A History of the New York Swamp

t'i' NYPL RESEARCH LIBRARIES mm r'.'.'-'i 3 3433 05876521 9 iiiiii«^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ t!')', M:p'' L I iili^ka^ GIDEON LEE, MAYOR OF NEW YORK 1S33-4. A HISTORY ^'^ OF THE NEW YORK SWAMP By FRANK W. N_OI<CROSS of the SHOE AND LEATHEI^ REPORTER • • • • • • • * ' .. ^ • • • • • • » • , , , ••< ' • ; • •• NEW YOKK Published for the Author by THE CHISWICK PRESS 1901 i ' i i i ii I ii i i i il i' !(W»wijw i i 1 . 1 j I . i i 1 . i i i | t-)-WMi; w)i]j | i Pl liiii 1. « » _fm j . r . î i! | , i.u^îji. jHiL ^n iniLtj ^^ ,. ij.i^.J ^ J. j./ u^ » w 1, m i,y j ^ m.pj_. j ,: library! 120 8 8 25 \ AND ! ASTGR, LENOX | I TILDEN FOUNDATIONS, j R 1901 L. j I ^% 5^ Copyright 1901. Frank \V. Norcross. % ' - ' ' i i iii i iP « r i i j l j-i- ni 'wwiiwi |n. i< v-. w, "U j»ijwjiL[ -j ujjj ^ .ji m ^j»Mi« wwJf»)iiuiwju yywiMifgpiwi y. CONTENTS. Early Tanning in New York i A Republican Court 4 Early Swamp Tanners 6 Hide and Leather Merchants 14 Frankfort Street 15 Jacob Street 19 Ferry Street 23 Ferry Street—North Side 32 Cliff Street 35 Gold Street 36 First Public Reading Room 37 Spruce Street 40 Israel Corse and Firms He Founded 43 Jonathan Throne and Partners 45 Corse, Pratt & Co 50 Gideon Lee and Partners 51 Jay Gould's Battle 50 Lee & Company 59 Jacob Lorillard 60 William Kumbel 62 Everit Family 63 A Growing Trafle 64. A Leather Inspection 64 Swamp, 1820 to 1840 65 ^ Eclectic Fraternity 67 Hortons as Tanners 6S Tanning Firms 84 Schultz Firms 86 Union Sole Leather qi Stephen Kistler 92 • The Clarendon Family 93 Bullard & Company 94 David Moffatt 95 Charles B. Fosdick 97 Joseph B. Hoyt 98 Oliver 99 I Hoyt Mark 100 j Hoyt Daniel B, Fairweather 101 The Ladews as Tanners and Belt Makers. 102 A Great Belting House 103 Origin of Scoured Oak Backs. 106 Hans Rees 107 James and George Brooks 109 The Mattisons 112 Zadock Pratt's Eventful Career 1 14 Pratt's Pictured Rocks 116 George W. Pratt ii7 The Laphams as Tanners 118 Bulkley & Lapham 121 Austin Melvin 122 Thomas Smull 123 Aaron Healy 127 Matthew Armstrong 125 Edward Godfrey 129 The Pirate Tanners ,..,... 129 rr William Sherwood 131 David Wallerstein 132 Isaac H. Bailey 133 Hide Brokers 134 Edwin B. Stimpson 13S Charles Hauselt 138 Theodore L. Lutkins 139 B. Woodward j John 139 Evans 140 ) George \ Friend H. Burt 141 J The Willets Family 14^ The Stouts 143 J Charles A. Schieren & Co 144 Hide and Leather Bank I4'5 James R. Plum & Gale 146 Scheftel Brothers I4»5 Loring Andrews Robertson. I47 Isaac Hyde, Junr 149 Elijah T. Browa I49 Frederick T. Fawcctt IS^ George Palen I5- William Palen 153 Samuel T. Keese ^54 Henry W. McClellan 155 Felix Fournier & Knopf 155 Scofield & Stevenson 15^ Josiah T. Tubby I57 The Hide and Leather Club I57 Barnes & Merritt ^5^ Baruch Wertheim ^59 160 Joseph Hecht & Sons ^'-*^ Joseph Musliner J. H. Rossbach & Bro i6 r B. Frank & Sons i6i Salomon & Phillips 162 The Costellos 164 J. Pasknsz & Son 165 Loring Andrews, Real Estate 166 The Ely Family 168 Loring Andrews 170 The Hoople Family 172 & Conklin f , Mulford, Carey 173 ! The Erasers I74 Bank Presidents 176 John Randolph's Retort I77 ' Keck, Mosser & Co 17^ John V. Van Woert i79 Shattuck & Binger 180 The United States Leather Co 180 The United States Leather Co., Officers, 1901. 185 Trade Dinner 2I7 Richard Nelson 237 Statistics 239 Early Shoe Trade 240 L TO THE SONS OF THE SWAMPERS IS DEDICATED THIS BOOK. In the district known as the New York Swamp I met their fathers almost daily for many years. They were Kings in the Tanning Trade. There were the stalwart and manly Hoyt's; the aristo- cratic Thornes; the cultured Healys; the broad- minded Schultz; the gentlemanly Lees; the Hor- manufacturers the tons ; merchants and ; Laphams, "Friends" in faith and works; the moneyed Fayer- the Palens the cautious Bulk- weathers ; genial ; the steadfast and solid Ladews ; the successful leys ; Reeses; the honorable Ishams, and many more who formed a galaxy of merchants such as may never again be seen in the Hide and Leather business. These men dominated the trade for nigh a hun- dred years. Their example is worthy of emulation. It is with the design of preserving a record of their deeds that these papers were written by their, and your, servant for half a century, F. W. N0RCR0S3. "Still from the hurrying train of life. Fly backward far and fast, The milestones of the fathers, The landmarks of the past." I \ '-^ ' ^.'i i4»p^,"ll»^f !•«*,' HISTORY OF THE SWAMP. The art of tanning was introduced in New York coeval with its settlement. The rotund Dutchman who were under the rule of Peter ]Minuit and his successors wore a garb of leather, and the artizans added a leather apron! These were made from these deerskins. The agile animals that furnished skins could be killed near the site of the present swamp. In the possession of the Beekman family are antlers of deer which William Beekman, their ancestor, shot in Beekman street and its vicinity, about 1688. In 1664 New York, or—as it had been previously named—^^New Amsterdam, came into the possession of the Endish. Some tanners from London came here. They introduced the apprentice system. the Seven years was the term of service for a boy of aee of fourteen vears, at which thev were indent- ured. The early tanners made their leather into shoes, and the trades were not separated until about the time of the Revolution. In 1669 the first patent known here was granted to Adriasen and Christopher \'an Lear for a "mill to grind or rasp the rind of bark of oaks to be used in tanning." The tanning properties of the hemlock tree were then unknown. Outside of New York there was a tannery owned by the Hulst family at Greenwood, Brooklyn. All the rest of these estab- lishments, with their contiguous shoe shop>, werr / 2 HISTORY OF THE SWAMP located near the present corner of Broad and Bea- ver streets. Conrent Ten Eyck was the first tanner. He located near that corner in 1653. Tanners were ordered outside of the city wall (Wall street} at the time of the English occupation and were located near Maiden Lane. A relic of the old Dutch tanners has come down to the present day. It is the coat of arms o^ John Harpending, who owned most of "Shoemakers' Pasture/' a name given to sixteen acres of land run- ning north from Maiden Lane/ between 'Gold and Nassau streets, to the Park. He gave the money and land with which to build the church at the corner of Fulton and William streets, and his coat of arms, consisting of an old fashioned graining plate and beam, surmounted by a currier's knife, used by tanners, hung over the pulpit until it was demol- ished in 1875. Five tanners in 1680 bought and occupied Shoe- makers' Pasture. Eventually it came into the possession of John Harpending, one of the original purchasers. In 1696 he cut it up into 164 house lots, and from the proceeds of their sale he became a very rich man. It is now the center of the mer- cantile section of New York, but it was a wild, rough tract when the tanners bought it. After this tract was sold the tanners settled around the "Collect," or lake, on Centre street, where now stands the "Tombs" prison. It was fa- mous as the pond where Robert Fulton conducted his experiments. He propelled upon its surface, ' ' j ' ' g. iPjp i p wwi '^^ i A^. W ^y '^'^^^^ q -IW itW!ii»M»iMw*»iJ»jp'vyiîWW"^L'Wljij'»VP..- EARLY TANNING IN NEW YORK 3 by steam, a small boat, before he sailed the Cler- mont up the North River. Only upper leather was tanned here in those V early days, and it was thought necessary for the hides to lay in the vats for a year. All sole leather was imported from London. As late as 1768 Gov- ernor Moore wrote to the "Lords of Trade" in Lon- don: "The tanning of leather has been carried on here (in New York) for many years. Leather is greatly inferior, in quality, to that made in Europe, and the tanners have not yet arrived at the perfec- tion of making sole leather." The capacity of early tanneries was 1,000 to 2,000 hides a year, or their equivalent in deer skins, which were plentiful. The slaughter hides used were bought from the butchers. The tan vats were ob- long boxes and no tannery had the luxury of a roof. The beam house was a shed open at the sides and fronting lime vats and pools. In a circular trough made of hewed timber, bark was ground or crushed by stone rollers propelled by a horse. The mill ground two "floorings" of bark, or about half a cord a day. Some calfskins were tanned. Only rich gentlemen wore shoes made of so fine a material as calfskins. The tanners did not remain very long at the Col- lect pond. About 1790 they began to cluster around the swamp. James Brooks and Jacob Lor- illard, who had formerly tanned in Centre and in Magazine streets, appear in the directory of 1800 as located in Jacob street.

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