THREE MEN AND A PIG (1892)
******************************************************************************************************************************** Brownstone Detectives investigates the history of our clients’ homes. The story you are about to read was composed from research conducted in the course of one of those investigations. Do you know the history of YOUR house? ******************************************************************************************************************************** (The setting of our story: The Eastern District of Brooklyn back in 1892 was a far more rural place that it is today. Comprised primarily of Williamsburg, Bushwick, and, parts of Stuyvesant Heights, the “E.D.,” as it was then called, was a semi-residential district filled with many small farmers living in frame houses and shanties, all of whom seemed to be living on the very edge of the world.) “Three men and a live, squeaking pig passed through Union avenue this morning.” The pig in the story “was an involuntary member of the quartet.” He was in the process of being stolen. “…(H)is shrill protests were heard by Policeman Farrington of the Nineteenth precinct, who traced the cries to the source. A man whom the policeman recognized as Thomas Farmer, Jr., of Union avenue and Frost street, was carrying a bag over his shoulder. “Farrington,” the story noted “gave chase and caught Farmer, who dropped the imprisoned pig on the sidewalk and showed flight. So desperate was his resistance that the officer was compelled to draw his club and a fierce fight of a few minutes’ duration terminated in the complete subjugation of Farmer.” Apparently, the two companions of the aptly named Farmer had fled. But they would not be gone […]
