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 2
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XV
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XLVI.
CONCLUSION.
' A Great Settlement,' 392. - The Prophecy fulfilling, 392. - Our Advan- tages, 392. - Blessings of Peace, 393.
FAMILIES OF RYE.
I. THE EARLY SETTLERS -1660 TO 1700 -AND THEIR DESCENDANTS. Alling, Applebe, Banks, 395. - Barton, Basset, Bloomer, 396. - Boyd, 397. - Bowers, Brondige, 398. - Brown, 399. -- Budd, 403. - Bullock, 406 .- Church, Clere, Collyer, Coc, 407. - Coffel, Disbrow, 408. - Denham, Frost, 409. - Galpin, 410. - Garnsey, Hart, Hyat, 411. - Hoyt, 412. - Hopping, Horton, 413. - Hudson, Jackson, Jefferies, 415. - Jee, Jenkins, Knap, Kniffen, 416. - Lancaster, Lane, 420. - Linch, Lockwood, Lounsbery, 421. - Lyon, 422. - Merritt, 426. - Miller, 428. - Odell, 429. - Ogden, 430. - Park, 431. - Pearce, 433. - Purdy, 434. - Roberts, Robisson, Roekwell, 440. - Sherwood, 441. - Smith, Selleck, Statham, Stephens, Stoakham, 443. - Strang, 444. - Studwell, 446. - Theall, 447. - Thomas, Thorne, Traves, Underhill, 448. - Vowles, Walters, 449. - Wascot, Wood, Wood- bridge, Wright, Young, 450.
II, LATER INHABITANTS - 1700 TO 1800 - AND THEIR DESCENDANTS. Abrahams, Adee, 451. - Anderson, Andrews, Armor, Armstrong, Ascough, Adams, Akerly, Baker, Bumpos, Bayly, Barker, 452. - Barnes, Barrel, Bates, Bell, Besly, Bloodgood, Blakeman, Bird, 453. - Birdsall, Bishop, Bowne, Bridge, Brush, Burns, Burrell, Burchum, Bush, 454. - Carle, Carey, Carhartt, Carpenter, 455. - Cavalear, Chatterton, Cheeseman, Clapp, 457. Cleator, Cole, Coon, Cornell, Cornwall, 458. - Covertt, Crampton, Crawford, Cromwell, 459. - Crooker, Cue, Dusenbery, 461. - Daniels, Deall, Delhing- ham, Demilt, Dickinson, Dixon, Dow, Dodge, Doutty, Doughty, Eisenhart, 462. - Elsworth, Embree, Esmond, Eustace, Farrington, Fauconier, Feenas, Ferris, Field, 463. - Flamman, Flood, Foreman, Fitzgerald, Fowler, 465. - Franklin, French, Gale, Gandal, Gibson, Gilchrist, Glover, Gornm, Graham, 466. - Graham, Green, Griffin, Guion, 467. - Gedney, 468. - Haddon, Hains, 471. - Haight, 472. - Hawkshurst, Hare, Harris, Harrison, Hatfield, 473. - Halsted, 474. - Haviland, 475. - Hawkins, Hays, Haywood, Hill, Hitt, Hubbs, Hosier, Howel, Hugford, Hicks, Hutchings, Huson, Ilunt, 477. - Hunter, Ireland, Jacobs, Jagger, 478. - Jay, 479. - Janes, Kennedy, King, La Count, Lamson, Lawrence, Lewis, Man, MeCollum, Marsh, Marselis, Mar- vin, 486. - Mollinex, Morrill, Morris, Morgan, Maynard, Muirson, Murray, McDonald, Moore, Mott, Neally, Newman, Nichols, Oakley, Owen, Panton, Palmer, Peck, Pederick, Peet, Pine, 487. - Parker, Pinkney, Proboy, Pro- voost, 488. - Quimby, Quintard, Rickey, Ritchie, Reynolds, Robinson, Rogers, Roll, Roosevelt. Rusforth, Rusten, Ray, Sackett, Sawyer, Schofield, Scott, Seaman, 489. - Saler, Secor, Sears, Setton, Sexton, Seymour, Shaw,
xvi
CONTENTS.
Slater. Smith, 490. - Stevenson, 491. - Stringham, Sutton, Talledy, Tay- lor. Tebowes, Thacker, Thomas, 492. - Thompson, Tilford, 493. - Titus, Tompkins, Totten. Tredwell, Turner, Varnell, Vail, Viekers, Virdine, Wal- ton. 494. - Warner, Weeden, Weeks. Wetmore, 495. - Weissenfels, Wil- eox, Willis. Willett. 496. - Willson, 497. - Wilson, 498. - Willy, Woolsey, Worden, Yeomans, 499.
Clark, 499.
APPENDIX.
PAGE
I. Records of Streets and Highways 501
II. Royal Patents
515
1. Patent for Peningo Neek
515
2. Patent for Budd's Neck . 520
3. Patent for Harrison's Purchase 524
4. Patent for the White Plains 526
III. Town Officers . 530
INDEXES.
Index of Dates 535
Index of Persons . 546
General Index 556 .
ILLUSTRATIONS.
1. MAP - NORTHERN COAST OF LONG ISLAND SOUND, FROM DELANCEY PAGE
POINT TO CALVES ISLAND : INCLUDING THE TOWNS OF MAMARONECK AND RYE (U. S. Coast Survey).
2. MAP -TOWNS OF HARRISON AND RYE (Facing title-page).
3. DIAGRAM - PENINGO, APAWAMIS, MANUSSING . 1
4. FAC-SIMILE - DECLARATION OF THE INHABITANTS MANUSSING
ISLAND, JULY 26, 1662 Facing page 23
5. RYE IN SUSSEX, ENGLAND 27
6. LAND-GATE, RYE, ENGLAND 37
7. THE OLD FORT 42
8. OLD FORT, GABLE END 49
9. STRANG'S TAVERN
10. DIAGRAM - THE BOUNDARY LINE . 105
11. GREAT STONE BY THE WADING-PLACE 133
12. HAVILAND'S, OR PENFIELD HOUSE . 145
13. DIAGRAM - THE WHITE PLAINS IN 1721 152
14. RYE BEACH 189
15. RYE FERRY 207
16. SNIFFEN'S HILL 215 248
17. BYRAMI BRIDGE
18. MAP - THE TOWN OF RYE IN 1779. By Robert Erskine, F. R. S., Geog- rapher to Army of U. S. From the Original in New York Historical Society Facing page 256
19. HALSTED HOUSE 271
20. DIAGRAM - PARSONAGE LOT 300
21. THE JAY CEMETERY, RYL 479
HISTORY OF RYE.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
1609-1660.
' These settling themselves down would in a short time completely dislodge the un- fortunate Nederlanders ; elbowing them out of those rich bottoms and fertile valleys in which our Dutch yeomanry are so famons for nestling themselves. For it is noto- rions that wherever these shrewd men of the east get a footing, the honest Duteh- men do gradually disappear.' - IRVING's History of New York, ch. ii.
A MONG the numerous points WILL'S of land jutting into Long 2º PURCHASE Island Sound, and forming the lesser indentations of its north- ern shore, is one that may be said to mark the limit of the State of New York. From the jagged rocks that terminate this C WILL'S point, a tract of land nowhere C IST PURCHASE. 2 more than two miles wide stretches northward about nine MOCKQUAMS R. miles to a sharp angle upon the ARMONCK R. Connectieut border. This little territory, ealled by the Indians Peningo, with the island of WESTCHEST PATH MANUSSING Manussing on the east, and a PENI APAWAMIS part of the neighboring shore on the west, constitutes the town of Rye. Lying thus on IST PURCHASE ON PENINGO NECK the confines of two States, whose boundaries from the out- set were but ill-defined, and remained for nearly a century in dis- pute, its history might in a measure be forecast. Throughout the
1
2
INTRODUCTION.
earlier and forming part of that history, this was ' debatable ground ' - a fact very perceptibly bearing on the social and especially on the religions character of the community seated here.
The territory of this town was formerly much larger than that just described. It comprehended also the present towns of Harri- son and the White Plains, until after the Revolution. These in- deed were the choicest portions of the land originally acquired. The narrow tract along Byram River and the Sound was first occupied by the settlers for convenience and security, because nearer and more accessible to the older plantations of Connecticut. As soon as they could safely do so, they removed from the shore, where the surface is rocky and broken, to the more fertile inland ridges and plains.
From this inequality of surface, however, the scenery of the town takes its varied beauty, and gains attraction as a place of suburban resort and residence.
In the south and southwest, towards the Sound and bordering upon it, the land is generally level. Near the Episcopal Church rises a rocky ridge extending northward, and dividing the town in two nearly equal parts. This ridge gradually widens into a plateau of undulating surface, one fourth to three fourths of a mile wide, sloping on the northeast to the Byram River, and on the west to Blind Brook. Another ridge begins at the lower end of Peningo Neck, or Brown's Point, and gradually rises toward Grace Church Street, where it breaks into a succession of hills that extend to the village of Port Chester. Along the shore of the Sound the rocks 1 rise compactly, forming low bluff's, or are broken into large, irregular masses. Similar masses of coarse granite, below the Beach, form ' clumps' or islands, curiously worn and perforated by the action of the water, and bearing names which were given them by the settlers, or by passing mariners, in remote times.2
The date of the settlement carries us back more than two hun- dred years, to the time when the Dutch were still in possession of the province they called ' New Netherland.' Half a century had
1 These rocks, like those of the entire county, do not differ essentially from the gran- itic rocks of New England. They are ' crystalline, stratified generally, and metamor- phie ; principally gneiss, mica schist, mica slate, syenite, steatite, silicious conglom- erate. There are no calcarcous deposits. The gneiss not unfrequently loses its stratification and becomes granite, or losing its feldspar, becomes mica schist. From the almost uniform dip of these rocks, and from the absence of fossils, we may safely refer them to the azoic age.'
- 2 Bar Rock is the clump which at low tide is connected with the Beach by a sand-
3
THE DUTCH IN AMERICA.
elapsed since these shores were discovered by Hendrick Hudson. In virtue of that discovery, Holland claimed a vast domain, reach- ing from the ' Fresh ' or Connecticut River to the ' South ' River, or Delaware, and extending to the great lakes and the Saint Law- renee on the north, an area now covered by three States and part of a fourth. But her hold on these possessions was feeble and relax- ing. The progress of the colony had been slow. Little had been done toward the occupation of this expanse. Small towns, scarcely more than hamlets, had risen under shelter of the forts on the island of Manhattan, and near the present site of the city of Albany. Five or six villages were scattered on the south end of Long Island. A few plantations were to be seen along the banks of the North or ' Maurice ' River. Some show of a purpose to defend these possessions was made, by keeping up a military post at Hartford, on the extreme eastern frontier, and by the conquest of the Swedish settlements on the Delaware, at the south. But the policy of the Dutch government was not favorable to a co- lonial system. Though anxious to enrich herself by foreign com- merce, Holland was slow to extend protection to distant depend- encies, or pledge herself to their defence. These settlements were usually left to be cared for and controlled by individual or associ- ated enterprise. Thus a board of merchants at Amsterdam, known as the West India Company, had obtained the exclusive right of trade with the western world, and the sole privilege of granting lands to those who might choose to remove thither. This Company ruled with a high hand over the traders and farmers of New Netherland. Occasional efforts were made to encourage emi- gration ; but the inducements were not strong. The Company's object was evidently not so much to reclaim the wilderness, as to drive a profitable business with its savage inhabitants.1 Settle-
bar. On the south side of this clump, the rock is strangely honeycombed in every direction. Humphrey's Rock is the next elump south of Bar Rock, and is very similar in appearance. Black Tom lies east of Parsonage Point. Wrack Clump, southeast of Pine Island, is so called from the fact that many vessels have been wrecked at this point. It is said that not long before the Revolution, a ship came ashore on this clump, having been abandoned by the crew. Two or three mien living in the neighborhood went on board, and from that time were well supplied with money.
1 ' We have neglected to populate the land ; or, to speak more plainly and truly, we have, ont of regard for our own profit, wished to serape all the fat into one or more pots and thus seenre the trade, and neglect population.' - Vertoogh von Niew Neder- landand, ete., 1650. (Representation from New Netherland, concerning the Situation, Fruitfulness, and Poor Condition of the same. Translated from the Dutch by Henry C. Murphy : New York, 1854.)
4
INTRODUCTION.
ments were made with a principal view to the monopoly of the fur traffic ; and New Amsterdam itself was little more than a trading post. The emigrants who had been tempted across the sea chiefly by hopes of immediate gain, had little of the energy and public spirit of their New England neighbors, who had crossed it in search of an asylum from oppression, and an inheritance of free- dom for their children.
WESTCHESTER COUNTY,1 as early as this period of the Dutch occupation, was already a scene of historic interest. For here the troubles of the Dutch with the Indian tribes of the interior com- menced. And here began those difficulties with the English, which, though less sanguinary, foreboded much more clearly the termination of their rule.
This region was as yet almost an unbroken wilderness. Except along the seaboard, no settlement had been effected by either Dutch or English.2 A vast, limitless waste, teeming with vague perils, formed the background of some sparse settlements along the shores of the Sound. Deep forests, pierced by paths known only to the red man, stretched from the Hudson to the Connecticut.3 These forests consisted chiefly of oaks of various kinds, which, together with the walnut, chestnut, beech, and other trees, grew to a height that amazed European eyes. Many of them were loaded with vines, whose profusion is noticed by early travellers.4
1 The name was not bestowed until the year 1683, when the Province of New York was divided into twelve counties. Westchester County covers an area of 480 square miles, or 307,200 acres.
2 The former appear to liave explored it to some extent along the seaboard. "The country on the East River, between Greenwich and the island Manhattans,' wrote a Hollander in 1650, 'is for the most part covered with trees, but yet flat and suitable land, with numerous streams and valleys, right good soil for grain, together with fresh hay and meadow lands.' (' Information respecting Land in New Netherland' : Documents rel. to Colonial History of New York, i. 366 )
8 ' The English have now (in 1650) a village called Stamford, within six miles of the North River [i. e., Dutch miles, equal to four English miles each], from whenee it could be travelled now in a summer's day to the North River and back, if the Indian path were only known.' ( Representation from New Netherland, etc., p. 29.)
4 Van der Donek, Varazzano, and others. 'I have seen,' says Dominie Megapoliensis, ' many pieces of land where vine stood by vine, and grew very luxuriant, climbing up above the largest and loftiest trees, and although they were not cultivated, the grapes were as good and as sweet as in Holland.' (Short Account of the Maquaas, 1644.) Such doubtless was the character of the forest scenery here. In 1670, ten years after the settlement of Rye, we find mention of a 'place commonly called the Vineyard,' on Budd's Neck. Eleven years later, the ' Vineyard Farm,' on the same neck, is named. (Town Records, vol. B. pp. 34, 49.) Forty years ago there was a spot on Mr. B. Mead's farm, in the same region, noted for the profusion of these vines, overrunning the trees and covering the ground.
5
THE WILDERNESS.
' Almost the whole land is full of them,' they write, 'as well the wild woods as the mowing lands and flats; but they grow princi- pally near and upon the banks of the brooks and streams.' Some portions of the country were cleared of underbrush, and presented the appearance of beautiful groves. This was owing to the Indian custom of setting fire, in the autumn, to the tall grass, for the pur- pose of starting their game from the thickets. Elsewhere these fires had completely destroyed the heavier timber, producing tracts of meadow land, a pleasant relief from the sombre shades of the forest. But much of the woodland was marshy, and densely cov- ered with a rank growth of bush and shrub. Extensive swamps overspread the valleys and lower plains, through which the brooks and streams, then much fuller than at present, made their devious way.
Occasionally, however, there were traces of a rude cultivation. Near the rivers, and especially along the inlets of the Sound, por- tions of the land had long been appropriated by the Indians for their corn-fields and gardens. There are probably not a few spots on our Westchester farms, upon which the red man's toil was expended before the coming of the white settler, who found his labors greatly lightened by the partial preparation of the ground, and who gladly availed himself of the Indian clearings, which were generally effected where the soil was the richest and the location the most favorable.
The country lying between the Hudson and the Byram rivers was claimed by a part of the Mohegan tribe. Various independent families of this tribe had their villages here, and roamed through the surrounding forests in pursuit of game. These villages were most numerous along the shores of the Sound. There the supplies of fish upon which the hunter depended, especially in the winter season, to eke out the scanty subsistence derived from the chase, could be obtained in its waters, and in those of the streams that empty into them. A Mohegan village stood near the beach. The level grounds along the shores of the creek north of the present vil- lage of Milton, were cultivated as Indian fields. Here and there clusters of wigwams occurred on the western bank of the creek, overlooking the salt meadows through which the Mockquams winds to the Sound. Some families too, it would appear, had their homes on Manussing Island, off the eastern shore of the neck. The interior of the country retained all its primitive wildness. Much of it, we have said, was overspread by swamps. One of these extended through the valley, once perhaps the basin of a
6
INTRODUCTION.
lake, or the bed of a river, between Rye and Port Chester. An- other, which the beaver frequented, stretched along the valley of the Apawamis. Through the woods adjoining this stream, the hinter followed his prey ; 1 and near by, an Indian path, obliquely cutting this tract of land at its widest part, formed the rude thor- oughfare connecting the native settlements, which was early desig- nated by the English as . THE OLD WESTCHESTER PATH,' 2
1 Indian arrow-heads have been found here in great abundance.
2 ' The old Westchester Path ' was originally an Indian trail, that led from Manhattan island to a ' wading place ' not far from the mouth of Byram River, and thenee through the present town of Greenwich, perhaps to Stamford and beyond. It was used by the Dutch and English, from the very first occupation of the country ; and long before any towns or plantations appeared along its course, it formed a line of travel between New York and New England. For this reason it was probably that the earliest settle- ments were made upon this line. Motives of convenience and safety would induee the settler to fix upon a spot not remote from the only thoroughfare as yet existing through the forest. Accordingly we find that the original purchases of land were in many cases bounded by this path, as a well-known landmark, familiar alike to the red man and the white. Many of the old farms in this town and in the adjoining towns, are described in deeds still extant as bounded by ' the old Westchester Path.' It is now the dividing line between the towns of Rye and Harrison. The first allusion to this path that we have found occurs in the year 1661. Five years later, it is already spoken of as 'ye now known and common path coming up from Westchester.' Owing to such frequent reference in grants and deeds, the precise location of por- tions of the road has been preserved. Its course was long denoted like other bound- aries in early times, by means of 'marked trees ;' and there are maps on record, exhibiting these landmarks, and showing the direction of the road. It is enrious to see how long even such rude and perishable monuments may serve their pur- pose. Some years ago it became necessary to ascertain more exactly the boundary between the towns of Rye and Harrison. A party of several of the 'oldest inhab- itants' was made up, to accompany the surveyor, and assist him by their recollections in finding the marks indicated by the old maps and deeds. They had little difficulty in doing this, along the greater part of the way ; though the young saplings and ' staddles ' marked a half century earlier and more, had like themselves growne to a green old age. At length, however, the party came to a stand. The ' white oak stump' which was designated as the next way mark could not be found. After some deliber- ation it was suggested that they should proceed to the extreme end of their survey, and then measure back to the last point ascertained ; and at the given distance they discovered, by digging under-ground, the mouldering remains of a 'white oak stump' whose testimony completed the chain of evidence required.
The Westchester Path in this town has been disused, probably for a hundred years past, except in some few places, and as a way of communication between one farm and another. There is no proof indeed that it was at any time a graded road, travelled by wagons or stages. Such conveyances were scarcely known in those early days. For generations the bridle-path and the ' cart-way' were the only kind of road known or needed. The 'marked trees' which formerly indicated its course, are now replaced by small granite posts, denoting the boundary line of the towns of Rye and Harrison. By means of this boundary, we may trace the old path for about three miles from the vicinity of Mamaroneck River to a point on the bank of Blind Brook, near the house lately Mr. Allen P. Carpenter's. Beyond this, its course is not certainly known. I am inclined to believe that the Ridge Road is the continuation of the old Westchester Path, at least for some distance.
7
WESTCHESTER PATH.
This seems probable from the fact that it begins where that path, so far as it ean now be traced, ends ; and pursnes for awhile the same northeasterly direction. Indeed there is a tradition, which confirms this view, that the Ridge Road is the oldest thor- onghfare in these parts. Bearing more to the eastward, perhaps, from a point above the Catholic Cemetery, the path ran to the wading-place, where Byram bridge now crosses the river, and thence followed apparently the course of the present post- road through the town of Greenwich. It is mentioned as a boundary in several ancient decds of that town.
CHAPTER II.
THE INDIAN PURCHASES.
1660-1662.
' They are gone, With their old forests wide and deep ;
And we have built our homes upon
Fields where their generations sleep.' BRYANT.
TT was in the last days of the Dutch rule on this continent, that a little company of New England men, from the neighboring town of Greenwich, ventured to establish themselves here. They came to plant another of those settlements by means of which, it is well known, the Connecticut colonists had resolved to encroach on the territory beyond them ; ' crowding out the Dutch,' whom they affected to regard as mere intruders. The spot these settlers had chosen was, in their own language, 'a small tract of land lying betwixt Greenwich and Westchester.' It was one of those ' necks' to which the Indian natives were so partial, on account of the facilities afforded them for fishing, and where they were accustomed to make their more permanent homes. Here stood the villages of several Mohegan families, and near by, undoubtedly, lay their gardens and corn-fields. These were much more exten- sive than we have been accustomed to suppose. There is evidence that a considerable part of the land along the shores of the Sound had been cleared and partially cultivated by the Indians, before the white race obtained possession of it. These clearings were made in the rude way so often practised by our Western pioneers, - through the agency of fire. But they greatly assisted the labors of the white settler in his improvement of the soil. Early writers inform us that the lands thus cleared were at once taken up. 'Those who first arrived,' says one, 'found lands all pre- pared, abandoned by the savages who here cultivated their fields. Those who have come since have cleared the lands for themselves in the forests.'' This was particularly the case near the coast.
1 ' Ils ont trouvé quelques terres toutes propres que les sauvages avoient autreffois
9
FIRST PURCHASE ON PENINGO NECK.
An ancient historian of Guilford, Connecticut, states that in that town 'some of the Points of Land adjoining the Sea were all clear'd by the native Indians ;' and that ' for a great many years the planters were chiefly confin'd to the Lands cleared by the In- dians near the Sea.'1 From the well-known custom of the settlers to avail themselves of these localities, as well as from the abundance of Indian remains in this neighborhood, we judge that Peningo Neck, and especially Manussing Island, had been thus in a meas- ure prepared for them. In all probability they found these shores comparatively denuded of the forest, and portions of the land under a tolerable degree of cultivation.
The original purchasers of this place were three in number : Peter Disbrow, John Coe, and Thomas Stedwell. A fourth, John Budd, was associated with them in some of their purchases, and several others joined them in the actual settlement of the place ; but the earliest negotiations appear to have been conducted in be- half of the three persons we have named. They were all resi- dents of Greenwich at the time when the first Indian treaty was signed. Their leader was Peter Disbrow, a young, intelligent, self-reliant man, who seems to have enjoyed the thorough confi- dence and esteem of his associates. His name invariably heads the list of the proprietors. Whenever there was a treaty to be formed, or a declaration to be made, Disbrow's services were required. And from two of these documents, which are in his handwriting, we are led to conceive very favorably of the mental and moral character of the man.
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