A Knickerbocker Tour of New York State, 1822: "Our Travels, Statistical
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University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Electronic Texts in American Studies Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln 1822 A Knickerbocker tour of New York State, 1822: "Our Travels, Statistical, Geographical, Mineorological, Geological, Historical, Political and Quizzical"; Written by Myself XYZ etc. Johnston Verplanck New York American Louis Leonard Tucker , editor The New York State Library Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/etas Part of the American Studies Commons Verplanck, Johnston and Tucker, Louis Leonard , editor, "A Knickerbocker tour of New York State, 1822: "Our Travels, Statistical, Geographical, Mineorological, Geological, Historical, Political and Quizzical"; Written by Myself XYZ etc." (1822). Electronic Texts in American Studies. 61. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/etas/61 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Texts in American Studies by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. I iC 1\ N A D I I I 0 iI I' I ~ I A Knickerbocker tour of New York State, 1822 ~~Our Travels, Statistical, Geographical, Mineorological, Geological, Historical, Political and "Quizzical" Written by myself XYZ etc. Edited, with an Introduction and Notes, By LoUIS LEONARD TUCKER The University of the State of New York The State Education Department The New York State Library Albany 1968 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK Regents of the University (with years when terms expire) 1969 JOSEPH W. MCGOVERN, A.B., LL.B., L.H.D., LL.D., Chancellor · New York 1970 EVERETT J. PENNY, B.C.S., D.C.S., Vice Chancellor· • • White Plains 1978 ALEXANDER J. ALLAN, JR., LL.D., Litt.D. • Troy 1973 CHARLES W. MILLARD, JR., A.B., LL.D., L.H.D.. • Buffalo 1972 CARL H. PFORZHEIMER, JR., A.B., M.B.A., D.C.S. • Purchase 1975 EDWARD M. M. WARRURG, B.S., L.H.D. · New York 1977 JOSEPH T. KING, LL.B. • . • . • . • Queens 1974 JOSEPH C. INDELICATO, M.D. • . • . · Brooklyn 1976 MRs. HELEN B. POWER, A.B., Litt.D., L.H.D. • Rochester 1979 FRANCIS W. MCGINLEY, B.S., LL.B., LL.D .. • Glens Falls 1981 GEORGE D. WEINSTEIN, LL.B. • . • Hempstead 1980 MAX J. RUBIN, LL.B., L.H.D. • . • New York 1971 KENNETH B. CLARK, A.B., M.S., Ph.D., Litt.D. • Hastings on Hudson 1982 STEPHEN K. BAILEY, A.B., B.A., M.A., Ph.D., LL.D. • Syracuse President of the University and Commissioner of Education JAMES E. ALLEN, JR. Deputy Commissioner of Education EWALD B. NYQUIST Associate Commissioner for Cultural Education HUGH M. FLICK Assistant Commissioner for Libraries JOHN A. HUMPHRY Director of State Library MASON TOLMAN 6869/1/04002/0997 12/5000 Preface In November, 1967, James E. Allen, Jr., Commissioner of Educa· tion, appointed a committee to develop a commemorative program for the sesquicentennial year of the New York State Library (April 1968· April 1969). The committee proposed that one facet of the program involve publication of significant primary materials from the Library's extensive collection. In selecting these materials, the committee was guided by the consideration that they have value for scholars yet be of interest to the general reader. "Our Travels" was deemed a "naturaL" A member of the committee, I "volunteered" to serve as editor of the project. Every primary document poses problems for an editor, but "Our Travels" has more than the usual share. It is not a conventional literary tract. Structurally, it consists largely of short, incomplete thoughts separated by dashes. Moreover, it is characterized by the usual nine· teenth century superfluity of capital letters and other standard ortho· graphic features. In pursuing my editorial task, I kept in mind the fundamental tenet: Make necessary changes, but do not alter the meaning of the author. I have made the following editorial adjustments. Wherever possible, I have grouped related thoughts into a sentence pattern, substituting commas for dashes and replacing the final dash with the appropriate terminal punctuation. This was done to make the narrative more read· able. I have refrained from tampering with the author's orthographic system. Initially, as much as possible I wished to preserve the integrity of the original account. Secondly, observation revealed that the orthog. raphy would not confuse the modern reader. Such words as "gallopped," "waggan," "hyerglyphics" and "underweigh" offer no problem. Capi. talization did present problems, at least to the editor. Frequently, I could not determine conclusively whether a letter was capitalized or in the lower case. At such times, I gave the letter a long, hard look and relied on my best visual judgment. The author followed the practice of adding a flourish to "justify" a line. I have deleted these. I have changed ampersands to "and." In positioning quotation marks, and in other basic editorial matters, I have conformed' to the principles out~ lined in The University of Chicago Press' A Manual of Style (eleventh edition, 1949, sixth impression, Chicago, 1959). My work on this project was facilitated by a number of kind people and I am pleased to acknowledge their assistance. I am indebted to my colleagues on the Sesquicentennial Committee (particularly its chairman [ iii ] Hugh M. Flick, Mason Tolman and Peter J. Paulson of the New York State Library} for perceptive editorial comment and other favors. lowe a special debt of gratitude to the Secretary of the Committee, Mrs. Mildred Ledden, Reference Librarian in the State Library, who cheer· fully accepted my long lists of reference works, disappeared into the stacks and moments later miraculously produced the books. I also wish to thank the staff members of the following libraries and research institutions: New York State Library (especially Miss Juliet F. Wolohan, Jonas Olsoff, Kenneth J. Siple, Miss ida M. Cohen); Colum bia University Library (especially Donald Anthony, Ken Lohf, Miss Alice Bonnell) ; New York Public Library (especially Gunther Pohl) ; New-York Historical Society (especially James J. Heslin, Arthur J. Breton); New York Genealogical and Bibliographical Society (espe cially Kenn Stryker-Rodda); Albany Institute of History and Art (especially Norman S. Rice); Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society (especially Walter S .. Dunn, Jr., and Lester W. Smith). I offer profound thanks to the following individuals who provided aid on specific problems: Professor Lewis Leary, Columbia University; Professor I. Frank Mogavero, Niagara University; Blake McKelvey, City Historian, Rochester, New York; John K. Howatt, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Alfred Barragwaneth, City Museum of New York; lloyd Goodrich, Whitney Museum, Miss Caroline Scoon and Richard Koch, New·York Historical Society; John G. Broughton and Donald W. Fisher, New York State Education Department; William N. Fenton, State University of New York at Albany; Cecil R. Roseberry. I am also grateful to: Lester J. Cappon, Director of the Institute of Early American History and Culture (Williamsburg, Virginia) and one of the most accomplished historian-editors in the nation, who analyzed "Our Travels" and provided me with helpful hints on the editorial pro cedures I should follow; John H. Calam, Director of the Teachers College Press, Columbia University, who copy edited the introduction and all footnotes. Lastly, I am pleased to acknowledge the editorial assistance rendered by my wife. LOUIS LEONARD TUCKER Assistant CQmmissioner for State History Albany, New York August, 1968 [ iv ] Contents PAGE Preface iii Introduction 2 Footnotes for Introduction 25 l. Our Travels . · Part 1 35 2. Our Travels . Part 2 49 3. Our Travels . Part 3 75 4. Our Travels· . · Part 4 91 5. Our Travels . · Part 5 107 Footnotes for Text of Our Travels 119 Perhaps there is no class of men to which the curious and literary are more indebted than travellers;-I mean travel mongers, who write whole volumes about themselves, their horses and their servants, interspersed with anecdotes of inn keepers,-droll sayings of stage-drivers, and interesting mem ories of-the Lord knows who. They will give you a full account of a city, its manners, customs, and manufactures; though perhaps all their knowledge of it was obtained by a peep from their inn-windows, and an interesting conversa tion with the landlord or the waiter. America has had its share of these buzzards. Sahnagundi,Feb.24,1807 They [Knickerbocker writers] were our first crop--to bor row a figure-and very properly were ploughed in, and though nothing of just the same sort has come up since, and we may be permitted to hope that nothing of just the same sort will ever again come up, yet certainly they did some thing toward fertilizing the soil from the products of which we are getting a part of our food. Nation, Dec. 5,1867 [ vi ] Introduction to Our Travels LOUIS LEONARD TUCKER Introduction Periodically during the seventeenth, eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, New York City was ravaged by a number of dread diseases. Yellow fever was one of these'! It was a rare summer-and most of these diseases flared up during the summer months-when no yellow fever cases developed. The disease almost always made its initial appearance in the squalid residential sections of the waterfront where life was "nasty and brutish"; where the garbage in the streets2 (contemptuously referred to as "Corporation pie" by the residents) complemented the filth within the adjacent row houses; where it was common to have ten to twenty people residing in one-room hovels under primitive living conditions; where survival was a grim business; where death came so easily. Because the city was concentrated in the southern tip of Manhattan Island (now the financial district), all residents were vulnerable when yellow fever appeared. There was no marked geographical separation between rich and poor.