PROCEEDINGS 
OF THE 
NATURAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION 
OF STATEN ISLAND, 
Von. VII. No. £6, 
: APRIL 14th, 1g00. 
The regular meeting of the Association 
was held at the Staten Island Academy, 
with the president in the chair. 
The following memorandum by Mr. 
Ira K, Morris was read : 
AN OLD LAND MARK DESTROYED, 
: BY FIRE. 
I have thought it worth while to call 
the attention ef the Association to the 
fact that the. uneccupied building on 
Richmond terrace, New Brighton, be- 
tween Lafayette and Clinton avenues, 
belonging, to. Mr. Cornelius A. Hart, 
which was, destroyed by fire on Thursday 
afternoon, 12th inst., was once the home 
of the first. resident Roman Catholic 
priest on Staten, Island. 
Rey. Hdefonso. Mcdrano, a native of 
Spain, who had conducted mission ser- 
vices in the eld, gun factory, which stood 
on, the now vacant lot at the corner of 
Ri¢ghmond terrace and Lafayette avenue, 
organized the first Roman Catholic 
church on Staten Island, of which there 
is any authentic record, in that old build- 
ing, and resided but a short distance away 
in the once handsome dwelling, just de- 
stroyed. 
The church, which became St. Peter’s, 
was organized on the first day of April, 
1839. The New Brighton Association 
gave the land for a new edifice, which 
still stands near the Pavilion Hotel at 
New Brighton. Father Mcdranoremain- 
ed here until 1845. 
Mr. Morris also presented a gavel, made 
from the partially lignitised wood of 
an old spile, unearthed while digging the 
foundation for a bridge over Lemon 
Creek, in Westfield, with the following 
description : 
4 GAVEL MADE FROM AN OLD SPILE. 
This gavel was made by ex-Sheriff 
Abraham Winant, of Rossville, who is an 
inspector ef eonstruction im the High- 
way Department of the Borough ef Rich- 
mond, 
During the year 1899 a stone bridge 
was constructed over the roadway on 
Lemon Creek, the dividing line between 
Pleasant Plains and Prince’s Bay, in the 
old town of Westfield. 
In preparing the ground for the stone 
foundation of the bridge, workmen found 
an oaken spile, which, so far as investiga- 
tion proves, has been in the earth for 
fully a century. 
The ground from which the spile was 
taken was formerly owned by the father 
of Mr. Israel Bedell, aged eighty years, 
of Pleasant Plains. He is certain that 
long before his time the piece of timber 
was insertelin the ground. Other very 
old citizens of Westfield claim that it had 
been there for over one hundred years. 
I think we can form an approximately 
correct idea as to the date when this 
piece of timber was placed in the ground, 
from the date of the manuscript specifica- 
tions for the widening and straightening 
of the Richmond and Amboy roads. 
This was written some time prior to 1774. 
It was read by me at our meeting of Feb. 
8th, 1896, and was published in full in 
the Proceedings of that date, under the 
