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The Thriving - And Demise - Of Indian Creek

Around the early teens, on a lovely street that ran from Flatlands Avenue to Skidmore Lane, there were many families in residence.

Among them were the Conks, the Johnsons, the Rockefellers, the Wilsons, the Abrahams, the Posts, the Eiserts and the Van Houstens, and on Skidmore Lane, the butcher shop owned and operated by Charles Salzman and his lovely wife.

They worked very hard in the shop and he used to take his team of horses and go around all over town and would sell a slice of ham or two pounds of pork chops for a quarter or a cut of calves liver for six cents a pound.

That was before it was found out that you could take liver extract made from it for people ailing with anemia. He also had time to plough up the ground next to his shop and plant lovely beefsteak tomatoes and corn, which he sold to residents in Canarsie.

Across the street was a home occupied by the Knapp family, who also had a lovely garden in which Mr. Knapp and his son Carl raised many kinds of vegetables. On the opposite corner was the home of James V. Davis who had a thriving ice business for the many places on the Canarsie Shore where he supplied the Boegels, Husmans, George Rigby, Whitakers, Larry Messinger, Harry Victor, Frank Rausch, Adam Stahle, Mrs. Scheillens, and the Quaritius family. All of these people had hotels and cabarets outside the Golden City Amusement Park.

As time went on, the ice business started to be taken away with electric refrigeration, Mr. Davis, whom we all called and knew by his name, Jim, started a coal business on the banks of Indian Creek at a spot about where East 88th Street and Avenue N now is.

That is where the creek made a sharp turn and entered into Jamaica Bay. Jim had to build a road from where Remsen Avenue now is to what is now Avenue N. He had to level a big hill and then dump oyster shells to make the road to his yard. All of his coal he brought in by boat which held about three regular cars of coal. Then, in 1921, the city, with John F. Hylan as Mayor filled in Indian Creek so all the oyster dealers and Jim with his coal yard were shut off from access to Jamaica Bay. The city was supposed to build a great seaport out of Jamaica Bay, but that never happened. In the meantime, Jim had to relocate to Mill Avenue and Avenue U at great expense. Then came a couple of coal strikes by the miners and then the depression and finally he had to give it up.

He worked many years and should have been compensated by the city, which really put him out of his business. Along with him, all of the oyster dealers had a suit for damages against the city, but never received a penny for their losses.