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, /. -^f^^ yful^^i'L^t^x, t^/t , .-^*. <^/*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<^ >t^ '^ '^ -^ . 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 a S2 tL, 0) ;^ l-H 0) c 4) D g 5 en u a « l-l ^ u 0) -a c 0. I I 2 I 3 3 I I I I I I 2 I 2 I I 4 2 I I 2 2 I I I 4 I 2 2 I I 2 I I 2 I I I 2 I O' 2 2 5 I 2 2 I I 2 I I 2 3 I 2 4 2 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^