USA > New York > Westchester County > Westchester county in history; manual and civil list, past and present. County history: towns, hamlets, villages and cities, Volume III > Part 11
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" My earliest recollections of these woods now given for a Park, you remember that my grandfather farmed it over there
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when we were boys, don't you? (turning to Mr. Free) and 1 used to think the only event in life which was all that I aspired to at that early date, was to be the proprietor of a farm where I could have cows like those which I used to drive home from those woods. I have reached here now away in the sixties, and I don't own those cows yet. (Laughter.)
" It was in these woods when I was about twelve years of age that I smoked my first cigar. I can go to the tree now and point it out, and I never pass it without a qualm. I didn't go to school that afternoon. I remained in the woods. First I thought I was going to die and then for the next hour or two I hoped I would. And it was a habit I pursued surreptitiously for a number of years, and then pursued it again as an occupa- tion of considerable moment and taking a great deal of time for a number of years, and then gave it up entirely.
" This old house (the Municipal Building, former home and law office of Congressman William Nelson), you know I studied law here with William Nelson, and Mr. Nelson's family lived in this house while I was a student, and his daughter and girl friends were here most of the time. The good old lawyer Nelson used to wonder why it was that I didn't get on more rapidly in the pursuit of the profession which he had adorned so many years, and in which I was to succeed him, possibly, if I displayed sufficient talent. The reason was, this house with those girls was in close proximity with that office, and I remember very well that his daughter, a most charming woman, like all the Nelsons, very hospitable, whenever in the family economy there was some crea- tion in the culinary department of the family, which was more appetizing and a little better for the taste and for the olfac- tories, and in every way, lasting longer while it was going down, and all that; whenever anything like that had been produced, a plate of it always appeared from the rear door of the office, and in the front, if the old gentleman wasn't there.
" Well, my friends, when a man has gone out into the world and has been knocked around it a good deal, had many experi- ences, many ups and downs, plenty of misfortunes and plenty of good fortune, and in the general average is very well satisfied with the result, believing that the misfortunes were sent for his experience, though they might have been expensive, and the sorrows were sent for his own good and that all the rest is clear gain and pure assets, and he looks back over his life as to what
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he loved best and to what he owes most, and from what he gets the greatest satisfaction and the greatest inspiration, to continue on performing as he may his duties and his allotted part in the world; if my experience amounts to anything, it is that he keeps constantly recurring to the place where he was born; constantly going back to the old scenes which are connected with child- hood; constantly recalling his mother, especially, beyond all others, and his father, and then the boys who were boys with him and what has become of them and what they have done, and what has become of their children and what they have done; and then the greatest satisfaction, if he has a day off or a little leisure, is to come back to the old place and go through the old streets, and visit the old haunts, and go to the old school house, and about, to put himself in contact as a boy again with those scenes which make him renew his youth, and to keep forever green and fresh the feelings without which, unless they are kept green and fresh, a man had better die.
" Gentlemen, I am very glad to have met you; I hope I will meet you oftener in the future, and I bid you good-night." (Hearty applause.)
The population of Cortlandt Manor in 1712 is given as 91, and of Ryck's Point (Peekskill), in same year, as 32.
Peekskill in 1830, three years after its incorporation as a village, had a population of 1,130. In 1870 the village popu- lation had increased to 6,560.
The population of the town of Cortlandt in 1840 was 5,592; in 1845, 6,738; in 1850, 7,758; in 1855, 8,468; in 1860, 10,074; in 1865, 9,393 ; in 1870, 11,695. The apparent decrease in 1865 is attributed to loss the town suffered by the Civil War.
The Seventy-fifth anniversary of the First Presbyterian Church of Peekskill was celebrated on June 25, 1902, Hon. Chauncey M. Depew being the orator.
The author of this book is greatly indebted to former Sheriff Stephen D. Horton of this town, for valuable historical data relating to town and vicinity.
Hon. Chauncey M. Depew, in speaking of his native place, said, "Peekskill is a representative New York town. It is not an Illinois institution nor a Nebraska institution; it is not a New England institution, but it is a typical, old-fashioned Knickerbocker Dutch institution. Peekskill for the first hun-
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dred and twenty-five or thirty years of its existence, repre- sented the society described by Washington Irving in his veracious chronicle of the early history of New York. It was births, it was marriages, it was deaths, it was people who lived comfortably and had enough and to spare of the material things of this world; who were roystering blades in their youth, com- fortable merchants and farmers in middle life, and smoked the pipe of peace in good old age; but there was not, in that hun- dred and fifty years, aught that constitutes real growth, or real history, or real reputation of a place like this.
"Then came the roar and the thunders of the Revolutionary War, and this sleepy old town was awakened instantly from its sleep of nearly a century and a half, by being placed, on the one hand, on the border of the neutral ground, and on the other hand as the outpost of the patriot forces at West Point. Here became the headquarters of Gen. Washington, in the old house which stood, when I was a boy, at the head of Main street; here Washington passed many a day and many a night. And here is the spot, tradition tells us, where Aaron Burr, when a very young man, paid first those attentions to a Peekskill belle which afterwards made him the terror of the women of America. Here Alexander Hamilton learned the arts of war, and musing in that great mind of his, in that old head upon young shoulders, in the picturesque halls of this most beautiful spot on earth, he devised that spirit of government which to-day crystallizes into the government of the Republic of the United States."
"I was sitting one night at dinner beside Governor Oglesby, of Illinois," continued Mr. Depew, "when the Governor asked, 'Where were you born ?' 'In Peekskill.' 'Said he, 'Where's that?' 'Where was your father born ?' 'In Peekskill.' 'And your grandfather?' 'In Peekskill.' 'And your great-grand- father?' 'In Peekskill.' 'And your great-great-grandfather?' 'In Peekskill.' Said he 'I don't believe a word of it. There isn't such a case in the State of Illinois.' "
Early in 1913 the Board of Trustees by resolution instructed Village President Nelson to appoint a committee to draft a bill providing a City Charter for Peekskill, to report said bill to Board of Village Trustees for presentation to the State Legis- lature of 1914. Under this resolution the following Committee was named: James W. Husted, Isaac H. Smith, Cornelius A. Pugsley, Edward F. Hill, Franklin Couch and Edward E. Young.
THOMAS NELSON
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
THOMAS NELSON.
Thomas Nelson, distinguished jur- ist, the fourth child and fourth son of the late William and Cornelia Mandeville Hardman Nelson, was born in Peekskill, this county, on January 23, 1819.
At the early age of ten years he became a student in the North Salem Academy (this county) where he prosecuted his studies for several years. He attended the Red Hook Academy in Dutchess County, N. Y., where he qualified for admission to Williams College of Williamstown, Mass., which institution he entered in the year 1834 at the age of fifteen years. In the year 1836, Williams College conferred upon him the de- gree of A.B. He was an apt student in all branches. He gave special de- votion to the mastery of the classics, the taste for which remained with him to his death.
He was a member of the Sigma Phi Fraternity and was its presid- ing officer at the semi-centennial of the Alpha of Massachusetts held in the year 1884.
In the year 1836 he commenced the study of the law with Henry B. Cowles, Esq., a practicing attorney and counsellor at law with a lucra- tive practice in the city of New York. While pursuing his studies, as a mental deviation and recreation he attended the class of lectures on Anatomy in the Medical College in Barclay Street, New York city. He also studied and mastered the French language under the tutelage of the famous Prof. Parmentier of the Uni- versity of New York.
In the following year he returned to Peekskill, and completed the study of the law in the office of his vener- able father, at which time the latter was the District-Attorney of the counties of Westchester, Rockland and Putnam.
At the age of twenty-one years and in the month of January, 1840, he was admitted to practice as an attorney and counsellor at law at a term of the Supreme Court, held in Albany, N. Y. He then became his father's partner in the practice of his profession. The firm was the most renowned in their section of the
country and they enjoyed one of the largest and most successful practices.
In the year 1842 he traveled in the European countries, especially in the countries of England, France, Italy and Switzerland, in which places he sought and saw the his- torical and literary places. On his return he resumed the practice of his profession with his father.
On January 9, 1851, at the age of 32 years, he was specially honored by President Millard Fillmore, giv- ing him the appointment to the high office of Chief Justice of the Su- preme Court for the Territory of Oregon. His mode of travel was by way of the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Coast and after a tedious journey and considerable pioneering he arrived in Oregon, where he stayed and discharged his duties to the ut- most satisfaction of the Federal Gov- ernment and the Oregonians, until the early part of 1854, when he re- turned to Peekskill, the place of his nativity. He established himself in the city of New York and practiced his profession as a member of the bar with great credit and success for a period of over half a century.
Thomas Nelson was not a politi- cian, but he was partial to the Whig party, and on its dissolution he be- came a staunch Republican. After a great deal of persuasion, in the year 1858, he and Lucien Birdseye, Esq., were nominated as the Repub- lican candidates for Justices of the Supreme Court, for the Second Dis- trict. He was defeated by a narrow margin.
In the year 1860 he was honored with the Republican nomination to represent the Congressional District composed at that time of the coun- ties of Westchester and Rockland, which district was one of the Demo- cratic strongholds. He failed of elec- tion, although running considerably ahead of the National ticket.
During the Civil War, he was ap- pointed by Governor Morgan of this State, a member of the War Com- mittee for the counties of West- chester, Putnam and Rockland, and faithfully and conscientiously dis- charged his duties as such member until peace was declared.
In the year 1867 he was a trustee
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of the Hartwick Theological Semin- ary. In the year 1869 he was one of the trustees of Williams College, and after his term of office repeat- edly declined re-election.
He was a director of the West- chester County National Bank of Peekskill from the year 1849 to the date of his death, with the excep- tion of the period when he dis- charged his judicial duties in the Territory of Oregon. For one-half a century to the date of his death he was one of the trustees of the Peeks- kill Military Academy, in which in- stitution he took extraordinary in- terest.
On the 4th day of June, 1844, he was married by the Rev. David M. Halliday to Cornelia L. Seymour, the second child and only daughter of David and Zanina Ranney Seymour. There were born to them David S., George P., Zanina and Thomas Nel- son, Jr., all of whom passed away before Mr. Nelson's demise with the exception of Thomas Nelson, Jr., who is still living.
Thomas Nelson, who was famil- iarly known as "Judge Nelson," was a magnificent specimen of phys- ical and mental health and vigor, which admirably fitted him for his life's work.
He was a man of great determina- tion and mental force. He was very fair and just and thoroughly con- scientious in his dealings, and took as much interest in his clients' af- fairs as he did in his own. He was dignified, his manners very pleasant and attractive, and was affable and approachable at all times. His liter- ary attainments were beyond the or- dinary. He was a lover of good books, and especially loved the great poets: His memory for poetry was marvelous. He could recite page after page without making an error. He was unquestionably a great phil- osopher, a natural thinker, and exer- cised remarkable reasoning powers. He had a large and attractive vo- cabulary and expressed his thoughts in a clear and convincing way. He loved his fellow creatures, if in high or low standing. He was untiring in his labors. He believed in con- tinued activity and regarded vaca- tion and recreation in a sense pecu- liar to himself, insomuch that he be- lieved that vacation consisted of a
change of labor only. He was very witty and enjoyed a good story and could tell a good one himself. He was very thrifty and economical and took good care of his earthly posses- sions. He was a great admirer of his home. He loved his wife and children.
He died after a ripe old age on July 26, 1907, in Peekskill, and his remains are interred in the Peeks- kill Cemetery.
THOMAS NELSON, JR. -
Thomas Nelson, Jr., lawyer, manu- facturer, President of the Village of Peekskill, etc., the fourth, young- est and only surviving child of the late Judge Thomas Nelson and Cor- nelia L. Seymour Nelson, was born in the village of Peekskill on July 18, 1860. At this writing, his mother is still living.
Mr. Nelson as a small boy attended the old Howard Street School in District No. 8. He afterward at- tended the Searles School, and sub- sequently became a pupil in the Peekskill Military Academy. He entered Williams College, Williams- town, Mass., as a student in the fall of 1879, and graduated with the class of 1883.
He is a member of the Williams College Alumni Association and a staunch member of the Sigma Phi Fraternity.
After graduation, Mr. Nelson, in the society of several bosom college friends, extensively toured the con- tinent. On his return he became a partner in the firm of V. W. Mc- Farlane & Co., of Chicago, Ill., who were members of the Chicago Board of Trade. After four years of suc- cessful business, the firm by mutual consent, dissolved.
He then entered the law offices of his venerable father, who had a suite of offices in the Bryant Build- ing, 55 Liberty Street, New York city, and in the building previous to the Bryant Building, for a period of over sixty years.
Mr. Nelson took a course in the Columbia Law School and was ad- mitted to the bar in 1889.
For several years he practiced law in conjunction with his father. While practicing his profession, he became interested in manufacturing,
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THOMAS NELSON, JR.
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and from that time on he devoted himself to commercial pursuits.
Mr. Nelson is the secretary and one of the directors of the Robin- son-Roders Company, of Newark, N. J., the largest feather, down and mattress concern in the United States. He is a director of the Westchester County National Bank, the said directorship being in the Nelson family from the time of his grandfather, Hon. William Nelson, one of the original incorporators and a director, to the present time. He is also a trustee of the Peeks- kill Military Academy, and a trus- tee of the Sigma Phi Corporation of Massachusetts. He is a director of the Mohegan Granite Company and the president and director of the Jones-Thomas Company of New York.
Mr. Nelson is a Republican in poli- tics. He was practically born one; but he has the faculty of discrimin- ating in favor of a good Democrat in preference to a poor Republican.
Mr. Nelson held the position of Park Commissioner in the city of New Brunswick, N. J., for a long period. After his father's death, he removed from New Brunswick, N. J., to Peekskill. He became interested in the political and social conditions of the village of Peekskill.
On March 7, 1911, Mr. Nelson was overwhelmingly elected to the un- sought for and unsolicited position of the Presidency of the village of Peekskill, in which position he is serving the community at this writ- ing, having been re-elected in 1913.
Mr. Nelson is a member of the University Club of New York; the Union Club of New Brunswick, N. J .; the Middlesex Golf Club of New Brunswick, N. J .; the Prospect Gun Club of Freeport, Long Island, of which club, at its last meeting held in January, 1912, Mr. Nelson was unanimously elected its president. Mr. Nelson became a member of the Cortland Hook and Ladder Company No. 1 of Peekskill on October 15, 1909. He is a member of the Lin- coln Society of Peekskill, and an honorary member of the Harris Light Cavalry Survivors Association. He is a member of the Economic Club, and the founder of the Forest Rang- ers of Peekskill. He is a Mason, being a member of Cortlandt Lodge, No. 34.
On March 3, 1885, Mr. Nelson was married to Cornelia L. Lesley, the daughter of Alexander and Mary Stevenson Lesley, of New York, by the Rev. Alfred Beach, of St. Peter's Church, New York city. They have no children.
For biographical sketches of other residents see elsewhere in this book, and in volumes one and two.
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TOWN OF EASTCHESTER.
(Continued from page 195, Vol. 1.)
This town has been reduced much in territory during the last twenty years. Originally it was one of the important towns of the County, and in its earlier days enjoyed the distinction of being " the Court town," where terms of Court of Sessions were held. Able men like John Pinkney, John Drake, Jeremiah Fowler, William Chatterton (also local magistrate), Stephen Ward, Jesse Lyon, P. L. McClellan (later District Attorney), W. H. Pemberton (later County Judge), Darius Lyon (later Sheriff), Elias Dusenbury, David Cromwell (later County Treas- urer), David Quackenbush, John Berry (later Assemblyman) and Herbert D. Lent, have held the office of Supervisor.
The town's first loss of territory occurred when the Legisla- ture, by act passed March 12, 1892, took from it the village of Mount Vernon and made the latter a city. The second, when by act of the State Legislature a considerable portion of the town, known as the villages of Eastchester and of Wakefield was, in 1895, annexed to the city of New York.
The first settlement in this town appears to have been com- menced near the Indian path (subsequently known as the Westchester path or Kingsbridge road), leading to the wading place, cir. 1664, at a spot called Hutchinson's. "There is where the house stood at the meadows and uplands to the Hutchinson's river." (Extracts from Pell's grant.)
In 1666 it was by royal charter enacted, " That the planta- tion shall continue and retain ye name of Eastchester, by which name and style it shall be forever hereafter distinguished and known," etc.
Jonathan Ward, son of Hon. Stephen Ward, was Surrogate of this county from 1828 to 1840.
The town's Revolutionary history is very interesting; its close proximity to the British lines made it at times very unpleasant for patriotic Americans who were to a certain degree at the mercy of Tories.
On the Eastchester green, close to the old St. Paul's Church, is where the local militiamen met on drill days, and where citizens from miles around would meet on "election days," and take days in deciding an election according to the old way of doing things.
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The town has within its borders two thriving villages: Bronxville, incorporated in 1898, and Tuckahoe, incorporated in 1902.
The usual rivalry between adjoining communities resulted in 1868 in a strife to secure village incorporation. In this year residents of Bronxville decided upon taking action to bring about the incorporation of that locality as a village, under the general village law. Residents of Tuckahoe, learning of the purpose of their neighbors, hastily secured 28 signers to a petition for the incorporation of Tuckahoe; in their description of the terri- tory to be included in the incorporation, a part of Bronxville, or the section that Bronxville wanted in its own village, was described; but they wanted only so much of Bronxville, it was claimed, as would leave the Tuckahoe people dominant. The Tuckahoe people got to the Supervisor with their petition first, with Bronxville people a close second. Supervisor Lent was the man who was to act the part of Solomon the wise. It was hard for him, as he resided in the Tuckahoe district, yet was he not the Supervisor for the whole town? He carefully adjusted the scales of justice and considered both propositions. He finally decided that inasmuch as the Tuckahoe proposition came to him first and included a large part of the territory embraced in the Bronxville proposition, he would not give a hearing on the latter. The Bronxvilleites took exceptions to this ruling, and went to the court; the court ordered the Supervisor to give such hearings. Objections were filed to both propositions and after hearings the Supervisor decided in favor of Tuckahoe and against Bronxville. Interest did not abate. Alfred E. Smith, attorney for the Bronxville people, appealed to the County Court, and both decisions were reversed, the Court holding that the Tuckahoe adherents had obtained but 24 of the necessary 25 freeholders to sign their petition, and that the Bronxville people had complied in all respects with the statute. This put the question to a vote for or against incorporation in Bronxville, and a majority voted in the affirmative.
Four years later residents of Tuckahoe took the decided step for themselves.
The village of Bronxville, as well as the river Bronx and the Borough of the Bronx, is named in honor of the Dutch Bronck family, the head of which, Jonas Bronck, owned much land in the lower section of Westchester County, which came into his and the family's possession through grant, in 1667, from the
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Dutch West India Company and by purchase from the Indians. Part of the land was sold to Philip Morris in 1687, and became known as the Manor of Morrisania. In later years the name is spelt with a final x, substituted for the last two letters in the original, retaining the sound if not the spelling.
Bronxville has an assessed valuation of $3,944,820. The village budget, including school tax, for 1911, was $59,173 and the tax rate $15 per $1,000. Has three churches, the Reformed, 65 years old; Christ Episcopal Church, 15 years old, and Roman Catholic, 5 years of age. There is one saloon. Fine library and hospital. The Hotel Gramatan, open all the year, can entertain 225 guests. Brantwood Hall for girls and Blake School for boys, prepare for the colleges. The German Lutheran College has a spacious campus and large new buildings. Within close reach of New York by many trains a day. There is no acreage for sale, the last having been sold for about $4,300 per acre in 1909. Practically all land is highly restricted.
Bronxville, in 1890, had a population of 579; in 1902, 611; in 1905, 994; in 1910, 1,863.
Tuckahoe " derives its name from a plant formerly gathered in the vicinity by the Indians, the tubers of which were used for food." The plant is the common jack-in-the-pulpit, wake-robin or Indian turnip, of which Capt. John Smith in his " General History of Virginia " says: " The chiefe root they have for food is called Tockawhough. It groweth like a flagge in marishes. In one day a savage will gather sufficient for a weeke. These roots are much of the greatnesse and taste of potatoes. Raw it is no better than poyson and being roasted, ex- cept it be tender and the heat abated, or sliced and dryed in the sunne mixed with sorrel and meale or such like, it will prickle and torment the throate extreamely, and yet in sommer they use this ordinarily for bread."
The village, which has several manufactories, employing many people, and a wideawake business place, situated on the Harlem Railroad, is the " town seat," where is maintained offices of the several town officials. Tuckahoe was for a long time noted for the excellent marble stone it produced, and which was in great demand for use in the construction of promi- nent public buildings, such as the new Capitol building at Albany, etc.
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