Feb 1
Former politician and New York
mayor James Duane, 63, dies in New York City. He will be buried at Duanesburg,
New York’s Christ Church.
April
Aaron Burr is elected to the New
York State Assembly, the first of two terms. He moves into a manor house at
Manhattan’s Richmond Hill (at Charlton and Varick). His daughter Theodosia will
act as the property’s hostess.
May
Seven bidders, including Joseph
Newton, Benjamin Taylor, Nicholas Roosevelt and Christopher Colles have
responded to the New York City council's request earlier in the year for
contractors to supply water to the city. Newton and Taylor exhibit a model of
their proposed plant in front of City Hall and charge a 50¢ fee to view it. No
action is taken on any of the plans. ** Merchant and former British loyalist Charles
Ward Apthorpe dies. Congressional delegate Hugh Williamson buys out nine of
Althorpe’s children at a forced sale of their family home to recover a $1500
mortgage. Legal battles over ownership will last for more than a century.
June
The New York City council orders
that the tanyard of John R.
Livingston (Chancellor Livingston's cousin) and other yards on Collect Pond be
fenced in.
Jul 15
Five-year-old St. Claire Pollack
falls off a Hudson River cliff at the future West 126th Street. His father
George will bury the boy near the site of the accident and erect a marble
monument dedicated to “an amiable child”. The site will later become part of
Riverside Park.
September
The daily (except Sundays) Commercial
Advertiser newspaper
– an outgrowth of Noah Webster’s 1793 American Minerva - begins publication under its
new name, with George F. Hopkins as editor.
Oct 6
Pickering passes word back to
Liston after checking with collector of the port of New York Joshua Sands, that
Jacob Astor is
a fur trader and transports only enough gunpowder for his own business
purposes. In reality Astor is now dealing in firearms.
Nov 28
Newgate, New York's first state
prison, opens on four-acres of ground on Greenwich Street in the Village of Greenwich.
December
Young Washington Irving studies
Latin at Jonathan Fiske’s New York City school.
City
The city becomes the permanent seat of the state legislature
(for the time being).
** Front Street
is extended between Beekman Slip (Fulton Street) and Crane's Wharf (Beekman
Street). ** John Fitch and John Stevens
both experiment with steam-powered vessels on the Collect Pond for the second
year in a row. ** Philomath (almanac maker)
Andrew Beers relocates to Albany. ** Ferry service is launched between Manhattan and
the Williamsburgh section of Brooklyn, near today’s Grand Street. ** The Potter’s Field at Post and
Bloomingdale roads is moved to the future Washington Square site, acquired this
year by the city as a communal graveyard for yellow fever. Hangings will also
be held in the park. A United States Arsenal will be built on part of the
original graveyard’s cleared land. ** Teacher Benjamin Romaine retires. His young
pupil Washington Irving studies at a seminary run by theater authority Josiah
Henderson. ** Exiled French visitor La
Rochefoucauld-Liancourt visits the city, comments favorably on the pump
water. ** Cornerstones are laid for
the Bank of New York and a branch of the Bank of the United States, on Wall
Street. ** City surveyor Benjmin
Taylor and engraver John Roberts prepare a plan of the city. ** Philip Freneau begins
publishing the periodical Time Piece.
** John Joseph
Holland paints a watercolor of Broad Street. ** Yellow fever kills several dozen people. ** Mr. and Mrs. John Barker
Church return to the city after a sojourn in his native England, take up
residence at 52 Broadway, near the Alexander Hamiltons. ** Trinity Church sells its
land in the future Tribeca neighborhood to the city. It will become Duane
Park. ** The city overtakes
Philadelphia in the value of exports. ** When the city’s second almshouse, on the site of
the modern City Hall Park, is completed, to the rear of the original 1736
almshouse, the first is demolished. ** A Methodist-Episcopal Church is built at Barley
Street (Duane Street, after 1809). ** Greenwich Street and Washington Street, built on
shoreline landfill, are completed. Front Street is laid out between Beekman
Wharf at Fulton Street and Crane Wharf at Beekman Street. ** Scottish immigrant Isabella
Marshll Graham founds the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small
Children.
© 2013 David Minor / Eagles Byte
