History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. II, Part 6

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 6

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Some years after the war, Simeon Baldwin, another uncle, an eminent lawyer of New Haven, offered to educate his nephew at Yale and train

OF CSTATE.

TO NEW YORK

GUION'S MILLS

FROM ALBANY

MILL. POND

SAW MILL

MILL POND

BOUNDARY

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

hired the house of Mr. Howland's gardener, started a school in it, and gave the first impulse to an educa- tional interest which has ever since been maintained.

him to the law with his own son, Roger Sherman Baldwin, sinee Gov- ernor of C'onneetient aud Senator in Congress. The'offer was a tempting one, but the decision of the young Ebenezer upon it was prophetic of the strength of the future man. lle said that he looked at the hard and stony farm on which his father lived, and, while his three brothers and sisters were to be cared for, be eonld not feel satisfied to leave them there, and seek an easier life for himself. Ile afterwards learned the carpenter's trade, at which he continued to work for some time after his marriage.

Joseph Howland, the father of Gardiner and Samuel S. llowland, of New York, then resided at Norwich, and carried on business at New Lon- don-at that time one of the chief ports of the Union. lle afterwards established a branel house in New York, and in 1802 bought the manor- house in Yonkers, with three hundred and twenty acres of land, for sixty thousand dollars, soon after making it his residenee. The steeple of St. John's ('Inurch, in 1804, required rebuilding, and MIr. Howland, in that year a vestryman of the church, contracted with his acquaintance, Ebenezer Baldwin, of Norwich, to perform the work for the sum of five hundred dollars. It was this contract that first brought Mr. Baldwin to Yonkers. MIr. Baldwin used to tell that, during the building of the steeple, on the 12th of July, ou the return of his carpenters to the church after their nooning. they were told that a special messenger had just gone by to inform his friends up the river that General Alex- ander Ilamilton had been shot by Aaron Burr.

Through Mr. Hlowland's influence, Mr. Baldwin was indneed to re- main in Yonkers, then a hamlet of a dozen honses, and he immediately took an active part in its business. Broadway-then the Post-road-was tbe only street in the place. What is now Guion Street was then Gnion's Lane, leading throngb fields to the will at the l'pper Pond, then under the direction of John Guion. The cross-road-now known as Ashburton Avenne-led to the Saw-Mill River, but this was quite out of the little settlement. And there was a lane leading to the sloop-lauding at the point of the bridge upon the present Nepperhan Street. There were then the old manor-honse, the old mill (on the site of Copentt's pres- ent mahogany-mill), and north of the old mill was the miller's bouse, standing on what is now the middle of Dock Street. Just above the daur was the cooper-shop occupied.by Thaddeus Rockwell. A new tavern then recently built hy Jacob Stout, occupied part of the present site of the Getty House. The old tavern, then used as a carriage- shop, stood northwest of it, and to the west of the carriage-shop, in front of where Ilawley's building (recently " Radford Hall") now stands, was a country store kept by Multus Cooper and Aaron Vark. There were also a small saw and grist-mill near where Peek's mill now is, a house belonging to St. John's Church, standing partly between the church and the road, and occupied by Gilbert Guion, Mr. Howland's farm-house, then newly built, the old house on Guion Street near School Street and perhaps three or four other buildings of less importance. All of these buildings, with oneor two exceptions, were sitnated on MIr. How- land's property, and constituted the whole hamlet of Yonkers of that day.

Mr. Baldwin took an early and active part in the establishment of a school. Colonel Philipse, before the Revolution, had mmaintained one for the benefit of his tenauts. His school-house, it is said, stood between the manor-house and the river. But the Revolution had broken up his school, and there had been none in the Immediate neighborhood since. Mr. Baldwin found a dilapldated school-house on the Post road, near the corner uf Valentine's Lane, and another on Guion's Lane, but neither was now fit for use. A small house that he hud, at his first coming, built for Mr. Howland's gardener, and which stood on the Post road (nearly opposite the present Temperance Hall), hecame vacant soon afterwards, and was hired for a school-house at one dollar a month. Mr. Baldwh's younger brother, Erastus, was put In this house as the first teacher, and Gilbert Guion and Captain Ruleff Stevens cthen living ou a farm to the north, afterward known as the Simpson farmy nuited in defraying the expense. The school was afterwards kept over the carriage-shop in the old tavern, ou the present site of Flagg's Hall, and an Irishman named Blackburn was employed as teacher. But Blackburn proved diri- pated and was soon dismissed. As he was leaving he vented both his splven at Yonkers and his talent for verse In the following stanza, which, whatever may be otherwise thought of it, is useful as throwing light ou the facts of the time, -

" Poor Yonkers town, be not disguised,

Your naute heureforth be stigmatized,

Our note below will give an account of this, and will help greatly to convey a clear idea of the amount of life and enterprise which marked the little hamlet of

For three miles round your school housee Que teacher can't supported be."

After the departure of this man, another Irishnan, namned McDermott, was employed. But pupils were few, numbering from a half dozen to n dozen only, and no suitable room being nvailable, the school was often for a time suspended. During the intervals the children had to be sent eitber to Warner's or to Mile Square, at which points the nearest other schools were in progress. In 1813 Mr. Lemuel Wells bought the Yonkers property of MIr. Ilowland. Before moving upon it, he stayed one night at Mr. Baldwin's. The latter, during the visit, asked him to build a school-honse for the settlement. Mr. Wells at onee authorized him to put up sueb a building as he thought proper, at an expense of four hun- dred dollars. The building, afterwards enlarged, was ong used as the district school-house. How John Hobbs entered it as n teacher, In 1832, and what became of the building at a later day, will be found from a reading of our fourteenth section on the educational department of Yonkers, Mr. Baldwin, from the building of this house in 1814, gave his own time, attention and money to the advancement of the school xud the providing of teachers, and from this period, with but brief intervals, Yonkers bas maintained its public schools.

At the breaking out of the War of 1812, MIr. Baldwin took a warm interest in the defensive ineasures adopted by Governor Tompkins of New York, and raised a company of volunteers, numbering thirty men. They were ordered to rendezvous at Brooklyn, where they niet another company from New Castle and a third from Albany, all of which had been consolidated into one eompauy, their three captains drawing lots for the command. The lot fell upon Captain Wood of Albany. Mr. Bald- win had taken his company to Brooklyn and maintained them there at his own eost, until they were mustered into the service, and this expense the government never repaid him. He had considered himself subject to call to netive service for several months, Imt was only under arms for thirteen days, and did not draw the land awarded to fifteen lays' service and over.

After the war the company from Yonkers and the one from New C'as- tle and a third raised in New Rochelle were organized into a battalion, and Governor Tompkins then sent MIr. Baldwin a couunission as Major and placed him in command. Ilis neighbors, after this, always addressed him as Major Baldwin, and as Major Baldwin he is always thought of and »poken of, even now.

About the year 1812, Mr. Howland had become eurbarrassed in his af- fairs, and made an assignment. Arrangements having been made to well his Yonkers place at anetion, his friends prepared to buy it in for hit, provided it did not go above fifty thousand dollars. At this time the I'nited States government was looking for a site for the navy-yard, after- wards located at Brooklyn, and Commodore Decatur visited Yonkers to study the ground. It was thought that the Saw Mill River would fur- nish admirable menns for the filling and discharging of a dry-dock. MIr. Baldwin informed Mr. Howland's friends of the formidable competition now threatening, and, either through their Influence or some other canse, the l'nited States was not represented at the sale. The friends then thought their interests were safe and sure. But, to their surprise, a courtly gentleman with a gold-headed cane and a slight limp in his guit, appenred on the scene, a perfect stranger to every one, and led np the property to fifty-six thousand dollars. This was none other than MIr. Lemuel Wells, and this was hls first introduction to the community among whom he spent the next twenty-nine years, respectedl and loved, and finally died on the HIth of February, 1812.

Mr. Baldwin continued an active business life till after he was seventy years of age. During the great speculation in merino sheep (about Islo to 1815) he had at one time charge of the manor-house farm. He afterwards need to speak of one of these sheep which one day ran under his wagon and broke its leg, but which afterwards, being skillfully nursel, recovered the soundness of the limb, and was sold for one thon- sand dollarx.

At one time the Major kept a hotel ou Broadway, where Weller & Welsh's store now Is. During many years of the latter part of his toisi- ness lite he carried on a Imber-yanl on the sloop-wharf at the foot of the present Nepperhan Street. Afterwards he built the row of brick honses still known as the Ballwin Block, on the east side of Broadway. opposite the head of Boek Street. This was his best business enterprise. The last ten years of his life he spent in retirement.

YONKERS.

Yonkers when Mr. Wells made his first appearance within it in 1813.

It was the general poliey of Mr. Wells to keep his estate, as far as possible, undivided. He could not often be indueed to sell or even lease any of his land. As a consequenee, there eould not be mueh ineoming of population upon the three hundred and twenty aeres. The New York and Albany stages passed up

tail it. And with the two hotels and Judge Vark's country store, nearly opposite the one on the Post road, as prominent eentres of evening and holiday diversion, the period of Mr. Wells moved forward to its close in 1842. We give herewith a copy of another map, that of Mr. Wells' estate when divided in 1843, which shows some advance upon the state of things re- presented by the map of 1813. South of the Nepperhan

233

ESTATE OF LEMUEL WELLS,

DIVIDED IN 1843.

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GUION'S MILL

POST ROAD FROM.ALEANY:

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REFERENCE.

13. Woods.

25. Meadow.

1. Mansion House, gardens, &c.

14. Pasture and meadow.

26. Crab apple orchard.

2. Orchard and Sheep house.

15 to 19. Pasture.

27. Saw Mill, Grist Mill, &c.

3. Farm Yard, Stables, &c.

20. Stony Hill Orchard.

28. Mill Creek.

4. Park Orchard.

21. Church.

29. Mill Pond and bank.

5. Orchard.

22. Methodist Church.

30. Flour mill.

6. Farm house.

23. Indiau Queen Inu.

31. Saw Mill River.

7 to 12. Pasture lots.

24. Meadow.

and down every day, and stopped for resting and dining, first at the old " Inn " on the Post road, and in later years at John Bashford's hotel, at the sloop landing. At the old " Imm," too, the town-meeting was for many years regularly held. One or another of these houses was, of course, the headquarters of the gossipers and politieians, the centre of rally for those eager for the latest news and those eager to re-

Major Baldwin was twice married. His first wife was a daughter of Ezekiel Bailey, one of the garrison of Fort Griswold, who was killed in its defense. She died in 1836 at nearly sixty years of age. Her mother, Mrs. Ezekiel Bailey, died in Yonkers, November 17, 1820, aged over eighty-two. His second wife was a daughter of John Williams. She lost her father, grandfather and three uncles in the Fort Griswold massacre. She died April 24, 1862, at over eighty years of age. Asso- ciated so intimately with the patriotic sacrifices of the Revolution, Major Baldwin could not fail to resent with the strongest iudiguation the at- tempt of the South, during our Civil War period, to destroy the govern- ment built up at such a cost. Through life he had always been a patriot. His character was marked by great force of will, resolute independence,

we have the new " Meehanie " (now New Main) Street, opened to the southward from the Square. The course of the Croton Aqueduet, completed in 1842, is also noted. At this date all buildings on the map of 1813 yet remained, exeept the old mill on the site of Mr. Cop- cutt's present mahogany-mill, which had been burned, but was replaced with a new one. Very few buildings had yet been removed from their sites of 1813. North

kindness of heart and an iutegrity that never swerved. Ilis word was very truth itself.

In a plot in St. John's Cemetery lie the remains of the Major himself, his two wives, the mother of his first wife and three of his children, who died in infancy. At his death he left four children, most of whose names have been prominently identified with the industries and the social life of Yonkers, viz. : Judge Ansou Baldwin, Ebenezer Baldwin, Jr., Mrs. William C. Waring aud Mrs. Alexander Smith. All these are now deceased. But the family is at present represented in Yonkers by the third generation, among whom are Mr. Ifall F. Ballwin, MIrs. Ethan Flagg, Mrs. John T. Waring, Mrs. Professor Henry M. Baird, Mr. Warren B. Smith and Mrs. William F. Cochran.

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AYVAMIN 31

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

of the Nepperhan the only additional buildings of note were the district school-house; the Methodist Church, started in 1828, and its old parsonage (still standing in 1886, in the rear of its new one) ; a resi- dence, also yet in being, nearly opposite the present Methodist Church parsonage ; two seminaries of learn- ing, one for young ladies and one for boys, the former afterwards enlarged and known as the Peabody House, and the latter on the crown of Locust Hill. Along Me- chanie Street half a dozen straggling dwellings appear. In the Square there is but little change. The low spot of 1813, with its bushes and briars, has been raised by filling, and upon it are a few shops and business-places. On the site of the present Yonkers Savings-Bank was the residence of Mr. Lemuel W. Wells, a nephew of Mr. Lemuel Wells, and on the high ground at the southeast corner of the Post road and the present Nepperhan Avenue was the residence of Mr. Horace D. Wells. Beginning from the south- west corner of Main Street (then only a short lane leading to a mill), and taking South Broadway south- ward along its west side, Judge Aaron Vark kept a general country store, with the post-office, upon a cor- ner lot which was within the limits of the now widened Maiu Street. Next door was an unoccupied dwell- ing house belonging to the Wells' estate, and noted for two of its apartments on the ground-floor thrown into one, and forming what was called "The Long Room," in which, from 1841 to 1845, the Re- formed Church held its services. This building stood on the lot now occupied by Russell & Co's. book- store, and forming the corner. Mr. Robert P. Getty afterwards purchased the building, and moved it into Riverdale Avenue, near Washington Street, where it ean still be seen. South of St. John's Church were the residence and carriage-shop of James Bashford, the former standing within the edge of the present church-yard, and the latter within what is now the roadway of Hudson Street. The former of these buildings now stands in Guion Street (formerly Guion's Lane), and the latter, north of the Nepperhan River, on Palisade Avenue. South of these buildings there was no house within the three hundred and twenty acres, except the Widow Kniflin's, Thomas O. Farrington's, William Van Wagenen's and Judge Aaron Vark's, all of which still stand, but are much altered. Judge Vark's grounds are to-day the grounds of St. Aloysius' School. On what is now Nep- perhan Avenue (then part of Guion Street), lived Dr. Amuos W. Gates, Hiram Searl and a fewothers. There was, as yet, no Hudson River Railroad. The mouth of the Nepperhan covered many acres, which have since been reclaimed by filling, and are now densely occu- pied with buildings. On the map of 1843 appears a very long steamboat-wharf, which Mr. Wells had had carried out in 1831. Its length was about an eighth of a mile. At the head of it there was a hotel kept by John Bashford, of which we shall speak again. There was no avenue from the Post road to the river south of

the Saw-Mill, nor was there any north of it, except the one running to the Long Wharf. The south bank of the Saw-Mill was still the high bluff already spoken of,-a level plateau of forty feet elevation above the river,-which has since been removed for the opening of the present Main Street, and its con-' tents employed to make the present valuable ground on the north side of the river. So few, even down to the death of Mr. Wells, had been the changes on the spot from the days of the Philipses. North of the Saw- Mill, between the river and the Post road, there were no buildings except the manor-honse, with its farm- houses and ont-houses, the flour-mill and the residence opposite the Methodist Church. The manor-house, of course, remained the central spot of interest. Its spacious front lawn, still extending to the Post road, was at this time a sweep of beauty. The broad en- tranee-way to it was at the head of the present Dock Street. The Nepperhan, then clear and sparkling, could be seen without interruption up and down from the Post road bridge. And the Post road, coming down from the north under a high and closely-wooded bluff on its east side, since set back to make room for business-places, met at the bridge a row of beautiful horse-chestnut trees, that fell off to the west along the north side of the stream, skirting it all the way round to the site of the old mill. One of these old horse- chestnut trees is still standing in the square, at the crossing of Dock Street and Warburton Avenue. It is a cherished object to the city, and special care is taken to guard it from injury by keeping it boxed. Mr. Wells, in 1822, told Silas Cornell and Dr. Blood- good, of Flushing, L. I., who visited Yonkers to pro- cure horse-chestnuts from these trees, that he had counted the rings on one of them, which he had re- cently removed, aud that they indicated that the tree was sixty years old. He said he supposed it to have been imported from Europe by Colonel Philipse. This agreed with a statement made by Anthony Archer, who had been one of Colonel Philipse's employés. and who died in 1837. at ninety-two years of age.'

1 We have the following notes of the Archers, who are a very old family in Yonkers :

One Anthony Archer, about 1748, came from New York, from the flat opposite McComb's, and settled in Yonkers. He died about 1792 of con- snmption. A few days before he died he requested his son Anthony to bury him within the ground now known as St. John's Cemetery. There were no graves there then. The old man was the first Imried In the grounds. The next was a daughter of Rev. Mr. Babcock. of St. John's ; and the third was a child of Henry Runyon, at the time a miller of the place.

Anthony Archer (20) was born In 1746 and dled abont 1537, aged nearly ninety-two years. When about eighteen years old he worked for Colonel Philipse nearly a year, making the terraces west of the manor- homme and its garden (see onr map of 1847). Eight or ten carmen from New York were employed. It was one of the most stony places he ever saw. There was an old buryIng-grond under the new sections, which was covered np. The ground between the garden and the river (now alont between Dock Street and Wells Wenve) was occupied as a deer paddock. Several deer were kept in it. There was a high picket-fence around it ; but sometimes the deer broke out and made for the tobacco plantations of the farmers (almost every farmer then raised tabacco). They were us fond of tobacco ns of cabbage, und, in their raids npon it, they sometimes did much damage. One day a fine buck was observed to he studying the paling, apparently with a view to escape. He was look-

THE GATES HOMESTEAD. NOW THE RESIDENCE OF W. F. NISBET, YONKERS, N. Y.

YONKERS.

Within the lawn all was culture. Grand old trees, domestie and foreign, some of them English yews, also supposed to have been imported by Colonel Philipse as early as 1762, still adorned the grounds, as did also a profusion of the richest plants and flowers. Along the south of the lawn was a row of locust-trees. Outside this charmed spot there were pastures, or- ehards and tilled fields to the fullest extent of Mr. Wells' ambition. And yet it remains true that at the date of his death the conditions of nature over by far the largest part of his land had been but little dis- turbed by cultivation. The region was rough beyond description in 1842, and it continued so for a few years later still. We add here a map on a larger scale, representing the surroundings of the manor- house and the lower part of the Saw-Mill River, with all buildings and other improvements, as they stood in the summer of 1847, immediately before the eon- struetion of the Hudson River Railroad. It was made by Mr. Thomas C. Cornell, of our eity, from his own survey of the ground in the very year named.

SECTION VII.

From the Death of Mr. Wells to the Incorporation of the Village. (1842-1855.)

WE have stated that Mr. Wells died February 11, 1842. He left a widow, but neither eliild nor will. He had had four brothers,-Elisha, Levi, Horaee and Jared,-all of whom had died before him, and three of whom had left children, to the number of sixteen in all. These children, at the time of Mr. Wells' death, were all living, except one, Jared, Jr., who was represented by a single living child. By operation of law, the title to Mr. Wells' estate passed to his widow, with these fifteen children aud one grandchild of his brother. The heirs to the estate were as follows :

1. The widow, Mrs. Eliza H. Wells.

2. The children of Mr. Elisha Wells (who had died in 1825), viz .: Horace D. Wells, Elisha A. Wells, Ovid P. Wells.

ing towards the Palisades. At length, drawing back, he made a spring, and, clearing the fence, soon took to the river. lle was not overtaken until half-way across, and then he made bold resistance to the attempt to capture him. The son of this Anthony (Anthony 3d), who was born in 1790, never saw any deer about the place. It is supposed that they had disappeared at the time of the Revolution.

Anthony Archer (3d) related that his father had told him there was a skirmish, during the Revolution, on the crown of Ashiburton Ave- nne, and that after it was over he had gone to the spot and found two soldiers dead,-one leaning against a tree, shot in the face, and the other lying on a stone. Ile went down and brought up to the spot John Wil- liams, who was at the time superintendent of the manor property, and they two buried the men on the site where the railroad station now is At another time there was a High Dutchman (or Hessian) shot in Yonkers, and they buried him there also. Drowned people seem to have been buried on the same spot.

The descendants of the original Anthony Archer have been, and still are, very nminerons in Yonkers, and some of them have been noted for the very long lives to which they attained. No doubt there was con- lection between this Archer branch and that of John Archer, who pur- chased land, as we have shown, of the widow of Van Der Donck, the first Yonkers patroon.

3. The children of Mr. Levi Wells (who had died in 1823), viz .: Lydia Wells (Mrs. Augustus Flagg), Elvey Wells (Mrs. Chester Ilart), Levi Wells, Lemuel W. Wells, Horace Wells, Marilla Wells (Mrs. Ralph Shipman).

4. The children and grandchild of Mr. Jared Wells (who had died in 1827), viz .: Jared Wells, Jr. (deccased, but represented by an only child, Jennct Wells), Ilorace Wells, Nancy Wells (Mrs. Bildad Rowley), Henry Wells, Lncy Wells, Sarah Wells (Mrs. Asahel Tuttle), Ann Eliza Wells (Mrs. John MI. Patterson).

Among these heirs a partition suit was maintained, and, finally, by order of the Court of Chancery in that suit, the title became vested, by master's deed, in one of the heirs, Mr. Lemuel W. Wells. An elaborate ab- straet of title to this property, at the date of the set- tlement of the partition suit referred to, tracing its history from the grant to Van Der Donek in 1646, was made out, recorded and even published for gen- eral use. This abstract has ever since been the final appeal upon questions of title to lots within the three hundred and twenty acres. Of course, to property lying outside these acres, and still within the old Philipse manor, all appeal on questions of title can be determined beyond dispute by going back to the deeds given by the commissioners of forfeitures in 1785.

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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 6

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