The area's first settlers were Indian tribes. Willingly or not they made room first for the Dutch, then English. Others joined the mix including, particularly, German and Irish immigrants, both seeking to escape hardships at home and both succeeding in influencing the character of the area. Broad generalizations can be invidious, but it's probably accurate to say the Irish endured a longer and more difficult transition from extreme poverty to a relative degree of prosperity than did the Germans. Historians account for this by saying that agricultural conditions at home, mainly the potato famine, resulted in a high proportion of subsistence peasants among Irish immigrants while the conditions that induced Germans to emigrate included not just poverty but also political turmoil and the Prussian policy of forced military service. Germans in consequence tended to be considerably better educated and to possess skills in useful occupations.[3]
As I said, John A. Kelly was the first of the three to buy property in the hamlet that would later become Woodside. In 1826 he and his sister-in-law bought a mansion located at a central cross road of the community along with 155 acres of land and two roads.[4] In 1859 Gustav Sussdorf moved to New York and soon thereafter bought his land and built his house. Windmuller built his place in 1867.
Despite his Celtic surname, John A. Kelly was, like Windmuller and Sussdorf, a German-American citizen.[5] Kelly and Sussdorf probably knew each other: before coming to New York both had been successful dry goods merchants in Charleston, South Carolina. Kelly died in 1833, before Windmuller was born.[6]. Because they were neighbors, Windmuller would have known Sussdorf, but the difference in their ages probably insured that they did not have an intimate friendship. Windmuller did definitely know the sons and daughters of both men.[7] In fact the Kelly, Sussdorf, and Windmuller families were not just neighbors but were closely linked with each other by their association with the local Episcopal church. The church grew out of gatherings that had been held at the Sussdorf home beginning in 1870 when the wife and daughters of Gustav Sussdorf's son, William, held Sunday school classes for local children. John A. Kelly's son, John A.F. Kelly, and Louis Windmuller joined with other locals to found the church and construct a building to house it. When it opened in 1874 there were 20 parishioners and 50 Sunday-school pupils.[8]
I've marked this property map of 1852 to give the approximate locations of the Kelly (green), Sussdorf (red), and Windmuller (blue) estates in the part of Newtown that would later become Woodside. Windmuller originally owned the small area closest to the Kelly Mansion, but it was taken for a public school after Woodside had grown too large for the one it had been using.[9]
{Detail from: Map of Newtown, Long Island, designed to exhibit the localities referred to in the "Annals of Newtown"; compiled by J. Riker, Jr., 1852, from The annals of Newtown, in Queens County, New York, by James Riker, Jr.; source: NYPL Digital Gallery}
As you can see from this atlas sheet of 1912, land use changed a great deal over the next half century. On it I've shown the Windmuller (blue) and Sussdorf (red) estates. The Kellys had sold their land to a developer and moved out of the mansion at the head of Betts Road. The house was torn down to make way for St. Sebastian Catholic Church (green).
{Queens, Vol. 2, Double Page Plate No. 15; Part of Ward Two Woodside; (1908 updated to 1912) Map bounded by Kelly Ave., Woodside Ave., Greenpoint Ave., Thomson Ave.; Including Astoria Road (Highway to Calvary Cemetery) (Celtic Ave.), Middleburg Ave., Jackson Ave., Solon St., Mecke St.; Atlases of New York city. / Atlas of the borough of Queens, city of New York: based upon official plans and maps on file in the various city offices; supplemented by careful field measurements and personal observations / by and under the supervision of Hugo Ullitz. / First and second wards: Long Island City and Newtown; source: NYPL Digital Gallery}
Here is the key to this atlas.
The atlas sheet is quite detailed. You can see that the Windmuller mansion faces north and has a small wing on its west side. A drive encircles it and goes on to the stable. These observations accord with the tintype in my earlier blog post.
You can see that the Sussdorf Estate, like the Windmuller, has a two and a half story frame house. Both properties have outlying stables, but the Sussdorf one is brick while Windmuller's is frame construction. Sussdorf also has a barn located right on the property line. The buildings of both estates are accessed via drives from the street which runs on their western boundaries. It was called the Calvary Cemetery Road in the late 19th century and Astoria Road in the 1900s. It was replaced by Skillman Avenue in the 1920s.
You can see that Windmuller's property included one lot of 9 acres and two of 1.5 acres each for a total of 12. Sussdorf's was ten and a third acres. If you look at property maps of the 1870s and before you see that Windmuller's land originally included the lot where Public School No. 11 sits on the map of 1812. Apparently, the land was taken under eminent domain to build the school sometime late in the century. A atlas of 1891 shows the school while at atlas of 1873 does not.
Note that Greenpoint Avenue, which makes the eastern boundary of the Sussdorf property, did not exist in 1852.
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{"From the Old to the New World" shows German emigrants boarding a steamer in Hamburg, Germany, to come to America. published in Harper’s Weekly, (New York) November 7, 1874}
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Some sources:
What Apple Variety is Native to NYC?
LOCAL INTELLIGENCE.; QUEENS COUNTY AGRICULTURAL FAIR, New York Times, September 21, 1862
The annals of Newtown, in Queens county, New-York, containing its history from its first settlement, together with many interesting facts concerning the adjacent towns ; also, a particular account of numerous Long island families now spread over this and various other states of the union by James Riker (D. Fanshaw, 1852)
HISTORY OF QUEENS COUNTY, with illustrations, Portraits & Sketches of Prominent Families and Individuals (New York: W.W. Munsell & Co.; 1882)
"Woodside" by William O'Gorman in HISTORY OF QUEENS COUNTY, with illustrations, Portraits & Sketches of Prominent Families and Individuals (New York: W.W. Munsell & Co.; 1882)
Little Germany, Manhattan in wikipedia
Irish and German Immigration
Irish - The Peopling of New York City
Germans - The Peopling of New York City
Demographics of New York City in wikipedia
Woodside, Queens in wikipedia
The History of the Sackett/Kelly/Howell Estate
About the Susdorf surname
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Notes:
[1] The other two blog posts are Hillside Manor, Clara at Hillside Manor, and Kellys, Sussdorfs, and Windmullers in Woodside.
[2] See HISTORY OF QUEENS COUNTY, with illustrations, Portraits & Sketches of Prominent Families and Individuals (New York: W.W. Munsell & Co.; 1882), The History of the Sackett/Kelly/Howell Estate and The annals of Newtown, in Queens county, New-York, containing its history from its first settlement, together with many interesting facts concerning the adjacent towns ; also, a particular account of numerous Long island families now spread over this and various other states of the union by James Riker (D. Fanshaw, 1852)
[3] "Beginning in the 1840s, large numbers of German immigrants entering the United States provided a constant population influx for Little Germany. In the 1850s alone, 800,000 Germans passed through New York. New York City would by 1855 become one of the three cities in the world with the largest population of German speakers, outranked only by Berlin and Vienna.[2] The German immigrants differed from others in that they usually were educated and had marketable skills in crafts. More than half of the era's bakers and cabinet makers were Germans or of German origin, and many Germans also worked in the construction business." -- Little Germany, Manhattan.
[4] The estate dated back to the end of the seventeenth century and its story is an interesting one. See The History of the Sackett/Kelly/Howell Estate by Owen Clough.
[5] In Germany, the family name had been rendered as variations of Köllen, Köllin, and Kölle. When Johann Jakob Kölle emigrated to South Carolina in 1752, the name was given as Khele and then Kelly. See
THE KÖLLE FAMILY OF BLAUBEUREN GERMANY.
[5] Gustav Sussdorf was listed in a Charleston directory for 1851: "Fancy Goods, 141 Meeting St". He owned more than one property because his name is in the Historic American Buildings Survey against this structure:
{Samuel Seyle Building, also known as the Shroeder/Sussdorf Building, 213 Meeting Street Charleston, SC; Historic American Buildings Survey}
For more on this building see: The buildings of Charleston by Jonathan H. Poston (Historic Charleston Foundation, Univ of South Carolina Press, 1997). This photo shows the 200 block of Meeting Street, near where Kelly had his dry goods business, in the early 1880s:
{source: flickr}
This one shows a restored building in the 100 block today.
{source: flickr}
I've written about the connections between Windmullers and Sussdorfs on another occasion. See helpful neighbors.
[7] The dates of John A. Kelly, Sr., are October 6, 1792, to January 6, 1833. Here is Kelly's obit from the Newtown Register, May 13, 1897:
[8] Despite a fire in 2007 the church still stands. It's St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church and it looks like this
{St. Paul's, Woodside, Queens, NY; source: lostnewyorkcity.blogspot.com}
See "CHURCHES AT WOODSIDE" in HISTORY OF QUEENS COUNTY with illustrations, Portraits & Sketches of Prominent Families and Individuals (New York: W.W. Munsell & Co.; 1882)
[9] Here is the full map from which my marked detail is taken:
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