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diff --git a/77274-0.txt b/77274-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d011599 --- /dev/null +++ b/77274-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9024 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77274 *** + + + + +American Historic Towns. + + +Historic Towns of New England. + +Edited by LYMAN P. POWELL. With Introduction by GEORGE P. MORRIS. Fully +illustrated. Large 8ᵒ, $3.50. + +Historic Towns of the Middle States. + +Edited by LYMAN P. POWELL. With Introduction by ALBERT SHAW. Fully +illustrated. Large 8ᵒ, $3.50 + +G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS, NEW YORK AND LONDON + + + + +[Illustration: _The “Half-Moon” on the Hudson—1609._ + +_From a painting by L. W. Seavey._] + + + + + American Historic Towns + + HISTORIC TOWNS + OF + THE MIDDLE STATES + + Edited by + LYMAN P. POWELL + + Illustrated + + G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS + NEW YORK & LONDON + The Knickerbocker Press + 1899 + + COPYRIGHT, 1899 + BY + G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS + + Entered at Stationers’ Hall, London + + The Knickerbocker Press, New York + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +PREFACE + + +In offering to the public the second volume of _American Historic Towns_ +the editor desires to bring three facts to the consideration of the +reader. + +1. This being the middle volume of a series dealing with the older towns +along, or near, the Eastern coast, it is hoped that the title _Historic +Towns of the Middle States_ will seem not inappropriate. + +2. The plan which underlay the making of the first volume, _Historic +Towns of New England_, has in the main been followed. Each author has +invariably been chosen because of unique fitness for his special task. +The editor believes that in every case the enthusiasm of the native or +the resident will be found wedded to the perspective of the _litterateur_ +or scholar. No effort has been made to harmonize divergencies in style or +judgment, for obvious reasons. The success of the first volume has set +the stamp of approval on the method of the series, and the editor is glad +to announce that a volume on the Southern towns will shortly follow this. + +3. The chapter on Princeton first served as an address in 1894 before +the Historical Pilgrims on the last day of their Pilgrimage, which is +described in _Historic Towns of New England_, pp. iii.-v. + +To the making of this volume many have contributed in various ways. The +editor is under special obligation to his wife, Gertrude Wilson Powell, +for such assistance as makes her really a co-editor of the volume. Dr. +Albert Shaw, and Mr. Melvil Dewey too have given freely of their counsel +and encouragement, and the editor is happy to acknowledge their great +kindness. + + LYMAN P. POWELL + +ST. JOHN’S RECTORY, LANSDOWNE, PENNSYLVANIA, October 17, 1899. + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + INTRODUCTION Albert Shaw xv + + ALBANY Walton W. Battershall 1 + + SARATOGA Ellen Hardin Walworth 39 + + SCHENECTADY Judson S. Landon 71 + + NEWBURGH Adelaide Skeel 107 + + TARRYTOWN-ON-HUDSON Hamilton Wright Mabie 137 + + NEW YORK CITY Joseph B. Gilder 169 + + BROOKLYN Harrington Putnam 213 + + PRINCETON William M. Sloane 251 + + PHILADELPHIA Talcott Williams 297 + + WILMINGTON E. N. Vallandigham 335 + + BUFFALO Rowland B. Mahany 367 + + PITTSBURGH Samuel Harden Church 393 + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +Transcriber’s Note: The illustrations listed as “Seal of Tarrytown” +and “Seal of New York City” were not, in fact, printed in the book. +Illustrations have been moved to the nearest paragraph break, which may +be on a different page. + + + PAGE + + THE “HALF-MOON” ON THE HUDSON, 1609 _Frontispiece_ + From the painting by L. W. Seavey. + + ALBANY + + OLD CHART OF NIEU NEDERLANDT[1] 5 + + PLAN OF ALBANY, 1695[1] 11 + + OLD DUTCH CHURCH, ERECTED IN 1715 ON SITE OF ORIGINAL CHURCH + ERECTED IN 1656[1] 13 + + ST. PETER’S CHURCH ERECTED IN 1715. FORT FREDERICK IN THE + BACKGROUND[1] 15 + From a water-color sketch in the British Museum. + + MAJOR-GENERAL PHILIP SCHUYLER[1] 23 + From the painting by Colonel Trumbull. + + STEPHEN VAN RENSSELAER[1] 25 + From the painting by Ezra Ames. + + VAN RENSSELAER MANOR-HOUSE, 1765[2] 26 + + SCHUYLER MANSION, 1760[1] 27 + + WEST SIDE OF PEARL STREET, FROM STATE STREET TO MAIDEN LANE, 1814[1] 31 + + VIEW OF ALBANY, 1899[2] 33 + + JOHN V. L. PRUYN 35 + + SEAL OF ALBANY 37 + + SARATOGA + + SARATOGA LAKE, N. Y. 40 + + MAP SHOWING HISTORIC AND OTHER DRIVES IN THE VICINITY OF SARATOGA + SPRINGS 42 + + SARATOGA BATTLE MONUMENT, SCHUYLERVILLE, N. Y. 43 + + NORTH BROADWAY, SARATOGA SPRINGS, 1898 47 + + GENERAL PHILIP SCHUYLER 50 + Bronze statue in niche of Saratoga monument, Schuylerville, N. Y. + + CONGRESS SPRING IN 1820 52 + + KAYADROSSERA PATENT, WITH GREAT SEAL OF QUEEN ANNE PENDANT, 1708 55 + Original in Saratoga County Clerk’s Office. + + WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION, 1776 57 + From tablet on Saratoga battle monument, Schuylerville, N. Y. + + “OLD WELL,” FREEMAN’S FARM, BATTLE-GROUND, BEMIS HEIGHTS, SEPT. + 19, 1777 61 + + GENERAL DANIEL MORGAN 63 + + CONGRESS SPRING, 1898 66 + + SIGN, “PUTNAM AND THE WOLF,” ON PUTNAM’S TAVERN, SARATOGA SPRINGS 67 + Original sign in Grand Union Hotel, Saratoga Springs, N. Y. + + SEAL OF SARATOGA 70 + + SCHENECTADY + + COLONIAL HOUSE, UNION STREET 72 + + VIEW ON STATE STREET 74 + + “THE BLUE GATE” ENTRANCE TO UNION COLLEGE GROUNDS 77 + + GLEN-SANDERS MANSION, ERECTED 1714 82 + + FIRST REFORMED (DUTCH) CHURCH 87 + + ELLIS HOSPITAL 90 + + EDISON HOTEL 93 + + UNION COLLEGE, 1795 99 + + STATUE, SITE OF “OLD FORT” 100 + + “THE BROOK THAT BOUNDS THRO’ UNION’S GROUNDS,” UNION COLLEGE 103 + + ELIPHALET NOTT 105 + President of Union College for sixty years. + + SEAL OF SCHENECTADY 106 + + NEWBURGH + + WASHINGTON’S HEADQUARTERS AT NEWBURGH[3] 109 + + JOEL T. HEADLEY[4] 111 + + THE LUTHERAN CHURCH 113 + + ANDREW J. DOWNING[4] 116 + + HENRY KIRKE BROWN[4] 119 + + HEADQUARTERS OF MAJOR-GENERAL KNOX AT VAIL’S GATE[3] 123 + + CLINTON’S HEADQUARTERS AT LITTLE BRITAIN, NEAR NEWBURGH 124 + + CLINTON STATUE IN COLDEN SQUARE, NEWBURGH 126 + + THE WILLIAMS HOUSE[3] 129 + + MONUMENT ON TEMPLE HILL, NEAR NEWBURGH[5] 130 + + THE VERPLANCK HOUSE[5] 131 + Baron Steuben’s headquarters, where the “Nicola Letter” was + written. + + WASHINGTON’S HEADQUARTERS AT FISHKILL[6] 133 + + CHARLES DOWNING[4] 134 + + SEAL OF NEWBURGH 135 + + TARRYTOWN-ON-HUDSON + + BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF TARRYTOWN 139 + From a photograph by F. Ahrens. + + THE POCANTICO RIVER 149 + From a photograph. + + OLD MANOR-HOUSE (“FLYPSE’S CASTLE”) AND MILL, TARRYTOWN 151 + + THE OLD DUTCH CHURCH, SLEEPY HOLLOW 153 + From a drawing by W. J. Wilson. + + INTERIOR OF THE OLD DUTCH CHURCH, SLEEPY HOLLOW, PRIOR TO ITS + RESTORATION IN 1897 155 + From a photograph by F. Ahrens. + + MONUMENT TO THE CAPTORS OF ANDRÉ 159 + From a photograph by F. Ahrens. + + WASHINGTON IRVING 161 + + “SUNNYSIDE” 163 + The home of Washington Irving. + + THE JACOB MOTT HOUSE, WHERE KATRINA VAN TASSEL WAS MARRIED 165 + Now occupied by the new Washington Irving High School. + + SEAL OF TARRYTOWN 166 + + OLD SLEEPY HOLLOW MILL 167 + + NEW YORK CITY + + FIRST SEAL OF THE CITY, 1623-1654[7] 170 + + MAP OF ORIGINAL GRANTS[7] 171 + + THE FORT IN GOVERNOR KIEFT’S DAY 174 + + PETER STUYVESANT 176 + + SEAL OF THE CITY IN 1686[7] 177 + + JOHN JAY 179 + + ALEXANDER HAMILTON 180 + + FRAUNCES TAVERN 183 + + THE STADT HUYS 191 + + STAINED-GLASS WINDOW IN “BOWLING GREEN OFFICES,” SHOWING GREEN + ABOUT 1760[8] 193 + + GOVERNMENT HOUSE[8] 195 + + FEDERAL HALL 196 + + ST. PAUL’S CHURCH 199 + + CITY HALL 200 + + GRANT’S TOMB, RIVERSIDE DRIVE 203 + + WASHINGTON ARCH 209 + + SEAL OF NEW YORK CITY 211 + + BROOKLYN + + VIEW IN BROOKLYN IN THE OLDEN TIMES 215 + + DENYSE’S FERRY 217 + The first place at which the British and Hessians landed on + Long Island, August 22, 1776. Now Fort Hamilton. + + BUSHWICK TOWN-HOUSE AND CHURCH, 1800 223 + + SECTION OF MAP OF BROOKLYN, 1776 231 + + BROWER’S MILL, GOWANUS 233 + The Yellow Mill is seen in the distance. + + MONUMENT TO MARYLAND’S “400” 241 + + NAVY YARD 243 + In foreground 5.5-inch breech-loading gun, with mount + and shield, taken from Spanish cruiser _Vizcaya_, after + destruction of Spanish fleet, July 3, 1898; also submarine + mine from Guantanamo. + + FORT LAFAYETTE, NEW YORK NARROWS 245 + + BROOKLYN INSTITUTE MUSEUM 246 + + HENRY WARD BEECHER 247 + + SEAL OF BROOKLYN 249 + + PRINCETON + + THE LINE OF HISTORIC CATALPAS 253 + + A VIEW OF THE FRONT CAMPUS 255 + + JOHN WITHERSPOON 260 + + WASHINGTON’S HEADQUARTERS AT ROCKY HILL, N. J., NEAR PRINCETON 261 + + MORVEN 263 + + RICHARD STOCKTON, “THE SIGNER” 269 + + HALL IN THE MORVEN HOUSE 273 + + BATTLE OF PRINCETON. DEATH OF MERCER 277 + From the painting by Col. J. Trumbull. + + NASSAU HALL 287 + + PRESIDENT JAMES MCCOSH 293 + + SEAL OF PRINCETON 296 + + PHILADELPHIA + + READING THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 299 + From an old French print. + + THOMAS PENN 303 + From a painting owned by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, + copied by M. I. Naylor from the portrait in the possession of + Major Dugald Stuart. + + SECOND STREET, PHILADELPHIA, SHOWING THE OLD COURT HOUSE ON THE + LEFT 305 + From an engraving by W. Birch & Son. + + FRANKLIN IN 1777 307 + After the print reproduced from the drawing of Cochin. + + THE PHILADELPHIA LIBRARY 309 + The old building on Fifth Street, now demolished. From an + engraving by W. Birch & Son. + + CARPENTER’S HALL, PHILADELPHIA 313 + Wherein met the First Continental Congress, 1774. + + THE PENNSYLVANIA HOSPITAL 315 + From an engraving by W. Birch & Son. + + INDEPENDENCE HALL, PHILADELPHIA, BEFORE 1876 319 + + THE MORRIS HOUSE, GERMANTOWN, PHILADELPHIA 321 + + DR. WILLIAM PEPPER[9] 324 + + FRANK THOMSON[9] 326 + + THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 331 + + SEAL OF PHILADELPHIA 333 + + WILMINGTON + + PLAN OF CHRISTINA FORT, 1655 338 + + RESIDENCE OF THE LATE THOMAS F. BAYARD[10] 342 + + OLD SWEDES’ CHURCH 345 + + REV. ERIC BJORK[11] 348 + + BISHOP LEE 349 + + THOMAS F. BAYARD 351 + + SHIPLEY BUILDING[11] 354 + + OLD FRIENDS’ MEETING-HOUSE 356 + + HOUSE OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 359 + + CITY HALL 361 + + NEWCASTLE COUNTY COURT HOUSE 363 + + SEAL OF WILMINGTON 365 + + BUFFALO + + JOSEPH ELLICOTT 368 + Founder of Buffalo. + + LAFAYETTE SQUARE 371 + + A GLIMPSE OF BUFFALO HARBOR 375 + + ST. PAUL’S CHURCH 379 + + MILLARD FILLMORE[12] 383 + + BEACON ON OLD BREAKWATER 386 + + DELAWARE AVENUE, SHOWING BISHOP QUIGLEY’S HOUSE 388 + + DR. JOHN CRONYN 389 + + WILLIAM I. WILLIAMS 390 + + SEAL OF BUFFALO 391 + + PITTSBURGH + + AN EARLY RESIDENT OF PITTSBURGH 395 + From the statue by T. A. Mills in the Carnegie Museum. + + SUN-DIAL USED AT FORT DUQUESNE 398 + + THE EARL OF CHATHAM 403 + From an oil painting in the possession of the Historical + Society of Pennsylvania. + + BLOCKHOUSE OF FORT PITT. BUILT IN 1764 406 + + PLAN OF FORT PITT 409 + + PHIPPS CONSERVATORY 415 + + THE COAL FLEET 419 + + CARNEGIE INSTITUTE 421 + + COURT HOUSE 425 + + SEAL OF PITTSBURGH 426 + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +BY ALBERT SHAW + + +The designation “Middle States” has a negative, rather than a positive, +significance. In our later history, as well as in that of our colonizing +and federalizing periods, the term “New England” has had a definite +value for many purposes besides those of geographical convenience: and +it is equally true that “the South” has meant very much in our American +life besides a mere territorial expression. But the “Middle States” lack +the sharply distinguishing characteristics of the other groups. In more +senses than the strictly literal one, the two immense States of New York +and Pennsylvania, with one or two smaller neighbors, have occupied middle +ground. + +If New York, on the one hand, has been somewhat closely related to +New England, Pennsylvania has had many neighborly associations with +Maryland and Virginia. New Jersey, meanwhile, has been a close link +between Pennsylvania and New York. The development of New England was +dominated in a marvellous way by a set of ideas, religious, political +and philosophical, that belonged to a certain phase of the English +Reformation. Virginia and other settlements to the southward had their +origins in a colonizing movement that was more typically representative +of contemporary English manners, views and ways of living. The +aristocratic system would have disappeared rapidly enough in the South +but for the gradual extension of an exotic institution,—that of African +slavery. + +The Middle States had a more varied origin,—one that does not lend itself +so readily to the purposes of contrast and generalization. The Hudson, +called by the Dutch the North River, and the Delaware, which they called +the South River, were both entered by Henry Hudson, an Englishman in +the employ of the Dutch East India Company, in 1609; and apart from an +extremely limited settlement of Swedes on the west bank of the Delaware, +it was the Dutch who controlled the beginnings of European settlement +along the seaboard of what afterward came to be known as the Middle +States section. The Dutch colonization was not large, but it had a strong +and persistent influence upon the subsequent development of New York and +the region round about. + +The gradual predominance in New York of men of English speech and +origin came about partly by infiltration from the New England colonies +and partly by direct migration from England. There resulted a natural +and harmonious fusion between the Dutch pioneers on the Hudson and the +English-speaking colonists. Various Dutch institutions survived long +after the English language had come into general use. + +Before the grant of Pennsylvania to William Penn, the settlers on the +Delaware had been mainly Swedish, Dutch or otherwise from continental +Europe. William Penn’s colonists at the outset were largely English +Quakers, and some years later there arrived great numbers of Germans, +some French Huguenots, and a good many Scotch-Irish Protestants. + +Thus, as compared with New England on the one hand and the Southern +colonies on the other, the Middle States had cosmopolitan, rather than +purely English, origins. This cosmopolitanism has remained, as a leading +factor in all their subsequent history. The spirit of compromise and +tolerance that had been developed in the middle section by the contact +of different nationalities was of incalculable value when the time +came for the co-operation of the thirteen colonies in the struggle for +independence, and in the subsequent formation of their federal union. + +If the colony which developed into the Empire State, and that which came +to be known as the Keystone State, had occupied some other geographical +position than the one they held as a buffer between New England and the +South, the history of America might well have taken a wholly different +course. For there was almost as much difference in institutions, life +and points of view between the New Englanders and the Virginians of +Colonial days as between the New Englanders and the Canadian Frenchmen +across the St. Lawrence. But the transition from New England to New York +was easy, and involved no violent contrasts. There had been a steady +movement of population from the New England States westward across the +eastern boundary line of the State of New York. On the other hand, it +was comparatively easy for Maryland and Virginia to co-operate with +Pennsylvania. In so far, indeed, as population had extended back from the +tide-water districts into the hill country and the Appalachian valleys, +the settlement both of Maryland and Virginia had proceeded very largely +from Pennsylvania. + +Thus the Middle States had a great mission to perform in uniting and +holding together the more extreme sections. In the development, after +the Revolutionary War, of the country west of the Alleghanies, this +harmonizing influence of the Middle States was very conspicuously shown +in the creation of the great commonwealth of Ohio, and only to a less +degree in the making of a number of other States in what has now come to +be called the Middle West—the region that produced men of the type of +Lincoln and Grant, and that joined with the old Middle States in later +crises to preserve the Union and fuse its elements into a homogeneous +nation. + +No communities in the world lend themselves more profitably to the study +of history than these which are described in the present volume. Concrete +illustration aids no less in the study of history than in that of the +physical sciences; and these towns of the Middle States illustrate +not only the more recent tendencies that have marked the course of +human history, but also lead us back by easy stages to an insight into +conditions of an earlier time. For example, the survivals of the Dutch +_régime_ in New York quicken a sympathetic interest that greatly aids the +comprehension of the international career of the Netherlands. On the very +day when these remarks are written, the larger news of the world—that +which is history in the making—concerns itself with two widely severed +scenes of early Dutch colonization. From Paris comes the decision of the +Venezuela arbitration tribunal, involving principally the material and +legal facts as to the extent of Dutch exploration and settlement in the +same general period as the Dutch colonization of New York. The relations +of the Dutch and English in successions and exchanges of jurisdiction on +the northern coast of South America can only be understood in the light +of the history of the settlements at the mouth of the Hudson River. + +In like manner the conditions of Dutch settlement in South Africa in the +middle of the seventeenth century are best comprehended in connection +with the story of contemporary Dutch colonization in America. The +Knickerbockers of New York and the Boers of the Transvaal are of common +origin,—a fact frankly recognized by the Holland Society of New York in +its expressions of sympathy with the Dutch element in South Africa in its +struggle against fate. + +The history of the communities of Pennsylvania affords a convenient +initiation into much of the complex religious and ecclesiastical history +of Europe. Penn brought the Quakers and other fine English stock from the +middle and north of England for reasons that go to the very heart of the +English life of the seventeenth century. A little later the Protestant +Germans of the Palatinate came in great numbers, impelled by motives +to understand which is to find oneself essentially comprehending the +conditions of Church and State that so disturbed and harassed Western +Europe for a long period. Thus, to study the great city of Philadelphia +in its origins, its later accretions and its existing conditions, is to +find inviting avenues leading into many fields of historical inquiry both +of the new world and the old. + +What single spot could one find anywhere that would more naturally +stimulate the study of political and economic history in the nineteenth +century than old Castle Garden at the lower end of New York City, through +which millions upon millions of immigrants have entered the Western world +to find contentment and prosperity? Many of these came from Ireland; +and the municipal life of New York City has been profoundly affected by +that fact. To answer the question why these people left Ireland and, in +leaving, why their destination was New York rather than some port in the +British colonies, is to review the history of the Irish land system, the +Irish Church and the political administration of Ireland for several +generations. + +An enormous element of the present population of New York, as well as +of the country at large, is made up of a comparatively recent German +immigration, to understand which one must learn something of the German +revolutionary movement of 1848, the growth of German militarism and the +conditions under which educational progress in Germany has outstripped +the average material prosperity. Still more recently there has been a +huge immigration of Russian Jews, with local effects of a most marked +character in the city of New York. To know why these Jews have come is to +look into racial, political, and economic conditions throughout the great +empire of the Czar. + +To study the main routes of communication in a region like our Middle +States is to gain an insight into the relations of physical conditions +to historical development that will be of no little use in the study of +other origins and remoter periods. It would be hard to exaggerate the +importance, for instance, of the part that the Hudson River has played in +the history of the Western Hemisphere since its discovery and settlement +by the Europeans. The route by way of the Hudson, Lake George and Lake +Champlain afforded in the early times the one interior passage to the St. +Lawrence from the settlements on our seaboard. + +Much of the land adjacent to the river was granted in large tracts under +the Dutch system to patroons, so called, who were virtually feudal lords. +Upon some of these tracts there still survive various peculiarities of +the feudal system of land tenure. To know something of what feudalism +meant as respects the control of the land, the student might find a +worse method than to trace back the history of one of these Hudson River +estates to the period of the Dutch grant, in order to get so much nearer +to the survivals of the mediæval system in Europe. + +At the spot where I live on the Hudson, and where I am now writing, +the environment is suggestive of almost three centuries of American +history. I look out upon the great stream which Hudson navigated in +the _Half Moon_ in 1609, and upon which sailing craft have been plying +almost continually ever since. I see great steamers passing where Fulton +first experimented with steam navigation. The highway near by is the +old Albany post-road, this immediate part of which was known as Edgar’s +Lane and was opened in 1644. This morning I heard the pleasant notes of +a coaching-horn, and looked out to see a stately four-in-hand on its way +to the city, a forcible reminder of at least a century and a half of +regular mail coaching on that same road. My home is a part of what was +the old Philipse manor; and at Yonkers, a few miles below, one finds the +manor-house, now in constant use as a municipal building. It was partly +built in 1682, and assumed its present dimensions in about 1745. + +On this very ground, and on the hills lying to the eastward, Washington’s +army was encamped for a number of weeks in 1777, and near by is the +well-preserved colonial house where Washington and Rochambeau sojourned +for some time, and where the Yorktown campaign was planned. In the +river at this point, on several occasions, the British frigates made +appearance, the last of these being the final meeting between General +Washington and General Sir Guy Carleton, in May, 1783, on the suspension +of hostilities. A few miles farther up the road one comes to the lane +that leads to Washington Irving’s “Sunnyside,” with its tablet stating +that the house was first built in the year 1650. + +With these older historical souvenirs in mind, I turn to the southward, +and there, as a reminder that the current of American history flows on, +and that our past is in no manner detached from the present and the +future, I see, standing out in bold relief on the horizon, the tomb +of General Grant, while anchored in the river lies the _Olympia_, the +flag-ship of Admiral Dewey, just now returned from adventures as fraught +with history-making results as was the presence of Hudson’s _Half Moon_ +in this same river two hundred and ninety years ago. + +The historical significance of the Hudson might be illustrated in some +such way at many another point upon its banks. The location of Albany +is particularly to be noted as one evidently intended by nature for an +important rendezvous. In the earlier period Albany and the Saratoga +district, and certain points of advantage in the Mohawk Valley, were of +great strategic importance. They were natural gateways, which had to be +held first against the Indians and Frenchmen, and afterward against the +British. Their later importance has had to do with canals, railroads and +the development of commerce. + +But of Albany it must be said that it has also the distinction of being +one of the three or four chief law-making centres of the English-speaking +world. In no other way has the State of New York exerted so wide an +influence upon the country at large as in the working out of laws and +institutions which have been re-enacted almost without change by a great +number of the other States of the Union. Thus Albany has been a great +training school in politics and legislation. + +Before the days of railroad building, the Erie Canal was the greatest +undertaking that this country had witnessed in the improvement of its +transportation facilities. This waterway connected the Great Lakes with +the Atlantic by way of the Mohawk and Hudson valleys; and among other +results of a far-reaching nature there followed the development of the +city of Buffalo, a commercial and manufacturing community founded in the +opening years of the nineteenth century, and destined in the twentieth +to achieve such growth and splendor as few men are yet bold enough to +anticipate. + +We have seen in our generation fierce rivalry for the occupation of +Khartoum, at the head of Nile navigation, with one expedition succeeding +another until the final success of the English under General Kitchener. +The possession of Khartoum was known to carry with it the control of +the fertile Soudan beyond, as well as to affect the permanent mastery +of the valley of the lower Nile to the Delta. In some such manner the +French and English in the middle of the eighteenth century appreciated +the strategic importance of the point at the junction of the Alleghany +and the Monongahela rivers, where the Ohio took its start, and from which +navigation was unobstructed all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. It was in +large part the struggle for the site of Pittsburgh that gave Washington +the military training and the large perception of the future of America +that fitted him for his great tasks of leadership. The development of +Pittsburgh and the opening of the Ohio furnish most instructive and +interesting chapters in the history of our country. + +The quaint or curious or heroic beginnings must always have their +fascination; and it is likely enough that for a long time to come they +will take a little more than their normal or proportionate share of the +page of history. But real history is learning also to concern itself +with other things. The story of Princeton, now so largely that of +Revolutionary annals, will henceforth increasingly be the story of the +life and work of a great university. That of Pittsburgh will become in +expanding proportions the story of the development of the arts and crafts +and of manufacturing in this country, and of the struggle of skilled +labor for an ever-larger share in the advantages made possible by the +enormous increase in the volume of production. The story of Philadelphia +will, to an increasing extent, be that of the best housed and most +contented of all the great communities in the world, full of evidences of +private thrift and the domestic virtues, while exhibiting the paradox of +a relatively low degree of efficiency in matters of common concern like +municipal administration. + +The historic towns of the Middle States are now engaged in the making +of history in ways very different from those of the Colonial and +Revolutionary periods, but in ways certainly not less important. But +their future will be the wiser and happier for a studious devotion to the +records of their honorable past, and they cannot be too zealous in the +perpetuation of the old landmarks. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +HISTORIC TOWNS OF THE MIDDLE STATES + + + + +ALBANY + +“This antient and respectable city.”—(_Washington, 1782._) + +BY WALTON W. BATTERSHALL + + +Albany, unlike the proverbial happy woman, has not only age but a +history. Its age is indicated in its claim to be the second oldest +existing settlement in the original thirteen colonies. The claim is +fairly sustained, but we must remember that the alleged discoveries and +settlements of those nomadic times are a trifle equivocal. On the other +hand, the historical significance of Albany is based on two unquestioned +facts: for a century it guarded the imperilled north and west frontiers +of Anglo-Saxon civilization on the continent; for another century it has +been the legislative seat of the most powerful State in the Republic. + +On the 19th of September, 1609, _old style_, the yacht _De Halve Maen_, +six months from Amsterdam, in command of Henry Hudson, dropped anchor +a few miles below the present site of Albany. Four days spent in the +exchange of civilities with the Indians and the taking of soundings from +the ship’s boat farther up the stream, convinced the speculative explorer +that the beautiful river among the hills gave no promise of a water path +to China, and the _Half-Moon_, freighted with wild fruits, peltries and +pleasant impressions, turned her prow homeward. + +From the Dutch and also the English point of view, the English skipper +of the Dutch ship had discovered the river. It appears however that +in 1524 Verrazzano put a French keel, _La Dauphine_, far up the same +stream, to which he gave the name La Grande, and, some time after, French +fur traders built a rude _château_, or, as we would say, fortified +trading-post, on Castle Island, just off the hills of Albany. But the +France of Francis I. had no colonizing grip, and La Nouvelle France was +simply a name which stretched along the Atlantic seaboard on the French +charts of the sixteenth century. + +On the return of Henry Hudson, his discovery was claimed by his patrons, +the Dutch East India Company. They named the river the Mauritius[13] +(Prince Maurice’s River), and the outlying country, known as Nieu +Nederlandt, had good report in Holland for its furs and friendly savages. + +The Amsterdam merchants were alert, and other Dutch vessels, following +in the wake of the _Half-Moon_, pushed up the river to the head of +navigation. There they found on the west bank the Maquaas, or Mohawks, +and on the east bank the Mahicans, or Mohegans, with whom they had +profitable transactions. + +To consolidate and protect their ventures, a group of merchants +petitioned the States-General of Holland for the exclusive privilege +of traffic with the aborigines on the river. The elaborate map of Nieu +Nederlandt which they presented with their petition was discovered in +1841 in the royal archives at the Hague, and a facsimile is now in the +State Library at Albany.[14] A license for three years was granted. +Thereupon, in 1615, the ruined _château_ on Castle Island was rebuilt, +equipped with two cannon and garrisoned with a dozen Dutch soldiers. In +compliment to the Stadtholder, it received the name of Fort Nassau. + +This occupancy in force of Castle Island (now called Van Rensselaer +Island) was brief, for the spring freshets proved too much for even the +amphibious Dutch musketeers and traders, and it hardly can be called a +settlement. + +It is an interesting fact, that the valley of the Hudson narrowly missed +the honor of being settled by the passengers of the _Mayflower_. Under +the November skies of 1620, that historic vessel, with its valuable cargo +of religious and political seed-corn, for several days had been beating +about the point of Cape Cod. Old Governor Bradford, with quaint spelling +and phrasing, tells the story of the mishap: + + “After some deliberation had amongst them selves and with yᵉ + mʳ of yᵉ ship, they tacked aboute and resolved to stande for + yᵉ southward (yᵉ wind and weather being faire) to finde some + place aboute Hudsons river for their habitation. But after they + had sailed yᵗ course aboute halfe yᵉ day, they fell amongst + dangerous shoulds and roring breakers, and they were so farr + intangled ther with as they conceived them selves in great + danger; & yᵉ wind shrinking upon them withall they resolved to + bear up again for the Cape.”[15] + +[Illustration: OLD CHART OF NIEU NEDERLANDT.] + +Thus Plymouth Rock became the intellectual door-stone of the New World, +and the banks of the Hudson inherited one of the sad “might-have-beens” +of history. However, Douglas Campbell, in his trenchant and disturbing +book, _The Puritan in Holland, England and America_, has told us that the +distinctive principles of our American social and political life show, on +critical inspection, the Dutch hall-mark. + +The America of 1621 was much more of a “dark continent” than the Africa +of fifty years ago. The adjective applies both to the skin of the +autochthons and the mind of the explorers. In the commercial circles +of Amsterdam, Nieu Nederlandt was supposed to be a part of the West +Indies. Therefore it was that the new company which was devised for its +exploitation and chartered in the year mentioned, took the name of The +Dutch West India Company. + +Under its auspices, in March, 1624, the ship _Nieu Nederlandt_ sailed +from Amsterdam by the accustomed route of the Canary Islands for the +Mauritius River. She carried thirty families, chiefly Walloons, refugees +from Belgium who had settled in Holland, and a few Dutch freemen. Some of +the families were landed on Manhattan Island, but the majority proceeded +up the river and selected for their settlement the fat meadow on the west +shore above Castle Island. Under the shadow of the clay hill on which the +Capitol now lifts its masses of sculptured granite, they built rude huts +sheathed in bark, and a little log fort which they named Fort Orange. The +Indians were friendly and eager to barter, and enthusiastic reports were +at once sent over to Holland, with corroborative otter and beaver skins. + +Two years after this settlement at Fort Orange, the Dutch West India +Company purchased Manhattan Island from the Indians for sixty guilders in +high-priced goods and, planting a colony and fort on the south end of +the island, brought up the population of Nieu Nederlandt to two hundred +souls. The Company, desiring to stimulate colonization, in 1629 projected +the manorial or patroon system; a combination of feudal idea and Latin +name, _patronus_. Killiaen Van Rensselaer, one of the directors and a +rich merchant of Amsterdam, at once obtained an extensive grant of land +south of Fort Orange and, by the purchase of the land from the Indians +and the planting of a colony, became the patroon of Rensselaerswyck. He +never visited his “colonie,” but before his death in 1646, he had sent +from Holland over two hundred artisans and farmers, and included in his +manor a territory forty-eight by twenty-four miles, and also another +tract of sixty-two thousand acres. + +Thus Albany began with a Dutch imprint, which to this day has given to +the city its distinctive mark. Forty years of Dutch sagacity and thrift +rapidly developed the colony. It was on the whole a prosperous period, +enlivened by chronic disputes between the garrison and the manor, and +disquieting rumors regarding belligerent Indians and the French. It +throws on a small canvas sturdy personages and stirring events. Brandt +Van Slechtenhorst, the stiff upholder of the manor claims against the +doughty Pieter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch Director-General; Domine +Megapolensis, the first Dutch minister; and the flitting figure of the +Jesuit missionary, Father Jogues with his hands mangled by the Mohawks +and kissed by the Queen of France, would make any canvas picturesque. To +take Washington Irving’s delicious bit of humor too seriously shows a +melancholy lack of humor. + +Certainly the Dutch burghers of Albany did not take very seriously the +English occupation of Nieu Nederlandt in 1664. The seizure was colored by +an old claim of uncertain dimensions based upon the Cabot discoveries, +which for a long time had strained the relations between England and +Holland concerning colonial matters. The capitulation was bloodless, +and to Albany it brought little change, save that the English flag, in +place of the Dutch, fluttered over the ramparts of Fort Orange, which +took the name of Fort Albany in commemoration of the Scotch title of the +Duke of York, the new lord of the province. The great manorial grant was +confirmed, and in all its habits of thought and life the colony remained +Dutch. The happiest change and perhaps the most startling shock came +from the fact that the Duke of York, bigot as he was, broke the tradition +of the period and introduced in his province religious toleration. + +The English came, but the Dutch remained. The old Holland stock on +the bank of the Hudson kept its root in the soil and has made vital +contributions to the American hybrid, which have had scant recognition in +our popular histories. The fact is, the Dutch were not given to writing +books. They had fought for their religion and motherland, and had held +them both against the assault of a powerful foe, but the recital of the +story they left to the more expert tongues and more eloquent pens of +Englishmen. Their type of character and social usage has proved its vigor +and worth by its quiet persistence and dominance in New York life of +to-day. In old Albany, even under English rule, ideas and customs which +had their birth behind the dykes of Holland were conspicuously in the +ascendant. + +[Illustration: PLAN OF ALBANY, 1695.] + +Albany became a city in 1686 by a judicious charter granted by Governor +Dongan. A diagram in the Rev. John Miller’s _Description of the Province +and City of New York_, published in London, 1695, gives us an idea of +the new-born city. It consisted of about a hundred houses surrounded by +a stockade, which was pierced to the north and south by narrow gateways. +Above the stockade the most conspicuous objects were the pyramidal roof +of the Dutch church at the foot of Jonker Street (now State Street), +surmounted by three small cannon, and, on the eminence at the upper end +of the street, the bastions of Fort Frederick, which had inherited the +responsibilities and honors of the dismantled Fort Orange. + +For about forty years after the peaceful seizure by the English, the old +Dutch church, where the prosperous burghers worshipped, and a Lutheran +church of somewhat intermittent life but hospitable to outsiders sufficed +for the religious needs of the city. The officers of the garrison, +however, and probably most of the soldiers were Church of England men. +There was much in the service of the Dutch Church of that day which must +have suggested pleasant reminiscence. Christmas, Easter and Whitsunday +were festivals brought from Holland, and were duly celebrated in the +church and at the fireside. Queerly enough, in the accounts of Pieter +Schuyler, the deacon of the Dutch church in 1683 and the first mayor +of the city, we read that “the 13th of January was observed as a day of +fasting and prayer, to divert God’s heavy judgment from falling on the +English nation for the murder of King Charles, martyr of blessed memory,” +and that the expenses therefor were seventeen guilders. + +[Illustration: OLD DUTCH CHURCH, ERECTED IN 1715 ON SITE OF ORIGINAL +CHURCH ERECTED IN 1656.] + +But the theological coin of the Synod of Dort, whether acceptable or not +to the English, was more or less inaccessible, being hid in the napkin +of the Dutch language. Evidently there was need of an English house of +worship in Albany. In 1714, therefore, Governor Hunter issued letters +patent granting a plot of ground in Jonker Street below the fort for +a church and cemetery. The Common Council made protest. The point at +issue was a question, not of doctrine, but of municipal rights. They +issued notice to suspend the laying of the foundations. They arrested +the workmen. They petitioned the Governor. They sent a messenger by +express in a canoe to New York,—a journey in those days of such magnitude +that the church was well under way by the time the return voyage was +accomplished. Despite all obstacles, the work went on and in the course +of a year the first English church west of the Hudson was built. The two +churches, the Dutch at the foot and the English at the head of State +Street, were the chief ecclesiastical landmarks of eighteenth-century +Albany. Like rocks in a stream, they stood in the broad thoroughfare and +preserved the magnificent approach to the future Capitol. + +[Illustration: ST. PETER’S CHURCH, ERECTED IN 1715, FORT FREDERICK IN THE +BACKGROUND. + +(FROM A WATER-COLOR SKETCH IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.)] + +Little as it was, Albany was the nest of important events and a maker +of history in those troublous days. Second to New York in size and +resources, it served as a wary sentinel and tremulous alarm-bell to the +exposed province. For well-nigh a century, all beyond it to the west +and north, except the hamlet of Schenectady and the French settlements +on the St. Lawrence, was wilderness and savages. It occupied a post of +the gravest peril and responsibility. We get a glimpse of the situation +and of the current history in the scene on that Sunday morning, the +9th of February, four years after the granting of the charter, when +Symon Schermerhoorn, shot through the thigh, told at the north gate of +the stockade his breathless story of the night attack and the horrible +massacre at Schenectady. + +Between the hostile French in Canada and the little frontier city on +the Hudson roamed the tribes of the Iroquois confederacy, upon whose +friendship and fealty in large measure hung the destiny of the English +possessions. The stockade, thirteen feet high, would have been of little +account if that living bulwark of savage allies had yielded to the arms +or the bribes of the French. That the bulwark did not yield, that the +fealty of the Indians was won and, through every peril, kept unbroken, +was owing to the sagacity and honorable dealing of the government and +burghers of Albany. _The House of Peace_—this is the name which the +Mohawk sachem, at one of the council-fires, gave to the Albany of those +olden days, and, in the graphic phrase of his Indian oratory, he pictured +at a stroke its political value and place in history; for there, by +repeated formal treaties and habitual friendly intercourse, were riveted +the “Covenant Chains” which made the confederation of the Six Nations the +guardians of the feeble province. + +There is a scene in _The History of New York_, by William Dunlap, +which is illustrative. The date is 1746 and the central figure is the +celebrated Col. William Johnson, Indian agent, whom George II. made a +“baronet of Great Britain.” + + “When the Indians came near the town of Albany on the 8th of + August, Mr. Johnson put himself at the head of the Mohawks, + dressed and painted as an Indian war-captain. The Indians + followed him painted for war. As they passed the fort, they + saluted by a running fire, which the governor answered by + cannon. The chiefs were afterwards received in the fort-hall + and treated to wine. A good deal of private manœuvring with the + individual sachems was found necessary to make them declare + for war with France before a public council was held. The + Iroquois took to the 23d of the month for deliberation, and + then answered, the governor being present.” + +During the French wars, Albany, from a military point of view, was +probably the most animated spot on the continent. It was the storehouse +for munitions of war and the rendezvous for the troops. English +regulars and provincial militia swarmed in and about the city. After +the unsuccessful campaigns of 1756 and 1757, the town was filled with +refugees, reciting the slaughter of the garrison at Fort William +Henry, and the murder and havoc wrought by the Indians in pay of the +French. Hundreds of loyal Indians, with their squaws and papooses, +encamped under the stockade. The houses and barns were filled with +wounded soldiers brought from the seat of war. In the pauses of the +campaigns, notwithstanding the horrible rumors and actual disasters, +the “dangerously accomplished” English officers made merry life in old +Albany, picturesque details of which are given in that charming chronicle +of colonial days, _Memoirs of an American Lady_ (Mrs. Philip Schuyler), +by Mrs. Grant of Laggan. + +In the opening of the campaign of 1758 there was grief and consternation +in the province. Tidings came that Lord Viscount Howe had been killed +in a skirmish on the march against Fort Ticonderoga. The body of the +brilliant soldier was brought to Albany by his friend, Captain Philip +Schuyler, and was buried beneath the chancel of the English church. The +stone recently unearthed in the village of Ticonderoga, which bears the +inscription, evidently scratched by a knife or bayonet, _Mem of Lo Howe +killed Trout Brook_, probably marked the spot where Lord Howe fell. There +is abundant evidence that his body now lies beneath the vestibule of St. +Peter’s Church. The _Church Book_ of the parish contains the following +entry: _1758, Sept. 5th. To cash Rt for ground to lay the Body of Lord +how & Pall £5. 6. 0_. + +In the following year, the fateful victory of Wolfe on the Plains of +Abraham gave Canada to England and ended the hard-fought duel between the +Latin and the Anglo-Saxon for the sovereignty of the continent. + +Some years before this, the Stadt Huys, the old City Hall of Albany, +was the scene of a significant event which was the prelude of one +still more momentous. There in 1754 Commissioners from the several +provinces convened to renew the “Covenant Chain” with the Six Nations, +and to discuss the best methods for uniting and defending the colonial +interests. The foremost spirits and political prophets of the colonies +composed the assembly. Numerous Indian sachems, with their stately +bearing and barbaric splendor, decorated the scene of the deliberations. +The “Plan” adopted by the convention was not accepted by the Crown, but +it was the first attempt to articulate the idea of a colonial union, and +it bore two names, Benjamin Franklin and Stephen Hopkins, which in due +time were affixed to the Declaration of Independence. + +Before the lightning flashed in the volley at Lexington, there were +centres of influence throughout the colonies breeding storm. Albany +was one of them. The heart of the old Dutch town was fired with the +indignations and enthusiasms of the time. There were tories of course, +but the temper of the city and the attitude of those who controlled the +situation are indicated by the fact that, when the Province of New York +had fairly opened the fight, the old fort on the hill was extemporized +into a tory jail. + +As early as November, 1774, the freeholders of the city appointed a +_Committee of Safety and Correspondence_, which proved a vigorous +agent in propagating the war spirit and furnishing men and money for +the Continental army. The following names appear on its lists: John +Barclay, _Chairman_, Jacob C. Ten Eyck, Henry I. Bogert, Peter Silvester, +Henry Wendell, Volkert P. Douw, John Bay, Gysbert Marselis, John R. +Bleecker, Robert Yates, Stephen De Lancey, Abraham Cuyler, John H. +Ten Eyck, Abraham Ten Broeck, Gerret Lansingh, Jr., Anthony E. Bratt, +Samuel Stringer, Abraham Yates, Jr., and Cornelis van Santvoordt. In +the records of the committee occurs this significant minute: “Pursuant +to a resolution of yesterday, the Declaration of Independence was this +day read and published at the City Hall to a large Concourse of the +Inhabitants of this City and the Continental Troops in this City and +received with applause and satisfaction.” + +At the beginning of, and all through the struggle for independence, +Albany was a strategic point of the utmost importance. The war-office in +London and the British commanders in the field recognized that it was the +key to the situation in the north. There is a passage in the oration of +Governor Seymour at the Centennial Commemoration at Schuylerville, the +actual scene of Burgoyne’s surrender, which condenses and interprets one +of the most important chapters in the history of the Revolution. + + “It was the design of the British government in the campaign of + 1777 to capture the centre and stronghold of this commanding + system of mountains and valleys. It aimed at its very + heart,—the confluence of the Hudson and the Mohawk. The fleets, + the armies, and the savage allies of Britain were to follow + their converging lines to Albany, and there strike the decisive + blow.” + +As sometimes happens, the blow struck the striker. Col. Philip Schuyler, +the young officer who brought the body of Lord Howe to its burial, +was an ardent patriot and the most distinguished citizen of Albany. +On the recommendation of the Provincial Congress of New York, he had +been appointed by the Continental Congress a major-general in the +armies of the United Colonies and had assumed command of the Northern +Department. He was displaced in favor of General Gates, but he retained +the confidence of Washington, and it was he who planned and conducted +the campaign which resulted in the victory of Bemis Heights and the +surrender of Burgoyne. This event broke the formidable menace that hung +over the province and the colonial cause. The defeated British general +found himself in the hands of a courteous foe, and for several months he +meditated and mitigated his disaster amid the elegant hospitalities of +the Schuyler mansion in Albany. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL PHILIP SCHUYLER. + +(FROM A PAINTING BY COL. TRUMBULL.)] + +In 1797, “this antient and respectable city of Albany” (to quote the +courtly compliment of Washington) became the capital of the State. At +the close of the Revolution, New York had not yet determined its seat +of government. From 1777 to 1796 it peregrinated between Kingston, +Poughkeepsie, Albany and the city of New York. Not until the twentieth +session of the Legislature was the long dispute settled. The geographical +advantages of Albany finally carried the day, and for the last hundred +years the site of the frontier fort has been a political arena and an +illustrious seat of legislative and judicial power. + +The Albany of “modern times,” as the phrase is understood in our American +life in which everything is new except human nature, has preserved few of +the ancient landmarks. The only souvenirs are the bronze tablets which +were devised at the Bicentennial in 1886, and which now designate the +historic sites in the city. If one, reverent of ancient and vanished +things, make pilgrimage to the tablet near the curb on the lower edge of +the Capitol Park (a block above the site of Fort Frederick), to the one +on the corner of Broadway and Steuben Street (the site of the northeast +gate), and to the one near the curb on lower Broadway two blocks from +State Street (the site of the southeast gate), he will define quite +accurately the girdle of the _palisadoes_ which protected old Albany. + +[Illustration: STEPHEN VAN RENSSELAER. + +(FROM A PAINTING BY EZRA AMES.)] + +If he pass the memorial of the northeast gateway, a place of memorable +outgoings and incomings, and continue up Broadway about three quarters +of a mile, he will find a bronze tablet bearing the inscription: +“Opposite Van Rensselaer Manor-House. Erected 1765. Residence of the +Patroons. This spot is the site of the First Manor-House.” It was an +unpretentious one-story building of Holland brick, half fortress and +half dwelling. The final Manor-House, on the other side of the road, was +a structure of another fashion. At the time of its erection, 1765, it +was considered the handsomest residence in the colonies. Thither Stephen +Van Rensselaer brought his young bride, Catherine, daughter of Philip +Livingston, and his babe, who became General Van Rensselaer. It stood +amid the drooping elms of a large park and was decorated with a taste +and luxury startling to the period. In 1843 the building was enlarged +and enriched by the elder Upjohn. Once a stately mansion, the scene of +splendid hospitalities, it has shared the American fate of obstructive +antiquities in thriving towns. The railroad and the “lumber district” +crowded and finally strangled it. For several years it stood empty and +dismantled, and obviously had outlived both its beauty and its use. In +1893 the stone and timbers were transported to the Campus of Williams +College, where they were reconstructed into the Sigma Phi Society +building, which perpetuates a remote suggestion of the famous Manor-House. + +[Illustration: VAN RENSSELAER MANOR-HOUSE, 1765.] + +In the southern part of the city, on Clinton Street, is a bronze tablet +which designates the sister of the Manor-House, the Schuyler mansion, +built by the wife of General Philip Schuyler while he was in England +in 1760. This historic relic stands on a plateau above the street, +surrounded by a remnant of the original garden, but the broad avenue, +shaded by elms, which once gave approach to the mansion from the river, +is overgrown with houses. Though used at present as an orphan asylum +under the charge of the Order of St. Francis de Sales, it retains +substantially its original features. It is a dignified and spacious +house; not remarkable architecturally, but fragrant with history. Here +Burgoyne enjoyed his imprisonment. Here Washington, Lafayette, Count +de Rochambeau, Baron Steuben, Benjamin Franklin, Charles Carroll of +Carrollton, Aaron Burr, and other notable men of old were entertained. +Here Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler were married, December 14, +1780. Besides famous guests and weddings, its chief feature of historic +interest is the staircase, apropos of which, we quote from Mr. Marcus +Reynolds’s article on _The Colonial Buildings of Rensselaerswyck_ in _The +Architectural Record_ of 1895. + + “Here is shown the famous tomahawk mark. In 1781 a plan was + made to capture General Schuyler and take him to Canada. A + party of tories, Canadians and Indians surrounded the house + for several days, and at length forced an entrance. The family + took refuge in the upper story, leaving behind in their haste + the youngest member of the family, Margaret Schuyler, afterward + the wife of the patroon. An elder sister going to rescue the + infant, was pursued by an Indian, who threw his tomahawk at her + as she fled up the stairs. The weapon entered the hand-rail + near the newel, and the mark is still shown, which would be + conclusive evidence if the same story were not told of the Glen + house in Schenectady, the only house unburnt in the massacre of + 1690.” + +[Illustration: SCHUYLER MANSION, 1760.] + +With all its historic associations, Albany is not conspicuous for the +scenery it has furnished for the enchantments of poetry and romance; +still it is not altogether destitute of literary honors. Its colonial +life figures in the _Satanstoe_ of the great Fenimore Cooper and in +Harold Frederick’s _In the Valley_. The Normanskill, which tumbles into +the Hudson at the south end of the city, flows through the Vale of +Tawasentha, the scene of Longfellow’s Hiawatha. The hills and forests +about the city suggested many a delicate detail in the woodland rhythms +of Alfred Street, who made his home and burial-place in Albany. Its old +Dutch life with its sedate charm has been pictured by a living Albanian, +Leonard Kip; and probably the house still stands on Pearl Street or +Broadway, in which Henry James found the charming girl who stood for his +_Portrait of a Lady_. + +On the east bank of the Hudson, in old Greene Bosch, opposite the city, +decays the dishonored ruin of Fort Crailo. The date, more or less +mythical, is 1642. It was the headquarters of General Abercrombie, and in +the garden back of the house a derisive British surgeon, Dr. Stackpole, +composed the immortal jingle of Yankee Doodle. If, in 1800, one stood +on the southeast corner of State and North Pearl Streets, opposite the +famous elm which Philip Livingston planted in 1735, his eye glancing up +the street to the north would be arrested by a picturesque relic of Dutch +Albany, the Vanderheyden Palace. Of course it has joined the departed, +but its ghost appears in Washington Irving’s _Bracebridge Hall_, and its +old weather-vane now swings above the porch of Sunnyside. + +Some of the colonial structures were fine and famous in their day, but in +truth, in our American towns, imposing architecture is a thing of recent +date. Few cities give more favorable sites for architectural effects than +the three hills of Albany. It is not too much to say that the wealth +and taste of its citizens have conspired with its peculiar advantages +of position. The architecture of Albany has an exceptional value. The +City Hall, with its Romanesque doorways and majestic campanile, is a fine +specimen of the great Richardson. The Albany City Savings Bank, recently +constructed, is a classical gem, inadequately set, but cut by a master +hand. Its Corinthian monoliths and graceful dome satisfy the eye, and +the whole structure is a suggestive instance of what trade can do in the +interests of art. + +[Illustration: WEST SIDE OF PEARL ST. FROM STATE ST. TO MAIDEN LANE, 1814. + +1. VANDERHEYDEN HOUSE. 2. PRUYN HOUSE. 3. DR. WOODRUFF’S HOUSE. + +(FROM A WATER-COLOR SKETCH BY JAMES EIGHTS.)] + +The four examples of ecclesiastical architecture of more than local +interest are the North Dutch Church, an exceptionally good specimen of +the style which obtained in the beginning of the century; the Cathedral +of the Immaculate Conception, with its lofty double spires emphasized +by the site, and its spacious interior treated with taste and dignity; +St. Peter’s Church, with its noble lines, artistic windows and finely +detailed tower,—“one of the richest specimens of French Gothic in this +country”; and the Cathedral of All Saints, whose unfinished exterior +encloses columnar effects and a choir-vista which remind one of an +impressive mediæval interior and give the edifice a distinctive place +among the churches of America. + +[Illustration: VIEW OF ALBANY, 1899.] + +These architectural monuments, however, and the city itself are +overshadowed by the new Capitol. This massive structure, since its +corner-stone was laid on the 24th of June, 1871, has absorbed over twenty +millions of dollars. The enormous bulk, the difficult foundations, +the obdurate granite, the elaborate sculptures, the mistakes and +afterthoughts, sufficiently account for the money. The old Capitol, +which stood in front of the southeast corner, well-nigh could be tucked +into one of its great pavilions. The edifice is of such cost, size, and +architectural importance, that one discusses it as he might discuss +Strasburg Cathedral or the weather. Claiming simply the freedom of +personal impression, one may say that its weakest feature is the eastern +façade, which gives an inadequate suggestion of the size of the building +and moreover is dwarfed by the projecting mass and lofty ascent of the +gigantic stairway. He may also say that the Capitol declares its highest +points of architectural interest in the constructive and decorative +treatment of the interior. + +The edifice has been built with the advantage of large ideas and +limitless resources, and the disadvantage of fluctuating ideas and a +succession of architects. These facts have left their imprint on the +structure but, with all that can be said in criticism of details and of +unused possibilities, it can fairly be ranked among the great buildings +of modern times. + +As one approaches Albany, the colossal bulk of the Capitol thrust against +the sky seems to dominate the city as the great cathedrals of Europe +dominate the towns that have grown or decayed under their shadow. But +there are other structures and artistic things, representing the local +life, that are worthy of remark. + +The State Museum of Natural History, in Geological Hall, a block below +the Capitol, vies with the State Library as a credit to the State and the +haunt of the student. It is one of the largest and best arranged museums +in the country, and its collection of the paleozoic rocks of New York, +which figure so largely in the nomenclature of geology, is a monument to +an eminent name in the scientific world, James Hall, late State Geologist. + +[Illustration: JOHN V. L. PRUYN.] + +Near the Capitol Park is the Albany Academy, in whose upper rooms Henry +and Ten Eyck demonstrated the electrical facts which were applied by +Morse. Up the hill, on the southwest corner of the city, stand the +pavilions of the new Hospital, built in 1899, and the Dudley Observatory, +of note in the stellar world. On Washington Avenue is Harmanus Bleecker +Hall, built from the fund held in trust for more than half a century +by Chancellor Pruyn and Judge Parker. On State Street opposite the +Capitol is the building of the Historical and Art Society, which, though +new-born, has already done valuable work in collecting sequestered relics +of history. + +Under the elms in Washington Park are two fine bronzes: Caverley’s statue +of _Robert Burns_ and Rhind’s statue of _Moses at the Rock of Horeb_. +Fortunately one of the earliest and two of the noblest creations of the +sculptor Palmer are in the city of his home: his _Faith at the Cross_, +his _Livingston_, and his _Angel of the Resurrection_. + +Albany the Old has become Albany the New. In many ways the new is more +energetic and more splendid than the old. The town is large enough +to show the characteristic features of our American life in its more +sensitive and vigorous centres, and small enough to retain local color +and distinctive traits. It is self-centred, believes in itself, and has +the instinct to discern and the habit of demanding the best things. It is +a place where the finest flavors of the old life linger in and temper the +broader spirit and more robust movement of the new life; a place that +perpetuates its traditions of social elegance and hospitality; a place, +too, that has been the cradle and home of men of commanding force, who +have contributed to the highest life of the nation and have left their +names on enduring structures of thought and art and economic organization. + +The city lies at the intersection of the great thoroughfares of traffic +and travel in the richest and most densely populated portion of the +republic. Its facilities for production and distribution may give it +in the future an enormous industrial development. This fortune is not +unlikely, but, to those who estimate in large ways the values of life, it +cannot heighten the beauty or deepen the charm of the Albany of to-day. + +[Illustration: SEAL OF ALBANY.] + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +SARATOGA + +THE STRUGGLE FOR THE GREAT WATERWAYS + +BY ELLEN HARDIN WALWORTH + + +There are names which are more than famous—they have a distinct +individuality; their sound to the ear or appearance on the page arrests +attention, arouses interest, and presents a clear picture to the mind. +Such a name is Saratoga, with its romantic record, its picturesque +scenery, and its beautiful village,—the “Queen of Spas.” Nature has +furnished Saratoga with a regal setting on the lower spurs of the +Adirondack Mountains, the last elevations of the Palmertown range, on the +edge of the world’s first continent. + +[Illustration: SARATOGA LAKE, N. Y.] + +Here where the Laurentian rocks stand out boldly over the sands of the +old Silurian sea, and where the mighty waterways sweep down from the +great northern gulf southward, and from the great northwestern lakes +eastward, lies Saratoga Springs. These valleys, bearing the waters of +Lake Champlain, Lake George, and the upper Hudson on the north, and of +the Mohawk River on the west, have been for centuries the great war-paths +of the Indians and of civilized nations. If America is not old, at +least her maturity is marked in this region by the scars of war, and by +the lines of struggle for the sovereignty of the great waterways. Here +are veritable ruins,—old Fort Carillon, later “Old Ticonderoga,” Fort +Frederick, afterward Crown Point, and traces here and there of the line +of forts extending from the Indian carrying-place at Fort Edward down on +either bank of the Hudson to old Saratoga, now Schuylerville, where the +great monument commemorative of Revolutionary victory marks the national +character of that struggle, and where, eight miles below, at Bemis +Heights, fourteen granite tablets, each a monument five or six feet in +height, mark the fighting-ground. Through the Mohawk Valley are signs of +the “Long House” of the Six Nations, of massacres and battles, that tell +their story of three centuries. + +[Illustration: HISTORIC AND OTHER DRIVES IN THE VICINITY OF SARATOGA +SPRINGS. + +BY E. H. WALWORTH.] + +The story of Saratoga cannot easily be limited to Saratoga Springs, +although it has fifteen thousand inhabitants who retain their quaintly +rural government and cling to the appellation of “village.” Village +though it be, it is imposing with its stately hotels, spacious streets, +large business houses, many beautiful villas, fine public halls, handsome +churches, and numerous valuable mineral springs; which, like the +residences, are set amid magnificent trees, forest pines and cultivated +elms that rival the famous trees of New Haven. From the surrounding hills +the village seems to nestle in the original wilderness. But it is always +active,—in winter with its toboggan slide, snow-shoe club, trotting +matches on the ice-bound lake, and snow-bound streets rolled to marble +smoothness for gay and luxurious sleigh-riding; in summer, its brilliancy +is often compared with that of Paris. In the loss of the old-time social +exclusiveness it has gained in cosmopolitan character and in the rich +variety of its life and amusements. + +[Illustration: SARATOGA BATTLE MONUMENT, SCHUYLERVILLE, N. Y.] + +In considering the story of Saratoga, we cannot confine our attention +to the town of Saratoga Springs, with its sharply defined boundaries +and rectangular lines of political division which mark the limit of the +voters for supervisor at the annual town-meeting. But if we include +the county in our narrative, then, indeed, may we recall the vision +which presents the individuality of the name Saratoga. For Saratoga +County is outlined by a great eastward and southern sweep of the Hudson +River for seventy miles from its narrow gorge at Luzerne, where the +wild savage chief of colonial days leaped across the mighty river to +escape his pursuing foe, down over the precipitous Palmer’s Falls, and +over the cavern-haunted Glen’s Falls, and onward to old Fort Edward, +where its waters turn shortly to the south and pursue their troubled +way along the “hillside country,” which received here its Indian name, +“Se-rach-ta-gue,” which means “hillside country of the great river.” +It is also said that in the Indian language Sa-ragh-to-ga means the +“place of the swift water,” in allusion to the rapids and falls that +are in contrast with the “still water” a few miles below. Thence the +Hudson flows on until it receives the four sprouts or mouths of the +Mohawk River, which spreads out from the precipitous falls at Cohoes. +This great intersecting western valley separates the northern from the +southern highlands of New York, and is, like the great northern valley, +a natural highway and thoroughfare. In the angle formed by the junction +of these two long, deep valleys or passes through the mountain ranges, +“in the angle between the old Indian war-trails, in the angle between +the pathways of armies, in the angle between the great modern routes of +travel, in the angle formed by the junction of the Mohawk and Hudson +rivers,” is Saratoga County, the Saratoga of history and romance. Not +only the stealthy tread of the Iroquois sped over these hills, not only +the swift canoe of the Algonquin shot over these streams, but also the +disciplined armies of France and of England marched and countermarched, +fought by day and bivouacked at night on this ground, from the time +that Hendrick Hudson opened the lower valley of the Hudson River, and +Samuel Champlain discovered the broad lake that bears his name, until the +Revolutionary period closed. + +While Jamestown was still struggling for existence, and Plymouth Bay +was still unknown, the contest had already begun in the northern +valley of the Hudson which initiated its long service to the progress +of the western world. This remarkable triangle, the Saratoga and +Kay-ad-ros-se-ra of the Indian occupation, and the Saratoga County of +the present time was, like Kentucky, “the dark and bloody ground,” the +hunting- and fishing-place of the Five Nations on the south, and their +enemies, the Algonquins, on the north. Here each summer, in search of +fish and game, they built their hunting lodges on Saratoga Lake, called +by the Dutch, who believed it to be the “head-waters” of the Hudson, +“Aqua Capita.” Every season brought conflict between the savage tribes, +and later the French, year after year, marched down from Quebec and +Montreal to intimidate their unceasing foes on the Mohawk. + +In 1642, and again in 1645, the Iroquois in retaliation hastened along +the old war-trail at the foot of Mount McGregor and returned each time +laden with their tortured captives, the French prisoners and their Indian +friends. The two famous expeditions of Courcelle, Governor of Canada, +and of Lieut.-Gen. de Tracy, made their way in 1666 through the valley; +first on snow-shoes, to starvation and despair—and again with the buoyant +tread of a victorious legion. In 1689 the Iroquois followed the old +trail on their way to that massacre of Montreal which emphasized what is +justly called the “heroic age” of that poetic and devoted settlement. +The French and Algonquins again in 1690 bivouacked at these springs as +they descended to the cruel massacre of Schenectady. And in the same year +the English, led by Fitz John Winthrop, made a fruitless march over the +historic war-path. + +[Illustration: NORTH BROADWAY, SARATOGA SPRINGS, 1898.] + +The French, urged by Frontenac, came down the valley in 1693, destroyed +the castles of the Mohawks, and started on their return with three +hundred prisoners. The news created intense excitement through the +whole Province of New York. Governor Fletcher hurried up from New York +City, Major Peter Schuyler hastily gathered three hundred white men and +three hundred savages for defence, and was joined by Major Ingoldsby +from Albany with an additional force. Coming along the old trail, the +French and Indians halted with their captives about six miles north +of the village of Saratoga Springs, at a point near Mount McGregor at +King’s Station. The battle-ground lies on the terrace, which is distinct +from the foothills of the mountains, and has long been known as the +“old Indian burying-ground.” On this plateau, so near the gay streets +of Saratoga, the camp-fires of a thousand hostile men throwing up +entrenchments flared through the night. On the following day the English +sustained successfully three fierce assaults on their works, and the +French, worn with the long journey, were glad to retreat in the darkness +of a raging storm, as night fell on their wounded and captives. + +Again, during Queen Anne’s War, beginning in 1709, old Saratoga, which +lies at the mouth of the Fishkill, was so seriously threatened that +Major Schuyler built a fort below the mouth of the Batten Kill. In 1731, +the French built Fort Frederick at Crown Point. From this stronghold, +during King George’s War, which began in 1744, they swung their forces +with deadly effect upon the English settlements. The forts at Saratoga +were then refitted and manned, but not in time to prevent the terrible +massacre of old Saratoga in 1745. + +History has recorded and poetry sung the woes of Wyoming and of Cherry +Valley, but the silence of the virgin forest has encompassed the tragic +events that occurred at Saratoga on the fatal morning of the 17th of +November, thirty years before the Revolution. + + “Profound peace had reigned in the old wilderness for a + generation, and the fertile soil had filled the smiling land + with fatness. Many dwellings and fruitful farms dotted the + river bank; long stables were filled with sleek cattle, and + around the mills were huge piles of timber waiting the market + down the river.” + +The scowling portholes of the old Schuyler mansion seemed to laugh +between the tendrils of the creeping vines. Suddenly, in the early +morning, the scene of peace and prosperity was changed to slaughter, +pillage, and destruction. Philip Schuyler, the elder, was offered +immunity in the midst of the fray, but he spurned safety at the expense +of his neighbors, and was shot to death in his own doorway. The houses +and forts were burned to the ground, the cattle killed or burned in their +stalls, and only one or two inhabitants escaped to tell the tale. + +[Illustration: GENERAL PHILIP SCHUYLER. + +BRONZE STATUE IN NICHE OF SARATOGA MONUMENT, SCHUYLERVILLE, N. Y.] + +This war was a prelude to the French and Indian, or Seven Years’ War, +which, with its five campaigns, raged continuously through the war-worn +valley of the grand northern waterways. Nearly a century and a half of +struggle, first of the French discoverers and missionaries with the +savages, and then of the Frenchmen and Iroquois, and later the French, +the Indians, and the English, had proved the importance of this valley +as the northern doorway to the country. Of the three expeditions first +planned to be sent simultaneously against the French—one under Braddock +against Fort Duquesne, another under Shirley against Niagara, and another +under Johnson against Crown Point,—the third was considered the most +important. + +In August, Major-General William Johnson took command in person and +pushed on to the outlet of Lake George, intending to build a fort at +Ticonderoga as a defence against Crown Point, to which the French had +extended their possessions in the last interval of peace. Before his +design could be accomplished, desperate warfare disturbed the placid +waters of the beautiful lakes and so discolored their outlying waters +that time has not yet effaced the name of “Bloody Pond.” + +Abercrombie’s campaign in 1758 was a fatal mistake. The brilliant hope +inspired by his fine army of Regulars with their splendid accoutrements, +his thousands of boats paraded on the broad lake with banners flying and +strains of music unknown in the wilderness, was turned to gloom when a +few days later the boats returned laden with the dead and dying, and +carrying the body of the beloved Lord Howe. + +Again, in 1759, the war-trail of old Saratoga was trodden by an English +army, twelve thousand strong, under the command of the successful Lord +Amherst. In the autumn the final conflict came when the death of Wolfe +signalled the triumph of England, and the great waterways passed under +the sovereignty of the Anglo-Saxons. + +[Illustration: CONGRESS SPRING IN 1820.] + +For some years, Sir William Johnson suffered from the effects of a wound +received in the hip during the war. In 1767, his Indian friends told +him about the “Great Medicine Waters” of Saratoga, and carried him by +boat and on a stretcher to the mysterious spring. The waters proved so +beneficial that he was able to return over the “carrying-place” unaided +and on foot. The waters which he drank were taken from the High Rock +Spring of Saratoga Springs. Once they overflowed the cone-like rock +through which they now rise and from which they are dipped, and the rock +was gradually deposited and formed by the overflow. The process has +lately been repeated by new springs like the Geyser and the Champion, +which for some years threw the water several feet into the air, leaving +a heavy cascade-like deposit about the opening. Gradually the waters +subsided, the geyser effect was lost, and like the High Rock Spring they +have fallen below the level of the ground. + +In the year (1767) of Sir William Johnson’s expedition, the old land +troubles with the Six Nations were settled amicably at the Fort +Stanwix conference, where over three thousand red men met the English +commissioners. The complaints of alleged frauds in purchase and surveys +included the Kayadrossera patent, which covered 700,000 acres lying +between the Hudson and the Mohawk, obtained by grant in 1703 and +confirmed in 1708. + +Yet quiet did not prevail. The restless spirits of the wilderness were +stirred by their first political aspirations. The Schuylers, whose +possessions extended over the old Saratoga hunting-ground, awoke the +farmers to an interest in the burning questions of the day. Sloops +sailing up the Hudson brought rumors of riots in New York City, and +of the resistance offered by the Sons of Liberty to the execution +of the Stamp Act. When news came that no good patriot would wear +imported garments, the women redoubled their efforts to produce from +spinning-wheel and loom the homespun fabric. As the King grew more +determined, and the people learned more clearly what rights were theirs, +the British soldiers became violent and the patriots more indignant and +outspoken. The first military order of the home government to put the +forts at Crown Point and Ticonderoga on a war basis was quickly followed +by the tramp of soldiers through the wilderness. The rumble of artillery +and of commissary wagons broke once more the stillness of the forest. +The farmers who lived along the old war-trail revived by the evening +fireside the stories of the French and Indian wars. The Indians, quick +to discern the coming storm, began once more, under the influence of +the Johnson family (allied to them through Brandt and his sister), to +destroy property and massacre the unprepared. The settlers of the “long +valley” were bearing at this time the brunt of the preliminary warfare of +the American Revolution. They met the issue bravely. While they fought, +their wives and daughters gathered in the crops, melted into bullets +the treasured pewter teapots and sugar-bowls, learned to shoot, to +barricade their houses or their little forts, and to conceal themselves +from prowling bands of Indians and savage Tories. It was then that the +Royalist Governor Tryon, taking refuge on a war vessel, exclaimed, “The +Americans from politicians are now becoming soldiers.” Had he witnessed +the courageous deeds of the women of the great waterways, he would +perhaps have added, “The women from housekeepers are becoming farmers and +fighters.” + +[Illustration: KAYADROSSERA PATENT, WITH GREAT SEAL OF QUEEN ANNE +PENDANT, 1708. + +ORIGINAL IN SARATOGA COUNTY CLERK’S OFFICE.] + +[Illustration: WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION, 1776. + +FROM TABLET ON SARATOGA BATTLE MONUMENT, SCHUYLERVILLE, N. Y.] + +New anxieties arose in the Province of New York as rumors multiplied +of the advance in stately procession of a new and splendid army of the +British, recently arrived in Canada, down the old war-path through +Champlain and Lake George on the way to Albany to unite with the British +wing ascending the Hudson River. Inspired by General Schuyler, commanding +the American army, the farmers seized whatever firearms they could find +and hurried to his camp. The women of Albany hammered the leaden weights +from the windows of their houses, moulded them into bullets, and urged +on the men. The militia of New England, aroused by the invasion, came by +hundreds and by thousands until the river hills were covered. The hasty +breastworks planned by Kosciuszko were completed, and the rude recruits +were hurriedly formed into regiments and brigades. Gates, who superseded +Schuyler, lay with his staff in the rear of the army, while Morgan with +his riflemen held guard at the western extremity of the entrenched camp +on the hills, with his headquarters at Neilson’s. This was the defensive +camp of the Americans at Bemis Heights, and it stretched from the river +bank westward over the hills about two miles and faced the north. Here +they lay in wait for Burgoyne, who had rallied from his repulses at +Bennington and Fort Stanwix, and was pressing down the bank of the Hudson +River toward Albany from Fort Edward. + +On the 13th of September, a bridge of boats was stretched across the +Hudson River—just below the mouth of the Batten Kill—for the passage +of Burgoyne’s army. They halted for the first night amid the charred +wheat-fields of General Schuyler’s farm on the south side of the +Fishkill. On the morrow they hastened on to Coveville, and thence to +Seward’s house, where again their white tents were spread over the +country. + +On September 19th Burgoyne moved forward to outflank the American camp on +the west. An obstinate fight of many hours about the old farm-well and +in the great ravine followed, and the British failed in their attempt to +pass the Americans or to weaken their line. But they held persistently +to the position they had taken at Freeman’s Farm and at the close of +the battle fortified their camp from the point on Freeman’s Farm in a +line to the eastward on the bank of the river, where they built three +redoubts upon three hills. The fortified camp of the Americans lay about +a mile and a half below in a line parallel with the British. Here, within +bugle-call of each other, for two weeks, the hostile forces sat upon the +hills of Saratoga, frowning defiance at each other, and ready to open +the conflict at a moment’s warning. + +Burgoyne waited in vain for the Americans to attack him behind his works, +and for a message, hourly expected, that Clinton would come from New +York to his relief. Hunger pressed sorely upon the army. The brilliant +conquests he had pictured to himself were fading from his grasp. He +called his officers together in council. Silence and gloom hung over +them. Should they advance or retreat? His imperious will dictated the +advice he desired. Finally Fraser sustained the commander. An advance +was ordered. On the 7th of October the British marched from their +entrenchments in battle array. Burgoyne led the centre; Fraser a flanking +column to the right; the royal artillery to the left, and the Hessians +in reserve. Like a great bird of prey they settled in line of battle +upon the broken ground that separated them from the American camp. Gates +took up the gauntlet thus thrown down and exclaimed, “Order out Morgan +to begin the game.” With a word to his command the watchful and heroic +Morgan dashed into the struggle, scattered Burgoyne’s advance-guard, +rushed on against the trained forces of Fraser, and swept them from the +position to the left which they had taken in advance. With masterly skill +and courage, Fraser rallied his men, and was forming a second line of +defence, when he fell mortally wounded. + +[Illustration: “OLD WELL,” FREEMAN’S FARM, BATTLE-GROUND BEMIS HEIGHTS, +SEPT. 19, 1777.] + +The sharp whistle of Morgan called his men once more to action. They +charged, while Poor and Larned attacked the centre and the right. The +battle swayed back and forth through the great ravine. Another charge +from Morgan and the British retreated to their entrenchments. At this +moment the impatient Arnold, stung to madness by the slights put upon him +by Gates, dashed across the field. He gathered the regiments under his +leadership by his enthusiasm, bravery, and vehemence. He broke through +the lines of entrenchments at Freeman’s Farm. Repulsed for a moment, he +assailed the left and charged the strong redoubt of Breyman which flanked +the British camp at the place now called Burgoyne’s Hill. The patriot +army, fired with hope and courage, crowded fearlessly up to the very +mouth of the belching guns of the redoubt, won the final victory of the +day, and then, exhausted by the desperate fight, dropped down for a few +hours’ rest before they took possession of the British camp. + +[Illustration: GENERAL DANIEL MORGAN.] + +But there was no rest for the defeated army. Silently and sullenly +during these hours, they withdrew from the works at Freeman’s Farm, and +huddled closely together under the three redoubts by the river. Here +the women, Madam Riedesel, Lady Ackland, and others, trembled and wept +over the dying Fraser. Here the hospital stood with its overflowing +throng of the wounded and the dead. The great and princely army waited +in doubt and despair while their commander wavered in his plans. Should +he try to hold his dangerous ground, should he risk another engagement, +should he retreat? The last course was chosen. On the following night a +retreat began as the last minute-guns were fired magnanimously by the +Americans, in honor of Fraser’s funeral, which took place at sunset. The +sun fell behind the heights upon which the exultant Americans lay; heavy +clouds followed, and quickly after, amid the drenching rain, the army of +Burgoyne, abandoning their sick and wounded, began the retreat up the +river. + +Retracing their steps from Bemis Heights, the scene of their disaster, +they followed up the river road to the Fishkill and the Schuyler mansion, +which they burned to the ground. Failing here in an attempt to make +a stand against the advancing Americans, they fell back, formed an +entrenched camp, and planted their batteries along the heights of old +Saratoga. In this camp they still hoped to hold out until relief should +come up the Hudson from New York. Here the romance and pathos of the +campaign culminated, as described by Madam Riedesel, the accomplished +and beautiful wife of the Hessian general, in her thrilling account of +the retreat and of the agonizing days that followed. At the Marshall +house, where she had taken refuge, the cannonballs thrown across the +river crashed through its walls, and rolled along the floor, so that the +sick and wounded were driven into the cellar where she and her children +and the broken-hearted widows of the dead were suffering, watching, and +starving. Frail by birth and rearing, Madam Riedesel stood in the doorway +of the cellar, and with arms outspread across the open door held at bay +the selfish, brutal men who would have crowded out the sick and dying. +Burgoyne and his army, entrenched on the hills, and with the river +below, yet had no water to drink, except a cupful brought now and then +for the faint and wounded from the river by the British women, on whom +the gallant Americans, ever tender toward woman, would not fire. + +[Illustration: CONGRESS SPRING, 1898.] + +Finally, driven to the last extremity, with the Americans on the north, +where Stark had seized Fort Edward, to the east, where Fellows held the +river bank, and to the south, where Gates had thrown his victorious army, +Burgoyne sent in his terms of surrender. Almost on the site of old Fort +Hardy, his brave but unfortunate troops laid down their arms, and near +the site of the old Schuyler mansion, which they had so recently burned, +Burgoyne surrendered his sword to General Gates. Along the road, just +across the Fishkill, the American army stretched in two lines, between +which the disarmed prisoners were marched to the shrill notes of the fife +and the measured beat of the drum, to the tune of “Yankee Doodle,” played +for the first time as a national air. + +[Illustration: SIGN “PUTNAM AND THE WOLF” ON PUTNAM’S TAVERN, SARATOGA +SPRINGS. + +ORIGINAL SIGN IN GRAND UNION HOTEL, SARATOGA SPRINGS, N. Y.] + +General Schuyler, the hospitable and magnanimous, was on the ground. +Neither the slight he had received from Congress nor the injuries +inflicted on him by the British could quench his generous nature. He +rejoiced with his victorious countrymen, he sympathized with the fallen +enemy, he protected and cared for the helpless women. + +During the summer of 1777 he had cut a road from his farm at old Saratoga +through the wilderness to the High Rock Spring, already famous for its +medicinal properties. He built a small frame house on the ledge of rocks +overhanging the spring, and here for several summers his family came with +him for rest and recreation as they had formerly gone to the comfortable +mansion at old Saratoga. This was replaced by a rude cabin, and there, +in 1783, Washington was entertained when, with General Clinton, he came +to visit the Saratoga battle-ground. The party proceeded northward to +Ticonderoga, and on their return stopped at High Rock Spring. General +Washington was so strongly impressed with the value of the water and the +beauty of the region that shortly afterward he tried to buy the property, +but Livingston, Van Dam, and others had already secured it. + +The events of the Revolution had discouraged the few settlers who first +came to the springs, and for years afterwards but two log cabins offered +a shelter to adventurous tourists. In 1791, Gideon Putnam cleared his +farm at Saratoga, and Governor Gilman of New Hampshire in 1792 discovered +Congress Spring. Putnam built his large boarding-house and tavern, and +far-seeing and liberal-minded, he purchased extensive tracts of land and +secured the foundation of the beautiful and prosperous village which +is now a delight to visitors and a valued home to its residents. It is +essentially a place of “homes,” where people of large or small means are +assured of that quiet and ease which cannot be found in cities or towns +which depend for their prosperity on active commercial or manufacturing +interests. + +[Illustration: SEAL OF SARATOGA.] + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +SCHENECTADY + +THE PROVINCIAL OUTPOST OF LIBERTY + +BY JUDSON S. LANDON + + +Schenectady was settled in 1662. To give to the story of the settlement +its proper character among the beginnings of free institutions in America +it is necessary to recall the fact that the States-General of the +Netherlands in 1621 chartered a trading concern, the Dutch West India +Company, granted it the monopoly of the fur trade in New Netherland, and +permitted it to govern, so long as it could, whatever colonies might +inhabit the territory. The company thus formed ruled over the territory +from 1624 to 1664, when the English, trumping up a stale claim of prior +discovery, interfered and took possession. + +The company’s rule was arbitrary, but not without good features. Traders +are not apt to cavil over religious dogmas,—the company permitted +freedom of conscience and worship. Subjects and servants render better +obedience and service if treated with kindness and justice. The directors +of the company seemed to know this, and professed to govern accordingly, +but their governors sometimes found pretexts for the injustice which +promised the surest profits. + +[Illustration: COLONIAL HOUSE, UNION STREET.] + +Some of the colonists insisted that the people ought to have a part in +the government. The Dutch governor, when he most needed their support, +would promise concessions. He sometimes seemed to have begun to make +them, but he made none that were substantial. Why should the trading +company sentence itself to death? + +Agriculture was necessary for the food-supply of the new province, and +promised customers for the imports from Holland. Liberal terms were +extended to the agriculturist. Men of wealth were tempted by offers of +vast tracts of land, with a sort of feudal sovereignty, on condition that +each of them would establish fifty families upon his domain. Among others +the manor or lordship of Rensselaerswyck was established, embracing +nearly all the territory now comprised within the counties of Albany and +Rensselaer. Literally its jurisdiction was subject to that of the West +India Company, but practically it was independent of it. The company +established a trading and governmental post at Beverwyck or Fort Orange, +now Albany, and exercised supreme jurisdiction, exclusive of that of +Rensselaerswyck, for at least musket-range about the fort. + +Among the colonists and traders who had been attracted to Beverwyck +and Rensselaerswyck were some intelligent and enterprising men, mostly +Protestant Dutchmen, who, after varied experience but general good +fortune in the province, resolved to go apart by themselves and establish +a community where justice equality and liberty could be secured and +enjoyed, free from the overlordship of a patroon, and as remote as was +practicable from contact with the grasping West India Company, either at +Fort Orange or Manhattan. + +[Illustration: VIEW ON STATE STREET.] + +The leader of these men was the founder of Schenectady, Arendt Van +Curler. He was the nephew of Killiaen Van Rensselaer, and came from +Holland in 1630 as director of his uncle’s principality. This he managed +with great success for many years. All accounts agree in describing him +as a man of honor, benevolence, ability and activity. His unvarying +fairness and tactful address soon secured for him the respect and +confidence of all who knew him, and especially of the Mohawk Indians. +In their opinion he was the greatest and best white man they ever knew. +They decorated him while living with the distinction of “very good +friend,” and honored him when dead by calling other governors “Curler” +or “Corlear,” a title which still survives with the same meaning in the +language of the scattered remnants of their tribe. It was through his +good offices that peace was secured between the province and the Five +Nations, among whom the Mohawks were the foremost, and preserved unbroken +during his life. By following his policy peace was long maintained after +his death. + +The beauty and fertility of the Mohawk country early attracted his +attention. A letter addressed by him in 1643 to the “Noble Patroon” at +Amsterdam exists, in which, after giving an account of his stewardship +as manager of his uncle’s interests, he writes that the year before he +had visited the Mohawk country, where he found three French prisoners, +one of them being the celebrated Father Jogues, “a very learned scholar, +who was very cruelly treated, his finger and thumb being cut off.” These +prisoners were doomed to death, but Van Curler succeeded in effecting +their release. Father Jogues, however, eager for the salvation of their +souls, returned to them two years later, to suffer martyrdom at their +hands. In this letter Van Curler writes: + + “Within a half-day’s journey from the Colonies lies the most + beautiful land on the Mohawk river that eye ever saw, full a + day’s journey long.” He says “it cannot be reached by boat + owing to the strength of the stream and shallowness of the + water, but can be reached by wagons.” + +[Illustration: “THE BLUE GATE” ENTRANCE TO UNION COLLEGE GROUNDS.] + +Another part of this letter is worth transcribing: + + “I am at present betrothed to the widow of the late Mr. + Jonas Bronck. May the good God vouchsafe to bless me in my + undertaking, and please to grant that it may conduce to His + honor and our mutual salvation. Amen.” + +We know that the good lady long survived him, and as his widow was +conceded some special privileges by the government. + +“The most beautiful land” upon which Van Curler looked, was the Mohawk +Valley, embracing Schenectady and extending far to the westward. + +As he stood upon the crest of the upland southwest of the present +city, where the sandy plain abruptly ends and gives place to the rich +bottom-lands a hundred and fifty feet below, he looked northwesterly +upon a wide expanse of meadow, through which the Mohawk River, gleaming +in the sunlight, slowly wended. His eye rested upon the outline of that +break in the mountains where the Mohawk has gorged its bed, through which +in our day the New York Central Railroad passes from the seaboard to +the Mississippi without climbing a foot-hill. It is the only level pass +through the great Appalachian chain between the St. Lawrence Valley and +the Gulf of Mexico. Not a tree and scarcely a bush grew upon this plain, +but here and there were scattered patches of beans, corn and pumpkins, +the fruit of the industry of the Mohawk women; and upon the higher ground +where Schenectady now stands, the second great castle of the Mohawks, the +Capitol of the Five Nations, stood, surrounded by many wigwams of the +tribe. The nearer hills and the more distant mountains were clothed with +forests. This cleared and fertile intervale, set in its forest frame, +was due to the volume of water which in the spring freshets pours down +the river. Three miles east of the city its channel is crossed by great +ledges of shale rock, through which the river has cut its way, which +still remains too narrow for the immediate passage of its waters when +greatly swollen. These, overflowing and enriching the bottom-lands above, +also denude them of their forest growth. + +The Indian name of the place was Schonowe, the first syllable pronounced +much like the Dutch “schoon,”—beautiful. Some of the Dutch, sharing Van +Curler’s idea of the beauty of the place, wished to call it _Schoon_, +beautiful, _achten_, esteemed, _del_, valley,—_Schoonachtendel_. The +Indian name and the Dutch substitute were combined and confounded in a +various and perplexing orthography which remains to us in the deeds, +wills and other papers of that time, from which the name Schenectady was +finally evolved. + +Although Van Curler was attracted thus early by this beautiful land, it +was long before he could realize his purposes. He married the Widow +Bronck and continued the care of his uncle’s interest in the manor of +Rensselaerswyck. But despite the success of his management the longer +he stayed the more he saw and deplored the evils inherent in the feudal +system. To his enlarged and benevolent mind the system itself was +essentially one of serfdom. + +The patroon was lord of the manor, the owner of all the land and of a +fixed share of all the produce of his subjects or tenants, with the right +of a pre-emption of all the surplus beyond what was necessary for their +support. They took an oath of allegiance to him: they could not hunt +or fish or trade or leave the manor without his consent or that of his +representative. If they sold their tenant right and improvements, a part +of the price was his. His will was the law, for his subjects renounced +their right of appeal to the provincial government from his decrees or +those of his magistrates. He was an absentee, and measured the merit of +his agents by the amount of their remittances. The government of the +province as administered at Fort Orange or at Manhattan was as good as +could be expected from a trading company, but was odious to men of Van +Curler’s enlarged understanding. + +The firearms of white men at Beverwyck and in Rensselaerswyck began +to impair the value of the hunting grounds in their vicinity, and Van +Curler learned that the Indians might consent to sell their lands at +Schenectady. He looked about for associates in the purchase of the +lands and their settlement, and sifted out fourteen. He applied to the +Director General or Governor of the province, Peter Stuyvesant—whose real +qualities and worth and those of his good subjects the pen of Irving +has replaced with the genial travesties of his enduring caricature,—and +obtained his reluctant consent to the purchase. He then applied to the +Indian chiefs. They too were reluctant. Schonowe was the site of one of +their most ancient castles. It had long been their favorite home. Their +traditions covered many generations, but no tradition reached back to +their first coming. Still they well remembered that Hiawatha had lived +here, two centuries or more before. + +[Illustration: GLEN-SANDERS MANSION, ERECTED 1714.] + +Hiawatha, the chief, of whom the Great Spirit was an ancestor, and whose +wisdom, goodness and valor far surpassed that of other men, was the +founder of the confederacy of the Five Nations. He devoted his long life +to the good of his people, teaching them to live nobler and better, and +finally was borne in the flesh to the Happy Hunting Grounds. Longfellow +sings of Hiawatha with no stint of poetic license, but his harmonious +numbers do not surpass the Indian estimate of his qualities. No doubt +there was such a man, of exceptional wisdom, valor and influence, and +that he disappeared without being known to have died. Around his memory +tradition, employing the figurative language of the Indians, accumulated +myths and magnified them.[16] + +Van Curler was persistent, and in the end the Indians could not find +it in their hearts to deny their “very good friend,” and the deed was +formally executed and delivered at Fort Orange, July 2, 1661. + +The founders entered into possession. The Indians bade them welcome, and +began to move their wigwams up the valley. It was their first step in the +many stages of their unreturning journey toward the setting sun. Their +own sun thus passed its zenith, but they did not know it. + +The colonists fixed their home or village lots upon the land above the +sweep of the river floods, occupying for this purpose that part of the +city west of the present Ferry Street. They assigned to each proprietor +a village lot, two hundred feet square; a larger lot for a garden just +south of the village, and a farm upon the bottom-lands beyond, with +privileges in the outlying woodlands. Other settlers joined them. They +sold them village lots and farm and garden lands, until the farm lands of +the Van Curler grant were disposed of. Those who came still later bought +village lots, but they had to buy farms of the Indians from lands outside +of the Van Curler grant. Mechanics, traders and workmen came who did not +want land, or lacked the means to buy it. Many of the proprietors were +rich enough to own slaves, which—or shall I say whom?—they brought with +them. Very soon by dint of industry their houses were built of the lumber +sawed at their own mills, their farms were promising abundant crops, +their gardens were blossoming, while their cattle were grazing in more +distant pastures. + +In this little republic the freeholders were the source of authority. +By them and of them five trustees were elected “for maintaining good +order and advancing their settlement.” The “Reformed Nether Dutch +Church” was early established with its elders and deacons, and later, +with its settled domine, maintained a guardianship over the people and +especially the widows, orphans, and the poor. The community was under +the titular jurisdiction of the province; the laws of Holland were in +force with respect to contracts, property rights, and domestic relations, +and were observed as a matter of course. The governor appointed the +trustees or their nominees, _schepens_ or justices of the peace, and they +appointed a _schout_ or constable, with large executive powers. This +official, conscious of his power, and arrayed in a garb denoting it, +solemnly pointed his pipe stem and sometimes even shook his sword, at +the wayward. If any were so refractory as not to mend their ways after +such an admonition, he haled them before the schepen. This magistrate, +as his commission was construed, had the right so to supply the defects +in the Dutch laws and the ordinances of “Their High Mightinesses, the +noble Dutch West India Company,” as to “make the punishment fit the +crime.” This meant that he could impose such a fine as the schout thought +collectible, or such other punishment as he would undertake to inflict. +Causes of great gravity, such as complaints by the traders at Beverwyck +that the accused had infringed upon their monopolies, were brought before +that jurisdiction, but the records disclose no practical benefits to the +complainants. + +[Illustration: FIRST REFORMED (DUTCH) CHURCH.] + +In 1664, two years after the first settlement, the province and its +government passed by conquest from the Dutch to the English. This made +but little change at Schenectady. The system of government already +begun was continued. The manor of Rensselaerswyck was confirmed to the +patroon with some change in the sovereignty, but none in his property +rights. Beverwyck became Albany, the county of Albany was established, +and embraced Schenectady. The court at Albany took jurisdiction of such +larger causes as the “Duke’s Laws,” conferred upon it, and the minor ones +remained as before within the jurisdiction of the local magistrates. +There were but few ministers of the gospel in the province, and it was +not until 1684 that the Reverend Petrus Thesschenmaecher, a graduate +of the University of Utrecht, was installed as their first resident +pastor or domine. It was a memorable day, when that pious man, in his +black silken robe, ascended the high pulpit of the church edifice which, +loopholed for musketry together with his dwelling-house, awaited his +coming, and in the deep solemn guttural of his Nether Dutch speech, +led the worship of his dutiful flock. These Dutch Protestants did not +agonize about God’s wrath like the Puritans; they assumed His loving +care, as a child does its father’s. The ordinances and forms of worship +prescribed by the Church were regarded as duties to be observed as well +as privileges to be enjoyed, and the higher the social or official state +of the individual, the more prominent and circumspect must he be in his +religious observances. One of the documents of that day opens in these +words: “We, the justices, consistory, together with the common people +of Schanegtade, conceive ourselves in duty bound to take care of our +reverend minister.” It is signed by the justices, elders, deacons and +many others who, we must assume, were “common people.” There remains a +marriage contract in which a widower and a widow recite how much property +each brings to the marriage state; the widow enumerating among other +property three slaves, for whose freedom upon her decease, however, she +provides. No doubt the justices, the consistory, the freeholders and the +common people observed this order of precedence on this and all like +occasions; the widow being preceded by a slave bearing a warming-box for +her feet, a metrical version of the Psalms, and the book of devotion +containing the liturgy, the _Heidelberg Catechism_, the _Confession of +Faith_ and the canons of the Church, as all these had been approved by +the Synod of Dordrecht in 1619. + +Long before this learned graduate of the University of Utrecht was +secured, the Rev. Gideon Schaets, minister at Albany, was permitted +by his Church to visit Schenectady at least four times a year, upon a +week day (“since it would be unjust to let the community be without +preaching”—so the record at Albany recites), and administer the Lord’s +Supper, baptize the children and officiate at marriages. Marriage, +however, was a civil function over which a magistrate was competent to +preside. As early as 1681 the Church had an investment for the support +of the poor of 3,000 guilders, which had reached 4,000 guilders in 1690, +when the Church perished in the destruction and massacre of that year. + +[Illustration: ELLIS HOSPITAL.] + +The inhabitants of this frontier village, who welcomed with open hands +and glad hearts their first domine, might well be pardoned if there +was a leaven of worldly pride in their greeting. Where else in all the +provinces was there a more prosperous, more generous, more intelligent +and better ordered people? There was no lack of substantial plenty. Who +more than they were entitled to establish a Church and have a domine +of their own? In October, 1683, the first legislative assembly chosen +by the freeholders was summoned to convene in New York, to frame laws +for the province. By the governor’s proclamation Schenectady had been +accorded a representative, and thus its importance in the body politic +was recognized. The village was the frontier bulwark of civilization, +where the white man and the Mohawk Indian, by keeping faith with each +other, kept bright the chain of friendship which made the Five Nations +the allies of the Province of New York. To guard against French and +Indian incursions, a stockade had been built around the village. This +was a high fence made of three rows of posts set together firmly in +the ground. There was a gate upon the north and south sides, and a +fort within the stockade at each gate. Although often alarmed, it was +not until the war between England and her allies and France, which was +soon declared after James II. abdicated the crown of England in the +revolution of 1688 and William and Mary came to the throne, that this +frontier village was seriously threatened. Jacob Leisler, a Dutch trader +and captain of a military company, of great zeal but of small ability, +seized the government in the name of William and Mary and brought +confusion among the people by his presumption. The common people favored +Leisler. They “blessed the great God of Heaven and Earth for deliverance +from Tyranny, Popery, and Slavery.” The aristocracy opposed him, and +complained that “Fort James was seized by the rabble, that hardly one +person of sense and estate does countenance.” Their wisest leader, Van +Curler, had long been dead;[17] and the people of Schenectady became +hopelessly divided. Warnings were frequent, but vigilance was relaxed, +and at last the blow fell upon a defenceless people. + +[Illustration: EDISON HOTEL.] + +On the night of the 8th of February, 1690, one hundred and fourteen +Frenchmen and ninety-six Indians, sent by Frontenac, Governor General of +Canada, after a twenty-two days’ march from Montreal, through the snow +and the wilderness, stole in through the open gates of the stockade, +massacred sixty of the inhabitants, plundered and burned about sixty +houses—leaving only six—and carried away thirty captives. The survivors, +who were fortunate enough in the confusion to escape either by accident +or flight, numbered about two hundred and fifty. Their distress cannot be +described. They buried their dead, their beloved pastor being among the +slain. They made what provision they could against the severity of the +winter and then took thought of the future. Should they abandon the place +where for a quarter of a century they had lived in peace and plenty, and +seek safety elsewhere? Help and counsel came to them from Albany, Esopus +and New York, from Massachusetts and Connecticut, and not least from the +friendly Mohawks, all encouraging them to stay. Indeed, there was no +place of assured safety in the whole province. The war threatened all +the English colonies. The colonies sent their delegates to New York, +where they concerted measures for the common defence. This was the first +general American Congress. To abandon Schenectady would be to encourage +the enemy, to endanger the whole province by discouraging its allies, +the Iroquois or Five Nations, causing them to distrust the valor and +prowess of the English arms, and possibly to embrace the oft proffered +alliance of the French. Schenectady must be held, cost what it might. +The survivors finally concluded to stay. Twenty-four of the freeholders +subscribed to a paper, stating: + + “In the first place, it is agreed to resort to the North Fort + to secure our bodies and defend them. + + “Secondly, that the crops or fruits of the earth—that is, the + winter grain, shall be in common for the use of all, and all + the mowing lands for this year. + + “Thirdly, the widows shall draw their just due and portions. + + “If any one will voluntarily depart or draw up for Canada, he + shall yet have his full share and the benefits. + + “Every one that shall stand to these articles shall obey the + orders of their officers, on the penalty of such punishment + as shall be seasonable, without expecting any favor, grace or + dissimulation.” + +The survivors began the work of reconstruction and defence. Every +able-bodied man became both citizen and soldier, ready for service at +home or on scout or picket or skirmish duty, wherever the approach of +the enemy was to be feared. Schenectady became a military camp where +the provincial troops, reinforced by detachments from New England and +by their Iroquois allies, made good the safety of Schenectady and thus +kept watch and ward over the English dominion in North America. They +recognized Governor Leisler’s authority and sent a representative to the +two sessions of his Assembly held in April and October, 1690.[18] + +The warlike state of things existed from 1690 until after the peace of +Ryswyck in 1697. Upon the return of peace, Schenectady began to resume +its former state and prosperity. The people rebuilt their church and +called the Rev. Bernardus Freerman as their pastor. How dear he became to +them the many children named in his honor attest. The Dutch population +was sprinkled with a few English-speaking soldiers who chose to make it +their home. Its importance increased as a centre of trade, not only +with the Indians, but with those hardy pioneers, who, attracted by the +fertile lands, or the desire to join the friendly Indians in their +hunting expeditions, pushed farther up the valley. The traders at Albany +protested against this invasion of their monopoly, and also against the +exercise of milling, weaving and tanning privileges, but in a famous +law-suit in the Supreme Court of the province, the Albany monopolists +were beaten, and Schenectady’s full right to freedom of trade and +manufacture was established. Then came Queen Anne’s War with the French, +lasting from 1701 to 1713, and Schenectady was again in peril, and again +garrisoned, for the same reason and much in the same way as before; but, +the Iroquois having made a treaty of peace with Canada, the brunt of the +war fell upon New England and Schenectady passed safely through it. + +From the treaty of Utrecht in 1713 to the “Old French War,” 1744-48, +peace prevailed. In the latter war many inhabitants of the village were +killed in skirmishes or cut down by skulking Indians in the service of +the French. In one skirmish, or rather massacre, at Beukendal, three +miles northwest of Schenectady, twenty men were killed and thirteen +captured and carried away. Then came the last French war, from 1753 to +1763. The English now had posts at Fort Hunter, Fort Schuyler, Fort +Johnson and Oswego on the west, at Fort Ann and Fort Edward on the north. +Sir William Johnson and others had established settlements up the Mohawk +Valley. Sir William was general superintendent of Indian affairs and a +Major-General in the English service. His influence over the Iroquois was +commanding; his early victory at Lake George was important; the English +carried the war into the French territory. Schenectady enjoyed immunity +from attack, and was enabled, besides maintaining a garrison in its fort, +to send its quotas of troops to distant service, one company assisting in +the English siege and capture of Havana in 1762. + +The treaty of Paris in 1763, by which the French yielded the dominion of +North America to the English, seemed to promise a lasting peace. But the +War of the Revolution came on. Our Indian allies, the Iroquois, remained +faithful to their long allegiance to the English Crown, and became our +enemies under the leadership of Sir John Johnson, who, succeeding to +the estate and title of his father, Sir William, adhered to the Crown, +under which both became ennobled. Schenectady was again threatened, from +the side of Canada, but by its former friends and allies. Aside from its +contribution of six companies to the patriot cause, its position made it +the base from which those who adhered to the English cause sought to send +aid and comfort to the enemy. General Washington came here early in the +struggle, and made arrangements for the frontier defence.[19] + +The Schenectady patriots appointed a committee of vigilance and safety, +who, as the one hundred and sixty-two written pages of their records +show, repressed with strong hand and scant ceremony the slightest +evasions of the orders of Congress and of the military authorities, and +all attempts at treasonable intercourse with the enemy. Finally American +independence was won, and Schenectady, after nearly a century of unrest, +enjoyed the blessing of permanent peace. The forts and stockade soon +disappeared. + +[Illustration: UNION COLLEGE, 1795.] + +Meantime the little village had steadily grown, becoming a +chartered borough in 1765, and advancing to the dignity of a city +in 1798. Schenectady received its first officially carried mail on +the 3d day of April, 1763,—Benjamin Franklin being the colonial +postmaster-general,—founded the Schenectady Academy in 1784, which became +Union College in 1795, and read its first newspaper, _The Schenectady +Gazette_, January 6, 1799. + +[Illustration: STATUE, SITE OF “OLD FORT.”] + +The military occupation and the increasing importance of the frontier +trade added largely to the English population. As early as 1710, the +Rev. Thomas Barclay, the English chaplain to the fort in Albany, +preached once a month at Schenectady, where, as he writes, “there is +a garrison of forty soldiers, besides about sixteen English and about +one hundred Dutch families.” At that time the Dutch had no pastor. Mr. +Barclay writes, “There is a convenient and well built church which they +freely give me the use of.” It was not, however, until 1759, when there +were three hundred houses in the village, that the English population +undertook the erection of a separate church. They “purchased a glebe +lot and by subscription chiefly among themselves erected a neat stone +church,” and called it St. George’s. This stone church, with its +subsequent additions, is the handsome St. George’s of to-day. Its site +had previously been covered by the English barracks. There is a tradition +that the Presbyterians assisted in the erection of St. George’s with the +understanding that the Anglicans were to go in at the west door and the +Presbyterians at the south door, but that the Anglicans managed to get +the church consecrated unknown to the Presbyterians. The latter, upon +finding it out, were so indignant that they set about building a church +for themselves. Be this as it may, the Presbyterians commenced building +their church in 1770, and finished it with bell and steeple, the latter +surmounted by a leaden ball gilded with “six books of gold leaf.” + +In 1767 the Methodist movement began here under the lead of Captain +Thomas Webb, a local preacher bearing the license of John Wesley. The +movement was favored and advanced by the preaching of that great orator, +George Whitefield, then making his last American tour. The society, +however, waited until 1809 before building its first church edifice. In +the same year Schenectady County was carved out of Albany County. + +All this while the English speech was gaining over the Dutch. Children +of Dutch parents, despite the teaching of the nursery, would acquire and +use the English idiom. Finally some of the members of the Dutch Church +ventured to suggest the propriety of having service now and then in +the English tongue. The staid burghers were shocked. But, the question +once raised, the younger generation grew bolder, and the elder began to +listen. Domine Romeyn, a graduate of Princeton College, a fluent master +of both languages, and eminent for his varied learning and as the founder +of Union College, was pastor of the Church from 1784 to 1804. He so far +yielded to the new demand as to preach in English upon occasions of which +he was careful to give previous notice. It was not until 1794 that the +leading members of the Church represented to its consistory the necessity +of increasing the services in English,[20] “to the end that the church +be not scattered.” Ten years later, at the close of Domine Romeyn’s long +ministry, the Dutch language ceased to be heard from the pulpit of the +church. But there are still surviving a few—very few—inhabitants to whom +the Dutch is their mother tongue. One of them informs the writer that +when he visited Holland he conversed with ease with the people, but that +he sometimes used words not familiar to them and afterwards learned that +these words were of Indian origin. + +[Illustration: “THE BROOK THAT BOUNDS THRO’ UNION’S GROUNDS.” + +UNION COLLEGE.] + +As Schenectady is two hundred feet above tide-water at Albany, it early +became the headquarters of the western trade, goods being carried to and +from the West upon canoes, bateaux, and the “Schenectady Durham boats.” +The trade developed into large proportions, and during the hundred years +closing with the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825, many traders made +fortunes which were considered large in those days. Upon the completion +of the canal the commercial prosperity of the city declined. The decline +seemed to be confirmed by the era of railroads, notwithstanding the +“Mohawk and Hudson” was the first railroad built in the State, its first +passenger train arriving in Schenectady from Albany, September 12, 1831, +and on the second railroad, the “Saratoga and Schenectady,” the first +train left Schenectady for Saratoga, July 12, 1832. + +[Illustration: ELIPHALET NOTT, PRESIDENT OF UNION COLLEGE FOR SIXTY +YEARS.] + +The business revival, however, came at last. For fifty years its +locomotive works have been renowned, finding customers even in England. +Now, that oldest of powers and newest of merchandise, electricity, has +its greatest plant here, from which its products seek the ends of the +habitable globe. These, with many other industries, disturb the city’s +ancient repose. It no longer comprises a people exclusively of Dutch, +English and Scotch ancestry, but embraces a polyglot assemblage. For more +than a century Union College, founded in an age less tolerant than our +own upon the basis of Christian unity, implied by its name, over which +the celebrated Doctor Nott presided for sixty years, and the accomplished +Doctor Raymond now presides, has been sending forth year by year its +graduates. Among them—as the College justly boasts—is a long list of +leaders in Church and in State, in the halls of learning, among the +votaries of science, where industrial and professional skill achieves the +worthiest triumphs, and where human needs require the wisest methods of +helpfulness; and every sign indicates that this long list will continue +to lengthen. + +If there is any lesson, it is simple. The town was founded in the spirit +of liberty and justice; the people cherished and cultivated the spirit so +well that the Mohawk Indian for one hundred and twelve years respected +and reciprocated. May the spirit long prevail! + +[Illustration: SEAL OF SCHENECTADY.] + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +NEWBURGH + +THE PALATINE PARISH BY QUASSAICK + +BY ADELAIDE SKEEL + + + MR. SECRETARY BOYLE TO LORD LOVELACE + + WHITEHALL, 10th Aug’st, 1708. + + _My Lord:_—The Queen being graciously pleased to send fifty-two + German Protestants to New York and to settle ’em there at + Her own expenses, Her Majesty as a farther act of Charity + is willing to provide also for the subsistence of Joshua de + Kockerthal their Minister and it is Her Pleasure that you pass + a grant to him of a reasonable Portion of Land for a Glebe not + exceeding five hundred acres with liberty to sell a suitable + proportion thereof for his better Maintenance till he shall be + in a condition to live by the produce of the remainder. + + I am, my Lord + + Your L’dshp’s Most faithful humble servant + + H. BOYLE. + + LORD LOVELACE. + +A bridge of sighs spans the distance between the coming of Newburgh’s +earliest settlers, the German Lutherans from the lower Palatinate on the +Rhine, to the later arrival of the English, Scotch, French and Irish. The +Lutherans were religious exiles, whose villages had been burnt, whose +homes had been destroyed and whose strong Protestant faith alone survived +the wreck of their fortunes. Of this poverty-stricken company, nine +with their wives and children were sent up Hudson’s River to occupy the +present site of Newburgh. + +The first intention of Queen Anne of England to send these Germans to +Jamaica where white people were needed, was set aside “lest the climate +be not agreeable to their constitutions, being so much hotter than +that of Germany.” Apropos of the intelligent consideration of these +Commissioners of Emigration in 1709, one questions if the half-clad +travellers who are described in an old document as “very necessitous,” +found the climate of Hudson’s River agreeable to their constitutions in +winter-time. + +[Illustration: WASHINGTON’S HEADQUARTERS AT NEWBURGH.] + +In winter time! Sailing up the river in summer-time past Sleepy Hollow +and Spuyten Duyvil, beyond the wide Tappan Zee, through the Gate of +the Highlands where the waters narrow and the mountains cross, where +the fairies dance on old Cro’s Nest, and Storm King dons and doffs his +weather cap, on into Newburgh Bay where the Beacons guard the Fishkill +shores, and the Queen City of the Hudson rises in green terraces on the +western bank, the tourist idly wonders if these Palatine pilgrims, worn +by the ravages of persecution, had eyes to see the beauty of the land +they were about to possess. It is possible, notwithstanding the ice-bound +waters and snow-covered country, that their homesick hearts may have been +warmed by the sight of a river not unlike their Rhine. As yet no Irving, +Paulding, Cooper, Drake or Willis had cast the magic witchery of his +tales over these scenes, yet a century before, the _Half-Moon_ had passed +this way and perhaps the stories Henry Hudson’s crew brought back of red +devils dancing in rocky chambers amused the children aboard the sloop of +the German Lutheran exiles. + +[Illustration: JOEL T. HEADLEY.] + +More pertinent in historical research than such imaginings is the +contrast between the temper of these voyagers and those others who sailed +in the _Mayflower_, and before landing covenanted with one another “to +submit only to such government and governors as should be chosen by +common consent.” The shores of the Hudson were no less fertile than those +of Massachusetts, yet the Palatines showed far less aggressiveness than +the Pilgrims, and far less courage to stand alone. The story of these +Lutherans here in Newburgh is a story of petitions first to one Right +Honorable Lord and then to another,—petitions which, alas! were too often +unheeded, although the petitioners sorely in need of help never failed to +sign themselves + + Your Honours + Most Dutyfull + and most obedient Company + at Quassek Creek and Tanskamir. + +In one letter to the Right Honourable Richard Ingoldsby Esq’ʳ, Lieutenant +Governor and Commander-in-Chief over Her Majesty’s Provinces in New York, +Nova Caesaria and Territories depending thereon in America &c. as also +to Her Majesty’s Honourable Council of this Province &c. they plead that +“they do not know where to address themselves to receive the remainder of +their allowance of provision at 9d per day.” + +Again, in their search to find “a Gentleman who might be willing to +support said Germans with the Remainder of their allowance the entire +summ of which is not exceeding 195 lbs, 3sh,” they but succeed in finding +a gentleman whose offer of assistance they considered only as “fine talke +and discourse out of his own head”—by which one learns the supplicants +were left hungry and cold on their hilly farms, waiting for help which +came slowly and for crops which yielded but scantily. + +[Illustration: THE LUTHERAN CHURCH.] + +Whoever institutes a comparison between the Palatines and the Pilgrims +must remember the Pilgrims came to America, a compact society fortified +by friends at home soon to follow, while the Palatines, beggared by the +most terrible of religious persecutions, were sent, as individuals, by +Queen Anne to her colonies, as to-day dependent children of the State +are sent to the far West. They were absolute paupers, yet such was their +moral excellence that a writer on Dutch Village Communities on the Hudson +River indirectly commends these poor Germans. + + “From the banks of the Rhine the germ of free local + institutions borne on the tide of western emigration found + along the Hudson a more fruitful soil than New England afforded + for the growth of those forms of municipal, state and national + government which have made the United States the leading + Republic among nations, and thus in a new and historically + important sense may the Hudson river be called the Rhine of + America.” + +The patent granted the Lutherans known as the Palatine Parish by +Quassaick contained within its boundaries forty acres for highways +and five hundred for a Glebe. The Glebe is bounded by North Street on +the north and by South Street on the south. Across its western border +ran Liberty Street, then the King’s Highway, although no king save +Washington, who refused the title, ever trod its dust. The Glebe was “for +the use of the Lutheran minister and his successors forever,” but they +really possessed it only about forty years,—thus liberally was “forever” +interpreted two centuries ago. + + “Here’s a church, and here’s a steeple, + Here’s the minister and all the people,” + +says the nursery rhyme. Here the evolution of a parish has for its germ +the church and steeple, the minister and all the people being a later +development. The germ of this Lutheran parish was the minister, Joshua de +Kockerthal,[21] whose missionary labors on both sides of the river cannot +be overestimated. After the minister came not the church nor the steeple, +but the bell, a gift from no less a lady of quality than Queen Anne +herself. It was highly prized by these Lutherans and loaned to a church +in New York on condition that “should we be able to build a church at our +own expense at any time thereafter then the Lutheran Church of New York +shall restore to us the same bell such as it now is or another of equal +weight and value.” + +[Illustration: ANDREW J. DOWNING.] + +The church was built probably in 1730, and the Reverend Michael Christian +Knoll was appointed to minister in the parish, a part of his salary to +be paid in cheeples of wheat, sustenance certainly more nourishing than +the codfish received by the minister on Cape Cod in lieu of pew-rent in +gold coin of the realm. The church itself, which was standing in 1846 +within the memory of a few of Newburgh’s citizens, was about twenty +feet square without floor or chimney. The roof ran up into a point from +its four walls, and on the peak a small cupola was placed in which hung +Queen Anne’s bell. This bell, evidently not cast in the mould of the +one unalterable Confession of Augsburg, but bewitched by its donor with +Episcopacy, presently rang out changes and ceased to “call the living, +mourn the dead and break the lightning” exclusively in behalf of the +German Lutherans. + +The English were now buying farms from the discouraged Germans whose +complaint that their patent was all upland can hardly be denied by any +one who, aided by a rope, climbs Newburgh’s hilly streets to-day. The +story, however, that the United States Government located the city’s +post-office on a shelf-like site so that shy lovers in search of a +billet-doux need not call at the window but may look down the building’s +chimney from a street above is probably apocryphal. + +The Palatines abandoned Newburgh for a more fertile soil in Pennsylvania +and elsewhere about 1747. The newcomers, who were mostly of English and +Scotch descent, took their places, so that nothing remains to tell of +the early settlers save the streets they laid out and the church in the +Old Town burying-ground whose site is now marked by Quassaick Chapter, +Daughters of the American Revolution.[22] + +According to history, the few remaining Lutherans did not give up their +church without a struggle. On a certain bright July Sunday the two +congregations met, each with its minister at the head, accompanied by +many people from both sides of the river and the Justices of the Peace +who carried staves of office. Birgert Meynders, a burly blacksmith and +bold defender of the Lutheran faith, fell crushed by the falling door, +and then the jubilant English rushed in to hold the fort. It was after +this memorable riot that the Reverend Hezekiah Watkins,[23] a most +excellent clergyman, preached his first sermon in Newburgh, possibly from +a text in the psalter for the day, “Why do the heathen so furiously rage +together?” + +[Illustration: HENRY KIRKE BROWN.] + +Legend says some Lutheran boys on a moonless August night stole the +bell and buried it in a swamp where, punished for apostasy, it lay for +years tongue-tied in the black mud while hoarse frogs croaked their +pessimistic comments over it. The defeated Lutherans would doubtless have +been pleased could they have foreseen half a century later when all that +savored of England, were it book, bell or candle, was out of favor, the +Anglicans in their turn ejected, the building used as a schoolhouse, and +the rent of the Glebe lands pass entirely from the Church. + +The swamp in which the bell was hidden has of late years been transformed +into one of Downing Park’s lakes, and from its smooth waters one may +hear on summer evenings the ghostly tolling of bells, as bells toll in +the buried cities beneath Swiss lakes. The tolling has a martial sound, +a call to arms, as if the little bell had forgotten the smaller church +squabble in the larger quarrel between King George and his Colonies. Some +authorities insist that the bell was dug up, and that it gladly used its +long silent tongue in Freedom’s cause as behooved a Liberty Bell. It hung +during the present century, old inhabitants tell us, in the cupola of the +Newburgh Academy, and was at length sold and melted for a new one by an +iconoclastic school Board. + +At the breaking out of the war for American Independence there were +but a dozen or more houses on the Glebe, and a few to the south. Among +these was the stone residence of Colonel Jonathan Hasbrouck which had +been built in part by Birgert Meynders. Lieutenant Cadwallader Colden +had his home near and there were many among his satellites willing to +drink damnation to the Whigs when asked by the ever vigilant Committee of +Safety to sign the pledge. + +It may be thought strange that Newburgh has been considered of great +Revolutionary importance when no battles were fought nearer its +vicinity than those of Stony Point and Forts Clinton and Montgomery, +but, although the place had an hereditary tendency to toryism, its +geographical environment filled it to overflowing with plucky patriots. +It is well known that it was the design of the British to get possession +of the Hudson, and by cutting off the New England States to weaken +the forces of the Continental Army. Appreciating this fact, Washington +came up the river in 1776 as far as Constitution Island and, at the +suggestion of Putnam, fortified West Point. Newburgh came under the same +military direction, so that one leading officer after another made his +headquarters in the vicinity. + +At Vail’s Gate, four miles south of Newburgh, is the Thomas Ellison house +built by John Ellison, the headquarters of Generals Knox, Green and +Gates, and of Colonels Biddle and Wadsworth. Here too the pretty Lucy +Knox gave a dance at which General Washington tarried so late as to incur +the displeasure of his wife. The names of Maria Colden, Gitty Wyncoop, +and Sally Jensen, the belles of the ball, are scrawled on a window-pane +in the dining-room. + +Following Silver Stream down to Moodna Creek, three or four miles south +of Newburgh, we find the Williams house, the residence of General +Lafayette, in the cellar of which the Dutch loan lies buried past +finding, while opposite are the remains of the forge at which were made +parts of the obstructions thrown across the river to prevent British +ships from sailing up. + +[Illustration: HEADQUARTERS OF MAJOR-GENERAL KNOX AT VAIL’S GATE.] + +[Illustration: CLINTON’S HEADQUARTERS AT LITTLE BRITAIN, NEAR NEWBURGH.] + +Westward at Little Britain, six miles from Newburgh, is Mrs. Fall’s +house, the headquarters of George Clinton, and here on the floor is the +stain where the spy who swallowed the bullet took the emetic and revealed +the proposed treason. The old homestead of the Clinton family was in +Little Britain, and hither James Clinton, after the attack on Forts +Clinton and Montgomery, returned, his boots filled with blood. One of his +great-grandchildren relates that he entered the dining-room where the +family were eating breakfast, and requesting his mother and sisters to +retire lest they faint from the sight of his wounds, as was the habit +of gentlewomen of the last century, told the story of his escape to his +father. The statue of his distinguished brother, George,[24] stands in +Newburgh’s business centre on the Square which oddly enough bears the +name of Colden, the leading family of colonial days. The distinguished +Coldens, although not patriots, added a lustre to the town, and the +Clintons will not quarrel with their shades. + +Mad Anthony Wayne, the Rough Rider of his day, had his headquarters on +the Glebe near the present corner of Liberty Street and Broad. Weigand’s +tavern, with the whipping-post in front of the door, a rendezvous of +soldiers, stood on Liberty Street not far from the Lutheran Church. + +[Illustration: CLINTON STATUE IN COLDEN SQUARE, AT NEWBURGH.] + +Revolutionary interest in Newburgh focuses on the coming of Washington to +the Hasbrouck house in March, 1782, although recent research discredits +the story pictured on the covers of our copybooks in school days of the +disbanding of the whole Continental army on these grounds. In 1779-80 +Washington had lived in the Ellison house, no longer standing, in New +Windsor, a small village to the south on the river, separated from +Newburgh proper by the Quassaick Creek, but after the surrender of +Yorktown, he and his family with his staff became the guests of Colonel +Jonathan Hasbrouck in the stone house, on the corner of Washington and +Liberty Streets. Here Washington wrote his reply to the Nicola letter, +which in popular parlance offered him the crown. Here is the chair in +which he sat when he took his pen in hand and dipped it in ink to put on +paper words which after more than a hundred years glow with the fervor of +their author’s single-hearted purpose. + + NEWBURGH, May 22d, 1782. + + COLONEL LEWIS NICOLA, + + SIR:—With a mixture of great surprise and astonishment, I have + read with attention the sentiments you have submitted to my + perusal. Be assured, sir, no occurrence in the course of the + War, has given me more painful sensations than your information + of there being such ideas existing in the army as you have + expressed, and I must view with abhorrence and reprehend with + severity. For the present the communication of them will rest + in my own bosom, unless some further agitation of the matter + shall make a disclosure necessary. + + I am much at a loss to conceive what part of my conduct could + have given encouragement to an address, which to me seems big + with the greatest mischiefs that can befall my country. If I am + not deceived in the knowledge of myself, you could not have + found a person to whom your schemes are more disagreeable. At + the same time, in justice to my own feelings, I must add that + no man possesses a more sincere wish to see ample justice done + to the army than I do, and so far as my powers and influence, + in a constitutional way, extend, they shall be employed to + the utmost of my abilities to effect it, should there be any + occasion. Let me conjure you then, if you have any regard for + your country, concern for yourself, or posterity, or respect + for me, to banish these thoughts from your mind, and never + communicate, as from yourself or anyone else, a sentiment of + the like nature. With esteem, I am sir, + + Your most obedient servant, + + G. WASHINGTON. + +Leaving Washington’s Headquarters at Newburgh one turns southward and +crosses Quassaick Creek, at one time known as the Vale of Avoca, to hear +above the whirr of to-day’s many intersecting railroads the echoes of +Indian paddles. It is said the ghosts of Indians still linger here in +their canoes waiting to carry away Washington, for near is the site of +the Ettrick house whose host treacherously invited the Commander-in-Chief +to dinner with intent to kidnap him. + +[Illustration: THE WILLIAMS HOUSE.] + +“General, you are my prisoner,” said Mr. Ettrick, pushing aside his +wine-glass and rising from the table. + +“Pardon me, sir, but you are mine,” was the quiet answer, and instantly +the life-guards appeared and poor Ettrick was put in chains, his pretty +daughter escaping on account of the timely warning she had given her +father’s guest. + +[Illustration: MONUMENT ON TEMPLE HILL, NEAR NEWBURGH.] + +[Illustration: THE VERPLANCK HOUSE. + +BARON STEUBEN’S HEADQUARTERS, WHERE THE “NICOLA LETTER” WAS WRITTEN.] + +Standing on the slopes of Snake Hill, to the west of Newburgh, where +was the last cantonment of the American Army on the site of the +Temple, a building used for Sunday services, for Masonic purposes and +as a gathering-place for social entertainment, a site now marked by a +monument, one hears again those words spoken by Washington when in March, +1783, the circulation of the Newburgh letters caused unrest among the +unpaid troops. + + “You see, gentlemen,” he said as he arose to read his address, + putting on his spectacles as he spoke, “that I have not only + grown grey but blind in your service.... + + “Let me conjure you,” he continued, “by the name of our common + country, as you value your own sacred honor, as you respect the + rights of humanity, as you regard the military and national + character of America, to express your utmost horror and + detestation of the man who wishes under any specious pretense + to overturn the liberties of our country and who wickedly + attempts to open the flood-gates of civil discord.... + + “By thus determining and thus acting you will pursue the plain + and direct road to the attainment of your wishes ... you will + by the dignity of your conduct afford occasion to posterity to + say when speaking of the glorious example you have exhibited to + mankind, ‘Had this day been wanting, the world had never seen + the last stage of perfection to which human nature is capable + of attaining.’” + +Crossing the river by the ferry sloop to Fishkill one finds in this +Revolutionary centre of military supplies much of interest. Here were +Baron Steuben’s headquarters in the Verplanck house, where the Nicola +letter was written and the Society of Cincinnatus in part was formed; +here at Swartwoutville the headquarters of Washington; here on the +Wicopee, in the James Van Wyck house, the residence of John Jay, and at +Brinkerhoff, in the home of Matthew Brinkerhoff, the roof which sheltered +Lafayette when he lay ill of a fever. The Dutch Church in Fishkill has +been made famous by Cooper’s _Spy_. Trinity Church was a hospital, and +on the banks of the Hudson at Presqu’Ile one rests under the oak which +shaded Washington when he waited for his letters to be brought to him +from Newburgh. + +[Illustration: WASHINGTON’S HEADQUARTERS AT FISHKILL.] + + “I cannot tell what you say, green leaves, + I cannot tell what you say; + But I know that in you a spirit doth live + And a message to me this day.” + +Is it not a message of courage and patriotism which lives on in the +descendants of the Hasbroucks, the Belknaps, the Williamses, the Fowlers, +the Deyos, the Townsends, the Carpenters, the Weigands and others whose +records emblazon the pages of Newburgh’s history? + +[Illustration: CHARLES DOWNING.] + +In this last century not only material wealth has come to Newburgh, +but the richest treasures of the town have been brought hither by its +idealists, men to whom has been granted the gift of vision. Among +these are numbered preachers, poets, artists, historians, novelists, +physicians, lawyers and philanthropists, and on this roll of honor are +written the names of the Reverend John Forsythe, N. P. Willis, H. K. +Brown, A. J. Downing, S. W. Eager, E. M. Ruttenber, J. T. Headley, E. P. +Roe, Carroll Dunham, E. A. Brewster and Charles Downing. + +[Illustration: SEAL OF NEWBURGH.] + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +TARRYTOWN-ON-HUDSON + +ITS HISTORIC ASSOCIATIONS AND LEGENDARY LORE + +BY HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE + + +Tarrytown-on-the-Hudson is interesting from many points of view. It is +beautiful in itself, with a touch of that ripe, old-world beauty which is +the rich deposit of a long association of man with nature; a beauty which +reveals its depth in the fulness of foliage, the girth of ancient trees, +the texture of the grass, and that atmosphere of ancient and familiar +use which, although invisible and impalpable, lends a peculiar charm to +settled towns and countries. For Tarrytown has a long history—as history +is reckoned in this new world—and an ancient date. It wears the air of +a locality which was in full life in Colonial times. The old houses are +few, but the modern village is embowered in a landscape which has known +human companionship and care these two centuries and more. A road may +show the latest skill in road-making, but if it was once a highway along +which coaches ran in the brave days of the old inns and the ancient whips +and hostlers, there is always the suggestion of long use about it. It has +been for so many decades a part of the landscape that nature seems to +have had a hand in its making. The grass grows down to it and the earth +slopes away from it as if these things had always been as they are. No +one can walk through Tarrytown along its chief thoroughfare, without +recognizing on every hand the signs of the old highway on which coach +horns were once heard, and later the bugles rang as redcoats flashed +through the trees or marched along the ancient way. + +[Illustration: BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF TARRYTOWN. + +FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY F. AHRENS.] + +The village rises from the water’s edge to the summit of the low hill +which runs parallel with the eastern shore of the Hudson for many miles; +it has one main thoroughfare, bisected by many cross streets of a later +date; it is, for the most part, carefully kept, as befits its age, its +intelligence, and its wealth; and, looked at from the river, it is +almost buried in a wealth of foliage. It has at all times an air of +repose, as if it had done long ago with the hard work of settlement and +organization, and had earned exemption from the rush and turmoil which +characterize new communities. In this country a town which has passed +its bicentennial has a right to conduct life with a certain dignity and +repose. It is doubtful if Tarrytown ever knew any great bustle or uproar; +from the beginning it is probable that its inhabitants did not suffer +themselves to be driven into undue energy of mood or habit. A placid +temper, a disposition to keep on easy terms with life and neither give +nor ask more than becomes a man of a quiet habit of mind, have left their +impress on the community. It is a place in which history is preserved +rather than made, although when it had occasion to make history, the work +was done with picturesque effectiveness. + +When Hendrik Hudson broke the quiet waters of the Tappan Zee for the +first time, in September, 1609, with the keel of the _Half-Moon_, he +saw along the eastern shore of the noble river which was to bear his +name an unbroken forest. The region was singularly beautiful, with a +stillness which it has not wholly lost; for rivers carrying deep currents +always convey an impression of stillness. Mr. Curtis has spoken of the +lyrical beauty of the Rhine and the epical beauty of the Hudson; the +first passing, with rapid movement, through a long series of striking +and romantic localities, the second flowing sedately through a landscape +of larger compass, of more massive composition, of a beauty sustained +through a hundred and fifty miles of noble scenery. It is, of course, a +matter of pure fancy; but there seems to have been some kinship between +the men who settled the continent and the localities they chose for their +homes. The hardy French adventurers were peculiarly at home along the +St. Lawrence and the trails from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi; the +stern soil of New England would not have given its rare smile to men of a +temper less strenuous than that of the Puritan and Pilgrim; the waterways +of the James, the Potomac, and the Chesapeake lent themselves readily to +the habits and occupations of English gentlemen in the new world; Florida +and Louisiana seemed to find their elect explorers and settlers in the +Spanish adventurers and gold-seekers; while the quiet of the Hudson +was hardly broken when the Dutch settlers began to till the land north +of Manhattan Island and to build their substantial homes. They could be +voluble and noisy when occasion required, but they were of a phlegmatic +temper and leisurely by habit. + +The reports sent abroad by Hudson’s men when they found themselves once +more in Holland in the late autumn of 1609, were repeated and passed from +town to town among merchants who were as eager for trade as they were +stolid in manner. Small ships were soon plying westward, bent upon trade +with the well disposed Indians whom Hudson found scattered from Manhattan +Island to the place where Albany now stands. The possibilities of profit +in the fur trade were quickly discovered by these shrewd merchants; the +nucleus of a settlement was made on the island, and rude huts hastily put +together were the beginnings of one of the greatest of modern cities. +The traders bought furs, tobacco, and corn in exchange for trinkets and +rum; they hunted, fished, and lived after the manner of their time and +kind, but for the most part on good terms with their Indian neighbors; +at long intervals tiny ships from the old world crept into the harbor, +and went back again laden with the skins of the beaver, the otter, and +the sable. In 1621 the West India Company received a charter from the +States-General of Holland, with the monopoly of the American trade, and +a grant of the vast territory discovered by Hudson, which was called +the New Netherlands. The great trading company, one of a small group of +commercial organizations of almost sovereign powers in the seventeenth +and eighteenth centuries, drew its profits not only from barter with +Indians, but from the sacking of cities on the Spanish Main and the +capture of Spanish treasure-ships. + +In 1624 families arrived on the island and community life began in New +Amsterdam; two years later the first governor of the Colony arrived +with a company who brought their wives, children, cattle, and household +goods of all kinds with them and, by giving these hostages to fortune, +committed themselves irrevocably to the new world and its destinies. +Manhattan Island was bought from the Indians for twenty-four dollars, and +the name of New Amsterdam reminded the settlers of their blood and their +history. It was not, however, until Peter Stuyvesant took up the reins +of government with a firm hand and in a somewhat choleric temper that the +little community ceased to be a trading-post and became a Dutch colonial +town. The first comers were largely penniless; the later comers were men +of position and substance. Many races were soon represented in the new +town, but the Dutch remained for many years the ruling class. In 1664 the +Colony passed into English hands and New Amsterdam became New York. + +The territory north of the island early attracted attention, and +energetic and far-seeing men set about acquiring title and adding acre +to acre until great estates were created. In Westchester County, which +then bounded the city of New York on the north, six manors, including +the greater part of its territory, were granted; that of Fordham leading +the way in 1671. The largest of these manors were Phillipsburgh and +Cortlandt, and Tarrytown became the residence of a great landowner who +secured manorial rights in 1693. This territorial magnate, a true lord +of the manor so far as greatness of estate was concerned, was a man of +humble birth, and a carpenter by trade. He came to New Amsterdam in +1647, and being a man of sagacity and foresight, soon found his chance +in the opportunities of the new world, became a fur trader, married a +rich widow, and in course of time became probably the richest man in +the Colony. Vredryk Flypse, or Frederick Philips,[25] knew how to take +occasion by the hand when English rule was established in New York. He +foresaw the increased value of the lands along the Hudson, and in 1680, +by the first of a series of grants, pieced out by various purchases, he +became the owner of a noble domain, stretching from Spuyten Duyvil to the +old Kill of Kitchawong, or Croton, and from the Hudson to the Bronx. + +The Dutch settlers in the new world were less adventurous than their +fellows of English and French blood, but they had early established +trading-posts as far north on the Hudson as the present site of Albany, +and they had crept quietly up the eastern shore of the river, and small +farms were beginning to break the long line of forest. The beginnings of +Tarrytown probably date back as far as 1645, but of its earliest history +no authentic records remain. In 1683, when Frederick Philips began the +building of a manor-house on the quiet Pocantico, he found a small +community of farmers, living in a quiet, frugal way, and carrying on +the business of life with thrift and industry but in a spirit of great +tranquillity. The broad waters of Tappan Zee could hardly have caught the +reflection of the primitive farm-houses hidden among the trees. These +houses were unpretentious in dimension and appearance, but they had a +substantial air. There was nothing provisional in the aspect of the +scattered settlement; it struck tenacious roots into the soil from the +very start. + + “In the bosom of one of those spacious coves which indent the + eastern shore of the Hudson,” writes Irving, in his vein of + quiet humor, “at that broad expansion of the river denominated + by the ancient Dutch navigators Tappan Zee, and where they + always prudently shortened sail, and implored the protection of + St. Nicholas when they crossed, there lies a small market-town + or rural port, which by some is called Greensburgh, but which + is more generally and properly known as Tarry Town. This name + was given, we are told, in former days, by the good housewives + of the adjacent country, from the inveterate propensity of + their husbands to linger about the village tavern on market + days.” + +This derivation of the name of the delightful town which Irving loved +so well, has probably as much authority behind it as many derivations +which have come to be unquestioned; but if Irving’s genial humor leaves +some sceptics dissatisfied, they may take refuge in an alternative +derivation, which traces the modern name to the more credible legend +that one Terry was the earliest settler, whose name became fastened upon +the little hamlet first as Terry’s town, which afterwards was naturally +metamorphosed into Tarrytown. Be this as it may, a spirit of peace +seems to have reigned in the region from the beginning, and the sturdy +Dutch farmers kept the peace with their Indian neighbors. There are +no traditions of midnight alarms in the early story of the community. +Indian canoes were seen for many a year on Tappan Zee, and it is said +that Indian hands assisted in raising the walls of the quaint and +venerable church which still keeps watch over its earliest worshippers +in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. These pioneer settlers had few wants, and +supplied them with home-made articles or hand-woven fabrics. Manhattan +Island was too distant in time to be accessible for daily supplies; shops +were still to come; and the peddler, with whose figure and habits Cooper +was subsequently to make the whole world acquainted, distributed finery +and small wares through the section. + +[Illustration: THE POCANTICO RIVER. + +FROM A PHOTOGRAPH.] + +Under the royal grant and license which authorized Frederick Philips +to acquire certain tracts of land in Westchester County, says an old +chronicler, the grantee agreed “to let any one settle on said land free, +for certain stipulated years, in order that it should as soon as possible +be cultivated and settled.” These terms seem to have been accepted by +the few settlers already on the ground, and by others who were attracted +by the impulse which the lord of the manor (for such Philips was in +influence and authority) gave to local industry. The great estate was +not secured in a day; it was consolidated by a series of purchases +covering a period of years, and among these purchases was the site of the +present village of Tarrytown, which was paid for in rum, cloth, tobacco, +and hardware. The great proprietor laid the foundations of permanent +community life by building, within a comparatively short time, a mill, +a manor-house, and a church. The Pocantico flows into the Hudson just +beyond the northern boundary of the Tarrytown of to-day; and on the +shores of the quiet bay which puts in at that point, protected by a long +and heavily wooded promontory which extends well into the river, Philips +chose a sheltered and beautiful site for his home. His own ships brought +building materials from Holland and unloaded them on the wharf built on +the premises. The architecture of the manor-house was of the Dutch order +so familiar along the Hudson; the heavy walls were of stone; the roof was +spread on great hand-hewn rafters; the doors were divided into upper and +lower sections, and swung on ponderous hinges; from the end of the wide +hall, stairs ascended by easy rises to the upper floor. Through openings +in the foundation walls on the southwest side small howitzers commanded +the approach by land or water. A mill was quite as essential as a house, +and the substantial structure which still resists the assaults of time +in placid old age, bears witness to the thoroughness with which Philips +did whatever fell to his hand. Beside its ancient pond the venerable mill +still witnesses to a past which cannot be wholly lost while the little +group of buildings remains. + +[Illustration: OLD MANOR-HOUSE (“FLYPSE’S CASTLE”) AND MILL, TARRYTOWN. + +FROM A DRAWING BY EDGAR MAHEW BACON.] + +[Illustration: THE OLD DUTCH CHURCH, SLEEPY HOLLOW. + +FROM A DRAWING BY W. J. WILSON.] + +To complete this interesting group, which Tarrytown ought to preserve +with pious care, and at no great distance from the manor-house, stands +the old Dutch church, one of the most quaint and best preserved +monuments of early history on the continent. He would be a bold man +who would venture to state definitely the date at which the building +of this ancient edifice was begun; on that point a wide latitude must +be permitted and discreet silence preserved. It answers all purposes +of intelligent curiosity to be told that the foundations were probably +laid as early as 1684, and that the building was completed, probably, +not later than 1697. The bell which still hangs in the little steeple +and which may be heard on quiet Sunday afternoons in the late summer or +early autumn, when services are held in the ancient structure, was cast +in 1685, and bears the inscription, “Si Deus pro nobis quis contra nos.” +The church was built with characteristic solidity, the walls being more +than two feet thick; a great pulpit with a sounding-board projected from +the eastern end; the benches on which the congregation sat were without +backs; and the doctrine expounded from the sacred desk was of a kindred +soundness of fibre. Some concession to human weakness was shown to the +lord of the manor, in the comfortable and imposing arrangement of the +large pews on the right and left of the minister. The farmers filled +the body of the little church, while slaves, redemptioners, and other +obscure persons, with the choir, sat in the tiny gallery. In 1697, the +Rev. Guiliam Bertholf began a kind of visitorial ministry in the new +church, coming three or four times a year to preach and administer the +sacraments. He was a native of Sluis, in Holland, emigrated to the new +world in 1684, and became a preacher nine years later. His ability and +zeal gave him wide influence, and he was instrumental in organizing a +number of churches of the Reformed faith and order. From this initial +ministry until the present time, although the congregation has moved to a +larger and modern edifice, the succession of faithful preachers has never +been broken, and the historic pulpit of Tarrytown has never been more +thoroughly identified with generous devotion, high character, and unusual +gifts of nature and speech than during the last twenty-five years. During +the stormy years of the Revolution the church was frequently closed; and +at the close of the struggle the trappings which had distinguished the +pews of the lord of the manor were torn down, and elders and deacons +sitting in the seats once set apart for the local aristocracy emphasized +the triumph of the democratic idea in Church and State. Not long +afterwards another innovation was made by the substitution of English for +Dutch in the services. + +[Illustration: INTERIOR OF OLD DUTCH CHURCH, SLEEPY HOLLOW, PRIOR TO ITS +RESTORATION IN 1897. + +FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY F. AHRENS.] + +In October, 1897, the two hundredth anniversary of the church was +celebrated with services which recalled, with unusual completeness, the +varied and instructive history of the old building and of the community. + +The modern village lies to the south of the church, which is hidden +beneath ancient trees, and is still enveloped in an atmosphere of +old-time silence and repose. The Pocantico flows beside it, almost +unseen when the midsummer foliage is spread over it; while to the north, +climbing a gentle slope and sinking softly down to the brook, is the +ancient burying-ground, in which the first interments were made about +1645. The place is singularly peaceful and of a rare and gentle beauty; +the gradual slope dotted with ancient graves, protected on the east by +wooded heights, overhung with old trees, and commanding on the west +glimpses of the broad expanse of the Tappan Zee, and, from its higher +levels, the tree-embowered village, the long line of shining water, and +the distant front of the Palisades. There is probably no other locality +in America, taking into account history, tradition, the old church, the +manor-house, and the mill, which so entirely conserves the form and +spirit of Dutch civilization in the new world. This group of buildings +ranks in historic interest, if not in historic importance, with Faneuil +Hall, Independence Hall, the ruined church tower at Jamestown, the old +gateway at St. Augustine, and the Spanish cabildo on Jackson Square in +New Orleans; and the time will come when pilgrimages will be made to this +ancient and beautiful home of some of those ideals and habits of life +which have given form and structure to American civilization. + +It was the misfortune of Tarrytown to lie in the path of both armies for +many dreary months during the Revolution; and no section of the country +felt the uncertainty and terrors of war more keenly. When Cooper looked +about for an American subject for his second novel, his interest in the +history of Westchester County, in the lower part of which he was for a +number of years a resident, led him to a fortunate choice, and _The +Spy_ remains not only one of the best of American novels of incident, +but a vivid report of the suspense and misery of the country between +the Highlands of the Hudson, held by the American forces, and the city +of New York in the hands of the British. That section was mercilessly +harried by friend and foe. The few families which made the little hamlet +of Tarrytown, never knew whether the Skinners or the Cowboys would appear +next; the only certainty in the situation seems to have been that, sooner +or later, whatever was portable and valuable would be carried off. There +was much quiet courage in the form of patient endurance in those years +when church and school were closed, crops gathered by hands that had not +sown, houses burned in the dead of night, and all normal community life +at an end. Caught in the centre of the storm of war, Tarrytown not only +suffered severely but bore her losses with conspicuous fortitude and +courage. In many sudden forays, as well as in the larger movements of the +American forces, the men of Tarrytown played their parts with notable +pluck and daring. + +[Illustration: MONUMENT TO THE CAPTORS OF ANDRÉ. + +FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY F. AHRENS.] + +The devotion of a majority of the people of the place to the American +cause had its reward in the lasting association of the town with the most +romantic and tragic episode of the war; and the incorruptible patriotism +of three Westchester County men not only averted what might have been +a crushing calamity, but immortalized the scene of their resistance to +temptation. On the 24th day of September, 1780, Major André, bearing +dispatches of a treasonable nature from General Benedict Arnold, then +in command of the American forces at West Point, was captured on the +highway at a place now marked by a monument, by John Paulding, David +Williams, and Isaac Van Wart. These obscure militiamen, soon to become +famous, were watching the road, when a horseman appeared riding toward +the south. He was promptly challenged, ordered to dismount, and examined +as to his business and destination. His answers to the questions put to +him by his captors confirmed their suspicion that something of unusual +importance was in the air. The determination to search the unfortunate +young officer more thoroughly was met with offers of a large sum of +money; but the militiamen were not to be bribed, and to their fidelity is +due the discovery of the plot to place West Point in British hands. The +moral effect of Arnold’s fall was counteracted in large measure by the +incorruptibility of André’s captors, and the monument which marks this +historic site commemorates the integrity of the American militiamen quite +as much as the dramatic episode which ended the careers of Arnold and +André. + +[Illustration: WASHINGTON IRVING.] + +[Illustration: “SUNNYSIDE.” + +THE HOME OF WASHINGTON IRVING.] + +Tarrytown has had the double good fortune to be the scene of the most +striking act of the drama of Arnold’s treason, and to be the custodian of +one of the few American legends. In his youth, Washington Irving knew the +region intimately. He was given to solitary walks, for he was a dreamer +by nature and habit. Wolfert’s Roost was even then an old farm-house, +built close to the water’s edge, where the glen broadens to the river. +It had colonial and revolutionary associations, and, above all, it had +the charm of a situation of singular beauty. Irving seems early to have +fallen under the spell of the shaded waterside and the romantic glen. +In 1835, after an absence of seventeen years in Europe and an extensive +journey through the South and West, which bore fruit in _A Tour on the +Prairies_, the recollections and affections of his youth drew him to +Sunnyside, now about a mile and a half south of the railway station of +Tarrytown, and he became the possessor of a home which will always be +associated with our early literary history. The house was enlarged, and +began to take on that air of ripe and reposeful beauty which made it an +ideal home for a man of letters. Under this roof his later books were +written, and here he was sought by the most interesting men of his time. + +[Illustration: THE JACOB MOTT HOUSE WHERE KATRINA VAN TASSEL WAS MARRIED. + +NOW OCCUPIED BY THE NEW WASHINGTON IRVING HIGH SCHOOL. FROM A DRAWING BY +EDGAR MAHEW BACON.] + +Irving’s familiarity with the Hudson River and its historical +associations had already borne fruit in the _Sketch-Book_ in two original +and characteristic legends. Like his illustrious contemporary, Sir Walter +Scott, Irving was a born lover of traditions of all sorts; a man with +a genius for getting the poetry and romance out of the past. In _The +History of New York_, impersonated in Diedrich Knickerbocker, he created +a legend; in _Rip Van Winkle_ and _The Legend of Sleepy Hollow_ he gave +lasting fame to two stories full of the Dutch spirit. Sleepy Hollow lies +to the north and east of Tarrytown, within easy walking distance. It is +still secluded and quiet and the stir of modern times has not broken in +upon its ancient seclusion. + +[Illustration: OLD SLEEPY HOLLOW MILL.] + + “A small brook glides through it, with just murmur enough to + lull one to repose; and the occasional whistle of a quail, or + tapping of a woodpecker, is almost the only sound that ever + breaks in upon the uniform tranquillity.... A drowsy, dreamy + influence seems to hang over the land, and to pervade the very + atmosphere. Some say that the place was bewitched by a high + German doctor, during the early days of the settlement; others, + that an old Indian chief, the prophet or wizard of his tribe, + held his pow-wows there before the country was discovered + by Master Hendrick Hudson. Certain it is, the place still + continues under the sway of some witching power, that holds a + spell over the minds of the good people, causing them to walk + in a continual dream.” + +Since the days when these words were written the air of Sleepy Hollow has +not escaped the general stirring of a more hurried age; but on summer +afternoons the meditative visitor still finds the valley a place of +silence and peace. The master of the spell which has brought so many +pilgrims to Tarrytown sleeps in the ancient graveyard; the home which +he loved with a love deepened by years of exile, still stands, somewhat +enlarged, but not despoiled of its secluded and ivy-clad loveliness. + +Great estates have been formed about Tarrytown and stately homes line +the shores of the river, but the place has kept something of its old +simplicity and repose. It has never lacked the presence of those to +whom its traditions of refined social habit and generous intellectual +life have been sacred; and its distinction is still to be found in +an atmosphere which is in no sense dependent on its later and larger +prosperity. + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +NEW YORK CITY + +THE COSMOPOLITAN CITY + +BY JOSEPH B. GILDER + + +By comparison with London, New York is a city of the second size, lacking +some millions of the population of the modern Babylon. Even Paris, though +less populous, outranks the American metropolis in many of the elements +that go to the making of a great city. But in drawing these comparisons +it must be remembered that only three centuries ago, when the French +and English capitals had been places of importance for over a thousand +years, New York was a wooded island, criss-crossed by innumerable +streams, indented by morasses and infested by Indians and wild beasts. +European civilization was wrinkled with age long before a permanent roof +was erected on the island of Manhattan; and three lives such as that of +ex-Mayor Tiemann, who died here in his ninety-fifth year, in the summer +of 1899, would have spanned the entire history of the town from the Dutch +discovery to the reign of Richard Croker. + +The first white man’s habitation in what is now New York was a grave; for +the crew of Hudson’s _Half-Moon_, after their fight with the aborigines +on the mainland above Spuyten Duyvil Creek, in September, 1609, buried +their dead before sailing homeward from their voyage of discovery up the +great river named for their commander. + +[Illustration: FIRST SEAL OF CITY. 1623-1654.] + +Four temporary dwellings, presumably little better than wigwams, housed +Skipper Block and the crew of the _Tiger_ near the lower end of the +island, while they rebuilt their burned vessel, during the winter of +1613-14. The site of the present city was bought from the Indians on +May 6, 1626, for trinkets worth sixty guilders, or four-and-twenty +dollars—less than one tenth of the rate paid a few years since for a +single square foot of land. Building was begun at once and pushed with +vigor. Fort Amsterdam—a blockhouse partly shielded by palisades—marked +the extreme southern limit of the island; and the first bark-roofed +cottages were clustered close together under its harmless, necessary +guns. A warehouse with stone walls and a thatched roof sprang up as soon +as a stronghold had been built; and a horse-mill, with a loft fitted up +for the simplest form of religious services. + +[Illustration: MAP OF ORIGINAL GRANTS.] + +Fort Amsterdam was a fortress in name only. Scarcely had it been +completed when it began to fall into disrepair; and the pigs were forever +rooting in its sodded earthworks, and threatening its very foundations. +Thus early was it that these four-footed scavengers made their appearance +in the history of New York, playing as picturesque, though not as +patriotic, a part therein as that of the legendary Roman geese. Not till +well forward in the present century did they disappear from the streets +and the annals of the city. + +Peter Minuit, the first Director of New Netherlands to hold his place +for more than a year, and the first to organize a permanent provincial +government, sent home hopeful reports, and backed them with shipments of +fur and timber; but the expenses of administering the colony ultimately +exceeded its earnings, and the West India Company was disappointed of the +revenue it had counted upon receiving from the new settlement. + +The little village grew but slowly. When it had spread so far northward +as the line of what is now Wall Street—which is so far down-town to-day +that many a New York woman, native-born, has yet to see it for the first +time—a stockade was set up across the island, narrower then than now, to +fence off the village from the farms (bouweries) of the more adventurous +pioneers, and the forest that bordered them. This defense, completed in +1653, consisted of palisades and posts, twelve feet high, with a sloping +breastwork of earth and a ditch on its southern side. In less than two +years its height was doubled to keep the Indians from leaping over it. + +[Illustration: THE FORT IN KIEFT’S DAY.] + +But neither the Fort with its stone guns, nor this high wooden wall, was +ever called upon to withstand a vigorous attack or resist a siege; for +whenever the place was seriously threatened, its flag came fluttering +down, and its keys were turned over to the enemy. This happened first in +August, 1664, when Col. Richard Nicolls appeared in the bay, as deputy +of the Duke of York, to whom Charles II. had granted all the territory +between the Connecticut River and Delaware Bay, and demanded the Fort’s +surrender. The claim of the English was nebulous to the last degree. As +Freneau neatly put it, + + “The soil they demanded, or threatened their worst, + Insisting that _Cabot had looked at it first_.” + +But the flimsiest pretension, if vigorously backed, outvalues the +strongest if less sturdily maintained; and Director Stuyvesant found his +people unwilling to support him in defying the intruder. So down dropped +the Dutch colors and up ran the British. + +Precisely nine years later, however, what had formerly been called +New Amsterdam, but was now New York, yielded itself to a little Dutch +fleet without striking a defensive blow. Captain Colve’s victory was so +lightly won, indeed, that the English commander, Captain Manning, was +courtmartialled for his apparent inefficiency, cowardice or treason, +and the estates of the Governor, Colonel Lovelace, who, when the blow +fell, was absent on affairs of state, were confiscated by the Duke. The +triumph of the Hollanders was short-lived; for the year 1674 had not run +its course when Major Edmund Andros assumed the governorship, and by the +terms of a treaty of peace between England and the States-General, New +Orange, as the place had been christened by the Dutch, again and finally +became New York. + +[Illustration: PETER STUYVESANT.] + +New York has been in turn a Dutch village, an English town, and an +American city. In its infancy it was wholly Dutch; but in its early youth +the population was so leavened by English immigration that the transition +to English control was less violent than one might expect it to have +been. English influence was powerful even in Stuyvesant’s day; and +when Stuyvesant was supplanted by Nicolls, the Dutch element was still +powerful in the councils of the little town. The new ruler moved slowly +and cautiously in anglicizing the government, and almost all the changes +he made were for the better. The brief resumption of Dutch authority +in 1673 was reactionary and wholly detrimental to the interests of the +community; and, all things considered, the peaceful cession of the town +to England, a year later, was the happiest chance that could possibly +have befallen. + +[Illustration: SEAL OF THE CITY IN 1686.] + +A more violent and radical change was effected in 1689, when Jacob +Leisler seized the occasion of the fall of the Stuart dynasty to grasp +the reins of government which Andros had been forced to drop. By the aid +of the militia and with the support of nearly all the less prosperous +townsfolk, he administered public affairs till that good Dutchman William +III. of England commissioned Governor Sloughter to hang the usurper +and reign in his stead. Leisler’s rule had been in many respects an +enlightened one, and years afterward his adherents succeeded in having +his dishonored bones dug up and honorably reinterred. It was in this +town, and at the instance of this earnest but ill-balanced and despotic +champion of the poor, that the American Colonies took their first step +toward concerted action, their objective being the overthrow of the +French at Montreal. + +The most striking characteristic of New York has always been its +cosmopolitanism. As Governor Roosevelt points out in his capital review +of the city’s history, no less than eighteen different languages and +dialects were spoken in the streets so long ago as the middle of the +seventeenth century. The Dutch, the English and the Huguenot refugees +from France predominated, but there were many Walloons and Germans, and a +large body of black slaves. The riffraff of the Old World was to be found +here, as well as the nobly adventurous; and, in fact, at all times since, +the proportion of foreign-born residents has been very large. + +[Illustration: JOHN JAY.] + +In the period immediately preceding the Revolution, the desire for +independence was far less general in New York than in Massachusetts or +Virginia. The large land owners and leading merchants were mainly members +of the Church of England; and while there was no state church, so called +and admitted to be such, the Anglicans were first in wealth and fashion, +and their organization enjoyed exclusive privileges. Even King’s College +(now Columbia University) was placed officially under Church control. +The court party included not only the Anglican clergy and almost all the +laity, but even an influential section of the membership of the Dutch +Reformed Church. It included such families as the De Peysters, the De +Lanceys and the Philippses in the city and its suburbs; and the Johnsons, +who dominated central New York. There were Tories even on the Committee +of Fifty-one that first authoritatively proposed the assembling of a +Continental Congress. In no other colony was the Tory element so numerous +and powerful; in none other were the patriots opposed by so active a +spirit of loyalty to the Crown, and so vast a bulk of indifference on +the part of property-owners, solicitous for nothing but the security of +their possessions. At first the Schuylers, the Livingstons, and Hamilton, +Jay and Morris found their support almost wholly among the masses, who +rose not only against England, but also against the domination of the +classes, which was more oppressive in the aristocratic city of New York +than in the democratic town of Boston, or in Philadelphia. Thus, it was +the so-called Sons of Liberty that had led in the agitation which made +the Stamp Act a dead letter, so far as this colony was concerned, and a +decade later prevented the landing of taxed tea on New York wharves. And +their demonstrative radicalism found little response in the minds of some +of the ablest civil and military leaders contributed by this colony to +the work of liberation and reconstruction. But the violence of the mob +could not blind such men to the essential justice of the American cause, +and the actual beginning of the war found a large majority of the best +people of the colony definitely committed to a patriotic course. So when +Washington and his army were driven hither from Brooklyn and hence to New +Jersey, in 1776, New York was no longer the populous place it had been +before their sympathizers fled from the terrors of hostile military rule. + +[Illustration: ALEXANDER HAMILTON.] + +For the next seven years this remained the chief British stronghold in +America. If the eastern and southern colonies could be split apart by +English control of the Hudson, the backbone of the colonial federation +would be broken—as the backbone of the Confederacy was broken, nearly a +century later, by Sherman’s march to the sea. So every energy was bent +toward dislodging the Continentals from this dividing-line. This was +the immediate object of Arnold’s treachery, as well as of many an overt +movement from south and north. But Washington outgeneralled the enemy +and kept the federation intact, till the capture of Yorktown made New +York no longer tenable by the foe. The city was well-nigh ruined by its +experiences during these seven terrible years; and the outlying country +to the north—Westchester County—suffered no less severely, being exposed +to raids from the opposing bodies of regulars, and to constant marauding +at the hands of free-booters, who pretended affiliation with one side or +the other, sometimes in good faith, but often merely as a pretext for +lawless depredations. + +[Illustration: FRAUNCES’S TAVERN.] + +The most joyously celebrated event in the annals of Manhattan was the +city’s evacuation by the British at the close of the war. On the day +that this occurred, November 25, 1783, General Washington arrived in +town and dined at Fraunces’s Tavern; and hither he repaired again, ten +days later, on the eve of his departure for Annapolis, to bid farewell +to his officers. In this same building, and in the same Long Room, the +first meeting of the New York Chamber of Commerce had been held, in 1768, +fifteen years before any similar association was organized in Great +Britain. This hostelry had, indeed, been the fashionable rendezvous of +New Yorkers since 1762, when the shop at the southeast corner of Broad +and Pearl Streets was converted to still more public uses by Samuel +Fraunces (“Black Tom”), who in later years was to become the first +President’s steward. At the beginning it was known as the Queen’s Head +Tavern, its sign bearing a portrait of Queen Charlotte. Enlarged, and +otherwise altered, but not improved, Fraunces’s Tavern is still, as it +has always been, a public-house, though fashion has long since deserted +it. It would be most deplorable if the march of improvement (in whose +name, as in Liberty’s, so many offences are committed) should ever be +allowed to obliterate this most aged and interesting relic of old New +York. + +The war of 1812 was by no means popular with the representative merchants +of New York, despite the fact that the enforcement of England’s +pretended right of search had acted almost as a blockade of the port +for some years before the outbreak of hostilities. It had been a common +occurrence for merchantmen in the lower bay to be stopped by a shot +across their bows, and searched for possible British subjects among their +crews. But when war came the fighting spirit was aroused, and many a +privateer was fitted out to prey upon the enemy’s merchant marine. Rich +prizes were taken, and desperate engagements were fought between the +crews of brigs and schooners from New York and British men-of-war’s men +who interfered with their privateering practices. A few years earlier +(1807), Fulton had demonstrated on the Hudson the practicability of steam +navigation; and now he built in New York, under Congressional direction, +a steam frigate, iron-clad and heavily armed. This formidable craft might +have been depended upon to raise the British blockade, had it not been +raised still more effectually by a declaration of peace. The city did +not suffer in this second war with England as it had suffered in the +first. Instead of waiting for years, as before, to recuperate, it entered +at once upon a period of unprecedented growth. The return of peace +stimulated immigration, and local prosperity was vastly augmented by the +opening in 1825 of the Erie Canal. + +Until 1822, the mayor was appointed by a State council, presided over +by the Governor; thereafter, until 1834, he was chosen by the municipal +council; since then he has been elected by the people. But democratic +rule was not always found to work satisfactorily, and in 1857 the +control of local affairs was largely delegated to the legislature. This +precaution proved of comparatively little value, however, and the Tweed +ring of local office-holders found little difficulty in running things +as they wished and robbing the tax-payers of millions upon millions. The +charter of the city recently created by the amalgamation of New York, +Brooklyn, etc., professed to restore home rule, in large measure; but +so much of the supposed boon as it confers may be withdrawn at any time +by State legislation, and bills withdrawing it piecemeal are, in fact, +introduced at every session of the legislature. + +When secession threatened, in 1861, the Democratic city of New York was +the least friendly of Northern communities in its attitude toward the +federal government. The common council, indeed, rapturously applauded +the mayor’s formal suggestion that the city itself secede. But the first +overt act of hostility at the South showed that, beneath this surface +sympathy with the secessionists, the great mass of earnest citizens were +ardent in adherence to the Union. Life and treasure were poured out more +than abundantly. The Seventh Regiment—the “crack” militia organization +of the city, if not of the nation—hurried off to Washington to guard the +capital from surprise; and tens of thousands of volunteers followed to +the front. No one city contributed more to the national cause. In fact +the city’s contributions were too liberal for her own good; for the +consequent dearth of able-bodied honest men at home left the community +a prey to the enemies of society, and regiment after regiment had to be +called back to restore order. The worst outbreaks were the so-called +draft riots, caused by the enforced enlistment of troops; in these +uprisings, negroes were the special object of the mob’s hostility. + +The first few huts in New Amsterdam were huddled together beneath the +sheltering walls of the Fort. There was but one general direction in +which the hamlet could extend; yet it was long before the northward +movement filled with shops and houses the space between the Fort and the +line of Wall Street, and for several years thereafter the great Wall +marked the boundary of the village. The Revolution found the border +pushed forward to the edge of the Common, where the post-office stands +to-day. The chief outlet from this point lay eastward, through what is +now Park Row to the Bowery, and thence through the outlying farms to +Westchester County, Connecticut and Boston. + +On the west side there was another outlet, skirting the Hudson River and +extending to the little village of Greenwich; and the occasional outbreak +of yellow fever in New York made this a popular resort. The influx of +twenty thousand refugees during one of these scares, early in the present +century, completely changed the character of this village, and although +most of the newcomers returned to the lower end of the island, Greenwich +had practically become, by 1830, an integral part of the city. The +northward spread via Greenwich Street, the Bowery and Broadway continued, +till Yorkville and Harlem on the east and Manhattanville and Bloomingdale +on the west were absorbed by the growing city. In 1874 the Harlem was +crossed, and New York ceased to be an island; in 1895 still further +accessions were made in Westchester County. But the crowning event in +the expansion of the city was the legislation by which, on January 1, +1898, Brooklyn and the outlying towns and villages on Long Island, and +all of Staten Island, were brought within the limits of New York—an act +that raised the population at a stroke from less than 1,900,000 to near +3,400,000, and incidentally brought almost half the people of the State +under the immediate rule of Tammany Hall. + +A word should be said as to the Society, named in honor of Tamanend, +an Indian chief who signed one of the treaties by which William Penn +acquired the site of the city of Philadelphia. One of many societies of +the same name, organized for social and political purposes toward the +close of the eighteenth century, it reflected, to a certain extent, a +spirit which had prevailed among the younger officers of the Revolution +who had felt the force of Rousseau’s idealization of primitive man. +Its first meeting was held on “St. Tammany’s day” (May 12), 1789. In +membership it was allied with the Sons of Liberty and the Sons of 1776, +and it has always professed “intense Americanism,” so far as that phrase +is synonymous with Anglophobia. At first its ranks were recruited from +among the small merchants, retailers and mechanics of the city; and by +coming into close touch with the mass of immigrants that form so large +a proportion of the population, giving the newcomers employment in some +cases, in others charitable aid, instructing the alien voter as to his +political rights and privileges, and directing him in their exercise, +it has built up an enormous voting machine, insufficient to defeat a +united opposition, but almost invariably so fortunate in local contests +as to find its opponents divided. While nominally Democratic in national +affairs, Tammany has never scrupled to oppose the Democratic party in +the pursuit of its own immediate end—the control of local offices and +revenues. This powerful machine has now for several years been dominated +by an illiterate immigrant. + +[Illustration: THE STADT HUYS.] + +Comparatively recent as were the beginnings of the city, hardly a trace +of the original village remains. Not a single building has come down to +us from the Dutch period. It was to have been expected that something +would survive the flight of less than three centuries. A happy chance +might easily have preserved the stone “temple” erected within the walls +of the Fort in 1652, or the slightly older warehouse, or some one of the +many curious little stone or brick houses in which the burly burghers +of the seventeenth century smoked their long pipes by the chimney-side, +while their wives plied the spinning-wheel, their daughters spread the +board, and their children, in padded breeches, played about the sanded +floor. + +The Stadt Huys, originally built as an inn, to relieve Director Kieft of +the burden of overmuch entertaining, dated back to the same year as the +Dutch Reformed Church in the fortified enclosure. The organization of the +old church is still maintained, and the functions of the city government +have been performed in successive buildings to the present day; but the +picturesque old government house—fifty feet square, three stories high +in the walls and two in the attic, with windows in the gable of its +crow-stepped roof,—that should have been cherished as a most interesting +relic of the city’s earliest period, lasted but a little way into the +present century, having then been used for over a hundred years for +commercial purposes. + +[Illustration: STAINED-GLASS WINDOW IN “BOWLING GREEN OFFICES.” + +SHOWING GREEN ABOUT 1760.] + +Chief among the few other survivals from the early days, and antedating +all of them, is Bowling Green. This oldest bit of park land in the city +dates from the Dutch occupation. It lay immediately in front of the +Fort, and no building has ever stood upon its diminutive, oblong site. +The relatively old row of buildings (Steamship Row) which overlooks it +from the south will ere long be replaced by a Custom House worthy of +the second port of entry in the world. This will occupy the site of the +old government house, which once served the purpose for which the new +building is designed. In 1771, it was found advisable to enclose the +Green with an iron fence. Bereft of the crowns that surmounted the posts, +the fence still surrounds it, though the equestrian statue of George +III., which it was put up to protect, vanished in 1776. In the excitement +that followed the reading of the Declaration of Independence, in that +year, the crowd marched down Broadway from the Common, and tumbled the +King from his pedestal. The leaden carcass was shipped to Connecticut, +where the wife and daughter of Governor Wolcott cannily converted it into +rebel bullets. An indignity similar in degree though different in kind +was offered to America’s eloquent Parliamentary advocate, William Pitt, +whose marble effigy at Wall and William Streets was decapitated during +the Revolution by the Tories, and left standing for years as a mere +“disturber of traffic.” + +[Illustration: GOVERNMENT HOUSE.] + +The house at No. 1 Broadway, looking eastward over the lower end of +Bowling Green, built in 1760 by Colonel Kennedy, afterward Earl of +Cassilis, and occupied in turn by the American leaders, including +Washington, and by the English, including Cornwallis, Howe and Sir Henry +Clinton, was the scene of Major André’s last interview with the British +commander before his fatal journey to West Point. And in another house +in Broadway overlooking the Green, Benedict Arnold had his quarters +after his flight and the exposure of his infamous plot. Mention of the +gallant young British officer, André, naturally suggests the name and +fate of Nathan Hale, whose heroism is commemorated by a noble statue +by MacMonnies, which faces Broadway from the lower corner of City Hall +Park, not far from the spot where the American spy was hanged from an +apple-tree. The Beekman “Mansion,” overlooking the East River near what +is now Fifty-first Street, the scene of Hale’s trial and condemnation, +survived till 1874; the Kennedy House, identified with André’s memory, +lasted eight years longer. + +[Illustration: FEDERAL HALL.] + +A picturesque feature of the old town was the canal that ran from the +city wall to the bay, becoming first an artery of trade, and then a +centre of fashionable life, as Broad Street, which took its place, has +since been a centre of commercial activity. It was directly opposite +Broad Street, in Wall, that the foundations of the new City Hall were +laid in 1699, the sale of the Stadt Huys helping to defray the cost of +the more pretentious structure. The arms of the English Governor, Lord +Bellomont, were blazoned on its walls; but two years later the marshal +was called upon to remove and destroy them. When New York became the +seat of the national government, the ninety-year-old City Hall, partly +reconstructed and lavishly decorated, became the meeting-place of +Congress. The most memorable day in its history was the 30th of April, +1789, when, attended by Chancellor Livingston and the committees of +Senators and Representatives, standing upon its balcony in the presence +of a great concourse, not merely of New Yorkers, but of Americans from +all the colonies, gathered together from far and near, George Washington +took the oath of office as first President of the United States. Where +the Capitol then stood now stands the Sub-Treasury, with Ward’s bronze +Washington looking gravely down from its steps upon the feverish turmoil +of Wall Street. + +The oldest existing municipal building in New York is the Hall of +Records, in City Hall Park, whose contents are erelong to be housed in a +spacious, fire-proof edifice. It dates from the middle of the eighteenth +century. Its site formed a part of the Common, and it stood appropriately +convenient to the gallows, for it was originally a jail—the first +building on the island ever designed exclusively for the detention of +law-breakers. In popular parlance, as in practical use, it soon became +the Debtors’ Prison. When the British occupied the town during the +Revolution, it was turned to account as their principal military prison, +being known as The Provost, in reference to the title of the brutal +Cunningham, who was charged with the custody of American prisoners of +war—amongst others, “that d—d rebel, Ethan Allen.” The building was a +debtors’ jail again from 1787 to 1830; on the completion of alterations +projected at the latter date, it became, in 1835, the Register’s office, +and as such will probably see the close of the nineteenth century. + +[Illustration: ST. PAUL’S CHURCH.] + +[Illustration: CITY HALL.] + +Vastly more attractive to the eye than this treasury of real-estate +records, and not wholly lacking in historic interest, is the adjacent +City Hall. This really handsome building, in the style of the Italian +Renaissance, was begun in 1803, and completed nine years later. The +likelihood of the city’s extending beyond it seemed too slight to +warrant lavishing upon its back the white marble which adds so much +to the dignity and grace of its façade; the rear wall was accordingly +constructed of a cheaper stone. In the “Governor’s room” on the +second floor, used for official receptions, are the desk on which +Washington wrote his first message to Congress, the chair in which he +was inaugurated as President, and the chairs used by the first federal +Congress. + +In the same neighborhood, just beyond the lower extremity of the +old Common, now City Hall Park, stands St. Paul’s Chapel, Trinity +parish—an edifice much older than the parish church, which for the past +half-century, like its successive parent buildings, has stood farther +down Broadway, opposing its bulk to the westward progress of Wall Street. +Fenced off by iron palings, and bordered on each side by a strip of +graveyard, the chapel turns a picturesque and perhaps scornful back upon +the “topless towers” of Broadway—little dreamt of when its foundations +were laid in 1766, or three-and-twenty years later, when President +Washington attended service there on the day of his first inauguration. +These heaven-aspiring structures were only beginning to turn the street +into a canyon when the first President’s successor in office sat in the +same pew on the same day a century later (April 30, 1889). + +Private houses of historic interest abounded not many years ago, notable +among them the country-seat called Richmond Hill, near the long since +absorbed village of Greenwich—a stately dwelling, identified with many +familiar names. John Adams lived there during a part of his first term +as Vice-President, and Aaron Burr started thence on that fateful July +morning in 1804 that saw the death of Hamilton at his hand, and the end +of his own political career. Of equal note was the house on Murray Hill, +where Mrs. Murray detained the British commander at lunch while the +American troops, under Putnam, made their escape from the island in 1776. + +[Illustration: GRANT’S TOMB, RIVERSIDE DRIVE.] + +The so-called Jumel Mansion, built for Washington’s whilom flame, +Miss Mary Philippse, by her successful suitor, Col. Roger Morris, and +afterwards occupied by Washington as his headquarters, became in turn the +property of the nation (Morris having been a royalist), of John Jacob +Astor, and of Stephen Jumel, whose erratic widow married Aaron Burr, but +soon tired of him, turned him out of doors and dropped his name. From +its coign of vantage on Harlem Heights at 169th Street, this dignified +colonial dwelling still looks down upon the Harlem River and across to +Long Island Sound. And at the foot of East 61st Street is yet to be +seen—vine-covered, and embowered in trees and shrubs—the substantial +stone residence of Col. William Smith, who married the daughter of +President Adams, and ruined himself by speculating in east-side real +estate. But the scarcity of such relics, and their glaring incongruity +with their surroundings, emphasize the divergence between the old New +York and that which is termed the Greater. + +In the hall of Cooper Institute, Abraham Lincoln made that great speech +which first fully revealed him to the people of the Eastern States; +and hither he was brought, to lie in state in the City Hall, when a +martyr’s death had disclosed his greatness still more clearly to all his +countrymen. + +Here have lived, for longer or shorter periods, sundry Presidents of +the United States, from Washington to Cleveland; the city has been the +permanent or occasional home of statesmen such as Jay and Livingston, +Alexander Hamilton and Gouverneur Morris; of political agitators such +as Aaron Burr and “Commonsense” Paine, and political leaders like +DeWitt Clinton and Samuel J. Tilden; of authors such as Washington +Irving, whose burlesque local history marked him out as the father of +American light literature, Fenimore Cooper, the most popular of American +romance-writers, and Edgar Allan Poe and Walt Whitman, most individual +of American poets. Here, for longer or shorter periods, have lived +and labored Curtis, and Bayard Taylor, and Stoddard, and Stedman, and +Aldrich, and Howells, and that greatest of poets among journalists +and journalists among poets, William Cullen Bryant, editor of _The +Evening Post_ and one of the founders of the Century Club; and Horace +Greeley, founder of _The Tribune_, and most famous of American editors +since Benjamin Franklin. As a resident of Brooklyn, and editor of a +metropolitan religious weekly, the best-known preacher of the century, +Henry Ward Beecher, was virtually a citizen of New York. In the annals of +invention, the names of four New Yorkers stand out conspicuously—Fulton +and Ericsson and Edison and Morse. And of all the free-booters that ever +terrorized the sea, none has left a more awful and enduring fame than a +once respectable resident of Liberty Street, renowned in song and story +for two centuries as Captain Kidd. + +The hospitality of New York and her people is proverbial. Every +distinguished visitor to America for more than a century past has been +entertained here, officially or informally. Among the city’s guests +have been William IV. of England, while yet a sailor prince; Lafayette, +Louis Kossuth, the Prince of Wales, the Grand Duke Alexis, the Emperor +of Brazil, the Princess Eulalia, the Duke of Veragua, Li Hung Chang and +the Marquis Ito. Almost all the greatest preachers, orators, players, +singers, and instrumental performers of the nineteenth century have added +to their fame or wealth by facing New York audiences; and among the great +writers who have visited us have been Dickens, Thackeray, and Kipling. + +While New York is easily first among the cities of the New World in +commercial importance, it is not on material bases only that her +supremacy rests. No community throughout the world responds more +generously to every appeal for sympathy or help, whether the call be +local, national or foreign. Her interest is keen in educational work of +every kind. Columbia University—one of the oldest of local institutions, +and more than local in its aims and fame and influence—has of late, +through the liberality of her sons and other citizens, been housed in a +manner commensurate with her requirements and aspirations; and so also +has the less venerable but justly honored New York University. And the +past few years have seen Barnard College for women and the Teachers +College (both allied with Columbia) emerge from the chrysalis state into +forms of beauty and power. The public-school system, moreover,—thanks +to a recent brief respite from Tammany control,—is in better condition +to-day than at any previous period of Tammany administration. + +Of American literary activity, despite Boston’s ancient and deserved +prestige, it cannot be denied that New York is to-day the centre, as +it is the centre of the publishing trade, in books and periodicals. +Boston, with her splendid Public Library, has set an example which +the metropolis has been slow to follow; but the consolidation of the +Astor, Lenox and Tilden collections, and their prospective housing in a +magnificent and admirably situated building, has gone far to remove the +reproach incurred during long years of public indifference to popular +needs. The venerable Society Library, the modern and many-branched Free +Circulating Library and kindred institutions have helped to create and +in part to meet the demand which the Public Library in its new home may +reasonably be expected to satisfy. Equally important in their way are +those half-social, half-educational essays toward the solution of some +of the problems of the slums—the University Settlement of men and the +College Settlement of women. As a further indication that New York is not +wholly given over to the worship of Mammon, it may be mentioned that the +Greek Club, with its fortnightly meetings for the reading and discussion +of the classics, has been for more than three decades the only circle of +its kind in existence. + +[Illustration: WASHINGTON ARCH.] + +In art, the invaluable treasures of the Metropolitan Museum foster +the love of what is enduringly beautiful in sculpture, painting, +architecture, etc.; while the schools of this museum and of the National +Academy of Design and the Society of American Artists, to say nothing of +the more utilitarian classes of Cooper Institute and the School of Artist +Artisans, afford instruction in art of such a sort as to render foreign +study no longer indispensable, albeit no less attractive than of old. + +Of music, vocal and instrumental, such feasts are spread before the local +amateur as can be matched for quality and abundance in no other city at +home or abroad, and while this is not true of the drama also, as the +Comédie Française has never come hither in a body, it is yet a fact that +nearly all that is best is seen, sooner or later, on the New York stage. + +By what rapid strides the city is moving forward in some directions, +while halting lamentably in others, needs not to be pointed out. There +is expert testimony to the effect that in public morality it has at +least held its own during the past half-century; we trust it may some +day work out its salvation in things political, and cease to be the mild +milch cow of thirsty demagogues. It can never vie in picturesqueness and +historic interest with its European peers in population and importance, +nor atone by its singularly fortunate situation for its poverty in +little parks and its richness in rough-paved, right-angled and treeless +streets and avenues; yet it may some day rival even Paris in the absolute +beauty of its public and private buildings and historic monuments. A +brave beginning has been made, in the Washington Arch, the Madison +Square Garden, the Columbia and the New York University buildings, the +Washington, Hale and Farragut statues and certain churches, club-houses +and private dwellings. And in the Cathedral of St. John, the Public +Library, the Academy of Design and the Botanical and Zoölogical gardens, +a further stride will be made erelong in the only directions in which +æsthetic leadership seems possible. + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +BROOKLYN + +THE TOWN ON FREEDOM’S BATTLE-FIELD + +BY HARRINGTON PUTNAM + + +The earliest Dutch settlements within the present borough limits are not +so old as the first hamlets on Manhattan. More than a score of years +after the houses and forts of New Amsterdam looked out across the East +River, the forest-crested heights of the west end of Long Island remained +in undisturbed Indian occupation. + +The Dutch settlers were deterred, rather than attracted, by this +magnificent stretch of green woodlands extending along the high shore. +The Holland people were not accustomed to timber clearing and therefore +sought access to the island by the smoother meadow-lands of Gowanus, +and afterwards to the north where the sloping grasslands about the +Waalboght invited the settler to essay gardening without too much +preparation with the axe. The early Long Island farmers advanced on the +territory of Brooklyn by flank attacks, seeking to turn the wings of the +extended forest, rather than boldly to engage in the struggle with the +densely wooded heights in front. These pioneers were thrifty, energetic +Hollanders and Huguenots whose farms soon required regular communication +with Manhattan. In 1642 a public ferry was established between the +present foot of Fulton Street and a landing in Peck’s Slip. The houses +clustered about this Long Island landing constituted a little settlement +called The Ferry. + +[Illustration: VIEW IN BROOKLYN IN THE OLDEN TIMES.] + +As the Indians were dispossessed from their maize-fields, the colonists +found sites for a small village a mile or so inland. The modern visitor +who comes up Fulton Street should stop about the corner of Hoyt and +Smith Streets to locate this settlement and picture a primitive hamlet +of small one-story frame cottages, sometimes surrounded by palisades +for protection against attacks. The open lands were of small extent, +with forest to the east and west, and streams running south into a wide +morass, where is now Gowanus Canal. Undoubtedly the undrained land of +this settlement, receiving copious moisture from the surrounding forests, +contained many a marsh and fen like the homelands of Holland. So the +settlers called it the brookland, or Breuckelen, after an ancient village +of that name on the river Vecht in the Province of Utrecht. The records +of old Breuckelen are traced by local antiquarians of Utrecht to the time +of Tacitus. In its variant forms, Bracola, Broccke, Brocckede, Broicklede +and Brocklandia, it describes a moist meadow-land. Or, as a Dutch writer +declares, the town on the Vecht was called Breuckelen from the marshes +(_a paludibus_). Its beautiful gardens and quaint castles, as the +emigrants had beheld them when starting out from home, perhaps remained +in the imagination of the Long Island settlers as an ideal of what their +western home should some day become. + +Just as Utrecht and Amersfoort are near-by towns to Breuckelen in +the Lowlands, so New Utrecht towards the south—near the present Fort +Hamilton—and Amersfoort (Flatlands) attested the determination of these +Netherlanders to preserve the associations of their origin between the +Rhine and the Zuyder Zee. + +[Illustration: DENYSE’S FERRY. + +THE FIRST PLACE AT WHICH THE BRITISH AND HESSIANS LANDED ON LONG ISLAND, +AUGUST 22, 1776. NOW FORT HAMILTON.] + +The life of these hard-working settlers was not all hardship. Their +low houses with projecting roofs were strong and comfortable; the wide +spacious fireplaces gave warmth to a generous hospitality that laid on +the board wild turkeys and Gowanus oysters and other good eatables, +followed after the repast by the long clay pipes, which, when over, left +the weary toiler to be ushered to his night’s rest in a partitioned-off +bunk or _betste_. But these material comforts were not all the results +realized by the efforts of the first pioneers. These Dutch settlers were +zealous for religion, liberty, and good schools; and from the first were +not deficient in a commendable zeal for the public welfare. + +Under the form of Colonial government the burghers were invited to +submit all difficulties to the Governor and council, who were fond of +the exercise of a strong, minute, and careful paternalism. The country +folk were not expected to intrude on the authorities their own ideas of +liberty, but merely to obey loyally what good, old, obstinate, arbitrary +Governor Stuyvesant should command. Yet even when he had spoken with the +official concurrence of his council, the eager spirits in Breuckelen +would often cavil, and boldly presume to come over to Manhattan to stir +up criticism and public remonstrance. So they were honored with a special +order. The folk of Breuckelen, Amersfoort and Midwout (Flatbush) in 1653 +were directed to forbid their residents from attending political meetings +in New Amsterdam. + +At this time the civic virtues were enforced in Breuckelen, and the good +of the village put before the preference of a private citizen to retire +from public office. The Governor would not allow any one to decline to +serve in an official capacity. The schepen-elect of Breuckelen proposed +not to continue in office for another term. He even said he would sooner +go back to Holland than remain burdened by the duties of schepen. The +Governor quickly took him at his word. The Sheriff was formally required +to notify him of this order of the Governor which stated with remarkable +clearness the obligation of good townsmen to the public and the penalty +for its neglect: + + “If you will not accept to serve as schepen for the welfare of + the Village of Breuckelen, with others, your fellow residents, + then you must prepare yourself to sail in the ship _King + Solomon_ for Holland, agreeably to your utterance.” + +No further refusals to hold office appear to have embarrassed the council. + +The colonists of Breuckelen were specially solicitous for a meeting-house +and domine. They insisted that they should have good measure in +discourses and that if the services should be abbreviated by the +preacher, then on their side no tithes should be forthcoming. The +first meeting-house was begun in 1654 at Midwout (Flatbush). Soon they +worshipped in the partly roofed building. After much difficulty and +repeated applications to the Council it had been arranged that the Rev. +Mr. Polhemus should have his morning discourse at Flatbush, with his +evening service alternately at Midwout and in Breuckelen. + +Governor Stuyvesant may have fancied that he had composed the difficulty. +Next winter, however, the Governor was presented with a further +remonstrance against the cutting-short of these alternating evening +devotions. They thus complained of this brief and scanty service: + + “Every fortnight on Sundays he comes here, only in the + afternoon for a quarter of an hour, when he only gives us a + prayer in lieu of sermon, by which we can receive very little + instruction; while often, while one supposes the prayer or + sermon (whichever name might be preferred for it) is beginning, + then it is actually at an end, by which he contributes very + little to the edification of his congregation.” + +To modern ears, this seems a strange grievance for legislation. + +Governor Stuyvesant, however, admonished the Breuckelen folk to pay their +full tithes. Doubtless he privately reminded Mr. Polhemus of his duties +and obligations to give his people full service. + +In three years they obtained a domine of their own. The Rev. Henricus +Selyns, a learned and devout young clergyman of a prominent Amsterdam +family came to Breuckelen in 1660. At first his parishioners worshipped +in a barn, but a meeting-house was soon erected. His spiritual labors +and influence were successful, and the four years of Mr. Selyns’s +ministrations were affectionately remembered. Compelled to return to +Holland by the last illness of his father, he came to America and settled +in New York eighteen years later. His warm admiration for Cotton Mather +is attested by a graceful Latin poem appended to the later editions of +the _Magnalia_. + +Breuckelen was equally fortunate in a schoolmaster—Carel de Beauvois—a +cultured French Protestant from Leyden, who was appointed in Breuckelen +in 1661. Besides his duties, in the church, of precentor and Scripture +reader, it was stipulated that: + + “He shall properly, diligently, and industriously attend to the + school, instill in the minds of the young the fear of the Lord, + and set them a good example; to open the school with prayer + and close with a Psalm, also to exercise the scholars in the + questions in the _groat regulen_ of the Rev. pious and learned + father Do. Johannes Megapolensis, Minister of the gospel in N. + Amsterdam.” + +Here was a hamlet of but thirty-one families who were not satisfied until +they could listen to the ablest preaching of the day, and were also +favored with superior educational facilities. + +Meanwhile the Dutch order was changing. The neighboring village of +Gravesend was being settled by the English. From Connecticut came +Quakers, who sowed the seeds of non-conformity and inculcated a new and +strange doctrine, that taxes should not be levied to maintain the clergy, +a principle especially attractive to those whose tithes were paid with a +grudging hand. + +[Illustration: BUSHWICK TOWN-HOUSE AND CHURCH, 1800.] + +At the end of the Dutch régime there were four or five little scattered +hamlets within the present borough. The Wallabout had the larger French +and Huguenot population. Eastward the English settlers were coming into +farming competition with their Dutch neighbors. + +There was no great alarm or disappointment manifested on Long Island when +on a morning in August, 1664, a British fleet was found to have assembled +in the Narrows. Colonial militia under the British flag from New England +came through the Sound and encamped on the Breuckelen shore. On September +8, 1664, New Amsterdam yielded, and Governor Nicolls raised the flag +of Great Britain on the fort. Then New Amsterdam became New York; Long +Island and Staten Island, and probably part of Westchester County, were +made an English “shire,” and Breuckelen, after some changes of spelling, +was known as “Brooklyn in the West Riding of Yorkshire.” + +This settlement of Dutch and Huguenots, maintained under the Colonial +government of New Amsterdam, in the score of years before the British +conquest had acquired a distinctive character. Contrary to a prevalent +opinion, these first Dutch settlements, in a sound and vigorous sense, +were essentially democratic. In the absence of class privileges—the +spirit to refer all questions to the supreme consideration of the general +welfare; to subordinate individual claims to the rights and advantage of +the public—Breuckelen and Vliessingen (Flushing) compared favorably in +civic life with contemporary villages in New England. As Holland had been +dyked against the sea by close, unremitting, and intimate co-operation—a +spirit further developed in the protracted struggle for independence—so +the smaller Dutch colonies in New York, while they kept their +agricultural character, retained a collective rather than an individual +ideal, which tended to exclude none from equal social opportunities. They +never had to struggle with the incubus of a modified feudalism, which, +though inevitably breaking up, was leaving its impress of regard for rank +and class privilege in the American colonies of British origin. + +Colonial life under British rule was marked by more rigid laws as the +communities grew. The careful protection of common-lands was strictly +attended to, especially the town forests of Brooklyn against the +encroachment of those who would surreptitiously cut away the timber. +Trustees of the common woodlands were appointed; but in the year 1702 +these lands were equitably divided and all allotted to each householder +in Brooklyn to insure their better protection. + +Gradually the English language was spoken in the churches and upon +ceremonious occasions. A waggish tale of Domine Schoonmaker of Flatbush +relates his difficulties in a wedding service. Fluent and eloquent in +his mother tongue, he essayed the ceremony in English, with the manner, +gestures, and all the courteous dignity of the old school. His English +failed him at the very close of the service. Conscious of the literalness +of his extemporized translation of the formula, he finished with a bow, +adding with solemnity and modulated emphasis, “I pronounce you two to be +_one beef_.” + +English customs gradually came in vogue. More aristocratic usages +superseded the democracy of the Dutch settlers. Slavery existed in +Brooklyn as in New York. Brick and stone buildings arose along Fulton +Street. Twice, in 1745 and 1752, the Colonial legislature of the Province +met in Brooklyn, on account of the prevalence of smallpox in New York. + +The rural character of the town is well illustrated by an event in 1759. +A large bear then passed along the farms in South Brooklyn, and being +pursued took to the water near Red Hook, where he was shot from a boat. + +The ethics of 1774 approved the aid of lotteries to build an orthodox +church in Brooklyn, which the public were assured should be of no +doubtful laxity, but a church conformable to the discipline of the Church +of England, and under the patronage of Trinity Church, New York. + +In the matter of amusements in 1774, New Yorkers came to Brooklyn +for many of their sports. Here horse-races were run. In that year an +ambitious innkeeper on “Tower Hill”—a site along the present Columbia +Heights between Middagh and Cranberry Streets—announced that there would +be a _bull baited_ there every Thursday afternoon. + +At the outbreak of the Revolution, Brooklyn numbered between three and +four thousand persons grouped in four neighborhoods. There were then +three ferries to New York. At the old (Fulton) ferry was a famous tavern +which figured often in the times of British occupation. The two principal +villages were then called Brooklyn-church and Brooklyn-ferry. + +At the first movements of the Patriot party in New England the people of +Kings County were little stirred. Suffolk County, at the eastern end of +Long Island, more readily responded to the first news from Massachusetts. +After the battle of Lexington, Brooklynites assembled and passed +resolutions and elected delegates to the Provincial Congress. + +The modern visitor to the Borough of Brooklyn has difficulty to realize +that what is now densely built up, and covered by grading and asphalt, +marks the battle-ground of one of the greatest engagements of the +Revolution. The houses of Charlestown cover the battle-ground of Bunker +Hill, but that was a struggle over a single redoubt, while Brooklyn is +built upon a line of battle nearly three miles in length. In the Civil +War, Northern people recall the great disaster of the first battle of +Bull Run, fought with modern armies and improved weapons. Yet in that +all-day conflict, with the disastrous rout and pursuit, the Union loss +in killed, wounded and prisoners probably was not as great numerically +as the loss suffered by the American forces in the half-day of fierce +fighting in Brooklyn. The Federal forces at Bull Run suffered in killed, +wounded, and missing 2896, while the patriot losses in this, the first +pitched battle of the Revolution, were estimated at 3300 by the British, +of whom 1097 were prisoners (three being generals); and late American +historians are inclined to accept this estimate as approximately correct. + +In the summer of 1776, a formidable fleet assembled in the lower Bay +of New York. These vessels bore from Nova Scotia the armies that had +evacuated Boston, and another fleet of nine war vessels and thirty-five +transports brought in the forces under Clinton that had been repulsed in +the attack on Fort Moultrie at Charleston. At last, on the 12th of August +arrived the Hessian forces in eighty-two transport-ships guarded by six +war vessels. On board were 7800 Hessians and 1000 English guards. + +The observer at the Narrows must have daily beheld a naval pageant such +as can no more be seen in modern warfare. From the first distant glimpse +of the line of sails standing in for Sandy Hook, until they finally +manœuvred to their crowded anchorage by Staten Island, the effect was +most picturesque. It was not a fleet of dark, sullen sea-dogs, with only +an inconspicuous hull built to carry a destructive armament. The coloring +of these vessels against the green background of Staten Island in the +olden days of oak and hemp would have delighted a painter. The upper +works outside were sometimes dark blue or canary yellow, surmounted by +waving lines of gilt. Below were black streaks running fore and aft near +the water-line; as the ships slowly lifted in a seaway, they disclosed +a white under-surface that must have made an admirable target for the +opposing gunner. The grand air of the frigates was further enhanced +by elaborate ornamentation with emblematic devices about the carved +figure-head, and heavy gilded scrollwork above the stern-lights, and high +stern-gallery. From the bluffs along the Narrows, the view down upon the +decks would show that all inboard surfaces, even the gun-carriages and +the inner side of portholes, were painted blood-red—so as not to have the +carnage of battle too much _en évidence_. + +At one time over four hundred transports, guarded by thirty-seven +men-of-war, had gathered. Lord Howe on the land, and his brother, Admiral +Howe, on the sea were in joint command. + +[Illustration: SECTION OF MAP OF BROOKLYN, 1776.] + +The patriot forces had carefully entrenched a line of defensive works, +laid out by General Nathaniel Greene. The good judgment with which these +forts were placed was attested by the deliberate adoption of almost the +same line of redoubts and forts in the subsequent defences of Brooklyn by +the engineers in the campaign of 1814, when Brooklyn was again prepared +to resist British attack. + +The fortifications of Brooklyn in 1776 extended in an irregular line +from Fort Defiance at Red Hook opposite Governor’s Island across to Fort +Box on Bergen’s Hill near the corner of Court Street and First Place. At +the junction of Clinton and Atlantic Streets, or a little easterly, was +a steep conical hill called the Ponkiesburgh, and on top, surmounting +a line of spiral trenches, a redoubt, called Corkscrew Fort. Between +Atlantic, Pacific, Nevins, and Bond Streets was a redoubt mounting five +guns called Fort Greene. Thence the line ran zigzag across the present +Fulton Street, to the west of the junction of Flatbush and Fulton +Avenues, along the hill slope to Fort Putnam, on the eminence now called +Fort Greene Park, a commanding height where were mounted five guns. The +number of guns mounted upon the works from Fort Putnam to Fort Defiance +was thirty-five—mainly eighteen-pounders—an armament in part captured +from Ticonderoga. + +[Illustration: BROWER’S MILL, GOWANUS. + +THE YELLOW MILL IS SEEN IN THE DISTANCE.] + +From this fort the line extended northwesterly to a spring at the verge +of the Wallabout, near the corner of Flushing and Portland Avenues. This +interior line of defence was nearly two miles long. Between these forts +were lines of trenches further defended by trees and sharpened stakes, +forming an abatis, in the construction of which the Continental woodsmen +were always proficient. Within this line of defence was Fort Stirling, +which was back near Columbia Heights. + +It is difficult after a century of grading and building to conceive +that an extensive morass then covered nearly all the lands south of the +present Hamilton Avenue, save about the small island height at Red Hook. +Gowanus, with several large ponds raised by Brower’s Mill-dam, flooded +and made impassable nearly all the area extending from Fourth Avenue +to Smith Street. This was crossed by a narrow causeway along Freeke’s +Mill-pond. On the higher lands beyond, extending from Greenwood along +Prospect Park towards East New York, were dense woodlands, that were only +practicable for an advancing army by certain passes or narrow wood-roads. +The principal route from the Narrows to Brooklyn was along the site of +Third Avenue by a good road then known as the Shore Road. + +The battle of August 27, 1776, was fought almost entirely outside this +line of fortifications. Knowing that the British forces had been moving +towards Brooklyn from the Narrows, General Putnam had posted troops in +detachments in order to check the hostile columns as they should come +through the wood-roads and passes. It was natural to expect the principal +British advance by the Shore Road, as there they would be at all times +within supporting distance of the fleet. + +On August 26th the Hessians under de Heister had occupied Flatbush, and +Lord Cornwallis had reached nearly to Flatlands. + +In the forenoon of the 27th, Stirling commanded the patriot right, +extending from the shore near the foot of Twenty-third Street up +Greenwood Heights about to the corner of Fifth Avenue and Third Street. +This position was to repel the expected attack by the route of the Shore +Road. Sullivan commanded the centre, which was an irregular congeries of +militia posted along the summits of hills in Prospect Park and across +the Flatbush Road. Colonel Miles with the 1st Pennsylvania regiment +occupied the hills near the Clove Road to the south of Bedford, with some +Connecticut levies continuing the line still further eastward. Instead +of a co-ordinated supporting line of battle, these dispositions were +intended as little more than a body of skirmishers, too widely strung-out +to be opposed to an actual attack. + +The beginning of a movement of British troops at daylight on the Shore +Road, and the evident efforts of the fleet to sail up the Bay, which +the light wind and ebb tide prevented, indicated that the hardest +fighting would be by the right under Stirling. The entire patriot force +inside and without the entrenchments was 5500. The British force was +over 16,000 men. While the troops were facing each other along this +position, a strong flanking column under Sir Henry Clinton, with Lord +Howe the commander-in-chief, had stealthily marched from Flatbush to East +New York, during the night, and had followed a sunken road through the +present Cemetery of the Evergreens, called the Jamaica Pass. This was +about five miles to the east of Sullivan’s position. Before daylight, +at about a mile from the Pass, the column halted and sent forward a +force which captured the American patrol and officers, and soon after a +detachment secured the Pass. The light infantry advanced at the first +appearance of day, and occupied the heights of Bushwick, followed by the +guards with the field-pieces under Lord Percy, and the 49th regiment with +four guns and the baggage brought up the rear. + +After breakfasting, the flanking column marched along the turnpike to +Bedford, where they arrived at half-past eight o’clock; thence they +advanced along the rear of Miles’s troops, who were unconscious that they +were being surrounded. + +Fearfully outnumbered as they were, the Americans were now attacked in +front by the Hessians advancing from Flatbush under General de Heister, +and in the rear by this flanking column. The result was disastrous. +Sullivan’s command was cut to pieces and himself captured. Terrible +slaughter occurred in the woods and the slopes towards Fourth Avenue. The +only escape not closed by the British was across the mill-dam and marshes +of Gowanus. + +Meanwhile Cornwallis was detached to attack Stirling’s line, which +had still held its position on the western side of Prospect Heights. +Desperate indeed was the plight of this devoted remnant of the army, +outnumbered on all sides. General Grant, the British commander in front, +had pressed forward (after having repeatedly been driven back) and +finally surrounded and captured Atlee’s riflemen. Stirling gallantly +determined to attack Cornwallis, and drive him back and so get an +opportunity to cross by Brower’s Mill-dam to the defences of Fort Box. +Here was the heroism of the day. Taking command of Smallwood’s gallant +Maryland regiment and forming in the vicinity of Fifth Avenue and Tenth +Street, Stirling led these brave young Marylanders three times in a +charge on Cornwallis’s lines. Closing their ranks as they were cut down +by grape and canister, the Maryland onset drove the British back behind +the stone Cortelyou house. Once they forced the gunners from their guns, +but at last, overwhelmed by numbers, the survivors fell back, leaving +256 killed out of 400. It was the sight of this brilliant charge and the +spirited but frightfully unequal contest that caused Washington to wring +his hands in anguish and say: “Good God! what brave fellows I must lose +this day!” + +While these Marylanders gallantly sacrificed their lives to hold +Cornwallis in check, a large portion of Stirling’s command crossed the +Gowanus Creek and brought the tattered colors of Smallwood’s regiment +and over twenty prisoners within the lines. The battle was over at noon. +The bodies of the gallant Maryland heroes—the flower of the army—were +afterward buried on a small knoll or island. Third Avenue runs across it, +between Seventh and Eighth Streets, but its site is far below the present +street level. + +In estimating the service of these Marylanders, it is to be recalled +that they were young, never before under fire, and were led without +their own colonel, who was detached the day before for a court-martial +in New York. When the charges were made, the troops had already been +several hours fighting, and had to re-form under fire, after it was +plain that the battle was lost. The attacks were up an ascent, against +superior numbers, strong artillery, and an overwhelming body of seasoned +veterans. Even the assault and death of Montgomery at Quebec were not +more gallant. Unlike that hopeless attack, the Marylanders accomplished +their purpose by their sacrifice, and stopped the advance of Cornwallis. +The brilliancy, dash, and steady persistence of this charge have not been +properly recognized. + +After the repulse of the patriot army, the battle ceased. The prudence +of Lord Howe would not permit the English army to move upon the +entrenchments. Bunker Hill with its terrible memories was too recent. + +The next day, the 28th, Washington reinforced the Brooklyn troops, +increasing their number to 9000. Among them were Colonel Glover’s +battalion of fishermen and sailors from Salem and Marblehead. On that +day heavy rain prevented an attack. In the afternoon the British began +regular siege approaches towards Fort Putnam by a trench starting from +the present Clinton Avenue near the corner of De Kalb Avenue. + +A council of war decided on evacuation. Even in this extremity Washington +caused an elaborate statement of reasons to be drawn up as the grounds +of his action. That night, aided by the dense fog, the entire body +were rowed over by Colonel Glover’s Marblehead boatmen. The skill and +admirable mastery of detail in this retreat were Washington’s. For many +hours he sat on his horse at the ferry, patiently superintending the +embarkation. At least on one occasion he had to check a rush of impetuous +and alarmed men from crowding into the boats. Finally with the last +crew he embarked. The retreat of the entire force from Long Island was +safely effected. At four o’clock only empty trenches were revealed to the +invaders. + +In Prospect Park is a monument to the heroism of this gallant Maryland +regiment. At different streets are memorial tablets to mark the lines of +defence. Perhaps some day a statue of Washington, near the old ferry, +will mark the spot where his prudence and skill saved the American Army. + +[Illustration: MONUMENT TO MARYLAND’S “400.”] + +During the British occupation the noble forests of Brooklyn were +destroyed. One may search in vain for any oaks or elms about the City +that are really ancient. + +The mention of the Wallabout and the present site of the Navy Yard recall +some of the most painful memories of our history—the horrors of the +prison-ships. Few indeed are the Revolutionary families that have not +had deep sorrows connected with the ships _Whitby_, _Good Hope_, _Old +Jersey_, _John_, _Falmouth_, and other hulks, where the martyrs ended +their severe captivity. The bodies of the victims—having been removed +from time to time—are now, it is hoped, in their final resting-place on +the westerly front of Fort Greene Park opposite the Plaza. As yet no +monument, not even an inscription, marks the spot where were reverently +laid the bones of 11,500 martyrs to American liberty. + +[Illustration: NAVY YARD. IN FOREGROUND 5.5-INCH B.-L. GUN, WITH MOUNT +AND SHIELD, TAKEN FROM SPANISH CRUISER “VIZCAYA” AFTER DESTRUCTION OF +SPANISH FLEET JULY 3, 1898, ALSO SUBMARINE MINE FROM GUANTANAMO.] + +The Navy Yard, starting in 1824, has become the foremost in the +country. Here are gathered trophies of the Nation’s battles on many +seas. In a little enclosure near the Commandant’s office, are grouped +captured ordnance, with a howitzer that did service under Hull on the +_Constitution_. Trophies from the Spanish war have lately been added to +this collection. Here are the guns taken from the burnt and shattered +_Almirante Oquendo_ and _Vizcaya_, and by them is mounted a submarine +contact mine from the defences of Guantanamo, which the _Texas_ broke +adrift without exploding the deadly contents. Not far away was built +the ill-fated battleship _Maine_. In these docks were outfitted many +of the fleet that fought the battle of Santiago. In the Spanish war, +the Brooklyn Navy Yard was where most of the yachts and merchant +steamers, purchased in emergency, were converted into cruisers. Under +Naval Constructor Bowles, the unparalleled record was made in 1898 of +thirty-four vessels thus converted and fitted out for service in the +auxiliary navy in ninety-three days! + +At the southern shore of the enlarged Brooklyn are the forts and +batteries defending this part of Long Island. Under the modern defences +of Fort Hamilton, still is preserved Fort Lafayette, an island structure +of masonry, valueless for war, but ever to be kept for its associations. +Built in 1812 to defend the Narrows, its name was changed at the time of +Lafayette’s return in 1824. In 1861, it was used to imprison those from +Maryland and the border States, whose loyalty the Federal Administration +distrusted. When the Judges of Brooklyn issued writs of _habeas corpus_ +to bring up these political suspects, and inquire into the justice of +their captivity, the remedy was to hurry the prisoners to Fort Warren in +Boston Harbor, beyond the reach of the process of New York courts. + +[Illustration: FORT LAFAYETTE, N. Y. NARROWS.] + +Here also, in 1862, a division commander of McClellan’s army was held +prisoner. General Charles P. Stone, a graduate of West Point, was blamed +for the disaster at Ball’s Bluff. By secret orders of Secretary Stanton, +he was arrested at midnight, hurried to New York, and kept forty-nine +days in solitary confinement in Fort Lafayette, without trial, charges, +or answer to his appeals for a hearing! Congress finally vindicated him +and set him free, after one hundred and eighty-nine days’ imprisonment. + +[Illustration: BROOKLYN INSTITUTE MUSEUM.] + +The interior of the Fort was burned out in the winter of 1869. Its +armament has never been replaced. The dark red circular walls stand at +the opposite end of the Bay from the Statue of Liberty, and furnish an +impressive contrast, in their memories of an American Bastille. + +[Illustration: HENRY WARD BEECHER.] + +On the completion of the new Shore Road, following the contour of the +Narrows, an admirable approach upon the bluff overlooking the Bay will +lead the visitor to this Golden Gate of the commerce of New York. + +The traditions of home rule, local self-government, and civic conscience +have come down from the early Brooklyn agitations against the government +of Peter Stuyvesant. Brooklynites before consolidation with the greater +city had a liberal home-rule charter that was first administered under +Mayor Seth Low. Through his government, the “Brooklyn plan” became the +ideal of other municipalities. + +The ancient zeal for education and schools has not declined. Besides +the college, academy, and public schools, two Brooklyn institutions +distinctively illustrate the modern trend of popular municipal education. +The Pratt Institute, with its wide and helpful teaching in the industrial +arts, is perhaps the most famous of all Brooklyn benevolences. But +the enlarged and expanding Brooklyn Institute, with its multiform +departments, its generous field of lectureships, and its museum, is +destined to become the model for organizations planned to diffuse popular +culture in cities. + +The regard of Brooklyn for the Church and the influence of the clergy on +the life of Brooklyn are proverbial. To recall the names of Brooklyn’s +clergy is to mention many leaders of the American pulpit. Not a little +of their inspiration has come from the influence and history of Brooklyn +itself. In its growth from village to city, and then to borough, it has +developed along the lines of equality of social opportunity, and thus +unconsciously has been reaping the fruits of the lives and examples of +its Dutch founders. + +[Illustration: SEAL OF BROOKLYN.] + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +PRINCETON + +PLANTING AND TILLING + +BY WILLIAM M. SLOANE + + +Princeton is by no means one of the oldest settlements in the State of +New Jersey, and yet it has a history of more than two centuries, the +first homestead having been established there in 1682. Although situated +midway, or nearly so, between two of the largest Colonial towns, and +nearly equidistant from the head of navigation on two important streams, +the Raritan and the Delaware, it remained a quiet and unimportant +hamlet for over half a century. Most of the travel between New York and +Philadelphia went by way of Perth Amboy and Camden; there was little to +interrupt the humble labors of the settlers in clearing the forest and +tilling the soil. + +Yet the roll-call of Princeton’s pioneers reveals names which are now +synonymous with patriotism and famous wherever American history is +studied: Stockton, Paterson, Boudinot, Randolph, and others almost as +renowned. Their instinctive Americanism is first recorded in a successful +protest to the provincial authorities against the quartering of British +troops in their humble homes during the French and Indian War. + +October 22, 1746, the College of New Jersey was chartered by Governor +Hamilton, an act notable in American history because the first of its +kind performed without authorization from England or the consent even of +the provincial legislature. The institution was opened under President +Dickinson in May, 1747, at Elizabethtown. After his death, which +occurred in October of the same year, the few students were transferred +to Newark and put under the care of the Rev. Aaron Burr, one of the +twelve trustees. On the fourteenth of the following September, Jonathan +Belcher, just appointed governor, granted a new charter fuller and more +formal than the first. His interest in the college was from the outset +very great, and his opinion, already formed, that Princeton was the +most desirable spot for its permanent site ultimately prevailed, the +citizens of the hamlet proving more active and liberal than those of +New Brunswick, already a good-sized town, to which likewise terms were +proposed “for fixing the college in that place.” + +[Illustration: “THE LINE OF HISTORIC CATALPAS.”] + +Thereafter the little settlement grew rapidly and soon became a +considerable village. In 1756 the new buildings were virtually completed +and the college was transferred to its future home. Notable men from +throughout the State and from the cities of New York and Philadelphia +became interested in the new seat of learning. More noteworthy still +were those who taught and those who studied in it. Within a decade after +the completion of Nassau Hall the names of Burr, Edwards, Witherspoon, +of Livingston, Rush and Ellsworth, of James Manning, Luther Martin +and Nathaniel Niles became Princeton names. The stream of influential +patronage once started continued to flow until long after the Revolution. +It included men from New England on the one hand, and from the South on +the other, with, of course, a powerful element from the Middle States. + +[Illustration: A VIEW OF THE FRONT CAMPUS.] + +Princeton College is the child of Yale. But the parting was not +entirely amicable. Theological controversy grew very fierce, even for +the Connecticut Valley, in the days of Whitefield’s preaching. The +conservatives or Old Lights held the reins and were not kindly disposed +toward the innovators or New Lights. The trouble culminated in the +expulsion from Yale of David Brainerd because, defying the Faculty’s +express command, he attended New Light meetings and would not profess +penitence for his fault. This occurred in 1739; thereafter an even +stronger feeling of discontent smouldered among the liberal Calvinists +until finally the way was clear for founding a new training-school for +the ministry and the learned professions on broad and generous lines. +Brainerd became a most successful and famous missionary. He was betrothed +to the daughter of Jonathan Edwards and died at her father’s house, +a victim of his own laborious and devoted life. This was less than a +year after the College of New Jersey had been founded by a body of +liberal-minded men of all orthodox denominations, under the influence +of a few leaders who sympathized with both Brainerd and the Edwards +theology. The first charter was granted by an Episcopalian governor to +four Presbyterian clergymen, and one of the original trustees was a +Quaker. Governor Belcher, who enlarged the charter and made the College +“his adopted daughter,” was a man of the most catholic feeling. Fourteen +of the trustees under the permanent constitution were Presbyterian +clergymen, an arrangement corresponding to the similar one whereby the +majority of the governing body of Yale was composed of Congregational +ministers. This wise guardianship has kept the two universities true to +their traditions, and the flourishing condition of both is the strongest +proof anywhere afforded that temporal affairs do not necessarily suffer +when committed to the charge of spiritual advisers. Considerable sums +of money were raised in England by the personal solicitation of Tennent +and Davies, two clergymen sent out for the purpose by the Trustees. The +ten laymen of the first Princeton board represented various orthodox +denominations, including Episcopalians and Quakers. There is not a +syllable in the charter concerning creeds, confessions, or religious +tests. It is very significant of the vast improvement in public morality +that a college founded under such auspices a hundred and fifty years ago +was partly endowed and supported by lotteries authorized and drawn both +in Connecticut and New Jersey. + +From the day when the College was installed in its grand new home, +history-making went on apace in Princeton. Nassau Hall was a majestic +building for those days; distinguished foreign visitors to America all +noted its dimensions and architecture in their written accounts of +travel. Indeed, even now, with the tasteless alterations of chimneys, +roofs and towers made necessary by fire and carried through with ruthless +economy, it may be considered one of the great monumental college +buildings in America. It is, however, far more than this; we assert +without fear of contradiction that it has no peer as the most historic +university pile in the world. This contention rests on the fact that +it saw the discomfiture of the British at the ebb-tide of the American +rebellion, harbored the Government of the United States in its critical +moments and cradled the Constitution-makers of the greatest existing +republic. No other university hall has been by turns fortress and +barrack, legislative chamber and political nursery in the birththroes of +any land comparable to our land. + +The building was designed to be complete in itself; it contained lodgings +for a hundred and forty-seven students, with a refectory, library and +chapel. The class which entered under Dickinson, the first president, +had six members, of whom five became clergymen. His untimely death a +year after his election made his administration the shortest but one in +the College history. During the ten years of Burr’s tenure of office +(1747-1757) the total number of students was a hundred and fourteen; +half of them entered the ministry. The short presidency of Jonathan +Edwards lasted but a few months. It gave the glory of his name, that of +America’s greatest metaphysician, to the College, the sacred memories +of his residence to the venerable mansion now occupied by the Dean, and +the hallowed custody of his mortal remains to the Princeton graveyard, a +spot to which thousands have made their pilgrimage for the sake of his +great renown. In this enclosure he lies beside his son-in-law, the Rev. +Aaron Burr, who was his predecessor. At his feet are the ashes of the +brilliant and erratic grandson, the Aaron Burr so well known to students +of American history. President Davies, who followed Edwards, held his +office for only two years, and was succeeded by Finley who presided for +five. Under the latter the number of students present at one time rose +to one hundred and twenty. All told, a hundred and thirty sat under his +instruction, and of these less than half, fifty-nine, became clergymen. + +[Illustration: JOHN WITHERSPOON.] + +This tendency to send fewer and fewer men into the ministry is highly +significant. It reached its climax under the next president—the great +Scotchman whose name is among the most honored in the history of his +adopted country—John Witherspoon. His incumbency was coincident with +the Revolutionary epoch, lasting from 1768 to 1794. In those twenty-six +years four hundred and sixty-nine young men graduated from the College; +of these, only a hundred and fourteen, less than a quarter, became +clergymen, an average of between four and five a year. This phenomenon +was due to the fact that Witherspoon, though lecturing on Divinity +like his predecessors, was vastly more interested in political than in +religious philosophy. So notorious was this fact that many a pious youth +bent on entering the ministry passed the very doors of liberal Princeton +to seek the intense atmosphere of Yale orthodoxy, while many a boy +patriot from New England came hither to seek the distinction of being +taught by Dr. Witherspoon. + +[Illustration: WASHINGTON’S HEADQUARTERS AT ROCKY HILL, N. J. (NEAR +PRINCETON.)] + +The first eight years of Witherspoon’s presidency embraced the period +of political ferment in the Colonies which ushered in the War of the +Revolution. From the very beginning of his residence in America, the +new president espoused the Colonial cause in every conflict with Great +Britain; he was soon accounted “as high a son of liberty as any man in +America.” Not content with enlarging and improving the College course, +he collected funds throughout the Colonies from Boston to Charleston, +and even laid Jamaica under contribution to fill the depleted College +chest. From the pulpit of the old First Church his voice rang out in +denunciation of the English administration, until in his native land +he was branded as a rebel and a traitor. The spread of the Reformation +was more largely due to the fact that Luther was a professor in the +University of Wittenberg than to any other single cause; the adherence +to the Revolution of the powerful Scotch and Scotch-Irish element in the +Colonies was chiefly if not entirely secured by the teachings of John +Witherspoon from his professor’s chair in Nassau Hall. To him and John +Dickinson, author of the _Farmer’s Letters_, belongs the credit of having +convinced the sober middle classes of the great middle Colonies that the +breach with England was not merely inevitable, but just and to their +interest. + +[Illustration: MORVEN.] + +But Witherspoon was more than a teacher, he was a practical statesman. +His country-seat was a farm on the southern slope of Rocky Hill, about +a mile due north of Nassau Hall. Its solid stone walls still bear the +classic name which he gave it, of Tusculum. In his hours of retirement +at that beloved home he seems to have brooded more on the rights of man +than on human depravity, more on law than on theology, more on Providence +in His present dealings with men than on the remoter meanings of God’s +Word. In the convention which framed the constitution of New Jersey, he +amazed the other delegates by his technical knowledge of administration +and led in their constructive labors; he assisted in the overthrow of +William Franklin, the royal governor; was elected to the Continental +Congress, and in the critical hour spurred on the lagging members who +hesitated to take the fatal step of authorizing their president and +secretary to sign and issue the Declaration of Independence. With solemn +emphasis he declared: + + “For my own part, of property I have some, of reputation more. + That reputation is staked, that property is pledged on the + issue of this contest; and although these gray hairs must soon + descend into the sepulchre, I would infinitely rather that they + descend thither by the hand of the executioner, than desert at + this crisis the sacred cause of my country.” + +The word “God” occurs but once in that famous document. Jefferson wrote +it with a small “g.” Witherspoon was the solitary clergyman among the +signers; neither he nor his neighbor, friend, and supporter, Richard +Stockton, of Morven, who was a member of his church, set their hands the +less firmly to sign the paper. Finally, Witherspoon was a member of the +secret committee of Congress which really found the means of moral and +material support for the war down to its close. He was chosen in the +dark hours of November, 1776, to confer with Washington on the military +crisis; he was a member, with Richard Henry Lee and John Adams, of the +committee appointed that same winter to fire the drooping spirits of the +rebels when Congress was driven from Philadelphia to Baltimore. He was +a member, too, of the boards of war and finance, wrote state papers on +the currency, and framed many of the most important bills passed by the +Continental Congress. It was not unnatural that when, at the close of the +war, Congress was terrified by unpaid and unruly Continentals battering +at its doors in Philadelphia, it should seek refuge and council, as it +did, in John Witherspoon’s college. + +Thus it happened that Nassau Hall became one of the hearthstones on +which the fires of patriotism burned brightest. From 1766 to 1776 there +were graduated two hundred and thirty young Americans. What their temper +and feeling must have been may be judged from the names of those among +them who afterwards became eminent in public life. Ephraim Brevard, +Pierrepont Edwards, Churchill Houston, John Henry, John Beatty, James +Linn, Frederick Frelinghuysen, Gunning Bedford, Hugh Brackinridge, Philip +Freneau, James Madison, Aaron Burr, Henry Lee, Aaron Ogden, Brockholst +Livingston, and Wm. Richardson Davie. Those ten years produced twelve +Princetonians who sat in the Continental Congress, six who sat in the +Constitutional Convention, one President of the United States, one +Vice-President, twenty-four members of Congress, three Judges of the +Supreme Court, one Secretary of State, one Postmaster-General, three +Attorneys-General, and two foreign ministers. It may well be supposed +that the clergymen who were their comrades in those days of ferment +were, like their great teacher, no opponents of political preaching. The +influence of such a body of young men, when young men seized and held the +reins, was incalculable. + +“We have no public news,” writes James Madison from Princeton on July 23, +1770, to his friend, Thomas Martin, + + “but the base conduct of the merchants in New York in breaking + through their spirited resolutions not to import; a distinct + account of which, I suppose, will be in the Virginia + _Gazette_ before this arrives. The letter to the merchants in + Philadelphia, requesting their concurrence, was lately burned + by the students of this place in the college yard, all of them + appearing in their black gowns and the bell tolling.... There + are about 115 in the College and in the Grammar School, all of + them in American cloth.” + +“Last week, to show our patriotism,” wrote in 1774 another Princeton +student, Charles Beatty, + + “we gathered all the steward’s winter store of tea, and having + made a fire in the campus we there burnt near a dozen pounds, + tolled the bell, and made many spirited resolves. But this was + not all. Poor Mr. Hutchinson’s effigy shared the same fate with + the tea, having a tea-canister tied about his neck.” + +[Illustration: RICHARD STOCKTON + +“THE SIGNER”.] + +With such a nursery of patriotism at its very hub, the temper of the +surrounding community can easily be pictured. The proposition for a +provincial congress came from Princeton. John Hart, a farmer from +the neighboring township of Hopewell, and Abraham Clark, a farmer’s +son from the neighboring county, were associated with graduates from +Princeton College and delegates from Princeton town in conducting its +deliberations. Both were made delegates to the Continental Congress +and both, along with Witherspoon and Stockton, were signers of the +Declaration of Independence. Even Francis Hopkinson, the fifth signer for +this State, a Philadelphian in reality, though a temporary resident of +Bordentown, was, as the friend and co-worker of Freneau and Brackinridge, +intimately associated with Princeton influence. When rebellion was +finally in full swing, the Committee of Safety for New Jersey held its +sessions here, probably in Nassau Hall, possibly in the famous tavern. It +is well known that neither the Continental Army nor the people of the +United States at large were profoundly impressed by the Declaration of +Independence. This was not the case in Princeton, for the correspondent +of a Philadelphia paper wrote that on July 9, 1776, “Nassau Hall was +grandly illuminated and independency proclaimed under a triple volley +of musketry, and universal acclamation for the prosperity of the United +States, with the greatest decorum.” + +Seven days previous to this demonstration, the Provincial Congress, +sitting at Trenton, had adopted a new State constitution; nine days later +the first Legislature of the State assembled in Nassau Hall—the College +library room—and chose Livingston governor. They continued more or less +intermittently in session until the following October after the invasion +of the State by British forces. Before the invaders they fled to Trenton, +then to Burlington, to Pittstown, and finally to Haddonfield. After the +battles of Princeton and Trenton they promptly returned to their first +seat and resumed their sessions. + + * * * * * + +The storm of war broke upon Princeton early in December of the same year, +1776. The British Army, landed from Howe’s fleet in New York Bay, had +entirely worsted the American forces. Brooklyn, New York, Fort Washington +with Fort Lee had been successively abandoned, and Washington in his +memorable retreat across this State reached Princeton on the first of +December. Stirling, with one thousand two hundred Continentals, was +left as a rear-guard, while the Commander-in-Chief with the rest, one +thousand eight hundred, and his stores, pushed on to Trenton, whence he +crossed in safety to the right bank of the Delaware. On the seventh, +Cornwallis entered Princeton at the head of six thousand Anglo-Hessian +veterans, driving Stirling before him. The invaders were quartered in +the College and in the church. Both Tusculum and Morven, the estates of +the arch-rebels Witherspoon and Stockton, were pillaged, and the new +house of Sergeant was burnt. All the neighboring farms were laid under +contribution for forage. + +Popular disaffection followed in the course of Washington’s retreat. +Large numbers of the people and many of the State officials accepted +the English offers of amnesty. The patriots were compelled to abandon +their homes and flee across the Delaware. Two regiments were left by +Cornwallis in Princeton as a garrison. The rest of his troops were +established in winter quarters at New Brunswick, Trenton and Bordentown. +Washington’s thin and starving line stretched along the Delaware from +Coryell’s Ferry to Bristol. Congress fled to Baltimore. Putnam, with no +confidence in Washington’s ability even to hold his ground, was making +ready for a desperate defence of Philadelphia. + +There was as yet no French alliance, no adequate supply of money raised +either at home or abroad, no regular or even semi-regular army,—nothing, +apparently, but a disorderly little rebellion; for the first promise of +constancy in New England and of regular support for a considerable force +of volunteers had had as yet no fulfilment. The English felt that the +early ardor of radical and noisy rebels would fade like a mist before +Howe’s success; Canada was lost; New York as far as the Highlands was +in British hands; so also were New Jersey and Long Island, which latter +virtually controlled Connecticut. Howe believed the rebellion was broken; +Cornwallis had engaged passage to return home. + +[Illustration: HALL IN THE MORVEN HOUSE.] + +While the British were lulled into security, Washington and the patriots, +though desperate, were undaunted. A well considered and daring plan for +a decisive sally from their lines was formed and carried to a successful +issue. On Christmas night two thousand four hundred men were ferried over +the Delaware nine miles above Trenton; the crossing was most dangerous, +owing to the swollen waters and the floating ice; the ensuing march was +made in the teeth of a dreadful storm. The affair at Trenton was scarcely +a battle, it was rather a surprise; the one thousand two hundred Hessians +were taken unawares and only a hundred and sixty-two escaped; nearly a +thousand were captured. What made it a great event was its electrical +effect in restoring courage to patriots everywhere, together with the +inestimable value to Washington’s troops of the captured stores and arms. +He did not occupy the place at all, but returned immediately to his +encampment on the other shore to refit. + +The ensuing week was certainly the most remarkable of the Revolution. +The English in New York were thrown into consternation. Cornwallis +hastened back to Princeton, where he collected between seven and eight +thousand men, the flower of the British army. Washington’s force, on +the other hand, was reinforced with a speed and zeal bordering on the +miraculous. Three thousand volunteers came in from the neighborhood and +from Philadelphia. The term of service for nine hundred of his men would +expire on New Year’s day; these were easily induced, in the new turn +of affairs, to remain six weeks longer. Washington and John Stark both +pledged their private fortunes and Robert Morris raised fifty thousand +dollars in Philadelphia. The mourning of the patriots throughout the +Middle States was changed into rejoicing. + +On the thirtieth of December the American army began to recross the +Delaware; the movement was slow and difficult owing to the ice, but was +completed the following day. On January 1, 1777, Washington wrote from +Trenton that he had about two thousand two hundred men with him, that +Mifflin had about one thousand eight hundred men at Bordentown on the +right wing and that Cadwalader had about as many more at Crosswicks, +some miles to the east. He thought that no more than one thousand eight +hundred of those who passed the river with himself were available for +fighting, but he intended to “pursue the enemy and break up their +quarters.” + +Next day Cornwallis, leaving three regiments and a company of cavalry +at Princeton, set out by the old “King’s Highway” for Trenton. At +Maidenhead, now Lawrenceville, there was a skirmish between his van and +the American outposts; thence for over five miles his march was harassed +by irregular bodies of his foe, General Hand being stationed in command +of a detachment at Shabbakong creek, and General Greene about a mile this +side of Trenton. It was four o’clock, and therefore late in the short +winter day when the English General reached the outskirts of the city. +There stood Washington himself with a few more detachments, ready still +further to delay the British march through the town. Withdrawing slowly, +the last Continental crossed the bridge over the Assanpink in safety, +to fall behind earthworks, which in anticipation of the event had been +thrown up and fortified with batteries on the high banks behind. + +[Illustration: BATTLE OF PRINCETON—DEATH OF MERCER. + +FROM A PAINTING BY COL. J. TRUMBULL.] + +The British attacked at once, but were repulsed; undismayed they pressed +on again, and again they were driven back across the narrow stream. +The spirited conflict continued until nightfall, when the assailants +finally gave up and withdrew to bivouac, hoping to renew the fight next +morning. In this affair on the Assanpink about a hundred and fifty, +mostly British, were killed. Cornwallis dispatched messengers to summon +the men he had left at Maidenhead and Princeton, determined if possible +to surround, overwhelm and annihilate Washington next day. But the battle +on the Assanpink was destined to be the only real fighting in Trenton. +Washington had in mind the strategic move which rendered this campaign +one of his greatest, if not his very greatest. He determined to outflank +his foe by a circuitous march to Princeton over the unguarded road on the +south side of the Assanpink. + +The night was dark and cold; the camp-fires of both lines burned strong +and bright. Behind those of Cornwallis there was a bustle of preparation +for the next day’s battle; behind those of Washington there was a +stealthy making ready for retreat. The baggage was packed and dispatched +to Burlington; a few men were detached to keep the fires well fed and +clear; the rest silently stole away about midnight. Their march was +long, between sixteen and eighteen miles, and difficult because the +frost had turned the mud on the roads into hummocks. But at sunrise on +the third of January the head of the column had crossed Stony Brook by +the bridge on the Quaker road, and stood about a mile and three-quarters +from Princeton, awaiting the result of a council of war. They were +masked by the piece of woods which is still standing behind the Quaker +meeting-house. It was determined that Washington with the main column +should march across the fields, through a kind of depression in the +rolling land intervening between the meeting-house and Princeton, in +order to reach the town as quickly as possible. Mercer, with three +hundred and fifty men and two field-pieces, was to follow the road half a +mile farther to its junction with the King’s Highway, and there blow up +the upper bridge over Stony Brook, that by which Cornwallis’s reserve, +marching to Trenton, must cross the stream. This would likewise detain +Cornwallis himself on his return in pursuit. + + * * * * * + +There were three actions in the battle of Princeton. Two of the three +English regiments left in reserve at Princeton were under way betimes +to join Cornwallis at Trenton. One of these under Colonel Mawhood, with +three companies of horse, had already crossed Stony Brook and had climbed +the hill beyond, before they descried Mercer following the road in the +valley below; the other was half a mile behind, north of the stream. +Mawhood quickly turned back and, uniting the two, engaged Mercer. The +Americans were armed with rifles which had no bayonets, and although +nearly equal in number to the enemy they were first slowly then rapidly +driven up the hill to the ridge south of the King’s Highway and east of +the Quaker road. They stood firm before the firing of the English, but +yielded when the enemy charged bayonets. In this encounter Mercer was +severely wounded and left for dead. Many other officers were likewise +wounded as they hung back, striving to rally the flying troops. + +Washington, hearing the firing, stopped immediately and, leaving the +rest of his column to follow their line of march, put himself at the +head of the Pennsylvania volunteers and wheeled. Summoning two pieces of +artillery he turned to join the retreating forces of Mercer. The British +reached the crest of the hill in pursuit before they saw Washington’s +column. The sight brought them to a halt, and while they formed their +artillery came up. It seemed to Washington a most critical moment. In an +instant Mercer’s command was fused with his own men, and placing himself +well out before the line he gave the order to advance. There was no +halt until the Commander himself was within thirty yards of the foe; at +that instant both lines volleyed simultaneously. The fire was hasty and +ineffective. Washington, as if by a miracle, was unscathed. As the smoke +blew away, an American brigade came in under Hitchcock, while Hand with +his riflemen attacked the British flank. In a few moments Mawhood gave +up the fight; his troops, after a few brave efforts, broke and retreated +over the hill up the valley of Stony Brook. The bridge was then destroyed. + +Meantime the head of the American column had reached the outskirts of +Princeton. There, on the edge of the ravine now known as Springdale, was +posted still a third British force composed of soldiers from the 40th +and 55th Line. The Americans, with Stark at their head, attacked and +drove them back as far as Nassau Hall, into which the fugitives hastily +threw themselves. From the windows scattered remnants of their regiments +could be seen fleeing through fields and byways toward New Brunswick. The +American artillery began to play on the walls of the building; one ball, +it is said, crashed through the roof and tore from its frame the portrait +of George II., hanging in the Prayer Hall; another is still imbedded in +the venerable walls. A Princeton militiaman, with the assistance of his +neighbors, finally burst the door and the little garrison surrendered. + +When Donop retreated from Bordentown to Princeton after the battle of +Trenton, he threw up an arrow-head breastwork at the point not far from +where Mercer and Stockton Streets now join; on this still lay a cannon +of the size known as a thirty-two pounder, the carriage of which was +dismantled. It was early morning when Cornwallis became aware that his +expected battle would not be fought at Trenton; the roar of artillery +gave him the terrible assurance that the blow had been struck on his +weakened flank,—that his precious stores at New Brunswick were in +danger. Swiftly he issued the necessary orders and appeared at the west +end of the town on the King’s Highway, just as Washington was leaving +Princeton, his van having been delayed in crossing Stony Brook. The +citizens had loaded the gun in the breastwork and on the approach of the +intruders they fired it. This utterly deceived the English generals, for +they thought themselves facing a well-manned battery. It was some time, +tradition says an hour, before they were undeceived and in that precious +interval Washington collected his army and marched away. His forces were +too weak to risk the venture of seizing New Brunswick, even temporarily; +accordingly he turned northwestward and reached Morristown in safety. +There and at Middlebrook his headquarters practically remained for the +rest of the war. The English were content to secure New Brunswick. + +In the battle of Princeton there were engaged somewhat under two +thousand men on each side. The actual fighting lasted less than half an +hour. We lost very few men—so few that the number cannot be accurately +reckoned—possibly thirty; but we lost a brave general, Hugh Mercer, a +colonel, a major, and three captains. The English soldiers fought with +unsurpassed gallantry. They lost two hundred killed and two hundred and +fifty captured, but no officers of distinction. It was not, therefore, +a big fight, but it was none the less a great and decisive battle. +How important Washington felt it to be, is attested by his personal +exposure of himself. How decisive the great military critics have +considered it, is shown by the fact that the campaign of which it was the +finishing stroke is held by them to have been typical of his genius as +a strategist. The two affairs of Trenton and Princeton are in the short +histories of the Revolution generally reckoned together. And naturally +so, since they occurred so near to one another in time and place. But, +strategically and tactically examined, the battle of Trenton made good +Washington’s position behind the Delaware; the battle of Princeton +secured New Jersey and the Middle States. + +After the preliminary actions which took place in New England the +remainder of the Revolution falls into three portions—the struggle for +the Hudson, to secure communication between New England and the Middle +States; the struggle for the Delaware, to secure communication between +the Middle States and the South; and thirdly, the effort to regain the +South. After the battle of Princeton, Washington was able to establish a +line from Amboy around by the west and south to Morristown; New England, +the Middle and Southern States were in communication with each other and +free. As a result of the first campaign by a numerous and well-equipped +Anglo-German army the English held nothing but Newport in Rhode Island +and New York City, with posts at King’s Bridge on the north and at New +Brunswick on the south. The proof was finally secured that Washington +with a permanent army such as the Colonies might, unassisted, have +furnished him, would have been a match for any land force the English +could have transported to America. + +For the remaining years of the war Princeton was held by the Americans. +Both the Legislature of the State and the Council of Safety held their +meetings within its precincts; for a time Putnam was in command of the +little garrison, for a time Sullivan. Early in 1781 thirteen hundred +mutinous Pennsylvanians of Washington’s army marched away from Morristown +and came in a body to Princeton. They were met by emissaries from Clinton +who strove to entice them from their allegiance. But, though mutinous, +they were not traitors, for they seized the British emissaries and +handed them over to General Wayne to be treated as spies. A committee +of Congress appeared and made such arrangements as pacified them. In +the autumn of the same year the victory of Yorktown was celebrated with +illuminations and general rejoicings. The College was again in session +with forty students and local prosperity was restored. In 1782 there was +held a meeting to support a continuance of the war. + +[Illustration: NASSAU HALL.] + +The Revolutionary epoch was fitly brought to a close by a meeting of +Congress in Nassau Hall. On June 20, 1783, three hundred Pennsylvania +soldiers who were discontented with the terms of their discharge marched +from Lancaster to Philadelphia and beset the doors of Congress, holding +that assembly imprisoned for three hours under threat of violence if +their wrongs were not redressed. The legislators resolved to adjourn +to Princeton. They were made heartily welcome, the college halls were +put at their disposal, and the houses of the citizens were hospitably +opened for their entertainment. Their sessions were held regularly in the +College library for over four months, until the fourth of November, when +they adjourned to meet at Annapolis three weeks later. Washington was +in Princeton twice during this time: once at commencement in September, +when he made a present of fifty guineas to the trustees—a sum they spent +for the portrait by Peale which now hangs in Nassau Hall, filling, it +is said, the very frame from which that of George II. was shot away +during the battle. The second time he came in October, at the request of +Boudinot, President of Congress, and a trustee of the College, to give +advice concerning such weighty matters as the organization of a standing +army to defend the frontiers, of a militia to maintain internal order, +and of the military school. The Commander-in-Chief was received in solemn +session and congratulated by the President on the success of the war. He +replied in fitting terms. According to tradition he occupied while in +attendance on Congress a room in a house now replaced by the handsome +Pyne dormitory on the corner of Witherspoon and Nassau Streets, but his +residence was the colonial mansion three miles away on the hill above the +town of Rocky Hill which has been preserved as a historical monument and +revolutionary museum by the liberality of Mrs. Josephine Swann. It was +from this place that he issued his famous farewell address to the army. + +But the greatest occasion in Princeton’s history was on the thirty-first +of the same month. Congress had assembled in the Prayer Hall to receive +in solemn audience the minister plenipotentiary from the Netherlands. +There were present, besides the members, Washington, Morris, the +superintendent of finance, Luzerne, the French envoy, and many other +men of eminence. The company had just assembled when news came that +the Treaty of Peace had been signed at Versailles. Many brilliant and +beautiful women were present, and their unchecked delight doubled the +enthusiasm of all. The reception was the most splendid public function +thus far held by the now independent republic. On the twenty-fifth of +November the British evacuated New York. Washington left Princeton to +attend the ceremony, and afterward journeyed by Annapolis to his home at +Mt. Vernon. He believed that, his military career being concluded, he was +to spend the rest of his days as a private gentleman. + +Providence had ordained otherwise. He had carried the difficult, strange +and desultory War of the Revolution to a successful end; he had, by +wise counsel and firmness, averted the dangers of a civil war which +seemed imminent, so far as he could judge from the temper of those about +his headquarters at Newburgh. Once more he was to enter the arena of +embittered strife, but in a conflict political and not military. Three +of the five great actions in which he was personally present during +the Revolution were fought on Jersey soil; his next leadership was +displayed in a contest waged in Philadelphia, but largely by Jerseymen +or Princetonians. Princeton’s place in American history can not be +understood without consideration of the Constitutional Convention, where +the passions of localism, separatism and sectional prejudice broke +forth afresh. The assembly contained many wise and far-seeing men. +Of its fifty-five members, thirty-two were men of academic training. +There were one each from London, Oxford, Edinburgh and Aberdeen, and +five had been connected with the checkered fortunes of William and +Mary. The University of Pennsylvania sent one, Columbia two, Harvard +three, Yale four and Princeton nine. The most serious dissension, as is +well known, was concerning the relative importance of large and small +States in legislation. The Virginia, or large-States plan, was for two +houses, basing representation in both on population. It was essentially +the work of James Madison, a pupil of Witherspoon. The Jersey, or +small-State, plan was for one house, wherein each State should have +equal representation. It was the cherished idea of Paterson, another +Princetonian. Over these two schemes the battle waged fiercely until it +seemed that even Washington, the presiding officer, could not command +peace or force a compromise, and that the convention was on the verge +of dissolution. Connecticut had ever been accustomed to two houses—one +representing the people, one the towns. It was the compromise suggested +on this analogy by Sherman and Ellsworth, and urged by them, with the +assistance of Davie from Georgia, which finally prevailed. Ellsworth and +Davie were both Princetonians. Madison joined hands with Washington in +the successful struggle for the acceptance of the new Constitution in +Virginia—both Ellsworth and Paterson, their end attained, became the most +ardent Federalists. + +The history of Princeton during this century has of course not been +so dramatic as it was in the last, but the town and neighborhood have +secured the permanent influence foreshadowed by its Revolutionary +record. They shared in the control of State and nation, they gave their +sons freely to the service of the country in each of the three wars +since fought. But of course the story of Princeton is, in the main, the +story of the University. Reopening its doors under Witherspoon with +about forty students, its graduating class as early as 1806 numbered +fifty-four, and thence to the outbreak of the Civil War it enjoyed +almost unbroken prosperity under four presidents, Samuel Stanhope Smith, +Ashbel Green, James Carnahan and John Maclean. The first care of its +friends was to provide for thorough training in science, so that it has +the honor of having had the first American professor of chemistry. For +a time it likewise had a professor of theology; but the founding of the +Theological Seminary in 1812 and its permanent location in Princeton +the following year committed that branch of learning to an institution +which has since become one of the most important in the country. From +time to time new buildings were added to both College and Seminary as +necessity required. How stern the college discipline was is shown by the +fact that at intervals, fortunately rare, students were sent to their +homes in numbers scarcely credible in this quieter age; on one occasion +a hundred and twenty-five out of something over two hundred. In 1824 +Lafayette graciously accepted the degree of Bachelor of Laws from the +authorities while passing from New York to Washington. In 1832 Joseph +Henry was made professor of natural philosophy, a chair he held with the +highest distinction, for it was in his Princeton laboratory that he made +his epochal discoveries in electricity, stepping-stones to the revolution +of the world by its use; in 1848 he was made director of the Smithsonian +Institute. In 1846 was organized a Law School; its three professors were +men of the highest distinction, but the project was premature. In 1855 +flames destroyed all but the walls of Nassau Hall, whereupon it was +speedily remodelled as it still stands; the variation, slight as it was +from the original, appears to have been in the interest of economy rather +than beauty. + +[Illustration: PRESIDENT JAMES McCOSH.] + +The only serious check in Princeton’s prosperity was caused by the +Civil War. Though a large proportion of the students had always come +from the Southern States, the rest were enthusiastic in their Northern +sympathies, and the national flag was hoisted by them over Nassau Hall +in April, 1861. The minority tore it down, but it was promptly restored +to its place by a gallant citizen of the town, who in climbing to the +apex of the cupola twisted the shaft of the weather-vane and fixed the +arrow with its head to the north. Thus it remained until conciliation +was complete a few years since (1896), when the pivot was repaired +so that the historic index may point in all directions at the will of +the winds. The withdrawal of the Southern students left the numbers of +the ever-loyal University at a low ebb, and it was not until after the +accession of James McCosh to the presidency that the new clientage which +has so munificently supported him and his successor was secured. It is +also gratifying to note that the sons of the old Princeton Confederates +are returning in ever greater numbers. The presidencies of Dr. McCosh +and Dr. Patton are too near to belong to history. The evidences of the +enormous strides made in material equipment are on every hand: splendid +and beautiful buildings, professors of distinction in great numbers, and +a body of students numbering, along with those of the Seminary, about +fifteen hundred. Near by is the famous Lawrenceville School, itself an +epochal institution in the history of our secondary training. Wherever +men converse of science, literature or art, the names of Princeton’s +sons must be considered; but her chiefest glory thus far has been in her +contributions to political and educational life. Representative of a +definite theory and practice in her sphere, she breeds men in abundance +to uphold her banner in the face of all assaults. + +Time, place and the men—these are the factors of history; the first +and the last vanish, the scenes alone remain. If history is to be made +real, if we are to know in the concrete, from the experience of the men +and women who have left the stage, what alone is possible for ourselves +and our race, we do well to see and ponder the places which knew those +who have gone before. Princeton possesses, in Nassau Hall, a focus of +patriotism—a cradle of liberty. In her battle-field, the spot where +culminated one of the greatest campaigns of one of the greatest of +generals; and in her sons one sees the triumph of the moral forces which +combine in true greatness. The lesson to be learned from Princeton’s +historic scenes should be that intellect and not numbers controls the +world; that ideas and not force overmaster bigness; that truth and right, +supported by strong purpose and high principle, prevail in the end. + +[Illustration: SEAL OF PRINCETON.] + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +PHILADELPHIA + +THE CITY PENN FOUNDED AND TO WHICH FRANKLIN GAVE DISTINCTION + +BY TALCOTT WILLIAMS + + +Cities are of nature. Their long life flows in ways she has made longer +than the changing rule of which they are part. Nations and boundaries are +of man and his laws. Artificial creations all. Cities and their sites are +of the same forces as form the rivers and ports, the passes and pathways +on which they stand and last as long. Rome outlives its empire, and +Damascus the shock of massacre from Chedorlaomer to Timur. The cities +of Europe are still where they were twenty centuries ago. The civil +structure into which they fit has changed until nothing is left of what +once was. These things are missed in the general. They come to be seen in +the particular. + +Philadelphia stands, and necessarily stands on the straight, ruler-like +“Falls line” which passes through every city site from New York to +Montgomery, because this prodigious slip changes river navigation +wherever it crosses a river valley. Where marine navigation stopped +to-day and then, Penn put his city, its site a peninsula about which +two rivers joined, a rich alluvial plain, covered with glacial clay, +with schistose rocks cropping out across it, the palæozoic marble of +the Atlantic coast hard by, and a strip of green serpentine crossing +the country from the highest points in the future limits of the city to +Chester County, its first granary and feeding ground. These things—the +half-sunken Lower Delaware River spreading into Delaware Bay, the term of +navigation at the junction of two rivers, and the abrupt approach to the +sea of a formation elsewhere miles from the ocean—make Philadelphia all +it is in outer look, a flat city built of its own clay, garnished with +its own marble, a seaport knowing the sea only in its rivers. + +[Illustration: READING THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. + +FROM AN OLD FRENCH PRINT.] + +In this inland port, as you float in either river, seafaring masts and +main rigging, black and tarred, silhouette against the tender green of +growing fields. The early houses were brick of the glacier’s leaving, +matching London in color; for both are ground out of the same earth mill. +Its early stone houses were of the narrow contorted gray schists, and +marble quarries had been opened, exhausted and closed to trim the brick +before the Revolution. Later these were varied by the green serpentine, a +hideous, dull color, the red sandstone of the fertile inland plains, and +at last, as railroads made it easy to seek a door-step 1,000 miles away, +the marble of Vermont built the City Hall, the granites of Cape Ann the +Post Office, and Ohio ashlar a growing number of private homes, matching +London once more as a close congener of the Portland stone Penn saw +builded into St. Paul’s. The outer resemblance to London noted by Matthew +Arnold and many an one besides, rests, as such things do, on concrete +fact. + +William Penn in 1682 came into no empty Western world. The Dutch and +Swede had been entering these waters for near a century. They were +charted, tracked and known. Uneasy frontier alarms were over. Farms +dotted all the region. For the first time, in _Fox’s Journal_, a +decade before Penn, we catch the accent and atmosphere of the American +settler living lonely and safe. He was as yet neither of these in New +England, New York or the Southern States. The Swedes had left their +work in Swedes’ Church, with its timber, roof and tower recalling North +Europe, as its carved angels do the wood sculpture of the pine forest. +There was a tavern, the Blue Anchor, possibly (not probably) still +standing, waiting for Penn at the little boat harbor, now Dock Street. +A thriving commerce of a ship a week was already busying the river with +its boats. On the crest of the low hill that rose from this boat-haven, +Penn planted the house which now stands in the Park. On this crest ran +Market, and where the land began to dip to the Schuylkill, Broad Street +crossed, the first streets to be run by the prospector and real-estate +speculator, on a plan by whose geometrical extensions both are still +guided, in these days of new boulevards in old cities the oldest and +least changed of any city plan in civilized lands. On this background of +growing farms and frequent vessels, Penn sketched the Commonwealth. He +and his were fortunate in his bringings. He came from Central England, +that central mark and beach line from which so large a portion of the +worthier of the race spring. He drew his settlers in the north of the +kingdom from the line of Fox’s trips, whose Cumberland and Lancashire +converts dotted the region about Philadelphia with names familiar in +his _Journal_, Lancaster, Swarthmore, Merion, and Haverford. All South +England had been stirred by Monmouth’s Rebellion and the Revolution, +the work of the South as the Commonwealth had its leader in the North. +Philadelphia, therefore, drew chiefly from Saxon, and less from Danish or +Celtic England, than had New England. Its leaders came from the thrifty +business classes of London, “city” people, instead of from the gentry +as had Virginia’s. Ten years later, Louis was harrying the Palatinate, +and a German population, skilled in the mechanic arts, came and gave +Philadelphia its manufacturing foundation. Penn was pietistic, his mother +was from Holland, and this gave him continental acquaintance and sympathy +with continental dissent, which later brought the Moravians and gave the +colony relations with Central Europe, an early and prolific press, and +patience with political oppression, a dubious virtue still surviving. + +[Illustration: THOMAS PENN. + +FROM A PAINTING OWNED BY THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA, AND +COPIED BY M. I. NAYLOR FROM THE PORTRAIT IN POSSESSION OF MAJOR DUGALD +STUART.] + +[Illustration: SECOND STREET, PHILADELPHIA, SHOWING THE OLD COURTHOUSE ON +THE LEFT. + +FROM AN ENGRAVING MADE BY BIRCH & SON.] + +The town grew like a weed and as rank. Grain was cheap, thanks to the +limestone plain just beyond the low primitive rocks. Trade flowed in from +the West Indies and Europe. In thirty years the place was bigger than +any in the provinces. The Proprietor’s square house set the fashion, +built from imported brick. Farmsteads on the road out to the German town +of the new immigrants were built of the gray schists of the region. +Ship-building began. Pirates lurked in the river below. The Proprietor’s +official residence, now gone, fronted on the fouling pool where boats +came, and matched the English country-house of South England. A little +State House, which closely resembled in outer look the market-house +of the same period on Second Street to the south, was built on Market +Street, near the open rising ground on which Letitia Penn’s dwelling +stood. Merchants’ homes were on its low hill; some of those still there +are probably of this period when of imported brick. There is a row of +houses on Swanson Street recalling the mechanics’ homes. In green quiet +still held, the Friends’ meeting-house was erected—the present building +far later. Low houses and warehouses clustered about what is now Dock +Street—probably not one left. The swarm of some two thousand houses +stretched along the river for what is now a square or two. Beyond were a +few fields. Dense forests stood to the Schuylkill, and crowned all the +little hills about, save that Fairmount stood bare, as is indeed the +fashion of the sterile, rocky height. Schools were opened, of which one +survives in the “Penn charter” school on Twelfth and Market. The city +began its chartered existence, and the portraits of its first mayors, +whose descendants are still part of the active life of the city, recall +those of Guildhall, not as with like New England iconography, the +Puritan remonstrants of James and Charles. An almanac was issued from +the press of Bradford, whose solitary copy in the Historical Society +begins printing for the State. A polyglot literature was in progress, +apparent in more than one collection. The long, low, brick-built town +left its image in 1720 in the picture in the entrance of the Philadelphia +Library. Market stalls filled the river end of the street to which they +gave a name, and these the civic organization, the peak-towered State +House, the courts, the brick houses, the Proprietor’s residence, the +city ordinances, the entire machinery of life, followed and imitated as +closely as might be, on the edge of the wilderness, the market borough +of an English shire. The town had had its first big boom and was near +wallowing in its first reaction,—houses empty, more money in demand, +debts oppressive, and all hope gone, when (1723) the great genius, +Benjamin Franklin, who was to be its second founder and save it from +Friend and Precisian, Palatinate Dutch, German, and Pietist, walked up +Market Street and turned down Fourth in early morning. He was to give +Philadelphia its better civilization. For near seventy years, he was to +be, so far as the civilized world was concerned, the city and all in it +worth knowing. By supreme good fortune all his past, or at least as much +as it is desirable to know, is laid bare to the visitor. The houses in +which he is said to have had his lodging as apprentice—old enough for +this, at least—look down from Lodge Street on Dock Square. His old home +on Market, between Third and Fourth, is long since gone, but it stood +back from the street and was doubtless of the type of the roomy old +houses now on Third south of Walnut, or the house of Hamilton in Woodlawn +Cemetery. The letter-books of Franklin, with his correspondence for over +twenty years, are at the American Philosophical Society which he founded, +which first commemorated his death, and, a century later, the centenary +of his obsequies. The best of his portraits is there, Houdon’s bust of +the old man, and the roomy-seated chair of “Dr. Heavysides.” His dress +buckles are in the Historical Society, and the teacups over which he +bowed his compliments, and some speeches which Madame Helvetius rightly +held more dearer than compliments, frowsy as Mrs. Adams found her. There, +too, is the dubious portrait, which, whether it is Franklin in his youth +or no, looks the youth of his male descendants. Part of his electric +machine, and his printing-press, are in the Franklin Institute, part +in the Philadelphia Library, which he also founded, and a Leyden jar, +perhaps of the great experiment, at the American Philosophical Society. +The fire-bucket of his company, and the sword he wore in his brief but +not inglorious military service, are in the Historical Society. One +probable site of the field in which he flew his kite is filled by the +present Record building. His statue is on the front of the library at +Juniper and Locust; another—worthy—is to the right on Chestnut Street, +looking on the flow of men and women in the city life he loved, for in +the country he never willingly spent a day. Not a stage of his life but +can still be followed by the historical pilgrim in Philadelphia. He +can follow in Franklin’s steps,—the steep slope up which he walked to +enter—with old landing-stairs still in place south of Market—the Fourth +Street corner, the site of his job office, the purlieus of Dock Street, +from whence came the mire that never quite left his garments, the lots +of the Market Street home where his better years were passed, his pew +at Christ’s Church, the State House he entered for a half-century in +so many capacities—King’s officer, contractor, colonial legislator, +rebellious congressman, signer of the Declaration and Constitution,—his +eye through all the years on the gilded sun one can yet trace on the +back of the President’s chair—and last, when his own sun was at its +setting, as member of the Constitutional Convention of his own State, +and his modest grave at Fifth and Arch, where one may still uncover at +the last memory of the most human of all Americans. Most of us, least +of other lands, prefiguring in life, work, and character our invincible +patience, our good humor, our quenchless curiosity, our careless disorder +in trifles, our easy success in serious affairs, our sluttish phrase, our +high spirit, the even equality of our manners, our perpetual relish for +the simple environment and the homelier joys of our life, our neglect +of means and detail, our perseverance and achievement in the final end, +our self-consciousness and our easy conviction that neither fate itself, +nor our own careless disregard of a less wise past, can rob us of our +appointed place in the advancing files of time. + +[Illustration: FRANKLIN IN 1777. + +AFTER THE PRINT REPRODUCED FROM THE DRAWING OF COHIN.] + +[Illustration: THE PHILADELPHIA LIBRARY. + +THE OLD BUILDING ON FIFTH STREET, NOW DEMOLISHED. FROM THE ENGRAVING BY +W. BIRCH & SON.] + +Franklin’s busy march through these streets bridged two great periods. +His half-century before the Revolution, fifty-two years from his landing +to Lexington, was a season of prodigious material expansion whose signs +are all about the city. Then were built those pleasant places in the +Park, and homes like that of John Penn’s in the Zoölogical Garden, ending +in the privateer’s house which was later to be Arnold’s headquarters, +to-day Mt. Pleasant. John Bartram built his stone house, set up its +pillars and laid out his Botanical Garden, both happily standing and +city property, his cypress alone dead,—slow failing through the years in +which one lover has each spring sought it,—but much of his sylvan wealth +remains, still a record of his science and of the economic conditions +which gave him means for his long and costly trips. For when there were +neither roads nor railroads the “distance-rent” of farm land near a city +was enormous. The farm hard by swept in all the profit of days of teaming +of which the railroad has long since robbed it and diffused it over a +wide area, levelling up, as is our American way. The home, the life, the +leisure, the acquaintance and the society possible 150 years ago to a man +who farmed suburban acres are all attested when you stand in Bartram’s +garden by the river on the gray rock of the only rock wine-press this +side of the Atlantic, and remember that on this curving path Washington, +Franklin, Hancock, Rittenhouse, Morris, and Kalm, and a score more of the +century’s great, supped in the cool, open evening with a host whom the +first two found at a sudden coming bare-headed, barefooted and plowing. +The Revolutionary houses of the environs tell of the farm-profits of this +period; so do the “clasped hands” and the “green tree” on the fronts of +the olden homes—few or none dating back of the Revolution—which record +the organization of rival insurance companies; the earliest building +of the Pennsylvania Hospital on Pine with quaint old-world aspect, the +little strip of wall at Tenth and Spruce, once part of the almshouse +which Longfellow blended with the hospital in _Evangeline_; Carpenters’ +Hall, the only Guild house in the colonies; the bit of wall still +standing of the brewery at Fifth and Wharton; of the first play-house in +the city and, most important of all, the two chief colonial monuments of +the city, Christ Church and Independence Hall. + +[Illustration: CARPENTERS’ HALL, PHILADELPHIA. + +WHEREIN MET THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS, 1774.] + +[Illustration: THE PENNSYLVANIA HOSPITAL. + +FROM AN OLD ENGRAVING BY W. BIRCH & SON.] + +These buildings mark much. The city from a mere “Front” Street on the +river, and two behind it, had grown up to Seventh and Eighth in a half +ellipse which ran in thriving homes from Kensington, grew thronged +about Chestnut, now passing Market in the race,—so that Market and +Arch have the oldest house-fronts to-day,—and then thinned out again +towards the scene of the Mischienza. In this area are scattered the +mansions of the Colonial and immediate post-Revolutionary period, with +Mrs. Ross’s house on Arch Street as type of the mechanic’s dwelling of +the day, happily preserved and now bought as a memorial of the flag +first made there. Beyond them begins the modern city of this century, +of machine-made brick, of lumber sawed by steam, and house plans fitted +to the growing value of the city lot. The growth which thus expanded +the city of Penn into the city of Franklin was no mere accretion of +population. It came of a profitable trade, of a share in adventures by +sea and land, not always legal, and always dangerous, and of a close +connection between the merchants of this city and those of London, from +which the ancestors of more than one Philadelphia Friend were drawn, +for Penn had borne his testimony in the Grace Church and Wheeler Street +meeting-houses in London. When the richer men of the city came to erect +its chief church, it was Gibbs’s St. Martin in the Fields which suggested +the interior of the building on Second Street, and it was London brick +architecture which was followed in Independence Hall and its open +arches,—now restored,—despoiling the record of recent history to decorate +and sometimes disfigure an earlier period, as is the manner and method +of restoration the world over. These buildings in their size, their +grace, their Georgian flavor, their cost,—for both were extravagant as +times then went,—stood for an opulent mercantile connection between the +metropolis of colonial and of royal England, a connection never quite +lost, as the resemblance of the younger city to the older has never quite +vanished. New York suggests Paris in spots, but no Philadelphian in his +wildest flight ever thought that Philadelphia did. + +When the Revolution came, Philadelphia sacrificed its English trade +as promptly as ninety years later the city, loyal to its principles, +sacrificed its Southern trade, and in both times and both sacrifices New +York lagged to the rear in action and came to the front in assertion. +Independence Hall still looked out on green fields to the west, and +Rittenhouse’s little observatory—earliest of American star-gazing spots, +whose telescope, earliest of our astronomical instruments, is in the +American Philosophical Society—still stood in the square where Howe’s +artillery was to be parked. The jail of “Hugh Wynne” was on the southeast +corner of Sixth and Chestnut, on whose site Binney’s home was to stand +later, the hero of another struggle for freedom. In the northeast corner +of Washington Square was the potter’s field, last opened a century +ago for yellow-fever victims. The house, Dutch built, and hence close +to the street edge, in which Jefferson was to write the draft of the +Declaration, preserved by the American Philosophical Society, was on +Seventh and Market, its commemoration tablet on the wrong lot. A tavern +fronted the Hall, and its stables ran opposite to the main door, its +flies worrying the Continental Congress on a hot historic afternoon. +The sharp rise which still ascends between Callowhill and Spring Garden +was crested by the British works, of which the first was at Second and +Poplar. From the Market Street Bridge it is still possible to make out +the hill on which Hamilton planted his field-pieces to engage the British +_tête-du-pont_, held by the 72d Highlanders. The Hessians camped in the +open space at Gray’s Ferry, as the bridge of many years is still called. +The stately house which held the Mischienza has disappeared only within +a few years. The houses on the main street of Germantown still bear the +mark of the battle, and look unchanged on the street whose fogs still +veil it as on the day of conflict. The city now had from the river the +sky-line which it substantially retained up to twenty years ago, when the +steeples and the towers the Revolutionary period knew were dwarfed by the +many-storied steel frames of to-day. + +[Illustration: INDEPENDENCE HALL, PHILADELPHIA, BEFORE 1876.] + +[Illustration: THE MORRIS HOUSE, GERMANTOWN, PHILADELPHIA.] + +The returning tide of prosperity after the Revolution has left one mark +in the Morris dwelling on the south side of Eighth, between Locust and +Walnut, type of the wealthy home of the day. The biggest of the period +was Robert Morris’s, on the site of the Press Building, left as his +“folly.” The peak-roofed house in roomy squares now gave way for thirty +years to the house built flush to the street, which in the generation +between 1790 and 1820 spread the growing city up to Tenth Street or so, +and of which many are left. With this growth dwellings pushed beyond +South on one side and beyond Vine on the other, the fringe of the city +limits becoming an Alsatia still apparent, mechanics’ homes crowding +just beyond as they still do, until met north and even south by more +pretentious dwellings. In this thirty years the city grew from 42,000 to +108,000, and it faced first the problem to which only the American and +Australian city has proved fully equal in all the round of semitropical +summers north or south of the equator. The city, as it inherited from +England its city government, had also inherited from there its well-water +supply, its surface drainage, its slovenly streets, its practice of +crowding the homes of the poor on back lots, so as to fill the area +on which they stood with unsavory wynds, and its habit of intramural +interment and intramural slaughter-houses, all which, even the Latin +cities of two thousand years ago, taught by hotter summers, had outgrown. +In the tepid temperature and light but even rain-fall in England these +worked few ills until the middle of this century. Under our torrid +summer, our tropical rain-fall, and our swift changes, all these things +meant disease and death, and the unconscious problem which faced the city +a century ago and left its mark on the map was recorded in yellow fever, +born of water-supply and filth together with overcrowding, and all the +evils of bad water and overcrowding. + +Water-works were at last built, the most considerable then known, their +site where the Public Buildings stand and their picture in the Historical +Society; a systematic street scavenging began, building on the back of +lots was prohibited, years before New York, and two generations before +the European city; a fixed yardage, small, but sufficient to transform +the city map, was required of each dwelling; paving and sewerage +commenced, the almshouse was moved, a city hospital was established, +and a most important legal decision made easy the purchase of house +lots by the poor and frugal. The solution was not complete. Typhoid +lurks where yellow fever once raged, but crowding was prevented and +the city has no slums in the region outside of the area which has been +built over since the ordinances of the first twenty to thirty years of +this century stopped overcrowding and saved its poorer citizens from +the awful fate inflicted by the titled avarice and civic mislegislation +of London and Glasgow. Nor ought any one to look across the Schuylkill +from the Zoölogical Garden at the lovely and related group which houses +the Fairmount Water-works without a thrill of pride that this was the +beginning of the problem of preserving health in heat and rain, which +since the world began had meant pestilence to the city in like climes. +As is the American habit, the supply looked first to quantity, and later +to quality; and as is also the American habit, both will be secured in +the end. So the large provision for the almshouse of seventy years ago +has given the space for the University and its buildings, its cognate +institutions, hospitals and museums, taken collectively, one of the most +liberal grants made by any modern city to the work of higher education +not under its own control, a grant which owed its initiative and early +success to Dr. William Pepper, whose statue overlooks the site he secured +to learning and to science. There the University has grown, covered its +site with a score of buildings, added department to department, doubled +its students in a decade, received more in gifts under its present +Provost, Mr. Charles C. Harrison, than had come to it in all the +century and a half of its history, knit the community to it and given it +intellectual leadership by a group of affiliated societies, linked itself +to the public schools by municipal scholarships supported by the city, +opened courses for teachers, spread its lectures over the State and in +all ways made itself not only an institution of learning for students, +but of teaching for the community. + +[Illustration: DR. WILLIAM PEPPER.] + +[Illustration: FRANK THOMSON.] + +The development of civic institutions in the first quarter of the century +was accompanied by the founding, each to-day housed in conspicuous +recent edifices of the past decade, of State-aided institutions for +the Deaf and Dumb, 1820, for the Blind, 1833, and the House of Refuge, +1828. This philanthropic impulse came, as such generally does, as part +of a rapid material development which, in a score of years ending +with the commercial crash of 1837-39, had laid the foundations of the +manufacturing activity and the internal commerce of Philadelphia. It was +in this period that the Music Fund Hall (1824), Eighth above South, was +built. The Exchange, 1832, the most pretentious building of its day, was +erected near the close of the period, and the pillared row, following a +London model, was built on Spruce between Ninth and Tenth, the largest +and most costly private dwellings of its day. The next Colonnade row, +nearly twenty years later, occupied the site, and gave the name to the +Colonnade Hotel, Fifteenth and Chestnut. St. Mark’s and St. Luke’s +stood for opposite extremes of the church edifices of the forties. The +taste of the Federalists and Whigs of the day filled the city with the +pseudo-classic, from which Europe was just departing—the United States +bank, now the Custom-house, the Mint, the building in which Girard had +his bank, back of the Exchange, and lastly Girard College, not easily +forgot, however unfit for its purpose, if once seen from St. George’s +hill on its airy height. The ship-building firm of Cramps was established +1830, and Baldwin’s Locomotive Works 1837, both products of the same +period of activity. Ten years later began the Pennsylvania railroad +comparable to a kingdom in revenue power and the ability of chiefs like +Frank Thomson. The city flowed across Broad Street, and solid blocks +pushed their way in brick and white marble, turning later to New York’s +brown-stone, up each flank of the city on Pine and on Arch, spreading +out in an area beyond Broad Street, which the crash of credit, and the +failure of the State for a season to pay the interest on its bonds, left +tenantless, often roofless, covered with mortgages and the prediction, +heard first under Governor Keith, 1725, repeated within this decade, that +the city would never need the houses which a boom had erected. + +The city of the period before the war had now been built and the suburbs +had grown close to the consolidation of 1854. Railroad access had +created, across the Schuylkill, the village of Mantua, which was to +become West Philadelphia as it extended southward and was reached by new +bridges and street-car lines. To the north, just beyond the old British +redoubts, factory owners, managers and foremen, mechanics and operatives, +with the retailers they required, had built their homes on the higher +ground, north of the great industries growing on the low and lightly +taxed land, easily accessible by railroads from the coal-fields, beyond +the old city limits at Vine, and extending to Callowhill and beyond. This +created the city of Spring Garden. The river settlements, the Northern +Liberties, Kensington, Richmond, grew under the triple influence of +manufacturers and cheap coal, out of the villages whose farm-houses, +taverns and mechanics’ dwellings of the early years of the century still +dot the raw newer dwellings of the past forty years. Like settlements had +grown in Southwark and Manayunk. The gaps and sutures still remain to +mark the old divisions. The squalid stretches of South Street from river +to river, for nearly a century the resort of cheap stores which sought +city trade, and avoided city taxes. The like ragged selvedge along Vine, +influenced, too, along much of the line by low, open ground. The gap +fringing both banks of the Schuylkill, marking days when the railroad and +the Market Street bridge made the more distant uprise of Fortieth Street +more accessible than the lower region nearer. The bare and vacant patches +about Germantown Junction, over which the old village has never quite +grown down to meet the approaching city, where for various reasons of +grade, access was not easy, and where institutions like Girard College +and the Penitentiary, with a cemetery or two, like rocks in a moving +stream, have stopped and divided the glacier-like spread of the city. +These things have made Philadelphia, like London, a city of accretions +from divers centres, and not, like Paris or New York, a steady, +symmetrical and continuous growth from one organic centre. + +The war found a city which, united, had more than the area of London +(Philadelphia, 82,807 acres; London, 74,692), and at almost every stage +of the growth of the two a quarter of the population of the vaster +metropolis. Since room is the chief factor in civic comfort, there has +never been a year in which the average man has not been just about four +times as comfortable in Philadelphia as in London, and he has always had +higher wages by a quarter to a half, paid less for food and lodgings, +and paid more for clothing, light and coal. He has lived here, a family +to a house, where a quarter of London has been a family to two rooms. +Most of all, for twenty years past has this growth of the small houses +of labor gone on, their number swelling faster than the tale of families +seeking them. These conditions, secured by a wise civic policy early +in the century, had reached the full development, which they have since +maintained, at the opening of the war. Inexpressibly dull was the +extension the city now made, the dreary reaches of homes, which oppress +the stranger west of Eleventh Street, and appear in unvarying blocks on +the North and South Streets, the building operations of the ’40s and +’50s, in whose even rows were the last, worst expression of the dull, +utilitarian spirit of the pre-war, pre-centennial period. Napoleon LeBrun +built the Cathedral and the Academy of Music, a brick shell holding a +shapely and grandiose interior, and Walton and McArthur added to the +pseudo-classic. When the Jayne Block went up on Chestnut, east of Third, +it was believed to be the largest single business building yet erected +on the continent. The Girard, 1852, was one of its largest hotels, and +echoed the Italian palace front which Barry had taught London in his +Reform Club. + +[Illustration: THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. + +STATE HOUSE, PHILADELPHIA.] + +The development in manufactures after the war, railroad expansion and +the somewhat deceptive prosperity of the Centennial gave the city the +same sudden burst which Chicago had in 1893, and Philadelphia took on +the aspect in the next twenty years, 1876 to 1896, which the great city +will always hold. Cheap freights poured in new building-stones, and the +easily worked green serpentine was used in the University buildings and +the Academy of Natural Science on Logan Square. It was employed in the +Academy of Fine Arts, less agreeable than the earlier front of the same +institution, now a theatre on Chestnut. The architectural impulse first +felt at the Centennial broke up the traditions of a century, and building +of the last twenty-five years, often _bizarre_, always shows, even in the +humblest row, intent, design and recognition, however uncouth, of the +just claim of decoration. + +The seeing eye and loving can still trace all these changes of a century. +The very kernel of the city, and its warehouses about Dock Square, +and the river front, the expansion before the Revolution, the pause +just after, the growth in the period after 1787, the addition early +in the century and the great growth before and after the war and for +twenty years past. Each has its character and quality, its message and +purport, and these as they extended have met a growth as distinct and +recognizable, north, west and south. The marks of these things and their +metes and bounds, the current and course of population, the monuments +of the past, the changing fashion of each decade and the desire of the +present, these are all written in this moving tide of houses which has +flooded all the wood-grown fields of two centuries ago. Generation by +generation has seen a wider comfort, a higher level of life, an improving +education and more abundant resource for the Many for whom this city +has always existed. Dull, sordid, narrow, much of this life has been. +From its dawn, it has had its seasons of stagnant corruption, and Penn +but wrote the despair of all who have served it since, yet no man has +labored and lived in it but has come to know its charm, to feel its life, +to trust to the sure tides of its being, welling always towards a more +complete comfort, and to love this vast amorphous city which broods over +its children with a perpetual home nurture. + +[Illustration: SEAL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA.] + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +WILMINGTON + +“Her mingled streams of Swedish, Dutch and English blood.” + +BY E. N. VALLANDIGHAM + + +When the adventurous William Usselinx, native of Antwerp and merchant of +Stockholm, was growing old, he proposed to King Gustavus Adolphus that +Sweden organize a trading company to operate in Asia, Africa, America, +and Terra Magellanica. The King lent ear to Usselinx, and Usselinx +was able to picture to the Swedish people the beauty and fertility +of the region bordering on the Delaware, “a fine land, in which all +the necessaries and comforts of life are to be enjoyed in overflowing +abundance.” The proposed plans sped well for a time; the King pledged +a great sum from the royal treasury in aid of the new company, and the +Swedish people, nobles and commons, subscribed to the stock. But the +King was shortly to be busied in the wars of Germany, and when he died at +his great victory of Lützen, the plans of Usselinx were yet unexecuted. +One biographer of Gustavus, indeed, says that the little fleet intended +for America was seized by the Spaniards, but it is by no means certain +that such a fleet ever set sail. + +Queen Christina, the daughter of Gustavus, permitted her able chancellor, +Oxenstiern, to revive the charter of Usselinx, and Oxenstiern employed +to take out a Swedish colony to the Delaware probably the fittest man +in all the world for that task, Peter Minuet, sometime Governor of New +Netherlands, driven from his post by the jealous factors that they +might put in his place the more pliant Walter Van Twiller, surnamed the +Doubter. The exact date of Minuet’s expedition is unknown, but Kieft, +who succeeded Van Twiller in the Governorship of New Netherlands, made +protest in May, 1638, against the presence upon the Delaware of Peter +Minuet, “who stylest thyself commander in the service of her Majesty the +Queen of Sweden.” Kieft warned Peter “that the whole South River [the +Delaware] of the New Netherlands, both the upper and the lower, has been +our property for many years, occupied by our forts, and sealed by our +blood.” + +When Kieft’s protest reached the newly arrived Swedes, they were already +in snug quarters on the edge of the River Minquas, as the Indians called +it, or Christina, as the newcomers named it (set down on modern maps as +Christiana, but in the mouths of those that navigate its waters, called +Christeen); for they had sailed up the Delaware in the _Bird Grip_, or +_Griffin_, and the _Key of Calmar_, and entering the Minquas, had come to +anchor in deep water close against a natural wharf of rock, well within +the present limits of Wilmington. Thus was made the true beginning of +the city, though no part of the region it now occupies bore the name of +Wilmington until a full century later. + +The newcomers built close to their original place of anchorage a little +fort, and behind it a little village. Hudde, the Dutch commander at +Fort Nassau, thirty miles up the Delaware, describing the Swedish +fortification seven years later, says that it was “nearly encircled +by a marsh, except on the northwest side, where it can be approached +by land.” The fort was then and for years afterward, the only place +of worship in the immediate region, and here from the founding of the +colony the Rev. Reorus Torkillius, a Swedish clergyman of Latinized name, +conducted the Lutheran service in the Swedish language. Thus church and +state were planted together. Pastor Campanius, who came five years after +Torkillius, found that beside Fort Christina had sprung up the village of +Christina Harbor, or Christinaham, and Engineer Lindstrom, who came when +the settlement was not yet twenty years old, has left us a map of this +earliest Wilmington. + +[Illustration: PLAN OF CHRISTINA FORT, 1655.] + +Before the Dutch had time to call the Swedish intruders to a reckoning +Minuet died, and John Prinz was sent out as Governor. There had been the +short intervening reign of Peter Hollendare. Prinz came under a cloud, +having lost his rank as First Lieutenant by his over-hasty surrender +of Chemnitz. Probably this fact may account for his restless energy as +Governor of New Sweden. He sought to regain in the new world repute lost +in the old. Prinz came with two ships, an armed transport, munitions of +war, troops, and many immigrants, and with instructions to maintain and +promote piety and education, to develop the resources of the colony, +agricultural and mineral, to make friends with the Indians, and to live +at peace with all neighboring Europeans. But he was to resent by force +of arms, if need be, the pretensions of the Dutch to any territorial or +other rights upon the west side of the Delaware. + +Prinz built at Tinicum, or Tenacong as the Indians called it, near the +present city of Chester, Pennsylvania, a fort to threaten the Dutch +Fort Nassau, above; and likewise at the mouth of Salem Creek, on the +Jersey shore, where the English had a small settlement, he built Fort +Elfsborg, or Elsinborough. Both were promptly armed and garrisoned. He +built still another fort, this time on the Schuylkill, within gunshot +of its mouth, and in 1646 he ordered a Dutch trading-vessel from that +river. Furthermore, he caused to be torn down with despiteful words the +arms of the Dutch, set up in sign of possession upon the present site +of Philadelphia, and when reminded of the Dutch West India Company’s +prior claim, he profanely answered that although Satan was the earliest +possessor of hell, doubtless he sometimes welcomed new comers. + +But a day of reckoning was speedily to come, for Peter Stuyvesant, +Governor of the New Netherlands, moved by the amazing activity of Prinz, +bought from the Indians all the west side of the Delaware from Minquas +Creek to Bompties (or Bombay) Hook, and in 1651, as some say,—before the +building of Elfsborg as others say,—built Fort Casimir at Sand Huken, now +Newcastle, on the Delaware, five miles below Fort Christina, and within +sight of Elfsborg. Whichever fort was built first, it is pretty certain +that the Swedes soon deserted Elfsborg, after naming it in disgust +Myggenborg, which means Fort Mosquito. The excuse for the desertion was +the insupportable insect pests of the region; so early did the New Jersey +mosquito earn the reputation that clings to him even to this day. As for +Prinz, alarmed at the activity of the Dutch, he vainly petitioned the +home government for aid, and at length went off to Europe, leaving as +deputy his son-in-law, John Pappegoja. + +And now the comedy of outflanking was to be followed by the comedy of +bloodless capture and recapture, for Prinz had not been long gone when +there arrived in the Delaware from Sweden, in the man-of-war _Eagle_, +John Claudius Rising, as commissary and counsellor to the Governor, and +Peter Lindstrom, military engineer, together with arms and soldiers. The +Dutch at Fort Casimir were living in unsuspicious peace when the _Eagle_ +suddenly appeared before the fort and demanded that the place surrender, +as occupying Swedish ground. Rising enforced his demand by landing thirty +soldiers, and the Dutch yielded upon favorable terms which secured to +them all their property, public and private, and granted as well the +honors of war. As the capture was made on Trinity Sunday, the name of the +place was changed by the Swedes to Trefalldigheet, or Fort Trinity. This +incident, which befell in the year 1655, is notable as the first passage +at arms, if such it may be called, between rival European claimants to +the western shore of the Delaware. + +[Illustration: RESIDENCE OF THE LATE THOMAS F. BAYARD.] + +But Rising’s prompt policy of aggression was a mistake, for it left +the Dutch no alternative but counter-aggression; and accordingly Peter +Stuyvesant, with seven ships and six hundred or seven hundred men, +appeared before the deserted Elfsborg late in August, 1655, captured a +few straggling Swedes ashore, endured the mosquitoes for one night only, +and next day, having landed a force north of Fort Trinity to cut it off +from Fort Christina, demanded that the garrison surrender. Swen Schute, +the Swedish commander, despite a name that ought to have been formidable +in war, was as obligingly prompt in compliance as the Dutch commander had +been a few months earlier. There was, as before, a friendly arrangement +as to the guaranty of property, public and private, but Swen Schute never +dared return to Sweden lest he be brought to book for his alacrity in +surrendering. + +Now came the taking of Fort Christina, immortalized by Washington +Irving’s genius of burlesque. Rising, aware of his weakness, professed +to believe that the Dutch had no further hostile intent, but when +they invested Fort Christina on three sides, planted cannon, and +called for the surrender of the place in forty-eight hours, he first +temporized, then put on a bold face, and finally, without striking a +blow, surrendered. So ended Swedish rule in Delaware, and so began the +short-lived Dutch supremacy. + +The Dutch guaranteed to the vanquished religious liberty and all other +reasonable privileges, so that few Swedes took the chance afforded +of selling their property and removing out of the jurisdiction. The +Swedes, indeed, were soon reconciled to Dutch rule, and in fact the +colony remained, in all save politics, as truly Swedish as it had been +before. The Dutch children learned the Swedish tongue, and as the Swedes +far outnumbered the Dutch, the latter were soon lost in the mass of +the former. When a nephew of Prinz visited the country, late in the +seventeenth century, he found that the people “used the old Swedish way +in all things.” Pastor Rudman wrote home to Sweden that the mother tongue +was still spoken in all its purity by the colonists at Christinaham, and +as a matter of fact it did not entirely cease to be used in the services +of the Swedish church until more than a century and a quarter had elapsed. + +[Illustration: OLD SWEDES CHURCH.] + +Luckily for the Swedes they were too busy to trouble themselves about a +change of masters, and when the agents of James, Duke of York, having +possessed themselves of New Amsterdam in 1664, after Charles I. had +magnificently given to James all the country between the Connecticut and +the east bank of the Delaware, also seized New Sweden as a dependency of +New Netherlands, the good folk at Christinaham accepted the new situation +and went about their business. The attempted rebellion of Königsmark, +“the Long Finn,” who called himself a son of General Count William Von +Königsmark, and the historical interlude of the Dutch occupation in 1673 +and 1674, when the forts changed hands, in the usual bloodless fashion, +twice in a few months, did not profoundly shake the community on the +Minquas. The second surrender left the English in secure possession. + +In the midst of this apparent indifference to governmental changes, one +thing did move the Swedes, and was doubtless in part responsible for the +welcome they gave the return of the Dutch: this was a tariff imposed by +the English rulers upon all inward-bound merchandise passing the capes of +the Delaware. At this juncture there came to the rescue the best friend +the Swedes had yet found in the new world, a man so wise and just in +his dealing with civilized man and savage on this side the Atlantic, so +generous, tolerant, large-minded and large-hearted in all that concerned +the great powers entrusted to him, that one can hardly understand how +even so audacious an iconoclast as Macaulay had the hardihood to assail +his memory. This man was William Penn, who, having recently become +trustee for Quaker estates in West Jersey, made prompt protest against +the tariff and had it revoked—an early triumph for the principle of no +taxation without representation. + +When, soon after, he became proprietor of the “Three Counties on the +Delaware,” the Swedes of Christinaham and the region round about knew him +and were glad. Penn had an equally good opinion of the Swedes, for he +says: + + “As they are a proper people, and strong of body, so they have + fine children, and almost every house full. It is rare to find + one of them without three or four boys and as many girls, some + six, seven and eight sons. And I must do them that right to say + I see few young men more sober and laborious.” + +A Swedish writer of about the same period notes that the Swedish farmers +are as well clad as the residents of cities. Penn describes the houses +in his new possessions as of a single story and divided into three +apartments. A house and a barn suitable to a colonist might be built for +seventy-five dollars. + +[Illustration: REV. ERIC BJORK.] + +[Illustration: BISHOP LEE.] + +Penn noted, however, that the Swedes were not so well educated as +they should have been, and a few years later they were in such need +of religious instruction, although they had but recently lost their +pastor, that, partly through the representations of the proprietor and +partly through the importunities of the Swedes themselves, the King of +Sweden was induced to send out to Delaware the Rev. Eric Bjork. This +good and energetic man, finding inconveniently situated the Swedish +Lutheran church erected in 1667 at Crane Hook, or Tran Hook, near the +mouth of the Christiana, conceived and executed the plan of building a +new church near the scene of the original Swedish landing at the Rocks. +The new edifice was the Old Swedes of to-day, which celebrated the two +hundredth anniversary of its dedication on the 28th of last May. This +venerable church, now Holy Trinity of the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of +Delaware, is revered and cherished as the one visible link which joins +the city of Wilmington to her earliest past. In the churchyard lie the +dead of many generations, and of almost all denominations. Here, side by +side with the Swedish colonists of the early eighteenth century, lies the +late Bishop Alfred Lee of the Episcopal Church, who in life, as learned +as he was modest, was one of the American Committee for the Revision of +the King James Bible. Here, too, was recently laid to rest, amid many of +his kinsfolk, the late Ambassador Thomas F. Bayard, worn with long and +honorable public service. + +Thanks to the late Dr. Horace Burr we have an English translation of the +earliest records of Old Swedes. In these records is contained a curious +account of the difficulties attendant upon the building of the new +church. There were quarrels over the glebe, the usual troubles with the +contractor, and the inevitable changes of plan after the work was under +way. Hired sawyers were paid so much per foot, and “drink.” In order to +save wages the men of the parish came as they found leisure and hewed the +timbers. Masons and other skilled mechanics came from Philadelphia, then +“a clever little town,” and with them came Dick, a negro mortar-mixer. + +[Illustration: THOMAS F. BAYARD.] + +Notwithstanding the erection of the new church, the community seems to +have grown away from the scene of the original landing, until in 1731 +Thomas Willing, son-in-law of Andrew Justison, of Swedish blood, laid +out upon the Christiana front, half a mile from the Rocks, a new town +modelled upon the rectangular plan of Philadelphia. The first house in +Willingstown, built at the corner of Front and Market streets, bore +in its brick gable a stone with the inscription, “J. W. S., 1732.” +Three years later the place was only a small hamlet, but in that year +Willingstown had a new birth, for then William Shipley, a wealthy, well +educated and energetic English Friend of Ridley in Pennsylvania, came +to the place and made himself, so to speak, its second founder. He came +through the influence of his second wife, Elizabeth Lewis, a preacher +of his own sect, who saw in a vision a goodly land lying at the foot +of a hill and traversed by two rivers, one wild and dashing, the other +sluggish and serpentine, and visiting by accident the region of the +Swedish settlement on the Christiana, recognized the landscape of her +vision. + +William Shipley built his house—an admirable example of +eighteenth-century brickwork—at the corner of Fourth and Shipley streets, +where it recently gave place to a modern business building. He built, +also, a market-house for the town at the corner of Fourth and Market +streets, and in doing so, paved the way for a quarrel with the partisans +of the Second Street market-house, a body of citizens including many +Swedes. + +So potent was the magic of William Shipley’s presence that in four years +the town had reached six hundred inhabitants. Next year it received a +borough charter from Penn, and its name was changed to Wilmington, in +honor of Lord Wilmington, says Ebeling, the German historian. It was +a tight little borough, the Wilmington of that day and of fifteen or +twenty years later. The burgesses, who at first met about in taverns, +at length were comfortably housed in a neat little Town Hall built upon +arches over one end of the Second Street market. There were fairs +during most of the eighteenth century; fairs to which hundreds came in +holiday attire and dancing shoes to make merry to the sound of bagpipe, +flute, fiddle and trombone. It is significant of grave Quaker austerity, +perhaps, that the fairs were suppressed by act of Legislature in 1785, as +nurseries of vice, a scandal to religion, and an offence to well ordered +persons. There may have been some excuse for this severity, for indeed +with the coming of the English had come something of the brutality of +eighteenth-century English manners. Bullies fought naked to the waist +in the market-place, and hired ruffians nearly cut down the posts that +supported William Shipley’s market-house. The most picturesque modern +survival of Wilmington in the eighteenth century is the King Street +open-air market, and with it remains the statute against forestalling, +made to meet the case of some early monopolist. + +[Illustration: SHIPLEY BUILDING.] + +Wilmington’s Quaker peace was little disturbed by echoes of European wars +in the eighteenth century, though in 1741 the Christiana was fortified +against possible Spanish pirates; but when the war of the Revolution +came, Wilmington was loyal and ready. Old folk still preserve the +tradition of Washington’s presence in the city just before the battle of +the Brandywine, of his gay French officers in the sober house of a Quaker +citizen, of President John McKinly’s capture at midnight by a detachment +of British sent in after the battle, of the British wounded crowding the +houses of citizens and probably saving the town from bombardment by +British ships of war in the Delaware. Tradition recalls, too, the visit +of Washington in his hour of victory, when he journeyed homeward to Mount +Vernon, of his other visit on his journey northward to be inaugurated +as President at New York, and of still another visit in 1791, when he +made his famous progress through the country. On that last visit, riding +in his chariot of state through little Brandywine village, opposite +Wilmington, on the left bank of the Brandywine, he stopped at the house +of miller Joseph Tatnall, to learn that he was at the mill, and then, +with those great strides of his, walked through the village street to +the edge of the stream, entered the mill, and talked with the courageous +patriot Quaker of his services to the army during the war. + +[Illustration: OLD FRIENDS’ MEETING-HOUSE.] + +By this time the borough had travelled far from the crudity of Swedish +days and had even departed somewhat from the severity of Quaker +tradition. There were French emigrants from the black terror in Santo +Domingo, and from the red terror in France. There were soon to be other +French immigrants,—Du Ponts, bringing a mingled flavor of aristocracy, +learning and benevolence, destined to found great factories and to give +patriot soldiers and sailors to the land of their adoption, and yet to +retain even to the fifth generation the Gallic face, and air, and manner. + +Wealth and elegance were come to the little community on the Minquas. +Had not Robert Montgomery made the tour of Europe, and did he not for +four months during the plague of yellow fever at Philadelphia entertain +Governor McKean of Pennsylvania? Did not another wealthy citizen +entertain one hundred refugees of the same period? And there was Gunning +Bedford, Jr., _aide-de-camp_ and friend to Washington, inheritor of +his crimson satin Masonic sash, his appointee as first Federal Judge +for the District of Delaware. He and his wife, a Read of distinguished +colonial stock, entertained friend and stranger with splendid hospitality +in the very house in Market Street that had been the headquarters of +Washington’s French officers. The Bedfords were Presbyterians. Gunning +Bedford, Jr., worshipped in the quaint little First Presbyterian Church +in Market Street near Tenth, now reverently preserved and occupied by +the Delaware Historical Society. Hard by in the churchyard you may see +Judge Bedford’s tomb, a low but graceful domed shaft facing the public +street, so that all may read the lesson of civic virtue, and bearing an +inscription that closes thus: + + “His form was goodly, his temper amiable, + His manners winning, and his discharge + Of private duties exemplary. + + “Reader, may his example stimulate you to improve the + talents—be they five, or two, or one—with which God has + entrusted you.” + +Wilmington built her new Town Hall just a century ago last year, and +Friend Joseph Tatnall gave the clock that shone in its tower and told +the hours. The clock went out of use more than thirty years ago, but the +building remains, not altogether spoiled by modern additions, sacred +because of its associations, and testifying to the solidity with which +the city fathers built in the last century. + +[Illustration: HOUSE OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.] + +When the City Hall was built Penn’s charter, unamended, still served the +community, and continued to serve until 1809, when it was amended and +the borough limits were enlarged. The town was yet merely a borough when +the War of 1812 came on, and Senator James A. Bayard, the first of four +Bayards to represent Delaware in the United States Senate, helped with +his own hands to build a fort almost upon the site of Fort Christina. A +city charter came in 1832. The mayor was elected for three years by the +city council, and the first mayor chosen was Richard H. Bayard. + +Wilmington as the intellectual centre of the State was naturally also +the home of radical thought. Quaker sentiment had sunk deep into the +community. An anti-slavery society was organized early. A great meeting +at the Town Hall in 1820 adopted resolutions against the extension +of slavery into the territories. Sam Townsend, a picturesque and +characteristic figure in the mid-century politics of the State, was +amazed and horrified to find that his brother, home after a week’s visit +to Wilmington, had returned with a tincture of abolitionism. Sam and his +neighbors labored with the erring one, but could not meet his arguments +against holding one’s fellow-men in bondage until Sam bethought him to +deny the humanity of the negro, and thus snatched the brother as a brand +from the burning. + +[Illustration: CITY HALL.] + +Wilmington was a station on the “underground railroad,” and Thomas +Garrett, a Quaker of Pennsylvanian birth, was the station-master—a man +of prudence but of dauntless courage, who, left penniless at sixty by +reason of a fine imposed upon him for violation of the Fugitive Slave +Law, declared upon the court-house steps in his peculiar lisp: “I did it; +I’m glad I did it; and I’d do it again.” The Civil War came too soon for +him, he said, for he had hoped to help away three thousand slaves, and +had stopped at two thousand seven hundred. + +[Illustration: NEWCASTLE COUNTY COURT HOUSE.] + +The conflict found Wilmington a little city of rough-cobbled streets, the +metropolis of a small surrounding territory, visited daily by country +folk, who drove twelve or fifteen miles,—came “to town,” as the phrase +went,—and having made their purchases, drove home, whipping in dread past +“Folly Woods,” since the days of Sandy Flash a place of evil reputation. +The firing upon Fort Sumter stirred the community to its depths, and +the city lost no time in sending to the front more than her quota of +volunteers. Flags fluttered out all over the city. Barbers made haste +to add to their poles a third stripe, a blue one, in token of loyalty. +Amid all the enthusiasm it was a time of acrid bitterness, for Delaware +was a border State with citizens holding openly or secretly opinions of +many shades other than that recognized as true blue. There were reported +sullen threats of incendiarism on the part of the disaffected; there were +many arrests of the disloyal, and stubborn but entirely conscientious +men, who would not take the oath of allegiance and were imprisoned or +publicly shamed. It was no time for a nice weighing of motives, and +the fires of the war-time hatreds were nearly a generation in cooling. +The city came out of the war chastened by sorrow and pained by bitter +contention, but ready for a newer and broader life. She has since grown +to 70,000 people. Her boundaries have been extended to the Delaware; her +factories have vastly increased in volume and variety. Miles of territory +have been covered with new homes. Water-works, sewers and parks have been +created. New Castle, the old Dutch capital of New Amstel, has yielded up +the court-house to Wilmington, but has held on to the whipping-post, +as perhaps not quite in keeping with the modern mood of the city. But +in spite of growth and change the old Quaker spirit, the ineradicable +instinct of sobriety and decency, remains along with the Swedish and +Dutch names two and a half centuries ago. When the hush of evening falls +upon the city and the crowds have melted from the sidewalks, then in the +dusk of the deserted streets one may easily imagine the distinguished +William Shipley and the gracious Elizabeth, the grin of broad-faced +Dutchmen fresh from the harrowing of Swen Schute, the spectral figures +of tow-haired Swedish farmers, or the grave, black-clad form of Pastor +Torkillius with solemn eyes bent upon wondering peasant lads and lasses. + +[Illustration: SEAL OF THE CITY OF WILMINGTON.] + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +BUFFALO + +“THE QUEEN CITY OF THE LAKES” + +BY ROWLAND B. MAHANY + + +Few cities of the United States have a history more picturesque than +Buffalo, or more typical of the forces that have made the Republic +great. At the time of the adoption of the Federal constitution, in +1787, not a single white settler dwelt on the site of what is now the +Queen of the Lakes; and it was not until after the second presidency of +Washington, that Joseph Ellicott, the founder of Buffalo, laid out the +plan of the town, which he called New Amsterdam. Ellicott was a man of +great ability, force and foresight, and with prophetic vision he saw +the future importance of the city, which is now the fourth commercial +entrepôt of the world. He had been the assistant of his brother, Andrew +Ellicott, the first Surveyor General of the United States; and the +two brothers, together with General Washington,—himself an engineer by +profession,—had collaborated with Captain Pierre Charles L’Enfant the +plan of the National Capital. With the beautiful design of Washington +City fresh in his mind, Joseph Ellicott gave to the village of New +Amsterdam a similar system of radiating broad avenues, embracing in the +territory they enclosed rectangular systems of streets. The avenues were +99 feet in width and the streets 66 feet. The surveys were begun in 1798 +and completed in 1805. Indirectly, therefore, Buffalo is indebted to +President Washington for some of its topographical features. + +[Illustration: JOSEPH ELLICOTT. + +FOUNDER OF BUFFALO.] + +The early history of the village is not unlike that of most of our +inland cities which have grown from conditions common to the Canadian and +to the western frontier; and differs, perhaps, chiefly in this regard, +that owing to the natural advantages of the town’s situation and its +proximity to the great cataract of Niagara Falls, its annals are rich +with instances of exploration, of war and of romance; for adventure and +enterprise met here at the beginning of the century. + +The period when the Mohawks, the Eries, the Hurons, the Tuscaroras, the +Neuters (so called because they were a peaceful tribe) and the Senecas +were the sole possessors of this region was succeeded by the epoch of +the French traders, whose business was in turn absorbed by their Dutch +competitors. These gave way to the alert descendants of New England, +who yielded back again the supremacy to a group of Dutch capitalists, +composing the Holland Land Company, whose first agent was Joseph Ellicott. + +The primitive scenery of Buffalo must have been almost incomparable in +its beauty. The wooded hills, the fertile plains, the superb river and +the mighty lake enchanted alike the savage and the civilized beholder. +Even now, when commerce has invaded the loveliness of the prospect by +investing one of the greatest harbors in the world with a fortress of +elevators and crowding it with a forest of masts, artists and tourists +unite in saying that the Buffalo sunsets are not rivalled anywhere save +by those on the Bay of Naples. + +In 1806, the first schoolhouse was built on the corner of Swan and +Pearl streets,—the humble pioneer of an educational system that now +embraces sixty modern grammar schools, three collegiate High Schools, +and innumerable independent and private institutions of learning. +Notable among these latter is the Le Couteulx Asylum for the instruction +of the deaf and dumb. This beneficent institution owes its origin to +the liberality of the Le Couteulx family. Louis Stephen Le Couteulx +de Caumont, a Norman-French gentleman of station and culture, was the +founder of the family in Buffalo. He came to New Amsterdam in 1804. + +On February 10, 1810, the “Town of Buffaloe” was created by an act of the +legislature. This was the name originally given to the settlement by the +Senecas, and there is little doubt that it was derived from the visits of +the bison to the neighboring salt-licks. However that may be, the village +of New Amsterdam was merged in 1810 into the town of Buffalo. + +[Illustration: LAFAYETTE SQUARE.] + +With the disappearance of the Dutch appellation of the town, vanished +also the Dutch nomenclature of the streets. Van Staphorst and Willink +Avenues were connected and called Main Street; Stadinzky Avenue, a +name suggestive of the Polish element that later was to swell in such +numbers the population of the city, became Church Street; Niagara Street +succeeded Schimmelpennick Avenue; and Vollenhoven Avenue was changed into +Erie Street. + +The origin of some of Buffalo’s thoroughfares is interesting and amusing. +Utica Street was formerly a lane on the old Hodge farm, and led from +the Cold Spring region to the Elmwood Avenue district. The people using +it, however, were very careless about closing the gates, and this so +irritated Mr. Hodge that he locked the gates and closed the lane. An +indignation meeting was called in the little schoolhouse at Cold Spring. +The schoolmaster was the chief speaker, and unless tradition does +violence to his grammar, the principal part of his speech consisted of +the declaration that “them Hodges is maintainin’ a ‘pent-up Uticky.’” +When Mr. Hodge heard of the meeting, he relented and offered to give the +people the lane on condition that the town government would lay out a +street. The offer was accepted and the new thoroughfare was called Utica +Street in commemoration of the schoolmaster’s speech. + +The inevitable newspaper appeared on the 3d of October, 1811, when +the Buffalo _Gazette_ issued its first number. The _Gazette_ was the +forerunner of journals which to-day recognize as their only competitors +the Metropolitan press. + +On the 26th of June, 1812, the tidings of war with Great Britain reached +Buffalo, and on August 13th the first gun of the struggle is said to +have been fired by the battery at Black Rock, then a rival, now a +suburb, of Buffalo. The excitement was intense; for all recognized that +the growing town, because of its frontier situation, was sure to be +one of the theatres of hostilities. Nor was this a mistaken idea, as +subsequent events proved. Immediately after the declaration of war, the +British soldiers from the Canadian garrison at Fort Erie, directly across +the river from Buffalo, made an incursion, and captured the schooner +_Connecticut_, at anchor in the Buffalo Creek. This humiliation, however, +was more than wiped out by the daring exploit of Lieutenant Jesse D. +Elliott, U. S. N., who, on October 9, 1812, crossed the river, and boldly +attacked two vessels lying under the guns of Fort Erie. One of these, the +_Detroit_, of six guns, had been captured by the British at the surrender +of that town; the other was the _Caledonia_, of two guns. With a loss +of two killed and five wounded, Elliott’s force captured both vessels +and took prisoners, officers and men, to the number of seventy-one. +Forty-seven American prisoners taken by the British at the River Raisin, +were released by Elliott. The _Detroit_ was carried down the stream when +the cables were cut, and ran aground on Squaw Island. The British opened +a lively cannonading from the Canadian shore and attempted to recapture +the vessel, but were driven off by the Americans, who, unable to float +it, burned it to the water’s edge. For his brilliant coup, Lieutenant +Elliott was voted a sword of honor by Congress. + +[Illustration: A GLIMPSE OF BUFFALO HARBOR.] + +One great advantage the British possessed early in the war was their +superiority on the Lakes. The _Queen Charlotte_, of twenty-two guns, the +_Hunter_, of twelve guns, and a small armed schooner patrolled the Erie +coast-line in the neighborhood of Buffalo, and kept the inhabitants of +the region in a constant state of fear and excitement. To remedy this +disadvantage, the Government, in the spring of 1813, sent Captain Oliver +Hazard Perry to fit out a war fleet at Erie, Pennsylvania. He arrived in +Buffalo in March, and thence proceeded to his destination. The Government +had purchased a number of merchant craft, and these he immediately began +converting into men-of-war. Some new vessels also were built. Five +gunboats were fitted out at Buffalo on Scajaquada Creek. On September 10, +1813, Perry, with an inferior force, both in the number of men and guns, +gave battle to the British and captured or destroyed their entire fleet. +This victory was not only the most notable of the war, but is one of the +most conspicuous in our naval history. In the midst of the battle Perry’s +ship was sunk, and he left it in an open boat, and, under the fire of +the enemy, went to another vessel of his fleet, whence he directed the +operations that rendered the battle of Lake Erie an illustrious triumph +for American arms. + +In a few months, however, the exultation of Buffalo’s citizens was turned +into mourning through the burning of the town by the British. On the 29th +of December, General Riall, with twelve hundred men, regulars, militia +and Indians, landed below Scajaquada Creek, and owing to the confusion +which prevailed in the councils of the local military commanders, +captured the town with little difficulty. The inhabitants had fled, +and every dwelling, with one or two exceptions, was given over to the +flames. Mrs. St. John and two of her daughters remained to protect their +house, and owing to the chivalry of Colonel Elliott, the commander of +the Indians, neither the ladies nor their household possessions were +molested. Mrs. Joshua Lovejoy, who also remained in her home, where the +Tifft House now stands, was imprudent enough to have an altercation with +the Indians, and was slain by one of them. Her house was burned, and her +dead body with it. + +On the withdrawal of the British, the citizens returned from their +flight, bringing back with them such household goods as they had gathered +together on their hasty departure, and forthwith the rebuilding of +Buffalo commenced. The American loss in the engagement preceding the +capture of the town was heavy. Between forty and fifty of our troops were +killed, as many more wounded, and about ninety prisoners were carried +off by the victors. From all these reverses the people of the little +town measurably recovered in the succeeding five or six months. On April +10, 1814, Brigadier-General Winfield Scott came to Buffalo, and shortly +after, Major-General Brown arrived. The preparations for an advance on +the Canadian position were pushed forward as rapidly as possible, and +on July 3d the movement began. Three brigades,—two of regulars, one of +volunteers,—accompanied by a few Indians, crossed the river, and captured +Fort Erie. Thence proceeding down the Canadian bank, they engaged the +enemy at Chippewa on July 5th, and won a decisive victory. + +The Americans wore temporary uniforms of gray, and it was in honor of the +conspicuous gallantry displayed by our troops in this conflict that gray +was adopted as the uniform for the West Point cadets. + +[Illustration: ST. PAUL’S CHURCH.] + +The volunteer brigade was commanded by General Peter B. Porter, for many +years a member of Congress from Erie County, and afterwards Secretary +of War for a brief period under John Quincy Adams. General Porter +distinguished himself also in the battle of Lundy’s Lane, and throughout +the war gained such reputation for valor, skill and eloquence, that to +him has been assigned the credit of being the pioneer in organizing the +volunteer system of the American Army. + +During all this war the famous Seneca chief, Red Jacket, took an active +part in behalf of the Americans, and though he had little love for the +white men on either side of the controversy, still his influence was +cast in favor of those who were the neighbors and friends of his people. +Innumerable anecdotes are told of the wisdom, oratory and dignity of the +great sachem, and a later generation has raised in Forest Lawn Cemetery +an imposing statue to his memory. + +After the battle of Chippewa, General Riall, the British commander, +retreated to Queenstown, and thence to Fort George, the Americans in +pursuit. The British, however, were reinforced and General Brown decided +to return to Fort Erie. Riall, in turn, pursued. On July 25th the +contending forces met near Lundy’s Lane, and one of the most fiercely +fought battles of the war followed. The conflict began a little before +nightfall, and raged until nearly ten o’clock, when the Americans held +undisputed possession of the field. General Riall and one hundred and +sixty-eight prisoners were captured. Both General Brown and General Scott +were wounded, as was also Captain Worth, afterwards famous in the Mexican +War. + +The command of the American forces then devolved upon General Ripley, +who took up his position at Fort Erie and was there besieged by +Lieutenant-General Drummond. On August 3d, the British directed a +savage onslaught against the Fort, but were driven back with loss. They +continued, however, to invest the American position. On September 17th, +General Porter headed an attack on the besieging force, and such was +the gallantry of the American volunteers that the British veterans were +dispersed. General Napier, the English military historian, cites this +sortie as one of the few in all history that at a single stroke compelled +the raising of a siege. The Governor brevetted Porter a major-general, +and Congress voted him a gold medal. + +With this exploit at Fort Erie, the War of 1812 was practically over, so +far as the interests of Buffalo were concerned. When the American troops +retired from Fort Erie, they blew it up, and its ruins are one of the +picturesque features of the region about Buffalo. + +The commercial greatness of the city is indissolubly associated with the +Erie Canal. In 1807-8 Jesse Hawley of Geneva wrote a series of articles +in the _Ontario Messenger_. In these he advocated the construction of +a grand canal connecting Lake Erie with the Atlantic Ocean. This idea +found favor with Joseph Ellicott, DeWitt Clinton, Gouverneur Morris, and +Peter B. Porter, and so strong did the sentiment for the project become, +that in 1816 a bill passed the Assembly, directing that the work of +construction be commenced. The Senate, however, decided that additional +surveys should be made. The work of preparation was inaugurated July 14, +1817; and on the 9th of August, 1823, the work of actual construction +began in Erie County by the breaking of ground for the canal, near the +place where is now the Commercial Street bridge in Buffalo. The great +waterway was completed on October 25, 1825, and the first boat, _Seneca +Chief_, started on its voyage from Buffalo to the Hudson. DeWitt +Clinton, then the Governor of the State and chief promoter of the canal, +graced the ceremonies with his presence. + +[Illustration: MILLARD FILLMORE.] + +In this connection, it is interesting to observe that, in 1819, the +question whether Buffalo or Black Rock should be the western terminus of +the canal was settled in favor of the former through the public spirit +and enterprise of Charles Townsend, Samuel Wilkeson, Oliver Forward +and George Coit. These men gave each a bond of $8,000 for the purpose +of securing a loan of $12,000 from the State to construct a harbor, +the State reserving the right to accept or reject, as it pleased, the +completed work. From this time on, Judge Wilkeson devoted his immense +energies and great executive ability to the interests of Buffalo in +connection with the canal, and to him may justly be ascribed the credit +of being the founder of her lake commerce. It was altogether appropriate, +therefore, that, on the opening of the canal, he should have been given +the honor of pouring into the lake the water brought from the ocean, an +event described as the Wedding of the Atlantic and Lake Erie. It recalled +the marriage in old time of Venice and the Adriatic. + +Near where LaSalle, in 1679, built his little sailing vessel, the +_Griffin_, three New York capitalists completed on May 28, 1818, the +first steamboat that plied the waters of Lake Erie. This was fittingly +named, after the Wyandot chieftain, _Walk-in-the-Water_. The little +vessel was lost three years later, but it marked the beginning of steam +navigation on the Lakes—since grown to such perfection as to rival the +navigation of the sea. + +The influence of the Erie Canal has been incomparably great, not merely +in the rise of one city, but, in a larger sense, in the development of +the State and the nation. The commercial forces which it generated have +aided in building up the wealth of the Middle West, and the impetus +of the resultant enterprise has finally reached every industry of +the continent. To the canal, more than to any other factor, Buffalo +owes its growth and importance. The little hamlet founded by Joseph +Ellicott now has a population of 390,000. The city’s coal receipts in +1898 were 2,455,191 tons; its lumber receipts, 189,075,938 feet; its +grain receipts, 267,395,434 bushels. It has a harbor enclosed by a new +breakwater nearly four miles in length, and costing over $2,000,000. +The coal interests have constructed the greatest trestles in the world. +Forty-one elevators, with a capacity of 20,920,000 bushels, line the +harbor. There are 3500 manufactories. The park system comprises thousands +of acres, with seventeen miles of park driveways. Twenty-six railroads +enter the city, with 250 passenger trains daily, and have nearly 700 +miles of trackage within the city limits. The electric power from Niagara +Falls is delivered at Buffalo in practically unlimited quantities. There +are 24 banks, and 184 churches. The city has 116 miles of street paved +with stone, 6 miles paved with brick, and 225 miles with asphalt, or +more asphalt than any other city in the world, not excepting Paris, +Washington, or London. Two public libraries contain more than 180,000 +volumes. In handling flour and wheat, Buffalo is the first city in the +world. Its fresh-fish industry aggregates an annual distribution of +15,000,000 pounds. Buffalo’s horse market is the most important in the +country; and in cattle and hogs, the trade of the city is second only to +that of Chicago. The sheep market is the largest in the United States. + +[Illustration: BEACON ON OLD BREAKWATER.] + +The climate of Buffalo, with the exception of high winds during certain +portions of the winter, is probably as delightful as that enjoyed by any +city on the globe. In summer, the temperature is nearly always moderate, +and when other cities suffer from extreme heat, the people of Buffalo are +blessed with the conditions common to late summer in other regions. + +The residence portion of the city is celebrated for its beauty. The +avenues are wide, the dwellings elegant and commodious, the lawn effects +charming, and the trees superb. + +[Illustration: DELAWARE AVENUE, SHOWING BISHOP QUIGLEY’S HOUSE.] + +Buffalo is entering upon what might be termed its metropolitan period. +New forces, new ideas, are building splendid superstructures on the +foundations established by the generation now passing away. From the time +of the city’s incorporation, in 1832, the bench and the bar, the medical +and the clerical professions, have been especially rich with the names +of those who have left a lasting impress upon the thought of the city, +the state and the nation. The political life and the business progress +have been dignified by men of intellect and character. Such names as +the Right Reverend Arthur Cleveland Coxe, Protestant Episcopal Bishop +of Western New York; the Right Reverend Stephen Vincent Ryan, Roman +Catholic Bishop of Buffalo; John Ganson, one of the giants of the legal +profession; Millard Fillmore, a former President of the United States; +Doctors George N. Burwell and John Cronyn, cultured physicians of the +old school; William I. Williams, the pioneer of Buffalo’s unrivalled +paved streets; the Reverend Doctor William Shelton, rector of St. Paul’s +Church; the Reverend Doctor John Lord, perhaps the most famous of +Buffalo’s Presbyterian divines; James M. Smith, Justice of the Supreme +Court, recall types of men whose ability, integrity and civic worth would +contribute to advance civilization in any community. + +[Illustration: DR. JOHN CRONYN.] + +[Illustration: WILLIAM I. WILLIAMS.] + +During the Civil War, Buffalo did its patriotic share towards the +preservation of the Union. The names of William F. Rogers, Michael +Wiedrich, James P. McMahon, Daniel D. Bidwell, Edward P. Chapin, John +Wilkeson and William Richardson are cherished by the people of Buffalo +and Erie County as typical of the soldiers who, in regiment after +regiment, enlisted there for the war. + +In legislation, also, the city contributed its part to the successful +prosecution of the struggle. On December 30, 1861, Mr. E. G. Spaulding, +member of Congress from Buffalo, introduced the bill which afterwards +became famous as the Legal-Tender Act, whereby the Secretary of the +Treasury was authorized to issue $50,000,000 in Treasury notes, payable +on demand, in denominations of not less than $5, these to be the legal +tender for all debts, public and private, and exchangeable for the bonds +of the Government at par. + +Nearly every element of American progress has entered into the growth of +this beautiful city. Its development has been brilliant in enterprise, +luminous in education, rich in romance, splendid in achievement, and +noble in patriotism. In a word, Buffalo has kept pace with the Great +Republic. + +[Illustration: SEAL OF THE CITY OF BUFFALO.] + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +PITTSBURGH + +THE INDUSTRIAL CITY + +BY SAMUEL HARDEN CHURCH + + +George Washington, the Father of his Country, is equally the Father +of Pittsburgh, for he came thither in November, 1753, and established +the location of the now imperial city by choosing it as the best place +for a fort. Washington was then twenty-one years old. He had by that +time written his precocious one hundred and ten maxims of civility and +good behavior; had declined to be a midshipman in the British Navy; had +made his only sea-voyage to Barbadoes; had surveyed the estates of Lord +Fairfax, going for months into the forest without fear of savage Indians +or wild beasts, and was now a major of Virginia militia. In pursuance +of the claim of Virginia that she owned that part of Pennsylvania in +which Pittsburgh is situated, Washington came there as the agent of +Governor Dinwiddie to treat with the Indians. With an eye alert for the +dangers of the wilderness, and with Christopher Gist beside him, the +young Virginian pushed his cautious way to “The Point” of land where the +confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers forms the Ohio. That, +he declared, with clear military instinct, was the best site for a fort; +and he rejected the promontory two miles below, which the Indians had +recommended for that purpose. + +[Illustration: AN EARLY RESIDENT OF PITTSBURGH. + +(FROM A STATUE BY T. A. MILLS IN THE CARNEGIE MUSEUM.)] + +As early as 1728 a daring hunter or trader found the Indians at the head +waters of the Ohio,—among them the Delawares, Shawanese, Mohicans and +Iroquois,—whither they tracked the bear from their village of Logstown, +seventeen miles down the river. They also employed the country roundabout +as a highway for their march to battle against other tribes, and against +each other. At that time France and England were disputing for the new +continent. France, by right of her discovery of the Mississippi, claimed +all the lands drained by that river and its tributaries,—a contention +which would naturally plant her banner upon the summit of the Alleghany +Mountains.[26] England, on the other hand, claimed everything from +ocean-shore to ocean-shore. This situation produced war, and Pittsburgh +became the strategic key of the great Middle West. The French made early +endeavors to win the allegiance of the Indians, and they felt encouraged +to press their friendly overtures because they usually came among the +red men for trading or exploration, while the English invariably seized +and occupied their lands. In 1731 some French settlers did attempt to +build a group of houses at Pittsburgh, but the Indians compelled them to +go away. The next year the Governor of Pennsylvania summoned two Indian +chiefs from Pittsburgh to say why they had been going to see the French +Governor at Montreal; and they gave answer that he had sent for them +only to express the hope that both English and French traders might meet +at Pittsburgh and carry on trade amicably. The Governor of Pennsylvania +sought to induce the tribes to draw themselves farther east, where they +might be made to feel the hand of authority, but Sassoonan, their chief, +forbade them to stir. An Iroquois chief who joined his entreaties to +those of the Governor was soon afterward killed by some Shawanese braves, +but they were forced to flee into Virginia to escape the vengeance of his +tribe. + +Louis Celeron, a French officer, made an exploration of the country +contiguous to Pittsburgh in 1747, and formally enjoined the Governor of +Pennsylvania not to occupy the ground, as France claimed its sovereignty. +A year later the Ohio Company was formed, with a charter ceding an +immense tract of land for sale and development, including Pittsburgh. +This corporation built some storehouses at Logstown to facilitate their +trade with the Indians, which were captured by the French, together with +skins and commodities valued at £20,000; and the purposes of the Company +were never accomplished. + +[Illustration: SUN-DIAL USED AT FORT DUQUESNE.] + +As soon as Washington’s advice as to the location of the fort was +received, Captain William Trent was dispatched to Pittsburgh with a force +of soldiers and workmen, packhorses and materials, and he began in all +haste to erect a stronghold. The French had already built forts on the +northern lakes, and they now sent Captain Contrecœur down the Allegheny +with one thousand French, Canadians and Indians, and eighteen pieces of +cannon, in a flotilla of sixty bateaux and three hundred canoes. Trent +had planted himself in Pittsburgh on February 17, 1754,—a date important +because it marks the first permanent white settlement there. But his +work had been retarded alike by the small number of his men and the +severity of the winter; and when Contrecœur arrived in April, the young +subaltern who commanded in Trent’s absence surrendered the unfinished +works, and was permitted to march away with his thirty-three men. The +French completed the fort and named it Duquesne, in honor of the Governor +of Canada; and they held possession of it for four years. + +Immediately on the loss of this fort, Virginia sent a force under +Washington to retake it. Washington surprised a French detachment near +Great Meadows, and killed their commander, Jumonville. When a larger +expedition came against him, he put up a stockade near the site of +Uniontown, naming it Fort Necessity, which he was compelled to yield on +terms of marching away with the honors of war. + +The next year (1755) General Edward Braddock came over with two regiments +of British soldiers, and, after augmenting his force with Colonial troops +and a few Indians, began his fatal march upon Fort Duquesne. Braddock’s +testy disposition, his consuming egotism, his contempt for the Colonial +soldiers and his stubborn adherence to military maxims that were +inapplicable to the warfare of the wilderness alienated the respect and +confidence of the American contingent, robbed him of an easy victory and +cost him his life. Benjamin Franklin had warned him against the imminent +risk of Indian ambuscades, but he had contemptuously replied: “These +savages may indeed be a formidable enemy to your raw American militia; +but upon the King’s regular and disciplined troops, sir, it is impossible +they should make any impression.” Some of his English staff-officers +urged him to send the rangers in advance and to deploy his Indians as +scouts, but he rejected their prudent suggestions with a sneer. On July +9th his army, comprising twenty-two hundred soldiers and one hundred and +fifty Indians, was marching down the south bank of the Monongahela. The +variant color and fashion of the expedition,—the red-coated regulars, +the blue-coated Americans, the naval detachment, the rangers in +deerskin shirts and leggings, the savages half-naked and befeathered, +the glint of sword and gun in the hot daylight, the long wagon train, +the lumbering cannon, the drove of bullocks, the royal banner and the +Colonial gonfalon,—the pomp and puissance of it all composed a spectacle +of martial splendor unseen in that country before. On the right was the +tranquil river, and on the left the trackless wilderness whence the +startled deer sprang away into a deeper solitude. At noon the expedition +crossed the river and pressed on toward Fort Duquesne, ten miles below, +expectant of victory. What need to send out scouts when the King’s troops +are here? Let young George Washington and the rest urge it all they may; +the thing is beneath the dignity of his Majesty’s General. + +But here, when they have crossed, is a level plain, elevated but a +few feet above the surface of the river, extending nearly half a mile +landwards, and then gradually ascending into thickly wooded hills, +with Fort Duquesne beyond. The troops in front had crossed the plain +and plunged into the road through the forest for a hundred feet, when +a heavy discharge of musketry and arrows was poured upon them, which +wrought in them a consternation all the greater because they could +see no foe anywhere. They shot at random, but without effect, while +the hidden enemy kept up an incessant and destructive fire. In this +distressing situation their courage forsook them, and they fell back +into the plain. Braddock rode in among them, and he and his officers +persistently endeavored to rally them, but without success. The Colonial +troops adopted the Indian method, and each man fought for himself behind +a tree. This was forbidden by Braddock, who attempted to form his men +in platoons and columns, making their slaughter inevitable. The French +and Indians, concealed in the ravines and behind trees, kept up a cruel +and deadly fire, until the British soldiers lost all presence of mind +and began to shoot each other and their own officers, and hundreds were +thus slain. The Virginia companies charged gallantly up a hill with a +loss of but three men, but when they reached the summit the British +soldiery, mistaking them for the enemy, fired upon them, killing fifty +out of eighty men. The Colonial troops then resumed the Indian fashion +of fighting from behind trees, which provoked Braddock, who had had five +horses killed under him in three hours, to storm at them and strike +them with his sword. At this moment he was fatally wounded, and many of +his men now fled away from the hopeless action. Washington had had two +horses killed and received three bullets through his coat. Being the only +mounted officer who was not disabled, he drew up the troops still on the +field, directed their retreat, maintaining himself at the rear with great +coolness and courage, and brought away his wounded general. Sixty-four +British and American officers, and nearly one thousand privates, were +killed or wounded in this battle, while the total French and Indian loss +was not over sixty. A few prisoners captured by the Indians were brought +to Pittsburgh and burnt at the stake. Four days after the fight Braddock +died, exclaiming to the last, “Who would have thought it!” + +[Illustration: THE EARL OF CHATHAM. + +FROM AN OIL PAINTING IN THE POSSESSION OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF +PENNSYLVANIA.] + +Despondency seized the English settlers after Braddock’s defeat. But +two years afterward William Pitt became Prime Minister, and he thrilled +the nation with his appeal to protect the Colonies against France and +the savages. His letters inspired the Americans with new hope, and he +promised to send them British troops and to supply their own militia with +arms, ammunition, tents and provisions at the King’s charge. He sent +twelve thousand soldiers from England, which were joined to a Colonial +force aggregating fifty thousand men,—the most formidable army yet seen +in the new world. The plan of campaign embraced three expeditions: +the first against Louisburg, in the island of Cape Breton, which was +successful; the second against Ticonderoga, which succeeded after a +defeat; and the third against Fort Duquesne. General Forbes commanded +this expedition, comprising about seven thousand men. The militia from +Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland was led by Washington. On September +12, 1758, Major Grant, a Highlander, led an advance-guard of 850 men to a +point two miles from the fort, which is still called Grant’s Hill, where +he rashly permitted himself to be surrounded and attacked by the French +and Indians, half his force being killed or wounded, and himself slain. +Washington followed soon after, and opened a road for the advance of the +main body under Forbes. Fort Frontenac, on Lake Ontario, had just been +taken by General Amherst, with the result that supplies for Fort Duquesne +were cut off. When, therefore, the French commandant learned of the +advance of a superior force, having no hope of reinforcements, he blew +up the fort, set fire to the adjacent buildings and drew his garrison +away. + +[Illustration: BLOCKHOUSE OF FORT PITT. BUILT IN 1764.] + +On Saturday, November 25, 1758, the English took possession of the +place, and on the next day General Forbes wrote to Governor Denny from +“Fort Duquesne, now Pittsburgh, the 26th of November, 1758,” and this +was the first use of that name. On this same Sunday the Rev. Mr. Beatty, +a Presbyterian chaplain, preached a sermon in thanksgiving for the +superiority of British arms,—the first Protestant service in Pittsburgh. +The French had had a Roman Catholic chaplain, Father Baron, during their +occupancy. + +The English proceeded to build a new fort about two hundred yards from +the site of Fort Duquesne, which they called Fort Pitt. This stronghold +at Pittsburgh cut off French transportation to the Mississippi by way +of the Ohio River, and the only remaining route, by way of the Great +Lakes, was soon afterward closed by the fall of Fort Niagara. The fall of +Quebec, with the death of the two opposing Generals, Montcalm and Wolfe, +and the capture of Montreal, ended the claims of France to sovereignty in +the new world. + +The new fort being found too small, General Stanwix built a second Fort +Pitt, much larger and stronger, designed for a garrison of one thousand +men. The Indians viewed the newcomers with suspicion, but Colonel Henry +Bouquet assured them, with diplomatic tergiversation, that, “We have not +come here to take possession of your country in a hostile manner, as the +French did when they came among you, but to open a large and extensive +trade with you and all other nations of Indians to the westward.” A +redoubt (the “Block-House”) built by Colonel Bouquet in 1764 still +stands, in a very good state of preservation, being cared for by the +Daughters of the American Revolution. The protection of the garrison +naturally attracted a few traders, merchants and pioneers to Pittsburgh, +and a permanent population began to grow. + +But the indigenous race continued to resent the extension of white +encroachment; and they formed a secret confederacy under Pontiac, the +renowned Ottawa chief, who planned a simultaneous attack on all the white +frontier posts. This uprising was attended by atrocious cruelties at many +of the points attacked, but we may take note here of the movement only as +it affected Pittsburgh. At the grand council held by the tribes, a bundle +of sticks had been given to every tribe, each bundle containing as many +sticks as there were days intervening before the deadly assault should +begin. One stick was to be drawn from the bundle every day until but one +remained, which was to signal the outbreak for that day. This was the +best calendar the barbarian could devise. At Pittsburgh, a Delaware squaw +who was friendly to the whites had stealthily taken out three of the +sticks, thus precipitating the attack on Fort Pitt three days in advance +of the time appointed. + +[Illustration: PLAN OF FORT PITT.] + +The last stick was reached on June 22, 1763, and the Delawares and +Shawanese began the assault in the afternoon, under Simon Ecuyer. The +people of Pittsburgh took shelter in the fort, and held out while waiting +for reinforcements. Colonel Bouquet hurried forward a force of five +hundred men, but they were intercepted at Bushy Run, where a bloody +battle was fought. Bouquet had fifty men killed and sixty wounded, but +inflicted a much greater loss on his savage foes, and gained the fort, +relieving the siege. As soon as Bouquet could recruit his command, he +moved down the Ohio, attacked the Indians, liberated some of their +prisoners and taught the red men to respect the power that controlled at +Pittsburgh. + +In 1768 the Indians ceded their lands about Pittsburgh to the Colonies, +and civilization was then free to spread over them. In 1774 a land office +was opened in Pittsburgh by Governor Dunmore, and land-warrants were +granted on payment of two shillings and sixpence purchase money, at the +rate of ten pounds per one hundred acres. + +With the French out of the country, the Colonies began to feel the +oppression of a British policy which British statesmen and historians +to-day most bitterly denounce. Their opposition to tyranny found its +natural expression in the battle of Lexington, April 19, 1775. The fires +of patriotism leapt through the continent, and the little settlement at +Pittsburgh was quickly aflame with the national spirit. On May 16th a +convention was held at Pittsburgh, which resolved that + + “This committee have the highest sense of the spirited behavior + of their brethren in New England, and do most cordially + approve of their opposing the invaders of American rights and + privileges to the utmost extreme, and that each member of this + committee, respectively, will animate and encourage their + neighborhood to follow the brave example.” + +No foreign soldiers were sent over the mountains to Pittsburgh, but a +more merciless foe, who would attack and harass with remorseless cruelty, +was impressed into the English service, despite the horrified protests +of some of her wisest statesmen. American treaties with the Indians had +no force against the allurements of foreign gold, and under this unholy +alliance men were burnt at the stake, women were carried away, and cabins +were destroyed. + +With the aim of regaining the friendship of the Indians, Congress +appointed commissioners who met the tribes at Pittsburgh; and Colonel +George Morgan, Indian agent, writes to John Hancock, November 8, 1776: + + “I have the happiness to inform you that the cloud that + threatened to break over us is likely to disperse. The Six + Nations, with the Muncies, Delawares, Shawanese and Mohicans, + who have been assembled here with their principal chiefs + and warriors to the number of 644, have given the strongest + assurance of their determination to preserve inviolate the + peace and neutrality with the United States.” + +These amicable expectations were not realized, and General Edward Hand +came to Pittsburgh the next year and planned an expedition against the +Indians. Colonel Broadhead took out Hand’s expedition in the summer and +burnt the Indian towns. + +The depreciation of paper currency, or Continental money, had by this +time brought the serious burden of high prices upon the people. The +traders, who demanded apparently exorbitant rates for their goods, were +denounced in public meetings at Pittsburgh as being “now commonly known +by the disgraceful epithet of speculators, of more malignant natures than +the savage Mingoes in the wilderness.” This hardship grew in severity +until the finances were put upon a more stable basis. + +By 1781, there were demoralization and mutiny at Fort Pitt, and General +William Irvine was put in command. His firm hand soon restored the +garrison to obedience. The close of the war with Great Britain was +celebrated by the issue of a general order at the fort, November 6, 1781, +requiring all, as a sailor would say, “to splice the main-brace.”[27] + +Up to this time the Penn family had held the charter to Pennsylvania; but +as they had maintained a steadfast allegiance to the mother country, the +General Assembly annulled their title, except to allow them to retain +the ownership of various manors throughout the State, embracing half a +million acres. + +In order to relieve the people of Pittsburgh from going to Greensburg +to the court-house in their sacred right of suing and being sued, the +General Assembly erected Allegheny County out of parts of Westmoreland +and Washington counties, September 24, 1788. This county originally +comprised, in addition to its present limits, what are now Armstrong, +Beaver, Butler, Crawford, Erie, Mercer, Venango and Warren counties. +The act required that the court-house and jail should be located in +Allegheny (just across the river from Pittsburgh), but as there was no +protection against Indians there, an amendment established Pittsburgh as +the county-seat. The first court was held at Fort Pitt; and the next day +a ducking-stool was erected for the district, at “The Point” in the three +rivers. + +In 1785, the dispute between Virginia and Pennsylvania for the possession +of Pittsburgh was settled by the award of a joint commission in favor of +Pennsylvania. + +A writer says that in 1786 Pittsburgh contained thirty-six log houses, +one stone and one frame house and five small stores. Another records +that the population “is almost entirely Scots and Irish, who live in log +houses.” A third says of these log houses, “Now and then one had assumed +the appearance of neatness and comfort.” + +[Illustration: PHIPPS CONSERVATORY.] + +The first newspaper, the Pittsburgh _Gazette_, was established July 29, +1786. A mail route to Philadelphia, by horseback, was adopted in the same +year. On September 29, 1787, the Legislature granted a charter to the +Pittsburgh Academy, a school that has grown steadily in usefulness and +power, and is now the Western University of Pennsylvania. + +In 1791, the Indians became vindictive and dangerous, and General Arthur +St. Clair, with a force of twenty-three hundred men, was sent down the +river to punish them. Neglecting President Washington’s imperative +injunction to avoid a surprise, he led his command into an ambush and +lost half of it in the most disastrous battle with the redskins since +the time of Braddock. In the general alarm that ensued, Fort Pitt being +in a state of decay a new fort was built in Pittsburgh at Ninth and +Tenth streets and Penn Avenue,—a stronghold that included bastions, +blockhouses, barracks, etc., and was named Fort Lafayette. General +Anthony Wayne was then selected to command another expedition against +the savages, and he arrived in Pittsburgh in June, 1792. After drilling +his troops and making preparations for two years, in the course of which +he erected several forts in the West, including Fort Defiance and Fort +Wayne, he fought the Indians and crushed their strength and spirit. On +his return a lasting peace was made with them, and there were no further +raids about Pittsburgh. + +The Whiskey Insurrection demands a brief reference. Whiskey is a steady +concomitant of civilization. As soon as the white settlers had planted +themselves securely at Pittsburgh, they made requisition on Philadelphia +for six thousand kegs of flour and three thousand kegs of whiskey—a +disproportion as startling as Falstaff’s intolerable deal of sack to one +half-pennyworth of bread. Congress, in 1791, passed an excise law to +assist in paying the war debt. The measure was very unpopular, and its +operation was forcibly resisted, particularly in Pittsburgh, which was +noted then, as now, for the quantity and quality of its whiskey. There +were distilleries on nearly every stream emptying into the Monongahela. +The time and circumstances made the tax odious. The Revolutionary War had +just closed, the pioneers were in the midst of great Indian troubles, +and money was scarce, of low value and very hard to obtain. The people +of the new country were unused to the exercise of stringent laws. The +progress of the French Revolution encouraged the settlers to account +themselves oppressed by similar tyrannies, against which some of them +persuaded themselves similar resistance should be made. Genêt, the French +demagogue, was sowing sedition everywhere. Lafayette’s participation +in the French Revolution gave it in America, where he was deservedly +beloved, a prestige which it could never have gained for itself. +Distillers who paid the tax were assaulted; some of them were tarred +and feathered; others were taken into the forest and tied to trees; +their houses and barns were burned; their property was carried away or +destroyed. Several thousand insurgents assembled at Braddock’s Field, and +marched on Pittsburgh, where the citizens gave them food and submitted +to a reign of terror. Then President Washington sent an army of fifteen +thousand troops against them, and they melted away, as a mob will ever do +when the strong arm of Government smites it without fear or respect. + +[Illustration: THE COAL FLEET.] + +Pittsburgh was incorporated a borough in 1794. Her first glassworks was +built in 1797; and both her population and her industries multiplied +until she was made a city in 1816. In 1845 (April 10th), a great fire +destroyed about one third of the total area of the city, including +most of the large business houses and factories, the bridge over the +Monongahela, the large hotel known as the Monongahela House and several +churches;—in all about eleven hundred buildings. The Legislature +appropriated $50,000 for the relief of the sufferers. + +In 1877, the municipal government, being, in its personnel, at the moment +incompetent to preserve the fundamental principles on which it was +established, permitted a strike of railroad employees to grow without +restriction as to the observance of law and order until it became an +insurrection. Three million dollars’ worth of property was destroyed by +riot and incendiarism in a few hours. When at last outraged authority +was properly shifted from the supine city chieftains to the indomitable +State itself, it became necessary, before order could be restored, for +troops to fire, with a sacrifice of human life. The lesson was worth all +it cost, and anarchy has never dared to raise its head in the corporation +limits since that time. + +[Illustration: CARNEGIE INSTITUTE.] + +In 1889, the great flood at Johnstown, accompanied by a frightful +loss of life and destruction of property, touched the common heart of +humanity all over the world. The closeness of Johnstown geographically +made the sorrow at Pittsburgh most poignant and profound. In a few hours +almost the whole population had brought its offerings for the stricken +community, and besides clothing, provisions and every conceivable thing +necessary for relief and comfort, the people of Pittsburgh contributed +$250,000 to restore so far as possible the material portion of the loss. + +Pittsburgh has thus passed through many battles, trials, afflictions +and adversities, and has grown in the strength of giants until it now +embraces in the limits of the county a population of over one million. +The tax valuation of her property is $554,000,000. Her share is more than +one half of the whole production in the United States of steel, steel +rails, coke, oil, plate glass, glassware, harness-leather and iron pipe. +She mines one quarter of the bituminous coal of the United States. She +has 2500 mills and factories, with an annual product worth $250,000,000, +and a pay-roll of $75,000,000. Her electric street-railway system +multiplies itself through her streets for 250 miles. Natural-gas fuel +is conveyed into her mills and houses through 1000 miles of iron pipe. +Her output of coke makes one train ten miles long every day throughout +the year. Her tonnage by river and rail exceeds the tonnage by river +and rail of any other city in the world; it is equal to one half the +combined tonnage of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Her rail tonnage +is three times as large as that of New York or Chicago, double that of +London, four times that of Paris, and greater than the combined tonnage +of New York, Boston and Chicago. Two hundred and fifty passenger trains +and six thousand loaded freight-cars run to and from her terminals every +day. Nowhere else in the world is there so large a Bessemer-steel plant, +crucible-steel plant, plate-glass plant, chimney-glass plant, table-glass +plant, air-brake plant, steel-rail plant, cork works, tube works or steel +freight-car works. Her armor sheathes our battleships, as well as those +of Russia and Japan. She equips the navies of the world with projectiles +and range-finders. Her bridges span the rivers of India, China, Egypt +and the Argentine Republic; and her locomotives, rails and bridges are +used on the Siberian railroad. She builds electric railways for Great +Britain and Brazil, and telescopes for Germany and Denmark. Indeed, she +distributes her varied manufactures into the channels of trade all over +the earth. + +[Illustration: COURT HOUSE.] + +But while these surpassing industries have given Pittsburgh her wealth, +population, supremacy and power, commercial materialism is not the +_ultima thule_ of her people. She has the largest and handsomest +court-house in the world, the crowning architectural triumph of H. H. +Richardson. Her churches and schoolhouses are found in nearly every +block. She spends a quarter of a million annually on her parks,—Schenley +and Highland. She maintains by popular support one of the three symphony +orchestras in America. She has given many famous names to Science, +Literature and Art. Her astronomical observatory is known throughout the +world. Her rich men are often liberal beyond their own needs—particularly +so William Thaw, who spent millions for education and benevolence; +Mrs. Mary Schenley, who has given the city a great park, four hundred +picturesque acres in the very heart of its boundaries; and Henry Phipps, +who erected the largest conservatory for plants and flowers in our +country. There is one other, Andrew Carnegie, whose wise and continuous +use of vast wealth for the public good is nearly beyond human precedent. +Mr. Carnegie has spent many millions on libraries, art galleries and +scientific museums in Pittsburgh alone, and millions more for similar +institutions in other parts of the world. The Carnegie Institute at +Pittsburgh, comprising Art Galleries, Library, Museum and Music Hall, now +in its fourth year, is the rallying-ground of the whole people in their +growing love of æsthetic and spiritual life. Its doors are open all day, +from nine in the morning until ten at night, free to the people. And +the people use it with delight, more than five hundred thousand of them +having thronged its halls in this past year. + +Pittsburgh is truly an imperial city. + +[Illustration: SEAL OF THE CITY.] + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + +[1] Reproduced by permission of Augustus Pruyn, Albany, N. Y. + +[2] Reproduced by permission of Dr. Samuel B. Ward, Albany, N. Y. + +[3] Reproduced by permission from _King Washington_, by Adelaide Skeel +and William H. Brearley. + +[4] From _Book of Newburgh_. + +[5] _From Spirit of ’76_. + +[6] From _American Patriots_. + +[7] Reproduced by permission from _Bowling Green_, by Spencer Trask. + +[8] Reproduced by permission from _Bowling Green_, by Spencer Trask. + +[9] Reproduced by permission from _The Outlook_. + +[10] Reproduced by permission of Lewis C. Vandegrift, Wilmington, Del. + +[11] Reproduced by permission of Henry C. Conrad, Wilmington, Del. + +[12] Reproduced by permission of Buffalo Historical Society. + +[13] Subsequently the river bore the name of North River, to distinguish +it from the Delaware, the South River of Nieu Nederlandt. In fact the +fair stream has been renamed as often as a Parisian street. Albany has +shared the fate of the river. + +[14] The Chart illustrating this article is one of a later date. + +[15] See page 93, Bradford’s _History of Plimoth Plantation. From the +original manuscript_. Boston, 1898. This original MS. in the above year +was transferred with appropriate ceremonies from the library of the +Archiepiscopal Palace at Fulham to the archives of the Commonwealth of +Massachusetts. + +[16] The writer is indebted to As-que-sent-wah, a member of the Onondaga +tribe, an authority upon Indian local lore, and well known among white +men as Edward Winslow Paige, for an account of the tradition which fixes +the residence of Hiawatha at Schonowe. Mr. Paige owns the lot at the west +end of Union Street on the bank of the Binnekill, upon which the castle +and residence stood. He points out to the visitor existing traces of the +Indian occupation. + +[17] He was drowned in October, 1667, in Lake Champlain, while journeying +to Canada in response to the pressing invitation of the Governor General +to visit him. + +[18] Governor Leisler was afterwards unjustly condemned and executed for +high treason; the destruction of Schenectady being one of the charges +against him. + +[19] He came again in 1782, when the struggle was practically over. +The authorities and the people did their utmost in his honor. This he +suitably acknowledged in a letter addressed “To the magistrates and +military authorities of the township of Schenectady,” closing in these +words: “May the complete blessings of peace soon reward your arduous +struggle for the freedom and independence of our common country.” + +[20] “Ten eynde de Gemeente niet verstroyt werde.” + +[21] EPITAPH OF JOSHUA DE KOCKERTHAL, IN BURYING-GROUND AT SAUGERTIES, N. +Y. + +Wisse Wandersman Unter diesem Steine Rusht nebst Seiner Sibylla Charlotte +Ein Rechter Wandersman Per Hoch Jeutsehen in Nord America ihr Josua und +der selben an Der Ost and West seite Der Hudson’s River rein Lutherischer +Prediger. Seine erste an Kunft war mit Lrd Lovelace, 1707-8, den 1 +Januar. Seine sweite mit Col. Hunter 1710 d. 14 Juny. Seine Englandische +ruc reise unterbrach Seine Seelen Himmelische reise an St. Johannis sage +1719. Regherstu mehr Ku wissen So untersuche in Welaneh thons vaterland, +Wer war de Kockerthal, Wer Harschias, Wer Winchenbuch, B. Berkenmayer, S. +Heurtin, L. Brevort. + + MDCCXLII. + +Know, Wanderer, under this stone rests beside his Sybilla Charlotte a +right wanderer, the Joshua of the High Dutch in N. America, the pure +Lutheran Preacher of them on the East and West side of the Hudson River. +His first arrival was with Lord Lovelace in 1707, the first of January. +His second with Colonel Hunter, 1710, the fourteenth of June. His voyage +back to England was prevented (literally interrupted) by the voyage of +his soul to Heaven, on St. John’s Day, 1719. Do you wish to know more? +Seek in Melancthon’s fatherland who was Kockerthal, who was Harschias, +who Winchenbuch, B. Berkenmayer, S. Heurtin, L. Brevort. + + 1742. + +[22] On this Glebe site was erected about 1730 the Lutheran Church of the +Palatine Parish by Quassaick. Reverend Michael Christian Knoll, Pastor. + +From July 19, 1747, the Reverend Hezekiah Watkins of the Church of +England held services for about twenty-five years. + +Erected by Quassaick Chapter, DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. + +[23] + + IN MEMORY OF + REVEREND HEZEKIAH WATKINS + YALE 1737 ORDAINED 1754 IN ENGLAND + SENT HERE BY VEN. SOC. P. G. IN F. P. + FOUNDED THE PARISHES OF + S. DAVID’S, S. ANDREW’S AND S. GEORGE’S + RESIDENT MINISTER AT NEWBURGH + FROM 1752 UNTIL HIS DEATH. + APRIL 10, 1765. AET. 57. + +_Tablet in S. George’s Church, Newburgh._ + +[24] + + GEORGE CLINTON + MEMBER OF CONTINENTAL CONGRESS + 1775-1777 + BRIGADIER-GENERAL CONTINENTAL ARMY + 1777 + GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK + 1777-85—1801-4 + VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES + 1804-1812 + + _Cara Patria Carior Libertas._ + +Inscription on Clinton Statue in Colden Square, Newburgh. Statue by +Henry Kirke Brown. Presented to the city by the Historical Society of +Newburgh Bay and the Highlands and other citizens. Unveiled on the +119th anniversary of the battles of Forts Clinton and Montgomery in the +Highlands. + +[25] The change from Vredryk Flypse to Frederick Philips was +synchronously made—both names being changed at the same time. + +[26] The word is commonly spelt thus for the mountains, but +thus—_Allegheny_—for the river, county and city. + +[27] “The commissaries will issue a gill of whiskey, extraordinary, +to the non-commissioned officers and privates, upon this joyful +occasion.”—General Irvine’s Order. + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +INDEX + + + A + + Abercrombie, General, 30, 51 + + Academy of Natural Science, Philadelphia, 332 + + Ackland, Lady, 64 + + Adams, John, 266 + + Adams, Mrs. John, 310 + + Adams, John Quincy, 380 + + Albany, W. W. Battershall on, 1-37; + settled by Dutch, 1-9; + captured by English, 9; + incorporated, 10; + English church built, 14; + its frontier position, 15-18; + during the French wars, 18; + convention of 1754, 20; + in the Revolution, 20-23; + becomes the State Capital, 24; + historic survivals in, 24-37; + architecture of, 30-32; + the Capitol described, 32-34 + + Aldrich, T. B., 205 + + Allegheny, 414 + + _Almirante Oquendo_, 244 + + American Philosophical Society, 310, 318 + + Amersfoort, 216, 219 + + Amherst, Lord, 52 + + Amsterdam, 3, 6 + + André, John, in New York, 194; + capture of, 158-161 + + Andros, Edmund, 176 + + Army, American, volunteer system organized, 380 + + Arnold, B., at Saratoga, 62; + in Philadelphia, 312; + treason of, 160, 161, 182, 195 + + Arnold, Matthew, cited, 300 + + As-que-sent-wah, _see_ E. W. Paige + + + B + + Baldwin’s Locomotive Works, 326 + + Baltimore, Congress flees to, 272 + + Barbadoes, Washington’s voyage to, 393 + + Barclay, Rev. T., quoted, 100 + + Barnard College, 207 + + Baron, Father, 407 + + Bartram, John, and his garden, 312, 314 + + Battershall, W. W., on Albany, 1-37 + + Bayard, James A., 360 + + Bayard, Richard A., 360 + + Bayard, Thomas F., 350, 351 + + Beatty, Charles, quoted, 268 + + Beatty, Rev., preaches first Protestant sermon at Pittsburgh, 407 + + Bedford, Gunning, 267 + + Bedford, Gunning, Jr., 358 + + Beecher, H. W., 247 + + Beekman Mansion, 195-197 + + Belcher, Governor J., 252, 257 + + Bemis Heights, 23, 41, 64 + + Bennington, battle of, 58 + + Bertholf, Rev. G., at Tarrytown, 154 + + Beverwyck, 73, 81 + + Biddle, Colonel, 122 + + Bidwell, D. D., 390 + + Binney, Horace, house of, 318 + + _Bird Grip_, Swedish vessel, 337 + + Bjork, Rev. Eric, builds Old Swedes’ Church, 349 + + Black Rock, battery at, 373, 384 + + “Block House,” the Pittsburgh, 408 + + Bloomingdale, absorbed by New York, 188 + + Blue Anchor, the Swedish tavern, 301 + + Bordentown, 269 + + Boston, 181, 188 + + Boudinot, President, of Princeton, 288 + + Bouquet, Col. Henry, builds the “Block House,” 407; + defeats Indians, 407-410 + + Bowles, naval constructor, 244 + + Bowling Green, 193 + + Boyle, H., 107 + + Brackinridge, 269 + + Bracola, _see_ Brooklyn + + Braddock, defeat and death of, 51, 399-404, 416 + + Braddock’s Field, 418 + + Bradford, Governor, quoted, 4, 6 + + Bradford, press of, 306 + + Brainerd, David, expelled from Yale, 256 + + Brandt, 56 + + Brazil, Emperor of, 206 + + Breuckelen, _see_ Brooklyn + + Brewster, E. A., 135 + + Brinkerhoff, M., 132 + + Broadhead, Colonel, attacks Indians, 412 + + Brocklandia, _see_ Brooklyn + + Broecke, _see_ Brooklyn + + Broeckede, _see_ Brooklyn + + Broicklede, _see_ Brooklyn + + Bronck, Jonas, 77, 80 + + Brooklyn, 181, 186, 271; + Harrington Putnam on, 213-249; + Dutch settlement, 213; + Dutch settlers described, 216-220; + first church, 220-222; + British rule, 224-227; + battle of Long Island, 228-240; + the Navy Yard, 242; + Fort Lafayette, 244-248; + modern Brooklyn, 248 + + Brooklyn Institute, 249 + + Brown, General, in War of 1812, 378, 380, 381 + + Brown, H. K., 119, 125, 135 + + Bryant, Wm. Cullen, 215 + + Buffalo, Rowland B. Mahany on, 367-391; + founding of, 367; + early history, 368; + incorporated, 370; + strategic position in the War of 1812, 373; + Perry’s victory, 376; + burning of, 377; + battle of Chippewa, 378; + Lundy’s Lane, 380; + unsuccessful siege by the British of Fort Erie, 381; + the Erie Canal, 382-384; + the modern city, 385-391 + + Burgoyne, surrender at Saratoga, 22, 23, 58-68; + imprisoned at Albany, 28 + + Burns, Robert, statue of, 36 + + Burr, Aaron, 28, 204, 205, 254, 259, 267 + + Burr, Rev. Aaron, 252, 259 + + Burr, Dr. Horace, 350 + + Burwell, Dr. G. N., 389 + + Bushy Run, battle at, 410 + + + C + + Cadwalader, in battle of Princeton, 275 + + _Caledonia_, captured in War of 1812, 374 + + Campanius, at Fort Christina, 339 + + Campbell, Douglas, cited, 6 + + Canada acquired by England, 19 + + Carnahan, James, 292 + + Carnegie, Andrew, 424 + + Carnegie Institute, 424 + + Carpenters’ Hall, 314 + + Carroll, Charles, of Carrollton, 28 + + Caverley’s statue of Burns, 36 + + Celeron, Louis, 397 + + Centennial Exhibition of 1876, 332 + + Champlain, Samuel, 45 + + Chapin, E. P., 390 + + Charles I., 13, 346 + + Charles II., 175 + + Chemnitz, surrender of, 339 + + Cherry Valley, 49 + + Chippewa, battle of, 378, 380 + + Christiana, Swedes settle on the, 337; + fortified, 355 + + Christina, Queen, 336 + + Christina Harbor, village of, 339 + + Christinaham, 346, 347 + + Church, S. H., on Pittsburgh, 393-426 + + Cincinnatus, Society of, 132 + + Clark, Abraham, signer, 268 + + Clinton, DeWitt, 205; + favors Erie Canal, 382, 383 + + Clinton, General George, at Saratoga, 69; + at Newburgh, 124-126 + + Clinton, Sir Henry, 194, 229, 236 + + Clinton, James, 124 + + Coit, George, 384 + + Colden, C., 121 + + Colden, Maria, 122 + + College Settlement, New York, 208 + + Colonnade Hotel, Philadelphia, 326 + + Columbia University, 207, 211 + + Colve, Captain, 175 + + Congress, first general American, 94 + + Congress, Continental, Witherspoon elected to, 265; + flees to Baltimore, 272; + meets in Nassau Hall, 286, 288; + Declaration of Independence, 318; + and the Indians, 412 + + Congress, U. S., and Whiskey Insurrection, 417 + + Congress Spring, _see_ Saratoga + + _Connecticut_, the, captured in War of 1812, 374 + + _Constitution_, the, 242 + + Constitution, U. S., adoption of, 367 + + Contrecœur, Captain, 399 + + Convention of 1787, 290 + + Cooper, J. Fenimore, 29, 110, 157, 205 + + Cooper Institute, 204 + + Cornwallis, Lord, 194; + at Brooklyn, 234-237; + at Trenton and Princeton, 271-283 + + Courcelle, 46 + + Coxe, Right Reverend A. C., 389 + + Cramps, shipbuilders, 326 + + Crane Hook, 349 + + Cronyn, Dr. John, 389 + + Crown Point, 40, 54 + + Curtis, G. W., 141, 205 + + + D + + “Daughters of the American Revolution,” 408 + + Davies, President, of Princeton, 259 + + de Beauvois, Carel, 222 + + Declaration of Independence, 265, 270, 318 + + de Kockerthal, Joshua, 107, 115 + + Delaware, Washington crossing the, 274 + + Delaware Historical Society, 358 + + Denny, Governor, 406 + + de Rochambeau, Count, 28 + + de Tracy, Lieutenant-General, 46 + + _Detroit_, the, captured in War of 1812, 374 + + Dickens, Charles, 206 + + Dickinson, John, 264 + + Dickinson, President, of Princeton, 252, 259 + + Dinwiddie, Governor, 394 + + Dongan, Governor, 10 + + Donop at Princeton, 282 + + Dordrecht, Synod of, 89 + + Dort, Synod of, 13 + + Downing, A. J., 116, 135 + + Downing, Charles, 135 + + Drummond, Lieutenant-General, besieges Fort Erie, 381 + + Duke Alexis, the Grand, 206 + + Duke of Veragua, 206 + + Duke of York, 9 + + Dunham, Carroll, 135 + + Dunlap, Wm., quoted, 17 + + Dunmore, Governor, at Pittsburgh, 410 + + Du Ponts, the, 357 + + Dutch church, Tarrytown, 152-156 + + Dutch East India Company, 3 + + Dutch West India Company, 7, 71, 75, 87, 335, 340 + + + E + + Eager, S. W., 135 + + _Eagle_, the, 341 + + Ebeling cited, 353 + + Ecuyer, Simon, 410 + + Edison, Thomas, 206 + + Edwards, Jonathan, at Princeton, 254, 256, 259 + + Elfsborg, 343 + + Elizabethtown, 252 + + Ellicott, Andrew, 367 + + Ellicott, Joseph, founds Buffalo, 367-369, 385; + favors Erie Canal, 382 + + Elliott, Lieut. J. D., in War of 1812, 374 + + Ellison house, Newburgh, 122, 126 + + Ellsworth, Oliver, 254, 291 + + Elsinborough, 343 + + Emperor of Brazil, 206 + + Erie Canal, history of, 104, 186, 382-385 + + Ettrick house, Newburgh, 128 + + + F + + Fairfax, Lord, estates of, 393 + + Fairmount Water-works, 324 + + Fall’s house, at Newburgh, 124 + + Faneuil Hall, 157 + + Fillmore, Millard, 383, 389 + + Finley, President, of Princeton, 260 + + Five Nations, _see_ Indians + + Flash, Sandy, 362 + + Fletcher, Governor, 46 + + Flypse, Vredryk, _see_ Philips + + Forbes, General, 405, 406 + + Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo, 380 + + Forsythe, Rev. John, 135 + + Forts: Albany, 9; + Amsterdam, 172; + Ann, 97; + Box, 232; + Carillon, 40; + Casimir, 341; + Christina, 339, 341, 343, 360; + Clinton, 121, 124, 125; + Corkscrew, 232; + Crailo, 30; + Defiance, 232, 233, 417; + Duquesne, 51, 401, 405, 406; + Edward, 41, 58, 97; + Elfsborg, 340, 341; + Erie, 373, 378, 380, 381; + Frederick, 40, 48; + Frontenac, 405; + George, 380; + Greene, 232; + Hamilton, 216, 244; + Hardy, 66; + Hunter, 97; + Johnson, 97; + Lafayette, 244-248, 416; + Lee, 271; + Montgomery, 121, 124, 125; + Nassau, 337, 340; + Necessity, 399; + Niagara, 407; + Orange, 7-9, 12, 73, 75, 80, 83; + Pitt, 407-410, 413, 414, 416; + Putnam, 232, 233, 239; + Schuyler, 97; + Stanwix, 58; + Sterling, 233; + Sumter, 362; + Ticonderoga, 19; + Washington, 271; + Wayne, 417; + William Henry, 18 + + Fort Stanwix Conference, 53 + + Forward, Oliver, 384 + + _Fox’s Journal_, 300, 302 + + Francis I., 2 + + Franklin, Benjamin, 20, 28, 99, 205, 307, 400 + + Franklin Institute, 310 + + Franklin, William, 265 + + Fraser at Saratoga, 60-64 + + Fraunces, Samuel, 184 + + Fraunces’s Tavern, 184 + + Frederick, Harold, 29 + + Freeman’s Farm, 59, 61 + + Freerman, Rev. B., 95 + + French and Indian Wars, 16, 46, 50, 91-93 + + Freneau, 269; + quoted, 175 + + Frontenac, 46; + and the Schenectady Massacre, 92 + + Fugitive Slave Law, 362 + + Fulton, Robert, 185, 206 + + + G + + Ganson, John, 389 + + Garrett, Thomas, 362 + + Gates, General, displaces Schuyler, 22; + at Saratoga, 57-68, 122 + + _Gazette, The_, of Buffalo, 373; + of Pittsburgh, 416 + + Genêt, 418 + + George II., 17; + portrait of, 282, 287 + + George III., statue of, in Bowling Green, 194 + + Germantown in the Revolution, 320 + + Gibbs’s St. Martin in the Fields, 317 + + Gilder, J. B., on New York City, 169-211 + + Gilman, Governor, 69 + + Girard College, 326 + + Gist, Christopher, 394 + + Gowanus, 213, 218, 233; + Canal, 214 + + Grant, Major, defeat of, 405 + + Grant, Mrs., of Laggan, 18 + + Grant’s Hill, fight at, 405 + + Gravesend settled by English, 222 + + Gray’s Ferry, Hessians at, 320 + + Great Britain, wars with, 373-382, 411, 413 + + Great Meadows, battle at, 399 + + Greeley, Horace, 205 + + Green, Ashbel, 292 + + Greene, Gen. Nathaniel, 122; + plans defensive works for Brooklyn, 232; + in battle of Princeton, 276 + + Greenwich, New Yorkers at, 188 + + _Griffin_, La Salle’s vessel, 384 + + Gustavus Adolphus and Usselinx, 335 + + + H + + Hale, Nathan, statue of, 195 + + _Half Moon_, Hudson’s, 2, 3, 110, 170 + + Hall, James, 35 + + Hamilton, Alexander, 205; + marriage of, 28; + political principles of, 180; + in Philadelphia, 320 + + Hamilton, Governor, 252 + + Hancock, John, 314, 412 + + Hand, General, 276, 281, 412 + + Harlem absorbed by New York, 188 + + Harrison, Provost C. C., of University of Pennsylvania, 324 + + Hart, John, Signer, 268 + + Hasbrouck, Col. J., 121, 127 + + Hasbrouck House, 126 + + Hawley, Jesse, and the Erie Canal, 382 + + Headley, J. T., 111, 135 + + Helvetius, Madame, 310 + + Henry, Joseph, 35, 292 + + Hessians, at Trenton, 270-274; + at Gray’s Ferry, 320 + + Hiawatha, real story of, 81-83 + + Hitchcock at battle of Princeton, 281 + + Hodge, Mr., at Buffalo, 373 + + Holland Land Company, 369 + + Holland, laws of, 85; + States-General of, 3, 71, 143 + + Hollendare, Peter, 339 + + Holy Trinity church, Wilmington, 350 + + Hopkins, Stephen, 20 + + Hopkinson, Francis, Signer, 269 + + Houdon’s bust of Franklin, 308 + + Howe, Admiral, 230, 271, 272 + + Howe, Lord, 194; + at New York, 230, 236; + at Brooklyn, 239 + + Howe, Lord Viscount, death of, 19, 22, 51 + + Howells, W. D., 205 + + Hudde at Fort Nassau, 337 + + Hudson, Henry, 2, 3, 45, 110, 140, 142, 143, 164 + + “Hugh Wynne,” 318 + + Hunter, Governor, 14 + + + I + + Independence Hall, 157, 317 + + Indians in history of Saratoga, 16 _ff._; + of Schenectady, 75-84, 91-93; + of Buffalo, 369; + of Pittsburgh, 394-411, 416 + + Ingoldsby, Major, 48 + + Ingoldsby, Richard, 112 + + Iroquois, _see_ Indians + + Irvine, Gen. Wm., 413 + + Irving, Washington, 9, 30, 81, 110, 161-166, 205, 344; + quoted, 146, 147 + + + J + + James, Duke of York, 175, 346 + + James, Henry, 29 + + James II., 91 + + Jamestown, Va., 157 + + Jay, John, 132, 180, 205 + + Jefferson, Thomas, writes Declaration of Independence, 265, 318 + + Jensen, Sally, 122 + + Jogues, Father, 9, 76 + + Johnson, Sir John, 97 + + Johnson, Sir William, 17, 51, 52, 97 + + Johnstown Flood, 421 + + Jumel Mansion, 202-204 + + Jumonville, death of, 399 + + + K + + Kalm, 314 + + Kayadrossera patent, the, 45, 53, 55 + + Keith, Governor, 327 + + Kennedy, Colonel, 194 + + Kennedy House, the, 197 + + Kidd, Captain, 206 + + Kieft, Governor, 336, 337 + + King George’s War, 48 + + King’s College, 179; + _see_ Columbia College + + Kip, Leonard, 29 + + Kipling, Rudyard, 206 + + Knickerbocker, Diedrich, 164 + + Knoll, Rev. M. C., 116 + + Knox, General, 122 + + Knox, Lucy, 122 + + Königsmark, rebellion of, 346 + + Kosciuszko at Saratoga, 58 + + Kossuth, Louis, 206 + + + L + + _La Dauphine_, Verrazzano’s ship, 2 + + Lafayette, 28, 206; + at Newburgh, 122, 132; + at Princeton, 292; + in the French Revolution, 418 + + Lake Erie, battle of, 376 + + Landon, J. S., on Schenectady, 71-106 + + Larned at Saratoga, 62 + + La Salle, 384 + + Lawrenceville School, 295 + + Le Brun, Napoleon, 330 + + Le Couteulx, L. S., founds asylum, 370 + + Lee, Bishop Alfred, 349, 350 + + Lee, R. H., 266 + + Leisler, Jacob, 91, 95, 177, 178 + + L’Enfant, Capt. P. C., and plan for the National Capital, 368 + + Lewis, Elizabeth, 352, 365 + + Lexington, battle of, 20, 228, 411 + + Li Hung Chang at New York, 206 + + Lincoln, A., his body brought to New York, 204 + + Lindstrom, P., Swedish engineer, 339, 341 + + Livingston, Catherine, 25 + + Livingston, Chancellor, 197, 205 + + Livingston, Philip, 25, 30, 36 + + Logstown and the Ohio Company, 394, 397 + + London, Philadelphia compared with, 300 + + Longfellow cited, 29, 83, 314 + + Long Island, battle of, 229-240 + + Lord, Rev. Dr. John, 389 + + Louisburg, expedition against, 405 + + Lovejoy, Mrs. Joshua, 377 + + Lovelace, Lord, 107, 175, 176 + + Low, Seth, Mayor of Brooklyn, 248 + + Lundy’s Lane, battle of, 380 + + Luther, Martin, 264 + + Lutherans, German, at Newburgh, 108-117 + + Lützen, battle of, 336 + + Luzerne, French envoy, 288 + + + M + + Mabie, H. W., on Tarrytown, 137-167 + + Maclean, John, 292 + + Madison, James, 290, 291; + quoted, 267 + + Mahany, R. B., on Buffalo, 367-391 + + Maidenhead, skirmish at, 276 + + _Maine_, the, 244 + + Manhattan, island of, 75, 80, 142, 169, 213, 214, 219 + + Manhattanville absorbed by New York, 188 + + Manning, Captain, 175 + + Manning, James, 254 + + Mantua, village of, 327 + + Marquis Ito, 206 + + Martin, Luther, 254 + + Martin, Thomas, Madison to, 267 + + Mather, Cotton, 221 + + Mauritius, 3, 7 + + Mawhood, Colonel, at Princeton, 280 + + _Mayflower_, the, 4, 5, 110 + + McCosh, President James, 295 + + McKean, Governor, 358 + + McKinly, President John, 355 + + McMahon, James P., 390 + + Megapolensis, Domine, 9 + + Mercer at battle of Princeton, 279-283 + + _Messenger, The_, of Ontario, 382 + + Metropolitan Museum, N. Y., 208 + + Meynders, Birgert, 118, 121 + + Midwout, 219, 220 + + Mifflin in battle of Princeton, 275 + + Miles, Colonel, at Brooklyn, 235 + + Miller, Rev. John, 10 + + Minquas River, 337, 357 + + Minuit, Peter, in New Netherlands, 172, 173, 336 + + Mischienza, the, 316, 320 + + Mohawks, _see_ Indians + + Monmouth’s Rebellion, 302 + + Montcalm, death of, 407 + + Montgomery, Robert, 357 + + Montreal, 178; + massacre of, 46; + capture of, 407 + + Moravians come to Philadelphia, 302 + + Morgan, Gen. Daniel, at Saratoga, 58-62 + + Morgan, Col. George, to John Hancock, 412 + + Morris, Gouverneur, 180, 205; + favors Erie Canal, 382 + + Morris, Robert, 288, 314; + in the Trenton campaign, 275; + house, 320 + + Morristown, 285; + Washington marches to, 283 + + Morse, S. F. B., 35, 206 + + Morven, 265, 271, 273 + + Moses, Rhind’s statue of, 36 + + Mount McGregor, 46, 48 + + Music Fund Hall, Philadelphia, 325 + + Myggenborg, _see_ Elfsborg + + + N + + Napier, General, cited, 381 + + Nassau Hall, 254, 258, 264, 269, 270, 281, 294, 296 + + Navy Yard, Brooklyn, 242-244 + + New Amsterdam, 143, 144, 346; + taken by the English, 175, 224; + name changed to New York, 175, 187, 224; + Buffalo first named, 367, 372 + + Newburgh, Adelaide Skeel on, 107-135; + the Palatine settlement, 107-117; + the coming of the Scotch and English, 117-121; + in the Revolution, 121-126; + Washington’s stay in, 126; + the Nicola letter, 127; + capture of Ettrick, 128-130; + Washington’s address to the unpaid troops, 131; + recent history, 132-135 + + New Castle, Del., 364 + + New Netherlands, fur trade in, 71 + + New Utrecht, 216 + + New York, 271, 317; + J. B. Gilder on, 169-211; + Dutch settlement, 169-175; + captured by the English, 175; + recaptured by the Dutch, 175; + governorship of Andros, 176; + resumption of Dutch authority, 177; + Leisler’s rule, 177; + in the Revolution, 178-184; + in the War of 1812, 184-186; + in the Civil War, 186; + expansion of, 187-189; + the Tammany Society, 189; + historic survivals in, 190-204; + characteristics of, 204-211 + + New York Central Railroad, 78 + + New York University, 207, 211 + + Niagara, Shirley’s expedition against, 51 + + Niagara Falls, 369, 386 + + Nicola, Colonel, letter to Washington, 127, 132 + + Nicolls, Colonel, at New Amsterdam, 175, 177, 224 + + Nieu Nederlandt, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9 + + Niles, Nathaniel, 254 + + Nott, President E., 105, 106 + + + O + + Ohio Company formed, 397 + + “Old French War,” 96 + + _Old Jersey_, the ship, 242 + + Old Swedes’ Church, Wilmington, 350-352 + + Oxenstiern revives the Usselinx charter, 336 + + + P + + Paige, E. W., cited, 83 + + Paine, Thomas, 205 + + Palatines, at Newburgh, 108-117; + at Philadelphia, 302 + + Palmer, the sculptor, 36 + + Paris, treaty of, 97; + New York compared with, 317 + + Parker, Judge, 36 + + Paterson, William, 252, 290 + + Patton, President, of Princeton, 295 + + Paulding, J., 160 + + Paulding, J. K., 110 + + Penn, John, house of, 312 + + Penn, Letitia, house of, 304 + + Penn, William, 333; + founds Philadelphia, 298-307, 316; + grants charter to Wilmington, 353 + + Penn family’s charter to Pennsylvania annulled, 413 + + Pennsylvania, charter to, 413; + dispute with Va., 414 + + Pennsylvania Historical Society, 323 + + Pennsylvania Hospital, 314 + + Pepper, Dr. William, services to the University of Pennsylvania, 324 + + Percy, Lord, at Brooklyn, 236 + + Perry, Commodore, 376 + + Philadelphia, Talcott Williams on, 297-334; + geographical site, 297; + early houses, 298; + coming of William Penn, 300-302; + rapid growth of city, 302-317; + in the Revolution, 317-320; + between 1790 and 1820, 320-323; + history of water supply, 323; + the University of Pennsylvania, 324; + the city before the Civil War, 325-329; + modern Philadelphia, 329-334 + + Philadelphia Library, 306 + + Philips, Frederick, and his Manor, 145-151 + + Phipps, Henry, conservatory of, 424 + + Pilgrims compared with Palatines, 113 + + Pitt, William, statue of, 194; + befriends colonies, 404 + + Pittsburgh, S. H. Church on, 393-426; + site determined by Washington, 393; + first permanent settlement, 397; + taken by French, 399; + the Braddock expedition, 399-404; + English take Fort Duquesne and name it Pittsburgh, 406; + Indians attack, 409; + in the Revolution, 411-413; + becomes the county seat, 414; + in the Indian war of 1791, 416; + the Whiskey Insurrection, 417; + incorporated, 418; + the strike of 1877, 420; + industrial importance, 422; + higher life of, 423-426 + + Plymouth Rock, 6 + + Poe, Edgar Allan, 205 + + Polhemus, Rev. Mr., at Brooklyn, 220, 221 + + Pontiac, confederacy of, 408 + + Poor at Saratoga, 62 + + Porter, General P. B., in War of 1812, 378, 381; + favors Erie Canal, 382 + + Pratt Institute, 248 + + Prince of Wales, 206 + + Princess Eulalia, 206 + + Princeton, W. M. Sloane on, 251-296; + first settlement, 251; + College of New Jersey established at Elizabethtown, 252; + removed to Princeton, 254; + parting from Yale, 254; + early character, 256-260; + Witherspoon and his administration, 260-266; + Revolutionary spirit in, 266-270; + the Trenton campaign, 272; + battle of Princeton, 274-284; + mutinous Continentals at, 285; + Congress meets at, 286; + Washington’s visits to, 287; + contributions to the Convention of 1787, 289-291; + modern Princeton, 291-296 + + Prinz, John, in New Sweden, 339-342 + + Pruyn, John V. L., 35, 36 + + Putnam, at Brooklyn, 234; + at Philadelphia, 272; + at Princeton, 285 + + Putnam, Gideon, at Saratoga, 69 + + Putnam, Harrington, on Brooklyn, 213-249 + + + Q + + Quassaick, 107, 114, 118, 127, 128 + + Quebec, capture of, 407 + + Queen Anne, 108; + gives bell to Lutherans at Newburgh, 115, 117 + + Queen Anne’s War, 48, 96 + + _Queen Charlotte_, British war vessel, 375 + + Queen Charlotte, portrait of, 184 + + Queen’s Head Tavern, 184 + + Queenstown in War of 1812, 380 + + + R + + Raymond, President, of Union College, 106 + + Red Jacket in War of 1812, 380 + + Rensselaerswyck, 8, 28, 73, 80, 81, 87 + + Revolution, Philadelphia in the, 318 + + Reynolds, Marcus, quoted, 28 + + Rhind’s statue of Moses, 36 + + Riall, General, burns Buffalo, 377; + retreats, 380, 381 + + Richardson, H. H., 31, 424 + + Richardson, William, 390 + + Richmond Hill, 202 + + Riedesel, Madame, 64, 65 + + Ripley, General, at Fort Erie, 381 + + Rising, John Claudius, 341 + + Rittenhouse, 314; + his observatory, 318 + + Roe, E. P., 135 + + Rogers, Wm. F., 390 + + Romeyn, Domine, 102, 103 + + Roosevelt, Governor, cited, 178 + + Ross house, the Betsy, 316 + + Rudman, Pastor, cited, 345 + + Ruttenber, E. M., 135 + + Ryan, Bishop S. V., 389 + + Ryswyck, peace of, 95 + + + S + + St. Augustine, 157 + + St. Clair, defeat of, 416 + + St. Francis de Sales, Order of, 28 + + St. George’s church, Schenectady, 101 + + St. John, Mrs., 377 + + St. Luke’s church, Philadelphia, 326 + + St. Mark’s Church, Philadelphia, 326 + + St. Martin in the Fields, Gibbs’s, 317 + + St. Paul’s chapel, New York, 201, 202 + + St. Peter’s church, Albany, 19, 32 + + Santo Domingo, 357 + + Saratoga, E. H. Walworth on, 39-69; + site of, 39-42; + the name, 42-44; + French and Indian struggles for site, 45-48; + massacre of old Saratoga, 49; + Seven Years’ War, 50-52; + medicinal value of Saratoga waters discovered, 52; + the Fort Stanwix Conference, 53; + preliminary warfare of the American Revolution, 54-56; + Burgoyne’s defeat and surrender, 56-68; + General Schuyler makes old Saratoga his summer resort, 68; + Gideon Putnam founds the present Saratoga, 69 + + Sassoonan, 397 + + Schaets, Rev. Gideon, 89 + + Schenectady, 16, 29, 46; + J. S. Landon on, 71-106; + settled, 71; + subject to the Dutch West India Company, 71-73; + Arendt Van Curler’s directorship, 75-83; + land purchased from the Indians, 83; + character of the early settlement, 83-87; + under English rule, 87-90; + the first legislative assembly, 90; + government seized by Leisler, 91; + Indian wars, 92-96; + Schenectady in the Revolution, 97-99; + religious history, 100-103; + modern history, 104-106 + + Schenley, Mary, 424 + + Schermerhoorn, Symon, 16 + + Schonowe, 79, 81 + + Schoonmaker, Domine, 226 + + Schute, Swen, 343, 365 + + Schuyler, Elizabeth, marriage of, 28 + + Schuyler, Margaret, 29 + + Schuyler, Peter, 12, 46 + + Schuyler, Philip, shot by Indians, 49 + + Schuyler, Gen. Philip, 19, 22, 23, 27, 28; + in battle of Saratoga, 58-68; + visits Saratoga Springs, 68 + + Schuyler, Mrs. Philip, 18 + + Schuyler Mansion, 27 + + Schuylerville, 22, 41 + + Scott, Walter, 162 + + Scott, Gen. Winfield, in War of 1812, 378, 381 + + Selyns, Rev. H., at Brooklyn, 221 + + _Seneca Chief_, first boat on Erie Canal, 382 + + Seven Years’ War, 50 + + Seymour, Governor, quoted, 22 + + Shelton, Rev. Dr. Wm., 389 + + Sherman, Roger, 291 + + Shipley, Elizabeth, 365 + + Shipley, William, at Wilmington, 352, 365 + + Shirley, expedition of, 51 + + Six Nations, _see_ Indians + + Skeel, Adelaide, on Newburgh, 107-135 + + Skipper Block, 170 + + Sleepy Hollow, 147, 164, 167 + + Sloane, W. M., on Princeton, 251-296 + + Sloughter, Governor, replaces Leisler, 177 + + Smith, James M., 390 + + Smithsonian Institution, 294 + + Spaulding, E. G., introduces Legal-Tender Act, 391 + + Spuyten Duyvil Creek, fight at, 170 + + Squaw Island, the _Detroit_ aground on, 374 + + Stackpole, Dr., composes Yankee Doodle, 30 + + Stanhope, Samuel, 292 + + Stanwix, General, builds second Fort Pitt, 407 + + Stark, General, 275; + at Fort Edward, 66; + at Princeton, 281 + + Stedman, E. C., 205 + + Steuben, 28; + at Newburgh, 132 + + Stirling, in battle of Long Island, 234-239; + in Trenton campaign, 271 + + Stockton, Richard, 252, 265, 269 + + Stoddard, R. H., 205 + + Stone, Gen. C. P., imprisoned at Fort Lafayette, 245, 246 + + Strasburg Cathedral, 34 + + Stuyvesant, Peter, at New Amsterdam, 9, 81, 144, 175-177, 218-221, + 248; + buys land west of the Delaware, 340; + captures forts on the Delaware, 343 + + Suffolk County in the Revolution, 228 + + Sullivan, General, at Brooklyn, 235-237; + at Princeton, 285 + + Sunnyside, Washington Irving at, 162, 163 + + Swedes, on the Delaware, 335-344; + their church at Philadelphia, 301 + + + T + + Tammany Hall, history of, 189, 190 + + Tarrytown, H. W. Mabie on, 137-167; + described, 137-140; + early Dutch settlements, 140-145; + derivation of name, 146; + the Philips Manor-House, 148-150; + the old Dutch church, 150-156; + Tarrytown in the Revolution, 157-160; + capture of John André, 158-161; + Washington Irving, 161-164 + + Tatnall, Joseph, Washington visits, 357; + gives clock to Wilmington, 359 + + Tawasentha, Vale of, 29 + + Taylor, Bayard, 205 + + Tenacong, _see_ Tinicum + + Thackeray, W. M., 206 + + Thaw, Wm., generosity to Pittsburgh, 424 + + Thesschenmaecher, Rev. Petrus, 88 + + Ticonderoga, 19, 40, 51, 54, 233, 405 + + Tiemann, Mayor, death of, 170 + + Tifft house, the, 377 + + Tilden, Samuel J., 205 + + Tinicum, Prinz’s fort at, 340 + + Torkillius, Rev. R., at Fort Christina, 338, 365 + + Townsend, Charles, 384 + + Townsend, Sam, 361 + + Tran Hook, _see_ Crane Hook + + Treaty of 1783, 289 + + Trefalldigheet, 343 + + Trent, Captain Wm., establishes first settlement at Pittsburgh, + 397-399 + + Trenton, battle of, 270-274 + + Trinity Church, New York, 227 + + Tryon, Governor, quoted, 56 + + Tusculum, 271 + + + U + + Union College, 102-106 + + University of Pennsylvania, 324 + + University Settlement, New York, 208 + + Usselinx, Wm., and his trading company, 335 + + Utrecht, 216; + treaty of, 96 + + + V + + Vallandigham, E. N., on Wilmington, 335-365 + + Van Curler, Arendt, at Schenectady, 75-84, 92 + + Vanderheyden Palace, 30 + + Van Rensselaer, Killiaen, 8, 75 + + Van Rensselaer, Stephen, 25 + + Van Rensselaer Island, 4 + + Van Rensselaer Manor-House, 25, 26 + + Van Slechtenhorst, Brandt, 9 + + Van Twiller, Walter, 336 + + Van Wart, Isaac, 160 + + Van Wyck house, 132 + + Van Wyck, James, 132 + + Verplanck house, 131 + + Verrazzano, 2 + + Versailles, peace of, 289 + + Virginia, dispute with Pennsylvania, 414 + + Vliessingen, _see_ Flushing + + Von Königsmark, 346 + + Von Steuben, _see_ Steuben + + + W + + Waalboght, 213 + + Wadsworth, Colonel, 122 + + Wallabout, village of, 224, 233, 242 + + _Walk-in-the-Water_, first steamboat on Lake Erie, 384 + + Walworth, E. H., on Saratoga, 39-70 + + War of 1812, _see_ various chapters + + Washington, plan of city, 187, 368 + + Washington, George, and the site of Pittsburgh, 393; + at Great Meadows, 399; + with Braddock, 404; + opens road to Fort Duquesne, 405; + at Schenectady, 98; + in battle of Long Island, 238-240; + at Trenton and Princeton, 270-290; + at Saratoga, 69; + in New York, 181, 182, 194, 197-202; + at Newburgh, 114, 122, 126-131; + visits Wilmington, 355-358; + instructions to St. Clair, 416; + plan for the National Capital, 367; + quoted, 1, 23, 238 + + Watkins, Rev. H., 118 + + Wayne, Anthony, 125, 286, 416 + + Webb, Captain Thomas, 101 + + Weigand’s Tavern, Newburgh, 126 + + Wesley, John, 101 + + Western University of Pennsylvania, 416 + + West India Company, 143, 173 + + West Point, 122, 160, 378 + + Whiskey Insurrection, 417 + + Whitefield, George, 256 + + Whitman, Walt, 205 + + William and Mary, 91 + + William III., 177 + + William IV., 206 + + Williams, David, 160 + + Williams, Talcott, on Philadelphia, 297-334 + + Williams College, 26 + + Williams house, Newburgh, 122 + + Williams, William I., 389 + + Willing, Thomas, founds Wilmington, 352 + + Willingstown, 352 + + Willis, N. P., 110, 135 + + Wilmington, E. N. Vallandigham on, 335-365; + plans of Usselinx, 335; + expedition of Minuit, 336; + settlement on the Christina, 337; + governorship of Prinz, 339; + struggles of the Swedes and Dutch for the Delaware, 341-344; + Dutch rule, 344-346; + English supremacy, 346; + friendly services of Wm. Penn, 346-349; + Old Swedes’ church, 349; + Wilmington laid out, 352; + services of William Shipley, 352; + the earlier city, 353-360; + before and in the Civil War, 360-364; + modern changes, 364 + + Winthrop, Fitz John, 46 + + Witherspoon, John, 254, 260-271, 290, 291 + + Wiedrich, Michael, 390 + + Wilkeson, Samuel, 384 + + Wilkeson, John, 390 + + Worth, Captain, in War of 1812, 381 + + Wolfe, death of, 19, 52, 407 + + Wolfert’s Roost, 161 + + Wyncoop, Gitty, 122 + + Wyoming Valley, 49 + + + Y + + Yale relations with Princeton, 254 + + Yorktown, 127, 182 + + Yorkville absorbed by New York, 188 + + + Z + + Zoölogical Garden, Philadelphia, 323 + + +Historic Towns of New England + +Edited by LYMAN P. POWELL. With introduction by GEORGE P. MORRIS. With +160 illustrations. 8ᵒ, gilt top, $3.50. + +CONTENTS: =Portland=, by Samuel T. Pickard; =Rutland=, by Edwin D. Mead; +=Salem=, by George D. Latimer; =Boston=, by Thomas Wentworth Higginson +and Edward Everett Hale; =Cambridge=, by Samuel A. Eliot; =Concord=, +by Frank A. Sanborn; =Plymouth=, by Ellen Watson; =Cape Cod Towns=, by +Katharine Lee Bates; =Deerfield=, by George Sheldon; =Newport=, by Susan +Coolidge; =Providence=, by William B. Weeden; =Hartford=, by Mary K. +Talcott; =New Haven=, by Frederick Hull Cogswell. + + +Historic Towns of the Middle States + +Edited by LYMAN P. POWELL. With introduction by Dr. ALBERT SHAW. With +over 150 illustrations. 8ᵒ, gilt top, $3.50. + +CONTENTS: =Albany=, by W. W. Battershall; =Saratoga=, by Ellen H. +Walworth; =Schenectady=, by Judson S. Landon; =Newburgh=, by Adelaide +Skeel; =Tarrytown=, by H. W. Mabie; =Brooklyn=, by Harrington Putnam; +=New York=, by J. B. Gilder; =Buffalo=, by Rowland B. Mahany; +=Pittsburgh=, by S. H. Church; =Philadelphia=, by Talcott Williams; +=Princeton=, by W. M. Sloane; =Wilmington=, by E. N. Vallandigham. + + +Some Colonial Homesteads + +And Their Stories. By MARION HARLAND. Second impression. With 86 +illustrations. 8ᵒ, gilt top, $3.00. + +“A notable book, dealing with early American days.... The name of the +author is a guarantee not only of the greatest possible accuracy as to +facts, but of attractive treatment of themes absorbingly interesting in +themselves, ... the book is of rare elegance in paper, typography, and +binding.”—_Rochester Democrat-Chronicle._ + + +More Colonial Homesteads + +And Their Stories. By MARION HARLAND. With over 70 illustrations. 8ᵒ, +gilt top. + + +Where Ghosts Walk + +The Haunts of Familiar Characters in History and Literature. By +MARION HARLAND, author of “Some Colonial Homesteads,” etc. With 33 +illustrations. 8ᵒ, gilt top, $2.50. + +“In this volume fascinating pictures are thrown upon the screen so +rapidly that we have not time to have done with our admiration for one +before the next one is encountered.... Travel of this kind does not +weary. It fascinates.”—_New York Times._ + + +BELLES-LETTRES + + +Browning, Poet and Man + +A Survey. By ELISABETH LUTHER CARY, author of “Tennyson; His Homes, His +Friends, and His Works.” With cover design by MARGARET ARMSTRONG. With 25 +illustrations in photogravure and some text illustrations. Large 8ᵒ, gilt +top (in a box), $3.75. + +This volume forms a companion work to Miss Cary’s book on Tennyson issued +last year, and which met with such a cordial reception. + + +Tennyson + +His Homes, His Friends, and His Work. By ELISABETH LUTHER CARY. With +18 illustrations in photogravure and some text illustrations. Second +edition. Large 8ᵒ, gilt top (in a box), $3.75. + +“The multitudes of admirers of Tennyson in the United States will mark +this beautiful volume as very satisfactory. The text is clear, terse, and +intelligent, and the matter admirably arranged, while the mechanical work +is faultless, with art work especially marked for excellence.”—_Chicago +Inter-Ocean._ + + +Petrarch + +The First Modern Scholar and Man of Letters. A Selection from his +Correspondence with Boccaccio and other Friends. Designed to illustrate +the Beginnings of the Renaissance. Translated from the original Latin +together with Historical Introductions and Notes, by JAMES HARVEY +ROBINSON, Professor of History in Columbia University, with the +Collaboration of HENRY WINCHESTER ROLFE, sometime Professor of Latin in +Swarthmore College. Illustrated. 8ᵒ, $2.00. + +“Petrarch is widely known as a poet of the Italian language whose +love for Laura is immortalized in a long series of sonnets. It was +an admirable idea for Prof. Robinson to translate for us a selection +from the letters of Petrarch, and to intersperse their thoughtful and +scholarly, fresh and interesting, notes and comments.”—_N. Y. Times._ + + +Literary Hearthstones + +Studies of the Home Life of Certain Writers and Thinkers. By MARION +HARLAND, author of “Some Colonial Homesteads and Their Stories,” “Where +Ghosts Walk,” etc. Put up in sets of two volumes each, in boxes. Fully +illustrated. 16ᵒ. + +The first issues will be: + + =Charlotte Brontë.= + =William Cowper.= + =Hannah More.= + =John Knox.= + +In this series, Marion Harland presents, not dry biographies, but, as +indicated in the sub-title, studies of the home-life of certain writers +and thinkers. The volumes will be found as interesting as stories, and, +indeed, they have been prepared in the same method as would be pursued in +writing a story, that is to say, with a due sense of proportion. + + + G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS, NEW YORK AND LONDON + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77274 *** |