RICHARD VAN RIPER
(1790—1873)

Of the sixth generation of the Van Riper family was Richard
Van Riper, son of Jacob and Marietje (Mary) Vreeland Van Riper.
Richard was born in Preakness,(Wayne), New Jersey, October II, 1790.

Richard was about twelve years old when his father, Jacob moved
to New York City to engage in the trucking business.

About the year 1811, Richard married and he and his wife, Mary,
had four children.
1. Mary Ann, b. May 10, 1812
2. Jacob, b. 1827
3. Elizabeth Jane, b. Nov. 20, 1828
4. James, b. March 16,1831

The parents of Richard’s wife, Mary, were born in Orange County,
New York.

During the year 1814, Richard joined his father, Jacob, in the
trucking business. By the year 1820, Richard was operating in the area
of Cherry Street along the eastside of Lower Manhattan. During the thirty-
four year period from 1836 to 1870, Richard’s base of operation for
his trucking business was at Scammel and Henry Street on the eastside
of Lower Manhattan south of the present Williamsburg Bridge, and
within easy access of the wharves and piers and shipbuilding yards
along the East River waterfront. His son, Jacob, joined him in the
business during the year 1854-55 and at that time Richard was sixty-four
years old. Six years later Richard’s second son, James, became associated
with his father and brother in the trucking business.

Richard and his two sons, Jacob and James, remained in the
trucking business on the eastside of Lower Manhattan through the year
1870. At that time, Richard lived at 284 Henry Street, New York City,
and continued to do so until his death on May 21, 1873 at the age
of eighty-two years, six month and twenty-one days. Richard’s body was
interred in the family plot in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York.
Richard’s wife, Mary, died three years previous to Richard’s death
at the age of seventy-seven years, five month and twenty-eight days.
At the time of Mary’s death, she was living with her husband at 15
Scammel Street in Manhattan Borough, New York City. Mary’s body
was buried in the family plot in Green-Wood Cemetery.

By his will, dated April 10, 1873, Richard left his entire estate
to his surviving children — James, Jacob and Mary Ann Rodman — and
to the children of his deceased daughter Elizabeth Jane Joralemon. The
will designated his granddaughter, Mary Elizabeth Fackner, to be the
guardian of the children of Elizabeth Jane Joralemon.
Elizabeth Jane Joralemon had died September 20, 1868 at the age of
thirty-nine years, ten months. At the time of her death she was living
in Belleville, New Jersey. She was buried in theVan Riper plot in the
Green-Wood Cemetery.

Mary Elizabeth Fackner was the daughter of Joseph and Mary Ann
Van Riper Rodman and she married Edward Fackner at the age of
twenty-seven years on October 28, 1872 in New York City. Mary
Elizabeth died August 9, 1873 within three months after the death of
her grandfather, Richard Van Riper. Her death followed immediately
after the birth of her son, who died at birth and whose body was interred
in the Van Riper plot in the Green-Wood Cemetery.

Mary Ann Van Riper Rodman died a widow on May 29, 1896 at
the age of eighty-four years. Her place of residency at the time of her
death was 663 DeKalb Avenue, Brooklyn, New York. She was buried
in the Van Riper plot in the Green-Wood Cemetery.

NEW YORK CITY IN THE 1800’S

When Jacob Van Riper moved to New York City from Preakness,
New Jersey during the year 1802, the population of New York City
totaled only about 60,000 which was almost entirely concentrated
around the tip of Lower Manhattan, from the Battery north to Chambers
Street and from the Hudson River east to what is now Rutgers Street
North of Chambers Street, along the Hudson River waterfront, there
was a marginal development of residences reaching to a few blocks above
Provost Street (now Franklin Street).

The early 1800’s were particularly severe epidemic years and this
was due to lack of any form of sanitation and a completely inadequate
water supply. Yellow fever struck the city and took a vicious toll. The
plagues drove some of the populace to outlying areas, expanding the
limits of the city to the north.

Under the leadership of Mayor DeWitt Clinton (1803 to 1815),
the city grew rapidly and prospered. The first public school classes
were started in 1806 “for the education of such poor children as do not
belong to or are not provided for by any religious society”.

Robert Fulton’s first successful steamboat, the Clermont, was launched
in 1807 and this was followed by the use of steamboats in the ferry service.

Shipping was becoming New York’s all important industry, although
the war of 1812 with Great Britain brought a halt to foreign commerce
and the city’s port activities came to a standstill. With the coming of
peace, in December of 1814, American shipping became alive once more
and by 1825, New York’s imports alone were almost three times those of
Philadelphia and Boston.

The Erie Canal connecting the Hudson River with the Great Lakes
was opened to traffic in 1825, providing an economical water route
for the transport of freight from upstate and the west to New York City.
Here the freight was transferred to ocean going vessels destined for
overseas and costal ports.

Shipbuilding was one of New York’s major industries. By 1815
shipbuilding yards were established along the East River waterfront from
Scammel Street around the bend of Corlear’s Hook and up as far as
Tenth Street — about a mile in all.

South Street and nearby Water and Front Streets were the center
of the city’s shipping activity. Here was located not only the offices of
the ship owners and merchants, but also all the allied businessmen.
Packets and regular cargo vessels tied up at the wharves along South
Street and it was an impressive sight to see the solid line of tall-masted
ships with their bowsprits projecting high over the street.

Broadway was the city’s most important thoroughfare. By 1830,
Broadway became a crowded, bustling street and was lined with shops
to a point well above Canal Street. Its broad flagstone sidewalks served
the dense pedestrian traffic. The street paved with cobblestones was
jammed with horsedrawn vehicles, including carts, drays, buses, hackney-
coaches (the taxis of the day) and an assortment of private vehicles.

Several leading hotels were located in the city; the old-time but
respectable City Hall Hotel near Trinity Church; the American Hotel
at Barclay Street and the Astor House, opposite City Hall Park.

In 1835, a great fire broke out destroying almost all of the city
below Wall Street, including the early Dutch residences. The catastrophe
was followed by the depression of 1837, which lasted for about two
years and which proved to be especially disastrous to the city. By this
time, the population numbered over 200,000 and the residential center
had moved as far north as Union Square, where Bowery Road and
Broadway met.

The Croton Aqueduct, begun in 1837 and finished in 1842, was
one of the great engineering achievements of the mid-nineteenth century
and it provided New York for the first time with an adequate water supply.

The age of steam arrived with dramatic suddenness. Two trans-
atlantic steamships arrived in New York April 22 & 23, 1838; the
“Sirius” (nineteen days out of Cork) and the almost twice as large
“Great Western” (142 days out of Bristol).

A radical change in steamship design was taking place about this
time. The old wooden hulled “side-wheeler” with its immense paddle
wheels admidship was slowly being supplanted by a vessel with a hull
built entirely of iron and driven by screw propellers.

By 1850, New York City had become a metropolis, boasting
splendid hotels and theaters and costly magnificent stores. It was by then
the publishing and cultural center of the United States. The people flocked
to Castle Gardens to see and hear P. T. Barnum’s amazing new European
import, Jenny Lind, the Swedish Nightingale.

In 1853, New Yorkers had their first (and the world’s second)
World’s Fair, which was housed in the newly constructed Crystal Palace.
In 1856, the northern fringe of the thriving metropolis lay to the
south of Central Park and the city’s population exceeded 500,000.
During the Civil War, the policy of conscription permitted draft
deferment through the payment of $300 and this gave rise to the people’s
claim that the War was “a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight”. An
ugly and disastrous draft riot resulted. Hundreds were killed and
$2,000,000 in property had been destroyed.

In 1870, the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge was started and
thirteen years later, on May 24, 1883, the bridge was completed and
opened to traffic. It was acclaimed as a triumph of modern engineering
and acknowledged to be one of the wonders of the world. A trolley line
soon crossed the Bridge and Brooklyn’s identity as a separate city gradually
diminished. In 1898, Brooklyn was combined with the other four boroughs
(Manhattan, The Bronx, Queens and Richmond) to form the City of
Greater New York.

A steam-drawn Ninth Avenue “El” had been put into operation
back in 1870 and other “Els” had followed.

New York City has been called a “Melting Pot” for the reason
that it has always been an immigrant’s city. During the latter part of the
1800’s and the beginning of the 1900’s huge numbers of Europeans
crossed the Atlantic Ocean, past the Statue of Liberty on Bedloe’s Island
in Upper New York Bay to enter the gate of the Emigration Landing
Depot on Ellis Island, inspiring Emma Lazarus to write:

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shores
Send those, the homeless tempest-tossed to me,
I lift up my lamp beside the golden door!”