Valentine's manual of old New York

(New York :  Valentine's Manual Inc.,  1920.)

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OF OLD NEW YORK

How Great Grandmother Took Her Outing
in 1810

(Original  contribution  to  the   Manual)

My home was in Maiden Lane. When the summer
came I usually went to Jamaica to visit my relatives.
Jamaica is twelve miles from Brooklyn and it took the
whole afternoon to make the journey.

I took my clothing in a round band box with a muslin
cover that closed up with strings top and bottom. This
held all I needed for a month, for young people had
not as many clothes then as now. My dress was of
calico and I carried a small cotton shawl. I also had a
thin muslin dress with cape to match. Sometimes those
capes were lined with a colored silk, pink or blue.

I would walk down Maiden Lane to the East River
where five or six rowboats were waiting to carry pas¬
sengers to Brooklyn. These were rowed by one man
or sometimes two. When we landed we took a stage
to Jamaica. These were stage coaches, but were called
stages. They were driven by Caleb Mills and Johnny
Drawyer. They started at two o'clock and did not reach
Jamaica until dusk. They stopped at a half-way house
to rest and water the horses and to give the passengers
a drink.

There was a famous school in Jamaica then for boys,
kept by a Mr. Eigenbrodt, and many of the residents
took the pupils into their families to board. The Hon.
Rufus King had a country house in Jamaica. I remem¬
ber that the Presbyterian Church which I attended stood
directly in the middle of the road and the clergyman
was old Parson Faitoute.

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