The Story of Manhattan
By Charles Hemstreet
Charles Scribner's Sons
1901
PREFACE
Here the history of New York City is told as a story, in few words. The effort has been to make it accurate and interesting. The illustrations are largely from old prints and wood engravings. Few dates are used. Instead, a Table of Events has been added which can readily be referred to. The Index to Chapters also gives the years in which the story of each chapter occurs.
INDEX to CHAPTERS
LIST of ILLUSTRATIONS
CHAPTER I. The Adventures of Henry Hudson.
From 1609 to 1612
CHAPTER II. The First Traders on the Island.
From 1612 to 1625
CHAPTER III. Peter Minuit, First of the Dutch Governors.
From 1626 to 1633
CHAPTER IV. Walter Van Twiller, Second of the Dutch Governors.
From 1633 to 1637
CHAPTER V. William Kieft and the War with the Indians.
From 1637 to 1647
CHAPTER VI. Peter Stuyvesant, the Last of the Dutch Governors.
From 1647 to 1664
CHAPTER VII. New York Under the English and the Dutch.
From 1664 to 1674
CHAPTER VIII. Something About the Bolting Act.
From 1674 to 1688
CHAPTER IX. The Stirring Times of Jacob Leisler.
From 1688 to 1691
CHAPTER X. The Sad End of Jacob Leisler.
The Year 1691
CHAPTER XI. Governor Fletcher and the Privateers.
From 1692 to 1696
CHAPTER XII. Containing the True Life of Captain Kidd.
From 1696 to 1702
CHAPTER XIII. Lord Cornbury makes Himself very Unpopular.
From 1702 to 1708
CHAPTER XIV. Lord Lovelace and Robert Hunter.
From 1708 to 1720
CHAPTER XV. Governor Burnet and the French Traders.
From 1720 to 1732
CHAPTER XVI. The Trial of Zenger, the Printer.
From 1732 to 1736
CHAPTER XVII. Concerning the Negro Plot.
From 1736 to 1743
CHAPTER XVIII. The Tragic Death of Sir Danvers Osborne.
From 1743 to 1753
CHAPTER XIX. The Beginning of Discontent.
From 1753 to 1763
CHAPTER XX. The Story of the Stamp Act.
From 1763 to 1765
CHAPTER XXI. The Beginning of Revolution.
From 1765 to 1770
CHAPTER XXII. Fighting the Tax on Tea.
From 1770 to 1774
CHAPTER XXIII. The Sons of Liberty at Turtle Bay.
From 1774 to 1775
CHAPTER XXIV. The War of the Revolution.
In the Year 1775
CHAPTER XXV. A Battle on Long Island.
The Year 1776
CHAPTER XXVI. The British Occupy New York.
The Year 1776 (Continued)
CHAPTER XXVII. The Battle of Harlem Heights.
The Year 1776 (Continued)
CHAPTER XXVIII. The British Fail to Sweep Everything Before
From 1776 to 1777
CHAPTER XXIX. New York a Prison House.
From 1777 to 1783
CHAPTER XXX. After the War.
From 1783 to 1788
CHAPTER XXXI. The First President of the United States.
The Year 1788
CHAPTER XXXII. The Welcome to George Washington.
The Year 1789
CHAPTER XXXIII. Concerning the Tammany Society and Burr's Bank.
From 1789 to 1800
CHAPTER XXXIV. More about Hamilton and Burr.
From 1801 to 1804
CHAPTER XXXV. Robert Fulton Builds a Steam-Boat.
From 1805 to 1807
CHAPTER XXXVI. The City Plan.
From 1807 to 1814
CHAPTER XXXVII. The Story of the Erie Canal.
From 1814 to 1825
CHAPTER XXXVIII. The Building of the Croton Aqueduct.
From 1825 to 1845
CHAPTER XXXIX. Professor Morse and the Telegraph.
From 1845 to 1878
CHAPTER XL. The Greater New York.
To the Present Time
TABLE of EVENTS
INDEX
LIST of ILLUSTRATIONS
New Amsterdam, 1650—New York, East Side, 1746
The Half Moon in the Highlands of the Hudson
Earliest Picture of Manhattan
Indians Trading for Furs
Hall of the States-General of Holland
Seal of New Netherland
The Building of the Palisades
Old House in New York, Built 1668
Van Twillier's Defiance
Landing of Dutch Colony on Staten Island
Governor's Island and the Battery in 1850
Dutch Costumes
The Bowling Green in 1840
Selling Arms to the Indians
Smoking the Pipe of Peace
The Old Stadt Huys of New Amsterdam
Stuyvesant leaving Fort Amsterdam
Petrus Stuyvesant's Tombstone
Departure of Nicolls
The Dutch Ultimatum
Seal of New York
New York in 1700
Sloughter Signing Leisler's Death-warrant
Bradford's Tombstone
Arrest of Captain Kidd
New City Hall in Wall Street
Fort George in 1740
View in Broad Street about 1740
The Slave-Market
Fraunces's Tavern
Dinner at Rip Van Dam's
The Negroes Sentenced
Trinity Church, 1760
Coffee-House opposite Bowling Green, Head-Quarters of the Sons of Liberty
Ferry-House on East River, 1746
East River Shore, 1750
Mrs. Murray's Dinner to British Officers
Howe's Head-Quarters, Beekman House
Map of Manhattan Island in 1776
View from the Bowling Green in the Revolution
Old Sugar-House in Liberty Street, the Prison-House of the Revolution
North Side of Wall Street East of William Street
Celebration of the Adoption of the Constitution
View of Federal Hall and Part of Broad Street, 1796
The John Street Theatre, 1781
Reservoir of Manhattan Water-Works in Chambers Street
The Collect Pond
The Grange, Kingsbridge Road, the Residence of Alexander Hamilton
The Clermont, Fulton's First Steam-Boat
Castle Garden
Landing of Lafayette at Castle Garden
View of Park Row, 1825
High Bridge, Croton Aqueduct
Crystal Palace
CHAPTER I.
THE ADVENTURES of HENRY HUDSON
HE long and narrow Island of Manhattan was a wild and beautiful spot in the year 1609. In this year a little ship sailed up the bay below the island, took the river to the west, and went on. In these days there were no tall houses with white walls glistening in the sunlight, no church-spires, no noisy hum of running trains, no smoke to blot out the blue sky. None of these things. But in their place were beautiful trees with spreading branches, stretches of sand-hills, and green patches of grass. In the branches of the trees there were birds of varied colors, and wandering through the tangled undergrowth were many wild animals. The people of the island were men and women whose skins were quite red; strong and healthy people who clothed themselves in the furs of animals and made their houses of the trees and vines.
In this year of 1609, these people gathered on the shore of their island and looked with wonder at the boat, so different from any they had ever seen, as it was swept before the wind up the river.
The ship was called the Half Moon, and it had come all the way from Amsterdam, in the Dutch Netherlands. The Netherlands was quite a small country in the northern part of Europe, not nearly as large as the State of New York, and was usually called Holland, as Holland was the most important of its several states. But the Dutch owned other lands than these. They had islands in the Indian Ocean that were rich in spices of every sort, and the other European countries needed these spices. These islands, being quite close to India, were called the East Indies, and the company of Dutch merchants who did most of the business with them was called the East India Company. They
It was a long way to the East India Islands from Holland, for in these days there was no Suez Canal to separate Asia and Africa, and the ships had to go around Africa by way of the Cape of Good Hope. Besides being a long distance, it was a dangerous passage; for although from its name one might take the Cape of Good Hope to be a very pleasant place, the winds blew there with great force, and the waves rolled so high that they often dashed the fragile ships to pieces.
So the merchants of Holland, and of other countries for that matter, were always thinking of a shorter course to the East Indies. They knew very little of North or South America, and believed that these countries were simply islands and that it was quite possible that a passage lay through them which would make a much nearer and a much safer way to the East Indies than around the dread Cape of Good Hope. So the East India Company built the ship Half Moon and got an Englishman named Henry Hudson to take charge of it, and started him off to find the short way. Hudson was chosen because he had already made two voyages for an English company, trying to find that same short passage, and was supposed to know ever so much more about it than anyone else.
When the Half Moon sailed up the river, Hudson was sure that he had found the passage to the Indies, and he paid very little attention to the red-skinned Indians on the island shore. But when the ship got as far as where Albany is now, the water had become shallow, and the river-banks were so near together that Hudson gave up in despair, and said that, after all, he had not found the eagerly sought-for passage to India, but only a river!
Then he turned the ship, sailed back past the island, and returned to Holland to tell of his discovery. He told of the fur-bearing animals, and of what a vast fortune could be made if their skins could only be got to Holland, where furs were needed. He told of the Indians; and the river which flowed past the island he spoke of as "The River of the Mountains."
The Half Moon in the Highlands of the Hudson
The directors of the Dutch East India Company were not particularly pleased with Hudson's report. They were angry because the short cut to India had not been found, and they thought very little of the vast storehouse of furs which he had discovered. Neither did the Company care a great deal about Hudson, for they soon fell out with him, and he went back to the English company and made another voyage for them, still in search of the short passage to India. But in this last voyage, he only succeeded in finding a great stretch of water far to the north, that can be seen on any map as Hudson's Bay. His crew after a time grew angry when he wanted to continue his search. There was a mutiny on the ship, and Hudson and his son and seven of the sailors who were his friends were put into a small boat, set adrift in the bay to which he had given his name, and no trace of them was ever seen again. Long, long years after that time, another explorer found the passage that Hudson had lost his life searching for. It is The Northwest Passage, far up toward the North Pole, in the region of perpetual cold and night. So Hudson never knew that the passage he had looked for was of no value, and we may be sure he had never imagined that there would ever be a great city on the island he had discovered.
The Dutch came to think a great deal of Hudson after he was dead. The stream which he had called "The River of the Mountains" they named Hudson's River. They even made believe that Hudson was a Dutchman—although you will remember he was an Englishman—and were in the habit of speaking of him as "Hendrick" Hudson.
The Indians were scattered over America in great numbers. The tribe on the island were called Manhattans, and from that tribe came the name of the Island of Manhattan. All the Indians, no matter which tribe they belonged to, looked very much alike and acted very much the same. Their eyes were dark, and their hair long, straight, and black. When they were fighting, they daubed their skins with colored muds—war paint the white men called it—and started out on the "war-path". They loved to hunt and fish, as well as to fight, and they fought and murdered as cruelly and with as little thought as they hunted the wild animals or hooked the fish. They held talks which were called "councils," and one Indian would speak for hours, while the others listened in silence. And when they determined upon any action, they carried it out, without a thought of how many people were to be killed, or whether they were to be killed themselves.
Earliest Picture of Manhattan
CHAPTER II
THE FIRST TRADERS on the ISLAND
For several years after the return of Hudson, Dutch merchants sent their ships to the Island of Manhattan, and each ship returned to Holland laden with costly furs which the Indians had traded for glass beads and strips of gay cloth. The Indians cared a great deal more for glittering glass and highly colored rags than they did for furs.
One trader above all others whose name should be remembered, was Adrian Block. He came in a ship called the Tiger. This ship was anchored in the bay close by what is now called the Battery, and directly in the course that the ferry-boats take when they go to Staten Island.
Indians Trading for Furs
On a cold night in November it took fire and was burned to the water's edge. Block and those who were with him would all have been burned to death had they not been strong and hardy men who were able to swim ashore in the ice-cold water. Even when they reached the shore they were not safe, for there were no houses or places of shelter; the winter was coming on, and the woods were filled with wild beasts. But Block and his men very soon built houses for themselves; rude and clumsy buildings to look at, but warm and comfortable within. They were the first houses of white men on the Island of Manhattan. If you wish to see where they stood, take a walk down Broadway, and just before you reach the Bowling Green, on a house which is numbered 41, you will find a tablet of brass which tells that Block's houses stood on that self-same spot.
As soon as the hard winter was over, Block and his men began to build a new ship, and before another winter had come they had one larger than the Tiger. It was the first vessel to be built in the new world, and was called the Restless.
That same year the Dutch merchants decided that they were giving too many glass beads for the furs, and that if all the merchants combined into one company they might not have to give so many. So they did combine, and called themselves the United New Netherland Company. It was in this way that the name New Netherland first appeared.
When the first ships of the new company reached the island, a house was built for the use of the fur-traders, just south of where the Bowling Green Park is. This structure was called Fort Manhattan. It was of wood, and did not take long to build because the traders did not intend to live in it a great while. They felt quite sure that all the furs would be collected in a few years, and that then the
But after a few years it was found that the new country was a much richer place than had been supposed. Shipload after shipload of otter and beaver skins were sent across the ocean and still there were otters and beavers without number. The fur-traders were growing rich, and after a few years there came a decided change, when a new company was formed in Holland; a great body of men this time, who had a vast amount of money to build ships and fit them out. This organization was the West India Company, and was to battle with Spain by land and by sea (for the Netherlands was at war with Spain) and was to carry on trade with the West Indies, just as the East India Company carried on trade with the East Indies. As the West Indies included every country that could be reached by sailing west from Holland, you will see that all the Dutch land in America, which land was called New Netherland, came under the control of this new company.
The territory called New Netherland was the country along the Atlantic Ocean which now makes up the States of New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. But its limits at this time were uncertain as it extended inland as far as the Company might care to send their colonists.
Within a few years, the seventy ships sailing under the flag of the West India Company, fought great battles with the Spaniards, and won almost every one of them. There were branches of the Company in seven cities of Holland, and the branch in Amsterdam had charge of New Netherland. So it will be only of the doings of this branch that we shall read. Colonists were to be carried to New Netherland from Holland; farms were to be laid out and cultivated; cities were to be built, and the West India Company was to have absolute control over all, and was to rule all the people. To do these things they had authority from the States-General of Holland, which was the name given to the men who made the laws for that country. The Company was to make regular reports to the States-General, and tell of the growth of the colony and the progress of the people in it. But as the years went on the Company was not as particular as it should have been about what it told the States-General.
Hall of the States-General of Holland
It was not until the West India Company took charge of New Netherland that it was decided to make the settlement on the Island of Manhattan a city. Up to this time it had been merely a trading station. In order to build up a city, the Company knew that it would be necessary to send people in sufficient numbers so that no matter how many were killed by the Indians the settlement would not be wiped out. Many inducements were offered, and men with their families soon began to flock to New Netherland. With the ship that brought the first families was Cornelius Jacobsen May, who was to live on the Island of Manhattan and look after affairs for the Company. Rude houses were set up about the fort, and the first street came into existence. This is now called Pearl Street.
Cornelius Jacobsen May cared for the colony for less than a year, when his place was taken by William Verhulst. Before the year was out, Verhulst decided that the new country never would suit him, and he sailed away to Holland. Then came in his place, in the year 1626, Peter Minuit, under appointment as the first Dutch Governor of New Netherland.
Seal of New Netherland
CHAPTER III
PETER MINUIT, FIRST of the DUTCH GOVERNORS
Peter Minuit was a large man, of middle age, whose hair was turning gray, whose eyes were black and dull, and whose manners were quite coarse.
The West India Company gave to this Governor absolute power over all the Dutch lands in America. His power was equal to that of a king; much more than some kings have had. To be sure, in matters of extreme importance he was supposed to refer to the Company in Holland. But Holland was far away, farther away than it is in these days of fast steamers and the telegraph, and the Company had too many other matters to look after to give much thought to New Netherland.
One of the first acts of Governor Minuit was to buy the Island of Manhattan from the Indians, giving them in exchange some beads, some brass ornaments, some bits of glass and some strips of colored cloth; all of which seemed a rich treasure to the Indians, but were in reality worth just twenty-four dollars.
As soon as Minuit had bought the island, he organized a government. In authority next to the Governor was the koopman, who was secretary of the province, and bookkeeper at the Company's warehouse, and who worked very hard. Then came the schout-fiscal, who worked still harder, being half sheriff, half attorney-general, and all customs officer. There was also a council of five men who looked wise but had very little to say and did not dare to disagree with the Governor.
Although in buying their land Governor Minuit had made the Indians his friends, he took care to be prepared in case they should change their minds and become warlike. He had Kryn Frederick, the Company's engineer, build a solid fort on the spot where the fur-traders' stockade had stood. This he called Fort Amsterdam. It was surrounded by cedar palisades, and was large enough to shelter all the people of the little colony in case of danger. Inside this fort there was a house for the Governor, and outside the walls was a warehouse for furs, and a mill which was run by horse-power, with a large room on the second floor to be used as a church.
The Building of the Palisades
When Minuit had become fairly settled in his new colony, he divided the lower part of the island into farms, which in those days were called "bouweries." A road which led through these farms was named Bouwerie Lane, and the same road is to-day known as The Bowery.
Minuit had been Governor four years, and there were 200 persons on the island, when the Dutch West India Company, deciding that the colony was not increasing fast enough, made a plan for giving large tracts of land to any man who would go from Holland and take with him fifty persons to make their homes in New Netherland. The grants of land, which were really large farms, stretched away in all directions over the territory of New Netherland. But no grant was made on the Island of Manhattan, as the Company reserved that for itself. Each of these farms was called a manor. The man who brought colonists from Holland was called a patroon. He was the Lord of the Manor.
He had supreme authority over his colonists, who cleared the land of the trees, planted seeds, gathered the ripened grain, and raised cattle which they gave to the Lord of the Manor as rent.
The little town of New Amsterdam was to continue as the seat of government, and the Lords of the Manors were to act under the direction of the Governor. The farms established by these patroons were to belong to them and to their families after them.
The one thing that the patroons were not permitted to do was to collect the furs of animals, for these were very valuable and the Company claimed them all.
Before many years had passed there was much trouble with these
Governor Minuit was himself accused of aiding the patroons to make money at the expense of the West India Company, and of taking his share of the profit; and finally, the Company ordered him to return to Holland. The ship in which he sailed was wrecked on the coast of England, and Minuit was detained and accused of unlawfully trading in the territory of the King of England. This was not the first time that the English had laid claim to the Dutch lands in America. Charles I. was king then, and he said that England owned New Netherland because an English king, more than a hundred years before Hudson's time, had sent John Cabot and his son Sebastian in search of new lands, and they had touched the American shore.
But the Dutch called attention to the fact that it had been held, time out of mind, that to own a country one must not only discover it, but must visit it continually, and even buy it from any persons who should be settled there. Even if the Cabots had discovered the land in America, the Dutch had occupied it ever since Hudson's time and had paid the Indians for it.
Matters were patched up for the time, and Minuit was permitted to return to Holland. But he was no longer Governor of New Netherland, for his place had been given to another man whose name was Walter Van Twiller.
Old House in New York, Built 1668
CHAPTER IV
WALTER VAN TWILLER, SECOND of the DUTCH GOVERNORS
Now this Walter Van Twiller was a relative of Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, one of the patroons. You will see why the West India Company's choice of him for a Governor was not by any means a wise choice. For he was soon doing exactly what Minuit had done. The only difference was that Governor Van Twiller favored Van Rensselaer more than he did the other patroons.
Van Twiller was a stout, round-bodied man, with a face much the shape of a full moon. He was a sharp trader, having made two voyages to the Hudson River in the interest of Van Rensselaer, but he knew nothing of governing a colony.
The ship that brought the new Governor to the Island of Manhattan, had also on board a hundred soldiers, and these were the first soldiers ever sent to the island. There was also on the ship Everardus Bogardus, the first minister of the colony, as well as Adam Rolandsen, the first school-master. This school-master had a hard time of it in the new country, for not being able to make a living by his teaching, he was forced to do all kinds of other work. He even took in washing for a time!
By this time negro slaves were being brought to the colony from Africa. They did the household work, while the colonists cultivated the fields These slaves did most of the work on a new wooden church which was set up just outside the fort, for the new minister.
Governor Van Twiller began improving the colony by having three windmills built, to take the place of the horse-mill. But he had them placed in such a position that the building in the fort cut off the wind from their sails, and the mills were almost useless.
The Governor did not neglect his own comfort, for within Fort Amsterdam he built for himself a fine house of brick—finer than any in the little settlement—and on one of the bouweries nearest the fort, he erected a summer-house. On another bouwerie he laid out a tobacco plantation, and had slaves paid by the Company to look after it.
Van Twiller's Defiance
When Van Twiller had been Governor three years, he gave to one of the colonists a farm on the western side of the city along the Hudson River. The colonist died the year after the farm was given him, leaving his widow, Annetje Jans, to care for the property.
Years after, when Queen Anne ruled in England, and the English had come into possession of New Netherland, she gave the Annetje Jans farm to Trinity Church. That was almost two centuries ago. What was once a farm is now a great business section, crossed and recrossed by streets. Trinity Church has held it through all the years, and holds it still.
Close upon the time when the Jans farm was given away by Governor Van Twiller, a sailor of note, who had visited almost every country in the world, founded a colony on Staten Island. This sailor was Captain David Pietersen De Vries. Staten Island attracted him because of its beauty. After the colony was well started, De Vries travelled between New Netherland and Holland, and he will be met with again in this story.