History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 156

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 156

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While writing the " Battles," he became involved in a controversy concerning the merits of Major Gen- eral Israel Putnam, with Messrs. Griswold and Dem- ing, of Hartford, Conn., in the Daily Post of that city. The correspondence attracted the attention of scholars throughont the entire country, the Legis- lature of Connecticut being led by it to take special action'on the subject; and the letters were subse- quently collected and published in a handsome vol- mme, copies of which have commanded prices as high as fifty dollars each.

In 1862 Mr. Dawson was enabled to make a com- plete transcript of the receipts and disbursements of moneys for the municipal purposes of the city of New York, during the entire occupation of that city by the Royal Army, 1776 to 1783, together with all the mil- itary orders on which those receipts and disburse- ments rested, and all the vouchers of the anditors

appointed by the successive Commanders-in-chief through whom those accounts were settled.

As none of these were previously known and as the Finance Department of the city needed only these to make the financial records of the city complete from a very early period, this work of Mr. Dawson was wel- comed by the city anthorities as few such works have ever been welcomed. The mayor honored it by send- ing it to the common council with a special message; and the latter spread not only the message, but the entire financial and historical statement made by Mr. Dawson on its Minutes, made a liberal appropriation for his compensation ; gave to him an official vote of thanks, a copy of which elegantly engrossed and framed ornaments his dining-room ; and gave to him, also; the nusnal privilege of copying and publishing any of its ancient records and files which he should, at any time, desire to employ.

Mr. Dawson's edition of the " Federalist " was the first of a projected series of historical works upon the Constitution of the United States, to be completed in seven octavo volumes, namely, " the Federalist," two volumes; "the Anti-Federalist, two volumes, which were to consist of contemporary articles written against the adoption of the Constitution; and a " History of the Constitution," an original work, written by Mr. Dawson, three volumes. Other en- gagements, however, prevented him from completing a work which would doubtless have proved a most important contribution to the political literature of the United States.

In 1863 the first volume of Mr. Dawson's edition of "The Federalist" appeared. The distinguishing feature of this edition was the restoration of the original text and the rejection of unauthorized mnti- lations. Prefixed was an historical and bibliograph- ical introduction, giving a careful review of the polit- ical condition of the State of New York in 1787; an account of the causes which led its anthors to write the series of articles of which the work is composed; the names of the writers of the several articles; a list of the different editions which Mr. Dawson had found ; and a very elaborate analysis of " The Fæder- alist" itself. The peculiar merit of that edition of this celebrated work was recognized by Harvard Uni- versity, Williams College and several others, as well as by the Board of Education in the city of New York, all of whom added it to their respective lists of text-books; by the leading scholars of that period, led by the venerable Joshna Quincy, and by the At- torney General and the Seeretary of State of the United States, each of whom adopted it as the edition of "The Federalist," which should, thenceforth, be nsed in their respective offices.

The publication of "The Federalist" called forth an attack on the volume and its editor by the Hon. John JJay, grandson of one of the authors of the original work and more recently United States minis- ter to Anstria-Hungary. It was also assailed by the

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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

venerable James A. Hamilton, son of Alexander Hamilton, another of its authors. These articles were printed in the New York Evening Post, and created much excitement among the politicians and historians. Mr. Dawson replied to each and the controversy proved highly interesting. The inter- course between Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Dawson was afterwards resumed and their personal relations were perfectly friendly uutil the death of the for- mer.

In 1863 Mr. Dawson also published his work on " The Assault of Stoney Point by General Anthony Wayne." It was an elegant volume, illustrated by maps and fac-similes. The germ of the work was a paper read April 1, 1862, before the New York and Pennsylvania Historical Societies. In preparing it he had the use of the correspondence and other family papers of General Wayne himself.

In 1864 Mr. Dawson reprinted the " Federalist Cor- respondence " with John Jay and James A. Hamil- ton as the first number of a protracted series entitled, "Current Fictions Tested by Uncurrent Facts." In the following year he published " The Diary of David Dow," a soldier of the Revolution, which, like all of Mr. Dawson's publications, was exhaustively anno- tated, and an edition of Dring's " Recollections of the Jersey Prison-Ship," which was published originally at Providence, R. I., in 1829, being compiled from Mr. Dring's manuscripts by Albert Gorton Greenc, the well-known scholar and poet. The value of the work was greatly enhanced by the addition of an elaborate appendix prepared by Mr. Dawson.

A new edition of " The Park and its Vicinity " has been printed as No. I. of his "Gleanings in the Harvest Field of American History," but has not been published. Several of his works already men- tioned had been issued as numbers in this series- namely, the "Diary of David How" as No. IV .; " Putnam Correspondence " as No. V., and "Stoney Point " as No. XI. The series is elegantly printed, in uniform style, royal octavo, and the editions are all limited. Besides these various works Mr. Dawson has written a paper on " The Sons of Liberty in New York;" onc on "The Battle of Harlem Heights," and one on "The City of New York on Sunday Morning, April 23, 1775," all of them for the New York Historical Society ; onc on the " Battle of Bennington " for the Vermont Historical Society ; and one on the " Battle of Long Island " for the Loug Island Historical Society, together with several minor tracts, and numerous articles for periodicals with which he has had no editorial connection ; and he edited, in 1861, for the Mercantile Library Associa- tion of New York City a volume of original papers, generally of the Revolutionary War, to which he added voluminous notes. The introduction to the last-named volume, which borc the title of "New York City During the American Revolution," at- tracted much attention, since it contained a carefully

prepared and minute description of the city as it was at that early period, as if written at the time and by one who was personally acquainted with every part of it, and with the principal persons who lived there. Like the greater number of Mr. Dawson's works this volume was printed in elegant form for private circulation, and commands very high prices when copies are thrown on the market. In 1866 he edited the official "Record of the Trial of Joshua Hett Smith, Esq.,, for Alleged Complicity in the Treason of Benedict Arnold," of which only fifty copies were printed ; and five large octavo volumes of selections from the Historical Magazine, bearing the general title of "The Magazine Miscellany," and clegantly printed in an edition of only twenty-five copies, have also appeared under his editorial super- vision.

In the spring of 1865, Mr. Dawson was invited to take the editorial charge of The Gazette, a Democratic newspaper, published weekly at Yonkers, N. Y., which invitation he accepted. During the eleven months of his connection with the Gazette, he gave a new character to the publication, and proved himself an able controversialist and eritic. His last number appeared on the 31st of March, 1866. The historical and bibliographical material with which he occupied the first page of the Gazette, at once commanded at- tention from the leading men of the country. Judge Nelson, of the Supreme Court of the United States, ordered a great case to be re-argued, in order that ar- ticles bearing on it, which had appeared in the Gazette after the case had been argued, could be judicially admitted as authorities before the decision of the court was given ; and it is said that the authoritative character of those articles, which were from Mr. Dawson's pen, were seen in the decision of the court given by that distinguished jurist. In Brodhead's "History of the State of New York," and in other works of cqually high character, the historical articles which Mr. Dawson prepared for The Gazette, werc re- peatedly referred to as standard authorities. Odd numbers of the Gazette of that period are eagerly sought, and command high prices; files of it are bound and carefully preserved in the state and historical society's librarics ; and it is knowu that, during the past year, fifteen dollars were paid for an unbound file of it for the twelve months during which Mr. Dawson was its cditor.

Four volumes of selections from the more im- portant articles in the Gazette have been printed un- der the general title of the "Gazette Series." The titles of the several volumes are: vol. i. "Papers concerning the capture and detention of Major John Andre," collected by Henry B. Dawsou, Yonkers, N. Y., 1866; vol. ii., "Papers concerning the bound- ary between the States of New York and New Jer- sey," written by several hands, Yonkers, 1866; vol. iii., "Papers concerning the town and village of Yonkers, Westchester County," a fragment, by Henry

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B. Dawson, Youkers, 1866; vol. iv., "Rambles in Westehester County," a fragment, by Henry B. Daw- son, Yonkers, 1866. The authors of the articles in vol. ii. were General John Cochrane, Attorney-Gen- eral of New York; Hon. J. Romeyn Brodhead, (two articles) ; William A. Whitehead, of Newark, in reply to the last ; Mr. Dawson himself, who endeavored to act as umpire between the two; Mr. Whitehead, in reply to Mr. Dawson; Mr. Dawson, in reply to Mr. Whitehead ; and the Attorney-General of New York in closing the argument. The correspondence closes with a postscript by Mr. Dawson. The volume was subsequently printed for the use of the United States Court in one of the boundary suits; and the argu- ments and evidence which Mr. Dawson presented in his articles, are said to have influenced Judge Nelson in determining the case for New York. The Andre volume is probably the most perfect " Andreana" in print. The series of volumes has been sold at one hundred dollars for the set, the edition being very small, only twenty-six copies having been printed.

A month or two after dissolving his relations with the Gazette, Mr. Dawson purchased The Historical Magazine, of which he became the editor and pub- lisher. His first number was that for July, 1866. Ten volumes having been completed at the end of the year, he began in January, 1867, a new and en- larged series of the work giving double the number of pages and making two volumes in a year. As ed- itor of this publication Mr. Dawson has achieved wide reputation among literary people, and especially among the students of every branch of American history. The magazine became a mine of historical information, and continues to be regarded as one of the standard references of American literature.

In 1868 the " Manual of the New York Common Council" passed into the editorial care of the new clerk, Joseph Shannon, and his deputy, F. J. Twomey. It now began to be issued in an enlarged and im- proved form. Mr. Dawson, on invitation, furnished the historical material and added some new features to the work. The Charter of the city was collated by him, critically, with the ancient parehments, and was first printed accurately in the manual. Mr. Dawson also furnished an elaborate paper on the bat- tle of Harlem Heights and the death of Colonel Knowlton. The State authorities of New York subse- quently employed him to examine and report on the boundaries of that state on the lines of New Jersey, Massachusetts and Connecticut; and the vestry of Trinity Church, New York, invited him to become the historian of that ancient and noted parish. Mr. Dawson did nothing under either of these re- quests, but his selection indicates the estimation in which he is held as an authority on historical ques- tions relating to New York.

Mr. Dawson has long condueted an extensive corres- pondenee with literary people and conspicuous actors in public events. He has been elected a resident mem-

ber of the New York Historical Society, the American Institute, and the American Geographical and Statis- tical Society ; an honorary member by the Minnesota and the New England Methodist Historical Societies, and a corresponding member by the Massachusetts, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Vir- ginia, Wisconsin, Chicago, and New England Historie- Genealogical, the Long Island, the Oneida and the Cayuga County Historieal Societies ; and also by the Worcester (Massachusetts) Society of Antiquity, the American Statistical Association and the Albany In- stitute.

Mr. Dawson possesses a fine library on American history-the result of many years of historical in- quiry, and undoubtedly one of the most valuable collections, for practical purposes, in the country. Not only on the special subjects of which he has written, but in the general field of American history, Mr. Dawson's searching and retentive intellect has stored up a mass of most valuable information, in the use of which he is skilled by long practice to such an extent as to make him one of the most formidable of con- troversialists.

In religions opinion he is a resolute and uneom- promising Calvinistic Baptist ; and in politics an old- fashioned "States-rights Democrat." He voted for Polk for President in 1844, and attached himself to that wing of the Democratic party known as the " Barnburners," which, in 1848, assisted in forming the Free Soil party. During the Presidential eanvass of that year, he was a member of the New York City committee of that party, and in 1849 was on the "general committee " of the city-what was known as " the old men's committee "-of which S. J. Tilden, B. F. Butler, ex-Attorney-General of the United States, Wilson G. Hunt, George H. Purser, Mark Spencer, Anthony J. Bleecker, John Van Buren, David Dudley Field, Lucius Robinson, Nelson J. Waterbury and other well-known politicians were members. Hle ad- hered to the Free Soil party and its successor, the Republican party, till the War of Secession, to the last-named, however, not as a " Republican," but as " a Democrat opposed to the administration." Since the close of the War he has been, as he maintains he had been before the War, a Democrat and a rigid opponent of centralized power both in State and Federal government.

Mr. Dawson was married May 28, 1845, to Cathie- rine, daughter of Abraham D. and Esther (Whelpley) Martling, of Tarrytown, Westchester County, N. Y., one of the oldest families of the county. They have had nine children-1, Spencer H. C., born May 11, 1846, died July 9, 1871; 2, Henry B., Jr., born De- cember 19, 1847, died March 10, 1876; 3, William Martling, born August 27, 1849; 4, Stephen Van Rensselaer, born September 21, 1851; 5, George Cooley, born September 25, 1853, married Mary Kate Dean November 16, 1881; 6, Mary Dawson, born June 17, 1855, married William II. Halsey July 6, 1875; 7,

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Catherine Martling, born April 9, 1859; 8, Esther Martling, born July 17, 1861, died March 16, 1865; and 9, Caroline Duteher, born August 31, 1863, died April 22, 1880. They have also had an adopted daughter, Anna Augusta, born October 30, 1851, who died May 31, 1878.

James Kirke Paulding, the friend of Irving and his associate in the production of the Salmagundi papers, was of Westchester extraction, though a native of Dutchess County. His grandfather, many years previous to the Revolution, settled in Westchester County on a farm at Tarrytown, still in possession of his deseendants. The family removed to a traet of land in Dutchess County which had been granted them by King William III. This change was made in consequence of the fact that the Paulding resi- denee being " within the lines," that is in the dis- trict intervening between the British Army at New York and the American forces in the Highlands, and the Pauldings being Whigs they were exposed to the depredations of the British troops and their Tory allies. Paulding was born at a place ealled Pleasant Valley in Dutehess County, August 22, 1779. His father was a leader of the Whig party in the county of Westchester, a member of the first committee of safety and subsequently Commissary General of the New York quota of troops. He was financially rnined by furnishing the army with supplies obtained on his personal eredit for which he eould obtain no compensation from the government.

After the elose of the war, the family returned to their former home in Westchester, and Paulding was educated at the village school-a log house nearly two miles distant from his residenee. Here he receiv- ed all the education he ever obtained from tuition. On arriving at manhood in 1800 he removed to New York City, staying at first with Washington Irving's brother, William, who had married Paulding's sister. His first attempts in literature were his contributions to the Salmagundi papers. At the beginning of the War of 1812 he published a elever satire on the policy of England toward America with the title of " The Di- verting History of John Bull and Brother Jonathan" which was reprinted in one of the English journals. Following this was " The Lay of the Scottish Fiddle," a parody of the "Lay of the Last Minstrel," in which he satirized the predatory warfare of the British on the Chesapeake Bay, and described the burning and saeking of Havre-de-Grace at the mouth of the Sus- quehanna by Admiral Cockburn's fleet. It was re- published in London in haudsome style with a eom- plimentary preface and provoked a fieree review from the London Quarterly. He next published "The United States and England," a strong defense of this country against the strictures of the Quarterly, which attracted the notice of President Madison. In 1815 he published his "Letters From the South by a Northern Man," written after a visit to Virginia, and in 1818 his principal poetieal work " The Baek woodsman." He next

published the novel "Konigsmark," or, as it was after- wards ealled, "Old Times in the New World," the seene of which is laid amongst the early Swedish settlers on the Delaware. These were followed by a number of tales and sketehes and his "Life of Washington," pre- pared chiefly for the more youthful class of readers. In 1836 he published a defence of slavery under the title "Slavery in the United States." Most of his works were republished by Harper & Brothers in a uniform edition in 1835. Paulding was thoroughly Ameri- ean in spirit and feeling, and his writings did mueh to eonfirm and strengthen in the popular mind the sentiments of patriotism engendered by the Revolu- tion and the war of 1812. Their value was reeog- nized officially by his appointment in 1814 or 1815 as secretary of the Board of Navy Commissioners, then first established. He was transferred several years later to the post of Navy Agent for the port of New York, which he retained for twelve years under

JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE.

different administrations and resigned to accept the position at the head of the Navy Department, under the administration of President Van Buren. Upon the accession of President Harrison to offiee, he re- signed and soon afterwards retired to a pleasant residence, "Hyde Park," on the east bank of the Hudson in the county of Dutchess, where he spent the closing years of his life. He died in the eighty- second year of his age, on the 6th of April 1860. The "Literary Life of James K. Paulding," by his son, Wil- liam Irving Paulding, was published in 1867.

Near the road leading from West Farms to Hunt's Point, on the sound and on the edge of the marshes which border the Bronx River, stands an ancient burial place in which repose the remains of Joseph Rodman Drake, the poet who charmed the senses of thousands with the musie of "The Culprit Fay," and strung the patriotie feelings of Americans to the highest tension when his muse sung of the national glory. Dying at the age of twenty-five, his

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was a life of promise cut short long before the maturi- ty of his gifts could be reached. All readers know that lie forever celebrated the rural beauties of the Bronx in some of his daintiest verse, and it was proper that he should be laid to rest near its banks. But whatever fitness there might have been in the selection of his burial place is lost in the negleet into which it was afterward permitted to fall. One who visited it in 1865 1 gave a most depressing deseription of its forsaken and desolate appearance. The entire inclosure was covered with briers, weeds and rank grass, which grew thickly around the poet's monu- nient. This was a neat marble shaft, eight fect high, bearing the inscription, --

" Sacred to the memory of Joseph R. Drake, MI.D., who died sept. 21st, 1820,

Aged 25 years.

None knew him but to love him, Nor named him but to praise."

The salt marsh surrounded the knoll on which the cemetery is laid out and the Bronx at that point is but a lazily flowing stream, At the rate of decay tlien in progress the people of a few geuerations later would be compelled to refer to books and maps to know where the grave of Drake was situated.

J. Rodman Drake was born in New York City, August 7, 1795. He studied medicine under Dr. Nicholas Romayne, and shortly afterwards married Sarah, the daughter of Henry Eckford, a connection that placed him in affluent circumstances. The youth- ful couple took a trip to Europe, but Drake's health soon after failed, and, after spending the winter of 1819 in New Orleans, in the hope of regaining it, he returned to New York fatally smitten with consump- tion, dying on September 21, 1820, at the age of twenty-five.

Drake was a poet from his boyhood. Some of his youthful compositions have been preserved and show great fluency and aptness of expression. In March, 1819, he published the first of the famous "Croakers," the verses to "Ennui," which were written in con- junction with his friend, Halleck. "The Culprit Fay" was written to refute an assertion, by Fenimore Cooper and Halleck, that the rivers of this country furnished no such romantic associations as the Scot- tish streams for purposes of poetical composition. The scene is laid in the highlands of the Hudson, but the chief associations relate to salt water, "the poet drawing hisinspiration from his familiar haunt on the Sound, at Hunt's Point." "The Culprit Fay " is an exquisite creation of the fancy and will always re- tain for its author a niche in the gallery of American poets. A selection of his poems, including "The

Culprit Fay," was made, and published in 1836, by his only child, the wife of Commodore MeKay.

Edgar Allan Poe, wrote some of his most noted pro- ductions while a resident of Westchester County, including the famous "Raven". Although he was very poor during most of the time, this was probably the brightest period of his melancholy life; for he was happier in the companionship of his wife, the lovely Virginia Clemm, and her mother, than at any other stage of his chequered career. His wife's death, after a residence in the county of about three years, was a sad blow to the poet's sensitive organization ; but it is pleasant to think that the sweetest as well as the saddest memories of his "dear heart" liis " dear Virginia," were associated with the charming land- seapes of Morrisania and Fordham. Poe was nearly thirty-four years old when, in the autumn of 1844, he removed to New York City from Philadelphia. Born in Boston, in Jauuary 1811, his early life was as chequered and eventful as his manhood was dark and stormy. The Poe family was one of the oldest and most respectable in Maryland. Edgar's grand- father was a quartermaster-general in the Continen- tal Army and the friend of Lafayette. His father while a law student fell in love with a beautiful actress, Elizabeth Arnold, and went on the stage. He was discarded by his family, and he and his wife died witliin a few weeks of each other in Richmond, Va., leaving three children, Henry, Edgar and Rosalie, in a state of destitution. Edgar was adopted by Mr. John Allan, a wealthy merchant of Richmond, from whom he derived his middle name. Mr. and Mrs. Allan treated him with great kindness, and after a tour of the British Islands in 1816, placed him at school at Stoke Newington near London, where he remained four or five years. In 1822 he returned to Richmond, and iu 1825 was entered as a student at the University of Virginia. His life at the University was marked by many youthful excesses, which finally resulted in his expulsion. He was very much in debt and upon Mr. Allan's refusal to satisfy the claims of some of his creditors he quarreled with his benefactor aud set out to join the Greeks, who were then in the midst of their war with Turkey. After wandering in Europe for about a year, he finally made his way to St. Petersburg where he became involved in a quarrel with the Russian authorities, from which he was extri- cated through the kind offices of the American minister, Mr. Middleton. Returning to America he was again taken into favor by Mr. Allan, who sent him to West Point, where his conduct was so irregular that in ten months after his admission he was cash- iered. He was again received into Mr. Allan's family but another rupture ensued, in consequence, it is said, of Poe's uncivil behavior toward Mr. Allan's second wife. Mr. Allan died a few years latter, leaving Poe nothing.

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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 156

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