Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 164, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 July 1918 — First Settlement on Manhattan. [ARTICLE]

First Settlement on Manhattan.

The first habitations of w’hite men on the island of Manhattan were erected in 1013. The first structures In the American metropolis were four small houses, or, rather, huts, and they were on the site now occupied by the skyscraper at 41 Broadway. A bronze tablet on the building at that address commemorates the beginning of New York city. The collection of hovels gradually grew into a town, which was almost wiped out by fire in 1826. The first fort was commenced in 1632, on a site now occupied by the customhouse, the main gate, of Fort Amsterdam, as It was called, opening on Bowling Green, where the first settlers played their games. In 1653 a wooden wall was constructed as a defense against a threatened invasion of New Englanders. and the site of this wall afterward became Wall street.