HISTORY: New York, New York, 1807; New York City (Manhattan), New York Co., NY *********************************************************************** Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Banja OCRed and proofread by Judy Banja Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.org/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.org/ny/nyfiles.htm *********************************************************************** Valentine's Manual of Old New York No. 6, New Series 1922 Edited by Henry Collins Brown New York: Valentine's Manual, Inc., 15 East 40th St. ~ VALENTINE'S MANUAL OF OLD NEW YORK [211] A MEMORABLE YEAR IN OLD NEW YORK, 1807 Mrs. Mary P. Ferris THE total population in 1805 was 75,770, and in 1807 it had increased to 83,500. Of this number 2,048 were slaves. Colonel Marinus Willett, the redoubtable Revolutionary patriot, was Mayor, the great-great-grandson of Thomas Willet, New York's first Mayor. Colonel Willett died at the good old age of ninety years. The coffin in which he was buried was made of pieces of wood collected by himself many years before from the different revolutionary battlefields. By a written request, which was found among his effects, he was clothed in a complete suit of ancient citizen's apparel, including an old-fashioned three-cornered hat. Maturin Livingston, whose wife was a daughter of General Morgan Lewis, was Recorder, and lived on Liberty Street. On his removal from office he purchased Ellerslie, a valuable estate near Rhinebeck, and erected a splendid mansion, which was afterwards owned by Hon. William Kelly, and later was the country seat of ex-Governor Levi P. Morton. William Cutting was Sheriff. The Aldermen were Peter Mesier, Samuel M. Hopkins, Abraham King, James Drake, John Bingham, John D. Miller, Jacob Mott, Thurston Wood, Nicholas Fish. The Assistants were John Slidell, John W. Mulligan, Simon van Antwerp, Abraham Bloodgood, Thomas J. Campbell, Stephen Ludlow, Samuel Forbert, Jasper Ward and Samuel Kip. VALENTINE'S MANUAL OF OLD NEW YORK [212] Peter Mesier was one of the notable merchants of New York whom the revolution had ruined. He and his family lost fifteen buildings in the disastrous fire of August, 1778. His daughter married David Lydig, one of the richest merchants of his day. Mr. Lydig lived at 35 Beekman Street, and his extensive mills were at Buttermilk Falls, just below West Point. David Lydig's only son, Philip, married the eldest daughter of John Suydam, another old merchant, and one daughter by this marriage became the wife of Judge Charles P. Daly and another married Judge Brady. Samuel Miles Hopkins was a man of much distinction. He was, in 1825, appointed one of the Commissioners to build a new prison at Sing Sing. Colonel Nicholas Fish, who had been Superintendent of the Revenue under Washington in 1794, was the grandfather of Hamilton and Stuyvesant Fish. John Slidell, the son of a respectable tallow chandler, whose manufactory was at 50 Broadway, lived at 60 Broadway. He had travelled extensively in Europe when he was a young man, and was quite the Beau Brummel of the day. On his return to New York he became attentive to Louisa Fairlie, a daughter of that courtly old citizen, Major James Fairlie, who lived at 41 Courtlandt Street. Telling her of his travels, she once asked him, "Did you go to Greece?" "No; why do you ask?" replied Slidell. "Oh, nothing; only it would have been so very natural that you should visit Greece to renew early associations." John W. Mulligan was born in New York while it was under English rule. As a little boy, he remembered standing on a hill where Grand Street now VALENTINE'S MANUAL OF OLD NEW YORK [215] crosses Broadway, and seeing the English sentinel file off on the evacuation of the British. Governor King was a student in his law office. At one time, as secretary, he was a member of Baron Steuben's family and assisted at his entertainments. Baron Steuben bequeathed him all his library, maps and charts, and $2,500 to complete it. Broadway was the favorite promenade, and a walk from the lower part of the city to Canal Street was a great feat for pedestrians. An English writer in 1807 says, "There are thirty-one benevolent institutions in New York," and calls attention particularly to the efforts of the ladies to provide for poor widows and orphans, "which is worthy of imitation in Great Britain." Among these institutions were the societies of St. George, St. Patrick, St. Andrew, the New England Society and the Cincinnati. A "literary fair" was held every year, alternating between New York and Philadelphia. This fair was a social gathering of American publishers, which promoted acquaintance, encouraged the arts of printing and bookbinding and aided the circulation of books. High taxes and prices of paper and labor in England were favorable to authorship and the publication of books in this country. English works of note were reprinted and sold for one-fourth the original price. There were nineteen newspapers in New York, eight of them dailies, with several monthly and occasional publications. "Art and literature had hardly an existence," it was said. January 24, 1807, "Salmagundi" first appeared in the form of a little primer, six and a half inches long and VALENTINE'S MANUAL OF OLD NEW YORK [216] three and one-half inches wide. The publishers said they were all "townsmen good and true," and that the new paper would contain "the quintessence of modern criticism." The Society Library - the earliest loan library in America - was on the corner of Nassau and Cedar streets, and its librarian was John Forbes. Among the literary folk were the Irvings, who lived at 17 State Street, facing the Battery; William Dunlap, Thomas Paine, James K. Paulding, Josiah Ogden Hoffman and Philip Hone. Kent's Hotel, on Broad Street, was a general gathering place for political and other meetings. There was a Free School on Henry Street, opened a year before in Bancker (now Madison) Street. The school of the Dutch church was on Garden Street. The only iron-rail fence in the whole city was at the Bowling Green, at the foot of Broadway, put up in 1771 in honor of George III., and costing £800. The first one put up after this was partly around the Park, in 1818. The Post Office was on the corner of William and Garden streets (now Exchange Place), in a house about twenty-seven feet front. The office was in a room about thirty feet deep, with two windows on Garden Street, and on William Street a little vestibule containing about one hundred boxes. Theodorus Bailey was postmaster and lived in the house. There was but one theatre (built in 1798), the red Pach. Performances were on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from the 1st to the 15th of May, and the 1st to the 15th of September. There were nine insurance companies; and the Courts VALENTINE'S MANUAL OF OLD NEW YORK [219] for the trial of Impeachments and Correction of Errors, the Court of Chancery, the Supreme Court, the Court of Exchequer, the Court of Oyer and Terminer, the Mayor's Court, the Court of Common Pleas, the Court of General Sessions of the Peace, the Court of Probate, the Court of Surrogates, the United States District and Circuit Courts. The leading physicians were Drs. Hosack, Bruce, Mitchell, Miller, Williamson and Romayne. Dr. Hosack was at the head of his profession. He was instrumental in establishing a medical library in the New York Hospital, in founding the Elgin Botanical Gardens - the Bronx Park of 1807 - in improving the medical police of the city and in the advocacy of strict quarantine. It was said that De Witt Clinton, David Hosack and Bishop Hobart were the tripod on which New York stood. It was Dr. Hosack who caught Hamilton in his arms and heard the gasping words, "Doctor, this is a mortal wound. Take care of that pistol; it is undischarged and still cocked. Pendleton knows I did not mean to fire at him." It was at a dinner at Albany, at which my grandfather was present, that the first trouble between Hamilton and Burr began, and it was about a lady. Dr. Hosack's special pet, the Elgin Botanical Gardens, occupied the ground between Forty-seventh and Fifty-first streets and Fifth and Sixth avenues, and was the wonder of the day. He brought from London the first collection of minerals ever introduced into America, and his house was the resort of learned men from every part of the world. It afterwards became the property of Columbia University and is the main source of Columbia's wealth today. VALENTINE'S MANUAL OF OLD NEW YORK [220] Dr. Samuel Mitchell ministered to mind as well as body, and when Fulton was defeated encouraged him, stimulating Livingston to large appropriations. Dr. Hugh Williamson penned the first notice for the formation of the Literary and Philosophical Society. The medical faculty reorganized by the Regents of the University went into effect in 1807, when Dr. Romayne was appointed President of the College of Physicians and Surgeons under their authority. Gordon Baker's Museum was one of the sights of the town. The New York philosopher was a celebrated advertising genius named John Richard Dosbough Huggins, who lived at 92 Broadway, and whose advertisements were the wittiest productions of the day, and among some of his writers were eminent names. Mrs. Toole and Madame Bouchard were the rival milliners. James Kent, Smith Thompson, Ambrose Spencer, Nathaniel Pendleton and William Van Ness were the leading legal lights. The following is a fair estimate of current prices: Beef, 6 1/2d. per lb.; mutton, 5d.; veal, 7d.; butter, 10d.; bread, the loaf of 2 1/2 lbs., 7d.; cheese, 7d.; turkeys, 7s. each; chickens, 20d. per couple; oysters, 7d. per dozen; flour, 27s. per barrel of 196 lbs.; brandy, 7s. 6d. per gallon: coffee, 1s. 6d. per lb.; green tea, 5s.; best hyson, 10s.; coal 70s. per cauldron; wood, 20s. per cord; a coat, £l 10s.; waistcoat and pantaloons, £4 10s; hat, 54s.; pair of boots, 54s.; washing, 3s. 6d. per dozen pieces. Prices of lodging at "genteel boarding houses," from one guinea and a half to three guineas per week. After the embargo took place the price VALENTINE'S MANUAL OF OLD NEW YORK [223] of provisions fell to nearly half the above sums, and European commodities rose in proportion. The manufactures of America were yet in an infant state; but in New York there were several excellent cabinetmakers, coachmakers, etc., who not only supplied the country with household furniture and carriages, but also exported very largely to the West Indies and to foreign possessions on the continent of America. "Their workmanship would be considered elegant and modern in London," a visitor said; and they had the advantage of procuring mahogany and other wood at reasonable prices. An English gentleman, visiting New York in 1807, says: "The day after our arrival, being the 25th of November, was the anniversary of the evacuation of New York by the British troops at the peace of 1783. The militia, or rather the volunteer corps, assembled from different parts of the city on the Grand Battery by the waterside, so-called from a fort having formerly been built on the spot, though at present it is nothing more than a lawn for the recreation of the inhabitants and for the purpose of military parade. The troops did not amount to 600, and were gaudily dressed in a variety of uniforms, each ward in the city having a different one. Some of them with helmets appeared better suited to the theatre than to the field. The general of the militia and his staff were dressed in the national uniform of blue, with buff facings. They also wore large gold epaulets and feathers, which altogether had a very showy appearance. Some gunboats were stationed off the battery and fired several salutes in honor of the day, and the troops paraded through the streets leading to the VALENTINE'S MANUAL OF OLD NEW YORK [224] waterside. They went through the forms practised on taking possession of the city, maneuvring and firing feux de joie, etc., as occurred on the evacuation of New York. One of the corps consisted wholly of Irishmen, dressed in light green jackets, white pantaloons and helmets. "The whole harbour," says the same writer, "was covered by a bridge of very compact ice in 1780, to the serious alarm of the British garrison, but the like has never occurred since. New York is the first city in the United States for commerce and population, as it is also the finest and most agreeable for its situation and buildings. When the intended improvements are completed, it will be a very elegant and commodious town, and worthy of becoming the capital of the United States, for it seems that Washington is by no means calculated for a metropolitan city. New York has rapidly improved in the last twenty years, and land which then sold in that city for $50 is now worth $1,500. "The Broadway and Bowery Roads are the two finest avenues in the city, and nearly of the same width as Oxford Street in London. Broadway commences from the Grand Battery, situate at the extreme point of the town, and divides it into two unequal parts. It is upward of two miles in length, though the pavement does not extend beyond a mile and a quarter; the remainder of the road consists of straggling houses which are the commencement of new streets already planned out. "The Bowery Road commences from Chatham Street, which branches off from the Broadway to the right, by the side of the Park. After proceeding VALENTINE'S MANUAL OF OLD NEW YORK [227] about a mile and half it joins the Broadway and terminates the plan which is intended to be carried into effect for the enlargement of the city. Much of the intermediate space between these large streets and from thence to the Hudson and East rivers is yet un-built upon, and consists only of unfinished streets and detached buildings." Good old customs had not fallen into disuse in 1807, and New Year's Day was the day of days to the good citizens. There was an old aristocracy which made no pretension, but it existed all the same, and we find there the names of Clarkson, de Peyster, van Rensselaer, Schuyler, Stuyvesant, Beekman, Bleecker, Stryker, Anthony, Cregier, van Horne, Laurence, Gouveneur, van Wyck, van Cortlandt, Provost, Kip, Dyckman, Verplanck, de Kay, Brevoort, Rutgers, de Forest, Kent, Jay, Phoenix, Walton, Wetmore, de Lancey, Bard, Pedleton, Lewis Livingston, Aspinwall, Woolsey, Newbold, Ogden, Grinnell, Howland, Sands, Ward, King, Lorrilard, Gracie, Waddington, Barclay, Morton, Pintard and a dozen or more of no doubt equal note. About Eighth Street stood the country seat of William Nielsen. At the corner of Broadway and Ninth Street was the Sailors' Snug Harbor, a brick octagon building, given by Captain Robert R. Randall for old seamen. It had been the residence of Baron Poelnitz. The old Brevoort mansion faced Bowery Road. The Spingler Farm extended along the west side of the Bowery Road from Fourteenth to Sixteenth streets. VALENTINE'S MANUAL OF OLD NEW YORK [228] Matthew Clarkson - of whom De Witt Clinton said, "Whenever a charitable or public institution was about to be established, Clarkson's presence was considered essential; his sanction became a passport to public approbation" - was President of the Bank of New York. Gilbert Aspinwall, the representative of a family of princely merchants, lived on the corner of Broadway and Broome Street. Frederick Gebhard was one of the recent comers to New York, and lived on the corner of Greenwich and Rector Streets. He had his office on the first floor and lived upstairs. He was the first importer of the celebrated Swan gin. The Bayard mansion stood on Bayard Hill between Grand Street and Broome. Archibald Gracie's country seat was at the foot of Eighty-ninth Street, opposite Hell Gate. He was spoken of as having "enormous wealth even after he had lost a million dollars." Mrs. Gracie was a sister of Mr. Rogers, a prominent merchant and a brother-in-law of President Timothy Dwight of Yale College. The Beekman country place was on the East River near Fifty-first Street, and the Kip mansion on the line of Thirty-fifth Street. Between the last two houses stood the residence of Francis Bayard Winthrop, later known as the Cutting homestead. The mansion of Henry A. Coster was on the East River near Thirtieth Street, and he also had a handsome residence on Chambers Street. Among the ladies interested in charitable work were Mrs. Bethune, the mother of the distinguished clergyman and author; Mrs. Josiah Ogden Hoffman, Mrs. John McVickar, Mrs. Henry Coster, Mrs. James Fairlie and Mrs. Alexander Hamilton. ~~~*~~~