Haunted Mansion of Hunts Point

The ever growing evidence of link between the Civil War eras plot to burn New York City and the business activities of Copperhead politicians and merchants. Linked to the construction of a mansion called The Chateau in Hunts Point.

1. 1859 “Whitlock’s Folly”
near Southern
Boulevard 

“Cradle of Cuban
Liberty.”
Hommock Manor, the country seat of B. M.
Whitlock, Esq., is situated in West Farms
Township, on the East river, or Sound, about 3
miles from Harlem. The estate contains several
hundred acres; but that part on which the
dwelling is situated, is, as its name implies, a
complete Hommock of about 20 acres - which
at high tides is nearly surrounded by water -
and is approached from the main part of the
estate by a causeway.

--"The Horticulturist, And Journal Of Rural Art And Rural
Taste", by P. Barry, A. J. Downing, J. Jay Smith, Peter B. Mead,
F. W. Woodward, Henry T. Williams.
Local Kids Said the House Was Haunted
“Haunted” Mansion of Hunts

2. Artifacts from present day Soundview, Bronx
The land is purchased from Indians
This may certify whom it may
concerne that we Shonearoekite,
Wapomoe, Tuckorre,
Whawhapenucke, Capahase,
Quannaco, Shaquiski,
Passachahenne, Harrawooke, have
aleined and sold unto Edward
Jessup and John Richardson, both of
the place above said, a certain Tract
of land bounded on the east by the
River Aquehung or Bronxkx... -from
original deed with native signers 1664
Similar deed signed by native sachem’s for Rye 1661

3. Arent van Curler, later van Corlaer, (1619, Nijkerk, Gelderland - 1667) He
was born in Nijkerk, Netherlands. In 1643, Van Curler married the widow
of Jonas Bronck, Teuntie Joriaens, aka Antonia Slaaghboom
Joanas Broncx Signs Treaty with the Indians in 1642.
Joanas Broncx Established a Farm
along the Harlem River
William Kieft
governor of New
Amsterdam
1638-1647

4. Capt. Richard Panton, who acted so conspicuous a
part in the late commotions, had for years
cherished feelings of hostility to the
government, having, in 1656, suffered a brief
imprisonment at New Amsterdam for an
attempt to throw off the Dutch yoke at
Westchester. After the conquest of
the country by the English, he continued an
influential man at Westchester, both in civil and
church affairs, till his decease, in the
beginning of the next century, at an advanced
age. ANNALS OF NEWTOWN.
Director [Peter] Stuyvesant had just departed to
chastise the Swedes for their encroachments on
the Delaware, when a horde of armed Indians,
estimated at nineteen hundred, landed at New
Amsterdam, early on the morning of Sept. 15th,
1655, and began to break into houses for plunder.
Edward Jessup, together with Henry Newton, a
resident at Mespat, and Thomas Newton, afterward,
if not then, a landholder in Middelburg, were all
present at New Amsterdam on the night of the
battle, and assisted in repulsing the savages
“Edward Jessup hath been a traitor a long time ;
he went to New Haven to see to put the town under
them.” -letter to Stuyvesant
Among these first comers were Edward Jessup from
Stamford.
When Cornelis van Tienhoven shot a Native woman
for stealing a peach, the situation was ripe for
an unleashed fury

5. Ferris
Grove Farm
Hunt
Leggett
Hunts
Point
The first landholders on
Hunts Point were Edward
Jessup and John Richardson.
They bought the land from
Native Americans. The land
was inherited by both Gabriel
Leggett (1637-1700) who
married Elizabeth Richardson
daughter of John
Richardson, and Thomas
Hunt of Grove Farm, who
married Jessup’s daughter
also named Elizabeth.
1666 land grant for
Hunts Point from King
Charles II of England
John Throckmorton arrives from Rhode Island about 1642
1664
Morris 1671
Broncx 1644
Hutchinson Massacre 1643

6. Capt. Thomas Hunt the father of Josiah Hunt purchased from Jessup an area including Hunts Point
His son Josiah inherited the Grove Farm in Throggs Neck, Westchester, now the Bronx. He
married Rebecca, eldest daughter of Katherine Harrison before the summer of 1671.

7. A striking example of an early modern accused witch whose circumstances
coincided with many of the culpable aspects of the witch stereotype – female,
widowed, financially ambiguous, socially arbitrary, and self-assured to the point of
combative.
John Harrison died in August 1667, leaving his widow
and daughters a large estate of over nine hundred
pounds. Hostility between Katherine and her
neighbors grew at a startling rate following the death
of her husband. The focal points of her legal battles were her
trials as a witch in 1668 and 1669, but there
were also three separate suits brought against
Katherine during the autumn of 1668. References to Katherine Harrison’s healing
abilities, and to her reputation for it, emerge
repeatedly in her witchcraft trial. William Warren testi Katherine’s unusual position as a ‘woman
alone’, was made more so by another social
anomaly: her reputation as a ‘cunning woman’ Katherine was
While a single young woman, Katherine Harrison
worked as a servant to Captain John Cullick of
Hartford. She read a book about fortune telling by the
British astrologer William Lilly, and she tried to predict
the other servants’ fortunes for them. One of her
predictions concerning whom one of the servants
would marry came true; this incident and other
accusations would eventually become the basis of a
witchcraft case against h
While a single young woman, Katherine Harrison worked
as a servant to Captain John Cullick of Hartford. She
read a book about fortune telling by the British astrologer
William Lilly, and she tried to predict the other servants’
fortunes for them. One of her predictions concerning
whom one of the servants would marry came true; this
incident and other accusations would eventually become
the basis of a witchcraft case against h
Katherine was released with the understanding that she
would pay a fine and leave Wethersfield for her own
safety and to appease her neighbors. Katherine went on
to live in Westchester, New York, though she may have
returned to Wethersfield before her death in 1682.

9. Capt. Leisler sent an order to Capt. Ponton "to send him
some men to goe to Albany for their assistance against the
French and Capt. Ponton asked them who was willing to go
volunteers for said expedition, and Gabriel Leggett
answered they was fools if any of them did go, upon which
Capt. Ponton commanded him to hold his peace, but he still
continued abusing the deponent and said : 'here comes the
father of rogues,' and many other scurrulous words, upon
which I gott a warrent against him &c."
"Capt. Barnes upon his oath as a Justice of the peace saith
that Capt. Williams and Gabriel Leggett being at his house
was drinking together and he thinks Gabriel was a little
overtaken in drink, but he called Capt. Williams thief,
murderer & Iyer, & he would prove it, and repeated over
many times, upon which Williams being provoked got out a
writt against him, and arrested Leggett, and several
persuaded Leggett to get security, but he would not, soe
went to prison, and there he remained till the next
morning. -1690-91
Will of Gabriel Leggett.
I will, give and bequeath unto my son John Leggatt my house
and outhouses, orchard, land and the meadow in the Planting
Neck and meadow by the yard side, and is that messuage or
tenement which Thos. Williams dwells upon, and was formerly
my father in law John Richardsons, together with fifty acres
of woodland, to him, his heirs, and assignes forever. -1697
Richard Ponton was an agent of Jacob Leisler. Ponton clashed
with Gabriel Leggett who opposed Leisler’s attempt to seize
control of the colony during a period when there was unrest
in England and a new governor was yet to be appointed in new
York

10. Jacob Leisler
seized the government of the Province of New York and was appointed
Commander-in-Chief by the Committee of Safety; when the duly
commissioned Governor, Sloughter, arrived, the Anti-Leislers had their
revenge by securing Leisler's sentence to death and was executed in
New York May 16, 1691
- Gabriel was a strong opponent to Leisler's claims
- When Leisler called for volunteers to go to Canada against the
French, Gabriel resisted the call telling Capt Ponton that they were fools
if any of them did go, upon which Capt Ponton commanded him to hold
his peace, but he still continued, abusing the Capt and said "here
comes the father of rogues and many other scurrulous words, upon
which I gott a warrent against him &c." Capt Richard Ponton writ out a
warrant and signed it, Capt Williams was the complayant and Thomas
Stathem was the sheriff and served it. In turn, Gabriel took out a writ
against against Thomas Stathem for an assault and false imprisonment.
Governor
Sloughter
signing
Leisler’s
death
warrant.

11. “Debatable Lands.”
debatable land
Richardson & Jessup
Lewis Morris
by marriage land passed to
Hunt and Leggett

12. Lewis Morris builds on the site of Jonas Bronck’s original settlement
Lewis Morris

First lord of the manor of Morrisania
(15 October 1671 – 21 May 1746)
Grandfather of the signer of the
Declaration of Independence
On November 3, 1691, Morris was married to Isabella Graham (1673–
1752), the eldest daughter of James Graham, who served as Speaker
of the New York General Assembly and Recorder of New York City.

13. Historic Places and Features Overlaid on a 1921 map
Leggett claim
Morris claim
Hunt Cemetery
Debatable Land

14. First Lord of the Manor of Morrisania Lewis Morris gives “part
of the Manor of Morrissania,” land “by the sound that divides
Long Island and the Islands of Nassau from the Continent.” to
his father-in-law James Graham who is also an influential
politician.The deed claims the land known as the “debatable
land” for Morris who then transfers it to Graham.
“Wigwam Brook. But by some falsely called Sakrahunck...”
“by the House of Gabriel Legget...”
“Including the same Jeafards neck with the Hammock Meadows and Marshes thereunto...”
Deed circa 1738-1746
1671-1746

15. pr; mes·suagemessuage: (noun) a dwelling house with outbuildings and land assigned to its use.

16. “The destruction of the old house took place under the
following circumstances Col Fowler of the British army who
had dispossessed the Graham family and made it his own
quarters invited all the officers and gentry in the neighborhood
to dine with him preparatory to his change of quarters The
company were assembled and all seemed gay and happy The
more youthful of both sexes were wandering about the lawn
enjoying the beauty of the prospect when a servant one of Mr
Graham's slaves announced the important fact Dinner is on
the table All turned their faces to the banqueting room but
before any one entered the door there was a cry of fire heard
Col Fowler seemed to think the dinner was more important
than the building he ordered everything removed from the
table the gentlemen assisting and in a few minutes the table
and contents were removed to the shade of a large willow
where all seated themselves and appeared to enjoy the meal
and the burning The house was utterly consumed with the
contents before the company separated No effort was made to
save an article not required for the better enjoyment of their
meal The same evening Colonel Fowler conducted a
marauding party into the vicinity of Eastchester where he was
attacked and fell mortally wounded Being brought back to the
house of Cornelius van Ranc overseer of Mr Graham's farm he
expired that night.”
--A history of the county of Westchester, from its first settlement,
Robert Bolton Vol.2 1848
Leggett’s house occupied the former site of the
Graham house. The property between Bound
(Bungay) Creek and Wigwam Brook (Leggett Creek)
was granted by Judge Morris to his son-in-law
James Graham (grandson of Graham), on April 2,
1740; Mr. Graham died here in his house on
Jeafferd’s Neck (Graham Point and then Leggett
Point), in 1767... It was later sold and divided up
among several owners including Joshua
Waddington and in 1830 to William H. Leggett
where it was named Rose Bank. -Stephen Jenkins
House of Jonathan Graham descendant of
James Graham Burned during Revolution

17. 293 Lenox Ave.
New York, N.Y.
June 25, 1892
My dear Grandson,
One dark night, when all the family was asleep, a party of British soldiers under the command of
Colonel DeLancey surrounded the Leggett mansion and took possession of it, with all its contents
and other farm property, saying they were accused of being spies and giving information to the
American forces at White Plains. The family without notice were driven out in the dead of night to seek
shelter wherever they could find it.
My grandfather, [Thomas Leggett (1755-1843)] who was at the time some nineteen years old,
was seized with his two brothers, and made prisoners of war, and conveyed, under the charge of a
band of Indians to General Burgoyne’s camp, then at Saratoga.’’ After a long while of confinement, my
grandfather with another prisoner of war, effected their escape, and immediately made for the woods,
hiding in hay stacks, under barns and other places by day, traveling only at night, begging food and
perhaps shelter as best they could, suffering much from cold, hunger and fatigue; liable at any moment
to be picked up by British spies and scouts, or tomahawked by brutal savages…
He immediately started for his father’s place, but what a sight he was to see. His father’s comfortable
house with all its contents, burnt to the ground by the British marauding troops... About all that was
left of the house were the foundation walls… On these same foundation walls, on which stood
his father’s [Thomas Leggett (1721-after 1781)] house, my grandfather erected his house and
lived in it all his days…
Grandfather,
Thomas B. Leggett
Thomas Leggett Jr.
1755-1843
Thomas B. Leggett
1823-1895
Thomas B. Leggett’s (1823-1895) letter to his grandson telling the
story of how the Leggett family was forced out of their home during
the American revolution and how his own grandfather Thomas
Leggett Jr (1755-1843) was taken prisoner by the British. He also
recounts how his grandfather returned to find the mansion burned,
which he rebuilt and lived in it all his days.

18. After the revolution, his home in Westchester burned Thomas Leggett moved to this home on Cherry St. in
Manhattan. His son Samuel started the first gas light company in NY and his home was the first lit by gas.

19. Westchester Road (Avenue) is cut through Morris land 1808-1814
Thomas Leggett
1755-1843
Gouverneur Morris
1752-1816
Bronx Accent: A Literary and Pictorial History of the Borough
edited by Lloyd Ultan, Barbara Unge
Gouverneur Morris Battles Thomas Leggett
The Leggett and Morris families battle over access to Morrissania for 150 years.
Map showing Leggett’s Creek as Wigwam Brook

20. History of Westchester County: New York, Including, Volume 1, Part 2 edited by John Thomas Scharf
Morris was one of the major
entrepreneurs of the 19th
century Bronx. As Vice President
of the New York and Harlem
River Railroad, he built the
railroad now running along Park
Avenue in New York City.
Gouverneur Morris Jr.
(February 9, 1813 – August 20, 1888)
Gouverneur Morris Mansion
Cypress Ave. & 130th St.
Thomas Leggett amasses property
in the first decades of the 19th century
Thomas Leggett Jr.
1755-1843

21. “Also I give to her during her natural life, my original homestead at West
Farms in Westchester County, comprising the house and about fifty
acres of land originally belonging to it, or the yearly annuity of five
hundred dollars per annum in lieu thereof whenever she shall choose to
leave the said homestead and release the same from her life interest, such
annuity to commence at her making such choice, and release to be paid
quarterly and rateably up to her decease.”
-Thomas Leggett’s Will 1834
Mary Underhill 1770-1849
Thomas Leggett Jr.
1755-1843
Died in the home he rebuilt after
being burned by the British
during the revolution.
St. Bartholomew Church where
wedding took place in 1845
Lafayette Place & Great Jones
Thomas B. Leggett
1823-1895
Sarah Huggins
1826-1902
1830-1854
Thomas B. Legget
Purchases Debatable Land from Austin Graham Estate
William Mortimer Allen
1814-1879
Catherine Maria (Leggett)
Allen and her mother
Margaret Peck (Wright)
Leggett
William Haight
Leggett
“Hummock”
Cornelius Poillon
shipbuilder related to
Leggetts
Thomas Leggett Jr leaves his home to his second wife, Mary Underhill. She moves to a Quaker community near Saratoga, NY where she’s
buried. Thomas B. Leggett shares the land with his father, mother and in-laws. He begins construction of Hummock manor in 1850.

22. Rose Bank
"And so my father, then only twenty-two
himself took his sweet young bride to his
father and mother, living in the family
homestead, "Rose Bank," situated on the
East River, Leggett’s Point, Westchester.
Here she received a warm welcome and
became indeed a daughter of the house.”
-Florence Huggins Leggett
Possibly the Leggett family relaxing in the garden of their home.
Edward Howard Leggett (1845-1927) in a hat on left
of picture outside 301 Pear St., where he carried on
his business Leggett & Brother, He was born in the
Rose Bank house on the Hunts Point estate.

23. Mystery of Rose Bank
How did the Leggett family lose its
patrimony - an estate that survived the
Revolutionary War and sprawled across
much of today's South Bronx for 200
years, only to be dismantled under
mysterious circumstances? Florence
Huggins Leggett, writing in 1902, says her
father was forced to move from the estate,
due to "financial difficulties," around 1862.]
-FAMILY HISTORY SHOWS BRONX AS RURAL
PARADISE, Gersh Kuntzman; The New York Post, Monday,
August 28, 2000
“That would follow a pattern,” said Bronx
historian Lloyd Ultan. When the city
expanded -- and annexed the Bronx in
1874 -- large landowners sold their farms
to reinvest in the booming manufacturing,
railroad or steel industries.
"Some invested it badly, though," Ultan
said. "It's like I always say, `the first
generation makes the money, the second
generation preserves it and the third
generation squanders it." IBID Gersh Kuntzman

24. Samuel Leggett Jr. disappears after being
implicated in the failure of the Empire City
Bank to which is was a director. He is
reported to owe the bank $100,000
($3 million today).
1854
1855
On May 1, 1854 Benjamin M. Whitlock purchases 200 acres from
Thomas B. Leggett for $25,000 ($700,000 today) in Hunts Point.

25. Anatomy of a scam
Barker vs Wood for
mayor of NYC
Elijah F. Purdy director
Empire City Bank
Isaac O. Barker director
Empire City Bank

26. Both Samuel Leggett Jr. and his wife Ann met violent
ends. She was murdered by a in-law and he was found
shot to death. His death was ruled a suicide but
questions remained and few believed the coroners
conclusion at the time. Both were shot coincidentally in
the left eye.
MARCH 15, 1878

27. East River
East River
Thomas B. Leggett

1823-1895
After a time [1854] financial difficulties caused my father to give up
this large place and move to West Morrisania.
-Florence Huggins Leggett
THOMAS B. LEGGETT

28. Hunts Tavern
established 1730s
Dickey estate

Last estate
in Hunts Point
Paul Spofford
estate
Dennison
mansion 1850
Faile mansion
Francis Barretto
Julia Coster
Bath House
1910
P.S. 48
Leggett estate
1890
Thomas Leggett Jr. 1755-1843

Direct descendant of Gabriel Leggett
Corpus Christy
Monastery
Rose Bank is seat of the
Leggett estate by the 19th
century
Waddington Mansion 1808-1828
sold to Francis Barretto
Fox Estate
Hoe Estate 1856
Whitlock/Casanova
mansion 1859
The land becomes the
site of country estates
for NYC’s rich
Benjamin G. Arnold

Coffee Merchant

1869-1880

29. view of the East River from Hunts Point on a 1864 real estate map
south views north views

30. Benjamin Morris Whitlock was born on January 31, 1815. On May 5, 1851 he married
Amelia Mott Wilson. Whitlock’s sister Josephine married William L. McDonald who would
figure in the 1864 Confederate plot to burn 13 hotels in NYC retaliating for Southern setbacks
during the Civil War.
1857 Whitlock built an ornate manor costing $350,000 or $10 million today

31. 1857 Wealth of the World
net worth of $2,000,000 in 1857 = $60,000,000 todayBenjamin Morris Whitlock

32. Thaddeus Whitlock is Benjamin Whitlock’s father
Josephine is Benjamin’s sister
Franklin Market, foot of William St., New York City, 1820.

33. WHITE, BENJAMIN (1755-1841), merchant.
Benjamin and Mary (Morris) White of Shrewsbury,
NJ are the maternal grandparents of Benjamin M.
Whitlock. Benjamin White, a Quaker served in the
American Revolution under General Daniel
Morgan. Benjamin White was postmaster of the
village of Shrewsbury, for fifty-three
years, receiving his appointment from Washington.
His daughter Mary, 18 weds Thaddeus Whitlock, 22
June 3, 1803
Daniel Morgan
Shrewsbury
Monmouth County

35. tea water pump in Chatham Square
Chatham Square near Bayard and Bowery
Thaddeus Whitlock was a school teacher.
“There is no good water to be met
with in the town itself; but at a little
distance there is a large spring of good
water, which the inhabitants take for
their tea and for the uses of the
kitchen.” Professor Kalm
1782
1812
1748
Thaddeus Whitlock is living in the
10th Ward in the 1820 census
1767
Bulls Head
Tavern

36. Thaddeus Whitlock
teacher

37. Thaddeus Whitlock was a Mason
Holy Royal Arch are a branch of Freemasons Royal Arch Masons meet as
a Chapter; in the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch. Early 19th
century masonic meeting places are shown at right. Including a connection
to Tammany Hall a powerful democratic club that ruled NYC for more than
a century
Tammany Hall, now the "Sun" Building, early meeting place of
Grand Lodge and of many subordinate Lodges. St. John', Hall, a
still earlier scene of the labors of the Fraternity, is the tall flat-
roofed building on side street.
City Hall (after 1813)
Tammany Hall original
St. John’s Hall

38. St. John’s Hall
Frankfort St.
Thaddeus Whitlock was treasurer of the
Masonic Lodge at the time of this bitter rivalry
between the Albany and New York City
factions. He is credited with playing a
moderating role that helped the Lodge survive
a long and bitter struggle.
Scandalously bore them off to St. John’s Hall

39. A rare look into the personality and character of
Thaddeus Whitlock
History of the Jerusalem Chapter

40. Roosevelt St. is a fashionable area in the
early 19th century
1825
1827
1816
Thaddeus Teaches Near Home
16-18 Oliver are properties are owned by Thaddeus
who is listed from 1825 as using them as a school. In
this 1867 sanitary map, made thirty years after the
properties were sold upon Thaddeus’ death in 1831 the
buildings are three stories tall. 16 Oliver has a store
and a liquor store is in 18 Oliver. This corner location
would later become site of one of the first public
schools in New York.
Thaddeus is listed in 1816 using this
address on long ago de-mapped
Roosevelt St. as a school
Fletcher Harper of Harper Brothers publishing house
Isaac F. Bragg principal City Commercial School 3 Roosevelt St.

41. Thaddeus Whitlock owned land used for the first public school in New
York City. The current PS 1 was built in 1897. It’a also known as the
Alfred E. Smith elementary school after the 4 time governor of New York
Alfred E. Smith residence
Thaddeus Whitlock
properties 1832
Alfred E. Smith school at
Oliver and Henry St.
1873-1944
Mariner’s
Temple
Baptist
Church
illustration
1808.
Public Schools were built on corner
lots in the early days of public
education. Considered optimal for
light and air circulation. But by the
20th century these locations were too
valuable for purchase by the city.

42. Greek Revival style on
Henry St. built 1820s-30s
Federal style Henry St. 1820s-30s

43. In 1820s this area was being developed from a cattle pen near tanneries to a fashionable area. 59-61
Bowery were demolished for the Manhattan Bridge approach in the early 20th century. Across was
the Bowery Theater and Bulls-Head Tavern used in1783 by Geo. Washington as an HQ
1826-1929
1750-1858
Thaddeus Whitlock
lived here
Corner of Canal and Bowery

44. Thaddeus Whitlock, 51
dies Sunday evening December 18, 1831
“The two 3 story brick houses No. 18 Oliver and No. 16 Oliver street, corner
Henry, with privilege of two renewals of 21 years each. The whole is now rented to
good tenants, will be disposed of at auction on 6th December.” The Evening Post
Tuesday, December 4, 1832.

45. Mary Whitlock, mother of Benjamin, Edward and Josephine is listed in city
directories as living on Cherry Street after the death of her husband Thaddeus.
Their mother is living on Cherry Street
near the waterfront in 1834
She is living nearby two years later in 1836
The East Side of the early and mid-19th century was different than today. There were fine residential streets built up with homes of old and
well-to-do families. East Broadway was lined with old aristocratic residences, some can still be seen behind the signs and grime of everyday
activity on this now bustling Chinatown main drag. Henry Street was lined with trees and two and three story brick buildings. Most of the
surrounding streets were similar. The homes were occupied by these well-off people, prosperous merchants and professional men with a
shopping district for women at Grand and Canal Streets. But in time this section of the city deteriorated and the old families moved uptown.
In 1832 shortly after her husbands death
Taken from newspaper advertisement December 30, 1832 for neighboring house at 144 Cherry Street:
The house and lot No. 144 Cherry St. being 27 feet front and rear, 149 feet 4 inches deep on the westerly side, and 149
feet 11 inches deep on the easterly side. The house is of brick with slate roof, 3 stories high, covering the entire front of
the lot, and 54 feet deep with a two story back tea room in the rear; the whole interior is of modern finish, parlors very
spacious and elegant, with marble chimney pieces — the sleeping rooms numerous and unusually large and airy —
extensive vaults front and rear —capacious rain water cistern and a well of excellent water in the yard. The house is fitted
up with grates in all the principal stories, and gas fixtures introduced throughout with burners and chandeliers… noting
that test or convenience could suggest, has been omitted.

46. Fashionable Cherry and Cathrine Street
Samuel Osgood House, better
known as the first White House,
and official residence of
President George Washington.
Demolished 1856
At 116 Cherry Street, the venerable
men’s clothier, Brooks Brothers, has
been a fixture of New York for two-
hundred years
Lord & Taylor opened their first store on 47 Catherine
Street in 1826, occupying the building until 1866.

47. December 16, 1835 The Great Fire destroyed
more than 500 buildings along the East River
Testimony of Anthony W. Winans during the investigation saw 20-year old
Benjamin Whitlock’s as buildings exploded.
No. 86 and 88 Front St. are are said to be used to store
saltpeter, an explosive component of gunpowder.
Whitlock of No. 84 Front St.
Reportedly area where the fire began at Comstock & Adams,
N0. 86, 88 Front where saltpeter was stored
Abolitionist Arthur Tappan’s
store No. 122 Pearl
Britton S. Woolley commission merchant

48. The fire broke out at 9 o'clock last evening. I was
writing in the library when the alarm was given, and
went immediately down. The night was intensely cold,
which was one cause of the unprecedented progress of
the flames, for the water froze in the hydrants and
the engines and their hose could not be worked
without great difficulty. The firemen, too, had been
on duty all last night, and were almost incapable of
performing their usual services. The fire originated in
the store of Comstock & Adams, in Merchant Street
— a narrow, crooked street, filled with high stores
lately erected and occupied by dry goods and
hardware merchants, which led from Hanover to Pearl
street. The buildings covered an area of a quarter of a
mile square closely built up with fine stores of four
and five stories in height, filled with merchandise,
all of which lie in a mass of burning, smoking ruins,
rendering the streets indistinguishable.
Philip Hone Mayor of NYC describes the fire in his diary

49. Benjamin M. Whitlock is running for election in January 1836, as a director of
the American Mercantile Library Association located at Clinton Hall, corner of
Beekman and Nassau St. A position for ambitious young clerks out to make a
name. He’s associated with A.V. Winans & Co.

50. During excavations in the 20th Century the goods stored in the store owned by Anthony V.
Winans (uncle of Anthony W.) were discovered partially preserved, but burned in the 1835
Great Fire. Showing the actual merchandise kept in the warehouse and counting house of A.V.
Winans & Co. The archeologists discovered a variety of imported fruits, vegetables, nuts, and
spices from all over the world. Most common were coffee, grapes, and black pepper. The
peppercorns were found in cloth sacks from Sumatra.
The excavators found that Winans was dealing in wine, beer, porter and ale imported from England.
Wine bottled with seals embossed with LEOVILLE, home of the St. Julien estate of the Marquis de las
Cases in Bordeaux. Winans was also importing tobacco pipes. Despite the losses Winans was not
wiped out and continued business in the same area by the next year.

51. •
A.V. Winans & Co. vs McCullough & Stringfellow, 1836 Case No.
1779 Box 46
2 female slaves, named Matilda and Sarah, who were the property of
David McCullough, were surrendered in lieu of debt.
The African Slave Trade
A selection of cases from the Records of the U.S. District Courts in the states of
Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina
Congress would pass legislation in 1819 which considered intercontinental slave trading as
piracy, punishable by death.
Alabama:
Apparently slaves were also on the bill…

52. 1837 Bread Riots and Panic
A depression sets in 1837 and lasts until 1844
Some merchants go under, but others thrive. Money is
available through banks that have access to markets in
Cuba where slave labor makes sugar king.

53. James Polk's stance on slavery-related issues illustrates the pivotal role of
moderate southern Democrats during the antebellum period. By 1839 Polk
had moved beyond a state-rights position (i.e., the Tenth Amendment) to
demand further guarantees for the security of slavery in the states. Polk
persuaded himself that slavery's security required the establishment of a
general principle: Congress had no constitutional power to infringe
slaveholders' rights anywhere (except perhaps north of 36o30'). Polk and his
southern Democratic associates misrepresented the strength of abolitionism
in the North, grossly exaggerated the likelihood of slaves' massacring white
families, and seemed to condone secession as an understandable response
if 'abolitionists' should gain a controlling influence in Washington. Through
this unnecessary stand Polk contributed as much as any other southern
Democratic leader to creating the mind-set which led, during the crisis of
1860-61, to the self-defeating policies pursued by southern Democrats of
both the Deep and Middle South.
James Polk

54. In 1841 Mary Whitlock is living in a boarding house at 42 Cliff Street
28 Cliff Street, the first house on the street
still stands. Its design was typical.
Boarding houses were common for single New Yorkers. 42 Cliff was also home to the
extended Whitlock family. John W. Whitlock is listed as living here with Mary in 1841. In
1843 they are joined by 28-year old Benjamin. In 1846 Brother Edward is also living at the
42 Cliff boardinghouse. Benjamin runs his grocery business at 84 Front, John and Edward
are merchants and agents at 89 Wall St. and John later at 122 Front St. The Whitlock family
seems on the road to upward mobility.

55. In 1842 a decade after
his father’s death
Benjamin Whitlock
establishes a
partnership with
David Nichols

56. George M. Nichols was a resident of Louisiana and did extensive
business with the independent Republic of Texas government before
Texas became a state.
George M. Nichols represented the firm in Texas
until 1856.
Records in the Texas archives show that agents of Benjamin M.
Whitlock’s firm travelled widely in the south. Apparently Whitlock’s
business connections reached down into Texas when the the Lone Star
state was an independent country. This Nichols is apparently different
than Whitlock’s Partner David Nichols. No merchants named either
David or George are listed in NYC directories in the 1840s.
A letter written by George M. Nichols to
the Republic of Texas asking for funds to be
sent to him in care of Whitlock, Nichols &
Co. 84 Front St.
Texas Library and Archives Commission

57. EMIGRATION TO THE TRINITY AND RED
RIVER COLONY, TEXAS
The parties to the contract made with the
Government of the Republic of Texas, under the
special acts and authority of the Congress,
passed the 4th of February, 1841, and January
16th, 1843, with Peters and others, for the
purpose of colonizing the vacant and
unappropriated lands of the Republic, having
formed themselves into an association called ‘The
Texas Emigration and Land Company,.. Mr.
George M. Nichols, a Merchant of Shreveport,
will give Emigrants all necessary information as to
the cheapest and best route to our Grant from
that place at the time of arrival there.
Founded by W. S. Peters and a group of Kentucky
businessmen, the Peters Colony provided for the
settlement of vast tracts of land in northeastern Texas
during the years 1842 to 1848.
Is “Mr. George M. Nichols, a Merchant of
Shreveport” La. the same Nichols who was an
agent of Whitlock & Nichols in Texas in 1841?
From the 1846 flyer advertising the Peter’s Colony

58. real estate map of 84 Front St. in 1860s
81-83 Front
street 1927
MCNY
1848
Whitlock’s wholesale grocery trading in “tobacco, sugar &
cotton plants” at 84 Front Street near the waterfront

59. The Whitlock brothers and mother lived in a boardinghouse at
42 Cliff Street in 1845-46. Doggett's New-York City Directory
Benjamin M. Whitlock marries his first wife Maria Louisa Hawley in
1846. They have one child, Sarah Louisa born in 1847 according to The
Hawley family official genealogy. The monument in Green-Wood
cemetery however says the child was buried in 1854 at age — 11 years
8 months 21 days — putting the birth October 13, 1842. The child’s
mother Maria Louisa Hawley Whitlock dies August 20, 1849
Joy and tragedy strike within a few years
Death Record for Maria Louisa with cause of death erased

60. William B. Crosby is son-
in-law of Henry Rutgers
Home of Irad Hawley, father
of Maria Louisa at 21
Rutgers Pl. before he moved
to 47 Fifth Ave. in 1855
Rutgers Bath House
1909 until recent
1835 Real Estate auction
brochure for Rutgers Pl
In 1849 Maria L., Benjamin & mother
Mary Whitlock is living at 9 Rutgers Place
9
21

61. Irad Hawley
1793-1865
Benjamin M. Whitlock’s first wife
Maria Louisa Hawley Whitlock dies August 20, 1849
Sarah Lavinia Hawley
Born June 15, 1845,
Died March 12, 1932.
Sarah Louisa
Hawley’s sister at the
family home
47 Fifth Ave.
Sarah Holmes
1801-1891
INSCRIPTION, Maria's stone:
Left side: To the memory of
Maria Louisa Hawley Whitlock
Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God
Front: Died August 20, 1849
Right: Erected as a tribute of affection by her
husband.
INSCRIPTION, Sarah's
stone: Front: Sarah Louisa
Hawley Whitlock
Died July 2, 1854 Aged 11
years 8 months and 21 days
Right: Of such is the
Kingdom of Heaven—
Mathew XIX.14.
Mother of
Maria Louisa
and Sarah
Louisa 47
Fifth Ave.
Father of
Maria
Louisa and
Sarah
Louisa
They have one child, Sarah Louisa born 1847. Maria Louisa dies during a cholera epidemic
in NYC in the summer of 1849 at the age of 25. Sarah Louisa dies in 1854.

62. Executive Committee
probably of early New
York Female Reform
Society, ca. 1850
“Moral reform was the first social movement in the United
States to consist primarily of women. Like abolitionism and the
temperance movement in these years, moral reform attracted the
support of thousands of men and women from New England to
the Old Northwest. Most people who affiliated with these reform
movements were part of "The Second Great Awakening"--a
religious movement that emphasized the power of human
agency when released from the bondage of sin.”
Benjamin M. Whitlock Philanthropist
In the new Victorian era sexual abstinence had its place within marriage as well as in courtship.
INSCRIPTION, Maria's stone:
Left side: To the memory of
Maria Louisa Hawley
Whitlock
Blessed are the pure in heart
for they shall see God
Front: Died August 20, 1849
Right: Erected as a tribute of
affection by her husband.
March, 1852

63. NYC EPIDEMICS
Yellow Fever 1805, 1822, 1870
Small Pox 1804, 1824, 1834, 1851, 1855, 1872, 1875, 1892, 1901
Cholera 1832, 1837, 1849, 1854, 1866
Scarlet Fever 1836, 1837
Typhus Fever 1892
Diphtheria 1897
Meningitis 1904
Influenza 1918
Cholera epidemics in NYC
186618491832
Maria Louisa dies August 20 1849, 233 die
from cholera, 30% of all deaths that week.
1849 cholera
deaths = 5,070
In 1850, the average age of death in
New York was 20 years and 8 months.
Child mortality was about 40% by the
age of five so families tended to be
large, about 6 children per woman.

64. Moses Taylor
1806-1882
James Barr Wilson
Birthdate: 1801 (86)
Death: Died 1887
Catherine Ann Taylor (Wilson)
Birthdate: February 8, 1810 (82)
Death Died December 31, 1892
Siblings
Amelia Mott Whitlock (Wilson)
Birthdate:1831 (79)
Death: Died 1910
Immediate Family:
Daughter of James Barr Wilson and
Sarah Elizabeth Wilson
Wife of Benjamin Morris Whitlock
married
married May 1851
daughter
Benjamin Morris Whitlock
Birthdate:1815 (48)
Death: Died 1863
Immediate Family:
Husband of Amelia Mott
Whitlock
Moses Taylor, a little-known but
representative figure in the history of the
mercantile and industrial development of
the United States and Cuba in the
nineteenth century. Taylor was a New York
City merchant in the West Indies trade
(chiefly Cuba), a long-time president of
City Bank of New York (Citibank), an
entrepreneur and manager in the railroad
and mining industries, a life-long
Tammany supporter, an ambivalent War
Democrat with personal and business ties
to the South, and an important member of
August Belmont's clique of Democratic
businessmen.
He focused on the Cuban trade, which, in the first four decades of the 19th
century, was surpassed only by Great Britain and France in the volume and value
of exports to the United States. He began exploiting the connections in Cuba and
within four years had established a regular shipping run to the West Indies. The
powerful Drake family of Havana made him their New York agent. This was an
extraordinary indication of confidence which enhanced his position as a trader,
and led to similar arrangements with other Spanish and Anglo-Cuban planters.
NYPL Moses Taylor papers
WHITLOCK’S CUBAN CONNECTION
Moses Taylor was his new wife’s uncle
Domino Sugar on the East River with Williamsburg Bridge 1936.
Company was founded by sugar magnate H.O. Havermeyer a
business associate of banker merchant Moses Taylor with large land
holdings in Cuba where slavery existed until 1886
MARRIED 1855: On Thursday
15th inst., at St. George's Church
by the Rev. Dr. Tyng, Percy R.
Pyne, to Miss Albertna Shelton,
eldest daughter of Moses Taylor
Esq.
Percy R. Pyne, a founder of
City Bank (Citibank.) Joined
Moses Taylor & Co. in 1835,
becoming a partner in 1842.
Managed sugar business as
agent to Santiago Drake &
Co., Havana, Cuba,

65. In the nineteenth century City
Bank, a predecessor of today’s
Citibank, primarily issued short term
credits to locally based merchants to
facilitate the import-export trade.
Moses Taylor supervised the investment of profits by
the sugar planters in United States banks, gas
companies, railroads, and real estate, purchased and
shipped supplies and machinery to Cuba, operated
six of his own boats and numerous chartered vessels
in the Cuban trade, repaired and equipped other
boats with goods and provisions, provided sugar
planters with financing to arrange for land purchases
and the acquisition of a labor force
The labor force that Taylor and City Bank were
helping the Cuban planters acquire was slave labor,
often smuggled illegally from Africa on boats
outfitted in the port of New York, in violation of the
international ban on the Atlantic slave trade. Taylor
and City Bank’s financing of the Cuban sugar trade
between 1830 to 1860 aided and abetted illegal slave
trading
Percy R. Pyne, a
founder of City Bank
(Citibank.) Joined Moses
Taylor & Co. in 1835,
becoming a partner in
1842. Managed sugar
business as agent to
Santiago Drake & Co.,
Havana, Cuba,
Tomás Terry y Adán
Terry initially became
involved in the slave
trade in Cuba. He was
connected to the New
York City banking world
through Percy Pyne
National City Bank (Citibank)
38 Wall St. (renumbered 52)
Moses Taylor’s
personal resources
and role as business
agent for the
leading exporter of
Cuban sugar to the
United States
proved invaluable
to the bank, helping
it survive financial
panics in 1837 and
1857 that
bankrupted many
of its competitors.
Fulton Ave, The Bronx, NY

66. Claude Le Maitre/Delamater was born in France. Because of religious persecution he moved to
Canterbury, ENG, a few years later to Holland, and then in 1652 to Midwout/Flatbush, Long
Island. Ten years later they were among the early settlers at Harlem on Manhattan Island.
James Barr Wilson's a descendant of a line of New Yorkers originating at Huguenots
in France who fled religious persecution via Holland to New Amsterdam
The Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York
New Amsterdam

67. Whitlock moves to upscale
East Sixteenth Street near
the recently opened upscale
Union Square Park
Approximate location of 9 E.16St
Last of the 1830s built mansions
at 16th St and 5th Ave. shortly
before demolition
No. 9 East 16th Street. [Parcel No. 1.] High Stoop, Four-
Story Brick Dwelling, with Basement, Cellar and two-story
Extension. Present rental, $2,300 with water tax and repairs.
25-foot frontage on north side of 16th Street, between 5th
Avenue to the west and Broadway to the east, beginning
191.10 feet east of 5th Avenue; depth 92 feet. (Just half a
block west of Broadway at Union Square. This is where
William H. Leggett died "suddenly" on 23 December 1863.)
William Haight Leggett
b. 15 April 1789, d. 23
December 1863 at this
address
Last Will of William H. Leggett

68. Edward A. Whitlock resides at 33 Union Place (Union Square West today)
B.M. Whitlock
Edward A. Whitlock
Trow’s NYC Directory 1860

69. Benjamin M Whitlock,
"United States Census, 1850"
He resides in the 18th Ward with a household of family members and servants
Name: Benjamin M Whitlock
Event Type: Census
Event Date: 1850
Event Place: New York City, 

ward 18, 

New York, 

NY, 

United States
Gender: Male
Age: 29
Marital Status:
Race (Original):
Race:
Birthplace: New York
Birth Year (Estimated): 1821
Household Gender Age Birthplace
Benjamin M Whitlock M 29 New York
Sarah L Whitlock F 2 New York
Mary Whitlock F 64 New Jersey
Caroline Whitlock F 21 New York
Edward Whitlock M 28 New York
Josephine Whitlock F 19 New York
Susan Wright F 32 New Jersey
Bridget Heslen F 17 Ireland
Mary Ann Heslen F 18 Ireland
Mary Murray F 16 Ireland
Mary Mcguire F 19 Ireland
Margaret Mcgown F 13 New York
S Arthur Ferris M 28 Connecticut
26th
14th
Servants?

70. A $3,000 ($90,000*) investment on East 55th St. in 1851 worth
$12,000 ($400,000*) in 1860.
*current value
Investigation by the state superintendent
-Insurance Department, Albany, 

September 12, 1860
Whitlock Real Estate Speculation: Park
Avenue
Jones Woods on
the upper east side
of Manhattan was a
forested area in
this 1851 image
These houses at 55th and Lexington became Babies’ Hospital where
the first incubator for premature babies was demonstrated in 1891.

71. Whitlock
builds an
office
made of
brick in
the back
lot of this
building

72. Edward A. Whitlock, Benjamin’s brother, is employed by James
Barr Wilson, prominent NYC merchant whose daughter Amelia
(age 20) marries Benjamin M. Whitlock (age 36) in May 1851.
Edward A. Whitlock was in
New York City to witness this
lease signing in March 1850
The store of Suydam & Wilson was the favorite meeting place of the merchants in the
vicinity, among whom were Samuel Gilford, Edward H. Nicoll, Peter Remsen, Henry J. Wyckoff, Gabriel
Wisner, James Bailey, Francis Saltus, Stephen Whitney, and others, all now deceased. Robert Lenox,
Samuel Craig, and John Laurie, among other prominent rich Scotch merchants, were frequent visitors.
THE OLD MERCHANTS OF NEW YORK CITY 1863

73. 1850
Compromise
Henry Clay

75. Official catalogue of the New-York exhibition of the
industry of all nations. 1853"
Crystal Palace at 42nd Street and 6th Avenue 1853
Floor Plan of the Crystal Palace
Fire Destroys the Crystal Palace in 1858

76. Whitlock’s daughter Adeline was born January 22, 1854 and baptized
May 14 at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church at 19th Street
1852 map
Benjamin M., Amelia M. Whitlock “admitted on profession” to Fifth
Avenue Presbyterian Church on March 10, 1853
9 E16th Street approx. location
Pastor James Waddel Alexander
(March 13, 1804 – July 31, 1859)

77. “The neighborhood is one of the most desirable of
suburban residences in the divinity of the City of
New York.” -United States Insurance Gazette
On May 1, 1854 Benjamin M. Whitlock purchases 200 acres from
Thomas B. Leggett for $25,000 ($700,000 today) in Hunts Point.
Thomas B.
Leggett
1823-1895
Sold land to BM
Whitlock May 1, 1854
1849 Map of Hommock Park five years
before purchase by Whitlock. The farm
of Thomas B. Leggett was called Rose
Bank. Part of the “Debatable Land”
between the early settlers it had been
owned by Lewis Morris in the 17th
century and passed to his son-in-law
and first New York Attorney General
James Graham, passing back to the
Leggett family after the American
Revolution

78. MURRAY HILL LOTS
To “GENTLEMEN OF
TASTE”
36th St. & Park Avenue in 1944 with JP
Morgan Library in the background
The property at the corner of 37th St. and Park Ave.was purchased from
J.P. Morgan II to build the Union League Club of New York c. 1931
Showing the property from
Madison Ave. looking southeast
in c. 1855 much of the property
being sold by Whitlock is vacant
with a few small buildings. The three homes
are the heart of today’s Morgan Library
At Murray Hill, horses pulled street cars through an open cut in
Fourth Avenue. This was long before Grand Central went up at
42nd Street. In 1846 the Common Council decided that the cut,
running from 32nd to 40th, created too great a crosstown detour
and ordered the railroad to build cross-bridges at 34th and 38th
Streets. By that time the railroad was running steam engines. In
1850 the Council ordered that the tunnel be roofed over to cover
the “great chasm” of the open cut. Parklike malls were then
ordered for the area over the cut, and they in turn brought town
house and even mansion construction to what was renamed Park
Avenue no later than 1860.
A tunnel turns an unsightly RR
cut into valuable park frontage
219 Madison Ave. built
in 1853 by John Jay
Phelps and sold in 1882
to JP Morgan

79. 1856
Mary Mullen was a child street sweeper at Beekman St.
near city hall. She lived on tips from passers-by. The
Whitlock brothers would have known and seen her,
maybe even have tossed her a penny or two. Mullen was
well known in the neighborhood which led to this
photograph made around 1859.

80. Whitlock’s fine
wines and cigars

81. William L. McDonald living in Orange, New Jersey and
Benjamin M. Whitlock announce a limited “copartnership” beginning on January 1, 1856
Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer February 7, 1856
Whitlock as “special partner” contributes $10,000 ($300,000 today) to the Limited partnership with McDonald

83. 1859 “Whitlock’s Folly”
Hommock Manor, the country seat of B.
M. Whitlock, Esq., is situated in West
Farms Township, on the East river, or
Sound, about 3 miles from Harlem. The
estate contains several hundred acres; but
that part on which the dwelling is situated,
is, as its name implies, a complete
Hommock of about 20 acres - which at
high tides is nearly surrounded by water -
and is approached from the main part of
the estate by a causeway.
It is said that the house was almost rebuilt
of stone imported from Caen, France. In
the days before the Civil War, the mansion
was the scene of a lavish hospitality; and
the generation of bon vivants just passed
away were frequent guests at its generous
board. Stephen Jenkins

84. A major force in New York society and politics Whitlock cautioned his southern clients
against secession, but when the Civil War broke out he was soon bankrupted, dying before
the end of the conflict. In the years leading up to the war Whitlock participated in schemes
to annex Cuba as a slave state, he supported a pro-slavery constitution for Kansas and
angrily opposed John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry. Whitlock was well connected by
marriage and business to the most prominent merchant families in New York. He was
admired by many, apparently including his political enemies for his success and wealth.
B.M. & E.A. Whitlock & Co...
SOUTHERN HEADQUARTERS ON THE CUSP OF CIVIL WAR

85. MAJOR
B. F. JONES
representative of B.M. Whitlock is a
Confederate advisor and soldier
Major Jones was born in Gwinett county, Georgia, on
the 20th of June, 1831, and in the common schools
acquired his education, after which he entered upon
his business career as clerk in a country store near his
home. With a young man's desire to see something of
the world and seek a wider sphere of usefulness and
activity, he left home at the age of 20 years and went
to New York City. With most commendatory letters
he carried with him he found no difficulty in obtaining
employment, securing a situation in a dry-goods and
carpet house on Cortlandt street. A year later he
entered the service of Whitlock, Nichols & Company,
a noted grocery firm, which was afterward succeeded
by B. M. & E. A. Whitlock & Company. In the service of
this house he traveled all over the south and was its
representative at the time of the breaking out of the
civil war.

86. BF. Jones advises at a meeting of the
Confederate Congress
He utilized the information and experience that he
had acquired through travel and business knowledge
to the advantage of the newly organized
Confederate government... He was a southern man
by birth and training, and, true to the principles and
teaching in which he had always been trained, when
the war was inaugurated he hastened to Rome,
Georgia, and in April, 1862, joined the Cherokee
artillery... he was made quartermaster
Confederate States Capitol
Richmond, Va

87. In 1874 Jones became the superintendent of the
National Water-works Company. He was born in
the State of Georgia, his ancestors on his father's
side coming originally from Scotland. His mother
was a descendant of an old Dutch family, and
Scottish sagacity and thrift, together with Dutch
tenacity, thoroughness and equable disposition
combined, are leading characteristics of this gentle-
man. His first business experience was gained at his
birthplace, among his friends and neighbors ;
but, finding this field too small for his ambitious
efforts, he sought and found a wider one in New
York, where he remained until the commencement
of the "late unpleasantness," when he enlisted as a
private in the Cherokee Artillery, at Rome, Ga. He
remained in the army during the continuance of the
strife, and at the close of the war, by the sheer force
of inherent merit, he had risen from the ranks to the
important post of Inspector General of the War
Department, at Richmond, Va.
Cherokee Artillery

88. The state fair was located here thanks to the efforts of James Jay Mapes, a highly inventive
farmer who owned land in what is now the western division of Weequahic Park. In 1847,
Mapes, a professor at New York City establishment called the American Institute, bought a
run-down farm here. Through the use of superphosphate fertilizers and the sub-soil plow,
Mapes was able to unproductive land into a flourishing farm. Mapes publicized his
successes in a magazine called "The Working Farmer."
Weequahic Park Newark, NJ
The Working Farmer 1852 James J. Mapes father of Charles V. Mapes

89. A FATEFUL PARTNERSHIP:
CHARLES V. MAPES AND B.M. WHITLOCK
The Union Sketch Book
Harvard Alumni 1913
“The war wiped out their Southern accounts and obliged
them to succumb.”

90. Benjamin Whitlock’s headquarters at
Beekman and Nassau St., near City Hall in
New York in the 1850s.
A scene from the Mapes’ Agricultural Implement Catalogue showing a
cotton gin, machine invented by Ely Whitney infamous for making
slavery profitable n the south by streamlining production of cotton.
Providing the machinery for
exploiting slave labor

91. Mapes’ Factory in Newark
where Benjamin M. Whitlock
had a financial interest

92. American Slavocracy
Targets Cuba

93. Manhattan's Rhinelander
Sugar House was used to
store sugar and molasses in
the 18th century. Some 80
percent of Cuba's annual
sugar product passed
through New York between
1825 and 1898.
New-York Historical Society
W.W. Woolsey Sugar Refinery was among the largest in NYC during the mid-19th century
Cuban Sugar
In New York, where nearly all the great families were active in commerce or industry, the sugar bakers and refiners of
the eighteenth century included the Bayards, the Can Cortlandts, Roosevelts, Livingstons and Cuylers, while the house
of Havemeyer was founded in 1805. Refined sugar became the most important product manufactured in New York City.

94. Cuba did not end its participation
in the slave trade until 1867
Slavery in Cuba was associated with the sugar
cane plantations and existed on the territory
of the island of Cuba from the 16th century
until it was abolished by royal decree on
October 7, 1886. More than a million African
slaves were brought to Cuba as part of the
Atlantic slave trade; Cuba did not end its
participation in the slave trade until 1867

95. Pierre Soulé
James Buchanan
Southern politicians
increasingly looked to Cuba
as the next slave state.

96. The Sun fanned the flames of intervention

97. One of the
original
Cuban
flags
waved in
Cardenas
by
filibuster
led by Gen.
Narciso
Lopez in
1850, Later
became
the
national
flag.
Filibusters make war on countries at
peace with their home country.
Newspaper editors saw Cuba as ripe for
annexation to the USA
Filibuster
NY Herald February 10, 1858

98. Manifest Destiny
Ambrosio José Gonzales
John C. Breckinridge
John L. O’Sullivan
editor United States Democratic Review
Narciso Lopez
The United States Democratic Review Volume 0041 Issue 2 (February 1858)
Called popularly “filibusterism,” and understood, at
this time, by the entire civilized world, to be a system
of private war, without the sanction of an organized
government.

99. Some were racists….
John Mitchel an advocate of Irish
independence, In the 1850s, he became a
pro-slavery editorial voice. Mitchel
supported the Confederate States of
America during the American Civil War,
and two of his sons died fighting for the
Confederate cause. He was arrested in
NYC in June 1865 after the war, while
writing for the Daily News. He was
suspected of involvement in the Lincoln
assassination, but was released from Ft.
Monroe in October 1865.
“…if freedom be a reward for negroes – that is, if freedom be a good thing for negroes – why, then it
is, and always was, a grievous wrong and crime to hold them in slavery at all. If it be true that the
state of slavery keeps these people depressed below the condition to which they could develop their
nature, their intelligence, and their capacity for enjoyment, and what we call “progress” then every
hour of their bondage for generations is a black stain upon the white race”

100. Some Were Con Men
Parker H. French

101. Cecilia Valdes is
arguably the most
important novel of 19th
century Cuba. Originally
published in New York
City in 1882, Cirilo
Villaverde's novel has
fascinated readers inside
and outside Cuba.
Cirilo Villaverde secretary to
Lopez escaped to NYC
publishing a pro-independence
newspaper married Emilia
Casanova who founded Las Hijas
de Cuba (Daughters of Cuba)
living in the Whitlock Mansion
after 1868
Cirilo Villaverde

102. 1854: Emilia Casanova 22 years old
disembarks at Philadelphia, She will
marry Cirilio Villaverde and
become a leader of the
“Daughters of Cuba” a
movement to free Cuba from
Spanish colonialism
Passenger manifest

103. Whitlock sat on many political committees
including this one to annex Cuba as a slave state
“The Truth” NYC based pro-independence newspaper with a map of Cuba
“The New-York Democracy” means the pro-
slavery Democratic party. “The Area of
Freedom” means areas where slave holding is
still allowed within the United States.
“Acquisition of Cuba” means adding Cuba to
the United States as a slave state.
These men are well known New York
City politicians and merchants with
business in southern states.

105. 1856-
Bleeding
Kansas

106. Whitlock moves to Hunts Point in
1857 rebuilding Hummock Park as
a larger more luxurious mansion
Meanwhile, William H. Leggett is
living at 9 East 16th street, a
roomy townhouse in one of the
city’s tonier neighborhoods. In
December 1863 at the address on
16th street he dies suddenly.
His death was not only a great loss
to my grandmother, [Margaret
Peck Wright Leggett, (1794-1878)]
but to all the family. She gave up
the large house [Was this Rose
Bank, which was not mentioned in
William H.’s will, or No. 9 East 16th
Street, which was left to her
therein?] and some years later,
[1867] when my father moved to
[450 North Broad Street] Elizabeth,
New Jersey, she decided to make
her home with us.
-Florence Huggins Leggett
A Patriarch Lost

107. The Bronx River in History & Folklore By Stephen Paul DeVillo
Rockland
Foxhurst
Woodside
Sunnyslope
Mansions of Hunts Point
The Chateau — Whitlock’s mansion Estates of the Merchant Princes

108. BASE OF OPERATIONS
NY TIMES OCTOBER 5, 1905

109. “...[Whitlock] commenced operations by removing to his grounds, from a distance of two or three miles,
forest trees of large size... where they are now flourishing... for the most part Elms and Maples
A country-seat
“3 miles from Harlem on several hundred acres, the dwelling sits a complete Hommock of about 20 acres -
which at high tides is nearly surrounded by water - and is approached... by a causeway”
“...the Hommock is devoted to an ornamental pleasure ground.”
“... stables accommodate 40 horses, and the carriage house about half that number of carriages.”
“... rises a bell tower of three stories, the lower one is fitted as a lecture and a school room”
“... fitted up with numerous gas burners. The gas for lighting... is supplied from a highly architectural and
ornamental gas-house... filled from the retorts in a building adjoining.”
“A beautiful... curved drive skirts the base of the Hommock, on the north is... the bathing-rooms, boat-house...
while statuary, and seats of various kinds embellish the grounds.”
The Horticulturist of Rural Art and Rural Taste, Volume 13, Plan for a Rose-House, William Webster 1858

110. B.M. & E.A. Whitlock’s store at 13 Beekman St. near Nassau and
Broadway. Nearby the old Brick Church was used as a hospital
during the American revolution. In 1857 the Church was ripped down
and replaced by the first New York Times building.*
*B.M. Whitlock was an early
investor in Murray Hill Real
Estate along Park Ave. where
the Brick Church relocated
Whitlock building
old Brick Church
City Hall Park
1870
1856
Astor House Hotel

111. 1856
B. M. WHITLOCK's ROSE-HOUSE AND
CONSERVATORY. 

One great object in publishing this plan, is to
show how advantageously old materials may
be worked into a house of this kind; for all
the circular-headed windows, with a
corresponding number of square ones,
belonged to the old Brick Church in Beekman
Street, which was pulled down to make room
for stores; so that the plan had to be got up to
meet the material, and not, as is usually the
case, the materials to suit the plan. -
Horticulturist And Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste
The Brick Church, demolished in 1857, across from Whitlock’s business on
Beekman Street. The ruins are used by Whitlock to build a rose house.
Published: April 22, 1853
Copyright © The New York Times
Ny Times 1853
Demolition of Old
Brick Church 1857 Beekman St.
Whitlock
Bldg.

112. Built with Windows from the old Brick Church
“All the circular-headed windows, with a corresponding number of square ones, belonged to the old
Brick Church in Beekman Street, which was pulled down to make room for stores; so that the plan
had to be got up to meet the material, and not, as is usually the case, the materials to suit the plan. ”
-- NY Times

113. “Decorations were intended to depict Louis's grandeur and understandably omit any mention of
French losses and defeats.” Wikipedia entry on Louis XIV King of France "Louis XIV, by the Grace of
God, King of France and of Navarre" 1643-1715 (Wikipedia entry)
Published: December 8, 1901
Copyright © The New York Times
Bedroom of Louis XIV - Versailles

Soyez le Bienvenue
A room fit for a New York merchant prince
Louis XIV room Versailles
Louis XIV “Sun King”

114. P. 178 Waldo & Jewett
1845 Address: 1 Cortlandt Street
82. Portrait of a Gentleman B.M.WHITLOCK
l New York Historical Society - Vo I. 77
American Academy of Fine Arts and American Art Union ...Exhibition Record
P.137. Fowler, Trevor Thomas (Active 1829-1860)
1849 Address: Not Given
319.ChiIdrenattheFountain.36x29TwoGirls,onewithapaiI,andtheotherwithaqourd
dipper. To A. WHITLOCK, New York
P.313. Rossiter, Thomas Pritchard (1818-1871)
1848 Address: New York
435. Shylock and Jessica. To GEORGE WHITLOCK, New York
P.395. White, Edwin (1617-1877)
1848 Address: New York
249. The Studio and PupiI. To BENJAMIN M. WHITLOCK, New York.
I I Counci I of Appointment~of the State of New York 1783-1821
42
P.2174 - Montgomery County 1820
PeterLampon,captain,viceSnel I, resigned; Peter P. Smith, first lieutenant, vice
Lampman. promoted; Aaron C. WHITLOCK, second lieutenant, vice Smith promoted.
P. 1913 - New York County 1818 - Eleventh regiment of arti Ilery:
Second lieutenants;...EPHRAIM L. WHITLOCK, vice Wyman, declined
P.1961 - New York County 1818 - Ninth regiment of ArtiIlery
...; EPHRAIM L. WHITLOCK, first lieutenant, vice Daniel, promoted;
P.1480 - Montgomery County 1814 - Nineteenth Regiment
...; HENRY WHITLOCK, junior, ensign
P. 1367 - Orange County 1812 - One Hundred & Forty-eighth Regiment
...: JOEL WHITLOCK, ensign, vice Clark, promoted;
P.1471 - Orange County 1814 - 148th Regiment
...: JOEL WHITLOCK, LIEUTENANT, VICE H. Clark, promoted;
P. 1903 - Orange County 1818 - 148th Regiment
...vice WHITLOCK, resigned.
P. 1152 - Westchester County 1810 - For the Brigade
National Academy home on Broadway
from 1859 to 1865
Records of the National Academy of Fine Arts show
Whitlock purchased this painting.
Purchaser

115. Arthur H. Edey gets good references from B.M. & E.A. Whitlock
Texas Wool

116. Whitlock spoke at this angry pro-slavery meeting
“[against]The treasonable raid of John Brown and
his followers...” December 19, 1859
John Brown raid on the Federal Arsenal at Harper’s Ferry Va.
October 16, 1859 helped start the Civil WarHarper’s Ferry
I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land can never be purged
away but with blood. I had as I now think, vainly flattered myself that without very much
bloodshed, it might be done. - November 12, 1859

117. Great Union Meeting
A reaction to John Brown’s raid
"...chiefly to promote southern trade,"
and to express "sympathy for the
slave owners of the south, for the
men who buy, or are to be coaxed to
buy A.T. Stewart's silks and Ben
Whitlock's brandy." -A sometime
friend and fellow-laborer in the old
Whig cause to James W. Beekman
in Tribune Dec. 9, 1859
Academy of Music corner of
Irving Place and 14th St.

118. Benjamin Whitlock’s words were reported The
Daily Constitutionalist. (Augusta, Ga.),
December 13, 1859 as part of a longer article
about Whitlock’s purchase of fine horses from
Col. Sam Hill a wealthy merchant in Cahaba,
then the capitol of Alabama.
By the way, speaking of our friends, we find in the
New York Day Book, the proceedings of an “ anti-
Sectionalism meeting,” held recently in that city.

119. Yesterday noon, through the courtesy of Mr ; Hicks, we had the pleasure of enjoying a pleasant ride through and around our city, in a fine buggy
drawn by a match of fast black mares—the offspring of Morgan and Black Hawk , who traverse in an agreeable manner, a mile in two minutes r
and forty-two seconds. These beautiful animals . are the property of one of the firm of B. M. & E. A. Whitlock, wholesale grocers at 13 Beekman
street, New York—a firm, by the way, well known to Southern merchants, and liberally patronized by them. Southerners by birth, as well as in feel
ing, honorable in business transactions, and “always at home” to their friends, their reputation in our midst is enviable and well deserved. One of
the firm has a penchant for “fine stock,” and is now in town, homeward bound, from the recent great Fair in Alabama, where his exhibition
of stock created universal admiration, and where also valuable acquisitions were made to his stable. We saw at Archer’s stable, two
valuable mares of his, obtained from Col. Hill, of Cahaba, which are being shipped to New York, and which, we think, will, on Bloomingdale
road, throw Bonner’s Lantern and Mate fairly in the shade. So, too, with the trotters that bore us along, “With flowing tail and flying mane, With
nostrils never streaked by pain,— the wild and free, Like waves that follow oe’r the sea." Let the Ledger man look to his laurels, for these noble
courser will create a sensation in Gotham.
The Daily Constitutionalist. (Augusta, Ga.), December 13, 1859
One of the firm has a penchant for “fine stock,” and is now in
town, homeward bound, from the recent great Fair in Alabama
A Whitlock in Alabama passes through Augusta, GA
In 1859 or 1860 Col. Sam Hill, of Cahaba, Ala. a wealthy merchant and planter, owned this property,

120. Benjamin M. Whitlock 1860
His long interest in the abolition of slavery led Dr. Houghton to found the first
black Sunday school in New York City and to harbor runaway slaves as part of
the Underground Railway, one stop on which was the basement of the church's
rectory. During the Civil War Blacks were burned, hanged, and mutilated during
the Draft Riots of July 1863... Angry mobs trying to get at those who had found
sanctuary within the church twice thronged the gates of the churchyard... George
Houghton lifted the processional cross from its place in the church, walked out to
face the rioters, held it before them, and said, "Stand back, you white devils; in
the name of Christ, stand back!" With such courageous words, George Houghton
held off the unruly mob, and those in the church remained safe for several more
days, until the mob had been quelled and dispersed.
George Hendric Houghton
Henry Ward Beecher held mock
“auctions” at which the congregation
purchased the freedom of real slaves.
The most famous of these former
slaves was a young girl named Pinky,
auctioned during a regular Sunday
worship service at Plymouth on
February 5, 1860
William Lloyd Garrison
Lewis Tappan
Harriet Tubman

121. Simeon Draper Thurlow Weed
On the night of
April 14, 1865,
a former
Confederate
soldier named
Lewis Powell
attacked
Seward
Whigs and Bankers: New York “moderates” on
slavery back a New Merchant Bank

122. Lowry was United States Marshal for the Eastern District of Tennessee
between1853 and 1857. Greenville is located on the northeastern part
of the state where few people own slaves. Lincoln’s vice-president
Andrew Johnson is a close friend and political associate of William M.
Lowry who also she a close friendship with Benjamin M. Whitlock.
List of U.S. Marshals in the Eastern District of Tennessee
William M. Lowry

123. Andrew
Johnson,
Governor and
Senator from
Tennessee,
vice-president
under
Abraham
Lincoln, 17th
President of
the United
States
Valentine Sevier home in Greeneville, Tennessee built by an early settler
named Sevier, founder of the state of Tennessee. The house was later
owned by William M. Lowry and Andrew Johnson.
William M. Lowry born in Virginia and moved to
Tennessee. Was a merchant and banker and close friend
and political associate of Andrew Johnson. Although
actively opposing secession from he Union when the
war broke out he became a Col. in the Confederate
States of America Army. After the war Lowry and his
son moved to Atlanta and started a savings bank.
Mr. Wm. M. Lowry Andrew Johnson

124. Wm. L. McDonald and
Benjamin M. Whitlock are
partners in May 1860
renting a “handsome
cottage overlooking the
Sound” in Hunts Point
then the town of West
Farms that is “adjoining
the residence of the
subscribers”
Long Island Sound

125. About 4 o'clock the visitors again embarked, and proceeded up the River through Hurl (Hells) Gate, about
twelve miles, to the suburban villa of B.M. WHITLOCK, Esq., in Westchester County, on the banks of the
river... After being photographed in line on the lawn in front of Mr. WHITLOCK's fine new brown-stone
mansion, taking a look at his sixty blood horses, and extensive repository of carriages, imbibing a timely drink,
and viewing the grounds, the company was invited to a collation spread for three hundred in a shady grove
near one of the residences. -- NY Times July 23, 1860
“.Mr. B.M. WHITLOCK, although suffering
from indisposition, was prevailed upon to
speak. Among other good things, he said
that if North, South, East and West, and even
New-York City, should fail, the Blues would
find his place always open and welcome to
them, and he had a boy who would think just
like his daddy. [Laughter and applause.] He
deprecated sectional animosities, and the
misrepresentation of partisan Presses.
Mrs. WHITLOCK having presented each of
the commanders with a boquet, and cheers
illimitable having been given, the guests left,
defiled through a shrubbery "Pass of
Thermopylae," got on board the boat,
cheered, waved handkerchiefs and shouted
adieus, until Whitlock Mansion was lost in the
dim distance. In passing down the river
salutes were exchanged with Mr.
ASPINWALLs house at Astoria. A landing
was effected at Tenth-street, East River, and
after a weary march the guests got home --
their dusty trip rendering them literally, if not
politically, "Black Republican" Blues.
—New York Tmes, July 23, 1860
Southern Militiamen known as Savannah Republican Blues
Visit Whitlock promoting reconciliation on the eve of Civil War
It is said that the Blues are accompanied by three musicians -- slaves --
who are too much attached to the company and their masters to be in any
danger of yielding to the temptations to desertion which will undoubtedly
be held out to them. -NY Times July 21, 1860

126. A Southern Woman's War
Time Reminiscences:
The Seventh Regiment
entertained the Savannah
Republican-Blues and the
brothers B. and B. M. Whitlock
gave a grand entertainment to
them up the Hudson, where my
"lovely Nell" and I were in
attendance. In a letter home I
used this language: "It seems to
me as if our people were
military-mad, and had rushed
together for a last fraternal
embrace, to separate and fight
like maddened devils; so violent
do altercations and argument
come when the questions of
slavery, free soil, etc., are
discussed." And when I went
South some of my friends
dubbed me the "bloody
prophet." -Mrs. Elizabeth Lyle
Saxon
N.Y. 7th Regiment (scene in what is today Washington Square
Park) took on the Savannah Republican Blues in a “friendly” drill
competition in 1860.
A Bloody prophecy Mrs. Elizabeth Lyle Saxon Involved in
woman's suffrage and social reform
issues in Memphis and New Orleans.
1832-1915

127. Benjamin M. Whitlock’s“Hommock Park”
in West Farms is heavily mortgaged
$220,000
$550,000
$110,000
The Chateau
Leggetts Creek

128. In 1859 directors of the
Homestead Fire Insurance
Company include William L.
McDonald, who became a
known as a confederate spy.
Also Benj. M. Whitlock, his
father-in-law James B.
Wilson, and influential
banker-merchants Moses
Taylor, Edward Haight and
Paul Spofford.
Paul Spofford
Edward Haight
Moses Taylor
Whitlock Building corner Nassau
and Beekman St.

130. Whitlock’s Empire CrumblesHomestead Fire Insurance Company.
Published: September 21, 1860
From the Journal of Commerce
The New-York Supreme Court has appointed PHILO HURD,
Esq., (late President of the Company,) the Receiver, , to close
up and settle the affairs of the Homestead Fire Insurance
Company, the Company's outstanding obligations having
been already provided for and assumed by other responsible
Companies… The Company was doing a sound and prosperous business,
and was abundantly safe, notwithstanding the enmity of those
interested in the rejected securities and its previous control,
and the jealousy of other Associations, either from political
bias or envy at its success.
It certainly appears desirable that the prosperous and
increasing business of the Company, and its reliable
connections, should be preserved for the organization of a
new Company, and that the facilities for insurance in the South
and West, so long overlooked, should be continued.
Investigation by the state
superintendent -Insurance
Department, Albany,
September 12, 1860
Benjamin M. Whitlock invested his mortgaged estate into 

The Homestead Insurance Company — which never sold a policy — until
shuttered by state regulators in 1861. Operating from Whitlock’s office building
Homestead was actually worth $50,000 ($1.3 million)
not the advertised $150,000. ($4.1 million)

131. A DAUGHTER’S DEATH
"WHITLOCK -- In Hommock Park, on Sunday, Oct. 21,
after a brief illness, ADELINE WILSON, daughter of
Benjamin M. and Amelia Whitlock, aged 6 years and 9
months.
The friends of the family are respectfully invited to attend
her funeral, from the residence of her parents, Hommock
Park, Westchester County, this (Tuesday) afternoon, at 3
1/2 o'clock, without further notice. Carriages will meet at
Mott-Haven, the Harlem train leaving 26th-st. at 2:30 P.M.
NY Times October 1860
Whitlock Family Plot Green Wood Brooklyn

132. SERIOUS ACCIDENT TO MR. WHITLOCK — On Saturday evening
Mr. B. M. Whitlock, while standing in the depot corner of White and Centre streets, was accidentally jammed between
two cars, and badly crushed. Three of hie ribs were broken, and he sustained other Injuries; He was removed to the
New-York Hospital.
NEW YORK DAILY TRIBUNE, MONDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1860
mid-19th century
Same site
modern
times
1874

133. 1885

134. “He was removed to the New-York Hospital”

135. LINCOLN ELECTED
Lincoln speaks at Cooper Union before his election

137. Mayor Fernando Wood NYC’s Copperhead Mayor
“Then it may be said, why should not New York city,
instead of supporting by her contributions in revenue
two—thirds of the expenses of the United States,
become also equally independent? As a free city, with
but nominal duty on imports, her local Government
could be supported without taxation upon her people.
Thus we could live free from taxes, and have cheap
goods nearly duty free. In this she would have the
whole and united support of the Southern States, as
well as all the other States to whose interests and
rights under the Constitution she has always been
true.”
Time for compromise between
North & South was running out
Mayor Wood
January 06, 1861 Copperheads or “Peace Democrats” wanted to end the
war retain slavery and return to “constitutional” rule

138. Fort Sumter
Civil War Begins

Friday, April 12, 1861, at 4:30 a.m.

139. A YEAR LATER TO THE DAY AFTER HIS DAUGHTER’S
DEATH WHITLOCK’S MOTHER DIES -ON WHAT WOULD
HAVE BEEN HER HUSBANDS 81ST BIRTHDAY.
NY Times October 1861
Mary Morris
White Whitlock
1785-1861
Photo courtesy of Find A Grave

140. Mourners Arrive on the Harlem River Rail Road
Before the Civil War (1861–1864), Mott
Haven was the site of two stations on the
Underground Railroad — the villa of
Charles Van Doren, which stood at East
145th Street and Third Avenue, and the
Mott Haven Dutch Reformed Church,
which still stands on East 146th Street.
1861They cross the Harlem River Bridge

141. *The note was held by the Eastern Bank of Alabama in Eufaula.
*
Apalachicola steam boat ran cotton to the Gulf of Mexico
ALABAMA CONNECTION to B.M. & E. A. Whitlock & Co.

142. A Slave Cabin in Barbour
County, Near Eufaula, Alabama.
Eufaula, Alabama.

143. ...A good many merchants, in order to avoid catastrophe were, the correspondents
added, already abandoning their Establishments in New York and were preparing to set
up business in "some city of the Confederate States" Charleston Mercury March
21,1861 ...the extensive grocery house of B.A. & E.A. WHITLOCK... had already
completed negotiations for “going to Savannah.” Philip Foner 1941
The Civil War brought profound changes to the New York region. At the beginning of
the war, the loss of trade with the South and disruptions caused by military activity and
Southern privateering forced a number of banks and mercantile houses into bankruptcy.
Most New York banks were forced to suspend payments and the building trades shut
down operations.
In 2004 Whitlock’s creditor bank merges into JP Morgan Chase
B.M. & E.A. Whitlock goes out of business March 1862.

144. RG 21 - U.S. District Courts, Sequestration Case Files - Alabama Confederate Court
Confederate States District Court for the Southern Division of the District
of Alabama. 4/4/1861-3/20/1865
This series consists of case files resulting from the Confederate judiciary system concerning property. They
typically included the petition for sequestration filed by the receiver showing the name of the alien enemy,
his place of residence, and the property which he allegedly owned; any liens and claims against the
sequestered property; and briefs, demurrers, subpoenas, orders, opinions, and judgments of the court.
4 308 Confederate States Whitlock, B.M. & E. A. & Co. 1862
Box Number Case Number Plaintiff Defendant Year
4 298 Confederate States McDonald, William, L. 1862

145. The 5th Texas Regiment of Hood’s Division had
been incorporated into the Army of Northern VA
and detailed Arthur H. Edey to carry mail from the
regiment to its families back in Texas. A typeset
label was attached to some of these letters.
Honors the 1st, 4th, 5th Texas and the 18th
Georgia, Hampton Legion for their bravery in
battle. The broadside prints a portion of a
letter by Texas Governor Gustavus W. Smith
and Lee's letter of 21 September 1862,
praising the brigade. Lists battle honors for
West Point, Seven Pines, Gaine's Mill, Malvern
Hill, Manassas, Rappahannock, Thoroughfare
Gap, Boonsboro and Sharpsburg. Also
included is a song entitled "Hood's Texas
Brigade," a list of the Delegates to the
Confederate Congress, and a list of important
Texans in the Civil War. The words Alamo,
Mier, Sam. Houston and A. S. Johnson appear
in the corners of the document. Printed by
Arthur H. Edey, Agent Fifth Texas Volunteers.
Texas Brigade of John Bell Hood
Confederate General John Bell Hood
Began his career in the house of B.M. & E.A. Whitlock before
the Civil War. He later fought under Hood and was captured
Arthur H. Edey

146. WILLIAM LARRY MCDONALD
SUTLER: a person who followed an army and sold provisions to the soldiers.
Having become heavily indebted to Mr.
GREEN, carriage-maker in this city,
"Larry," as he is familiarly called,
tendered his services to him to pay his
obligations, and on the former gentleman
being appointed sutler to the Twenty-
sixth Regiment, he accompanied him to
Virginia. After the first stock of goods had
been sold, LARRY came North and
purchased $2,000 worth of goods for Mr.
GREEN, and, on his return to Virginia,
deliberately drove them into the rebel
lines, where they were, of course,
confiscated.
“A most bitter and consistent
partisan of the rebels.”
McDonald fakes his capture
by the rebels in Virginia
The sutler's tent in camp Falmouth, Virginia
26th Regiment, New Jersey Volunteer Infantry
Organized at Camp Frelinghuysen, Newark, N.J., mustered
in September 18, 1862. Left State for Washington, D.C.,
September 26. Camp on Capital Hill till October 1. Moved
to Frederick, Md., October 1, thence to Hagerstown, Md.,
October 11. Attached to 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, 6th
Army Corps, Army of the Potomac. Fredericksburg,
December 12-15, 1862; Mud March January 20-24, 1863;
Chancellorsville Campaign April 27-May 6…

147. Young Ireland imprisoned after the 1848 Battle of the
Widow’s Cabbage Patch came to New York from Can
Damien’s Land 1855. In 1857 he edited a pro-slavery
newspaper in Tennessee. Returned to New York and then on
to Richmond in 1862 publishing pro-Jefferson Davis
newspaper. Eventually criticized Davis for not fighting hard
enough. Arrested by orders of Grant in 1865, suspected of
involvement in Lincoln assassination. Released from Fort
Monroe on October 30, 1866. Advocated return to slave
catching and other extreme positions. Lost two sons dead in
Confederate army.

148. Battle of Fredericksburg December 11–15, 1862
“a butchery”

149. Emancipation Proclamation
Jan. 1, 1863
Abraham Lincoln
Emancipation Proclamation
Original Document

150. 1860 United States census shows Wm. L. McDonald age 33, born in Canada, living in West
Farms. McDonald is a carriage manufacturer worth $25,000, about $750,000 in 2017.
Wm. L. McDonald lives with his wife Josephine,
sister of Benjamin Whitlock, an infant daughter
Mary, two servants born in Ireland and John Holt a
“mulatto” coachman born in Alabama.
From a biography of William McDonald’s son

151. LARRY MCDONALD ESCAPES
While in Richmond, as is since
ascertained, he lived in luxury,
affiliating with all the rebel
leaders, giving them information
as to the number and position of
our forces, and other valuable
facts. He was then released on a
pretended parole, and came to
this city, and while visiting
his wife at Westchester,
New-York, learned that his
exploits had been divulged to the
War Department, and detectives
were after him. He immediately
shipped as a sailor on a schooner
for New-Brunswick, Nova Scotia,
and succeeded in eluding the
vigilance of the authorities.
-A Nawark Rebel, New York Times 

January 8, 1865
McDonald, now a POW is
“paroled” to New York and then
“released” in February 1863

152. After the death of his first wife in 1849, Benjamin M. Whitlock
(1815-1863) married Amelia Mott Wilson (1831-1910) in 1851, and
they had at least five children. In June 1863, shortly before his
death, Benjamin M. Whitlock, as agent of his wife, borrowed
$3,000 from merchant Robert L. Maitland (1818-1870) and
deposited it in the bank to her credit. She allegedly knew nothing
about it, and none of the money went to her or her separate estate.
Prominent attorney and co-founder of the New York Bar
Association Ashbel Green (1825-1898) represented the Maitland
estate, while future Superior Court judge Gilbert M. Speir Sr.
(1810-1894) represented Amelia M. Whitlock. After hearing the
arguments summarized in this document, the justices agreed on
June 20 to affirm the judgment of the lower court but offered no
written opinion.
Women could receive property after marriage that wasn’t at
her husband’s disposal or liable for his debts. Although a step
toward equality for women, the motivation for the new law
was less a desire to do justice to women and more to provide a
way for men to protect their assets in times of economic
uncertainty by placing them in their wives’ names.
In June 1863, shortly before his death Benjamin M. Whitlock, as agent of his wife, borrowed $3,000
(63,000 today) from merchant Robert L. Maitland (1818-1870) and deposited it in the bank to her credit. She
allegedly knew nothing about it, and none of the money went to her or her separate estate.
Executors of Maitland v. Amelia M. Whitlock, June 1872, Court of Appeals of the State of New York.
Robert L. Maitland

153. Bloody street fighting in New York City
Draft Riots
July 1863 New York erupts into
rioting against military conscription.
Burning the Abolitionist homes
Lynchings

154. -- Benjamin M. Whitlock, Esq., formerly one of the prominent
wholesale grocers of this City, died on Wednesday last at his
residence in Westchester County, after a very brief illness. Mr.
Whitlock, in consequence of the present troubles, lost
overwhelmingly, because of the failure of his Southern customers
to meet their engagements, and was compelled to relinquish his
business, which had before been one of the most profitable in the
City. He was a man of finest business capacity, and of noble,
generous impulses. His hospitality was lavish, and he was noted
especially for keeping one of the finest studs in the country, his
stock and stables being the centre of admiration and interest.
These and the remainder of his property he sacrificed when
misfortune overtook him, in order honorably to meet his sudden
embarrassments.
Benjamin Whitlock’s Obituary
death on August 15, 1863
Descended of a horse owned by Whitlock

155. Benjamin M. Whitlock’s Grave
The Green-Wood Cemetery Brooklyn

156. “For I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he
is agree to keep that which I have committed unto him
against that day.”
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
death I will fear no evil for thou art with me, thy rod and thy
staff they comfort me.”
EPITAPH
Biblical lines on B.M. Whitlock’s tomb. 2nd Timothy a verse describing
the prophet as having suffered for a cause

157. Whitlock Family Plot

158. A 19th century sculptor who fled Italy during the 1848 revolution and
settled in New York. Piatti sculpted several monuments at Green-Wood:
the Sea Captain’s monument, the Griffith Memorial, the monument to Col.
Vosburg and that of Maria Whitlock. Piatti died of apparent accidental
asphyxiation from carbon monoxide in his Manhattan apartment in July
21, 1888. He was 64 years old and had taken a volume of Plutarch’s Lives,
borrowed from journalist Joseph H. Tooker, with him to bed the night he
died.
Patrizio Piatti sculpted Daniel Webster for the
New York Exposition known as the Crystal
Palace in this guide from 1854. Patti was
credited as Superintendent of Sculptures in the
Exhibition.
Maria Whitlock
Sarah
Louisa
Whitlock
Patrizio Piatti

159. A Bank with Benjamin M. Whitlock as a director, including James B. Wilson, his father-in-law,
his business associates and Hunts Point neighbors Edward Haight and Paul Spofford.
A federal
“Greenback” note
backed by loans
from banks
supporting the
Union
$50 million loan to the Union cause
two weeks after Whitlock’s death.

160. Kilpatrick-Dahlgren Raid
February 28 to March 1, 1864
H. Judson Kilpatrick was a
brigadier general in the Union
Army during the American Civil
War (1861–1865). He lends his
name to the Kilpatrick-Dahlgren
Raid, an incident in the spring of
1864 in which Kilpatrick, along
with Union colonel Ulric Dahlgren,
led a raid on Confederate
defenses in Richmond, hoping to
liberate prisoners of war. The raid
was both a military and political
fiasco, and cost Dahlgren his life.
Colonel Ulric DahlgrenH. Judson Kilpatrick
Assassination Nation
Secret orders from A. Lincoln or a forgery?

161. Elmira Prison was a prison camp operated by the United
States government during the American Civil War.
July 15, 1864. 51 Confederate prisoners of war killed 17
guards, and 4 railway staff, in collusion with local train. The
POWs were being taken to Elmira Prison Camp in New York.
Most had been captured at the Battle of Cold Harbor in
Virginia.
Arthur H. Edey (Company A, 5th Texas)who began his career in the house of B.M. &
E.A. Whitlock before the Civil War. He later fought under Hood and was captured. He
organized prisoners to petition for warm clothes during the long upstate New York
winter.
The Great Shohola
train wreck
Gen. John Bell Hood

162. Daniel Morgan
Sir Henry Morgan
Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan is a
direct descendant Gen. Daniel
Morgan of the Revolutionary War.
B.M. Whitlock’s maternal
grandfather served under Morgan
who was also known for daring
guerrilla tactics using deception.
John Hunt Morgan was known for his use of daring
attacks such as his 2500 man raid behind the lines in
July 1863. Morgan was a master of “false flag”
tactics where he and his men would pose as
civilians and Union soldiers to gather intelligence for
behind the lines forays into union territory.
Route of Morgan’s 1863 raid
Morgan and his top officers planning an escape from a
northern prison on November 27, 1863.
John Hunt Morgan
Morgan was shot in the back by a Union soldier in
Greenville, TN. on September 4th, 1864. Greenville is
the home of President Andrew Johnson and US
Marshall William M. Lowry, Johnson’s mentor and good
friend of B.M. Whitlock
Pirates & Revolutionaries

163. COPPERHEADS &
CONSPIRATORS
Jacob Thompson apparently
leader of Confederate Secret
Service operations in Canada.
Robert Cobb Kennedy
Confederate Agent- Hanged March 25, 1865
For Setting New York Fires
(picture taken two days before execution)
Clement Vallandigham
The Northwestern
Confederacy
While in Canada, Vallandigham met
with Jacob Thompson, who was a
representative of the Confederate
government. He talked to Thompson
about plans for forming a
Northwestern Confederacy, consisting
of the states of Ohio, Kentucky,
Indiana, and Illinois, by overthrowing
their governments.
leader of the Copperhead
faction of anti-war Democrats
during the American Civil War.
Abraham Lincoln speaking
about Vallandigham

164. St. Albans Raid
October 19, 1864
Confederate Secret Service
Operations During the Civil War
Privateer, Lake Michigan
September 18, 1864
John Yates Beall
Confederate Army of Manhattan
November 25, 1864
Forcing towns people to take an oath in support of the confederacy

165. Greek Fire as depicted in
The Raid a 1954 film about
the Oct. 19, 1864 St. Albans
raid.
Greek Fire in bottles
Fenian Flag of Irish Rebels
who attempted and invasion
of Canada in 1867. Fenian Fire
was an explosive called Greek
Fire during the U.S. Civil War
Charles V. Mapes Phosphate factory, would have
expertise on phosphorus and would have all the
chemicals necessary to manufacture Greek
(Fenian) Fire. Mapes, business partner with B.M.
Whitlock owns this business.
Modern version
The body was filled
with a mixture of
WP, petrol and
rubber.

166. Whitlock’s Hommock Auctioned
Leggets bring suit against Whitlock estate
April 1868
October 1864
December 3, 1864

167. “a vast and fiendish plot”
P.T. Barnum’s Museum
St. James Hotel
Metropolitan Hotel
United States Hotel
Lafarge Hotel
Astor Hotel
St. Nicholas Hotel
Tammany Hall
November 25, 1864 Conspirators set fires in New York Hotels

168. February 8, 1865
A NAWARK REBEL.
WILLIAM LAWRENCE MCDONALD , who figures in
the papers as the rebel agent in Canada, and the leading
spirit in the Chesapeake, St. Albans, and New-York hotel-
burning affairs... In 1860, he associated with Mr.
B.M. WHITLOCK, (his brother-in-law,) in the carriage
business... "GUS" MCDONALD, a brother of the above,
who also lived in Orange, but recently a resident of New-
York, is in custody on a charge of harboring the
incendiaries while they were in that city. -- Newark
Advertiser.
The man who tried to burn
New York
November 25, 1864
Southern Gentleman (about to
Fire the Hotel), Harper's Weekly.

169. Hyams was then sworn on a copy of the
Bible, and, being examined by Mr.
Patterson, said: I live in York-street in this
city, and know the prisoner, McDonald; I
have known him for upward of twelve
months; he resided, when I first knew him,
with his sister on Adelaide-street; his
occupation within the past Winter and Fall
has been making and preparing munitions
of war as agent, under Col. Thompson, of
the Confederate States of America; have
seen him, during that time, making
torpedoes, hand-shells, Greek fire, and
other explosive missiles: in the process he
used powder, shot, fine coal, and pitch; he
had a small furnace and iron boiler in a
house on Agnes-street, where those
things were made and into which he
moved in October last; there were several
young men frequented his place;
McDonald told me that these munitions
and preparations were made to be used
upon the steamer Georgian, which was to
proceed from Collingwood upon raiding
expeditions against the United States of
America
From the Toronto Globe, April 27, 1865.
Wm. L. “Larry” McDonald Explosives Expert
for Confederate Plotters
Operating from a Toronto safe house in
this neighborhood they experiment with
batches of “Greek Fire” an explosive
that catches fire when exposed to air
for use as an incendiary grenade.
Greek Fire is used in the raid on St.
Albans, Vermont. Later used against
New York City.

170. Married to Benjamin Whitlock’s
sister Josephine Whitlock,
McDonald does extensive
business with the south
15 Beekman is directly adjacent to B.M. &E.A. Whitlock
William “Larry” McDonald 1821-1895
Merchant, Sutler, Spy, Conspirator

171. “Gus” McDonald is part of
the conspiracy with
daughter Katie McDonald
Katie’s uncle William L McDonald, brother to Gus
was Whitlock’s brother-in-law. He rented a hideout
Confederate Operations in Canada and New York -Headley
New York Times,
November 26, 1864

172. Queen’s Hotel in Toronto where the
conspirators hid after the attempt to burn
New York
“Gus” McDonald (brother of “Larry”) is arrested when detectives raid his piano store on
Franklin St. The plotters had been meeting there. Martin was a Confederate agent.

173. McDonald, his brother “Gus” and
niece Katie named in an investigation
into the plot but never charged in the
crime despite Larry’s confession to the
New York City police commissioner..
WILLIAM L. MCDONALD , the rebel agent in
Canada, was in 1860 proprietor of the "Southern
Carriage Repository," in this city, at No. 514
Broadway. His trade, which had been almost
exclusively with the South, having been shut off by
the war, he became one of the most bitter and
consistent partisans of the South anywhere to be
found in the North.NY Times Feb. 6, 1865

174. 1856 Wm. L. McDonald originally located at 26 Beekman St. thru to 18
Spruce St. directly across the street of B.M. and E.A. Whitlock Building
20th Century
Photo of 26
Beekman
(edge visible
at far left of
photo) with
28 and 30 to
the right.

175. 1860 McDonald opens a Southern
Carriage Repository at 514 Broadway.
The building is subsequently the
location of a Wood’s Minstrel Hall
owned by Henry Wood, the brother of
NYC’s pro-confederate mayor Fernando
Wood.
WM.L.MCDONALDJanuary 1860
WM.L.MCDONALD
January 1860
Wood’s Theater 1862
Moved by September 1860
Crosby Street Synagogue

176. Benjamin Wood purchased the New York
Daily News (not to be confused with the
current New York Daily News, which was
founded in 1919), a Loco Foco whose paper
was known for intense racism and pro-
Confederacy sentiment.
Fernando Wood
1812-1881
Benjamin Wood
1820–1900
Mitchel was arrested in NYC in June
1865 after the war, while writing for
the Daily News. He was suspected
of involvement in the Lincoln
assassination, but was released
from Ft. Monroe in October 1865.
John Mitchel wrote for Benjamin Wood
After the failure of his first minstrel house, Henry Wood (the mayor's
brother) converted an abandoned Jewish synagogue at 514 Broadway
that he acquired in July 1862. Later, Harrigan & Hart took over and
renamed it Theatre Comique.
Henry Wood
1816-1887
Copperhead
Brothers, A
Broadway
Playhouse &
Two Rebels
Henry Wood also the mayor’s
brother and was a minstrel
impresario taking over the
same building as Wm.
McDonald’s Southern
Carriage Repository
Performance Dates and time of Wood’s
Minstrels at 561 and 563 Broadway
April 9, 1862
Performers:
Wood’s Minstrels:
Cool White (minstrel)
C.J. Lockwood (minstrel)
W. Patterson
Charles Henry
James W. Glenn
John T. Boyce
Frank Brower
Performances:
Uncle Sam's a Coon
Historical Reminiscences
Happy Uncle Tom
The Victim of Secession
Cotton Field Sports
Review:
New York Clipper, 16 April 1864,
“The crowds constantly going to the Fair didn’t
affect the business of this house, extra seats
having to be placed in the aisles several nights
during the week.  Charley Fox is in Fair form again,
Frank Brower looms up as serene as ever, and
Boyce, the other comedian, keeps his end up with
commendable precision.
Mayor of New York for
two non-sequential terms
between 1855 and 1861.
In January 1861, Wood
suggested New York
secede becoming a “free
city” continuing its
profitable cotton trade
with the Confederacy.
Fernando Wood’s
brother
During the war he was in Richmond the rebel capitol
Publisher of an intensely pro-confederate newspaper
Wood’s Minstrel Hall
517 Broadway
Built 1862

177. William L. McDonald: Confederate Conspiracies
Biological warfare plot by selling Yellow Fever exposed clothing
to soldiers
The following is the evidence of Edwin J. Hall
I had not the slightest idea of what his mission was, or what enterprise he was engaged in, until I heard it
mentioned by Wm.L. McDonald, a few weeks since; when I got the telegram from the Clifton House, I
knew that Hyams had been away from the city for some time previous, and had but recently returned;
McDonald, in speaking of Hyams' enterprise, said it was taking clothing infected with yellow fever into
the United States, to be introduced among the soldiers; McDonald told me this in reply to my having asked
him if he know anything about it.
New York Times, May 26, 1865 Luke Pryor Blackburn
(June 16, 1816 – September
14, 1887) was an American
physician, philanthropist,
and politician from
Kentucky. He was the
alleged ringleader of the
plot. He was never
charged.
“too preposterous
for intelligent
gentlemen to
believe.”
Yellow Fever decimated troops during the Civil War
Unknown during the civil
war is that yellow fever is
spread by mosquitos and
not through physical
contact with the victims or
their clothing.

178. Did Larry McDonald meet with John Wilkes Booth, assassin
of Abraham Lincoln?
St. Lawrence
Hall, Toronto,
1860, where
the meeting
occurred.
John Wilkes Booth

179. Statement by George Atzerodt one of the conspirators
executed for being part of the plot to kill Abraham Lincoln.
Atzerodt claims that John Wilkes Booth said, “He met a
party in N. York who would get the Prest. certain.”
Booth’s trip to New York occurred sometime around March 21, 1865
George Atzerodt

180. Edward A. Whitlock Son of Thaddeus and Mary
Whitlock was born Jan. 7th 1819 in the City of
New York died May 27th 1865 aged 46 years
Abraham Lincoln assassinated
April 14, 1865
The Green-Wood cemetery
Brooklyn, NY

181. Death of John Wilkes Booth April 26, 1865

182. On May 27, 1865, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about
the capture of Jefferson Davis at the end of the Civil War.
Jefferson Davis, the former president of the Confederacy, was captured by Union troops on May 10, 1865.
This unsigned Harper's Weekly cartoon reflects the widespread rumor that Davis had tried to escape by
dressing as a woman. The artist pictures him in a hoop skirt and bonnet, carrying a hatbox labeled "C. S."
for "Confederate States." The image is intended to contradict the stoic description of Davis conveyed by
the quotation from the New York Daily News, a major voice of the Peace Democrats ("Copperheads").

183. On Saturday, May 27, EDWARD A.
WHITLOCK, of the late firm of B.M. &
E.A. Whitlock & Co., in the 46th year of
his age
The relatives and friends of the family are
invited to attend the funeral services, at
the Dutch Reformed Church in Mott
Haven, on Wednesday morning, at 10 1/2
o'clock. Carriages will be in waiting at the
Mott Haven depot to meet the Harlem
cars, which leave 26th-st. depot at 10
o'clock A.M.
Accidental death of Edward A. Whitlock 1865
Depot at 26th Street and 4th Avenue in 1860
NY Times obituary May 30, 1865

184. Papers of Lt. Gen. U.S. Grant
Benjamin Wood purchased the New
York Daily News (not to be confused
with the current New York Daily
News, which was founded in 1919),
of which he was the editor and
publisher until he died in 1900. Wood
was brother of Copperhead Mayor
Fernando Wood, a Loco Foco
whose paper was known for intense
racism and pro-Confederacy
sentiment.
John Mitchel an advocate of Irish
independence, In the 1850s, he
became a pro-slavery editorial voice.
Mitchel supported the Confederate
States of America during the
American Civil War, and two of his
sons died fighting for the Confederate
cause. He was arrested in NYC in
June 1865 after the war, while writing
for the Daily News. He was
suspected of involvement in the
Lincoln assassination, but was
released from Ft. Monroe in October
1865.

185. Execution of the Lincoln conspirators,
July 7th, 1865
The four condemned conspirators: David Herold, Lewis
Powell, Mary Surratt and George Atzerodt (from left to right).

186. 1860 1870
WM.L.MCDONALDJanuary 1860
WM.L.MCDONALD
January 1860
Wood’s Theater 1862

187. Eatontown, New Jersey. Originally part of
Shrewsbury which was founded in 1693.
1880 Census of Eatontown, New Jersey shows confederate
spy William L. McDonald is a “Carriage Manufacturer,” his
wife Josephine, sister of Benjamin M. Whitlock, occupation
“Keeping house,” his son Edward W. identifies a “Farmer.”
They live with Josephine’s unmarried sister Caroline Whitlock.
McDonald claims he was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Eatontown Village in 1878 showing property of Miss C. Whitlock which is now
the site of the village police and ire department.
Wm. L. McDonald lives out a quiet life as a Carriage Manufacturer in Eatontown, NJ which is formerly
part of Shrewsbury and the home of Benjamin White postmaster of the village of Shrewsbury, for fifty-
three years. White family has a long standing marriage alliance with the Whitlock family
AFTER THE CIVIL WAR

188. William L. McDonald Biography of a son and father.
The son changed family name from Mc to Mac…
The son
Pre-prohibition beer bottle
by MacDonald bottling
company in Eatontown, NJ.
Following in the footsteps
of BM Whitlock, albeit
déclassé version.
Former Wm. L McDonald
carriage factory

189. BURIAL PLACE OF WILLIAM
A peaceful end in the burial ground
Christ Church - built 1769 Shrewsbury,
Monmouth County, New Jersey
Josephine Whitlock McDonald
Birth: unknown
Death: Nov. 20, 1892



Inscription:
wife of William L.
McDonald - dau of
Thaddeus and Mary
Whitlock


Note: died in
Eatontown, sister of
Benjamin M. Whitlock

William L McDonald
Birth: Jan. 12, 1821
Death: Apr. 5, 1895
Inscription:
born in Quebec,
Canada
Note: implicated in
the 1864 plot to burn
New York City

190. The New York Herald (New York, New York) • 02-12-1865 • Page 7
Emilia Casanova wrote to a friend on August 17, 1870: “I distinctly remember the night in which
he came to visit us, in the company of his brother Juan Francisco, on the other side of the
Hudson, in a school that Villaverde had in Weehauken (sic) around the years 1865 and 66”.
Emilia’s husband Cirilio Villaverde runs a language school in
Weehawken, New Jersey in 1865

191. 1861
They cross
the Harlem
River Bridge
December 1866 Emilia Casanova’s daughter
is buried aged 6 years, 5 months and 26 days

192. NY Times
After the death of Mr (Benjamin M.) Whitlock it was transferred by deed from his
widow to Innocencio Casanova a Cuban patriot under date of November 1, 1867
for a consideration of $150,000 The first struggle for Cuban independence was
then in progress and the house became a rendezvous for the supporters of Cuba
Libre It is stated that its great cellars became storehouses for powder rifles and
other munitions of war which were smuggled aboard the vessels which stole in and
out of the creeks contiguous to the house and which sailed away on secret
filibustering expeditions to the Ever Faithful Isle. It is also said that the ill fated
Virginius took on board her unfortunate crew here With the downfall of the
rebellion the visits of the dark skinned mysterious looking men ceased and the
house was deserted while whispers of murdered Spanish spies and of ghosts and
strange and unaccountable noises in the vacant house filled the neighborhood.
-Stephen Jenkins

193. Casanova
“my casita del oeste”
Emilia Casanova

194. Casanova Station

195. Casanova’s daughter Emilia organizes the Daughters
of Cuba to support independence fighters.
One hotbed of militant activity
was an old mansion in what is
now the Hunts Point area of the
Bronx. There, the activist Emilia
Casanova (daughter of
Inocencio) and her husband,
exiled author Cirilo Villaverde,
worked in support of the
Cuban rebels, and are said to
have collected arms and
ammunition for smuggling out
to Long Island Sound and
shipment south to Cuba. -
Museo del Barrio
Emilia Casanova de Villaverde
Cirilo Villaverde

196. Cuba’s Ten Years’ War,
1868-78
On the grounds of his own small estate Carlos Manuel Cespedes
sounded the work-bell of his sugar mill to assemble his slaves and
their gave them their freedom. On the following day he read a
declaration, known as the Manifiesto de la Junta Revolucionaria de
Cuba setting forth the right to self-government of the protesters.
Carlos Manuel de
Céspedes del Castillo a
Cuban planter who freed
his slaves, and made the
declaration of Cuban
independence in 1868
which started the Ten
Years' War.
General Manuel de
Quesada elected as of
the Cuban rebels’ Chief
of the Armed Forces
April 12, 1869.
On October 10, 1868, the beginning of the
Ten Years' War in Cuba occurred and is
known as El Grito de Yara (The Cry of Yara)
and was the beginning of the First Cuban
War of Independence.

197. 1871
The Casanova family was
deeply involved in the struggle
for Cuba’s independence
On a trip to Cuba Casanova learns about a threat to his
life from the Spanish government
“I am under my flag! Viva
Washington!” - Inocencio
Casanova to Spanish officials
from the deck of the American
steamer “Columbia.” February 25, 1871

198. Casanova’s Plantation “La Armonia” was located outside city of
Cardenas. Despite uprisings slavery was legal in Cuba until
October 7, 1886 Casanova’s home
Slave life on Armonia
sugar plantation

199. Inocencio Casanova’s sons run
the families sugar plantation from
Cardenas. They fear for their lives
from the Cuban government.
JOSE N. CASANOVA.
Mr. Casanova was appointed and confirmed
as American Consul, March 1, 1859, as
from New York. He was born in France,
and established a prominent family in
Guayaquil; apparently he continued in
the position of American Consul until
1861.
Brief History Of The American Consulate
General At Guayaquil, Ecuador
By FREDERIC WEBSTER J. CODING
GUAYAQUIL
1920
His son Jose was imprisoned in
Cuba. Jose had been American
Consul in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

200. Emilia Casanova
de Villaverde
Cardenas, Cuba
Latinas in the United States: A Historical Encyclopedia
edited by Vicki Lynn Ruiz
Raffles to raise funds for weapons

201. Letters of Emilia Casanova excerpts
To benefit the next game of illustrious general Quesada
I write you these lines.The disasters and reverses that
have undergone expeditions of men and the ammunition
of war , because of the ineptitude and stupidity of the
ones in charge of their organization and handling, have
produced deep misfortune, causing desperation to
those Cubans who see clearly the origin of the evil...
At this time I don't want to speak on misfortunes
and discords between you, but you must count on
the devotion of all Cubans and to distinguish
between the sincere patriot and the weak
speculator in patriotism.
Carlos Manuel de
Céspedes del Castillo a
Cuban planter who freed
his slaves, and made the
declaration of Cuban
independence in 1868
which started the Ten
Years' War.
General Manuel de
Quesada elected as of
the Cuban rebels’ Chief
of the Armed Forces
April 12, 1869.
--Emilia Casanova de Villaverde
...the purpose I write is to inform you that the
next shipment of arms and ammunition has been
sent by the “League of Daughters of Cuba”

202. “I wouldn’t change my casita del
oeste not even for Mrs. Grant’s
Blue Room in the White House.
No, not even my dining room,
which is more dear [to me] than
all the dining rooms in the
palaces of Washington.”
“I want nothing more than this. (for the
U.S. to express support for abolition of
slavery, encourage commerce, oppose
oppression of Cubans, property,
freedom) and basta! (enough), it’s late
and my eyes and arms hurt me. Adios!
loving son of my soul.”Washington, February 2, 1872
http://depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/latinashistory
Mi Querido Hijo:
There are ladies here who beg to be with
me with the idea of going to places where
entry is forbidden to the common public.
And I don’t doubt that being Americans they
are surprised like that lady in Montreal
when we went to see Victoria Bridge, of the
easy way doors are opened for me. People
offer me their respect. They are smothering
me so much it bothers me instead of giving
me pride. I don’t need formal entry to the
wives of senators, ministers and other
persons in Washington. In this, Enrique
played a big role especially in the hotel,
well he is so adorable and lively he attracts
attention and people come to me to
acariciarlo (hug, pet, or express
endearments) and hear him speak in
English and Spanish so well. People are
anxious to serve me, bring me the paper,
especially where there is news of Cuba.
This is all great praise, but for someone
else: not me. I wouldn’t change my casita
del oeste not even for Mrs. Grant’s Blue
Room in the White House. No, not even my
dining room, which is more dear [to me]
than all the dining rooms in the palaces of
Washington. One cup of coffee there tastes
better than [the] dozens of exquisite and
costly plates that I’m served in Arlington.
I have to edit the talk I’m giving Congress in
the name of Las Hijas. (goes on to ask
Congress to support rights of belligerence. )
Assure your father I want nothing more
than this. (for the U.S. to express support
for abolition of slavery, encourage
commerce, oppose oppression of Cubans,
property, freedom) and basta! (enough), it’s
late and my eyes and arms hurt me. Adios!
loving son of my soul. Don’t forget my
advice to be loved and respected by all.
Recibe el cariño y bendición de tu madre,
Emilia
Washington, February 2, 1872

203. Victor Hugo’s Letters to Emilia
Victor Hugo author Les Miserables

204. Emilia Exchanged Letters with Italian revolutionary
Giuseppe Garibaldi asking for support

205. Underground Passages
A tunnel under the mansion.
The secret tunnel came out in the river at Duck Island
Bronx Historical Society
Historians entered the abandoned mansion in the early 20th century shortly before
it was razed and photographed tunnels that apparently led to the inlet of Leggetts
Creek at a small rock called Duck Island. Both are now below Tiffany street.

206. Virginius leaves NYC
bound for Cuba
Thee Virginius was a Confederate blockade runner
outfitted to smuggle arms to Cuba’s revolutionaries
during the 10 years war between 1868 and 1878.
“...the purpose I write is to
inform you that the next
shipment of arms and
ammunition has been sent
by the League of Daughters
of Cuba”
-Emilia Casanova de Villaverde
October 4, 1870

207. NYC waterfront 1877
potential target of a
Spanish ironclad
John Roach, Maritime Entrepreneur
By Leonard Alexander Swann

208. Execution of the Virginius
crew who apparently sailed
from the Mansion to supply
arms to Cuban rebels.

209. November 15, 1873
1872 Emilia and Cyril moved to
the number 59 West 24th Street
in Manhattan, site that would
become the center of Cuban
political exile in New York City
When in October 1873 the
Spanish authorities captured
the expeditionary ship
Virginius and began to execute
their crew a journalist from The
New York Times went to that
address to hear the reactions of
Villaverde, [and] Emilia
Casanova.
Mrs. Villaverde and her
husband knew most of the
victims of the Virginius
expedition personally and
contributed greatly to the
preparation of that and other
previous expeditions.
Reacting to the massacre from Harlem

210. In this letter Miguel de Aldama, from New York,
writes to José González Curbelo. He explains
that there is not much he can do about the
abuses committed by Emilia Casanova de
Villaverde,among others, that have a detriment
effect to Cuba's independence efforts. He goes
on to say that this behavior will continue so
long as they keep receiving support from
people with candid intentions.
Miguel de Aldama letter to José González Curbelo
complaining about Emilia Casanova de Villaverde,
June 19, 1874
CurbeloAldama
Cuban newspapers attack
Casanova as a “witch” using
her wealth to back the
insurgents. Who she rivaled in
commitment and militancy.
Here she’s portrayed as the selling
insurgent flags “wholesale or retail.”
Emilia’s home town of Cardenas was
where Narciso Lopez first flew the
Cuban flag.

211. Massive wrought-iron chandeliers
adorned halls and chambers. On my
visit I found bell-pulls in the immense
apartments, which I vigorously rang,
causing mysterious ringings in distant
rooms below with true ghostlike effect
—but never a servant appeared.
Chance led us into the strangest place
of all, the secret chamber containing
the great safe, itself as big as a room.

The entrance was by a hidden door.
The place was lighted by opaque oval
panels that exactly resembled the
surrounding woodwork. High up
beneath the lofty roof was a
mysterious place, but whether it was
an elaborate chapel or an immense
ballroom we never learned.
-Valentine’s Manual of Old New York
A MYSTERIOUS
MANSION’S LAST DAYS

212. The Oak Point Bathing beach and Pavilion in 1887
Hunts Point public bath 1910
Casanova’s waterfront becomes an entertainment area
William M. Allen
1814-1878
Allen’s wife
Catherine Leggett
1817-1890

213. Gen. Egbert Viele founder
of the East Bay Land
Improvement Company

214. Casanova estate is sold to the East Bay Land Improvement Company and
English investors looking to host the 1893 Colombian Exposition
New York loses the Fair to Chicago
NYTimes 1890

215. NY & Harlem RR Yards
The railroad yards of the NY &
Harlem are established to the
south west of William Leggett’s
land. Bungay Creek on this map
is now the course of 149th
Street. Eventually named the
Oak Point yards the railroad
would expand to encompass
the lands to the east of the
former “debatable lands” that
figured in the legal battles
between Leggett and Morris
holdings that began in the 17th
century.1888

216. Just prior to the
demolition of the
building, the author
had occasion to visit it. The
once magnificent old
structure appeared in a
pitifully dilapidated state.
The grounds surrounding it
were overrun with rank
weeds and other unsightly
growth. The massive bronze
doors, with their Spanish
coat-of-arms, turned heavily
upon their squeaky hinges,
as if reluctant to admit the
feet of common mortals.
As one entered the
dimly lighted hall, he
seemed to be stepping
into the shadows of
former ages, for
everything looked so
sombre and sepulchral.
An unnatural hollow
sound echoed and
reverberated thru the
spacious hall as one's
footsteps fell upon the
marble floor.
There were numerous stairways leading to the cellar, some of
which were rather risky to descend, as they were narrow and
dark. The cellar was strewn with old rubbish, and on the south
side of the building there was a large kitchen. A rusty iron oven
a three-legged stool and an old wooden table upon which stood
several broken dishes, were the only furnishings of the room. The
place was musty and malodorous and shrouded in darkness. With
the aid of a lantern the old tunnel was located. It was choked up
with dirt and rubbish, but there was enough of it exposed to give
a fair conception of what it had once been. On either side of the
tunnel were half a dozen cells built of solid rock with heavy iron
hinges riveted to both the floors and walls. To what use they
could have been put can only be surmised. Could they speak what
tales thej might have unfolded! — HARRY T. COOK

217. Demolition of the Casanova Mansion
1905

218. Evening Telegram 1906
Church E. Gates lumber yard, NYPL
National Gypsum Co. 1952
C.E. Gates lumber yard and National Gypsum
previously known as Rock Plaster Co.

219. Graft and Pollution in 1909
Louis M.
Haffen first
Bronx
Borough
President

220. “MAN OF MYSTERY”
NYTimes January 2, 1922

221. NY Times 1922
Casanova site 2012