History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 153

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1354

USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I > Part 153

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Daniel D. Tompkins, Vice-President of the United States, belongs to the political, rather than to the literary history of Westchester County, although his talents as a speaker and writer, eutitle him to recog- nition as a man of letters. He was a native of Scars- dale.

Samuel J. Tilden may be included in the same category, and can be claimed as one of the celebri- ties of Westchester County, where, at his beautiful estate "Greystone," he spends much of his time in elegant and scholarly retiremeut.

General John C. Fremont, the soldier, explorer, author and politician, resided at one time at Mount Pleasant, in the house built by General Jamies Wat- sou Webb. His wife, who is the daughter of Senator Benton, of Missouri, is a woman of great accomplish- ments and decided literary tastes. General Fremont, who was born at Savannah, Ga., January 21, 1813, is known to literature by his graphic reports, which were published by the federal government, of his Western explorations. Devoting himself in early life to civil engineering, he obtained an appointment in the government expedition for the survey of the head- waters of the Mississippi, and was afterwards employed at Washington preparing maps of the country ex- plored. In 1842, at the head of a small force, he crossed the Rocky Mountains and opened to com- merce and emigration the Great South Pass. His report of his adventures was so interesting that it was reprinted by publishers in this country and in England and was translated into various foreign lau- guages. He next accomplished an expedition to Oregon, and, striking southward and westward, after incredible hardships, succeeded in exploring the re- gion of Alta California, including the Sierra Nevada,

the valleys of San Joaquin and Sacramento and the gold region. Returning to Washington in 1844, he published another report, and upon its completion set out on another expedition to the Pacific, the re- sult of which was the acquisition of California by the United States. He was sent to Washington in 1850 . as the first United States Senator from California. In 1856 he was the Republican candidate for Presi- dent of the United States and during the Civil War held a commission as major-general in the Union army. A superb edition of his reports, entitled “ Fre- mont's Explorations," was published in 1859.

Among other names associated with the history of Westchester County which have attained to distinc- tion in literature are those of J. Rodman Drake, John Savage, William Leggett, Robert Rogers, David Humphreys, Gulian C. Verplanck, Ann Eliza Blecck- er, Mrs. Haven, James Parton, Rev. Thomas Allen, a chaplain of the Revolutionary army at White Plains, who took an active part in the political discussions of the time ; Charles Tafin Armand, the Marquis de la Rouarie, an eloquent and persuasive speaker and writer, who, in 1778, was actively engaged in West- chester County in opposing Simcoe, Emmerick and Baremore, the Loyalist, whom he captured ncar King's Bridge November 8, 1779; Aaron Burr, who was sta- tioued in Westchester County in the winter of 1778- 79, and whose duel with Hamilton took place at Weehawken; Nathaniel Chipman, LL.D., the Ver- mont jurist, who participated in the battle of White Plains ; Joel Barlow, the author of the "Columbiad," and Rev. William Crosswell, D.D., clergyman and scholar, born at Hudson, November 7, 1804, and died at Boston November 9, 1851 ; James De Lancey, the jurist, born in 1703 and dicd in 1760; General Oliver De Laucey, of the British army, who fought at White Plains ; Horace Green, M.D., LL.D., the dis- tinguished physician and medical writer, who died at Greenmount, Sing Sing, N. Y., December 24, 1802; Rev. Freeborn Garretson Hibbard, D.D., at one time editor of the Northern Christian Advocate and author of several books, horn at New Rochelle, February 22, 1811 ; James Macdonald, M.D., author of valuable papers on the treatment of insanity, born at White Plains, July 18, 1803. died at Flushing, Long Island, May 5, 1849; Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, the noted naval officer and author of the lives of Paul Jones, O. H. Perry, Stephen Decatur and many other works, born in New York, April 6, 1803, lived in Mount Pleasaut, on the Sing Sing road, and died at Tarrytown, Septem- ber 13, 1848 ; Benjamin Moore Norman, the author of interesting books of travel, born at Hudson, De- cember 22, 1809, died near Summit, Miss., February 1, 1860 ; Rear Admiral Hiram Paulding, son of John Paulding, one of Andre's captors, and a distinguished naval officer and author of a " Journal of a Cruise Among the Islands of the Pacific," born in Westchester County, December 11, 1797 ; Calvin W. Philleo, the novelist, born at Vernon, July 14, 1822, died at Suf-

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field, Conn., June 30, 1858; Winthrop Sargent, the soldier, statesman and writer, who fought at White Plains; Joseph Mather Smith, M.D., the eminent physician and medical writer, who was a native of New Rochelle; John Savage, the editor and poet, . who lives at Fordham ; John Canfield Spencer, LL.D., lawyer and politician, a native of Hudson, who is known to the literary world for having edited the first American edition of De Tocqueville's "Democracy in America," with an original preface and notes ; William Leete Stone, the noted journalist, who, in 1813, edited the Herkimer American and afterwards a political paper at Hudson, becoming finally one of the proprietors of the New York Commercial Adver- tiser; Peter Van Schaack, LL.D., jurist, loyalist in the Revolutionary War and author, born at Kinder- hook, where he died, September 27, 1832; Aaron Ward, lawyer, politician and author, born at Sing Sing, July 5, 1790; Robert Watts, M.D., physician and medical writer, born at Fordham in 1812; and Thurlow Weed, the journalist and politician, born at Cairo, N. Y., November 15, 1797, and whose early life was passed as a cabin boy on the Hudson.

Of contemporary writers, the following have been more or less identified with Westchester County :

General Adam Badeau, author of the "History of General U. S. Grant," etc., who lived in North Tarry- town, Mount Pleasant, from boyhood until about 1856; Clarence Cook, the art critic, who attended school at Irving Institute, Tarrytown, and lived at Irvingtou; A. C. Wheeler ("Nym Crinkle "), poet and critic, who also attended school at Irving Institute and lived at North Tarrytown; Charles A. Brace, author and philanthropist, who lived at Hastings ; Frank Vincent, Jr., author and traveler, who wrote " The Land of the White Elephant," "Through aud Through the Tropics " and "Norsk, Lapp and Finn," and whose home is in Tarrytown ; Rev. William C. Wilkinson, D.D., formerly professor in Rochester Theological Seminary, who has written a critique on Arnold's "Light of Asia," etc., and who resides at Tarrytown ; Stephen H. Thayer, the poet, who wrote " Songs of Sleepy Hollow," and lives in North Tarry- town; Latham C. Strong, poet and journalist, who wrote " Castle Windows," "Poke O'Moonshine," etc., and was a resident of North Tarrytown until his death ; Hamilton Mabie, editor of The Christian Union, who lived in North Tarrytown ; Marshall H. Bright, editor of The Christian at Work, who lives in Tarry- town ; Rev. Pharcellus Church, D.D., the author of a number of books, reviews, etc., and a resident of Tarrytown; Rev. Jacob Dutcher, author of " The Old Home by the River," who was born in Greenburgh ; Minna Irving, poetess, a contributor to The Century, whose full name is Minna Irving Odell, and who lives in Greenburgh ; Henry Drisler, scholar, author and professor, who lived in Greenburgh; Rev. John A. Paine, professor in Robert College, Constantinople, archeologist to the Palestine Exploring Expedition,

and author of a work on that subject, whose home is in Tarrytown ; Colonel Church, editor of The Army and Navy Journal; E. Z. C. Judson ("Ned Bunt- line "), who lived at Chappaqua ; Dr. Edward Bright, editor of The Examiner, who lives at Yonkers ; and Robert B. Coffin (" Barry Gray "), who lives at Kato- nah.

In music and the fine arts Westchester is also not without distinction. Among composers may be men- tioned George F. Bristow and Francis H. Nash, both residents of Morrisania ; and among painters, Albert Bierstadt, the famous landscape painter, who lived within the corporate limits of Tarrytown, and whose residence was destroyed by fire; Francis W. Ed- monds, Edward W. Nichols, Tait, Gustave M. Ar- nolt, the young German painter of animals, and Samuel Fanshaw and Robert Hite, both of them emi- nent painters on ivory. Robert Walter Weir, the distinguished painter, who succeeded C. R. Leslie as instructor in drawing at West Point, was born at New Rochelle on June 18, 1803.

The earliest of the Westchester County literati was Adrian Van der Donck, a graduate of the University of Leyden, who was appointed by the patroon of Rensselaerwick sheriff of his colony, and came to New Netherland in 1642. In 1648 he was granted a tract of land at Yonkers. In the deed he was spoken of as Yonker Van der Donck, Yonker being the usual title of gentleman. His name appears among the signers of a tract, published at the Hague in 1650, describing the New Netherland. It has been translated by Mr. Henry C. Murphy for the New York Historical Soci- ety, and published by them, and also by James Len- ox, of New York. Owing to its attacks on the gov- ernment of Kieft and Stuyvesant, Van der Donck was denied access to the colonial records during the preparation of his " Description of New Netherland," which has been translated and occupies one hun- dred and six pages of the "New York Historical So- ciety's Collections," 1841. It describes the rural pro- ducts, animals and inhabitants of the colony. The date of the first edition is unknown. The second was published at Amsterdam, in 1656, by Ebert Nieu- wenhof, who introduced the work with a poetical preface.

Right Rev. Samuel Seabury, D.D., first bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church, may be classed among the literary men of Westchester, from the fact that, while in charge of St. Peter's Church, Westches- ter, he wrote and published, anonymously, during the Revolutionary period, a series of pamphlets in de- fense of the crown, under the signature, it is said, of " A. W. Farmer." He was the son of Rev. Samuel Seabury, missionary of the Society for the Propaga- tiou of the Gospel, at New London, Conn., and was born at Croton, November 30, 1729, and gradu- ated at Yale in 1748. He then went to Scotland to study medicine, but while in that country also de- voted his attention to theology, and was ordained by

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the Bishop of London in 1753, and, on his return, settled at New Brunswick, N. J., as a missionary of the Propagation Society. In 1757 he removed to Ja- maica, and from thence, in 1766, to Westchester, where, in addition to his church, he had charge of a school. The authorship of the " Farmer " pamphlets, which were commonly attributed to him, caused him to be seized by the Whigs, in 1775, and carried to New Haven, where he was imprisoned. As the fact of the authorship could not be established by legal proof, he was suffered to return to Westches er, where he renewed his efforts in behalf of the Loyalist cause. Upon the Declaration of American Independence he removed to New York City. Here he remained until the close of the war, officiating part of the time as chaplain to the King's American Regiment, and practicing medicine. In 1783, having been elected bishop of the diocese of Connecticut, he sailed for England and applied for consecration to the Arch- bi-hop of York, the See of Canterbury being va- cant. His application was refused, in consequence of the inability of the English bishops to dispense with the oath of allegiance to the crown. In August, 1784, he made a similar application to the bishops of the Scottish Church, by whom he was consecrated, at Aberdeen, November 14, 1784. In the spring of the following year he returned to America and began the discharge of his duties as bishop. He displayed con- siderable ability and force as a writer on a variety of topics, and rendered important services to his church in the arrangement of the Liturgy and other matters. He died February 25, 1796, at New Lon- don, Conn., where he had filled his father's place as rector of the church, besides discharging his epis- copal duties. The "Farmer " pamphlets have been attributed to Isaac Wilkins, and also to Dr. Chand- ler, Dr. Inglis and Dr. Myles Cooper, but it is believed they were written by Seabury. The strong- est evidence is found in the draft of a document in Seabury's own writing, in which he states that he was the author of a pamplet, entitled " Free Thoughts on the Proceedings of the Congress at Philadelphia," which was published shortly after the first Congress broke up, and other publications which followed, all of them signed "A. W. Farmer." He also states that on the 19th of November, 1775, an armed force of one hundred horsemen came from Connecticut to his house, and, not finding him at home, beat his children to compel them to tell where their father was, " which, not succceding, they scarched the neigh- borhood and took him from his school, and, with much abusive language, carried him in great triumph to New Haven, seventy miles distant, where he was pa- raded through most of the streets, and their success celebrated by firing cannon, &c." At this time, ac- cording to his own statement, Dr. Seabury " lived at Westchester, in the then province of New York, and was, though not wealthy, yet in easy circumstances, and supported a large family-viz., a wife and six 56

children-comfortably and decently ; that his income was at least £200 Sterl. p' ann, arising from his Par- ish, Glebe & from a grammar School, in which he had more than 20 young Gentlemen, when the Re- bellion began." The "Free Thoughts " of Seabury, we are told, excited the bitterest feeling. It was re- printed in London, in 1775, "for Richardson & Ur- quhart, at the Royal Exchange." Mr. Trumbull says that " when copies of these pamphlets fell into the hands of the Whigs, they were disposed of in such a manner as most emphatically to express detestation of the anonymous authors and their sentiments. Some- times they were publicly burned, with imposing for- inality ; sometimes decorated with tar and feathers [from the Turkey-buzzard, as 'the fittest emblem of the author's odiousness'], and nailed to the whip- ping-post." Rev. Jonathan Boucher, writing of Sea- bury's authorship of the pamphlets, states that, " being attributed to another gentleman, he alone de- rived any advantage froin them, for to him the Brit-

REV. ISAAC WILKINS, D.D.

ish government granted a handsome pension, whilst the real author [Seabury ] never received a farthing." Who the spurious pensioncr was, Mr. Boucher does not state. Bishop Seabury received the degree of A.M. from Columbia (then King's) College, N. Y., in 1761, and that of D.D. from the University of Ox- ford, England. His son Charles, a distinguished clergyman and father of Rev. Samuel Seabury, D.D., of New York, was born at Westchester, May 20, 1770.

Isaac Wilkins, D.D., was born at Withywood in the Island of Jamaica, December 17, 1742, and was the son of Martin Wilkins, an eminent lawyer and judge, who came to New York in order to educate his son. His parents died when he was a child and his care and education devolved on his aunt, Mrs. Mary Macey, his mother's sister. He graduated at King's College in 1760, and was married, November 7, 1762, to Isabella, daughter of Hon. Lewis Morris. They resided at Morrisania for a year or two, when Mr. Wilkins purchased an estate known as Castle

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Hill Neck, in Westchester County. In 1772 he was sent to the Colonial Legislature from the borough of Westchester and took an active part in its proceed- ings until April, 1775, on the side of the Loyalists. As the reputed author of the "Westchester Farmer" pamphlets, he became obnoxious to the Whigs and was forced to leave for England, where he remained about a year, making every effort to reconcile the dispute be- tween the colonies and the mother country. He then returned to his family, whom he removed from Castle Hill, which had been laid waste and made desolate, to Long Island, where, at Newtown and Flatbush, he resided until the peace. He sold his farm in 1784 and took his family to Nova Scotia, where he purchased a farm and returned to his agri- cultural pursuits. He was sent to the Assembly of the province, and soon after placed at the head of a com- mittee for the distribution of lands to the American refu- gee Loyalists. In 1798 he returned to New York, and while preparing for the ministry was called to the partial rectorship of St. Peter's, Westchester. As soon as he was ordained deacon he entered upon the discharge of his duties. He was ordained a priest by Bishop Provoost, January 14, 1801. He was now in the enjoyment of a pension from the British govern- ment of one hundred and twenty pounds per annum. In 1811 the degree of D.D. was conferred upon him by King's College. He died at the rectory in West- chester February 5, 1830, in his eighty-ninth year.

Right Rev. William Heathcote De Lancey, D.D., D.C.L., Protestant Episcopal bishop of Western New York, was one of Westchester's mnost distinguished sons. He was born at Mamaroneck October 8, 1797, and died at Geneva, N. Y., April 5, 1865. He gradu- atcd at Yale in 1817, studied theology under Bishop Hobart, was ordained deacon in 1819 and priest in 1822, and soon after became assistant to Bishop White in Philadelphia. He was annually chosen secretary of the Diocesan Convention of Pennsylvania from 1825 to 1830, and was secretary of the House of Bishops from 1823 to 1829. He was provost of the University of Pennsylvania from 1828 to 1833; trav- eled in Europe in 1835 and on his return, after the death of Bishop White, succeeded to the rectorship of St. Peter's, Philadelphia. In 1838 he was chosen first bishop of the diocese of Western New York, and was consecrated May 9, 1839. The Hobart Free Col- lege at Geneva was chiefly indebted to his efforts for its maintenance. In 1852 he was a delegate to Eng- land from the Episcopal bishops of the United States, and was one of the recognized leaders of the High Church party. He received the degree of D.C.L. from the Oxford University in 1852; D.D. from Yale in 1828 aud LL.D. from Union College in 1847.

Thomas Paine, the noted political and atheistic wri- ter, is identified with Westchester County by the fact that for his Revolutionary services the State of New York granted him five hundred acres of land in New Rochelle, where he resided part of the time after his re-

turn to the United States, in 1802. Paine was a native of Thetford, Norfolk, England, born January 29, 1737 ; died in New York City, June 8, 1809. His parentage was humble and his educational opportunities lim- ited. For a time he preached occasionally as a dis- senting minister, and in 1774, at the suggestion of Franklin, came to America. He soon became known as a writer of uncommon force and logic and an op- ponent of slavery. His celebrated pamphlet, " Com- mon Sense," in which he advocated the independence of the colonies, was published in January, 1776, and had an extraordinary influence in disseminating re- publican ideas, His subsequent publications were of inestimable benefit to the patriotic cause. He was out- lawed in England for his celebrated " Rights of Man," which appeared in 1791, in answer to Burke's "Re- flections on the French Revolution," and in September, 1792, was elected a member of the French National Convention. In consequence of his outspoken op- position to the execution of Louis XVI., he narrowly escaped being put to death during the Reign of Ter-

THOMAS PAINE.

ror. His remains were taken to England in 1819 by William Cobbett. A monument was erected to his memory in 1839, near his original burial-place in New Rochelle.

The literary reputation of John Jay is chiefly that which attaches to his political character, but he is pre-eminently worthy of being ranked among the lit- erary men whom old Westchester has either pro- duced or nurtured. Of Huguenot descent and a native of New York City, born December 12, 1745, he graduated at Columbia College and was a delegate to the First Revolutionary Congress at the age of twenty-eight, three years later chief justice of his State, and subsequently minister to Spain and ne- gotiator of the peace with Great Britain, Secretary of State, Chief Justice of the United States and Gov- ernor of New York. Notwithstanding these various trusts, he was enabled to spend nearly thirty years of retirement in pleasant country life at Bedford, West- chester County, where he died on the 17th of May,

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1829, at the age of eighty-four. His life has been written by his son, William Jay. His national state papers, written when a member of the Continental Congress, and his contributions to the Federalist, were powerful aids to the patriot cause. His " Address to the People of Great Britain," in 1774, called forth ex- pressions of admiration from Jefferson. He was also the author of a number of other political treatises of great clearness and vigor.

William Jay, second son of Chief Justice Jay, was also a person of decided literary talent. He was born June 16, 1789, graduated at Yale, and studied law at Albany under John B. Heury, until, compelled to abandon study by au affection of the eyes, he retired to his father's country-seat at Bedford. In 1812 he married the daughter of Johu McVickar, a New York merchant. He was appointed first judge of the county of Westchester by Governor Tompkins and was successively reappointed by Clinton, Marcy and Van Buren. Throughout his life he was a prominent opponent of slavery and in this connection published many addresses and pamphlets, which were collected by him in his " Miscellaneons Writings on Slavery," published at Boston in 1854. In 1832 he published " The Life and Writings of John Jay." He died at his residence in Bedford, October 14, 1858.

John Jay, son of William Jay, born June 23, 1817, and a graduate of Columbia College in 1836, is also the author of several pamphlets on the slavery ques- tion, together with many other papers on topics of public interest. He studied law in the city of New York and was admitted to the bar in 1839. His residence of late years has been the old homestead at Bedford. In April, 1869, he was appointed minister to Austria and represented this country with dis- tinction at the Court of Vienna.

Gouverneur Morris, the noted statesman and writer, was a native of Morrisania. The first of his ances- tors who emigrated to America was Richard Morris, who is said to have been an officer in Cromwell's army. He came to New York after a short residence in the West Indies and purchased an estate at Harlem, which was invested by the Governor with manorial rights. His sou Lewis succeeded to the estate and during the last eight years of his life was Governor of New Jersey. His eldest son, Lewis, became a mem- ber of the New York Legislature. The second Lewis had four sons, of whom the youngest was Gouverneur, who was born January 31, 1752. At an early age he was placed in the family of M. Tetar, at New Ro- chelle, where he acquired a thorough knowledge of the French language. At the age of sixteen he graduated at King's College, distinguishing him- self by a florid address on "Wit and Beauty." He then studied law in the office of William Smith, colonial historian of New York, and at the age of eightcen began the publication of a series of anonymous news- paper articles against a proposition in the Assembly for raising money by emitting bills of credit. In

1775 he was elected a member of the Provincial Con- gress, in which he soon attracted attention by a speech on the mode of issuing a paper currency by the Continental Congress. Its chief suggestions were afterwards adopted by that body. In 1777 he was elected a member of the Continental Congress and the following winter was one of the committee appointed to inquire into the state of the army, then stationed at Valley Forge. He was also chairinan of the committee appointed in 1779 to cousider the dis- patches from the American commissioners in Europe, which were the basis of the subsequent treaty of peace. In the discussiou of the question as to the jurisdiction of the State of New York over the New Hampshire grants, now the State of Vermont, Morris was supposed to be in favor of the independence of that region and consequently lost his election by the Legis- lature to Congress. He continued to reside in Philadel- phia and engaged in the practice of his profession. In the early part of 1780 he commenced the publica-

GOUVERNEUR MORRIS.

tion of a series of essays on the state of the national finances, which were then in a desperate condition. He attacked with great ability the laws making the receipt of paper money at a fixed value compulsory, and also those regulating the prices of commodities. In May, 1780, Morris was seriously hurt by being thrown from his carriage and it was necessary to amputate one of his legs. In 1781 he was appointed by Robert Morris, who had been placed at the head of the national finances, his assistaut. He performed the duties of this position for three years and a half. Iu 1786 his mother died. Her life interest in the estate at Morrisania thus terminated, and the prop- erty passed into the possession of the second son, Staats Long Morris, a general in the British army, the eldest son, Lewis, having received his portion during his father's life-time. Gouverneur purchased the estate from his brother. In 1787 he took his seat as delegate from Pennsylvania in the convention

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History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 153

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co. Number of Pages: 1354

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1354