20 APRIL 23, 2020 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Glendale roadhouse owner’s brief brush with Civil War
BY THE OLD TIMER
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
Captain Louis Dohling’s Roadhouse
was located on the southwest corner
of Myrtle Avenue and Fresh
Pond Road (now Cypress Hills Street)
in Glendale for about 20 years, from
1880 to 1900.
Dohling was born in Braunschweig,
a duchy in northern Germany, in 1834.
He came to America in 1855 at the age of
21. Where he settled fi rst is unclear, but
in 1861, when the Civil War started, he
enlisted in the 28th Regiment, New York
Volunteers, for 90 days, serving as a fi rst
lieutenant under the name Charles E.
Waterbury.
The German states had military conscription
at age 20. Apparently, because
of his prior military training, he was
able to secure a commission as a fi rst
lieutenant in the Union Army.
The 28th Regiment, New York Volunteers,
consisted of men primarily from
Niagara, Orleans, Genesee, Ontario and
Sullivan Counties. Companies A and B
were mustered in upstate Lockport on
the fi rst day of the call — April 15, 1861,
the day President Abraham Lincoln
proclaimed the enlistment of 75,000 men
for a 90-day period. This came weeks
aft er Confederate soldiers fi red on Fort
Sumter, South Carolina, the fi rst salvos
of the bitter, bloody confl ict.
First Lieutenant Dohling (Waterbury)
was assigned to Company H, which
was assigned to Camp Morgan. As the
regiment was transferred into federal
service, all were required to take the
oath of loyalty to the United States.
On June 24, 1861, the regiment left
Camp Morgan and headed on a barge
down the Hudson to Elizabethport, New
Jersey, where they boarded a train for
Washington, D.C. When the 28th Regiment
marched through Baltimore on
June 26, Dohling and the rest of the men
had their guns loaded and were ready
for trouble, which did not materialize.
Upon arriving in Washington, they
were temporarily quartered in the U.S.
House and Senate buildings. They then
moved to a camp about one mile north
of the city.
On July 4, they participated with all
the troops in a massive review before
President Lincoln and the Cabinet
offi cers. Two days later, the 28th Regiment
boarded a train to Hagerstown,
Maryland, and were assigned to Major
General Robert Patterson’s Army of
18,000 men, who were ordered to seize
Harper’s Ferry, which was 60 miles
northwest of Washington on the Potomac
River, and prevent two divisions
of the Confederate Army from uniting
at Manassas (Bull Run), which was 25
miles southwest of Washington.
This led to the fi rst big battle of the
Civil War on July 21, 1861, at Bull Run,
This April 1923 photo shows Myrtle Avenue looking west from 65th Street in Glendale.
File photo, courtesy of the Queens Borough Public Library, Archives, Eugene L. Armbuster Photographs
but Dohling (Waterbury) had already
been mustered out of service, as his
enlistment expired. He did not see any
action.
Aft er being mustered out, Dohling
settled in Brooklyn. He became an active
member of the Deutsche Freudschaft s
Guard, a local shooting society for German
immigrants in the area, where he
served as a captain. He adopted this
title in order to help him in his business
activities.
By 1873, Dohling had a grocery store
in the Williamsburgh area of Brooklyn.
Several years later, he moved to Myrtle
Avenue and Fresh Pond Road, where he
leased the building from John H. Debevoise,
a large land owner in the area, and
operated a hotel.
In June 1880, the U.S. Census recorded
that Dohling lived there as hotel operator
with his wife, Anna, and their sons,
George and Henry. In November of
that year, he purchased the two-story
wooden frame building and irregular
shaped plot of land on which it stood
from Debevoise for the sum of $1,000.
In 1890, the U.S. Congress was receiving
requests to grant a pension to
Civil War veterans. Before doing so,
they determined to fi nd out how many
veterans were still alive, and whether
they suff ered any service-connected
disabilities.
Accordingly, a special census was
taken. Louis Dohling stated that he
served as a fi rst lieutenant under the
name Charles E. Waterbury from March
29, 1861 to July 1, 1861 with Company H,
28th Regiment, New York Volunteers, on
The former site of Louis Dohling’s roadhouse at the corner of Myrtle
Avenue and Cypress Hills Street in Glendale. Photo via Google Maps
a 90-day enlistment. One note of interest
in the census data was that many of
the veterans stated they had acquired
rheumatism (infl ammation and pain
in the joints, muscles or fi brous tissue)
while fi ghting.
On March 3, 1900, Louis and Annie
Dohling purchased from John and Mary
Jane Adamson a small parcel of land
across the street from his roadhouse, on
the north side of Myrtle Avenue. This
had been part of the Peter Debevoise
Farm. Shortly thereaft er, Louis Dohling
ceased operating his roadhouse.
By 1923, the rear half of the roadhouse
remained as an automobile service garage.
While the garages remained in use
for decades, the roadhouse would later
be demolished to make additional room
for the service station, which remains
in use today.
Reprinted from the Sept. 8, 1983, Ridgewood
Times, with appropriate updates
made. Additional information from
Wikimedia Commons.
* * *
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photographs of “Our Neighborhood: The
Way It Was” that you would like to share
with our readers, please write to the Old
Timer, c/o Ridgewood Times, 38-15 Bell
Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361, or send an email
to editorial@ridgewoodtimes.com. Any
print photographs mailed to us will be
carefully returned to you upon request.
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