Wall Street in History

Front matter

WALL STREET IN HISTORY.

BY

MRS. MARTHA J. LAMB,

Chapter 1

WALL STREET IN HISTORY

1642-1774

ORIGINAL SITE AND GRADUAL DEVELOPMENT

THE origin of this famous street, and its connection with the beginnings of our national life and prosperity, are scarcely less interesting to the world at large than its more recent financial mysteries, its whirlwinds of panic, and its gigantic operations. We turn backward but two and one half centuries to find its site a picturesque tangle of underbrush, wild grape-vine and tree, animated with untrained bears of a shining pitch-black color, hungry wolves, noisy wild-cats, and sly raccoons. It will be remembered that while the little settlement—the germ of the present city of New York—on the extreme southern point of Manhattan Island was yet in its helpless infancy, a bloody Indian war nearly desolated the whole surrounding country. The savages were respectfully afraid of the fort; but they prowled about in its immediate vicinity, stealing whatever they could find of use to themselves, and scalped every man, woman, or child who chanced to stray too far into the woods. As the spring of 1644 opened, the few surviving colonists were in absolute despair. They could not even turn their cows and oxen into the fields to nibble wild grass with the reasonable hope of ever seeing them alive again. Governor Kieft finally issued an order for the erection of "a good solid fence" across the island, commanding every man who wished his cattle pastured in security to appear with proper tools and assist in the work. Those who failed to give their aid were to be "excluded from the privileges of the inclosed meadow." This primitive fence was to perform the double duty of keeping the domestic animals of the settlement within proper limits, and of checking the approach of Indians and wild beasts of the forest. It was built on the line of what is now Wall Street, and was the initial paragraph, so to speak, of the curious chapter of record and story which traces the progressive steps of one of the most widely known and remarkable localities in the civilized world. The utility of the fence as a fortification was never brought to a test, however. Before the May flowers bloomed, in that eventful year, a treaty of peace was concluded with the savage tribes, and the besieged people in and around the fort began to breathe more freely. The fence remained standing some nine years, and formed the northern boundary of a fifteen-acre "sheep pasture"—a public field of rolling upland and swampy meadow, where the cows, oxen, horses, goats and sheep of the settlers grazed in common. The meadow-land in the valley, along the line of the present Broad Street, was taken up for tanneries in the course of the period; and prior to 1653, a considerable portion of the remainder of the "sheep pasture" had been granted by the West India Company, in large parcels, to persons of influence, apparently on speculation. But it was even then unimproved—a bit of barren landscape—although the little town had crept in sight with its gable-roofs and wind-mills the prospect was of alive with signs of promise.

THE EARLY WINDMILL.

The affairs of the colony at this juncture were in a ferment owing to hostilities declared on the other side of the Atlantic between England and Holland. Intelligence of terrible battles fought upon the sea came with every ship from the Old World. The Dutch were victorious, chiefly, while their losses were enormous: sixteen hundred of their vessels fell into the enemy's hand's, their fisheries were suspended and their entire commerce by the English Channel cut off. Governor Stuyvesant watched all these significant movements with acute anxiety, and, convinced that prudence was the better part of valor, took earnest measures to preserve peace with his English neighbors on this side of the ocean. To conciliate his own people he yielded to the pressure for municipal privileges, and thus a new power in the government came into existence.

The city of New York, originally called New Amsterdam, was created by proclamation, February 2, 1653, the governor of the province naming its first officers, and defining their exceptionally limited authority.

The inconspicuous event was duly chronicled; and the new City Fathers at once assumed an air of importance strictly in keeping with the customs of Holland, and the spirit of the age.

THE PRIMITIVE FENCE.

When Sunday morning came they met at the City Hall and marched in solemn and dignified procession to the church in the fort, preceded by the bell-ringer carrying their cushions of state—which he deposited with much ceremony in the pew set apart for their occupancy.

At the very moment when New York thus made its debut in the annals of the world, England seemed rapidly drifting into a condition of anarchy. The army had provoked the ire of Parliament; and excuses were industriously sought to overthrow the dangerous power of Cromwell.

DUTCH MUG OF 1653.

The Dutch made some advances toward a peace, and were severely snubbed by that haughty assembly of English statesmen whose determination was to increase national expenses until it could compel the disbanding of the army. Meanwhile rumors reached New York in March, 1653, of war and tumults to be expected from the Puritan colonies of New England, who, it was said, longed to make New Netherland a trophy of the strife. Stuyvesant had more than once been warned by the West India Company to keep a watchful eye on the English inhabitants of North America, lest they incline to take a hand in the European game. He was, therefore, in a measure, prepared for this new alarm, and hastened to call a joint meeting of the provincial council and city magistrates, to consider the perils of the situation, and agree upon some energetic course to pursue in the emergency. The meeting promptly resolved that the citizens should mount guard every night, and that the fort should be repaired. But the citadel was not large enough to contain all the inhabitants of the city in the event of a siege, therefore it was decided "to wall the city in;" and to defray the expenses the city government proposed to borrow some six thousand guilders (or $2,000) from the principal citizens of the little miniature city, to be repaid by a tax on the commonalty. Within two days upward of five thousand guilders had been subscribed; and every able-bodied man was required, under penalty of fine, or ban , to leave his business and lend a helping hand in building the wall.

THE WALL OF PROTECTION.

The quaint structure was located nearly on the line of the primitive fence, and its length from river to river was estimated at about one hundred and eighty rods. It was built of palisades, twelve feet high and eighteen inches in girth, sharply pointed at the top. Posts seven inches thick were erected at intervals of a rod, to which split rails were nailed two feet below the top. On the inside was a breastwork of earth four feet high, and from three to four feet wide, thrown up from a ditch three feet deep and two wide. At the point where the wall crossed the partially opened road, now Broadway, a huge gate was constructed called the "Land Gate;" and at the junction of Pearl Street, which was then at the edge of the sea, another gate was

(Gl) Evert Tesselaer's clerks 200 Adriaen and Johannes Keyser 100 Jacob Backer 150 Nicholas Boodt 100 Isaac de Forest 100 Abram Geenes 100 Jacob Steendam 100 Anthony Clasen 50 Jan Jansen, jr 50 Jan Vinje 50 (Gl) Arent Van Hattein 100 Martin Krygier 100 P. L. Van der Grist 100 Maximilian van Gheel 100 Allard Anthony 100 Abram de la Noy 100 Daniel Litschoe 100 Philip Gerardy 50 Egbert Van Borssum 100 Heindrick Schip 100

planned known as the "Water Gate." A space of some one hundred feet parallel to the wall on the city side was set apart for the evolution of troops—within which limits no buildings were to be permitted.

During the month of April following, the city was in one perpetual fever of intense excitement and consternation. The scene along the site of Wall Street as the work went briskly forward was like an elongated bee-hive. The danger was imminent; and war not only threatened, but a scarcity of food through the interruption of trade in every direction. The consumption of grain by brewers and distillers was strictly forbidden, and an edict went forth that all tobacco planters must prepare to cultivate as many hillocks of corn as of tobacco in the near future. Stuyvesant was an experienced soldier, and manfully endeavored in the midst of the general terror to negotiate a treaty of commerce with Virginia, in which, however, he was only partially successful. The uncertainties of the situation rendered it depressing in the extreme. The Indians might be incited to desperate deeds; a revolt on Long Island was reasonably apprehended; Connecticut was known to be in the humor to march at any moment upon the little Dutch capital; and Boston was furious over the captured instructions of the West India Company to Stuyvesant, suggesting that he employ the Indians as allies in case of colonial war-trouble. Such was the atmosphere of insecurity and dismay on Manhattan Island that the ninth day of April was observed (throughout the province) in fasting and prayer. A week later some travelers from New England reported the story in full flower in that region that the Dutch had secretly hired the savages to massacre all the English people! Stuyvesant quickly wrote to the governors of New Haven and Massachusetts declaring the rumor a base fabrication, and offering to come to Boston in person and prove his innocence of any such horrible conspiracy. On the very day he penned these letters a scene was enacted in England of grave bearing upon the future of each of the American colonies. It was described by William Henry Montague in the following terse language.

"On the 20th of April, while the Commons were debating about disbanding the army, Cromwell went, attended by a detachment of chosen men, to the house, and having placed some of them at the door, some in lobby, and others on the stairs, he entered, followed by a number of officers, who were entirely at his command. Taking his seat, he for some time listened attentively to the debates. He then called Harrison, and told him that he now judged the Parliament ripe for a dissolution. Harrison replied, 'The work is very great and dangerous; I desire you to seriously consider before you engage in it.' 'You say well,' answered Cromwell, and sat still, about a quarter of an hour. When the question was going to be put, he said again to Harrison, 'This is the time I must put it.' And suddenly starting up, he loaded the Parliament with the vilest reproaches, for their tyranny, ambition, oppression, and robbery of the public. Then stamping with his foot, which was the signal for the soldiers to enter, 'for shame,' said he to the Parliament, 'get you gone; give place to honester men; to those who will more faithfully discharge their trust. You are no longer a Parliament; I tell you, you are no longer a Parliament. The Lord has done with you; he has chosen other instruments for carrying on his work.' After this fanatic speech he reviled several of the members by name, calling one a drunkard, another an adulterer, and a third a glutton. He next commanded a soldier to seize the mace, saying: 'What shall we do with this bauble? Here, take it away.' Then addressing himself to the house, he said, 'It is you who have forced me upon this.' Having commanded the soldiers to clear the hall, he himself went out the last, and ordering the doors to be locked put the keys in his pocket."

The dissolution of the Long Parliament, in this bold and extraordinary manner, prepared the way for a treaty with the Dutch, which brought great credit to Cromwell's administration. But like the wall which gave to Wall Street its name, peace was a monument of slow growth, and of uncertain character for a full twelve-month. The summer of that year (1654) was one of peculiar turmoil on both sides of the Atlantic. Cromwell was not invested with the supreme power to make war or peace until December. In the mean time a civil contest threatened the kingdom, and the people of New York knew no comfort or rest. When the first appropriation for the building of the wall was exhausted, the work necessarily ceased, although it was a conspicuously incomplete fortification. The hostile attitude of Connecticut continued, and volunteers there formed into companies to "instantly" subdue the Dutch were with difficulty restrained by the general government. The authorities of Massachusetts refused to bear part in an offensive war against New York, and their action Connecticut in wrath pronounced an "indelible stain upon their honor as men, and upon their morals as Christians," and wrote to Cromwell urging that the Dutch be removed from the coast of North America.

Stuyvesant tried in vain to induce the Burgomasters and Schepens to raise further funds for the defenses of the city. The fort, they said, was a proper charge upon the provincial revenue, and unless the excise on wines and beers was guaranteed to the city treasurer, they would contribute nothing to its repair. This demand for the excise was unfalteringly firm, and finally was conceded in November by the unwilling and conquered governor, on condition that the city fortifications be supported together with the civil and ecclesiastical officers of the city. About this time the shores of the East River were infested with pirates and robbers, such as always abound in times of war; and some of the English residents of Long Island were suspected of aiding the freebooters in their depredations. The winter was one of serious tribulation, and spring brought only a renewal of complications and terrors. Stuyvesant fitted out several yachts to drive away the pirates, and these movements were quickly misconstrued by the watchful English settlers into "treacherous expeditions of cruel warfare." The agents of Connecticut in England finally obtained Cromwell's ear, and an armament of four ships for the reduction of Dutch New York. Major Robert Sedgwick and Captain John Leverett were placed in command, with instructions to take the Dutch capital "by surprise, open force, or otherwise." Isaac Allerton, returning from Boston on the 29th of May, informed Stuyvesant of spirited preparations in New England for his downfall. A troop of horse and nine hundred foot were actually ready to march by land upon New York, and a fleet of vessels were to co-operate by sea. The governor was quickly in counsel with the city officials, and all were in trepidation. It could not be expected that the people scattered through the country would assist much in case of an attack; and as for the English settlers, they were sure to join the enemy. "To invite them to aid us," exclaimed Stuyvesant, "would be bringing the Trojan horse within our walls." It was resolved to enlist some sixty or seventy men, "in silence, and without beat of drum," to man the wall of the city; and money was again borrowed of the wealthy citizens to defray the cost of preparing for a siege. To repay this loan, an annual tax of twenty stivers per morgen on tillage land was to be levied, with the hundredth penny on each house and lot in New York and in Albany; a guilder on each head of horned cattle over three years old, and the tenth of all merchandise to be exported during the season. The Dutch, old and young, wielded the spade and the pickaxe, and the public defenses soon assumed comparative strength. Meanwhile the English residents talked treason, and began to send away their goods and furniture. This brought a sharp proclamation from the governor declaring all persons, "of whatever rank," found removing their property, subject to banishment and the confiscation of their effects.

At this critical moment a London merchant ship entered the port of Boston with a copy of Cromwell's Proclamation of Peace between England and Holland; also an order restraining all English subjects from commit any further acts of hostility against the Dutch. The joy in New York on the reception of these tidings was almost overwhelming. The peace proclamation was published from the City Hall "with ringing of bell;" and Stuyvesant piously summoned the people "to praise the Lord, who had secured their gates, when the threatened torch of war was lighted, when the waves reached our lips, and subsided only through the power of the Almighty." The 12th of the following August was appointed as a day of general thanksgiving throughout the province.

The wooden wall proved a blessing, although the city escaped its threatened invasion; and it was kept in tolerable repair for many years. Indeed, New York flourished as a walled city for nearly a half century. The gate at the junction of Pearl Street (the water gate) was completed in 1656, and had quite an imposing effect. About the same time a portion of the Damen Farm was sold to Jacob Flodder, who divided it into lots thirty feet front and offered it to purchasers; one of these was Jacob Jansen Moesman, a merchant trader, who proceeded to build a dwelling-house and store on the site of the present custom-house. This was the first building of any note in Wall Street, and the only one for half a dozen years, with the exception of the shanties of a wool-spinner and a chimney-sweep, and two or three beer-shops.

There was, however, a brisk sale of lots during the year just named, as appears from records in the city archives. On the 27th of May, of that year, Jacob Steendam, the earliest resident poet in New York, sold from his possessions in the "sheep pasture," a lot thirty feet front and one hundred and thirty deep, on the east side of Broadway, near Wall Street, to Leendant Aerden; and on the same date he sold another lot ten rods square, in vicinity of Exchange place, east of Broad Street, to the Worshippful Schepen, Jacob Strycker, and Secretary Cornells Van Ruyven. Steendam was a man of varied accomplishments. He indulged in quaint conceits and rhymes, and wrote poems of considerable merit. The Complaint of New Amsterdam to her Mother, published in 1659, and the Praise of New Netherland, issued in small quarto form, in 1661, are among the legacies of his genius. The action of his poems was usually taken from the Scriptures or classical mythology. Two lots, west of the city wall, abutting on the lot of Moesman, and on the south lot of Govert Loockermans, were sold on the 24th of June to Pieter Cornelis Vanderveen, who had then been married some four years to Elsie Tymans, the step-daughter of Govert Loockermans. Vanderveen was one of the richest men of his time, and is named in the records as "old and suitable" for a great burgher. He built a pretentious house in Pearl Street in 1657, and tried to persuade the authorities to establish a public square near the present Battery, without success. After his death his widow became the wife of the remarkable and unfortunate Jacob Leisler. Among those concerned in real estate transactions in the immediate vicinity of Wall Street during this year, we find such well-known names as Verplanck, Beechman, Kip, Duyckinck, De la Montague, Rutgersen, Ten Eyck, Bayard, Brouwer, and Van Cortlandt. On the 25th of August, Allard Anthony and Oloff Stevenson Van Cortlandt, sold to Vanderveen a piece of property which is thus described:

"A lot west of the Great Highway (Broadway), bounded north by the Company's Garden, and south by lot of Oloff Stevensen Van Cortlandt; width on the street or east side three rods and two feet, and in the rear on North River, or west side, three rods three and one-fifth feet. Depth on south side twenty-one and one-half rods, and on the north side twenty-one rods eight feet. Being premises conveyed by Rt. Hon. Director-General Petrus Stuyvesant to said Anthony and Van Cortlandt, Burgomasters of the city, 9th May, 1656."

These lots were then valued at prices ranging from fifty to one hundred dollars each. The wall was usually spoken of as "The Cingel," the Dutch term for "Ramparts." The map illustrates the general plan of the city as it unfolded in that eventful decade There is little evidence that the soil was at any time tilled between the town and the "Ramparts," except for gardening purposes. In the lower part of Pearl Street some forty-three houses had appeared—surrounded, in some instances, by pretentious grounds, and a few small shops. Jan Vinge lived in a farm-house about the present corner of William and Pine Streets, and must have given his attention to agriculture, judging from the court records, for he instituted several suits for damages done his cabbage-patches and pea-vines by school boys running through them. The City Court of Magistrates formed an august tribunal in their supervision of public affairs. It was the duty of the Schout to personally perambulate the city, and enter complaints against all such miscreants as disregarded police regulations. We find him in frequent collisions with disorderly and unruly persons. One Jasper Abrahamson was arrested for forcibly entering a house and demanding with

The Towne of New York

violence food and liquor, particularly liquor. Upon trial he was sentenced "to be fastened to a stake, and severely scourged, and a gash to be made in his left cheek or jaw, and then to be banished from the city for twenty-five years, and pay costs." Another significant instance was that of Messack Martens, charged with stealing. He confessed to having climbed over the palisades and taken five or six cabbages from a garden, but it was thought he was much more deeply implicated. "On a subsequent day, the prisoner being again brought forward, was examined by torture, as to how many cabbages, fowls, turkeys, and how much butter he hath stolen; who his abettors and co-operators have been. Answering, he persists in his reply that he did not steal any butter, fowls, or turkeys, nor had any abettors; being again set loose, the Schout demands that for his committed theft voluntarily confessed, he shall be brought to the usual place of criminal justice, well fastened to a stake and severely whipt, and banished from the jurisdiction of the city for ten years, with costs. Decision of the court: That he be brought to the usual place of execution, to stand in the pillory with cabbages on his head, and be banished five years from the jurisdiction of the city, with costs and mises of justice." On one occasion the court applied to Stuyvesant and obtained authority to inflict capital punishment. The culprit was charged by the Schout with having spoken treasonable words. The seven high and mighty Burgomasters and Schepens in solemn council voted as follows:

The Heer Burgomaster Martin Cregie (Cruger): That he shall be whipped, and branded, and banished; and banished for all his life out of the Province of New Netherlands.

The Heer Burgomaster Oloff Stevensen Van Cortlandt: Though he be worthy of death, yet from special grace, that he be whipped, and branded, and banished.

The Heer Schepen Pieter Van Couwenhoven: He shall be put to death.

The Heer Schepen Johannes Van Brugh: That he be whipped, and branded, and banished the country.

The Heer Schepen Hendt. J. Vanderveen: That he is worthy of death, and ought to be punished until death follows, with the costs and mises of justice.

The Heer Schepen Jacob Kip: That he should be executed by death.

The Heer Schepen Cornells Steenwyck: That he be whipped and branded under the gallows, the halter being around his neck, and then banished forever and put hence with his wife and children, on pain of the gallows, thanking the magistracy, on his bended knees, for their merciful and well deserved justice. It was therefore decided by plurality of votes that the prisoner be whipped, branded and banished. The sentence was approved by the governor, and permission given to erect a half gallows before the City Hall to carry out the sentence. The prisoner was subsequently shipped to Virginia.

The wall, with its feint of strength, was regarded as a curiosity by the English officers at the surrender of New York in 1664. Governor Nicolls examined it with reference to the possibilities of a military siege. It seemed of trifling account as a defense against a civilized foe; but troubles were brewing among the Indians at the North, and it might be of service in the matter of keeping hostile savages at bay. Ere long a complication of difficulties between the French and the Indians, and the New York colonists, created apprehension of mischief to be expected from the French; and, in the same breath as it were, another fierce conflict between England and Holland cast its blight over the innocent city, the cause of the whole bloody disturbance. Improvements ceased, trade was suspended, famine threatened. Nicolls called a meeting of the citizens to consult about fortifying New York on the river side; and, presiding in person, his opening address was a marvel of oratory. He said, with much emphasis, that he should constrain no one to fight against his own nation, at the same time he asked important and much-needed aid. In reply, the Dutch magnates said the town was strong enough already; and other and various excuses were offered, which rendered it obvious to Nicolls that he should be able to command very little assistance from a community eager to welcome the restoration of Dutch authority. Fortunately, the Peace of Breda (in 1668) brought relief, and men went about their business once more. Prosperity dawned, commerce with Boston and with Virginia recommenced, merchant vessels might again cross the seas in safety, Dutch and English laborers no longer quarreled with each other at their work, and buildings began to multiply. But the wall was as yet a long distance out of town, that is, the town was not approaching the wall with marvelous celerity. Governor Lovelace succeeded Nicolls, and for some four years ruled the province with commendable discretion. But his attention was given to more knotty subjects than the city's growth. Conflicting claims about lands stirred up quarrels in every part of the province. One was no sooner quelled than another broke forth. His perplexities were greatly aggravated by the absence of any uniform nationality. Some of the habits and customs were Dutch, some French, some English, some Christian, and some heathen. Extremes of evil and good were singularly linked together, and the barbarous punishments which both English and Dutch usage warranted seemed the only safeguard against chaos. Again, in 1673, the parent nations over the water plunged into another terrible war, and New York, as in every former instance, suffered severely. The fort and the wall were strengthened and repaired, volunteer forces were drilled, commerce was restricted, and merchants were on the eve of bankruptcy. The summer was flitting away, when suddenly a Dutch fleet appeared in the harbor, and an order came for the immediate surrender of New York. The governor was absent, and the summons was followed so promptly by the landing of the Dutch forces that no defense was attempted. The citadel was vacated by the English garrison, and the three-colored ensign of the Dutch Republic rose to its old place on the flag-staff. New York became once more New Netherland, and the city was called New Orange, in honor of the Dutch prince. It was an absolute conquest, by an open enemy in time of war. Everything henceforward assumed a military air. Guards were stationed near Sandy Hook to watch for vessels; no person was allowed to cross the ferries without a pass; and whoever had not taken the oath of allegiance was expelled from the city. Hostilities being apprehended from New England, citizens were forbidden to harbor any stranger, or to hold any correspondence whatever with the people of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Sentinels were stationed along the wall, and no person was allowed to enter or depart from the city except through one or the other of the two city gates, on pain of death. The wall was now a consequential feature of the city. At sundown every night the gates were closed, and a strong watch kept over them until sunrise the next morning.

Meanwhile a series of remarkable events in Europe were shaping the destiny of New York. A treaty was concluded with the belligerent nations, which involved a mutual restoration of conquests. The Dutch governor, Colve, received instructions from Holland to yield the Province of New York to whomsoever the King of England should depute to receive it. Sir Edmund Andros was the dignitary thus delegated, and on Saturday, the 10th day of November, 1674, he landed near the Battery with much ceremony, and was graciously welcomed by the Dutch Commander.

The wall was not allowed to go at once into decay with the return of permanent peace. Eighteen years later, when a French invasion was threatened, two bastions were erected for the, defense of the wall, each a huge mass of earth and stone faced with sods. It was, during its whole history, esteemed a protection against the bears of the forests, as the locality has since been the haven of civilized bears. A curious and authentic incident of the year 1678 is handed along to us by the Rev. Charles Wolley (a Minister of the Church of England), who in visiting New York recorded in his journal the description of a bear hunt in John Robinson's orchard—between what is now Cedar Street and Maiden Lane. He writes, "we followed a bear from tree to tree; and when he was got to his resting place, perched upon a high branch, we dispatched a youth after him with a club to an opposite bough, who knocking his paws, he comes grumbling down backwards with a thump upon the ground, so we after him again." In what precise decade the native bear retired before the march of civilization on Manhattan Island, history does not state with absolute precision. But houses and streets were taking such strides in a northerly direction, that in 1688 Governor Dongan ordered an examination of the condition of the wall, with a view to the enlargement of the city, "and, if occasion should require to lay fortifications further out. "It appeared from the report that the "water gate" was in ruins, the "curtain palisades from the gate to the Artillery Mount (northwest corner of Wall and William) fallen down, the ground laid out in lots and partly built upon, the Artillery Mount itself in a state of dilapidation, the curtain palisades between it and the 'land gate' at Broadway in ruins, the land also laid out in lots; the Land Gate Mount in decay, and the gate across Broadway ready to fall down." This account was sufficient to have induced the authorities to decide upon the demolition of the wall. But the time was unpropitious. The city was in commotion over the news that Dongan was to be displaced in the government, and New York consolidated with New England under the rulership of Andros. And the revolution, responsive to that in England upon the abdication of James II., following soon, the public mind had little room for the consideration of local affairs.