A HISTORY OF THE NEW YORK SWAMP By F~ANK W. NO~CROSS of the SHOE AND LEATHER. REPORTER. NEW YOl{K Published for the Author by THE CHISWICK Pl{ESS 1901 Copyright 190L F11AN1C w. N ORC'ROSS. CONTENTS~ Early Tanning in New York ............... I A Republican Court ...................... 4 Early Swamp Tanners ..................... 6 Hide and Leather lvierchants .............. r4 Frankfort Street ........................ IS Jacob Street ..................... -. ...... 19 Ferry Street ............................ 23 Ferry Street-North Side ................. ..:t2 Cliff Street ............................. ·J5 Gold Street ............................ -~ . ,1..,6 First Public Reading Room ...........•.... 37 Spruce Street ...............· ............ 40 Israel Corse and Firms He Founded ....... 43 Jonathan Throne and Partners ............ 45 Corse, Pratt & Co ........................ ·50 . ... I Gideon Lee and Partners ................. :, Jay Gould's Battle ....................... 59 Lee & Company ......................... 5') Jacob Lorillard . ......... 6o William Kumbel . 62 Everit Family .......................... 6J A · Gro\ving ':(rade ..................... _.. J.~ Leather Inspection .................... S\vamp, 1820 to 1840 •.............•.••.••. Eclectic Fraternity . 67 Hortons as Tanners. 68 Tanning Firms . 84 Schultz Firms . 86 Union Sole Leather. QI Stephen Kistler .................... ~ . 92 The Clarendon F ami! y. 93 Bullard & Company. 94 -David Moffatt . 95 Charles B. Fosdick. 97 Joseph B. Hoyt. ~ . .. g8 Oliver Hoyt ~ ....... ~ . g9 Mark Hoyt ·. .. 100 Daniel B. Fairweather. 101 The Lade,vs as Tanners and Belt ~yfakers. 102 A Great Belting House ..................._. 103 Origin of Scoured OaJ< Backs ... _. Io6 Hans Rees ............ ·. I 07 James and George Brooks.. 109 __ The ~Iattisons . I 12 Zadock Pratt's Eventful Career. I 14 Pratt's Pictured Rocks. r 16 G eorge V:trrv • p ra tt ............... : ......... I l_'_-,, The Laphams as Tanners. I 18 Bulkley & Lapham. 121 Austin 1'Ielvin . 12:2 Thomas Smull . I 23 Aaron Healy ...................· . 127 Matthew Armstrong . 125 Ed,vard Godfrev., . 129 The Pirate Tanners ........•....... ~ .. ~ . 129 William Sher\vood . • . • • • • . • • . I 31 David Wallerstein . • . 132 Isaac H. Bailey. • • . 133 Hide Brokers . .. IJ+ Ed\vin B. Stimpson... • . • 138 Charles H auselt . 138 Theodore L. Lutkins. • . • . • 139 John B. vVood,vard. 139 George Evans. 140 Friend H. Burt. 141 The Willets Family. • . • . • . • . 142 The Stouts ................. ·. • . .. 143 Charles A. Schieren & Co ...... ~ . 144 Hide and Leather Bank ......· . • . 146 James R. Plum & Gale ...... ·. 146 Scheftel Brothers . • . • . .. 146 Loring Andre,vs Robertson .....• ...... ~ . ~ ... 147 Isaac Hyde, J unr . • . • . 149 EliJ.ah T . Bro,vn.,,, ........... ·....•.......... 149 Frederick T. Fa,vcett. 150 Georo-eb Palen ........................•..., William Palen ....................•.•.• • • 153 Samuel T. Keese ............... ~ ........ • . 154 Henry W. McClellan ....................... I 55 Felix Fournier & Knopf. ........... • •. • • • • 155 Scofield & Stevenson ...................... i56 Josiah T. Tubby ................. ·. ·. · · · · · 1 57 The Hide and Leather Club ............ · · · · 157 . 1~8 Barnes & Merritt ........... • • • • • • • • • • · · · · .J Baruch vVertheim ................. • .·. • • • • 1 59 Joseph Hecht & Sons ........ : .... • •. • • • • • t6o Joseph 1fusliner .................... • • • • • • • I 6 I J. H. Rossbach & Bro. 16 r B. Frank & Sons. 161 Salomon & Phillips .............. ~ . 162 The Costellos . 164 J. Paskusz & Son. 165 Loring Andre,vs, Real Estate.. 166 The Ely Family ...................... _. 168 Loring Andre,vs . I 70 The Hoople Family.. 172 ---¥!Jlf ord, Carey & Conklin. 173 The Frasers . • • . 174 ·Bank Presidents . 176 John Randolph's Retort .................. 177 Keck, Mosser & Co .......... : ........... 178 John V. Van Woert .............. ·......... 179 Shattuck & Binger .......................• 18o The United States Leather Co ............. 180 The United States Leather Co., Officers, Ig<)I. 185 217 Trade Dinner ........... ., ............... • Richard Nelson .................... • .. • • • • 237 Statistics ...... w •••••••••••••• • •• • • • • • • • • • 239 Early Shoe Trade. 240 TO THE SONS OF THE S\VA1'IPERS IS DEDICATED THIS BOOK In the district kno\vn as the N e,v York Swamp I met their fathers almost daily for many years. They were K-ings in the Tanning Trade. There were the stahvart and manly Hoyt's; the aristo­ cratic Thornes; the cultured Healys; the broad­ minded Schultz; the gentlemanly Lees; the Hor­ tons; merchants and manufacturers; the Laphams, '•Friends" in faith and ,vorks; the moneyed Fayer­ ,veathers; the genial Palens; the cautious Bulk­ leys; the steadfast and solid Lade,vs ; the successful Reeses; the honorable Ishams, and many more ,vho 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 ,vorthy of emulation. It is vvith the design of preserving a record of their deeds that these papers ,vere ,vritten by their, and your, servant for half a century, F~ \V. NORCROSS. "Still from the hurrying train of life, Fly backw·ard far and fast, The milestones of the fathers, The Iandn1arks of the past." . HISTORY OF THE SWAMP. The art of tanning \Vas introduced in N e\v York coeval ·with its settlement. The rotund Dutchmen who ·were under the rule of Peter· 1.Iinuit and his successors wore a garb of leather, and the artizans added a leather apron! These ,vere made· from deerskins. The agile animals that furnished these skins could be killed near the site of the. present swamp. In the possession of the Beekman family are antlers of deer ,vhich \V.illiam Beekman, their ancestor, shot in Beekman street and its vicinity; about 1688. In 1664 N e,v Y-ork, or-as it had been previously named-.N e\v .i\msterdam, can1e into the possession of the English. Some tanners from London came here; They introduced the apprentice system. Seven vearsJ ,vas the tern1 of service for a bovJ of the age of fourteen years, at \vhich they \\·ere indent- ured. The earlv., tanners made their leather into shoes, and the trades ,vere not separated. until about the time of the Revolution. In 1669 the first patent known here ,\·as 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 prop(:rties of the hemloc~~ tree ,vere then u n kno\vn. Outside of N e\v \ .. ork there \Vas a tanncrv o,Yned bv ·the Hulst fan1i1v at ~ ~ . Greenwood, Brooklyn. ....\.II the rest of these estab- lishments., ,vith their contiguous shoe shops, \ver(' 2 HISTORY OF THE S\VA:Oi P located near the present corner of Broad and Bea­ ver streets. Conrent Ten Eyck \Vas the first tanner. He located near that corner in 1653. Tanners \vere ordered outside of the city \Vall (\Vall street) at the time of the English occupation and ,vere located near ~Iaiden Lane. · A relic of the old Dutch tanners has come do\vn to the present day. It is the coat of arms of John Harpen~ing, ,vho O\vned most of ''Shoemakers' _Pasture," a name given to sixteen acres of land run­ ning north from ~Iaiden Lane,· behveen' Gold and Nassau streets, to the Park. He gave the money and land with which to build the church at the cor­ ner of Fulton and \Villiam 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 ,vas demol­ ished in 1875. Five tanners in 1680 bought and occupied Shoe­ makers' Pasture. Eventually it came into the pos­ session 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 becan1e a very rich man. It is no\v the center of the mer­ cantile section of N e\v York, but it ,vas· a \vild, rough tract \vhen the tanners bought it. After this tract ,vas sold the tanners settled around the "Collect," or lake, on Centre street, ,vhere no\v stands the ''Ton1bs" prison. It ,vas fa­ mous as the pond ,vhere Robert Fulton conducted his experiments. He propelled upon its surface, EARLY T_.\NNING IN ·NE\V YO.RK 3 by steam, a small boat., before he sailed the Cler­ mont up the North River. Only upper leather was tanned here in those early days, and it ,vas thought necessary for the hides to lav in the vats for a vear. All sole leather - ~ l\-·as imported from London. As late as 1768 Gov- ernor 1Ioore ,vrote to the ''Lords of Trade" in Lon­ don: ··The tanning of leather has been carried on here (in N e,v 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, ,vhich \Vere plentiful. The slaughter hides used ,vere bought from the butchers. The tan vats ,vere ob­ long boxes and no tannery had the luxury of a roof. The beam house ,vas a shed open at the sides and fronting lime vats and pools. In a circular trough made of he\ved timber, bark ,vas ground or crushed by stone rollers propelled by a horse. The mill ground t\vo "floorings" of bark, or about half a cord a day. Some calfskins ,vere tanned. Oniy rich gentlemen ,vore 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 s,vamp. James Brooks and Jacob Lor- illard, \\~ho had formerly tanned in Centre and in 1-fagazine streets, appear in the directory of rSoo as located in Jacob street. 4 HISTORY OF THE S\VA~IP George ,v ashington once lived on the border of the Swamp. In 1798, having taken the oath of office as first President of the United States on the spot ,vhere his statue no,v stands in Wall street, he took up his official residence in the large man­ sion at No. 3 Cherry street, near Frankfort street. This remained the Executive 1Iansion for one year, or until the capital ,vas removed to Philadelphia.