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Historical records matching Mary Spingler Fonerden van Beuren
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About Mary Spingler Fonerden van Beuren
It was this Mary van Beuren (Fonerden) who was the surviving matriarch that controlled the family interest in the Spingler Farm. Her grandmother Mary (Bonsall) (d.1842) and her mother Eliza Fonerden (d.1866) were there by her side to assist her. Additionally, she had the help of her husband Michael Murray van Beuren, of an old Manhattan & Bergen Co Loyalist family.
Long term commercial leases were established on the former farm property. The advancing city closed in around her family's property and they became extraordinarily wealthy. The leases lasted into the twentieth century and the wealth spread out through multiple descendant lines. All family involvement with the last of these 22 acres ended in the 1950s (story told first-hand by a Spingler relative (J.A. van Beuren) to this author {MMvB b. 1952}, namesake).
Mary held the reins of management of the real empire well into late life but had two sons who survived to adulthood. Neither seemed to be remarkably adept businessmen. A son-in-law of an elder dau. (Davis) figured prominently in family life and a surgeon by the name of Reynolds,too. Reynolds being heir to part of Brooks Brothers clothing empire. John Davis was a successful business man and judge whose life was cut short by bad health.
In mid-life she and her husband assembled vast lands in Morris Township which can be seen in various maps from 1853 and 1887 (eg. https://sites.rootsweb.com/~njmorris/maps/1887mcpg13.jpg )
The Mitchell collection at the New York Public Library includes a diary written by Mary when she was a teenager.
• husband Michael marries Mary Fonerden 1830. He was a (“mechanic”, ie. working class) of a formerly Loyalist background.
Michael & Mary in 1837 living at 303 Greenwich Street NYC ( currently:TriBeCa, across from Washington Market Park)
No. 35 Bond Street… in 1838 it was the residence of Michael van Beuren
• about Union Square: http://www.unionsquarecommunitycoalition.org/park.html
•In 1788 Henry Springler (our subject's grandfather) bought a 22 acre farm which included the greater part of what is now Union Square. Until 1911 his heirs still owned major swaths of land in the area including the entire block from Fifth Avenue to Union Square from 14th to 15th Streets. However it was another large land owner, Samuel Ruggles, who had the most influence on the land that through his influence would become known as Union Place.
- The best and most accurate newspaper article is at: The New York Times (New York, New York) 11 Oct 1896, Sun., Page 17. There are some exaggerations, but the time table seems to be correct.
• When Tiffany & Co. moved to Union Square on 15th St. in 1870 they built on the former Springler land then owned by the Spingler/van Beuren Estate. (The Van Beuren mansion was at 21 West 14th St.)
(in 1838 her father James Fonerden dies.)
Mary Spingler (Bonsall) (Henry's English-born wife) lived until the end of 1842)
In 1840 Michael and Mary moved to 21 w. 14th St
“ In 1840 (the Spingler van Beurens) moved to West Fourteenth Street, where a few years later (they) built the imposing mansion still to be seen on that site. This house is one of the last reminders of the social eminence of Fourteenth Street. It has been shorn of its stoop (1919), and its extensive grounds, stretching nearly two hundred feet toward the west, are neglected and overgrown with weeds where once a green lawn and well kept flower beds invited the eye.” (These are reflected in the etchings drawn by Charles Mielatz during the years 1910-1914)
In effect the couple slowly moved uptown to her family's former farm which was being developed by her parents and grandparents.
•(from the Mitchell genealogy) This compiler {Cornelius Mitchell} as a small boy remembers his great grandmother Mary S. Van Beuren. She owned a farm known as the van Beuren farm near Morristown, New Jersey. During the lifetime of her husband Michael M. Van Beuren she and her husband used to spend some time at this farm. The means of getting to and from the farm was by carriage and was described by John W. A. Davis, one of her grandsons in a letter, a copy of which is in the possession of this compiler, as follows: "The carriage was a specially constructed travelling carriage capable of holding four inside and a driver and a manservant outside, who were shielded from the weather by a sort of hood. The carriage was drawn by two horses which were replaced half way out by two fresh horses sent from Morristown. The journey took five hours."
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=101490752&ref... (pertaining to this account: There is some doubt as to whether Mary had a sibling. Also: the two main renderings of her maiden name were Fonerden and Von Erden... the family was German not Dutch and had originally emigrated to Philadelphia... see Johan Adam Von Erden )
The family held a pew at St. Mark's in-the-Bowery for many generations. Even when most pew ownerships were given over to the Church and became free, Fonerden heirs retained ownership. As this document was written in 1899 (after Mary née Fonerden had died, the "heirs" would have been numerous.
sources
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Mary Spingler Fonerden van Beuren's Timeline
| 1810 |
September 25, 1810
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New York, New York, NY, United States
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| 1831 |
March 22, 1831
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(died unmarried) |
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| 1832 |
November 11, 1832
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For a map of NYC in 1936, see https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3804n.wd000155/?r=0.715,0.326,0.085,0... Topographical map of the city and county of New-York, and the adjacent country : with views in the border of the principal buildings, and interesting scenery of the island. |