USA > New York > Bronx County > The Bronx and its people; a history, 1609-1927, Volume I > Part 38
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of all kinds and lavishly cared for, gained for it the name of "Whitlock's Folly." In 1890 the property went into the hands of an agent of the East Bay Land and Improvement Company and the same company ac- quired in that year three hundred and fourteen acres, including Hunt's and Barretto's points and other land in the vicinity. It is interesting to know that in a suit brought by the city of New York for the water rights of all this property, the company won its case upon the old In- dian deeds and the ancient patents and grants of the early colonial days to the original white owners. The name of Casanova, former Cuban owners of the Whitlock house, is perpetuated in the nearby station of the suburban branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad.
The former village of West Farms is situated about three miles from the mouth of the Bronx River, to which point the tide rises and falls. It is believed that Jonas Bronk established mills there, and it is known that the patentees of the West Farms did have mills there, for they are mentioned in ancient documents. The site of the old mills is within the limits of Bronx Park, at the old Kingsbridge Road. About 1825 the property was bought by David Lydig for a summer residence and he occupied the De Lancey house on the east side of the stream. The mansion of the De Lanceys was on the east side of the Bronx, and there- fore in Westchester; but their name is indissolubly connected with the settlement on the west side of the river. After the war one of the three stores in the section was located at West Farms and was conducted by Daniel Mapes. After the construction of Coles' Boston Road, the village became the most important place between New York and New Rochelle, as the road passes through the village. When the first ex- tension of the surface-car service was made, it was to West Farms. The country roundabout was devoted to farming, but later many hand- some estates were owned by well-to-do New York merchants. The change has been marked since the completion of the subway, which has an important station there; there are also numerous trolley lines going to all parts of the borough and to Mount Vernon and New Rochelle.
Somewhat to the west of the old village of West Farms and south of the present Tremont Avenue lay the historic "Hassock Meadow," mentioned in many of the early deeds. By the filling in of the new Crotona Parkway, which adjoins the Southern Boulevard towards the east, the greater part of the quaint meadow has disappeared. We find it also mentioned as one of the boundaries of the "West Farms" in the early deed of 1664, in which Edward Jessup and John Richardson, two of the borough's first landed proprietors, purchased from the Indians a large tract of land, afterwards called West Farms, and described in the records in the office of the Secretary of State at Albany as follows :
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Westchester, March the 12, 1664.
These may certify whom it may concern that we, Shawnerockett, Wappamoe, Tuckore, Wawapecock, Cappakas, Quanuscoe, Shequiske, Passachem, and Harra- wocke have aliened and sold unto Edward Jessup and John Richardson, both of the place aforesaid, a certain tract of land, bounded on the east by the River Aquehung, or Broncks to the midst of the river; on the northward by the trees markt and by a piece of Hassock Meadow; westward by a little brook kcalled Sackwrahung, southward by the sea, with a neck of land called Quinnahung, with all the meadows, uplands, trees, and whatsoever else besides be upon ye said parcel of lands .... quietly to possess, enjoy the same from us our heires and successors . . . and for their cattle to range in the Wood so Farre as they please.
We have set to our hands, the day and yeare above written.
Wappamoe,
Shawnerockett,
Wawapekock,
Tuckore,
Shaquiske,
Passachem,
Harrawocke,
Cappakkas.
Quanuscoe,
Edward Waters,
Signed in presence of,
Richard Ponson,
Nathan Bayly.
(Their marks were set, to.)
In Morrisania-The Gouverneur Morris house, to which many addi- tions were made by the successor of the original builder, commanded a good view of the East River to the south, overlooking Bronx Kills and Randall's Island. Some weak efforts were made at one time to preserve the house as a museum and the grounds in which it was sit- uated as a public park; but about 1905 the property was secured by the railroad and the historic mansion was demolished. Randall's Island is separated from the mainland by the strait called Bronx Kills, and from Ward's Island on the south by Little Hell Gate; the two islands were called in the Dutch days Little Barent's Island and Great Barent's Island, respectively, corrupted after the advent of the English into Little and Great Barn islands. They were both farmed by Governor Van Twiller, and the government had considerable difficulty in getting them back from him. Formerly there was a ford, or wading place, between Vercher's or Hogg Island, as it was also called, and the "Maine;" and it is mentioned in the grant of Colonel Nicolls to John Verveelen, the Harlem ferryman, in 1666. In Revolutionary days, the pickets of the two armies used to fire upon each other across the strait ; while the manor-house of Lewis Morris was at first occupied by an American outpost, and later, by a British one.
Randall's Island is without the borough, lying at the mouth of the Harlem River. Elias Pipon bought the island in 1732, erected a house, and named his purchase Belle Isle; after fifteen years, it became Tal- bot's Island, after a new purchaser; and in 1722 Montressor's Island,
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after Captain John Montressor, who bought it in that year. He was the owner at the beginning of the Revolution. It was bought by Samuel Ogden in the spring of 1784; he sold it in the fall of the same year to Jonathan Randall for the sum of £24. In 1835 the city bought the island from Randall's executors for $50,000. There are about one hundred acres on the island, which is occupied by numerous buildings devoted to the physical, mental, and moral needs of children.
Lewis Morris, the Signer, and last manor-lord of Morrisania, died in 1798. His estate was divided up among his descendants, some of whom also acquired property in the old manor of Fordham. The land once forming the manor of Morrisania was divided and subdivided until the names of the owners constituted a legion. The development of Morris- ania, at the close of the Revolution, the most sparsely settled portion of the county of Westchester, but later the most populous section of the borough, was due primarily to the building of the Harlem Railroad in 1842. As early as 1816, the year in which he died, Gouverneur Morris caused his property to be surveyed and laid out in farm lots by John Randall, surveyor and engineer, and the map recorded. This prop- erty also included a portion of "Old Morrisania," west of the Mill Brook, which had been obtained from General Staats Long Morris, the in- heritor from his father, after the cessation of the stepmother's life interest.
The village of Mott Haven came about in this way. In 1828, Jordan L. Mott, the inventor of the coal-burning stove, opened a modest little factory on the plot of ground bounded by Third Avenue, 134th Street, and the Harlem River. The foundry grew to be one of large size ; but by June, 1906, the plant was too cramped in its Bronx quarters and so was removed to Trenton, New Jersey. Being impressed with the future possibilities of the section, Mott, with several others, bought from Gouverneur Morris two hundred acres of land at $175 an acre -- these were sections sixteen to twenty-three on the Randall map of 1816. There is a story to the effect that the price was determined as follows: Mott, who was a tax assessor, placed so high a valuation on the property as to call forth remonstrances from Morris, who exclaimed that he would be glad to get a purchaser at the assessed value; whereupon Mott replied : "I'll take it"; and so the sale was effected. "The second Gouverneur Morris," writes Jenkins, "inherited the bluntness and dis- regard of public opinion of his distinguished father. Upon being asked by an employee of Jordan L. Mott if he had any objection to the newly- purchased section being called Mott Haven, he replied : 'I don't care what he calls it; while he is about it, he might as well change the name of the Harlem and call it the Jordan.' "
The Mott Haven Canal lies between Third and Park avenues and it
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allows canal-boats to pass from the Harlem River as far as 138th Street. The lower part of the canal was laid out by Jordan L. Mott about 1850. It followed the course of a small stream which drained the ground on either side as far as 144th Street, then called Main Street on the map of Mott Haven, the water of which passed through a sluiceway at Van Stoll Street, the former name of 138th Street, which was a solid street across the brook. By deed of November 1, 1864, Mott conveyed the property contiguous to the stream to a man named Bryant, who, in 1868, began the extension of the canal to Main Street, having an understanding with the Morrisania town authorities that there was to be a bridge over Van Stoll Street. In 1869 the property passed into the hands of Rider and Conkling, the owners of about six hundred lots in Mott Haven, who proposed to complete the canal to Main Street; but they at once met with opposition from the residents and landowners of the vicinity, on the ground of the liability of the canal's becoming a source of malaria and a nuisance. To meet these objections, Rider and Conkling made proposals to the village of Morrisania, and were per- mitted to construct the canal under an agreement by which they were to maintain a turn-table bridge at Van Stoll Street, to dredge out the canal and bulkhead it, to build and keep in repair other bridges cross- ing the canal, and to fill in the canal at their own expense on the town's order, should it become a public nuisance. They further agreed to per- mit the town to empty its sewage into the canal; and the town and its successor, the city of New York, so disposed of the sewage until the construction of the Rider Avenue sewer gave them another outlet to the river.
The owners failed to bulkhead the canal as agreed and the mud banks frequently caved in. Locks were constructed, which prevented the rise and fall of the tide; so that the canal became an actual cesspool. The canal was declared a public nuisance; and streets were laid out to take the place of the canal; and upon the opening and grading of 138th Street the Legislature of 1896 authorized the construction of a bridge on that street over the canal. The work of filling in the canal from 144th Street down was begun in 1901. The canal was thus made to ex- tend six hundred and fifty feet from the Harlem River to 135th Street, where there is a lifting steel bridge, and six hundred feet further to 138th Street.
The construction of the Coles bridge over the Harlem at Third Av- enue led to the settlement of a small village, or hamlet, at its northern end, lying east of Third Avenue in the borough. This was commonly known as Morrisania for many years, though later taking the name of North New York. By 1855 there were quite a number of small villages scattered about the old manor, then within the township of West Farms.
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due to the fact that Gouverneur Morris, the second, and the other proprietors had begun to sell their lands to the overflow from New York and European lands; but primarily to the construction of the Harlem railroad. On December 7, 1855, the township of Morrisania was re-formed, following practically the old manor lines. In 1864 the village of Morrisania was incorporated. The township embraced the villages of Mott Haven, North New York, Port Morris, Wilton, East Morrisania, Old or Central Morrisania, West Morrisania, Melrose, South Melrose, East Melrose, Woodstock, Claremont, Eltona, and De- voe's Neck. Several of these were named after the adjoining estates ; thus, Claremont was the estate of Martin Zboroski. "As we wander through Morrisania today," wrote Stephen Jenkins about a decade and a half ago, "we find the same network of solidly built-up streets and blocks that we would find in Manhattan, except on the eastern and western edges, where we still find rural conditions. Yet so convinced are some people that the Borough is still rural that they talk of living in the country, even when it happens to be Wendover Avenue, where there are more adults and more children-children especially-to the square inch than in almost any other place in the city."
In the northwest corner of the township there used to be a small stream south of Highbridge which was the dividing line between the Turneur patent and the lands of Archer and Morris. It ran from about the junction of Ogden Avenue and Woolf Street into the Harlem. This latter street gets its name from the Woolf family, whose farm was sit- uated along the southern line of the manor of Fordham. The ancestor of the family was a Hessian soldier named Anthony Woolf, who found this country so much to his liking that he remained after the Revolution, and acquired title to his farm by his industry and frugality. The stream has long since disappeared within a sewer. In the river near where the stream emptied was Crab, or "Crabbe," island of the old deeds and patents. Turneur's land lay between the Harlem and Cromwell's Creek, and was called Nuasin by the Indians, though better known as Devoe's Point, or Neck. Below 161st Street and close to Jerome Avenue is the bulkheaded tidal basin of Cromwell's Creek. A short distance above 165th Street is the old Cromwell house, a dilapidated structure built of stone and rapidly going to decay. Most of the families of the Cromwells had ancestral connection with Colonel John Cromwell, a brother of the Lord Protector Oliver. James Cromwell, born in 1752, worked for Lewis Morris at Morrisania, probably about 1770, and as General Morris had established a mill on Cromwell's Creek, or Mentipathe, as the In- dians called it, in 1760, it is fair to presume that the house was built for the miller about the earlier date. However that may be the creek re- ceived its name from James Cromwell and has retained it ever since.
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The house was not far away from the probable road, or lane, connecting Fordham with the Morrisania manor-house.
The central part of the town was occupied by a number of mansions and estates, few of which remain. The Morrisania town hall was lo- cated at Third Avenue and 160th Street. Here was transacted the business of the four wards into which the town was divided. The old town hall was used as a police station for a long time after annex- ation until replaced by the present structure. "Lucy Randall Comfort, a well-known writer of children's stories a generation or more ago, lived on Franklin Avenue, one of the oldest streets in Morrisania," writes Jenkins. "Henry B. Dawson, the historian, formerly lived in the eastern part of the town; he has the posthumous honor of having a street named after him. Dawson was a wonderful man at research; and his statements, based upon authorities, which he nearly always gave, were very frequently opposed to the traditional ideas of matter and things ; and, in consequence, he was often engaged in controversial correspondence with others, in which he seldom came out second best. His accuracy was recognized and appreciated, and so most of his state- ments are accepted without further confirmation. He was the author of many historical works; and, after the death of Mr. Valentine, he contributed the historical matter for the 'Manual of the Common Coun- cil.' George H. Bristow and Francis H. Nash, both musicians and com- posers, were also residents of Morrisania. Among the very earliest recollections I have are the Sunday visits of the former to Mount Ver- non, to visit his friends, the Aylyffe brothers, both of whom were mu- sicians, and one of whom, James, was the ringer of Trinity's chimes for a great many years."
Crotona Park containing the Borough Hall for the offices of the borough government, lies near the upper end of the township; the park was taken from both Morrisania and West Farms. Just beyond in Tremont the unfortunate Charlotte Temple is said to have lived. It was the original intention of the "New" Parks Commission of 1883-84 to have named the park Bathgate Park after the family from whom the property was obtained. It seems that the Bathgates had some dispute with the Commission's engineer, and he determined not to perpetuate the name of the family in the new park. Instead he manufactured the name "Crotona" from "Croton."
Port Morris was practically an island at high tide in the olden days. Gouverneur Morris built a causeway across the meadows, about the line of 138th Street, so that people and horses could pass over dryshod. This was in the fifties of the last century ; and it is said he did this principally to give employment to some of the poor people of the neighborhood, so that it was a case of practical charity. During the Revolution the
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British frigate "Hussar" went down off Port Morris, then called Stony Island. She was loaded with American prisoners and treasure, the latter, so tradition says, consisting of the pay of the British army in New York. Many companies have been formed to get the sunken treasure, but more money has been sunk in these enterprises than has been, or ever will be, recovered. Divers have brought to the surface bits of the old hull, which are easily secured, as the ironwork has all rusted away, a few coins, and various interesting relics in the way of chain-shot, bullets, pieces of copper, and the like. But the treasure, if there be any, has so far escaped them. Lincoln Hospital lies near the Southern Boulevard at 141st Street. Wilton was a small village to the west of this section, and was in the sixties, a favorite place of residence for actors, of whom there was quite a settlement.
In Westchester-In the year 1785 the State Legislature decreed that "the district formerly called and known by the style of the Borough and Town of Westchester, shall henceforth be known by the name of the Town of Westchester." This, of course, deprived the town of its mayor and aldermen and of its right to have a representative in the Assembly ; but the township was authorized to elect by the votes of the inhabitants six freeholders to act as trustees of the township. By Act of the Legislature of 1813, the trustees, or a majority of them, were empowered to sell the undivided lands of the township and to continue to lease the ferry to Flushing, Long Island. In the town, St. Peter's and its graveyard are of interest, and the visitor may spend some time in deciphering the older tombstones to be found there. The Sunday school building occupies the site of the old court-house and jail. The records of the judicial proceedings have been kept since the Dutch days, though not now in the old town. In the records from 1657 to 1662, we may find a number of names which are mentioned in The Bronx and Westchester history: John Archer, a born litigant, later of Fordham; William Betts, purchaser with Tippett of a part of Colen Donck; and Edward Jessup, of the West Farms patent. At the time of annexation, when the part of the borough east of the Bronx River became a part of New York County, the town records were removed to the city and are now in the Record Department, Register's office of the Comptroller's office. The deeds, wills, and other official and legal papers are still kept at White Plains.
At a town meeting, June 8, 1700, it was resolved :
That whereas at a former meeting .... on the third day of May, 1697, it was voted and agreed upon that there should be a town hall, built to hold courts in and for the publick worship of God, but it being then neglected, the mayor, aldermen, and justices at this meeting did order with a joynt consent to build a house for the uses of a court and prison. The dimensions of the house are to
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be twenty-six feet square, sixteen feet joynts, a square roof, six window cases five feet square, etc. The trustees agreed with Richard Ward to build said house for &33, and with Erasmus Orton to build the prison for £5. It is to be twenty feet long, 16 feet wide, seven feet high, two feet thick with a good chimney .... Which work is to be done by the 31st.
By the act of November 1, 1683, which divided the Province into counties, the borough-town was designated as the county-seat ; and later the Court of Oyer and Terminer and General Jail Delivery was held in the courthouse, erected under the resolution given above. From the "New York Post Boy," of 1758, we get the following item: "New York, February 13th. We hear from Westchester that on Saturday night the 4th inst. the Courthouse at that place was unfortunately burned to the ground. We have not yet heard how it happened." The building was repaired, and courts were held here until November 6, 1759, when the county-seat and court were removed to White Plains. The restored courthouse was again burned early in the Revolution.
The old causeway, first mentioned in the town records of July 9, 1678, still connects Throgg's Neck with the mainland. On the south side of the Westchester end of the causeway there formerly stood an old tide mill, which had been erected at a very early period by Colonel Caleb Heathcote. Behind its walls, the outpost, consisting of Hand's Rifle- men, took refuge and prevented the crossing of the creek by the British on October 12, 1776. The old mill was operated until February, 1875, when it took fire from an overheated stove and was completely des- troyed. Some of the Westchester inhabitants were engaged in the sloop trade with New York in the first half of the nineteenth century, and the owners of the trade found it very lucrative. Later, small steamers plied between the two places. Among the sloop owners was Sydney B. Bowne, a respected Quaker of the town, who, after the restoration of peace, conducted a store in the village, which was easily the most famous of the three or four stores of which the borough was possessed. It was said that "Syd" Bowne always had what was asked for, and that he never turned a customer away empty-handed. Once, on a wager, some gentleman asked for a goose-yoke, a rather rare article, but it was furnished on the instant. On a similar occasion of a wager, the article demanded was a pulpit. The venerable merchant thought for a few moments, and then recalling the contents of his garret, called to his son : "Thomas, thee will find Parson Wilkins's old pulpit behind the chimney in the garret." It appears that when St. Peter's had been renovated, Friend Bowne had bought the old pulpit.
The suburban station for Westchester is Van Nest, which gets its name from an estate formerly lying east of West Farms. The Morris Park race-track was reached by means of the same station; and on racing days, the usual population of the section used to be increased
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by the thousands of visitors who came from all quarters. A large part of the De Lancey estate, later belonging to the Lydigs, is within the bounds of Bronx Park; and this is true also of the Lorillard estates. There are several necks in the township of Westchester, which jut out into the waters of the East River or of the Sound. The most westerly one is that originally called Cornell's Neck, which, since the summer of 1909, can be reached by the trolley line running down Clason Point Avenue from Westchester Avenue, a distance of about two miles. This road has been built by the city within a couple of decades and it goes straightaway to the end of the neck, replacing the former winding roadway, which was bordered in many places by trees, many of which were magnificent in size; and among which could have been found black walnuts and other trees which are not natives of this latitude but which were planted by former owners of the neck. The neck was first occupied by Thomas Cornell, one of Throckmorton's colonists, in 1643; but he was driven away by the Indians and his house burned, because they said he had not paid them for the land. However that may be, he must have given satisfactory proof to the Dutch authorities that he had purchased the land, for a "grond brief" was issued to him in 1646 by Governor Kieft. To his grandson, William Willett, the land was con- firmed by patent of Colonel Nicolls, April 15, 1667. In this deed, the land is described as "a certain Parcell of Land, contained within a neck, commonly called and knowne by ye name of Cornell's Neck, lying and being upon the Maine, toward the Sound or East River, being bounded to the West by a certain Rivolett which runs to the Black Rock and so into Bronckse Creeke or Kill. Then the Neck stretching itselfe East South East into the Sound is bounded to the East with another Rivolett which divides it from the limits of West Chester and a line being run from the head of each Rivolett wherewith a narrow slip, the said Neck is joined to the Maine land, it closes up the Neck and makes the North bounds thereof."
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