Crowbar Governor: The Life and Times of Morgan Gardner Bulkeley

CHAPTER 3. BROOKLYN HEIGHTS

Chapter Three BROOKlYN HeiGHts Aa When Morgan Bulkeley arrived in Brooklyn Heights in 1854, Greater Brooklyn was in the process of absorbing Williamsburgh.∞ The final incorporation produced a city with a population of 205,000—ten times that of Hartford. Still, less than 17,000 inhabitants lived in the small village of Brooklyn Heights where Morgan’s aunt and uncle lived.≤ For the next eighteen years, Morgan Bulkeley’s life would be centered in this wealthy little hamlet. Considered New York’s first suburb, Brooklyn Heights got its start as local landowners subdivided their farms and sold o√ building lots of 25 0 100 feet to Manhattanites. By 1814, a steam ferry shuttled more than half of the borough’s residents from the Fulton Street Ferry Terminal to Manhattan each day.≥ As implausible as it sounds, Morgan Bulkeley once said, ‘‘When the tide came in and jammed the ice into the channel, you would find a stream of fool-hearted men crossing on the temporary highway, risking death in order to save a half hour of time.’’∂ Brooklyn Heights, perched on a blu√ seventy feet above the waters of the East River—and opposite Manhattan’s South Street Seaport—o√ered a commanding view across New York Harbor. Even though the Heights became famous for some of the grandest residential houses in the New York metropolitan area, most of the homes were brick row houses like Henry and Eunice Morgan’s home on Joralemon Street. Besides the stately addresses, Brooklyn Heights displayed neat granite-paved streets, magnificent churches, and several lovely hostelries. Nonetheless, when Morgan Bulkeley arrived, the village lagged slightly behind Hartford in amenities. While Hartford’s municipal water works was about a year from completion, Brooklyn’s Well & Pump Commission maintained a growing number of public wells on street corners.∑ A municipal waterworks bill finally passed in 1859.∏ Again, in the area of infrastructure, Hartford’s streets were completely illuminated by gaslights at midcentury, while Brooklyn waited another decade for light. Early sewers were often just open trenches designed to drain water from wet parts of town. Most cities had rudimentary sewers well before 1840. Hartford’s common council established a Board of Sewer Commissioners in 1847, while Brooklyn didn’t form one until more than a decade later.π ≤∂ c r o w b a r g o v e r n o r Street Map of Brooklyn Heights, 1860 (Brooklyn Collection, Brooklyn Public Library) Brooklyn Heights, like Hartford, published a great many newspapers—the Brooklyn Citizen, Brooklyn Daily Times, Brooklyn Standard Union, and Brooklyn Daily Eagle—just to name a few. Manhattan papers numbered about twenty.∫ Manhattan ’s newspaper readership was divided among so many di√erent papers that the Brooklyn Daily Eagle actually boasted the largest circulation of any evening paper in the United States.Ω Still, only a few groceries, dry goods stores, and taverns conducted business in Brooklyn.∞≠ Uncle Henry and Aunt Eunie lived in a brick, three-story Greek Revival row house—86 Joralemon Street—close to the southern end of the Heights. The couple purchased their home around the time of their marriage in April 1850.∞∞ Henry and Eunice Morgan were not Morgan Bulkeley’s only Brooklyn Heights kin. The Judge’s older brother, Charles Edwin Bulkeley, worked as an insurance agent and served as clerk of the King’s County Board of Supervisors. Sadly, he collapsed at one of the board’s meetings in September 1853. His son Charles happened to be present and tried to assist him, but the older man’s heart had given out and all attempts to resuscitate him failed. His wife, Julia, continued to reside on Livingston Street for many years thereafter.∞≤ Morgan Bulkeley and his aunt Eunice developed a close, lifelong bond.∞≥ Eunice Hicks was the daughter of George Hicks, proprietor of the grocery store Schoomaker & Hicks. The firm did business on Fulton Street, and by contempo- b r o o k l y n h e i g h t s ≤∑ rary accounts attracted a larger than average following, a√ording its two owners upscale lifestyles.∞∂ Eunice met Henry Morgan in Brooklyn Heights, and the two were married probably right after Eunice turned eighteen.∞∑ Aunt Eunie was twelve years younger than Uncle Henry, and only five years older than Morgan Bulkeley. Life was comfortable for Henry and Eunice Morgan and their two daughters, Carolyn and Elizabeth. (A third daughter, Sarah, came later.) The family...