310 HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.

During the war, the British Wagon Department for the army on this station, was located in Brooklyn, occupying an immense yard, with sheds, stables, blacksmith's forges, etc., and extending from the present Main to Jay streets, and west of Prospect street, which was fenced in, the main gateway being near the present junction of Main and Fulton streets.1 Joseph Fox, an Englishman, and an old and respected citizen of Brooklyn, was for many years one of the principals of this wagon department. These wagons were, of course, used for the transportation of stores, baggage, and tents of the troops, but more especially for bringing in forage. Every few months, the British commandants in New York would issue general orders, imposing upon the unfortunate farmers of Kings and Queens, and a part of Suffolk County, heavy assessments of grain, hay, straw, etc., and specifying the times at which it was expected to be in readiness for delivery to the forage-masters, at certain prices fixed by the order. At the time specified, the wagons would be sent out into the country, accompanied by military guards, and the grain was duly collected, the owners receiving from the forage-masters written receipts, payable on presentation at the office of the Quartermaster-General. If, however, that officer or his subordinates took it into their heads that the farmer was secretly attached to the American cause, he was certain to be refused payment, and might esteem himself lucky if he got off as easily as that. In the same manner, also, in the fall of every year, the Long Island counties would be assessed for many thousand cords of wood, to be cut down and delivered at certain points, for the use of the British garrisons in New York and vicinity. In this manner both Queens and Kings counties were utterly despoiled of the abundant forests which had been their pride; and when the British finally left the island, scarcely a stick, except a small piece of oak woods, a few miles beyond Jamaica, which belonged to a strong Tory, had escaped the axe. All

1 Gen. Johnson says that this was on John Rapalje’s land, ten acres of which was taken in October, 1783, by the British Quartermaster, as a Forage and Wood Depot, enclosed with a high fence, and occupied until the evacuation.

The conductors of British wagon department opened roads wherever they saw fit. One of these roads was opened nearly in a straight line from the Jamaica road, about one-half a mile beyond Bedford, to present entrance of San& street, which shortened the distance to Jamaica considerably.