History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 186

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 186

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NATHAN II. HAND.

Mr. Hand was born in Peacham, Vt., March 11, 1819. From the district school and the academy in his native town he received his education. In early youth he went to Montpelier, and served as clerk in a store for a year or two, when he removed to Cincin- nati, Ohio, where he engaged in mercantile busi- ness, until failing health induced him to take a sea voyage, returning from which he went to Winchen- don, Mass. There he purchased a store and stock of goods, and engaged in a general mereantile business, and also in the manufacture of palm leaf hats, be- coming the largest producer of these articles in the State. A few years later he went to Middlebury, Vt., and engaged in the lumber and wood-ware manufac- ture. While he was thus employed, the marble busi- ness in that section of Vermont was attracting much attention. He became interested and bought a very extensive quarry in Pittsford, Vt., and began with great energy and industry to develop and utilize it, so that he soon competed with older and larger compan- ies, furnishing stone for New York and Boston mar- kets. Two of Boston's large hotels were built of marble sold by him. He made a number of improve- ments in cutting and quarrying the marble, which are in use to this day.

In 1867 he became connected with the gold mining interests of the State of Georgia, locating his opera- tions in and around Dahlonega, which is regarded as the very centre of the auriferous region of that State. At the time he began his operations there was hardly a successful mining enterprise in that section. The methods for obtaining gold were almost entirely prim- itive, the mills and machinery being crude and imperfect. Under his thorough business knowledge and energy, and by backing his judgment with his means, he has, more than all others, brought the mining industry of northern Georgia to its present prosperous condition. A large tract of comparatively worthless territory has become one of the most valua- ble mining properties in the State. Under a charter granted by the Legislature of Georgia, he organized the " Hall's Gold Mining Company," becoming its president by the unanimous vote of its stockholders. which office he still holds. Hydraulie mining has been largely and successfully carried on. Water has been brought a distance of more than thirty miles to supply stamp-mills and for washing down the ore. The canals and ditches exceed fifty miles in length. There are ten thousand six hundred feet of twenty- four and thirty-six inch iron pipe, and six thousand seven hundred feet of wooden pipe, of like dimensions, used in the work.

All this has been the result of Mr. Hand's skill, pluck and perseverance. So fully is this realized in the Georgia gold belt, that he is generally called the father of the gold mining interests of the State, and no history of that enterprise can be written in which

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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

his name will not be prominently mentioned with due credit and honor.

These results and achievements of seventeen years, have not been accomplished without the expendi- ture of much thought, as well as labor and money. Obstacles in mountains, hills and streams were not only met and overcome, which required great mechan- ical skill and engineering ability, but Mr. Hand had to contend with legal difficulties, and the prejudices of a people aroused against the introduction of new methods of mining. The code of mining laws adopted by the Legislature in 1868, principally to encourage the hydraulic process, had not been tested in the courts of the State. To construct canals and ditches over the lands of others for mining purposes, without their consent, though just compensation was offered, was an infringement on the people's rights, as it was said, which they were bound to resist. The courts were appealed to, the farther construction of the canal was enjoined by the lower tribunal and work was stopped for several months, pending the appeal to the Supreme Court of the State. For a time the entire mining industry of Georgia hung upon the question. If the miner could not get water for his stamp mills, then all operations of any magnitude inust cease. The future prospects of the State as re- gards her mining interests, were about to be forever blighted. Some of the ablest lawyers in Georgia werc employed, and after a lengthy discussion, the Supreme Judges decided in favor of Mr. Hand and his right to procced with his canal. His charter was pronounced constitutional. Inehi by inch he has fought his way; and to-day through his unwearied exertions, the mining interests of the great State of Georgia have been placed upon a safe and lasting basis.

Chief Justice Hiram Warner, in delivering the opinion of the court in the case alluded to (the Hand Gold Mining Company vs. John A. Parker, et al., 59th Georgia Reports) says: " In view of the evi- dence contained in the record as to the necessity for the General Asssembly to exercise the right of Eminent Domain in granting the right of way for the defendant's ditel or canal to convey the water from Yahoola River and Cane Creek into the gold belt in the County of Lumpkin, for the successful workings of the valuable mines to be found there, so as to increase the production of gold for the nse of the public through the medium of the de- fendant's corporation, the General Assembly did not exceed its Constitutional power in making the grant to the defendant of the right of way, as expressed in its charter. Let the defendant's ditch or canal be constructed in pursuance of the grant in the defendant's charter, and let the water from Ya- hoola River and Cane Creek flow therein into the gold belt of Lumpkin County, where, in the judgment of the General Assembly of the State, the public good requires it should flow, so as to enable the defendant

to increase the production of gold on its own land, not only for its own use and benefit, but through its ageney and organization, for the use and benefit of the public, which at the present moment is greatly in need of an increase of that constitutional enrrency recognized by the Fathers of the Republie, in 1787, as being of vital importance to the welfare and per- manent prosperity of the people."

In the spring of 1885 Mr. Hand, with his family, removed from Cleveland, Ohio, where he had resided for a number of years, and settled at what is now known as Maple Grove, on Broadway, in the village of White Plains, Westchester County.

JOHN M. TILFORD.

Mr. Tilford is one of the members of the well-known firm of Park & Tilford, New York City. He was born in Washington County, N. Y., March 16, 1815, and for twenty years remained upon his father's place en- gaged in the usual pursuit and activities of a farmer's life.

In 1835 he left his native county and came to New York City, where he entered the grocery store of Ben- jamin Albro. It was while here that he first met his future partner, Mr. Park, with whom, after a elerk- ship of five years, in Mr. Albro's store, he embarked upon his first business venture at No. 35 Carmine Street, New York City. How successful this proved to be is well known to all who are familiar with the wholesale and retail grocery business in New York City and throughont the country. Park & Tilford, by their close attention to the details of their business, and the strict integrity which they have preserved through- out an unbroken partnership of uearly forty-six years, have won for themselves a world- wide reputation and a credit which is uusurpassed by that of any house of a like description in the country.

Some twenty-five years since Mr. Tilford begau the purchase of ground in Westchester County, and is now the possessor of many acres of farming land in and about the towns of Harrison and White Plains. He has a handsome residence in White Plains, and is well known in its social circles.

In 1840 he married Miss Jennie White. He has two sons, Charles E. and Frank, both of whom are engaged in business with their father.

His business foresight, together with his genial manner, have caused lis advice to be widely sought in financial circles and have eudeared him both to those in his employ and to the many whose business brings them into daily contact with him.

JOHN W. YOUNG.

Mr. Young, who is a well-known business man in the village of White Plains, was born in New Castle, March 28, 1824. His father, John, and his grand- father, James Yonng, were also natives of New Cas- tle. The children of John Young (who married Sarah, daughter of Peter Carpenter) were Mary, wife

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RESIDENCE OF J. M. TILFORD, WHITE PLAINS N Y.

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"GEDNEY HALL." RESIDENCE OF BARTHOLOMEW GEDNEY, RIDGEWAY ST., WHITE PLAINS, N. Y.

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WHITE PLAINS.

of Robert Purdy ; Deborah, wife of Edward Haight; Eliza, who married Conkling Kip; Emeline, wife of J. Reynolds ; Lydia, De Witt C., Jackson, Asa, Jesse, John W. and Harrison.

When he had reached the age of fourteen, John W. Young left home and went to Somers, where he worked on a farm, and subsequently removed to Sing Sing, where he engaged in business with his brother. He then went to New York and remained in business there for five years, and afterwards went to Mount Kisco, whenee he came to White Plains, which has since been his residence. Here he engaged in the lumber and coal business, which proved extensive and prosperous and is now conducted by his sons and nephews.

He married Hester, daughter of Daniel Trip. They have three chil- dren,-Albert, Irving W. and Laura E.

The elegant residence of Mr. Young was built by him in 1874, and is one of the finest private dwellings in White Plains.

BARTHOLOMEW GEDNEY.

The family of this name are said to have come from the north of England long before the Revolution. John Ged- ney, who resided in York- town, near Crompond, died about 1763, leaving a family of five children, -John; Polly, wife of Monmouth Hart ; Betsy, wife of Wil - liam Havi- land ; Mar - tha,

Bartholomew Gedney

wife of -Covert ; and Sarah, wife of Edward Bugbee. ' Of these children, John, the only son, was born April 16, 1761. His father, who was a farmer, died when the son was two years old, and he went to live with his unele Bartholomew at White Plains. Upon the decease of his uncle he inherited the homestead and fifty aeres of land. His early circumstances were un- favorable and he enjoyed few echteational and relig- ious advantages. During the whole of his life he was a farmer, a business which he condueted with such success that at the time of his death he was the owner of a farm of three hundred acres in a high state of cultivation, and was generally considered one

of the best agriculturists in the county. He was a devoted and liberal member of the Methodist Church, and highly esteemed as a citizen. He married Mary, danghter of Benjamin Lyon, and they were the pa- rents of ten children,-Margaret, born May 27, 1786, married Peter Cornell; Esther, born January 24, 1788, married Anthony Martine; Abigail, born No- vember 16, 1789, married Nathaniel Tompkins; Eliz- abeth A., born January 29, 1792, died unmarried in 1831; Phebe, born June 6, 1794, married George Wildey ; Dorothy was born August 27, 1796; Char- lotte, born June 20, 1800, married Edward Billington ; Bartholomew was born April 22, 1802; Elijah L. was born' May 5, 1804; Mary L., born September 6, 1806, ntarried Charles Whiting, of New York; and John B. was born June 4, 1808. After a long life of active usefulness Mr. Gedney died December 28, 1841, and rests in the old burying-ground by the Methodist Church in White Plains.

Bartholomew Gedney, the oldest son of this family, has passed his entire life on the anees- tral farm inherited from his father. of an ex- ceedingly industrious na- ture, he has devoted his time and labor to the improvement of his ex- tate, and is widely known as one of the most ae- complished agriculturists in the county. Upon this farm one hundred and twelve bushels ofshell- ed corn have been raised

upon an acre of land, while wheat at the rate of forty-seven bushels, and hay to the extent of five tons per aere have been produced. His stock of Short Horn cattle is not excelled by any herd in this section of the country. He is an active member of the Methodist Church, which he joined in 1844. With an active interest in politics, he feels an honest pride in the fact that his first vote was east for John Quincy Adams, and he has never failed to vote at every Presidential election since that time. He is now a staneh supporter of the Republican party. He has been a member of the Farmers' Club of Bedford for many years, and very

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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

frequently took premiums at the Westchester County Fairs while the society had an existence.

Mr. Gedney married, in 1824, Ann Eliza, daughter of William Hunt, of Tarrytown. They have six children,-Ann A., John, William H., Mary L., wife of William Horton ; Jane H., wife of William Banks, of New Castle; and Bartholomew, Jr. The residence.of Mr. Gedney is pleasantly situated on the `north side of the Ridgeway road, and is surrounded by highly cultivated farms that smile with abundant harvests.

HON. WILLIAM M. OLLIFFE.

Commissioner Olliffe, as he was commonly called, was in so far a Westchester man as that he spent each spring and summer for many years at "Edgewood," his country residence, in the town of Greenburgh. A fondness for fine cattle, for rural life and for out-door sports, besides genial ways and pleasant manners, made him welcome at every fair and agricultural muster. He was perhaps more widely known through- out the county than most of its citizens, through the smartness of his turnouts, the speed of his roadsters and the scrupulousness of his own appearance, which bespoke a city man rather than a country gentle- man.

Mr. Olliffe was born in 1843, in Broome Strcet, then a fashionable quarter of New York. His grandfather, John Olliffe, one of the Irish patriots of 1798, came hither with Thomas Addis Emmett and others, to es- cape British persecution, before the beginning of the century. About the same time a nephew of the same ancestor went to India and became, in turn, Catholic Bishop and Archbishop of Calcutta. His father, Dr. William J. Olliffe, was a physician of distinction in a family of physicians, one of whom was long body physician to Louis XVI. and another, Sir Joseph, was physician to the British embassy at Paris and to Emperor Louis Napoleon. He came, too, of a nota- ble family on the side of his mother, the daughter of Cornelius T. Williams, whose lands on Manhattan Island included what is now Union Square and ex- tended northward along Broadway to the present Madison Square.

Mr. Olliffe received his general and classical school- ing from the celebrated Dr. Anthon. Later he at- tended and graduated from the College of Pharmacy, of which be was long a trustee and patron.

As became a gentleman of cultivation and of means, he traveled through most of the States of the Union, visited the Mexican republic and made an extended tour in Europe. On his return from the Continent he married the only daughter of Jordan L. Mott, the ironmaster of Mott Haven. In his early manhood and on the death of his father he succeeded to Dr. Olliffe's business as a pharmacist, which he continued as proprietor in such a way as to leave him large lcis- ure for social and other engagements. Although he

never ran for office, he took a lively concern in pub- lic affairs and in the political fortunes of his party friends, particularly of Samuel J. Tilden and Edward Cooper. The latter made him commissioner under the Rapid Transit Act and also commissioner of public parks in New York City. He was likewise appointed by Mayor Grace to the same municipal department of which he was respectively president and treasurer.

Early in 1883 neglect of a cold allowed a bronchial trouble to become so fastened that he foresaw it never could be shaken off by nursing or medical aid. Then he gave up his customary season at Saratoga and sold his place at Long Branch, preparing to adjust his affairs. In the antumn of the following year he was missed from the races and gatherings which he had graced and enjoyed. The winter found him too feeble to journey southward, as he had done before, and confined him, reluctant but nncomplaining, within doors to suffer a painful illness and to pass away at the very commencement of the spring from the town house of his father-in-law, a little before midnight, the 9th of March, 1885.

Even those who knew him best knew not how widely and how well he had endeared himself, until a few day later, at his funeral, the Church of the Pu- ritans was crowded within and thronged without, not only by dignitaries of the city, judges from the bench and members of his societies and clubs, but also by people of humbler rank than himself, who came to offer a last expression of affection for a friend and benefactor.

CHAPTER XIX.

KING'S BRIDGE.

BY THOMAS H. EDSALL, of the New York bar.

DESCRIPTION. - The area under consideration- about four thousand acres-lies just south of the city of Yonkers.1 Its boundaries are the Yonkers city line on the north, the Bronx on the east, the late West Farms line, 2 Harlem River and Spuyten Duy- vil Creek on the south, and the Hudson on the west. Its northernmost point, Mount St. Vincent, is about twelve miles from White Plains and fifteen miles from the city hall, New York. Its outlines extend along the Yonkers city line three miles, the Bronx one and five-tenths miles, the West Farms linc one and five-tenths miles, the Harlem River and Spuyten

1 This name, derived from Dr. Adrien Van der Donck's title of Jonker, was not applied to any part of the present Yonkers until the erection of the township of that name, in 1788. Before that date for more than a century "the Yonkers " or "the Yonkers Plantation," was the nanie of a precinct which comprised the greater part of the township of King's Bridge, while the present Yonkers was called Phillipsburgh, be- ing part of the manor of that name, erected in 1693.

2 Coincident with the north line of the Manor of Fordham, erected November, 1671.

wmouffe

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KING'S BRIDGE.

Duyvil Creek one and five-tenths miles, and the Hud- son two and five-tenths miles.

Topographically, it consists of two main ridges and an intermediate one, having their axes parallel with the Palisades of New Jersey, and a direction north- northeast. 1. Spuyten Duyvil Ridge, from Yonkers city line to Spuyten Duyvil Creek, and between the Hudson on the west and Tippett's Brook 1 on the east. Greatest elevatiou, two hundred and eighty-two feet,2 on land of Frederick Goodridge, Riverdale. 2. Valen- tine's Ridge, from Yonkers line to West Farms line, and between the Bronx 3 on the east and Tippett's Brook on the west. Greatest elevation, two hundred and forty feet, near Woodlawn Heights. 3. Van Cortlandt Ridge, intermediate, from Yonkers line to Vault Hill, between Tippett's Brook on the east and its main branch on the west. Greatest elevation, two hundred feet, near Yonkers city line.

Tippett's Brook, the main stream, rises in Yonkers, flows southwesterly until it forms Van Cortlandt Lake,4 below which it is a tidal stream to its outlet into Spuyten Duyvil Creek. About twenty lesser brooks, varying in length from five hundred to ten thousand feet, flow into the Hudson, the Bronx and Tinpett's Brook.

The geological formations are very ancient, consist- ing mainly of micaceous gneiss or granite, 5 the former largely preponderating, the exposed surfaces indicat- ing subjection to intense heat and pressure, with so great displacement that the strata are nearly vertical, out- cropping in numerous parallel ledges, not continuous, but en echelon, and giving steep inclination to hill- sides. A coarse, crystallized limestone 6 of varying hardness, ranging about north-northeast, crops out at King's Bridge and on the Whiting and Delafield estates, Spuyten Duyvil Ridge. On the latter ridge the surface of the primary rocks is strewn with trap boulders.

DISCOVERY .- The earliest known visitor to this lo- cality was Henry Hudson. Going up the river which bears his name, he skirted its westerly shore Septem- ber 13, 1609, and, on his return, was attacked, Oc-

tober 2d, from Shorack-Kappock, the Indian name of Spuyten Duyvil Point,7 and the kill or ereek at its base.

INDIANS .- The Indian name of this section was Weckquaeskeek,-" the birch-bark country,"-and its residents were known to the first settlers as Wickers- creek Indians. In person they were tolerably stout. Their hair was worn shorn to a coxcomb on top, with a long lock depending on one side. They wore bea- ver and other skins, with the fur inside in winter and outside in summer, and also coats of turkey feathers. They were valiant warriors. "Yea," says De Vries, " they say they are Monetto-the devil himself!" Their leading sachems, at the advent of white set- tlers, were Tequemet, Rechgawac and Packamiens, from whom the Dutch director, Kieft, pureliased, in Au- gust, 1639, the tract Keskcskick. This tribe gradually dwindled, until its remnant finally disappeared be- fore the end of the eighteenth century.

FIRST SETTLEMENT .- The earliest white resident and proprietor was Dr. Adraien Van der Donek, juris utriusque doctor, of Leyden. He had been sheriff of the Colonie of Rensselaerswyck since 1641. Having aided Director Kieft in negotiating an important In- dian treaty at Fort Orange, Albany, the latter granted him, in 1645, a large traet on the Nep- perhaem River, Yonkers, where he built a saw-mill, 8 laid out farms and plantations and "had actually re- solved to continue." But that indispensable requi- site of a Dutch farm, salt meadow, was lacking. In search of this, Van der Donek found, about a mile above the wading-place (King's Bridge) " a flat, with somne convenient meadows about it," which he promptly secured by purchase from the Indians and a further grant from Kieft. His new acquisition in- eluded the area under consideration, extending from the Hudson to the Bronx, and from the Spuyten Duy- vil Creek to the Nepperhaem tract. Here he located his bowerie, or home-farm, with its " planting-field," and near the latter he had already begun the erection of his house, before going to Holland, in 1649, as the representative of the commonalty of New Amster- dam. Van der Donek's "planting-field " was on the plain or flat of the Van Cortlandt estate, lying be- tween Broadway and the present lake, and extending up to the southerly end of Vault Hill.9 It is prob- able that his house was on the flat, and located, per. haps, where the old house of Jacobus Van Cortlandt afterwards stood until the early part of this century.10

While absent in Holland, Van der Donck's lands were erected into the fief or Colonie of Nepper- haem (or, as he called it after his own name, Colen-

I So called after George Tippett, an early settler and proprietor, and of late corrupted into Tibbitt's Brook. Its Indian name was Mosholu. It has also been known as Mill Creek and Yonkers River.

2 The highest ground within the limits of New York City. The eleva- tion of Fort Washington, the greatest on Manhattan Island, is two hun- dred and sixty-four feet.

3 So called after Jonas Bronck, the earliest white settler and proprietor of "Brouck's Land," now Morrisania, Twenty-third Ward, New York.

1 An artificial pond, formed by Jacobus Van Cortlandt, circun 1700, by danning Tippett's Brook.

5 Affording building-stone of fine quality. Before 1750 quarries of "broken stone " were worked on Spnyten Duyvil Ridge, the whole ex- tent of which is scarred by them. The large quarries at Spuyten Dnyvil Point were worked until about 1850.

6 Known as King's Bridge Marble. It was extensively quarried early in the century on the northerly end of Manhattan Island, Perkins Nich- olls had a marble-sawing mill at "Dyckman's Cnt " (which was exca- vated to supply power to this mill by the ebb and flow of the tide), and another at the King's Bridge. On the banks of the Hudson, along the base of Spuyten Dnyvil Ridge, were several kilns for making lime from this stone, all of which have been disnsed for many years.

7 According to tradition, the natives hal a castle or stronghold on the point.

Bllence the name of " Saw Kill," by which this stream became known.

D It may have also stretched castward across the brook and beyond the site of the present lake.

10 Its site was just behind the present grove of locusts, north of the Vau Cortlandt Mills.

746

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

donck), and he was made its patroon. Pursuant to the " Freedoms and Exemptions," he sent out to it, from Holland, a number of colonists with supplies of farming stock and implements. In 1652 he was about to return to his colonie, and had already embarked his wife, mother, brother and sister, with an ample stock of goods, when the West India Company pre- vented his departure.1 During his detention he got word that some " land-greedy " persons were squat- ting on his lands. He appealed to the company to protect his possession of the "flat and meadows;" also for leave to return to them, which was withheld until 1653. In the summer of that year he sailed for Nieuw Netherland, arriving in the autumn, and repaired to his bowerie. He did not long survive his return, dy- ing in 1654 or 1655. The latter was the year of the Indian massacre, when all the surviving settlers about Nieuw Amsterdam fled to the fort for protection. It is probable that Van der Donck's bowerie was de- serted and destroyed. In August, Stuyvesant granted to a Cornelis Van der Donck a parcel of about fifty morgens, on the north side of Manhattan Island, " by tlie savages called Muscoote, or a flat (anders een vlacte)," and as much meadow or hay land as was given to other bowerics. This may have referred to the late Dr. Van der Donck's bowerie, but no further mention has been found of the grantee or his connec- tion with this tract.

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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 186

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