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A Stroll Along The Village Back Roads

We now take a stroll in back of the Canarsie Cemetery through what remains of Krier's Woods and pass through what was, according to the tales of many old Canarsiens, the burying grounds of the Canarsee Indians, who sold Manhattan Island to Dutch administrator Peter Minuit.

As we go through what is now known as East 87th Street, we pass a lot of wagons in the fields on the edge of the meadows which were sold and repaired by a man known as Dutch Fred. Right after this we pass Smitty's Woods.

Across the way from the woods is the house owned and occupied by the Bach family, where Henry, Eddie and Edith, children of Mr. and Mrs. Bach, lived. We walk down the hill about a thousand feet which came to the beginning of a creek named after our Indians, which at its beginning had a few fresh water springs that spouted up to mix with the salt waters of Jamaica Bay which came up into this winding Indian Creek.

At this spot stood the office of Henry W. Schmeelk, Oyster Co., one of Canarsie's biggest oyster shippers and in the office was William Fitzgerald, bookkeeper for the concern.

Across from the office was the barn where horses and a team of gray mules was driven by Mr. Banks who worked for Schmeelk Co. In this barn was a hand pump where we would all go to get our jugs filled with nice water.

Just in front of the barns were great heaps of oyster shells which were piled up all winter and in the spring some were used in the roadways and lots of them were taken out to be spread in the waters of Jamaica Bay to catch onto what the oysterman called "set to bring on the seeds of young oysters."

This industry of oyster farming was a great thing until 1918 when the City of New York, through its cheap way of not purifying the sewers that emptied into Jamaica Bay, ruined the great enterprise. Finally, on April 1, 1920 the city forbade taking any shellfish from the bay. Thus, they placed a clamp on many old Canarsiens from making a living. Many of these men moved out on Long Island where they continued in Hempstead Bay, Oyster Bay.

As we walk about a hundred feet we come to another shanty owned by Ely Abrams who also was a big dealer who shipped most of his oysters to the Fulton Fish Market to the Blackford Co. who supplied all the leading hotels of New York City and Westchester.

Among his workers were Pitt Abrams, Abe Abrams, Lou Kern, Bert White, Charles Timpson, William Morrision and John Abrams. Next to his, was Ed Bennet's Place and he had brothers Peter Bennett and Jackie Bennett. And next was the shanty of William H. Morrison and he had two boys who helped him some, Jack and Nick.

Then came the two shanties of my uncle Charles E. Denton of which one was bought and used by the Thode Bros., Harold and George. Then comes the one owned by my father, Walter C. Denton who used to haul about 10,000 bushels of oysters and clams a year up through the shelled road to Avenue L to get to East 92nd Street, then through Avenue K to East 93rd Street to our homestead to go out early in the morning to supply about 40 fish markets throughout Brooklyn.

Then we come to the George A. Carman's Big Nussel House where he kept all of his tubs of pickled mussels to be shipped out.

Next we come to Charles H. Seaman's shanty where we see William Seaman, Jackson Seaman and Mandy Holmes placing their catch of big soft-shell clams. The next stop is Erastus W. Seaman's better known as Webb, who later leased it to Mike Matthews and then we come to Ben Ryder's place where his son John J. Ryder carried on his business. Alongside of this shanty was the old swimming hole where in the summer you could find about 50 boys in the water, which up until about 1921 when the city pumped in all the shore front where they were supposed to build nine piers for ships to come in from all parts of the world.

They built one at the foot of Rockaway Parkway and then dropped all the others. Along came the Marine Park Bridge, which killed all chance of having any big ships coming into Jamaica Bay.