My Friends at Brook Farm

Friends at Brook Farm, by John
Van Der Zee Sears

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Title: My Friends at Brook Farm
Author: John Van Der Zee Sears
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[Illustration: John Van Der Zee Sears]

MY FRIENDS AT BROOK FARM
BY
JOHN VAN DEE ZEE SEARS

TO MY FRIEND
JOSEPH HORNOR COATES, Esq.
OF PHILADELPHIA

CONTENTS
I. THE OLD COLONIE

II. FRIEND GREELEY
III. A STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND
IV. A BAD BEGINNING
V. A GOOD ENDING
VI. ENTERTAINMENTS
VII. THE SCHOOL
VIII. ODDMENTS
IX. FOURIER AND THE FARMERS
X. UNTO THIS LAST

ILLUSTRATIONS
JOHN VAN DER ZEE SEARS Frontispiece
HORACE GREELEY
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
THE BROOK FARM CALL
"THE HIVE"
CHARLES A. DANA
THE PAGEANT
A PIONEER KINDERGARTEN
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

CHAPTER I
THE OLD COLONIE
In May, 1624, the Dutch packet New Netherlands sailed up the Hudson
River to the head of navigation, bringing a company of eighteen
families under the leadership of Adrian Joris. The immigrants landed at
a little trading post called Beaverwick kept by one Tice Oesterhout, a
pioneer hunter, married to a Mohawk Squaw. In a few days a party of
Indians, probably Mohawks, waited on the newcomers and politely
made inquiry as to their object in entering upon Indian lands without
notice or permission; Tice Oesterhout and his wife acting as
interpreters. Joris replied that they came in peace and hoped to abide in
peace on friendly terms with the Indians. He was told that he and his
people would be welcome if they joined the universal peace union of
the Iroquois, and not otherwise. This proposition the settlers agreed to
by acclamation. In due course the General Council of the Five Nations
accepted the Colony as a member of the Iroquois Federation. Joris was
recognized as the Civil Chief of the little community, and, as he was a
Walloon, his people became the Walloon Nation of the Great Peace
Alliance. The Great Peace was the treaty forming the basis of the
Iroquois Federation. The Colonists, instead of making a treaty with the
Indians, gave their adhesion to one already made, thereby securing
safety and a practical monopoly of the fur trade on the upper Hudson.
They sent annual presents to the Iroquois General Council, which were
doubtless received as tribute in recognition of sovereignty, but the
Walloon Nation did not seem to care very much about the sovereignty
business so long as the fur business continued to prosper, as it did for
the next half century.
Two score or so of Walloons did not constitute a very formidable
nation but the men were reinforced by the women who had an equal
voice not only in local affairs but in the General Council of the
Federation.
The settlers built their houses on the Indian trail leading Westward to
which they gave the name of Beaver street--their grand boulevard

which must have been two or three squares long. Beaver Street was the
main highway of the Walloon Nation and was the center of the "Old
Colonie" as the Dutch neighborhood was subsequently called. Under
English rule, the "Old Colonie" or Beaverwick was merged with Fort
Orange and Rensselaerwick, these, collectively, being named Albany in
honor of the Duke of York, Albany being one of his titles.
The Dutch of the "Old Colonie" did not take kindly to the supremacy of
the English. They obeyed the laws and the constituted authorities but
they stubbornly maintained their autonomy as far as practicable,
holding aloof from their English neighbors, keeping to their own
language, their