History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 201

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 201

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Near Leggett's Point is the North Brothers' Island in the East River, now the property of the city of New York and formerly belonging to the township of Morrisania. On it the United States government has erected a light-house to warn vessels seeking a pas- sage through Hell Gate and the East River. Near by, on the main, is Port Morris, formerly known as Stoney Island, the same having originally been separated from the main by a small creek or canal. Here is the terminus of the Port Morris Branch of the Harlem Railroad, and off' Port Morris is the deepest water in the vicinity of New York. The "Great Eastern" made her first anchorage here, having come in by way of Long Island Sound, her captain fearing that the bar at Sandy Hook would not admit of her entrance into the lower Bay of New York. Near by is Pot Rock, on which, during the Revolution, a British ship-of- war was sunk. A company has for years been seck- ing to find, by means of divers, some of the lost treas- ure, but with what success has not yet been revealed. Just west of Port Morris, and on the westerly side of the Southern Boulevard stands Rockwood, the beautiful residence of Samuel E. Lyon, Esq., a distinguished lawyer of New York and Westchester County.

Mr. Lyon is of old Westchester County stock. He was born in East Chester and married the daughter of Jonathan Ward, for many years surrogate of the county. When quite a young man he distinguished himself by sustaining the will of Henry White, of Yon- kers, better known as Van Cortlandt, thereby saving to the Van Cortlandt family of the present day, at King's Bridge (see King's Bridge), the large estate now in the possession of the present proprietor, Augustus Van Cortlandt. He for years stood at the head of the Westchester bar. He resided at White Plains for several years. Cases of great importance, however, compelled him to abandon his Westchester home and take up his residence in the metropolis, where he lias ever since enjoyed a Incrative and honorable prac- tice. Though several times offered a judicial posi- tion and political honors, Mr. Lyon has preferred the emoluments, honors and retirement of private prac- tice to public positions, and now, in his declining

years, though as vigorous as ever, he reaps the reward of his ability, industry and integrity. To him our townsmen are indebted for much sound advice and counsel. Ile served as one of the commissioners for the Morrisania survey ; was counselor for the Southern Boulevard commissioners and commissioners of the Central or Macomb's Dam bridge; is entitled to the credit of having drafted the act for the annexation of West Farms, King's Bridge and Morrisania to the city of New York; he drew the acts authorizing the im- provement of Harlem River by the Federal govern- ment, and has recently carried through the courts, to a successful issue, the preliminary work incident to aequiring the right of way for that important under- taking.

Just south of Mr. Lyons is situated the residence of John J. Crane, Esq., a respected merchant of New York, and one of the promoters of the Suburban Rapid Transit Company. Near by, to the west of Mr. Lyons, are a number of country-seats, fast being ab- sorbed into city lots, many of which will, in a short time, be absorbed into a new park, which the city is about to make, called St. Mary's Park, and in the in- mediate vicinity is old St. Ann's Church, described in another chapter. Just on the banks of the Harlem Kills stands the house formerly of Gouverneur Morris, and not far distant, near the Port Chester Railroad depot, was the site of Bronx's house, where, as we have already seen, the first treaty of peace with the Indians was signed. To return to Fordham and describe the valley of the Mill Brook, as it used to appear before the flourishing settlements, near the Harlem Railroad, of Tremont, Central Morrisania, Morrisania Station, Melrose and Mott Haven, would be a pleasing task ; but all their former beauties have departed, and suffice it to say that they are part and parcel of the great metropolis. One oasis of rural occupancy still exists at Central Morrisania. The Bathgate farm is still almost intact, and the old farm-house, with its barn-yard, orchard and other agricultural surround- ings, still remaining entire within ear-shot of the tink- ling of horse-car bells and the tooting of locomotive whistles. But the easterly portion of this property is soon to be taken by the city to form a new pleasure ground, which is called Crotona Park.

The Batligate family came to the township in the carly part of the century from Scotland. One brother, Alexander, settled at Morrisania as foreman for Gouverneur Morris, and afterward purchased from his son the farm now situated at Central Morrisania. He left three sons and several daughters,-James, a doctor of medicine, and Alexander, a farmer, who occupy the old homestead on Fordham Avenne, with their sister still unmarried. Charles, recent- ly deceased, who was at one time supervisor of the town. James, the other brother, resided at Ford- bam, and was a farmer. He owned the farm on which the Jerome Park Jockey Club is now located. He left four children,-Charles W., formerly supervisor ;

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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

Maria (single), now residing with her brother at Fordham ; Mrs. Myers ; and Mrs. Ardil B. Raymond, whose husband was for many years the miller at De Lancey's Miils, and town clerk of West Farms (Devoe).

Three members of this family are, or have been residents of the township. They are of Huguenot origin. Frederick is the senior member of the large paint and oil firm of F. W. Devoe & Co., of New York City. His brother, Moses Devoe, resides on Fordham Ridge, on the Fordham Landing road, in the old Valentinc homestead. He is a retired butcher of New York, but the family are of Westchester origin. Another brother, Colonel Thomas F. Devoe, has been for years inspector of markets in New York City, and a fourth brother, George W. Devoe, was supervisor of the township. This branch of the family came from Yonkers.

THE PRESENT TOWN OF WESTCHESTER SINCE THE REVOLUTION.

BOUNDARIES .- We have seen that tlioughi West- chester township at the time of Colve's interreg- num was erected into a town, it did not become a borough entitled to elect representatives to the General Assembly until 1686, when Governor Dongan confirmed the Nicolls patent to Quimby and others. It was still, however, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, attending the courts that were held on Long Island and contributing its quota, to that precinct. Morrisania in the mean time was a separate manor, and what are now known as West Farms and Fordliam had their distinct courts under the Archer patent. In 1691 the county of Westchester was formed, and in 1696 Governor Fletcher granted to the inhabitants of Westchester town a charter erecting them into a borough town under the name and title of the Mayor, Aldermen and Commonalty of Westchester. 1 Colonel Caleb Heathcote, then a Councilor, and at that time erecting a mill at West- chester Creek, was appointed the first mayor, and William Barns, John Stuart, William Willett, Thomas Baxter, Josiah Stuart and John Bailey, gentlemen, were appointed the first aldermen. Israel Honeywell, Robert Hustis, Samuel Hustis, Samuel Ferris, Daniel Turneur and Miles Oakley were appointed assistant aldermen. The new officials were duly sworn in. Colonel Heathcote presented the town with its seal, and in the following year a town hall was erected. Though not mentioned in the charter as being within the bounds of the borough, the people of Fordham and West Farms seem to have borne allegiance to the rulings of the Mayor's Court of Westchester.

The change from the borough existence under the colonial system to that of a town under the State government took place in 1785, when the town of Westchester was created by an act of the New York General Assembly. 2 Still there was some doubt as to the precise limits of the town, and in 1788 the Assembly defined the bounds as follows :

" All that part of the County of Westchester bounded Easterly by the Sound and the land granted to Thomas Pell, called the Manor of Pel- ham; Southerly by the Sound ; Westerly by the County of New York and Northerly by the North bounds of the Manor of Fordham and the north bounds of the land called the Boroughi Town of Westchester, in- cluding the islands in the Sound, lying Southward thereof and in the County of Westchester, excepting thereout the tract called Morrisania."

By Chapter 279 of the Laws of 1846, passed May 13th and entitled " An Act to divide the town of Westchester, in the County of Westehester," all that part of the town of Westchester described agreeably to a map of that part of the town lying easterly of the Bronx River, made by Andrew Findlay, surveyor, was erccted into a separate town and was to retain the name of "Westchester." The new town is described as follows and that description covers its present limits:

" Beginning at a point in Long Island Sound where the Bronx River empties into the same ; thence running Northerly along the centre of tbe Bronx River, as the same now runs, until it comes to the boundary line, between Eastchester and Westchester aforesaid; thence running North- easterly along the said last-mentioned boundary line until it comes to Eastchester bay, which separates the town of Pelham from the town of Westchester aforesaid ; thence running still Sontheasterly, easterly, Sontherly and westerly, winding and turning as the sbore winds and turns, extending as far into Long Island Sound as the true boundary line of said town extends until it comes to the Bronx River aforcsaid and place of Beginning. All the remaining part of the town of Westchester, as the same is now defincd, shall be and hereby is erected into a new town to be named the town of West Farms."

The unsettled claims and the privileges heretofore had by the people of the old town of Westchester under the "Old Charter" were directed to continue to be held and enjoyed by the inhabitants of each of the new towns of West Farms and Westchester. The town-meeting for Westchester was directed to be held at the house of Benjamin Fowler, in said town, on the first Monday in June, and for West Farms at the place where the last town-meeting was held. William H. Bowne was appointed moderator for the Westchester meeting and Ardil B. Raymond as moderator at the West Farms meeting.

GOVERNMENT .- Formerly the borough of West- chester elected its supervisor at a different season of the year than the other towns of the county. In the Manor of Morrisania the steward was the supervisor, and whether Fordham had a separate supervisor the data

1 Liber 6 of Pateuts, page 101. It is believed that the original patents granted to the town by Dongan and Fletcher were in the possession of the late Mr. Leggett, of West Farms. The writer's information is from a printed abstract, kindly furnished him by Edward F. de Lancey. He has also seen a full printed copy of the charter, in possession of Albion P. Man, counselor at-law, New York City.

2 By Chapter Ixxii. of the Laws of 1785, the freeholders and inhabit- ants of Westchester were anthorized to elect at their town-meeting six freeholders, for the purpose of having such trustees to order and dispose of all or any part of the undivided lands in the township as fully and amply as trustees have been used to do under any charter given hereto- fore to the inhabitants of said town. Power to lease a ferry across the East River from the township of Westchester to the township of Fhish- ing was given the trustees. The district heretofore called and known by the style of the borough and town of Westchester was directed hereafter to be called and known as the town of Westchester.

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WESTCHESTER.

prior to 1788 do not show, but in that year Fordham and the borough had but one such official between them. From 1773 we find James Ferris represent- ing the borough and Lewis Morris the manor, but from the opening of the Revolution down to 1784 Westchester, Fordham and Morrisania were not rep- resented in the board. In that year Thomas Hunt was supervisor and William Morris represented the Manor of Morrisania, which was a separate precinct and eutitled to separate representation in the board. In 1785, Abraham Leggett represented the borough and Lewis Morris the manor, and in that year the tax on Morrisania was £1 11s. 11d. and on Westchester £9 10s. 4d. Prior to 1786 the parish had supported the poor, and in that year, Lake Hunt being super- visor, provision was made for adjusting the aceounts of the church wardeus relative to support of the poor. In 1787 Israel Underhill represented the town in the County Board and continued as such until 1802. In 1791 Morrisania was deprived of representation and made a part of the town of Westchester. Westchester township was erected in 1788.

The jail and court-house, which was formerly lo- cated at Westchester village, near the site of St. Peter's Church, was burned in 1790, and the super- visors of the county allowed the trustees of the village £70 therefor. In 1802 the number of taxable inhabit- ants was 185, and the total valuation of real and per- sonal property $696,822. Captains Ferris, of West- chester, and Berrian, of Fordham, commanded two town military companies. From 1802 till 1816 Ben- jamin Ferris was the supervisor ; from 1816 to 1818 Basil J. Bartow succeeded him, but from 1819 to 1828 Ferris continued to represent the town. In the latter year the aggregate assessed value of property in the town had increased to $833,010, and the num- ber of taxable inhabitants to 229. Israel H. Watson was supervisor from 1829 to 1832, in which year Asiatie cholera prevailed in the township and the sum of $88.52 was expended by the Board of Health in suppressing the disease. In 1833-34 Augustus Huestace was both supervisor and justice of the peace; but in 1835 Israel H. Watson returned to the board. In that year William Barker, of Westchester, who for twenty-eight years had been clerk of the Board of Su- pervisors, resigned, and the board passed a vote of thanks for his faithful services. Watson continued to represent the town until 1839, when Andrew Findlay, the well-kuown civil engineer and surveyor, succeeded him. Findlay continued toserve until 1846, with one exception in 1844, when Robert R. Morris, of West- chester, filled the office. In 1846 the Legislature passed an act dividing the township, all that portion of the ter- ritory west of the Bronx being erected into the town- ship of West Farms, and that cast of the Bronx con- tinuing under the old name of Westchester.

The division of the township created a contest for the seat of supervisor. Both Findlay and Watson claimed to be legally elected. It seems that when, on

the 13th of May, 1846, the act was passed, Mr. Find- lay claimed that he was duly elected at the regular town-meeting, which was held prior to the passage of the act, and Watson claimed that he was elected for the new town of Westchester at an election held on the 30th of June, after the passage of the act. The supervisors decided in Mr. Findlay's favor ; so he be- came the last supervisor of the old town of West- chester and the first supervisor of West Farms. At the time of the division of the township the ag- gregate assessment amounted to $841,490; the number of taxable inhabitants was 442 and the population in both townships was about 5052.

In 1847 Mr. Findlay was again supervisor ; in 1848 Daniel J. Coster succeeded him. During that ses- sion Mr. Coster presented a complaint to the board, made by the Rev. Henry Duranquet, a priest of the Roman Catholic faith and a resident of Westchester, stating that the keeper of the county poor-house had refused to permit him to administer the sacrament to an inmate, on the ground that the priest's services were "idolatry " and that he was helping souls to hell. The supervisors, at Mr. Coster's suggestion, passed a resolution recommending the superintendents, of the poor to remove the keeper. Mr. Coster served another term and was succeeded by Robert R. Morris, who continued in offiee till 1853, with the exception of the year 1850, when Bayard Clark served one term. In 1852 Mr. Morris was extended the courtesy of being the nominee of the board for chairman, but his party being in the minority, Robert H. Coles, of New Rochelle, was elected. In 1853, '57, '59, '60, '61 and '64 Abraham Hatfield represented the town. Denton Pearsall served in 1858. In 1862 Wm. H. Bowie was supervisor, and served another term in 1876. In 1870- 71 the office was filled by Patrick Hendricks, who served until succeeded by Hugh Lunny, in 1872. The subsequent supervisors have been F. C. Havemver, (1874), J. M. Furman (1875), Wm. H. Bowne (1876), Hugh Lunny (1877), Robert C. Watson (1878), James Henderson (1879), Peter Briggs (1882), James Henderson (1883), Daniel J. MeGrory (1884), who was re-elected in 1885.

In 1847, after the division, the number of taxable persons in Westchester town diminished to 215 and the assessment to $763.775. In 1850, although the taxables had increased only to 249 persons, the prop- erty valuation had risen to $2,079,799. In 1855 the taxables were 1265 in number and the assessed valuation $2,184,750. In 1870 the total population was 6015, and in 1880, 6789.

RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH .- As the early settlers of Westchester town were Puritans, who had fled from England to find freedom of worship beyond the sea, it was their first care, after they were housed, to provide for religious services. We touch the first account of a congregation in the report of the Dutch

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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

commissioners, who, when they visited Oostdorp, in into details of the controversy here, as they have been set forth in another chapter. It is sufficient to say that Colonel Caleb Heathcote, who had been chosen 1656, witnessed a Sunday mecting, at which Mr. Baly said a prayer and Mr. Bassett read a sermon. The people had no regular minister until 1674, when Rev. i one of the church wardens, fought the Puritans on Ezekiel Fogge officiated for them, and was in all the point of installing the non-conformist Mather. probability the first clergyman who held services in The ultimate decision rested with Governor Fletcher, and he refused to induct Mather to the living. Mather preached in the parish for several years, how- ever, and quitted it in 1701 to remove to New Haveu. the village. On February 11 and October 7, 1680, Morgan Jones performed baptism and the marriage ceremony, from which it must be supposed that he was a regular Congregational minister. On April 2, 1684, the justices and vestrymen of Westchester agreed with those of East Chester and Yonkers to accept Warham Mather "as our minister for one whole year," and to pay him sixty pounds in country produce. On January 2, 1692, the people in meeting resolved that Colonel Heathcote or Captain William Barnes should procure them an orthodox minister, but it does not appear that either of them fulfilled the mission. By the act of Assembly of September 21, 1693, the parish of Westchester was set off to include the precincts of Westchester, East Chester, Yonkers and the Manor of Pelham, and was required, as were the other parishes, to call "a good, sufficient Pro-

The first regularly inducted rector of the parish was John Bartow, who was elected by the vestry of 1701-2, of which the town members were William Willett, Thomas Hunt, Joseph Haviland, John Bayley, Rich- ard Ward, John Buckbee and Edward Collier. He came over from England in 1702 and was an ordained priest of the Anglican Church, having been vicar of Pampsford, Cambridgeshire. His first service in the Westchester Church was on December 6, 1702. Hc had first been appointed to the parish of Rye, but Governor Cornbury had settled him at Westchester upon the petition of the all-powerful Heathcote. He appears to have been a hard-working pastor, for, in a letter to the secretary of the Society for the Propaga- testant minister." The Westchester freeholders and | tion of the Gospel, he commends his own conscien- inhabitants failed to take any steps in conformity with this statute until May 7, 1693, when they depu- tized Church Wardens Justice Barnes, Justice Hunt and Edward Waters to agree with Warham Mather for a settlement among them.1

Pending Mather's acceptance, the town voted, May 5, 1696, to repair the old mecting-honse, and on May 3, 1697, to build a town-house, which should also be used for public worship; but as the General Assembly passed an act to aid the towns to build and repair their meeting-houses, the work on the town-house was stopped, and in 1700 a new parish church was erected under the supervision of Trustees Josiah Hunt, Edward Waters, Joseph Haviland, John Hunt, Joseph Bayley and Richard Panton, who resolved that it should be twenty-eight fect square, with a " terret " on the top, and should cost forty pounds.

Meanwhile, the struggle which occurred in all the other towns between the Puritans and the adherents of the Church of England, the latter being supported by the provincial government, was in progress in Westchester. The Puritans, who were in the popular majority, contended that under the act of 1693, which merely specified " a good sufficient Protestant min- ister," they had the right to call in a clergyman of their own faith. The Church of England people held that the Assembly meant to particularize ministers of the Established Church. It is not necessary to go

tious discharge of his duty and informs him that he has "hardly ever missed to officiate on the Lord's Day " and has frequently ridden ten or twenty miles a day to visit the sick. His salary was always in ar- rears, but he managed to buy a house and five acres of land for one hundred pounds, and the town had granted twenty acres of glebe and three acres of meadow within half a mile of the church, "which in time will be a convenient residence for the minister, and also a small share in some nndivided land, which will be to the quantity of about thirty acres more, but about four miles distant."

In 1702-3 the church wardens were Col. James Graham and Justice Josiah Hunt and the vestry Thomas Baxter, Sr., Joseph Drake, John Archer, Thomas Pell, Joseph Haviland, Miles Oakley, Daniel Clark, Peter Le Roy, John Buckbee, Thomas Hunt, Sr., Edward Collier, clerk, and Erasmus Allen, mes- senger. They resolved, June 5, 1703, to raise £55 for the support of the minister and the maintenance of the poor, the share of Westchester town being £27 188., and of Morrisania £3 78. In this year the church was threatened with dispossession of its lands by George Hadley, grandson of John Richardson, their original owner. Hadley claimed them as an in- heritance from his mother, the daughter of Richard- son, but the church replied that they had already beeu sold by Joseph Hadley, father of George, to one Thomas Williams and had escheated to the crown because of the latter dying intestate. Hadley failed to substantiate his title, and at meetings on August 3, 1703, November 3, 1703, and May 3, 1704, the trus- tees of the town confirmed these grants for parson- age lands, and further confirmation was had by the act of the General Assembly, August 4, 1705. In 1706 Mr.

1 Warham Mather was born at Northampton, Mass , in 1666, and was the grandson of Richard Mather, the famous non-conformist divine, whose sons were Nathaniel, Samuel, Increase and Eleazer, all of whom followed their father in the ministry. Eleazer was pastor of the church at Northampton, Mass., and married the daughter of Rev. Jolin Warham. His son, Warham Mather, bought land in Westchester from John Yeats, on May 29, 1697, and sold them in 1703 to Daniel Clark, He died in 1745.

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WESTCHESTER.

Bartow suffered much discouragement. He wrote on August 14th to the secretary of the Gospel Society that his task of planting the Church of England "amongst prejudiced, poor and irreligious people " was greater than he could bear, and, to add to his troubles, the society in 1707 stopped the annual salary of £50 which it had been paying him in addition to his receipts from the parish. Two years afterward he was much more cheerful and wrote about making "many proselytes to our holy religion, who are very constant and devout in their attendance on divine serviee ; and those who were enemies at my first eom- our church."

Fowler were chosen wardens, and Miles Oakley, Thomas Baxter, Sr., and Thomas Hunt vestrymen for the town. It is a curious faet that the majority were dissenters, of whom the minister wrote that "they will part with no money but barely what the Assembly has allowed for the maintenance of the ministers and poor ;" but yet his congregation " rath- er increases both in hearers and communicants," and in 1709 he baptized forty-two persons, and thirty-six the next year. In 1724 he had in his parish two hundred families, and the average attendance on af- ternoon serviees on Sunday was seventy, the morn- ing attendance being smaller. He died at West- chester in 1726, having firmly established his church and also a publie school. The first schoolmaster was Charles Glover, who was appointed by the Gos- pel Propagation Society in 1713, he being "reeom- mended under the character of a person sober and diligent, well affeeted to the Church of England, and competently skilled in reading, writing, arithmetic, psalmody and the Latin tongue." The society paid him a salary of £18 annually. His successor was William Foster, who had the school when Bartow died.

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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 201

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