It was a hoax to end all hoaxes, perpetrated by a man known only as Lozier.
Lozier was not a mobster nor did he belong to a gang. And certainly, by all historical accounts, Lozier was not a con man. However, considering the havoc he wreaked on New York City in 1824, Lozier was certainly, by all definitions, a creep.
In 1824, the population of Manhattan Island was approximately 150,000 people. Center Market, an area at the junction of Baxter, Grand, and Center Streets, was where townspeople gathered daily to buy and sell goods, and to talk about anything and everything that had an impact on their lives. The loudest person to come to Center Market every day was a charismatic man named Lozier. Lozier had traveled the world and was considered to have the highest intellectual capacity. When Lozier spoke, the people listened. Lozier, a carpenter by trade, was friends with a man with the dubious name of Uncle John Devoe. That’s right, Uncle John.
In early 1824, for some inexplicable reason, Lozier was absent from his Center Market bench for several days. When he returned, Lozier, usually talkative, was suddenly and inexplicably speechless. He didn’t talk to anyone except Uncle John Devoe. The rest of the crowd, who gathered daily at the Center Market, were curious as to why Lozier’s temper had changed so drastically.
Finally, Lozier broke down, telling the assembly that for the past several weeks he had been meeting with New York City Mayor Stephen Allen. The reason for those serious discussions was that the island of Manhattan, as a result of the many large buildings in the center, was so heavy at the battery end that the southernmost point of the island was in danger of breaking off and falling into the water. .
Some doubted Lozier’s conclusions. So he took them to the middle of Center Street and asked them to search for themselves. It was obvious that the street was steeply downhill, as Lozier pointed out to them, “from all the weight of the buildings further south.”
The crowd was scared. “What can we do?” they implored Lozier.
Lozier said not to worry. He and the mayor had come to the conclusion that the only way they could save the southern tip of Manhattan Island was to cut the island off at its northern tip, in the Kingsbridge region, and turn it around. He would then anchor the sunken end to the north of the continent. Then, in effect, the North would be the South and the South would be the North, avoiding the terrible loss of life and property.
The only problem was that Mayor Allen thought Long Island was getting in the way of the proposed operation. Mayor Allen said there was no way Manhattan Island could go all the way around without crashing into Long Island. Mayor Allen said that Long Island needed to be detached from its moorings, towed out of the way, and after Manhattan Island was properly rotated and reattached to the mainland, Long Island could be returned to its proper place.
Lozier eventually convinced the mayor that there was enough space in the harbor to rotate the island of Manhattan, without dislodging Long Island. Lozier said that all they had to do was saw off Manhattan Island at Kingsbridge, tow it past Governors Island and Ellis Island, turn it around, and then tow it back to its new position and anchor it. After much consultation, the mayor reluctantly agreed to do it Lozier’s way.
Being the political animal that he was, Mayor Allen thought it best to keep the government (that is, him) completely out of the picture. The mayor thought this should be a private effort and appointed Lozier to handle the entire project, including hiring labor and supervising the work.
Not everyone in Manhattan bought the twisted idea that the southern tip of Manhattan Island was in danger. However, due to Lozier’s sterling reputation as a thinking man’s thinker, those who did believe quickly silenced or convinced Lozier’s skeptics.
To make things more conclusive, Lozier came to his own defense. He cited the recent construction of the famous Erie Canal as proof that his project could be carried out. Lozier said that when the Erie Canal was proposed, even the best engineers thought that getting a river through the middle of a mountain was an impossible task. This dubious analogy convinced even the most ardent skeptics that not only could it be done, but that Lozier was, in fact, the man overseeing the operation.
For Lozier, his first task was to recruit the hundreds of people needed for such a monumental project. Lozier appeared in the Central Market, with a large ledger, in which he began the tedious task of recording applicants, for all the types of employment necessary to complete, and then circled the island of Manhattan. While attention was diverted elsewhere, Lozier entrusted his friend, Uncle John Devoe, to complete this task. Devoe personally wrote in the ledger the names, ages, and place of residence of everyone who applied, most of whom were newly arrived Irish peasants.
While Devoe compiled a list of workers, Lozier was busy meeting with butchers to round up herds of cattle, hogs, and chickens, which were needed to feed the hundreds of workers on the proposed project. Lozier was especially concerned about having enough chickens, because he had promised that all the workers would have chicken dinner twice a week. A poor butcher was so anxious to please Lozier that he took 50 fat hogs, which were ready for the slaughter, and drove them north near Kingsbridge, where he fed them for a month; the feed money comes out of his own pocket, not Lozier’s.
Getting his food supply system for the workers out of the way, Lozier turned his attention to building a barracks for the workers to sleep in at night, after they had finished working for the day. Lozier brought together carpenters and contractors in their twenties to provide the lumber and expertise needed to build the shacks. Several of these contractors and carpenters hastened and hauled a few dozen loads of timber to the northern tip of the island and deposited it near Kingsbridge, so that it would be there when needed. This was done at the expense of the carpenter and the contractor, of course. Not from Lozier.
Lozier said he also needed at least 20 saws, each 100 feet long, and each needed 50 men to handle them. In addition, Lozier said that he needed 24 huge oars, each 250 feet long, and 24 cast-iron oars, on which the giant oars would be mounted. Lozier said that at least 100 men would be needed to tow Manhattan Island, after it had been cut off from the mainland. Lozier provided dozens of blacksmiths, carpenters, and mechanics, with the plans to provide the oars and oar locks.
However, Lozier did not end this nonsense. He said that he would need hundreds of men to cut off the island of Manhattan. Lozier promised that he would pay triple wages to those who saw underwater.
To see which men were most qualified for this dangerous task, Lozier lined up hundreds of men and, one at a time, used a stopwatch to time how long each man could hold his breath. As each man huffed and puffed, and then held his breath until his face nearly exploded, Uncle John Devoe wrote down the breath-holding times in his ledger. Some men were so eager to please that they begged Lozier to let them try several more times, so they could improve his scores. Lozier happily acquiesced in his folly.
As the weeks passed, the Manhattanites grew impatient for the start of the play. Lozier kept putting them off, telling them that he did not have enough workers and the necessary equipment had not been completed. Ultimately, Lozier had no choice but to set a date when hundreds of people would assemble to begin his mission to saw off the island of Manhattan, tow it up the East River, turn it, and put it back together. Lozier ordered everyone who was going to be involved in the project to report to work at the corner of Bowery and Spring Street. Lozier even hired a drum and bugle corps to accompany the large contingent of people on their march upstate from Kingsbridge.
At the appointed time, a group estimated to be between 500 and 1,000 people gathered at the corner of Bowery and Spring Street. Included in the crowd were the workers, accompanied by their wives and children, contractors, carpenters, and butchers, with their cattle, pigs, and chickens, all packed up and ready to go.
But unfortunately, not Lozier. And no Uncle John Devoe.
As the wait for the two men continued, the crowd at the corner of Bowery and Spring Street grew impatient: cattle bellowed, pigs grunted, chickens clucked, and small children began to squeal in dismay.
After the crowd had waited several hours, a group of men was sent to Center Market to search for Lozier and Uncle John Devoe. As the search party returned empty-handed from Center Market, the smarter people began to realize that they had all been conned, ripped off, and humiliated. Some were angry enough to arm themselves with bats and clubs as they searched the streets of lower Manhattan for Lozier and Uncle John Devoe. However, the two men were nowhere to be found.
Months passed and there was still no Lozier and no Uncle John Devoe. It was rumored that, when their deception was exposed, the two men had escaped to a friend’s house in Brooklyn and were in deep hiding. Some of the people, who had invested their own time and money in vain, wanted the two fugitives caught, arrested, and punished. However, most of those who had been tricked argued against doing so, as they did not want to admit that they had been stupid enough to agree to the harebrained plan that Lozier had led them to believe.
This is where the end of the story diverges towards truth and possible fantasy.
In those days, it was not the job of newspapers to write about hoaxes. They wrote hard news, and the sawn-down on Manhattan Island didn’t fall into that category. Therefore, there is no record in the newspapers that this event ever took place. Over the years, word of mouth was the only way to perpetuate the story of the Manhattan Island sawmill.
One version is that after several months on the run, Lozier and Uncle John Devoe eventually returned to Center Market, where they were ostracized by their victims and forced to leave New York City. Lucky for them, no major bodily injury.
Another version is that all this hoax never happened in the first place.
However, the latest version was basically accepted because the townspeople were so embarrassed by the load of crap Lozier had given them, and they accepted without question, feeling it was better to say that Lozier’s scam never happened in the first place.
I believe in the previous version. You be the judge.