LONG

See also:

• ISLAND (O.E. ieg =isle, +land')

ISLAND

See also:

• CITY (through Fr. cite, from Lat. civitas)

CITY  , formerly a city of Queens county, New York, U.S.A., and since the 1st of January 1898 the first ward of the Borough of Queens, New York City . Pop . (188o) 17,129, (1890) 30,506, (1900) 48,272, of whom 15,899 were foreign-born . It has a river front, on East river and Long Island Sound, of 10 m., and is the eastern terminal and the headquarters of the Long Island railway, having a large Y.M.C.A. building (the gift of Mrs Russell Sage) for employees of this railway . Among manufactures are chemicals, pottery, varnish, silk, &c., and there are oil-storage warehouses . Most of the borough offices of Queens borough are in Long Island City, which was formerly the county-seat of Queens county . The first settlement within the limits of what subsequently became Long Island City was made in 164o by a Dutch blacksmith, Hendrick Harmensen, who soon afterward was murdered by an Indian . Other settlers, both Dutch and English, soon followed, and established detached villages, which became known as Hunter's Point, Blissville, Astoria, Ravenswood, Dutch Kills, Middleton and Steinway . In 1853 this group of villages, by that time virtually one corn. munity, was called Long Island City, and it was formally incorporated under that name in 187o . In 1871–1872 the city was laid out by a commission of which General W . B . Franklin was president .

Political convictions, economic considerations and fear combined to make the residents in this region largely loyalist in their attitude during the War of Independence . From 1776 to 1783 British troops occupied Newtown, a village to the S.E . In January 1776 the committee on the state of New York in Congress reported a resolution that "Whereas a majority of the inhabitants of Queens county, in the colony of New York, being incapable of resolving to live and die free men, . . . all such persons as voted against sending deputies to the present convention in New York . . . be put out of the protection of the United Colonies," &c., an action which led to the arrest and imprisonment of many of the accused persons . See J . S . Kelsey, History of Long Island City (Long Island City, 1896) .