378 HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.

1788. On the 7th of March of this year, Brooklyn was recognized as a town under the State Government.

1794. It may amuse our readers to learn, that at a regular townmeeting, held in April of this year, it was “Resolved, That the Supervisors raise the sum of £19, 13s., 6d., which money has been expended for the purpose of building a cage and stocks.”1

1795. In the summer of this year the “New,” or Catherine street ferry, was established by William Furman and Theodosius Huntthe former of whom was interested in a rope-walk, the head of which was in Main street, near the ferry, and extended northeasterly, over the shoals and water.

1796. In the library of the Long Island Historical Society is a curious little duodecimo volume, entitled “The New York and Brooklyn Directory and Register, for the Year 1796,” printed at New York, “by John Buel, corner of Water street and Fly Market, and John Bull, 115 Cherry st.” This work, compiled by John Low, comprises within the last three pages a “Brooklyn Directory, containing the names of the inhabitants, alphabetically arranged, never before published,” for that year, which our readers will find reproduced in Appendix, No. 10.2 It is, apparently, the work of a canvasser, who went up the “Old Road” (Fulton street) and down “New Ferry street” (Main street), gathering the names only of those persons living on or between the two streets, and does not seem to contain the names of any persons who lived further back from the ferry. It possesses peculiar interest, from the fact that it antedates, by twenty-five years, the earliest village directory that published by Alden Spooner, in 1822.

The sum of £49 4s. was this year raised by subscription for purchasing “a suitable bell for the use of the town of Brooklyn.” This bell was hung in a small cupola on the top of Buckbee’s Hay Scales, which stood on the southerly side of Fulton street, close by “Buckbee’s Alley.”3

1 Town Records. See, also, page 387.

2 This Directory, with notes by the author of this history, was published in the Brooklyn Corporation Manual for 1864, pp. 139-148.

3 Now “Poplar Place,” a crooked alley running from Poplar to Fulton street, between Henry and Hicks streets. its original name was derived from one Buckbee, who, with his son Palmer, kept a small grocery on the corner of the alley and Fulton street.