USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester County, New York, from its earliest settlement to the year 1900 > Part 61
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North Salem
1,228
1,528
1,004,177
Ossining
3,312
5,758
1,820,433
Pelham.
486
833
746,750
Poundridge
1,727
1,439
424,508
Rye .
2,180
3,468
1,997,315
Scarsdale
341
445
421,412
Somers .
1,761
1,744
1,366,533
Westchester.
5,052
3,464
2,231,815
West Farms
12,436
2,229,774
White l'lains
1,155
1,512
942,365
Yonkers
2,517
7,554
4,887,668
Yorktown.
2,278
2,346
1,246,377
Total
47,394
80,678
40,343,401
1 Population for 1845 included in Westchester.
During the ten years the total population increased 32,284, of which increase 22,461 was in the Towns of West Farms (including West- chester), Yonkers, Eastchester, and Greenburgh-that is, in the localities brought within a comparatively short and inexpensive rail- way ride of New York. In former times, before railways existed, the local gains in population had invariably been without special refer- ence to nearness to New York. A journey to the business sections of the city, even from Morrisania or Fordham, then involved a ride by carriage or stage of protracted duration: and thus for persons having daily business in New York, regular residence in any section of West- chester County was out of the question. Indeed, the tendency had steadily been toward a much larger growth in such remote towns as Sing Sing and Peekskill than in the nearby communities. Now, however, there was a reversal of this ancient order of things, and although Sing Sing and Peekskill, as well as New Rochelle, Rye, and all other places through which the railway lines passed, made respectable advances, the principal gains were in the section from which New York could be reached in the briefest time and at the minimum of expense, indicating the immigration of a large class of former New York residents. This fact is quite as strikingly evidenced by the nearly stationary condition of the exclusively agricultural townships of the northern portions of the county- such as Lewis boro, North Castle, North Salem. Poundridge, Somers, and York- town. Poundridge, not entered by any railway line, actually lost some 300 people in the ten years.
Amongst the significant local results thus brought to pass, the most interesting and important, whether considered in its original
-
579
FROM 1842 TO 1900
aspects or in relation to its later developments, was unquestionably the foundation of the Village now the prosperous and handsome City-of Mount Vernon. Unlike any other considerable community of Westchester County, Mount Vernon owes its very existence to the railroad. Yonkers, Tarrytown, Sing Sing, Peekskill. New Rochelle, Mamaroneck, Rye, and Port Chester, with White Plains, Bedford, and various other villages scattered through the central and northern parts of the county, existed before the period of rail- ways, and doubtless would have enjoyed respectable growth if no railway had ever been built. But Mount Vernon had no such prior existence. In 1850 there was not even an elementary settlement on the site of the present city. Its very name belongs as strictly to the latter half of the nineteenth century as does the name of Irvington. Larchmont, or any other hamlet exclusively conceived and erected, within the memory of men still living, on the foundations of exiem- porized enterprise.
Although the Township of Eastchester, at least at its southern ex- fremity, was one of the earliest settled localities of the conniy, no village of any noticeable pretensions or expectations had been estab- lished within its limits until Mount Vernon sprang into being. The hamlet of Eastchester, at the head of sloop navigation where Hutch- inson's River or Eastchester Creek empties into Eastchester Bay. has associations as an organized community scarcely less venerable than those of Westchester Village. In 1850 some five hundred people were living there and in that vicinity. The total population of the township in the same year was 1,769. There was also a settlement of some size at Tuckahoe, resulting from the opening of marble quar- ries there about 1823, and Tuckahoe was consequently one of the original stations of the Harlem Railroad.
In 1850 there was organized in New York City an association called the " New York Industrial Home AAssociation No. 1," composed mostly of tradesmen, employees, and other persons of small means, Its an- nounced object was to see what could be done by co-operative action toward securing homes for its members where they could be relieved from the exorbitant rentals then exacted by landlords in the city; to which end it was proposed to purchase land and build a village within convenient distance of New York. One of the fundamental conditions on which the association was based was that a thousand members should be secured, and this object was accomplished in six months' time. Varions men of influence in the city lent their hearty support to the project-among them Horace Greeley, the editor of the Tribune. The most active man in the enterprise was Mr. John Stevens, who was appointed purchasing agent.
580
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
It is said that the selection of the site for the desired village was determined by a suggestion from Gouverneur Morris (son of the states- man of the same name), who, commenting on the extensive growth attained by Morrisania, observed that the next large settlement should naturally be at a point near the intersection of the New York and Harlem and the New York and New Haven Railroads. Some one hundred farms in different parts of Westchester County were offered to the association. but the location pointed out by Mr. Morris was chosen by unanimous agreement. The land bought consisted of five farms, owned by Colonel John R. Hayward, Sylvanus Purdy, Andrew Purdy, and his two sons, John and Andrew Oscar Purdy -- the aggregate area of the purchase being about three hundred and seventy acres. The first check in payment for the land, $3,400, was dated November 1, 1850. Among the names originally proposed for the place were Columbia, Fleet wood, Rising Sun, Stevensville, JJeffer- son, Thousandville, Palestine, New Washington, Monticello. Wash- ington, Lafayette, Little New York, Linden, Olive Branch, New Am- sterdam, Enterprise, Homesville, Industria, Youngfield, and Indus- try.1 The name of Monticello was selected, but, as there was already a Monticello in the State of New York, this was soon changed to Monticello City. The postal authorities were still dissatisfied. how- ever, and on the 10th of January, 1851, the present name of Mount Vernon was adopted. On the 12th of November, 1850, the site was visited by a large number of members of the association and prac- tically dedicated to the uses of the new village, Mr. Greeley making an address in which he spoke in complimentary terms of the wisdom displayed in the choice of locality and predicted rapid growth for the community about to be established.
In the spring of 1851 the village was laid out into streets and ave- nues, various contracts for grading were effected, and the distribution of the one thousand quarter-acre lots among the members was made. A depot was erected at the expense of the association, and presented to the New Haven Railroad Company. In October there was a jubilee in celebration of the rapid progress attained in the space of a single year. On the 12th of December the president of the asso- ciation, Mr. Stevens, reported that fifty-six houses had either been completed or were in various stages of construction, and this num- ber had on the 6th of August, 1852, been increased to three hundred. " One of the causes of this rapid progress was the reversionary clause in the deeds given, which required the erection within three years or a forfeiture of the land. This provision in the deed undoubtedly
1 Smith's Manual of Westchester County, 216.
r 1
581
FROM 1842 TO 1900
was not legally binding, but effected the purpose for which the men- bers of the association freely placed themselves under its seeming risks. The lots not improved, as so required, were, however, in a few years relieved from this incumbrance by releases freely given." 1
By the fall of 1853 the settlement of the place had been so satis- factorily accomplished, and its preparation in other respects for or- ganized government so far advanced, that its people were ready to consider the question of its incorporation as a village. This plan was agreed to by a majority vote in December. The first election for village officers was held on the 7th of March, 1854, when Stephen Bogart, John B. Brennan, JJoseph S. Gregory, M.D., Thomas Jones, and William Saxton were chosen trustees. Dr. Gregory was the first president of the village, but resigned soon after his election and was sneceeded by Thomas JJones. A census taken at the time of in- corporation gave the place 1,370 inhabitants, of whom 564 were par- ents, 623 children, and the remainder unmarried adults and appren- tices.
The original settlement of Mount Vernon was where the principal business portion of the city now is, on the line of the New Haven Railroad, and mainly on the southern side of that line, although a few houses were built at an early period to the northward of the railway. Contemporaneonsly. however, with the foundation of the village on the New Haven road, another village on the Harlem road was inaugurated, called West Mount Vernon. This also was begun under the auspices of an association organized on principles of econ- omy-the Teutonic Homestead Association, composed, as its name indicates, mostly of Germans. The number of the Teutonic asso- ciators was tive hundred, and the land which they bought consisted of about one hundred and thirty-one acres. Subsequently a third settlement, Central Mount Vernon, was built up between the two villages. Central and West Mount Vernon were incorporated as one village in 1869, and were consolidated with Mount Vernon in 1878. Various other ontlying localities gradually came into being. After a career of about thirty-nine years as a village, Mount Vernon became a city in 1892, taking in, of course, all these connected districts.
The fundamental object of the founders of Mount Vernon, to os- tablish a community of homes, is perpetuated by the motto of the official seal of the city, Urbs Aucundurum Dominm-" A City of Happy Homes." But after serving its original purposes the asso- ciation gradually underwent disorganization, and the ultimate de- velopment of the place was the result of private enterprise, con-
1 ]wy. W. S. Coffey, in Scharf's Ilstory. H., 722.
582
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
ducted under the ordinary conditions of local progress. On the other hand, it is undeniable that the peculiar character given the com- munity at the beginning operated continuously to attract to it, in the succeeding years, citizens of the same general spirit, aims, and conditions of life as the original associators-men chiefly of moderate means, but of providence, thrift, foresight, and energetic traits. For many years few men of large wealth, either inherited or self-acquired, came to live in Mount Vernon; but it could not be otherwise than that substantial and even opulent fortunes should in the course of time be gained by numerous citizens of a community erected on such a basis as that of Mount Vernon. Thus from a settlement of humble home-seekers it steadily grew into a flourishing suburb, with a population representing all degrees of individual prosperity.
Yonkers, when last noticed, had just acquired the essentials of serions development by the partition of the Wells estate, which of- eurred soon after the death of Lemuel Wells in 1842. The village was not incorporated, however, until 1855. During the thirteen years there was a steady improvement of the natural manufacturing facili- ties afforded by the power of the Nepperhan River, and with the opening of the Hudson River Railroad in 1849 the population began to receive large and valuable accessions from New York City. Some considerable local improvements were introduced. New streets were opened, a tire company, gaslight company, and library association were organized, and new churches and schools were built. In 1851 Mr. Robert P. Getty erected the Getty House at a cost of between $40,000 and $50,000, and other public-spirited citizens were active in promoting the general good. Meantime several new settlements were founded in the Township of Yonkers. In 1852 Elias Johnson, David B. Fox, and Joseph B. Fuller, of Troy, N. Y., purchased land near Spurten Duyvil inlet and had surveys and plans made for a village, which it was at first intended should be called Fort Inde- pendence, but received the name of Spuyten Duyvil. Riverdale was laid out in 1853. To this period also belongs the erection of Edwin Forrest's famous home, which in 1856 was purchased by the sisters of Saint Vincent de Paul and took the name of Mount Saint Vincent. According to Allison, there were in 1852 537 buildings in the Town of Yonkers, " not including those in the southern portion subse- quently set off."
The Village of Yonkers was incorporated by an act of the legis- lature, April 12, 1855. " It extended one mile and seven-tenths along the Hudson River. lis average breadth was eight-tenths of a mile. Edward F. Shonnard's farm was on the north and Thomas W. Lud- low's on the south. The area of the incorporated village was about
142
YONKERS MAP, 1847.
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THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE HUDSON RIVER RAIL ROAD
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DAVID STEWART FARMERS
PROIECTLO 1847 CRIB CAN
OLDFARM HOUSE
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· FACTORY SI
584
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
nine hundred acres." The population of the whole township at this time was 7,554. Five hundred and four votes were east at the first village election, the officers chosen being: President, William Rad- ford; Trustees, William C. Waring, Jacob Read, Lemuel W. Wells, Thomas O. Farrington, Reuben W. Van Pelt. and Fielding S. Gant; Clerk, William H. Post; Treasurer, John M. Stillwater; Collector, Lyman F. Bradley.
The settlement of Mount Vernon unquestionably operated ma- terially to intercept the natural growth of New Rochelle after the opening of the New Haven Railroad. As the first important stopping place on that road above Fordham, and as a long established, beauti- fully located, and eminently substantial community, New Rochelle would naturally have drawn to itself a very considerable element of the large numbers of New York people who sought homes in Westchester County after the completion of the railways, had it not been for the organization of the new village, which offered superior advantages to most persons of that class. Thus the immediate prog- ress of New Rochelle was effectually retarded. The growth of the township in the ten years from 1845 to 1855 did not compare with that of West Farms, Eastchester, Yonkers, or Greenburgh, being only 1,024. The population of the township in 1830 was 1,274; in 1835, 1,261; in 1840, 1,816; in 1845, 1,977; in 1850, 2.548; in 1855, 3,101.
Nevertheless, the village had long possessed every requirement for organized government. A town hall had been built as early as 1828. with money bequeathed for that purpose by a publie-spirited citizen, William Henderson. In 1854 a cemetery, known as the Beechwood Cemetery, was located in New Rochelle by authority granted by the board of supervisors. The community was inhabited by many peo- ple of substance and progressiveness. A village charter was accord- ingly applied for, which was conferred by the legislature on the 5th of October, 1857. The first meeting of the officers of New Rochelle Village was held January 21, 1858, when Albert Smith was elected president of the board of trustees. The original charter of New Rochelle continued in effect until April 20, 1864, when a new charter was obtained from the legislature. The village, from its organiza- tion in 1858, endured until 1899, when the present City of New Rochelle was instituted.
It is noteworthy that the three cities of Westchester County -- Yonkers, Mount Vernon, and New Rochelle-all had their birth as incorporated villages in the decade 1850-60.
In this decade also the Township of Morrisania-now the most populons portion of the old County of Westchester-came into being as a separate political division. By the art of 1788, which divided
585
FROM 1842 TO 1900
the county into towns, Morrisania was designated as a distinct town- ship, but shortly afterward it was restored to its ancient position as a portion of the Town of Westchester. In 1846 it became a part of the new Township of West Farms, carved out of Westchester. But the great growth of this new township in population, consequent upon the railway development-a growth of some 8,000 in the five years from 1850 to 1855,-made its subdivision necessary, and on the 7th of December, 1855, the Town of Morrisania was created. Its " north line began at Harlem River, near the present Aqueduct Bridge, and extended east to Union Avenue, which was practically the east bounds of the Morrisania Manor. Its east boundary was Union Avenue, continued to the head of Bungay Creek, and thence to Harlem Kills, and its south and west boundaries the Harlem River and Kills." The first supervisor of the town was Gouverneur Morris, son of the famous statesman. Morrisania Village was incorporated in 1864, when the town was divided into four wards, in each of which three trustees were elected.
The history of Westchester County to 1860 comprehends several matters of general interest in addition to the facts of development which have been noted in the preceding pages of this chapter.
In the year 1848 the original edition of Bolton's " History of West- chester County" was published. Giving due consideration to the conditions under which this work was compiled and to the volume and variety of its contents, it stands unapproached by any other early contribution to American local history. The unique value of the first edition of Bolton is now so well recognized that it has become a much prized book from the collector's point of view. Robert Bol- ton was born in the City of Bath, England, April 17, 1814, being the oldest of the fourteen children of the Rev. Robert Bolton. who, re- moving to America, became rector of Christ's Church at Pelham, this county, whonee, however, he subsequently returned to England. The son studied medicine in England, but did not practice that pro- fession. In 1836, at the age of thirty-two, he engaged in farming pursuits at Bronxville in the Town of Eastchester, and ever after- ward he was a citizen of our county. He lived at various times in New Rochelle. Tarrytown, Bedford, Lewisboro, and Pelham. For many years he conducted select schools, but later was ordained a clergyman in the Episcopal Church and appointed to the parish of Saint John's in Lewisboro, his only charge. He died at Pelham Priory,1 October 11, 1877. His original researches for his " History of Westchester County " covered a period of some ten years, Thai
1 ]'elham Priory was an estate purchased by his father. The residence was converted Into
a school for young ladies, conducted by the Misses Bolton.
586
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
was before the publication of the colonial and other historical docu- ments, yet by great perseverance he was able to proenre, in manu- script, nearly all the important original documents bearing upon the history of our county. His labors also included " personal visita- tion of every spot of interest and nearly every person of advanced age." In addition to his History of the county, he published a " Guide to New Rochelle " and a " History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Westchester County." At the time of his death he had nearly completed a revision of his History of the county, which was issued under the editorship of his brother, the Rev. C. W. Bolton, of New Rochelle, in 1881.
On the 4th of December, 1851, occurred the first serious railway accident in the history of the county. This was of a decidedly sen- sational nature. An afternoon up train from New York was stopped by the conductor above Croton to put off two men who did not pay their fare, and was run into by an engine withont cars, several pas- sengers suffering injury. Another up train which followed it-an express train-was switched off to the west track and halted to render assistance; whereupon it was run into by a down train, re- sulting in more casualties. This double accident caused much news- paper comment.
The Village of Tarrytown was the scene of a notable monument dedication on the 7th of October, 1853. On the spot where Major Andre was captured by Paulding, Williams, and Van Wart, Sep- tember 23, 1780, a monument in commemoration of that event was unveiled with much ceremony, the governor of the State and other distinguished guests being in attendance. In a previous chapter the particulars of this event and also of the dedication of the " new " monument on the same spot in 1880 have been given (see p. 493).
The burning of the Hudson River steamboat " Henry Clay " on the 28th of July, 1857, the most terrible disaster of that period, is vividly remembered by many citizens of Yonkers still living. The " Clay " was a fast passenger boat plying between New York and Albany, and had a competitor, the " Armenia," operated by another manage- ment. It was alleged that the two boats frequently raced, especially on the down trip, and although there was no conclusive evidence that they were engaged in racing on the day of the disaster, the burning of the " Clay " was supposed to have been attributable to the care- lessness engendered in the crew by these efforts for undue speed, very inflammable material being sometimes thrown into the furnaces, in addition to the ordinary fuel, to increase the heat of the boilers. The two vessels came down the river on the afternoon of the fatal day,
587
FROM 1812 TO 1900
the " Clay " being slightly in advance. As she passed Yonkers, mov- ing at a high speed, smoke was seen issuing from her sides. She was at once headed for the dock at Riverdale, but meantime the flames had burst forth and it was necessary to beach her with all the haste possible. " Mr. Edwin Forrest, the actor, who lived near, was there, and soon others came. It was an awful sight. The steamer struck the shore and ran up so far that the bow lay across the western rail- road track. The passengers were either pitched into the river by the sudden stopping of the boat as it struck the river bank, or they jumped overboard. The bodies were laid along the shore. Eighty or more were drowned or burned. All the bodies were not recovered on the day of the fire. They washed ashore at irregular intervals. This necessitated holding inquests through a period of two weeks. The coroner was Mr. William H. Lawrence. The inguests were held at the Yonkers railroad station. The captain of the boat and other officers escaped from the burning steamer."1 Many of the bodies were buried in a plot in Saint John's Cemetery, Yonkers, and over their graves a marble column was erected, which still stands, al- though in a state of decay.
The year 1857 witnessed the completion and occupation of the present court house of the county at White Plains. " The commis- sioners in charge of the construction of the court house and jail were Supervisors Abraham Hatfield, of Westchester; States Barton, of New Rochelle; Daniel Hunt, of Lewisboro; William Marshall, Jr., of Somers; and George C. Finch, of North Salem. R. G. Hatheld was architect and D. I. Stagg assistant and superintendent; Theodore Hunt. builder of the court house; Seth Bird, of Tarrytown, builder of the jail. The amount appropriated to cover the cost of the build- ing was $120.000. The hall of records was erected, as a wing of the cont honse, in 1894. Supervisors Moses W. Taylor, of Mount Pleas- ant: Joseph B. See, of North Castle; Odle Close, of North Salem; and Jacob Read, of Yonkers, were the commissioners in charge; Edwin A. Quick, architect." 2
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