Home / Croton Local History
🏘️ Croton Local History
Blog posts, articles, and community histories by local historians
1,672Passages
208Source Documents
Sources
Passages
crotonhistory.org
20th, 1780. Descendants of Peterson have the musket. Linden Cottage. Cannon ball found by Eugene Anderson, who now has it. It weighs five pounds. Old musket ram-rod found in clay. In possession of H. G Morehouse. Underhill Homestead. Old oak tree, a
crotonhistory.org
landmark. No one knows how old. Vine Cottage. Fish house. Cannon ball weighing nearly six pounds, plowed up in meadow. Squaw Point. Directly opposite, on the western bank, André landed from the Vulture and first met Arnold. Picnic Point, where Enoch
crotonhistory.org
Crosby, Cooper's Spy , once enticed ashore and helped capture a boat-load of British soldiers. Farm house 135 years old. Italian villa built by Dr. Robert T. Underhill, deceased. Cannon ball found lodged in a tree about eighty years ago, by Dr.
crotonhistory.org
Underhill. The ball is now in possession of S. W. Underhill and weighs about six pounds. The tree is not now standing, and the oldest inhabitant does not remember in which side of the tree the ball lodged. Place where earthworks were thrown up by
crotonhistory.org
Americans 2 when they brought the cannon down to the point. Vouched for by S. W. Underhill, who lived there for sixty years. Dotted shore is low and sandy. Where the shore has declivity marks it is high and rocky. Scenic and Historic America , volume
crotonhistory.org
1, issue 1, January 15, 1917. ↩ Hall added a footnote, "Livingston's cannon may have been shifted from one place to another, as the Vulture got under way." ↩ Share this: Print (Opens in new window) Print Email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
crotonhistory.org
Email Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Share on X (Opens in new window) X Share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest Share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Tumblr Share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn Like Loading...
crotonhistory.org
Two hundred and thirty seven years ago today, on July 2, 1776, the Pennsylvania Evening Post published momentous news. The July 2, 1776 issue of the Pennsylvania Evening Post contains the earliest known printed notice that independence had been
crotonhistory.org
declared. Four days later, it became the first newspaper to print the text of the Declaration of Independence. It wasn’t emblazzoned across the front page as it would be today, because in the 18th century newspapers were produced slowly —typeset
crotonhistory.org
letter-by-letter and printed one-by-one. “Each side of each sheet of each copy had to be pressed by hand, a complex task that involved (among many other procedures) wetting the paper, ‘beating’ the type with ink-soaked balls, and repeatedly pulling
crotonhistory.org
the heavy crank that lowered the platen and made the impression. . . . even a rural weekly, with barely adequate circulation of only 500 or 600, required a day and most of a night of unremitting labor to produce.” 1 One can only imagine what it was
crotonhistory.org
like for the printers to insert this same-day news where there was still room, on the last page, just before the advertisements: “This day the CONTINENTAL CONGRESS declared the UNITED COLONIES FREE and INDEPENDENT STATES.” The announcement of
crotonhistory.org
independence appeared on the last page, above an advertisement for the sale of two ships. Earlier that day, the Continental Congress had taken a decisive step by passing a resolution made by Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee, “That these United
crotonhistory.org
Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally
crotonhistory.org
dissolved.” John Trumbull’s Declaration of Independence , depicting the presentation of the draft of the Declaration of Independence to Congress. Two days later, on July 4, 1776, Congress formally approved the Declaration of Independence, setting
crotonhistory.org
out—as John Adams put it in a letter to his wife Abigail—”the Causes, which have impell’d Us to this mighty Revolution.” 2 These images are courtesy of Seth Kaller Inc., a dealer in rare historic documents based in White Plains. See the website for
crotonhistory.org
more information on the history of the Declaration of Independence. Coming next: Croton’s connection to the Declaration of Independence. Paisley, Jeffrey. The Tyranny of Printers, Newspaper Politics in the Early American Republic (University of
crotonhistory.org
Virginia Press, 2003) ↩ Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 3 July 1776, at the Massachusetts Historical Society . ↩ Share this: Print (Opens in new window) Print Email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email Share on Facebook (Opens in
crotonhistory.org
new window) Facebook Share on X (Opens in new window) X Share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest Share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Tumblr Share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn Like Loading... Related Tagged Declaration of
crotonhistory.org
Independence Published July 2, 2013 July 2, 2014
crotonhistory.org
On the afternoon of July 9, 1776, at the Court House in White Plains, Colonel Pierre Van Cortlandt voted to approve the Declaration of Independence. He was one of eleven deputies from Westchester County at the meeting of “the Provincial Congress of
crotonhistory.org
the Province of New-York.” 1 A rare copy of the broadside of the Declaration of Independence, printed by John Holt for the Convention of Representatives of the State of New York, after their meeting of July 9, 1776. Courtesy of the Westchester County
crotonhistory.org
Archives. The meeting took place at a time of high drama. As the Continental Congress was meeting in Philadelphia to declare independence (on July 2) and to approve the text of the declaration (on July 4) the British were assembling, in the harbor in
crotonhistory.org
New York City, what historian Wilbur C. Abbott called “the most formidable force yet used by any European power outside of Europe.” 2 “On July 2,” he wrote, “they were in the harbor; and even while the Declaration of Independence was being adopted,
crotonhistory.org
the army which was designed to make independence impossible was being disembarked on Staten Island . . . It was enough to give the hardiest patriot pause. A hundred and thirty vessels, carrying six thousand veterans from Halifax; troops from the
crotonhistory.org
British garrisons in the West Indies, Gibraltar, and the British Isles, and eight thousand seasoned soldiers from Germany, well-officered and well-supplied, experienced in war, supported by a fleet—such was the great argument presented by the British
crotonhistory.org
government against a hasty decision by New York in favor of independence.” New York’s decision on independence was crucial, not only because of the size and strategic importance of the colony, but because New York’s delegation in Philadelphia—lacking
crotonhistory.org
instructions from the Provincial Congress—had been the only delegation to abstain from the July 2 independence resolution—preventing the vote from being unanimous. The Provincial Congress began the July 9 meeting in the morning by electing officers.
crotonhistory.org
They then allowed deputies from New York, Albany and Orange counties “take their seats”, but asked that they take measures to procure a copy of their missing “Credentials.” They also took “the general oath of secrecy”—with the exception of Mr.