OUR HISTORIC CHURCH

         Shortly after the American Revolution, Williamsburg became a focal point of intense activity by land developers. In 1892 Richard M. Woodhull, a New York City merchant, bought considerable tracts of land, hoping to attract settlers from across the river. He envisioned it as a comfortable residential suburb. He hired Colonel Jonathan Williams, a grand nephew of Benjamin Franklin, to survey the land and lay out city lots for homes. So impressed was Woodhull with the survey, that he named the area “Williamsburgh” after the surveyor. The “H” in the name was dropped years later. Woodhull provided a small ferry from Grand Street in New York City to North 2nd Street in Williamsburgh. Access to the ferry on either side of the river was very poor, however, so the proposed development came to grief and Woodhull went bankrupt.

         The shrewd Stuyvesant had selected the Bushwick site on an Indian road that faced his farm across the river in lower Manhattan. Bushwick was thus a first line of defense for his farm against Indian attacks. The Dutch Farms were laid out in long, narrow strips, so that each farmer would have immediate access to water and transport of his produce. The early settlers used a “Kiekow” (lookout), a small tongue of land jetting out from the foot of North 4th Street as a place to watch for Indians. A Blockhouse was erected on this bluff and used as a place of worship and also as a refuge against Indian attacks. Jan (or Jean) Mesrol was the original owner of the river farm on which the “lookout” Stood. He had come with his wife and child in 1663 from Picardy on the speedy ship, “The Spotted Cow”. Early settlers like the Meseroles (a variant spelling) had to suffer not only from Indians, but from floods and famine as well. English colonists from Connecticut and eastern Long Island often mounted raids on the Dutch, seeking to extend British crown territory. The English did finally capture all of “New Amsterdam” in 1664. The Dutch regained their colony for a brief period but lost it again in 1674. The peace treaty gave them Surinam in exchange for New Amsterdam. The English would in turn lose “New York” (the new name they gave the colony) in the American Revolution a hundred years later. The part of Bushwick that became Williamsburg was called by the Dutch “Bushwick Shore” or simply “The Strand.”          

         The Woodhull bankruptcy in 1811 saw his ferry line pass by a sheriff’s sale of his assets to the Roosevelt family, Woodhull had purchased his 15 acres from a Charles Titus. A new realtor now appeared on the scene in the person of Thomas Morrell from Newtown. The Titus homestead became the “Fountain Inn” a focal point of local political discussion. Morrell purchased another 28 acres from Folkert Titus, extending from North 2nd Street to South 1st Street along the river. He gave the development a new name “Yorktown” (after the Virginia city where General Cornwallis had surrendered to General Washington to end the Revolutionary War). He built another ferry. Like Woodhull, however, Morrell also experienced failure, because the farmers would not permit passage to the ferry through their farms along the shore. The lack of direct roads made it necessary for farmers from Wallabout and other areas to take long and roundabout routes to get to “Yorktown”. It is hard for us to picture the difficulty in our day. In those times roads were few large tracts of woodlands made wagon traffic impossible in many areas. Ready access to water was essential to reach the Manhattan market, ill very much the center of activities.