NEW YORK CITY TIMELINE / 1710 - 1714

1710

Jun 14

The colony’s new Royal governor Robert Hunter arrives in New York City, bringing 3,000 Palatine Germans from Europe to produce naval stores. They will move up the Hudson to the Schoharie region later in the year.

Sep 13

Rabbi Abraham DeLucena petitions New York governor Hunter, to exempt him, as a minister, from bearing any civilian or military office in the city, as was done for previous leaders of his church.

City

German-born John Peter Zenger arrives. He will apprentice to the city's official printer William Bradford, at the New York Gazette. ** Jacobus Van Cortlandt is appointed mayor. ** The approximate date judge John Chambers is born. ** Constable Thomas Tourneau dies, in his mid-forties (exact birth and death dates unknown).

Queens

The approximate date a dormered house is built in the future Ridgewood neighborhood by Paulus Vander Ende.

1711

Jun 28

Bateaux are built in New York City, for a planned invasion of Canada.

Jul 2

The General Assembly meets in New York, issues bills of credit for £25,000 toward Canadian invasion expenses.

City

Caleb Heathcote is appointed mayor; serves to 1714. ** Zenger goes to work as an apprentice in the 81 Pearl Street shop of printer William Bradford, publisher of the New York Gazette. ** A law is passed limiting the indenture of servants to seven years. ** A slave market is opened near the eastern end of Wall Street.

London

Parliament establishes a postal system for British colonies, with a deputy postmaster in New York City.

1712

Apr 7

Newly-arrived African Slaves revolt in New York City, killing eight whites and injuring over twenty others.

Apr 12

Twenty-one blacks are burned or hanged after the slave revolt. Six others are recaptured. Legislation will be passed later in the year to tighten controls.

City

Population 5,840. ** Cato, a South Carolina former slave who bought his freedom with proceeds from his cooking skills, opens Cato’s Road House, at the intersection of the Boston Post Rod’s East 51st and 52nd streets.

Boston

The approximate date Scotch Presbyterian minster Dr. John Nicoll, future pastor of a New York City congregation, arrives here.

1713

City

John Wise publishes Churches Quarrel Espoused, justifying Congregationalism. ** A dispute breaks out among members of Christ Church during an assembly, over a certificate of good behavior for curate Francis Philips, to be sent to Philadelphia’s Church of England. Reverend William Vesey has the dissidents on the vestry board replaced. ** The first excise tax is imposed.

1714

Feb 13

Carpenter James Lee (Leigh) and his wife visit New York’s Trinity Church’s sexton William Dobbs before noon, don’t leave until 8 in the evening. Lee notices Dobbs has a scratch on his hand, which Dobbs claims he doesn’t know how he got. Trinity Church is broken into by someone in the evening who desecrates vestments and scatters books in the churchyard.

Feb 15

Trinity sexton William Dobbs testifies before the city council, recounts finding the vandalism at the church early the previous morning. The council examines more witnesses. Aldermen and justices of the peace John Cruger and Abraham Wandell testify that they examined other witnesses. No conclusions are reached. Trinity rector Vesey petitions the council to protect him and the church, detailing the desecration, and pointing out that he has learned from undersheriff Barnes that “a person or persons at the house of Robert Drummond” had threatened mischief against Vesey. The council calls for depositions from Barnes, Garrat van Iaar, Jane van Iaar, and Mary Guest. ** Church officers, lead by Gualtherus Du Bois, offer a £15 reward for information on the perpetrators. ** Justina Lee (Leigh) and Catherine Dobbs make their depositions, backing Dobbs. The council clears Dobbs of any suspicion.

Feb 16

The ministers and elders of New York’s Reformed Protestant French church inform the city council they will put up a reward of £10 for the perpetrator of the Trinity sacrilege.

Feb 17

The council examines Robert and Anne Drummond, merchant Richard Willett and Thomas Fell. Drummond testifies that he was visited by a Lawence Smith at the end of last December who told Mrs. Drummond’s nurse, a Quaker, that he’d convert to her religion for 20 shillings, being disgusted with Vesey after the minister said it was better that the wife of a Lieutenant Riggs should lose her baby than a member of the congregation (Governor Hunter?) should suffer. Mrs. Drummond confirms her husband’s testimony in a separate deposition. Willet attests to hearing John Graham cursing out Mr. Vesey around Christmas time at the coffee house.

Feb 19

Trinity Church officers write to the city council, calling for a pardon to be given to any offender against the church who will turn in his fellow "mockers & scoffers of Religion". The church offers to contribute £30 toward expenses.

Mar 3

New York royal governor Robert Hunter issues a proclamation offering a £55 reward for anyone identifying those who defiled Trinity Church. If they were involved they will be granted a pardon as well as the reward.

City

John Johnson is appointed mayor, serves to 1719. ** The cost of liquor licenses is raised to thirty shillings.

Theater

Androboros, the first play written and printed in the colonies, is published by Governor Hunter.

© 2011 David Minor / Eagles Byte

LITTLE FALLS, NEW YORK

© 2008 David Minor / Eagles Byte

EASTERN NEW YORK TIMELINE - 1655-1659

1655

Apr 3

Maidstone (East Hampton) votes to send a delegation to Connecticut next month to discuss a merger.

May 28

Maidstone severely limits the amount of alcohol that can be sold or given to an Indian.

Jul 6

Maidstone apportions meadowlands around Hook Pond to the Reverend Thomas James, Lion Gardiner, Ananias Conklin, Thomas Chatfield and William Hedges.

Oct 3

Maidstone elects Thomas Baker, Lion Gardiner, and John Mulford as town representatives for the coming year.

Dec 3

Mulford, Gardiner and Baker write to Connecticut governor Thomas Welles, asking him to support their attempt to banish accused thief Arthur Chandler, when spring comes.

State

The approximate date the Seneca establish a town in an area known as the Dann-Mack site. today in Mendon township, probably abandoning the site by 1670 and moving on to found Totiakton (Rochester Junction). ** Exiled Scot Alexander Lindsay Glen secures a patent to land north of the Mohawk River, opposite Schenectady. ** Maidstone starts a school in Samuel Parson's home. ** Dutch explorer and patroon David Pietersz De Vries draws an illustration showing the diverse fauna to be found in New Netherland.

1656

Feb 12

Maidstone promulgates laws against striking anyone, or bearing false witness. Fines are set, with medical expenses levied against the attacker.

Feb 22

The Dutch States General ratifies its 1650 agreement with the United Colonies, changing the boundary between the two to a line drawn south from Oyster Bay.

Mar 19

Maidstone sends Thomas Baker, John Hand and Lion Gardiner to Hartford, to form a union with the Connecticut colony. Later in the month Hartford takes Maidstone under its protection, placing a local deputy in the General Court.

Jun 2

The cornerstone is laid for the first church in Beverwyck (Albany) by the congregation of the Reformed Dutch church.

Sep 6

Mohawk Indians request that the Dutch not sell rum to their people.

Oct 7

Maidstone proposes fines for anyone selected Constable, Secretary or Townsman who refuses to serve.

Nov 24

Maidstone restricts Indian activity, ruling against renting them land, or allowing wigwams to be set up in town without permission. They are not allowed to travel through town on the Sabbath.

State

The last 600 Erie surrender to the Iroquois. ** Fort Orange (Albany) trappers take 30,000 beaver pelts. ** Lawyer Adriaen van der Donck's Description of New Netherland.

Netherlands

A pulpit is built that will end up in Albany's 1798 First Dutch Reformed Church.

1657

Feb 4

Maidstone forbids the planting of Indian corn within eight feet of any outer fence, and the forming of any corn stack or haystack on that same ground.

Apr 7

Maidstone shifts the General Court from the first three days of April to the first three of March.

Jul 9

Maidstone agrees to pay the Reverend Thomas James's ú50 salary in redeemable merchandise credit.

Sep 17

Peter Schuyler, future first mayor of Albany, is born there, to Dutch immigrant merchant Philip Schuyler and his wife Margaretta Van Schlectenhorst.

October

A petition, signed by 24 parishioners (including 16 Germans) - to have Lutheran pastor Johannes Ernestus GÅtwasser remain in New Amsterdam - is circulated. Among the

signers is cobbler Jochem Beeckman.

Oct 1

Early Maidstone settler Ananias Conklin dies.

Oct 5

Robert Bond and William Mulford inventory Conklin's estate.

Oct 7

Maidstone votes fines for anyone selected Constable, Secretary or Townsman who refuses to serve without good cause.

Nov 3

Maidstone rules that matters to be brought before the town council by outsiders should always be done through a resident of the town.

State

Father Pierre-Joseph-Marie Chaumonot visits the Senecas at Boughton Hill (Ganagarro).

1658

February

In Maidstone Lion Gardiner's daughter Elizabeth Gardiner Howell falls ill, accuses Joshua Garlicke's wife Elizabeth of being a witch and cursing her. When Elizabeth Howell dies the next day an investigation is called for.

Feb 19

The court at Maidstone, presided over by village justices Thomas Baker, John Hand and Joihn Mulford, hears testimony against Goody Garlicke from Samuel Pasons, Arthur Howell and William Russell.

Feb 23

Father, Lion Gardiner, and husband, Arthur Howell, agree that the latter will become legal guardian for Elizabeth Gardiner Howell's infant daughter, including portions of Elizabeth's state received from the Gardiners.

Feb 24

Elizabeth's nurse Goody Howell, and her mother, both make depositions before John Mulford, John Hand and Thomas Baker. Both women testify that Elizabeth told them Goody Garlicke was tormenting her.

Feb 27

Testimony continues. Goody Brookes says Mrs. Gardiner told her Elizabeth was bewitched by a woman. Goody Burdsill testifies that she heard Goody Davis's infant died because she was cursed by Goody Garlicke. Goodman Vaile and his wife refute this, claim Davis gave her child to an Indian woman to nurse and it died of starvation.

Mar 11

Goody Burdsill gives further testimony, says she heard Mrs. Howell accuse Goody Garlike of 'jear'ing her.

Mar 19

The Maidstone council assigns Thomas Baker and John Hand to travel to Connecticut on government matters, escorting Goody Garlicke there for trial.

April

Mary Schott and Francis Weekes, two Hempstead, Long Island, non-Quaker women, are fined 20 guilders for attending a Quaker meeting.

May 3

Maidstone places itself under the Connecticut government.

May

Goody Garlick's trial for witchcraft takes place in Hartford, Connecticut's Court of Magistrates, governor John Winthrop presiding.

May 20

The Connecticut Court exonerates Goody Garlicke, but commends Maidstone authorities for their diligence.

May 22

Maidstone signs a treaty with Montauketts chief Wyandanch, negotiating pasturage at Montauk for seven years and first refusal if the land is ever sold.

Nov 13

Chief Wyandanch agrees to convey half of the whales washed up on the beach to minister Thomas James and the other half to Wyandanch's friend Lion Gardiner, paying only what they deem fair for any whales after the first one.

Nov 30

Maidstone extends its eastern boundary.

State

Settler Alexander Lindsay Glen erects a mansion on the bank of the Mohawk opposite Schenectady. ** Albany's first courthouse is built.

Indians

The Iroquois, backed first by the Dutch, then the English, begin nine years of devastating warfare against the French.

1659

Mar

Maidstone (also now being referred to as East Hampton) formulates laws regulating taverns, which must be licensed by the town.

Apr 19

Maidstone requires landowners to mark their fences with their initials and to keep their livestock penned up except for grazing times on common land.

Apr 25

The directors of the Dutch West India Company write to Stuyvesant, inquiring about a petition for land and mineral grants in the Catskill Mountains made by Garrit Jansen Kuiper and Abel de Wolfe. Stuyvesant will stall, not supplying the information.

Jul 14

Wyandanch gifts Lion Gardiner with a patch of land between Huntington and Seatacut, for his aid in conflict with the Naragansetts in 1653. The sachem dies later this summer, reportedly poisoned.

Sep 20

Several Esopus Indian men are hired by Dutch settlers in Ulster County. When the work is finished one of the natives, liquored up, fires a gun in celebration. Things get out of hand when settlers and soldiers attack the natives, most of whom flee. They return the next day and destroy crops, kill livestock and destroy buildings.

November

Unrest among the Esopus Indians compels the Fort Orange (Albany) authorities to call for the building of a stockade around the settlement. It's left open on the Hudson River side at first but soon all residents living along the river are ordered to erect new fences the same height as the stockade, within eight days.

State

Under 500 Metoac Indians still remain on Long Island.

England

Howell's English Proverbs refers to the wisdom of the men of Gotham.

(c) 2011 David Minor / Eagles Byte

The One, Two, Three Count

August 14, 2004

On April 29, 1937, the headline on a New York Times article read, "Braddock to Train for Bout With Louis In Sumptuous Camp on Lake Michigan". The story was datelined Chicago, but the sumptuous camp was at Grand Beach, Michigan, five miles up the shore from Michigan City, Indiana. James J. Braddock was looking to defend his heavyweight title against 23-year-old contender Joseph Louis Barrow in a bout scheduled for June 22nd. It looked like the match would be held in Chicago, in spite of a pending New York injunction. As Braddock's manager Joe Gould put it, "Braddock will positively defend his title this Summer. Naturally, we hope it will be against Louis in Chicago. However it is necessary that Braddock be established in camp, and regardless where his title defense takes place, he will remain at Grand Beach for at least two months." The Barrow camp seemed to be betting on Chicago as well, for the challenger would go into training at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, 75 miles northwest of the Windy City.

A photograph of the champ and his sparring partners out for an exercise jog shows the three men running downhill toward the camera along a sloping boardwalk. Behind them, atop a ridge, stands an imposing three-story building with a tower on the corner (one of two, actually) stretching off-camera at the other end, all done in mock Tudor, or Pseudy Tudey, architecture, giving the whole structure a vaguely Shakespearean look. Some "camp". This is the Golfmore Hotel. Braddock will rough it in one of the gilded hostelry's 175 guest rooms.

Resort founders Floyd Perkins and George Ely were obviously doing something right. It was their 18-hole golf course that had given the hotel, opened in 1921, its name. Besides golf the resort provided opportunities to go horseback riding, swimming and, in the winter, ski jumping. Soon another nine holes were added in a nearby location. Twice a day trains of the Michigan Central Railroad would pull into the station, near the fourth green, and discharge wealthy sportsmen from Chicago, eager to hit the links. Other resorts opened nearby. The future looked rosy.

Then came October 1929. The hotel struggled to play through, but was forced to close in 1931, after only ten years of operation. It was reincarnated in 1936 with the added attraction of roulette tables, slots and other gaming seductions and it was then that Braddock arrived to train. Another boxer, Max Baer, had trained here earlier in the decade, as had the Golden Gloves team when they prepared for an international match with the Irish Amateur team.

Chicago fight fans were pleased when they learned the New York court challenge had failed; the fight went on, as scheduled, as 60,000 fans paid $700,000 to jam themselves into Comiskey Park.

The New York Times reported the next day, "Loser Carried Unconscious to His Corner After Being Pounded to Canvas." Joe Louis (he dropped the 'Barrow' to fight professionally), the Brown Bomber, became the first black boxer to hold the crown since Great White Hope Jack Johnson took the title in 1908, and would remain champ for a record-breaking twelve years. Michigan governor Frank Murphy banned gambling in 1937.

On November 19, 1939. the Golfmore Hotel burned to the ground.

Back to square one for Grand Beach.

Script 376

(c) 2004 David Minor / Eagles Byte

NEW YORK CITY TIMELINE / 1705-1709

1705

England's Queen Anne grants local land to be used for St. Paul's parish. ** The Reverend Peter Peiret, minister of the French Church, dies. ** A school is established with Andrew Clarke as teacher. ** Lord Cornbury grants the King's Farm property, at the western side of the city's northern limits, to Trinity Church for 3 shillings rent. ** Three English privateers sail into port with a captured 20-gun Spanish man-of-war in tow. A naval lieutenant is killed in a brawl during celebrations.

1706

A threatened French naval attack never happens.

1707

Jan 23

Cornelius Sebering and 40 supporters petition New York's Royal Governor Lord Cornbury for permission to establish a ferry across the East River between Red Hook, Long Island, and lower Manhattan.

Feb 5

The mayor and aldermen and the Corporation of New York publish a remonstrance to Lord Cornbury, to reject the Sebering proposal, which would threaten the ferry profits of the municipality.

Apr 8

Lord Cornbury grants the municipality's request for exclusive rights to East River ferry service.

Sep 10

Augustus Graham and William Bond provincial surveyors lay out Long Island's Newtowne (Newtown) and Bushwick.

City

Ebenezer Wilson is appointed mayor; serves to 1710. ** Presbyterian Francis Makemie is tried and acquitted during a prosecution of dissenters. ** Water Street is extended from Old Slip to John Street; Broadway is paved with a ten-foot strip of cobblestones with a gutter down the center - prone to flooding with mud during heavy rains - from Trinity Church to Bowling Green. ** Royal governor Lord Cornbury decrees that unlicensed Presbyterians may not preach in the city. Two ministers are fined then acquitted.

1708

Feb 10

French Protestant refugees petition Lord Cornbury to investigate claims of former French prisoner of war Morris Newinhuysen, regarding an alliance between the refugees and French citizens, to capture New York.

Feb 24

John van Brugh, shipmate of Newinhuysen, gives his deposition, attesting he found some letters on a French ship which he gave to Newinhuysen, who read them and tossed hem overboard.

Feb 25

Newinhuysen makes a deposition that while prisoner on a French privateer he came across letters, seemingly from Benjamin Fanueil of New York, inviting the French to capture the city. Commissioners Thomas Wenham, R. Mempesson and John Barborie report the two depositions to the governor, with the notation that they showed Newinhuysen letters written in French and that he understood "very little or nothing of either of them."

Mar 4

The council exonerates Benjamin Fanueil.

Mar 9

The French refugees in New York petition Lord Cornbury to do what he can to stop the rumors flying around the colony and to publish pertinent documents proving the accusations false.

Apr 19

New York colonial governor Montgomerie grants New York City a new charter, enlarging its municipal powers. The city is granted control over all Brooklyn lands between today's Navy Yard and Red Hook, lying between high and low water marks.

Sep 28

Newtown and Bushwick (in today's Brooklyn) surveyors Augustine Graham and William Bond request that patentees pay them in proportion to the size of their grants.

1709

A slave market is built at the foot of the main street. ** The Exchange Coffee House opens. ** Trinity Church founds its parish school.

(c) 2011 David Minor / Eagles Byte