USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester County, New York, from its earliest settlement to the year 1900 > Part 56
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323
Elisha Barton.
135
Cornelius P. Low .
3201
Dennis Post
135
Isaac Lawrence, Jr.
308
Nicholas Underhill.
134
Benjamin Fowler.
305
Caleb Smith
130
Sammel Lawrenee (estimated ). 300
Dennis Lent
128
Isaac Post. 293
John Devoe. 126
Thomas Sherwood
290
Abigail Sherwood. . 125
Isaae Vermilye. .
273:
Frederick Underhill ,
125
Evert Brown (estimated )
267
Hon. Richard Morris (estimated ). 117
Henry Odell .
259
Henry Brown. 113
Mary Vineent .
240
Parsonage Lot . 107
Thomas Valentine
238
Elnathan Taylor. 99
Jacob Vermilye
221
Frederick Van Cortlandt (about ) .. 98
William Crawford
202
Margery Rieh. 92
89
Robert Johnston.
190
Lewis Ogden .. . .
Mary Valentine .
76
Thomas Barker.
189
Abijab Hammond .
69
Isaac Smith .. .
185
David Hunt
41
Shadrack Taylor.
184
Abraham Lent
41
John Williams
177
Philip Livingston .
31
Patienee Burnett
173
Stephen Oakley
293
Peter Forshee. 170
Charles Duryea ..
29
Jacob Smith.
165
Stephen Sherwood
244
Joseph Oakley
164
Sarah Archer
18%
John Browne.
156
Mary Merrill
14%
Andrew Bostwick. .
1553
Total
9,785:
John Lamb. 202
John Guerino
William Hyatt.
89
Jacobus Dyekman
45
Thomas Smith. S
" By the arts respectively of 1786 and 1792," says Allison, "the legislature first conveyed, and then confirmed, the property described as the Glebe to Saint John's Church forever. Two acres where the church stands, two where Thomas Sherwood, the gardener, lived, and about two acres of meadow adjoining the Saw Mill River and the road, being a part of the Glebe land, were reserved and excepted from C. P. Low's purchase. Mr. John Williams, one of the pur- chasers, had been the steward of the Philipseburgh Manor under Colonel Frederick Philipse. John Guerino was a Frenchman, who - kept a tavern near Hunt's Bridge. The property purchased of the commissioners by C. P. Low, whose name appears in the foregoing list, was the Manor Hall property. Low was a New York merchant. He bought the Manor Hall property and three hundred and twenty acres of land for £14.520. He never occupied it, but on May 12, 1786, sold it to William Constable, also a New York merchant. From the foregoing record it appears that in 1785 .the Yonkers,' as now bounded, was owned by between sixty and seventy persons, and a
530
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
study of the old map leads to the conclusion that the number of houses within the limits of the present city were in 1785 between three score and four score."
The Manor House of the Philipses on the Pocantico River-the ancient " Castle Philipse "-in the present Town of Mount Pleasant was bought of the commissioners, with 1,600 acres adjoining, by Gerard G. Beekman, Jr., husband of Cornelia Van Cortlandt, that indomitable patriotic lady ( daughter of the lieutenant-governor) who
erre
YONKERS IN 17841.
was the hostess of the Van Cortlandt house near Peekskill during the Revolution, and whose stern reply to an insolent soldier on a perilous occasion is celebrated (see p. 427). Mrs. Beckman died in 1847 at the age of ninety-four.
Besides Philipseburgh Manor, various estates of Tories scattered through the county were confiscated. All of these, however, were properties of but moderate dimensions. Several of them were con- ferred by the State upon patriotic persons as gifts. John Paulding and David Williams, two of the captors of Andre, received forfeited
1 From an engraving in the possession of
1899. by William Palmer East. Reproduced by D. MeN. Stauffer. of Yonkers, Copyrighted. special permission.
531
GENERAL COUNTY IUSTORY TO 1842
farms in Westchester County-the former being given the handsome property of Dr. Peter Huggeford in the Manor of Cortlandt, and the latter the estate of Edmund Ward in Eastchester. The famous Thomas Paine, author of " Common Sense," was presented with a traet of some three hundred acres in Upper New Rochelle, which had previously belonged to one Frederic Deveau. About 1802, after his return to America, Paine took up his residence on this property, and he lived there most of his remaining years and was buried in a corner of the farm. His bones were disinterred and taken to England by William Cobbett in 1819. The spot is marked by a monu- ment to his memory.
The subdivision of the county into townships was made by an act of the legislature passed March 7, 1788. By this important statute twenty-one " towns " were erected, as follows: Westchester, Morris ania, Yonkers, Greenburgh, Mount Pleasant, Eastchester, Pelham, New Rochelle, Scarsdale, Mamaroneck, White Plains, Harrison, Rye, North Castle, Bedford, Poundridge, Salem, North Salem, Cortlandt, Yorktown, and Stephentown.
The Town of Westchester included all of the original Westchester and West Farms tracts, with Fordham Manor.
The Town of Morrisania coincided with the old Morrisania Manor. But the existence of Morrisania as a separate town was speedily brought to an end.1 By an act passed February 22, 1791, it was annexed to the Town of Westchester, from which it was not again severed until 1855 (December 7).
The three Towns of Yonkers, Greenburgh, and Mount Pleasant were created out of the Manor of Philipseburgh. The original bounds of Yonkers were the same as at present, except that the southern por- tion of it has recently been annexed to the City of New York. Green- burgh has always retained the limits fixed for it by the act of 1788. Its northern boundary, as described in that measure, was "a line beginning on the east side of Hudson's River at the southwest cor- ner of the land lately conveyed by the commissioners of forfeiture for the southern district to Gerard G. Beekman, Jr., and running from thence along the sontherly and easterly bounds thereof to the farm of William David, and then along the southerly and easterly
The appointment of Morrisania as one of the original townships of the county was proba- bly due to the Influence of the Morris family. At the the of the passage of the township art of 17sy the federal government was about to be organized, and the question of the seler- tion of a site for the national capital was coming into prominence. Lewis Morris enter- tained a strong conviction that Morrisania was
the most eligible place. There is now in the possession of the New York Historical Society the draft of a " Memorial by Lewis Morris. of Morrisania." " To his Excelleney the Presl. dent and the Honorable the Members of the Congress of the United States of America. ' communicated in 1799, in which the special ad Vantages of the place are recited. For the text of this memorial ser Scharf, i., $23.1
532
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
bounds of the said farm of the said William David to the road lead- ing to the White Plains, and then easterly along the same road to the Bronx River." To Mount Pleasant was assigned the remainder of the manor. Out of its territory was constructed the new Town of Ossining by an act passed May 2, 1845.
The bounds fixed for the Town of Eastchester were Westchester at the south, the Bronx River at the west, Scarsdale at the north, and the Hutchinson River at the east.
Pelham was identical with the former Pelham Manor, compro- hending City, Hart, and Appleby's Islands.
New Rochelle, Scarsdale, Mamaroneck, Harrison, Rye, Bedford, and Poundridge, as organized into towns, retained their former well established divisional lines.
North Castle was bounded on the north by Mount Pleasant, White Plains, Harrison, and Connecticut, on the east by Connecticut, Pound- ridge, and Bedford, on the north by the Manor of Cortlandt and Bed- ford, and on the west by the Bronx River and Bedford. But in 1791 (March 18) another town, called New Castle, was set off from North Castle, comprehending the territory west of a line drawn from the southwest corner of Bedford to the head of the Bronx River.
Salem, North Salem, Cortlandt, Yorktown, and Stephentown were towns partitioned from the Manor of Cortlandt.
The township named Salem has long been popularly known as Lower Salem. By an act of April 6, 1806, its name was officially changed to South Salem, and by a further act, February 13, 1840. to the present style of Lewisboro. The name of Lewishoro was given it in honor of John Lewis,1 a liberal benefactor of the public schools and donor of the glebe lands of Saint John's Protestant Episcopal Church at Salem. A portion of North Salem was annexed to Lewis- boro April 26, 1844.
North Salem included the whole of " north lots " numbers 9 and 10 of the Manor of Cortlandi, with lot number 8 as far as the Croton River, which formed its western boundary. To the two Salems fell the whole of the " Oblong."
The Townships of Cortlandt, Yorktown, and Stephentown were con- strneted out of the remaining portion of Cortlandt Manor. Yorktown was so-called in remembrance of the encampment within its borders of the French army after its return from the successful Virginia
' John Lewis was descended from an old New England family. Ilis father was a Rey- olutionary soldier, who removed from Connecti- ent to South Salem in 1808. The son made a Inrge fortune In mercantile pursuits in New York. Ile was one of the funnders of the
Frer Academy in New York, and in 1840 gave $10,000 to the support of the common schools in the township now called by his name. Ile died at his Lewisboro home on the 1st of October, 1871.
533
GENERAL COUNTY HISTORY TO 1842
campaign. Stephentown-the present Somers-was named for Stephen Van Cortlandt. The present name was adopted April 6, 1808, in honor of Captain Richard Somers, the hero of the Tripolitan war. A part of New Castle was annexed to Somers in 1846.
Of the twenty-one original towns, North Castle was the largest, having abont 30,000 acres; but after the setting off from it of New Castle in 1791, Bedford, with its 24,700 acres, took the first rank, which it has always since maintained. The smallest of the original towns were Pelham (3,200 acres), Mamaroneck (3,900 acres), Sears- dale (3,900 acres), and New Rochelle (5,200 acres).
The first federal census was taken in 1790, two years after the organization of our county into towns. The following were the totals for the various political divisions then existing:
TOWNS
POPULATION
TOWNS
POPULATION
North Castle (ineluding New Castle). . 2,478
Yonkers.
1,125
Bedford.
2,470
Poundridge. .
1,062
Cortlandt
1,932
North Salem.
1,058
Harrison 1,004
Mount Pleasant (including the present Ossining)
1,924
Rye.
986
Yorktown ..
1,609
Eastchester
740
Salem (now Lewisboro)
1,453
New Rochelle
692
Greenburgh .
1,400
White Plains
50.
Westchester (including West Farms,
Mamaroneck.
452
Morrisania, and Fordham Manor)
1,336
Searsdale
281
Stephentown (now Somers).
1,297
Pelham .
199
Total 21,003
The towns which led in population at this period were the ones having the largest superficial area, and it is also noticeable that the distribution of population in 1790 was without the slightest refer- ence to relative local advantages as those advantages are estimated at the present time. For example, Bedford, lying in the northern central part of the county, remote from New York City, peopled exclusively by farmers, and from its natural conditions incapable of any development other than agricultural, had nearly as many in- habitants as Westchester and Yonkers combined, although the united area of Westchester and Yonkers was some 1,500 acres greater than that of Bedford. Poundridge, smaller than Youkers, had never theless almost as many inhabitants. Lewisboro was more populous than Greenburgh, though not very much exceeding it in size. York- town had only a hundred fewer inhabitants than Eastchester. White Plains, Scarsdale, and Pelham together. Still another fact stands out prominently: the localities which were least exposed to the ray- ages of the contending forces during the Revolution were those showing the most satisfactory conditions of population.
534
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
The purely agricultural character of Westchester County at the end of the eighteenth century is perfectly demonstrated by these consus returns. In truth, there was at that time no single village displaying circumstances of local activity from which the prospect of any substantial ultimate growth might be deduced. The existence of the foundations of such thriving communities as Yonkers, Dobbs Ferry, Tarrytown, Sing Sing, and Peekskill on the Hudson, New Rochelle, Mamaroneck, and Rye on the Sound, and White Plains and various other villages in the central sections of the county, is recog- nizable, with more or less distinctness, at this period; but in cach case these foundations were strictly elementary, represented by such instruments of advancing civilization as churches, mills for the grind- ing of grain, small general stores, and inns for the accommodation of travelers, with here and there a schoolhouse. The only commer- cial industry that had been inaugurated was that of transmitting market produce to New York, in which a few sloops were engaged, both on the Hudson and the Sound. But most of the farmers pre- ferred to cart their own wares to the city. " What a sight must have presented itself," says a writer in Scharf's History, describing a somewhat later period, " as over our three great thoroughfares not only the farmers of the county, but often, as when the river and Sound were icebound, those of the regions beyond, passed into the city with their heavy loads of produce. There were hours of the day when the roads, it is said, were fairly blocked by the heavy traffic upon them, and eyewitnesses declare that at night even the floors of the bar and sitting-rooms of the taverns were spread over with the sleepers tarrying to rest themselves and their teams for a few hours on the way."
To the national convention at Philadelphia which framed the con- stitution of the United States Westchester County contributed one of its most distinguished and influential members, Gouverneur Mor- ris. It is true he sat in that body as a delegate from Pennsylvania, but, as has been aptly observed by one of our local historians, " it is a pleasure to remember that in the person of Gouverneur Morris, who was born on Westchester soil and who returned again to represent her in the United States senate, and whose remains are sacredly enshrined in her bosom, she was present to form that wise and beneficent instrument." The federal constitution was ratified in this State on the 26th of July, 1788, by a convention which held its sessions at Poughkeepsie. The delegates from our county were Thaddeus Crane, of North Salem; Richard Hatfieldl, of White Plains; Philip Livingston and Lewis Morris, of Westchester; Lott W. Sarles, of New Castle; and Philip Van Cortlandt, of Cortlandt. All of them voted affirma-
535
GENERAL COUNTY HISTORY TO 1842
tively on the question of ratification. In the last continental con- gress held under the old confederation of the State, that of 1788-89, Philip Pell, of our county, had the honor of being one of the repre- sentatives from the State of New York.
During the eight years of Washington's administration as presi- dent the Federalist party usually enjoyed the preponderance in Westchester County. With the incoming of JJefferson, however, the anti-Federalists, or Republicans, gained the ascendency, which they transmitted to their political heirs, the Democrats; and indeed since the beginning of its organization the Democratic party has lost but two presidential elections in Westchester County (1848 and 1896).
The congressional district to which this county was apportioned was represented in the national house of representatives for sixteen successive years (1793-1809) by General Philip Van Cortlandt.1 From 1795 until 1801 our John Jay was governor of the State. In the fall of 1797 John Adams, then president of the United States, for some time made his official residence in the Halsey house in Eastchester, having come there to escape the yellow fever, which was raging in Philadelphia, the national capital2 One of the Jefferson presiden- tial electors of the State of New York in 1800 was Colonel Pierre Van Cortlandt, a younger brother of Philip.
In 1791 the representation of Westchester County in the assembly was reduced from six members to five, in 1802 to four, and in 1808 to three.
In such a work as this, which makes no pretensions except as a narrative history of the county, it is impossible to note, progres- sively, the names and services of the various incumbents of the many offices, legislative, judicial, county, and local, elected or appointed from time to time. Such an exact record does not come within the scope of a general history. An exhaustive Manual and Civil List of Westchester County has recently been published by Mr. Henry
1 Philip Van Cortlandt was the oldest son of Lieutenant-Governor Pierre Van Cortlandt. Ile was born In the City of New York, Sop- tomber I. 1749, and was brought up at the Manor House on the Croton. He was graduated from King's (Columbia) College at an early age. At the breaking ont of the Revolution. Governor Tryon forwarded hon a major's commission In the British service, which he destroyed. He was appointed Houtenant-colonel in the continental army, and remained in active duty until the end of the war, retiring with the rank of brigadler-gen- eral. He rendered very distinguished services on many occasions, He was a member of the military court which tried General Bene-
diet Arnold for improper conduct in 1759-80. Alluding to this trial he wrote: " Had all the court known Arnold's former conduct as well as myself, he would have been dismissed from the service." After the war he retired to the Manor House at Croton. He served as one of the commissioners of forfeiture, and, as stated above. as representative in congress for sixteen years, finally declining a re-election. He accompanied the Marquis de Lafayette In his tour of the United States in 1:21. and entertained him at the Manor House. He dled November 21. 1831.
" The Halsey house was owned at that the by Colonel W. S. Smith, a son in-law of President Adams.
536
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
T. Smith, of New Rochelle, to which we refer all of our readers who may have occasion to obtain specific information on these lines. We must restrict ourselves in the present pages to incidental notice of the more conspienous men who figure in the general annals of the county, and even in this particular we must crave the considerate indulgence of the reader if our allusions are but partial, pleading for our justification the necessary limitations of the plan of this llistory.
From 1802 to 1807 the distinguished John Watts, Jr., occupied the position of " first judge " of our county court. He was the son of John Watts, Sr., and Ann, daughter of Stephen de Lancey. The father was a member of the king's council and a stanch adherent of the crown; his magnificent estate on Man- hattan Island was confiscated, and he died, an impoverished exile, in Wales. The son was the last royal recorder of New York City (1774-77). After the organization of the federal government he was speaker of the New York assem- bly for three years, and served one term in congress. His last public office was that of judge of Westchester County. llis city house was at No. 3 Broadway, New York, and he had a fine country residence near New Rochelle, on a slope overlooking Hunter's Island. Like his father, he married into the de Lancey family of our county: his wife was Jane, danghter of Peter de Lancey, of JOHN WATTS, JR. " the Mills." He was a man of consin- mate abilities. Possessed of great wealth, he diverted a million dollars of a fortune which would have been his by inheritance to the endowment of the Leake and Watts Orphan House. He died September 3, 1836, at the age of eighty- seven. A notable statne of Judge Watts stands in Trinity Church- yard, New York, erected by his grandson, General JJ. Watts de Peyster.
In 1807 Daniel D. Tompkins, a native of our county, son of the eminent patriot, Jonathan Griffen Tompkins, was elected governor of the State of New York, an office in which he continued to serve until 1817, when he resigned it to become vice-president of the United States. Although he never represented Westchester County
DANIEL, D TOMPKINS
Lance LO: to mp Kins
537
GENERAL COUNTY HISTORY TO 1812
in official position, having removed in early life to New York City, and later residing on Staten Island, the memory of Governor Tomp- kins is held in peculiar affection and honor in the county of his birth. The site of his birthplace is marked by a historical tablet, placed there by the generosity of the late Charles Butler.
Daniel D. Tompkins was born June 21, 1774, on the Fox Meadows estate in Scarsdale. He was the seventh son of Jonathan G. Tomp- kins. He was graduated from Columbia College with the first honors of his class, was admitted to the bar in 1797, and in 1801 entered upon his public career by serving as a delegate from New York City to the convention called to revise the constitution of the State. In 1802 he was elected to the assembly, and in 1804 he was chosen a member of congress, but resigned that office to accept an appoint- ment as justice of the Supreme Court of the State. He resigned the justiceship when elected governor. His career as chief magistrate was distinguished especially by his great services to the country during the War of 1812-15. He was elected to the vice-presidency, as the colleague of President Monroe, in 1816. His last publie office was that of president of the State constitutional convention of 1821. A resident of Staten Island, he originated the ferry from that island to New York City in 1818. The Staten Island village of Tompkins- ville was named for him. The concluding years of his life were elouded by aspersions upon his official integrity persistently made by his political enemies. Investigation has fully proved that these accusations were without the slightest justification. Ile died June 11, 1825.
We extract the following from a recent address on the Life and Services of Governor Tompkins by the Hon. Hugh Hastings, Historian of the State of New York :
Ile was fully alive at all times to the dangers which menaced this State during the war [of 1812], and his energy and enterprise were no less surprising than the knowledge which he displayed, though he had never acquired any experience as a military man, regarding the eare, transportation, equipment, and welfare of the troops he sent to the field. As soon as the legislature met in extra session, November, 1812, he expressed himself in favor of a vigorons prosecution of the war, and, in furtherance of this policy, suggested that the State should make a loan to the national government. lle raised within sixty days the sum of $1,000,000 at his own risk, for the public welfare, when the eredit of the nation was utterly destroyed. Within forty days he had mustered into service an army of 50,000 men, fully organized, armed, and equipped. All in all, he disbursed over three millions of dollars for the State of New York and the United States during the progress of the war. .
In many of his recommendations to the legislature, Governor Tompkins was far ahead of his time. For instance, at the beginning of the session of 1810, he recommended encourage- ment, by legal enactment, to domestic manufactures, which had begun to spring up all over the country. He ereated our common school system, and suggested carrying into effect the law of 1805, which created the common school fund, whose interest was to be distributed among the schools of the State. . One of his last acts as governor of the State, the special message which he sent to the legislature February 24, 1817-the day he resigned as gov- ernor,-carried the recommendation for the abolition of domestic slavery in the State, to take
538
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
effeet July 4, 1827. In aceordanee with this proposition, the legislature passed an aet on the 31st of Mareh, 1817, and at the prescribed time slavery was wiped off the statute books of the State of New York.
"Of all the able men who have occupied the chair of governor of New York State, none ever sustained the onerons and overwhelming responsibilities with more conscientiousness, or guarded the destinies of his State and his people with more fidelity. lle was more than a great man; he was a great patriot, a great martyr. He gave his serviees, his fortune, his reputation, and his life, that his country should maintain its position among the nations of the earth, and for the transeendent results he achieved he deserves the imperishable gratitude of his countrymen."
In the same year that Tompkins was elected governor, 1807, oc- curred an event of peculiar interest to the people of Westchester County residing on the banks of the Hudson River. This was the passage up the stream, on its trial trip to Albany, of Robert Fulton's steamboat, the " Clermont." It came almost unheralded on the after- noon of September 11, and to most beholders must have been an object quite as astonishing as Hudson's " Half-Moon " had been to the Indian aborigines two hundred years before. Although it was known to specially well informed people that some surprising ex- periments had been made in the waters surrounding New York City with a vessel propelled by steam, the rustic classes had never heard of the ship.
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