History of Brooklyn, (Kings County) New York United States of America

BROOKLYN, a city, seaport, and seat of justice of King's county, New York, at the western extremity of Long island, 146 miles S. from Albany, and 226 miles N. E. from Washington. Lat. of the navy-yard, 40° 41´ 50´´ N.; lon. 73° 59´ 30´´ W. A strait, called the East river, about three-fourths of a mile wide, separates it from New York city. This strait is crossed by several steam-ferries, the principal of which are the Fulton, South, Catharine, Jackson, and the Hamilton Avenue ferries. Of these the Fulton ferry is by far the greatest thoroughfare. Boats leave the opposite landings every few minutes during the day, and once in 30 minutes from 12 o'clock at night until morning. The crowd of passengers, both at the Fulton and South ferries, morning and evening, is immense: three boats at each are kept constantly plying, and occupy no more than 5 or 6 minutes in crossing. The site of Brooklyn is considerably elevated and very uneven, though much has been done in the way of grading and other improvements to overcome the original inequalities of the surface. One prominence, towards the East river, denominated the "Heights," is 70 feet above the level of the sea, and affords a magnificent view of New York city, the harbor, and surrounding scenery. The streets are generally about 60 feet in width, and, with the exception of Fulton, nearly all straight, intersecting each other at right angles. Many of them are beautifully shaded, which, in the summer season, imparts to the city all the freshness and tranquil appearance of a country town. Fulton street, leading from Fulton ferry, is the great thoroughfare; enclosed on either side with blocks of lofty buildings, it forms an imposing entrance to the city. Most of the finest streets are towards the S. W., near the bay. Many of the dwellings in this section are of surpassing elegance, and are generally surrounded with yards, adorned with beautiful gardens and shrubbery. The more densely settled portions of the city have no public squares, but from its elevated position, the breadth of the streets, and the profusion of shade-trees, the want of those means of ventilation and sources of health is much less felt than might have been expected. In the newer parts, however, provision for some public grounds has been made. The proximity of Brooklyn to New York, its healthy atmosphere, and the facilities afforded for communication with the great metropolis, have made it a favorite place of residence to persons doing business in that city. It is to this circumstance that its rapid growth is mainly attributable.

Brooklyn is one of the best-built cities in the United States, and contains a large number of edifices that are distinguished either for elegance of architectural design. The most prominent of these is the new city hall, situated on a triangular piece of ground bounded by Fulton, Court, and Joralemon streets. It is constructed of white marble, 162 feet by 102, and 75 feet in height, comprising three stories and a basement. A dome surmounts the building, the top of which is 153 feet from the ground. Its entire cost was about $200,000. The jail, erected in 1837, is a substantial building of freestone, situated in the eastern part of the city, near Fort Greene.

There are 66 churches in Brooklyn, several of which are imposing structures. The Church of the Pilgrims, a gray stone building, with a tower and spire, is a commanding object to those approaching the city from the bay. The Holy Trinity (Episcopal) is a brown stone edifice, of Gothic architecture, and cost about $150,000. Grace church, the Unitarian church, and the Church of the Restoration, are all of brown stone, and in the Gothic style of architecture. Dr. Cox's church, and Dr. Bethune's, (the latter not yet completed,) are also of brown stone.

The Atlantic dock, 1 mile S. of Fulton ferry, is one of the most extensive works of the kind in the United States. It was built by a company incorporated in 1840, with a capital of $1,000,000, and embraces within the piers 40 86/100 acres. Its depth is sufficient for ships of the largest size. The outer pier, extending 3000 feet on Buttermilk channel, is occupied with a range of granite stores, which completely shelters it from the harbor. An extensive dry dock, at the navy-yard, has recently been completed at a cost of about $1,000,000. The shores of Brooklyn, where not protected by docks and wharves, are rapidly wearing away, in consequence of the strong current in the East river. Governor's Island was formerly connected with Long Island, and, previous to the Revolution, cattle were driven from Red Hook Point to it across Buttermilk channel, then a shallow passage, but now of sufficient depth for vessels of the largest class. The United States navy-yard is situated on the S. side of Wallabout bay, which makes up towards the N. E. part of Brooklyn, in the form of a broad curve. It occupies about 40 acres of ground, which is enclosed on the land side by a high stone wall, and contains, besides the residences of the officers, two extensive ship-houses, various workshops, and a large amount of military stores.

Among the literary and charitable institutions, may be mentioned the Brooklyn Athenæum, at the corner of Atlantic and Clinton streets. It is provided with a library, reading roam, and a course of lectures. The building is a fine structure, 90 feet by 80, and cost $60,000. The City Library contains a collection of valuable works. The Lyceum, in Washington street, is a noble granite structure, with a spacious lecture room. The United States Lyceum, organized in 1833, is in the navy-yard, and possesses besides a valuable collection of curiosities, extensive geological and mineralogical cabinets. The new City Hospital, in Raymond street, near De Kalb, was opened in April, 1852, and has accommodations for 170 patients. The whole number of admissions during the year 1852, was 456. The "Graham Institution, for the relief of respectable, aged, indigent females," was rounded in 1851, and the building dedicated October 26th, 1852. It is constructed of brick, 52 feet front, 80 deep, and 4 stories high, containing 55 rooms, which afford accommodation for 90 persons. Entire cost, $29,044. The Orphan Asylum of the City of Brooklyn, incorporated in 1835, furnishes a home to about 150 children. The Marine Hospital, surrounded with about 30 acres of well-cultivated land, occupies a commanding elevation on the opposite side of Wallabout bay. In addition to the above, may be mentioned the Church Charity Foundation, a corporation organized in 1851, having for its object the relief of indigent and destitute persons, and the Brooklyn Dispensary, on Pineapple street, near Fulton.

The public schools of Brooklyn are in a very prosperous condition. From the original formation of the board of education in 1843, to January 1st, 1853, the number of schools had increased from 10 to 15; the average attendance of pupils from 1865 to 6338; the number of teachers, from 29 to 157, and the yearly amount of teachers' salaries from $9510 to $35,063. The number of pupils registered, January 1st, 1853, was 9903, and the number who had received instruction during the year, 19,148. Of the teachers, 18 were males, and 139 females. During the year referred to, 571 volumes were added to the school libraries, making an aggregate of 19,799 volumes. The appropriations for 1852 amounted to $48,403 74; $23,403 74 of this sum was received from the state, and $25,000 from the city tax. In addition to this the Board advanced $33,861 for the purchase of school sites and the erection and repairing of houses, making the entire sum expended for school purposes in 1852, $82,264 74.

Brooklyn contains six banks and two savings institutions. Four daily and three or four weekly newspapers are published in the city.

At Wallabout bay, in the Revolutionary war, were stationed the English prison-ships, in which it is said nearly 12,000 Americans perished from close confinement and other ill treatment. The bodies of the sufferers were hastily buried upon the shore with but little care, except to conceal them from sight. In 1808 their bones, which were beginning to be washed from their graves, were taken up and placed in thirteen coffins, inscribed with the names of the thirteen original states, and then deposited in a common vault beneath a building erected for the purpose, on Hudson avenue, near the navy-yard. Brooklyn was first settled in 1625, near Wallabout bay. The first deed for land was granted in 1639. In 1776 this part of Long Island became the seat of the Revolutionary war. Brooklyn was incorporated as a township in April, 1806, and as a city, having the same limits as the township, 6 miles long and 4 wide at its greatest breadth, in April, 1834. It is divided into 9 wards, and governed by a mayor and a board of 18 aldermen, 2 from each ward, elected annually. Population in 1810, 4402; 1820, 7175; 1830, 15,396; 1840, 36,233; 1850, 96,838; 1853, estimated at 125,000.

Biographies:

James Taft Hatfield, educator, was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., June 15, 1862; son of the Rev. Robert Miller and Elizabeth Ann (Taft) Hatfield; grandson of Elisha and Elizabeth (Miller) Hatfield, and of Jonathan and Rebecca Ann (Horton) Taft; and a descendant of Thomas Hatfield, who settled in Westchester county, N.Y., about 1665; and of Robert Taft who settled in Uxbridge, Mass., in 1680. He was graduated from Northwestern university, Evanston, IIl., in 1883; studied Sanskrit at Canning college, Lucknow, India, in 1884; was a professor of classic languages at Rust university, HollySprings, Miss., 1884-85; principal of McCormick school, De Funiak, Fla., in 1886; a graduate student and fellow of Johns Hopkins university, 1887-90, receiving the degree of Ph.D. in 1890; and in 1890 became professor of the German language and literature at Northwestern university, Evanston, Ill. From June, 1896, to August, 1897, he studied at Berlin, Weimar, Giessen, T?bingen, and Oxford; June to August, 1898, served in Spanish-American war as captain of a 5-inch gun on the U.S. cruiser Yale, entering as ordinary seaman and discharged as chief yeoman. He was appointed in August, 1898, one of an international committee of one hundred, being one of three Americans chosen, to arrange for the erection of a monument to Goethe in Strassburg. He was elected a member of the American oriental society, of the American society for the extension of university teaching, of the auxiliary council of the World's Columbian exposition (1893), and secretary of the pedagogical section of the Modern Language association of America. He was appointed one of the editors of Americana Germanica, published at the University of Pennsylvania. He published: The Elements of Sanskrit Grammar (1884); An Index to Gothic Forms in Kluge's Etymological Dictionary (1889); A Study of Juvencus (1890); On the Numbering of the Atharvan Paricistas (1889); The Aucanasadbhutani (1891); The Poetry of Wilhelm M?ller (1895); John Wesley's Translations of German Hymns (1896); Materials for German Composition (1896); The Earliest Poems of Wilhelm M?ller (1898); Church Music (1898); Uhland's Earliest Ballad and its Source (1898); Goethe (1899); and German Lyrics and Ballads (1900); and edited Freytag's Rittmeister von Alt-Rosen (1894), and Goethe's Hermann und Dorothea (1899).

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Julie Mathilde Lippmann, author, was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., June 27, 1864; daughter of Adolph and Marie Sophie (Polk) Lippmann, natives of Aix la Chapelle, Prussia. She was educated at a private school in Brooklyn and when fourteen began to write for the Golden Age, Philadelphia, in both prose and verse. She also wrote for the Youth's Companion, Century, Harpers, Atlantic and in fact most of the leading magazines and first class periodicals. She is the author of: Jock O'Dreams (1891); Miss Wildfire (1897); Dorothy Day (1898), and comediettas: A Fool and His Money (1897); Cousin Faithful (1897); The Facts in the Case (1897); Through Slumbertown and Wakeland.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Seth Low, educator, was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Jan. 18, 1850; son of Abiel Abbot and Ellen Almira (Dow) Low, and grandson of Seth and Mary (Porter) Low. He attended the Brooklyn Polytechnic institute until 1866, and was graduated from Columbia college in 1870. He entered his father's mercantile house as a clerk, and was admitted to a partnership in the firm in 1875. Upon the retirement of the senior members he succeeded to the business with other junior partners, in 1879; the business was finally liquidated in 1888. He was elected a member of the New York chamber of commerce, before which body he made several important addresses. He enlisted as a volunteer visitor to the poor in 1876, in a movement which reformed and subsequently abolished the system of outdoor relief in Kings county, and in 1878 he organized and was first president of the Bureau of Charities. He was married Dec. 9, 1880, to Annie, daughter of Ben jam in R. Curtis, of Boston. He was president of a Republican campaign club organized in Brooklyn in 1880 to promote the election of Garfield and Arthur, and the conspicuous success of the organization in swelling the party vote brought its president into public view. He was elected mayor of Brooklyn in 1881 as a reform candidate, and re-elected in 1883, serving until 1886. He was the first mayor to introduce the system of competitive examination for appointment to municipal offices. Upon the expiration of his term of office he visited Europe. He was elected a trustee of Columbia college in 1881, and president of the college, Oct. 7, 1889. During his administration the college became a university, the College of Physicians and Surgeons was incorporated with the university and the School of Mines was broadened into the Schools of Applied Science. An entire new set of buildings was erected for the university on a new site on Morningside Heights at a cost of about $7,500,000. In 1894 he gave for the endowment of the Henry Drisler classical fund, in memory of his old professor, $10,000. In 1895 he gave $1,100,000 for the erection of a new university library; and in honor of his munificence the trustees established twelve scholarships in the college for Brooklyn boys, and twelve in Barnard college for Brooklyn girls, and agreed to establish eight annual university scholarships. In 1896 he gave $10,000 to Barnard college and $5000 to the New York Kindergarten association. In 1893, during the threatened cholera epidemic, he was chairman of a committee appointed by the New York chamber of commerce to aid the authorities in precautionary measures, and Camp Low, named after him, was established at Sandy Hook by the national government. He became a student of social science and a frequent arbitrator of labor disputes. With his brother, Abbot Augustus Low, he built in 1894, and presented to the mission station of the Protestant Episcopal church in Wu Chang, China, a completely equipped hospital for the use of the mission, erected to perpetuate the memory of his father. He succeeded Charles P. Daly, deceased, as president of the American Geographical society in 1900, and also served as president of the Arch?ological Institution of America, and as vice-president of the New York Academy of Science. The honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred on him by Amherst college in 1889, by Harvard university, the University of the State of New York, the University of Pennsylvania, and Trinity college, Connecticut, in 1890, by Princeton in 1896 and by Yale in 1901. He resigned the presidency of Columbia university in 1901, upon his election as mayor of the city of New York, and was succeeded by Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler , who was inaugurated in May. 1902.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Thomas Francis Magner, representative, was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., March 8, 1860, son of Patrick and Ellen (Barry) Magner, natives of Cork, Ireland, who came to New York in their early youth. He attended the public schools; was graduated from St. Francis Xavier college, New York city, in 1880, and from the law department of Columbia college in 1882. He taught school in Brooklyn, 1880-82; took up the practice of his profession in Brooklyn in 1882; was a member of the New York assembly, 1888; and a Democratic representative from the sixth New York district in the 51st, 52d and 53d congresses, 1889-95.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Brooklyn, (Kings County) New York

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Biographies: