Giovanni da Verrazzano was the first European explorer to sight the island of Narrioch during his expeditions to the area in 1527 and 1529. He was subsequently followed by Henry Hudson. The Dutch established the colony of New Amsterdam in present-day Coney Island in the early 17th century. The Native American population in the area dwindled as the Dutch settlement grew and the entire southwest section of present-day Brooklyn was purchased in 1645 from the Native Americans in exchange for a gun, a blanket, and a kettle. In 1644, a colonist named Guysbert Op Dyck was given a patent for 88 acres of land in the town of Gravesend, on the southwestern shore of Brooklyn.
Early settlement
Coney Island
Coney Island | Early settlement
Dutch Giovanni da Verrazzano was the first European explorer to sight the island of Narrioch during his expeditions to the area The Native Americans and latter the Dutch. The early settler were the Dutch who established the colony of New Amsterdam.
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The southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn.
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Giovanni da Verrazzano was the first European explorer to sight the island of Narrioch during his expeditions to the area in 1527 and 1529. He was subsequently followed by Henry Hudson. The Dutch established the colony of New Amsterdam in present-day Coney Island in the early 17th century. The Native American population in the area dwindled as the Dutch settlement grew and the entire southwest section of present-day Brooklyn was purchased in 1645 from the Native Americans in exchange for a gun, a blanket, and a kettle. In 1644, a colonist named Guysbert Op Dyck was given a patent for 88 acres of land in the town of Gravesend, on the southwestern shore of Brooklyn.
Coney Island | Early settlement
All of these islands were part of the outer barrier on the southern shore of Long Island, and their land areas and boundaries changed frequently. Only the westernmost island was called Coney Island; it currently makes up part of Sea Gate. At the time, it was a 1.25-mile shifting sandspit with a detached island at its western end extending into Lower New York Bay. In a 1679–1680 journal, Jasper Danckaerts and Peter Sluyter noted that "Conijnen Eylandt" was fully separated from the rest of Brooklyn. The explorers observed that "Nobody lives upon it, but it is used in winter for keeping cattle, horses, oxen, hogs and others."
Coney Island | Early settlement
The patent included Conyne Island, an island just off the southwestern shore of the town of Gravesend, as well as Conyne Hook, a peninsula just east of the island. At the time, both were part of Gravesend. East of Conyne Hook was the largest section of island called Gysbert's, Guysbert's, or Guisbert's Island (also called Johnson Island), containing most of the arable land and extending east through today's Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach. This was officially the first official real estate transaction for the island. Op Dyck never occupied his patent, and in 1661 he sold it off to Dick De Wolf.
Coney Island | Early settlement
Archeological research in the 21st century has revealed there may have been two early house complexes. The Sylvesters had eleven surviving children. The more elaborate manor house, which survives today, was built in 1733 by a Sylvester grandson.
Shelter Island, New York | Early settlers
Lambert Naegele (an immigrant from Germany who published German language newspapers), Reinhold Zeglin (also an immigrant from Germany), and Emile Amblard (originally from France) developed resort buildings and attractions on the island. The best preserved building from this era, however, is the Emile Amblard Guest House on the mainland.
Coney Island of the West | Introduction
The land's new owner banned Gravesend residents from using Guisbert's Island and built a salt-works on the land, provoking outrage among Gravesend livestock herders. New Amsterdam was transferred to the English in 1664, and four years later, the English Governor created a new charter for Gravesend that excluded Coney Island. Subsequently, Guisbert's Island was divided into plots meted out to several dozen settlers. However, in 1685, the island became part of Gravesend again as a result of a new charter with the Native Americans. At the time of European settlement, the land that makes up the present-day Coney Island was divided across several separate islands.
Coney Island | Early settlement
The island has received human visitors for over 1,500 years. It is located in a region that was the first home to the Dakota people. Euro-American settlers colonized the area in the mid-19th century, with settlers going to the island during the Dakota War of 1862 in fear of battles in Carver County. The island was sought as a refuge because of its clear distant views, but the war resolved before reaching the county. The St. Paul and Sioux City Railroad purchased the land in 1866. They sold it to private buyers in 1874. The buyers eventually sold the island to Lambert Naegele in March 1884 for $5,200.
Coney Island of the West | History
The island and its environs were first inhabited by bands of Lenape, an Algonquian-speaking tribe that occupied territory along both sides of Long Island Sound, and through coastal areas through present-day New Jersey and down to Delaware. The first known European believed to set foot in the area that would become Gravesend was Henry Hudson, whose ship, "the Half Moon", landed at Coney Island in the fall of 1609. The Dutch claimed this land as part of their New Netherland Colony. Gravesend is notable as the only colonial town founded by a woman, Lady Deborah Moody. In 1643, governor general Willem Kieft granted her and a group of English settlers a land patent on December 19, 1645.
Gravesend, Brooklyn | Early history
In 1651 Goodyear sold the island to a group of Barbados sugar merchants for 1,600 pounds of sugar. Nathaniel Sylvester (1610–1680), one of the merchants, was the island’s first white settler. He was among a number of English merchants who had lived and worked in Rotterdam (where he was born) before going to Barbados. His connections there and with the Netherlands helped him establish a far-flung trading enterprise. On March 23, 1652, he made the purchase official by agreement with Youghco (called Poggatticut), the sachem of the Manhanset tribe. The other owners, Sylvester’s brother Constant, and Thomas Middleton, never came to Long Island.
Shelter Island, New York | Early settlers
Although most of the earlier immigrants settled in New York City, a few settled beyond its limits, some even as far as the confines of what now constitutes the state of Pennsylvania. In 1661, when Albany was but a trading-post, Asser Levy owned real estate there, but between that date and the early years of the nineteenth century there are no records of any settlers in that town. They were not there in sufficient numbers to form a congregation until 1838, and they had no rabbi until 1846.
History of the Jews in Colonial America | Upstate New York settlement
Moody, the Tiltons, and other early English settlers were known to have paid the Lenape for their land. Another prominent early settler was Anthony Janszoon van Salee. The Town of Gravesend encompassed in southern Kings County, including the entire island of Coney Island. This was originally used as the town's common lands on the Atlantic Ocean. It was divided, as was the town itself, into 41 parcels for the original patentees. When the town was first laid out, almost half of the area was made up of salt marsh wetlands and sandhill dunes along the shore of Gravesend Bay. It was one of the earliest planned communities in America.
Gravesend, Brooklyn | Early history
The origins of the first people to inhabit the island, which occurred during the last years of the Neolithic period (4000–3000 BC), are not clear. The traces of buildings, walls and a road from this time period prove that life existed and continued to do so during the Early Hellenic era (3000–2000 BC). In the years (2000–1500 BC) some of the population migrated to part of the island. The buildings and walls that were excavated showed the lifestyle of this period had remained primitive.
Ithaca | First settlers
The Whittlesey engaged in the farming of beans, corn, and squash, and developed an extensive fishing tradition. Between 1600 and 1650 CE, the Whittlesey people disappeared. The cause—absorption into another culture, disease, emigration, low birth rate, warfare, or some combination of factors—is not known. By the time the Iroquois of what is now central New York began moving along the shore of Lake Erie into northeast Ohio in 1650 during the Beaver Wars, the area was almost uninhabited. In the early and mid 1700s, the Mingo, Odawa (or Ottawa), and Ouendat (or Wyandot) occupied the area after fleeing the Iroquois.
Union–Miles Park | Early human settlers
Tradition says a certain Drummond and McKelpin Loyalists were early settlers, but left as the Revolutionary War came closer to the area. The earliest documented settlement occurred around 1771, with many of the settlers migrating from Connecticut. According to various sources, Michael Dunning may have been the first, while others included John Rhodes, Jeheil Parks, Samuel Clark, Luther Landon, Dean Chase, Ebenezer Valentine, Ebenezer Dibble, Ebenezer Millard, Obadiah Tompkins, Reuben Doolittle, Cornelius Abeel, Stephen Ireland, Robert Hemple, and William Marvin. The town, originally called Dunning Street, was formed in 1802 from part of the Town of Stillwater. More territory was gained from the Town of Saratoga in 1805.
Malta, New York | History
The first known people of European descent to come to the area were the troops of the Sullivan Expedition in 1779, during the American Revolutionary War, who destroyed local villages of the Onondaga and Oneida tribes. The city was named after William Bingham, a wealthy Philadelphian who bought the 10,000 acre patent for the land in 1786, then consisting of portions of the towns of Union and Chenango. Joshua Whitney, Jr., Bingham's land agent, chose land at the junction of the Chenango and Susquehanna Rivers to develop a settlement, then named Chenango Point, and helped build its roads and erect the first bridge.
Binghamton, New York | Early settlement
Remnants of Native American activity on the island, including stone markings, conch shell beds, and broken arrow tips, could be seen through the mid-20th century. Bergen Island may also have contained fields that the Indians used for planting. There were collectively three planting fields on Bergen Island and in Canarsie. In 1624, the Dutch Republic incorporated much of the current New York City area into the colony of New Netherland. In 1636, as the Dutch were expanding outward from present-day Manhattan, Dutch settlers founded the town of Achtervelt (later Amersfoort) and purchased around Jamaica Bay. Amersfoort was centered around the present-day intersection of Flatbush Avenue and Flatlands Avenue.
Bergen Beach, Brooklyn | Early settlement
The coastal migration hypothesis of the settlement of the Americas suggests that the first North Americans may have been here as the oldest human remains known from Alaska or Canada are from On Your Knees Cave. Anthropologists have found striking parallels between the myths, rituals, and dwelling types of the Koryaks—inhabitants of the Kamchatka Peninsula—and those of the native peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. At this time the island was twice as large as today. There is strong genetic evidence for these early people having an origin there. The Koryaks were a matrilineal seafaring people hunting whales and other marine mammals.
Haida Gwaii | Pre-colonial era
Brooklyn Heights occupies a plateau on a high bluff that rises sharply from the river's edge and gradually recedes on the landward side. Before the Dutch settled on Long Island in the middle of the seventeenth century, this promontory was called Ihpetonga ("the high sandy bank") by the native Lenape American Indians. Ferries across the East River were running as early as 1642, serving the farms in the area. The most significant of the ferries went between the current Fulton Street and Peck Slip in Manhattan, and was run by Cornelius Dirksen. The ferry service helped the lowland area to thrive, with both farms and some factories along the water, but the higher ground was sparsely used.
Brooklyn Heights | Early settlement
In particular, the Riegelmann Boardwalk enabled the crowds to be dispersed away from Surf Avenue, the main west–east avenue in the area. Despite staff shortages during World War II, Coney Island retained its popularity and was frequented by military personnel.
Coney Island | Early 20th century
It was founded in 1812 by James Fish and became the first settlement west of the Cuyahoga River. Two years later, around 200 people lived at Brooklyn Centre. Of mixed heritage today, the original settlers of the area were Connecticut residents who had purchased land from investors of the Connecticut Western Reserve. By 1812, Brooklyn Centre became a township. German immigrants moved in starting in the late 19th century They were followed by the Polish and the Irish by the early 20th century who settled at the eastern end of Brooklyn Centre. These new settlers relocated to the area so that they would be close to the factories in and around the Cuyahoga River such as the tanneries and steel mills.
Brooklyn Centre | History
In 1824, the Gravesend and Coney Island Road and Bridge Company built the first bridge across Jamaica Ditch (by now known as Coney Island Creek), connecting the island with the mainland. The company also built a shell road across the island to the beaches. In 1829, the company also built the first hotel on the island: the Coney Island House, near present-day Sea Gate. Due to Coney Island's proximity to Manhattan and other boroughs, and its simultaneous relative distance from the city of Brooklyn to provide the illusion of a proper vacation, it began attracting vacationers in the 1830s and 1840s, assisted by carriage roads and steamship service that reduced travel time from a formerly half-day journey to two hours.
Coney Island | Resort development
The first bridge to Coney Island was established in 1824, and this was followed five years later by the creation of the Coney Island House, a seaside resort. Due to Coney Island's proximity to Manhattan and other boroughs, and its simultaneous relative distance from the city of Brooklyn to provide the illusion of a proper vacation, it began attracting vacationers in the 1830s and 1840s, and numerous resorts were built. New railroad lines, built after the American Civil War, served Coney Island's restaurants, hotels, bathing pavilions, theaters, the waterfront, and other attractions. A series of fires in the resorts in the 1880s and 1890s opened up large tracts of land for the development of theme parks, the first of which was Sea Lion Park in 1895.
Riegelmann Boardwalk | Context
Ava was settled in 1798 by Ebenezer Harger, who two years prior moved to Whitestown from Connecticut. The next settlers were Zephaniah and Abner Wood. Isaac Knight arrived from Rhode Island in 1798 or 1799. Around 1800, Philo Harger, Benjamin Jones, Lemuel Wood, Justus Beardsley and Salmon Bates (who opened the town's first tavern in his house) arrived. Daniel Buck, a revolutionary war veteran arrived from Massachusetts in 1800. Other early settlers were Rickerson Kenyon, Joseph Hunt, Remember Kent, who built an early saw-mill, and Bates, Barnard, Fanning, Adams, Beck, Tiffany. The first child born in Ava was Chauncey Harger in March 1801.
Ava, New York | Early Settlers
Reece, James Scoby, James Hobbs, James Newbey (i.e., Newby) and John Caplinger. (Goodspeed, 1886) (Coley 1971)
Round Lick, Tennessee | Early settlers
The first inhabitants were the Orient Focus People, Native Americans who lived in the area about 1000 BC. They vanished long before the arrival in about 900 AD of the Corchaugs, who called the area Poquatuc. The Corchaugs were still present when six English families settled in 1661. The new residents called the area Oysterponds because of the abundant shellfish that they began to gather and sell to nearby communities. While farming remained the principal occupation, trading vessels began operating out of the sheltered harbor during the colonial period.
East Marion, New York | Beginnings
Early settlers of the northern part of the town include Benjamin, Jonathan, James, and Abraham Morton (brothers) who arrived from Springfield, Massachusetts in June 1803. Daniel Miller arrived from Granville, Massachusetts in 1804. Jonathan and Samuel Stanford arrived in 1805, and Peter Abbott, revolutionary war veteran, from Windham, Vermont in 1806. Also arriving in 1806 was Elias Brewster, who moved from the nearby town of Western, having arrived there from Connecticut in 1790. Other settlers to the town were Adam P. Campbell, Nicholas Armstrong, and Dan Taft.
Annsville, New York | Early Settlers
This is a collection of lists of early settlers (before 1700) in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Most of the lists are of the earliest inhabitants of a particular town or area.
List of early settlers of Rhode Island | Introduction
After many complaints from the public and from concession operators, the Estimate Board reinstated the area between West 22nd and West Eighth Streets as an amusement-only zone, with the zone extending inland from the shoreline. Moses's subsequent proposal to extend the Coney Island boardwalk east to Manhattan Beach was denied in 1955. A proposal to make the Quonset hut development into a permanent housing structure was also rejected.
Coney Island | Robert Moses era
Archaeological excavations indicate that the first humans settled the area as early as 9,000 years ago. The area was abandoned, however, possibly because the warming climate of the region lead to the local extinction of many larger game species upon which the early inhabitants depended for food. A second wave of inhabitants entered the region approximately 3,000 years ago and left behind more advanced hunting implements such as bows and arrows. The remains of approximately 8,000 such early encampments have been found throughout the city. The region has probably remained continually inhabited from that time. By the time of the arrival of Europeans, the Lenape were cultivating fields of vegetation through the slash and burn technique.
History of New York City (prehistory–1664) | Human prehistory
Most of the vacationers were wealthy and went by carriage. Inventor Samuel Colt built an observation tower on the peninsula in 1845, but he abandoned the project soon after. In 1847, the middle class started going to Coney Island upon the introduction of a ferry line to Norton's Point—named after hotel owner Michael Norton—at the western portion of the peninsula. Gang activity started as well, with one 1870s writer noting that going to Coney Island could result in losing money and even lives. The Brooklyn, Bath and Coney Island Railroad became the first railroad to reach Coney Island when it opened in 1864, and it was completed in 1867.
Coney Island | Resort development
The original "purchasers" of Block Island in April 1661, whose names appear on a plaque at the north end of the island: The early "settlers" whose names appear on the plaque:
List of early settlers of Rhode Island | Early inhabitants of New Shoreham (Block Island)
By the late 1870s, Coney Island's hotels had drawn people from many different social classes, and attractions were being built. When the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company electrified the steam railroads and connected Brooklyn to Manhattan via the Brooklyn Bridge at the beginning of the 20th century, Coney Island turned rapidly from a resort to an accessible location for day-trippers seeking to escape the summer heat in New York City's tenements. Charles I. D. Looff, a Danish woodcarver, built the first carousel and amusement ride at Coney Island in 1876, at Lucy Vandeveer's bath-house complex at West 6th Street and Surf Avenue.
Coney Island | 19th century
In 1673 Nathaniel Sylvester claimed ownership of Shelter Island, Fishers Island, and other parts of Long Island. By that time the Manhansett had declined in number and power. In 1652 Sylvester constructed a house on the island for his 17-year-old bride, Grissel (also spelled Grizzel) Brinley from London. Her mother was Anna (Wase) Brinley and her father Thomas Brinley had been an auditor in the court of King Charles I. With the Revolution he had lost his position; Grissel had gone to the colony with her older sister Anne, who had married William Coddington, the governor of the Rhode Island colony.
Shelter Island, New York | Early settlers
The first recorded European settler of what is now Greenpoint was Dirck Volckertsen (Batavianized from "Holgerssøn"), a Norwegian immigrant who in 1645 built a -story farmhouse there with the help of two Dutch carpenters. It was built in the contemporary Dutch style just west of what is now the intersection of Calyer Street and Franklin Street. There he planted orchards and raised crops, sheep and cattle. He was called Dirck de Noorman by the Dutch colonists of the region, "Noorman" being the Dutch word for "Norseman" or "Northman." The creek that ran by his farmhouse became known as Norman Kill (Creek); it ran into a large salt marsh and was later filled in.
Greenpoint, Brooklyn | Early colonization and agricultural era
The local Lenape Native Americans originally inhabited the area. They referred to the surrounding area, including Mill and Barren Islands, as "Equendito" or "Equindito", a name that probably means "Broken Lands". In 1624, the Dutch Republic incorporated much of the current New York City area into the colony of New Netherland. In 1636, as the Dutch were expanding outward from present-day Manhattan, Dutch settlers founded the town of Achtervelt (later Amersfoort, then Flatlands) and purchased around Jamaica Bay. Amersfoort was centered around the present-day intersection of Flatbush Avenue and Flatlands Avenue. Canarsie Indian leaders had signed three land agreements with Dutch settlers between 1636 and 1667, handing ownership of much of their historic land, including Mill Island, to the Dutch.
Mill Basin, Brooklyn | Early settlement
The first early settlement was near Port Jervis, New York which was then New Jersey. A blacksmith bought land from the Lenape in 1698 near Port Jervis. They valued his metal making skills as no Native American was working with metal then. After that the English bought land from the Native Americans such as the Minisink Patent, Wawayanda Patent, NY-NJ Border War, Minisink settlement, Esopus, etc.
Old Mine Road | Early Settlement
Though modern-day Brooklyn is coextensive with Kings County, this was not always the case. South Brooklyn, an area in central Kings County extending to the former Brooklyn city line near Green-Wood Cemetery's southern border, was originally settled by the Canarsee Indians, one of several indigenous Lenape peoples who farmed and hunted on the land. The Lenape typically lived in wigwams, and had larger fishing and hunting communities near freshwater sites on higher land. Several Lenape roads crossed the landscape and were later widened into "ferry roads" by 17th-century Dutch settlers, since they were used to provide transport to the waterfront.
Park Slope | Early settlement
The first European settler in the area was Pieter Claesen Wyckoff, a former indentured servant who built a house in Flatlands circa 1652. Wyckoff's house still stands along Clarendon Road, and it is believed to be the oldest structure in New York State. In 1660, present-day Canarsie Point was given the name Vischers Hook ("fishers' hook"). The name referred to Hoorn, a Dutch fisherman who had built a house at that location. At the time, a group of islands extended into Jamaica Bay south of Canarsie, up to and including Barren Island.
Canarsie, Brooklyn | Early history
Originally inhabited by the Raritan Indians, the area that eventually became known as Rossville remained largely free of European settlers until 1684 when the first land survey of the area was made by the British, who obtained Staten Island from the Dutch in the Treaty of Breda, which ended the Second Anglo-Dutch War. In 1692, Daniel Perrin, a Huguenot originally from Jersey, was granted of land in the area (then known as "Smoking Point") by Governor Benjamin Fletcher. The earliest known permanent settlement of the area is thought to be around the early 1700s by Peter Winant (1654-1758), son of Pieterse Wynant, one of the earliest known permanent settlers of Staten Island, who arrived from Holland in 1661.
Rossville, Staten Island | Early history
South Brooklyn was originally settled by the Canarsee Indians, one of several indigenous Lenape peoples who farmed and hunted on the land. The Canarsee Indians had several routes that crossed Brooklyn, including a path from Fulton Ferry along the East River that extended southward to Gowanus Creek, Sunset Park, and Bay Ridge. The Canarsee traded with other indigenous peoples, and by the early 17th century, also with Dutch and English settlers. The first European settlement at Bay Ridge occurred in 1636 when Willem Adriaenszen Bennett and Jacques Bentyn purchased between 28th and 60th Streets, in what is now Sunset Park.
Bay Ridge, Brooklyn | Early settlements
Jan Meserole established a farm in 1663; his farmhouse at what is now 723 Manhattan Avenue stood until 1919 and last served as a Young Women’s Hebrew Association.
Greenpoint, Brooklyn | Early colonization and agricultural era
Originally, Staten Island was inhabited by the Munsee-speaking Lenape Native Americans. The Lenape relocated during different seasons, moving toward the shore to fish during the summers, and moving inland to hunt and grow crops during the fall and winter. The present-day area of New York City was inhabited in 1624 by Dutch settlers as part of New Netherland. In 1664, the Dutch gave New Netherland to the British, and six years later the British finalized a purchase agreement with the Lenape. At the time of British handover, several British, Dutch, and French settlers occupied the area, but did not have an established title to the land.
New Brighton, Staten Island | Precolonial and colonial period
Originally, Staten Island was inhabited by the Munsee-speaking Lenape Native Americans. The Lenape relocated during different seasons, moving toward the shore to fish during the summers, and moving inland to hunt and grow crops during the fall and winter. The present-day area of New York City was inhabited in 1624 by Dutch settlers as part of New Netherland. In 1664, the Dutch gave New Netherland to the British, and six years later the British finalized a purchase agreement with the Lenape. At the time of British handover, several British, Dutch, and French settlers occupied the area, but did not have an established title to the land.
St. George, Staten Island | Precolonial and colonial period
The first recorded European contact on the island was in 1520 by Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano who sailed through The Narrows on the ship "La Dauphine" and anchored for one night. The Dutch did not establish a permanent settlement on for many decades. From 1639 to 1655, Cornelis Melyn and David de Vries made three separate attempts to establish one there, but each time the settlement was destroyed in conflicts between the Dutch and the local tribe. In 1661, the first permanent Dutch settlement was established at (Dutch for "Old Village") by a small group of Dutch, Walloon, and French Huguenot families, just south of the Narrows near South Beach.
Staten Island | European settlement
Although no known physical evidence remains in the Crown Heights vicinity, large portions of what is now called Long Island including present-day Brooklyn were occupied by the Lenape, (later renamed Delaware Indians by the European colonizers). The Lenape lived in communities of bark- or grass-covered wigwams, and in their larger settlements—typically located on high ground adjacent to fresh water, and occupied in the fall, winter, and spring—they fished, harvested shellfish, trapped animals, gathered wild fruits and vegetables, and cultivated corn, tobacco, beans, and other crops. The first recorded contact between the indigenous people of the New York City region and Europeans was with the Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524 in the service of France when he anchored at the approximate location where the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge touches down in Brooklyn today.
Crown Heights, Brooklyn | Early history
The western portion of Long Island was settled by the Dutch, who named it "Lange Eylant". They also had early settlements in the 17th century on what are now Manhattan and Staten Island. On April 22, 1636 Charles I of England ordered that the Plymouth Colony, which had laid claim to the island but had not settled it, give the island to William Alexander. Alexander through his agent James Farret (who personally received Shelter Island and Robins Island) in turn sold most of the eastern island to the New Haven and Connecticut colonies. Lion Gardiner was the first English settler as he settled on Gardiners Island in 1637.
History of Long Island | Dutch and English Settlements
The Wecquaesgeek (also Manhattoe and Manhattan) were a Munsee-speaking band of Wappinger people who once lived along the east bank of the Hudson River in the southwest of today's Westchester County, New York. As was common practice early in the days of European settlement of North America, a people came to be associated with a place, with its name displacing theirs among the settlers and those associated with them, such as explorers, mapmakers, trading company superiors who sponsored many of the early settlements, and officials in the settlers' mother country in Europe. Known by many generally similar spellings, they fished the region's streams and lakes with rods and nets.
Wecquaesgeek | Introduction
The area was heavily fortified prior to the Battle of Long Island in the American Revolutionary War. After British troops landed on Long Island and advanced towards Continental Army lines, General George Washington withdrew his troops here after heavy losses, but was able to make a skillful retreat across the East River to Manhattan without the loss of any troops or his remaining supplies.
Brooklyn Heights | Early settlement
One was the Flatbush Road, running roughly north–south to the east of the path of present-day Flatbush Avenue. Just north of modern-day Park Slope was the Jamaica Road, running east to Jamaica, Queens, on what is now the path of Fulton Street. The first European settlement occurred in 1637-1639 when Willem Kieft, the Dutch West India Company's director, purchased almost all land in what is now Brooklyn and Queens. The area was used as farmland over the next two centuries. During the American Revolutionary War, on August 27, 1776, the Park Slope area served as the backdrop for the beginning of the Battle of Long Island.
Park Slope | Early settlement
Many of these pine trees were spread throughout the community. A local farmer named William Dayton swiped some of the pine cones from the site of the original plantings in 1812 and brought them to his farm south of what is today Middle Country Road, towards an area of Yaphank-Middle Island Road north of Longwood Road. The area near the William Davis farmstead is now part of Prosser Pines and Cathedral Pines County Parks. The first schoolhouse was built in 1813 east of the church. In 1837, a new church was built just to the rear of the older one.
Middle Island, New York | History
Coney Island is a residential and commercial neighborhood and entertainment area on a peninsula in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach to its east, Lower New York Bay to the south and west, and Gravesend to the north, and includes the subsections of Sea Gate to its west and Brighton Beach to its east. Coney Island was formerly the westernmost of the Outer Barrier islands on the southern shore of Long Island, but in the early 20th century it became a peninsula, connected to the rest of Long Island by land fill.
Coney Island | Introduction
Initially, Manhattan was settled by the Lenape Native Americans, who referred to the area nearby as "Muscota" or "Muscoota", meaning "place of rushes". The nearest Native American settlements were Rechewanis and Konaande Kongh in present-day Central Park, to the southeast of modern Morningside Heights. Additionally, a Native American path in the area was adapted into part of modern-day Riverside Drive. However, the region remained relatively hard to access because of the steep topography. Prior to the beginning of the 18th century, most travel within modern New York City was made via water, since there were few roads in the region.
Morningside Heights, Manhattan | Precolonial and colonial period
At the northern edge of what is now East New York, a chain of hills, geologically a terminal moraine, separates northwestern Long Island from Jamaica and the Hempstead Plains, the main part of Long Island's fertile outwash plain. The southern portions of the neighborhood, meanwhile, consisted of salt marshes and several creeks, which drained into Jamaica Bay. These areas were originally settled by the Jameco Native Americans, and later used by the Canarsee and Rockaway tribes as fishing grounds. In the 1650s, Dutch colonists began settling in the eastern sections of Brooklyn, forming the towns of Flatbush, Bushwick, and New Lots (the predecessor to East New York).
East New York, Brooklyn | Early history and development
Within the oak-mulch enriched soil that has been laid down over millennia, arrowheads have been found. These finds attest to both the Leni-Lenape's subsistence on and unsuccessful defense of their home, which contained the natural resources that made it so attractive to first Dutch and then British colonizers in the 17th and 18th centuries. Its forested hills, strategically located between and above the Raritan Bay and the New York Harbor, offered timber for ship building, iron ore for the production of cannonballs, and a staging ground for British troops during the War for Independence. In the 1800s, several centuries after European settlers had come to, named, deforested, and farmed large portions of Staten Island, travelers of a different sort arrived.
Staten Island Greenbelt | Early settlement
There he was visited by a canoe party of Lenape. The next contact was in 1609 when the explorer Henry Hudson arrived in what is now New York Harbor aboard a Dutch East India Company ship, the "Halve Maen" "(Half Moon)" commissioned by the Dutch Republic. European habitation in the New York City area began in earnest with the founding of a Dutch fur trading settlement, later called ""Nieuw Amsterdam"" (New Amsterdam), on the southern tip of Manhattan in 1614. By 1630, Dutch and English colonists started moving into the western end of Long Island. In 1637, Joris Jansen de Rapalje purchased about around Wallabout Bay and over the following two years, director Kieft of the Dutch West India Company purchased title to nearly all the land in what is now Kings County and Queens County from the indigenous inhabitants.
Crown Heights, Brooklyn | Early history
They have a common root, with the original restaurant having been established by Greek immigrant brothers Bill and Gus Keros in 1915. The brothers got into a business dispute soon thereafter, and in 1917 split their restaurant into the two establishments that exist today. Many European immigrants of the early twentieth century entered the United States through Ellis island. One of their first stops was often the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn, along the South Shore beachfront, where hot dogs were very popular. The original restaurant name referred to the restaurant being an immigrant-owned establishment, serving Coney Island's food of choice.
Coney Island (restaurant) | Origins
The first settlers arrived around 1795; this area was then a part of the town of Mayfield in Montgomery County. The early town was once described as "A wild waste...so poor that nobody inclines to settle in it." The inexpensive land was offered by New York City landowners to induce settlement. Heavily forested majestic mountains, abundant game for food and furs, and numerous lakes and streams full of fish awaited the first settlers. A few hardy pioneers came to the wilderness, cleared the land and built self-sufficient farms. They built gristmills and sawmills for local use. All seemed good except for the heavy snows and lack of good roads, which meant they were isolated in the winter and muddy spring.
Lake Pleasant, New York | First settlers
The first white settler, Moses Tucker, arrived around 1816. The area was originally in the town of Willink and was organized March 25, 1839, from parts of the towns of Evans and Concord.
Brant, New York | History
In 1789, Sanger relocated his family to the settlement and erected a sawmill. A gristmill was added in 1790. Both mills utilized the water of the Sauquoit for power. Another early settler was General Oliver Collins (1762-1838), Connecticut native, Revolutionary War veteran and father of future Congressman Ela Collins. Collins settled a farm in the area then known as Middle Settlement in 1789 and resided there until his death. Shortly after arriving, he was commissioned Captain in the local militia and rose to the rank of Brigadier-general at the time of the War of 1812. Eli Butler arrived from Middletown, Connecticut, also in 1789.
New Hartford, New York | Early settlers
Manhattoe/Manhattoes is a term describing a place and, mistakenly, a people. The place was the very southern tip of Manhattan island in the time of the Dutch Colonization of what became New Amsterdam there. The people were a band of the Wappinger native to southwest Westchester County known as the Weckquaesgeek, who controlled the upper three-quarters of the island as a hunting grounds. As was common practice early in the days of European settlement of North America, a people came to be associated with a place, with its name displacing theirs among the settlers and those associated with them, such as explorers, mapmakers, trading company superiors who sponsored many of the early settlements, and officials in the settlers' mother country in Europe.
Manhattoe | Introduction
The 19th century also saw the heavily Irish New York Tammany Hall political machine controlling development of the island, and they may have gotten the name from the island in County Sligo rather than any tale of a rabbit population.
Coney Island | Name
The main Weckquaesgeek settlements flanked the then "Saeck Kill"—today's Saw Mill River—at its confluence with the Hudson River in present-day Yonkers. It was bordered by the Sintsink to the north, below today's Ossining, and inland toward Long Island Sound to that of the Siwanoy, both related Wappinger bands. To the south their range included the upper three-quarters of Manhattan island, which they did not permanently occupy but used as a hunting ground. Effectively it was their land that the Canarsee people of today's Brooklyn, who only occupied the very southern end of Manhattan island, an area known as the "Manhattoes", sold to the Dutch.
Wecquaesgeek | Settlements
The lands in and around the borough of Lewisberry were under control of the Susquehannock people until the first Quaker settlements in the 1730s. These settlements were among the first Quaker settlements in America west of the Susquehanna River. Among the group of original titleholders along the small creek that would become known as Bennett Run were Ellis Lewis, Joseph Bennett, John Rankin, John Heald, and John Hall. At this time, the area that would become York County was still almost entirely populated by the Susquehannock Indians. Yet there are few recorded conflicts between these early settlers and the native population.
Lewisberry, Pennsylvania | Early settlement
The origin of Coney Island's name is disputed, but the area was originally part of the colonial town of Gravesend. By the mid-19th century it had become a seaside resort, and by the late 19th century, amusement parks had also been built at the location. The attractions reached a historical peak during the first half of the 20th century. However, they declined in popularity after World War II, and following years of neglect, several structures were torn down. Various redevelopment projects were proposed for Coney Island in the 1970s through the 2000s, though most of these were not carried out.
Coney Island | Introduction
He was the first recorded non-Native American inhabitant of what would eventually become New York City.
New Amsterdam | Early settlement (1609–1625)
The first settler arrived around 1730. The area first exploited was called "The Oblong," and was outside of the land claimed by the Philipse Patent. Due to a border dispute between New York and Connecticut, the area between the undisputed border of New York and the undisputed border of Connecticut was an approximately area which ran the full north-south dimension along the state line, in what are now Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess, and Columbia Counties. This was called the Oblong. Land was sold in this area both by the governor of New York and the King of England for Connecticut, with conflicting deeds.
Southeast, New York | History
The lower tier is dated to c. 2000–1500 BC, making this the earliest known settlement site on the island. The upper part is believed to be Early Christian (5th to 8th centuries AD). The site was covered by sands before being exposed by a storm in 1885; in that year, it was excavated by D. Murphy and cordoned cinerary urns with cremated bones and a bronze awl were found.
Cnoc Raithní | History
On their 1614 map, which gave them a four-year trade monopoly under a patent of the States General, they named the newly discovered and mapped territory New Netherland for the first time. It also showed the first year-round trading presence in New Netherland, Fort Nassau, which would be replaced in 1624 by Fort Orange, which eventually grew into the town of Beverwijck, now Albany. Dominican trader Juan Rodriguez (rendered in Dutch as Jan Rodrigues), born in Santo Domingo of Portuguese and African descent, arrived on Manhattan Island during the winter of 1613–1614, trapping for pelts and trading with the local population as a representative of the Dutch.
New Amsterdam | Early settlement (1609–1625)
Working with a few brief vocabulary lists of Montauk and Unquachog, he suggested that the Montauk might be related to Mohegan-Pequot and the Unquachog might possibly be grouped with the Quiripi of western Connecticut. The information on the Shinnecock was too sparse for any determination [...] The most common pattern of indigenous life on Long Island prior to the intervention of the whites was the autonomous village linked by kinship to its neighbors." "Most of the 'tribal' names with which we are now familiar do not appear to have been recognized by either the first European observers or by the original inhabitants until the process of land purchases began after the first settlements were established.
Fire Island | Settlement
Site survey discoveries of tabby constructed homes, farm houses, cabins, and a tabby works sugar mill built during the period between 1700 and the 1850s bear witness to early European settlers. Historic documents now located in area museums, as well as historic societies and local historians, provide an early glimpse of settlement history along the South Carolina coast, beginning in the 16th century. Trading ships from European nations, including Spain, France, England, and the Netherlands, sailed with the trade winds, following routes to Central America where they would trade and return home with enormous riches. Eventually trading vessels found their way to the coasts of Florida and South Carolina.
Callawassie Island | First settlers
David Atwater was one of the earliest European settlers recorded living in Cedar Hill (at that time called the East Farm). David Atwater, who died October 5, 1692, was the first of the New Haven Colony who was sworn a freeman of the united colony. A farm was assigned to him in the "Neck", the tract between the Mill and Quinnipiac Rivers.
Cedar Hill (New Haven) | Early settlement
Eventually, the city government and the community reached an agreement mandating that the beach did not begin until south of Surf Avenue and that the territory would be marked by a city-owned boardwalk. In return, the city would demolish any structures built upon public streets to reclaim beach access. In 1915, the Sea Beach Line was upgraded to a subway line, followed by the other former excursion roads, and the opening of the Stillwell Avenue station in 1919 ushered in Coney Island's busiest era. On the busiest summer days, over a million people would travel to Coney Island. This created tensions between longtime New York City residents and more recent immigrants who liked to patronize Coney Island.
Coney Island | Early 20th century
Hartsdale's earliest settlers were the Wecquaesgeek (sometimes spelled Weckquaesgeek), a sub-tribe of the Algonquian tribe that lived in most of southern New York, from Westchester down through Manhattan. "Weekquaeskeek" is an Algonquian term believed to mean "place of the bark kettle", and this kettle appears in the Greenburgh town seal.
Hartsdale, New York | Pre-Colonial Period
Nearby was the Elephantine Colossus, a seven-story building (including a brothel) in the shape of an elephant, which opened the following year. Until its demolition in 1896, the elephant was the first sight to greet immigrants arriving in New York, who would see it before they saw the Statue of Liberty. Next to be developed were horse-racing tracks, and by 1890, Coney Island had three tracks: Sheepshead Bay Race Track, Brighton Beach Race Course, and Gravesend Race Track. However, crime and corruption in Coney Island were prevalent. The main leader of this corruption was John Y. McKane, who ran prizefighting rings behind the elephant until he was arrested and sentenced in 1894.
Coney Island | 19th century
The original Native American inhabitants of the region, the Lenape, called this area "Narrioch". This name has been attributed the meaning of ""land without shadows"" or ""always in light"" describing how its south facing beaches always remained in sunlight. A second meaning attributed to "Narrioch" is ""point"" or ""corner of land"". The "island" was originally several smaller historical islands, each being given a name by Dutch settlers, with the westernmost sand spit or point being given named "Conyne Eylandt" in early-17th-century Dutch maps. There is no clear historical consensus on how the island got the name "Coney Island", in regular use in the first half of the 19th century with the advent of regular ferry service to the island, but several theories have been put forward.
Coney Island | Name
Coert Stevense van Voorhees (1637–1702), a settler of New Netherland is remembered today as progenitor of numerous American families, and as an early settler of Brooklyn.
Coert van Voorhees | Introduction
Among the first settlers, Joseph Schoerg and Samuel Betzner, Jr. (brothers-in-law), Mennonites, arrived from Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Other settlers followed mostly from Pennsylvania typically by Conestoga wagons. The early group purchased land from Richard Beasley who had acquired it from the Six Nations. The first school was begun in 1802 near the village of Blair. Many of the pioneers immigrating from Pennsylvania after November 1803 bought land in a 60,000-acre section of Block Two from the German Company established by a group of Mennonites from Lancaster County Pennsylvania. The tract included most of Block 2 of the previous Grand River Indian Lands.
Regional Municipality of Waterloo | 1800 to 1820
Dutch settlers began arriving in 1637 along the waterfront area up, up to Fulton Street. When the Dutch settlers arrived in the early seventeenth century, the Canarsee, already weakened by disease, hunger, and warfare, began to sell their land to the settlers and commenced on a long westward migration that would take them as far as Illinois territory. The land was sold by the Indians to Joris Jansen Rapalje. Rapelje acquired the land for farming purposes; it was renamed to Breuckelen circa 1646. The first ferry began operating from the northern point of Fulton street few years earlier in 1642.
Vinegar Hill, Brooklyn | Settlement
By the turn of the century, it had been renamed for Hans Hansen Bergen, an early Norwegian or Dutch settler of New Netherland. He lived in the Bergen House, which was built sometime before 1800. One story has it that Bergen's house was hit by British bombs during the American Revolutionary War, but this is not supported by documentation. Another rumor, that the American spy Nathan Hale was executed near or on Bergen Island, is also refuted by other evidence.
Bergen Beach, Brooklyn | Early settlement
John French (1766-1839) arrived from New Hampshire in 1792 and settled another farm, as did Colonel Nathan Seward (1758-1815) of Connecticut, also a Revolutionary War veteran.
New Hartford, New York | Early settlers
In 1782, the families of Austin and Crossley were the first white settlers in Shickshinny. The first permanent settler in the area was Ralph Austin. At this time, Shickshinny was under the jurisdiction of Connecticut. In 1801, Shadrick Austin bought the of land. Another known settler in the area was William Koons (in the 1850s). Koons settled one mile outside of Shickshinny (where the Shickshinny Creek Bridge was later erected). The name of the area was changed to Koonsville (where the post office was later built). In 1773, Nathan Beach, also from Connecticut, settled outside of modern-day Shickshinny. The area was named Beach Haven after him.
Shickshinny, Pennsylvania | Early history
The Canarsee Indians were the first inhabitants of what is now western Brooklyn. The Canarsee were members of the Algonquian who occupied the Atlantic seaboard from Canada to North Carolina. They were an autonomous band of the Delaware (Leni Lenape) Indians. They established their villages close to the water including the higher ground near the Wallabout Bay that they called Rinnegokonck. They lived communally in several settlements in western Brooklyn, including one located on the high ground near the present-day Vinegar Hill Historic District, called Rinnegokonc. In the seventeenth century, European explorers arrived on the land and started doing business with Native Americans.
Vinegar Hill, Brooklyn | Pre-colonial
The original settlers of the island were the Aetas, locally known as "Ati" or "Ita" who were believed to have descended from Orang Asli, the aboriginal people of the Malay Peninsula in mainland Asia. The aborigines came to the Philippines during the Paleolithic period by way of land bridges that connected the archipelago to mainland Asia. The Aetas settled in different parts of Panay Island and on the southern portion of Tablas Island, including Carabao Island where San Jose is located.
San Jose, Romblon | Early history
The first settler in this town was Joseph Perkins, who came from Connecticut in 1805; settled on the east half of lot 14; and sometime in that year opened a public house where John Jacobs now lives. He lived there until his death, being accidentally killed while working in the woods. He left a family of two sons and three daughters, but no one of his descendants is now a resident. What has been known as the “Five Corners,” where the first settlements in the town were made, is situated about two miles north-east of Amboy Center. Settlements were slow for several years David Smith came in 1815 and located at the site of the village, near the present burial ground, where he lived until 1828, and then moved away.
Amboy, New York | History
Also in 1815 came Jason Hammond with his five sons, Elisha, James, Robert, David and Cornelius. In the years that followed many more families came from New England, including Peter McCumber for whom the area known as "McCumber Corners" is named. Other families were the Whitakers, Collisions, Browns, Elstons, Drakes and many more. Many of these families still reside in the township or have close ties. The first church society was organized in 1818 with worship services being held in various citizens' homes. It wasn't until 1852 that a church was built to serve all different faiths of the community.
Baldwin, Chemung County, New York | Early settlement
The Irish came to the territory of Onondaga County as soldiers with the English Army during the American Revolutionary War circa 1776, however, there were only a few hundred Irish who settled in Onondaga County before the era of the "Great Famine" from 1848 to 1855. The earliest Irish to arrive lived on farms in the outskirts of the city. Most were transplants from New England who, with other Yankee farmers, left rocky, barren soil for uncrowded, fertile land in Onondaga County. More than half these Irish were Protestant. They farmed their own land and were not subject to the hatred faced by later arriving Irish-Catholic immigrants.
Ethnic groups in Syracuse, New York | Irish
Records from 1679 indicate that Elbertse had complained that other settlers were going to Barren Island to let their horses graze on his land. The settler William Moore started digging sand from the island in the 1740s. Moore characterized the island as "vacant and unoccupied" in 1762, and it remained as such until the end of that century, being used mainly as a grazing field. Even during the first half of the 19th century, the island had few residents. Circa 1800, a man named Nicholas Dooley established an inn and entertainment venue for fishermen and hunters on the east side of Barren Island; the house's ownership later passed to the Johnson family.
Barren Island, Brooklyn | Settlement
One of the first settlers of Glen Summit Springs was John Conety. In the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, Conety owned approximately that included present-day Indian Springs and Glen Summit Springs. Conety had a log cabin on the property and kept a roadhouse for passing travelers from the Wyoming Valley to New York City or Philadelphia. After his death the land passed to his son, Richard Conety, Sr. Conety sold the land and a house he had built on the property in 1880 to Mr. H. H. Derr of Wilkes-Barre. Derr purchased the property for fish and game.
Glen Summit Springs, Pennsylvania | Early settlers
Bouck's Island was originally settled by Indians of the Mohawk, Iroquois tribe. This area was taken over by the British crown but heavily settled by the Dutch. Bouck's Island was then settled by the Bouck family in the eighteenth century, when the land was granted to the father of William, John Fredrick and Christian (Father of William C. Bouck, Governor) Bouck, around 1711.
Bouck's Island | Early history
The first settlers arrived in 1658 in the region known as the Hempstead Plains. Many of the early settlers were Quakers. Westbury's Jericho Turnpike, which provides connection to Mineola and Syosset as well as to the Long Island Expressway (or LIE), was once a trail used by the Massapequa Indians. As far back as the 17th century, it served as a divider between the early homesteads north of the Turnpike and the great plains to its south. Today, it serves as a state highway complex. In 1657, Captain John Seaman purchased from the Algonquian Tribe of the Massapequa Indians. In 1658, Richard Stites and his family built their homestead in this area.
Westbury, New York | History
George Full built his home and a grist mill in the same vicinity. The parents of Revolutionary War veteran William Eagle (1761–1848) arrived shortly afterward. (Eagle returned after the war and is buried near the 300-foot-high crag that bears his name.) Another Revolutionary War veteran settled there in the years after the conflict, but he — Charles Bleachynden — had been one of the enemy: he was one of the Hessian soldiers (German mercenaries) surrendered at Yorktown in 1781 with Lord Cornwallis' forces. The earliest settler families — the Steeles, Fulls, Eagles, Coxes, Boars, Shreves, and Van Meters — were sustained by smallholder farming, supplemented by hunting and fishing.
Smoke Hole Canyon | Early settlers
Mill Island, as well as the nearby Barren Island, was sold to John Tilton Jr. and Samuel Spicer in 1664. At some point in the 1660s or 1670s, a settler named Elbert Elbertse leased Mill Island, along with Bergen and Barren Islands. The land was owned from 1675 by Jans Martense Schenck, who built a house on the land believed to be one of the oldest houses in New York City. Schenck also built a pier so he could load and unload cargo to or from the Netherlands. A tide mill had been built on the land by that time, but the exact date of the mill's construction is not known; sources give dates between 1660 and 1675.
Mill Basin, Brooklyn | Early settlement
Archaeological research shows that the first inhabitants of the Virgin Islands were Ortoiroid people. The Arawaks migrated over a period of many centuries to the Virgin Islands and engaged in the first agriculture on the land. Local archaeological excavations confirm a Classic Taino culture on Saint John.
Reef Bay Sugar Factory Historic District | Early inhabitants
At the time of European contact, the Lenape people (named the "Delaware" by Europeans) inhabited the western end of the Island, and spoke the Munsee dialect of the Algonquian language family. Giovanni da Verrazzano was the first European to record an encounter with these people when he entered what is now New York Bay in 1524. The eastern portion of the island was inhabited by speakers of the Mohegan-Montauk-Narragansett language group of the same language family, representing their ties to the aboriginal peoples inhabiting what is now Connecticut and Rhode Island. The area was central to the production of Wampum, providing the resources necessary for its creation.
History of Long Island | American Indian settlements
Pulteney and his partners purchased a of the former Phelps and Gorham Purchase in 1790. There is some ambiguity as to when settlement first occurred: some sources refer to Dan Russell as being the first white inhabitant of the area in 1794, others cite "Yankee" Bill Waters in 1804. Waters' cabin was located on the peninsula just north of the harbor inlet. In 1806 Jacob W. Hallet, a land agent for Pulteney, acquired of the "Pulteney Estate". In 1806 the first post office was established with Hallet as its postmaster. Most of the early settlers were of English and Scot descent.
Pultneyville, New York | History
Those settlers who left Providence to settle on the north side of the Pawtuxet River about 1638, putting themselves under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1642 to 1658:
List of early settlers of Rhode Island | Pawtuxet settlers
The first settler was Thomas Nash, a fisherman and boat builder from Callan in County Kilkenny, Ireland, who in 1765 arrived in Caplin Bay (Calvert) on the Southern Shore. During the winter, they weren't allowed to get ready for the fishery as year round settlement was discouraged by the British. They had nothing to do, so Nash and his sons, decided they'd build a boat. They didn't have material enough to finish the boat, sail 'er, so when the spring came, they covered her with boughs. The first fishing admiral that came in, he was the boss in the settlement for that year.
Branch, Newfoundland and Labrador | History
The southern portions of Centre County were once inhabited by the Ona Jutta Hage or Juniata tribe. Their name meant "The People of the Standing Stone", for an obelisk that once stood in their village near present-day Huntingdon. The Juniata had moved away by the time that Pennsylvania was colonized by William Penn. Penn bought the land from the Iroquois and the Tuscarora and Shawnee that had resettled throughout central Pennsylvania were soon forced to move on once again. Many different groups of European settlers migrated to the area by the late 18th century. They were mostly farmers of Scots-Irish descent with large numbers of Amish and Mennonite Germans who had fled religious persecution in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
Penn-Roosevelt State Park | Early settlement
The first bridge to Coney Island was established in 1824, and this was followed five years later by the creation of the Coney Island House, a seaside resort. Coney Island soon developed as a resort destination in the mid-19th century, development of which was helped by the construction of railroads after the American Civil War. A series of fires in the resorts in the 1880s and 1890s opened up large tracts of land for the development of theme parks, of which several had been built by the first decade of the 20th century. Further redevelopment of Coney Island came with the opening of the New York City Subway to Stillwell Avenue in 1920 and the completion of the Riegelmann Boardwalk three years later.
Shore Theater | Context and construction
There is little evidence for each origin theory, and there are conflicts between the pieces of evidence that do exist. The most popular idea is the translation of the Dutch word for "rabbit" into to the English word "coney", but that has its detractors and counter explanations. In 1816 politician and US Founding Father Egbert Benson presented a treatise on New York place names and said it was ""Conyn's Island"", after Dutch surname, and noted ""there are already symptoms of the beginning of a tradition that it once abounded in Rabbits"". Other historians claim that rabbits were introduced to the island only after it was settled.
Coney Island | Name