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 8
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34
To Governor Tilden is given the credit of having his friends act with moderation and patience, repressing any tendency to- ward violence, in a period when excitement was intense. He taught the doctrine that the country could not afford to have a President inaugurated unless he had been lawfully declared elected.
In an address made in September, 1877, Governor Tilden, referring to the result, said that though the Democratic party had lost the Presidency, yet it had been really triumphant, for the election itself showed that the pure Democracy taught by the great leaders of the past had been accepted once more by a majority of the American people.
There had never been a disputed Presidential election; for this reason the situation in 1876 was without precedent. In 1800 and in 1824 neither of the Presidential candidates had re- ceived a majority in the Electoral College, and the Representa- tives in Congress, voting by States, had to decide between the three candidates who had received the highest vote. But the Constitution had made no provision to relieve the situation con- fronting the Nation in 1876.
77
MANUAL AND CIVIL LIST.
The VAN CORTLANDTS were worthy mayors of New York. Nicholas de Meyer who was Mayor of New York in 1676, like many Mayors of recent date, had trouble with his Board of Aldermen, composed of three Dutchmen and three Englishmen. One of the Dutchmen, Stephen Van Cortlandt, succeeded him as Mayor in 1677, and was again elected in 1686. Our interest in Mayor Van Cortlandt is due to the fact that he owned an immense tract of land in the southern section of Yonkers, in this County, and the property has ever been identified with the Van Cortlandt family name; even persons of other names inheriting the property, or any part of it, had to adopt the name of Van Cortlandt, thus the name was kept attached to the land. The present Van Cortlandt Park, now belonging to New York city, was part of land formerly owned by Stephen Van Cortlandt. Jacobus Van Cortlandt, another of this wealthy family, was Mayor of New York in 1709, and again in 1719. Pierre Van Cortlandt, of Cortlandt Manor, in northern section of the County, the sterling patriot of Revolutionary time and first Lieutenant-Governor of the State, was related to the Van Cortlandts of the southern section of the County and New York city.
PIERRE VAN CORTLANDT was in his time the "favorite son of Westchester County." During the Revolutionary period he was closely identified with most of the movements started in aid of his struggling countrymen. He was certainly an energetic and useful patriot. Was born in 1720, a son of Philip Van Cortlandt.
He was the first Supervisor of the town of Cortlandt, serving from 1772 to 1780, and ever proved a faithful official, neglecting no local duty, yet he found time to attend when called for the cause, to any part of the State. He was conspicuous as a member of the several provincial congresses.
As a Colonel he commanded the Third Westchester Militia Regiment and later was advanced to be a General.
During the Revolution he was prominent in the Committee of Public Safety, acting as Vice-President with John Jay as President. He started the investigation in hopes of finding the guilty American soldiers who set fire to the County Court House building in White Plains, on the night of November 5, 1776.
78
MANUAL AND CIVIL LIST.
He acted in an advisory capacity after the arrest of Major André.
To Mr. Van Cortlandt probably, more than to any other one man, excepting perhaps Mr. Jay, is due the credit of drafting the Constitution of this State. He was a man of energy and force, whose influence was broad.
Was Deputy from this County, chosen in 1775, to the Second Provincial Congress, and served in the Third and Fourth Con- gresses.
After the formation of the State Constitution, there was organized a body to be known as the Council of Public Safety, to act as the head of a temporary form of government, to serve until the election of a Governor and the installing of a Legislature to be elected. This Council was organized on May 3, 1777, by the election of Mr. Van Cortland as president.
By Gen. Van Cortlandt's election, Westchester County was given the distinction of having given to New York State its first elected Lieutenant-Governor. He was chosen to fill that office in the latter part of 1777, and served under the first Gov- ernor, George Clinton. When John Jay, also of this County, became the second Governor of the State, succeeding Clinton, Mr. Van Cortlandt retired, his term of office having expired, and because it would not do to have both the Governor and the Lieutenant-Governor from the same county.
As Governor Clinton was constantly in the field, the Lieut .- Governor was the practical head of the State during the Revo- lutionary War.
Gen. Van Cortlandt occupied the family mansion in Van Cortlandt Manor, at Croton, in the town of Cortlandt; and here Gen. Washington spent many hours in private conference with leaders of the patriot cause. Gen. Washington ever re- ferred to Gen. Van Cortlandt as his most trusted friend and ally.
It was his daughter, Mrs. Cornelia Van Cortlandt Beekman, who incidentally contributed to the capture of Major André, by refusing to comply with the request of Joshua H. Smith, when he came to the Van Cortlandt Mansion and falsely said he had been sent to get a valise belonging to a Continental officer, when he knew said valise contained the uniform of an American officer, which he wanted to provide a disguise for André. But for the woman's disbelief in Smith, André would have been successful in reaching New York, and inside the British lines.
79
MANUAL AND CIVIL LIST.
He held various offices in State and County; was one of the first Inspectors of Prisons.
Descendants of Gen. Van Cortlandt yet reside in the upper section of the County and are most worthy citizens.
At the close of the Revolutionary War General Van Cortlandt and his family again occupied the Manor House at Croton-on- the-Hudson. He died there May 1, 1814.
GENERAL PHILIP VAN CORTLANDT, eldest son of Gen- eral Piere Van Cortlandt, was born September 1, 1749.
He was one of the early volunteers in the Revolutionary War; on June 18, 1775, was commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel of the Fourth Battalion New York Infantry ; served on General Wash- ington's staff until November 30, 1776, when he was commis- sioned as Colonel of the Second New York Regiment. He par- ticipated in the Battle of Saratoga, and was with General Wash- ington at Valley Forge. Was a member of the court-martial which tried Benedict Arnold, the traitor, in January, 1779. The following year he served with General Lafayette's command, and his regiment did valiant service in the siege and capture of Yorktown, in 1781. In 1783 he was created Brigadier-General by act of Congress for his heroic conduct at the Battle of York- town.
At the close of the Revolution he was chosen to represent Westchester County in the New York State Assembly, in 1789- 90, and represented the County in the State Senate, 1791-2-3-4, and in Congress from 1794 to 1809.
On his retirement from official position he went to reside on his father's estate at Croton, and occupied what was then known as the "Ferry House," built about two hundred years ago and still standing. General Philip Van Cortlandt had the honor of being assigned to accompany his old friend General Lafayette during the latter's tour through the United States in 1824-25.
He, like his father, was a Supervisor of the town of Cortlandt.
General Van Cortlandt never married. He died at the Van Cortlandt Manor House November 21, 1831, at the age of eighty-two years, and was buried in the family burying ground nearby.
80
MANUAL AND CIVIL LIST.
AUGUSTUS VAN CORTLANDT, the last private occupant of the Van Cortlandt farm in South Yonkers, now the property of New York city and know as Van Cortlandt Park, and later was resident of Pelham Manor, in this County, where he died recently. He was a Justice of the Peace of the town of Yonkers, and represented that town in the Board of Supervisors in the year 1858 and 1859, and in the latter year was also a member of the State Legislature, as an Assemblyman.
PHILIP VERPLANCK, who represented the Manor of Cort- landt in the General Assembly for thirty-four years, from 1734 to 1768, was head of the family from whom the present Ver- plancks in Westchester County descend.
Verplanck's Point, in the town of Cortlandt, was named in his honor.
DANIEL WEBSTER'S wife, Caroline LeRoy Webster, died at the LeRoy House, New Rochelle, on Sunday, February 26, 1882, in the eighty-fifth year of her age, after an illness of only three days.
Miss LeRoy, daughter of Jacob LeRoy, a wealthy New York merchant, was in 1829 married to Daniel Webster. She was in her youth a beautiful girl of commanding presence, tall, well proportioned, intelligent and active. That Webster desired to win her was not strange; that she should be proud to call such a giant her husband was but natural.
In his Washington life the wife of Daniel Webster participated to a marked degree. Although self-willed and active, he was never so set in his way that her arguments did not have a respect- ful hearing, and until his death she was the queen of Washing- ton society. A lady of elegant appearance and address, possess- ing superior personal charms, tempered with excessive modesty and favored with a liberal education and a brilliant mind, Mrs. Webster numbered among her guests all the contemporaneous statesmen and diplomats of her husband's time. Her receptions in Washington were the most elegantly appointed events at the national capital. Among the distinguished guests who were
81
MANUAL AND CIVIL LIST.
always welcomed at her residence were Clay, Calhoun, Bulwer, Lord Ashburton, Dix, Benton, Mrs. Madison, and all the ladies of the diplomatic corps. No lady of her day ever won such social distinction with foreign and American statesmen and the ladies of the court as Mrs. Webster. During her travels in Europe a few years after her marriage, she was received by nearly all the crowned heads in whose domain she traveled, at one time being the special invited guest of Queen Victoria. While in England with her husband she attended, as an honored guest, the Eglington tournament which created such an excite- ment at the time in which it was sought to revive the spear war- fare of the ancients. After the death of Daniel Webster, Octo- ber 24, 1852, Mrs. Webster, who had been spending her summers with her husband at Marshfield, Mass., where he breathed his last, came to New York city and occupied a mansion uptown until 1872, when she sold out her effects in latter home, and came to reside permanently at the LeRoy House, the new Rochelle residence of her family built and owned by her relatives.
The death of her husband was a terrible blow to Mrs. Webster. She was a devoted wife and had a keen apprehension of his superior intellectual qualifications. After his death she seemed to desire seclusion with her maid, to whom she often remarked that she never expected to meet Mr. Webster's equal, and therefore felt as though the world was a void to her. She retired early from society, admitting only family relatives and a few intimate acquaintances, Mr. Winthrop, of Boston, who delivered the oration at the unveiling of the Webster statue in Central Park, being one of her principal advisors and visitors. With the competence which she had to her own right and the income from the annuity given her by the city of Boston, she was enabled to live in the modest and comfortable style that became the widow of an American statesman. She scarcely ever appeared in public, but took a great interest in anything pertaining to the revival of the memory of her husband. Al- though she received a serious injury, about twenty-five years previous to her death, by being thrown from her carriage, which at times seemed to obscure her memory of other events, yet she would sit for hours and relate incidents of her husband's life. Her last appearance in public was at the unveiling of the Web- ster statue in 1877, where she occupied a place of honor on the platform. She was invited to be present at the centennial cele- bration of her husband's birth, but was unable to attend on
82
MANUAL AND CIVIL LIST.
account of her health. She received many letters upon the sub- ject from prominent New England families, and the revival of the past seemed to make her somewhat low spirited. Under the mental strain she fell an easy victim to pneumonia, and quietly breathed her last.
Not long after the death of Mr. Webster one hundred citizens of Boston contributed one thousand dollars each to a fund of one hundred thousand dollars, which was invested for Mrs. Webster's benefit, and the interest of this she duly received at her New Rochelle home.
WILLIAM TEMPLE EMMET
STATE OFFICIALS.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
WILLIAM T. EMMET.
William Temple Emmet, State Superintendent of Insurance, etc., was born in New Rochelle, this county, on July 28, 1869, a son of Richard Stockton and Catharine (Temple) Emmet, and a direct de- scendant of the great Irish patriot Robert Emmet.
He acquired his early education in local public schools and then attended St. Paul's School, Concord, N. H. He graduated from the Columbia University Law School in 1891, and was admitted to practice law in 1892.
He first practiced in his native County, and in May, 1894, formed a partnership in New York city.
His political career began shortly after reaching his majority. He possessed the faith of his fathers, and early enlisted in the ranks of Democracy. Almost immediately following his twenty-first birthday he was chosen to the responsible po- sition of Trustee of the village of New Rochelle, elected after a spir- ited contest in which he defeated the strongest candidate the opposition could induce to stand for election. He served as such Trustee in 1891, 1892, 1893, 1894.
His ability as a local legislator attracted attention and secured for him election as a member of the State Constitutional Convention, to represent the local Senatorial dis- trict, in 1894, when he was but twenty-five years of age.
It is said that he is the youngest man yet appointed to fill his present important office.
In 1900 he was appointed by Mayor Van Wyck a member of the Board of Education of the city of New York.
overwhelmingly Republican and the latter political party had deter- mined to secure the election regard- less of cost. Mr. Emmet made an active canvass, and, notwithstand- ing the great odds against him, polled a vote of which he might be proud.
In 1904 he was chosen a delegate from the Westchester County Con- gressional district to the Democratic. National Convention. He was again elected a delegate in 1912, to the Democratic National Convention, from the city of New York.
For a considerable period, prior to 1912, Mr. Emmet was chairman of the New York city branch of the New York State Democratic League.
In 1911 he was appointed by Gov- ernor Dix as a manager of the State Training School for Boys, at York- town Heights, in this County.
Governor John A. Dix, on Febru- ary 19, 1912, appointed Mr. Emmet as State Superintendent of Insur- ance. His selection being made from a list bearing the names of many distinguished citizens repre- senting different sections of the State. That Mr. Emmet was given preferment was a fitting tribute to his personal worth, as well as an ap- proval of the consistency of his po- litical course.
The business of insurance has reached such vast proportions within this State and the interests involved in its proper conduct are so vital to the welfare of our citizens, that the placing of it under the controlling supervision of the State, as was done in 1859, was a matter of public policy, the propriety of which can- not be well questioned at this time. Laws under which it is super- vised underwent revision in 1892, and at a more recent date were re- vised by radical amendments.
In 1903 he consented to be his party's candidate for State Sena- tor, in his home district, when it The position of State Superin- was known that the district was | tendent of Insurance has been held
83
84
MANUAL AND CIVIL LIST.
by some of the ablest and best known men in the State. Mr. Em- met has the honor of being the only resident of Westchester County yet selected to hold this office of great responsibility. The State In- surance Department, giving employ- ment to hundreds of persons, is, at the present time, considered one of the most important branches of the State government. Offices of the department are located in Albany and in New York city.
Those who know Superintendent Emmet best are confident that his discharge of duties will reflect credit upon the State and his native County, as well as upon himself; that the public at large can rely upon an intelligent supervision which is so essential to the best interests of the people of the State.
Mr. Emmet for several recent years practised his profession in New York city, where he has offices. In practice he became especially fa-
miliar with laws relating to all forms of insurance, which knowl- edge is of valuable assistance to him in his new official position. He has long been ranked as one of the foremost young members of the legal fraternity in New York city, his ability securing for him promi- nence. He has been conspicuous in many important legal contests re- sulting successfully; his utterances are precise and distinct and his voice pleasant. His attachments are warm and his friends numerous, and they rejoice at the evidences of his pros- perity.
Mr. Emmet was married on June 16, 1896, to Miss Cornelia Zabriskie, daughter of Augustus Zabriskie, of New York city. There are three children, Richard S., Katharine Tem- ple, and William Temple, Jr.
The family resides in South Sa- lem, this county, as well as having a New York city home.
DAVID CROMWELL
BENJAMIN I. TAYLOR
CONGRESSIONAL.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
BENJAMIN I. TAYLOR.
Benjamin Irving Taylor, Super- visor of town of Harrison, West- chester County, Representative-elect in Congress, etc., was born December 21, 1877, in New York city, a son and eldest child of Maurice H. and Ella M. (Archer) Taylor. Soon af- ter his birth his parents returned to reside in Rye, this County.
On the paternal side genealogy connects him with the English House of Hamilton and with one or more personages associated prominently with the legal fraternity of early English history. John Archer, of one of the oldest families of the County, an ancestor on his maternal side, was granted a charter for the Manor of Fordham, in this County, when that section was within the gift of the British Crown. William H. Taylor, his paternal grandfather, represented the Common Council of the City of New York, sixty years ago, when that city purchased a site and established Washington Market; the ability displayed in this particu- lar transaction in the way of public improvement called for public recog- nition and he received from the City as a gift a full silver service, now preserved as a valued family heir- loom. Grandfather W. H. Taylor died in Harrison in 1872. His pa- ternal grandmother was a descend- ant of Godfrey Haines, of Harrison, and on his maternal side a descend- ant of Stephen Hopkins, the Quaker, who signed the Declaration of Inde- pendence.
Mr. Taylor, the subject of this sketch, received his early education in the public schools of the town of Rye, from there, in 1894, he went to the New Rochelle High School, from which he graduated in 1896. He was the first graduate of this High School, the number of his di- ploma being No. 1. He entered the
Columbia University Law School, from which he graduated in 1899 with a degree of LL.B. He accepted a position in the law office of Fred- erick W. Sherman, in Port Chester, and a year later entered the law of- fice of E. A. Scott, New York city. In 1901 he started practice on his own account in the village of Port Chester, town of Rye, where he yet has offices and a large and growing business.
Mr. Taylor's father and family removed from Rye to Harrison in the year 1902, and since that time Tay- lor, Jr., has made Harrison his place of residence.
In 1905, when only twenty-eight years of age, Mr. Taylor accepted the Democratic nomination for Su- pervisor of the town of Harrison, becoming the opponent of one of the strongest candidates the Republican party could present for that office, George T. Burling, now serving this County as County Treasurer. Mr. Taylor won, proving his great popu- larity among those who ought to know him best in what had always of recent years been known as a "Republican town." Two years later, in 1907, he was re-elected, and again in 1909 and in 1911.
In the Board of Supervisors he has ever taken an important part in the proceedings, a recognized leader in all debates, and was ever able to be of inestimable service to his town in caring for its interests.
As he has the confidence of mem- bers of the Bar, so he has the con- fidence of his colleagues in the Board of Supervisors, where his ability as a lawyer is of valuable assistance in the transaction of the County 's business.
As a student he was laborious, in- defatigable; as a lawyer, scrupu- lously faithful to the interests of his clients, and untiring in the advo- cacy of their claims. He has ac-
85
86
MANUAL AND CIVIL LIST.
quired with the Bench a high repu- tation for candor and frankness as well as legal attainments, and with the Bar the character of a fair, courteous and gentlemanly practi- tioner, whose professional reputation is a guaranty against chicanery.
In his recent election in Novem- ber, 1912, as Representative in Con- gress, he has the additional honor of being the first elected to Congress from the new Congressional district, the Twenty-fifth, composed of a part of Westchester County and the whole of Rockland County. In him the Democratic party will find a desired asset.
On his election as Representative in Congress, in 1912, Mr. Taylor tendered his resignation as Super- visor, which the Board of Town Of- ficers refused to accept, and passed resolutions asking him to withdraw such resignation and continue to
serve the town in the office of Su- pervisor.
In announcing House Committees Speaker Clark specially honored Westchester County, by giving Mr. Taylor, a new member, some very important assignments.
Since he has been Supervisor, Mr. Taylor has been frequently urged to accept nominations for County of- fices at the hands of his political party, the last being that of Surro- gate, in 1912. He preferred to de- vote much of his time to legal prac- tice. When shown that his party needed him at Washington, he con- sented to run for Congress.
Mr. Taylor was married on April 27, 1907, to Miss Harriet B. Bulk- ley, daughter of Josiah W. and Mar- garet Bulkley of Rye; of this union there are two daughters, Estelle B., Dorothy F., and a son, Benjamin Irving, Jr.
STATE AND COUNTY OFFICIALS.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
DAVID CROMWELL.
David Cromwell, a Manager of the State Reformatory for Women, at Bedford, Supervisor of the town of Eastchester in 1877-78-79, County Treasurer for twelve years, from 1879; President of the Village of White Plains in 1894, Treasurer of Village of White Plains from
1889 to 1894; President of White Plains Building and Loan Associa- tion from 1888, President of the White Plains Citizen's Association ; was instrumental in the organization of the White Plains Bank and be- came its first President in 1893, this bank later became the present First National Bank of White Plains, and he retains the Presi- dency, was organizer and is Presi- dent of the Home Savings Bank of White Plains, was an organizer of the People's Bank now the First National Bank of Mount Ver- non and is one of the original di- rectors, chairman of Group VI. of the New York State Bankers' Asso-
ciation, and director or trustce of other financial institutions,
President of the White Plains Hospital Association, Trustee of the White Plains Public Library, chair- man of board of trustees of the Presbyterian Church of White Plains, and prominently connected with various other societies work- ing to advance the public good. Has been member of the Mason or- der for forty years.
He was born May 25, 1838, a son of John and Letitia (Haviland ) Cromwell. Was married December 3, 1873, to Miss Fannie Deuel of New York. A son and daughter were born to them.
The son, John C. Cromwell, a young man of many attainments and of great promise, was suddenly killed on February 3, 1907, while heroically performing his duties as a volunteer fireman, at a fire on Railroad Avenue, White Plains. Two companions perished with him.
The daughter is the wife of Charles D. Horton of White Plains.
(Sce Volumes One and Two.)
TOWNS OF THE COUNTY.
The early history of the several Towns in Westchester County is more than interesting; but as the subject was quite fully treated in volume one, commencing at page 187, lengthy his- torical reviews of the Towns will not be attempted in the present volume, further than to give, briefly and concisely as possible, additional information subsequently obtained.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.