The family records have long shown that my fourth great grandparents - Mary Mix and Frederick H. Harrison - moved from New Haven, CT to Brooklyn, NY some time after their wedding in 1840. It's possible they made this move after the birth of their daughter Harriet in 1842 (I'll come back to this point in a minute). As I've delved into Brooklyn records, I have been pleasantly surprised to discover that Frederick and Mary weren't the first Harrisons to make the move to Brooklyn... his parents - Harriet Hotchkiss and Justus Harrison - have that distinction.
Justus Harrison first appears in the Brooklyn city directory for 1839-40 (published in 1839) at 14 High Street, where he and his family lived for about three years. The earliest detailed map of Brooklyn that I can find online, from 1855, shows that address immediately adjacent to a firehouse. City directories do mention an engine company on that same block between 1839 and 1842.
Justus actually appears in the New York City directory for 1838-39 as well, listed as an insurance agent with an office at 63 and a half Wall Street. No home address is given there, and he does not appear in the Brooklyn directory for that year. I don't know where the family lived that year. The earliest New Haven city directory I can find is for 1840, and it does not include either Justus or his son Frederick Harrison.
Justus and Harriet's children were:
- Elizabeth Eunice Harrison - who had married Rev. Lewis Foster in 1835, and was widowed in October of 1839 (at age 29). She appears in the 1840 census, living in Clinton, CT with a boy between 5 and 10 years old, and a girl under 5 years old. She therefore doesn't seem to have lived with the family in Brooklyn. She remarried in 1842.
- Frederick Henry Harrison - who married Mary Mix on 2 Sept 1840 in New Haven. The event was noted in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, suggesting that the family had established itself in Brooklyn by then.
- George Justus Harrison - who turned 16 in 1839 and had either already left or would soon leave home to pursue studies at Union College and Princeton Theological Seminary.
- Francis "Frank" Edwin Harrison - who turned 9 in 1839 and almost certainly still lived at home with his parents.
Other than Elizabeth, I haven't been able to locate any of these Harrisons in the 1840 census, which leaves city directories as the best source for where they lived.
I haven't seen any records indicating where Frederick and Mary lived in the first year of their marriage. They appear separately from Justus and Harriet in the 1841-42 Brooklyn city directory, living just three doors down at 20 High Street. They might have lived with either set of parents for a time, and secured that home soon after marriage.
Frederick and Mary welcomed their first daughter - Harriet Elizabeth Harrison - in June 1842 in New Haven. I had previously thought this was an indicator that they were still living in New Haven at the time, and only moved to Brooklyn after that date. I now suspect they set up house in Brooklyn after their wedding, and that Mary wanted the support of her parents (who lived out their lives in New Haven) and perhaps a calmer and more familiar environment when it came time to give birth.
One document which lends itself to the theory that Frederick and Mary came to Brooklyn after their first daughter was born is the 1855 New York State census for Brooklyn. It shows Harriet, age 13, and her father Frederick (sadly, Mary had passed away by then), both only having lived in Brooklyn for 12 years, suggesting they moved there in 1843. If that was the case, why is Frederick listed in the Brooklyn city directory starting with the published copies in 1841... and nowhere to be found in the 1840 through 1843 editions of the New Haven city directory? I suspect that the census record is the one to take with a grain of salt in this case.
The Brooklyn city directories for 1842-43 and '43-44 show Justus (and Harriet and Frank) living with Frederick (and Mary and baby Harriet) at 20 High Street. Starting with the 1844-45 city directory, this extended family moved to 194 Adams Street, just a few blocks away. I'll have a bit more to say about that address in another post.
Frederick and Mary would welcome their second daughter - Mary Ellen Harrison - in Brooklyn in October 1844.
Justus and Harriet continued to live with Frederick and Mary at least until 1850, the year of Justus' death in Branford, CT. They appear with the family in the census record for that year, as well as in city directories up to that year.
Frederick's mother seems to have moved back to New Haven after that. She doesn't appear with his family in the 1855 New York State census. There is a listing for a Harriet Hotchkiss of the right age in the New Haven census in 1860. I would want to do more research before declaring for sure where she spent her remaining days.
This at least sheds some new light on how the Harrisons arrived in Brooklyn.
