Gravesend Tutors

About Gravesend

It’s true that it was a woman, Lady Deborah Moody, who founded Gravesend, New York—a rare occurrence in the mid-seventeenth century. Lady Moody had left England so she and her followers—Anabaptists, or people who believe followers of Jesus Christ must be baptized as adults for the baptism to be valid—could worship without persecution, and Gravesend had the reputation of being accepting of such ostracized groups. But it was an even more notorious Gravesend resident who actually developed the community.

John Y. McKane was a carpenter and contractor working in nearby Sheepshead Bay. After learning the trade, he started his own business. By 1884, his construction company had built almost two-thirds of the buildings in Gravesend and Coney Island (considered, at the time, a part of Gravesend) and was credited for establishing Coney Island. Because of constant fires at the thriving seaside resort, his company never lacked work.

McKane’s work ethic gained respect, and he was named constable, while continuing his construction business. As constable, he expanded the police force and even performed patrols personally. He eventually assumed many other leadership roles: chief of detectives, school commissioner, fire commissioner, water and gas commissioner, commissioner of the board of health, public lands commissioner, and town supervisor (by then, Gravesend had been annexed to Brooklyn but was allowed to continue self-governing). He was also head of the tax department and the department of licenses. At church, McKane was head tenor and superintendent of the Sunday School. And it was none other than John McKane who played Santa Claus at a local school’s annual Christmas celebration.

Power and popularity may have been too much to handle for McKane, however. The model citizen and leader, who never drank and rarely smoked, eventually became a dishonest politician, scraping money from the many gambling parlors and brothels that had sprung up on Coney Island, which became known as “Sodom by the Sea.”

McKane also seemed to be in control of most elections. In fact, he managed to alter the rules so that non-U.S. citizens, seasonal migrant workers, and criminals could vote. Perhaps the most shocking change was that dead people were allowed to vote. In fact, for a local election in 1893, McKane submitted 2,700 votes. Gravesend, however, had only 1,700 registered voters.

McKane was eventually accused and convicted of election fraud and assault (some of the skirmishes between parties at polling places got physical) and sentenced to prison for six years. He was released for good behavior after four years and was greeted warmly by his cohorts on Coney Island. He died of a stroke only a year later at the age of fifty-eight. The McKane era had come to an end.

McKane’s life weaves inexplicably with that of both Gravesend and Coney Island. Gravesend tutors and teachers who incorporate McKane’s domination in their lessons have a lot of material to work with. Tutoring in Gravesend allows tutors to bring local history alive for their students.