History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. II, Part 128

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 128

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Erastus F.8, youngest son of Alphred7, m. Lilie Wright.

John Clason Holmes, who has long been identified with the best interests of Lewisboro, is also descended from one of the oldest families in the county. He is_ the second son of John and Ruth Holmes, and was born in Bedford September 22, 1825. The families of both his parents have lived in Bedford from the ear- liest settlement. His first ancestor in this country, John Holmes, of Beverly, in Yorkshire (from whom he is seventh in lineal descent ), was one of the twenty- four pioneers in the spring of 1681, and the family of Clason, the maiden-name of his mother, eame there soon afterward. John Holmes is the only one of the first proprietors of Bedford whose English birth-place is known. He died in 1729, at the age of ninety years. He had two daughters-Sarah (who married Jona- than Miller) and Rose (who married John Westeott), and six sons-John, Stephen, Richard, David, Joseph and Jonathan. They have numerous descendants in this and other States. One of his grandsons was Col- onel James Holmes, of the regiment of British refu- gees, of whom mention is made in the history of Bed- ford. John Holmes was eonspicuous, even among his Puritan neighbors, as "a God-fearing man," was en- ergetic and thrifty, and occupied a prominent place in town affairs. His house was on the spr where that of Mrs. James Lounsbery now stands. His son Rich- ard was the next in the direct line of the subject of this sketch. He held the office of collector of the town of Bedford, and some of his official papers and memoranda are preserved. His son Richard was the third in descent, and was known as "Lieutenant " Holmes, having been commissioned in His Majesty's service by Lieutenant-Governor George Clarke in 1737. The fourth was Peter, a plain, patriotic mnan, who served in the American army as a private during

the War of the Revolution. His son Abijah, the fifth in the line, was also a soldier in that war. He was appointed an ensign in Colonel Delevan's regiment in 1797. His commission is signed by Governor Jay. He served also in the War of 1812. His son John was born about a mile from Cross River, on the Bed- ford road, where "the Red House " now stands. He was a quiet, successful farmer, of retiring disposition and habits.

Owing to these traits in his father's character, and to the death of an elder brother (who had taken much of the management of the outside business), John C. Holines, the remaining son, was, at an early age, en- trusted with matters more important than usually fall

1 There was a prophecy in this Ebenezer family that the nanie Eben- ezer for the oldest son would end with this chill. He was only three years of age when he died. It was current in the family while his father was yet a boy.

550

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

to the care of one so young. He received a common- school education, and taught a district school for a term or two with snecess. In 1849 he removed to Lewisboro, and, after holding the offices of constable, collector and assessor, was, in the spring of 1856, elected to the office of justice of the peace, a position which he has held continuously since that time, a period of over thirty years. In 1874 he was chosen supervisor of Lewisboro, and re-elected every year since. He has also been postmaster of Cross River for nineteen years. In politics he is a Repub- lican.

In addition to the large farm on which he was born, and which he inherited from his father, he owns and manages three or four smaller ones. He has for some twenty years past con- ducted the business of a dealer in cattle and sheep at the Union Stock Yards, foot of West Six- tieth Street, New York. He also owns and super- vises a country store at Cross River, where he resides.

In the year 1847 Mr. Holmes married Harriet A. Avery, of Cross River, by whom he had several children, none of whom are now living. He was married a second time, in 1866, to Marietta Robertson, daughter of the late Henry Robert- son, of Bedford. He has one son (John Robertson Holmes), a lad of sixteen, the eighth in descent from John Holmes, of Beverly, and the fourth John.

tu Otholmes

Mr. Holmes is a man of large business capacity , excellent judgment, great energy in whatever he un- dertakes and thorough integrity. With a firm and somewhat unyielding manner, and a bluntness of speech that is one of his marked characteristics, he possesses a liberal and benevolent disposition. It is an evidence of the esteem in which he is held by the community in which his life has been passed, that he is often called on to act as executor or administrator. In that capacity he is a safe counselor and a judi- cious representative, and in all trusts, both private and public, he has discharged his duties to the satis- faction of his friends and his constituents.

ion and graceful figure, dressed in the prevailing fash- ion of those days, viz. : petticoat and short gown, of rich material, and carrying a bundle of female apparel made of costly fabries for those times. Her face had evidently once been handsome and attractive, and her refined manners and conversation gave evidence that she had been reared in the best society. She gave her name as "Sarah Bishop," but of her past history or former residence she was as silent as the grave. She was a devout Christian and went from house to house among the deacons of the Presbyterian Church, spin- ning, knitting, sewing, etc. She was quiet and unob- trusive, her only failing being her desire to sleep during the day and work at night. This peculiarity sometimes greatly annoyed the good deacons, so much so that Deacon John Bouton at last kindly told her that unless she could work during the day and sleep at night, as other people did, he should have to dispense with her services. Occa- sionally she would dis- appear for weeks at a time and then reappear as suddenly as she went. At last it was discovered by some hunters that she had taken up her abode in a cave on the southern slope of the eastern part of Long Pond Moun- tain, near its top. This cave was formed by some convulsion of nature throwing out from the side of a ledge a wedge- shaped mass of rock. moving it away some ten feet, where it still rests. Above this aper- ture the rock was left entire, thus forming a roof to the wedge-shaped room. Across the wide part of the mouth of this cave she had built a stone wall, from the top of which barks, pulled from the neighboring trees, had been placed so as to close up the front. except the small entrance through which she passed in and out. This rude abode she had chosen for a home, far away from the haunts of men, on the lonely mountain-side, with no companions but beasts, birds and reptiles. Why she had selected this secluded spot for a home was a mys- tery that none of the good people of Salem could solve. The rumor somehow got abroad that she had formerly been a resident of Long Island; that she had there lived in a happy and comfortable home, associ-

SARAH BISHOP'S CAVE .- Near the close of the Revolutionary War there appeared in Lower Sa- lem a young woman of medium height, fair complex- , ating with the wealthy and refined, until the British

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LEWISBORO.

landed and laid waste, by fire and sword, her father's property. She was said to have suffered all the in. dignities that could possibly be heaped upon her by a British officer of high rank, and for this reason she had fled from the scenes of her childhood and sought the solitude and retirement of the wilderness. How mueh truth there was in this story was never known, but on the strength of this rumor it was imagined she had selected this spot because it commanded a view of her old home on Long Island.

The following account of a visit to the cave of the hermitess was published in a Poughkeepsie newspaper in 1804:

" Yesterday I went iu company of two Capt. Smiths, of this town (Up per Salem, N. Y.), to the mountain to visit the hermitage. As you pass the southern and elevated ridge of the mountain, and begin to descend the southern steep, you meot with a perpendicular descent of rock, in the front of which is this cave. At the foot of this rock is a gentle de- scent of rich and fertile ground, extending about ten rods, when it in- stantly forms a frightful precipice, descending half a mile to the pond called Long Pond. In the front of this rock, on the north, where the cave is, and level with the ground, there appears a large frustum of the rock of a double fatbom in size, thrown out by some unknown convul- sion of nature, and lying in front of the cavity from which it was rent, partly inclosing the mouth and forming a room. The rock is left entire above and forms the roof of this humble mansion. This cavity is the habitation of the hermitess, in which she has passed the best of her years, excluded from all society. She keeps no domestic animal-not even a fowl, cat or dog. Her little plantation, consisting of half an acre, is cleared of its wood and reduced to grass, where she has raised a few peach-trees and yearly plants, a few hills of beans, cucumbers and pota- toes. The whole is surrounded with a luxuriant grape-vine, which over- spreads the surrounding wood and is very productive. On the opposite side of this little tenement is a fine fountain of excellent water. At this fountain we found the wonderful woman, wbose appearance it is a little difficult to describe. Indeed, like nature in its first state, she is withont form. ller dress appeared little elso than one confused and shapeless mass of rags, patched together withont any order, which obscured all human shape, exceptiug her head, which was clothed with a luxurianey of lank, grey hair, depending on every side as time bad formed it, with- out any covering or ornament. When she discovered our approach she- exhibited the appearauce of a wild, timid animal. She started and hastened to her cave, which she entered and barricaded the entrance with old shells pulled from the decayed trees. We approached this humble habitation, and, after some conversation with its inmate, obtained liberty to remove the pallisadoes and look in, for we were not able to enter, the room being only sufficient to accommodate one person. We saw no utensil, either for labor or cooking, save an old pewter basin and a gourd-shell ; no bed but the solid rock, uuless it were a few old rags scattered here and there; no bed-clothes of any kind, not the least ap- pearance of food or fire. She had, indeed, a place in the corner of her cell where a fire had sometime been kindled, but it did not appear there had been one for some months. To confirm this, a gentleman says le passed her cell five or six days after tho great fall of snow in the begin- ning of March; that she had no fire then and had not been out of her cave since the snow had fallen. How she subsists during the severe sea- son is yet a mystery. She says she eats but little tlesb of any kind ; in " the summer she lives ou berries, nuts and roots. We couversed with her for some time, found her to be of sound mind, a religious turn of thought, and entirely happy in her situation. Of this she has given repeated proofs by refusing to quit this dreary abode. She keeps a Bible with her, aud says she takes much satisfaction and spent much time in reading it."

Mr. S. G. Goodrich (Peter Parlcy), who was born and spent his youthful days in Ridgefield, Conn., in his " Recollections of a Life-timc," says of the her- mitess,-

"In my rambles among the mountains I have seen her passing through the forest or sitting silent as a statue upon the prostrate trunk of a tree, or perchance upon a stone or mound, scarcely to be distin- guished from the inanimate objects-wood, earth and rock-around her.

She had a sense of propriety as to personal appearance, for when she vis- ited tho town she was decently, though poorly, clad : when alone in the wilderness she seemed little more than a squalid mass of rags. My ex- cursions frequently brought me within the wild precincts of her solitary den. Several times I have paid a visit to the spot, and in two instances found her at home. A place more desolate in its general outline, more absolutely given up to the wildness of nature, it is impossible to con- ceive. ller cave was a hollow rock about six feet square. Except a few rags and an old basin, it was without furniture, her bed being the floor of the cave and her pillow a projecting point of the rock. It was en- tered by a natural door about three feet wide and four feet high, and was closed in severe weather only by pieces of bark. At a distance of a few fect was a cleft. where she kept a supply of roots and nuts which she gathered and the food that was given her. She was reputed to have a secret depository where she kept a quantity of antique dresses, several of them of rich silk and apparently suited to fashionable life. At a little distance down the ledge there was a fine spring of water, in the vicinity of which she was often found in fair weather.

"There was no attempt, either iu or around the spot, to bestow upon it an air of convenience or comfort. Asmall space of cleared ground was occupied by a few thriftless peach-trees and in summer a patch of starve- ling beans, cucumbers and potatoes. Up two or three of the adjacent forest trees there clambered luxuriant grapevines highly productive in their season.

" With the exception of these feeble marks of cultivation all was left ghastly and savage as nature made it. The trees, standing upon the top of the cliff and exposed to the shock of the tempest, were bent and stooping towards the valley-their limbs contorted and their roots cling. ingas with an agonizing grasp into the rifts of the rocks upon which they stood. Many of them were hoary with age and hollow with decay; others were stripped of their leaves by the blasts and others still grooved and splintered by lightning. The valley below, enriched with the decay of centuries and fed with the moisture from the surrounding hills, was a wild paradise of towering oaks and other giants of the vegetable king. dom, with a rank undergrowth of tangled shrubs. In the distance to the East, the gathered streams spread out into a beautiful expanse of water called Long Pond. A place at once so secluded and so wild was, of course, the chosen haunt of birds, beasts and reptiles. The eagle built her nest and reared her young in the clefts of the rocks ; foxes found shelter in the caverns and serpents reveled alike in the dry hollows of the cliffs and the dank recesses of the valley. The hermitess had made compan- ionship with these brute-tenants of the wood. The birds had become so familiar with her that they seemed to heed her almost as little as if she had been a stone. The fox fearlessly pursued his hunt and his gambols in her presence. The rattlesnake hushed his monitory signal as he ap- proached her. Such things, at least, were entertaine by the popular be- lief. It is said, indeed, that she had domesticated a particular rattle- snake and that he paid her daily visits ; she was accustomed-so said the legend-to bring him milk from the villages, which he devoured with great relish.

"During the winter she was confined for several months to her cell. At that period she lived upon roots and nuts which she bad laid in for the season. She had no fire, and, deserted even by her brute compan- ions, she was absolutely alone save that she seemed to hold comnmnion with the invisible world. She appeared to havo no sense of Solitude, no weariness at the slow lapse of days and months. Night had no darkness, the tempest no terror, winter no desolation for her.

.. When Spring returned she came down from her mountain home a mere shadow, each year her form more bent, her limbs more thin and wasted. her hair more blanched, her eye more colorless.""

As time went by, the visits of the hermitess to the homes of the deacons of Falem became less and less frequent. She attended the Presbyterian Church at Salem, where her name is recorded as a member in 1804. She always came late, and then glided into a back pew to avoid observation.

In January, 1809, this strange, mysterious life ended in a manner sadly in keeping with all she had suf- fercd in the past. She had been down to the foot of the mountain, to visit some friends. Late in the afternoon a snow-storm came on, and against the earnest protestations of Mr. Darius Benediet's family,

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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

she left for her mountain home. The storm grew fiercer as night came on, and the wind moaned dis- mally through the tops of the tall pines. The snow whirled in blinding eddies over the rugged rocks and up the mountain-side as the hermitess toiled slowly through the storm, along the side of the pond, at the foot of the mountain. She had made half the dis- tance to her den, when, becoming exhausted, she sat down, in a little hollow sheltered from the piercing blast, to rest. The storm howled on, and the snow continned to fall on rock and tree and on her wasted body ; but she heeded them not. There, with the falling snow for a winding-sheet and the tempest singing a solemn requiem, she fell into that sleep that knows no waking, and her worn spirit took its flight forever. A few days after the storm, some men passing by the cave noticed that the hermitess had not been out of her cave since the snow fell. They examined the den, and found it empty. They gave the alarm, and, after a protracted search, the frozen remains of "Ant Sarah" were found in the little hollow. The kind neighbors took the body, prepared it for burial and laid it to rest in the burying-ground near the Episcopal Church, North Salein.

The view from the top of the mountain, back of tlris eave, is extensive and beautiful beyond deserip- tion. To the south Long Island Sound, for sixty miles, is spread before the eye, and beyond it the blue line of the Long Island hills. Near at hand a bil- lowy landscape of bright green fields, wood-crowned heights and dark forests stretehes from the foot of the mountain to the borders of the Sound. To the west the vision is bounded by the Highlands of the Hudson.

Just below and a little to the west of the cave is " Prospect Rock," from the top of which the view is remarkably fine. Farther down are two lakes, side by side, like two huge mirrors, framed in summer by foliage of the brightest green. To the west Lake Waecabuc glistens in the sunshine like a sheet of burnished silver.

TOWN HISTORY AFTER THE REVOLUTION .- It ap- pears that the township of Salem was divided by act of the Legislature in 1783, the upper portion, north of the bridge, between the ponds, taking the name of North Salem, that portion sonth of the bridge retaining the name of Lower Salein.

The records show that " at an annual town-meeting, held by the freeholders and inhabitants of the Town- ship of Lower Salem, pursuant to the laws of the State of New York, April 6th, 1784, Nathan Rockwell and Gonld Bouton were appointed to examine and settle with Abijah Gilbert, late supervisor of the pre- cinct of Salem, and report thereon at the next anmal town-meeting.

" Also appointed the said Gonkl Bonton, William Rockwell and Abijah Gilbert to settle accounts with such persons as may be appointed for the town of Upper Salem, Reporting the money formerly received for excise, and to Determine the proportion that shall belong to each town ; and by a vote of said meeting

the proportion of money that shall belong to the town of Lower Salem on the settlement to be made as aforesaid shall be appropriated to the use of the Rev. Solomon Mead's Church."

April 6, 1790. At this meeting it was agreed "to give Benjamin Chapman excise for the present year on account of his completing some work to the meet- ing-honse."

Benjamin Chapman kept the "Old Church Tav- ern," formerly the first Episcopal Church in the town. It was closed by the patriots in 1776.

In 1790 the first bridge over Croton River, at Dean's Bridge, was provided for, the sum of forty pounds being raised by Lower Salem on condition that Stephentown should raise a like sum.

April 5, 1791, the overseers of the poor were " Au- thorized and impowered by the town of Salem to col- lect the property of Stephen Brundage, who is now in a state of Distraction, and apply it tor his support during his illness, and to settle all the former ex- penses of taking care of him from his first distraction."

April 3, 1792, Moses Newman and James Dann are to pay fifty shillings each for a fine for selling spirituous liqnors, to be paid within two months from that date. The town gives the one-half of their fine, if paid as above said, to the overseers of the poor.

April 5, 1796, it was voted that "all Swine that may rnn in the commons shall be ringed (pigs ex- eept), and it is voted if any person shall find any large swine running at large, without being ringed, he shall give the owner of such swine forty-eight hours' notice to ring his swine, and if the owner thereof shall not ring his swine with such notice, he may ring his swine, and shall be intitled to one shil- ling for every swine he rings, and the owner thereof shall pay for the same."

April 7, 1801, it was voted that "a law shall be passed that hogs that run in the common shall be ring. That pigs of three months old shall be con- sidered hogs.

In 1806-7 the name of the town was changed to Sontlı Salem.

April 7, 1812, it was voted that "Nathan Monroe shall be exempt from supporting more than one of Stephen Canfield's children ; that Stephen Canfield be prosecuted for the support of his children."

In April, 1828, the town-meeting was opened at the house of Thomas Smith, and on motion, by a vote, was removed to the Baptist Meeting-House.

Following is a list of town officers :

SUPERVISORS,

No. Terms.

No. Ternes.

Jacob Wallis . -

Martin Mend . 3

Timothy Canfield -

Nathan Howe

Jantes Brown 15

Joel Lawrence

Benjamin Close

Jeremiah lowe 8

Thaddens Crane

Cyrus Lawrence 1

Abijah Gilbert 32

Daniel lunt . 32

Joel Bonton

John C. Holmes .11

Stephen Gilbert 6

(the present incumbent.)

Solomon Mend

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LEWISBORO.

TOWN CLERKS.

No. Terms.

Nathaniel Wyatt . 7

Gould Hawley

Benjamin Belden

Darius Weed . 3

Abijah Gilbert .

Thomas Mead .33

Jacob Gilbert .

Cyrus Lawrence 4

Clark Mead .

Aaron Keeler

Samuel Ambler 1

Thomas Suitlı

Cyrus Fancher

Joel Bonton

Fred. lowe .10

Solomon Mead

(the present incumbent.)

The first town treasurer was Josiah Gilbert, who was town treasurer until his death, October 20, 1781.

The first election recorded occurred on April 30th and 1st and 2d days of May, 1799. The vote for Sen- ator was as follows :

Pierre Van Cortlandt, Jr 54

Nathan Rockwel . 1

Ezekiel Robins 55

Charles Teed

John B. Coles 49

Abel Smith

Pierre Van Cortlandt . 5

Abijah Gilbert .

Richard Hatfield

The vote in subsequent years is appended,-

1801. FOR GOVERNOR.

George Clinton

Stephen Van Rensselaer . 71

1802. FOR CONGRESS.

Phillip Van Cortlandt

101

Richard Hatfield

Samuel Town

1803. For Senator 109

1820. For Governor 125

1804. For Congress 112

1821. For Congress 138

1804. For Governo 149

1822. For Governor 133

1805. For Senator . 96 1823. For Congress 50

1806. For Congress 102

1825. For Senator. 125

1807. For Governor 136

1826. For Governor 128

1809. For Senator 145

1827. For Senator . 63

1867. For Secretary of State . 333 1810. For Governor 186

1811. For Senator 141

1868. For Governor

371

1812. For Congress 179

1870. For Governor 300

1813. For Governor 121

1872. For Governor 336

1814. For Congress 129

1874. For Governor 319

1815. For Senator 98

1876. For Governor 359

1816. For Governor 104

1878. For Governor 313

1818. For Congress 91 1880. For Governor 399

1819. For Seuator . 210 1882. For Governor 234

At the annual town-meeting held in April, 1855, Messrs. Jeremiah Howe, Clark Newman and Cyrus M. Ferris were appointed a committee to purchase land at Cross River, South Salein and at Lewisboro (south- ern part of town) for free cemetery purposes. Pur- chases were accordingly made of Isaac Hayes, Stephen L. Hoyt, William Hunt and James Lockwood.

TRANSPORTATION .- The first mail stage line through Lewisboro was that commencing at Dan- bury, Connecticut, thence via Ridgefield, South Salem, Cross River, Bedford and White Plains to New York daily. This continued until the Harlem Rail- road was completed to Croton Falls, in 1848. This route was then discontinued and another established, commencing at the Lewisboro post-office (Ferris), thence via South Salen, Boutonville, Cross Run, Katonah and Harlem Railroad to New York. At this time one inail route commences at Boutonville

and continue thenec via South Salem, Cross River and Katonahı to New York daily. Another route commences at Lewisboro post-office and extends thence via New Canaan to Stamford and by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad to New York. Daily service by both routes.

RAILROADS .- The New York and Harlem Rail- road passes through the western portion of the town, with a station at Golden's Bridge. One hundred and twenty cans of milk are forwarded from this station daily, and other business to the amount of fifteen hundred dollars per month in transportation of pas- sengers and freight, etc., is done there.

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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 128

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