The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-10-11


appears. this mass of Dutch manuscript
Is probably the only piece Of mans
handiwork which remains unaltered in
the whole ely from the time 1t was
done $50 years ago.
These early Dutch records were re-
produced in the Fernow translation In
1897 by the city and are open to the
inspection of the public in The New
York City Library, a place itself almost
forgotten and now removed from the
City Hall 20 corner in the new Mu-
nicipal Building. There are also to be
found the official records of the British
local government from 1874 to 1876 and
of the doings of the city from 1884 to
the present day. What records there
We're during the period Of the Revolu
tiOnary war We're lost or destroyed at
that time.
Aside from this solitary relic OF hui
man effort in the seventeenth century
nothing remains except the general lay
out of the city, which has itself been
altered and enlarg, d. but which is still
practically the same in the older por-
lions.
1t would seem to be easy to locate
the Oldest building now standing in the
city. and doubtless this could be done
by means of a tr, mendously laborious
search Of the records, but even that is
doubtful, since all of the very oldest
have disappeared and the age of some
of the later ones is in dispute. There
are some TO be found, however, that
date back to the latter part of he sew
enteenth century.
Even the graves Of the earliest set
,lers can no longer be located so that
! he slight links of connection with the
past that are formed by tombstone in
| sCriptions have been broken, but there
are some that carry back To early times.
Perhaps the one which carries the
| mind funniest into early history is thai
on the door of the vault in which lies
all that remains of Petrus Stuyvesant
underneath the church of st, Mark, on
Second avenue. This church itself Is
reckoned an antiquity having been built
| in 1893, but is as it stands to-day only
| the replacement of the original st.
| Marks Chapel, which was erected by
| Pttrus Stuyvesant himself while he was
| still living in the neighborhood In the
middle Of the seventeenth century.
The original edfice was already crum-
bling with age when the present one
was put in it's place. and though the
|
with he name of the great Dutch Gov
ernor, all that actually remains Of what
once gave it the name is the corpse
that still looked lifelike when It was
last looked upon in 1893.
The inscription on the door of the
vault reads: I'm this vault lies buried
Pctrus S,uyvesant. late Captain-General
and Governor in Chief of Amsterdam
in New Netherlands, now called New
York, and the Dutch West Indies. Died
/ in A. d. 167l-2. Age so years"
| So that this tomb is an actual link
connecting the twentieth with the six
teenth century, perhaps the only one
that remains
There are others, however, of more
j than respectable age. In the southern
1 part of Trinity churchyard, in lower
! Broadway, is a stone on which IL in
scribed:
Here lies the body of William Brad
ford, Printer, who departed this life
May 23 1852. Age, 90 years. He was
born in Leicester, old England. in 1860
and came over to America before the
i city of Philadelphia was laid out. He
was Printer to this Government fol
upwards of nifty years, and being quite
worn out with old age and labors. ht
left this mortal state in the lively hopes
Of a blessed immortality.
Reader. reflect how soon youn quit thl
stage.
!, You'll find but few attain to such an age.
LIES fun OF pain; Lo here's a place o.
rest,
Prepare to meet your COD: Then you ar,
| blest"
These two are by no means all thai
} remain in the many burying grounds
hat are still to be found on Manhat,
tan Island which serve as reminder,
, of olden days, but they are perhaps tn,
, most notable Some may be older thar
the original one that marked the gray,
Of Petrus Stuyvesant though this /!
> doubtful, but for the most part the.
are so nearly obliterated by time as t.
: he illegiDle, and the stories they Nigh
! recall are forgotten.
One such that tells no story nov
remembered, hut which is almost a.
Cd as Governor Stuyvesant's. is tina