My Friends at Brook Farm

by John Van Der Zee Sears

Excerpt from My Friends at Brook Farm

The settlers built their houses on the Indian trail leading Westward to which they gave the name of Beaver street their grand boulevard which must have been two or three squares long. Beaver Street was the main highway of the Wal loon Nation and was the center of the Old Colonie as the Dutch neighborhood was subsequently called. Under English rule, the Old Colonie or Beaverwick was merged with Fort Orange and Rensselaer wick, these, collectively, being named Al bany in honor of the Duke of York, Al bany being one of his titles.

Genres: History

194 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1912

Reviews

[Avis Black]

Sears, as a child, went to school at Brook Farm. The famous Transcendentalist community was formed by George Ripley in the mode of a Fourierian community, and many notable American writers passed through it at some point, either as residents or lecturers. Hawthorne lived there for a while and portrayed the community in his book the Blythedale Romance. Despite the shaky success record of utopian communities in history, Sears enjoyed the heck out of his time there and relates many fond memories of the place. The Brook Farm experience so stamped its students that years later Sears, upon seeing one of his fellow students on a crowded city street, (Union General Frank Barlow), was able to get Barlow's attention with the special 'Brook Farm' whistle. The child's-eye view of Brook Farm is not one that is usually written about by scholars, and it's their loss.