuyse. Although there is no 
 Van Nuyse recorded as living in Bushwick at that time, 
 a William Janse Van Nuyse was residing in the town 
 in 1 7 15, who had been baptized in 1699, and his father 
 may have owned the land and built the house. Leffert 
 Pieterse married Abagail, daughter of Auke Janse 
 Van Nuyse. One of his fourteen children was Leffert 
 Lefferts, born in 1701. 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 47 
 
 Leffert Lefferts, the one who became identified with 
 Bushwick, was born in 1701. In 1724 he bought from 
 William Van Nuyse, of New Utrecht, for ^£438, a house, 
 three lots and a part of a lot of the New Bushwick 
 Lotts containing about seventy acres, also ten acres of 
 woodland in Bushwick. On this farm he resided until 
 his death, which occurred in 1754. In 1728 he had 
 
 SUYDAM H0U5E 
 
 added two more lots — about forty acres — for the sum 
 of ;^42o, purchased from his neighbor Auke Rynerse, 
 adjoining his own land. In 1753 he bought for ^239 
 19 sh. from Johannes Durjee and Abraham Schenck 
 twenty-seven acres also adjoining his land. 
 
 This farm, then consisting of one hundred and 
 
48 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 thirty-six acres of land and overlapping the Brooklyn 
 boundary line somewhat, together with about twenty- 
 five acres of woodland in the town of Newtown and 
 some meadows, was sold by his son Leffert Lefferts in 
 1768 for ^2160-10 sh. to Jacob Suydam, who settled on 
 the former Lefferts' farm and died thereon in 181 1, aged 
 71 years. His second son Jacob was born in 1773 and 
 died in 1847. 
 
 The last named Jacob's son, Adrian Martense Suy- 
 dam, was born at the homestead in 1826. His farm 
 extended from Knickerbocker Avenue to Broadway 
 and from Jefferson Avenue to Palmetto Street. In 
 1869 there was no house on the farm except the old 
 homestead. Suydam wishing to transform the farm 
 into building lots gave to a man one lot on the condi- 
 tion that he would at once erect and occupy a dwelling 
 thereon, and his policy being liberal, in course of fifteen 
 years one hundred and twenty-five residences were 
 erected within the limits of his farm. 
 
 When the ancient homestead was torn down in the 
 first years of the present century, it looked as if it 
 could have weathered the storms of another century. 
 The first story was built of stones, gathered from the 
 surrounding fields, the walls were of an unusual thick- 
 ness. The house received its light through tiny panes 
 of glass, set in heavy sash. When Jacob Suydam 
 bought the property in 1768 he reshingled the house. 
 During the Revolutionary War Col. Rahl took up his 
 quarters here. His regiment of Hessians constructed 
 barracks on the lands of Abraham Luqueer and others 
 nearby. 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 49 
 
 One day a captain of the regiment cut with his 
 sword several large pieces from one of the sideposts of 
 the doorway. As a memento of the troublous times 
 the defacement was never repaired and the marks of 
 the enemy's sword were visible as long as the old house 
 remained. Its site is now occupied by the Second 
 German Baptist Church, and is known as the corner of 
 Evergreen Avenue and Woodbine Street. 
 
 When Bushwick became part of the City of Brook- 
 lyn in 1855 there were only a few roads in existence 
 within the present 27th and 28th Wards, viz.: The 
 Bushwick Road, Cooper's road leading to the Fresh 
 Ponds of Newtown, Wyckoff Avenue, Cypress Hills 
 Plank Road and some short streets between Broadway 
 and Bushwick Avenue and also some around the Cross- 
 Roads settlement; although the whole territory had 
 been laid out in streets and the map filed with the 
 proper authorities the year previous. 
 
 Between the Cypress Hills Plank Road and the 
 Brooklyn and Newtown Turnpike Road — the present 
 Flushing Avenue — w^ere the farms of Catherine 
 Wyckoff, Mrs. Susan Stone, Abm Vandervoort, George 
 White and part of the Cross-Roads settlement. 
 
 Between the Newtown line and Wyckoff Avenue, 
 Wm. Covert, Nicholas Wyckoff, Catherine Wyckoff, 
 Peter Schoonmaker, one Clifford, John Van Nostrand, 
 Susan A. Wyckoff and Peter Meserole. 
 
 Between Wyckoff Avenue and Bushwick Avenue, 
 Flushing and Greene Avenues, continuation of Mrs. 
 Susan Stone's farm, Dr. Troutman, James Harrison, 
 
50 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Abm Vandervoort (continuation), Abm Stockholm and 
 Andrew Stockholm. 
 
 Between Wyckoff Avenue and Bushwick Avenue, 
 Greene and Jefferson Avenues, Ralph Lane, the heirs 
 of Stephen Schenck, Wm. Henry Furman, Jacob Suy- 
 dam, Watson Bowron, Mrs. Stone, the Methodist 
 Protestant or Union Cemetery, Margaret E. Duryea 
 and Peter F. Suydam. 
 
 Between Jefferson Avenue and Eldert Street and 
 from the Newtown line to Brooklyn line, Wm. Covert, 
 Margaret E. Duryea and a small triangle of Mrs. S. 
 Duryea's farm. 
 
 Between Eldert and Cooper Streets from the New- 
 town line to Broadway, Wm. Covert and Wm. Voor- 
 hees. 
 
 Between Cooper Street, the Newtown line, the New 
 Lotts line and Broadway, John and Richard Cooper, 
 the heirs of John Moffat, Francis Dubois, James Pill- 
 ing, Wm. Henry Furman, and John Vanderveer. 
 
 Between Bushwick Avenue and Broadway from 
 Flushing Avenue to Jefferson Avenue the land was 
 cut up in smaller parcels; the more important ones 
 among them were those owned by Charles Debevoise, 
 William Wall and Thomas Moore; also quite some 
 streets were laid out here. 
 
 Shortly before the consolidation the section became 
 known as Bowronville — the Bowron family owning 
 some land here — and in 1852 a church was organized 
 by twenty of the neighboring farmers. A small build- 
 ing was erected at the intersection of the two Stock- 
 holm farms, the two farmers having donated the site. 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 51 
 
 A larger edifice was built in 1853. It is still standing, 
 wings having been added in 1883, and is known as the 
 South Bushwick Reformed Church, or more popularly, 
 as the White Church. 
 
 On the former site of the Union Cemetery the Bush- 
 wick High School is being erected. 
 
52 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 The Ridgewood Section in Queens County had an 
 eventful past. The town of Newtown claimed it as a 
 part of its purchase from the Indians, but could never 
 get a clear title. The town of Bushwick also laid 
 claim to it, and Bushwick's chances were better, as 
 parts of the territory were included in the town patents. 
 Still the legal fight over the land was carried on for 
 over a century. 
 
 One of the residents at Mespat Kills, by which 
 name the section was known, deposed later before a 
 court, that in the year after the arrival of the first Eng- 
 lish governor in 1664, the people of Mespat Kills had 
 sent delegates to the assembly at Hempstead Plains, as 
 the other towns did, their section then not being a part 
 of Newtown. 
 
 ^ A later governor, Lord Cornbury, decided in 1708, 
 that the twelve hundred acres of land between the towns 
 of Bushwick and Newtow^n were part of neither town 
 and belonged therefore to the government, and he 
 granted these lands to certain of his personal friends. 
 
 After a struggle of over a century's duration the 
 matter was settled in 1769, and the boundary line 
 established as it is to this day. 
 
 In 1853 an association was formed to found a new 
 village, which was to be known as South Williams- 
 burgh, and situated on the Cypress Hills Plank Road, 
 near the northern entrance to the Cemetery of the 
 Evergreens. There were five hundred shares for as 
 many lots valued at J150.00 each. 
 
 This neighborhood was the Ridgewood of forty 
 years ago, and is now known as Evergreen. 
 

54 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 There is still a remnant of the original Manhattan 
 Beach Railroad in existence, which used to run from 
 the foot of Quay Street in Greenpoint to the Ocean. 
 Later on when the trains were sent out from Hunter's 
 Point, this road was abandoned for passenger service, 
 and what is left of it is now used for the convenience 
 of single manufacturing enterprises along its line to the 
 junction at Evergreen. The Pennsylvania Railroad 
 intends to reconstruct the line for passenger service 
 and run trains over it by way of the Pennsylvania tubes 
 to the depot on Manhattan Island. 
 
 VAN N05TRANDFAR^\H0USE 
 WYCKOFF^ COOPER AV? 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 BEDFORD 
 
 55 
 
 At the intersection of the road leading from "the 
 ferry " to Jamaica with the road to Flatbush and the 
 Cripplebush road, which connected with Newtown, was 
 situated the little hamlet of Bedford Corners. In 1668 
 a license was granted for an "inn." Two years later 
 the people of Breukelen purchased the region around 
 the hamlet from the Indians to enlarge their common 
 lands. 
 
 The old house standing on the Rem Lefferts' farm 
 was taken down about seventy years ago. The Leffert 
 Lefferts' house was destroyed in 1877 and the Nicholas 
 
 
 Jt^ 
 
56 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Bloom house, purchased by Leffert Lefferts in 1791, 
 was demolished in 1909. 
 
 CRIPPLEBUSH 
 
 The Cripplebush patent was granted in 1654 to 
 settlers on the Wallabout. The hamlet known as 
 Cripplebush was situated at the intersection of the 
 Cripplebush Road and the Wallabout and Newtown 
 Road or about Nostrand and Flushing Avenues of 
 to-day. 
 
 In 1830 Wallabout Village was started, including 
 within its limits the Cripplebush settlement, and, still 
 later, the section became known as East Brooklyn. 
 Until a school was established here in 1775 the children 
 of the settlement were placed in the Bedford and the 
 Bushwick schools. The old Rappalyea house on the 
 Cripplebush Road, Wallabout, was built by the great- 
 grandfather of Jeremiah J. Rappelyea, who was born 
 here in 1813. When the old house had to be torn down 
 Jeremiah removed to the house he had built upon the 
 upper part of his farm. 
 
 EAST NEW YORK 
 
 New Lots was originally a part of the town of 
 Flatbush and was called by the Dutch, Oostwout; or, 
 The New Lotts of Flatbush. The first settlement was 
 made in 1654 by about twenty families from Holland 
 and a few Palatinates. Six years later the portion of 
 and previously held in common was divided and 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 57 
 
 assigned. At the same time a horsemill was erected. 
 A patent was granted to forty of the principal inhabi- 
 tants in 1677 by Governor Andros. For many years 
 the deacons of the church of Flatbush were chosen 
 overseers of the poor, and from 1799-1812 the school 
 was under the direction of the church officers. After 
 that a frame house was erected for school purposes, 
 20x32 feet in size, two stories high, and used until 
 
 5CH£NCK HOMESTEAD 
 
 OH JAriAICA A VENUE, BC;iLT ABOUT 1760. 
 
 about 1888. After New Lots was annexed to Brooklyn 
 in 1886 a brick school building was erected. The old 
 framehouse was used for other purposes and was 
 recently removed to a new site. 
 
 During the War of 181 2 a detachment of twelve 
 hundred militia was stationed in the town, in anticipa- 
 tion of an attack by the British. 
 
 The Reformed Dutch Church here was organized 
 
58 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 in 1824 with the Rev. W. Cruikshank as pastor; the 
 edifice standing on the New Lots Road, where also 
 some of the old-time farmhouses are located. The 
 Eldert house on Eldert Lane and the Schenck home- 
 stead on Jamaica Avenue are among the landmarks. 
 
 New Lots was separated from Flatbush and made a 
 township in 1852. 
 
 East New York was laid out during the speculative 
 days of 1835-6 as a rival to New York City. A ship- 
 canal extending from Jamaica Bay to this place was to 
 make it a port of entry. John R. Pitkin and his 
 brother-in-law, Geo. W. Thrall, were the promoters of 
 the project. They purchased three farms near the old 
 Howard estate and laid these out in building lots. In 
 i860 East New York had one thousand inhabitants and 
 supported four churches: a Reformed, a Protestant 
 Episcopal, a German Evangelical Lutheran and a 
 Roman Catholic. A village charter was adopted in 
 1871. The population in 1880 was 18,000. 
 
 In 1859 the Brooklyn City Railroad extended the 
 Fulton Avenue horse car line from the Clove Road to 
 East New York. At the Clove Road was the Bedford 
 Depot; here the passengers were transferred to smaller 
 cars — converted stage-coaches — and hauled to East 
 New York. Prior to that, connection with the City of 
 New York was made by Holder's stages, running from 
 the "Three Mile House" to East New York, as well as 
 to Brooklyn Ferry in the opposite direction. Before 
 Holder's stages were running the only communication 
 with New York or Brooklyn was by the Flushing stage, 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 59 
 
 passing daily through Jamaica, East New York and 
 Bedford. This line was in existence since 1801. 
 
 Besides East New York there were within the limits 
 of the town the old village of New Lots, the Cypress 
 Hills settlement, formed around the Snedeker Hotel 
 about 1833, and Brownsville. The latter settlement was 
 founded by Charles S. Brown about 1859. He put up 
 two rows of houses on the fields near Manhattan Cross- 
 
 HOLDER^ THREE MILE House., 
 
 ing; and this settlement became known as Brown's vil- 
 lage, or Brownsville, and the name was later applied to 
 a larger area. 
 
 Until consolidation in 1886 the town was divided 
 into three school districts. The schoolhouse in the 
 first district was erected in 1 806 on the New Lots Road. 
 The second district was established in 1847, taking in 
 the northern end of the town. The third district was 
 
6o 
 
 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 established in the Cypress Hills section about 1850. 
 The first newspaper, The Mechanic, was estab- 
 lished by Pitkin in 1838. The Kings County Adver- 
 tiser and Village Guardian in 1853, and later changed 
 into the Kings County Journal; The New Lots Jour- 
 nal in 1870/ Die Laterne in 1878/ The Mirror in 
 1884. The East New York Sejttinel appeared in 1886. 
 
 HOWARD 
 
 HH 
 
 The Police Department was formed in 1877 with a 
 force of nine men. The Fire Department was formed 
 in 1850 and received a charter in 1865. 
 
 The most interesting landmark in this section was 
 Howard's Inn. The people of Newtown claimed the 
 portion of the "New Lotts of Flatbush" along the 
 hills, near the Brooklyn, Bushwick and Jamaica lines 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 6 I 
 
 as part of the Middelburgh purchase from the Indians. 
 To secure this valuable tract, they decided, in 1684, to 
 give portions of it to any of their townsmen willing 
 to locate upon the hills next to the Dutch. Twenty 
 acres a piece were allotted to the first eight settlers. 
 In this disputed tract, William Howard had made his 
 home, on the south side of the hills, having purchased 
 two of these "draught-lots" of Francis Way in 1699. 
 He had, on several occasions, experienced rough treat- 
 ment from his Dutch neighbors, and when he, about 
 1715, began to build a new house, they came over in a 
 body and burned the frame of the structure. Not dis- 
 couraged, Howard again started to build and erected 
 the building that became famous as "Howard's Half- 
 way House," or "the Rising Sun Tavern." In 1717 
 an agreement was reached that the south side of the 
 hills should forever be accounted to be in the bounds 
 of the town of Flatbush. 
 
 When Howard built his house, which was of the 
 Dutch type, the King's Highway from Brooklyn ferry 
 to Jamaica had been laid out for a decade, and he 
 erected his house on the road, about half a mile from 
 its intersection with the Bushwick Road. 
 
 In 1776, just prior to the Battle of Long Island, the 
 British Army, which had lain for days at Flatbush Vil- 
 lage, in front of the American outposts, was silently 
 pushed out on the various lanes leading to the east- 
 ward, and at two o'clock, on the morning of August 
 27th, the sixteen thousand men halted on the plain at 
 New Lots. 
 
 The British were convinced that a large force of the 
 
62 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Americans was secreted along the Jamaica Road, 
 which from this point led through hills and swamps 
 and was exceedingly narrow, and therefore known as 
 "the pass." To outflank these and reach the plain 
 leading to Bedford Corners, without alarming the 
 pickets, was their object. But the guides, who had 
 led them so far, were unable to guide them through 
 the wooded hills, and told the British the only man 
 that could do this was William Howard, the innkeeper, 
 and a grandson of the original settler. When the inn 
 was reached a guard burst open the door of the bar- 
 room and soon brought the alarmed innkeeper before 
 the Commander-in-Chief and his generals. Sir Will- 
 iam Howe, Lord Percy, Marquis Cornwallis and Sir 
 Henry Clinton were the early morning guests. They 
 demanded that Howard should lead a detachment 
 through the Rockaway Path, over the hills to the right 
 through the woods, on pain of being shot through the 
 head. Thus compelled, William Howard led them over 
 the path ; his little son, the later Major William Howard, 
 was taken along. From the top of the hills they de- 
 scended at the junction of the Fresh Pond Road and 
 Bushwick Lane — present Moffatt Street and Central 
 Avenue — through a valley to a point near the present 
 Halsey Street car barns. From here they marched 
 through the fields to a big tree, which stood at a turn 
 in the Brooklyn and Jamaica Road, two or three 
 hundred yards north of the later " Symons' Four Mile 
 House," near the present corner of Reid Avenue and 
 McDonnough Street. Here Howard and his son were 
 released. The vanguard had completely flanked the 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 65 
 
 position in the hills supposed to be guarded by the 
 Americans, coming upon the road more than a mile 
 below "the pass," which, they had been certain, was 
 occupied by the enemy; yet the pass had been abso- 
 lutely unguarded. The main body was notified and 
 marched along the King's Highway. 
 
 In later years, when the little boy of this narrative ' 
 was known as Major William Howard, his daughter 
 married Philip Reid. Reid built a row of houses on 
 Fulton Street and Broadway more than fifty years ago. 
 This place was at that time the garden spot of East 
 New York, facing the Green Hills, now fully covered , 
 by the Cemetery of the Evergreens. To the left was 
 the Spencer orchard. From the back of the houses could 
 be had a view of the Lawrence Mansion, and nearby 
 was the Augustus Ivins house. 
 
 The Howard estate, comprising then about four 
 acres of land and the historic tavern, was sold in 1867 
 at auction for $21,000 to Henry R. Pierson, the Presi- 
 dent of the Brooklyn City Railroad Company; and the 
 B. R. T. system has an extensive car depot and shops 
 here to-day. The houses erected by Reid, for years 
 known as "Italian Row," having fallen into decay, 
 were torn down in 1909. 
 
 BEYOND THE NEWTOWN CREEK 
 
 In the olden times the lands on both sides of New- 
 town Creek were most intimately connected. County 
 lines were unknown, the creeks were dividing lines 
 between the several plantations, for the reason that 
 
64 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 lands near a creek were taken up in preference to 
 others, and the creeks were used in place of roads 
 to transport the produce of the farms to the river, and 
 thus it was made possible to reach the fort on Man- 
 hattan Island. 
 
 The territory along the Newtown Creek, as far as 
 " Old Calvary Cemetery " and along the East River to 
 a point about where the river is now crossed by the 
 Queensboro bridge and following the line of the bridge 
 past the plaza, was known as Dutch Kills. On the other 
 side of Old Calvary was a settlement of men from New 
 England and, therefore, named English Kills. The 
 Dutch Kills and the English Kills, as well as the rest 
 of the out-plantations along the East River, were set- 
 tlements politically independent of each other and sub- 
 ject only to the Director-General and Council at 
 Manhattan Island, but became some time later parts 
 of the town of Newtown. 
 
 From Hans Hansen's plantation down along the 
 Newtown Creek to the Kanapaukah Creek, which was 
 later known as the Dutch Kills Creek, was the planta- 
 tion of Richard Brutnell, a native of England; beyond 
 the Kanapaukah was the plantation of Tymen Jansen, 
 of Holland; to the north of it was the land of Burger 
 Jorissen, a native of Silesia, who came to the Manor of 
 Rensselaervvyck in 1637, being a smith by trade. After 
 a residence there of about five years he purchased a 
 vessel and became a trader on the Hudson, and event- 
 ually settled upon a plantation on the Dutch Kills, 
 which he had bought in 1642, and rented it out. After 
 settling on his farm he erected a tidemill, on a creek 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 65 
 
 that was named after him, Burger's Kill, and is now 
 known as Jack's Creek. He died here in 1671. These 
 men were the pioneers of the Dutch Kills. 
 
 Thomas Wandell lived at Mespat Kills in 1648. 
 Brutnell's plantation had become the property of Will- 
 iam Herrick. Wandell married Herrick's widow, and 
 purchased the plantation in 1659. He added to it fifty 
 acres, patented to Richard Colfax in 1652. He resided 
 on the farm until his death in 1691, and was buried on 
 the hill later occupied by the Alsop family burial place. 
 This land came into the possession of his nephew, 
 Richard Alsop, and was known as the Alsop farm 
 until Calvary Cemetery was opened, the older part of 
 which covers a great portion of the farm. 
 
 The plantation of Burger Jorissen came with other 
 lands into the possession of Bourgon Broucard, or 
 Bragaw, who had come to the county in 1675 from 
 the Palatinate on the Rhine, settling in the Cripple- 
 bush of Bushwick, where he bought in 1684 the farm 
 later owned by Folkert Rapelye. Four years later he 
 sold this property and removed to Staten Island and 
 then to Dutch Kills. Here he purchased, from 1690 to 
 '93, a large estate, which he sold again in 1702 to Will- 
 iam Post. His son, Isaac, repurchased this plantation 
 in 1713 and added to it. Isaac died in 1757. John, 
 his son, died in 1782 on that part of the farm later 
 owned by William Gosman. Another son, Andrew, 
 retained the homestead farm at the Dutch Kills, and 
 died thereon in 1828. In 1831 the farm came into the 
 possession of William and Abraham Payntar. The 
 old farm-house built by Isaac Bragaw, probably shortly 
 
66 
 
 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 before his death in 1757, still remains near the bridge 
 plaza on Jackson Avenue, opposite Skillman Avenue; 
 but its days are numbered, for a large sign announces 
 that the ground upon which it stands is for sale. The 
 old house has seen many changes. When it was built 
 the land around was tilled by prosperous farmers, the 
 grist-mill on the Bragaw farm was of great advantage 
 
 if-' 
 
 <-/C*'^^7-l-^, 
 
 ei/7* 
 
 j/c 
 
 CTLCA^ 
 
 ^<c5L^/^j ery^, (^/^.»-e^^ 04.^ t^^y%^>-^f^^ <s>yful^^i'L^t^x, t^/t , .-^*. 
 
 
 <^/<c^z- r/ c/j'^-<s>*z-«^ '^^C^^ . 
 
 to them. To church they went to Newtown village; 
 the schoolhouse was near the river shore. Nearby was 
 the dock whence they sent their produce in boats to 
 the fly-market in New York City. By wagon they 
 went to Brooklyn ferry, and later to Bushwick ferry 
 also, and thence across to the city. Now all that is 
 left of the old-time farms is the old mansion. On its 
 one side are passing the trolley cars, after leaving the 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 67 
 
 bridge, and on the other side are the Long Island Rail- 
 road yards. The nearby creeks have been filled in and 
 the hills have been leveled. The old house is now 
 standing below the grade of the street, and the day is 
 quickly approaching when it will sink into its grave 
 and be but a memory. 
 
 BUSHWICK CHURCH 
 
 At the beginning of Bushwick Avenue is standing 
 a plain, frame church building. It is Old Bushwick 
 Reformed Church. A few years ago a row of tene- 
 ment houses was erected on the rear part of the tri- 
 angular plot, formerly occupied by the church and 
 graveyard exclusively; and now a board fence sur- 
 rounds the edifice and what is left of the grounds. On 
 the one side of the structure is Old Woodpoint Road, 
 a remnant of the old town road. The church building 
 and the road with a few little old-fashioned frame 
 houses on the opposite side is all that remains of old 
 Bushwick village, laid out 252 years ago, under the 
 personal supervision of the highest official of the Col- 
 ony. When and where was the first Bushwick church 
 erected? In most of the books referring to the ecclesi- 
 astical history of the town are found these stereotyped 
 remarks: "There seems to have been a church edifice 
 in existence in this town prior to 1720, but evidence is 
 lacking. Part of the communion service bears date of 
 1708, and there is also a receipt for a church bell dated 
 1711." 
 
 It is known that the minister of New Amsterdam 
 
6S THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 at first, and later the one at Midwout, and still later 
 the colleagues settled there, supplied the several Dutch 
 churches of Kings County. In the call extended to 
 the Rev. Bernardus Freeman in 1702 the Boswijck 
 church was included for the first time with the others. 
 According to this there was then a church in exist- 
 ence in this town. In "A Manual of the Reformed 
 Protestant Dutch Church in America," published in 
 1859, and giving the names and length of service of 
 the respective ministers, are the following remarks: 
 
 " Bushwyck, see Boght and Midwout." 
 
 Under Midwout it is noted: 
 
 " This name also included sometimes the churches 
 of Brooklyn, Flatlands, Bushwick and Gravesend." 
 
 And under Boght: 
 
 " Church organized 16 — . 
 
 John Bassett, D.D. 
 
 1805-1814. Boght (Bushwick) and Gravesend, 
 
 1814-1824. Bushwick. 
 
 Stephen H. Meeker. 
 
 1824 — . Bushwick." 
 
 The compiler has come to the conclusion that the 
 blockhouse erected in 1660 by the residents of the 
 Waaleboght, at the Lookout or Kijkuit — on the site 
 later occupied by the Miller homestead, near the lower 
 part of South Fourth Street — was used as a place of 
 refuge in case of attacks by the Indians, and also as a 
 place of public worship by the farmers near the river 
 shore, as well as by the inhabitants of Boswijck village, 
 until a church edifice was erected about 1720 within 
 the village; and for this reason the church is recorded 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 69 
 
 in the manual under the name of Boght — from Waale- 
 boght — until 1814, when the Rev. John Bassett took 
 charge of the church at Bushwick village, as resident 
 minister. The church records were started under the 
 heading, "Boght," and were kept in this way, even 
 after the church edifice had been erected in the village 
 proper, and only when the collegiate system had 
 terminated, and even the communion between Bush- 
 wick and Gravesend under Dr. Bassett's ministration 
 
 BLOCKH0U.SE erc<^UcL iQQ>Ou,x^if^KlJKUIT-BLm f 
 
 5KETCHED ATTER OLD DtSCRtPJIONS 
 
 had come to an end, " Bushwick Church " was entered 
 upon the records, and the old name, "Boght," dropped. 
 Other matter to be considered in this connection is as 
 follows: Sometime during the eighteenth century 
 another "Boght" Church had come into existence in 
 the neighborhood of Albany, and this fact may have 
 had some bearing on the change of name. The block- 
 house was the only public building in the town, and 
 the bell, for which there is a receipt dated 171 1, may 
 
yo THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 have been installed in that rude structure to call the 
 farmers together in case of alarm, as well as to divine 
 service, while prior to that a small cannon served the 
 purpose. The village was founded by Frenchmen, who, 
 to attend divine service, went over to the fort, within 
 whose walls, occasionally, services were held in their 
 native tongue. There were also sermons preached in 
 French in the several settlements, in farmhouses, from 
 time to time by the Dutch ministers of New Amster- 
 dam. Along the river front were a majority of Dutch 
 settlers located, and it is therefore likely that the 
 services of the Dutch Church were held in this neigh- 
 borhood. 
 
 Invariably the graveyard surrounded the church 
 edifice in the early Dutch settlements, but in Bushwick 
 village the graveyard was laid out without having a 
 church building; this seems to strengthen the theory 
 that the blockhouse was used for public worship, and, 
 being located upon an elevated point and distant from 
 the village, it was natural enough that the inhabitants 
 of the village had their burial place within the village 
 limits. The old roads of the town were the Wood- 
 point Road and the Kijkuit Lane. The Woodpoint 
 Road led to the Town dock, and had two branches: 
 one toward the landing on Noorman's Kill, and the 
 other to the mill. The Kijkuit Lane ran from the 
 village following the line of present Metropolitan 
 Avenue to Keap Street; near Union Avenue, meander- 
 ing along, it struck Rodney Street; Keap Street again, 
 it struck Broadway, approaching this line toward the 
 shore until it reached the Kijkuit, and then ran along 
 
72 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 to the Noorman's Kil. The one branch of the Wood- 
 point Road came to the landing on this Kil, and con- 
 nection with Kijkuit Lane could be made by boats, 
 and thus the blockhouse could also be reached from 
 the Greenpoint side. The roads led to the most 
 important points; the one to the Town dock, whence 
 the crops of the farms were sent to the fort, and the 
 other to the place where church services were held. 
 
 The church erected in the village about 1720 was a 
 frame structure with a very steep roof terminating in 
 an open belfry; the whole resembling a haystack, sim- 
 ilar to the Dutch church buildings at Jamaica and 
 New Utrecht. The worshippers furnished themselves 
 with chairs until 1795, when a gallery was erected and 
 the ground floor provided with benches. 
 
 The shore along the river had in course of many 
 years become dotted with comfortable farmhouses, and 
 the little church at " Bushwick Green" had accommo- 
 dated all those residing along the shore. 
 
 Around the Bushwick ferry a more compact settle- 
 ment had formed, and in 1827 the village of Williams- 
 burgh was incorporated. In the following year the 
 Bushwick Church laid here the cornerstone for a 
 chapel, which was dedicated in 1829. As soon as the 
 chapel was under way the congregation at Bushwick 
 village resolved to erect a new house of worship in 
 their own village, and took down the old "Beehive," 
 as the church was named from its peculiar shape, and 
 dedicated this new edifice two months after the Will- 
 iamsburgh chapel had been opened. The bell, that 
 had been taken from the old edifice and is said to bear 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 75 
 
 the date of 1705 and to have been imported from 
 Holland, was installed in the new church, and is there 
 at this day. 
 
 Furman says in his " Antiquities of Long Island ": 
 " Many of the Dutch churches on Long Island were of 
 a curious style of architecture — either circular, six- 
 square or eight-square, with high roofs and a belfry or 
 cupola springing from the top of the roof with a small 
 bell in it. The Bushwick Church was six-square, and 
 was taken down in 1827. A few months previous to 
 its destruction a lady of our acquaintance, who had a 
 fine taste for sketching, at our request made a drawing 
 of this antique church, which we now possess and 
 prize highly as an accurate representation of these 
 curious old churches, which have now all disappeared 
 from our island before the march of modern improve- 
 ment." He also says: " The oldest tombstone at pres- 
 ent in the Bushwick burying ground is one erected in 
 memory of Cornelius Bogart, and bears the date of 
 1769. There are inscriptions in Dutch on tombstones 
 in this burial place bearing date as late as 1780." 
 
 Tradition has it, that after the Battle of Long 
 Island, a detachment of the American Army passing 
 through the town, left their wounded and sick at the 
 church, to be cared for by the Dutch farmers. Lord 
 Howe, after finding that the Bushwick folks had given 
 sympathy to the revolutionists, ordered the rebel 
 church to be closed up, and it remained that way until 
 the close of the war. 
 
 The church erected in 1829 was built on the old 
 site, fronting same way as the old church did and sur- 
 
74 
 
 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 rounded by the churchyard which had begun to be 
 used fifteen years before. The ancient graveyard of 
 the settlement was a short distance from the church. 
 Since 1814 most interments had been made in the new 
 churchyard. In 1879 such remains as were left in the 
 old burial ground were removed, estimated to be about 
 
 4 tSTo 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 75 
 
 two hundred and fifty, and the bones were collected in 
 seven casket boxes, and these were deposited under 
 Bushwick Church. Tombstones with inscriptions of 
 the early days of the Dutch settlements are rarely 
 found, as there were no sculptors among these set- 
 tlers. A few stones bearing dates as far back as 1771 
 were decipherable, and were removed to the new burial 
 place. 
 
 When the territory of the village of Williamsburgh 
 was extended in 1835, it was provided that "a piece of 
 land occupied by the Dutch Reformed Church for 
 public worship and a burying ground known by the 
 name of Bushwick Church shall be excepted and 
 excluded from the said village of Williamsburgh, and 
 the same shall continue to form a part of said town of 
 Bushwick." 
 
 The foregoing lines contain the story of the old 
 church. Little fragments, gathered here and there, 
 have been carefully put together, until we can follow 
 its career from the very beginning of civilization on 
 this island. The best men in the community during 
 many generations have given their services to it, and 
 though the sturdy Dutch farmers have long been laid 
 to rest, the historic value of the structure still remains. 
 
 The following article appeared in the Brooklyn Times^ 
 September iith, 1909: 
 
76 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 WANTS CITY TO SAVE OLD DUTCH LANDMARK 
 
 EUGENE ARMBRUSTER PLEADS FOR 
 BUSHWICK REFORMED CHURCH 
 
 "Only Connecting Link in the Eastern District Between the 
 Dim Past and ttte Present/' He Says— Edifice Stands in the 
 Path of Bushwick Avenue Extension 
 
 An eloquent plea for the preservation by the city of the Old 
 Bushwick Reformed Church, at Conselyea and Humboldt Streets,, 
 which stands in the path of the proposed extension of Bushwick 
 avenue, is made by Eugene Armbruster, of 263 Eldert street, in a 
 letter to the editor of the Brooklyn Times, in connection with an 
 article which appeared on this page on September 4, relative to old 
 Bushwick's Town Hall. 
 
 Mr. Armbruster, who is an authority on matters pertaining Xo- 
 the history of Brooklyn, calls attention to the fact that this old 
 church building is " the only connecting link in the Eastern District 
 between the dim past and the present." "Other cities carefully 
 guard old landmarks and try to preserve them for the benefit of 
 later generations," he says, and asks: "Why not spare this ven- 
 erable structure and extend Bushwick Avenue through Woodpoint 
 Road in a trifling curve around the church?" 
 
 The preservation of the old church should be a matter of pride 
 with the people of the Bushwick section, for it is about the only 
 landmark of the old village of Bushwick that is still in existence. 
 Furthermore, it is, in a way, a public building, for under the Dutch 
 regime the church was as much a municipal institution as the Town 
 Hall or School. 
 
 Mr. Armbruster's letter, which throws some valuable light on 
 the formation and history of old Bushwick, follows: 
 
 To the Editor of the B^'ooklyn Ti77ies : 
 
 Sir: Referring to your article in Saturday's Times about the Old 
 Bushwick Town Hall, in which you invite your readers to give 
 some information about the old building, I take the liberty to ask 
 you for some space in your valued pjiper for the purpose. 
 
 The Dutch Governor, William Kieft, secured for the West India 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 77 
 
 Company in 1638 from the Canarsee Indians, who claimed the 
 whole of Kings County, Newtown and part of Jamaica, all the, 
 territory of the later town of Bushwick, lying between Wallabout 
 Bay, Newtown Creek, the swamps of Newtown and the later 
 dividing line from Brooklyn; that is Division Avenue and Broad- 
 way of to-day. 
 
 In 1660 Gov. Stuyvesant advised the scattered farmers in the 
 territory to concentrate themselves "as we have war with the 
 Indians, who have slain several of our Netherland people," and that 
 they could not expect any assistance from New Amsterdam. So 
 they built a blockhouse on the " Lookout," near the foot of South 
 Fourth street, where later on the Meserole homestead stood, upon 
 a bluff on the river shore. There they were to take refuge in case 
 of an attack from hostile Indians. 
 
 At about the same time some Frenchmen and others requested 
 of Stuyvesant a grant of land; he went over to the territory men- 
 tioned, and selected a spot between Newtown and Bushwick 
 Creeks, where he directed them to lay out a village, intending this 
 to be a bulwark against the Englishmen, who had settled at the 
 English Kills of Newtown. The following year he visited the 
 place again and requested to give it a name. He gave the place 
 the name of Boswijck, that translated means " heavy woods," be- 
 cause the region was covered with forest. This name has since been 
 corrupted into Bushwick. 
 
 The village was enclosed by a stockade of sharpened logs for 
 protection against attacks from Indians. In the beginning of the 
 eighteenth centur}^ the Reformed Dutch Church was erected on 
 the identical spot where its successor stands to-day, and across the 
 Woodpoint road the Town Hall was built. In 1829 the old 
 church edifice was taken down and the new one built. The Town 
 Hall, of which we have a picture in the Common Council Manual of 
 1868, was later on rented out as a hotel to help pay the town's ex- 
 penses, but ultimately the electors of the town grew tired of keep- 
 ing a hotel and sold the old Town House to a Yankee. 
 
 Williamsburgh came into existence at the beginning of the last 
 century, and was in 1827 incorporated as a village, embracing all 
 that part of the Town of Bushwick up to Union avenue and from 
 
78 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Division avenue to Bushwick Creek. In 1S35 the boundary line 
 was extended to Bushwick avenue, that is from Bushwick Creek to 
 Broadwav and Flushing avenue, but the church and cemetery were 
 excluded and to remain a part of the Town of Bushwick. 
 
 In 1S40, Williamsburgh was cut off" from the Town of Bushwick 
 and the Town of Williamsburgh came into existence. In 1S51, the 
 Citv of Williamsburgh was created. Bushwick then consisted of 
 that part of Brooklyn known to-day as Bushwick and Ridgewood 
 (in Kings County), Greenpoint, and the old village laid out by 
 Peter Stuvvesant. From this it will be seen that the upper Bush- 
 wick section has a perfect right to be called by the old town name. 
 
 When the village around Bushwick Church was in its best days, 
 the upper Bushwick was woodland, called the new Bushwick 
 lands, and each freeholder of (he town owned a parcel of the land 
 to cut fuel, etc. The road leading into this section was the new 
 Bushwick lane, now Evergreen Avenue. When the White Church 
 was erected it was named the South Bushwick Reformed Dutch 
 Church, so the section may have been known as South Bushwick. 
 
 The term Eastern District was given in 1S55, when Williams- 
 burgh and Bushwick w^ere consolidated with Brooklyn to the terri- 
 tory of the original Town of Bushwick (including Williamsburgh), 
 and the Nineteenth Ward, then a part of the City of Brooklyn, was 
 included. Since that time the Bedford and Stuyvesant sections 
 have been built up and by common use included in the Eastern 
 District as far as about Bedford Avenue and Atlantic towards New 
 Lots. Officially the denominations Eastern and Western District 
 have been extinguished after an existence of scarcely one year, ex- 
 cepting in case of the Fire Department and Post OtSce arrange- 
 ments. 
 
 Let me say in this connection a few words in regard to the Old 
 Bushwick Reformed Dutch Church. There have been of late 
 many propositions made to extend Bushwick Avenue beyond this 
 old church, and the edifice has been a stumbling block in the way 
 of progress. But we should remember that this church building is 
 the only connecting link in the Eastern District between the dim 
 past and the present. Other cities carefully guard old landmarks, 
 and try to preserve them for the benefit of later generations. Why 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 79 
 
 not spare this venerable structure and extend Bushwick Avenue 
 through Woodpoint Road in a trifling curve around the church? 
 
 This is the only landmark of the original town of Bushwick still 
 in existence, that is of public buildings, for under the Dutch 
 regime the church was as much a municipal institution as the Town 
 House or school. 
 
 It would be of some value to be able to point out to other parts 
 of the greater city, a building standing in the centre of a plot of 
 land, where two and a half centuries ago, sixteen acres of forest 
 land were cleared for a settlement which has in course of time de- 
 veloped into what is known to-day as the Eastern District of 
 Brooklyn, a section inhabited by over 600,000 people. If such a 
 section would make a reasonable demand of the city's government,, 
 it would undoubtedly get full consideration. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 EUGENE ARMBRUSTER. 
 263 Eldert Street, 
 
 THE ORIGINAL ECCLESIASTICAL 
 ORGANIZATIONS 
 
 At Bushwick Green the Reformed Dutch Church 
 was organized in 1654. Edifice erected 1720; new 
 building erected 1829. At Bushwick Cross-Roads the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in 1840. 
 At Bowronville the Second or South Bushwick 
 Reformed Dutch Church was organized in 1852. At 
 Greenpoint the Ascension Protestant Episcopal Church 
 was organized in 1846. Edifice erected on Kent Street^ 
 between Franklin wStreet and Manhattan Avenue in 
 1853. The First Baptist Church of Greenpoint was 
 organized in 1847. A small edifice was erected in 
 1849. The Greenpoint Dutch Reformed Church was 
 organized in 1848, Edifice built on Java and Franklin 
 
So 
 
 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Streets in 1850. At East Brooklyn the Wallaboiit 
 Presbyterian Church was organized in 1842. The 
 East Brooklyn Baptist Church was organized in 1847. 
 The East Reformed Church was organized in 1853. 
 At North Brooklyn the Reformed Dutch Church of 
 North Brooklyn was organized in 1854. The Christ 
 Church of North Brooklyn was organized in Williams- 
 burgh in 1846, and removed later to this section. At 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 8 1 
 
 New Brooklyn the German Reformed Dutch Church 
 of New Brooklyn was organized in 1852. St. Bene- 
 dict's Roman Catholic Church was established in 1854. 
 
 At Williamsburgh a little frame chapel was erected 
 by the Methodists in 1808. It was standing in a corn- 
 field on Bushwick Street. The Society had been 
 started in 1806, In 1838 the church was organized as 
 South Second Street Methodist Episcopal Church, and 
 was then located on South Second Street. The little 
 chapel found itself soon standing on the turnpike road 
 to Jamaica. It was destroyed by fire in 1845, having 
 been used in its later years by different organizations. 
 The Second and Third Methodist Episcopal Churches 
 and the North Fifth Street Methodist Episcopal 
 Church were among the earliest organizations. In 
 1828 a chapel was built on present Bedford Avenue 
 and South Second Street by the Reformed Dutch 
 Church of Bushwick village. The site of the chapel 
 had been donated by men who turned the neighboring 
 farms into building lots. It w^as built on a rough 
 farmer's lane, uneven with boulders and stumps of 
 trees. The built-up part of the village was then con- 
 fined to the parts of Grand Street and Metropolitan 
 Avenue close to the shore. For years members of all 
 denominations of the Protestant faith worshipped here 
 together, excepting the Methodist Episcopalians. 
 
 In 1832 the Methodist Protestant Church was 
 organized by former members of the Methodist Epis- 
 copal Church. A small edifice was erected on Grand 
 Street and present Bedford Avenue. The Zion African 
 Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in 1832, 
 
82 
 
 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 worshipping on North Fourth Street, between present 
 Berry Street and Bedford Avenue. Other African 
 Methodist Episcopal Churches were the Asbury and 
 Bethel Churches. 
 
 St. Mark's Protestant Episcopal Church was organ- 
 ized in 1837, and a little brick chapel was erected in 
 the following year. Christ Church was organized in 
 1846; St. Paul's, 1848; Calvary, 1849, and St. James 
 
 St .Tl^rfc^ C f] Lt r c/^ . 
 
 (colored), 1846. In 1839 Williamsburgh Bethel Inde- 
 pendent Baptist Church was organized. It became the 
 First Baptist Church of Williamsburgh in 1846. In 
 1843 ^ frame building was erected on present Driggs 
 Avenue, near South First Street, St. Mary's Roman 
 Catholic Church was erected on North Eighth Street 
 and present Kent Avenue in 1840. It was a little 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 83 
 
 frame structure, surrounded by a graveyard. The few- 
 earlier Catholic settlers attended services at St. Mary's 
 in New York City, originally on Sheriff Street, and 
 later on Grand and Ridge Streets. A priest from 
 New York City had attempted to hold services in the 
 village as early as 1837, but being unable to collect 
 
 
 y ^^^ 
 
84 
 
 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 sufficient money to give him support and meet current 
 expenses, he withdrew from the place. Sts. Peter's 
 and Paul's Church was established in 1847. Holy- 
 Trinity Church for German Catholics was established 
 in 1841, and an edifice erected on Montrose Avenue 
 and present Manhattan Avenue. The First Presby- 
 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 85 
 
 terian Church was organized in 1842, and a building 
 erected on South Second and present Roebling Streets. 
 The First Congregational Church of Williamsburgh 
 was organized in 1843 by former members of the First 
 Presbyterian Church. An edifice was erected in the 
 same year on South Third Street and present Hewes 
 Street. St. Johannes' German Evangelical Church 
 was organized in 1843. ^ building was erected on 
 Graham Avenue and present Ten Eyck Street. The 
 Presbyterian Church of Williamsburgh (Old School) 
 was organized in 1844 by another number of former 
 members of the First Presbyterian Church. The brick 
 building on South Third Street, and present Driggs 
 Avenue, and still in use, was dedicated in 1846. The 
 organization is now known as South Third Street 
 Presbyterian Church. The First Universalist Church 
 and Society was organized in 1845. A brick edifice 
 was erected on present Bedford Avenue and South 
 Third Street in 1847, which, after having been occu- 
 pied by various organizations, was razed in 1909. The 
 Reformed Scotch Presbyterian Church was organized 
 in 1850, and was located on North Fifth and present 
 Rodney Streets. The New England Church and 
 Society was organized in 1851. The Jewish Congre- 
 gation Temple Beth Elohim was organized in 185 1, 
 and purchased a building on the corner of South First 
 Street and present Marcy Avenue in i860. 
 
 BURYING GROUNDS 
 
 The burial ground of the early settlers of Boswijck 
 village was situated on the Woodpoint Road; being a 
 
S6 
 
 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 square plot of land at the intersection of Kingsland 
 Avenue, Withers and Parker Streets. In 1879 the 
 grounds were abandoned, and the remains were re- 
 interred under Bushwick Church. A new graveyard 
 had been established in 1814 around the old church 
 edifice on plot bounded by present Humboldt Street 
 and Old Woodpoint Road, Conselyea St. and Skillman 
 Avenue. The new church building was erected fifteen 
 years later on the old site in the churchyard. Private 
 family burial places were on some of the farms. On 
 
 THE DEVOE HOUSES & PART OF AN CiENT 
 CRAVE-Vard on the woodpoint roap 
 
 the Alsop farm, on the Queens County shore of the 
 Newtown Creek, was the grave of Thomas Wandell, 
 the former owner of the farm, who died in 169 1. A 
 large part of the farm became the site of Calvary Cem- 
 etery, but the Alsop family burial ground, by a reser- 
 vation to the family, still remains Protestant ground. 
 The burial place on the Provoost farm was on India 
 and Oakland Streets. The Schenck family burial 
 place is on the Wyckoff farm, near the former site of 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 87 
 
 the Schenck mill. The burial place on the Leffert 
 Lefferts farm at Bedford Corners was near the pres- 
 ent Bedford Avenue and Halsey Street. A Roman 
 Catholic cemetery surrounded St. Mary's Church, 
 which was erected in 1840 on North Eighth Street and 
 present Kent Avenue. Sixty years ago there were 
 several cemeteries in the Eastern District, which were 
 later abandoned and their contents removed and 
 re-interred in Cypress Hills Cemetery, some time after 
 the latter had been incorporated in 1848 and opened 
 for burial purposes in the following year. There was 
 a cemetery near Newtown Creek in the vicinity of 
 Orient Avenue. In August, 1910, while grading 
 streets, workmen dug up several skulls and a number 
 of bones at Morgan and Orient Avenues. The Meth- 
 odist Cemetery was located on the block between 
 Powers and Devoe Streets, taking in part of the next 
 block, and between Union Avenue and Lorimer Street. 
 Its contents were removed to Cypress Hills about 
 1856. The Cemetery of the Cannon Street Baptist 
 Church of New York City was located between Old 
 Woodpoint Road, Humboldt, Withers and Frost 
 Streets. The congregation was permitted by several 
 acts of the Legislature of 1864 to remove the remains 
 to other cemeteries. The Union Cemetery of more 
 than sixty years ago was bounded by Maujer, Stagg, 
 Leonard and Lorimer Streets. A new Union Ceme- 
 tery was opened in 185 1 on ground bounded by Knick- 
 erbocker and Irving Avenues, Palmetto Street and 
 present Putnam Avenue. It was some ten acres in 
 extent. The cemetery was the property of the Grand 
 
88 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Street First Protestant Methodist Church. In 1897 
 the grounds were sold, and the remains removed to 
 Cedar Grove. The Cemetery of the Evergreens was 
 incorporated in 1849, and opened in 185 1, located 
 upon the Green Hills or Cypress Hills. It contained 
 originally 112 acres, of which a small part was in 
 Queens County. It has since been increased to 270 
 acres. The Most Holy Trinity Cemetery was later 
 laid out by the Roman Catholic Church of the same 
 name on Montrose Avenue, on land between the Cem- 
 etery of the Evergreens, along Cemetery Lane and the 
 tracks of the New York and Manhattan Beach Rail- 
 road, the Old Bushwick Road and the Queens County 
 line, taking in besides a tract of land beyond the 
 county line, and covering in all twenty-five acres. 
 
 THE EARLY DAYS OF THE EASTERN 
 DISTRICT SCHOOLS 
 
 BUSHWICK SCHOOLS 
 
 The Bushwick School was established in 1662, two 
 vears after the villa2:e had been laid out. There were 
 not many children within the limits of the entire town- 
 ship. Two years later the English rule succeeded the 
 Dutch in the Colony, and the Free-School system was 
 abolished, and the schools depended on the support of 
 their patrons for a century and a half. The school 
 was started in the centre of the village and continues 
 to this day as Public School No. 23. The first school- 
 master was the town clerk, who received for the clerk- 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 89 
 
 ship the value of four hundred guilders in Indian 
 wampum, and for his services as teacher he received 
 house rent and firevyood. As town clerk he had to 
 attend to the castigating of public offenders. The 
 whipping-post stood in front of the little schoolhouse. 
 Across the lane leading to the Woodpoint Road was 
 the Town House, and near the school was later erected 
 the church. The schoolhouse was in a deplorable 
 condition when Martin Kalbfleisch settled in Green- 
 point in 1842, but there was no schoolhouse at all in 
 that section of the town, so he applied for permission 
 to make use of the old structure near the church, 
 repaired it, and obtained the services of a teacher. 
 
 In all the other schools included in this sketch the 
 Dutch language was used until about 1758. From then 
 on to the termination of the collegiate system of the 
 Dutch churches in 1800, Dutch and English were 
 taught. After that the English language was used 
 exclusively, yet in the school at Bushwick Green 
 the Dutch tongue was continued, and the sermons in 
 the church were preached in the same language until 
 the old church edifice was razed in 1829. When the 
 town became part of Brooklyn in 1855, the school^ 
 which had then been known for many years as Bush- 
 wick District School No. i, became Public School 
 No. 23 of the City of Brooklyn. 
 
 The school at Bushwick Cross-Roads had its origin 
 in a time before the Revolution, when the Dutch 
 tongue was spoken by everybody in the settlement. 
 A building, 20x24 feet and very low, was erected 
 about 1815, and was used until 1847. Up to the time of 
 
90 
 
 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 consolidation the school was known as Bushwick Dis- 
 trict School No. 2; standing upon a hill, on a point 
 that was put on the map as the corner of Washington 
 and Prospect Streets, or what is now Bremen and 
 Noll Streets. It became Public School No. 24, and 
 was generally known as Hill School. The edifice 
 having become inadequate, after a long and weary- 
 wrangle, a new school was built in 1874 upon another 
 
 3J)i^c>i\-n)Ltfe iUotiilok <§cfuc^ U*o ^ 
 
 elevated point, on the corner of present Arion Place 
 and Beaver Street. This building has recently been 
 somewhat enlarged, and is still widely known as Hill 
 School. In 1820 David Dunham gave a plot of ground, 
 30x100 feet, near North First Street, between what is 
 now Berry Street and Bedford Avenue, a locality then 
 known as "where the old log cabin stood." On this 
 

 
92 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 site a one-story schoolhouse was erected, 19x25 feet. 
 This was Bushwick District School No. 3. The dis- 
 trict embraced the territory west of Union Avenue ; there 
 were then about forty children living within its limits. 
 In 1838 thirty children were in attendance, the school 
 being conducted on such a low level that most parents 
 would not allow their children to attend. Then a new 
 teacher was engaged and within a year the number of 
 scholars increased to one hundred and fifty ; the number 
 of children in the district being three hundred and six. 
 In 1839 the sum of $125 was appropriated for the addi- 
 tion of a second story. Within a few months the 
 number of scholars increased to two hundred and 
 thirty-six; one hundred and fifty-six boys and eighty 
 girls. 
 
 WILLIAMSBURGH AND GREENPOINT SCHOOLS 
 
 In 1840 the town of VVilliamsburgh was incorpor- 
 ated, and in 1843 divided into three districts, and a 
 brick school building erected in each district. Bush- 
 wick District School No. 3 became Williamsburgh 
 District School No. i. Shortly after, these districts 
 were rearranged into four districts. In 1850 a larger 
 building was added in the First District, and the orig- 
 inal wooden building, that had been erected in 1820, 
 was occupied by the colored school. In the Second 
 District the building was exchanged for a larger and 
 more suitable one. District School No. 3 had been 
 opened in a leased building on the corner of present 
 Maujer Street and Graham Avenue in 1844. A new 
 structure was erected on Maujer Street, near present 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 93 
 
 Manhattan Avenue, in 1848. In 1852 the number of 
 scholars in the City of Williamsburgh was 6,700. 
 After consolidation, District School No. i, located at 
 South Third Street, corner of Driggs Avenue, became 
 Public School No. 16. No. 2, on North Fifth Street, 
 corner of Driggs Avenue, became Public School No 
 17. No. 3, on Maujer Street, between Manhattan 
 
 
 .■* ■<.». »^ 
 
 ^^tCZ^tP^ 
 
•:ir/.> 
 
 JZX€.~^y-€ t-^ / 
 
 ^^^^^-<^>^-£;t>^,&^-^<^'4 dT^-^ *-^<^ ^ 
 
 //\'I^C<^ <ii.,-%.,^i^*^ y^--*.C^t^j(^ 9 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 95 
 
 ,«.>>t^ <f^^^^>'^ '^ -^ . 
 
 Avenue and Leonard Street, became Public School 
 No. 18. 
 
 No. 4, on South Second Street, corner of present 
 Keap Street, became Public School No. 19. 
 
 Public School No. 20 was situated on South Fourth 
 Street, between present Roebling Street and Marcy 
 Avenue. 
 
 Public School No. 21, on McKibben Street, near 
 Manhattan Avenue. 
 
 Public School No. 22, on Java Street between 
 Franklin Street and present Manhattan Avenue, 
 Greenpoint. 
 
 Primary No. i was located on North Sixth Street, 
 near present Kent Avenue. 
 
 Primary No. 2, on North Third Street, between 
 present Wythe Avenue and Berry Street. 
 
^JC^C-^Z^^t^* 
 
 SL£.-U -^- ^ 
 
 .r:,^^,^^ .^.^^ c^2A^ 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 97 
 
 Primary No. 3, on North First Street, between 
 present Berry Street and Bedford Avenue. 
 
 Primary No. 4, on present Rodney Street, between 
 Ainslie and North First Streets. 
 
 Colored No. 3, on Keap Street, near North Second 
 Street or present Metropolitan Avenue. 
 
 BEDFORD SCHOOL 
 
 At Bedford Corners, at the Junction of the Clove, 
 Cripplebush and Jamaica Lanes, the schoolhouse was 
 erected in 1721 on the village green. The building 
 was divided by a large chimney; on the one side was 
 the schoolroom, the other half being the teacher's resi- 
 dence. Another room was added in 1775, fourteen 
 feet square, which the teacher was permitted to use as 
 
98 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 a grocery store. This building was replaced by a new 
 one in 1810. In 1830 a schoolhouse was built on a 
 new site at what is now Bedford Avenue and Fulton 
 Street, also a one-story structure, containing two 
 rooms; one for the younger and one for the older 
 children. It was enlarged in 1846. The building 
 erected on Bedford and Jefferson Avenues in 1852 
 became Public School No. 3. It was enlarged in 1854, 
 and again in 1859. 
 
 WALLABOUT SCHOOL 
 
 The children of the Wallabout settlement atten'ded 
 the Bedford and the Bushwick Schools until a school- 
 house was established prior to 1775 on the north side 
 of the Wallabout Creek on land of the Johnson famil}', 
 given for this purpose for a term of twenty-one years. 
 Then the building was removed to land of Garrett 
 Nostrand, to what is now known as Bedford and 
 Flushing Avenues. It was a little one-story structure, 
 painted red, containing one room, twenty feet square, 
 and was heated by a Franklin wood stove, standing in 
 the middle of the room, with its pipe thrust through 
 the roof. When the schoolhouse had to be removed 
 from its site, Garrett Nostrand converted it into a 
 chicken coop. In 1838 a new building was erected on 
 Classon Avenue, near Flushing Avenue, which was 
 enlarged in 1842, and again in 1848. This school 
 became Public School No. 4. 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 99 
 
 THE WYCKOFF FARM 
 
 John Scudder was born in 1619. He emigrated 
 from Grafton, England, in 1635, in company with 
 his father and three brothers, to Salem, in the Colony 
 of Massachusetts Bay. In 1652 he and two of his 
 brothers came to Southold, on Long Island, and after 
 residing there for several years removed to Hunting- 
 ton. After a short stay at this place John came to 
 Mispat Kills, where he resided until his death. As early 
 
 WYCKOFF HOMESTEAD ■ "FLUSH (NG AVE 
 
 NEAR CYPRESS AVE . 
 
 as 1668 he Owned the mill-pond in Bushwick, on which 
 Schenck's mill was later erected. This pond was sup- 
 posed to be the cause of the fever and ague prevailing 
 in this vicinity about that time. The Newtown Town 
 court issued the following order: " Whereas there hath 
 been complaint made to this court against John Scud- 
 der, Sr., by several of the inhabitants for making a 
 dam, which hath and still doth stop the passage of the 
 water, at or near Fowler's Bridge or run, which is a 
 
lOO THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 great annoyance, and it is conceived a great cause of 
 so much sickness among them, the court doth there- 
 fore order that the said John Scudder shall forthwith 
 cut the said dam, whereby the water may have free 
 passage through it, under the penalty of five pounds 
 sterling." The pond was long known as Scudder's 
 Pond, and was always referred to in the boundary dis- 
 pute between the two towns. John Scudder's only 
 son, John, married in 1669 Johanna, the only daughter 
 of Captain Richard Betts. John had two sons, John 
 and Richard B., who, in 1700, sold the property and 
 removed to New Jersey. Francis and Tunis Titus, 
 sons of Titus Sirach de Vries, possessed land in this 
 neighborhood. Francis was the owner of a farm in 
 Bushwick that had been patented to Paul Richards 
 in 1664. Tunis appears to have resided herein 1703; 
 later he resided in Mansfield, N. J. Johannes Schenck, 
 born in Holland in 1656, came to this country about 
 1683. He lived at first in New Amsterdam, later in 
 Midwout. In 171 1 he bought a mill and plantation of 
 eighty-three acres in Bushwick from Tunis Titus, to 
 which he removed. He died in 1748 and was buried 
 on this farm. Johannes Schenck, Jr., born in 1691, 
 bought, in 1713, of Timothy Wood a plantation of one 
 hundred and eight acres in Bushwick, and also bought 
 a plantation in Newtown. He died in 1729. Peter, 
 his brother, bought of him his Newtown farm of one 
 hundred and thirteen acres near the Bushwick line, 
 and removed to it. He died in 1736. The grist-mill 
 on the Schenck farm was located on the east branch of 
 the Newtown Creek, and the ruins of the mill were 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN lOI 
 
 Still Standing sixty years ago. Nicholas Wyckoff, 
 born in 1743, purchased the Schenck farm in 1765, and 
 resided upon it during the war. After the Battle of 
 Long Island, while he was performing service in the 
 American Army, British soldiers, passing the farm, 
 seized and carried off the cattle. A Hessian officer 
 was billetted upon the family, and the farmer's wife 
 was sufficiently acquainted with the German language 
 to make him understand that the seizure of the cattle 
 left the children without anything to eat, and the 
 officer was so moved by this statement that he went to 
 headquarters at Maspeth and got all the animals back 
 save one, which had already been killed. In 1781 Peter 
 Wyckoff bought the Mansion House property on the 
 Woodpoint Road from the children of the late Theo- 
 dorus Polhemus. Nicholas Wyckoff was born at the 
 Mansion House in 1799. His father moved back to 
 the family homestead on Flushing and Cypress Ave- 
 nues in 1814. Peter Wyckoff was born here in 1828, 
 and died in the old house in 1910, which, though 
 remodeled, is still the same structure that was occu- 
 pied by the first member of the Wyckoff family, which 
 owned the farm. In 191 1 the farm was sold and laid 
 out in building lots. 
 
 Near the homestead stood '* Ye Pole's house," the 
 " most ancient Dutch house," mentioned in the Hemp- 
 stead decision about the Bushwick Patent, on the east 
 side of the head of Mispat Kil. 
 
I02 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 ROADS AND TRANSPORTATIONS 
 
 During the first century and a half of the existence 
 of the town of Bushwick most of the farmers started 
 on their journey to Manhattan Island from the Wood- 
 point, where the town dock was located. To it led 
 the road that cut through the entire town from one 
 end to the other. It was the main road in town, from 
 which several lanes branched off, wending their way 
 to the strand, the mill and the landing on Noorman's 
 Kil. Although being one continuous road, it was 
 known by two different names, to which a third one 
 was added in 1704. It followed the line of the Old 
 Rockaway foot-path, which led from the south over 
 the hills toward Mispat Kil, at which latter place 
 the Mispat tribe, a sub-tribe of the Rockaways, was 
 located. It appears on documents soon after the ter- 
 ritory was purchased by Kieft as the path leading to 
 the Kils. From Bushwick village the one road dating 
 from the earliest days of the settlement led toward the 
 Woodpoint, while the other, coming into existence a 
 little later, ran in the opposite direction. The begin- 
 ning of the first road is still on the map and known as 
 Old Woodpoint Road; it then turned in the centre of 
 the block now bounded by Humboldt Street, Kings- 
 land Avenue, Frost and Withers Streets to Debevoise 
 Avenue; thence slanting toward Diamond Street, along 
 that thoroughfare to Oakland Avenue and India Street ; 
 running along India Street to a point below Manhat- 
 tan Avenue, and finally slanted toward the inlet near 
 Green and Franklin Streets. The other part was 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 103 
 
 known as the New Bushwick Lane, leading into the 
 New Lotts of Bushwick. After 1704 this road was 
 known as Old Bushwick Road for over a century and 
 a half. It followed the course of present Bushwick 
 Avenue, Bushwick Place, Bushwick Avenue again to 
 Ralph Street; following this street for one block to 
 Evergreen Avenue; along this avenue to Madison 
 Street, thence slanting to Central Avenue; crossing 
 that avenue at Moffatt Street, it turned between pres- 
 ent Chauncey and Pilling Streets and struck Central 
 Avenue once more in the next block, and came to an 
 end at the Green Hills. The Old Bushwick Road was 
 connected with the Kings Highway to Jamaica, in 
 accordance with an act of the General Assembly of 
 1704, by the New Bushwick Road, along the Green 
 Hills, now covered by the Cemetery of the Evergreens, 
 until it cut diagonally through the block between 
 Furman Avenue and Aberdeen Street, reaching the 
 Jamaica Road near present Broadway. About a 
 century ago the Williamsburgh ferry, at the foot of 
 present Metropolitan Avenue was established, and 
 soon after transferred to the foot of Grand Street, and 
 in later years the ferry at foot of Broadway was the 
 main outlet. Thus the traffic was diverted toward the 
 Williamsburgh shore, and the oldest part of the town 
 road was abandoned. 
 
 The Newtown and Bushwick Bridge Company was 
 incorporated in 1803. 
 
 The Wallaboght and Brooklyn Turnpike Company 
 was incorporated in 1805. 
 
I04 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 The Brooklyn and Jamaica Turnpike Company was 
 incorporated in 1809. 
 
 The Williamsburgh Turnpike Road and Bridge 
 Company was incorporated in 1814. 
 
 The Wallabout and Bedford Turnpike Company 
 was incorporated in 1827. 
 
 The Wallabout Canal Company was incorporated 
 in 1828. 
 
 The Wallabout Toll Bridge Company was incor- 
 porated in 1835. This road led through Sands' Estate 
 and" the Navy Yard to the bridge across Wallabout 
 Creek, near the junction of Kent Avenue and River 
 Street, now known as Wallabout Street. It was for a 
 long time the only route from Brooklyn City Hall to 
 the Eastern District. Small parts of the road are 
 incorporated in the present plan of the city. 
 
 The Flushing and Newtown Turnpike and Bridge 
 Company was chartered in 1801. A bridge over Flush- 
 ing Creek was constructed and a turnpike laid to 
 Newtown village. 
 
 In 1836 the Newtown and Bushwick Bridge and 
 Turnpike-Road Company was incorporated, which 
 continued the road to Williamsburgh by the second 
 Penny Bridge, built on stone piers and the "Shell 
 Road." 
 
 The Maspeth Avenue Toll Bridge Company was 
 incorporated in 1836. 
 
 The Myrtle Avenue and Jamaica Plank Road Com- 
 pany was incorporated in 1853. The road was five 
 and a half miles in length, extending from Broadway 
 to the Jamaica and Brooklyn Plank Road. It was 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 105 
 
 seventy feet wide, with two planked tracks, each nine 
 feet wide, and in the centre an earth grade track of 
 the same width. The road was opened in 1854. The 
 distance from Brooklyn City Hall to Jamaica via this 
 road was nine and a quarter miles, or one and one- 
 third miles less than over the old Jamaica Road. 
 
 A first attempt had been made as early as 1840 by one 
 Williams, a painter by trade, to run a stage from Peck 
 Slip ferry through the different streets, picking up 
 passengers on the way. After giving it a six months* 
 trial he had to abandon the enterprise. At the time of 
 consolidation Holder's stages ran from the terminus 
 of the Fulton Avenue line, viz. : Holder's Three-Mile 
 House to East New York, every hour from 6 a. m. to 
 8 p. M. The fare was 6}( cents. Husted & Ken- 
 dall's stages ran then from Peck Slip ferry via pres- 
 ent Broadway to East New York. The fare was 
 12^ cents. From Lawrence's Franklin Hotel, at 
 Broadway and Myrtle Avenue, to East New York 
 the fare was 6^ cents. From Grand Street, Hous- 
 ton Street and Peck Slip ferries stages ran half- 
 hourly via the Williamsburgh and Cypress Hills Plank 
 Road to Cypress Hills Cemetery; the fare was 12}^ 
 cents. Anson Powell's stages ran from East Brook- 
 lyn or Wallabout to Fulton Ferry. The Williams- 
 burgh, Brooklyn, Bushwick and New Lotts Railroad 
 was organized June 29, 1853, to run from Williams- 
 burgh to New Lotts. The company received the per- 
 mission to operate a horse railroad for the term of 
 twenty-one years. Then the Broadway Railroad Com- 
 pany of Brooklyn was organized on August nth, 1858, 
 
Io6 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 with a capital of $200,000. This road operated the 
 first horse-car line in the Eastern District via Broad- 
 way from Peck Slip ferry to East New York in 1859. 
 Within the next few years cars were run by other 
 companies from the ferry via Johnson Avenue and 
 Montrose Avenue to Bushwick Avenue; also via Grand 
 Street to Bushwick Avenue. In 1867 the Bushwick 
 Railroad Company started the Bushwick Avenue line 
 from Grand Street ferry to Ridgewood Depot, and the 
 Greenpoint line from Greenpoint ferry to the Cross- 
 Roads. The Fulton Avenue line was running from 
 Fulton Ferry to Brooklyn Avenue as early as 1855. 
 The Myrtle Avenue line ran to Broadway in the same 
 year, and the Flushing Avenue line to Throop Avenue 
 in 1854, and was extended to Broadway in the follow- 
 ing year. The Greenpoint line of the same company 
 ran as far as Bushwick Creek in 1854, and was extended 
 to Freeman Street in the following year. The other 
 horse-car lines in the district began operation during 
 the '70's. The Lexington Avenue Elevated line started 
 to run in 1885; the Broadway Elevated line in 1888. 
 The trolley cars took the place of the horse-cars in 
 1894. On the elevated roads the electric power came 
 into use in 1900. The South Side Railroad was opened 
 in 1867, extending from Patchogue to Bushwick. 
 From the Bushwick Depot cars were hauled through 
 Boerum Street, Broadway and South Eighth Street to 
 the South Side Railroad terminal at foot of South 
 Eighth Street by dummy engines. In 1876 the part of 
 the line running through Williamsburgh was discon- 
 tinued, when the South Side Railroad was consoli- 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN T07 
 
 dated with the Long Island Railroad. The New York 
 and Manhattan Beach Railroad had its depot at foot of 
 Quay Street, Greenpoint, formerly, and stations were 
 located on Humboldt Street, at the junction of Grand 
 Street and Metropolitan Avenue and on Montrose 
 Avenue, 
 
 THE POLICE FORCE 
 
 The City of Williamsburgh had a force of twenty- 
 seven policemen, nine men for each of the three wards, 
 in 1852, There was also one constable on duty in 
 each ward. After consolidation the Fifth Precinct of 
 the enlarged city comprised the Thirteenth Ward, 
 known as South Side, and the Fourteenth Ward, 
 known as North Side; both together were popularly 
 called Williamsburgh. The station house was at the 
 corner of present Driggs Avenue and Metropolitan 
 Avenue. The force consisted of thirty-six men. The 
 Eastern District Police Court was held at " the Cells," 
 on North Fifth Street. A new station house was built 
 in 1859-1860 on North First Street and Bedford 
 Avenue. In an extension to the main building on the 
 ground floor were ten iron-grated cells. The Sixth 
 Precinct comprised the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Wards, 
 known as Dutchtown, and included the neighborhoods 
 called " Picklesville" and " The Swamp." The station 
 house was on Ten Eyck Street, between Manhattan and 
 Graham Avenues. The force consisted of thirty-six 
 men. A station house was, after awhile, erected on the 
 south east corner of present Stagg Street and Bush- 
 wick Avenue. The Sixth Sub-precinct was later 
 
Io8 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 formed of parts of the Sixth and Seventh Precincts, 
 with a station house on Graham Avenue, between 
 Frost and Richardson Streets. In its territory was 
 included "The Green." The Seventh Precinct com- 
 prised the Seventeenth Ward, or Greenpoint. The 
 station house was located on Franklin Street, corner 
 of Greenpoint Avenue. The force consisted of twelve 
 men. A station house was later erected on Greenpoint 
 and Manhattan Avenues. The Nineteenth Ward, or 
 North Brooklyn, was then a part of the old Seventh 
 Ward which was included in the Fourth Precinct, with 
 a station house on Vanderbilt and Myrtle Avenues, 
 Western District. All the rest of the territory included 
 in the Eastern District was guarded by the ward police. 
 The Ninth Ward included all the land bounded by 
 Broadway, Flushing Avenue, Bedford Avenue, Atlan- 
 tic Avenue, Flatbush Avenue and the towns of Flat- 
 bush and New Lotts, taking in part of Prospect Park. 
 The portion of this large territory included in the 
 present sketch embraces the present Twenty-first, 
 Twenty-third and Twenty-fifth Wards. The Twenty- 
 first Ward was known as Cripplebush, the Twenty- 
 third as Bedford, and the Twenty-fifth Ward as New 
 Brooklyn. Malboneville, Carsville, and Weeksville 
 were neighborhoods in Bedford. The station house 
 was on Fulton Street and Bedford Avenue. The force 
 consisted of sixteen men. The Eighteenth Ward in- 
 cluded the territory of the present Eighteenth, Twenty- 
 seventh and Twenty-eighth Wards. The present Eigh- 
 teenth Ward embraced Bushwick Green and Bushwick 
 Cross-Roads; the Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 109 
 
 Wards, Bowronville. The force consisted of ten men. 
 The Ninth, Twelfth, Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Six- 
 teenth Precincts were formed in later years. The 
 Ninth Precinct station house was built in 1864, near 
 the corner of Gates and Marcy Avenues. The Twelfth 
 Precinct station house was an old building. No. 1698 
 Fulton Street, near Schenectady Avenue. The Thir- 
 teenth Precinct station house was at the junction of 
 Whipple Street and Flushing Avenue. The Four- 
 teenth Precinct, formerly the Ninth Sub-precinct, had 
 for its station house an old-fashioned two-story frame 
 building on the corner of Broadway and Greene 
 Avenue, surrounded by a large garden. The Six- 
 teenth Precinct, formerly the Fifth Sub-precinct, had 
 its station house on Clymer Street, near Kent Avenue. 
 Later a new structure was reared on Clymer Street 
 and Lee Avenue. The Second District Police Court 
 was erected on Gates Avenue, near Reid Avenue, 
 when the section consisted to a very large extent of 
 farms and fields. The Third District Police Court 
 was held on the second floor of a frame building on 
 Humboldt Street and Montrose Avenue. 
 
 FIRE DEPARTMENT 
 
 The Williamsburgh Fire Department began in 1834, 
 when two engines were purchased by the village and 
 two engine houses erected. No. i, on North Second 
 Street, giving shelter to Washington Company; No. 2, 
 on South Second Street, was occupied by the Protec- 
 tion Company. The Northsiders became known as 
 
I lO 
 
 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 *' The Roosters," from the emblem they selected, and 
 the Southsiders as " Rocks." In 1836 a public cistern 
 was constructed in front of the Reformed Dutch 
 Church on present Bedford Avenue and South Second 
 
 Street, and Mutual Truck Company No. i was organ- 
 ized and located next door to Engine Company No. i, 
 on North Second Street. In 1838 the sheriff levied 
 upon the engines, under a judgment against the 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 I ir 
 
 village, while they were on the way to a fire, and 
 Abraham Meserole bought them at the sheriff's sale, 
 and hired the engines out to the village for the next 
 six years at a rental of $150 per annum. In 1844 the 
 department was incorporated, and Engine Company 
 No, 4 was organized, soon followed by Nos. 5, 6 and 
 7, and Hose Company No. i. Public cisterns were 
 built at various points, and a large fire bell procured. 
 
 
112 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 The Eastern District Fire Department was incorporated 
 in 1857, and consolidated with the Western District Fire 
 Department in 1869. The Firemen's Hall was on 
 present Bedford Avenue, near South Second Street. 
 The Thirteenth Ward bell-tower was on South Second 
 Street, near Bedford Avenue; the Sixteenth Ward 
 bell-tower, on Ten Eyck Street and Manhattan Ave- 
 nue. About 1864 the Williamsburgh City Hall prop- 
 erty, including the Thirteenth Ward bell-tower, was 
 disposed of, and a new edifice, known as the Four- 
 teenth Ward bell-tower was erected on Bedford Ave- 
 nue and North Second Street. This tower was partly 
 destroyed by fire in 1873. The Seventeenth Ward 
 bell-tower was standing in the rear of the present 
 police station on Greenpoint and Manhattan Avenues. 
 
 PICNIC GROUNDS 
 
 The Williamsburgh Garden was located between 
 present Kent Avenue and the river shore and South 
 Seventh and South Eighth Streets. A fine sandy 
 beach extended from the Wallabout to Bushwick 
 Creek, and the section was a favorite place for fishing 
 and bathing. The road along the shore was lined with 
 willow trees. Beyond the Cross-Roads was the Boule- 
 vard Brewery Hotel, on Bushwick Avenue and present 
 Noll Street; Strey's Hotel, on the junction of Myrtle, 
 Central and DeKalb Avenues. The Boulevard Grove 
 was on block bounded by Greene Avenue, Bleecker 
 Street, Central and Evergreen Avenues, with hotel 
 entrance on Bleecker Street, near Evergreen Avenue. 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 13 
 
 The Schuetzen Park was on the block bounded by Irving 
 and Wyckoff Avenues, Grove and Ralph Streets, and 
 then there were the several picnic parks on the other 
 side of the county line, some of which have only 
 recently been cut up into building lots. 
 
 HOTELS 
 
 (AT THE TIME OF CONSOLIDATION) 
 
 American Hotel, Grand Street, near ferry. 
 
 Branch Hotel, Bushvvick and Metropolitan Avenues. 
 
 City Hotel, Broadway, 
 
 Franklin Hotel, Myrtle Avenue and Broadway. 
 
 Four Mile House, Fulton Street, corner of Reid 
 Avenue. 
 
 Fulton House, Bedford Avenue, near South Third 
 Street. 
 
 Gothic Hotel, Berry Street, near Broadway. 
 
 Greenpoint Hotel, Franklin Street, corner of Huron 
 Street. 
 
 Kings County Hotel, Kent Avenue, corner of 
 Broadway. 
 
 Knickerbocker Hotel, Flushing Avenue, corner of 
 Walworth Street. 
 
 Peck Slip Hotel, Kent Avenue and Broadway. 
 
 Philadelphia House, Bedford Avenue, near South 
 First Street. 
 
 Three Mile House, Fulton Street, near New York 
 Avenue. 
 
 Troutman's Hotel, Cypress Hills Plank Road. 
 
TI4 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Union Hotel, Grand Street, corner Union Avenue. 
 Washington Hotel, Kent Avenue, near Division 
 Avenue. 
 
 THE PRESS 
 
 Willtamsbu?^gh Gazette, 1835-185 4. First paper pub- 
 lished in Williamsburgh. Started as a weekly; changed 
 in 1850 to a daily. 
 
 Witliamsburgh Democrat was the second. Started in 
 1840; discontinued in 1847. 
 
 Democratic Advocate, 1841. Appeared for six years. 
 
 Daily Long Islander, 1845. Appeared for a few 
 weeks. 
 
 Williamsburgh Morning Post, 1847. 
 
 Greenpoint Advertiser, 1847. 
 
 The Williamsburgh Times, 1848. Changed later to 
 Eastern District Daily Ti?nes, and is issued at the present 
 time as Brookly7i Daily Times. 
 
 The Independent Press, daily, 1850. 
 
 The Long Island Zeitung, weekly, 1851. 
 
 The Kings County Chronicle, weekly, 1851. 
 
 The Long Island Fa7nily Circle, weekly, 1852. 
 
 The Williamsburgh Telegraph, weekly, 1852. 
 
 In 1854 The Long Lsland Anzeiger appeared, with 
 offices at 98 Montrose Avenue, After a year it was 
 discontinued. Ten years later it was again issued, 
 still a weekly, and, after several changes, appears now 
 as a daily, known as Brooklyner Freie Presse, with main 
 office on lower Myrtle Avenue. 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN TI5 
 
 BANKS 
 
 The Bank of Williamsburgh was organized in 1839. 
 Its charter was to continue for one hundred years. 
 The bank was situated on Grand Street and Kent 
 Avenue. It went out of existence before a real begin- 
 ning had been made. The Williamsburgh Savings 
 Bank was organized in 185 1. The bank started busi- 
 ness in the basement of a church on South Third Street 
 and Bedford Avenue. The Farmers and Citizens 
 Bank, on northwest corner of Broadway and Kent 
 Avenue, was chartered in 1852. Before its building 
 was completed the bank was housed on the second 
 floor of the Peck Slip Hotel. Its affairs were wound 
 up in 1868. The Williamsburgh City Bank was char- 
 tered as a State bank in 1852. It was located on the 
 corner of South Third and Fourth Streets; later, for 
 more than half a century, at southwest corner of Kent 
 Avenue and Broadway, and is now known as the First 
 National Bank of Brooklyn, on Bridge Piazza, Broad- 
 way and Havemeyer Street. Mechanics Bank of 
 Williamsburgh was incorporated in 1853. It started 
 business at 16 Grand Street, and is now known as 
 Manufacturers National Bank, at Broadway and Berry 
 Street. 
 
 PECK SLIP 
 
 Fort Amsterdam, on Manhattan Island, was situated 
 upon a hill that descended to Pearl Street and Bowling 
 Green. From the fort a path led to the ferry landing 
 on the East River, from which point Cornelius Dirckse 
 
ii6 
 
 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 carried travelers in his rowboat over to the Long 
 Island shore. Cornelius had settled here on a farm 
 prior to 1642, and kept an inn for the convenience of 
 
 |TrL.j_ I 
 
 PECK SLIP NEWYORK- 
 
 I 8 5 o 
 
 his patrons. The landing on the Long Island side was 
 also on ground owned by him. In 1654 the municipal 
 government began to regulate the ferry service, which 
 was, however, still carried on by this farmer. Along 
 the path to the fort a blacksmith had established him- 
 self to serve visitors from Long Island. His name 
 was Cornelius Clopper, and his dwelling stood at the 
 intersection of T'Maagde Paatje — the present Maiden 
 Lane. The path received its name " de smit's vley, " 
 or valley; corrupted later into Smith's Fly, from this 
 fact. That part of it close to the shore is to-day 
 part of Pearl Street, and the portion near the fort 
 was Brouwer Street and Hoogh Street, now together 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 117 
 
 forming Stone Street. Ferry Street is to this day the 
 name of the thoroughfare leading from Gold Street 
 to Peck Slip. Afterwards the Brooklyn ferry was 
 removed farther south, and in 1836 a new ferry was 
 started from the original landing on Peck Slip, run- 
 ning to Williamsburgh. 
 
 STATISTICS 
 
 The area of the original Town of Bushwick was 
 3,900 acres. 
 
 1706. Improved lands assessed, 2,443 acres. 
 
 1738. Population of Bushwick (including 78 slaves) 327 
 
 798 
 
 ' 930 
 
 ••• 958 
 
 including W'b'gh. 1,620 
 
 3,314 
 excluding " 1,295 
 
 1,857 
 
 3,739 
 Williamsburgh 1,007 
 
 estimated. . . . 3,000 
 
 5,094 
 
 ^^33^ 
 
 12,000 
 
 30,780 
 
 estimated. . .38,000 
 
 48,367 
 
 I8I0. 
 
 
 1820. 
 
 
 1825. 
 
 
 1830. 
 
 
 1835- 
 
 
 1840. 
 
 
 1845. 
 
 
 1850. 
 
 
 1830. 
 
 
 1835. 
 
 
 1840. 
 
 
 1845- 
 
 
 1847. 
 
 
 1850. 
 
 
 1852. 
 
 
 1854. 
 
 
 ( ( 
 
 (( 
 ( ( 
 
Il8 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 1834. Number of deaths in Williamsburgh 59 
 
 1847. " " " 187 
 
 1849. " " • " 36S 
 
 1850. Number of dwellings in Williamsburgh. . 3,816 
 
 Leslie's Brooklyn Directory for 1840-41 contained 
 172 names of residents in the territory between present 
 Broadway and Bedford Avenue, South of Flushing 
 Avenue. The first Williamsburgh Directory was pub- 
 lished by Henry Payson in 1847, and continued in 
 1848 and 1849. It was followed by Samuel and T. F. 
 Reynolds' Directory in 1850 to 1854. After that Smith's 
 Brooklyn Directory was issued for 1854-55, 1855-56, 
 etc., for some years in two separate parts, for, as the 
 publisher says, in view of the small amount of busi- 
 ness intercourse between the two sections, it was 
 thought expedient to compile the names of the Western 
 and Eastern Districts in distinct departments. Rey- 
 nolds' Williamsburgh Directory contained number of 
 names: 1850, 5,300; 1851, 5,603; 1852, 7,345; 1853, 
 8,518; 1854, 10,925. 
 
 Reynolds' Greenpoint and Bushwick Directory, 
 1854, 1,318. 
 
 Reynolds' North Brooklyn Directory, 1852, 52. 
 
 Each name represented a family of from four to 
 six members. 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 19 
 
 WARDS 
 
 Thirteenth Ward. Organized in 1854, from First 
 Ward of Williamsburgh. 
 
 Fourteenth Ward. Organized in 1854, from Sec- 
 ond Ward of Williamsburgh. 
 
 Fifteenth Ward. Organized in 1854, from Third 
 Ward of Williamsburgh. 
 
 Sixteenth Ward. Organized in 1854, from Third 
 Ward of Williamsburgh. 
 
 Seventeenth Ward. Organized in 1854, from Town 
 of Bushwick. 
 
 Eighteenth Ward. Organized in 1854, from Town 
 of Bushwick. 
 
 Nineteenth Ward. Organized in 1856, from old 
 Seventh Ward of Brooklyn. 
 
 Twenty-first Ward. Organized in 1868, from old 
 Ninth Ward of Brooklyn. 
 
 Twenty-third Ward. Organized in 1873, from old 
 Ninth Ward of Brooklyn. 
 
 Twenty-fifth Ward. Organized in 1873, from old 
 Ninth Ward of Brooklyn. 
 
 Twenty-sixth Ward. Organized in 1886, from Town 
 of New Lots. 
 
 Twenty-seventh Ward. Organized in 1892, from 
 old Eighteenth Ward. 
 
 Twenty-eighth Ward. Organized in 1892, from old 
 Eighteenth Ward. 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 121 
 
 MAP SHOWING THE ORIGINAL 
 PLANTATIONS 
 
 This map has been made with the only object of 
 giving some idea of the location of the original 
 plantations, and no attempt has been made to trace the 
 bounds of lands described in the patents that are on 
 record. The case of Jan the Swede may be taken as 
 an illustration. He had settled here among the red- 
 skins before they sold the land to the West India 
 Company. Most likely the land that he had under 
 cultivation was later included in Hans Hansen's patent. 
 The Gysbert Rycken patent is a similar case. This 
 patent seems to be identical with the one granted to 
 Adam Mott in 1646. After several sales the property 
 came into the hands of Jacob Steendam in 1653. It 
 was again granted in 1667 to Humphrey Clay, 
 "because Steendam had been absent and gone out of 
 the country for the space of eight years, etc., and no 
 plantation should lie waste and unmanured, etc." 
 Clay may have cultivated a part of the original Gys- 
 bert Rycken patent, while another part had been given 
 for the use of the pioneer settlers of Boswijck village. 
 However, Clay is, in 1706, recorded among the land- 
 owners as possessing fifty-two acres of land. Patents 
 were granted freely in the earliest times, but the 
 patentees in many cases never occupied the lands 
 granted to them; furthermore, land being plentiful, 
 the plantations changed hands quite often. After the 
 land was cleared of trees and underbrush it took at 
 least a year before a crop was produced. If disap- 
 
122 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 pointed, the planter tried his luck at some other point 
 which seemed to be more promising. If he could get a 
 buyer for his old plantation, he disposed of it; if not, 
 the West India Company gave it to some newcomer. 
 Exchanges of land were also made, whenever found 
 convenient. To give the outlines of the old patents is 
 an impossibility at this late day; it would be guess- 
 work at the best. The early settlers had no time to 
 record these things for posterity. Many of them 
 would not have been able to do it. The only certain 
 way to distinguish the lines of the several plantations 
 was by " the old marks of the West India Company " — 
 as the patents say — meaning the surveyor's blaze on 
 trees in the wilderness. They are no more. Hills 
 have been leveled, brooks and streams have been filled 
 in, and the hooks and necks of land have disappeared, 
 and none of the descriptions of the lands in the patents 
 will fit the present-day conditions of the same pieces of 
 land. Besides the "marks of the company" there 
 were a few local distinctions, which were used to 
 describe the location of lands within the territory of 
 the towns of Brooklyn and Bushwick. These were: 
 Marechavvieck, the Indian village, on the site later 
 occupied by the village of Breukelen, Rinnegaconck, 
 the plantation of Rapalie, the Cripplebush, being the 
 swamp lying between the Wallabout Bay and New- 
 town Creek in the central part of Bushwick, Mispat 
 Kil, the later Newtown Creek, Gowanis Kil, now 
 Gowanus Creek, the Wallabout, and the hills, part of 
 the " backbone of Long Island." In this manner any 
 plantation in the later Williamsburgh was in the 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 23 
 
 early days described as situated between Mispat Kil 
 and Rinnegaconck, or the Waliabout, or the east hook 
 of Marechawieck. Bedford was at the Waliabout, in 
 the rear of Rapalie's plantation. In the earliest 
 patents even the plantations along Newtown Creek 
 were described as being opposite Rinnegaconck, for 
 the reason that there was nothing between the two 
 localities to serve as a landmark. Later on it w^as 
 possible to give neighboring plantations as boundaries. 
 
 MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 
 
 Bushwick existed as a town as early as 1661; at 
 which time magistrates were appointed by Director- 
 General Stuyvesant; but the territory of the town was 
 not defined by law then. The settlers that had located 
 on the land purchased by Director-General Kieft from 
 the Canarsees in 1638 came together, from time to time, 
 to regulate their local affairs, and these men, thus 
 associated for the purposes of government, constituted 
 the town. Under the first English governor, Nicolls, 
 delegates from the several towns were assembled at 
 Hempstead to settle the boundaries of the towns, and 
 the latter were required to take out patents for the 
 land occupied by them, and thus in 1667 the bounda- 
 ries of the town of Bushwick were laid down. The 
 territory of the first village of Williamsburgh was, 
 however, not included within the limits of the town. 
 In Governor Dongan's patent of 1687 the same omis- 
 sion is noticed. Dr. Stiles, mentioning this in his 
 history of the City of Brooklyn, says: "This was not 
 
124 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 an oversight; this part was surveyed and owned by the 
 West India Company." Under the English rule the 
 landowners elected a constable and eight overseers. 
 In 1788 the town of Bushwick was incorporated by the 
 legislature, at the same time when all the existing 
 towns in the State were incorporated. Of the various 
 villages and hamlets within the limits of the Eastern 
 District the villages of Williamsburgh and East New 
 York were the only ones that were incorporated by 
 the legislature. Williamsburgh was incorporated in 
 1827 ; it still remained a part of the town of Bushwick, 
 but it now had a village government as well as a town 
 government. In 1835 the village limits were extended, 
 and in 1840 the village was separated from Bushwick 
 and incorporated as a town; the village and town 
 boundaries being identical. The growth of Williams- 
 burgh was so great that it felt the need of a city gov- 
 ernment, and in 1851 a city charter was secured, 
 which became effective January ist, 1852. The 
 town of Bushwick and the City of Williamsburgh 
 went out of existence when both of these municipal 
 corporations became parts of the enlarged City of 
 Brooklyn on January ist, 1855. 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN I 25 
 
 THE RIDGEWOOD SECTION IN QUEENS- 
 BOROUGH OF TO-DAY 
 
 The Ridgewood section in Queensborough of 
 to-day embraces the territory bounded by the Brooklyn 
 Borough line, Flushing Avenue, Mount Olivet Avenue 
 to Lutheran Cemetery, going around the cemetery the 
 line takes in Glendale village and runs along the 
 range of hills covered by Cypress Hills and Evergreen 
 Cemeteries to the Brooklyn line. The section em- 
 braces the old farms known as Wyckoff, Covert, 
 Onderdonck, Way, Hulst, Ring, Van Alst, Edsall, 
 Debevoise, Backus, Lahr, Tompkins, Bergen, Van 
 Nostrand, McCormick, Denton, Snediker, Cooper, 
 etc., farms. It includes within its limits the more 
 modern neighborhoods: Wyckoff Heights, Germania 
 Heights, Metropolitan, Fresh Pond, St. James Park, 
 Melvina, East Williamsburgh, Ridgewood Heights, 
 Ridgewood Park, Evergreen and Glendale. Part of 
 the Debevoise land, the Ring, Wyckoff and Meyerose 
 farms are now being improved. Fourteen and a half 
 acres of the Debevoise estate in Evergreen, fronting 
 on Cooper Avenue, Harmon Avenue, and the Man- 
 hattan Beach Division of the Long Island Railroad 
 were sold in 1909 for close on $100,000. The Ring 
 farm consisted of sixteen acres of land on Fresh Pond 
 Road, between about Elm Avenue and a line just 
 beyond the Lutheran Cemetery Railroad tracks. Fred 
 Ring sold to the Brooklyn City Railroad Company 
 the right of way through the farm to run the dummy 
 
126 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 line from Ridgewood Depot to the cemetery, which is 
 now used by the surface extension of the Myrtle 
 Avenue Elevated Road. The white frame-house on 
 Fresh Pond Road, south of the railroad tracks, the 
 home of the Ring family for half a century, was torn 
 down about 1910. The Wyckoff farm was sold by the 
 heirs of Peter Wyckoff in 1910. The purchasers of the 
 property erected houses along Linden Street and Gates 
 Avenue, on the block adjoining Cypress Avenue; and 
 gradually the entire farm, which runs as far north as 
 Flushing Avenue, will be built up. The Meyerose 
 farm includes the four blocks between Onderdonck, 
 Woodward and Elm Avenues on the south and Wood- 
 bine Street on the North, and four blocks west of 
 Onderdonck Avenue, adjoining the old Ring farm. 
 A half century ago the South Williamsburgh School 
 District embraced the land between the Brooklyn line 
 and Trotting Course Lane and the New Lots line and 
 Metropolitan Avenue. The little schoolhouse on 
 Cooper's Road — the present Cooper Avenue — accom- 
 modated forty pupils in its only room. In 1870 an 
 extension was built in the rear, adding another room 
 to the school. In 1883 the building was raised, and 
 two additional rooms provided in the lower part. 
 The edifice is still standing. In the '70's the School 
 District, also known as School District No. 9, was 
 divided, when a small schoolhouse was erected in 
 Glendale village. In 1892 a Union Free School No. 9 
 was built on Bergen Avenue, between Rathjen Avenue, 
 Henry and John Streets. At the time of consolidation 
 this school became P. S. No. 68 of Queens Borough. 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 127 
 
 The small frame building is still standing in the 
 school yard of the new school. In 1903 the school 
 had twenty-four classes on part time; the old Ridge- 
 wood Hotel, an antiquated frame structure, was leased 
 in 1907 for the term of three years. Ground was 
 acquired by the city near by, and the new school- 
 house erected on Bergen Avenue and Walter Street 
 with twenty-four class-rooms, accommodating twelve 
 hundred pupils. Public School No. 67 is located on 
 Central Avenue and Olmstead Place, Glendale; No. 68, 
 on Bergen and Rathjen Avenue, Evergreen; No. 71, 
 on Forest Avenue, East Williamsburgh; No. 77, on 
 Centre and George Streets, Ridgewood Park; No. 81, 
 on Cypress Avenue, from Ralph Street to Bleecker 
 Street; No. 86, on Old Flushing Avenue, near Grand 
 Street, Maspeth; No. S8, on Elm Avenue and Fresh 
 Pond Road, Ridgewood Heights; No. 91, contem- 
 plated, on Myrtle and Washington Avenues, Glendale, 
 and No. 93, contemplated, on Putnam Avenue and 
 Woodbine Street, Ridgewood Heights. Ivanhoe Park 
 Hose Company was formed in 1896 with thirty mem- 
 bers. In the same year the name was changed to 
 Ivanhoe Fire Hook and Ladder Company No. 10, and 
 became a part of the Newtown Fire Department. The 
 company now has sixty members. 
 
 Churches 
 
 St. Brigid's Roman Catholic Church and Parochial 
 School. 
 
 St. Aloysius Roman Catholic Church and Parochial 
 School. 
 
128 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 St. Matthias Roman Catholic Church. 
 
 Apostolic Lutheran Church, Cornelia Street. 
 
 St. John's German Evangelical Lutheran Church, 
 Linden Street and Covert Avenue. 
 
 German Evangelical Lutheran Zion Church, Him- 
 rod Street and Cypress Avenue. 
 
 Covenant Lutheran Church, 218 Elm Avenue. 
 
 St. Andrews Evangelical Lutheran Church, Har- 
 man vStreet and St. Nicholas Avenue. 
 
 Ridsrevvood Reformed Church, Smith Street and 
 Rathjen Avenue. 
 
 German Evangelical Reformed Church, Onder- 
 donck Avenue and Grove Street. 
 
 Holy Cross Protestant Episcopal Church, St. 
 Nicholas Avenue and Himrod Street. 
 
 Annunciation Protestant Episcopal Church, Myrtle 
 and Cooper Avenues. 
 
 German Methodist Episcopal Church, Woodward 
 Avenue and Grove Street. 
 
 Middle Village Methodist Episcopal Church, on 
 Metropolitan Avenue. 
 
 Glendale Methodist Episcopal Church, Washington 
 Avenue. 
 
 Ridgewood Heights Church of Christ, Presby- 
 terian, Gates and Grandview Avenues. 
 
 Wyckoff Heights Presbyterian German Church, 
 Wyckoff Avenue and Harman Street. 
 
 Wyckoff Avenue Baptist Church, South Evergreen. 
 
APPENDICES 
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 Indian Deed of Bushwick. 
 
 We, the Director-General and Council of New 
 Netherland, residing on the Island of Manhates, in 
 Fort Amsterdam, under the jurisdiction of their High 
 Mightinesses, the Lords States General of the United 
 Netherlands, and the Incorporated West Indies Com- 
 pany, Chamber at Amsterdam, acknowledge and 
 declare that on this day, the day underwritten, before 
 us in their proper persons appeared and came forward 
 Kakapoteyno, Menqueuw and Suwiran, chiefs of 
 Keskaechquerem, in the presence of the subscribing 
 witnesses and voluntarily and most deliberately de- 
 clare with consent of the tribe (gemeente), for and in 
 consideration of eight fathoms of duffels, eight fathoms 
 of wampum, twelve kettles, eight adzes [adzes — scrap- 
 ing implements used in dressing deer skins, etc.] and 
 eight axes, with some knives, beads, awl — [awl — a 
 sharpened piece of metal used as a perforator and 
 gauge in canoe-making] blades (which they acknowl- 
 edge to have received into their hands and power to 
 their full satisfaction and contentment before the exe- 
 cution hereof), to have ceded, transported, conveyed 
 
130 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 and transferred as they do hereby transport, cede, con- 
 vey and transfer in true, right and free property, to 
 and for the behoof of the Honorable Directors of the 
 General Incorporated West India Company, Chamber 
 at Amsterdam, a certain parcel of land situate on 
 Long Island, south of the Island Manhates, extending 
 in the length from George Rapaelje's plantation, called 
 Rinnegaconck, eastward one mile and a half to Mes- 
 paechtes, and in breadth from the East River about one 
 mile into the Cripplebush of said Mespaechtes, and 
 that with all the action and right to them belong- 
 ing, etc. 
 
 In witness these present are confirmed with our 
 usual signature and seal, depending herefrom. 
 
 Done at the Island Manhates, Fort Amsterdam, this 
 first August, Ao. 1638. 
 
 MaURITS TaNSEN, ) rj^., 
 
 ■^ \ WitTiesses. 
 
 Claes van Elslant, ) 
 
 To my knowledge. 
 
 CoRNELis Van Tienhoven, 
 
 Secretary. 
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 
 Governor Nicolls' Patent of Bushwick of 
 October 25TH, 1667. 
 
 Bounded with the mouth of a certain creek or kill^ 
 called Maspeth Kill, right over against Dominie Hook, 
 soe their bounds goe to David Jocham's Hook, then 
 stretching upon a southeast line along the said kill^ 
 they come to Smith's Island, including the same,. 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 131 
 
 together with all the meadow ground or valley there- 
 unto belonging; and continuing the same course, they 
 pass along by the fence of the woodside, soe to Thomas 
 Wandall's meadow; from whence, stretching upon a 
 southeast by south line, along the woodland of the 
 kills, taking in the meadow or valley there, then pass 
 along near upon a southeast by south line six hundred 
 rod into the woods; then running behind the lots as 
 the woodland lyes, southwest by south and out of the 
 said woods, they goe again northwest to a certain 
 small swamp; from thence they run behind the New 
 Lotts to John the Swede's meadow; then over the 
 Norman's Kill to the west end of his old house; from 
 whence they goe alongst the river, till you come to the 
 mouth of Maspeth Kill and David Jocham's Hook, 
 whence they first begun. 
 
 APPENDIX III. 
 
 Boundary Lines of Bush wick Township Taken 
 From the Governor Thomas Dongan's Patent 
 of February, 1687. 
 
 The Towne is bounded with the mouth of a certain 
 creek or kill, commonly called Maspeth Kills, right 
 over against the Dominie's Hook so ye bounds go to 
 David Jochem's Hook, then stretching upon a south- 
 east line alongst the said kill they come to Smith's 
 Island, including the same, together with all the 
 meadow ground or valley thereunto belonging, and 
 continuing the same course, they pass along by the 
 
132 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 fence of the wood side, soe to Thomas Wandall's 
 meadow; from whence, stretching upon a southeast 
 by south line alongst the wood and to the kill, taking 
 in the meadow or valley lying there, they pass unto 
 the land heretofore belonging to Ryck Loedecker, 
 deceased, and soe stretching again neare upon a south- 
 east by south line, six hundred rodd into the woods, 
 then running behind the Lotts as the woodland lies, 
 south west and by south, and out of the said woods; 
 they goe again north west to a certain small swamp; 
 from thence they run behind the New Lotts to Jan the 
 Swede's meadow, so along by a small kil or creek to a 
 corner or hook of Jan Cornelissen's meadow, then 
 over the Norman's Kill to the west end of his old 
 house; from whence they go alongst the river till 
 you come to the mouth of Maspeth Kills, and David 
 Jochem's Hook, aforementioned, where they first be- 
 gun. 
 
 APPENDIX IV. 
 
 Muster Roll of Bushwick Militia in 1663. 
 
 Captain: Ryck Lydecker (Schout) 
 Ensign: Jan Tilje Casperse 
 Secretary: Boudwyn Manout 
 Sergeant: Evert Hedeman 
 Corporals: Peter Jans Wit 
 Jan Hendricks 
 Alexander Conquerare 
 Privates: Gysbert Tunissen (Schepen) 
 
 Barent Joost (Schepen) 
 
 David Jochemsen 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 33 
 
 Privates: Hendrick Grever 
 Jan Mailjaert 
 Andries Barentse 
 Jan Parys 
 Evert Mauritz 
 Charles Fontain 
 Jan Cornel Zeieuw 
 Corns. Jans Zeieuw 
 Joost Caspersen 
 Johannes Caspersen 
 Melle Caspersen 
 Frangois de Puy 
 Jan Williams Esselstein 
 William Traphagen 
 Barent Gerretse (Drummer) 
 Dirck Volkertse 
 Volkert Dirckse 
 Jan Botzer 
 Wessel Gerrits 
 Nicolaes Jones 
 Tunis Martin 
 Carel Carelsen 
 Claes Wolf 
 Wouter Gysbertsen 
 Jacob Gysbertsen 
 Caesar Barentse 
 Carel Reyckweyl 
 Frangois d'Meyer 
 Antoin d'Meyer 
 
134 
 
 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 APPENDIX V. 
 
 Rate List of Bushwick, 1675. 
 
 Real estate at £^2 per morgen; personal estate, 
 ;^i8 each man; horses, ^3 to ;2^i2; oxen, £^(i\ cows, 
 ^2^1. 10 to ;2^5, according to age; hogs, jQ\\ sheep, 
 
 ^0.8.6. 
 
 Personal. 
 
 Pieter Parmentir ;^i48.io J^^^^A- 
 
 Jan Cornelise Dame 124. 
 
 Joost Koeckwytt 99. 
 
 Pieter Janse Witt 175.10 
 
 Woutter Gisberse 96. 
 
 Jan Paris 86. 
 
 Charles Fonttein 122. 
 
 Euert Hedeman 53. 
 
 Jacques Cossardt 31. 
 
 Pieter Schamp 28. 10 
 
 Adriaen de la Forge 
 
 Gisbert Theunisse 129. 
 
 Charles Housman 45. 
 
 Stas de Groott 
 
 Cornells Jansen 37. 10 
 
 Jan Cornelise Zeuw 54. 
 
 Caspert Jansen 73. 
 
 Pietter Jansen Zeuw 
 
 Oufre Kley 126. 
 
 Jan Jansen 
 
 Jan Jorese 80. 10 
 
 Alexander Coqueuertt .... 32. 
 
 Volkert Dierckse 129. 
 
 Real 
 
 Total. 
 
 ^64 
 
 ;^2I2.IO 
 
 56 
 
 180. 
 
 30 
 
 129. 
 
 100. 
 
 275.10 
 
 Z(^ 
 
 132. 
 
 46 
 
 132. 
 
 80. 
 
 202. 
 
 27 
 
 80. 
 
 10 
 
 41. 
 
 6. 
 
 34.10 
 
 
 25.10 
 
 44 
 
 173- 
 
 22. 
 
 67. 
 
 
 35- 
 
 8 
 
 45-IO 
 
 34 
 
 %Z. 
 
 6 
 
 19- 
 
 
 40. 
 
 24. 
 
 150. 
 
 
 39.10 
 
 10. 
 
 90. 10 
 
 4 
 
 Z^- 
 
 50 
 
 179. 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 135 
 
 Personal. 
 
 Jan Ariaensen ;^44- 
 
 Arie Cornelise Vogel 
 
 Amador Foupier 47. 
 
 Seimen Haeckx 
 
 Jabecq Jansen 
 
 Nelttie Jans 
 
 Jan Jansen Kuiper 
 
 Dierck Volckerse 88. 
 
 Jabecq Dierckse 43. 10 
 
 Hendrick Barense Smitt. . . 154. 
 
 Joseph Hall 
 
 Willem Jacobse 
 
 Theunis Gisberse Bogaertt 
 
 Total valuation ^3174. 10 
 
 Tax at one stiver per £^ amounted to ;^i3.4.6, or in 
 current pay, Guilders 154. 14. 8. 
 
 The number of men who, in 1673, took the oath of 
 allegiance to the newly established Dutch Government 
 under Anthony Colve was 35. 
 
 Real. 
 
 Total. 
 
 ^6. 
 
 ;^50- 
 
 
 37.10 
 
 44. 
 
 91. 
 
 
 18. 
 
 
 18. 
 
 
 II. 
 
 
 18. 
 
 72. 
 
 160. 
 
 10. 
 
 53-IO 
 
 40. 
 
 194. 
 
 
 23- 
 
 
 18. 
 
 16. 
 
 16. 
 
 APPENDIX VI. 
 Rate List of Bushwick, 1676 
 
 Personal. Real 
 
 1 Gisbert Theunisse ;£"i38.o8 ;^44 
 
 2 Wouter Gisberttse 109.14 36 
 
 3 Volkert Dierckse i43-i8 50 
 
 4 Charles Housman 75.iS 22 
 
 5 Cornells Jansen 32.08 8 
 
 6 Pieter Jansen 
 
 Total. 
 
 ^182.08 
 
 145-14 
 193.18 
 
 97.18 
 
 40.08 
 47- 
 
136 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Personal. Real. Total. 
 
 7 Claes Cornelise ;£28. 
 
 8 De La Forge . 40- 
 
 9 (Manuscript destroyed) 
 
 10 (Name illegible). ..... .^136. ^80. 216. 
 
 11 Albert Hendrickse 18. 
 
 12 Jan Caerlse 18. 
 
 13 Amador Foupier 18. 
 
 14 Jan Cornelise Zeuw . . . 54.02 34. 88.02 
 
 15 Evertt Hedeman 46. 27. 73. 
 
 16 Jan Korom 64.08 6. 70.08 
 
 17 Alexander Coquer 19.18 4. 23.18 
 
 18 Jan Lesquier 103. 56. 159. 
 
 19 Capt.Pietter Jansen Witt 206.03 i°°- 306.03 
 
 20 Jabecq Dierckse 45- 18 20. 65.18 
 
 21 Pietter Schamp 34- 10 18. 52.10 
 
 22 Joost Coeckvvytt 90.10 30. 120.10 
 
 23 Seimen Haeckx 18. 
 
 24 Mettle Jansen (Manuscript destroyed) 
 
 25 Jan Jansen " " 
 
 26 Hendrick Baerentse. . . . 141. 40. 181. 
 
 27 Jans Cornells Damen . . 113.03 56. 169.03 
 28- Jans Ariaense 37-04 6. 43-04 
 
 29 Cornells HarmenseVogel 37.o5 
 
 30 Pietter Parmentie 130.10 40. 170.10 
 
 31 Jacob Laroille (Manuscript destroyed) 
 
 32 Philip Berckelo 18. 
 
 ;^;^ Mattheis Jansen 18. 
 
 34 Theunis Gisberttse Bogaert 16. 16. 
 
 35 Oufie Cley 102. 24. 126. 
 
 Total valuation ^2g6o. 14 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 37 
 
 Rated at id. on the pound sterling, amounted to 
 £\2. 6s. 9d. 
 
 APPENDIX VII. 
 
 Rate List of Bushwick, 1683. 
 
 Personal, Real. Total. 
 
 Constable Wouter Ghys- 
 
 berts Verscheur ^i44- ^44- ^iS8. 
 
 Jacob Jansen 118. 2>^. 154. 
 
 Pieter Jansen Meet 18. 
 
 Albert Hendrickzen 30. 
 
 Joost Kockuyt 112. 06. 6 44. 156.06.6 
 
 Charel Fonteyn 175. 122. 297. 
 
 Pieter Jansen Wit 243 07.6 100. 343.07.6 
 
 Jacques Cossart 78. 2i^. 114. 
 
 Pieter Jans Loy 46. 10 
 
 Onvre Klay 60. n^d. 96. 
 
 Claes Cornelis Kat 51. 26. 77. 
 
 Jan Cornelis Zeeu 28. 
 
 Cornelis Jansen Loy.... 88.05.6 21. 109.05.6 
 
 Adriaen Laforse 68.05.6 17. 85.05.6 
 
 Jacob Dirckx 44. 
 
 Simon Haecx 18. 
 
 Joost Dury. 84. 32. 116. 
 
 Pieter Parmentier (in- 
 cluding a mill est. at 50. 24. 58. 82. 
 
 Pieter Jacobsen 23. 26. 49. 
 
 Volckert Dircksen 100.14 loo- 200.14 
 
 Jan Miserol. . . . , 86.10 64. 150.10 
 
 Jan Miserol the younger 36. 8. 44. 
 
138 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Personal. Real. Total. 
 
 Jan Loquier ^m. £ 56. ^£"167. 
 
 Neeltje Jans 11. 10 
 
 Theunis Ghysberts 16. 16. 
 
 Hendrick Barents Smit. 32. 32. 
 
 Joost Adriaen's Widow. 49.10 50. 99.10 
 
 Jannitje Schamp 13. 
 
 Michel Parmentier 85. 60. 145. 
 
 Total valuation ;^293i. 
 
 The rate amounted to £,^2. 4s. 3d. 
 
 APPENDIX VIII. 
 
 List of Men in Bushwick Who Took the Oath of 
 Allegiance in 1687. 
 
 Volkert Dirckse native 
 
 Pieter Janse de Witt 35 years in the country 
 
 Pieter Daniel 10 
 
 Adriaen La Forge 15 
 
 Jost Kockuyt 27 
 
 Isaac La Febre 4 
 
 Pieter Schamp 15 
 
 Wouter Gysbert Verschier. ... 38 
 
 Pieter Loyse native 
 
 Jacques Fontaine " 
 
 Pelgrom Klock 31 years in the country 
 
 Volkert Witt native 
 
 Daniel Waldron 35 years in the country 
 
 Simon Haeckx 16 " " " 
 
 Cornelis Loyse 36 " *' ** 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 39 
 
 Jean Lequie 30 years in the country 
 
 Alexander Hendrickse 25 " '* 
 
 Jean Miseroll, Junior 20 " " 
 
 Claes Cornelissen Kat 25 " " 
 
 Michiel Palmentier 23 " *' 
 
 Vincent Bale 4 " " 
 
 Pieter Para 28 " " 
 
 Johanis Fontaine native 
 
 Jean de Consilie 25 years in the country 
 
 Josst Durie 12 " " " 
 
 Jan Janse 36 " " '* 
 
 Jacob Janse native 
 
 Pieter Simonse " 
 
 Jacob Dirckse Rosekrans " 
 
 Jochem Ver Schuer " 
 
 Hendrick Ver Schuer " 
 
 Laurens Koeck 26 years in the country 
 
 APPENDIX IX. 
 
 From the Census of Kings County about 1698. 
 
 A list of all the freeholders, their wives, children, 
 apprentices and slaves within the Kings County, on 
 Nassauw Island. 
 
 [Note. — " E." affixed to the name means English; "F.," 
 French.] 
 
 IN THE TOWN OF BOSWIJCK. 
 
 Men. Women. Chil- Appren- Slaves, 
 dren. tices. 
 
 Pieter Jans Wit i .. i .. 5 
 
 Dorothea Verschuur i i i 3 
 
 JoosDure(F. ) i i 
 
140 
 
 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Men. 
 
 Albert Hendrickse i 
 
 Hendrick Willemse i 
 
 Abraham Detooy (F.). . . i 
 
 Jannetse Schamp . . . 
 
 Jan Sevenhooven i 
 
 David Sprong i 
 
 Phillip Volkertsz i 
 
 Pieter Willemse i 
 
 Jacobus Looyse i 
 
 Auke Reynierse i 
 
 Jochem Verschuur i 
 
 Willem West (E.) i 
 
 Nicholaes Brouwer i 
 
 Gabriel Sprong. . i 
 
 Pieter Looyse i 
 
 Lourens Hook 2 
 
 Joos Dure, Senior (F.) . . i 
 
 Michiel Parmentier (F.) . 2 
 
 Pieter Usilia i 
 
 Fredrick Symonse i 
 
 Hendk Jansz Van Ames- 
 
 foort I 
 
 Jan Muserol (F. ) i 
 
 Thomas Baude (F. ) i 
 
 Cornells Looyse 2 
 
 Jacob Bibon (F.). . i 
 
 Jan Miserol, Junior (F. ) 2 
 
 Anna Fontain , 
 
 Hendricus De Foreest. . . i 
 
 Theunis Woertman i 
 
 Women. Chil- Appren- Slaves, 
 dren. tices. 
 
 3 4 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Men. Women. Chil- Appren- 
 dren. tices. 
 
 Barent Gerritz Vlasbeek r 
 
 Anna Volkertse 
 
 Dirck Volkertze i 
 
 Pieter Pra i 
 
 Humphry Clay (E.) i 
 
 Abraham Brouvver i 
 
 Alexandre Coquer (F.). . i 
 
 Jurian Coljer 2 
 
 Jean Lescuier (F.) 3 
 
 Juriaen Nagel i 
 
 Charles Fontaine (F.). . . 2 
 
 Catelyntie Cats 
 
 Hendrick Janse 2 
 
 Arent Andriesse i 
 
 Dirck Andriesse i 
 
 51 
 
 141 
 
 Slaves. 
 
 49 141 
 
 52 
 
 APPENDIX X. 
 
 The Improved Lands in Bushwick in 1706, as then 
 IN Fence, were as Follows: 
 
 Owners. Acres. 
 
 Hackert Hendricks' Widow 186 
 
 Peter Praa 68 
 
 Humphrey Clay q2 
 
 Peter De Wit's Widow 96 
 
 Charles Fountain cq 
 
 Teunis Wortman py 
 
142 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Owners. Acres. 
 
 Francis Titus 126 
 
 James Bobyne 50 
 
 John MeseroU 170 
 
 Jurian Hagell 95 
 
 Cornelis Van Katts loS 
 
 John Luquier loS 
 
 John Luquier's Mill 25 
 
 Philip Volkerts 54 
 
 Peter Loysten 50 
 
 Joost Camp 40 
 
 Jochem Verscheur 60 
 
 Auck Hegeman 40 
 
 Peter Williams 60 
 
 Joost Dyeye 107 
 
 Garret Cooke 50 
 
 Cobus Collier 20 
 
 William West 14 
 
 Derick Andriese 14 
 
 Cornelius Laynson 52 
 
 Hendrick Jansen 54 
 
 Gysbert Bogert 10 
 
 Dorothy Verscheur 70 
 
 Gabon Laquill 36 
 
 Ann Andriessen 30 
 
 Gabriel Sprong 16 
 
 Teunis Titus 47 
 
 Hendrick De Forest 14 
 
 Jacobus Jansen 20 
 
 Charles Folkerts no 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 45 
 
 Owners. Acres. 
 
 John Hendrick 26 
 
 Frederic Symonds 61 
 
 Philip Nagel 13 
 
 Total acres ... 2 , 443. 
 
 Chas. L. Fountaine, ) . 
 
 ' y Assessors. 
 Peter Praa, ) 
 
 Peter Cortilleau, Surveyor. 
 
 APPENDIX XI. 
 
 BusHwicK Division of the Regiment of Militia in 
 Kings County, 1715. 
 
 France Titus, Captain 
 Frederick Simson, Lieut. 
 Tunis Wortman, Ensign 
 Cornelius Van Katt 
 John Missarole 
 Aren Anderson 
 Joras Isolin 
 Johannis Albertsen 
 Johannis Van Katt 
 Isaac Laquer 
 Peter Coljor 
 Peter Laquer 
 Isaac Loise 
 
 Total, 
 
 Abraham Laquer 
 David Van Katt 
 Charles Coenertt 
 Peter Conselje 
 Jacobus Cosine 
 Simon Derje 
 Andresse Andresin 
 Johannis Coljor 
 Garrett Sprong 
 John Sprong 
 Jacobus Coljor 
 Dirick Adrajanse 
 Johannis Bookhoutt 
 26. 
 
144 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 APPENDIX XII. 
 
 A List of all the Inhabitants of the Township 
 
 OF BusHWYCK — Both White and Black — 
 
 Males and Females, in 1738. 
 
 THE NAMES OF THE "^ | 
 
 masters OF HOUSE -^^ 
 
 OR mistress, etc. S o 
 
 Johannes Schenck .... i 
 
 David Sprongh 3 
 
 Marijtie Schenck 4 
 
 Jannitie Van Ende. ... 6 
 
 Simon Dorijie 3 
 
 Charel Dorijie 2 
 
 Folkert Folkertse i 
 
 Necklaas Folkertse ... i 
 
 Jacobus Cozyn 2 
 
 Pieter Fonck ., 4 
 
 Gertruy Wortman .... 2 
 
 Abraham Coeck i 
 
 Joost Dorijie. i 
 
 Jacob Pieterse 2 
 
 Arent Stockholum. ... 2 
 
 Daniel Bodet 2 
 
 Jurijen Nagel 2 
 
 Hendrick Vande Wte. i 
 
 Femmetie Anders 2 
 
 Abraham Liquir 4 
 
 CO 
 
 u 
 
 
 
 u 
 
 
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 S2 
 
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 4 
 
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THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 45 
 
 I ^ 1^ I I 
 
 THE NAMES OF THE t^ >! B^ 3 ^23 
 
 MASTERS OF HOUSE -3 « 2^2 ° "^sj 
 
 OR MISTRESS, ETC. S ^ i5 -2 « ^ I^ o 
 
 Tryntie Calijer 20200 
 
 Jacobus Calijer i o i i o 
 
 Pieter Wit 3 i 4 3 i 
 
 Johannis Pieter 10200 
 
 David Cats 10230 
 
 Alexander Berd 2 o 2 o i 
 
 Pieter Praa i o i o 4 
 
 Derek Wortman 20102 
 
 Frans Tijtus 2 i i 2 3 
 
 Thomas Fardon 5 o 2 2 3 
 
 James Bobijn i o i o i 
 
 Andries Stockholum.. 2 i 2 3 i 
 
 Johannis Calijer 30410 
 
 Jacobus Calijer 20300 
 
 Johannis Boechut 3 o 5 i i 
 
 Tuenis Rapellie i o i 2 i 
 
 Abraham Dorijie 4 2 3 2 o 
 
 Leffert Leffertse i o i 3 i 
 
 Jan Mesrol 4 i 4 2 i 
 
 Pieter Consellie 2 2 5 o o 
 
 Johannis Aberse 3 o 6 i i 
 
 en 
 
 B> 
 (X, 2 
 
 V 
 
 > 
 
 
 
 
 
 H 
 
 C 
 
 Hi 
 
 u > 
 
 cS 
 
 5^ 
 
 <u 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 2 
 
 3 
 
 
 
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 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
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 4 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 92 27 91 39 31 II 27 9 
 Compt. : 325 Ziele (Souls). 
 
146 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 APPENDIX XIII. 
 
 A List Taken by Captain Francis Titus, of Bush- 
 wick, IN 1755, OF the Slaves Belonging to the 
 Inhabitants of His District is as Follows: 
 
 Owner's name. Male. Female. 
 
 John MisroU t i 
 
 John Liequare i 
 
 George Durje i i 
 
 Folkert Folkertsen 2 2 
 
 William Bramebosch 2 i 
 
 John Roseveldt i 
 
 Jacob MisroU i 
 
 Nicholas Lefferts i 
 
 Catherine Lefferts 
 
 Abraham Liequere i 
 
 Marritje Woertman i 
 
 David Van Cots i 
 
 Theodorus Polhemus i i 
 
 Daniel Burdet 2 2 
 
 Jacob Durje i i 
 
 Peter Lot i 
 
 Abraham Schenck 4 i 
 
 Evert Van Gelder i 
 
 Nector Folkertsen i i 
 
 Andris Stucholm i 
 
 Peter Consel je i 
 
 Capt. Francis Titus i 2 
 
 Abraham Miller i 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 147 
 
 APPENDIX XIV. 
 
 Taxable Valuation, 
 bushwick. 
 
 Real Personal 
 
 Estate. Estate. 
 
 1805 $ 275,007 
 
 1806 275,000 
 
 1812 265,859 
 
 1813 267,804 
 
 1814 270,112 
 
 1815 262,889 
 
 1816 265,969 
 
 1817 250,955 $ 11,954 
 
 1818 250,707 11,221 
 
 1819 280,104 37,095 
 
 1820 273,712 32,181 
 
 1821 255,125 31,994 
 
 1822 254,289 31,657 
 
 1823 226,564 30,814 
 
 1824 208,800 36,459 
 
 1825 232,512 89,136 
 
 1826 238,687 93,097 
 
 1827 251,082 96,674 
 
 1828 359,675 47,803 
 
 1829 , 405,945 63,544 
 
 1830 441,355 56,908 
 
 1831 475,570 67,925 
 
 1832 479,610 66,590 
 
 1833 588,345 66,280 
 
 1834 923,210 74,991 
 
148 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 . Real Personal 
 
 Estate. Estate, 
 
 ^^35 2,665,753 294,056 
 
 1836 3,270,326 256,200 
 
 1837 2,496,693 610,676 
 
 1838 2,493,771 302,122 
 
 1839 2,682,546 326,897 
 
 1840 408,819 83.950 
 
 1841 427,820 71,700 
 
 1842 451,670 72,950 
 
 1843 419,720 56,400 
 
 1844 444,433 88,700 
 
 1845 472,161 74,850 
 
 1846 568,970 119,750 
 
 1847 661,560 93,600 
 
 1848 737,635 83,600 
 
 1849 • 801,845 89,000 
 
 1S50 913,375 113,130 
 
 1851 2,069,618 128,200 
 
 1852 No Record No Record 
 
 1853 
 
 1854 
 
 APPENDIX XV. 
 
 Taxable Valuation, 
 williamsburgh. 
 
 Real Personal 
 
 Estate. Estate. 
 
 1840 $ 2,409,171 $ 297,121 
 
 1841 2,452,490 224,101 
 
 1842 2,421,996 225,410 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 49 
 
 Real Personal 
 
 Estate. Estate, 
 
 1843 2,130,970 170,850 
 
 1844 2,281,443 248,150 
 
 1845 2,406,606 313,300 
 
 1846 2,773,994 260,440 
 
 1847 2,922,802 202,360 
 
 1848 3,271,720 199,700 
 
 1849 3,507,355 167,200 
 
 1850 4,139,219 287,416 
 
 1851 8,562,788 3^^,333 
 
 1852 9,431,420 514,400 
 
 1853 10,784,714 1,331,594 
 
 1854 11,242,655 1,614,559 
 
 APPENDIX XVI. 
 
 Laws Relating to Williamsburgh. 
 
 Village of Williamsburgh Incorporated. 
 
 By Chapter 260 of Laws of 1827 (p. 270), passed 
 April 14th, 1827, the section of the town of Bushwick, 
 known by the name of Williamsburgh, and contained 
 within the following bounds, viz: Beginning at the 
 bay, or river, opposite the town of Brooklyn and run- 
 ning thence easterly along the division line between 
 the towns of Bushwick and Brooklyn to the land of 
 Abraham A. Remsen, thence northerly by the same to 
 a road or highway at a place called Sweed's Fly, thence 
 by the same highway to the dwelling house late of 
 John Vandervoort, deceased, thence in a straight line 
 northerly to a small ditch or creek against the meadow 
 
150 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 of John Skillman, thence by said creek to Norman's 
 Kill, thence by the middle or centre of Norman's Kill 
 to the East River, thence by the same to the place of 
 beginning, was incorporated a village by the name of 
 the Village of Williamsburgh ; the said village was con- 
 stituted a road district exempt from the superinten- 
 dence and power of the commissioners of highways of 
 the town of Bushwick, and the trustees of said village 
 were invested with all the powers over said road dis- 
 trict, and subject to all the duties in relation thereto, 
 by law conferred or enjoined upon said commissioners; 
 and said trustees were further required to cause to be 
 made a survey and map of said village, exhibiting the 
 streets, roads and alleys to be permanently laid out, 
 etc., which map should be kept by the clerk of the cor- 
 poration, subject to the inspection of the inhabitants, 
 etc., in order that no person might plead ignorance of 
 the plan to be adopted for opening, laying out, level- 
 ing and regulating the streets of said village; and said 
 trustees were authorized on application in writing to 
 order and direct the pitching, regulating and paving 
 the streets according to such map, to widen and alter 
 all public roads, streets and highways, already laid out 
 in said village, to a width not exceeding sixty feet, and 
 to lay out and make such other roads and streets con- 
 formable to the map of said village as they should 
 think necessary or convenient for the inhabitants. 
 
 Part of Bushwick Annexed to Williamsburgh. 
 
 By Chapter 102 of Laws of 1835 (p. 88), passed 
 April i8th, 1835, a portion of the town of Bushwick, 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN I.5 I 
 
 ^' beginning at the southeast corner of the present vil- 
 lage of Williamsburgh, running thence southeasterly 
 along the line that divides the town of Bushwick and 
 the city of Brooklyn, to a turnpike road leading from 
 Brooklyn to Newtown and Flushing, at a point near, 
 and southwesterly of the house of Charles De Bevoise, 
 thence running along said road northeasterly to the 
 Cross-Roads, then northerly along the road leading to 
 Bushwick church to the Williamsburgh and Jamaica 
 turnpike, thence northerly along the road, passing the 
 church, and leading to Newtown bridge, about twelve 
 hundred feet, to an abrupt angle in said road, turning 
 to the east, then westerly about eighteen hundred feet, 
 until it intersects the head of navigation of a branch of 
 Bushwick creek, then westerly along said branch creek, 
 according to its meanderings, to the Main creek, which 
 is the present boundary of the said village of Williams- 
 burgh, then southerly along the eastern boundary line 
 of the said village of Williamsburgh to the place of 
 beginning," was annexed to the village of Williams- 
 burgh, and Nicholas Wyckoff, David Johnson, Peter 
 Stagg, Robert Ainslie and John Leonard were ap- 
 pointed commissioners "to designate and perma- 
 nently locate all the streets and roads to be there- 
 after laid out by the trustees of said village within the 
 limits of the territory by said act added to said village 
 bounds," and were required within four months to file 
 with the clerk of the county of Kings, and with the 
 clerk of said village, maps of such additional territory, 
 exhibiting ail the streets and roads decided upon by 
 them. 
 
152 the eastern district of brooklyn 
 
 Town of Williamsburgh. 
 
 By Chapter 51 of Laws of 1840 (p. 35), passed 
 March i6th, 1840, that part of the town of Bushwick 
 included within the chartered limits of the village of 
 Williamsburgh was created the town of Williamsburgh, 
 and divided into three assessment districts. 
 
 Annexation of Part of Brooklyn to 
 Williamsburgh. 
 
 By Chapter 144 of Laws of 1850 (p. 242), passed 
 April 4th, 1850, so much of the territory of the city of 
 Brooklyn as lies east of the centre of Division Avenue, 
 between the intersection of South Sixth Street, in the 
 village of Williamsburgh, and Flushing avenue, in the 
 city of Brooklyn, was annexed to the village of 
 Williamsburgh. 
 
 City of Williamsburgh Incorporated. 
 
 By Chapter 91 of Laws of 1851 (p. no), passed 
 April 7th, 185 1, the city of Williamsburgh was incor- 
 porated, comprising the village of Williamsburgh, and 
 was divided into three wards, and the common council 
 thereof was authorized, under certain restrictions and 
 limitations, to cause streets and avenues to be opened 
 and widened, etc., and public squares and parks to be 
 opened, etc. 
 
 Consolidation of Brooklyn, Williamsburgh 
 AND Bushwick. 
 
 By Chapter 577 of Laws of 1853, passed July i8th, 
 1853, provision was made for consolidating the cities 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 53 
 
 of Brooklyn and Williamsburgh and the town of 
 Bushwick. 
 
 By Chapter 384 of Laws of 1854 (p. 829), passed 
 April 17th, 1854, all that part of the county of Kings, 
 known as the cities of Brooklyn and Williamsburgh 
 and the town of Bushwick, and bounded easterly by 
 the town of Newtown, Queens County, south by the 
 towns of New Lots, Flatbush and New Utrecht, west 
 by the town of New Utrecht and the Bay of New York, 
 and north by the East River, was consolidated into one 
 municipal corporation called the city of Brooklyn, and 
 divided into eighteen wards, and into the Eastern and 
 Western Districts. 
 
 Distinction of Eastern and Western Districts 
 
 Abolished. 
 
 By Chapter 496 of Laws of 1855 (p. 905), passed 
 April 14th, 1855, all local distinctions recognized by 
 law, in relation to the Eastern and Western Districts, 
 of the city of Brooklyn, were abolished, except so far 
 as relates to the fire department thereof. 
 
 APPENDIX XVII. 
 
 The Solid Men of Williamsburgh. 
 
 In 1847 a list in pamphlet form was published, con- 
 taining the names of citizens of Brooklyn and Will- 
 iamsburgh, whose possessions in real and personal 
 estate amounted to ten thousand dollars and upwards. 
 
154 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 We here give the names of the "Solid Men of Will- 
 iamsburgh," taken from the list: 
 
 Ainslie, James f 15,000 
 
 Baker, Mills P 20,000 
 
 Brown, Wm. H. E . . . 20,000 
 
 Berry, Richard B 20,000 
 
 Burdett, Joshua A 15,000 
 
 Burdon, Jos. W 15,000 
 
 Cook, John 20,000 
 
 Coffin, Timothy 10,000 
 
 Darlington, Thomas 10,000 
 
 Cummings, Abijah P 35,000 
 
 Duncan, Fleming 25,000 
 
 Farley, Edward 20,000 
 
 Graves, Downing G 25,000 
 
 Lake, Richard 30,000 
 
 JLake, Thomas 30,000 
 
 Lake, William 40,000 
 
 Laytin, William 30,000 
 
 Leaycraft, Richard 200,000 
 
 Leaycraft, William 10,000 
 
 Minturn, E. & H 150,000 
 
 Moore, Thomas C 15,000 
 
 Morrell, Francis V" 25,000 
 
 M'Briar, John 15,000 
 
 Meserole, David M ^ 20,000 
 
 Miles, W. B 25,000 
 
 Miller, John 20,000 
 
 Odell, Jonathan 25,000 
 
 Polley, Grahams 40,000 
 
 Richardson, Lemuel 30,000 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 155" 
 
 Ricard, George 25,000 
 
 Sargeant, Thomas 25,000 
 
 Skillman, John 35,000 
 
 Sparkman, James D , 300,000 
 
 Ten Eyck, Richard 25,000 
 
 Thursby, John 25,000 
 
 Ulford, Levi W 40,000 
 
 Van Sant, T. J 25,000 
 
 Wall, William 25,000 
 
 Waterbury, J 175,000 
 
 Waterbury, N 200,000 
 
 Waterbury, L 40, 000 
 
 Van Dorn, Rev. W. H 40,000 
 
 Warner, T 30, 000 
 
 Withington, Elijah . , . , 30,000 
 
 APPENDIX XVIII. 
 
 Inscriptions on tombstones in the ancient Bushwick 
 graveyard, still visible in 1861, were copied by Dr. 
 Stiles: 
 
 Died. Age. 
 
 Andries Stockholm i773 7^ years 
 
 Isaac Lott 1771 66 
 
 Capt. Lawrence Coe 1780 50 
 
 Abraham Bogert 1792 69 
 
 Maria Bourem 1807 69 
 
 Sarah Ann Skillman 1845 26 
 
 Andrew Van Horn 1828 78 
 
 Baffir Van Horn (his wife) 1837 91 
 
 Francis Titus 1802 74 
 
156 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Died. Age. 
 
 Francis Williams 1797 i year 
 
 Francis Titus 1799 24 years 
 
 David Miller 1817 61 " 
 
 Isaac Debevoise 1831 74 " 
 
 1749— D. B. M. D. B. 
 1758— H. B. B. 
 
 APPENDIX XIX. 
 
 Inscriptions on tombstones in the Schenck family 
 burying ground, on the Wyckoff farm, were copied by 
 
 Dr. Stiles in i860: 
 
 Died, Age. 
 
 Johannes Schenck 1748 92 years 
 
 Cornells Schenck 1740 
 
 Nellie Schenck 1763 17 " 
 
 Maria Magdalena Schenck. : 1779 17 " 
 
 Elsie Schenck 1782 25 " 
 
 Abraham Schenck 16 days 
 
 Maria Schenck 1740 50 years 
 
 Maria Magdalena Schenck 1729 70 " 
 
 Maria Schenck 1776 19 " 
 
 Maria Magdelena McPhern 1782 i year 
 
 Teunis Schenck 1800 S^ years 
 
 Catherine Schenck i793 65 *' 
 
 Peter T. Schenck 1808 ^6 " 
 
 Elizabeth O'Neale 
 
 John O'Neale 1816 64 " 
 
 Catherine Dandy 1828 32 " 
 
 Catherine Schenck 1858 18 " 
 
 Peter P. Schenck 1832 39 " 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 157 
 
 APPENDIX XX. 
 
 Tombstones in the Bushwick churchyard, copied in 
 
 1880 by Geo. Sparrow, A. M. This list is taken from 
 
 the Kings County Genealogical Club Collections, 
 
 which contain the inscriptions in full. Some of the 
 
 tombstones were removed from the ancient graveyard 
 
 to this place: 
 
 Died. Age. 
 
 Anderies Stockholm i773 7^ years 
 
 Elizabeth Cornel 1780 55 *' 
 
 Capt. Lawrence Coe 1780 50 
 
 William Morrell 1831 30 " 
 
 Isaac De Bevoise 1831 74 
 
 Maria Jane De Bevoise 1831 i mth. 
 
 Magdalena De Bevoise 1 83 1 i year 
 
 Adrianna De Bevoise 1833 27 years 
 
 Patrick Weir i799 26 " 
 
 Ann Anderson 22 
 
 Frederick Hueth 1802 56 " 
 
 M. Elmd 
 
 B. B., D. B. M.— 1756. 
 
 John A. Meserole 1833 82 " 
 
 Gertrude Meserole 1801 35 " 
 
 John V. Robbins 1831 23 " 
 
 Jeremiah Meserole 1827 34 
 
 Mercy Baseley 1833 31 
 
 Ellen Maria Baseley 1836 
 
 David Miller 1823 38 *' 
 
 David Miller 1815 61 " 
 
 Catherine Miller i794 
 
 John Meserole. 1817 i year 
 
158 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Died. Age. 
 
 Harmpie Van Cotts 1814 52 " 
 
 Sarah Van Cott 1828 32 " 
 
 David Van Cott 1824 . 70 " 
 
 Sarah Schenck 1838 61 " 
 
 Sarah Elizabeth Schenck 1839 6 mths. 
 
 John Schenck 1842 2 mths. 
 
 Abraham Vandervoort ^849 64 years 
 
 Stephen Schenck 1850 45 *' 
 
 Anna Swezey 184. — 
 
 H. Ann 
 
 1842 — 
 
 Four stones, inscription side down, 
 
 s Bogert 1819 
 
 Hannah Cantrell 1843 43 
 
 Jeremiah Boerum 181 7 27 
 
 Jacob Boerum 1852 82 
 
 Adrienna Boerum 1835 81 
 
 Large plot, enclosed, with railing, no stones. 
 
 Jacob Van Cotts 1845 81 
 
 David Van Cotts 1845 46 
 
 John Schenck 1844 77 
 
 Gertrude Schenck 1 849 53 
 
 William Degraw 1826 ^;^ 
 
 Samuel Holcomb Meeker 1829 2 
 
 APPENDIX XXI. 
 
 Obsolete Street Names in the Eastern District. 
 
 Since the question of altering the names of many 
 streets in this borough is to be taken up shortly, it may 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN I 59 
 
 be of interest to review the change of street names 
 that has taken place in the past in the Eastern District. 
 
 When Williamsburgh, Bushwick and Greenpoint 
 were distinct settlements, each section had a series of 
 numerical streets by itself, not considering those 
 streets in Williamsburgh that are known as South 
 First, etc., and North First, etc. The Williamsburgh 
 series is well remembered by many of the present day 
 residents of the district, as the change to "named 
 streets " was made at a comparatively recent date; but 
 the numbered streets of Bushwick and Greenpoint 
 were altered at the time of the consolidation with 
 Brooklyn in 1855. 
 
 From the attached list of street names altered for 
 the greater part since that time, it will be noticed that 
 these changes have been greater than is generally 
 believed. The list may not be complete, nor free from 
 error, but the compiler believes that it will give a fair 
 idea how far-reaching these changes have been. 
 
 A Street is now Ash Street. 
 
 Adams Street, Bowronville, is now Melrose Street. 
 
 Adams Street, Greenpoint, from Front Street to 
 Newtown Creek, between Jefferson and Jackson Sts. 
 
 Agate Street, Bushwick, is now Florence Place^ 
 formerly Jefferson Street. 
 
 Ann Street, Bowronville, is now Belvidere Street. 
 
 Ann Street, Greenpoint, from Commercial Street 
 to Newtown Creek. 
 
 Ann Street, North Brooklyn, is now Cross Street. 
 
 B Street is now Box Street. 
 
 Banzett Street is now Debevoise Avenue. 
 
l6o THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Bay Street is now part of West Street. 
 
 Bedford Green was bounded by Franklin Avenue, 
 Atlantic Avenue, Bedford Avenue and Fulton Avenue. 
 
 Bridge Street, later Bridge Avenue, is now Paidge 
 Avenue. 
 
 Broadway was the name given to Division Avenue 
 in its entire length before consolidation and in general 
 use for some years. 
 
 Browne Street is now North First Street. 
 
 Brooklyn and Newtown Turnpike Road was re- 
 placed by Flushing Avenue. 
 
 Burr Place, from i8 Noll Street, is now closed. 
 
 Bushwick Avenue included Old Woodpoint Road 
 from North Second Street to Withers Street in the '50's. 
 
 Bushwick Avenue, part of it became Old Bush- 
 wick Avenue, now Bushwick Place. 
 
 Bushwick Bridge, Franklin Street, Greenpoint. 
 
 Bushwick Boulevard was the name proposed for 
 the road taking in Bushwick Avenue and other Streets. 
 
 Bushwick Road, also known as Old Bushwick 
 Road. (See Old Bushwick Road.) 
 
 Bushwick Street — lower part of present Metropoli- 
 tan Avenue, near the shore; was later called Woodhull 
 Street, then North Second Street. 
 
 C Street is now Clay Street. 
 
 Calvary Road, or 
 
 Calyer Road is now part of Calyer Street. 
 
 Center Street is now part of Melrose Street. 
 
 Charles Place, Bowronville, was near Myrtle Street. 
 
 Charles Place, later Yates Place, now Sumner Place. 
 
 Charles Street, later First Street, now Kent Avenue. 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN l6l 
 
 Chestnut Street is now part of DeKalb Avenue. 
 
 Clay Street, from Front Street to Newtown Creek. 
 
 Clifford Street is now Clifford Place. 
 
 Clinton Avenue or Street. 
 
 Clove Road, from Fulton Avenue, between Bedford 
 Avenue and Nostrand Avenue, to Flatbush. 
 
 Colonade Row was on east side of Smith Street, 
 between Richardson and Herbert Streets. 
 
 Conselyea Street, Bowronville, is now Stanhope 
 Street. 
 
 Cripplebush and Mespat Road replaced by Flush- 
 ing Avenue. 
 
 Cross-Roads — Cripplebush and Mespat Road and 
 ^ushwick Road. 
 
 Cypress Hills Macadamized Road, formerly Cypress 
 Hills Plank Road. 
 
 Cypress Hills Plank Road is now part of Johnson 
 Avenue and Cypress Avenue. 
 
 D Street is now Dupont Street. 
 
 DeKalb Place, Bowronville, is now part of DeKalb 
 Avenue. 
 
 Dick Street, from Commercial Street to Newtown 
 Creek, between Ann and Eve Streets. 
 
 Division Avenue is now, for the most part, covered 
 by Broadway. 
 
 Division Street is now Division Place. 
 
 Driggs Street, formerly Fifth Street, Williams- 
 burgh, is now part of Driggs Avenue. 
 
 Dunham Street was lower part of Grand Street. 
 
 Duryea's Lane ran from Division Avenue to Bush- 
 wick Road, between Eldert and Covert Streets. 
 
1 62 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Duryea Street is now Weirfield Street. 
 
 E Street is now Eagle Street. 
 
 Eighth Street, Williamsburgh, is now part of Marcy 
 Avenue. 
 
 Eighth Street, Greenpoint, is now Jewel Street. 
 
 Eleventh Street, Williamsburgh, is now part of 
 Hooper Street. 
 
 Elizabeth Street, later Fairfax Street, now part of 
 Chauncey Street. 
 
 Elm Street is now part of Hart Street. 
 
 Evergreen Avenue was originally the part of Bush- 
 wick Avenue above Madison Street. 
 
 Eve Street, from (old) Union Avenue to Newtown 
 Creek, between Box and Commercial Streets. 
 
 F Street is now Freeman Street. 
 
 Fairfax Street, formerly Elizabeth Street, now part 
 of Chauncey Street. 
 
 Ferry Street was near Washington Street. 
 
 Fifth Street, Williamsburgh, later Driggs Street, 
 is now part of Driggs Avenue. 
 
 Fifth Street, Greenpoint, is now part of Oakland 
 Street. 
 
 Fifth Street, Bushwick, later Van Cott, is now part 
 of Driggs Avenue. 
 
 Fillmore Street was near Smith Street. 
 
 First Street, Williamsburgh, is now part of Kent 
 Avenue. 
 
 First Street, Greenpoint, is now part of Lorimer 
 Street. 
 
 •First Street, Bushwick, is now part of Calyer Street. 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 63 
 
 Fourth Street, Williamsburgh, is now part of Bed- 
 ford Avenue. 
 
 Fourth Street, Greenpoint, is now part of Eckford 
 Street. 
 
 Fourth Street, Bushwick, later Nassau Street, now 
 Nassau Avenue. 
 
 Franklin Block, Bushwick, was on Herbert Street. 
 
 Franklin Block, Greenpoint, was on Franklin 
 Street, between Milton Street and Greenpoint Avenue. 
 
 Franklin Place was on south side of Powers Street, 
 between Graham Avenue and Ewen Street. 
 
 Fresh Pond Lane was a narrow lane leading from 
 the southerly end of New Bushwick Lane to the Fresh 
 Ponds of Newtown, about present Moffatt Street. 
 
 Front Street, laid out on map under water. 
 
 Fulton Avenue is now part of Fulton Street. 
 
 Furman Street is now Furman Avenue. 
 
 G Street is now Green Street. 
 
 Greene Street is now part of Greene Avenue. 
 
 Guilford Street is now part of Olive Street. 
 
 Greenpoint Avenue, formerly L Street, then Green- 
 point Avenue, then National Avenue, is now Green- 
 point Avenue again. 
 
 Gwinnett Street is now part of Lorimer Street. 
 
 H Street is now Huron Street. 
 
 Hamburg Street, formerly Johnson Avenue, is now 
 Hamburg Avenue. 
 
 Harrison Street is now Harrison Place. 
 
 Henry Street is now North Henry Street. 
 
 Hickory Street is now Lexington Avenue. 
 
 Homer Street, later Third Street, now Berry Street. 
 
164 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Hudson Avenue is now Kingston Avenue. 
 
 Hull Street, Bovvronville, is now De Sales Place. 
 
 I Street is now India Street. 
 
 Irving Place was on the east side of Third Street, 
 between South Eighth and South Ninth Streets. 
 
 Ivy Street is now part of Madison Street. 
 
 J Street is now Java Street. 
 
 Jackson Street, from Front Street to Newtown 
 Creek, is now Charlick vStreet. 
 
 Jacob Street is now part of Putnam Avenue. 
 
 Jay Street, near Cross-Roads. 
 
 Jamaica Turnpike is now Metropolitan Avenue. 
 
 Jane Street is now covered by Greenpoint Park. 
 
 Jefferson Place was on east side of Seventh Street, 
 between South Fifth and South Sixth Streets. 
 
 Jefferson Street, Brooklyn, is now part of Jefferson 
 Avenue. 
 
 Jefferson Street, Bushwick, later Spruce Street, 
 then Agate Street, is now Florence Place. 
 
 Jefferson Street, Greenpoint, is now Vail Street. 
 
 John Street, later Vigelius Street, is now part of 
 Jefferson Avenue. 
 
 Johnson Avenue, later Hamburg Street, is now 
 Hamburg Avenue. 
 
 Johnson Square was bounded by Lee Avenue, 
 Lynch vStreet, Bedford Avenue, Flushing Avenue and 
 Gwinnett Street. 
 
 Johnson Street is now Johnson Avenue. 
 
 K Street is now Kent Street. 
 
 Kijkuit Lane connected Bushwick Church with 
 the Kijkuit. 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 65 
 
 Kosciusko Place, or Avenue, is now part of Kos- 
 ciusko Street. 
 
 L Street is now Greenpoint Avenue, and for a time 
 was known as National Avenue. 
 
 Lafayette Place was on west side of South Fourth 
 Street, between Sixth and Seventh Streets. 
 
 Lane to Norman's Kill branched off the Woodpoint 
 Road, covered by part of Driggs Avenue. 
 
 Lawton Street is now Lawton and Cedar Streets. 
 
 Lefferts Park, bounded (on the map) by Tompkins, 
 Throop and Gates Avenues and Quincy Street. 
 
 Leopold Place, formerly Covert Avenue, now Purdy 
 Place. 
 
 Lewis Place was on north side of Second Street, 
 between South Tenth and South Eleventh Streets. 
 
 Liberty Street, near D and F Streets. 
 
 Linden Place was on south side of Sandford Street, 
 between Smith and Ewen Streets. 
 
 Linden Avenue is now Sharon Avenue. 
 
 Linden Street, Bushwick, is now part of Morgan 
 Avenue. 
 
 Long Row was on Smith Street. 
 
 M Street is now Milton Street. 
 
 Madison Place was on east side of Oak Street, be- 
 tween Franklin and Washington Streets. 
 
 Madison Street is now Troutman Street. 
 
 Magnolia Street is now part of Gates Avenue. 
 
 Margareta Street is now part of Halsey Street. 
 
 Marshall Street is now Siegel Street. 
 
 Marshfield Row was on Division Avenue. 
 
 Masters' Bridge now Metropolitan Avenue Bridge. 
 
1 66 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Maxwell Street, later Second Street, Williams- 
 burgh, now Wythe Avenue. 
 
 McWay Place was on south side of Fifth Street, be- 
 tween North Eighth and North Ninth Streets. 
 
 Meserole Street, Greenpoint, is now Meserole 
 Avenue. 
 
 Metropolitan Avenue was originally from Bush- 
 wick Avenue to Newtown Creek. 
 
 Mill Lane ran from Woodpoint Road to Luqueer's 
 Mill. 
 
 Monroe Place was on South Fifth Street, between 
 Sixth and Seventh Streets. 
 
 Monroe Street, Cross Roads, is now Montieth Street. 
 
 Morrell Street ran from Debevoise Street to Rem- 
 sen Street. 
 
 Myrtle Avenue and Jamaica Plank Road is now 
 part of Myrtle Avenue. 
 
 Myrtle Street is now part of Willoughby Avenue. 
 
 N Street is now Noble Street. 
 
 Nassau Street, formerly Fourth Street, Bushwick, 
 is now Nassau Avenue. 
 
 National Avenue, formerly L Street, then Green- 
 point Avenue, is now Greenpoint Avenue again. 
 
 New Bushwick Lane ran from Bushwick village 
 into the New Lotts of Bushwick. 
 
 New Bushwick Road was laid out in 1704 to con- 
 nect the old Bushwick Road with the Kings Highway 
 to Jamaica. 
 
 Newtown Bridge on (old) Union Avenue, same as 
 present Vernon Avenue steel bridge. 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 67 
 
 Newtown Road or Turnpike, replaced by Flushing 
 Avenue. 
 
 Newtown Road or Turnpike, or North Road, is 
 now Meeker Avenue. . 
 
 Ninth Street, Williamsburgh, is now part of Rodney 
 Street. 
 
 Ninth Street, Greenpoint, is now Moultrie Street. 
 
 Norman Street, formerly Third Street, Bushwick, 
 then Union Street, now Norman Avenue. 
 
 North Road is now Meeker Avenue. 
 
 North Street is now Hope Street. 
 
 North Second Street, originally Bushwick Street, 
 later Woodhull Street, ran from East River to Bush- 
 wick Avenue, is now part of Metropolitan Avenue. 
 
 O Street is now Oak Street. 
 
 Old Bushwick Avenue is now Bushwick Place. 
 
 Old Bushwick Road led from Bushwick Green 
 along present Bushwick Avenue, Bushwick Place, 
 Bushwick Avenue, Madison Streeet, Evergreen Ave- 
 nue, Central Avenue to the Green Hills. 
 
 Old Mill Road ran from Bushwick Church to the 
 Woodpoint Road in present Debevoise Avenue, be- 
 tween Bennett and Parker Streets. 
 
 Old Road, remnant of Woodpoint Road, is now 
 Old Woodpoint Road. 
 
 Orchard Street is now part of Manhattan Avenue. 
 
 P Street is now part of Calyer Street. 
 
 Paca Avenue is now Rockaway Avenue. 
 
 Park Place is now Park Street. 
 
 Peck Slip was a name given to foot of Broadway 
 around ferry to Peck Slip, New York City. 
 
1 68 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Pell Street is now Bell Street. 
 
 Filling's Lane ran from Division Avenue to Bush- 
 wick Road. 
 
 Prospect Street is now Noll Street. 
 
 Q Street is now Quay Street. 
 
 Railroad Avenue is replaced by Atlantic Avenue- 
 Reed Avenue is now Reid Avenue. 
 
 Reed Road connected Hunterfly and Cripplebusb 
 Roads. 
 
 Reid Square bounded (on the map) by Stuyvesant 
 Avenue, McDonough Street, Reed Avenue, Halsey 
 Street. 
 
 Remsen Street is now Maujer Street. 
 
 River Street is now Wallabout Street. 
 
 Rockaway Path, or Pass, led from the southerly 
 end of New Bushwick Lane across the Green Hills to 
 Kings Highway to Jamaica. 
 
 Sandford Street is now Bayard Street. 
 
 Schols Street is now Scholes Street. 
 
 Schuyler Street replaced by Atlantic Avenue. 
 
 Second Street, Williamsburgh, is now part of 
 Wythe Avenue. 
 
 Second Street, Bushwick, is now part of Meserole 
 Avenue. 
 
 Second Street, Greenpoint, later Orchard Street,, 
 is now part of Manhattan Avenue. 
 
 Seventh Street, Williamsburgh, is now part of 
 Havemeyer Street. 
 
 Seventh Street, Greenpoint, is now Diamond Street. 
 
 Sixth Street, Williamsburgh, is now Roebling 
 Street. 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 69 
 
 Sixth Street, Greenpoint, is now Newell Street. 
 
 Skillman Street is now Skillman Avenue. 
 
 Smith Avenue, formerly Wyckoff Street, is now 
 part of Humboldt Street. 
 
 Smith Street is now part of Humboldt Street. 
 
 South Seventh Street is now part of Broadway. 
 
 South Sixth Street, above Bedford Avenue, is now 
 part of Broadway. 
 
 Spring Terrace was on Meeker Avenue. 
 
 Spruce Street — see Agate Street. 
 
 Swaaten Fly was the marshy ground on the junc- 
 tion of North Second and Eighth Streets. 
 
 Tenth Street, Williamsburgh, is now part of Keap 
 Street. 
 
 Thames Street from Varick Avenue to Newtown 
 Creek is now Thomas Street. 
 
 Third Street, Williamsburgh, is now Berry Street. 
 
 Third Street, Greenpoint, is now part of Leonard 
 Street. 
 
 Third Street, Bushwick, later Union Street, then 
 Norman Street, is now Norman Avenue. 
 
 Townsend Row was near Ann Street (present Cross 
 Street). 
 
 Twelfth Street, Williamsburgh, is now part of 
 Hewes Street. 
 
 Union Avenue, Greenpoint, later Union Place, is 
 now part of Manhattan Avenue. 
 
 Union Place, formerly Union Avenue, Greenpoint, 
 is now part of Manhattan Avenue. 
 
 Union Street, formerly Third Street, Bushwick, then 
 Norman Street, is now Norman Avenue. 
 
lyo THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Van Cott Street, or Avenue, ran from Leonard 
 Street to Meeker Avenue, is now part of Driggs 
 Avenue. 
 
 Vanderveer Street, or Avenue, is now part of East- 
 ■ern Parkway extension. 
 
 Van Pelt Avenue is now Engert Avenue. 
 
 Van Ranst Street, from river shore to Walter Street, 
 between Grand and North First Streets. 
 
 Van Voorhies Street is now part of Decatur Street. 
 
 Vigelius Street, formerly John Street, is now part 
 of Jefferson Avenue. 
 
 Wall Street is now Arion Place. 
 
 Walloon Street is now Wallock Street. 
 
 Walter Street, later Water Street, now River 
 Street. 
 
 Washington Place was on east side of South Sixth 
 Street, between Fourth and Fifth Streets. 
 
 Washington Street, Bowronville, is now Bremen 
 Street. 
 
 Washington Street, Greenpoint, is now West 
 Street. 
 
 Washington Street, Bushwick Green, is now Haus- 
 man Street. 
 
 Washington Street, Bushwick Cross Roads, from 
 Remsen Street to Grand Street, between Jefferson and 
 Waterbury Streets, later Lafayette Street, is now La 
 Grange Street. 
 
 Washington Street, Williamsburgh, later Dunham 
 Street, now lower part of Grand Street. 
 
 Water Street ran from Wallabout Bridge to Will- 
 iamsburg ferry, replaced by Kent Avenue, part ran 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 171 
 
 later from South First Street to North Third Street; 
 remnant left is present River Street. 
 
 Wesley Place was on east side of South Second 
 Street, between Fifth and Sixth Streets. 
 
 Williamsburgh and Cypress Hills Plank Road is 
 now part of Johnson Avenue and Cypress Avenue. 
 
 Williamsburgh Road. A part of this road was in- 
 corporated in Kent Avenue and another part became 
 Hospital Lane. 
 
 William Street, Bushwick, is now Monitor Street. 
 
 William Street, Bowronville, is now Aberdeen 
 Street. 
 
 Williams Row was on (old) Madison Street, on 
 present Troutman Street. 
 
 Witherspoon Street is now Vernon Avenue. 
 
 Woodhull Street, former Bushwick Street, later 
 North Second Street, is now part of Metropolitan 
 Avenue. 
 
 Woodpoint Road, or Old Road, ran from Bush- 
 wick village to Newtown Creek, near Franklin and 
 Green Streets. A branch led to Norman's Kill. 
 
 Wyckoff Street, Bushwick Green, later Smith Ave- 
 nue, is now part of Humboldt Street. 
 
 Wyckoff Street, Bushwick Cross-Roads, is now 
 Ten Eyck Street. 
 
 Yates Avenue is now Sumner Avenue. 
 
 Yates Place, formerly Charles Place, is now Sum- 
 ner Place. 
 
 Franklin Street, Bushwick Green, near Graham 
 Avenue. 
 
172 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Peck Slip Road, in Wallabout section, leading to 
 ferry. 
 
 Jamaica Road, or Turnpike, Brooklyn, later Ful- 
 ton Avenue, now part of Fulton Street. 
 
 Carsville, Malboneville and Weeksville, neighbor- 
 hoods in Bedford. 
 
 APPENDIX XXII. 
 
 Origin of Some of the Street Names. 
 
 The origin of some of the street names is given by 
 Dr. Stiles as follows: 
 
 Bushvvick Street, later Woodhull Street, then North 
 Second Street, and at the present day Metropolitan 
 Avenue. 
 
 The lower, and then narrow part of Grand Street, 
 before widening, was Dunham Street. 
 
 In the first village of Williamsburgh, Grand Street 
 was the centre, and on one side were South First 
 to South Eleventh Streets, and on the other side North 
 First to North Thirteenth Streets, and parallel with the 
 river First to Twelfth Streets, and a short street close 
 to the river called River Street. 
 
 Lorimer Street and Graham Avenue were named 
 after John and James Lorimer Graham, two land job- 
 bers of 1836. 
 
 Ewen Street, now part of Manhattan Avenue, was 
 named after Daniel Ewen, a city surveyor, residing in 
 New York City, who surveyed both the new and the 
 old village. 
 
 Bushwick Avenue was the boundary line between 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN I 73 
 
 the enlarged village of Williamsburgh and Bushvvick. 
 
 Powers Street was named from William P. Powers, 
 a clerk of John Lorimer Graham, who was made nomi- 
 nal proprietor of nine hundred and thirty-nine lots for 
 the convenience of the sale, and also of other parcels 
 of land. 
 
 Ainslie Street, after Judge Ainslie. 
 
 Devoe Street, after the Devoes in Bushwick village. 
 
 Conselyea Street ran through the farms of Andrew 
 Conselyea and his brother. 
 
 Skillman Avenue, after John Skillman Sr. 
 
 Jackson Street, probably after Daniel Jackson, who 
 had some landed interests in Williamsburgh. 
 
 Withers Street, after Reuben Withers, once proprie- 
 tor of the Houston Street ferry. 
 
 Frost Street, after Edmund Frost, who was interested 
 in a tract of land in the Fourteenth Ward. 
 
 Richardson Street, after Lemuel Richardson, one 
 of the pioneers in building up Williamsburgh. 
 
 Maujer Street, after Daniel Maujer. It was formerly 
 Remsen Street, named from Abraham A. Remsen, who 
 owned land at its junction with Union Avenue. 
 
 Scholes Street, after James Scholes. 
 
 Meserole Avenue, from Abraham M. Meserole, 
 through whose farm it ran. 
 
 Boerum Street, after Jacob Boerum, who had a farm 
 of fifty-eight acres in the Sixteenth Ward. 
 
 McKibben Street, after John S. McKibben, who 
 caused a map of a part of the Jacob Boreum farm, as 
 the land of McKibben & Nichols, to be made. 
 
174 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Siegel Street, formerly Marshall Street, in honor of 
 General Siegel, of the civil war. 
 
 Moore Street was named for Thomas C. Moore, a 
 manufacturer of wire netting-, who owned lands in that 
 neighborhood. 
 
 Varet Street, after Lewis F. Varette, a land specula- 
 tor in this neighborhood. 
 
 Cook Street, probably from an old resident near 
 the Cross-Roads. 
 
 Debevoise Avenue, covering a part of the old 
 Brooklyn and Newtown Turnpike, from Chas. Debe- 
 voise, who lived on Flushing Avenue. 
 
 Himrod Street was named for the Rev. J. S. Him- 
 rod, the first pastor of the South Bushwick Reformed 
 Dutch Church. 
 
 Weirfield Street was named for Thomas Weir Field, 
 a surveyor, and a man prominent in public affairs, who 
 resided here. 
 
 APPENDIX XXIII. 
 
 Obsolete Street Names and Origin of Street 
 Names in the Town of New Lots. 
 
 Adams Street is now Ashford Street. 
 
 Adams Avenue is now McKinley Avenue. 
 
 Anstice Street is now Amboy Street. 
 
 Baltic Road (or Avenue) is now Glenmore Avenue. 
 
 Baltic Street is now Bristol Street. ^ 
 
 Bay Avenue is now Belmont Avenue. 
 
 Bennett Avenue is now Berriman Street. 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 75 
 
 Broadway, later Eastern Parkway, is now Pitkin 
 Avenue. 
 
 Butler Avenue is now Bradford Street. 
 
 Center Street is now Chester Street. 
 
 Cypress Avenue is now Crescent Street. 
 
 Division Avenue is now Arlington Avenue, after 
 the Arlington Military Cemetery. 
 
 Duryea Avenue is now Dumont Avenue. 
 
 Eastern Parkway, formerly Broadway, is now Pit- 
 kin Avenue. 
 
 Eldert Avenue is now Essex Street. 
 
 Eldert's Lane, later Enfield Street, is Eldert's Lane 
 again. 
 
 Enfield Street, corrupted from Endfield Street, it 
 being the end of the fields of the town, is now Eldert's 
 Lane again. 
 
 Flatlands Avenue is now Fairfield Avenue. 
 
 Furman Place is now Fanchon Place. 
 
 Grove Street is now Glen Street. 
 
 Henry Avenue is now Hinsdale Avenue. 
 
 Howard Place is now Gillen Place. 
 
 Ivy Street is now Hill Street. 
 
 Jefferson Street is now Cleveland Street, named for 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Jamaica Plank Road, later Jamaica Turnpike, is 
 now Jamaica Avenue. 
 
 John Street is now Jerome Street. 
 
 Johnson Avenue is now Junius Street. 
 
 Liberty Avenue, named for the fact that it was a 
 free road for the farmers while Jamaica Plank Road 
 was a toll road. 
 
176 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Linnineton Avenue is now Livonia Avenue. 
 
 Locust Street is now Logan Avenue, named for 
 General Logan. 
 
 Madison Street is now Elton Street. 
 
 Monroe Street is now Linwood Street. 
 
 Morse Avenue is now Milford Street. 
 
 Myrtle Street is now Magenta Street. 
 
 Nassau Street is now Norwood Avenue. 
 
 New Lots Road is now New Lots Avenue. 
 
 Orient Avenue is now Powell Street, named for 
 Dr. Powell. 
 
 Rapelye Avenue is now Riverdale Avenue. 
 
 Rapelye Street is now Richmond Street. 
 
 Smith Street is now Hendrix Street. 
 
 Stotthoff Avenue is now Stanley Avenue. 
 
 Union Avenue is now Sutter Avenue. 
 
 Union Place is now Havens Place. 
 
 Van Brunt Avenue is now Vienna Avenue. 
 
 Vanderveer Avenue is now Newport Street. 
 
 Vanderveer Street is now Grafton Street. 
 
 Van Wicklen Avenue is now Vandalia Avenue. 
 
 Vesta Avenue is now Van- Sinderen Avenue. 
 
 Wasliington Place is now Jardine Place. 
 
 Washington Street is now Warwick Street. 
 
 Wyckoff Avenue is now Wyona Street. 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN I 77 
 
 APPENDIX XXIV. 
 
 The Ferries. 
 
 As early as 1797 a rowboat service was in existence 
 between the Bushwick shore and New York City, with 
 landings at the Fountain Inn on the Long Island side 
 and James Hazard's place at Corlear's Hook. A few 
 years later Richard M. Woodhull, of New York City, 
 purchased fifteen acres of the farm of Charles Titus 
 and established a ferry, running from present Metro- 
 politan Avenue to Rivington Street, New York. In 
 1804 Thomas Morrell, of Newtown, bought from 
 Folkert Titus the homestead farm of the Titus estate, 
 comprising twenty-eight acres, and opened Grand 
 Street through the centre of the farm to Roebling 
 Street. In 1812 he started a ferry from Morrell's 
 Point, at the foot of the new street, running to Grand 
 Street, New York. At the landing he kept a horn for 
 the convenience of passengers, to call him from his 
 farmwork. Morrell and Hazard worked in harmony, 
 but the competition between Morrell and Woodhull 
 was keen. Morrell improved boats and service, and 
 after considerable loss on both sides, Woodhull's ferry 
 was united with Morrell's, and with it went the name 
 Williamsburgh Ferry, and the Fountain Inn became 
 the headquarters of the political influence of the town 
 of Bushwick. In 181 7 row and sailboats were ex- 
 changed for horseboats, stables were erected and 
 exchanges of horses were kept in readiness. In 1827 
 one of the boats was altered into a steam power-boat 
 and named "Eclipse." 
 
I 78 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 In 1824 the Williamsburgh Ferry was incorporated. 
 In 1836 the Peck Slip Ferry was established, running 
 from South Seventh Street to Peck Slip, New York- 
 The Houston Street Ferry followed in 1840, and the 
 Division Avenue Ferry in 1851, plying between South 
 Seventh Street and Grand Street, New York. In 1853 
 the ferry from Greenpoint Avenue to Tenth Street, 
 New York, was opened; and in 1857 the landing of the 
 Calvary Cemetery Ferry, controlled by St. Patrick's 
 Cathedral, and running to Twenty-third Street, New 
 York, was transferred to Greenpoint Avenue. In 1857 
 the South Tenth Street Ferry was opened, running 
 between South Tenth Street and James Slip, New York. 
 In i860 the Brooklyn Ferry Company began to run a 
 boat from South Ninth Street to Roosevelt Street, 
 New York. In 1885 a new line from Broadway to 
 Twenty-third Street, New York, was opened; and in 
 later years another line to Forty-second Street. In 
 December, 1908, all the ferries running from Broad- 
 way and the Grand Street line to Grand Street, New 
 York, were discontinued. On March i6th, 1911, the 
 Brooklyn & Manhattan Ferry Company reopened a 
 line from Broadway to Roosevelt Street, New York, 
 and two months later another line from Broadway to 
 Twenty-third Street. 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN I 79 
 
 APPENDIX XXV. 
 
 Notes On the Several Settlements. 
 
 In 1654 the inhabitants of Middelburgh and Mespat 
 asked for an allotment of their hay land. Commis- 
 sioners were appointed to inspect the land and were 
 directed to allot if possible eight morgen of meadow 
 land to every twenty-five morgen of arable land. On 
 February 29th, 1656, the settlers at Mespat requested 
 that Claes Van Elslant, who was expected at the place 
 to survey some land, be directed to survey at the same 
 time the island, upon which the village of New Arn- 
 heim was to be built, and to determine its size. They 
 also asked that the Governor and Council fix the width 
 of the main road and the size of each building lot, as 
 they themselves did not understand the laying out of 
 lots and would locate the houses arbitrarily, which 
 would give a slovenly appearance. De Sille, the 
 patentee of the island, was advised to lay out the 
 street and lots in a manner which he considered most 
 advantageous for the settlement. On April 4th, 1656, 
 inhabitants of Middelburgh complained that the peo- 
 ple of New Arnheim were mowing upon and using the 
 meadows granted to the village of Middelburgh, as if 
 they belonged to them, and asked again that the 
 meadows be divided between the villages of Middel- 
 burgh and Arnheim. In 1662 the meadows lying on 
 Seller's Neck, on Jamaica Bay, between the third and 
 fourth Kils, were divided as follows: One hundred 
 morgen to the village of Breukelen; one hundrd mor- 
 
l8o THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 gen to the village of Middelburgh; eighty morgen to 
 the bouvveries of Mespat. 
 
 Thus it seems that the disputes which arose between 
 the early settlers, as to boundary lines, were on account 
 of meadow land. When the colony came under Eng- 
 lish control, town patents were issued, and the fees 
 from these patents were a considerable source of 
 income to the governor. Richard Nicolls granted the 
 first town patents and also many patents to individual 
 settlers, and specially in the beginning gave unim- 
 proved land to anyone who was willing to settle there- 
 on, without any previous survey or without any certain 
 boundaries, stating that the patent contained one hun- 
 dred, two hundred or more acres, adjoining such other 
 man's land, or to a certain hill or river. After the 
 arrival of Lord Cornbury in 1702 it became evident 
 that this new governor was inclined to regard the com- 
 mon lands of the several towns as property of the gov- 
 ernment. To prevent the granting of these lands to 
 friends of the governor, the towns divided the com- 
 mon lands among the freeholders in parcels corres- 
 ponding in size to their holdings of land. Cornbury 
 acted in this manner in regard to the land in dispute 
 between Bushwick and Newtown; and not until 1769 
 this dispute was settled, when it was arranged that the 
 line was to run from the mouth of Mispat Kil, along 
 the creek to the west side of Smith's Island, to, and 
 along a branch leading out of the creek to the pond, or 
 hole of water, near the head of Schenck's mill pond, 
 easterly to Arbitration Rock (which stood in a meadow 
 lying opposite the house of Frederick Van Nanda, 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 I8l 
 
 later Of Moses Begel, and still later of Ann Onder- 
 donck) a little west of Joseph Woodward's house 
 (later of James Schoonmaker), from said rock running 
 south to Arbitration Heap (a heap of stones with a 
 stake in the centre) and in the same direct line to the 
 hills, or mountains, until it meets the line of Flatbush 
 (iNevv Lots). 
 
 In the Walboght region Joris Rapelie requested on 
 August 36th, r66o, that he might be allowed to leave 
 his house standing upon his land and not be com- 
 pelled to move it, as ordered by " placard against sep- 
 arate farms," published February i.th ^ 
 "On February loth, 1661, the settlers were ^varned 
 for the last time" that they must remove from their sep- 
 arate bouweries before the ,5th of March next on the 
 penalty as prescribed by law. On February 24th 1661 
 the majority asked that they might be excused from 
 the order sent to them on the 10th instant, and be 
 allowed to erect for their defense a block house on the 
 hook of Jons Rapalie's land. 
 
 On March- zst, 1661, a petition was made bv eight 
 persons to form a village between the land of Tonis 
 Gysbertsen Bogaert and the land of Jacob Kip on the 
 bank of the East River, " where we can see the Man! 
 hattans or Fort New Amsterdam." Consent having 
 been given a few began to build houses at the place 
 but the majority did not. ^ ' 
 
 On March 3d, 1661, the majority declared that the 
 order was given upon request of Kip and his followers 
 o form a village and block-house at the end of Kip^; 
 land on the hill, but it had been found that the land 
 
1 82 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 was too Stony and drinking water was scarce there- 
 abouts; and asked to be allowed to erect a block-house 
 on the hook of Joris Rapalie, where they might retreat 
 in time of need. The order of February loth was 
 reaffirmed. 
 
 At Bedford the farmers requested on May 26th, 
 1663, as follows: " Having obtained lately a grant of 
 a piece of land in the rear of the Walboght, near Mar- 
 cus' (Merck's) plantation, and cleared the land, and 
 some having already planted and sown, and others 
 are beginning to plant, and the farmers living far 
 from their property, ask to be allowed to form a 
 hamlet there to protect their property." October ist, 
 1666, the inhabitants of Bedford asked that they might 
 have a cart path over Captain Betts' ground, it being 
 so troublesome for them to cart their hay *and carry it 
 through the deep ground. January 4th, 1668, Thomas 
 Lamberts, of Bedford, received a license for keeping 
 an ordinary for the accommodation of strangers, travel- 
 ers and other persons, passing that way, with diet, 
 lodging and horsemeat, to sell beer, wine and other 
 liquors for their relief; and no one else in the 
 village of Bedford to have the privilege, for one year 
 and no longer. 
 
 Wallabout Village came into existence in 1830. It 
 included the old Wallabout and Cripplebush settle- 
 ments, and was bounded by the Wallabout and New- 
 town Roads, or Flushing Avenue, on the north; Jamaica 
 Turnpike Road, or Fulton Street, on the south; 
 Clinton Avenue on the west, and Division Avenue, or 
 Broadway, on the east. The Cripplebush Road cut 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 83 
 
 through the farm lands along the line of present Nost- 
 rand and Bedford Avenues to the Jamaica Turnpike, 
 passing the old J. J. Rappalyea stone house. In 1832 
 streets began to be laid out. A century ago Myrtle 
 Street extended a short distance from the main road 
 of the Brooklyn settlement. In 1835 ^^is street was 
 continued as Myrtle Avenue, graded and paved to the 
 Cripplebush Road, affording a new route between 
 Wallabout Village and Brooklyn. About 1852 Myrtle 
 Avenue was extended to Broadway, and two years 
 later the Brooklyn City Railroad, having bought out 
 the Myrtle Avenue stage line, ran horse cars to the 
 end of the road. In 1842 there were between Broad- 
 way and Fort Greene and Myrtle Avenue and the 
 Jamaica Turnpike only thirty houses. A single house 
 was standing on the south side of Myrtle Avenue, on 
 the corner of Classon Avenue. There were 1,679 P^^" 
 sons in the village, all living north of Myrtle Avenue. 
 In Bedford Village a house was erected about 
 1750 on the Kings Highway to Jamaica, at the begin- 
 ing of the Kloft Road (later Clove Road). It was sur- 
 rounded by locust trees. In this house Major Andre 
 lived just prior to his visit to Arnold. After his exe- 
 cution his belongings were disposed of by his fellow- 
 officers for the benefit of his estate. In a little up stairs 
 room, over-looking the Clove Road were kept at one 
 time the county records, which, after the Revolution- 
 ary War, were taken to England by Rapalje, deputy 
 town clerk. The house was for a long time the head- 
 quarters of General Grey, commander of the English 
 forces, encamped near by, and was the favorite resort 
 
184 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 of the officers. After the Battle of Long Island, when 
 General Howe's headquarters were removed to New- 
 town, and garrisons were stationed at Bushwick, Hell- 
 gate and Flushing, a brigade remained at Bedford. 
 The house was known as the Nicholas Bloom House. 
 At one time it was in the possession of Leffert Lefferts, 
 and later of the Brevoort family. It was torn down 
 in 1909. 
 
 At New Lots, the Town Hall, a two-story frame 
 structure, stood near Jamaica Bay, on what is now 
 Stanley and Atkins Avenues. During its last days it 
 was used as a dance hall, and was destroyed by fire in 
 1912. East New York was the largest of the four vil- 
 lages in the town; its size was two by one and one-half 
 miles; its population was 1,000 in i860; 8,000 in 1874; 
 18,000 in 1880; and 25,000 in 1886. Pitkin purchased 
 the Wyckoff, Stotthoff and Van Siclen farms for the 
 site of the village. In the "Old Stone Building," 
 a three-story structure on the corner of Atlantic and 
 Pennsylvania Avenues, he published in 1838 the first 
 newspaper. The Mechanic. Phil Reid constructed the 
 Canarsie Railroad, with a depot on present Van Sin- 
 deren Avenue, between Fulton Street and Atlantic 
 Avenue. The starting point of the railroad was later 
 in front of the Howard House, a tavern on Atlantic 
 and Alabama Avenues, also owned by Reid. On the 
 corner, across Alabama Avenue, Reid erected a row of 
 houses, some ten years after he built his row on Broad- 
 way. Eight were on Atlantic Avenue and three on Ala- 
 bama Avenue. They were taken down in 1912. The old 
 village of New Lots was situated along the New Lots 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 85 
 
 Road. Cypress Hills had a population of about 3,000 
 in 1874. Brownsville was located upon the Van Sin- 
 deren and Lott farms, and had an area of two-third 
 by one-fourth miles. 
 
 New Brooklyn w^as a settlement on the Brooklyn, 
 and Jamaic aTurnpike and Hunterfly Roads. 
 
 East Williamsburgh had its beginning along the 
 Williamsburgh and Jamaica Turnpike Road. This road 
 was built in 1813, and a toll-gate was placed at this 
 point. As early as 1814 Daniel Taylor kept a hotel 
 here. The Long Island farmers, driving to New York 
 City with hay, made this a weighing station. Taylor's 
 successors were Albert Vandewater, William Roe and 
 Stephen B. and Samuel Masters. The last named, 
 brothers, operated the turnpike under a lease for about 
 twenty years. Near the toll-gate was their mill. Further 
 along the road, and extending on one side on Collins 
 Avenue on the Thompson farm and on the other side 
 on Forest Avenue on the George Richard farm, is 
 found on the map of 1852 a settlement named Ocean- 
 ville. 
 
 Calvary Ferry was established a little further down, 
 on Newtown Creek, in 1848, by the authorities of the 
 Roman Catholic Church. Three floats were operated 
 between the Bushwick shore and the cemetery, which 
 then contained twenty-nine acres, to transport funeral 
 corteges across the creek. In 1853 a regular ferry was 
 inaugurated by the diocese between East Twenty- 
 third Street, New York City, and the cemetery land- 
 ing on Newtown Creek. The distance was two and 
 three-fourth miles and the fare 4 cents for foot passen- 
 
I 86 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 gers. The average time consumed by a trip was fifteen 
 minutes. The boats ran from 8 a. m. till sundown. 
 
 At Williamsburgh, the territory of the later City of 
 Williamsburgh, was occupied in 1827 by twenty-three 
 farms, of which ten extended to the river shore. 
 Besides the farm houses, a few buildings were stand- 
 ing on the roads leading to the ferry. On the North 
 Side were the rope walks of Luther and Pitman. The 
 Cripplebush Lane was the only road to Brooklyn. 
 The number of dwellings had increased to three hun- 
 dred in 1835. The Williamsburgh Road, or Shore 
 Road, connected now the village with Brooklyn. It 
 led from the Wallabout Bridge Road to the village 
 line, and was continued to the ferry through Water 
 Street. Houses were standing on both sides of Grand 
 and Water Streets, near the ferry. Metropolitan Avenue 
 was built up to Wythe Avenue, and some houses were 
 on this road as far as Driggs Avenue. A few houses 
 were along Kent Avenue and around the Dutch Church 
 on Bedford Avenue. Others were scattered few and 
 far between. Three rope walks were added on the 
 South Side. In 1837 there were two churches in the 
 village, one hundred and forty-eight dwellings, includ- 
 ing ten stores and taverns; there were also fifty-nine 
 stables and barns. A building was erected, on land 
 given by the Morrell family for a term of years, the 
 upper part of which was designed for the use of the 
 trustees of the school district and the lower part 
 for a market. Whittlesey's omnibus house stood 
 on the corner of Broadway and Summer Avenue. 
 His stages ran from Grand Street and Peck Slip 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 87 
 
 Ferries through Broadway, Bedford Avenue and Bush- 
 wick Avenue to the Cross-Roads. In 1850 Grand 
 Street, Bedford Avenue and South Fourth Street were 
 paved and flagged. Lower Broadway had a few 
 houses on its north side; part of an orchard still 
 fronted upon it. Bedford Avenue, between Grand 
 Street and Broadway, was occupied by private houses. 
 In 1853 the Mechanics Bank was organized, to give 
 the North Side banking facilities. It opened for busi- 
 ness in the following year on Grand Street; there were 
 then two banks on the South Side. The mayors of 
 Williamsburgh were Dr. Abraham J. Berry in 1852 
 and William Wall in 1854. In i860 a commission was 
 appointed, whose duty it was to lay out a main thor- 
 oughfare for the Eastern District. Bushwick Avenue, 
 from Evergreen Cemetery, part of Morrell Street, 
 Bushwick Avenue again; Smith Street, Orchard Street 
 and Union Street (of Greenpoint) to the County Line 
 were to be widened and the road was to be known as 
 Bushwick Boulevard. Another road was to branch off 
 at Wall Street, taking in Beaver Street, Flushing 
 Avenue to Broadway, Broadway to Eleventh Street, 
 South Sixth Street to Fourth Street and South Seventh 
 Street to the Ferry, all were to be widened and the road 
 was to be known as Broadway. Parts of this improve- 
 ment were carried out. 
 
1 88 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 APPENDIX XXVI. 
 
 Bibliography. 
 
 A Sketch of the First Settlement of the Several 
 
 Towns on Long Island. Silas Wood 1828 
 
 History of Long Island. Benjamin F.Thompson 1839 
 
 A History of Long Island. Nathaniel S. Prime 1845 
 
 Historical Sketch of the City of Brooklyn, Will- 
 iamsburgh, Bushwick, Flatbush, etc. 
 
 J. T. Bailey 1840 
 
 Antiquities of Long Island. Gabriel Furman 1874 
 
 Documentary History of the State of New York. 
 
 E. B. O'Callaghan 1849-51 
 
 Documents Relating to the History of the Early 
 Colonial Settlements, principally on Long 
 Island. F. Fernon 1883 
 
 Early Settlers of Kings County. Teunis G.Bergen t88i 
 
 Genealogy of the Leiferts' Family. 
 
 Teunis G. Bergen 1878 
 
 Kings County Genealogical Club Collections. 1882 
 History of the City of Brooklyn. 
 
 Henry R. Stiles i867-'7o 
 
 History of Kings County. Henry R. Stiles, M. D. 1884 
 
 Historical Collections of the State of New York. 
 
 John W. Barbour and Henry Howe 1841 
 Historical and Statistical Gazetteer of New York 
 
 State. J. H. French i860 
 
 Annals of Newtown. James Riker, Jr. 1852 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 1 89 
 
 History of Queens County. Munsell & Co. 1882 
 
 Revolutionary Incidents of Suffolk and Kings 
 
 Counties. Hy. Onderdonck 1849 
 
 Corporation Manuals of the City of Brooklyn. 1857-71 
 
 Brooklyn City and Kings County Record. 
 
 W. H. Smith 1855 
 
 Williamsburgh City Directory and History of 
 
 Williamsburgh. S. and T. F. Reynolds 1852 
 
 Miscellanies. Rusticus Gent (Furman) 1847 
 
 Indian Place-Names in the Borough of Brook- 
 lyn. Wm. Wallace Tooker 1901 
 
 The Indian Place-Names on Long Island. 
 
 Wm. Wallace Tooker 1911 
 Reformed Dutch Church of Williamsburgh. 
 
 Elbert S. Porter 1866 
 Semi-Centennial Anniversary of St. Mark's 
 
 Church. 1889 
 
 Memorial of General Jeremiah Johnson. 1854 
 
 Memorial of the Golden Jubilee of Rev. 
 
 Sylvester Malone. S. L. Malone 1895 
 
 Our Firemen, Brooklyn Fire Department. 1892 
 
 Narratives of New Netherland. 
 
 J. Franklin Jameson 1909 
 Manual of the Reformed Protestant Church in 
 
 North America. Edward Tanjore Corwin 1859 
 
 Aboriginal Occupations of New York. 
 
 Wm. M. Beauchamp 1900 
 
 The Whaley Record. Rev. Samuel Whaley 1901 
 
 Brooklyn's Guardians. Wm. E. S. Fales 1887 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abraham Jansen Timmer- 
 
 man 29 
 
 Albany 21, 69 
 
 Albert Coertsen 24 
 
 Alsop Family Burial 
 
 Ground 65, 86 
 
 Alsop Farm 65, 86 
 
 Alsop, Richard 65 
 
 American Hotel 113 
 
 Amersf oort 26 
 
 Andriese, David 19 
 
 Andros, Governor 57 
 
 Annunciation P. E. Church 128 
 
 Apostolic Lutheran Church 128 
 
 Armen Bouwerij 19 
 
 Asbury African M. E. 
 
 Church 82 
 
 Ascension P. E. Church.. 79 
 
 Auke Rynerse 47 
 
 Backbone of Long Island. 122 
 
 Backus Farm 125 
 
 Baedel House 29 
 
 Bakker, Hendrik Willemse 24 
 Bank of Williamsburgh. . . 115 
 
 Banks 115 
 
 Barent, Gerretse 24 
 
 Barent, Joosten 24 
 
 Bassett, Rev. John 68, 69 
 
 Battle of Long Island.. 61, 101 
 
 Bedford 55, 59, 108, 123 
 
 Bedford Corners. 55, 62, 87, 97 
 
 Bedford Depot 58 
 
 Bedford School 56, 97, 98 
 
 Bedford Section 78 
 
 Beehive 72 
 
 Bennett, Peter 31 
 
 Bergen Farm 125 
 
 Bethel African M. E. 
 
 Church 82 
 
 Bethel Independent Baptist 
 
 Church 82 
 
 Betts, Captain Richard . . . lOQ 
 
 Betts, Johanna 100 
 
 Beyond the Newtown Creek 63 
 
 Bibliography 188 
 
 Block, Adrian 9 
 
 Blockhouse on the Kijkuit, 
 
 68, 69, 77 
 
 Bloom, Nicholas 55 
 
 Boerum House 43 
 
 Boght 68, 69 
 
 Boght Church 69 
 
 Boswijck 15, 22, 23, 24, 26 
 
 68, 77, 121 
 
 Boswijck Church 68 
 
 Boswijck Nieuw Loten. ... 20 
 
 Boudinet, Elias 20 
 
 Boulevard Brewery Hotel 112 
 
 Boulevard Grove 112 
 
 Bourgon Broucard 65 
 
 Bowron Family 50 
 
 Bowron, Watson 50 
 
 Bowronville 50, 79 109 
 
 Bragaw, Andrew 65 
 
 Bragaw, Bourgon 65 
 
 Bragaw, Isaac 65 
 
 Bragaw, John 65 
 
 Branch Hotel 113 
 
192 
 
 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Breukelen 26, 55, 122 
 
 British Army 61 
 
 Broadway Elevated Rail- 
 road 106 
 
 Broadway Ferry 40, 103 
 
 Broadway Railroad Co.... 105 
 
 Brooklyn 18, 20, 35, 38, 57 
 
 58, 68, 78, 122, 124 
 Brooklyn and Jamaica 
 
 Road 62 
 
 Brooklyn and J a m a ic a 
 
 Turnpike Co 104 
 
 Brooklyn City Hall ...104, 105 
 Brooklyn City Railroad, 
 
 58, 63, 125 
 Brooklyn Daily Times.. 75, 114 
 Brooklyn Ferry ..37, 61,66, 117 
 Brooklyner Freie Presse.. 114 
 
 Broucard, Bourgon 65 
 
 Brown, Chas. S 59 
 
 Brown's Village 59 
 
 Brownsville 59 
 
 Brutnell, Richard 64,65 
 
 Burger Jorissen 64, 65 
 
 Burger's Kill 65 
 
 Burying Grounds 85 
 
 Bushwick ..15, 18, 26, 27, 35 
 38, 52, 68, 69, 77, 78, 79, 106 
 122, 123, 124 
 Bushwick and Ridgewood 
 
 Sections, The 45 
 
 Bushwick, Area 117 
 
 Bushwick Burying Ground, 
 
 73, 75 
 Bushwick Church, 67, 69, 
 72, 73, 75, 76, 77, 78, 
 
 79, 81, 86, 89 
 
 Bushwick Census of 1698. 139 
 Bushwick Churchyard .74, 86 
 Bushwick Cornbury Patent 27 
 
 Bushwick Creek 13, 33 
 
 Bushwick Cripplebush .... 65 
 Bushwick Cross Roads, 
 
 33, 79, 89, 106, 108 
 
 Bushwick Depot 41, 106 
 
 Bushwick Directory 118 
 
 Bushwick District School 
 
 No. 1 89 
 
 Bushwick District School 
 
 No. 2 90 
 
 Bushwick District School 
 
 No. 3 92 
 
 Bushwick Division of the 
 
 Regiment of Militia of 
 
 Kings Co., 1715 143 
 
 Bushwick Dongan Patent.. 131 
 
 Bushwick Ferry 66, 72 
 
 Bushwick Graveyard, 70, 74, 85 
 Bushwick Green, 72,79,89, 108 
 Bushwick High School.... 51 
 Bushwick, Improved Lands 
 
 in 1706 117, 141 
 
 Bushwick, Indian Deed of. 129 
 
 Bushwick Lane 62, 78 
 
 Bushwick, List of All the 
 
 Inhabitants in 1738 144 
 
 Bushwick, List of Men Who 
 
 Took the Oath, etc. ... 138 
 Bushwick, Slaves, 1755... 146 
 
 Bushwick Mill 70 
 
 Bushwick Mill Pond 99 
 
 Bushwick Muster Roll of 
 
 Mihtia in 1663 132 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 193 
 
 Bushwick New Lotts 20 
 
 Bushwick NicoU's Patent. 130 
 
 Bushwick Patent 101 
 
 Bushwick Population 117 
 
 Bushwick Railroad 106 
 
 Bushwick Rate List of 1675 134 
 Bushwick Rate List of 1676 135 
 Bushwick Rate List of 1683 137 
 
 Bushwick Road 46, 61 
 
 Bushwick School, 
 
 56, 76, 88, 89, 98 
 
 Bushwick Section 76, 78 
 
 Bushwick Street 81 
 
 Bushwick Taxable Valua- 
 tion 147 
 
 Bushwick Town Dock.. 70, 72 
 
 Bushwick Town House, 
 
 76, 77, 89 
 
 Bushwick Town Road 103 
 
 Bushwick Village, 
 
 27, 34, 45, 46, 69, 72, 76 
 
 Bushwyck 68 
 
 Calvary Cemetery 17, 64, 65, 86 
 
 Calvary P. E. Church 82 
 
 Canarsee 10, 77, 123 
 
 Cannon Street Baptist 
 
 Church Cemetery .... 87 
 
 Carstensen, Claes 18, 19 
 
 Carsville 108 
 
 Casparse, Johannes 24 
 
 Casparse, Jost 25 
 
 Catjouw, Jean 24 
 
 Cedar Grove 88 
 
 Cells, The 107 
 
 Cemetery Lane 88 
 
 Cemetery near Orient Ave- 
 nue 87 
 
 Census of Kings County, 
 
 1698 139 
 
 Charter of Freedoms and 
 
 Exemptions 10, 12 
 
 Cherry Point 31 
 
 Christ Church 80, 82 
 
 City Hotel 113 
 
 Claes Carstensen 18, 19 
 
 Clay, Humphrey. . .15, 17, 121 
 
 Clifford 49 
 
 Clinton, Sir William 62 
 
 Clopper, Cornelius 16 
 
 Clove Road 58, 97 
 
 Coertsen, Albert 24 
 
 Colfax, Richard 65 
 
 Colored School No. 3 97 
 
 Colyer House 33 
 
 Comlits, Jan 23 
 
 Conselyea House 29 
 
 Cooper Farm 125 
 
 Cooper, John 50 
 
 Cooper, Richard 50 
 
 Cooper's Road 126 
 
 Corlear's Hook 10, 34, 36 
 
 Cornells Jacobsen Stille 
 
 (— the Silent) 18, 19 
 
 Cornelius Dirckse 115 
 
 Cornbury, Governor ....27, 52 
 
 Cornwallis, Marquis 62 
 
 Corteleau, Jacques 22 
 
 Covenant Lutheran Church 128 
 
 Covert Farm 125 
 
 Covert, William 49, 50 
 
 Cripplebush, 34, 46, 56, 108, 122 
 
 Cripplebush Patent 20, 56 
 
 Cripplebush Road ..55, 56, 97 
 Cross-Roads Settlement, 33, 45 
 
194 
 
 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Cruikshank, Rev. W 58 
 
 Cypress Hills 45, 59, 60, 88 
 
 Cypress Hills Cemetery, 
 
 87, 105, 125 
 Cypress Hills Plank Road, 
 
 49, 52 
 
 Daily Long Islander 114 
 
 David Andriese 19 
 
 Debevoise, Charles 50 
 
 Debevoise Farm 125 
 
 Debevoise House 30 
 
 Democratic Advocate 114 
 
 De Neger ( — The Negro) 
 
 Francisco 24 
 
 Denton Farm 125 
 
 De Smith's Vley 116 
 
 De Sale, Anthony Janse.. 24 
 De Sille, Nicasius. . .12, 13, 22 
 De Swede, Jan.. 18, 19, 41, 121 
 
 Devoe Houses 31 
 
 De Vries, Titus Sirach.... 100 
 Dewit ( — The White, i.e. 
 
 Miller) Pieter Jan.. 22, 23 
 
 24 
 De Zeeuw, Jan Cornelissen 24 
 
 Dirck Volkertse 19, 25, 31 
 
 Dirckse Cornelius 115, 116 
 
 Division Avenue 39 
 
 Dongan, Thomas 26 
 
 Dongan's Patent ..26, 123, 131 
 
 Dorp, Het 27 
 
 Doughty, Rev. Francis.... 12 
 
 Dubois, Francis 50 
 
 Duke of York 26 
 
 Dunham, David 90 
 
 Du Puy, Frangois 24 
 
 Durie, Joost 31 
 
 Durjee, Johannes 47 
 
 Duryea House 15, 17, 31 
 
 Duryea, Margaret E 50 
 
 Duryea, Mrs. S 50 
 
 Dutch Churches of Kings 
 
 County 68, 73 
 
 Dutch Colonies 12 
 
 Dutch Kills 64, 65 
 
 Dutch Kills Creek 64 
 
 Dutch Kills School House 66 
 
 Dutchtown 107 
 
 Early Days of Eastern Dis- 
 trict Schools, The 88 
 
 East Brooklyn 56, 80, 105 
 
 Eastern District Daily 
 
 Times 114 
 
 Eastern District Fire De- 
 partment 112 
 
 Eastern District of Brook- 
 lyn, 27, 76, 78, 79, 87, 
 
 104, 108, 118 
 Eastern District Obsolete 
 
 Street Names 158 
 
 Eastern District Police 
 
 Court 107 
 
 East New York, 56, 58, 59, 63 
 
 105, 106, 124 
 East New York Sentinel.. 60 
 East Reformed Church... 80 
 
 East River 11, 64 
 
 East Williamsburgh ...125, 127 
 
 Edsall Farm 125 
 
 Eldert Engelbertse 13, 23 
 
 Eldert House 58 
 
 Engelbertse, Eldert 13, 23 
 
 Engine Companies. . .109, 110, 
 
 111 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 195 
 
 English Kills 64, 77 
 
 Erie Canal 11 
 
 Evergreen 52, 54, 125, 127 
 
 Evergreens, Cemetery of 
 
 the.. 46, 52, 63, 88, 103, 125 
 Farmers' and Citizens' 
 
 Bank 115 
 
 Ferries, The 177 
 
 Fire Department 109 
 
 Firemen's Hall 112 
 
 First Baptist Church of 
 
 Greenpoint 79 
 
 First Baptist Church of 
 
 Williamsburgh 82 
 
 First Congregation al 
 
 Church of WiUiams- 
 
 burgh 85 
 
 First National Bank of 
 
 Brooklyn 115 
 
 First Presbyterian Church 
 
 of Williamsburgh.: .84, 85 
 First Universalist Church 
 
 and Society 85 
 
 Five Dutch Towns, The.. 26 
 Flatbush, 18, 55, 56, 57, 58, 61 
 
 Flatlands 18, 68 
 
 Flushing and Newtown 
 
 Turnpike and Bridge 
 
 Co 114 
 
 Flushing Avenue Railroad. 106 
 
 Flushing Creek 104 
 
 Flushing Stages 58 
 
 Flymarket 66 
 
 Fonteyn, Charles 24 
 
 Fort Amsterdam 115 
 
 Fountain Inn 41 
 
 Four Mile House 113 
 
 Fourteenth Ward Bell 
 
 Tower 112 
 
 Fowler's Bridge 99 
 
 Francisco de Neger 24 
 
 Franklin Hotel 105, 113 
 
 Freeman, Rev. Bernardus 68 
 
 Free School System 88 
 
 Fresh Pond 125 
 
 Fresh Pond Road 62, 126 
 
 Fresh Vleyen 23 
 
 Fulton Avenue Railroad, 
 
 58, 106 
 
 Fulton Ferry 105, 106 
 
 Fulton House 113 
 
 Furman's Antiquities of 
 
 Long Island 73 
 
 Furman's Island 13 
 
 Furman, Wm. Henry .... 50 
 General Assembly of 1704 103 
 German Ev. Luth. Zion 
 
 Church 128 
 
 German Ev. Reformed 
 
 Church 128 
 
 German M. E. Church 128 
 
 German Ref. D. Ch. of 
 
 New Brooklyn 81 
 
 Gerretse, Barent 24 
 
 Glendale 125, 126, 127 
 
 Glendale M. E. Church 128 
 
 Gosman, William 65 
 
 Gothic Hotel 113 
 
 Gowanis 20, 122 
 
 Gowanus Creek 122 
 
 Grand Street Ferry 105 
 
 Grand Street First Prot. 
 
 Meth. Church 88 
 
 Gravesend 24, 68, 69 
 
196 
 
 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Green, The 108 
 
 Green Hills. 45, 63, 88, 103, 122 
 
 Greenpoint 31, 54, 72, 78 
 
 79, 89, 108 
 Greenpoint Advertiser .... 114 
 
 Greenpoint Directory 118 
 
 Greenpoint D. Ref. Church 79 
 
 Greenpoint, Ferry 106 
 
 Greenpoint Hotel 113 
 
 Greenpoint School 93 
 
 Greenpoint, Ravenwood and 
 
 Hallett Cove Turnpike. 33 
 Grever ( — digger) Hen- 
 
 drik Janse 25 
 
 Gysbert, Thonissen 25 
 
 Hans Hansen... 18, 19, 64, 121 
 
 Harmensen, Hendrik 19 
 
 Harrison, James 49 
 
 Hay, Jacob 25 
 
 Hazard, James 36 
 
 Hedeman, Evert 24 
 
 Hempstead Plains, 26, 52, 123 
 Hendrik, Barent Smith 
 
 (by trade) 24 
 
 Hendrik, Harmensen 19 
 
 Hendrik, Willemse Bakker 
 
 (by trade) 24 
 
 Hendrik, Janse Grever 
 
 (-digger) 25 
 
 Hendriksen, Jan 24 
 
 Herry 24 
 
 Hessians 48 
 
 Hill School 90 
 
 Hills, The 122 
 
 Hoboken 10 
 
 Holder's Stages 58, 105 
 
 Holder's Three Mile House, 
 
 58, 105 
 Holy Cross Prot. Church 128 
 
 Hopoakanhaking 10 
 
 Hose Company No. 1... Ill 
 
 Hotels 113 
 
 Houston Street Ferry... 105 
 
 Hout Punt, Het 27 
 
 Howard Estate 58, 63 
 
 Howard, Major William, 62, 63 
 
 Howard, WilHam 61, 62 
 
 Howard's Halfway House 61 
 
 Howard's Inn 60 
 
 Howe, Sir William 62 
 
 Hudson River 11, 64 
 
 Hulst Farm 125 
 
 Hunter's Point 54 
 
 Huntington 99 
 
 Husted and Kendall's 
 
 Stages 105 
 
 Hutchinson 19 
 
 Huybertse, Lambert 19 
 
 Improved Lands in Bush- 
 wick, 1706 141 
 
 Independent Press, The. 114 
 Indian Deed of Bushwick 129 
 
 Indian Trail 15 
 
 Inscriptions on Tomb- 
 stones in Bushwick 
 
 Churchyard 157 
 
 Insciptions on Tomb- 
 stones in Original 
 
 Graveyard 155 
 
 I n s c r i p t ions on Tomb- 
 stones in Schenck Fam- 
 ily Burial Place 156 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 197 
 
 Italian Row 63 
 
 Ivanhoe Fire Hook and 
 
 Ladder Co 127 
 
 Ivanhoe Park Hose Co... 127 
 
 Ivins House 63 
 
 Jack's Creek 65 
 
 Jamaica, 55, 59, 61, 72, 77, 104 
 Jamaica and Brooklyn 
 
 Plank Road 104 
 
 Jamaica Bay 58 
 
 Jamaica Lane 97 
 
 Jamaica Road 62, 103, 105 
 
 Jan Cornelissen de Zeeuw 24 
 
 Jan Hendriksen 24 
 
 Jan, the Swede... 18, 19, 41, 121 
 
 Jan, Willemse 24 
 
 Jansen, Abraham 29 
 
 Jansen, from Sale 24 
 
 Jansen, Tymen 64 
 
 Johannes Casparse 24 
 
 Johnson Family 98 
 
 Johnson, Gen. Jeremiah... 21 
 
 Joosten^ Barent 24 
 
 Jorissen, Burger 64, 65 
 
 Jost Casparse 25 
 
 Kalbfleisch, Martin 89 
 
 Kanapaukah 64 
 
 Kieft, Willem, 
 
 10, 11, 76, 102, 123 
 
 Kijkuit 29, 41, 68, 70 
 
 Kijkuit Lane 29, 70, 72 
 
 Kings County 77 
 
 Kings County Advertiser.. 60 
 .Kings County Chronicle, 
 
 The 114 
 
 Kings County Hotel 113 
 
 Kings County Journal .... 60 
 King's Highway... 61, 63, 103 
 Knickerbocker Hotel.... 113 
 
 Kreupelbosch, Het 34 
 
 Kruispad, Het 33 
 
 Lahr Farm 125 
 
 Lambert Huybertse 19 
 
 Lambertse, Reyer 19 
 
 La Mothe, Pieter 24 
 
 Lane, Ralph 50 
 
 Laterne, Die 60 
 
 Lawrence Mansion 63 
 
 Lawrence's Franklin 
 
 Hotel 105 
 
 Laws Relating to Wil- 
 
 liamsburgh 149 
 
 Leffert Pieterse 46 
 
 Lefferts Family Burial 
 
 Ground 87 
 
 Lefferts Farm 48, 87 
 
 Lefferts, Leffert .46, 47, 55, 56 
 
 Lefferts, Rem 55 
 
 Leslie's Brooklyn Direc- 
 tory 118 
 
 Le Teller, Jan 24 
 
 Lexington Ave. Elevated 
 
 R. R 106 
 
 List of All the Inhabi- 
 tants, 1738 144 
 
 List of Men in Bushwick 
 Who Took the Oath, 
 
 etc 138 
 
 List of Slaves, 1755 146 
 
 Log Cabin, The Old 90 
 
 Long Island 25, 26 
 
 Long Island Anzeiger 114 
 
198 
 
 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Long Island Family Circle. 114 
 Long Island Ferry, 
 
 37, 115, 116 
 
 Long Island Indians 13 
 
 Long Island Railroad ..66, 107 
 
 Long Island Zeitung 114 
 
 Lookout 68, 77 
 
 Luqueer, Abraham 48 
 
 Luqueer's Bushwick Mill 29 
 Lutheran Cemetery. . 125, 126 
 
 Lydecker, Ryck 24, 25 
 
 Maiden Lane 116 
 
 Malboneville 108 
 
 Maliert, Jean 24 
 
 Manhattan Beach Rail- 
 road . .52, 125 
 
 Manhattan Crossing 59 
 
 Manhattan Island, 
 
 9, 10, 13, 54, 64, 102 
 
 Manor House 30 
 
 Mansion House 29, 30, 101 
 
 Manual of the Ref. Prot. 
 
 Ch. in America 68 
 
 Manufacturers' National 
 
 Bank 115 
 
 Map Showing the Orig- 
 inal Plantations 121 
 
 Marechawieck 122 
 
 Mashpack Kil 34 
 
 Maspeth 101, 127 
 
 Maspeth Ave. Toll Bridge 
 
 Co 104 
 
 Maspeth Island 13 
 
 Massachusetts Bay, Col- 
 ony of 99 
 
 Masters' Mill 29 
 
 McCormick Farm 125 
 
 Mechanic, The 60 
 
 Mechanics' Bank of Wil- 
 
 liamburgh 115 
 
 Meeker, Rev. Stephen H. 68 
 
 Melvina 125 
 
 Merck's Plantation 45, 46 
 
 Meserole, Abraham. . .31, 111 
 
 Meserole Homestead 77 
 
 Meserole, Jacob 33 
 
 Meserole, Peter 49 
 
 Mespath 18 
 
 Mespath Kills 52, 65, 9& 
 
 Methodist Cemetery 87 
 
 Methodist Chapel 81 
 
 Methodist Epis. Church 
 
 Cross-Roads 79 
 
 Methodist Protestant Ceme- 
 tery 50 
 
 Methodist Protestant 
 
 Church 81 
 
 Metropolitan 125 
 
 Meyerose Farm 125, 126 
 
 Middelburgh Purchase.. 61 
 Middle Village M. E. 
 
 Church 128 
 
 Midwout 26, 68 
 
 Mill Road 27 
 
 Miller Homestead 41, 68 
 
 Mirror, The 60 
 
 Mispat Kil 11, 13, 102, 122 
 
 Mispat Settlement 12, 22 
 
 Mispat Tribe 11, 102 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 99 
 
 Moffatt, John 50 
 
 Montville 33 
 
 Moore, Thomas 51 
 
 Morrell, Thomas 36 
 
 Most Holy Trinity Ceme- 
 tery 88 
 
 Mott, Adam 121 
 
 Mourison, Koert 22 
 
 Municipal Government.. 123 
 Muster Roll of Bushwick 
 
 Militia, 1663 132 
 
 Mutual Truck Co. No. 1. 110 
 Myrtle Ave. and Jamaica 
 
 Plank Road Co 104 
 
 Myrtle Ave. Elevated Road 126 
 
 Myrtle Ave. Railroad 106 
 
 Nassau River 10 
 
 Navy Yard 104 
 
 Netherland 77 
 
 New Amsterdam, 
 
 19, 67, 70, 77 
 New Arnheim ..12, 13, 15, 24 
 
 New Brooklyn 81, 108 
 
 New Bushwick Lands... 46 
 
 New Bushwick Lane 103 
 
 New Bushwick Letts, 
 
 20, 33, 45, 46, 47, 103 
 
 New Bushwick Road 103 
 
 New England 64 
 
 New England Church and 
 
 Society 85 
 
 New Lots, 
 
 56, 57, 58, 59, 61, 105, 108 
 New Lots Fire Depart- 
 ment 60 
 
 New Lots Journal, The... 60 
 New Lots Patent by Gov. 
 
 Andros 57 
 
 New Lots Police Depart- 
 ment 60 
 
 New Lots Ref. Dutch Ch. 57 
 
 New Lots Road 58 
 
 New Lots Schoolhouse ... 59 
 New Lotts of Flatbush, 
 
 The 56, 60 
 
 Newtown, 15, 17, 46, 52, 
 
 55, 60, 64, 66, 77, 99, 104 
 Newtown and Bushwick 
 
 Bridge Co 103 
 
 Newtown and Bushwick 
 Bridge and Turnpike 
 
 Road Co 104 
 
 Newtown Creek, 
 
 11, 15, 16, 63, 64, 122, 123 
 Newtown District School 
 
 No. 9 126 
 
 Newtown Union Free 
 
 School No. 9 126 
 
 Newtown Fire Department 127 
 
 New Utrecht 26, 72 
 
 New York 26, 34, 58, 83 
 
 New York and Manhattan 
 
 Beach Railroad Co. 88, 107 
 Nicolls, Richard.. 26, 34, 123 
 
 Nicolls Map 34 
 
 Nicolls Patent 130 
 
 Noormans 11 
 
 Noorman's Kil, 
 
 13, 27, 31, 34, 70, 72, 102 
 
 North Brooklyn 80, 108 
 
200 
 
 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 North Brooklyn Directory 118 
 North Fifth Street M. E. 
 
 Church 81 
 
 Northside, The 107 
 
 Northsiders, The 109 
 
 Nostrand, Garrett 98 
 
 Number of Deaths in 
 
 Williamsburgh 118 
 
 Number of DwelHngs in 
 
 Williamsburgh 118 
 
 Obsolete Street Names in 
 
 E. D 158 
 
 Obsolete Street Names in 
 
 East New York 174 
 
 Oesis, Severy 33 
 
 Office of Records 26 
 
 Old Bushwick Road.. 88, 103 
 Old Calvary Cemetery. ... 64 
 
 Old Flushing Avenue 127 
 
 Old Woodpoint Road.. 67, 102 
 
 Onderdonck Farm 125 
 
 Oostv^out 56 
 
 Orchard, The 31 
 
 Origin of Some of the 
 
 Street Names 172 
 
 Original Ecclesiastical Or- 
 ganizations 79 
 
 Original Plantations, The, 
 
 18, 121 
 
 Out Plantations 64 
 
 Palatinates 56 
 
 Patchogue 106 
 
 Path to the Kils 102 
 
 Payntar, Abraham 65 
 
 Payntar, William 65 
 
 Payson, Henry 118 
 
 Peck Slip 37, 115, 117 
 
 Peck Slip Ferry... 37, 105, 106 
 
 Peck Slip Hotel 113, 115 
 
 Pennsylvania Railroad... 54 
 
 Percy, Lord 62 
 
 Philadelphia House 113 
 
 Picnic Grounds 112 
 
 Picklesville 107 
 
 Pierson, Henry R 63 
 
 Pilling, James 50 
 
 Pitkin, John R 58, 60 
 
 Plymouth Colony 12 
 
 Polhemus, Theodorus.29, 101 
 
 Police Force 107 
 
 Poor Bowery 19 
 
 Population 79, 117 
 
 Post, William 65 
 
 Powell's Stages 105 
 
 Presbyterian Church of 
 
 Williamsburgh 85 
 
 Press, The 114 
 
 Primary Schools 95, 97 
 
 Provoost Family Burial 
 
 Ground 86 
 
 Provoost Farm 86 
 
 Provoost House 31 
 
 Protection Company 109 
 
 Public Cistern 110 
 
 Public Schools, 
 
 88, 89, 93, 95, 98 
 
 Queensborough Bridge ... 64 
 Queensborough Public 
 
 Schools 126, 127 
 
 Rahl, Col 48 
 
 Rapalie, Jaris Jansen de.. 19 
 
 20, 122 
 
 Rapalye, Folkert 65 
 
 Rappalyea House 56 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 20I 
 
 Rappelyea, Jeremiah, J... 56 
 
 Raritan Indians 13 
 
 Rate List of Bushwick, 
 
 1675 134 
 
 Rate List of Bushwick, 
 
 1676 135 
 
 Rate List of Bushwick, 
 
 1683 137 
 
 Rechtauk 10, 36 
 
 Ref. Dutch Ch. of North 
 
 Brooklyn 80 
 
 Ref. Scotch Presbyterian 
 
 Church 85 
 
 Reid, Phil 63 
 
 Remsen House 43 
 
 Rensselaerwyck 64 
 
 Revolutionary War 15, 48 
 
 Reyer Lambertse 19 
 
 Reynolds' Directory 118 
 
 Richards, Paul lOO 
 
 Ridgewood 52, 78 
 
 Ridgewood Depot 106, 126 
 
 Ridgewood Heights ..125, 127 
 Ridgewood Heights Ch. 
 
 of Christ 128 
 
 Ridgewood Hotel 127 
 
 Ridgewood Park 125, 127 
 
 Ridgewood Reformed Ch.. 128 
 Ridgewood Section in 
 
 Queensborough, 15, 52, 125 
 
 Ring Family 126 
 
 Ring Farm 125 
 
 Ring, Frederick 125 
 
 Rinnegaconck 20, 122 
 
 Rising Sun Tavern 61 
 
 River Indians 10 
 
 Roads and Transportations 102 
 
 Rockaway Footpath 102- 
 
 Rockaway Indians 102 
 
 Rocks lip 
 
 Roman Catholic Cemetery 86 
 Roosevelt Street Ferry.... 40 
 
 Roosters, The 110- 
 
 Ryck Lydecker 24, 25 
 
 Rycken, Abraham 19- 
 
 Rycken Gysbert 19, 121 
 
 Rynerse, Auke 47 
 
 Salem 99" 
 
 Salt River 11 
 
 Sand's Estate 104 
 
 Sapohanikan 10 
 
 Satley, Herry 18 
 
 Schenck, Abraham 47' 
 
 Schenck Family Burial 
 
 Place 86 
 
 Schenck Farm 100, 101 
 
 Schenck Homestead 58 
 
 Schenck, Johannes 100 
 
 Schenck, Johannes, Jr... 100 
 
 Schenck, Peter 100 
 
 Schenck, Stephen 50 
 
 Schenck's Mill 86, 99, 100^ 
 
 Schoonmaker, Peter 49 
 
 Schuetzen Park 113 
 
 Scudder, John 99, 100 
 
 Scudder, John 2nd 100 
 
 Scudder, John 3rd 100 
 
 Scudder, Richard B 100 
 
 Scudder's Pond 100 
 
 Second German Baptist 
 
 Church 49 
 
 Second M. E. Church 81 
 
 Seventeenth Ward Bell 
 
 Tower 112 
 
202 
 
 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Severy, Oesis 23 
 
 Shell Road 104 
 
 Sixteenth Ward Bell 
 
 Tower 112 
 
 Skillman House 30 
 
 Smith, Hendrik Barent. .. 24 
 
 Smith's Brooklyn Direc- 
 tory 118 
 
 Smith's Fly 116 
 
 Smith's Island, 13, 15, 23, 45, 46 
 
 Snedeker Hotel 59 
 
 Snediker Farm 125 
 
 Solid Men of Williams- 
 burgh, 1847 153 
 
 South Bushwick 78 
 
 South Bushwick Reformed 
 
 Dutch Church.. 51, 78, 79 
 
 South Evergreen 128 
 
 Southold 99 
 
 South Second Street M. E. 
 
 Church 81 
 
 South Side, The 107 
 
 South Side Railroad ...41, 106 
 South Side Railroad Ter- 
 minal 106 
 
 Southsiders, The 110 
 
 South Third Street Pres- 
 
 bj^terian Church 85 
 
 South Williamsburg-h .... 52 
 South Williamsburgh 
 
 School District 126 
 
 Spencer Orchard 63 
 
 St. Aloysius R. C. Church 127 
 
 St. Andrews' Ev. Luth. 
 
 Church 128 
 
 St. Benedict's R. C. Church 81 
 
 St. Brigid's R. C. Church 127 
 
 St. James' Park 125 
 
 St. James' P. E. Church.. 82 
 St. Johannes German Ev. 
 
 Church 85 
 
 St. John's German Ev. 
 
 Luth. Church 128 
 
 St. Mark's P. E. Church.. 82 
 
 St. Mary's R. C. Church, 
 
 82, 83, 87 
 
 St. Matthias' R. C. Church 128 
 
 St. Paul's P. E. Church.. 82 
 
 Sts. Peter's and Paul's R. 
 
 C. Church 84 
 
 Staten Island 65 
 
 Statistics 117 
 
 Steendam, Jacob 121 
 
 Stille, Cornelis Jacobsen 18, 19 
 
 Stiles, Dr. Henry 123 
 
 Stockholm, Abraham .... 50 
 
 Stockholm, Andrew 50 
 
 Stockholm Farms 50 
 
 Stone, Susan 49, 50 
 
 Strand, Het 35 
 
 Strey's Hotel 112 
 
 Stuyvesant, Petrus...l2, 13, 15 
 21, 24, 26, 36, 45, 77, 78, 123 
 
 Stuyvesant Section 78 
 
 Suydam, Adrian Martense 48 
 
 Suydam House 46 
 
 Suydam, Jacob 48, 50 
 
 Suydam, Peter F 50 
 
 Swamp, The 107 
 
 Swede's Kil 41 
 
 Symons' Four Mile House, 
 
 62, 113 
 Taxable Valuation, Bush- 
 wick 147 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 203 
 
 Taxable Valuation, Wil- 
 
 liamsburgh 148 
 
 Temple Beth Elohim 85 
 
 Third M. E. Church 81 
 
 Thirteenth Ward Bell 
 
 Tower 112 
 
 Thompson 20 
 
 Thonissen, Gysbert 25 
 
 Thrall, George W 58 
 
 Three Mile House 58, 113 
 
 Tilje, Jan ..23, 24 
 
 Timmerman, Abraham 
 
 Jansen 29 
 
 Titus, Col. Francis' House 43 
 
 Titus, Francis lOO 
 
 Titus, Tunis 100 
 
 T'Maagde Paatje lie 
 
 Tompkins Farm 125 
 
 Town Dock 70, 72, 102 
 
 Town Records 21 
 
 Traphagen, William Janse, 
 
 22, 25 
 
 Trinbol, Pieter Jansen 27 
 
 Trotting Course Lane 126 
 
 Troutman, Dr 49 
 
 Troutman's Hotel 113 
 
 Tymen Jansen 64 
 
 Union Cemetery, New, 
 
 50, 51, 87 
 
 Union Cemetery, Old 87 
 
 Union Hotel 113 
 
 Van Alst Farm 125 
 
 Van Corlear, Jacob 18 
 
 Vanderveer, John 50 
 
 Vandervoort, Abraham, 49, 50 
 
 Van Nostrand Farm 125 
 
 Van Nuyse 46 
 
 Van Nuyse, Abagail 46 
 
 Van Nuyse, Auke Janse.. 46 
 
 Van Nuyse, William 47 
 
 Van Nuyse, William Janse 46 
 
 Van Ranst House 29 
 
 Van Ruyven 22 
 
 Volkertse, Dirck 19, 25, 31 
 
 Voorhees, William 50 
 
 Waaleboght 68, 69 
 
 Walbaut 34 
 
 Walboght 20 
 
 Wallaboght and Brooklyn 
 
 Turnpike Co 103 
 
 Wallabout 56, 98, 105, 122 
 
 Wallabout and Bedford 
 
 Turnpike Co 104 
 
 Wallabout and Newtown 
 
 Road 56 
 
 Wallabout Bay 20 
 
 Wallabout Canal Co 104 
 
 Wallabout Creek 98,104 
 
 Wallabout Presbyterian 
 
 Church 80 
 
 Wallabout School 98 
 
 Wallabout Toll-Bridge Co. 104 
 
 Wallabout Village 56 
 
 Wall, William 50 
 
 Wampum 13, 89 
 
 Wandell, Thomas 65, 86 
 
 War of 1812 17, 57 
 
 Wards 108, 119 
 
 Washington 33 
 
 Washington Company 109 
 
 Washington Hotel 113 
 
 Way Farm 125 
 
 Way, Francis 61 
 
204 
 
 THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Weeksville 108 
 
 Wesquaesgeek 10 
 
 Westchester 26 
 
 Western District Fire De- 
 partment 112 
 
 Western District of Brook- 
 lyn 78, 108, 118 
 
 West India Company, 10, 
 
 18, 19, 76, 121, 122, 124 
 West Riding of Yorkshire 26 
 
 Whaley, Alexander 33 
 
 White Church 51, 78 
 
 White, George 49 
 
 Wilcox 18, 19 
 
 WilHam Janse Van Nuyse 46 
 
 Williams, Col 36 
 
 Williams, Painter 105 
 
 Williamsburgh, 33, 34, 36. 
 37, 38, 43, 77, 78, 80, 81, 
 92, 104, 107, 122, 123, 124 
 Williamsburgh and Cypress 
 
 Hills Plank Road 105 
 
 Williamsburgh and Jamaica 
 
 Turnpike 81 
 
 Williamsburgh, Bank of.. 115 
 Williamsburgh, Bethel In- 
 dependent Baptist Ch. 82 
 Williamsburgh, Brooklyn, 
 Bushwick and New 
 
 Lotts Railroad 105 
 
 Williamsburgh Chapel 72 
 
 Williamsburgh City Bank. 115 
 Williamsburgh City Hall, 
 
 43, 44, 112 
 Williamsburgh Democrat.. 114 
 Williamsburgh Directory. . 118 
 
 Williamsburgh District 
 
 Schools 92, 93, 95 
 
 Williamsburgh Ferry 103 
 
 Williamsburgh Fire De- 
 partment 109 
 
 Williamsburgh Garden . . . 112 
 Williamsburgh Gazette . . . 114 
 Williamsburgh, Laws Re- 
 lating to 149 
 
 Williamburgh Morning 
 
 Post 114 
 
 Wilhamsburgh, Number of 
 
 Deaths in 118 
 
 Williamsburgh, Number of 
 
 Dwellings in 118 
 
 Williamsburgh, Population 117 
 Williamsburgh Reformed 
 
 Dutch Church 81 
 
 Williamsburgh Savings 
 
 Bank 115 
 
 Williamsburgh School Dis- 
 tricts 92 
 
 Williamsburgh Schools, 92, 93 
 Williambsurgh, Solid Men 
 
 of 153 
 
 Williamsburgh, Taxable 
 
 Valuation 148 
 
 Williamsburgh Telegraph.. 114 
 Williamsburgh Times .... 114 
 Williamsburgh Turnpike 
 
 Road and Bridge Co.. 104 
 Williamsburgh Village, 
 
 37, 72, 75 
 Woertman Homestead .... 43 
 
 Wood, Timothy 100 
 
 Woodhull, Richard M 36 
 
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF BROOKLYN 
 
 205 
 
 Woodpoint 27, 102 
 
 Woodpoint Road, 
 
 27, 33, 70, 72, 76, 85 
 
 Wyckoff Avenue Baptist 
 
 Church 128 
 
 Wyckoff, Catherine 49 
 
 Wyckoff Farm, 
 
 86, 99, 101, 125, 126 
 
 Wyckoff Heights 125 
 
 Wyckoff Heights Presby- 
 terian Church 128 
 
 Wyckoff House 101 
 
 Wyckoff, Nicholas 49, 101 
 
 Wyckoff, Nicholas 2nd ... 101 
 
 Wyckoff, Peter 29, 101 
 
 Wyckoff, Peter 2nd... 101, 126 
 
 Wyckoff, Susan A 49 
 
 Ye Pole's House 101 
 
 York, Duke of 26 
 
 Yorkshire 26 
 
 Yorkton 36, 37 
 
 Ysselstein, Jan Willemse.. 24 
 Zion African M. E. Church 81 
 Zweed, Jan De 18, 19, 121 
 
MAY 25 1912