Delaware City press. (Delaware City, Del.) 1913-19??, 1913-08-08
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this was set aside by the assembly as being Part
of the Denizen of His Majesties Fort at New
York for the Benefit and Accommodation of His
Majestie's Governors and Commanders in Chief
for the Time Being" After this it became known
in familiar parlance Governors Island but not
all at once in legal documents
In its early history it furnished examples of
rapine and graft which put to shame the efforts
of the present day. One of the early governors,
Lord Cornbury, cousin of Queen Anne, comes
down to us as being universally detested" prin-
cipally for hissquestionable dealings in regard to
8 y fiece OF aad which the people at large were
already beginning to cherish for its beauty and
utility
In ITO the island served, in fact If not in name,
as the first quarantine post of the province and
in that same year shiploads of "Palatines," re-
ligous refugees, we're housed there, the proper
est place for their sickness and poverty" said
Queen Anne, who financed them parsmoniously,
One of these immigrants, Peter Zenger, was the
first citizen to vindicate publicly the freedom of
the press and personal liberty.
Nutten Island (Governorsl made part of
the city of New York by the Montgomery char
ter q730) and act of March Z, 1888, included
1t in the county. 1t was in 1855 that 1t first full
filled its manifest destiny as military post.
From 1855 to 1878 there were several royal regi-
ments of England living there. These were the
Royal Americans. His Majestys Sixtyfrst Regi-
ment of Foot under Lord Loudoun and His Ma
jestys Twenty-second and Forty-fourth Regiments
of Foot Details of their life were found by the
historian referred to in the private library of Col
onei Fitz-Clarence, Earl of Munster, who commit
ted suicide t1S42), and in the English army rec
ords 1754.1S42 These regiments are in name ex-
listing today, and the leader of the band who
played at the garden party of the Army Relief
society is a lineal descendant of one of the
officers.
In 1866 the first fertilization was built, in 1776
a Strong Castle" was erected. General Putnam
writing at this time to the president of congress
speaks of it 'as very important post" Wash
ington wrote of 'Its strong works." the New York
Gazette referred to the thousand Continental men
stationed there; Lord Stirling considered 1t "bet-
ter guarded than any other post" The brothers
Howe stayed there until the evacuation of New
York.
After the battle of Long Island and the British
victory, August 81, 1916, the Liberty" boys came
back under cover of the darkness and right under
the noses of the victorious enemy secured NUM-
tions and food
Tradition says that Governor Clinton loaned
the island once for race course (H7S4-5).
In 1894 ferry established which took pas
sengers at threepence head The one in use
now averages 10000 passengers month
That year congress appropriated $3,72752 for
the islands defenses. In 1896 the works were
dignifed as forts, and about this date Knox re-
ports "On Governors Island, one Fashioned square,
commanding two low batteries quite finished"
Between 1894 and 1906 more than $4,000 was
expended the works.
In 1898 the faculty and students of Columbia
college, repeating their patriotic work in Harlem,
came down to Governors Island with pickaxes
and shovels to help erect breastworks when one
inspired the call for harbor defense. In 1880 1t
ceded by the State of New York to the
United States, and In 1921 the Federal military
headquarters were transferred there.