A is for Apple

Location:   Lower Manhattan
Year:   1600

The first apple orchards in North America were started from seeds brought to New Amsterdam by the Dutch.

Cleopatra's Needle

Location:   Midtown Manhattan
Year:   1881

Cleopatra's Needle is the popular name for each of three ancient Egyptian obelisks re-erected in London, Paris, and New York City during the nineteenth century. 

The first Needle was erected in Paris, and is one of a set of two, the other remaining in Luxor. It was the earliest of the three to reach a world capital. Shortly after, British pride demanded a Needle in London, and an obelisk was acquired from the ancient site of Heliopolis. 

Not long after the British made plans to re-erect the obelisk in London, there was an outcry in print in the United States for an obelisk. If Paris had one and London was to get one, why should not New York get one?

In response, the twin of the London obelisk was shipped to New York in 1881, and was erected in Central Park just west of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was presented as a "gift" to America from Egypt, though in truth much political arm-twisting was involved and Egypt occasionally makes formal objections as to the status of the monuments.

Although all three needles are genuine, their shared nickname is a misnomer, as they have no connection with Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt, and were already over a thousand years old in her lifetime. The London and New York "needles" were originally made during the reign of Pharaoh Thutmose III c. 1450 B.C.. The Paris "needle" dates to the reign of Ramses II. Both the London and New York Needles are made of red granite, stand about 69 feet high, weigh about 224 tons each and are inscribed with hieroglyphs.

Olcott, Strauss, and Ginsberg

Location:   Sri Lanka
Year:   1875

Colonel Henry Steel Olcott (1832-1907), a New Jersey-born graduate of the City College of New York and of Columbia University, was the chief investigator of the assassination of President Lincoln, and a leading Theosophist. In 1875, Olcott traveled to Sri Lanka, and became the first American-born Buddhist while living in that country. 

Olcott worked with the monk Anagarika Dharmapala to rejuvenate Buddhism in that country. He is honored in Sri Lanka for doing so. Upon returning to the U.S.,  Olcott wrote The Buddhist Catechism (1881) which reflected Theravada Buddhist teachings. 

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Charles T. Strauss (1852-1937), a lace curtain salesman who lived and worked at 466 Broadway in Manhattan, became the first Western convert to Buddhism on American soil during his attendance at The World Conference on Religions held in Chicago in 1893.  Strauss was Jewish by birth, but ecumenical in thought. At the Conference he became fascinated by Buddhism, and approached the Buddhist monks in attendance for more information. 

Anagarika Dharmapala, who had worked with  Olcott in Sri Lanka, administered a Sanskrit oath to Strauss, who ever after called himself a Buddhist. He never sought formal ordination but became an active member of Dharmapala and Olcott's Mahabodhi Society, and assisted Dharmapala in building the organization. He wrote one book, The Buddha and His Doctrine (1923), in which he emphasized the nonmystical, ethical nature of Buddhism.

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Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) is most famous as one of the poets of The Beat Generation. Like Olcott, he was born in New Jersey and attended Columbia University (from which he was expelled for writing graffiti on a steamy window with his finger). Like Strauss, he had been raised in the Jewish faith.  

In 1948, he had his famous "Blake Vision" and not long after that met Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche in Manhattan (the two shared a cab). Both spiritualists and hard drinkers, they remained lifelong friends. Ginsberg used his position as a famed poet to help promote Trungpa's Vajrayana Buddhist teachings, and Buddhist themes are reflected in some of Ginsberg's poetry.    

Singer Sewing Machines

Location:   The Lower East Side
Year:   1856

Isaac M. Singer, born in Pittstown, New York  and living in Otsego, New York invented the first workable sewing machine in 1856. Besides being an inventor and an entrepeneur, Singer was also a roue who fathered at least 24 children. Eventually he settled in England to dodge paying for his numerous American offspring.

There were numerous such machines and numerous inventors working on such machines at the time. Singer arranged for the world's first "patent pool," allowing each inventor to contribute their best idea to the machine ultimately designed. The first Singer factory was on Mott Street in lower Manhattan. In its first year, I.M. Singer Company produced 2,600 machines. In 1860, it produced 13,000. 

Due to the Union's need for uniforms, and the Union Army's introduction of standard sizes, the need for machines mushroomed during the Civil War (and while the tailors of the Lower East Side were making Union uniforms from bolts of blue cloth, they were also making Confederate uniforms from bolts of gray cloth in the same rooms). I.M. Singer became the preeminent name in sewing machines, a distinction it still holds.  

The Long Island Rail Road

Location:   Long Island
Year:   1834

The Long Island Rail Road was established in 1834. It is the oldest continually-operating railroad in the United States, still functioning under its original name and charter. It is unique among U.S. railroads in that it operates 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, and 365 days per year. The LIRR has 124 stations, more than 700 miles of tracks, and gives an estimated 335,000 rides per weekday to commuters. Pennsylvania (Penn) Station is its western terminus in Manhattan. Expansion into Grand Central Station is planned for 2019. The Montauk Line train is historically known as "The Cannonball" and has operated continuously since 1899.

Famous New Yorkers: Alexander Macomb and "Macomb's Purchase"

Location:   Upstate New York
Year:   1792

Alexander Macomb was born in County Antrim, Ireland, on July 27, 1748, the son of John and Jane Macomb of Scotch-Irish descent. His father brought the family to America seven years later to settle in Albany. John Macomb became a very successful and wealthy fur trader.

Alexander was one of three children. Soon after the family moved to Albany he formed a lifelong friendship with a boy in nearby Schenectady by the name of William Constable.

Sometime after 1772, Macomb married Catharine Navarre, a direct descendant of King Henry IV of France. The couple raised ten children, four sons and six daughters. One of the boys, Alexander Jr. (1782-1841), was later named a General, and commanded the victorious land forces at the Battle of Plattsburg during the War of 1812. General Macomb himself had a son, Commodore William H. Macomb (1819-1872), who served with distinction as a Union officer during the Civil War. During World War II, a destroyer (DD-458) was named for him.

In 1785, with the fortune his family had made in the fur trade, Alexander Macomb moved to New York City where he built an elegant mansion near Trinity Church at Broadway and Wall Street. When George Washington became president in 1789, he rented the house from Macomb for the duration of his stay in the city. Catharine Navarre Macomb died that same year.

In 1791, Macomb remarried, to Jane Rucker, the widow of John Rucker, another friend of William Constable. This second marriage produced seven more children, three sons and four daughters, making a total of seventeen. One of the sons of this second marriage, John, married Christina Livingston whose father, Phillip Livingston was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. 

While living in New York City, Alexander Macomb became associated with the famed New York Patriots and new national leaders Alexander Hamilton, Daniel McCormick, and Governeur Morris, who had helped draft the Constitution. In 1792, at the very peak of his financial and social success, Macomb became involved in what would later be called a Ponzi Scheme, which, when it failed, besmirched his previously unstained reputation.  

That same year, the financially struggling State of New York decided to sell land which it had seized from the pro-British and now-defeated Iroquois. Macomb, Constable, and Daniel McCormick, purchased nearly 4,000,000 acres (1,600,000 hectares) of North Country land from the State at the extremely low price of just 8 pence per acre in the devalued New York State currency of the time.This was an enormous amount of land, about one-eighth of the entire State of New York, and it cost the three men a fraction of what it should have. Known ever since as "Macomb's Purchase" It remains the largest, cheapest land deal in New York State history. 

In the shadow of the failed Ponzi Scheme, and convinced that something illegal had occurred, the New York State Legislature held exhaustive Hearings into the land purchase, which further damaged Macomb's reputation. He also could not sell the land during the pending proceedings.  

Ultimately, no wrongdoing was uncovered, but Macomb had badly miscalculated. Although the land had been cheap, it had not been free, costing him about $300,000.00,  and the delay occasioned by the Hearings in selling it hurt him financially. When he finally could sell it, he found relatively few buyers. The land was considered worthless and barren wilderness, and the harsh winters deterred settlers. Lastly, the mere fact that there had been Hearings, combined with the fallout from the Ponzi Scheme,  left a cloud overhanging the land which made prospective buyers shy away from Macomb. He ended up in debtor's prison.  

In order to make good his debts, he sold much of the land to his friend, Daniel McCormick. Whether this was an arm's-length transaction, a hostile takeover, or a straw man deal is unknown, but it helped Macomb recoup his losses. 

In just a few years, he apparently managed to regain some of his wealth. Turning his back on the North Country, Macomb returned to New York City. In 1798 he purchased 100 acres in the Bronx across the Harlem River from the northern tip of Manhattan and here he built a fine stone mansion. 

In 1821 Macomb, now aged 73, went to live with his son, General Alexander Macomb Jr., in Georgetown, D.C.. After his victory in the War of 1812, the younger Macomb had advanced to become Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Army, and he invited his aging parents to come live with him.

Alexander Macomb died at Georgetown in 1831, but "Macomb's Purchase" lives on forever. Today his name appears in virtually all of the property deeds being recorded in the North Country. 

The Onion Capital of The World

Location:   Florida, New York
Year:   1946

The Village of Florida, New York, in Orange County, is known as "The Onion Capital of The World" since it is surrounded by the largest onion farms on the planet.