History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. II, Part 66

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 66

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The monument is of marble, resting upon a granite base, consisting of three layers, or laminated flags, growing smaller toward the top, the lowest of which is about six feet square, and the shaft rising to the height altogether of about fifteen feet. It is inclosed within an iron railing about four feet high. The whole is plainly visible looking toward the east from the car-windows as the trains on the Northern Rail- road pass by, and from the carriage-road, running still nearer, between the railroad and the grave-yard. There is an inscription on each of the four sides, of which the following is a copy, word for word and letter for letter, taken on the spot, June 15, 1885 :

(North Side.) Ilere Repose the mortal remains of ISAAC VAN WART, an Elder of the Greenburgh Church, WHO DIED

on the 23rd of May, 1828, in the 69th Year of his Age. Ilaving lived the LIFE, he died the DEATH of a CHRISTIAN. (East Side:) Vincit Amor Patriae. Nearly half a Century before this Moment was built, The Conscript FATHERS of AMERICA had in the Senate Chamber voted that ISAAC VAN WART was a Faithful Patriot, one in whom the LOVE of COUNTRY WAS INVINCIBLE, and this tomb bears testimony that the RECORD is TRUE.

(Sonth Side.) Fidelity. On the 23rd of September, 1780, ISAAC VAN WART, accompanied by JOHN PAULDING and DAVID WILLIAMS

all Farmers of the County of Westchester intercepted MAJOR ANDRE, on his return from the American Lines in the Charneter of a Spy, and, notwithstanding the large bribes offered them for his release, Nobly disdaining to sacrifice their COUNTRY for GOLD,

secured and carried him to the commanding Officer of the district, whereby the dangerous and traitorous Conspiracy of AARNOLD was brought to light ; the Insidious designs of the enemy bathed ;

The AMERICAN ARMY Saved, and our BELOVED COUNTRY now free und Independent, rescued from most IMMINENT PERIL.

( West Side.) THE CITIZENS of the County of Westchester . ERECTED this TOMB in testimony of the high sense they entertain for the VIRTUOUS AND PATRIOTIC CONDUCT of their Fellow Citizen ; and as a Memorial Sacred to PUBLIC GRATITUDE.

Mr. Van Wart's wife, with whom he lived happily for so many years, and whose maiden name was Rachel Storm, survived him nearly six years. She died of cancer, after a lingering illness, on March 4, 1834, and her mortal remains were laid to rest on the south side of the monument, within the inclosure of the iron railing. A loeust-tree has sprung up, and is growing between the base of the husband's monument and the grave of the wife. The following is the inscription on her tombstone, an upright marble slab, with weep- ing willows carved upon it above the lettering :

"In Memory of RACIIEL, wife of Isaac Van Wart, who died March 4, 1834, aged 13 years & 9 mo.

Afflictions sore long time she bore, Physicians' aid was vain Till God was pleased to give her ease And free her from her pain."

The neighborhood in which the church is located was the scene of some stirring events during the Revolutionary war.

On June 15, 1885, the writer of this narrative, in company with Isaac F. Van Wart, a grandson of Isaac Van Wart, one of the captors of Major Andre, spent the day with the Rev. Alexander Van Wart (born September 20, 1799), the only surviving son of the captor, at his home in Pleasantville, in the town- ship of Mount Pleasant, Westchester County. The Rev. Mr. Van Wart was remarkably bright and com- municative that day, which his daughter ascribed to his " having company that took an interest in matters that interested him." As the house in which his father was born and had lived in his early days was only a mile or so north of Elmsford, or Greenburgh and Hall's Corners, as it was often called, he was, of course, familiar with all the neighborhood, and all the traditions connected with it. During the day, both before and after dinner, we sat on the verandah. where he went over many of them in an extremely pleasant recital, which the writer took down in pencil resting his paper on the back of Benson's large Ex- position of the Bible lying on his knee.

One of them was that a skirmish between a com- pany of patriot militia on one side and a company of British soldiers, aided by a band of Tories, under

JEMilliard

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GREENBURGH.

the leadership of "Jim Husted " on the other, took place " on the rising ground just east of the Reformed Duteh Church and parsonage at Hall's Corners." That was the name he gave to the place.

The conflict was brought on by the firing of " Jake Acker." He was famous in his day as a sharp- shooter with musket or riffe, and being out probably hunting on the brushy and brambly elevation known as "the Island," between Saw-Mill River and the road east of it, in company with John Dean, he saw a squad of twenty-eight British soldiers marehing care- lessly down the road toward the site of the present tavern, near the bridge over which the White Plains road crosses the Saw-Mill River. "Jake" was an inteusc patriot, and considering every British soldier put out of the way as so much elear gain for the cause of independence, he drew a bead on the marching squad, and, as usual, he brought down his game. His ball struck one of the soldiers in the groin, and he fell. The others took up their wounded comrade and carried him some way up the rising ground, east of the road and north of the present tavern. His injury was mortal, and the poor fellow died.

But while they were thus occupied with him, and taking counsel together what to do, " Jake," who had reloaded his musket, erept stealthily through the bushes down to the eastern edge of the island, and, taking deliberate aim, sent another ball through the temples of a British soldier, who fell dead upon the spot. They were both afterwards buried on the island. "I saw," said Mr. Van Wart, " the graves of these two men on the island, with common field-stones for the head and the foot."

While this tragedy was being enacted just above the tavern, some American militiamen, who were lying on the grass just below, a little south of the present Reformned Church, and between the road and the Saw- Mill River, had their attention awakened by the firing of "Jake Acker's" musket, and they at once arose and gave three cheers. The White Plains road at that time-at least one of them, for there were three, the north, the centre and the south-ran from the Saw-Mill River to the east, directly between the Elms- ford Reformed Church and the burying-ground adja- cent to it on the south, and thence passed up the gradual aseent over the top of the hill. The Ameri- can militiamen immediately started at a brisk paee for the high ground east of the church, where the old south road to White Plains bent a little to the south- east in its crooked eoursc. Just below the point where this old road now diverges from the present straight road to White Plains, west of the old Gabriel Tomp- kins house, lately owned by I. H. Cheever, and now owned by the Elmsford Land Company, and west of the present diverging road, the American militiamen and the British soldiers, with the Torics, eame into collision. The British broke through the line of the militiamen, " but our people," said the Rev. Mr. Van Wart, "pursued and captured almost, if not all of ii .- 26

them, except 'Jim Husted,' who hid in the currant- bushes in the garden."

Another interesting statement of the Rev. Mr. Van Wart was in relation to his father's being wounded. As he had often heard the story from his father's own lips, there can be no doubt in regard to its correct- ness. Isaae Van Wart, the captor, in company with John Dean, who figured with "Jake Acker" in the episode on the island, and a colored man named Lun, was out one night on the watch for men who came up from below to steal cattle, and everything else, in faet, they could put their hands on. The three were lying behind a stone fence along the east side of the road running north and south, just above the point where it is now entered by the road running west from the place of Isaac F. Van Wart, a grandson of the captor, and not far from a house on the opposite side belonging to the estate of H. G. Sniffen. As they lay there in the darkness waiting for whatever might happen, " they heard hogs and cattle making a noise," and pereeived that they were coming toward them. At once they arose to their feet and in a loud tone of voiee their leader gave the order "stand !" With that the men driving the cattle fired. Just at that mo- ment Isaae Van Wart had one leg over the fence with a view to his getting into the road, and immediately he and his friends fired in return. The enemy fled and made good their escape in the woods. Although he felt a momentary stinging sensation in his heel while his foot was hanging over the fence, Mr. Van Wart did not know he was hurt until a few moments afterwards, when, as he expressed it, "he felt some- thing squash in his shoe." On examination, it was found that a buckshot had gone through the fleshy part of his heel. John Dean and Lun. the colored man, took him between them, with one of his arms over the shoulder of each, and carried him to a neigh- boring hay barraek, where they all slept till the next morning. "How they got him home," said the Rev. Mr. Van Wart, "I don't know, but it was not more than three weeks before he was back again and lively as ever."

About three-fourths of a mile south of the Elmsford Railroad Station, on the right side of the carriage road leading from Elmsford to Ardsley, at a point where the road makes a curve toward the west, stands a house, which, on Chambers' Map of Greenburgh, pub- lished in 1857, is set down as belonging to the " heirs of J. Romer." Here, on this spot, but not in this house, lived, during the Revolutionary War, Corne- lius Van Texal, or Van Tassel, as it was variously spelled, a whole-souled patriotie man of Holland blood, who suffered great losses for his country. He became father-in-law of John Romer, known every- where as "Captain John Romer," which explains why it was that the place finally came into Romer's possession. Van Texal had an only son of twenty or twenty-one, a fine, athletic fellow, who shared the sentiments of his father. The British and Tories

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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

looked upon them both with an evil eye, and were es- pecially desirous to catch the latter, as he was brave and efficient in many ways to their annoyance. One night, late in November, 1777, a gang of them eame up from below to burn and plunder. They set fire to the house, and young Van Texal, hav- ing run up to the roof with the. idea that he could make his eseape there, found it impracticable and was compelled to return down the stairway. He managed, however, in the obseurity and confusion to slip out of the back-door, and, being very swift of foot, he made his way safely, though fired at, to the Nepperhan River, which was a little to the west of the house. In attempting to eross on the ice, it gave way, and he fell into the water. He got out and through the briar and thorn bushes he arrived, wet, seratehed and bleeding, at the house of Hendriek Romer, a cousin of "Captain John," west of the river, and under the hill that rises there to quite a height. He was warmed, elothed and eared for, but he took a terrible cold, which threw him into a hasty consumption, so that before the year was out he died.

The British and Tories, after burning the house, drove off' the horses and cattle, and they took Corne- lius Van Texal prisoner, and conducted him to New York, where he was confined in the old Sugar-House prison for eleven months and eleven days. It is a singular faet that one of the horses, a dark-colored animal, that was driven away to New York, returned a few nights later, bringing a gray horse with him to the old place. The sound of horses' hoofs in the night frightened Mrs. Van Texal, who was hiding in an earth cellar, as she thought the British and Tories were coming again. But hearing a horse whinny, she recognized the sound, and, running out, found there in the moonlight the favorite horse she had given up for lost. In her delight she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him.

Lossing refers to this marauding expedition in his " Field-Book of the Revolution," vol. i. p. 762, foot- note, and gives an account of the retaliation it pro- voked under the guidance of that sturdy Tarrytown patriot, Abraham Martlingh. He says,-

"There were a number of the Van Tassels living in the vicinity of the Greenburgh Church. In November, 1777, a party of Chasseurs, under Captain Eurerick, went up from Kingsbridge, surprised the Van Tassels, burned their houses, stripped the women and children of their clothing, and carried off Peter and Cornelins Van Tassel prisoners. In retaliation for the outrage, the patriots fitted out an expedition at Tarrytown under the command of Abraluun Martlingh, which proceeded down the river in boats, passed the water-guards of the enemy in safety, landed a little be- low Spnyten Devil Creek, set fire to General Oliver de Lancey's house and returned without losing a man. General De Lancey was a most active and bitter Loyalist."

Christiana Romer, better known as "Tiny Romer," was the wife of Hendrick Romer, in whose honse young Van Texal found refuge. She was the heroine of a local history, which says that she was in the habit of baking bread for the hungry American sol- diers and militiamen, and hiding it, where she knew

they would find it, in the roeks. She was the daugh- ter of Peter Van Wermer, a patriot also of Holland blood. She died on part of the premises owned by her father and her husband, August 31, 1856, aged one hundred and four years. The late Rev. A. T. Stewart, then pastor of the First Reformed Church of Tarrytown, who knew her well, wrote an account of her life and death, which was published in the Westchester Herald, at Sing Sing. The following is an extract from it :

" Mrs. Romer was seventeen years of age at the time of her marriage with Hendrick Romer, of the same town, and twenty-four at the Decla- ration of Independence, and one hundred and four years old in July last.

"ller husband enlisted in the Continental Army, leaving her, with only a young brother and slave, in charge of the farm. Through all the war she cherished a strong love for her country. In conversation on the scenes of that period she would become exceedingly animated, too much so to express herself in the English language, and she would leave it and take up the Dutch, which was familiar to her, and pour forth her sentiments in approbation of her countrymen, and in detestation of some things done by the enemy, until you would be sensibly moved by her manner, and would catch a stronger idea of the spirit of those times, and the men and women who struggled through them to victory, than you have ever gained from seciug them in print.

"I never shall forget her manner when stating, at the age of 100 years, her baking operations for the enemy. (NOTE .- She did the bak- ing unwillingly. Being under compulsion, she had no choice.) On one of these occasions she had concealed several Americans not far from the house, and while feeding theenemy she remembered her friends. She rose np, suffused with tears, and yet in langhter, as she said, -

"' While the hungry dogs were eating I would now and then catch a loaf up under my short gown and run round and throw it in to my men uuder the rocks.'

" Mrs. Romer's health was good almost to the last. She kept her own apartments and table, and boiled her own kettle. I'ntil six years past she would walk a mile or a mile and a half to buy her groceries. She was very companionable, especially with any who would speak the Dutch language. The Dutch Bible was ever near her, and she seemed to know its great truths as she did lier alphabet.

" Mrs. Romer was united with the old North Dutch Church, near Tarrytown, under the ministry of MIr. Jackson. She ripeued under the preaching of Thomas G. Smith, and for the last few years of her life she worshipped mainly in the Church of Greenburgh.

" No one is living who remembers her confession of Christianity, but all who have known her, aud yet live to speak of her, bear the highest testimony to her Christian character.

"The funeral services were conducted in the Church of Greenburgh, and her remains borne to the old burial-ground of the North Church, near Tarrytown, and interred by the side of her husband."

Just one mile below the station at Elmsford, on the east side of the same road, stands an Episcopal house of worship known as "St. Paul's Mission Chapel of Saw-Mill River Valley." The mission was organized on Easter day, 1870, with four members, including Mr. John Drisler, who was then to serve as a lay reader. After laboring for about two years in that capacity, Mr. Drisler was ordained as a deacon by Bishop Horatio Potter, on July 4, 1872. The chapel was built in 1870, but was enlarged in 1872, thus be- coming forty feet long by twenty feet wide. It is situ- ated on an elevation nearly midway between Elmsford and Ardsley, and fronts the west, looking down upon the river, and over to the wooded hills beyond it. The mission numbers about twenty-five families and twenty communicants.

Abont a quarter of a mile to the east of this stands the Worthington Memorial Chapel, a fine stone build- ing erected in 1883 as a memorial to the late Henry

my R. Worthing Ins

. .....

.......

RESIDENCE OF HENRY R. WORTHINGTON, "THE HOMESTEAD."

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GREENBURGH.

Rossiter Worthington by his widowed wife. It is bnilt on a portion of the somewhat extensive landed property which Mr. Worthington owned there at the time of his deceasc. His mortal remains lie in a vault under the chancel, and it is understood that the chapel is to re- main closed during Mrs. Worthington's life-time. As yet no public religious service has ever been held in it, as none was held at the laying of the corner-stone. The edifice, of course, has never been consecrated, and is not under the control of the diocese. It is a taste- ful structure, and is said to have cost altogether about twenty thousand dollars. The building itself, and the grounds adjoining, together with the inclosure, are kept in excellent order, which must involve, in addition, a considerable expense.

The following tribute to the memory of Mr. Wor- thington is from the Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers for the year 1881 :

In Memoriam,

Henry Rossiter Worthington, late vice-president American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

The wide and profonnd expressions of regret at the sndden decease of Mr. Worthington among his pro- fessional acquaintances and in the great circles of his friends were first and largely an expression of per- sonal bereavement. He had earned a high place as an ingenions inventor and a successful engineer and his work will leave an indelible impression upon professional practice, but the influence and the tra- ditions of him as a man and a friend will ontlive generations of engineers.

The foundation of this mingled esteem and affec- tion was his intense and abiding love of the truth. The foundation was built upon by scientifie methods and the structure was adorned by personal graces and accomplishments. The love of truth that came from a high-minded ancestry was nurtured by his profes- sional pnrsnits, for his profession, unlike some other professions-and this is their misfortune, not their fault-has an inevitable criterion, and that is the truth. This sentiment-for it grew in him from a conviction to a sentiment-not only controlled his professional and private conduct, but it stimulated in him an honest skepticism regarding those beliefs in general which have come down to us with no higher anthority than that they are an inheritance. He was a willing and valiant assailant of " humbug" in every form, and nobler than this, he was the patient iconoclast who dispelled the phantoms in the mind of many an inventor and who saved many a plodding experimenter-not in applied science only-from im- pending disaster. He was also endowed with a grand humanity which practice perfected. Nor were his friends so called the sole beneficiaries ; only a long and intimate fellowship with him has discovered many of his private charities and half of them will probably never be known.

These attributes found apt and eloqnent expression

in his scholarly culture and brilliancy in his sponta- neous and perennial wit. As the patient, but not generally unimpassioned, advocate of truth or as the exposer of a fallacy or an imposture by analysis, by analogy, by ridicule, he had few equals.

And to crown all was his overflowing good-fellow- ship,-with all his serious thoughts and moods, his love of humor and mirth, of intimate talks with groups of friends, rambling from grave to gay, when all his true and kind. and withal fantastic, inspira- tions would grow into bloom. It was an education to hear him talk when the subject was large enough to move him.

The time is not ripe to analyze Mr. Worthington's ' contributions to the engincering specialty, in which he did not claim, but in which he was assigned, by general consent, the highest place. Mr. Worthington was undoubtedly the first proposer and constructor of the direct steam pump. The duplex system in pump- ing-engines-one engine actnating the steam-valves

THE WORTHINGTON MEMORIAL CHAPEL.

of the other, causing a pause of the pistons at the end of the stroke, so that the water-valves can seat them- selves quietly and preserve a uniform water pressure, this being a vast improvement on the Cornish engine -is generally admitted to be one of the most ingenious and effective, and certainly one of the most largely applied advances in modern engineering.

Mr. Worthington was chiefly known as a hydraulic engineer, but apart from this specialty, his experi- mental and practical contributions to other depart- ments of engineering, such as canal steam navigation, componnd engines, instruments of precision and ma- chinery tools, would entitle him to a high position in the profession.

Mr. Worthington was born Deecmber 17, 1817, and dicd December 17, 1880. His ancestors in America were sprung from Sir Nicholas Worthington, of Worthington, England, who died at Naseby, for King Charles, and they came to America in 1649.

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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

It would be interesting to trace the history of this Odell, and his son-in-law, Samuel Moorehouse. An- family, especially the grand old father, Asa Worth- other son of the emigrant was William Odell, Jr., of ington. A minute review of the life of Heury Rossi- ter Worthington, with its multitudinous benefactions of invention, of counsel, of entertainment, would also be pleasing and instruetive, but this is not the time nor the place.

His mortal remains lie on the edge of the old rocks which geologists call the primal continent, and every following cycle furnishes some stone to lay on his grave. So his immortal remains illustrate every phase of progress, from silurian instinct-to live-to the last formula of civilization-to let live.

Mr. Worthington was born in the city of New York, but his parents soon after removed to Brooklyn, where they continued to reside for many years. His father, Asa Worthington, at one period held the position of consul at Lima, South Ameriea, which appoint- ment he retained for a number of years. He was at the time con- nected with the business firm of Wetmore, Chaun- eey, Cryder & Co., who had an established house in Lima.

Mr. Worthington's wife was Miss Newton, dangh- ter of the late Commodore John T. Newton, United States Navy. She with four children survive him, -Amelia Stuart (wife of T. Whiteside Rae, civil engineer, formerly con- nected with the United States navy), Henry Fra- ser, Sarah Newton (wife of William Lanman Bull, a banker in Wall Street), and Charles Campbell (who succeeds his father as an hydraulic engineer in the business which he founded).

The mortal remains of Mr. Worthington were laid to rest in the Memorial Chapel built by his widow at Nepperhan Valley, near Irvington.

Another of the okl families of Greenburgh, who , 1874, when he became president of the Irving have always been prominent in its history, is that of the Odells.

The progenitor of the Odell family in America was Mr. William Odell, who, with his wife and family, eame to Concord, Mass., about 1639. He afterwards removed to Fairfield, Conn., where he died, and his will, dated June 6, 1676, was proved by his son, John

(Sans Oder

Rye, N. Y., who married a daughter of Richard Vowles, of Rye, and had three children, one of whom was John Odell, of Fordham, N. Y., who married Hannah -- , and had, among other children, a son, John Odell, Jr., of Fordham, who married Han- nah Vermilyea, and died leaving a will dated Sep- tember 25, 1735 (N. Y. Liber. 13, p. 183), in which he mentions his "honored father, John Odell," his wife, Hannah, and his children-John, Isaae, Jona- than, Abraham, Hannah and Altien.

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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 66

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