ister Catherine, William B.
Crosby. "Uncle Rutgers" had virtually adopted the boy when early left an
orphan. Among the provisions of the Rutgers will was one that bespoke
the testator: Hannah, a superannuated negress, was to be supported by
the estate for the rest of her life. This while slavery was still legal
in 1823.

William B. Crosby was a colonel in the War of 1812. He died March 18,
1865. A son of his was Howard Crosby, more than a generation ago one
of the best-known preachers of New York, a man great physically and
spiritually. He was moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly and
one of the revisers of the Bible. He died in 1891. Another Crosby was
in the State Legislature.

The direct line of the Rutgers family died out, but they were intermarried
with about every prominent family of the city. The daughters were more
numerous than the sons and appear to have had a reputation for good
looks and good works. They were the wives of rectors, bishops,
postmasters, mayors, secretaries of state, judges, and so on.

On November 25, 1816, Rutgers had deeded five lots for a Dutch Reformed
church.

The neighborhood in which the Market Street church was to be located was
redolent with historic associations. The British provost marshal hung
Nathan Hale on "an apple tree in the Rutgers orchard," the exact spot
adjoining the church property. Nearby on Cherry Hill, in the Franklin
House, the first President of the United States lived for a time, as did
John Hancock and members of Washington's cabinet on the inauguration of
the Federal Government.

In the immediate vicinity was the Walton House, referred to in
parliament as so richly furnished that the colonies needed no relief
from taxation.

[Illustration: Nathan Hale Statue]

Close by the church lands, on July 27, 1790, Rutgers on his own grounds
paraded the militia before President Washington, Governor Clinton and
visiting Indian chiefs, and thereafter he was Colonel Rutgers. Gilbert
Stuart painted Washington's portrait at that time and it was a prized
possession in the Rutgers mansion.

Just north on the Bowery was the old Bull's Head Tavern, "the last stop
before entering town." On the evacuation of New York, Washington and his
officers rested here before re-occupying the city. In connection with it
the Astor fortunes were laid, and Astor was not very popular with the
other butchers either, because of his business methods.

In Cherry Street a hundred year