History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. II, Part 148

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 148

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

1 The writer has been permitted to present the following sketch of the capture of Mr. Jonathan Banks, of Banksville, written by his son, many years ago. It shows what life in the Neutral Ground was like during the Revolution.

636

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

Stephen Thorn.

John Rich.

John McCarty.

Andrew J. Tallman.

LIarinon Demarest.

John B. Lock wood.

John A. Keeler.

Charles R. Demarest. David D. Brundage.

William Il. Feeks.

lohn Kane.

Wright Feeks.

James B. Stillson.

James Groves.

Elisha Ferris.

Aaron Poillon.

Jacob Adamıs.

Edgar Ferris (2d).

Joseph A. Eishanhart.

William L. Ferris.

William Mathers.

George Wood.

John Shockeney.

George Il. King.

Edward Reynolds.

Harry King.

Harry Palmer.

David King.

Mortimer G. Cox.

Ira B. King.

George Higgins.

Robert Farrington.

Jackson Lewis.

Samnel Farrington.

Caleb Adams.

William Valentine.

George Lewis.

Solomon Gilchrist.

Benjamin D. Searles. Daniel M. Scarles.

William HI. Purdy.

Edwin Ames.

Hiram Single.

Henry C. Weeks.

George W. Ackerley.

Charles E. Farrington.

George Lovelett.

Ilenry E. Iliggins.

Ilenry Il. Lovelett.

Robert E. Iliggins.

William Strang.

Rufus Reynolds.

John Land.

George W. Starey.

James HI. Tompkins.

Joseph Corris.

William B. Adams.

Stephen Sellick.

Jacob C. Lewis.

William Il. Reynolds.

John W. Davis.

Carlton Reynolds.

Heury Davis.

Lewis Clark.

George Lewis.

George W. Reynolds.

John Freeland.

James Davis.

William L. Freeland.

Noble Rolunson.

James Sniffen.

Charles W. Hoyt.

John E. Stillson.

William Morrison.

William Med'lements.

Franklin Johnson.

Iliram G. Ferris.

Aaron J. Mosher.

William Pearsall.

John Sherwood.

Ilarry Ferris.

Aaron Sherwood.

Edward .lordon.

Ilenry Corris.

NAMES OF COLORED SOLDIERS.

William H. Seymore.

Allen Banks.

Morgan Stephens.

George W. Johnson.

Elisha Barker.

Alfred Seymore.

John W. Seymore.

James S. Seymore.

Daniel Odell.

Thomas Buller.

.lames A. Williams.

THE TOWN AT PRESENT. The present town of North Castle is essentially a rural town, having no railroad running through it, except where the New York and Harlem touches it at the southwest corner. There is no incorporated village, and indeed no vil- lage of considerable size. It is long, narrow, and ir- regular in shape, as naturally resulted from its forma- tion after other towns about it were taken up and patented, and from the fact of its lying on both sides of the angle in the Connecticut State line. From its northeastern to its southwestern limit it measures over twenty miles, while its breadth is nowhere more than seven, aml averages much less. Its surface is greatly varied. Throughout the northeastern part the formation is that so connnon in this part of New Yark and Connecticut, composed of rocky hills and ridges, among which are small fertile valleys, with frequent springs and streams. Most of the Middle l'atent, which lies between the two valleys of the Mi- anns River, is of this character. In this part of the

town are found precipitons cliffs and ledges. One of them, of considerable local celebrity, near the resi- dence of the late Samuel Brown, is fifty-two feet in height, and its overhanging wall projects sufficiently to give protection from the falling rain. The tradi- tion is that it was valned by the Indians as a perma- nent place of shelter. It is called the Rock House. This distriet extends across the " West Turn of Mi- anus River," as the early settlers were accustomed to say, toward Byram Pond, and this traet is called the Coman Hills, from the Indian name Cohamong, which designated that locality. South of this, along the road from Bedford to White Plains, is a high ridge of excellent farming land, sloping east and west to the valleys of the Mianus and the Byram, and ex- tending southerly into Connecticut, and thence across its jutting angle to the "Heights of North Castle," on the north of Rye Pond. Along this road are some of the oldest farmsteads of the town. On the west side of the Byram, and with its main branch, the Wampus, flowing through it, lies the broad and fertile valley, called from the earliest times, Mile- square. North and west from here, towards the New Castle line and the Bronx, the land is varied in char- acter. Toward the south end of the town are the rocky ridges, which Washington was glad to place between him and the enemy after the battle of White Plains.

The soil is chiefly a elay loam, but little of a sandy or gravelly character being found in the town. The Rocky hillsides, with their pure springs, afford the best of pasturage, and support many small dairy farms, while in sections which are more easily cultivated farming takes a somewhat different character. On aecount of their remoteness from railroad stations, comparatively few of the farmers have engaged in the milk business, for many years the favorite indus- try of Westchester farmers, but have devoted their lands more to general products, for which they find markets in Portchester and other villages along the sonnd.

North Castle is exceedingly well watered. On the Bedford border lies Byram Pond, a beautiful lake a mile in length, with a precipitous wooded hill on the west, and on the east the sloping fields of the adjacent farms. Out of it flows the Byram River, the eastern boundary of the old West Patent. Crossing the town, it enters Connecticut, and for the last few miles of its progress towards the sound, becomes the bound- ary between the two states. Nestled among the Co- hamong Hills, a mile east of Byram Pond, lies the little Cohamong Pond, whose waters find their way northward, by Cohamong Brook, through Bedford to the Mianus River. On the New Castle boundary is Wampus Pond, named after the Indian Sachem whose wigwam stood a little to the northwurd. Ont of it tumbles Wampus Brook, on which, in 1737, John Hallock obtained the town's consent to build his mill. It flows into the Byram. The Mianus, rising in Con-

637

NORTH CASTLE.

necticut, flows northward through the town, bends around into Bedford, and in its southern course forms the eastern boundary of the town, separating it from Pound Ridge. It receives, in both its valleys, vari- ous tributaries. Tlc Bronx forms the western boun- dary from New Castle to White Plains. Its principal branch is formed by the conflueucc of the outlet of Rye Lake with the Bear Gutter Brook. Within a few years past the Bronx has been dammed near Kensico, to afford an additional water supply for New York City. The lake or reservoir thus formed lics in this town and Mount Pleasant. It is some two miles in lengthi, and with thic picturesque country about its shorcs, forms a delightful feature of this region.

The villages and hamlets of the town are Armonk, Kensico, Banksville and North Castle.

Armonk, the Indian name of the Byram Lake and river, was, in 1851, conferred on the village and post- office of Milc Square, by which namc it had been known for a longer time than the memory of man can determine.

The tradition is that some one purchased, or ac- quired for some service a right to select within the bounds of the West Patent, a square mile of land wherever he might choose.1 The writer cannot but commend the judgment of this ancient but perhaps mythical prospector, for nowhere in the west patent is there a square block of six hundred and forty acres, that will surpass in fertility and beauty the lovely valley of Armonk. The original settlement seems to have been a mile further up the Wampus Brook, where Hallock's mill was, and where the Quakers held their meetings as early as 1742. Later, the mill went to the Sands family, and the hamlet is still known as Sands' Mills. Within a stone's throw of the mill is the building, now a barn, which served tlie purpose of a headquarters for Colonel Jamison, when Major Andre was taken there on the day of his capt- ure in September 1780. Among those largely engaged in agriculture in this locality, is Samuel Orlando Town- send. Mr. Townsend is descended from one of the

1 In March 1734 an agreement was made between James Delancy, Esq., Peter Fauconnier, Cornelius Depeyster, David Clarkson and John Symes, of the ono part and Josiah Quimby, of tho other part, in which Quimby, who had become the owner of one-twentieth part of the West Patent, (that is one half of Cholwell's share) undertook to defend certain actions of ejectmient brought by William Anderson and others, against certain persous for lands claimed and held by virtue of the aforesaid patent, and in particular, to produce "evidenco of the place called Bedford three miles square, and sundry other places necessary to be proved." For lack of this evidenco two suits had already been lost. In consideration of this undertaking on the part of Quimby, the others agree "that he shall lay hisright to six hundred acres of land within the aforesaid patent, upon any lauds within the same at his electiou, which have already been taken up by consent or order of said Josiah Quimby, between the west and middle brauch of Byram River and are now in the possession of sundry persons claiming under him, aud shall have liberty to take np, appropriate and bold the same to himself, his heirs and assigns forever." They furtber promise to "use reasonable methods to bring the rest of the proprietors into the same agreemont .. " (County Record, Liber. G p. 308). No record of the result of the suits can be found, but as the quan- tity of land specified lacks but forty acres of a square mile, and as the location between the Byram and the Wampus Rivers is correct, it appears to the writer that this document fully establishes the origin of the name of Mile Square, especially as Quimby was right and ought to have suc- ceeded in the suits.

ii .- 55

oldest familics in the county, and his farm is one of the best in thic town.

The earliest trace of the Townsends runs back to about 1100, when a gentleman named Ludovicus Dc Ilaville came from Normandy and married the only child of a gentleman living near Raynham, in the county of Norfolk, England, and settling npon his wife's paternal acres, adopted the family name of Townsend. These lands descended not only entire, but largely augmented, to their descendants for eight hundred years. In 1483 the head of the house was made a baron by King Richard III., on Bosworth field. In,later years one of the family, Richard Town- send, was a colonel under Oliver Cromwell, and for his gallant services in Ireland received a large estate in the county of Cork, which is still held by his de- scendants. The principal scat is Castle Townsend, on a promontory projecting into the Irish Sea. About , 1630 three brothers-John Henry, and Richard Townsend-came from Norfolkshire, England, and settled at Oyster Bay, Long Islaud. Here they lived and died, and their graves may be seen on the estate of Chancellor McCoon. The brothers belonged to the Society of Friends, and on the farm is still pointed out the rock from which George Fox " held forth " to large assemblages of people.

John, the eldest brother, married Elizabeth Mont- gomery, a daughter of one of the colonial Governors, but on becoming a Quaker he abandoned the practice of law, which was his profession.

Richard Townsend, the youngest brother, died in October, 1687, and Israel Townsend, who was one of his descendants, removed from Oyster Bay to North Castle, Westchester County, in the spring of 1776. He was born September 25, 1742, and married Phebe Weeks, who was born October 11, 1752. Their chil- dren were,-

1. Walter, born April 19, 1772 ; married Jemima White aud had three children, -Juliana, wife of Smith Baker; Thirza, wife of Abijah Sands ; and Euphrosyne, wife of John C. F. Merritt.

2. Susauna, born August 11, 1775 ; married Samuel Y. Sands.

3. Josiab, born March 12, 1778. Lost at sea in 1810.

4. Samuel, born August 11, 178 ; married Rebecca Purdy and had three children, -Caroline, wife of John O. Barnham ; Isaiah ; and Ma- ria T., wife of Charles Webb.

5. Jacob, boru February 18, 1784; married Susanna Lownsbury aud had one child, Lonisa S. Mrs. Townsend died in 1812 and he married Jane Berrian in 1816. She died, and he next married Mary Wood- worth, in 1822. His son, Rev. Israel Leander Townsond, lives in Wash- ington, D. C.

6. Dorinda, born June 13, 1786 ; married Samuel T. Wright.

7. John, born January 5, 1789; married Eliza P. Horton and had children,-Leander W .; Dorinda E., wife of Stephen Hyatt ; Melissa A., wife of Reubeu W. Ho ves ; Caroline E., wife of Thouias Wilson ; John, who married Elizabeth Adams ; and Josephine V., who died young.

8. Israel, born April 9, 1791; married Phebe, daughter of Joseph Sands, and had children, -Elizabeth S., boru September 12, 1816, who married Andrew J. Kiuch, January 6, 1840; Job Leonidas, born June 16, 1819, and married Sarah Ely, September 15, 1852; Samuel Orlando, born September 13, 1821, and married Elizabeth K. Hunt, January 5, 1849 ; Israel Jerome, born April 25, 1825, and married Mary L. Emmons, August 19, 1853.

9. Phcbe, born September 26, 1793 ; married Isaac Baker.

10. Job, born May 17, 1796 ; died young.

Israel Townsend. the father of this family, died in 1832, at the age of ninety .. IIis son Israel died in 1855, at the age of sixty-four.

638

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

Samuel Orlando Townsend, third child of Israel Townsend the 2d, is a well-known and prominent citizen of Armonk, in the town of North Castle. Ex- tensively engaged in agriculture, his farm of more than two hundred acres is one of the finest in that section of the county. His father, Israel Townsend, was widely known for his intelligence and ability, and was a highly respected citizen. Samuel O. married (as stated above) Elizabeth K., daughter of Eden Hunt, January 5, 1849. Their children are Caroline L., wife of Reese Carpenter, of Brooklyn; Edith, wife of Rev. Henry N. Wayne, of Staten Island ; and Sam- nel E., who resides with his father in North Castle.

The children of Andrew J. Kinch and his wife, Elizabeth Townsend, are, 1st, Leonidas T., born March 28, 1841, who mar- ried Eleanor H. Steele, of Bordentown, N. J., De- cember 31, 1863. He was accidentally shot April 15, 1867, and died on the following day. 2d, Israel H., born May 30, 1845, and married Cornelia H. Van Kirk, December 7, 1864.

The children of Job Leonidas Townsend and Sarah Ely are Frank L., who married Catharine Miller, of White Plains, and Phebe G. The family reside in Brooklyn.

The children of Rev. Israel Jerome Townsend and Mary L. Emmons are Hubert I., who married Helen Tochee, of Aber- deen, Scotland, and Mary E. Mr. Townsend is a clergyman of the Epis- copal Church and re- sides at Fairmount, Mar- tin County, Minn.

famil & Townsend

John Townsend, son of Israel (1st), was State Sena- tor. Ilis son John resides at Riverdale, in this county.

Sands Family .- Caleb Sands was the father of five sons,-Joseph, Samuel, Thomas, Othniel and other children. Joseph, who was born November 26, 1760, and died February 12, 1831, married Elizabeth Thorn, born September 29, 1770, and died April, 1855. Their children were P'hebe (who married Israel Townsend, 2d). Esther, Thorn and Joseph.

For many years the manufacture of shoes has been an important industry in North Castle. "Shoe bosses " have had their shops and stores in different parts of the town, the workinen, formerly more than now, taking to their homes, such work as could be

there performed. In 1851 Armonk was a flourishing centre of this business. Shops increased in their fa- cilities, plots of land were sold, and many houses of modest but comfortable character were built. Thesc circumstances drew the centre of population away from the old site, or perhaps, more correctly, in- creased it in the new situation. The shoe-manufact- uring business is still of considerable importance, the principal manufacturers being A. M. McDonald, and Acker Brothers.

An interesting association of this village which is worth preserving, is that of the "Ok Log Cabin,' which stood where the Methodist Church is now. It was built for the use of the Whig party, for holding political meetings during the Harrison campaign of 1840. North Castle was strong Whig centre. = The older politicians of the county well remem- ber an enthusiastic mass- meeting which was held there during that sum- mer. The building re- mained and was used during the Clay campaign of 1844, being employed in the meantime for con- ventions and for meetings of a local nature. The con- gregation of St. Stephen's Church worshipped there before the erection of the church edifice.

There are in Armonk two churches, referred to elsewhere, some six or eight stores and other places of business, and a hotel.

Kensico is a pictur- osque little village in the southwestern part of the town, about a mile and a half from Kensico depot on the Harlem Railroad. The name is an Indian one, suggested by Mr. Washington Tompkins in 1848, when the post-office was established there. The place had previously been called Rob- bins' Mills, from the grist and saw mills of John Robbins on the branch of the Bronx, before referred to. There have been at different times, factories of considerable extent established here, but none are now in operation.

There are two churches and several stores and other places of business.

Banksville lies on the boundary between Middle Patent and Connecticut. Its post-office is in the latter State; the population and the business places are di- vided by the State line. The name came from the

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NORTH CASTLE.

Banks family, who were among the earliest settlers, and whose desceudants are still numerous in the neighborhood. It is a scattered hamlet. The only church is the Baptist, which is in the State of Con- necticut.

North Castle is the name of a hamlet and post- office on the Bedford and White Plains road, about midway between Bedford and the Connecticut line. A shoe-shop and store which formerly constituted its business, are now closed. Some twenty years ago, the New York, Housatonic and Northern Railroad, con- necting White Plains with Danbury iu Connecticut, was surveyed, and partly graded, through this neigh- borhood, following mainly the western valley of the Mianus. Had it reached completion it would doubt- less have contributed to the growth of this region.

The town is divided into seveu school districts, which compare favorably, in their buildings, and in their euterprise in educational matters, with those of other rival towns. There are at present no private schools of importauce in the town. The Rev. Mr. Vermilye, rector of St. Stephen's Church, maintained a boarding-school at Armonk for several years, with success, and after his death in 1864, it was continued for a time, by Mrs. Vermilye. Since that time the educational facilities of North Castle have been con- fined to the public schools.

CHURCHES.

There are five church buildings in the town of North Castle ; three Methodist and two Episcopal.

There was a Friends' Meeting-House, near Sands' Mills, a mile north of Armonk, which was one of the earliest of that denomination in the county. It was abandoned a few years ago.

ARMONK METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH .- The Methodist Church at Armonk, if not the first, is oue of the very earliest of the organizations which accom- panied the revival of Methodism in this county after the War of the Revolution. New York City,1 cap- tured soou after the beginning of the war and held by the British, was dropped from the Conference Minutes in 1778, and did not again appear until 1783. In 1787 the New Rochelle Circuit was formed and Samuel O. Talbot appointed to it. It embraced all of Westchester and Putnam counties within its limits and included about five hundred and twenty-five nembers. 2 "Talbot was followed in 1788 by Peter Moriarty and Albert Van Nostrand. Moriarty was appointed to it five times in fifteen years, the last time being in 1803. And when he and his fellow itinerants of this period (Albert Van Nostrand, Jacob Brush, Thomas Woolsey, William Phebus and others) en- tercd upon this field of labor, they found it 'white to the harvest.'

" No part of the country had suffered more in the late contest. Westchester County being a kind of border-land had been often ravaged by both armics. In some places the churches had beeu burned, in others closed, and the ordinances of religion sus- pended. The people iu many places, not only im- poverished but morally and spiritually destitute, greatly needed tlic Gospel, whether they were ready to welcome it or not." 3

The faithful and earnest itinerants above men- tioued visited nearly every partof the county, prcach- ing and organizing classes, which were the germs of future churches. Traditions of their labors in North Castle, Bedford aud the uorthern towns of the county have come down to our day, aud the church at North Castle was one of the first results of these labors. Just when this society was organized the writer has not been able to ascertain, but it had become strong euough and energetic enough to build a church before it was deemed necessary to avail itself of the act of 1784 authorizing religious bodies to incorporate. The meeting to choose trustees and transact the necessary business preparatory to filing articles of incorpora- tion was held in the church December 24, 1791. The first trustees were Caleb Merritt, Sr., Othniel Sands, James Hall, Thomas Nash, Charles Green and John Ferris, and the corporate title was "The Methodist Episcopal Church in North Castle iu Westchester County." On January 4, 1800, articles of incorpora- tion were again filed in the office of the county clerk, which were in no respect different from the first, ex- cept in the names of the trustees, who were James Hall, Caleb Kirby and Jacob Craft. This was appa- rently necessary on account of some informality which does not appear on the record.

The congregation seems to have been gathered from a considerable region of country. The churches at New Castle and Middle Patent were offshoots from it, and it is quite likely that its influence extended as far northward as the old church at the Four Corners, in Bedford, out of which grew those now at Bedford Village and Chestnut Ridge.

Concerning the origin and building of the old church there is scarcely a tradition to be found. It stood a mile north of Milcsquare (now Armonk) and a short distance south of the neighborhood called Sands' Mills. Adjoining the site of the church is an ancient grave-yard where many of the early dwellers in the town were buried. It would appear that the building of a church at that early day had proved a serious undertaking for the society. About 1820, when some of the most promi- nent members, James Hall, Caleb Kirby and others, who lived some five miles distant, near New Castle Coruers, were agitating the question of building a church there to meet the wants of that locality, it was felt that they could not be spared.

3 Rev. Thomas Lamont; sketch of Katonah Methodist Episcopal Church, 1878.

1 The first Methodist Episcopal society formed in this country was in New York City ; the second was at Ashgrove, Washington County ; the third was at New Rochelle.

2 Baird's History of Rye.

640

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

"There was a heavy debt on the North Castle church, and it seemed at one time to exhaust their resources to maintain their Junuing expen- 80, with interest on the debt ; yet it was shouldered by Mr. James lIall, and it was considered presumptuous to think of building a new church at New Castle, and assuming new responsibilities . . . . New inen were raised up to aid the mother church at North Castle, among them Drake Waterbury, John Robbins and others." 1

The first building was repaired about 1840, and was occupied by the society until 1872, when the present edifice at Annonk was built, the site being changed, as the center of population had moved to that place in consequence of the growth of that vil- lage some years before. A suitable plot of land at the corner of the two main streets of the village, handsome and well shaded, was selected and a church of modern design erected thereon. It has a Sunday- school room at the rear, and a graceful spire, and s a credit to the village and the neighboriug country. The cost was about ten thousand dollars. The society does not own a parsonage.

The writer deems it appropriate to present, in con- nection with the history of the oldest Methodist Church in this region, the following list of the preachers on the successive circuits under which it has been a charge since 1787. This list is believed to be correct.2

NEW ROCHELLE CIRCUIT.

1787 .- Samuel O. Talbot.

1788 .- Peter Moriarty, Albert Van Nostrand.

1789 .- Peter Moriarty, Samuel Smith.

1790 .- William Pha:bns, M. Swain, Jacob Brush.

1791 .- Jacob Brush, T. Everard, T. Lovell.

CROTON CIRCUIT.

1792 .- Peter Moriarty.

1793 .- Sylvester lIntchinson, Jacob Egbert.

1794 .- S. Ilutchinsou, Peter Moriarty, D. Dennis.

1795 .- Thomas Woolsey, A. Van Nostrand, Jacob Perkins.

1796 .- Joseph Sutton, David Brown, Ezekiel Canfickl.

1797 .- David Brown, John Wilson, John Baker.

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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 148

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