USA > New York > Bronx County > The Bronx and its people; a history, 1609-1927, Volume I > Part 36
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The whole region of country bordering the Hudson River, north of Spuyten Duyvil was until within a very recent period occupied by isolated residences and grand estates, some of them embracing several thousand acres. Notable examples were the Philipse and Livingston manors, the titles to which came directly from the crown. Gradually these extensive tracts were sub-divided, leaving still, how- ever, large areas in the possession of single individuals. Many of these smaller estates have undergone a process of improvement and embellishment, until the lordly mansions on the Hudson have become famed on both sides of the Atlantic for their beauty and picturesque surroundings. Art has done its share to add to the charms of the landscape. Here are the residences of many leading New Yorkers - elegant, comfortable homes, surrounded with tastefully ornamented grounds, and presenting all the evidences of that domestic enjoyment which is, after all, the sum of human happiness.
On the other side of the Borough of The Bronx, skirting the East River and Long Island Sound, a widely different panorama is pre- sented, but one which also has individual charms and beauties of its own. The shore line is broken into many promontories or peninsulas and the general effect is diversified and beautiful. Westchester, a for- mer township contiguous to New York City on the east, presents a rolling surface, with fine grass and pasture lands, which are abundantly watered by small streams and springs. The Bronx River, flowing through the middle of the township, is the principal stream, and along its banks are many beautiful localities. The general appearance of the
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valley is romantic. East of Bronxdale is a low tract of land known as the Bear Swamp, which derives its name from the savage animal that formerly made its home in the morass. Throckmorton's Neck, between Westchester Creek and Pelham Bay, is the site of many handsome resi- dences which command noble views of Long Island Sound. At its ex- tremity stands Fort Schuyler, one of the defenses of New York City from approach by way of the Sound. Opposite City Island, on the northeast side of the point, are the well-known Stepping Stones, a line of rocks projecting from the Long Island shore, which become visible at low water. On the highest of them stands the light known as the "Stepping-Stone Light." On the northeast side of the point lies Locust Island, and on the south are handsome houses along the western shore of the East River. On the road from the point to old Westchester Vil- lage are many beautiful residences. On the eastern side of Westchester Creek, in Castle Hill Neck, stands the old Wilkins mansion, now a farmhouse, in which it is said three Loyalist clergymen, including the Rev. Dr. Seabury, afterwards bishop of Connecticut, were secreted dur- ing the Revolution. The town of Pelham, adjoining former Westchester Township on the east presents a singular variety of outline, due to the incorporation within its boundaries of Hunter's and City islands, which cause it to project far out into Long Island Sound. It is historically noted as the scene of the murder of the famous zealot Anne Hutch- inson, who, fleeing from the stern Puritans of Massachusetts, settled either on Pelham Neck or in the immediate vicinity. Pelham Neck is the site of many handsome residences, chief among which for its his- torical interest is the Bowne dwelling, which stands on the spot once occupied by the manor-house of Thomas Pell, first lord of the Manor of Pelham, from which the township derives its name. Hunter's Island is connected with the mainland by a stone causeway and bridge. From the mansion, on about the middle of the island, a fine view is obtained.
Towns and Villages-Towns as such have existed from the earliest colonial times, but their powers were more specifically defined in 1849 by Chapter 194, passed by the Legislature of that year. The act men- tioned gave power to the several Boards of Supervisors, except in New York County, by a two-thirds vote of the members elected, to divide or alter the bounds of any town or erect new ones, when such division does not place parts of the same townships in more than one Assembly district. Application for such division or change must first be made by at least twelve freeholders of each town affected by the division, and a notice of an intended application posted in at least five public places and published in all the county newspapers. A survey map of the town or towns thus affected must be filed in the secretary's office of the State, together with a certified copy of the act of the board. The
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latter is published in the appendix to the laws of the following session. The Legislature still retains power to create towns by special act.
We will now try succinctly to tell something of the seventy or eighty villages that grew up within the present territory of The Bronx and which by natural growth and by the general merging of their suburbs have become the modern Bronx. The Borough of The Bronx as it ex- ists today really represents the confederation of these old-time villages as the parishes of a city growing up separately have usually gone to the formation of a city. The Bronx of today therefore merely stands as the sum and development of these old villages after a commercial civiliza- tion had got in its work of compelling them to discard their rustic garb and don the vesture of the modern habiliments of industry, com- merce, and material prosperity. It will be well perhaps to begin some- where near the Harlem and try to follow the progress and the muta- tions that have marked the development of the territory from rusticity to the urban complexity, since the line of history and development has gone that way. But it will not be possible to follow any direct line, for we must turn to the right and left and curve and zigzag here and there and make an occasional leap, and some of the villages will have to be dealt with in small parcels since their development was inter- twined. By the act of the State Legislature of March 7, 1788, all the counties of New York were divided into townships; what is now the Borough of The Bronx thus formerly was divided into the townships of Yonkers, Morrisania, Eastchester, Pelham and Westchester. What is now the territory of The Bronx envelops the whole of the historic townships of Morrisania and Westchester; it envelops only the more southerly parts of the historic townships of Yonkers, Eastchester, and Pelham. All these townships had villages of the same name as their kernel. The territory of the townships included in course of time many other villages of independent name.
The following are the names of the villages or settlements that for- merely existed in the territory of what is now the Borough of The Bronx: Adamsville; Bartow; Baychester ; Belmont; Bronxdale; Bronx- wood Park; Carr Hill; Cedar Hill; Cherry Tree Point; City Island; Clason's Point; Cornell's Neck; Eastchester; East Morrisania; Eden- wald; Eltona; East Melrose; Fairmount; Ferry Point; Fordham; Fort Schuyler; Givan Homestead; Goose Island; Grove Hill; Hart's Island ; Highbridge; Hunt's Point; High Island; Hunter's Island; Inwood; Jacksonville; Jerome; Lacona; Locust Point; Ludlow Island; Melrose; Morrisania; Mott Haven; Mount Heights; Morris Park; Morris Heights; Mount Eden; Mount Pleasant; Mount St. Vincent; Mosholu ; North New York ; Olinville ; Park Versailles ; Pelham Neck ; Pennyfield ; Prospect Hill; Rodman's Neck; Schuylerville; Seton Homestead; South
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Mount Vernon; South Melrose; South Fordham; South Belmont; Spuyten Duyvil; South Washingtonville; Stinardstown; Throgg's Neck; Twin Island; Unionport; Union Hill; Upper Morrisania; Van Nest; Wakefield ; Washingtonville ; Williamsbridge ; Woodlawn; Wood- stock; Westchester; West Farms; Tremont; East Tremont; Wards- ville; West Morrisania; and Wright's Island. These names are of course given in their alphabetical order, and that order does not give any indication of their relative position. It is to be noted also that some of the names belong to islands rather than to villages, though the village is placed on the island. All these villages were included, of course, in the old townships into which what is now the territory of The Bronx was divided. They were included in Kingsbridge, which represented the most westerly part of The Bronx and which represented that portion of the Yonkers Township which was included in The Bronx; in Morrisania ; in West Farms; in Westchester; in Eastchester ; and in Pelham. We conceive that the best way of dealing with these villages is by going over the territory of the townships that included them. Some of them are important and formed indeed the core of the township itself. Others are so slight as hardly to be visible now or even when looked at in the environment which saw them at their most populous period. Some rather represent points and localities than sen- sible centres of population but a tour through the township that in- cluded them will reveal the environment in which they lay.
In the Township of Kingsbridge-Yonkers was a part of the Philipse- burgh Manor and the part of the township within the borough was known as Lower Yonkers. It remained a part of the original town- ship until June 1, 1872, when the city of Yonkers was incorporated. At the same time the portion of the township lying south of a line drawn from the northwest corner of the land belonging to the Sisters of Charity, known as St. Vincent de Paul, due east to the Bronx River, was set off as a new township under the name of Kingsbridge. It re- mained a part of the Yonkers township until December 16th of the same year, when the selection of town officers was perfected. Its north- ern boundary was the line given above, from the Hudson River to the Bronx; its southern, the northern line of the ancient manor of Fordham, from the Harlem River at East 230th Street to a point on the Bronx River between First and Second avenues, Williamsbridge, and Spuyten Duyvil Creek; its western, the Hudson River.
This Kingsbridge territory is historic ground. "With the possible exception of the Mohawk Valley, the Tyron County of colonial days and the Lake Champlain region, there is no section in New York State which possesses such romantic, legendary and historic interest as the county of Westchester, particularly the Kingsbridge section. One can-
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not help feeling a thrill as one travels over this historic ground. Wher- ever one goes or wherever one looks, he finds something of historic in- terest." The Kingsbridge section was a bone of contention during the early part of the Revolutionary War. When the question of taking measures for the defense of the colonies was proposed in the Continental Congress, a discussion arose that was long and earnest, for many mem- bers yet hoped for reconciliation. On the very day that a British rein- forcement at Boston with Howe, Clinton and Burgoyne entered the harbor, Duane, of New York, moved, in the Committee of the Whole, the opening of a negotiation, in order to accommodate the disputes ex- isting between Great Britain and the colonies, and that this be made a part of the petition to the king. But more determined spirits prevailed, and a compromise was reached on May 25, 1775, when directions were sent to the Provincial Congress at New York to preserve the com- munications between the city of New York and the country by forti- fying posts at or near Kingsbridge. The Provincial Congress at New York appointed a committee consisting of Captain Richard Montgom- ery, Henry Glenn, Robert Yates and Colonels James Van Cortlandt and James Holmes, these last two of Westchester County, both of whom later became loyalists, "to view the ground at or near Kingsbridge, and report to this Congress whether the ground near Kingsbridge will ad- mit of making a fortification there, that will be tenable."
The committee reported June 3, 1775, and recommended that a post of three hundred men be established on Marble Hill, and selected sites on Tetard's Hill to the east on Tippett's Hill to the west of the bridge for the establishment of redoubts to be built by the troops. About two hundred and fifty cannon of all shapes, sizes and material were dragged from the city to Kingsbridge, Williamsbridge and Fordham Manor.
However, the story of Kingsbridge goes much further back than the date of the Revolutionary War. There is for example the journal of Sarah Knight, who made the trip on horseback between the cities of Boston and New York in the depths of winter during 1704, taking a fortnight to accomplish the journey. Being compelled on account of the bad condition of the roads to travel on horseback her returning route lay up the old King's Bridge Road on the upper part of Man- hattan Island, thence across old King's Bridge itself. Here the two early roads branched. One of them, the Albany Post Road-erected in 1669 and perhaps the oldest road in this part of the country-extended north along the east bank of the Hudson. For many miles it is known as the "Old Post Road," and in other places as "Broadway." At King's Bridge the "Boston Post Road"-built in 1672-branched towards the east, crossing the Bronx River at William's Bridge and reaching New Rochelle by a circuitous route. It was along this latter highway that
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Mrs. Knight traveled. Part of it is in existence yet though known by a variety of names. Near Kingsbridge it is styled "Boston Avenue," and must not be confused with the present Boston Road that was laid out much later, and which, crossing the Harlem Bridge, extends almost in a straight course nearly to New Rochelle, where it meets the old Boston Post Road. .
On her way back to Boston Mrs. Knight left New York "with no little regret." About five in the afternoon she reached "Spiting Devil, else King's Bridge, where they pay three pence for passing over with a horse." Mrs. Knight tells us that "being come to Mr. Havens I was very civilly received and courteously entertained. But I could get no sleep because of the clamor of some of the Town topers in the next Room. I set my candle by the chest on the bedside, and setting up, com- posed my resentment in the following manner :
I ask thy aid, O Potent Rum, To charm these wrangling Topers Dum, Thou hast their giddy Brains possest The man confounded with the Beast, And I, poor I, can get no rest. Intoxicate them with thy fumes; O, still their Tongues till morning comes.
And I know not but my wishes took effect, for the dispute soon ended with tother dram, and so good night."
Old King's Bridge itself is said to have stood just east of the present structure and to have been built in 1693. A wading place was near by. Not to be daunted by the tolls imposed on those that crossed King's Bridge, the people erected another, about 1759, a little below, called variously, the Free, the Farmer's, or Dyckman's Bridge. The rates of toll for the King's Bridge were :
"1 Penny for each head of neat cattel.
2 Penns for each mann or horse.
12 Penns for each score of hoggs and sheep passing the bridge.
9 Penns for every boat, vessell or canoo that shall pass the said bridge and cause the same to be drawne up."
Picturesquely hidden behind a forest of its own stands one of Kings- bridge's oldest houses, the Macomb mansion. This was the old tavern of colonial days, at whose doors the early travelers halted for rest and refreshment. The King's Bridge itself was styled the "barrier" and this old hostelry the "watch tower" of Revolutionary times. Although many changes have been made in its appearance it is still the same old struc- ture, built at an age when the Indian was the principal resident of the region, and it is said to antedate the Van Cortlandt mansion itself.
Following the line of the old Albany Road the path of travel is through the famous Neutral Ground, the scene of many depredations in
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Revolutionary times. Numerous cases are related where the "Skinners" and "Cowboys" subjected defenceless persons to the most cruel tortures in order to compel them to give up their money. It seemed a favorite pastime to hang a man until apparently dead, then restore him to con- sciousness, repeat the experiment, and finally abandon him for dead. A certain peaceable Quaker, living near Kingsbridge, was once visited by some of these desperate characters, who called for his money, and when they got it demanded more. The old man declared he had no more. Whereupon they dragged him outside and hanged him to a tree, cut him down and repeated the operation a second and even a third time, at last leaving him almost lifeless. Standing in the lower part of the Neutral Ground was a well-known tavern called the Old French Inn. It was once attacked by the "Cowboys," who received such a shower of bullets that they fled in the greatest haste, carrying with them one of their number who had been wounded. While approaching Kings- bridge it soon became apparent that their comrade could not last long. So, under the shade of an apple orchard they stopped to rest, only to discover that he had died. Quickly picking up the body again, they bore it to a well nearby, and letting it slip into the dark waters, continued on in their mad flight. Next morning imagine the surprise and dismay of the people to find the water of the well as red as blood. From that time the spot has been called "The Bloody Well," and the strangest sights and sounds are reported to have come from it. But later the remains of the man's body were removed from the depths of the well, after which the mysterious apparitions ceased and the well became an ordinary well again. To the west of the Macomb mansion is pointed out the Tippett House, solid and squarely built. After the Tippett family were named Tippett's Hill and Tippett's Brook, the outlet of the Van Cortlandt Lake. They were mostly Tories, and one of them was arrested in 1776 by General Clinton for "practices and declarations inimical to American liberty." The "ear-mark" of George Tippett's stock, roaming through the woods, is said to have been "the cutting off of their ears so close that all other marks would be cut off by it." A wildly magnificent primeval forest lines picturesque River- dale Avenue as it winds its way northward from Kingsbridge. One of these immense trees, a gigantic white oak, said to be over three hun- dred years old, is called the "Cowboys' Oak." It must have been grow- ing when Hendrick Hudson sailed up the Hudson and fought his battle with the Indians near Spuyten Duyvil Creek. Whenever the "Cowboys" were captured they were at once hurried to this place and strung from the huge branches of this oak. Over thirty "Cowboys" met death in this way during the war, and for long after the people of the district had a dread of passing the tree after nightfall. It used to be said that
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when the moon was at the full the ghostlike forms of the dead "Cow- boys" might be seen dangling from the mass of branches.
Immediately south of Mount St. Vincent is Riverdale, which is par- tially located on the old farm of George Hadley, bought from the Com- missioners of Forfeiture in 1785. In 1843 about one hundred acres were acquired by William and Garret Ackerman. The Ackerman home stood a little east of the Riverdale railroad station and when the steamer "Henry Clay" was burned (1852) the Ackerman home was used as a temporary hospital. In 1853 a syndicate bought a large part of the Ackerman purchase and laid it out as a village. The .construction of the Hudson River Railroad made the property accessible, and a num- ber of beautiful residences and estates occupy the ground. It was from these heights that Generals Heath and Clinton witnessed the gallant attempts of the fireships to destroy the British war vessels in Septem- ber, 1776. The highest point of land in the borough, two hundred and eighty-two feet, is in Riverdale. There are no stores in Riverdale and no village in the ordinary sense of the word. Mark Twain lived there in 1901; and among the landowners and residents have been many whose names have been noted in the political and mercantile history of New York City. South of Riverdale was the farm of William Hadley, ex- tending from the Hudson River to the Albany Post Road. Hadley acquired it in two parcels; one from Colonel Jacobus, or James, Van Cortlandt, grandson of the first of the name, in 1761, and the other from the Commissioners of Forfeiture in 1786. The two parcels, comprising two hundred and fifty-seven acres, were bought from Hadley's executors in 1829 by Joseph Delafield, and the property remains with his descen- dants to this day. In 1853 Hudson Park was laid out by a land com- pany in the northwest corner of the Betts and Tippett tract of 1668, on a farm formerly belonging to Samuel Thomson. It lies south of the Delafield property mentioned above.
South of Hudson Park lies the bold promontory between the Hudson River and Spuyten Duyvil Creek, which has been known under the several names of Shorrack-kappock, Tippett's Neck, Berrien's Neck, and Spuyten Duyvil Neck, the first being its Indian title and the last its present one. It was formerly known as the village and postoffice of Spuyten Duyvil, and that is the name of the station of the Central Railroad today. The more northerly portion comprised a tract of three hundred and fifty-six acres and was purchased by Frederick Van Cort- landt, brother of Colonel James, between 1768 and 1788 from several owners who had acquired the Betts and Tippett tract by purchase or inheritance. Upon the eastern side of the property, overlooking the Albany Post Road, Van Cortlandt erected a mansion which, during the Revolution, was known as "Upper Cortlandt's" to distinguish it from
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the mansion in Van Cortlandt Park. The British maintained a post at Upper Cortlandt's from 1777 to 1779; it was this post that General Lincoln captured during the attack upon Fort Independence under Heath. The British afterwards reoccupied it, and from it went many expeditions to harry the occupants of the Neutral Ground. The old house was burned about 1822. Its site is occupied by a large stone house formerly belonging to Waldo Hutchins, at one time surrogate of the city of New York. The property passed by inheritance from Frederick Van Cortlandt to his brother Augustus, the city clerk of New York in 1776. By purchasing from his heirs in 1836 James R. Whiting became the owner and in 1840 he erected a large stone mansion overlooking the Hudson. The next year he disposed of parcels of the property, and the section became one of fine residences, some of which are nearly a century old.
In 1892 the remnant of the Whiting property came into the pos- session of the Sisters of Charity, who occupied the large and roomy mansion as a hospital for the care of consumptives in the first stages of the disease. Later, a fine hospital building was erected on Spuyten Duyvil Parkway, the whole institution being known as Seton Hospital. It furnishes free relief for those unable to pay, and has thirty rooms for pay patients; it can accommodate three hundred and forty. Several gorges lead from the steep hillside to the Hudson below, cut out of sandstone by the erosive action of the water. At the head of one of these gorges a small stream issues from under some overhanging rocks, which form a natural cave, known locally as "Indian cave," from the tradition that two of Nimham's band of Stockbridge Indians hid there from the pursuing troopers of Tarleton after their defeat by Simcoe near Wood- lawn Heights.
The southern end of the neck was formerly the home tract of George Tippett and his descendants, the Berriens. The old Berrien homestead, though modernized, stands near the end of the neck, commanding a magnificent view of the Hudson and the northern end of Manhattan. About a quarter of a mile north of it is the Strang house, built originally by a Mr. Cameron within the ramparts of Fort Number One. Some distance east of Number One is a circular tumulus, the remains of Number Two, the "Fort Swartwout" of the Americans, and the Fort Independence of Sauhthier's map. A few yards east of it is the house known as the Warren Sage house, which occupies the site of Number Three, which commanded the King's Bridge, and from which there is a fine view across the valley to the site of the true Fort Independence of the Americans on Fordham ridge. The Indian village of Nipnichsen stood on the neck, and very extensive shell mounds still exist below the bluff, showing that this was a favorite place of resort of the natives.
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In 1655, while Governor Stuyvesant was absent with the military forces of the colony on his expedition against the Swedish Fort Christina on the Delaware, a band of nine hundred savages crossed over from the Jersey shore and occupied the neck as a post of observation, while two thousand of their companions entered the city of New Amsterdam itself, causing great uneasiness to the inhabitants; they were, however, prevailed upon to withdraw to Nutten, later Governor's Island.
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