NEW YORK CITY TIMELINE / 1788 - 1789

1788

February           

New York's Common Council considers a citizens' petition favoring a public waterworks, then lets the matter drop.

Mar 7

Oyster Bay in Queens County is recognized as a town.

Apr 13                       

A New York City mob, protesting the use of corpses taken
from graves for medical demonstrations, storms the medical
school at New York Hospital and take doctors and medical
students prisoner, releasing them only when promised
immunity from prosecution -  the  beginning of the Doctors'
Riot.

Apr 14                       

Further violence results from the rioting in New York. The
militia is called in, resulting in the shooting deaths of three
of the mob's members.

Apr 15                       

The New York militia is mustered again but emotions have cooled and the matter fades. Three people have been arrested.

May 26                       

Brooklyn real estate developer Samuel Smith is born in Huntington, Long Island, to

farmer Zachariah Smith and his wife Anne.

Sep 19                       

Phelps writes to Walker a second time, again questioning the survey's accuracy.

Sep 23                       

Amasa Leonard is the first child born in Binghamton.

Sep 30                       

trader John Jacob Astor signs a trade agreement with Canadian merchant Roseter Hoyle, agreeing to ship furs from Montréal to New York City and Rotterdam.

October

The approximate date John Jacob Astor returns to New York City from the Great Lakes.

City

Trinity Episcopal Church, destroyed by fire in 1776, is rebuilt and furnished with bells.    **    A daughter, Magdalen, is born to John Jacob and Sarah Astor.    **    Earl and Lady Abingdon sell their Greenwich property for $2,200.    **   A grand jury indicts the city for its filthy streets. Nothing is done.    **    Alexander Hamilton stages a celebration in honor of the ratification of the U. S. Constitution.    **    City merchant and former Loyalist exile Michael Price, residing in Connecticut, relocates back to the city.

Brooklyn

A bridge connecting Brooklyn to Manhattan is first proposed.

1789

Jan 3

Maria Anthorpe, daughter of Charles Ward Anthorpe, is married to Congressional delegate Hugh Williamson, in the Anthorpe’s mansion in the Bloomingdale section (the future Upper West Side).

Jan 29                       

New York City’s Park Theatre opens.

Mar 4                       

The First Constitutional Congress meets in New York City, without a quorum. The U. S. Constitution is declared to be in effect. A public celebration is held.

Apr 1                       

The U. S. House of Representatives, a quorum achieved, begins business, electing Frederick Augustus Muhlenburg as speaker.

Apr 6                       

The U. S. Senate achieves a quorum. John Langdon is chosen as its temporary presiding officer. Election returns are counted and messengers are sent to notify Washington and Adams.

Apr 8                       

The House begins deliberating on revenue raising.

Apr 15                       

John Ferno begins publishing an administration organ, The Gazette of the United States,  in New York City.

Apr 16                       

George Washington leaves Mount Vernon for New York City.

Apr 21                       

John Adams arrives in New York City, takes his vice-presidential oath of office, and begins presiding over the Senate.   

Apr 23                       

Washington arrives in New York.

Apr 30                       

Washington is sworn in as the first President of the United States, on the front steps of Federal Hall. Before that can happen a Bible is needed for the ceremony. Militia general Jacob Morgan fetches one.

May 7                       

The first U. S. Inaugural Ball is held.

May 12                       

The Republican political club, The Society of St. Tammany (an Indian chief), or the Columbian Order begins meeting in Martling’s Tavern. The site, at the corner of Nassau and Spruce streets, will be the future location of the old New York Tribune building on “Newspaper Row”. Aaron Burr is chosen as the group’s first leader.    **    Nicholas Herring sells land stretching from Great George Street (Broadway) to Lafayette Place, to Anthony L. Bleecker, for $821. The new owner will divide the property into 14 building lots.

May 18                       

In New York City the U.S. Senate goes over their welcoming address to President

Washington, then travel in carriages to Federal Hall to present it to him and receive his

reply.

Jun 1                       

Congress, in its first act, regulates the administering of oaths.

Jul 8                       

Phelps begins the final conference with the Seneca. It goes on past midnight.

Jul 31                       

Congress establishes the first two revenue Collection Offices in the state, at Sag Harbor, Long Island (with a subordinate office at Greenport) and New York City (Albany, Cold Spring, Troy and Port Jefferson).

Aug 27

Pennsylvania senator William Maclay, chief justice John Jay and other have guests have supper with the President. It becomes a quite solemn meal.

Aug 28                       

New York City dry-goods merchant and Loyalist Robert Gilbert Livingston dies of gout

in Manhattan, at the age of seventy-six. He will be buried in the family vault in the

former Dutch burying ground in Trinity churchyard.

September           

After the first Continental Congress draws to a close in New York James Madison writes from Philadelphia to Thomas Jefferson in England, expressing concerns over the viability of the new constitution

Sep 29                       

Congress creates the U. S. Army.    **    The adjournment of the first Congress under the Constitution is effected.

City

John Jacob Astor buys his first real estate, on the Bowery Road.    **    State attorney general Richard Varick is appointed mayor for each of the next two years, replacing James Duane.    **   The Federal government takes over revenues from the Port of New York from the state.    **    Attorney Aaron Burr starts a company to supply water to the city. It’s charter is approved by the city with a capitalization of $2,000,000. Permissible use of surplus funds for discretionary purposes allows Burr and his backers to use the extra for banking ventures.    **    Five-year-old Washington Irving and his nurse Lizzie encounter George Washington while out for a walk. The future author asks the President’s blessing of his namesake. Irving begins attending a school run by former soldier Benjamin Romaine.    **    Virginia's Richard Henry Lee resides in Greenwich Village while in New York for the session of Congress.    **    Philadelphia backers of steamboat pioneer James Rumsey recommend to New York's Common Council that the inventor's steam engine could be made available for a municipal water system. The council does nothing.    **    Samuel Jones begins publishing a summary of pertinent city and state laws.    **    The Edward Mooney House is completed.

© 2012 David Minor / Eagles Byte