History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. II, Part 43

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 43

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The right to assess and to levy taxes on every piece of property is given to three distinct sets of officers, who perform their duties at fixed different times in every year. Ardsley, the country-seat of Cyrus W. Field, is a compact body of land, lying partly in the village of Dobbs Ferry, partly in the village of Irving- ten and partly outside of all village limits, in the town of Greenburgh. Its owner is compelled to pay taxes to one town, to two villages, and to four school collectors. Seven boards of assessors each year assess all or parts of this property. This system is so exeeed- ingly crude, so annoying to property-owners and so liable to abuse that the fact that it ever existed is likely to be quoted in the future with surprise.

The name of Dobbs Ferry is derived from the faet that one Jeremiah Dobbs, a Swede, who was a fisher- man, and lived at Willow Point, near the southern line of the present village, added to his meagre in- come, prior to and during the Revolution, by ferrying occasional travelers across the Hudson. He used a style of boat known, at that day, as a periauger. It was a eanoe made by hollowing out a solid log, and was propelled by a single oar, kept in vigorous motion at the stern. A skiff ferry has been maintained ever since, for more than a century, and the business priv- ilege is still deemed of value by the family which has exercised ownership of it for more than thirty years past.

The first white settlers found here a large popula- tion. A family of Indians were then living on the banks of the fresh-water brook which empties into the Hudson near the present northerly boundary line ii .- 18

of the village. These Indians were attracted to the spot by the fact that the gap in the ridge, which sep- arates the Saw-Mill River Valley from the Hudson, enabled them to get to their hunting-grounds, in the interior of the country, over foot-paths of light and easy grades. They called the place " Weccqnaes- guek," and they eame very naturally, in time, to be known by that name themselves. They were a part of the great Mohegan tribe, which became so distin- guished for its cunning, skill, daring and undaunted bravery.

There are reasons for believing that the settlement had been maintained for centuries, and that many thousands of Indians had lived and died in it; yet not a vestige remains to bear testimony to their exis- tence or history. It is true their wigwams were built of bark, and would naturally soon decay and perish ; still, it is a singular fact that no monument, not even a grave, is found to perpetuate the memory of the brave and heroic race which lived and flourished here so long. It is a strange illustration of how easily en- tire raees, like individuals, pass away and are for- gotten.

The great abundance of shells, which still cover the knolls near the river, show, perhaps, that the Indians were fond of, and lived largely upon, oysters. Game was very plenty. Deer frequented the neighborhood, and wolves in packs found shelter in the rugged hill- tops. Enough of quail and woodcock, of squirrels, rabbits, raccoons and foxes, and of several kinds of snakes, still remain to show that, at the time of the first white settlements, the land must have supported a great variety of animal life.

The fact that Dobbs Ferry lies directly opposite the northerly end of the "Palisades" (which are on the opposite side of the Hudson River, and which are very precipitous and well-nigh insurmountable for twenty miles up to this point) gave it very consider- able prominence during the Revolution. The " Pali- sades" were a troublesome barrier on the shortest available route of communication between the Amer- iean forces, which were stationed above and around New York City, and the other forces of the same army, which were operating in New Jersey and Pennsylva- nia. The river made it necessary to change horses on both sides, as they could not be carried across in the rude contrivances then used for ferriage. Dobbs Ferry, or the " ferry," was therefore mentioned with much particularity many times in the instructions which were given to dispatch-bearers and to officers passing between different divisions of the army. It was as well known in those days by name as were any of the larger settlements in its vicinity.

The district was raided, tormented and plundered during the entire Revolutionary period by the "Cow- boys" and the "Skinners," the bummers of both armies. Peaceful industry was made impossible and was driven out. Life and property were constantly in danger. Everybody who could flee, fled.

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Earthworks were established at several points within the village. An embankment at the foot of Chestnut Street was leveled only a few years since. The outlines of a redoubt, in a perfect condition, are still preserved in the angles formed by the junction of Broadway and Livingston Avenue. The remains of a fort, a still more imposing earthwork, are care- fully preserved on a knoll a few rods to the southeast of the redoubt.

The British army, on November 5, 1776, after the battle of White Plains, rendezvoused on the river- bank, and remained here eight days. It then returned to Kingsbridge, in New York City.

General Lincol's division, of the American army, encamped here on January 29, 1777, and remained for a short time.

The colonial Postmaster-General, in the fall of 1777, ordered all mail matter for New York City to be sent

VAN BRUGH LIVINGSTON HOUSE, Where The Revolution was concluded. The oldl part is shown in the rear.

nies, and it was given, of course, to a Dobbs Ferry boy.

A break of nearly six years in the heat of the Rev- olution, in which there is no event of any considera- ble note recorded or recalled by the traditions of the neighborhood, shows that the constant raidings and the ever-present dangers from hostile armies must have reduced the population of the locality to a very small number.

General Washington, Sir Guy Carleton (who was then commander-in-chief of the British army) and Governor Clinton met on May 3, 1783, after the suspension of hostilities, in a house still standing on Broadway, in Dobbs Ferry, and now owned and oven- pied by Dr. Joseph Hasbrouck, to settle terms for the disbandment of the two armies. It was the only time that these distinguished gentlemen ever met. Great pomp and state were maintained during the confer- ence, which lasted for a number of days. The bnikling was carefully guarded by several companies of sokliers. So impor- tant were these negotiations deemed to be, that mounted messengers were dis- patched hourly to both the Continental and the British camps. Here were signed the papers by which the American army was disbanded, and in which the British gave up all claim upon the allegiance and control of the country. No more impor- tant acts could be performed. It was the grand climax of a long-continued, gigan- tic struggle, the glorions consummation of what had been through so many dark years so ardently hoped for. The papers there signed gave freedom to a nation, and initiated another grand test of repub- lean institutions. The spot should ever be held in honored remembrance as the birth-place of the United States.

The lands on which the village is built to Dobbs Ferry. It is believed, however, that the having formed part of the Manor of Philipsburgh, they post-office thus designated was then on the west side of the Hudson River, near Tappan, which was a mil- itary centre of great importance.

Three boys were overtaken by a lot of Tory Cow- boys, who were mounted on horses, in November, 1777, at a point on Ashford Avenne. a few rods west of the easterly boundary line of the village. The boys taunted the horsemen on the meanness of their pursuits, until the latter completely lost their tempers and their self-control. Two of the boys (Smith and Lawrence) were so terribly mutilated that they sur- vived only a few days; but the third boy (Vincent) partially recovered, although painfully crippled for life. The outrage was deemed cowardly and inhu- man. It attracted widespread attention and produced a general feeling of indignation. Vincent was almost immediately pensioned by Congress. This was the first pension ever granted by the United Colo-

were declared by the new government to be forfeited, in consequence of the defection of Frederick Philipse to the King during the Revolution, and all the subsequent titles were derived through the Commissioners of Forfeitures.

Most of the land in the western portion of the vil- lage, upon which nearly all the population is yet lo- cated, became the property of Peter Van Brugh Liv- ingston in 1823. He was for many years an enter- prising and conspicuous person in this locality. He caused a portion of his land to be surveyed in 1830 into small plots. He advertised an auction sale and invited population, but without much snecess. Per- sous are still living on tracts bought at that sale for less than five dollars, which would now sell readily for more than one thousand dollars.

The first general attention called to the beauties of the locality and its desirableness as a suburban resort

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seems to have sprung out of an assertion of ultra- radical State rights doctrines, upon the part of the State of New York, so ridiculous that even after the lapse of these few years the story is almost inercdiblc. The Legislature incorporated the Erie Railroad in 1832, and made it a condition of all of its loans, grants and privileges that the company should trans- act all of its business and receive and deliver all of its passengers within the State of New York. Every bill relating to the railroad which was passed for fifteen years subsequent to its incorporation was surcharged with jealous hostility to New Jersey and Pennsylva- nia. Every possible device and restriction was en- grafted into the laws to prevent cither of those neigh- boring States from receiving any advantage from the new traffic and the new sources of wealth which it was believed were being created. This was a counter- part of the Southern theory, which finally culminated in the Rebellion. It made the long and very expen- sive dock into the Hudson at Piermont a necessity. All the eastern business of the road, which was large, was necessarily transacted there. Some of it natur- ally found refuge on the east bank of the Hudson, directly opposite, and it was then for the first time that the great natural attractiveness of the section around Dobbs Ferry invited new settlements.

The Presbyterian Church at Dobbs Ferry was or- ganized April 11, 1825. It erected a frame bnikdling in 1827 on Ashford Avenne, on a plot which is a few rods cast of Broadway. The building was covered on its sides with shingles, which had been cleaved with an adze, instead of with clapboards, sawed by ma- chinery, as is now the custom. It was a unique structure and stood, a conspieuons memento of the past, until 1880, when it was taken down upon the mistaken theory that it was an impairment to the beauty of the place.

Van Brugh Livingston was one of its first elders and one of its most generous supporters. A member, - who kept a hotel and sold liquors, was elceted one of its deacons in 1833. A bitter controversy followed. Mr. Livingston held stoutly that no man could be a reliable, good man and follow such an occupation. The result was that Mr. Livingston and several others withdrew from the church.

Up to the present time the church has had nine stated supplies and four regular pastors. The new stone building on Broadway, now occupied by the congregation, was completed in 1867. In that same year its present pastor, the Rev. Thornton M. Niven, Jr. (now Dr. Niven), was installed, and he has con- tinuonsly occupied its pulpit ever since, with great acceptableness to the people.

Zion Church (Episcopal) was organized in 1833. Van Brugh Livingston was one of its first vestrymen, and he gave the land on which the stone building on Cedar Street, still occupied by the congregation, was subsequently erected. Henry Chauncey, Rollin San- ford, Robert B. Minturn, James A. Hamilton and

Washington Irving, all men who became widely known, have been enrolled among its vestrymen. The Rev. George B. Reese, who died in March, 1885, was for nearly twenty years previous to his death its rector. His neighbors showed their high appreciation of his pastorate when they closed every place of bus- iness in the village and gathered, in larger numbers than ever on any occasion before, to assist in the last sad rites over his remains. No history of this place would be complete withont a recognition of this good and useful man's work. His successor, the present rector, is the Rev. Jacob Le Roy.

The Summerfield Methodist Episcopal Church,

1 which occupies a brick building on Broadway, was organized June 19, 1852. For two years it was sup- plied by local preachers, until it received its first regular pastor in 1854. Before the close of his term the edifice was completed and the dedicatory services were conducted by the late Bishop Simpson. Two other churches have been organized largely from its former membership,-one at Ashford (now Ardsley), only a short distance outside of the village limits, and the other at Irvington. Its strength, of course, has been somewhat impaired by this fact; but the church is and has been an energetic and snecessful organiza- tion, performing a desirable work. Its present pastor is the Rev. L. S. Keyser.

The Church of the Sacred Heart (Roman Catholic), which occupies a frame building on Broadway, ad- joining the Depot Hill, has been for twenty years past in charge of Father David O'Connor. It has probably the largest congregation of any church in the neighborhood, and is strongly felt in all local af- fairs. Its strength attests the earnest, long-continued and self-sacrificing work of its venerable priest.

Dobbs Ferry responded liberally to the country's call for soldiers in 1861. At least twenty of her citizens enlisted and went to the front. Some of them died while in the service, and their remains lie in the graveyard on Ashford Avenue. Their graves are strewn with flowers on each Decoration Day by their old neighbors, who recall with gratitude their patriotic sacrifices.

The name of Dobbs Ferry has always been a sorc annoyance to many of its residents. They regard it as untasteful and incongruous as those names which are borne so patiently by some Western towns, such as Tombstone, Buzzard's Roost, etc. There have been frequent and continuous efforts put forth to make the village homes still more inviting by associating a pleasant name with a pleasant place. Van Brugh Livingston filed maps in the county elerk's office as early as the year 1830, and tried, without success, to re-christen the locality as Livingston's Landing. It is so described in all title-deeds dated within twenty years after that date.

The effort was actively revived in 1870. Public meetings were called and committees were appointed. It was determined, after much thought and delibera-

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tion, to try to name the village after Paukling, one of the captors of the British spy, Andre. A final meet- ing was called in order to stifle all opposition. A general attendance and a free discussion were invited. The meeting was a very full one. The arguments for a change were carefully given. It was claimed that there is no sense in perpetuating, the memory of such a man as Dobbs; that he had done nothing whatever to warrant it ; that a double name is always in bad taste; that a "ferry " is, in the popular understanding, a place of low resort, and that the name of a place so full of historie incidents should be suggestive of some local patriotic event ; hence, Paukling was recom- mended. The meeting was grave, dignified, deliber- ative, until just as it was about to close in seeming accord, when a gentleman, who had been a quiet listener, arose to speak. He said that he had been much interested ; he was no worshipper of Dobbs; he disliked that his home should be identified with a ferry ; double names were especially uncouth and undesirable ; he had known Paulding personally, and could not brook him. Van Wart, who also had aided in the capture of Andre, had been a Christian gentle- man ; he, therefore, moved that this meeting strike off the "Van," and call the town "Wart-on-the-Hud- son." This speech, deliberately made, in dead carnest, gave such a ridiculous turn to the affair that nothing further was attempted at that time.

The village was subsequently incorporated by a nearly unanimous vote of its citizens under the name of " Greenburgh," a name borrowed from the town in which it is located. It was a name relnetantly ac- cepted as a compromise between the old settler ele- ment and the new-comers. It was never fairly satis- fying to either, so that after a few years the name was, by an act of the Legislature of the State, changed back again without attracting much public attention. It is senseless injury to a most beautiful locality, and will some day be dropped forever.

The village was incorporated under the name of Greenburgh on July 5, 1873, at an election held in com- pliance with the law of the State. One hundred and forty-four votes were cast, all but seven of which were in favor of the incorporation. The village has had six presidents, one gentleman having been elected for two terms, one for three and another for four. The provision against fire consists of a look-and-Ladder Company, which was organized in 1882, and has been maintained with considerable energy and pride. There is also a good Union Free School, which is sup- ported by public taxation. The pupils are not sub- ject to any expense whatever for stationery. books or tuition. It employs a male principal and six female teachers, and has an average attendance of nearly two hundred and fifty children. The building is a com- modions brick structure on Main Street, and is invit- ing in its appointments.

The school for young ladies, under the care of the Misses Masters, was established in 1877. It is now

held in two large buildings erected in 1883, at an ex- pense of seventy-five thousand dollars, by Mr. Me- Comb, of Dobbs Ferry. It has at the present time seventy-five pupils, of whom fifty are boarders and twenty-five day scholars. It engages the services of ten teachers in addition to the Misses Masters, whose oversight extends to all departments.

It is a matter of Revolutionary interest in connec- tion with Dobbs Ferry that this place was agreed upon by Arnold, the traitor, and Major Andre, who was to co-operate with him in consummating his trea- son, as the scene of their first personal meeting. On receiving notice of Andre's intention to be there on September 11, 1780, twelve days before he was cap- tured at Tarrytown, Arnold eame down from West Point on the afternoon of September 10th, and having spent the night at the house of Joshua Hett Smith, near Haverstraw, he proceeded early on the morning of the 11th down the river in his barge to meet him. By some oversight the British gunboats in the stream fired upon Arnold's barge, and pursued him so closely that he was in danger of being killed or taken pris- oner. Either Arnold did not appear with a flag of truee, or the British commander had not given orders in anticipation of his eoming. Arnold, however, escaped to the ferry landing on the west side of the Hudson, opposite Dobbs Ferry, and having remained there till night, he returned np the river. Of course, the projected meeting did not take place, and it is not certainly known, in faet, whether or not Andre came up at that time from New York City.

It was here, too, after Andre's trial and conviction at Tappan, that Lieutenant-General Robertson, who was sent with two others as a deputation from Sir Henry Clinton to prevent, if possible, the execution of Andre, met General Greene, whom Washington by request had deputed, as "a private gentleman," to receive his representations. The conference was held on October 1, 1780, but it was fruitless. The next day, October 2d, at twelve o'clock, Andre was hanged at Tappan.

Nearly a year later, in August, 1781, an encounter took place in the river, near Dobbs Ferry, between the British and American guard-boats. The statement concerning it, from General Heath's Memoirs, is as follows:

"On the night of the 3d of Angust, 1781. about eleven o'clock, the British and American guard-boats met in the river, near Dobbs Ferry, when a consider- able firing ensned; the Americans had one man badly wounded, who died soon after. The damage sustained by the enemy was not known." "August 7, 1781, in the morning, abont two o'clock, the Amer- iean army was awakened by the firing of cannon at Dobbs Ferry. It appeared that two of the enemy's gunboats had come up as high as the ferry, probably to endeavor to seize some vessels or boats. On find- ing they were discovered, they fired four cannon, but to no effect. Four cannon were discharged at the

P.EGOIST DEL.

THE MISSES MASTERS' SCHOOL FOR YOUNG LADIES. DOBBS FERRY, ON-THE-HUDSON, N. Y.

LODGE

LIBRARY

"ESTHERWOOD." RESIDENCE OF J. J MCCOMB, DOBBS FERRY, ON-THE-HUDSON, N Y.

RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM BARTON, IRVINGTON-ON-HUDSON, N. Y.

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GREENBURGII.

boats from the battery, on which they went down the river."

IRVINGTON .- The next village above Dobbs Ferry on the north is Irvington. It is situated on the cast bank of the Hudson, and directly on the line of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, twenty-one and one-half miles from the Grand Cen- tral Depot in New York City. Its population is about eighteen hundred.

The physical and topographieal features of Irving- ton are very similar to those of the neighboring vil- lages on the river. From the shore there is a contin- uous aseent eastward, but with natural irregularity, until the land reaches an elevation of several hundred fect, and forms east of Broadway a long ridge, running from north to south, npon which are built a succession of fine stone houses, large and commodious, with lawns and cultivated grounds attached, as resi- denees for gentlemen of wealth, many of whom are connected with business establishments in the city. From the summit of the ridge thus formed there is a descent to the east again, which terminates in the valley of the Nepperhan or Saw-Mill River.

The village proper lies nearly midway between Dobbs Ferry and Tarrytown, and consists of the Main Street, running east from the river up the grad- ual ascent to Broadway, or the Old Post road from the Battery, in New York, to Albany, and seven shorter streets, named A, B, C, etc., from the letters of the alphabet, which eross the Main Street at right angles and extend some little distance each way north and south of it. The buildings in the village are chiefly either moderate-sized frame dwelling-houses or small stores and shops devoted to trade or to some mechan- ical business. A short distance sonth of the village there is a small brook, which, rising in the higher ground east of Broadway, descends in a westerly di- reetion, erosses under that thoroughfare, and, passing through the Barney estate, empties into the Hudson.

As the land here formed a part of the Manor of Philipsburgh, it was eonfiseated after the Revolution and sold by the Commissioners of Forfeitures in many cases to those who had formerly leased it. Among the purchasers are said to have been Cox and Poris Sty- mns or Stymets, who together bought three hundred and forty aeres. Jonathan Odell, John Jewel and a man named Purdy each ;bought, so the tradition says, three lmundred and forty aeres for himself, and William Dnteher bought two linndred and eighty acres. This aggregate of one thousand six hundred and forty aeres afterwards became sub-divided by sale and transfer until the original ontline was en- tirely lost.

In 1776, probably after the battle of White Plains, a part of the English army eneamped on the south portion of the land leased by Captain Boekhout, and within a short distance of his house. Captain Buekhout had been a captain in the English colonial army during the old French War. Now he was

ninety-four years of age and very feeble. It was a time when the people were suffering greatly from the depredations of the Hessians, the Cowboys and the galley-men from the river, who stole everything that eame within their reach. One day during this condi- tion of things a galley-man entered the house of Captain Buekhout in search of plunder. On being discovered and remonstrated with, he stabbed the captain with his bayonet, wounding him severely. He was captured, placed in irons and imprisoned, and a sentinel was sent by the British officer in connand to guard the home of Captain Boekhout from further spoliation.

John Jewel, of this place, a grandson of Captain Buckhout, was taken prisoner by the British, and in- careerated in the famous old Sugar-Honse Prison, in New York.

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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 43

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