1791
Jan 5
The 14th New York State
Legislature, having assembled a quorum on its second day, begins sitting at the
second City Hall at the north End of Broad Street.
Feb 7
The legislature re-apportions the
state Senate and Assembly districts.
Feb 12
Inventor and industrialist Peter
Cooper is born in New York to Newburgh, New York Methodist hat maker John
Cooper and his wife.
Mar 24
The 14th New York State
Legislature concludes its 14th session.
Jun 9
Playwright-composer John Howard
Payne is born in New York City.
Oct 14
The Old American Company drama
group out of Philadelphia performs the tragedy The Gamester and a farce called
The Mock Doctor or, the Dumb Lady Cured in a John Street Theater.
Dec 17
Manhattan's first one-way street
is created.
City
The city begins a ten-year
project to fill in the Collect Pond, a source of drinking water, after
pollution makes it unfit to drink. It purchases all land claims previously
granted to the Rutgers family. ** Trinity Church, rebuilt in 1788, is consecrated
by Bishop Provost.
** New Jersey
express coaches travel to New York City and back at the rate of twenty a week,
mostly on commercial travel.
** The city
suffers a relatively mild outbreak of yellow fever, although close to 100 died
in the Peck Slip area.
** A tontine
organized by Lewis Morris to fund a toll drawbridge across the lower Harlem
River fails to raise enough money. ** The Tammany Society has over 300 members. ** Andrew S. Norwood goes into
business in Manhattan as a merchant. ** Brig owner Joseph Rose and his family move from
their Georgian-style homer at 273 Water Street to Pearl Street, leaving the
former property to his son.
** Merchant
Benjamin Seixes builds a double house at 76 Broad Street. **
The city establishes the Northern Dispensary for treatment of the poor,
in Greenwich Village.
** The Society
for the Promotion of Agriculture, Arts and Manufactures is founded. It will
move to Albany in 1797.
** Only 4% of
the city’s households – mostly elite merchants -are owners of stock. ** The 1784 Bank of New York
receives a corporate charter. It currently has 190 shareholders ** The city is divided into
seven wards. ** Free black future dry cleaner
Thomas L. Jennings is born to Joseph Jennings and Marry Baker.
© 2013 David Minor / Eagles Byte
