A4 STATEN IsLanD INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES 
city of Brooklyn for macadamizing streets. These stones were 
broken by hand and placed in piles and sold by the cubic yard, as 
machinery for this purpose was unknown. ‘Tens of thousands of 
tons were sold for foundation, dock, and sea-wall purposes, and 
vast quantities of the debris were sold for ballasting vessels run- 
ning south, known as coasters.” 
“The North Shore brick yards made millions of them for the 
market as the clay deposits are considered excellent and the vast 
depressions which are still in existence are evidence of the enor- 
mous business that has been carried forward in former years of 
industry. From the different yards specialized brick have been 
made. The Merrit yard produced the mud brick. The Lowville 
yard, mud and pressed and bricks of enormous size, 8 x 12, used 
in paving some of the streets in Texas. The upper brick works, 
known as the Red Lake depression, were makers of millions upon 
millions . . . such’ as mud, dry pressed, enameled face,’ Phila- 
delphia fronts.” 
“The horse boat ferry ran between Port Richmond and Bergen 
Point. The horse was placed on a movable platform and his 
keeper with his whip in hand, behind him to spur quicker action, 
as circumstances would demand through wind and tide.” 
‘“A plot of ground in front of the [Continental] hotel extended 
to the middle of the present street with the old willow trees stand- 
ing on the bank, and the old town pump across the roadway, which 
pump I used in 1866 for water for horse and wagon washing.” 
“During the Revolutionary War . . . my great uncle offered to 
take his life in hand to act as a spy. Gen! LaFayette presented 
him with a cork suit to swim the waters between the two states to 
bear messages of prime importance gathered from the English 
army to the headquarters.” 
““[My ancestor] John Mersereau drove the post coach from 
New York to Philadelphia, and at the outbreak of the war, turned 
his horses over to the American Army. After the war he re- 
moved . . . to the banks of the Susquehanna River and founded 
