Brooklyn Today for October 9
Good morning. Today is the 282nd day of the year. On Oct. 9, 1862, Walt Whitman wrote an article in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle about the death of Andrew Demarest, age 83, who was one of the founders of the Masons in Brooklyn and had known veterans of the Revolutionary War during his childhood. Whitman went on to say that Demarest had been a source on the history of the “Old Dutch Church” on Duffield and Fulton streets. The thatched-roof church had been heavily used by farmers from Flatbush and Flatlands. When it was torn down around 1800, onlookers were surprised to find the grave of a British prisoner-of-war who had been buried in full uniform with his sword at his side.
Well-known people who were born today include singer-songwriter Jackson Browne (“Doctor My Eyes”), British Prime Minister David Cameron, Brooklyn-born actor Michael Pare (“Streets of Fire,” “the Philadelphia Experiment”) and former Yankee baseball player Joe Pepitone.