History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. II, Part 69

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 69

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"Sir Edmund Andros, Knight, &c. Whereas Frederick Philipse, of this city, merchant, hath made application unto me for a grant of a cer- tain creek or a river, called by the Indians Pocantico (whereon to set a mill), with a proportion of land ou each side adjoining thereunto ; the same lying within the bounds of the Indians' land at Wicker's Creek (the English corruption of the Indian name Weckquaesqueek) on the east side of Hudson's River ; and, by my leave and approbation, hath made purchase thereof from the native Iudian . proprietors, the which they have acknowledged before me as likewise to have received full satisfaction for the same from said Frederick Philipse. The said land ad- joining to the creek or river aforesaid, lying on each side thereof, north and south 1600 treads or steps, which, at twelve feet to the rod makes 400 rods, and runs up into the country as far as the said creek or river goeth, provided always that if the said creek or river, called by the Indians Neppera, and, by the Christians the Yonkers Creek or kill, shall come within that space of land of 400 rods on the south side of the aforesaid creek or river ; that it shall extend no further than the said creek or river of Neppera, but the rest to be so far up in the country on each side as the said creek or river called Pocantico r ns, being abont north east. KNOW YE that by virtue of the commission aud authority unto mne given under His Royal Highness, I have given and granted and by these presents do hereby give, ratify, confirm and grant nnto said Frederick Philipse, his heirs and assigns, the afore-recited creek or river parcels of lands and premises herein before expressed and set forth, to- gether with all the woodlands, meadows, pastures, marshes, fishing, hawking, hunting and fowling, as also the privilege of erecting and building a mill, making a dam, or whatsoever else shall be necessary and requisite thereunto, with all profits, commodities and emoluments unto the said creek, river and land belonging, or in any wise appertain- ing, to have aud to hold the said creek or river and land, with their and every of their appurtenances, to the said Frederick Philipse, his heirs and assignees forever, he making improvement thereon according to law, and yielding and paying therefor yearly and every year unto his Royal Highness a quit rent, one bushel of winter wheat in New York unto such officer or officers as shall be empowered to receive the same. Given under my hand and sealed with the seal of the Province, in New York, the first day of April, in the thirty-second year of his Majesty's reign, Anno Domini, 1680."

This purchase was followed by a series of purchases from the Indians, at later dates : naniely, on April 23, 1681, April 8, 1682, September 6, 1682, May 7, 1684, etc. The parcels of land thus successively purchased from the Indians were all iu the vicinity of the first purchase, made in 1680, and, together with that and other lands, comprised all the territory now con-

1 See Ilistory of Greenburgh.

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stituting the township of Mount Pleasant. The lat- ter purehases were confirmed, on December 23, 1684, by Colonel Thomas Dongan, the new Governor of the provinee, who sueeeeded Sir Edmund Andros in 1683.

The last purchase mentioned above, namely that of May 7, 1684 (elsewhere given as June 5, 1684), ex- tended the territorial boundary of Frederiek Phil- ipse's estate from the Nepperhan River eastward to the Bronx. The grantors, or party of the first part, consisted of nine male Indians and one Squaw, among the former being Ghoharius, whose name is here given as Ghoharim, and the famous. " Ann Hook," the murderer of Mrs. Ann Hutchinson, whose assumed name is here spelled "Enhoak." This pur- chase included " All that tract or parcel of land situate, lying and being to the eastward of the land of Frederick Philipse, between the creek ealled Nep- pierha, or the Yonker's Kill and Bronek's River, be- ginning on the south side at the northerly bounds of the Yonker's land; and from thence along the aforesaid ereek Nippierha, however it runs, till you come to the most northerly bounds of the said Frederiek Phil- ipse's land, and from thenee northeast into the woods unto Bronek's river, so as it runs southerly to the eastward of the Yoncker's land aforesaid, and from thenee, with a westerly line, to the aforesaid Yonck- er's Kill or Nippierlia." The payment was made, as usual, in various artieles that seemed to be in great demand among the Indians, of which the following is a list : "130 fathoms of white Wampum, 12 Guns, 14 Fathoms of Duffels, 12 Blankets, 8 Coats, 6 Kettles, 6 Fathoms of Stroudwater, 16 Shirts, 25 lbs. of Pow- der, 20 Bars of Lead, 10 Spoons, 2 Knives, 12 Pair of Stockings, 15 Hatchets, 10 Hocs, 10 Earthen Jugs, 10 Iron Pots, 43 Vats of Beer, 2 Ankers of Rum, 2 Rolls of Tobaeeo."

Frederick Philipse being thus vested in the fee- simple, the whole territory, comprising, in addition to the land situated in what subsequently became the township of Mount Pleasant, the land also for several miles adjaeant, was by royal eharter ereeted into the lordship or Manor of Philipsburgh, to be "holden of the King in free and common soeage," its lord " yield- ing, rendering and paying therefore yearly and every year on the Feast Day of the Annunciation of the blessed Virgin Mary, at the Fort in New York, the annual rent of £4 128." This is the eharter referred to under the heading of " Greenburgh," as dated June 12, 1693.

When Fredericke Philipse, the first proprietor and lord of the manor, died, in 1702, he left a will devis- ing to his second son, Adolphus or Adolphe Philipse, all that portion of the manor lying north of Dobbs Ferry, which included within its limits the present township of Mount Pleasant. But Adolph Philipse having died without issue in 1749, the whole Manor of Philipsburgh became vested in his nephew, the Hon. Frederick Philipse, as the nearest male heir of his

grandfather Frederiek, the first proprietor. The Hon. Frederick Philipse died in 1751, and left surviv- ing him two sons, Frederiek and Philip, and three daughters, Susanna, Mary and Margaret. The oldest son, Frederick, being heir of his father, became de- visee in tail male of the Manor of Philipsburgh, and tenant for life under his father's wihl, with remainder in tail male. The Upper Highland Patent of Philips- town, in Putnam County, passed to the second son, Philip, among whose descendants it yet remains.

In 1779 all the lands lying in the township of Mount Pleasant, together with all the other lands be- longing to the Manor of Philipsburgh, in consequence of the attainder of Colonel Frederick Philipse for treason to his country during the Revolutionary War, beeame vested in the State of New York. The act was passed October 22, 1779.

On May 12, 1784, the Legislature passed a further act by which it appointed Isaae Stoutenburgh and Philip Van Cortlandt Commissioners of Forfeitures, for the Southern District of the State, to sell and to dispose of all the real estate in that distriet that had been forfeited to the State under the above-mentioned act of October 22, 1779.

As the township was originally organized on March 7, 1788, Mount Pleasant comprised all that part of the Manor of Philipsburgh lying north of Greenburgh, the north line of which has already been deseribed under the head of " Greenburgh." The north line of the manor and of the original township of Mount Pleasant commeneed at a point on the south shore of the Croton River, two miles above its mouth, and ran thenee by " a direet east line " to the head-waters of the Bronx. In this case, however, a " direet east " line does not mean a " due east " line. The Van Cortlandt patent starts at the same point on the Croton River, and runs "due east," whereas the Philipse Manor line bears about southeast, or S. 48º E., by the magnetic needle, in this present year, 1885.

The wedge-shaped piece of territory. with the sharp end touching the Croton River, which thus lies be- tween the Van Cortlandt Manor on the north, and the Philipse Manor on the south, belonged to what was known as the West Patent of North Castle, which, on February 14, 1701, was granted under the signa- ture of John Nanfan, Lieutenant-Governor, and under the great seal of the province of New York, to Robert Walters, Cornelius Depeyster, Caleb Heatheote and seven others associated with them, the whole em- braeing, " by estimation, about five thousand acres of profitable land, besides wastes and woodlands." This territory was first organized into the township of North Castle, but was afterwards set off on March 18, 1791, into a separate township under the name of New Castle.1

The starting-point of the Mount Pleasant line on

1 See map of Greenburgh and Mount Pleasant, ante p. 178.

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the Croton River, as well as of the present Cort- landt township line, is an oak-tree by a roek oppo- site the north end of Deer Island,this having been ad- judged by the Commissioners of Forfeitures to be " two miles from the mouth of the Croton River."

The new township of Ossining having been taken out of Mount Pleasant in 1845, the boundary of Mount Pleasant along the old manor line was, of course, materially shortened, the new northwest cor- ner being where the Pocantico River crosses the old manor line. With this corner as a new starting-point, Mount Pleasant runs southerly along the Pocantico River as far as Buckhout's Bridge, and over it. The line then strikes directly westward to the Hudson River, at the point where the dividing line of prop- erty between the land of the late Rev. William Creighton, D.D., and the land of the late Abraham Leggett comes to its western terminus by meeting the waters of the Hudson.

This line was newly run out in August, 1884, by Messrs. Ward Carpenter & Son, surveyors and civil engineers, so well known in Westchester County for their painstaking accuracy, with a view to determine what part of the new aqueduct, now in process of construction, lay within the township of Mount Pleasant, and what in Ossining. It was found, on making the survey, that St. Mary's Church, Becch- wood, which had previously been supposed to be within the limits of Mount Pleasant, was really in the township of Ossining. The dividing line as run out in 1884, in accordance with the statute of 1845, passes a little north of the parsonage occupied by the late Rev. Edward N. Mead, D.D., which is situ- ated about two hundred feet south of St. Mary's Church.

Thus we have all the northern and part of the western boundary of Mount Pleasant. The Hudson completes the western boundary, Greenburgh forms the southern limit, and the Bronx River the eastern. The northwest corner of North Castle is fixed by statute at the northeast corner of Mount Pleasant, which point is described as "the head-waters of the Bronx." This does not necessarily mean the source, but the point where two or more brooklets unite to form the main stream. As a matter of fact, the Bronx, and also the Pocantico and the Nepperhan or Saw-Mill River, all rise in the high grounds of New Castle.

The geographical centre of Mount Pleasant lies probably in the little hamlet of Unionville, not far from where the Harlem Railroad crosses the main carriage road from Bedford to Tarrytown. The prin- cipal settlements in the township are the two villages of North Tarrytown, in the southwest, and of Pleas- antville, in the north. The only other settlements that seem to call for particular mention are the vil- lage or hamlet of Unionville, just referred to as nearly in the centre of the township, and the newly- laid-out village of Tarrytown Heights, about a mile

and a half to the northeast of Tarrytown proper, on the New York City and Northern Railroad.

POPULATION AND TAXABLE VALUE .- The popu- lation of Mount Pleasant, by the census of 1875, was 5411; by the census of 1880, it was 5450, thus show- ing a gain of population in five years of 39. This was a gain in spite of the financial and business de- pression.

There was also a gain in the value of property. The assessed valuation, as corrected and published in the supervisor's report for August, 1884, shows the following result: Assessed valuation, corrected for 1874, $2,149,934; assessed valuation, corrected for 1884, 82,482,141, thus showing a gain in ten years of $332,207. In 1874 the value of land per acre in the township of Mount Pleasant was $130.26; the value per acre in 1884 was $150.39, thus showing a gain in the value per acre in ten years of $20.13.

Moving from south to north up the east bank of the Hudson, the first village to be noticed in Mount Pleasant is North Tarrytown. As shown under the head of Greenburgh, it is really a part of Tarrytown, though technically separated from it by the Andre Brook, as the dividing line between the two town- ships.

North Tarrytown, an incorporated village of two thousand six hundred and eighty-four inhabitants by the census of 1880, and situated on the Hudson River twenty-five miles north from the Grand Central Depot, New York City, by the Hudson River Rail- road, or twenty-one miles north from One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Street, by the New York City and Northern Railroad, is built upon the southern limit of the tract of land formerly belonging to the old Manor of Philipsburgh, including the site of the old manor-house, still standing, but after the Revolution conveyed by the Commissioners of Forfeitures, Isaac Stoutenburgh and Philip Van Cortlandt, to Gerard G. Beckman "for and in consideration of the sum of Nine thousand and forty pounds lawful moncy," by an indenture made on May 23, 1785, "in the ninth year of the Independence of the State of New York." The two parcels included in this Beekman deed, though put down as consisting of seven hundred and fifty acres by the survey of 1847, are said to have embraced really an area of nearly nine hundred acres. They extended from the Andre Brook northward to within thirty rods of where the Croton Aqueduct spans the post road with its arch between Tarrytown and Sing Sing, and from the Hudson River eastward across the Pocantico River, well on, at the southeast angle, to the crest of the line of hills beyond it.

The Beekman family, into whose hands the prop- erty thus fell after the Revolution, were descended from some of the early settlers of New Amsterdam or New York. William Beekman, the founder of the family in this State, came over from Holland in the same ship with Peter Stuyvesant, in 1647. He marricd Catherine Van Bough, daughter of a well-

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known trader, and at one time owned and resided at Corlaer's Hook now that part of New York City at the bend of the East River, just below Grand Street, and opposite the Brooklyn Navy Yard. It is at present occupied by machine shops and storage ware- houses, and is anything but desirable as a place of residence. Governor Stuyvesant appointed him vice- director of the Dutch colony at the South River, or mouth of the Delaware; but after serving for a time, he removed to Esopus, up the Hudson, and subse- quently returned to New York City, in 1670. There he purchased the farm upon which the present Beek- man Street was laid out. He owned also "Beekman's Swamp," still known as "the Swamp," and the centre of the hide and leather business, lying between the City Hall Park and Franklin Square. Its pungent odor of salted hides and fresh sole leather is always perceptible to the stranger passing through it. Wil- liam Beckman died in 1707 at the age of eighty-five, leaving one daughter and three sons, Henry, Gerard

MRS. CORNELIA BEEKMAN.

and Johannes. Gerard G. Beekman, the purehaser of the property here referred to, was a grandson of William Beekman. About the year 1769 he married that remarkable woman, Miss Cornelia Van Cort- landt, second daughter of Pierre Van Cortlandt, pro- prietor of the Van Cortlandt manor and manor-house still standing and occupied by the Van Cortlandt family, north of the Croton River. Her father was Lieutenant-Governor of the State of New York under George Clinton from 1777 to 1795, and was distin- guished for his vigorous support of the cause of inde-

high character and noble patriotic devotion during that long struggle is given, together with an engraved likeness, in the work entitled "The Women of the Revolution," by Mrs. Elizabeth F. Ellet, published in two volumes by Baker & Scribner, New York, in 1848.

An incident or two from the second volume will give an idea of her courageous spirit and will, and shows that while she was personally lovely, she was also heroically brave. The story of the way in which she overawed the enemy under Colonels Bayard and Fanning is gathered frou oue of her own letters, written in 1777:

" A party of royalists, commanded by these two Colonels, pald a visit to her house, demeaning themselves with the arrogauce and insolence she was accustomed to witness. One of them insultingly Said to her : ' Are you not the daughter of that old rebol, Pierre Van Cortlaudt ?' Sbe replied with dignity : ' I am the daughter of Pierre Van Cortlandt-but it be- comes not such as you to call my father a rebel !' The tory raised his musket, when she, with perfect calun ess, reproved hint for his insolence and hade him begone. lle finally turned away ahashed."

Mrs. Beekman's agency in the detection and cap- ture of Major Andre was of great service to her coun- try, though at the time she little knew how important was the bearing of lier resolute conduct upon the pub- lic cause. The incident is thus related in the sketch of her life,-

" John Webb, familiarly known as ' Lieutenant Jack,' who occasion- ally served as an acting aid in the staff of the Commander-in-chief, was much at her house, as well as the other otlicers, during the operations of the army on the banks of the IIndson. On one occasion, passing through Peekskill, he rode up and requested her to oblige him by taking charge of his valise, which contained his uew suit of uniform and a quantity of gold. Ile added, ' I will send for it whenever I want it; but do not de- liver it without a written order from me or brother Sam.' Ile threw in the valise at the door, from the horse, and rode on to the tavern at Peeks- kill, where he stopped to dine. A fortuight or so after his departure, Mrs. Beekmnu saw an acquaintance-Smith-whose fidelity to the Whig canse had been suspected, ride rapidly up to the house. She heard him ask her husband for 'Lieutenant Jack's' valise, which he directed a servant to bring and hand to Smith. MIrs. Beekmuu called ont to ask if the messenger had a written order from either of the brothers. Smith replied that he had no written order, the officer having had no time to write one ; but added, 'You know me very well, Mrs. Beekman, and when I assure yon that " Lientenant Jack " sent wie for the vallse you will not refuse to deliver it to me, as he is greatly in want of his uniform.' Mrs. Beekman often said she had an instinctive antipathy to Smith, and, by an intuition for which it is dithicult to account, felt convinced that he had not been authorized to call for the article she had in trust. She answered, 'I do know you very well-too well to give up the valise with- ont a written order from the owner or the Colonel.' Smith was angry at her doubts and appealed to her husband, urging that the fact of his knowing the valise was there, and that it coutained 'Lieutenant Jack's' uniform, should be sufficient evidence that he came by authority ; but his representations had no effect npon her resolution. Although even her husband was displeased at this treatment of the messenger, she re- mained firm In her denial, aud the disappointed horseman rode away as raphlly as he came. The result proved that he had no anthority to make the application ; and it was subsequently ascertained that at the very time of this attempt Major Andre was in Smith's house. llow he knew that the uniform had been left at Mrs. Beekman's was a matter of uu- certainty ; but another account of the incident-given by the accon- plished lady who furnished these anecdotes of Mrs Beekman-states that Lieutenant Webb, dining at the tavern the same day, had mention- ed that she had taken charge of his valise and what were its contents. lle thanked Mrs. Beekman, on his return, for the prudence that had sved his property, and had also prevented an occurrence which might have enused a train of disasters, Hle und Major Andre were of the same stature and form ; 'nud beyond all doubt,' says one who heard the partic-

pendence during the Revolutionary War. On her marriage with Gerard G. Beekman, at the age of seventeen, she removed, with her husband, to New York City, and resided while there in the street bearing his fantily name. When the storm of war burst upon the city, she removed again to the scenes of her childhood in the country, first at Croton, and then at Peekskill, where she remained until the restoration of peace. An interesting account of her . ulars from the partles Interested, 'had Smith obtained possession of the

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uniform, Andre would have made his escape through the American lines.' The experience that teaches in every page of the world's history what vast results depend on things apparently trivial, favors the suppo- sition, in dwelling on this simple incident, that under tho Providence that disposes all human events, the fate of a nation may have been sus- pended upon a woman's judgment."

The Smith here spoken of was the notorious Joshua Hett Smith, who acted as a go-between in the nego- tiations of Arnold and Andre. He was afterwards tried as particeps criminis with Arnold, but managed to escape punishment in consequence of contradictory or insufficient testimony. It was at his house, a square, two-storied stone house, still standing on the Haverstraw road, two and a half miles south of Stony Point, that Andre lodged while in the Amer- ican liues. The intention evidently was that An- dre should disguise himself in the uniformi of an American officer and thus make his escape back to the British lines. Twice before he had been at General Arnold's headquarters in the disguise of a valet de chambre, as he had been in the American lines at Charleston, South Carolina, during the previous month of May, disguised as a back countryman who had brought down cattle. So at least it is stated on apparently good authority. The refusal of Mrs. Beek- man to give up the uniform that was sought for him brought his hitherto successful career as a spy to a fatal and inglorious close.

After the Revolution the lands in the Manor of Philipsburgh were parceled out and sold, Frederick Philipse having been attainted of high treason, and his property confiscated to the State of New York. Gerard G. Beekman purchased the tract on which the old manor-house then stood, as it does now, and thither he removed with his family in 1785. There he died in 1822, at the age of seventy-six years, and there, twenty-five years later, on March 14, 1847, his wife, Cornelia Van Cortlandt Beekman, gently fell asleep in the niuety-fifth year of her age.

Beekmantown, the original name of the village, for which the name of North Tarrytown was finally sub- stituted in the legal incorporation in 1874, was first laid out in lots by George W. Cartwright, a surveyor, about the year 1835. The Rev. George Rockwell, who was familiar with the locality at that period, says in regard to it: "I remember how surprised I was to find people williug to pay one hundred dollars for a little building lot, for that was about the price at first. It was a barren sand-bed, with but little besides wild ouions and a few scrubby bushes, even down to the Audre Brook, which was then, as it is now, the town- ship line. I think the Wood brothers had a house or two just over the line, where the Hudson River Rail- road now is, but am not sure when they were built." He adds in another place that over to the east, at the junction of Broadway and the Bedford road, " a store had been kept where J. Benedict See's store now stands, as one always has been kept there ever since, and a blacksmith-shop was at the angle near where St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church now is. Be-

sides these, I do not remember any buildings on Broad- way, except an old academy building just north of the Andre Brook."

Amos R. Clark, Esq., states that " About 1835 Mrs. Cornelia Beekman laid out new roads, and sokl all the land south of Beekman Avenue, in building lots. At that time there were only twelve houses west of the Croton Aqueduct. Beekman Averme being iu many places four rods wide, it contained no less than three distinct wagon roads, or tracks, from Broadway to the river. At that time, also, and for many years after- wards, there were from thirce to five sloops sailing to and from New York every week, from the Upper Dock at the foot of Beekman Avenue. They carried the produce of the farmers from far back iu the couu- try, and returned with the various articles then in de- mand. Immense quantities of potatoes, of apples and of hogs were raised for the New York market, and as there were then no railroad facilities, such as are now found on the Harlem and Hudson River lines, all had to be shipped by boats. In apple years, from three to six thousand barrels of apples and potatoes were shipped weekly. Late in the fall from two hundred to three hundred hogs were carried per week, and all the supplies for country stores, as far back as Cross River, were thus brought from 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 69

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