Developing Flatbush was also a prime area for disturbances. On August 13, 1856 a small frame building that was working on manufacturing patent cement for making roofs fireproof caught fire, consuming $5,000 worth of contents with no insurance.[i] In another incident the next year, seventy horses burned to death, apparently due to an arsonist dressed as a sailor. He escaped into the Flatbush Woods.[ii] Two years later a house occupied as a hotel, uninsured, was taken by fire and cost approximately $100.[iii] Between June 10, 1853 and July 27, 1854, fourteen convicts escaped Kings County Penitentiary at Flatbush. Only two of these individuals were recaptured.[iv] In 1860, a river pirate, John Minch, was convicted for stealing thousands of dollars in grain from the Atlantic Basin. He was the head of a gang and the schemer for these robberies. He was sent to Sing Sing Prison for five years.[v] Also during this year, Alonzo Lewis was stabbed in the arm, neck, and head by Mr. Martin and his sons John and Edward.[vi] The next year, Peter Lynch was robbed of a pistol and $2 when he was walking home. The robbers were committed for trial.[vii] In 1862, flues in a boiler at the country Almshouse exploded, injuring the engineer and his assistant, later killing them.[viii]
[i] “Fires in Brooklyn–Accidents.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 14 Aug. 1856.
[ii] “LONG ISLAND.; Incendiary Fire–Seventy Horses Burned to Death. Indignation Meeting at Jamaica—No Water for Brooklyn If Steam on Atlantic-street Is Abolished.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 27 July 1857.
[iii] “Brooklyn.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 31 Jan. 1859.
[iv] “Long Island,” New York Times, July 28, 1854.
[v] “City Intelligence; A Raid on the River Thieves. Extensive Robberies of Grain at the Atlantic Basin Movements of the Pirates Shrewdness of the Detectives Arrest of the Chief Operators, and Recovery of a Part of the Stolen Property,” New York Times, April 7, 1860.
[vi] “Brooklyn News,” New York Times, August 13, 1860.
