Annie," as she is affectionately known--who graces the old Manor House as the Van Cortlandt women always didd 1! The Van Cortlandts founded Croton-on-Hudson two hundred and fifty years ago. If there is a village shrine in Croton, it is the Manor House. One of the most prominent patrician families of Holland was that of Cornelius Barentse Van Wyck. His grandson Abraham Van Wyck wooed and won Catherine Van Cortlandt, one of the three daughters of Lieutenant-Governor Pierre Van Cortlandt. Their daughter Ann Van Cortlandt Wyck married Judge Alexander Wells and Gertrude Van Cortlandt Wells, a daughter of that union, lives in Croton-on- Hudson today. She is well known as Baroness de Graffenried. She is known as "The Baroness" and, by inheritance or purchase, owned much of the acreage of Croton proper. She is alert and vigorous at an age close to ninety and has participated to the fullest extent in village affairs. The Van Cortlandts, through marriage, are closely linked to many of the old, outstanding families of both Dutch and English descent: the Van Wycks, the Van Rensselaers, the De Peysters, the De Lanceys, the Schuylers, the Philipses, the Verplancks, the Beekmans and the Bayards, as well as the Livingstons and Clintons and the Hamiltons. Cornelia Van Cortlandt, daughter of Lieutenant-Governor Pierre Van Cortlandt, occupied the Van Cortlandt Manor House with her husband, Gerard Beekman, during the Revolutionary days although, afterwards, they settled in the old Beekman homestead at North Tarrytown. She was a typical Van Cortlandt girl, as British officers and Tories ascertained to their discomfiture when they sought to annoy and terrify her. She was mistress when the Arnold treason was discovered. The confusion or uncertainty of facts with regard to the story of Andre and Arnold have caused many versions of it to be written.