April 12, 1816, the village of Brooklyn was incorporated by an act of the legislature of this state. By this act the freeholders and inhabitants are authorized annually to elect, on the first Monday of May, “Five discreet freeholders, resident within the said village, Trustees thereof;” and these trustees are authorized to appoint a president and clerk. The first trustees, Messrs. Andrew Mercein, John Garrison, John Doughty, John Seaman, and John Dean, were appointed by the legislature, and continued in office until the first Monday of May, 1817; when the first election was made by the people, and they made choice of Messrs. William Furman, Henry Stanton, William Henry, Tunis Joralemon, and Noah Waterbury. The present trustees are Messrs. Joshua Sands, John Doughty, Joseph Moser, John Moon, and Samuel James. Joshua Sands, esq. president, and John Dikeman, esq. clerk of the board. The president previous to 1824 received no salary; at present his salary is $300. The clerk formerly received a salary of $100, which in consequence of the great increase of business is now raised to $200. The powers of the trustees are principally “to make, ordain, constitute, and publish, such prudential by-laws, rules and regulations, as they from time to time shall deem meet and proper; and such in particular as relate to the public markets, streets, alleys, and highways of the said village; to draining, filling up, levelling, paving, improving, and keeping in order the same; relative to slaughter-houses, houses of ill fame, and nuisances generally; relative to a village watch, and lighting the streets of said village; relative to restraining geese, swine, or cattle of any kind; relative to the better improvement of their common lands; relative to the inspection of weights and measures, and the assize of bread; relative to erecting and regulating hay-scales; relative to the licensing of public porters, cartmen, hackney coachmen, gaugers, weigh-masters measurers, inspectors of beef and pork, of wood, of staves and heading, and of lumber; relative to public wells, pumps, and reservoirs or cisterns of water to be kept filled for the extinguishment of fires; relative to the number of taverns or inns to licensed in said village; and relative to any thing whatsoever that may concern the public and good government of the said village; but no such by-laws shall extend to the regulating or fixing the prices of any commodities or articles of provision, except the article of bread, that may be offered for sale.” The powers of the trustees, in opening, regulating, and widening streets, are enlarged and defined by an act passed by the legislature of this state, April 9, 1824. The board of trustees have the appointment of several officers. The following is a list of the names of the officers at present holding under them.