Background
David Grim was born on August 25, 1737 in Zweibriicken, Bavaria. His father, Philip, with his wife and seven children, of whom David was the youngest, sailed from Amsterdam for New York in July 1739.
merchant antiquarian tavern-keeper
David Grim was born on August 25, 1737 in Zweibriicken, Bavaria. His father, Philip, with his wife and seven children, of whom David was the youngest, sailed from Amsterdam for New York in July 1739.
David attended the school of the Lutheran community.
For two years, beginning in 1757, David was in service aboard the King of Prussia, cruising about the West Indies.
In 1767 he was an innkeeper at the “Sign of the Three Tuns, ” Chapel (Beekman) Street. Later he was at the Hessian Coffee House, William Street. Naturally, German Protestants patronized his table, and there was a great gathering of the clan in his hostelry on the anniversary of the repeal of the Stamp Act, March 18, 1774.
He continued his tavern business during the Revolution and his house is spoken of as “the usual Place for the Drawing of Lotteries”.
By 1789 he had given up tavern-keeping and had become a merchant at 50 Nassau Street, and for the rest of his life he was successful in business and a man “of affairs and influence”.
He joined the German Society of the City of New York when it was organized, October 9, 1784, succeeded Baron von Steuben as president January 21, 1795, and held the office until January 25, 1802.
He also served for some years as treasurer of the Lutheran church. When, in 1792, the merchants of New York City determined to erect a “handsome brick building” for a Tontine Coffee House, on Wall Street, Grim was appointed to receive competitive plans and to dispose of the old buildings on the site, and it was Grim who collected from subscribers and paid the bills.
Grim is chiefly remembered, however, for activities of quite another sort. In the last years of his life he found amusement in making pen- and-ink sketches of landmarks in the city as he remembered them in his younger days, and in recording reminiscences. When comparison is possible with other sketches or records, his memory appears to have been remarkably accurate, and in many cases his handiwork is actually the sole source of information.
He was a Lutheran and in 1750 was interested in the erection of a Lutheran church for “High Germans, ” his name appearing on a deed of sale for the land upon which it was to be built.
Grim was married soon after his West Indian career to a wife who died October 6, 1779. Two daughters, Elizabeth and Catherine, married lieutenants in the regiment of the Margrave of Anspach, quartered in New York during the Revolution; a son, Philip, died before his father.
Grim was married a second time, December 24, 1781, to Mary Barwick.