[7] The first post-office at Gravesend was established in 1843.
[8] J. C. Vanderbilt's _Social History of Flatbush_ gives some exceedingly interesting glimpses of life in this region during and after the Revolutionary period.
[9] The "public whipper" received a salary of $15 a year.
[10] Tunis G. Bergen was born at New Utrecht in 1806. The Cropsey family, prominent at New Utrecht, is descended from Geerte Jans Kasparse, who came from Holland, with her two sons, Joost and Johannis, in 1652. Joost, third son of this Joost, had one son, Casper, who held office in New Utrecht, and died in 1806, leaving six sons and several daughters. Other descendants were Jerome Ryersen Cropsey, Andrew G. Cropsey, and William Cropsey. The last named was for several terms supervisor of New Utrecht.
[12] This fine specimen of old Dutch architecture is still standing on Evergreen Avenue.
[13] _Historic and Antiquarian Scenes in Brooklyn and its Vicinity_, p. 47.
[14] The assumption that the Dutch youth required to be taught "convivial customs" by the "arrogant Anglo-American youngers" is scarcely supported by definite testimony.
[15] The ancestral farm and home of the Wyckoffs is on the boundary line between Brooklyn and Newtown, beyond Metropolitan Avenue.
[16] "History of Williamsburgh," in Stiles's _History of Kings County_.
[17] Printed in the _Long Island Star_, February 14, 1811.
[19] Fulton and Livingston had obtained from the Legislature the monopoly of steam navigation on all the waters of New York for thirty years from 1808.
[20] _Historical Sketch of Fulton Ferry._
[22] The Corporation of New York at one time even questioned the right of Brooklyn's inhabitants to cross the river, ferriage free, in their own boats.
[24] Walt Whitman was born at West Hills, Long Island, in 1819. During the time of his residence in Brooklyn he did editorial writing for both the _Times_ and the _Eagle_. In the following letter to Mr. Charles M. Skinner, of Brooklyn, he describes his newspaper work in this city:--
328 MICKLE STREET, CAMDEN, NEW JERSEY, _January 19, '85_.
DEAR SIR,--In hasty answer to your request asking me to specify over my own signature what year I worked as an editorial writer in the Brooklyn _Times_ office, I would say that if I remember right it was along in 1856, or just before. I recollect (doubtless I am now going to be egotistical about it) the question of the new Water Works (magnificently outlined by McAlpine, and duly carried out and improved by Kirkwood, first-class engineers both) was still pending, and the works, though well under way, continued to be strongly opposed by many. With the consent of the proprietor, I bent the whole weight of the paper steadily in favor of the McAlpine plan, as against a flimsy, cheap, and temporary series of works that would have long since broken down, and disgraced the city.