- Arthur W. Benson
Arthur W. Benson (died 1889) was a president of Brooklyn Gas Light who developed
Bensonhurst andMontauk, New York .Brooklyn Gas Light, founded in 1823, when Brooklyn had 9,000 people.
In 1835 Benson began buying farmland that formerly owned to the Polhemuses family. Between 1830 and 1850 Benson divided the farmland into lots that were sold in the newly created suburb of Bensonhurst [ [http://www.bklyn-genealogy-info.com/People/estates.html BROOKLYN'S LARGE ESTATES: What Has Become of the Old Farm Lands of the City of Brooklyn?] , accessed
July 31 ,2006 ] .In 1869, Benson was one of only nine individual investors in the
Brooklyn Bridge with the first planning meetings being held at the Brooklyn Gas Light headquarters [ [The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge, By David McCullough] .]In 1879 Benson paid US$151,000 for 10,000 acres (40 km²) around
Montauk, New York in an auction for government land around Montauk (with Benson only fronting 10% down). Smack in the middle of the land was Indian Field which was the home for theMontaukett tribe. The land had been held in trust for the tribe. Benson moved to get clear title to the land with promises of buying it from tribesmen for $10 each and one case one of the tribesmen houses was burned. The legitimacy of the transaction is still being contested in court by the tribe.The transaction cleared the way for
Austin Corbin to bring theLong Island Rail Road to Montauk with the first train pulling in December 17, 1895 [ [http://www.easthamptonlibrary.org/lic/lectures/vincentseyfriedlecture.htm The Cannonball and the Long Island Rail Road by Vincent Seyfried] , accessed July 31, 2006]Benson envisioned the area as a playground for the rich.
Stanford White and hisMcKim, Mead, and White designed seven houses at theDitch Plains area of Montauk.Frederick Law Olmsted and his sons designed a private park system. One of the houses Tick Hall is owned by television personalityDick Cavett and was destroyed by a 1997 fire. Its reconstruction was followed in aPublic Television documentary.References
External links
* [http://www.bklyn-genealogy-info.com/People/estates.html Brooklyn Eagle article]
* [http://www.gurneysinn.us/gq/2004_fall/indian.htm Gurney's Quarter Article on Tribe]
* [http://www.easthamptonlibrary.org/lic/lectures/vincentseyfriedlecture.htm Vincent Seyfried lecture on Benson]
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