Flushing

By Jason D. Antos

In the 1890s, electric lighting and improved roads were just the beginning of the changes about to take place in Flushing, New York. Once a rural village of wide-open farms and magnificent estates, Flushing transformed into a community of more than 200,000 people and quickly became one of the busiest neighborhoods in Queens. Flushing explores these dramatic changes with many never-before-seen images. Jason D. Antos is the author of three other local history books: Whitestone, Shea Stadium, and Queens.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Aug 2, 2010
• ISBN: 9781439623640

Jason D. Antos

Jason D. Antos, journalist and author of five well-received books on the borough of Queens, and veteran educator and history writer Constantine E. Theodosiou previously coauthored Images of America: Jackson Heights with Arcadia Publishing. With rare images and a foreword written by celebrated actor and Corona native Burt Young, Corona: The Early Years brings the history of this overlooked part of Queens back to life.

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INTRODUCTION

There is always difficulty when researching the exact origins of any historic person or place; the town of Flushing is no exception to that rule.

Her name was Nelly, a black slave under the ownership of Capt. Daniel Braine, who was hired to work as a household servant in the home of Jeremiah Vanderbilt, clerk of the Town of Flushing. One day, Nelly fell in love with a half–African American, half–Native American man who wanted to marry her. Vanderbilt, fearing that he would become deprived of Nelly’s services if she and her lover ran away from Flushing, offered to hire him as a laborer on his estate so that they could be together. Vanderbilt even arranged to give them a piece of land on which they could build a home and raise a family. Fearing that he too would become enslaved, the young Native American, most likely a Matinecock, abandoned Flushing and Nelly, never to return. Feeling betrayed, Nelly blamed Vanderbilt for the destroyed romance. She took her revenge on October 22, 1789, just 12 days after Pres. George Washington’s tour of Flushing. Nelly waited for the Vanderbilt family to leave before she, with the help of another slave girl named Sarah, set fire to the attic filled with hay. Nelly and Sarah ran away, and within minutes, the home, containing every single vital historical record of Flushing and its first settlers, was incinerated and lost forever. The following year, Attorney General Aaron Burr prosecuted Nelly and her young accomplice. Sarah was released because she was very young. Nelly was, however, sentenced to death and hung soon