NEW YORK CITY TIMELINE / 1675-1679

1675

Jan 11

Provisions for security in New York City are made and trade regulations are drawn up.

City

A Court of Sessions is established, passes legislation forbidding the sale of liquor to the Indians, regulating weights and measures, and limiting the number of breeding mares allowed to landowners on Long Island. A system for condemning property is set up and a slaughterhouse outside the city is ordered. ** William Dervall is appointed mayor for the year. ** James Cortelyou and others establish the settlement of Yellow Hook on Long Island, the earliest part of the future Brooklyn's Bay Ridge neighborhood.

1676

The Heeren Gracht (Broad Street) is the first street to be paved, after filling in the waterway called the Ditch. ** Wheat prices are regulated. ** Nicholas De Meyer is appointed mayor for the year. ** The Common Council orders all slaughterhouses to relocate outside the city's walls. ** Six wine and four beer taverns are licensed. ** Mary Manningham, step-daughter of the disgraced Captain William Manning, marries Robert Blackwell. Captain Manning had owned Hog (later named Manning, Blackwell and Roosevelt) Island.

1677

February

Many of New York City's leather buckets for fighting fires having been been pilfered, the city corporation orders them returned.

May 19

New York City's council begins taxing the construction of docks and bridges, and bars attorneys from pleading in the courts.

City

Stephanus Van Cortlandt is appointed mayor for the year. ** The common council orders a large public slaughterhouse to be built at Smit's Vly, north of the wall, to accommodate butchers ordered out of the city last year. ** The council orders a number of public wells be dug in the city. No money is appropriated and only one well is dug, at Broadway near Exchange Alley, named Mr. Rombouts's Well for former sheriff and mayor Francis Rombouts. ** Twelve cart-men go out on strike. The action is ended after participants are held in contempt of court - the first colonial prosecution for a labor action. ** Hendrick Hendrickson Bosch, a swrod-cutter from Leyden, arrives along with his third wife and several children to take title of land in upper Manhattan around the future King’s College (Columbua University).

Brooklyn

Residents of the New Utrecht neighborhood organize their own Dutch Reformed Church congregation, meeting in parishioners' homes.

1678

May 1

Willem and Mary (Marie, Maria) Gerritsen move from Gravesend, Brooklyn, to Sapochkanika (today's Greenwich Village), Manhattan.

Dec 27

Early New Amsterdam settler Gerrit Remmersen dies, in his mid-forties, He will be buried at Peter Stuyvesant's chapel (later St. Marks-in-the-Bouwerie.

City

Thomas Delavall is appointed mayor for the year.** The bolting (sifting and distribution) of flour begins. Three ships, seven boats and eight sloops are engaged in the trade. ** The city contains 384 houses. ** Edward Waters of the Bronx charges John Jennings with stealing his dugout canoe. Jennings, who used the canoe to transport hay, is fined by the Court of Sessions and ordered him to return the craft. He refuses to pay the fine and threatens violence to anyone attempting to collect.

1679

Sep 29

Dutch travelers and missionaries Jasper Danckaerts and Pieter Sluyter cross the East River into Long Island’s Breuckelen (Brooklyn) village and visit Gouanes (Gowanus) where they stop at the farm of Mr. and Mrs Simon de Hart; Danckaerts comments on the hospitality they are shown, including a generous serving of Gowanus oysters

Dec 7

Edward Randolph arrives in New York City to take up his duties as customs collector for New England.

City

Francis Rombolt is appointed mayor for the year. ** A black slave is valued at £42 ten shillings. ** Thirteen people are licensed to sell wine. ** A smallpox epidemic strikes the city, lasts into next year. ** The law requires that a lantern with a lit candle must be hung from every seventh house except on moonlit lights. ** The approximate date Dr. John Nicoll [Nicol/Nicholl(s)], a founder of the First Presbyterian Church, is born in Livingston, Scotland.

Brooklyn

Dutch visitor Jasper Danckaert writes in Journal of a Voyage to New York - of Indians on Gowanus Bay catching foot-long oysters. His Labadist (a religious sect) General View will show Manhattan. He and a co-religionist visit the Gowanus farm of Mr. and Mrs Simon de Hart; Danckaert comments on the generous hospitality they are shown, including a generous serving of Gowanus oysters.

© 2011 David Minor / Eagles Byte

NEW TIMELINE SERIES - EASTERN NYS

Covering Eastern New York State, Hudson Valley, Long Island

Timelines for similar periods for Western and Central New York can be found at

crookedlakereview.blogspot.com/

B. C. dates extremely approximate

1,100,000,000 B. C.

A shallow ocean deposits sediments that become Lake George bedrock.

520,000,000 B. C.

Shallow sea water at the western edge of the Iapetus sea lays down sandstone along the proto-Hudson River in the Ausable Chasm and Troy, New York, areas.

460,000,000 B. C.

The approach of the African continent causes the thrusting up of the Vermontia land mass, a period known as the Taconic Orogeny or the Greenville event. The Taconics, Berkshires, Adirondacks, Blue Ridge, and Green Mountains are created as a result.

450,000,000 B. C.

Pushed westward into New York, New England bedrock creates the Rensselaer Plateau.

North America

The central part of the land mass lies in the tropics. Today's east coast faces south and a chain of volcanic islands begins colliding with the coast. They will be submerged and compressed to become the bedrock beneath Long Island.

430,000,000 B. C.

The Taconic Orogeny period draws to a close.

60,000,000 B. C.

The Magothy aquifer, the third layer from the bottom of gravel, sand and silt beneath Long Island, is laid down by glacial action.

30,000,000 B. C.

The Jurassic Period. The Palisades are formed.

2,000,000 B. C.

The Kansan glaciation period begins in North America, lasts for about a million years. The ice begins advancing down the Champlain-Hudson valley.

22,000 B. C.

The last glacier, the Laurentide, reaches Long Island.

20,000 B. C.

North America's most recent glaciers begin retreating. At their zenith the northern half of Long Island is covered. ** The Allegheny River's bed is formed at the glacier's edge.

18,000 B. C.

The glacier begins receding from the Allegheny River. ** Glacial Lake Albany is formed by retreating glaciers.

17,500 B. C.

The retreating glacier leaves a long lake (Glacial Lake Connecticut) behind - the future Long Island Sound.

14,000 B. C.

The lake at the site of today's Long Island Sound dries up after the glacial ice sheet recedes.

13,000 B. C.

Rising seas begin breaking into the lengthy depression in the earth that will become Long Island Sound.

11,000 B. C.

Glacial Lake Albany dries out.

10,000 B. C.

Long Island becomes an island when waters break through on the western end to the interior lake. ** Nomadic hunters from the north begin entering the Long Island area.

9,070 B. C.

A mastodon dies in the Cohoes area.

8,000 B.C.

The future Lake Champlain is an inland sea.

6,000 B. C.

Deciduous plants make their appearance on Long Island.

4,500 B. C.

Cedar trees are traced back to this period at Montauk, Long Island.

4,000 B. C.

The use of pottery is widespread through the North American continent by this time. ** Artifacts of Native American tribes date back to this period at Magdalen Island, in the middle Hudson River.

3,500 B. C.

The approximate date the Laurentian Algonquins enter the state. The Lamoka subculture also begins forming around this time.

3,000 B. C.

The approximate date Indians, of the Algonquin tribes, begin spreading out across Long Island.

2,200 B. C.

Cedar trees grow on Long Island at Mashomack.

2,000 B. C.

The rate of the rise of sea level begins to slow. Marshes develop along the shores of Long Island. ** The Middle Woodland culture reaches the area.

© 2011 David Minor / Eagles Byte

Hotel Utica (New York State) Click Image to Enlarge

© 2010 David Minor / Eagles Byte

Right Place at the Right Time (script 178)

© 2000 David Minor / Eagles Byte

The lady just happened to be in town that day. The day was May 12th, 1883, a Saturday. The town was Fayette, Michigan. And the lady was a boat, a boat by the name of Lady Washington. Fayette's harbor, called Snail Shell due to its shape, offered protection from the lake's storms, and vessels often took refuge in its shelter. If there was enough of this once-thriving smelter town in 1959 to fashion into a ghost-town tourist attraction, a lot of the credit goes to the lady.

Foundries ran around the clock then, what we today would call 24/7, and most people worked Saturdays anyway, so it wasn't unusual for a clerk in the warehouse to be on the job. He happened to glance off toward the waterfront where the stock building was located. It's purpose was to hold the fuel, coke by this period, before it went into the furnaces. Suddenly he took another look. Flames were emerging from a corner of the building. No time to hesitate. There was a wind, a few sparks could set the whole wooden village ablaze. He turned in the alarm and it wasn't long before every inhabitant that could walk, including the kids, was on the scene. The timbers of the stock house, coated with years of coal dust, spread the fires like fuses in a melodrama. 65,000 bushels of charcoal caught, and finished the stock house. The fire engine had been dragged in and bucket brigades formed. But the former didn't have sufficient power, mere pails of Lake Michigan were next to useless, and the wind continued to blow. Fayette was going to go up in flames. Town in distress and, damsel to the rescue.

The discouraged townspeople were suddenly aware of the sound of an engine, coming from the docks. The Lady Washington was moving into position with engines revved up and pumps churning. With her help the battle finally turned. When the last flames were extinguished the Jackson Iron Company had been heavily damaged, but its town had survived. A number of smelter buildings were lost, to the tune of $40,000. The two stacks, the blast furnaces, the casting house and the engines that operated the machinery were also spared. As were the docks, coal bins, and stacks of cord wood.

What the fire didn't destroy that evening the passage of time and the depletion of local forests eventually polished off. In 1920 the iron works and the town it owned, was sold off for $10,000. The population dwindled, almost to the vanishing point. Over the next 39 years what was left changed hands several times. Eventually the state of Michigan took over, decided the place was worth rescuing as a tourist attraction, and set out on a massive restoration project.

Every August now, boaters gather in Snail Shell Harbor to watch as a local high school girl, the annual Queen of the Fleet, tosses flowers on the water to honor the fishermen who lost their lives on the Lakes. The guardian spirit of another, much older lady is most likely present.

NEW YORK CITY TIMELINE - 1670-1674

1670

City

Staaten Eyelandt (Staten Island) is purchased for the third and final time from the Indians. ** Brewer Jacob Van Couwenhoven dies and creditors, including Oloff Stevenson Van Cortlandt, take over the brewery. ** English governor Francis Lovelace builds the King's House, a tavern, next to the Stadt Huys.

Bronx

The Morris family bring black slaves from Barbados to their home. ** Thomas Hunt settles the area to become known as Hunts Point

Brooklyn

The Rockaway Indian sachem Eskemoppas challenges the land claims of the settlers in the Midwout (later Flatbush) area. Dutch leaders repurchase the land.

1671

January

Benjamin Johnson is appointed executioner for New Amsterdam.

May

The approximate date wealthy New Amsterdam merchant Govert Loockermans dies, in his mid-fifties.

July

Benjamin Johnson, having been given the job of building a stone-lined well behind the Stadt Huys, at Pearl Street and Coentes Slip, is paid 195 florins for his work.

Aug 11

Royal governor Francis Lovelace grants a petition by Lutheran minister Jacobus Fabritius to deliver a farewell sermon to his New York City parishioners.

City

Dutch minister Samuel Driscus petitions for two years of salary in arrears, but is paid only £100 because he was sick one year. The council recommends that the church's elders and deacons supply him with further aid. ** Former mayor Thomas Delavall is appointed mayor for this year. ** Captain John Manning moves to the island in the East River which he purchased in 1666 (afterwards known as Manning's Island, later Minnahannock, Hog, Blackwell's, then Roosevelt Island).**A new road is run up the east side of Manhattan ending in the area of today's Third Avenue and 130th Street.

Staten Island

Richmondtown’s first building, the Britton Cottage – owned by botanist Nathaniel Lord Britton - is built at New Dorp Lane and Cedar Grove Avenue.

1672

February

Peter Stuyvesant dies in New York City, at the age of 62.

Dec 10

After receiving an earlier message from Charles II of England strongly recommending that the colonists establish a "close correspondency with each other" Governor Francis Lovelace announces monthly mail service between New York and Boston.

City

Matthias Nicholls is appointed mayor for the year. ** The population reaches 5,000. ** Traveling Quaker George Fox preaches under two white oak trees in Flushing township.

1673

Jan 1

Plans for once-a-month post service to Boston from New York, scheduled to begin today, are postponed.

Jan 22

The first mail run leaves New York City, heading for Boston, on the future route of the Old Post Road.

February

French immigrant Isaac Bedlow/e dies (probably in New York City) in his mid-forties (birth date ca. 1627)

Jul 30

A Dutch fleet captures New York City, retaking the colony and New Jersey, renaming the city New Orange. Fort George is taken.

Feb 5

The approximate date the mail reaches Boston.

Aug 9

Acting commander Captain John Manning surrenders Fort James to the Dutch.

City

John Lawrence is appointed mayor for the next two years. ** The approximate date the city executioner Benjamin Johnson is convicted of heading a gang of thieves. He's whipped, deprived of one ear, and banished. ** Carolus Allard's Orbis Habitablis, a Dutch pictorial tour of the world, contains a line engraving that includes a distance view of lower Manhattan.

1674

Feb 19

The Treaty of Westminster ends the Third Anglo-Dutch War, restores New Amsterdam and New Jersey to the English. The city's name reverts to New York.

Feb 24

Annetje Cornelis petitions city officials, who grant her possession of the house and issue a restraining order against her husband.

Jun 8

Fabritius is again ordered to not approach Annetje Cornelis without her consent.

Jul 11

Fabritius enters his wife's house without permission, to place a chest inside, pushes a woman named Barentie and her spinning wheel off the road, and physically resists soldiers sent to remove him.

Jul 17

Fabritius is fined 100 florins and made to apologize to the court, thus avoiding banishment.

City

Mayor William Dervall levies the colony's first tax. ** The sovereignty transfer ceremony is held at the State House (Stadt-Huys). ** Law courts are held at the State House. ** Augsburg Congregationists Vrit Wessels, Lauwerens Andross, Martan Meyers, and Casper Steinmets petition Governor Andros upon his arrival, to have a promised Lutheran minister sent from Holland and for a yearly salary to be paid to him. ** For having surrendered Fort James to the Dutch last year Captain John Manning is court-martialed, accused of cowardice and treachery. He is exiled to the East River island named for him (the future Roosevelt Island).

(c) 2011 David Minor / Eagles Byte

YUM !