HISTORY OF BROOKLYN. 741

Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis. This community have a house at the corner of Warren and Hicks streets, Sister Hildegard being superior. They embrace seven professed sisters, four novices and three postulants. They devote themselves to the care of the sick and infirm, and have forty patients.

Brothers of the Christian Schools. This community, founded in France by the venerable De la Salle, was introduced into the United States in 1846. In Brooklyn they direct at St. James's Cathedral a parish school of four hundred and ten boys.

Monastery of St. Francis of Assisi. This institution at Nos. 19, 21, 23 Butler street, is occupied by the Franciscan Brothers, an order devoted to the cause of education. The community numbers nineteen professed brothers, thirteen novices, and sixteen postulants. Brother Jerome is the superior. The house was founded in 1860. They direct an academy with one hundred and seventy-five pupils at Nos. 22 and 24 East Baltic street, and direct parish schools in various parts of the city.

Little Sisters of the Poor. This modest conventual establishment, at No. 608 DeKalb avenue, is directed by seven sisters. The order was founded at St. Servan, France, in 1840, by two devoted women who consecrated their lives to the care of the aged poor. Their establishment in Brooklyn was begun in 1869, and it already occupies three houses. The sisters have no revenues, they depend on charity, and what they can collect. They receive anything that can be used for food or clothing, and in this way provide in health and sickness for their large dependent family.

V. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES.

First Presbyterian Church (New School). The ground upon which the Plymouth Church now stands, comprising seven lots, running through from Cranberry to Orange streets, was purchased in 1822, by John and Jacob M. Hicks, for the erection of an edifice for the use of the First Presbyterian church. At that time the population of Brooklyn was less than ten thousand, and the enterprise was regarded by cautious men as hazardous; the church being built in what was then cultivated fields, and far out from the settled portion of the village, though now in the densest part of Brooklyn Heights. It was organized with ten members, by the presbytery of New York, on the 10th of March, 1822, and was incorporated on the 13th of the Same month. The high personal character of its first trustees gave to the new enterprise a dignity and prominence which assured its success. The new organiza-