Chapter XX

There is an old dwelling-house down Broadway, No. 55, that is very remarkable. It has its history, and a curious one it will be found if it is ever published, and I intend it shall be.

It was inhabited for many years—in fact was built by a Mr. Douglas. His widow resided there, and several of her daughters were old maids. One married a Mr. Cruger, and a Miss Cruger married James Monroe, who was once a member of Congress from this city, and is a nephew of the James Monroe who was once President of the United States.

Mr. Cruger refused to sell No. 55 Broadway, and there it stands on the lower side of the alley, surrounded by high stores, and looks wonderfully out of place. Mrs. C. refused to desecrate the house where she was born by allowing it to be used for the purposes of trade.

The Douglas maids were extremely civil. In those days, when a person called to collect a bill, they used to give the young clerk-collector a piece of cake and a glass of wine, from out and off one of those solid mahogany side-boards. All was real in those days. The wine was old and good. The cake, lemonade, and the glasses, real cut, and the furniture solid. There was no jim-crackery then.

There is another monument left of the olden time. It is located at No. 7 Broadway, and was long the residence of old Herman Le Roy, who built it. He was the founder of Le Roy, Bayard & Co. He had a large family of sons and daughters. One daughter, Caroline, married the Hon. Daniel Webster in that same house. Another married Mr. Newbold, of Philadelphia. He died in 1818, and after her father's death Mrs. Newbold lived with her children at No. 7 Broadway. Another daughter married William Edgar, a son of a former distinguished merchant in this city. He was a lawyer. Another daughter, Mary, died very young, and unmarried. There were several sons of old Herman Le Roy.

His mercantile firm was Le Roy, Bayard & Co. The store was in Washington street, two doors from Rector street.

He had a brother, Jacob, who was also in business under the firm of Jacob Le Roy & Son. Their store was on the corner of Rector and Washington streets. Roswell L. Colt was a partner in the last house.

Almost in the rear of No. 7 Broadway is a duplicate marble building at No. 7 Greenwich street. Old Herman Le Roy built that for his daughter, Mrs William Edgar. I passed it yesterday. Shorn of its glory, it is now rented out to poor families, and yet often in the early years of this century, it has had inside its walls nearly all the fashion, the beauty, the wealth and the talent of the city. It is melancholy to look at it. Not much better off is the one famed and beautiful residence of Mrs. Newbold. It is occupied mainly with offices. Sleepy-looking clerks seated on high cane stools before a great desk, occupy the room where the great Webster upon a gorgeously canopied bedstead passed his bridal night.

My readers can go next Sunday and look upon both these once merchant palaces now in their decay. There are no houses in the lower part of the city that can compare with them.

William Edgar was a great merchant in his day. Gardner G. Howland married a daughter for his first wife, and his eldest son is named William Edgar Howland.

At No. 9 Broadway lived John Watts, a rich man in those days-worth perhaps $300,000-who had a good income.

Old William Edgar lived in Greenwich street, near the Battery, on the west side. His store was on Washington street, in the rear of his house. At that time Washington street overlooked the river. Many merchants of great renown occupied similar stores and dwellings. It was the case with G. G. & S. Howland, Le Roy, Bayard & Co., as well as old Mr. Edgar. This was where the Howlands started business, and before they removed to South street, where they are at present located.

G. G. Howland, William Edgar, A. M. Bininger and William B. Astor all belonged to the same military company, commanded by Captain Titus. The company belonged to the second regiment of N. Y. State artillery, Colonel Robert G. Manly, a gay, dashing officer in his day. It is an old Fifth Ward family, and Manly Frisbee was a nephew of Colonel Manly.

The Edgars, Le Roys, Newbolds, McEvers, Bayards, Howlands, were all intermarried, and were the creme de la creme of those days. Old Jacob Le Roy lived in Broadway near the Tabernacle. There was the Bayard farm where Mr. William Bayard lived, and where Alexander Hamilton was taken after being mortally wounded by Burr. It was near Fort Gansevoort.

The old firm of Le Roy, Bayard & Co. was one of the most remarkable commercial houses in this or any other American city. The firm existed before the commencement of this century. They traded to all parts of the world. Robert Bayard, one of the firm, married a Miss McEvers, a daughter of Mr. McEvers.

The Mr. Newbold who married Miss Le Roy, was son of the very rich Calcutta merchant in Philadelphia, and the head of the Newbold family in this country.

Young Jacob Le Roy was nicknamed "Black Jake." The old house made immense fortunes. In the war of 1812 they owned and sent out fast sailing vessels to Europe and to the East Indies. If they escaped capture and got safely to New York, of course the profits were immense.

The house failed in 1827, but they had no Le Roy in it at the time; although the firm was kept up as Le Roy, Bayard & Co. That house built the frigates for the Greek Government in connection with G. G. & S. S. Howland. I will give a full account of the transaction in a future chapter.

There are anecdotes connected with this house of a very amusing character. In their palmy days, there was in New York a famous man named Salles. He was always spoken of as old Salles. He was a glove-maker by profession. He had in that business a partner named Tomnelly. It is after him is called the Tomnelly estate, up near the Sixth Avenue. They made the old fashioned deer-skin suspender, and after Salles dissolved partnership, Tomnelly carried on business in the old slow but sure way. Old Salles was a plain man; in fact, those who can now recall him to memory must say he was very slovenly in his appearance. He appeared to be a poor man. On one occasion, about the time of the war, Le Roy, Bayard & Co. had one of their fast clippers arrive. She had escaped capture, and brought in a large quantity of silks. The value was immense. At that time the counting room of Le Roy, Bayard & Co. was in Washington street. William Bayard knew old Salles by sight, but to the clerks he was not known. At that time old Mr. Salles was a great shaver of notes, but it is certain he never would shave higher than seven per cent. per annum, the legal interest of the State.

When this clipper arrived, old Mr. Salles went down to the office of Le Roy & Co. He was a capital judge of silks. There was no better in this city. He asked the young salesman to show him the samples. He did so. Old Salles selected lot after lot, amounting to thousands of dollars. The clerks thought him crazy. Finally he stopped, and the bill was made out. "Send the goods to mine shore, and I vil pay de bill," said old Salles. The clerks laughed, and old Mr. Salles left, and went to get his dinner. He boarded in Pearl street, and took his meals under the old Tontine Coffee House. He was a terrible eater, and dreaded by all private boarding house or hotel keepers. He ate three plates of turkey, and other things in proportion, at a meal. He stood six feet three inches high, and wore a white hat, a la Greeley. When it was three o'clock, the time for the goods he had bought of Le Roy, Bayard & Co., to be at his store, old Salles went there. No silks had come. Down he went to the office of Le Roy, Bayard & Co.

"Did I not buy goods here?" he asked. "Yes, but we want pay!" said the clerk. But at this moment Mr. Wm. Bayard came in, and Mr. Salles narrated what occurred.

"You shall have the goods immediately, Mr. Salles." The clerk started, but the silks were sent round to Salles's store, and he gave a check for them.

The next time that a vessel of Le Roy, Bayard & Co. came in, Salles was sent for, and again he purchased the entire cargo. He made a monstrous amount of money in such purchases. Old Salles would re-sell to King & Mead, (the A. T. Stewart of 1812,) the largest dry goods jobbers in America, and other retail dealers.

There are some curious anecdotes about the awful eating habits of old Salles. At one time he went to a boarding-house in Pearl street, kept by Mr. and Mrs. Conrad. He had been turned out of various places, where his voracity became too great for any profit. At the new place he was unknown, and terms were agreed upon for one month. When it expired, the bill was handed to him, with a request to leave. The proprietor informed Mr. Salles that he could not afford to keep him at that price.

"Is dat de matter? Den chargee more," said Salles. The previous price was $4 a week; $2 were added, making it $6 per week, and another month was commenced. At its expiration, a bill was presented to Mr. Salles, and he was again told he must leave. The bill was paid. Another month was entered upon at $8 a week. Another month, and it was raised to $10 per week. When that expired, the unhappy landlord received the sum due, and again asked Mr. Salles to leave. Salles says: "D— it, charge more. Chargee all you want."

With tears in his eyes, the man replied: "It is no use, Mr. Salles. I will not have you any longer, any how. The more I charge, the more you eat.

In the account of the Bininger family, their early start, and detailed history, that I wrote about in a former chapter, I omitted matter that I had forgotten.

I said that the old grocer, Abraham Bininger, when working at days work, lived in Augustus street, now City Hall Place. That his wife Aunt Katy, kept a little shop, sold candy, sugar, snuff, tobacco, pipes, cookies and other cakes from a little table in front of the shop. I omitted to mention, that the cookies, cakes, and tea rusk, were daily supplied from a basket carried by a young man, who peddled tea rusks, &c. The name of the boy peddler was John Jacob Astor, who was then eighteen or twenty years of age, and had not been long arrived in this country, and before he had fairly started in that wonderful rise in the world, that Astor afterwards made.

John Jacob Astor had a sister, who came out from Germany with him previous to the Revolution. Her name at that early period was not Mrs. Miller, but Mrs. Ehninger, she having married a person of that name previous to her departure from Europe.

Old Mr. Ehninger was a cordial distiller, and he died from the effects of an accident caused by burning spirits. His descendants still reside in the city. After his death, the widow married Michael Miller, and having taught him the secrets of the business, she, in company with him continued to carry it on. She had several children by her first husband, Mr. Ehninger.

Old Mr. Miller had a nephew George, who was from Pennsylvania, and when the distiller died, carried on the business until he (the younger) died in 1846.

In after years, John Jacob rather turned up his nose at a distiller. Mrs. Miller resented it, and upon one occasion observed: "Yacob vas noting put a paker poy, und solt preat und kak." She spoke mongrel Dutch until the day of her death.

Of course, when Mr. Astor peddled cakes was long before he went into the baking business upon his own account, and longer still before he became a fur peddler, and eventually the founder of the North-West fur company, or American fur company, located in Vesey street, on the block where the Astor House now stands.

A very old wholesale grocery house in this city is that of Philip Dater & Co. For years it was Lee, Dater & Miller, and at one time they occupied a large store in Front street, corner of Fletcher.

Philip Dater was the son of a farmer in moderate circumstances in Rensselaer county, in this State. He did chores, and was occupied about his father's farm until he was thirteen years old, when he up stick and came to New York somewhere about 1815. He is now a man sixty-four years old. He got employment as a clerk in a small store, and after a few years of experience, he started business on his own account near Coenties Slip. Then he engaged in business with Mr. Miller, under the firm of Dater & Miller. Finding that more capital could be usefully employed, they entered into copartnership with a capitalist named Lee, and the firm was changed to Lee, Dater & Miller. Mr. Lee lived in College Place, where he had built a handsome house.

All the daughters of Mr. Lee, who once kept a retail grocery in Coenties Slip, have married noblemen or sons of noblemen. One of them married a grandson of the haughty Duke of Athol, the proprietor of Glen Tilf, and distinguished himself in the Crimean war; another married a French nobleman of lofty lineage.

After years of great success, Mr. Lee died. Mr. Miller went out of the firm, and it then became what it now is—Philip Dater & Co.

Mr. Dater has had a large family of children. Several sons are in business with him. One is at Chicago, doing a large grocery business. For many years Mr. Dater lived in Cliff street, between John and Fulton. Then he bought a large farm at Morrisania, about two miles from Harlem. He bought that property very low. It is worth now ten times what he gave for it. Upon it Mr. Dater has erected a superb house, and has lived in it since he left Cliff street until now.

He is perfectly devoted to his business. He fairly loves it. He gets his breakfast long before daylight goes to the depot, and reaches his store by seven o'clock; and this he does all the year round, beating his clerks. He is like most of our old school merchants—pious. He is a prominent member of the Episcopal church. Take Philip Dater all in all, he is a noble specimen of a man. He has a heart like an ox. He is good to the poor. He is a warm friend, and carries out his christian professions. His wife is like him, and they are well matched. Philip Dater and old Abe Binninger were quite intimate when the old man lived in William street.

The latter had adopted a niece named Catharine Bininger. The couple were very old and very infirm. She was young and gay. They liked old society. She liked new, and was about to leave them, when Mr. Bininger arrested her going, by saying, "Kate, if you stop with me until I die, you shall inherit the same as one of my own children." This was agreed to, and Kate spent some of the best years of her life waiting upon the old folks. Philip Dater knew all about this transaction.

Well, Abraham Bininger died. George W. Miller and Philip Dater were pall bearers at the old man's funeral. He died of apoplexy, and had not thought to add a codicil to his will, providing as he had agreed to do for his niece.

Jacob Bininger and his wife, who had not troubled the infirm old man, refused to allow the devoted niece a cent, although they knew the circumstances. Then it was that Mr. and Mrs. Dater showed their friendship. They advised the niece to sue for wages, and during the trial, day after day, they sat by her side in Court, encouraging and sustaining her by their presence.

Jacob Bininger, the son of old Abraham, had married a Miss Harriet Burger. She lived sometime in the family of David Rogers, the great Santa Cruz sugar merchant. She was daughter of old Mr. Burger, of Staten Island, one of the most extensive clam dealers in his day. She was the mother of the present Abraham Bininger, of Liberty street. She was very vindictive, and decidedly opposed to Miss Kate Bininger coming in for any share, even servant's wages, of the old grocer's tin. She looked so savage that James R. Whiting, in summing up, remarked of her, "That woman, if it was in her power, would annihilate my client with a look, if it could have been done." Miss Bininger recovered "servant's wages" from the estate of her uncle, but nothing more. That was all she could sue for.