History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. II, Part 119

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898,
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1286

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. II > Part 119

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actual breach with his old associate. But he resolved to secure his point at the next election. The owner- ship of two hundred and fifty shares of the stoek was necessary to make a man eligible for the directorship. He ordered all his stock sold, and dismissed the sub- ject from his mind. When the next election came around he was again absent. Returning, he learned to his amazement that his name still appeared as di- rector. Mr. Ralston had bought two hundred and fifty shares of his stock and, instead of transferring it, had kept it standing in Mr. Mills' name.

It now became apparent that the management had affected the credit of the bank and its standing. Four or five days before its condition became known, Wil- liam Sharon went to Mr. Mills with an appeal for help to save Mr. Ralston from failure in his personal speenlations. He said nine hundred thousand dollars would carry him through. Mr. Mills could not forget their years of association and the constant considera- tion and courtesy which, since his retirement, Mr. Ralston had always shown him in everything except the matter of the directorship and he at once agreed to help. Within an hour he had seen Mr. Ralston and had arranged to let him have about four hundred thousand dollars that day and three hundred and fifty thousand dollars more in the next two or three days. The rest he had no doubt Ralston would be able to get elsewhere. It was subsequently learned that there had been an over-issue of about twelve thousand shares of the bank's stock. This stock was taken in and retired just before the failure, by Ralston and Sharon, and that was where Mr. Mills' money went.

Two days later Mr. Sharon went to Mr. Mills again with the news that the bank itself was in trouble. From the day of his resignation Mr. Mills had never met with the directors nor assumed the slightest re- sponsibility. He was not a director by his own op- tion, or except by the device above stated. But his name had continued to be used as if he were still asso- ciated with the management of the institution of which he had long been the head, and he had made no public protest. He now felt that he should stand in a false position before the publie if he did not give all his euergies to an effort to retrieve the disaster. Ile at once went into the bank, requested Mr. Ralston to call the directors together, and attended their meeting.

On the 26th of August, 1875, the bank closed its doors. On the 27th, at a meeting of the directors. William Sharon offered a resolution requesting Mr. Ralston's resignation as president of the bank, which was nuanimously passed. Mr. Sharon then moved that Mr. Ralston's predecessor, Mr. Mills, be instruet- ed to act as a committee of one from the board to pre sent the resolution to Mr. Ralston, and this motion was unanimously passed. Mr. Mills went into the adjoining room and gave the resolution to Mr. Ral- ston, with the simple remark that he was instructed

by the board to do so. Mr. Ralston, who was also a inan of few words in an emergency. read it over care- fully, said "Yes," and taking up his pen wrote his resignation as president and member of the board of directors. This, with a pleasant phrase or two, he handed to Mr. Mills, and the two men parted. Mr. Mills went back to the board meeting, and, before they adjourned, the body of Mr. Ralston had been found floating in the bay. There had not been an unpleas- ant word, nor was there the remotest sign of any pur- pose of self-destruction.

There followed a period of intense popular exeite- ment. The dead man had befriended thousands, and his lavish expenditures made him almost the idol of the people. He received such a funeral as a great statesman or soldier might envy ; and in the chorus of eulogy that followed, the good he had done was all remembered, while the evil was interred with his bones.

Mr. Mills had been summoned back by a nani- mons vote to the presidency, and he felt it his duty to accept ; but without any compensation, save what he might find in promoting the good of the publie in the very grave financial crisis that was threatened. It was found that at the time of the suspension the bank's liabilities were $19,585,000, inchiding 85,000,- 000 capital stock and $1,000,000 reserve, while it had on hand about $100,000 in cash, in addition to its doubtful assets. Mr. Ralston's personal indebtedness to the bank was finally fixed at abont $4,500,000; and this claim was sold to Frank J. Newlands for ae- count of Mr. Sharon for $1,500,000, with an addi- tional $500,000, payment of which was to be contin- gent upon a final settlement of Ralston's estate. Next, on the 24th of September, 1875, there was formed an agreement between the stockholders on the one side and D. O. Mills, William Sharon, Thomas Bell and their associates on the other side, for creating a fond of not less than $5,000,000 in order to re-establish the bank. Under this agree- ment, a subscribed fund of $7,895,000 was raised, D. 0). Mills starting the list with a subscription of $1,000,000. The Oriental Bank corporation of Lon- don now consented to protect the outstanding drafts and credits of the bank to the extent of $1,250,000, on condition that D. O. Mills, William Sharon and Thomas Bell would guarantee the due payment of the same; and these gentlemen gave their guarantees to that effect. Then, on September 30th, just one mouth and five days after the suspension, the board authorized the resumption of business on the 2d day of October.

As the iron doors of the bank were thrown open again, the bells of the city rang, and great crowds in the streets sent up cheer after cheer. Mr. Mills had expected a run, and had prepared for it. But at one o'clock he was able to announce to his board that deposits were largely in excess of drawings. A gen- eral financial crash on the Pacific coast was averted.

Dowill

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NORTH SALEM.

The crowds on the street, as they learned the satisfac- tory state of affairs inside, chcered and called for Mr. Mills, till he, who hated public appearances and had no gift of speech-making, was forced out again and again to bow his acknowledgments.

For some time his duties continued of the most onerons, perplexing and delicate character. But he stuck to his post till he saw the bank again thor- oughly established and in the best condition. Then he once more tendered his resignation on March 12, 1878, to take effect at the pleasure of the board not later than the 1st of May; and so at last regaincd his liberty, with the firm purpose never again to un- dertake the care of any business but his own.

The later years of Mr. Mills' life have accordingly been quieter and less eventful. He gradually made heavy investments in the East and finally constructed the largest business building in New York, on Wall and Broad Streets and Exchange Place. Business interests, as well as the recollections and friendships of his youth, thus tended to draw him to the vicinity of his birth-place, until now he makes New York rather than San Francisco his home. He retains, how- ever, his interests in California, and keeps up his place at Millbrae, seventeen miles south of San Francisco, which still deserves the reputation it has long had as one of the most elegant and tasteful homes of the State.

Mr. Mills has none of the ostentation or other foibles so often characteristic of self-made men. He is a liberal patron of the arts and has cultivated a dis- criminating taste, which finds ample expression in the choice collections both of Millbrae aud of his home in New York. He is fond of the society of people whose experience and culture have run in different channels from his own, and is thus, in an unusual sense, a quiet, discriminating and broad- minded man of the world. Living always in sub- stantial elegance, he never creates the impression of doing things for show. He is mindful of the char- ities of human life, but avoids the reputation of it, and gives wisely and silently.

On finally transferring his residence for the greater part of the year to his native State, he resigned his post as regent and treasurer of the University of Cal- ifornia, and accompanied his resignation with a gift of seventy-tive thousand dollars, to found a professor- ship of moral and intellectual philosophy. At the same time he took steps to present to the State the marble group, by Larkin G. Meade, of "Colum- bus before Queeu Isabella," which now stands in the centre of the rotunda at the State-House.

Mr. Mills was married, on September 5, 1854, to Jane T., daughter of James Cunningham, of New York, and has two grown children, both married and living near him. Till near the date of the Civil War Mr. Mills remained a conservative Democrat, as his father had been before him. With the outbreak of the war he supported the Republican candidates and has generally done so siuce.

To the east of the old Mills' homestead in North Salem, and a short distance south of Close's Corners, we find probably the most noted residence in the town. It includes a large and valuable farm property, beautifully divided into hill and dale, grazing and arable lands, and from the residence a magnificent sweep of the Titicus valley, with its bordering hills and the blue mountains in the distance may be comprehended in the range of vision. It was formerly the property of James Howc, a member of the family of the Howes who were prominent early residents of Salem.

It was purchased carly in 1853 by James S. Libby,- a prominent business man of New York, who, after the purchase, decided to crect a suitable mansion in place of the old-style farm-house then on the premises. Accordingly plans were drawn and accepted, and the work began which produced, when completed, a uras- sive stone edifice unequaled in this part of the country. The main building is square, two stories and attic, flat roof, surmounted with an observatory, and surrounded with a broad piazza. Attached to the rear is an angular one-story and attic addition, witlı basement story complete. The house is finely pro- portioned, and conveniently divided into the various reception, drawing, diniug-rooms, library, parlor and sleeping-rooms. The whole presents a picture of solidity and luxurious ease. The house stands on a slight elevation overlooking a fine lawn, and is ap- proached by winding drive-ways and walks. It was christened " Inland Vale," and for a number of years Mr. Libby enjoyed the comforts of his ample home. He, however, a few years since decided to sell, and found a purchaser in U. S. Grant, Jr., who im- mediately took possession and now resides here. General Grant, previous to his last illness, frequently visited his son at this beautiful home, and some of his blooded stock found quarters here. Since the general's death, Mrs. Grant has been much of the time an honored guest here. In the near vicinity is the residence of Alfred B. Mead, a member of the Mead family of Greenwich and Lewisboro'. His residence is a fine, commodious farm-house, situated on a slight elevation which slopes to the bank of the Titicus River, a few rods from the residence. It is a romantic and beautiful location. Mr. Mead was a prosperous farmer aud cattle-dealer, and largely in- terested in the general prosperity of the town. His business and social connections were extensive and of the highest character. He was oue of the principal stockholders in the American Condensed Milk Com- pany, and was a thorough-going, upright townsman. He died, January 23, 1886, at the age of seventy years. His daughter is the wife of William I. H. Howe, the president of the Milk Company, and son of Epenetus Howe, one of the prominent men of early days. Mr. Howe owns a fine property in the village of North Salem, and his beautiful residence there is an indication of a cultivated taste combined with

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business enterprise and a high degree of prosperity. He was the main organizer of the Milk Company, and by earnest and persevering attention he has built up in the town a permanent and Incrative industry. The company have a large coudensing factory also at Hawleyville, Conn., where they manufacture plain condensed milk. He is one of the leading business men of the town. His father held offices in the town for many years, as did also other members of the Howe family. In the vicinity of this village are also the residences of the Kecler family, together with their farms. Jonah Keeler was one of the first set- tlers of the town, and Nathan Keeler was for many years a prominent resident of North Salem. Floyd Keeler followed in the footsteps of his father, and his son, H. Hobart, now the owner of the valuable property left by Floyd, is also one of the excellent business men and principal townsmen of North Salem. Walter Keeler did much to encourage business enterprise in the town, and many dwellings, stores, business places, ete., attest his unwearied industry in this direction. His daughter, Mrs. Storrs, is the only deseendant. Farther to the east and north are the comfortable, and, in many instances, elegant houses and valiable property of the Vails,. Thealls, Nortons, Hunts and Finches. Of the latter family, James was a native of Somers, his father having erected a large, square brick mansion just south of Somers village, where he re- sided.

The place was sold and the family removed to North Salem, where Mr. Finch owns a valuable farm and elegant residence. He has held various offices of trust in the town and is a prominent and public-spir- ited citizen. Erastus and Edward Finch are sons of Ezra Finch and reside in Saleur Centre. They are noted business men, conducting the mills that their father owned and which have a reputation through- out the section. They are also distillers of cider whiskey. Erastus is one of the academy board and a deputy sheriff of the county ; their family is one of the oklest of the town and has always been closely identified with the town's prosperity. Sonth of the Centre resides Nelson Grummon, a member of the family of which was Ephraim Grummon, who was paid "sixteen shillings for numbering the people by a warrant from the sheriff," in 1782. This family have always resided here. Nelson has occupied various offices of trust in the town, is one of its justices and excise commissioner at the present time and one of its leading citizens.

Sammel B. Clark, the present town clerk, has held the office of town clerk since 1855. He resides in a modest village residence just below the hill on which stands the Episcopal Church, of which he is the sex- ton. Mr. Clark's father, Jesse Clark, was a familiar figure to the carly residents of the town before the ad- vent of the railroad. as twice each week his market .- wagon gathered up the butter, cheese, eggs, etc., at the highest prices and conveyed them to Sing Sing.

Mr. Clark was formerly engaged in teaching in South Salem and has often slept in the room where Andre was eonfined. He has now, however, retired from active life, xave attention to the duties of his office, which he discharges in a most excellent and faithful manner. In a small, neat dwelling in Salem Centre resides one of the oldest residents and officials of the town, Jonathan Van Scoy. At the first town-meeting Timothy Van Scoy was elected overseer of the poor and trustee to provide a place for the reception of the poor. He was the father of Jonathan, who seems to have inherited the office from his father. Now over eighty years of age, lie has held office in the town nearly continuously sinee he arrived at man's estate, and has always been a faithful officer and a man of sterling integrity. His declining years are passing peacefully on amidst the seenes of his younger and more active life. Mr. John Smith, also an old resi- dent, owns and occupies an old-fashioned farm house just west of the Centre. The building is a long, low, sloping-roofed story-and-a-half frame house, standing with its long porch across the side facing the road. Its old well-sweep at the west end of the house, the low double doors, the small-paned windows, the huge chimney all speak of the times when itself was young, bright with its coat of red paint, and the very aristo- crat of its neighboring cabins, while history was be- ing made. Mr. Smith prefers its comforts to any of the modern houses to-day. At Purdy's, just as the main road turns into River or First Street, stand on opposite corners two of the oldest houses in the place and yet they are so modernized by their owners as to present to the view two of the handsomest residences here; they are the homes of M. C. Teed, of the firm of Teed & Hunt, Immber and coal merchants, and D. L. Casselman, M.D. Both of these honses are of a unique style of architecture, with angles and gables and hoods and hints of towers, partly Gothic and partly Queen Anne, both surrounded with pleasant, neatly- kept grounds, and the whole forming, in both in- stances, a neat and artistically arranged home.

Mr. Teed is from the Somers family of that name, and has been a resident of Purdys' a number of years, a prominent business man of the place, and large property owner here. Dr. Casselman is a native of Western New York and a highly educated practicing physician, with a very extensive practice throughout this and adjacent towns. He married the daughter of A. B. Thacker, of Somers, cashier of the Farmers' and Drovers' National Bank, and settled here, pur- chasing the residence and former practice of Dr. C. E. Lee in January, 1880, since which time he has entirely remodeled the dwelling, making it one of the most attractive and beautiful of the many fine resi- dences of the town. The proprietor of the hotel in this place comes of the Reynolds and Baker families, both of them among the earliest settlers of North Salem. Reynolds Corners, as it was formerly known, is in the vicinity of Wheeler's mill, on the line of the

RESIDENCE OF THE LATE WALTER KEELER, NOW OCCUPIED BY RICHARD A. STORRS, NORTH SALEM, WESTCHESTER COUNTY, N. Y.

MMOS

RESIDENCE OF N. F. SMITH, NORTH SAI FM WESTCHESTER COUNTY M

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North Salem highway. Eli Reynolds was the son of Samuel Reynolds, who owned a farm in this vicinity. Several members of the family now reside here in plain, commodious, substantial residences. His mother was a Baker. The first Ephraim Baker owned a tract of land now owned by Mrs. Bailey, the widow of Todd Bailey, in 1770, and was a Quaker speaker. The farm was kept in the family until 1836. During part of the Revolution Stephen Baker resided here, and Stephen De Lancey boarded with him. Thomas Baker, the son of Stephen and grandson of Ephraim, married a sister of Ezekiel Halstead, of Lewisboro', also widely known as a Quaker speaker. Samuel Reynolds married the sis- ter of Ephraim Baker (2nd). They were the father and mother of Eli Reynolds. The families are the oldest and most substantial in the town. On the Todd Bailey estate, situated in a grove of locust trees, is a plain story and attic building, small, rough in appearance, the patches of faded red on the clap- boards showing its color in the years gone by. The plain entrance, without stoop, is in the side facing and but a few steps from the highway. Though in- significant as a dwelling, and now used as a farm tenement, yet the magnificent view down and aeross the Titieus Valley, over the undulating lands, away to the blue mountains in the southeast, more than compensates for the scanty accommodations of the dwelling. But the place has an association that is exceptionally pleasant. Here, during the summer of 1850, lived, with his family, the man who built up the most potent newspaper of its day, a power that swayed the couneils of the nation, the moving spirit, in one sense, of the great War of Secession, the ean- didate for the highest office in the republic, the editor, the philosopher, the political economist, the generous Horace Greeley, of the New York Tri- bune. Here he drew the inspirations of nature fresh from field and grove, from vale and rugged headland, and carried the fresh air of country life to his busy sanctum in the city. An elegant villa is seen in the near distance. It is the home of Niles Smith, the son of Harvey Snrith, of North Salem, a native of the town and a New York business man. Harvey Smith was one of the early freighters on the Harlem Railroad, and for many years sold the country produce at the Forty-second Street Market, in New York. His son Niles engaged for a time in the show business, eventually embarking in the hotel business in New York, in which he still continues. He purchased a tract of land about one mile from Purdy's, and ereet- ed this handsome villa-like dwelling,-a large, two- story square structure, surrounded with broad piaz- zas, and standing on an elevation which commands a splendid view of the surrounding country. The beautiful lawn slopes gently to the highway, which passes several rods from the residence, and the whole place is conspicuously attractive. Upon the north side of the highway leading east from Purdy's, and

little less than a mile therefrom, is the Brown home- stead, now owned by F. D. Brown, a prominent farmer and otlicial in the Methodist Episcopal Church. His present residence is a rather unique-looking, but exceedingly home-like and comfortable, mansion. It is much longer than wide, a story and a half in height, with pointed dormer windows in the roof, standing with the side to the street. An entrance midway in the front side is an alcove instead of a projection, while there are other entrances on either end, covered with the piazza roofs. It has a some- what English cottage air, and is withal a most con- venient and handsome residence. Mr. Brown is a native of the town, the generations of his family being noted elsewhere in the inscriptions recorded on grave-stones. Nathan Brown was his grandfather, whose son Thomas lived on the farm now adjoining the one owned by the son, Francis D .. The old place, thoroughly modernized in appearance, is ocenpied by Charles Bloomer, whose wife is a daughter of Thomas and sister of Francis D. Brown.

The western portion of the town is laid down on Cortlandt Manor as being Great Lot No. 8, and in the division in 1734 was laid off to Andrew Miller. Ot the settlers who located on this lot were the families of Purdy. There are two branches of the family occupying lands in this strip. The first settlers of Fairfield, Connecticut, were of this family. The first was Francis Purdy, who died at Fairfield in 1658. From him came the family of Rye. Joseph was one of the original purchasers of White Plains ; Samuel was the youngest son of Francis, and from him came the families of this town. At what time one of the family purchased on lot No. 8 is not known, or which one, but purchase was made of a large træet along the east side of the Croton River, and up Titicus River. The land was left by will to two sons, Hachaliah and Joshua. The latter resided in Rye township, and his eldest son Joseph, settled upon his father's portion and purchased other lands adjacent,-on June 2, 1786, sixty acres of Gilbert Theale, ason of Ebenezer, and June 12, 1793, part of the undivided lands of Hacha- liah and Joshua.

He was eminent in the early councils of the set- tlers of the town. He married Letitia Ginon, and had three sons. His first son was Isaac, of North Salem, who married Miss Hart. Their son, Isaac Hart, resides in the old family mansion at Purdy's, a few rods from the depot. This house is most pleas- antly located at the junction of the highways lead- ing to North Salem on the east and Croton Falls on the north. It is a plain, large, substantial-looking dwelling, of two stories, projecting roof, shingle sides, fronting south, and commanding a fine view of the level meadow lands lying along the Croton and Tit- icus Rivers, and the wood-erowned hills on the east, west and south. It is surrounded by a fine lawn, inelosed by an ornamental iron fence and faced granite wall. Immediately in front of the residence,

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and by the roadside, are two noble oaks, which have witnessed the seenes of over a century's experience. In the rear rises abruptly a hill of some two hundred feet in height, which was covered with forest when the dwelling was young ; now this hillside is a fine orchard tract. The honse itself was built by Joseph Purdy more than a hundred and. twenty years ago, and has, with its fine farming lands, always remained in the fantily.

During the Revolution this part of the country was infested with the Cowboys, whose depredations were frequent and extensive. When the British lines had been extended northward after the battle of White Plains, many of the residents of the towns of Salem and Somers were robbed of their stock in the night, until at last Joseph Purdy colleeted some of his neighbors and they determined to watch for and, if possible capture the marauders. Accordingly, one night several of these determined men met at Mr. Purdy's house and gathered in what is now the sit- ting-room, in the southwest corner of the building. All lights were extinguished and in the darkness these fariners waited and watched. The sound of horses' feet was heard coming down the hill a few rods northwest of the house, on the road leading from Somers over Dean's Bridge. Silently some of the party left the house by the rear entrance and passed around the corner of the building to the road in front.

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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. II, Part 119

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co. Number of Pages: 1286

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898,
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1286