He was Schepen for a long period, was a Burgomaster for nine years, Alderman and Mayor under the English rule, Governor of the Dutch colony on the Delaware, and Sheriff at Esopus. Among his children was Gerardus Willemse Beekman, who was born in 1653. This son chose medicine as his study, and after obtaining his diploma he married Magdalena Abeel of Albany in 1677 and settled in Flatbush. Surgeon Van der Beeck had selected agriculture as a means of success, Surgeon Beekman entered the field of politics, and followed close upon the footsteps of his father. In 1685 he was Lieut. -Colonel of the militia and a Justice of the Peace. James II. had abandoned his throne, had tossed the great seal of his kingdom into the Thames and was a fugitive. William and Mary reigned in his stead. Strong as was the partisan feeling in the mother country, it lacked the personal rancor that rendered the revolution in New York so bitter, so tragic. The Governor of the Colony was not in the province, the Lieut.-Governor was strongly suspected of favoring the exiled Stuart and of connivance with the French in Canada for the surrender of New York to their government, the officers of the city were adherents to the lost cause, and gloom rested upon this nascent colony. At this period a man of action was required, and that man appeared in Jacob Leisler. In the events that followed each other with startling rapidity after the assumption by Leisler of the government, the Justices of New York refused to administer the oath of allegiance to the new rulers to the people; then Leisler sent for Justice Beekman to perform this duty, and he complied cheerfully. In June, 1690, Surgeon Beekman was a member of Leisler's Council and a year later he was placed under arrest by the new Governor, Sloughter, and held for trial on a charge of treason. The result of that trial was the conviction of Leisler, Milborne, and six others, of whom was Beekman. Their sentence was death. For a brief period public opinion was with Sloughter and the government; but it was abruptly divided by the execution of Leisler and Milborne. The other members of the Council. who were awaiting execution became objects of sympathy to a large party among the people. Gerardus Beekman had been a firm friend and supporter of Leisler prior to the last act of his administration-the resort to arms-from which he earnestly dissented and vainly endeavored to dissuade Leisler from performing; his sympathies otherwise were with Leisler's cause and he looked upon his execution as little less than judicial murder. The sentence of death against Beekman and his coadjutors was not executed. The sudden death of Sloughter was followed by the appointment of Benjamin Fletcher as Governor of the Province and the pardon of the participants in Leisler's government. For some years Surgeon Beekman's life seems to have been passed in quiet, and it was not till 1702 that he reappeared in politics. In that and the following years he was a member of Lord Cornbury's Council; in 1709 he was acting Governor of the Province between the administrations of Lieut. -Gov. Richard Ingoldsby VOL. XII.-No. 5.-30 and Robt. Hunter, and in 1711 and 1715 he was a member of Governor Hunter's Council. From this time he seems to have abandoned all political offices and to have lived quietly till his decease in 1724. One episode of his private life is preserved by a letter of Justice Henry Filkin to the Secretary of the Council. There was a dispute between the people of Brooklyn and Flatbush in regard to their pastor, and in the course of the conflict the law had been invoked, and Justice Beekman had decided against the Brooklyn party. A short time after his decision he and Justice Filkin met on the ferry-boat crossing to Brooklyn, and on landing stopped at the ferry-house to drink a glass of wine. How much wine was quaffed and how long the two remained at the hostelry is not recorded, ere they left, however, they had begun a dispute in regard to church matters, which passed on from bad to worse, till Beekman ended by calling Filkin "a a pittiful fellow, dog, rogue, rascal, etc." This excited Justice Filkin's ire beyond control, and he adds, "which caused me, being overcome with passion, to tell him I had a good mind to knock him off his horse, we being both at that time getting upon our horses to goe home, but that I would not goe, I would fight him at any time with a sword." Probably a night's sleep placed this grievous quarrel in a different light, for a duel was not the result. The next physician in chronological order was Dr. John Nerbury, who lived at the Ferry in 1710, and in that year had indentured to him a Palatine child. A bill of his against the County amounting to 4 shillings 6 pence for taking care of a "sick poor man" in Flatbush was recorded by the Supervisors in 1732. A year later he gave a deed of a wood lot in Flatbush to Johannes De Witt, and in 1746 he was a resident on Staten Island. The records of the Supervisors contain bills for the treatment of poor people from the following physicians: 1740, Dr. Van der Voort. 1759-'67, Dr. John Lodewick, who in the latter year rendered a bill of £9, 5sh, 6 pence for attendance on a sick person for three months. 1766-'69, Dr. Harry Van de Water. 1754-'65'70-'72, Dr. Henry Van Beuren. Of these, but two call for further mention, Drs. Van Beuren and Van de Water. The former has given us a picture of the practice of medicine in his time in a long and caustic letter against medical charlatans which he published in the "Weekly Postboy" in 1754, over the name of "Dr. Hendrick." After the battle of Long Island many of the inhabitants of Kings County hastened to renew their allegiance to the king; among these was Dr. Van Beuren, who renewed his oath to the English government in November, 1776, and who afterward became a leader among the loyal refugees. The further record of Dr. Harry Van de Water states that he died in 1776 "from a disease contracted on a prison ship." FRANK B. GREEN. NOTES MRS. GEORGE W. CULLUM, the granddaughter of the patriot, financier, and statesman, Alexander Hamilton, who died recently at her Newport villa, was a lady of marked ability, of exceptional culture, of great personal loveliness of character, of social distinction, and a philanthropist in its best and broadest sense. She was at the head of, and a large contributor of her means to, many of the excellent charities of New York City-the mere catalogue of which would fill our entire space. She devoted her influence emphatically for the good of others; and in nothing is this more apparent than in her endowment of the new Cancer Hospital in Eighth Avenue near One hundred and Sixth Street, to which she gave $50,000-and also left for it bequests in her Will amounting to The nearly or quite as much more. touching scene at the laying of the corner stone of this institution in June last will never be forgotten by those present. The expression of mingled thankfulness and devotion which illuminated Mrs. Cullum's beautiful features as she participated in the impressive ceremonies, told more eloquently than words how deeply her whole soul had been enlisted in an achievement due largely to her own personal efforts. The great-grandfather of Mrs. Cullum was General Philip Schuyler of Revolutionary fame. She was twice married, her first husband having been Maj.-Gen. Henry Wager Hallock, at one time commander-in-chief of the Northern Army in the late Civil War. Her second husband, who survives her, is the distinguished General George W. Cullum, colonel of engineers, retired, the scholar and writer, so well known through his valuable contributions to the readers of this Magazine. LAKE BOMOSEEN-This lake is situated in the towns of Castleton and Hubbardton, Vermont. What is its etymology? What should be its authography? In Wm. Blodgett's map of 1789 it is called L-a-k-e B-o-m-b-a-z-o-n. (Page 38, An account of the celebration of the fourth of July, 1881, at Mason's Point, Lake Bomoseen). In "A History of the Indian Wars in New England, Montpelier, 1812," page 170, it is spelled B-o-mb-a-z-e-e-n. In the "Gazetteer of the State of Vermont," by Zadock Thomp son, 1824, it is called B-o-m-b-a-z-i-n-e. In "Hemenway's Vermont Historical Gazetteer," Vol. III., 1877, it is spelled B-o-m-o-s-e-e-n, but says it was formerly called B-o-m-b-a-z-i-n-e. On deeds and surveys in the records of the town of Castleton, it is called T-h-e P-o-n-d, and C-a-s-t-l-e-t-o-n P-o-n-d. About 1865 a Mr. Copeland, who owned a farm in the western part of Castleton, and who much admired the lake, began to study the origin of the name B-o-m-b-a-z-i-n-e. A few years latter he wrote several letters for the Rutland Herald, in which he claimed that the name was taken from the famous Norridgewock chief, Bomazeen, who was killed near Taconnet (Me.) in 1724. He claimed that a locality in Maine was called B-o-m-b-a-z-i-n-e, named from this chief, and that the name of the lake in Castleton was derived from the same From Mr. Copeland's efforts to have the name changed to B-o-m-o-s-e-e-n it has now come into general use, no one having questioned his authority. Another theory as to the origin of the name of the lake is given by the older inhabitants living in this vicinity, viz. Soon after the town commenced to be settled a peddler crossed the lake on the ice, having several webs of the cloth called bombazine on his sled: one web got unfolded and trailed along on the ice unobserved nearly the whole distance across the lake, which ruined the piece. The peddler named the lake B-o-m-b-a-z-i-n-e. Another theory may be wholly conjectural, yet not without some probability of being true. It may be stated as follows: When Champlain made his expedition to the lake which now bears his name, might he not have followed up Poultney River-then Castleton Riverand over into the valley, when he beheld for the first time, the beautiful green foliage surrounding the lake reflected from all parts of the surface? B-o-mb-a-z-i-n-e was first suggested to his mind, and the lake was then and there, named and christened. B-o-m-b-a-z-o-n is nearly the French pronunciation of the word, and from his records would the name be taken from which to construct maps and write books; such was the manner of spelling the name by the early writer, but the early settlers had little learning, and knew little about the origin of the name, and may never have known it; hence they used such terms as C-a-s-t-l-e-t-o-n P-o-n-d or T-h-e P-o-n-d. This, however, is merely conjecture. JOHN M. CURRIER CASTLETON, VT., October 13, 1884 FLORIDA DISCOVERED IN 1513-This is the true date, as shown by Oscar Peschel, in his Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen, 1858, page 5, 521, note. He says: Herrera (Dec. I. Lib. IX. Cap, 10) is the only writer who gives the exact date of Ponce's discovery, and he must have had a ship's journal before him. From this it appears that his Calendar reckoning does not agree with the year 1512, in which Easter-day happened on the 11th of April, nor to 1511, when it fell on the 20th of the same, but to 1513; which is correctly given by the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, in his "Florida, Lib. I, Cap. 2, 1723." The city of St. Augustine in Florida, is to celebrate the landing of Ponce de Leon on the 27th of March, which is right, but the year of the discovery is 1513. J. C. BREVOORT THE TWO PLUM PUDDINGS-In the recently published "Letters and Times. of the Tylers," appears the following amusing anecdote: Jefferson was to dine with Governor Tyler on a certain occasion, and the Governor summoned his major domo before him and gave general instructions for a good dinner. The personage holding that responsible position of major domo happened to be his youthful son John, afterwards President of the United States. When the hour and the guests came for the banquet, the first courses passed off most delightfully; the dishes were taken away, and the gentlemen present awaited the dessert. Suddenly a door flew open, and a negro servant appeared bearing, with both hands raised high above his head, a smoking dish of plum pudding, which he deposited, with a flourish, before Governor Tyler. Scarcely had he withdrawn before another door flew open, and an attendant dressed exactly like the first entered bearing another plum pudding, equally hot, which, at a grave nod from John, he placed before Mr. Jefferson. The Governor, who expected a little more variety, turned to his son, and exclaimed in accents of astonishment, "Two plum puddings, John; two plum puddings! Why, this is rather extraordinary!" "Yes, sir," said the enterprising major domo, "it is extraordinary; but" (and here he rose and bowed deferentially to Mr. Jefferson) "it is an extraordinary occasion." GENERAL GATES' WILL-The following letter, written in 1879 by a relative of Gen. Gates' wife, contains facts hitherto not publicly known in regard to the General's marriage. W. L. S. To Wm. L. Stone, Esq., Not many persons know that there are living several of General Gates's wife's descendants and legatees named in her will; some of them in Philadelphia and some in New York. Of the old stock there are three left, Thomas and James Singleton of the first, and Mrs. Isabel Clark, wife of Abraham Clark, of the last named city. I have a copy of the will of Gen. Gates, and of that of his wife, Mary Gates, which have been in my possession a number of years. Mrs. Mary Gates was the only child of Mr. Valence of Liverpool, England, and at her father's death emigrated to America-before the Revolutionary War bringing with her $450,000. The General was a comparatively poor man when he married our cousin, Mary Valence; and before the marriage he promised that he never would diminish her estate but add to it. In the great struggle, however, for independence, nearly the whole of the money was used by Gates, except about $90,000, which she left by her will. Mary Gates's money was freely used, and many of the Revolutionary heroes were participants of her hospitality, particularly Count Kosciusko, who, when wounded, lay six months at her house. Mary Gates was cousin to both my father and mother, they having been first cousins to each other. THOS. SINGLETON |
