Story of the Location
My assigned location was North of Adams Street on Johnson Street around the time of 1824. Walt Whitman was 6 years old during the time. I was little worried that I wouldnt be able to find anything about the time and relating it to Whitman that because the maps were only goes back to 1846. However, I was astonished by the land conveyances when I saw the Whitman last name. Recently, I was thinking to find the location in Brooklyn and it came out to be the path that I walk to school for last couple years. Today the location is a supreme court building and a park, got much smaller when I compare with old maps.
According to the land conveyances Walter Whitman (Walt Whitman’s father) and Louisa (mother) bought this house on 12/24 1824 and sold back to same owner on 01/23 1826. We knew that his father was a carpenter and renovated houses bought them and fixed and sold them. The date of buying the house is 2 years after they moved from Long Island to Brooklyn.
“In 1823 Walter Whitman, Sr., moved his growing family to Brooklyn, which was enjoying a boom. There he speculated in real estate and built cheap houses for artisans, but he was a poor manager and had difficulty in providing for his family, which increased to nine children.” (http://www.biography.com/articles/Walt-Whitman-9530126)
The owner of the house Evan M. Johnson seemed very popular around the block. He owned almost all the properties 4 corners of the block according to land conveyances. I have little researched about Evan M. Johnson and found his short life history on New York Times article which I am posting on this page. Briefly, Evan M. johnson was born on 1792 in Newport, R.I and worked in Churches. He was minister, rector and preacher in different churches.
