A _Supervisor_, elected by the people, at the annual town-meeting, on
the first Tuesday of April. The duties of this officer are principally
confined to the apportionment of taxes, presiding at elections, &c. He
is also ex officio a commissioner of excise for granting tavern licenses
in the town, and the general guardian of the town rights. There is no
salary attached to this office: the supervisor receives a compensation
of two dollars per day, for attending the general meeting of the
supervisors of the different towns in the county, and a trifling amount
for granting licenses. The present supervisor is William Furman, esq.
A _Town Clerk_, also elected by the people. The duties of this officer
are to call special town meetings on the request of twelve freeholders,
record the proceedings of town meetings, and preserve the records of the
town. In 1698, Jacob Vandewater, town clerk of this town, received the
sum of £6 5_s._ for two years and six months salary.[20] In 1822, in
order to make the town clerk’s salary in some degree proportionate to
the increase of business, the town voted him a salary of $50. In 1824,
the town clerk’s salary was increased to $75. The office is at present
held by John Doughty, esq. who has been successively elected since the
year 1796.
Five _Assessors_, also elected by the people--whose duties are to assess
all real and personal estate liable to taxation within the town, and to
forward such assessment to the supervisors, that they may apportion the
amount of tax on the same. The present assessors are Messrs. John S.
Bergen, Richard Stanton, John Spader, Joseph Moser, and Andrew Demarest.
Their compensation is one dollar and twenty-five cents per day during
the time they are employed in making and completing the assessment.
There are also elected two _overseers of the poor_, Messrs. William
Cornwell, and Isaac Moser; one _constable and collector_, Mr. John
M’Kenney; two _constables_, Messrs. John Lawrence, and Samuel Doxsey;
and several other officers, whose names and duties will be set forth in
the subsequent parts of this work.
The judicial business of this town is at present transacted by three
_justices of the peace_, viz. John Garrison, John G. Murphy, and Samuel
Smith, esqrs. These magistrates are appointed by the judges of the
common pleas, and the supervisors of the county.
_Second--the Village Government._
April 12, 1816, the village of Brooklyn was incorporated by an act of
the legislature of this state. By this act the freeholders and
inhabitants are authorized annually to elect, on the first Monday of
May, “Five discreet freeholders, resident within the said village,
Trustees thereof;” and these trustees are authorized to appoint a
president and clerk. The first trustees, Messrs. Andrew Mercein, John
Garrison, John Doughty, John Seaman, and John Dean, were appointed by
the legislature, and continued in office until the first Monday of May,
1817; when the first election was made by the people, and they made
choice of Messrs. William Furman, Henry Stanton, William Henry, Tunis
Joralemon, and Noah Waterbury. The present trustees are Messrs. Joshua
Sands, John Doughty, Joseph Moser, John Moon, and Samuel James. Joshua
Sands, esq. president, and John Dikeman, esq. clerk of the board. The
president previous to 1824 received no salary; at present his salary is
$300. The clerk formerly received a salary of $100, which in consequence
of the great increase of business is now raised to $200. The powers of
the trustees are principally “to make, ordain, constitute, and publish,
such prudential by-laws, rules and regulations, as they from time to
time shall deem meet and proper; and such in particular as relate to the
public markets, streets, alleys, and highways of the said village; to
draining, filling up, levelling, paving, improving, and keeping in order
the same; relative to slaughter-houses, houses of ill fame, and
nuisances generally; relative to a village watch, and lighting the
streets of said village; relative to restraining geese, swine, or cattle
of any kind; relative to the better improvement of their common lands;
relative to the inspection of weights and measures, and the assize of
bread; relative to erecting and regulating hay-scales; relative to the
licensing of public porters, cartmen, hackney coachmen, gaugers,
weigh-masters measurers, inspectors of beef and pork, of wood, of staves
and heading, and of lumber; relative to public wells, pumps, and
reservoirs or cisterns of water to be kept filled for the extinguishment
of fires; relative to the number of taverns or inns to licensed in said
village; and relative to any thing whatsoever that may concern the
public and good government of the said village; but no such by-laws
shall extend to the regulating or fixing the prices of any commodities
or articles of provision, except the article of bread, that may be
offered for sale.” The powers of the trustees, in opening, regulating,
and widening streets, are enlarged and defined by an act passed by the
legislature of this state, April 9, 1824.
The board of trustees have the appointment of several officers. The
following is a list of the names of the officers at present holding
under them.
John Lawrence, Collector.
Samuel Watts, }
John Titus, } Weighers
Andrew Tombs, }
Robert W. Doughty, }
Burdet Striker, Measurer.
William A. Sale, Measurer of Lime.
Three village Assessors are also elected by the people, for the purpose
of making an assessment on which to apportion the village tax. The
present assessors are Losee Van Nostrand, Gamaliel King, and John D.
Conklin.
The Trustees, by an act passed April 9th, 1824, are constituted a Board
of Health. The President and Clerk of the Trustees are ex-officio
President and Clerk of the Board of Health. The salary of the President
of this Board is $150.
A Health Physician is appointed by the Board of Health; which office is
at present held by Dr. J. G. T. Hunt, with a salary of $200.
The duties of the Board relate to the general conservation of the Health
of the village.
As early as 1809, during the prevalence of the yellow fever in this
town, the inhabitants met together in consequence of repeated
solicitations from the Common Council of New-York, and after stating in
their proceedings, that “reports prevailed, that disease exists to an
alarming extent in the town of Brooklyn,” they appointed the following
gentlemen a committee “for the purpose of inquiring into the state of
the health of the inhabitants of said town, and to act as the case in
their opinion may require,” viz. William Furman, John Garrison, Burdet
Stryker, Henry Stanton, and Andrew Mercein. A sum of money was raised by
subscription to meet the expenses of this Committee.
In the year 1819, the Trustees, although not strictly invested with
power, yet feeling the necessity of acting with some degree of energy,
in order to quiet the fears of the inhabitants, arising from reports of
the existence of a pestilential disease in New-York, published an
address; in which they state, “that during this season of alarm, they
have not been unmindful of that part of their duty incumbent on them as
a _Board of Health_ for the village,” and that “measures have been taken
to obtain from time to time, a report of the state of health throughout
the village, that the inhabitants may be early apprised of any change
affecting their welfare.”