The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-09-23
COMFY ISLAND As 1T WAS
HISTORICAL "REMINISCENCES OF
THE FAMOUS RESORT.
The Pioneer Who Gave Ii It's Name
Uses of the Island i'm the Fugi-
tive Slave Law Times.
New York Evening Post.

OF the more than two mllllonS Oh Vlsitors
to Coney island this season probably not
one person in ten thousand is familiar with
the peculiar interest which attaches to the
early associations of that now popular sum-
mer resort.
About two hundred years ago the King of
England granted patent, or deed of land,
on the southwest end of Long island to an
English woman belonging to noble fam
lily. Embraced within this deed of land
were what are now known as Gravesend
and Coney island.
The lady who owned the land was of
an enterprisng character, and she sought
to turn it to account, offering great induce
ments to parties who would settle and help
develop the locality, and it was in this
way that what is now known as Gravesend
got is first start. But no one save a man
named Cooney Coney and his family
then wife and child-and a New Yorker
named Schenck who boarded with them,
could be induced to inhabit the sandy strip
of land now so thronged with visitors from
New York, Brooklyn and vicinity every
pleasant day during the months of July.
August and September.
Cooney and his social circle occupied a
rude hut, which he erected on the edge of
the marshes, and used to spend all his time
fishing and cunning, but as there was no
Fulton market at which to sell the outcome
of his luck with gun and fishing line he
had hard struggle to make enough to
clothe his little family and himself.
One day, while Cooney was on trip to
Gravesend, in search of stray job, tre-
mendous storm arose. accompanied by a
terrific tidal wave, which swept everything
before it, including the hut of poor Cooney.
containing his wife and two children. and
the man Schenck. They were all washed
out to sea, and were never seen or heard of
more Not a vestige of his hut could be
found by Cooney on his return TO the
island he could not even locate exactly the
spot where it had been placed.
From that day, Cooney, bereft of wife
and children. and of everything he had in
the world-though monarch of all he sur
veyed"-became helpless idiot. He found
a temporary home with a kind-hearted
soul at Gravesend, but every day he would
wander round the spot where he believed
his little hut and family haa been destroy
ed, and look toward the sea beseechingly,
as If expecting it to give back its dead;
but the sea is not in the habit of giving
back anything or anybody, and one day
Cooney himself disappeared. and was never
again seen. But the name of the poor
heart-broken desolate idiot is still attached
TO perhaps the most popular watering-place
on the face of the earth.
A SAD ASSOCIATION.
There is one point about Coney Island
and its connection with New York that has
been but little written about. Forty years
ago it was used as sort of depot or head
quarters from which fugitive negro slaves
were returned to their masters "down
South" while not infrequently negroes who
had never been slaves. but who had been
kidnapped in the streets of lie metropolis,
were from that headquarters shipped and
sold to Southern slave dealers.
The head and front of this slave business
was a Capt. Frank Bowen, who led an ad-
venturous career. AT one time he was in
command of the famous yacht Nanderer,
which became notorious as a slave craft
and being captured by a British cruiser,
sent in search of the slave pirates, was
sent as prisoner to the island OF st.
Helena from which he subsequently es-
capped, and after an exciting series Of
desperate adventures on land and sea
ended his days in obscurity
Some three four men who frequented
a couple of taverns near Coney island at
that time were interested In this slave
traffic. These secured all the hand
bills and advertisements issued in the
Southern States offering rewards for the
return of fugitive slaves, and as most OF
these poor devils, sooner or later had TO
come to and pass through New York on
their way to Canada, these fellows had
constant watch kept over all trains and
vessels arriving at this port or i'm New
Jersey from the South. and If they found
negro answering the description of a run
away slave, bounced upon him, drugged
him and dragged him to Coney island, and
in due time shipped him to his master or
the slave mart
OF course they might have done all this
legally and openly. as the famous Fugitive
Slave Law was in operation at this time
But they did not appeal to the law for two
reasons; first, the law was very unpopular
with the Northern people, and. secondly.
man woman seized was really an
escaped slave. And IL did not suit them
always to bring proof. 1t answered their
purpose better to work in the dark: for
they were not at all particular whether
their victims fugitives or not Ii
was enough that they were only negroes,
and that they had a chance to sell them
for good price
A TERROR TO NEGROES.
kidnapping negroes at night was then
matter of frequent occurrence, and the
many sudden disappearance made colored
people afraid to venture out I'm the down
town streets after dark II the scouts Of
these slave-traders came across a solitary
negro. man or woman. the negro or neeress
would. IL the coast was clear, be suddenly
seized. skillfully bound and gagged. con-
veyed across the East river in a boat. and
then. In covered hack. driven RAPIDLY
to dilapidated house at the end az the
Coney island road. near The beach. vhfc5
g those days was - Tar removed fror
Nov York and the rest q mankind @ 6
g ~. { - .z... 8. 8. Z. q. = S