Early Coney Island History: 'Conyne Eylandt' and Gravesend (1600-1860)
Map of Brooklyn c. 1880 showing Coney Island and its easternmost tip, Manhattan Beach
Introduction
The story of Coney Island begins in the early 1600s, when the Dutch founded a small settlement named New Amsterdam in lower Manhattan. New Amsterdam eventually would become present-day New York City. At the time, this settlement was one of several that comprised the Dutch colony of New Netherland, which extended along the east coast of the present-day United States, from as far south as Delaware to as far north as Rhode Island and Albany. New Amsterdam was an important trading post for the Dutch fur trade, and over time it became the unofficial capital of New Netherland.
The Dutch gave land grants to entice early settlers to New Amsterdam. Several dozen people came to own much of the land of present-day Coney Island. For reasons dating back to the timing of a land grant made in 1643, much of the land was held under a communal title by the numerous beneficiaries. The group managed the property in a relatively passive manner, and Coney Island remained a relatively sleepy farming community until the mid-1800s.
In the mid-1870s, a powerful local politician named John McKane took advantage of his position and the communal ownership structure, executing a tricky legal maneuver to sell the land to developers without the owners’ consent. Through this and other machinations from which he personally benefited, McKane rapidly transformed Coney Island from a farming community into a renowned seaside resort, paving the way for its heyday in the early 1900s as the amusement capital of the world.
Henry Hudson’s Voyage for the Dutch East India Company (1609)
The Dutch colonialization of New York City resulted from a voyage that English explorer Henry Hudson made for the Dutch East India Company in 1609. The company wanted to find a faster route to the Orient and commissioned Hudson to make his third attempt to find one by traveling over the top of the globe. In April of that year, he set sail in the Dutch ship Halve Maen (Half Moon) with a mixed Dutch-English crew. In the Arctic, his probing to the northeast was blocked by the massive glaciers of Nova Zemblia, an eight-hundred-mile extension of Russia's Ural Mountains into the frozen Barents Sea. When he turned from northeast to north, he found his way impeded by the icebergs of Spitzbergen. When he then turned to the boundless wastes of ice and snow to the northwest, his terrified crew threatened to mutiny unless he turned at once toward warmer climates. Hudson was therefore compelled to steer southwestward and sailed down the North American coast as far south as the mouth of the Delaware River.
Hudson either chose to defer exploring the entrance to New York Bay on his way south or simply missed it while sailing during the night. It was the practice of mariners at the time to hug the shore in the daytime so as to be close to shelter in the event of a sudden storm. At night they would continue on instead of dropping anchor, if the wind was favorable and the moon was out. They would, however, veer away from shore to avoid shoals and reefs.
Hudson came upon the highlands along the entrance to New York Bay on his way back north. Crossing the bar at Sandy Hook, he dropped anchor off of Coney Island. For two days, he traded with the Indians, exchanging colored cloth and trinkets for food and furs. On the third day, some crewmen exploring the bay in a rowboat were attacked by natives in canoes. One man, John Coleman, was killed by an arrow, and several others were wounded.
Shortly after this encounter, Hudson raised anchor, but instead of making for the open sea, he decided to find out where the great river that would later bear his name led. He got as far north as Albany before realizing that the narrowing river did not curve westward to the Orient. Turning back, he drifted downriver with the current, and occasionally dropped anchor to trade with the natives.
By the time Hudson reached the ocean and set sail for Holland, he had accumulated a sizable cargo of furs and hides. On his way to Holland, he had to put into an English port for provisions. The authorities there ordered him and the English aboard to terminate immediately their relationship with the Dutch, who were their commercial rivals. The ship was permitted to depart with the Dutch members of the crew.
When the officials of the Dutch East India Company beheld the wealth of furs packed in the hold, they decided that a bird in the hand was worth two in the Orient. Dutch and English merchants had been obtaining furs from the Russians and Laplanders in the usually frozen White Sea port of Archangel. To get furs there they had to pay in gold, not trinkets.
The story of Coney Island begins in the early 1600s, when the Dutch founded a small settlement named New Amsterdam in lower Manhattan. New Amsterdam eventually would become present-day New York City. At the time, this settlement was one of several that comprised the Dutch colony of New Netherland, which extended along the east coast of the present-day United States, from as far south as Delaware to as far north as Rhode Island and Albany. New Amsterdam was an important trading post for the Dutch fur trade, and over time it became the unofficial capital of New Netherland.
The Dutch gave land grants to entice early settlers to New Amsterdam. Several dozen people came to own much of the land of present-day Coney Island. For reasons dating back to the timing of a land grant made in 1643, much of the land was held under a communal title by the numerous beneficiaries. The group managed the property in a relatively passive manner, and Coney Island remained a relatively sleepy farming community until the mid-1800s.
In the mid-1870s, a powerful local politician named John McKane took advantage of his position and the communal ownership structure, executing a tricky legal maneuver to sell the land to developers without the owners’ consent. Through this and other machinations from which he personally benefited, McKane rapidly transformed Coney Island from a farming community into a renowned seaside resort, paving the way for its heyday in the early 1900s as the amusement capital of the world.
Henry Hudson’s Voyage for the Dutch East India Company (1609)
The Dutch colonialization of New York City resulted from a voyage that English explorer Henry Hudson made for the Dutch East India Company in 1609. The company wanted to find a faster route to the Orient and commissioned Hudson to make his third attempt to find one by traveling over the top of the globe. In April of that year, he set sail in the Dutch ship Halve Maen (Half Moon) with a mixed Dutch-English crew. In the Arctic, his probing to the northeast was blocked by the massive glaciers of Nova Zemblia, an eight-hundred-mile extension of Russia's Ural Mountains into the frozen Barents Sea. When he turned from northeast to north, he found his way impeded by the icebergs of Spitzbergen. When he then turned to the boundless wastes of ice and snow to the northwest, his terrified crew threatened to mutiny unless he turned at once toward warmer climates. Hudson was therefore compelled to steer southwestward and sailed down the North American coast as far south as the mouth of the Delaware River.
Hudson either chose to defer exploring the entrance to New York Bay on his way south or simply missed it while sailing during the night. It was the practice of mariners at the time to hug the shore in the daytime so as to be close to shelter in the event of a sudden storm. At night they would continue on instead of dropping anchor, if the wind was favorable and the moon was out. They would, however, veer away from shore to avoid shoals and reefs.
Hudson came upon the highlands along the entrance to New York Bay on his way back north. Crossing the bar at Sandy Hook, he dropped anchor off of Coney Island. For two days, he traded with the Indians, exchanging colored cloth and trinkets for food and furs. On the third day, some crewmen exploring the bay in a rowboat were attacked by natives in canoes. One man, John Coleman, was killed by an arrow, and several others were wounded.
Shortly after this encounter, Hudson raised anchor, but instead of making for the open sea, he decided to find out where the great river that would later bear his name led. He got as far north as Albany before realizing that the narrowing river did not curve westward to the Orient. Turning back, he drifted downriver with the current, and occasionally dropped anchor to trade with the natives.
By the time Hudson reached the ocean and set sail for Holland, he had accumulated a sizable cargo of furs and hides. On his way to Holland, he had to put into an English port for provisions. The authorities there ordered him and the English aboard to terminate immediately their relationship with the Dutch, who were their commercial rivals. The ship was permitted to depart with the Dutch members of the crew.
When the officials of the Dutch East India Company beheld the wealth of furs packed in the hold, they decided that a bird in the hand was worth two in the Orient. Dutch and English merchants had been obtaining furs from the Russians and Laplanders in the usually frozen White Sea port of Archangel. To get furs there they had to pay in gold, not trinkets.
American Revolutionary War Map c. 1780 showing Coney Island as an actual island
The Dutch Establish New Netherland and New Amsterdam (1610 – 1633)
Within a year, Dutch mariners were taking soundings and charting the waters around Long Island and up the great river Hudson had explored. The colony of New Netherland began to take shape. Its capital was established at Fort Orange (modern-day Albany) because most of the furs were obtained there from the Indians.
At the lower tip of Manhattan Island, storehouses for furs and Indian trade goods were built, and around them grew the village of New Amsterdam (modern-day New York City). Settlers were brought from Holland to Fort Orange, but the long and severe winters there led most of them to relocate to the warmer New Amsterdam, which became the unofficial capital of New Netherland.
In 1621, the government in Holland granted a charter to the newly organized Dutch West India Company to run the colony of New Netherland under a Director General. Between 1621 and 1633, the most notable of these Director Generals was Peter Minuit, who purchased Manhattan Island from the Indians for sixty guilders worth of assorted trinkets, said to have had the value of twenty-four dollars cash money. Relations between the Dutch and native Americans at this time were fairly placid. Given that native Americans did not believe in the concept of private ownership of land, however, one can see how eventually the evolving situation would come to a head. As it turned out, there was only so long that the Dutch could maintain the status quo of trading simple items like pots, pans, mirrors and alcohol for furs.
The Original ‘Conyne Eylandt’
Today, Coney Island is a stretch of land approximately half a mile wide and five miles long that lies at the southernmost end of the Brooklyn in the city of New York. When the Dutch first arrived, however, Coney Island’s geography was quite different. Three ocean inlets separated the area that today comprises Coney Island into several loosely-connected islands consisting only of sand dunes and marshes. The ocean inlets could be waded only during low tide until the late 1700s and early 1800s, by which time powerful ocean currents had shifted enough sand into these fords to make them shallow enough for residents to fill them in completely. Much later, during the 1900s, landfill was used to fill in various other creeks, giving present-day Coney Island its current form.
The original ‘Conyne Eylandt’, also written ‘Conijnen Eylandt’, was an actual island. It comprised only the westernmost one-mile tip of today’s Coney Island, as can be seen on maps dating to the American Revolution. Conyne Eylandt extended to a ford that ran through the general area of present-day West 21st Street. The island was filled with rabbits and so the Dutch appropriately named it ‘Conyne Eylandt’, meaning ‘Rabbit Island’ in old Dutch. When the Dutch ceded New Amsterdam to the English in exchange for some lands in the West Indies in 1667, and the English adapted the name to ‘Coney Island’.
Directly east of Coney Island was Pine Island, also known as Coney Hook. It was bounded on the west by the ford at West 21st Street and on the east by Pine Island Inlet, a ford running through the area of present-day West 8th Street. To the east of Pine Island was Gysbert Island (West Brighton), also known as Johnson Island, which extended to a third ford that ran near present-day Ocean Parkway. The fourth and easternmost section consisted of Middle Division (Brighton Beach) and Sedge Bank (Manhattan Beach).
Within a year, Dutch mariners were taking soundings and charting the waters around Long Island and up the great river Hudson had explored. The colony of New Netherland began to take shape. Its capital was established at Fort Orange (modern-day Albany) because most of the furs were obtained there from the Indians.
At the lower tip of Manhattan Island, storehouses for furs and Indian trade goods were built, and around them grew the village of New Amsterdam (modern-day New York City). Settlers were brought from Holland to Fort Orange, but the long and severe winters there led most of them to relocate to the warmer New Amsterdam, which became the unofficial capital of New Netherland.
In 1621, the government in Holland granted a charter to the newly organized Dutch West India Company to run the colony of New Netherland under a Director General. Between 1621 and 1633, the most notable of these Director Generals was Peter Minuit, who purchased Manhattan Island from the Indians for sixty guilders worth of assorted trinkets, said to have had the value of twenty-four dollars cash money. Relations between the Dutch and native Americans at this time were fairly placid. Given that native Americans did not believe in the concept of private ownership of land, however, one can see how eventually the evolving situation would come to a head. As it turned out, there was only so long that the Dutch could maintain the status quo of trading simple items like pots, pans, mirrors and alcohol for furs.
The Original ‘Conyne Eylandt’
Today, Coney Island is a stretch of land approximately half a mile wide and five miles long that lies at the southernmost end of the Brooklyn in the city of New York. When the Dutch first arrived, however, Coney Island’s geography was quite different. Three ocean inlets separated the area that today comprises Coney Island into several loosely-connected islands consisting only of sand dunes and marshes. The ocean inlets could be waded only during low tide until the late 1700s and early 1800s, by which time powerful ocean currents had shifted enough sand into these fords to make them shallow enough for residents to fill them in completely. Much later, during the 1900s, landfill was used to fill in various other creeks, giving present-day Coney Island its current form.
The original ‘Conyne Eylandt’, also written ‘Conijnen Eylandt’, was an actual island. It comprised only the westernmost one-mile tip of today’s Coney Island, as can be seen on maps dating to the American Revolution. Conyne Eylandt extended to a ford that ran through the general area of present-day West 21st Street. The island was filled with rabbits and so the Dutch appropriately named it ‘Conyne Eylandt’, meaning ‘Rabbit Island’ in old Dutch. When the Dutch ceded New Amsterdam to the English in exchange for some lands in the West Indies in 1667, and the English adapted the name to ‘Coney Island’.
Directly east of Coney Island was Pine Island, also known as Coney Hook. It was bounded on the west by the ford at West 21st Street and on the east by Pine Island Inlet, a ford running through the area of present-day West 8th Street. To the east of Pine Island was Gysbert Island (West Brighton), also known as Johnson Island, which extended to a third ford that ran near present-day Ocean Parkway. The fourth and easternmost section consisted of Middle Division (Brighton Beach) and Sedge Bank (Manhattan Beach).
The mark of a troublemaker: Anthony Jansen Van Salee's 'signature' [1]
The Dutch Establish a System of Land Grants
In the early 1630s, the Dutch were becoming increasingly concerned that the English populations of New England and Virginia were increasing at a much faster rate than that of New Netherland. New England, in particular, was becoming a dumping ground for significant numbers of political and religious dissidents from England. This could pose a longer-term threat for New Netherland, which had a population of only about three hundred Hollanders.
The government in Holland decided to attract more Europeans to its American colony by removing the fur trade monopoly of the Dutch West India Company and also loosening religious restrictions. Foreigners, including the English, were invited to come and settle, or to trade with the Indians, but pelts could only be sent to Holland, and in Dutch vessels. Additionally, all religious denominations except the Quakers would be free to hold religious services in their homes or barns, even if the only official religious buildings permitted were those of the strict Calvinist Dutch Reformed Church.
The Dutch government also embarked on a program of land grants, or ground briefs, to those who agreed to build a farmhouse within a specified time and to till the soil. Farmers were not required to pay taxes for ten years, after which they had to pay a tenth of their crop annually to the company.
The system of land grants took off during the tenure of Wouter Van Twiller, who served as Governor General of New Netherland from 1633 through early 1638. He appears to have been something of a lush and a reprobate. Van Twiller decided to get in on the action and made extensive land grants to himself. The most notable of these was the island today named in his honor, or perhaps dishonor, Governor's Island. He insisted that he bought the island from the Indians with his own funds, but the purchase was disallowed by the home office. It was also alleged that his palm was often greased by those receiving choice land grants. In any case, the point is that the land grant system was in full swing by then, even if some of the beneficiaries were less interested in farming than in lining their pockets.
The First Land Grant at Coney Island (1639)
The first person to receive a land grant in the vicinity of Coney Island was Anthony Jansen Van Salee, in 1639. ‘Van’ in Dutch means ‘from’, and Salee was a town in Morocco, North Africa. He may have been a Dutchman employed earlier in Morocco by the Dutch East India Company, or he may have been a native working for the company before transferring to New Amsterdam. It probably was the latter case, for when Anthony Jansen got into an altercation in New Amsterdam with a tailor, Hendrick Jensen (no relation), the latter called Anthony a ‘Turk, a rascal, and a horned beast’.
Anthony and his wife, Grietje Reiners, were involved in a number of altercations with other residents, one of whom called Anthony's wife a whore. The mutual exchange of such pleasantries was fairly common in little old New Amsterdam. Early Dutch records abound with accounts of verbal abuse and physical encounters. In one case, Anthony and a clergyman, Dominie Bogardus, accused each other of lying about an unpaid debt, with Bogardus getting the better of the dispute, for no one could believe a Calvinist minister capable of prevarication. Anthony must have voluntarily admitted his error, for there is no record of the truth being extracted from him by means of the rack, which was one of the quaint methods then used in New Netherland, and elsewhere, for ascertaining the truth. Many a confession was obtained by such means, but as they say, confession is good for the soul.
In March of 1638, Wilhelm Kieft succeeded Van Twiller was succeeded as governor. A month later, Anthony Jansen and his wife, then still residing in Manhattan, were charged with being ‘public disturbers and slanderers’, and sentenced to banishment from New Netherland; yet, unaccountably, on August 3, 1639, we find Anthony being given a patent for 100 morgens (about 225 acres) of land along Coney Island Creek and Gravesend Bay (shown in the earliest maps as Jacques' Bay). Why the punishment turned into a reward is not known. Perhaps, the ‘horned beast’ knew where a body or two were buried, or perhaps banishing him and his wife to the marshlands of Coney Island area was considered then the ultimate punishment.
Lady Moody Arrives in Massachusetts Bay Colony (1640)
In 1640, Lady Deborah Moody arrived in Massachusetts Bay Colony from England. Lady Moody was the wealthy, educated, well-connected and eminently capable widow of a baronet, Sir Henry Moody. She also was a kinswoman of Oliver Cromwell, who was to separate King Charles I from his head in 1648.
In a few years, Lady Moody would receive the second land grant at modern-day Coney Island, a sizeable grant that would shape the evolution of Coney Island centuries later. But for now, Lady Moody settled in the town of Lynn, Massachusetts, and joined the Puritan Presbyterian Church of Salem.
Lady Moody, either in England or after settling in Massachusetts, came to acquire some religious ideas that were considered rather radical at the time. The Catholic Church was continuing to splinter into numerous Christian movements following the Protestant Reformation that Martin Luther, John Calvin and others had initiated over a century earlier. Lady Moody was sympathetic to the views of both the Anabaptists and Quakers. The fundamental Anabaptist tenet was that baptism should be a voluntary act by a mature person entering into communion with Christ, and that the typical infant baptism of the other Christian movements had no religious validity. Lady Moody also either held or tolerated the Quaker tenets that a person could communicate directly with the Redeemer without the need for all of the formalities of churches, clergy or liturgies. Both the Anabaptist and Quaker views hence put Lady Moody at odds with just about every other Christian group. The Quaker views were considered especially dangerous and outrageous, for obvious reasons, by the clergy of every other Christian group.
When Lady Moody’s religious views came to light, the town hauled before a Salem court on a charge of heresy. Ironically, these same Puritan religious zealots who were escaping persecution in England by coming to the American colonies for religious freedom were now holding trials of their own. Lady Moody's social standing and numerous friends in the community saved her from being burned at the stake, which was a typical sentence for heresy across the civilized Western world at the time. However, she initially was admonished and subsequently excommunicated by the Church of Salem. Tensions ran high and Lady Moody decided to leave Massachusetts Bay Colony.
In the early 1630s, the Dutch were becoming increasingly concerned that the English populations of New England and Virginia were increasing at a much faster rate than that of New Netherland. New England, in particular, was becoming a dumping ground for significant numbers of political and religious dissidents from England. This could pose a longer-term threat for New Netherland, which had a population of only about three hundred Hollanders.
The government in Holland decided to attract more Europeans to its American colony by removing the fur trade monopoly of the Dutch West India Company and also loosening religious restrictions. Foreigners, including the English, were invited to come and settle, or to trade with the Indians, but pelts could only be sent to Holland, and in Dutch vessels. Additionally, all religious denominations except the Quakers would be free to hold religious services in their homes or barns, even if the only official religious buildings permitted were those of the strict Calvinist Dutch Reformed Church.
The Dutch government also embarked on a program of land grants, or ground briefs, to those who agreed to build a farmhouse within a specified time and to till the soil. Farmers were not required to pay taxes for ten years, after which they had to pay a tenth of their crop annually to the company.
The system of land grants took off during the tenure of Wouter Van Twiller, who served as Governor General of New Netherland from 1633 through early 1638. He appears to have been something of a lush and a reprobate. Van Twiller decided to get in on the action and made extensive land grants to himself. The most notable of these was the island today named in his honor, or perhaps dishonor, Governor's Island. He insisted that he bought the island from the Indians with his own funds, but the purchase was disallowed by the home office. It was also alleged that his palm was often greased by those receiving choice land grants. In any case, the point is that the land grant system was in full swing by then, even if some of the beneficiaries were less interested in farming than in lining their pockets.
The First Land Grant at Coney Island (1639)
The first person to receive a land grant in the vicinity of Coney Island was Anthony Jansen Van Salee, in 1639. ‘Van’ in Dutch means ‘from’, and Salee was a town in Morocco, North Africa. He may have been a Dutchman employed earlier in Morocco by the Dutch East India Company, or he may have been a native working for the company before transferring to New Amsterdam. It probably was the latter case, for when Anthony Jansen got into an altercation in New Amsterdam with a tailor, Hendrick Jensen (no relation), the latter called Anthony a ‘Turk, a rascal, and a horned beast’.
Anthony and his wife, Grietje Reiners, were involved in a number of altercations with other residents, one of whom called Anthony's wife a whore. The mutual exchange of such pleasantries was fairly common in little old New Amsterdam. Early Dutch records abound with accounts of verbal abuse and physical encounters. In one case, Anthony and a clergyman, Dominie Bogardus, accused each other of lying about an unpaid debt, with Bogardus getting the better of the dispute, for no one could believe a Calvinist minister capable of prevarication. Anthony must have voluntarily admitted his error, for there is no record of the truth being extracted from him by means of the rack, which was one of the quaint methods then used in New Netherland, and elsewhere, for ascertaining the truth. Many a confession was obtained by such means, but as they say, confession is good for the soul.
In March of 1638, Wilhelm Kieft succeeded Van Twiller was succeeded as governor. A month later, Anthony Jansen and his wife, then still residing in Manhattan, were charged with being ‘public disturbers and slanderers’, and sentenced to banishment from New Netherland; yet, unaccountably, on August 3, 1639, we find Anthony being given a patent for 100 morgens (about 225 acres) of land along Coney Island Creek and Gravesend Bay (shown in the earliest maps as Jacques' Bay). Why the punishment turned into a reward is not known. Perhaps, the ‘horned beast’ knew where a body or two were buried, or perhaps banishing him and his wife to the marshlands of Coney Island area was considered then the ultimate punishment.
Lady Moody Arrives in Massachusetts Bay Colony (1640)
In 1640, Lady Deborah Moody arrived in Massachusetts Bay Colony from England. Lady Moody was the wealthy, educated, well-connected and eminently capable widow of a baronet, Sir Henry Moody. She also was a kinswoman of Oliver Cromwell, who was to separate King Charles I from his head in 1648.
In a few years, Lady Moody would receive the second land grant at modern-day Coney Island, a sizeable grant that would shape the evolution of Coney Island centuries later. But for now, Lady Moody settled in the town of Lynn, Massachusetts, and joined the Puritan Presbyterian Church of Salem.
Lady Moody, either in England or after settling in Massachusetts, came to acquire some religious ideas that were considered rather radical at the time. The Catholic Church was continuing to splinter into numerous Christian movements following the Protestant Reformation that Martin Luther, John Calvin and others had initiated over a century earlier. Lady Moody was sympathetic to the views of both the Anabaptists and Quakers. The fundamental Anabaptist tenet was that baptism should be a voluntary act by a mature person entering into communion with Christ, and that the typical infant baptism of the other Christian movements had no religious validity. Lady Moody also either held or tolerated the Quaker tenets that a person could communicate directly with the Redeemer without the need for all of the formalities of churches, clergy or liturgies. Both the Anabaptist and Quaker views hence put Lady Moody at odds with just about every other Christian group. The Quaker views were considered especially dangerous and outrageous, for obvious reasons, by the clergy of every other Christian group.
When Lady Moody’s religious views came to light, the town hauled before a Salem court on a charge of heresy. Ironically, these same Puritan religious zealots who were escaping persecution in England by coming to the American colonies for religious freedom were now holding trials of their own. Lady Moody's social standing and numerous friends in the community saved her from being burned at the stake, which was a typical sentence for heresy across the civilized Western world at the time. However, she initially was admonished and subsequently excommunicated by the Church of Salem. Tensions ran high and Lady Moody decided to leave Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Sir Henry Moody's (Jr.) signature, quite a bit more regal than Van Salee's [1]
Lady Moody Seeks Religious Refuge in New Netherland (1643)
Whether because they were asked to leave or simply no longer felt welcome, Lady Moody and a group of followers decided to leave Massachusetts Bay Colony together. Sir Henry Moody, Lady Moody’s son, contacted some of his English connections in Virginia to see about moving there. But the Virginian Episcopalians quickly rejected him, having no desire to associate with a group of Anabaptists.
The Moodys then turned to Dutch governor of New Netherland, Wilhelm Kieft. Here, the Moodys held a trump card, even if unwittingly. The Dutch were militarily weaker than the English, and so the government in Holland cautioned its colonial governors to try to remain on good terms with the English where possible. England had already started disputing the right of the Dutch to occupy extensive sections of North America, claiming the lands were English based on an extensive exploratory voyage undertaken in 1497 by explorer Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot) on behalf of King Henry VII of England. The Moodys may not have been welcome in England or other English colonies, but Kieft decided that obliging cost him little and sidestepped any potential issues.
Whether because they were asked to leave or simply no longer felt welcome, Lady Moody and a group of followers decided to leave Massachusetts Bay Colony together. Sir Henry Moody, Lady Moody’s son, contacted some of his English connections in Virginia to see about moving there. But the Virginian Episcopalians quickly rejected him, having no desire to associate with a group of Anabaptists.
The Moodys then turned to Dutch governor of New Netherland, Wilhelm Kieft. Here, the Moodys held a trump card, even if unwittingly. The Dutch were militarily weaker than the English, and so the government in Holland cautioned its colonial governors to try to remain on good terms with the English where possible. England had already started disputing the right of the Dutch to occupy extensive sections of North America, claiming the lands were English based on an extensive exploratory voyage undertaken in 1497 by explorer Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot) on behalf of King Henry VII of England. The Moodys may not have been welcome in England or other English colonies, but Kieft decided that obliging cost him little and sidestepped any potential issues.
Map dating to 1666 showing Lady Moody's original settlement within Gravesend (in red) [1]
Lady Moody’s Group Receives an Extensive Land Grant for 'Gravesend' in Modern-Day Brooklyn (1643)
In 1643, Governor Kieft gave Lady Moody and her group of followers a land grant adjacent to the one he had given to our other favorite Coney Island rabble rouser, Anthony Jansen Van Salee. In this out-of-the-way place, Lady Moody and her group would be able to farm the land, enjoy a comparatively moderate climate and finally practice their religion in peace.
The area underlying the land grant was named Gravesend. It was probably named by Kieft, referring to the town of Gravesend, Holland. If it was named by Lady Moody, it may have referred to Gravesend, England, from where she may have departed for America.The original land grant document, which was written in English, was lost over the years, and no other records are clear on this matter.
The land grant was given to thirty-nine principals among Lady Moody's group, among them both individuals and heads of households. These principals were known as 'patentees'. The thirty-nine original Gravesend patentees included Lady Moody, her son Henry, Ensign George Baxter, Sergeant James Hubbard, and others who followed Lady Moody out of Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Gravesend land was to be distributed equally among these thirty-nine original patentees as they saw fit.
This Gravesend land grant covered a very large area in today's southwestern Brooklyn, and was larger than Lady Moody's group could realistically use on their own. In total, the grant ran about five miles from east to west, and about three miles from north to south. It encompassed, at a minimum, the modern-day Brooklyn neighborhoods of Gravesend, Bensonhurst, Sheepshead Bay, and all of Coney Island except for the original ‘Conyne Eylandt’. The southern bounds were clearly specified as being the ocean, except that the new settlers were only permitted to graze their cattle on Conyne Eylandt. This implies that title to the island remained with the New Amsterdam authorities.
Lady Moody and her followers settled into a relatively small area of their overall Gravesend, in the area that is the modern-day neighborhood of Gravesend in Brooklyn. They arranged their land holdings in an orderly and sensible manner. Instead of distributing the entire grant at one time among the several dozen principals, in which each farm house would be at some distance from the others, the leaders of the settlement decided for the sake of safety to construct the dwellings within a geometric square, surrounded by a palisade for protection against marauding Indians or Spanish pirates. Individually owned parcels of farming land, radiating in all directions from the square, were distributed to the principals, with the size of the parcels proportionate to the size of the families. This design allowed each family direct access to their farmland from the town, without having to cross other patentee's farmland. Within the fortified hamlet, space was provided for a school, which apparently was also to serve as a meeting house and town hall. Normally, the livestock were left to graze on Coney Island, from where they could not wander away. The island had fresh water springs and sufficient vegetation and shrubbery to provide sustenance and shelter for the animals the year round. If danger threatened, the creatures could be brought to an enclosure in town. The residents took turns in standing guard at night along the stockade, but when some Dutch soldiers arrived in New Amsterdam from Curacao, a few were hired as night guards.
For the land beyond their small settlement, the patentees decided to keep the rest of the land, constituting the bulk of the land grant, under common ownership. There was no immediate need to divvy it up thirty-nine different ways, and the common ownership made it easier to manage and rent out to non-Gravesenders. The income from these lands would be distributed among the patentees starting around 1702. Over time, some of these lands were actually spliced up in thirty-nine ways and distributed to the patentees.
In December of 1645, official approval of the land grant to the Gravesend settlers arrived from Holland, and Kieft presented a formal document, or ‘patent’, to Lady Moody.
Throughout this time, Lady Moody’s followers were able to practice religious freedom with New Amsterdam, but it may have involved a bit of, ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’. The land grant permitted ‘free libertie of conscience’, yet stipulated that only churches for the Dutch Reformed Church could be built. Fortunately, Lady Moody’s Quaker-leaning flock had no need to build churches as Quakers opposed official houses of worship altogether. Quakers would gather in a meeting house, sit silently in deep contemplation and endeavor to reach out spiritually to the Almighty. When a member of the congregation sensed that he or she had made contact, the person would begin to tremble, or quake, for that is what one must do in the presence of the Lord, and the others of the congregation would likewise quake, shout praises to God, and cleanse their souls by confessing their sins openly.
If Lady Moody and her followers were full-blown Quakers, they wisely kept their religious views to themselves. Governor Kieft was recalled to Holland in 1647 after public outcry stemming from his decision to retaliate for prior killings by massacring of roughly one hundred innocent American Indians seeking refuge in New Amsterdam from other warring tribes. Peter Stuyvesant, who came to be regarded by many as an authoritarian yet effective disciplinarian, succeeded Kieft. Stuyvesant was a religious bigot who had no qualms about deporting Quakers and other groups. Yet, Lady Moody and the Gravesenders managed to maintain a good relationship with Stuyvesant.
In 1643, Governor Kieft gave Lady Moody and her group of followers a land grant adjacent to the one he had given to our other favorite Coney Island rabble rouser, Anthony Jansen Van Salee. In this out-of-the-way place, Lady Moody and her group would be able to farm the land, enjoy a comparatively moderate climate and finally practice their religion in peace.
The area underlying the land grant was named Gravesend. It was probably named by Kieft, referring to the town of Gravesend, Holland. If it was named by Lady Moody, it may have referred to Gravesend, England, from where she may have departed for America.The original land grant document, which was written in English, was lost over the years, and no other records are clear on this matter.
The land grant was given to thirty-nine principals among Lady Moody's group, among them both individuals and heads of households. These principals were known as 'patentees'. The thirty-nine original Gravesend patentees included Lady Moody, her son Henry, Ensign George Baxter, Sergeant James Hubbard, and others who followed Lady Moody out of Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Gravesend land was to be distributed equally among these thirty-nine original patentees as they saw fit.
This Gravesend land grant covered a very large area in today's southwestern Brooklyn, and was larger than Lady Moody's group could realistically use on their own. In total, the grant ran about five miles from east to west, and about three miles from north to south. It encompassed, at a minimum, the modern-day Brooklyn neighborhoods of Gravesend, Bensonhurst, Sheepshead Bay, and all of Coney Island except for the original ‘Conyne Eylandt’. The southern bounds were clearly specified as being the ocean, except that the new settlers were only permitted to graze their cattle on Conyne Eylandt. This implies that title to the island remained with the New Amsterdam authorities.
Lady Moody and her followers settled into a relatively small area of their overall Gravesend, in the area that is the modern-day neighborhood of Gravesend in Brooklyn. They arranged their land holdings in an orderly and sensible manner. Instead of distributing the entire grant at one time among the several dozen principals, in which each farm house would be at some distance from the others, the leaders of the settlement decided for the sake of safety to construct the dwellings within a geometric square, surrounded by a palisade for protection against marauding Indians or Spanish pirates. Individually owned parcels of farming land, radiating in all directions from the square, were distributed to the principals, with the size of the parcels proportionate to the size of the families. This design allowed each family direct access to their farmland from the town, without having to cross other patentee's farmland. Within the fortified hamlet, space was provided for a school, which apparently was also to serve as a meeting house and town hall. Normally, the livestock were left to graze on Coney Island, from where they could not wander away. The island had fresh water springs and sufficient vegetation and shrubbery to provide sustenance and shelter for the animals the year round. If danger threatened, the creatures could be brought to an enclosure in town. The residents took turns in standing guard at night along the stockade, but when some Dutch soldiers arrived in New Amsterdam from Curacao, a few were hired as night guards.
For the land beyond their small settlement, the patentees decided to keep the rest of the land, constituting the bulk of the land grant, under common ownership. There was no immediate need to divvy it up thirty-nine different ways, and the common ownership made it easier to manage and rent out to non-Gravesenders. The income from these lands would be distributed among the patentees starting around 1702. Over time, some of these lands were actually spliced up in thirty-nine ways and distributed to the patentees.
In December of 1645, official approval of the land grant to the Gravesend settlers arrived from Holland, and Kieft presented a formal document, or ‘patent’, to Lady Moody.
Throughout this time, Lady Moody’s followers were able to practice religious freedom with New Amsterdam, but it may have involved a bit of, ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’. The land grant permitted ‘free libertie of conscience’, yet stipulated that only churches for the Dutch Reformed Church could be built. Fortunately, Lady Moody’s Quaker-leaning flock had no need to build churches as Quakers opposed official houses of worship altogether. Quakers would gather in a meeting house, sit silently in deep contemplation and endeavor to reach out spiritually to the Almighty. When a member of the congregation sensed that he or she had made contact, the person would begin to tremble, or quake, for that is what one must do in the presence of the Lord, and the others of the congregation would likewise quake, shout praises to God, and cleanse their souls by confessing their sins openly.
If Lady Moody and her followers were full-blown Quakers, they wisely kept their religious views to themselves. Governor Kieft was recalled to Holland in 1647 after public outcry stemming from his decision to retaliate for prior killings by massacring of roughly one hundred innocent American Indians seeking refuge in New Amsterdam from other warring tribes. Peter Stuyvesant, who came to be regarded by many as an authoritarian yet effective disciplinarian, succeeded Kieft. Stuyvesant was a religious bigot who had no qualms about deporting Quakers and other groups. Yet, Lady Moody and the Gravesenders managed to maintain a good relationship with Stuyvesant.
Map of Gravesend from 1645 showing how Lady Moody arranged her Gravesend settlement into 40 residences into four ten-residence squares, each surrounding a common yard [1]
The Battle Begins for Legal Title to Conyne Eylandt (1643 – 1654)
Between 1643 and 1645, while Lady Moody and the Gravesenders were awaiting official approval of their land grant from Holland, Gysbert (or Guysbert) Op Dyck received a land grant for all of Conyne Eylandt. Op Dyck was an official of the Dutch West India Company. Gysbert’s title to the island was subject to grazing rights previously granted to Gravesend township.
The Gravesenders, however, had no intention of parting with Conyne Eylandt without an eventual fight. They were equal parts patient and clever. In 1649, Cippehacke, a Canarsie Indian chief, met with the Gravesenders and informed them that his tribe had dwelt on the beaches of Narrioch and Manahanung, which included Conyne Eylandt, long before the Dutch had arrived. He was willing to sell the land to Lady Moody and the Gravesenders for two guns, powder and ball, and some wampum. The sale was agreed upon, and consummated November 1, 1649. In 1654, Chief Guttoquoh of the Nyack tribe, which dwelt in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn, also claimed title to the land. The Gravesenders likewise acquired it from him for the same amount.
All the while, the English Gravesenders did nothing to challenge Op Dyck’s claim to the land, realizing it would be foolish to do so under Dutch rule and under the same Dutch land grant construct that had given them Gravesend.
Separately, Lady Moody actively managed the community efficaciously until passing away sometime during 1658 or early 1659. At that time, her son, Sir Henry, sold all of the family property, and left to Virginia. Gravesend subsequently became managed by a group of elders.
By 1661, Gysbert Op Dyck had lost his position in the Dutch West India Company, and being pressed for funds, offered to sell his Conyne Eylandt patent to Gravesend Township. The Gravesend town fathers now finally showed their hand. They turned down the offer, saying that they saw no need to buy what they already owned.
Op Dyck then sold his property to fellow Dutchman Dierck de Wolf, who obtained permission from Stuyvesant to build a salt work on his island. The process involved boiling sea water in vats, pouring it through a fine sieve to remove sand and other impurities, then emptying the filtrate into drying pans, which were left in the sun to evaporate. The salt obtained was valuable not only for flavoring food, but for preserving meat and fish. Gravesend's cattle, disdainful of private property, proceeded to lick the salt, which helped them digest the vegetation they ate. The irate de Wolf warned the English Gravesenders that he would shoot any cattle licking his salt. Evidently, he carried out his threats, for he came close to being lynched by the townspeople, who destroyed much of his land and threatened to use de Wolf’s superintendent as extra fuel for their raging bonfires.
Stuyvesant was not personal friends with either of his fellow countrymen, Op Dyck and de Wolf, and preferred on balance to keep the peace with the English Gravesenders. Eventually, a court ordered him Stuyvesant to send two or three soldiers to protect de Wolf and Conyne Eylandt, but Stuyvesant even stalled on this.
What happened next to Gysbert Op Dyck may therefore not come as much of a surprise. In 1662, it was suddenly discovered that the copy of his official land grant document on file was missing Governor Kieft’s signature. Because Kieft was the original grantor, this invalidated the deed. We can speculate as to whether someone in Stuyvesant’s administration may have quietly destroyed the original document and substituted it with an unsigned copy. Whether de Wolf ever got a refund from Op Dyck is not known. In any case, title now reverted all the way back to the Dutch West India Company, and the Gravesenders ceased having to worry about de Wolf’s salt factory.
The English Period Begins: The English Seize New Netherland/Amsterdam and Establish New York/City (1664)
In August of 1664, four English frigates hove into sight off New Amsterdam, trained their cannon on the town, and demanded its surrender in the name of the King of England. Colonel Richard Nicolls, the commander of the English fleet, offered to honor all property rights, prior land grants, and free exercise of religion if no resistance were made. Stuyvesant unsheathed his sword, the Reverend Megapolensis scowled, but the townspeople of New Amsterdam preferred to submit rather than have their town destroyed and lose their land. Another incentive to yield was that they would be rid of Stuyvesant as overlord. Thus, New Netherland became the royal province of New York, New Amsterdam became New York City, Fort Orange became Albany, and the English Colonel Nicholls became governor. As a side note, in 1673, a Dutch fleet would recapture New Netherland. In a peace treaty shortly thereafter, the Dutch agreed to cede the colony permanently to the English in exchange for some islands in the West Indies. Dutch residents of New York may have had a hand in this arrangement, for many found English rule more to their liking than that of their own Holland.
Between 1643 and 1645, while Lady Moody and the Gravesenders were awaiting official approval of their land grant from Holland, Gysbert (or Guysbert) Op Dyck received a land grant for all of Conyne Eylandt. Op Dyck was an official of the Dutch West India Company. Gysbert’s title to the island was subject to grazing rights previously granted to Gravesend township.
The Gravesenders, however, had no intention of parting with Conyne Eylandt without an eventual fight. They were equal parts patient and clever. In 1649, Cippehacke, a Canarsie Indian chief, met with the Gravesenders and informed them that his tribe had dwelt on the beaches of Narrioch and Manahanung, which included Conyne Eylandt, long before the Dutch had arrived. He was willing to sell the land to Lady Moody and the Gravesenders for two guns, powder and ball, and some wampum. The sale was agreed upon, and consummated November 1, 1649. In 1654, Chief Guttoquoh of the Nyack tribe, which dwelt in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn, also claimed title to the land. The Gravesenders likewise acquired it from him for the same amount.
All the while, the English Gravesenders did nothing to challenge Op Dyck’s claim to the land, realizing it would be foolish to do so under Dutch rule and under the same Dutch land grant construct that had given them Gravesend.
Separately, Lady Moody actively managed the community efficaciously until passing away sometime during 1658 or early 1659. At that time, her son, Sir Henry, sold all of the family property, and left to Virginia. Gravesend subsequently became managed by a group of elders.
By 1661, Gysbert Op Dyck had lost his position in the Dutch West India Company, and being pressed for funds, offered to sell his Conyne Eylandt patent to Gravesend Township. The Gravesend town fathers now finally showed their hand. They turned down the offer, saying that they saw no need to buy what they already owned.
Op Dyck then sold his property to fellow Dutchman Dierck de Wolf, who obtained permission from Stuyvesant to build a salt work on his island. The process involved boiling sea water in vats, pouring it through a fine sieve to remove sand and other impurities, then emptying the filtrate into drying pans, which were left in the sun to evaporate. The salt obtained was valuable not only for flavoring food, but for preserving meat and fish. Gravesend's cattle, disdainful of private property, proceeded to lick the salt, which helped them digest the vegetation they ate. The irate de Wolf warned the English Gravesenders that he would shoot any cattle licking his salt. Evidently, he carried out his threats, for he came close to being lynched by the townspeople, who destroyed much of his land and threatened to use de Wolf’s superintendent as extra fuel for their raging bonfires.
Stuyvesant was not personal friends with either of his fellow countrymen, Op Dyck and de Wolf, and preferred on balance to keep the peace with the English Gravesenders. Eventually, a court ordered him Stuyvesant to send two or three soldiers to protect de Wolf and Conyne Eylandt, but Stuyvesant even stalled on this.
What happened next to Gysbert Op Dyck may therefore not come as much of a surprise. In 1662, it was suddenly discovered that the copy of his official land grant document on file was missing Governor Kieft’s signature. Because Kieft was the original grantor, this invalidated the deed. We can speculate as to whether someone in Stuyvesant’s administration may have quietly destroyed the original document and substituted it with an unsigned copy. Whether de Wolf ever got a refund from Op Dyck is not known. In any case, title now reverted all the way back to the Dutch West India Company, and the Gravesenders ceased having to worry about de Wolf’s salt factory.
The English Period Begins: The English Seize New Netherland/Amsterdam and Establish New York/City (1664)
In August of 1664, four English frigates hove into sight off New Amsterdam, trained their cannon on the town, and demanded its surrender in the name of the King of England. Colonel Richard Nicolls, the commander of the English fleet, offered to honor all property rights, prior land grants, and free exercise of religion if no resistance were made. Stuyvesant unsheathed his sword, the Reverend Megapolensis scowled, but the townspeople of New Amsterdam preferred to submit rather than have their town destroyed and lose their land. Another incentive to yield was that they would be rid of Stuyvesant as overlord. Thus, New Netherland became the royal province of New York, New Amsterdam became New York City, Fort Orange became Albany, and the English Colonel Nicholls became governor. As a side note, in 1673, a Dutch fleet would recapture New Netherland. In a peace treaty shortly thereafter, the Dutch agreed to cede the colony permanently to the English in exchange for some islands in the West Indies. Dutch residents of New York may have had a hand in this arrangement, for many found English rule more to their liking than that of their own Holland.
Map dating to 1873, showing how large Gravesend was in its early days (Credit: Wikimedia Commons, provided by http://www.geographicus.com)
The Gravesenders Win Legal Title to Conyne Eylandt (1671)
When the English assumed control of New Netherland in 1664, the state of legal claims to Conyne Eylandt remained a complete mess. The Dutch West India Company argued it owned the land following the invalidation of the Op Dyck’s and de Wolf’s transfers. The English Gravesenders claimed it as theirs on the basis of purchasing it from the American Indians. Francis de Bruyne (also listed in Dutch records as Brown), a former Dutch soldier who had purchased Anthony Jansen Van Salee’s land, also came out of the woodwork. He presented proof that Van Salee’s original land grant had come with the same grazing rights to Conyne Eylandt as the Gravesenders’ land grant.
With their fellow countrymen in power, the English Gravesenders set out to resolve the situation. Governor Nicolls, however, hesitated to rule on land disputes. Perhaps he felt that these matters were not in his purview as governor, or perhaps he understood that the legal ramifications were beyond his expertise as a soldier. Nicolls merely reiterated his promise to honor all titles and land claims that existed under the Dutch immediately prior to New Netherland’s capitulation, and referred the matter to London. Ownership of Conyne Eylandt remained in limbo.
Around 1670, Francis Lovelace succeeded Nicolls as governor. The Gravesenders tried again and this time succeeded. Governor Lovelace validated the Gravesenders’ sole ownership of Coney Island in 1671, and also perfected the title by annulling de Bruyne’s grazing rights. Lovelace’s only stipulation was that fishermen be permitted to erect temporary huts on the island and to dry their nets there.
This was by no means the last word on the subject. Litigation on Coney Island titles dragged on in the courts for the next two centuries as various purchasers of the original Van Salee tract fought the town of Gravesend for rights, sometimes seeking simply to extract a settlement. The town eventually won these numerous disputes.
Overview of Gravesend's and Coney Island's Subsequent Development ahead of the American Civil War (1664 – 1850)
The century following the capture of New Netherland by the English in 1664 was a relatively quiet and stable period for Coney Island and Gravesend more broadly. The religious zeal that characterized Lady Moody and the first settlers of Gravesend gradually diminished. The more pious members of the community went to join either the large Quaker settlement in and around Philadelphia, or the Anabaptist enclaves elsewhere in Pennsylvania. The Amish and Mennonites derived from the Anabaptists, with the former favoring private ownership of property, and the latter preferring common ownership and a communistic life-style. Those who remained in Gravesend assimilated with the Dutch, who filtered in from the adjoining Dutch towns of New Utrecht, Midwout (later Flatbush), and Amersfoort (Flatlands).
Coney Island developed as a farming community, the crops consisting primarily of tobacco and corn. The sandy soil along the beach, despite its high salt content, was arable, for it contained high concentrations of nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus, resulting from dead marine creatures being constantly washed ashore. Although the beach areas were privately owned or leased, those in possession of plots there had exclusive use of them only from planting through harvest time. At other times, they had to permit free access for grazing to the community's cattle.
In the late 1700s, a Henry Brown is known to have occupied a house on Conyne Eylandt. Whether he was related to Francis de Bruyne, who had acquired Anthony Jansen's property, or whether the house he dwelt in was the one built by Dierck de Wolf, the salt maker, is not known. In the first decade of the 19th Century, a Gilbert Hicks was sole resident there.
Gravesenders Distribute the Land underlying West Brighton, Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach (1643 – 1769)
As discussed earlier, the original thirty-nine patentees of Gravesend distributed only a small amount of land initially, and held most of the Gravesend land grant in common. There were sixteen distributions of Gravesend common lands from the time that the Gravesend settlement was originally established in 1643 up through 1769. The distributions were made to the original patentees and their heirs, or in some cases, to people who had purchased the rights from them. These additional allocations were usually in two acre strips. The distributed common lands included Gysbert Island (West Brighton), the Middle Division (Brighton Beach), and a small section at the west end of the Sedge Bank (Manhattan Beach). Land in the original Coney Island (Conyne Eylandt) and Coney Hook (Pine Island), were not distributed because titles to the area were being disputed in the courts. However, leases to such land were let out to the highest bidders in periodic auctions among the thirty-nine principals.
These distributions would play a large role in shaping the future of Coney Island in the 1870s under John Y. McKane, covered in a subsequent article. They would also force William Engeman, who eventually purchased all of Middle Division (present-day Brighton Beach), to painstakingly track down hundreds of the descendants of the original patentees.
Gravesend and Coney Island during the American Revolution (1770s)
About a year after the American Revolutionary War began, the British shifted their main military effort from Boston to New York City, landing first on Staten Island, then invading Brooklyn through Gravesend Bay, and finally seizing all of Long Island and Manhattan, which they held until the end of the war in 1783. The British army headquarters was in the Kennedy mansion at Bowling Green in Manhattan, but, in the summer months, the headquarters was moved to Denyse's Tavern on the shore of Gravesend Bay, where the air was cooler, and the seafood cuisine was excellent. On the lawn in front of Denyse's, British officers played cricket, and they placed bets on boat races by oarsmen of navy ships moored on the shore near Denyse's. They also constructed a race track in Flatlands. About a century later, there were to be three race tracks in the vicinity of Coney Island. During hot weather, British soldiers cooled off in Coney Island's surf. At night they had to be particularly wary of rebel raiders coming from the vicinity of the Navasink Highlands in whaleboats.
Coney Island in the Early 1800s
After the war, Coney Island and Gravesend slipped back into their quiet, pastoral lethargy. Farmhands left to acquire land of their own on the Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana frontier. They were not replaced by immigrants from Europe, for the French Revolution broke out a few years after the American war ended, and during the Napoleonic Wars that followed, sea travel became hazardous. British and French warships were on the prowl during this period, which included the War of 1812, impressing into their navies all able-bodied men found on merchant ships. Even worse were the privateers and pirates, who robbed and murdered travelers on the high seas. Thus, until the Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815, few immigrants came to America. After 1815, the influx began of people fleeing from the destruction and poverty caused by Europe's endless wars. The township of Gravesend became more populous, but it was still mainly a community of farmers and fishermen in the 1820s. The section of the beach now known as West Brighton had at this time only two farms, in which lived the Van Sicklen and Voorhies families. They had acquired large tracts of land from the Stillwells, who resided further north in the town of Gravesend.
When the English assumed control of New Netherland in 1664, the state of legal claims to Conyne Eylandt remained a complete mess. The Dutch West India Company argued it owned the land following the invalidation of the Op Dyck’s and de Wolf’s transfers. The English Gravesenders claimed it as theirs on the basis of purchasing it from the American Indians. Francis de Bruyne (also listed in Dutch records as Brown), a former Dutch soldier who had purchased Anthony Jansen Van Salee’s land, also came out of the woodwork. He presented proof that Van Salee’s original land grant had come with the same grazing rights to Conyne Eylandt as the Gravesenders’ land grant.
With their fellow countrymen in power, the English Gravesenders set out to resolve the situation. Governor Nicolls, however, hesitated to rule on land disputes. Perhaps he felt that these matters were not in his purview as governor, or perhaps he understood that the legal ramifications were beyond his expertise as a soldier. Nicolls merely reiterated his promise to honor all titles and land claims that existed under the Dutch immediately prior to New Netherland’s capitulation, and referred the matter to London. Ownership of Conyne Eylandt remained in limbo.
Around 1670, Francis Lovelace succeeded Nicolls as governor. The Gravesenders tried again and this time succeeded. Governor Lovelace validated the Gravesenders’ sole ownership of Coney Island in 1671, and also perfected the title by annulling de Bruyne’s grazing rights. Lovelace’s only stipulation was that fishermen be permitted to erect temporary huts on the island and to dry their nets there.
This was by no means the last word on the subject. Litigation on Coney Island titles dragged on in the courts for the next two centuries as various purchasers of the original Van Salee tract fought the town of Gravesend for rights, sometimes seeking simply to extract a settlement. The town eventually won these numerous disputes.
Overview of Gravesend's and Coney Island's Subsequent Development ahead of the American Civil War (1664 – 1850)
The century following the capture of New Netherland by the English in 1664 was a relatively quiet and stable period for Coney Island and Gravesend more broadly. The religious zeal that characterized Lady Moody and the first settlers of Gravesend gradually diminished. The more pious members of the community went to join either the large Quaker settlement in and around Philadelphia, or the Anabaptist enclaves elsewhere in Pennsylvania. The Amish and Mennonites derived from the Anabaptists, with the former favoring private ownership of property, and the latter preferring common ownership and a communistic life-style. Those who remained in Gravesend assimilated with the Dutch, who filtered in from the adjoining Dutch towns of New Utrecht, Midwout (later Flatbush), and Amersfoort (Flatlands).
Coney Island developed as a farming community, the crops consisting primarily of tobacco and corn. The sandy soil along the beach, despite its high salt content, was arable, for it contained high concentrations of nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus, resulting from dead marine creatures being constantly washed ashore. Although the beach areas were privately owned or leased, those in possession of plots there had exclusive use of them only from planting through harvest time. At other times, they had to permit free access for grazing to the community's cattle.
In the late 1700s, a Henry Brown is known to have occupied a house on Conyne Eylandt. Whether he was related to Francis de Bruyne, who had acquired Anthony Jansen's property, or whether the house he dwelt in was the one built by Dierck de Wolf, the salt maker, is not known. In the first decade of the 19th Century, a Gilbert Hicks was sole resident there.
Gravesenders Distribute the Land underlying West Brighton, Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach (1643 – 1769)
As discussed earlier, the original thirty-nine patentees of Gravesend distributed only a small amount of land initially, and held most of the Gravesend land grant in common. There were sixteen distributions of Gravesend common lands from the time that the Gravesend settlement was originally established in 1643 up through 1769. The distributions were made to the original patentees and their heirs, or in some cases, to people who had purchased the rights from them. These additional allocations were usually in two acre strips. The distributed common lands included Gysbert Island (West Brighton), the Middle Division (Brighton Beach), and a small section at the west end of the Sedge Bank (Manhattan Beach). Land in the original Coney Island (Conyne Eylandt) and Coney Hook (Pine Island), were not distributed because titles to the area were being disputed in the courts. However, leases to such land were let out to the highest bidders in periodic auctions among the thirty-nine principals.
These distributions would play a large role in shaping the future of Coney Island in the 1870s under John Y. McKane, covered in a subsequent article. They would also force William Engeman, who eventually purchased all of Middle Division (present-day Brighton Beach), to painstakingly track down hundreds of the descendants of the original patentees.
Gravesend and Coney Island during the American Revolution (1770s)
About a year after the American Revolutionary War began, the British shifted their main military effort from Boston to New York City, landing first on Staten Island, then invading Brooklyn through Gravesend Bay, and finally seizing all of Long Island and Manhattan, which they held until the end of the war in 1783. The British army headquarters was in the Kennedy mansion at Bowling Green in Manhattan, but, in the summer months, the headquarters was moved to Denyse's Tavern on the shore of Gravesend Bay, where the air was cooler, and the seafood cuisine was excellent. On the lawn in front of Denyse's, British officers played cricket, and they placed bets on boat races by oarsmen of navy ships moored on the shore near Denyse's. They also constructed a race track in Flatlands. About a century later, there were to be three race tracks in the vicinity of Coney Island. During hot weather, British soldiers cooled off in Coney Island's surf. At night they had to be particularly wary of rebel raiders coming from the vicinity of the Navasink Highlands in whaleboats.
Coney Island in the Early 1800s
After the war, Coney Island and Gravesend slipped back into their quiet, pastoral lethargy. Farmhands left to acquire land of their own on the Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana frontier. They were not replaced by immigrants from Europe, for the French Revolution broke out a few years after the American war ended, and during the Napoleonic Wars that followed, sea travel became hazardous. British and French warships were on the prowl during this period, which included the War of 1812, impressing into their navies all able-bodied men found on merchant ships. Even worse were the privateers and pirates, who robbed and murdered travelers on the high seas. Thus, until the Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815, few immigrants came to America. After 1815, the influx began of people fleeing from the destruction and poverty caused by Europe's endless wars. The township of Gravesend became more populous, but it was still mainly a community of farmers and fishermen in the 1820s. The section of the beach now known as West Brighton had at this time only two farms, in which lived the Van Sicklen and Voorhies families. They had acquired large tracts of land from the Stillwells, who resided further north in the town of Gravesend.
A later view of Shell Road Bridge crossing Coney Island Creek
Coney Island’s First Roads, including Shell Road (1820-1830)
In this early period, people from towns beyond Gravesend would come on horseback, or by horse-drawn carriage, or by foot, to buy fresh clams and fish at the beach. Finding the ocean breezes in the summer much more refreshing than the stifling air inland, they would often stay for hours, and even take dips in the surf with improvised bathing clothes. The clammers there, roasting some of the products of their labor for themselves, or preparing a chowder of clams and vegetables, found that the hungry folks around them were willing to pay quite handsomely for ready-made meals. They soon calculated that they could earn far more by this means than by selling raw clams by the bushel. Thus was begun the symbiotic relationship between Coney's picnickers and Coney's culinary virtuosi.
People residing in distant areas learned of Coney's pleasures and sought to partake in them, but getting to the southern shore presented problems, for country roads early in the 19th Century were atrocious. They had been graded, or levelled, in what was to become the southern part of Brooklyn, but the road surfaces were only dried mud, and deeply rutted by wagon wheels. Rain would turn the roads into quagmires, in which carriage wheels would sink almost to the hubs. As time went on, and the population increased, more attention was given to road improvement. The city's homeowners were required to provide separate cans for garbage, and separate ones for ashes and cinders from coal stoves. These were hauled away by garbage collectors, and the ashes and cinders, along with gravel obtained from convict labor, were spread along the dirt roads to solidify them. As for city streets, they were paved then mostly with cobblestones, which were long-lasting, but which led to the death of many horses in the winter, when ice on the smooth stones caused horses to fall and break their legs.
About 1820, the only road, a dirt one, extending southward almost to the shore, was the Coney Island Road, now Coney Island Avenue, at Brighton Beach. Another dirt road then, the Gravesend Road, now McDonald Avenue, reached south only as far as the town of Gravesend, about two miles from the beach in West Brighton.
In 1823, some local residents of Gravesend organized the Gravesend and Coney Island Road and Bridge Company for the sole purpose of cutting a road through a meadow from the town to the beach. Due to lack of funds, the work was not completed until 1829. The read went south to Coney Island Greek, where a wooden bridge was erected and a toll booth set up. The purpose of the toll was to defray the bridge's construction costs, and to pay for its maintenance. Two roads were built south of the bridge, one going directly south to what is now Surf Avenue; the other branching off to the southwest to about the present West 8th Street and Neptune Avenue, where it turned west and ran along the south side of the creek. These two roads were called Shell Road, because of the crushed seashells used to surface them. As these two diverging roads had the same name, it caused some confusion, so the name of the road running due south was changed to West 6th Street.
In this early period, people from towns beyond Gravesend would come on horseback, or by horse-drawn carriage, or by foot, to buy fresh clams and fish at the beach. Finding the ocean breezes in the summer much more refreshing than the stifling air inland, they would often stay for hours, and even take dips in the surf with improvised bathing clothes. The clammers there, roasting some of the products of their labor for themselves, or preparing a chowder of clams and vegetables, found that the hungry folks around them were willing to pay quite handsomely for ready-made meals. They soon calculated that they could earn far more by this means than by selling raw clams by the bushel. Thus was begun the symbiotic relationship between Coney's picnickers and Coney's culinary virtuosi.
People residing in distant areas learned of Coney's pleasures and sought to partake in them, but getting to the southern shore presented problems, for country roads early in the 19th Century were atrocious. They had been graded, or levelled, in what was to become the southern part of Brooklyn, but the road surfaces were only dried mud, and deeply rutted by wagon wheels. Rain would turn the roads into quagmires, in which carriage wheels would sink almost to the hubs. As time went on, and the population increased, more attention was given to road improvement. The city's homeowners were required to provide separate cans for garbage, and separate ones for ashes and cinders from coal stoves. These were hauled away by garbage collectors, and the ashes and cinders, along with gravel obtained from convict labor, were spread along the dirt roads to solidify them. As for city streets, they were paved then mostly with cobblestones, which were long-lasting, but which led to the death of many horses in the winter, when ice on the smooth stones caused horses to fall and break their legs.
About 1820, the only road, a dirt one, extending southward almost to the shore, was the Coney Island Road, now Coney Island Avenue, at Brighton Beach. Another dirt road then, the Gravesend Road, now McDonald Avenue, reached south only as far as the town of Gravesend, about two miles from the beach in West Brighton.
In 1823, some local residents of Gravesend organized the Gravesend and Coney Island Road and Bridge Company for the sole purpose of cutting a road through a meadow from the town to the beach. Due to lack of funds, the work was not completed until 1829. The read went south to Coney Island Greek, where a wooden bridge was erected and a toll booth set up. The purpose of the toll was to defray the bridge's construction costs, and to pay for its maintenance. Two roads were built south of the bridge, one going directly south to what is now Surf Avenue; the other branching off to the southwest to about the present West 8th Street and Neptune Avenue, where it turned west and ran along the south side of the creek. These two roads were called Shell Road, because of the crushed seashells used to surface them. As these two diverging roads had the same name, it caused some confusion, so the name of the road running due south was changed to West 6th Street.
Coney Island House and the Oceanic Hotel probably would have looked something like this later hotel, the Sea View, pictured here in 1883
Coney Island’s First Hotels: Coney Island House and Oceanic Hotel (c. 1830-1850)
The company decided that it would be good for business to build a hotel at West 6th Street and the present Neptune Avenue. The hotel was a frame building of three stories (that is, two flights above the main floor), and also had several small structures attached in the rear. It was called the Coney Island House, and it may have been the first hotel in the area of Coney Island, though Mr. John Wyckoff, who lived nearby, had converted his home into a hotel by making alterations and additions about this time, calling it ‘Wyckoff’s Hotel’.
Coney Island House was operated by a Mr. Tooker, who had leased it for three years. The company then sold the hotel and its grounds to one of the company's directors, John Terhune. By 1847, its ownership had passed into the hands of Cropsey and Woglom. In that year, Dr. Allen Clarke bought some ground near the creek, directly north of Coney Island House, and built the Oceanic Hotel there. Shortly thereafter, it was destroyed by fire. Judge John Vanderbilt rebuilt the hotel, and it too burnt down. The proprietors of the Coney Island House then purchased the property, and renamed the Coney Island House as the Oceanic Hotel.
In its heyday, before the Civil War, this hotel, according to its register, included among its guests people of national and international renown, such as Daniel Webster, P. T. Barnum, Jenny Lind, and Washington Irving. After the Civil War, when more spacious and more fashionable hotels came into being in Coney Island, business declined at the Oceanic Hotel. It became a boarding house for middle class families spending the summer at the beach. For a time it served as a hospital, with its ballroom used as a receiving room for emergency cases. In later years, it became a rooming house for local workers and itinerants, and finally a flophouse for derelicts. Shortly after being closed and boarded up, in the 1930s, it was destroyed by fire.
Public Transportation to Coney Island
The first public transportation system to Coney Island, which went into operation before the Civil War, was a horsecar line that ran along Coney Island Avenue to Brighton Beach, and was later extended to West Brighton Beach. Each car, usually overloaded with passengers, was dragged along rails at a walking pace by a pair of horses. The trip was tedious and endless, and, frequently made even more unpleasant by the presence aboard of carousing or truculent drunks. Two nags, called Tom and Jerry (no relation to cat, Tom, and mouse, Jerry, of the animated cartoons) are mentioned in one account as having pulled in tandem one of these cars.
The Origins of Sea Gate (1840s)
At the west end of the original Coney Island in the section now called Sea Gate, two enterprising gentlemen, Eddy and Hart, in 1844, obtained a long term lease to a large tract of land that included the property formerly occupied by Op Dyck, Wolf, Brown, and Hicks, The reason Eddy and Hart got the long term lease is that they agreed to build a wooden pier into Gravesend Bay large enough to accommodate excursion boats. On their own, they also built a small pier for fishermen on the ocean side. Among their other installations were a small hotel, some shanties with cubicles, or lockers, where bathers could change and leave their clothes, and a large platform covered by a circus type of tent. Within this enclosure were a stove, an icebox, a fresh water tank, tables, chairs, and a bar. Customers coming off the boats could dine on baked or steamed clams, baked fish in season, seafood chowder, sandwiches, coffee, cake, beer, and whiskey. For the kiddies, there were cookies, milk, chocolate bars, lollipops, and pails and shovels to build the castles of their dreams. On weekends, Eddy and Hart did a thriving business with people coming on boats from Manhattan. During the week, their customers consisted mainly of clammers, fishermen, a few vacationers, barflies, and some ominous-looking individuals who were no strangers to the Manhattan constabulary. The toughs were made unwelcome by Eddy and Hart's bouncers, and they finally established themselves in makeshift shelters along the north shore, where they were left alone with the understanding that they were not to prey on people coming off the boats.
Coney Island during and immediately after the American Civil War and (1860s)
During the Civil War, a theatrical impresario, William Wheatley, had an elaborate summer home where Eddy and Hart's hotel had been, and it became a gathering place for theatrical luminaries, as well as for writers, artists, musicians, poets, draft dodgers, and confused intellectuals.
A decade later, a former New York State senator, Mike Norton, and his partner, James Murray, obtained a long term lease from. Gravesend Township to Wheatley's vacated property. Norton made extensive additions to Wheatley's house and converted it into an attractive hotel. He also constructed new bathing facilities, and a pavilion for dining and dancing. The area came to be called Norton's Point, even after the west-end's name was changed to Sea Gate. Years later, Tammany Hall's Boss Tweed, being pursued by the minions of the law, hid out briefly in Norton's place before fleeing to Spain, from where he was extradited back to New York, and rewarded for the services he had rendered the city by being accorded free board and lodging in Sing Sing.
This article combines the author's extensive ongoing research with the text of the late Manny Teitelman's unpublished manuscript, 'Coney Island, Last Stop!'
The manuscript's contents are used, modified and published under an exclusive copyright license dated 2016. All rights reserved.
[1] Stockwell and Stillwell's 'A History of the Town of Gravesend, New York and Coney Island' (1884) provides significant background the noted pictures.
The company decided that it would be good for business to build a hotel at West 6th Street and the present Neptune Avenue. The hotel was a frame building of three stories (that is, two flights above the main floor), and also had several small structures attached in the rear. It was called the Coney Island House, and it may have been the first hotel in the area of Coney Island, though Mr. John Wyckoff, who lived nearby, had converted his home into a hotel by making alterations and additions about this time, calling it ‘Wyckoff’s Hotel’.
Coney Island House was operated by a Mr. Tooker, who had leased it for three years. The company then sold the hotel and its grounds to one of the company's directors, John Terhune. By 1847, its ownership had passed into the hands of Cropsey and Woglom. In that year, Dr. Allen Clarke bought some ground near the creek, directly north of Coney Island House, and built the Oceanic Hotel there. Shortly thereafter, it was destroyed by fire. Judge John Vanderbilt rebuilt the hotel, and it too burnt down. The proprietors of the Coney Island House then purchased the property, and renamed the Coney Island House as the Oceanic Hotel.
In its heyday, before the Civil War, this hotel, according to its register, included among its guests people of national and international renown, such as Daniel Webster, P. T. Barnum, Jenny Lind, and Washington Irving. After the Civil War, when more spacious and more fashionable hotels came into being in Coney Island, business declined at the Oceanic Hotel. It became a boarding house for middle class families spending the summer at the beach. For a time it served as a hospital, with its ballroom used as a receiving room for emergency cases. In later years, it became a rooming house for local workers and itinerants, and finally a flophouse for derelicts. Shortly after being closed and boarded up, in the 1930s, it was destroyed by fire.
Public Transportation to Coney Island
The first public transportation system to Coney Island, which went into operation before the Civil War, was a horsecar line that ran along Coney Island Avenue to Brighton Beach, and was later extended to West Brighton Beach. Each car, usually overloaded with passengers, was dragged along rails at a walking pace by a pair of horses. The trip was tedious and endless, and, frequently made even more unpleasant by the presence aboard of carousing or truculent drunks. Two nags, called Tom and Jerry (no relation to cat, Tom, and mouse, Jerry, of the animated cartoons) are mentioned in one account as having pulled in tandem one of these cars.
The Origins of Sea Gate (1840s)
At the west end of the original Coney Island in the section now called Sea Gate, two enterprising gentlemen, Eddy and Hart, in 1844, obtained a long term lease to a large tract of land that included the property formerly occupied by Op Dyck, Wolf, Brown, and Hicks, The reason Eddy and Hart got the long term lease is that they agreed to build a wooden pier into Gravesend Bay large enough to accommodate excursion boats. On their own, they also built a small pier for fishermen on the ocean side. Among their other installations were a small hotel, some shanties with cubicles, or lockers, where bathers could change and leave their clothes, and a large platform covered by a circus type of tent. Within this enclosure were a stove, an icebox, a fresh water tank, tables, chairs, and a bar. Customers coming off the boats could dine on baked or steamed clams, baked fish in season, seafood chowder, sandwiches, coffee, cake, beer, and whiskey. For the kiddies, there were cookies, milk, chocolate bars, lollipops, and pails and shovels to build the castles of their dreams. On weekends, Eddy and Hart did a thriving business with people coming on boats from Manhattan. During the week, their customers consisted mainly of clammers, fishermen, a few vacationers, barflies, and some ominous-looking individuals who were no strangers to the Manhattan constabulary. The toughs were made unwelcome by Eddy and Hart's bouncers, and they finally established themselves in makeshift shelters along the north shore, where they were left alone with the understanding that they were not to prey on people coming off the boats.
Coney Island during and immediately after the American Civil War and (1860s)
During the Civil War, a theatrical impresario, William Wheatley, had an elaborate summer home where Eddy and Hart's hotel had been, and it became a gathering place for theatrical luminaries, as well as for writers, artists, musicians, poets, draft dodgers, and confused intellectuals.
A decade later, a former New York State senator, Mike Norton, and his partner, James Murray, obtained a long term lease from. Gravesend Township to Wheatley's vacated property. Norton made extensive additions to Wheatley's house and converted it into an attractive hotel. He also constructed new bathing facilities, and a pavilion for dining and dancing. The area came to be called Norton's Point, even after the west-end's name was changed to Sea Gate. Years later, Tammany Hall's Boss Tweed, being pursued by the minions of the law, hid out briefly in Norton's place before fleeing to Spain, from where he was extradited back to New York, and rewarded for the services he had rendered the city by being accorded free board and lodging in Sing Sing.
This article combines the author's extensive ongoing research with the text of the late Manny Teitelman's unpublished manuscript, 'Coney Island, Last Stop!'
The manuscript's contents are used, modified and published under an exclusive copyright license dated 2016. All rights reserved.
[1] Stockwell and Stillwell's 'A History of the Town of Gravesend, New York and Coney Island' (1884) provides significant background the noted pictures.
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