380 HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.

made by Mons. Jules Fevret de Saint Memin, a French artist, of some celebrity, who resided in this country between the years 1796 and 1810

1799. On the 6th of June, 1799, the “Courier and New York and Long Island Advertiser,” the second paper ever published on Long Island, was commenced at Brooklyn, by Thomas Kirk. A stray “No. 87, vol. 2,” dated Feb. 25, 1801, has come to our notice. It is a small, dingy sheet, purporting to be published “every Wednesday morning,” and possesses little or nothing of interest to us of the present day. Its columns are mostly filled with New York advertisements. A few Brooklynites, however, seem to have possessed a spirit of enterprise, inasmuch as John Van Brunt advertises his house, situated about one hundred yards from the old (Fulton) ferry, as being an excellent stand for a tavern. John Harmer, painter and glazier, advertises his patent floor-cloth manufactory; William Carpenter, his tobacco and snuff factory; Furman and Sands, their store at New (Catherine street) Ferry; and Derick Amerman, his groceries.

During this year, land, not exceeding an acre, was appropriated by the town for a public burial-place; but the records bear evidence that, in 1800, the object had not been effected.

1800. In an old scrap-book of this date, in the possession of the family of General JEREMIAH JOHNSON, is preserved what may properly be called the first written history of Brooklyn. It consists of newspaper slips, undoubtedly out from the columns of Thomas Kirk’s paper, “The Long Island Courier,” to which are added numerous manuscript corrections, notes, and even whole pages of new matter, in the well-known handwriting of General Johnson, to whom we probably do not err in attributing their authorship. That this careful arrangement and revision of these papers was made with a view to their. republication in pamphlet form, is apparent from the fact that they are preceded by a title-page in MS., “A Topographical View of the Township of Brooklyn in Kings County, State of New York (motto), Brooklyn: Printed by Thomas Kirk. 1800.”

The series consist of about six papers, which form an interesting, though diffuse, pot-pourri of historical facts, speculations, etc., from which we select a few samples for the amusement of our readers.