Ward "Heeler" and "Where the Bronx meets Brooklyn"

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I'm looking for an earlier "heeler." The HDAS had only 1876, and I don't  
know what it has for "ward heeler."
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Also, does anyone know of the phrase "where the Bronx meets Brooklyn" (or  
"where Brooklyn meets the Bronx" or similar) for Greenwich Village?
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(Oxford English Dictionary)
<i>heeler</i>, n.
One who follows at the heels of a leader or ‘boss’; an  unscrupulous or 
disreputable follower of a professional politician.  <i>U.S. </i>

a1877 <i>N.Y. Herald</i> in Bartlett  <i>Dict. Amer.</i> (1877) s.v., The 
politician, who has been a heeler about the capital. 1888 _BRYCE_ 
(http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-b4.html#bryce)  <i>Amer. Commw.</i> II. III. lxiii. 
451 By degrees he rises to  sit on the central committee, having..surrounded 
himself with a band of  adherents, who are called his ‘heelers’, and whose 
loyalty..secured by the hope of  ‘something good’, gives weight to his words. 
1901 <i>Daily Chron.</i> 6 Nov. 6/2 The assurance of the Tammany ‘Heelers’ was 
less blatant than usual. 1933 _H. G.  WELLS_ 
(http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-w2.html#h-g-wells)  <i>Shape of Things to  Come</i> III. 311 The 
specialist demagogue, sustained by his gang and his heelers, his spies and  secret  
police.