USA > New York > New York City > In olde New York; sketches of old times and places in both the state and the city > Part 8
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1 First appeared in the New York Evening Post in 1883.
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board with equal courtesy titled visitors from foreign lands, grave colonial gentlemen in wigs and ruffles, and the blanketed chieftains of her own nation. Groups of merry children, showing the lineaments of the Caucasian father and Indian mother, have played about its doors. It has been the scene of bridals, births, and deaths, of stirring incidents, romantic episodes, and diplomatic triumphs without number, and now in more peaceful days preserves the stateli- ness and dignity befitting a mansion with a history. The old house stands on a slight elevation, about a mile from the village, in a park of some ten acres, with meadows and green fields sloping from it in every direction. The approach is by a private road set with shade trees. The park is well kept and fragrant with flowers and shrubbery. Four great, gaunt poplars stand within it which are pointed out as having been planted by the Baronet himself, a year after the house was built. A row of gnarled old lilac trees set in the form of an ellipse, and still blooming in their season, were set out by the same hand.
The Hall itself is a square-roofed two-story and attic structure, built of wood clapboarded in the form of blocks of stone, and at its best estate had two wings built of solid stone and pierced for musketry; but one of these, however, is now standing. On entering the house its solidity and wide proportions at once mark it as a product of the colonial era. Its timbers are
THE JOHNSON HOUSE Reproduced from an old-time French print
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massive. The hall running through the building is forty feet long by fifteen wide, with a broad staircase leading to a similar hall above. The rooms are high and spacious and the sides are wainscoted with heavy panels and carved work. On the roof is an observa- tory from which one may look into four counties. This, however, did not form a part of the original structure. Bow-windows in parlor and dining-room have also been added by the present owner. In other respects it stands precisely as it was left by its titled builder. It was built in 1763, and was then considered one of the finest mansions in the colony outside of New York.
Sir William Johnson came of a good family in Ireland and arrived in America in 1738, at the age of twenty- three, to take charge of a large estate in the Mohawk Valley which his uncle, Captain Peter Warren, had purchased some years before. Either through his own address or the influence of his family the young Irishman "got on" famously in the new world. He cleared lands, invited settlers, opened a country store, built a flouring mill, and drove a profitable trade with the Indians, and in a few years became favorably known not only in his own section but at Albany and New York. In a few years we find him receiving offices from the Crown, but that which secured him the favor of his Government and brought him wealth and honors was the unbounded influence which he
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soon acquired over his savage neighbors, the Six Nations. Perhaps no other man ever studied the Indian character, habits, and sympathies so thoroughly, or possessed such tact and skill in making use of his knowledge. To secure their friendship, he visited them in their villages, dressed in their garb, sat in their councils, seated them as guests at his own table, took part in their ceremonies, and allied himself domestically with one of their most powerful clans. He early saw the importance to the colony and to Eng- land of winning and holding this strong confederacy to the English cause, and that the man who could do this was sure of advancement and favor. He lived during the stirring period of the French and Indian wars. Wily emissaries of the French were continually appearing among the Six Nations, bribing them and striving to arouse their prejudices against their neigh- bors, the English; but during this entire period the influence of this one man held the Indians to their fealty and saved the colony from destruction. It was natural that he should be rewarded for this. As early as 1746 the chief management of Indian affairs was entrusted to him and he was given the command of several Indian expeditions against the French. In 1755 he was made a Major-General and given command of one of the four armies raised that year for service against the French, and after meeting and defeating Baron Dieskau on Lake George the Crown created
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him a Baronet, while Parliament voted him five thou- sand pounds to support the honor. In addition he had received at various times immense tracts of land. In 1762 he was the owner, either by purchase or grant, of nearly all the fertile region now included in the county of Fulton, and about this time settled one hundred families on the site of the present village of Johnstown, and partly for their protection and partly to maintain a better espionage over the Indians built the old mansion which I have described. The scene then was far different from that presented now. A heavy forest covered the country, broken only by the clearing about the little settlement, and bear and panther, Mohawk, Delaware, and Seneca prowled in it.
The Hall was scarcely completed when it became the scene of a notable Indian council. In the summer of 1762 Pontiac, King of the great Ottawa Confederacy, had formed a design of driving the English from the country and had invited all the great interior tribes, among them the Six Nations, to join with him in the enterprise. The Senecas alone were seduced from their allegiance, many of their braves being engaged with Pontiac in the attacks which were made that year on the English outposts in the West. The chiefs of the five nations, unsolicited by Johnson, went to re- monstrate with the offending tribe, but they found its young men averse to remaining at peace with the Eng- lish. A few of their clans, however, had not gone on
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the war path, and these desired the intercession of the ambassadors that they might be spared in the chastise- ment which they were sure the English would inflict on their nation, and it was arranged that six of the friendly Senecas should return with the embassy to Johnson Hall and present their claims in person. The conference was held on the 7th of September. Three hundred and twenty delegates from the five nations with the six friendly Senecas in all the bravery of paint and feathers attended it. Johnson, attired in the full uniform of Major-General, gave the head chiefs an audience in the drawing-room of the old mansion. The Onondaga chief opened the council with a speech in which he graphically depicted the whole course of the mission and the present hostile attitude of the Senecas, introduced in fitting terms the envoys of the peaceful clans, and dwelt eloquently on the loyalty of the five nations to the English despite the specious promises of Pontiac. Johnson's reply showed the finesse of the accomplished diplomat. He commended the loyalty of the five nations in their efforts to bring the Senecas to reason, and reminded them that the latter were not only enemies to the English but traitors to the Confederacy, since they interrupted its trade and disturbed its friendly relations with the English. He might justly ask them to take up the hatchet against the delinquents, but only desired them to remain quiet and observe how the English punished
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their enemies. Turning to the friendly Senecas, he commended their individual loyalty, but gave them to understand that, as their nation was in open rebellion, any clemency that might be shown them would be due to the intercession of their confederates. The council broke up with the fealty of the five great nations during Pontiac's war secured.
Close on the heels of this council came an embassy from the Ganniagwaris, a people of the same stock as the Mohawks, but now residing on the Saint Lawrence, praying for redress from the Jesuits, who had seized some of their richest lands by virtue of a patent from Louis XIV. The Baronet promised to lay their grievance before the King, and then began the task of enlisting them on the English side in a war against Pontiac. They replied figuratively, referring to their disarmament by the English in the last French' War. "When you took the war axe from us you directed us to pursue our hunting, so that we must now be still, having no axe." In reply Sir William presented them with an axe of the best English steel and directed them to pass it around among their warriors with instruc- tions to use it in cutting off all the bad links which had sullied the chain of friendship. The embassy returned, and in a few days their three hundred braves were on the war path against Pontiac.
But the most notable council ever held here was that of 1768, between the Six Nations and their ancient
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enemies, the Cherokees. In December, 1767, three Cherokee chiefs arrived at Albany by sloop from New York, and, accompanied by Colonel Philip Schuyler, proceeded on horseback to Johnson Hall, their object being to arrange a treaty of peace between their nation and the Confederacy. The Baronet entertained them in state, and at once despatched the belt by runners to call a grand council of the tribes. On the third of March a large body of the confederates and their allies had been gathered at the Hall. They came out of the dense forest singly and by twos and threes, Delawares, Shawnees, Senecas, and Mohawks, with laggard steps and lowering brows, and gathered about the Hall, until seven hundred and sixty warriors had surrounded it. No man ever had a more formidable task appointed him than had the Baronet in moving this large assembly to his will. The entire Confederacy was in a ferment this time over the outrages committed upon it by the English. Its lands had been seized, its members jeered and insulted, and many of them murdered by settlers. No notice had been taken of their offer to cede all their lands east of the Ohio for a small con- sideration, and the colonies were on the verge of another terrible Indian war. The Baronet, however, held several private interviews with the principal chiefs before the grand council took place, at which he told them among other things that he had received certain intelligence that the King had decided to accept their
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offer to sell the lands east of the Ohio, and so far won them to good humor that at the council the treaty with the Cherokees was concluded.
These were a few of the many councils and private meetings of chiefs of which the old Hall has been the scene. Disputes and questions of various kinds, such as were continually arising on the border, were also brought here for settlement. Petty differences between Indian and white man, land claims involving thousands of acres, were here decided, and criminal actions con- ducted.
Despite his public duties the Baronet found time for a genial and generous hospitality. Few gentlemen of the colony or foreign visitors of rank or note came into the Mohawk Valley without being entertained under his roof. Among the latter was Lord Adam Gordon, who afterward became Commander-in-Chief of the army in Scotland, and between whom and his host a firm friendship was established. Another titled visitor was Lady Susan O'Brian, eldest daughter of Stephen Fox, first Earl of Ilchester, and sister of Lady Harriet Ackland.
The mistress of the mansion during these years was an Indian princess, a sister of the celebrated Mohawk chief Thayendanega. She first attracted the Baronet's attention at a militia training, where, a beautiful, sprightly girl of sixteen, she won the plaudits of the multitude by leaping at the invitation of an officer to
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the crupper of his horse and riding with him in a mad gallop about the parade ground. About 1750 the Baronet and she were married according to the Indian custom, although it is not probable that the English ceremony was ever performed. The lady is de- scribed as being agreeable in person and as possess- ing sound understanding. Lady O'Brian speaks of her in her letters as a well-bred and agreeable lady, who in many rambles about the forests proved herself a pleasant companion. Sir William's chief object in the alliance, no doubt, was to secure greater influence with the Indian chiefs, but the lady seems to have made him a faithful wife, and the pair lived together in the greatest harmony until the hus- band's death.
This event occurred suddenly in the library of the old house on the 9th of July, 1774. During the day the Baronet had stood two hours in the burning July sun, delivering a speech to several hundred Indians who had assembled to ask his aid in seeking redress for encroachments on their lands. At the conclusion of the address he was seized with a violent attack of dysentery and conveyed to his library, where he died in the arms of a faithful attendant almost before his family could reach the scene. This was the last event worthy of note in the history of the old mansion. In the troubles which quickly followed, the Baronet's family espoused the royal cause and the Hall became
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an object of suspicion and dislike to the patriot leaders. It, however, happily escaped the torch during the war, and remains one of the few colonial houses with a history saved to the student of to-day.
CHAPTER XIV
THOMAS PAINE'S LAST HOME 1
T HE thousands that daily whirl by New Rochelle on the trains of the Consolidated Railroad see little more than the earth and stone walls of a deep cut, and up on the bank to the right a stone church surrounded by an ancient churchyard. If one leaves the train for a day's ramble, he finds beyond the stone walls and the church a large town, with many fine old country-seats, and as many modern villas, wide busi- ness and residence streets, and as many narrow ones lined with humbler dwellings.
A road stretches north away from the town eight miles to the village of White Plains and its ancient battle-ground - a highway made smooth and hard by its covering of broken stone, winding between ranks of tall, ragged locusts, their tops dead and broken off, through a beautiful and highly cultivated region.
One passes here a country seat, there a new villa smart with a coat of parti-colored paint; just beyond a little cottage with stone walls and gables, low, antiquated 1 Written in 1885.
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porch, green wooden shutters, and huge chimney that must have been built for one of the Huguenot yeomen who settled New Rochelle over two centuries ago.
At one place, on a bluff in thick woods, is an old, deserted house that has been without human habitant to care for it for generations, and where, in Revolu- tionary days, when the cowboys and skinners harried all this region, an old man and his daughter were tor- tured and left for dead in the effort to make them re- veal the depository of their secret hoards.
By all the rules of apparitions this house should be haunted, but on inquiry the pilgrim could find no record of so much as a ghostly light or footfall ever being seen or heard there.
A mile of this road, and then the tourist pauses on the side of a hill whose summit is crowned with hand- some dwellings and fine farms, before a marble shaft set in a space some twelve feet square, with an iron fence in front and a solid wall of stone enclosing it from the meadow behind, and from a lane that turns in on the north side, and after dipping down to cross a brook, ascends the hill to a modest, low-walled farmhouse that with its outbuildings occupies the summit.
On the western face of the monument, next the road, is a medallion likeness of Thomas Paine, with the inscription :
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"Thomas Paine, Author of 'Common Sense.' Born in England, January 29, 1737, Died in New York city, June 8, 1809. 'The palaces of kings are built upon the ruins of the bowers of Paradise.' - Common Sense."
Above the medallion is Paine's motto:
"The world is my country, To do good my religion."
The south side bears quotations from the Crisis No. I. and from Crisis No. XV. The inscriptions on the east and north sides are taken from the "Age of Reason." Fertile meadows sweep away to the east- ward, cut in twain by the farm-road mentioned. They form part of the estate given to Paine in 1783 by the State of New York for his services in the Revolution.
The history of both monument and farm is interest- ing. Paine, as he lay on his dying bed, evinced con- siderable anxiety as to the disposal of his body after death, fearing, perhaps, that it would not meet with proper respect. His father was a Quaker, and he desired to be laid to rest in the burying-ground of that people. He sent to Mr. Willet Hicks, a respectable Quaker living ncar, and said that, as he was going to leave one place, it was necessary to provide another, and wished to be interred in the Quaker burying- ground, adding that he might be interred in the Epis-
THE THOMAS PAINE MEMORIAL
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copal churchyard, but they were so arrogant, or in the Presbyterian, but they were so hypocritical. The Quakers, however, refused the desired permission.
In his last will and testament, dated January 18, 1809, Paine expressed a wish to be buried in the Quaker burying-ground if they permitted it, but if they would not allow it he wished to be buried on his farm, "the place where I am to be buried to be a square of twelve feet, to be enclosed with rows of trees and a stone or post and rail fence, with a headstone with my name and age engraved upon it, 'Author of Common Sense.'" He was so buried in a plot in the field a few yards south of the present monument. In 1819, however, William Cobbett, the great English Liberal, while in this country dug up his bones and carried them to England, but what disposition was made of them is not known. In 1838-9 funds for the present monument were raised by public subscription, and the marble was cut at Tuckahoe. When those having the matter in charge came to erect it, they were forbidden by the owner to cross his land to the grave, the farm now having passed into strange lands, and after some delay the present site was purchased and the stone was erected there.
After a time the monument fell into neglect. Those who had known Paine, or who remembered the facts attending its erection, had died or removed. A few years ago the stone was used as a bill-board, and was
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literally covered with handbills and posters. At length a movement was set on foot in New York and New Rochelle, funds were collected sufficient to restore it, and in 1881 it was rededicated with appro- priate ceremonies and the present inscriptions.
The farm in the days preceding the Revolution was known as the "Devoe Farm," and was owned by Frederick Devoe. "Yeoman," he is styled in the early records. Frederick Devoe was a Tory, and according to tradition piloted the British troops over the country roads to White Plains in 1776, where they intrenched. For this offense he was indicted for treason Novem- ber 10, 1780, and judgment was declared against him July 5, 1783, whereupon his farm was confiscated under the Confiscation Act, and given by the State of New York to Thomas Paine. Cheatham, in his 'Life of Paine,' says: "The farm contained more than 300 acres of land, and an elegant stone house 120 x 28 feet." In point of fact the farm lacked some twenty acres of 300, and the house was far from "elegant," being a small stone farmhouse of a story and a half, such as sheltered the yeomen of that day. The original structure, considerably modified and im- proved, may be studied in the farmhouse which we have mentioned as standing on the summit of the hill to the eastward of the monument.
Calling on Mr. Wesley Lee, the then proprietor, we were shown the parlor which Paine occupied, and
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the library opening out of it in which he wrote. These have been little changed from the time of the author's occupancy. "When I bought it," said Mr. Lee, "the only relics of Paine remaining were the old Franklin stove and andirons he used; the stove still set in the brickwork in the library. These I let Mr. Walter Bell, the stove-dealer in New Rochelle, have in exchange for a modern stove and appurtenances. I presume he still has them."
Returning to New Rochelle, we called on Mr. Bell, and were shown the stove, which, if it had never be- longed to Paine, would still possess interest as being the first form that took shape in the inventor's mind. It is composed of heavy upright and horizontal plates of iron held in place by grooves, there not being a bolt or rod in the whole fabric - a sort of iron box, in which, on andirons, the fire was built. Mr. Bell has two affidavits to prove that the stove was really Paine's. One is from Mr. Lee, stating that at the time he pur- chased the property there was a Franklin stove set in the brickwork of the room on the northeast corner of the house, and a pair of andirons, and that he made inquiry of the former owners, and also of old residents, and from information thus obtained he believed them to be the same as those formerly used by Thomas Paine. The other is from Augustus Van Cortlandt, M.D., a former resident of New Rochelle, who says that "in the year 1841 he was taken by his father to
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the house formerly occupied by Thomas Paine, author of the 'Age of Reason,' 'Common Sense,' and the 'Rights of Man'; that while there he was shown the old Franklin stove and andirons, which his father stated were seen by him in the year 1808, when he presented a letter to Thomas Paine personally in the same room where said Frank- lin stove and andirons were, and that from the design and certain marks thereon he knows them to be the articles shown him as aforesaid, and that the same are now in possession of Messrs. Bell and Harmer."
"My object in getting these affidavits," continued Mr. Bell, "was to prove the authenticity of the relics, and it was suggested to me by the fact that on my way home with the stove I met a man, a citizen of New Rochelle, who laughed at the very idea that I had Paine's stove in the wagon. Dr. Van Cortlandt was a member of the old Van Cortlandt family, a learned and respectable gentleman, who told me a great many things about Paine. He said that when his father called on the latter he was clad in a dressing-gown that had evidently been made of a blanket, and with a beard of three days' growth on his face. A deal table stood in the room, without a cover, on which was a part of a loaf of bread, a pitcher of milk, and a bowl of molasses, from which his breakfast had evidently been furnished. He said that there was valuable
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furniture and bric-à-brac in the room, including a fine French clock, medals given to Paine by various societies, with bronzes and medallions. He said Paine once made a model of an iron bridge to cross the Harlem River at a single span, which was thought a wonderful thing in those days. The only other relic of Paine now in New Rochelle, so far as I know, is an old armehair in which he sat during his frequent calls on his neighbors, the Badeaus, who lived nearly oppo- site the monument. Mrs. Badeau, who lived to be quite aged, always spoke of Paine with the greatest esteem and respect, though she did not share in his religious views. He had a love for little children, she said, that almost amounted to a passion, and was in turn a great favorite with them. She described him as pleasant and social in familiar intercourse, with a fund of anecdote and information, on which he was always willing to draw for the entertainment of his friends. The last years of this good old lady were spent in protecting the grave and tombstone of her friend from the attacks of curiosity and relic-hunters. Often has she raised her window and frightened off men who were breaking chips from edges of the stone, to be preserved as relics. She saw Cobbett's men when they rifled the grave in 1819, and warned them away, but they refused to go, saying they were acting under Cobbett's orders.
"I know of but one person now living in the town
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who remembers Paine. That person is Mrs. Daven- port, a very aged lady living on Davenport's Neck. She says that Paine often patted her on the head when she was a little girl."
CHAPTER XV
THE AMERICAN BARBISON
B ARBISON, the well-known resort of so many French artists and art-students, where Millet and a whole colony of painters have found inspiration and subjects worthy of their pencils, lies in the heart of the ancient forest of Fontainebleau, at an easy distance from the great capital. Easthampton,1 which we have ventured to call the American Barbison, is a village of Puritan origin, situated at the southeastern extremity of Long Island, in a little oasis of meadows and wheat-fields, that owes some portion of its attract- iveness to its surroundings of sand and scrub. Its one wide main street is so prodigal of land that it could only have been laid out by men with a continent at their disposal. Great elms and willows overarch it, and beyond their vistas the eye rests on the broad bosom of the Atlantic, flecked by summer sails. North- ward one looks on orchards and green fields. The dwellings that line it for a mile please by their endless variety. There is the quaint old Puritan cottage, with
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