Manhattan: Seeds of the Big Apple

In 1653 lower Manhattan was a Dutch community of about 120 houses its people protected by a fort and a log wall which stood as a defense against Indian attacks. Todays Wall Street follows the line of that ancient plank wall. Sheriff Resolved Waldron his wife Tennake and their three children lived at the present day crossing of Wall Street and Broadway. There along with them on Block B across the street from the Dutch West India Companys enormous garden resided Augustine Herrman Peter Schaefbanck the jailor Hendrick Hendricksen and Domine (clergy) Samuel Drisius. These were but a few of Americas first immigrants. This is their story.