Its most remarkable pastorate was that of the Reverend A. Vallette Clarkson who served as priest in charge for more than fifty years. The Methodist Episcopal Church of Croton erected its first church edifice in 1780 and has maintained a strong and steady growth all through the ensuing years. Ninety years ago, there were not ten Roman Catholics in all Croton. Today, the Holy Name of Mary Church and the Chapel of the Good Shepherd have hundreds of parishioners. The church properties are costly and beautiful. Eighty years ago, before the Civil War, Croton led Ossining and Tarrytown in religious fervor and statistics. In the I860 census, Croton had four churches for its four hundred inhabitants, while Tarrytown had only four for its two thousand people and Sing Sing had a five thousand three hundred population with only four churches, too. The history of Croton-on-Hudson for the past two hundred and fifty years may be divided into two great epochs: the first, lasting a hundred and fifty years, we may call its "feudal epoch," a period when its inhabitants were loyal retainers and almost subjects of the lord of the Manor. During that century and a half, it is difficult to disentangle Croton as a community from the Manor of Cortlandt. But after the Van Cortlandt empire had been dismembered, the hum-drum days of trade and the ordinary ways and paths of peace found Croton-on-Hudson aspiring to be a village in the fullest sense of the word. That spirit cultivated an independent citizenry who have left their mark for good upon our village life. John W. Frost was a moving force in the Croton of one hundred years ago. Of Yankee family, he was the leading merchant in Croton for many years, the supervisor of Cortlandt Town for twelve years,