USA > New York > Westchester County > Rye > Chronicle of a border town : history of Rye, Westchester county, New York, 1660-1870, including Harrison and the White Plains till 1788 > Part 16
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'One Public, Common Highway be laid out and kept in repair from New York through that county and the county of Westchester four rods, English, wide, to be forever a Public Road to the Colony of Con- necticut.'
This was the first formal act establishing our present post-road. It had existed before, as we have shown, in separate links, from town to town, following very much the same general course as now. But it had never before been constituted as one road.
Commissioners were appointed to carry out this act. Up to the year 1728 they were appointed for the whole county. From that time till the Revolution they were appointed for the several towns. After the war, in 1784, an act was passed vesting in the freeholders and inhabitants of the towns themselves the power to elect at their annual meetings not less than three nor more than five persons in each town to be commissioners of high ways.
1 At the same town meeting, April 1, 1699, the road to White Plains, which had certainly been in existence for some years, was ordered to be surveyed and laid out ' to be 3 Rods in breadth,' (Rye Records.)
141
GATES ACROSS THE ROAD.
All this legislation, unfortunately, did not make good roads. Their condition indeed was a theme for lament and execration year after year. In 1684 the legislature of Connecticut complains that ' There is a great neglect found in mayntaining of the highwayes between towne and towne.' The ways are 'incumbered with dirty slowes, [sloughs, ] bushes, trees and stones.' The Court orders that ' each plantation shall forthwith take sufficient care that the highwayes stated between townes be well amended from sneh defects, and so kept from time to time.' Mention is made ' especially' of the 'road from Hartford to New Haven, and from New Haven to Greenwich.' Rve just then was ' ont in the cold,' Connecticut having relinquished the town to New York a few months before. But we may suppose that in the matter of roads it was not much better off than its neighbor 'Horseneck.'
' One peculiarity of the highway of that early day,' remarks Mr. Huntington, ' was the fact of a gate across the road wherever a side road entered the main one of the settlement - so that for several years, one could not probably have travelled a half mile in any direction from the centre of the town, without meeting one of these gates.'] Often, in the laying out of a new road, it was stipulated that the owner of some adjacent lands should have ' liberty to hang a gate or make a draw-bars for his conveniency,' the said owner ' keeping said gate in good repair at his own cost and charge.' There was such a gate on the Milton Road near the present cemetery by Blind Brook, in 1719; and another on the road leading from the Great Bridge, near the spot where the Pres- byterian Church now stands, to Manussing Island. And as late as 1779, on the fine road now leading from Harrison Station to North Street, there were 'bars' at different points, as the reader may see by Erskine's ' Map of Rye,' a fac-simile of which we give else- where. Many such obstructions doubtless existed in the earlier part of the century, even on the Boston Road, where it crossed our town.
In 1704 we have a doleful account of the highway through these parts. Our oft-quoted traveller, Madam Knight, groans out her complaint as from Norwalk she and her guide ' Hasted towards Rye, walking and Leading our Horses neer a mile together, up a prodigios High Hill, and so Riding till about nine at night.' Returning from her visit to New York, she passes again through our town to the limits of ' York Government,' and there ' Descend- ing the Mountainos passage that almost broke my heart in aseend-
1 History of Stamford, Connecticut, by Rev. E. B. Huntington, p. 436.
142
THE BOSTON ROAD.
ing before, we come,' she says, 'to Stamford, which we passed, and thro' many and great difficulties, as Bridges which were exceedingly high and very tottering and of vast Length, steep and rocky Hills and precipices, bugbears to a fearful female traveller.'
Eighty-five years later, a more eminent personage describes our roads in terms not much more flattering than Madam Knight's. ' The Road [from Kingsbridge to Rye] for the greater part, indeed the whole way, was very rough and stoney, but the Land strong, well covered with grass and a luxuriant crop of Indian Corn. . The farms . ... are very close together, and separated, as one inclosure from another also is, by fences of stone, which are indeed
easily made, as the country is immensely stoney. . .. . After pass- ing Horse Neck, six miles distant from Rye, the Road through which is HILLY, and IMMENSELY STONEY, and trying to Wheels and Carriages.' Pretty strong language this, for the calm and benig- nant Father of his Country. It is to be feared that our post-road tried his patience as severely as it tried his carriage. Indeed, on his way homeward from the same excursion into New England, Washington, as if unable to express his feelings on the subject, writes, while resting for the night at the 'widow Haviland's in Rye,' ' The badness of these roads having been described as I went, I shall say nothing of them now !' 1
Some comfort may be derived under these mortifying comments, from the fact that older countries than ours were suffering at the same period from the misery of bad roads. England, whose smooth and solid highways are now the special admiration of every American visitor, was not much better off than New England two centuries or even one hundred years ago. How was it with our venerable namesake, Rye, in Sussex, on the British channel? From the voluminous ' History and Antiquities ' of that ' Ancient Town and Port,' we learn that the first turnpike act, 'for repair- ing and widening the Road from Flimwell Vent to Rye,' was passed in 1762. Before this the travelling was so bad that corn was fre- quently brought into the town on horses' backs. In the latter part of the previous century, coaches occupied ten and eleven hours in a trip of thirty miles. The ground was so rugged and full of holes that the traveller would often have to dismount and lead his horse. The fords, where there were no bridges, could not be crossed in rough weather without extreme danger. 'Riding in a dark lane, towards evening, across a descent made by a rivulet of water, I
1 Diary of Washington, from the first day of October, 1789, to the tenth day of March, 1790. New York, 1858 : pp. 19, 47.
143
TURNPIKE COMPANY.
was twice like to be thrown into the water,' writes a traveller in 1693, who at another time states that wishing to return by a ford from a neighboring place, 'I could not get to Rye that night, nor next day till noon, after having waited in the wind and cold on the gravelly ground.'
In 1775 an English clergyman writes to a friend, from Brigh- ton, in the same county, and only forty-seven miles south of London : -
' If you should ever stand in peculiar need of very violent exercise, come down hither, by way of Ryegate, and before the present stage- coach is worn out. The road is the roughest, the country the coarsest, and the vehicle the uneasiest that can well be imagined. I never had so complete a shaking ; and, though much used to travelling, was liter- ally sore from head to foot for twenty-four hours after my arrival here, occasioned by such a series of concussions as I really thought it in- possible for any carriage to impart.' 1
Until quite recently the Boston Road was familiarly known to us as ' the turnpike.' It has in fact ceased to be a turnpike road only within two or three years past. In 1800 a corporation was formed by act of the legislature, by the name of ' The President, Direc- tors and Company of the WESTCHESTER TURNPIKE ROAD.' Messrs. Philip Pell, John P. Delancey, Cornelius Rosevelt, Peter J. Mon- roe, and Gabriel Furman, were the members of this corporation mentioned in the act.2
The general course of this road coincided with that of the old Boston Road established by act of the Assembly in 1703 ; just as that road followed in the main the course of the country road established in 1672. There have been several deviations, however, from the ancient line in the town of Rye ; and these we may here indicate.
The first occurred where the turnpike road entered Rye, cross- ing Mamaroneck River. Here the old road ran about thirty rods north of the line adopted in 1800. The street now called Tomp- kins Avenue is the ancient highway. In 1811 the commissioners closed a part of ' the old Boston road, beginning at Mamaroneck River and extending eastwardly to the post set in the ground op- posite Daniel Gidney's house, and thence to the land of William Gidney.' 3
Another change was made between Dr. Jay's house and Mr.
1 Rev. A. Toplady, Works, pp. 873, 874.
2 An act to establish a turnpike corporation for improving the road from East Chester to Byram, passed seventh April, 1800, chap. cxxi.
3 Town Records, vol. D. p. 361.
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THE BOSTON ROAD.
Thomas Haviland's. The old road diverged from the line adopted for the turnpike at a point a little south of Mrs. Bradford's resi- dence. It returned to its present course at the southeast corner of Mr. Haviland's lawn, forming a curve about fifteen rods at its greatest distance from the present road.1
Above Mr. Theall's house the road was straightened for a dis- tance of half a mile. The old road is that which passes Mr. Ben- jamin Mead's house. The stone bridge across Blind Brook, which has lately been demolished and replaced by a larger one, was built by the turnpike company. Before this, the road crossed the brook over a wooden bridge, which stood about half-way between the present bridge and the ford. Through the village of Rye the turnpike retained the course of the old road, except at the head of Grace Church Street, where a slight change was made.2 Between Rye and ' Saw Pit' or Port Chester, there was no material change.
A slight deviation occurred between Rye and Port Chester, at the foot of Regent Street. A more considerable change was made in the village of Saw Pit. Here the turnpike company opened a new road between the old road and the water. This change be- gins where the road to Lyon's Point intersects Main Street. Be- yond this the back street now called Fountain Street represents the course of the old road as far as Mrs. Moseman's residence. Passing along the north side of that house, it ran about parallel with the present course of the railway, and very near it, to the spot where the turnpike crosses the railway ; thence as the turn- pike runs to a place not far from the railway embankment, indi- cated by bars ; and thence along the bank of Byram River nearly to the bridge.
1 Information from Mr. T. Haviland, Rye.
2 Along the land now occupied by the residences of Mr. Augustus M. Halsted, Miss R. Bush, and Mr. Thomas Peck, the old post-road was straightened to some extent by the turnpike company. This land, as we shall see in another chapter, constituted the 'old parsonage,' and was owned by the Episcopal Church until within a few years.
OLD HAVILAND INN.
That the Widow Harfiand was equal to . occasion is demonstrated by Washington's dial of the trip which he made into New-England this time. He wrote under date of October 1 Kinge'
Haviland's, or Penfield House.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE VILLAGE INN.
' As ancient is this hostelry As any in the land may be : Built in the old Colonial day.'
LONGFELLOW.
H ALF a century ago, the old Square House on the post-road at Rye was the centre of life and intelligence for the whole neighborhood : and such it had been for at least as many years. Old inhabitants still speak of the times when the great, lumbering coach, with panting horses, and sorely-jolted passengers, would bring up about sunset at Penfield's Hotel ; and when the chief exciting event of every evening throughout the village would be the approach and arrival of the eastern and western stages. For it was at Penfield's that these vehicles - the one bound for Boston and the other for New York - would usually meet and deposit their loads of travellers, to remain over night.
But nearly a century ago, the Square House was said to have been 'a noted tavern for many years ; ' and before that, it was the goodly mansion of one of the leading men of the town. Here Peter Brown lived previous to the year 1731. After his death the house passed into the possession of the Rev. James Wetmore,
10
146
THE VILLAGE INN.
rector of the parish of Rye. It was the residence of his son, Timothy Wetmore, in 1763 ; about which time probably it became an inn.
As early as the year 1770, Dr. Ebenezer Haviland, afterwards a surgeon in the army during the Revolution, kept this tavern. The records of the Board of Supervisors, October 7, 1772, con- tain this item : 'To Doct. Ebenezer Haveland, for dining the Supervizors and liqure, £1. 11. 4.'
The 'New York Gazette,' Monday, April 18, 1774, announces that -
' The lottery for the benefit of a Clergyman is in such forwardness' that the managers will be enabled to begin the drawing on Thursday the 28th instant, at the house of Dr. Ebenezer Haviland, in Rye.'
About the same time the following advertisement appears : 1-
TO BE SOLD, AT PRIVATE SALE, A
LOT of land in the town of Rye, Weft-Chefter county, containing about 20 acres, moft of which is excellent meadow land ; on which is a large two ftory houfe, neatly finifhed, with a large cellar un- der the whole houfe; a kitchen feperate from the manfion houfe ; a barn, ftore houfe, ftables, horfe- fhed, and other out-houfes, all in good repair : The above has been a noted tavern for many years; is a good ftage upon the Bofton road, being 31 miles to New-York : it is a convenient place for a trader, as there has been a fhop kept there for twenty years paft, and is within a mile and a half of the landing - Alfo,
A farm of about 50 acres of choice land, on which is a good dwelling houfe, a cyder-mill and houfe, barn, ftables, &c. an orchard containing near 400 bearing apple trees, 100 of which are Englifh pip- pins ; there are a large number of locuft trees on faid land. The above farm is fituate in Harri- fon's purchafe, Weft-Chefter County, within two miles and a half of a landing ; affords an exten- sive profpect of Long-Iftand and the Sound. Alfo,
A houfe and four acres of land in the town of Rye, lying by the poft-road, fuitable for a tradefman ; either of the above may be purchafed at a reafonable rate, by applying to the fubfcriber in the town of Kye. EBENEZER HAVILAND.
To be fold at public vendue on the premises, on Wednesday the 6th of April next,
A FARM containing 200 acres of good land, fitu- ate in Harrison's purchafe, Weft-Chefter county, on which is a new dwelling-houfe, a large barn, and other out-houfes, &c. The above was lately the property of James Haviland. For further particulars, inquire of the fubfcribers, who will give an indifputa- ble title for the fame. EBENEZER HAVILAND, TIMOTHY WETMORE.
RYE, MARCH 5, 1774.
1 Rivington's New York Gazetteer ; or, The Weekly Advertiser. Thursday, March 10, 1774.
.
147
AN ILLUSTRIOUS GUEST.
The following year he advertises again : -
'To be sold, the house where the subscriber now lives, in Rye, which has been a noted tavern for many years past. There are three rooms with fire places on the lower floor, and two on the second, and three without ; a large cellar, a shop adjoining the house, and a kitchen at a little distance. There is a good barn,' etc., 'and about twenty acres of land of the best quality, through which runs a fine stream for a grist or oil mill. .
' Likewise a small farm of 50 acres, with a good house, barn, and other out houses, in Harrison's precinct. It affords a very beautiful prospect of the Sound and Long Island.'
In 1774, John Adams stopped at ' Haviland's, of Rye,' on his way from Boston to New York.1
During the war, one Jotham Wright kept this inn. It appears to have reverted, after the war, to Mrs. Tamar Haviland, then the widow of Dr. Ebenezer, who for several years maintained the good repute of this ' ancient hostelry.' It was during her inenm- bency that Rye had the honor of a visit from General Washing- ton, and that the Square House became invested with that in- terest which hallows every spot associated with the Father of his Country. The hostess and the inn were immortalized by the fol- lowing notice in the President's diary : -
'Thursday, Oct. 15th, 1789. After dinner, through frequent light showers, we proceeded to the Tavern of a Mrs. Haviland at Rye ; who keeps a very neat and decent Inn. . .. Friday 16th, about seven o'clock we left the Widow Haviland's, and after passing Horse Neck, six miles distant from Rye, the Road through which is hilly and immensely stoney, and trying to Wheels and Carriages, we breakfasted at Stamford, which is six miles further, at one Webb's - a tolerable good house, but not equal in appearance and reality to Mrs. Haviland's.'
The General made a longer stay at Rye on his way back to New York from New England. 'A little after sunrise [Thursday, Nov. 12th] we left Marvin's, [at Fairfield,] and breakfasting at Stam- ford, 13 miles distant, reached the Widow Haviland's, 12 miles further : where, on acet. of some lame horses, we remained all night.' 'Friday, 13th, Left Mrs. Haviland's as soon as we could see the road, and breakfasted at Hoyet's tavern, this side King's- bridge ; between 2 and 3 o'clock arrived at my house at New York, where I found Mrs. W. and the rest of the family all well
1 Diary, in President Adams's Works, vol. ii. p. 345.
148
THE VILLAGE INN.
-- and it being Mrs. W's night to receive visits, a pretty large company of ladies and gentlemen were present.' 1 .
The widow was succeeded by Peter Quintard, who was land- lord in 1797. The town, which looked carefully after the taverns in those days, resolved that year that -
' If Peter Quintard should not occupy the House he now lives in longer than the first of May next, then he shall pay no more Excise, Money than in proportion of time he has occupied said house.'
One Peter William Marrener next kept the Square House for two years. But in 1801 it passed into the hands of Mr. Nathaniel Penfield. This gentleman is well remembered by many at the present day as a fine specimen of the ancient landlord ; a man of · courtly manners and unblemished character. After his death, in 1810, the house was kept for a few years by his son, the late Mr. Henry L. Penfield, a most amiable and estimable man, whose death occurred in 1867. Penfield's Hotel was still a noted place. Here the stages on the Boston Road stopped, until some forty years ago.2 Among its distinguished guests in later times was General La Fayette, when making a tour from New York into New Eng- land in 1824.
' At Mamaroneck, the General was received with the same enthusi- astic welcome. A salute was fired by the inhabitants, the bells were rung, and an excellent band of music continued playing our national airs. At Rye, the General, his suite, and the committee of arrange- ments dined together at Penfield's Hotel.' 3
But ' Penfield's ' was by no means the most ' ancient hostelry ' of Rye. We must go back another half century at least, to speak of two other village inns, long known as 'Strang's ' and ' Doughty's.'
The public house was an important institution of the olden time. Innkeepers were chosen by the town, and none but persons of good character and estate were considered eligible.
The earliest notice of such an appointment in our records is the following : -
' At a towne meeting in Ry, March 24, 1697-8, Joseph Horton is
1 Diary of Washington, from the first day of October, 1789, to the tenth day of March, 1790. New York, 1858 : pp. 20, 21, 46.
2 The Square House ceased to be a public house about 1830. In 1835 Rachel, widow of Nathaniel and Henry L. Penfield, and his wife Mary, sold to David H. Mead this property, with 23 acres of land. (County Records, lib. Iviii. p. 358.)
3 Niles' Register, August 28, 1824.
149
MADAM KNIGHT AT RYE.
chosen by the towne of Ry to keep a house of entertainment for trav- lors for the year insuing.' 1
Lieutenant Joseph Horton, we have seen, was a leading inhabit- ant at that day. He lived on Rye Neck, and the house here referred to is supposed to have stood on the site or in the neigh- borhood of the old mill which has lately been renovated, opposite the house of Mr. Jonathan H. Gedney.
In the village itself, 'Strang's tavern ' was the ancient public house. A portion of the original building is still standing, on the southeast corner of the post-road and Rectory Street.2
Madam Knight of Boston gives an amusing description of her entertainment at this inn, in the course of her journey on horse- back in 1704 from that city to New York : -
' From Norowalk we hasted towards Rye, walking and leading our horses neer a mile together, up a prodigios high hill ; and so riding till about nine at night; and there arrived and took up our lodgings at an ordinary, wch a French family kept. Here being very hungry, I desired a fricasee, wch the Frenchman undertakeing mannaged so contrary to my notion of cookery, that I hastned to bed superless : being shewd the way up a pair of stairs wch had such a narrow pas- sage that I had almost stopt by the bulk of my body. But arriv- ing at my apartment found it to be a little Lento chamber, furnisht amongst other rubbish with a high bedd and a low one, a long table, a bench, and a bottomless chair. . . . My poor bones complained bitterly, not being used to such lodgings ; and so did the man who was with us ; and poor I made but one grone, which was from the time I went to bed to the time I riss, which was about three in the morning. Setting up by the fire till light, and having discharged our ordinary, wch was as dear as if we had had far better fare, we took our leave of Monster, and about seven in the morn came to New Rochell, a French town, where we had a good breakfast, and in the strength of that, about an how'r before sunsett, got to York.'
The Frenchman of whom Madam Knight speaks was undoubt- edly Daniel L'Estrange, or Strang, as the name soon came to be written - a French Protestant refugee who had removed to this country a few years before. His death occurred two years after Madam Knight's visit. The village inn was kept by his widow for several years.
'Strang's Tavern ' was a place of note long after this. On a map of Budd's Neck in the year 1720, the bridge over Blind
1 Town and Proprietors' Meeting Book, No. C. p. 5.
2 A view of this house, taken before the recent alterations, will be found on page 71.
1
150
THE VILLAGE INN.
Brook is denoted the King's Bridge 'nere Strange.' The Jus- tices and Vestry of Rye held their meetings here as early as 1734, and the town meetings may not improbably have been held here at a much earlier day. The old house was still a place of public entertainment thirty years ago, and was kept by a lineal descend- ant of the first ' Daniel L'Estrange.' It remained unaltered until within two or three years past, the 'lean-to' chamber which Madam Knight occupied being quite distinguishable.
Another noted inn was the old stone house known of late years as ' Van Sicklin's.' In the early days of the settlement, this building, as already stated, was a fort or place of defence. After- wards it became the dwelling of Mr. Isaac Denham, son of the first settled minister of Rye, and one of the wealthiest and most influential persons of his day. Mr. Denham died in 1723, and in 1728 his executors sold his house and home lot to 'Francis Doughty, junior, of Flushing.' The ' New York Gazette ' of June 20, 1748, contains the following advertisement : -
FRANCIS DOUGHTY, who kept the Kings- Bridge, is now removed to the Sign of the SUN in Rye, where all Gentlemen, Travellers, and Others, may depend on good Entertainment for themselves and Horfes.
Mr. Doughty, like his predecessors Horton and Strang, was a justice of the peace for the town of Rye. The Justices and Ves- try met at his house from 1730 to 1734, and again at the same place from 1770 to 1776, when his son John Doughty kept the tavern. Another John Doughty, grandson of Francis, succeeded to the dignities and emoluments of the office, which seems to have descended from father to son as a matter of course. A map of the town in 1797, represents ' Doughty's ' house as still known by that name. An old lady of our acquaintance remembers well attending balls and parties, as a young girl, at John Doughty's, which was a favorite and quite respectable place of resort early in the present century.
Under the old Connecticut laws, the regulations with regard to public houses were very strict. By the code of laws adopted in that colony in 1639, no innkeeper was allowed to sell ' more than half a pint of wine at one time to be drunk,' or to permit any guest ' to continue tippling above half an hour, or after nine o'clock at night.' 1
1 Colonial Records of Connecticut, edited by J. H. Trumbull, vol. i. p. 509.
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