USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester County, New York, from its earliest settlement to the year 1900 > Part 10
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acted officially as interpreter. He sold it to Captain Richard Morris, and it subsequently became a part of the Manor of Morrisania.
The Bronx River, first known as Bronck's River, or the Bronck River, was appropriately so called for this pioneer settler on its banks; and from the stream, in our own day, has been derived the name given to the whole great and populous territory which West- chester County has resigned to the growing municipal needs of the City of New York. Whatever changes in local designations may occur in the American metropolis in the progress of time, it is a safe prediction that the name of the Borough of the Bronx, so happily chosen for the annexed districts, will always endure.
The example of Bronck in boldly venturing over upon the main- land would doubtless have found many ready followers among the Dutch already on Manhattan Island, or those who were now arriving in constantly increasing numbers from Europe, if the threatening aspect of the times had not plainly suggested to everybody the inex- pedieney of going into an open country exposed to the attacks of the Indians. In the summer and fall of 1641 events occurred which, con- sidered in connection with the well-known unrelenting character of Director Kieft, foreshadowed serious trouble with the natives; and early in the spring of 1642 a war actually broke forth which, although at first conducted without special animosity, developed into a most reveligeful and sanguinary struggle, with pitiless and undiscriminat- ing massacre on both sides as its distinguishing characteristic. It is probable that, before the preliminaries of this war had so far de- veloped as to fairly warn the people of the impending peril, various new Dutch farms and houses on the Westchester side were added to the one already occupied by Bronek. Be this at it may, it is certain that settlers from the New England colonies had begun to arrive at different localities on the Sound. These English settlers, in many re- gards the most important and interesting of the Westchester pio- neers, now claim a good share of our notice.
First in point of prominence is to be mentioned the noted Anne Hutchinson, whose name, like that of Bronck, has become lastingly identified with Westchester County by being conferred upon a river. Whether she was the first of the immigrants from New England into Westchester County, can not be determined with absolute certainty; but there is no question that she was among the very earliest. In the summer of 1642, permission having been granted her by the Dutch authorities to make her home in New Netherland, she came to the dis- triet now known as Pelham, and on the side of Hutchinson's River founded a little colony. The company consisted of her own younger children, her son-in-law, Mr. Collins, his wife and family, and a few
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congenial spirits. In barely a year's time the whole settlement was swept to destruction, everybody belonging to it being killed by the Indians, with the sole exception of an eight-year-old daughter of Mrs. Hutchinson's, who was borne away to captivity. The lady herself was burned to death in the flames of her cottage.
The tragical fate of Anne Hutchinson is one of the capital historie episodes of Westchester annals, because to the personality and career of this remarkable woman an abiding interest attaches. It is true that interest in Anne Hutchinson, in the form of special sympathy or special admiration, may vary according to varying individual capabil- ities for appreciation of the polemic type of women; but upon one point there can be no disagreement-she was among the foremost characters of her times in America, snstaining a conspicuous relation to early controversialism in the New England settlements, and must always receive attention from the students of that period.
She was of excellent English birth and connections. Her mother was the sister of Sir Erasmus Dryden, and she came collaterally from the same stock to which the poet Dryden and (though more distantly) the great Jonathan Swift trace their ancestry. Her husband, Mr. Hutchinson, is described as " a mild, amiable, and estimable man, possessed of a considerable fortune, and in high standing among his Puritan contemporaries "; entertaining an unchanging affection for his wife, and accompanying her through all her wanderings and trials, until removed by death a short time before her flight to our Westchester County. Mrs. Hutchinson personally was of spotless reputation and high and noble aims; benevolent, self-sacrificing; hold- ing the things of the world in positive contempt; an enthusiast in re- ligion, independent in her opinions, and fearless in advocacy of them. With her husband and their children, she left England and came to Massachusetts Bay in 1636. Settling in Boston, she immediately en- tered upon a career of religious teaching and proselytizing. " Every week she gathered around her in her comfortable dwelling a congre- gation of fifty or eighty women, and urged them to repentance and good deeds. Soon her meetings were held twice a week; a religious revival swept over the colony." But, careful not to offend against the decorum of the church, she confined her formal spiritual labors to the women, declining to address the men, although many of the latter, including some of the principal personages, visited her, and came under her personal and intellectual influence. Among her cordial friends and supporters were Harry Vane, the young governor of the colony; Mr. Colton, the favorite preacher; Coddington, the wealthy citizen; and Captain John Underhill, the hero of the Pequod wars. who, accepting a commission from the Dutch in their sanguinary
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struggle with the Indians, was the leader of the celebrated expedi- tionary force which, in 1644, the year after the murder of Mrs. Hutch- inson, marched into the heart of Westchester County and wreaked dire vengeance for that and other bloody deeds. To the work of in- struction she added a large practical philanthropy, assisting the poor and ministering to the sick.
But it was not long before Mrs. Hutchinson, by the independence of her opinions, excited the serious displeasure of the rigid Puritan ele- ment. Her precise doctrinal offense against the established stand- ards concerned, says a sympathetic writer, " a point so nice and finely drawn that the modern intellect passes it by in disdain; a difference so faint that one can scarcely represent it in words. Mrs. Hutchinson taught that the Holy Spirit was a person and was united with the be- liever; the Church, that the Spirit descended upon man not as a per- son. Mrs. Hutchinson taught that justitication came from faith, and not from works; the Church scarcely ventured to define its own doc- trine, but contented itself with vague declamation." Although at first the Hutchinsonians were triumphant, especially in Boston, where nearly the entire population were on their side, the power of the church speedily made itself felt. On August 30, 1637, the first synod held in America assembled at Cambridge, its object being " to determine the true doctrines of the church and to discover and de- nonnee the errors of the Hutchinsonians." Eighty-two heresies were defined and condemned, certain individual offenders were punished or admonished, and Mrs. Hutchinson's meetings were declared disor- derly and forbidden. Meantime Vane had been deposed as governor, and Winthrop, an unrelenting opponent of innovations, elected in his stead. In the following November Anne was publicly tried at Cam- bridge. " Although in a condition of health that might well have awakened manly sympathy, and that even barbarians have been known to respect, her enemies showed her no compassion. She was forced to stand up before the judges until she almost fell to the floor from weakness. No food was allowed her during the trial, and even the members of the court grew faint from hunger. She was allowed no counsel; no friend stood at her side; her acensers were also her judges." She was condemned by a unanimous vote, and sentenced to be imprisoned during the winter in the house of the intolerant Joseph Welde, and to be banished in the spring from the colony. While in duress pending her exile, she was excommunicated by the First Church of Boston for "telling a lie." In March, 1638, the Hutchinson family left Boston and removed to Rhode Island. There they remained until after the death of Mr. Hutchinson, in 1642, when Anne resolved to seek another home under the Dutch, and came to what is now Pelham, at that time a complete wilderness.
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There is no record of land purchase from the Indians by Mrs. Hutchinson or any of her party. This is undoubtedly for the reason pointed out by Bolton, that the whole colony was exterminated before purchase could be completed. Indeed, it does not appear that even the formality of procuring written license from the Dutch authorities to settle in the country had yet been observed. The massacre oc- eurred in September of 1643. It is said that an Indian came to Mrs. Hutchinson's home one morning, professing friendship. Finding that the little colony was utterly defenseless, he returned in the evening with a numerous party, which at once proceeded to the business of slanghter. According to tradition, the leader of the murderous In- dians was a chief named Wampage, who subsequently called himself " Ann-Iloock," following a frequent custom among the savages, by which a warrior or brave assumed the name of his victim. In 1654, eleven years later, this Wampage, as one of the principal Indian pro- prietors of the locality, deeded land to Thomas Pell, over the signa- ture of " Ann-Hloock." A portion of the peninsula of Pelham Neck was long known by the names of " Annie's Hoeck " and the " Manor of Anu Hoeck's Neck." Bolton, referring to various conjectures as to the site of Anne's residence, inclines to the opinion that it was " located on the property of George A. Prevoost, Esq., of Pelham, near the road leading to the Neck, on the old Indian Path." The only one of Mrs. Hutchinson's company spared by the attacking party was her youngest daughter, quite a small child, who, after being held in captivity four years, was released through the efforts of the Dutch governor and restored to her friends; but it is said that she " had forgotten her native language, and was unwilling to be taken from the Indians." This girl married a Mr. Cole, of Kingston, in the Nar- ragansett country, and " lived to a considerable age." One of the sons of Anne Hutchinson, who had remained in Boston when his par- ents and the younger children left there in 1638, became the founder of an important colonial family, numbering among its members the Tory governor Hutchinson, of the Revolution; also a grown-up daughter of Mrs. Hutchinson's married and left descendants in New England.
In the autumn of 1642, a few months after Anne Hutchinson's first appearance on the banks of the Hutchinson River, the foundations of another notable English settlement on the Sound were laid. John Throckmorton, in behalf of himself and associates (among whom was probably his friend, Thomas Cornell), obtained from the Dutch gov- ernment a license, dated October 2, 1642, authorizing settlement within three Dutch (twelve English) miles " of Amsterdam ;. " In this license it was recited that " whereas Mr. Throckmorton, with his
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associates, solieits to settle with thirty-tive families within the limits of the jurisdiction of their High Mightinesses, to reside there in peace and enjoy the same privileges as our other subjects, and be favored with the free exercise of their religion," and there being no danger that injury to the interests of the West India Company would result from the proposed settlement, " more so as the English are to settle at a distance of three miles from us," " so it is granted." The locality selected by Throckmorton was Throgg's Neek (so called from his name, corrupted into Throgmorton), and apparently the colony was begun forthwith. By the ensuing spring various improvements had been made, and on July 6, 1643, a land-brief, signed by Director Kieft. " by order of the noble lords, the director and council of New Nether- land," was granted to " Jan Throckmorton," comprising " a piece of land (being a portion of Vredeland), containing as follows: Along the East River of New Netherland, extending from the point half a mile, which piece of land aforesaid is surrounded on one side by a little river, and on the other side by a great kill, which river and kill, on high water running, meet each other, surrounding the land." The term " Vredeland " mentioned in the brief (meaning Free Land or Land of Peace) was the general name given by the Dutch to this and adjacent territory along the Sound, which was the chosen place of refuge for persons fleeing from New England for religious reasons.
John Throckmorton, the patentee, emigrated from Worcester County, England, to the Massachusetts colony, in 1631. He was in Salem as late as 1639; but, embracing the Baptist faith, removed soon afterward to Rhode Island, where he sustained relations of intimacy with Roger Williams. It is well known that Williams came to New Netherland in the winter of 1642-43, in order to obtain passage for Europe on a Dutch vessel, and it is not improbable that Throckmorton accompanied him on his journey to the Dutch settlements from Rhode Island.
One of Throckmorton's compatriots was Thomas Cornell, who later settled and gave his name to Cornell's Neck, called by the Indians Snakapins. Ile emigrated to Massachusetts from Essex, England, about 1636; kept an inn in Boston for a time: went to Rhode Island in 1641; and from there came to the Vredeland of New Netherland. On the 26th of July, 1646, he was granted by the Dutch a patent to a " certain piece of land lying on the East River, beginning from the kill of Bronck's land, east-southeast along the river, extending about half a Dutch mile from the river to a little creek over the valley (marsh) which runs back around this land." This patent for Cor- nell's Neck was issued at about the same time that the grant to Adrian Van der Donek of what is now Yonkers was made. The
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Cornell and Van der Donek patents were the first ones of record to lands in Westchester County bestowed by Dutch authority subse- quently to the Throckmorton grant of 1643. It is claimed for Thomas Cornell, of Cornell's Neck, that he was the earliest settler in West- chester County whose descendants have been continuously identified with the county to the present day. He was the ancestor of Ezra Cornell, founder of Cornell University, and Alonzo B. Cornell, gov- ernor of New York. His part in the first settlement of the county has been traced in an interesting and valuable pamphlet from the pen of Governor Cornell.1 Both Throckmorton and Cornell escaped the murderous fury of the Indians to which Anne Hutchinson foll a vic- tim in the fall of 1643. It is supposed that they were in New Amster- dam at the time with their families, or at all events with some of their children. Certain it is that the infant settlement on Throgg's Neck was not spared. Governor Winthrop of Massachusetts, in his " Ilis- tory of New England from 1630 to 1646," says: "They [the Indians] came to Mrs. Hutchinson in way of friendly neighborhood as they had been accustomed, and, taking their opportunity, they killed her and Mr. Collins, her son-in-law, and all her family, and such of Mr. Throckmorton's and Mr. Cornell's families as were at home, in all sixteen, and put their cattle into their barns and burned them." Throckmorton did not return to the Neck to live, or at least did not make that place his permanent abode. In 1652 he disposed definitely of the whole property, conveying it, by virtue of permission petitioned for and obtained from the Dutch director-general, to one Augustine Hermans. From him are descended, according to Bolton, the Throck- mortons of Middletown, N. J. Cornell, after receiving the grant to Cornell's Neck, erected buildings there, which he occupied until forced for the second time by hostile Indian manifestations to aban- don his attempt at residence in the Vredeland. His daughter Sarah testified in September, 1665, that he " was at considerable charges in building. manuring, and planting " on Cornell's Neck, and that after some years he was " driven off the said land by the barbarous violence of the Indians, who burnt his home and goods and destroyed his cattle." This daughter, Sarah, was married in New Amsterdam on the 1st of September, 1643, to Thomas Willett. She inherited Cor- nell's Neck from her father, and it remained in the possession of her descendants-the Willetts, of whom several were men of great prom- inence in our county-for more than a century. Thomas Cornell, after being driven away from Cornell's Neck, returned to Rhode Is- land, where he died in 1655.
1 Some Beginnings of Westchester County History, Published for the Westchester County Historical Society, 1890.
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In the preceding pages we have consecutively traced the several known efforts at settlement along the southeastern shores of West- chester County, from the time of Jonas Bronck's purchase on the Harlem to that of Thomas Cornell's flight from the ruins of his home on Cornell's Neck, covering a period of ten years, more or less. It is a meager and discouraging record. By reference to the map, it will be observed that all these first Westchester settlements were closely contiguous to one another, and embraced a continuous extent of terri- tory. Bronek's patent reached to the mouth of the Bronx River, and was there joined by Cornell's; beyond which, successively, were Throckmorton's grant and the domain occupied by Anne Hutchinson. It is also of interest to note that the upper boundary of the four tracts corresponded almost exactly with the present corporate limits of the City of New York on the Sound.
CHAPTER V
THE REDOUBTABLE CAPTAIN JOHN UNDERHILL -DR. ADRIAN VAN DER DONCK
HIE troubles of the Dutch with the Indians, to which frequent allusion has been made, began in 1641, as the result of a revengeful personal act, capitally illustrating the vindie- tiveness of the Indian character. In 1626, fifteen years be- fore, a venerable Indian warrior, accompanied by his nephew, a lad
THE COLLECT POND-NEW YORK CITY.
of tender age, came to New Amsterdam with some furs, which he in- tended to sell at the fort. Passing by the edge of the " Collect," a natural pond in the lower part of Manhattan Island, he was stopped
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by three laborers belonging to the farm of Director Minuit (said to have been negroes), who, coveting the valuable property which he bore, slew him and made off with the goods, but permitted the boy to escape. The latter, after the custom of his race in circumstances of personal grievance, made a vow of vengeance, which in 1641, having arrived at manhood's estate, he executed in the most deliberate and cruel manner. He one day entered the shop of Claes Cornelisz Smits, a wheelwright living near Turtle Bay, in the vicinity of Forty-fifth street and the East River. The Dutchman, who knew him well, sus- pected no harm, and, after setting food before him, went to a chest to get some cloth which the young savage had said he came to purchase. The other fell upon him from behind, and struck him dead with an ax. This terrible deed aroused strong feeling throughout the settle- ments, and Director Kieft demanded satisfaction of the chief of the Weckquaesgecks, the tribe to which the offender belonged. An exas- perating answer was returned, to the effect that the accused had but avenged a wrong, and that, in the private opinion of the chief, it would not have been excessive if twenty Christians had been killed in retaliation. The only recourse now left was to declare war against the savages, and to this end all the heads of families were summoned to meet on August 29, 1641, " for the consideration of some important and necessary matters." The assembled citizens selected a council of twelve men, who, upon advising together, recommended that fur- ther efforts be made to have the murderer delivered up to justice. All endeavors in this line proving unsuccessful, war was declared in the spring of 1642. Hendrick Van Dyck, an ensign in the company's service, was placed in command of eighty men, with instructions to proceed against the Weekquaesgeeks and "execute summary ven- geance upon that tribe with fire and sword." This party crossed into our county, and, under the direction of a guide supposed to be experi- enced and trustworthy, marched through the woods with the intent of attacking the Indian village, which then occupied the site of Dobbs Ferry. But they lost their way, and were obliged to come inglori- onsly back. Shortly afterward a treaty of peace was signed at Bronek's house, the Indians engaging to give up the murderer of Smits, dead or alive. The first period of the war was thus brought to an end.
But causes of irritation still existed, which were not done away with as time passed. The assassin was noi surrendered according to agreement, and the savages continued to commit ontrages, which greatly incensed the not too amiable Dutch director-general. The next event of importance was an act of aggression against the In- dians, quite as barbarous as any over perpetrated by the latter, which
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has covered Kieft's name with infamy. Early in February, 1643, a band of Mohawks from the north made a descent upon the Mohican tribes, for the purpose of levying tribute. Many of the Weck- quaesgecks and Tappaens, to escape death at the hands of the in- vaders, fled to the Dutch settlements; and thus large parties of Indian fugitives belonging in part to a tribe against whom Kieft cherished bitter resentment were gradually congregated within close proximity to New Amsterdam. The director, seizing the opportunity for vengeance thus presented, secretly dispatched a body of soldiers across the Hudson to Pavonia, which had been selected by most of the fleeing savages as their headquarters, and on the night between the 25th and 26th of February these natives were indiscriminately massacred. "Nearly a hundred," says Bancroft, "perished in the carnage. Daybreak did not end its horrors; men might be seen, mangled and helpless, suffering from cold and hunger; children were tossed into the stream, and as their parents plunged to their rescue the soldiers prevented their landing, that both child and parent might drown." Similar scenes were enacted at Corlaer's Hook, where forty Indians were slaughtered. In 1886 the remains of some of these vic- tims of Kieft's inhumanity and treachery were unearthed by persons making excavations at Communipaw Avenue and Halliday Street, Jersey City. A newspaper report published at the time, after recit- ing the historical facts of the tragedy, gave the following particulars: "Trenches were dug [by the soldiers ] and the bodies thrown into them indiscriminately. The scene of the butchery is now known as Lafay- ette, and after nearly two and a half centuries one of the trenches has been opened. Crowds gathered around the place yesterday while the excavating was going on, and looked at the skulls and bones. The number of the bodies can only be determined by means of the skulls, as the bones are all mixed together, and many of them crumble at the touch into fine dust." 1
A furious war of revenge was now proclaimed by the savages, a general alliance of the tribes being effected. Even the Long Island Indians, who had formerly dwelt on terms of amity with the settlers, rose against the common white foe. The settlement planted in the previous year at Maspeth by the Rev. Francis Doughty, father of Elias Doughty, who in 1666 became the purchaser of Van der Donck's patroonship of Yonkers, was entirely swept away; and another Eng- lish settlement at Gravesend, presided over by Lady Moody (an exile from New England, like Anne Hutchinson, on account of religions belief), was three times fiercely attacked, but, being excellently stock- aded, snecessfully resisted the desperate assailants. Historical writ-
1 New York Tribune, April 23, 188G.
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ers upon this gloomy period vie with each other in vivid descriptions of its terrors. " The tomahawk, the firebrand, and scalping-knife," says O'Callaghan, " were elntehed with all the ferocity of frenzy, and the war-whoop rang from the Raritan to the Connectiont. Every settler on whom they laid hands was murdered, women and children dragged into captivity, and, though the settlements around Fort Amsterdam extended, at this period, thirty English miles to the east and twenty-one to the north and south, the enemy burned the dwellings, desolated the farms and farmhouses, killed the cattle, de- stroyed the crops of grain, hay, and tobacco, laid waste the country all around, and drove the settlers, panie-stricken, into Fort Amsterdam." Roger Williams, who was in New Amsterdam during that eveniful spring writes: " Mine eyes saw the flames of their towns, the frights and hurries of men, women, and children, and the present removal of all who conld to Holland." Nevertheless, after a few weeks of violent aggression, the Indians were persuaded to sign another peace, nego- tiated mainly through the prudent efforts of the patroon David Pie- tersen de Vries. This treaty included the solemn declaration that " all injuries committed by the said natives against the Netherland- ers, or by the Netherlanders against said natives, shall be forgiven and forgotten forever, reciprocally promising one the other to cause no trouble the one to the other."
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