June 14 2013 Fri BDE.pdf - Brooklyn Daily Eagle

FROM THEBROOKLYNAERIEA Column of Trivia and ObservationsBy David Ansel Weissweissdavid76@gmail.comOPEN 7-DAYS-A-WEEKWE DELIVER!They Decidein Favor ofTheseFineRestaurantsDid you know that Walter Camp, the“Father of Football” who invented the forwardpass,” was the first president ofBrooklyn’s elite Crescent Athletic Club, whichwas in Bay Ridge where Fort Hamilton HighSchool is now?I don’t know how many Roosevelts areburied in Green-Wood Cemetery, but three ofTheodore Roosevelt’s immediate family were,i.e. his parents and his first wife.According to one account, the last fullbloodedCanarsee Indian in Brooklyn was aman named Joel Skidmore, who died in hisnineties in 1902.It has been just one half century sinceJunior’s introduced its cheesecake.Lafayette was not the only famousFrenchman to visit Brooklyn in the 19th century.Talleyrand, who later became one of hisnation’s leading diplomats and statesmen,supposedly lived here briefly in exile in afarmhouse on Hicks St. near what is now OldFulton St.Walt Whitman once went all-out describingthe local saloons. “They are the source ofthe mighty outpourings of ale and lager beer,”he said, “refreshing the thirst of drinkers incold and hot weather.”The Battle of Brooklyn was not only thefirst battle of the American Revolution, butunlike the skirmishes at Concord andLexington, it was fought in hand to handcombat instead of behind barricades.In the 1910 obituary of Charles Feltman inthe New York Times, he is described as “theman who turned the sandy wastes of ConeyIsland into a pleasure ground.” Not mentionedonce is the fact that according to most historians,it was Feltman who invented the hot dog.Among the many big-league baseball playerswhose careers started with playing ball inProspect Park were Sandy Koufax, Joe Torre,Lee Mazilli, Chuck Connors, Joe Pepitone andWillie Randolph.The first Dutch Reformed Church inBrooklyn had two unusual features: First, ithad a hexagonal shape. Second, it stoodsmack in the middle of Fulton St. (nearDuffield) with traffic having to walk or ridearound it.Did you know that at the turn of the lastcentury, one of the most poular sports inBrooklyn was lawn bowling? It was evenplayed in the Parade Grounds after theywere no longer used for parades.Sign of the times! For years you would havehad to be a resident of Brooklyn for fifty yearsto qualify for membership in the Society of OldBrookynites, but now you can become a memberafter a residency of only twenty-five years.8 • Brooklyn Eagle • • Friday, June June 14, 14, 2013 2013