John Jay, dated March 15, 1797, naming him as Dieut.-Col. Commandant of a Regiment of Westchester County

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HISTORICAL, SKETCHES.

Militia, having previously, in 1786, been commissioned as Captain by Gov. George Clinton. He was over six feet in stature and every way a stalwart man, of splendid physique. He was twice married. By his first wife, Hannah McChain, he had a daughter who married Bishop Underhill and was so the grandmother of Edgar Underhill, Esq., of New York.

His second marriage was with Abigail, daughter of Hacealiah Brown, by whom he had John Jackson Odell, born Aug. 10, 1792, who graduated from Columbia College class of 1814. During the War of 1812 he served on the staff, of Gen, Pierre Van Cortlandt, having the rank of Colonel. He married Anna, daughter of Bartholomew Ward and granddaughter of Hon. Stephen Ward. He lived at the Tompkins- Odell farm, distinguished for having been the headquarters of Rochambeau during the summer of 1781, and which was purchased of the Commissioners of Forfeiture in 1785, he having previously purchased the interest of the widow Bates in the improvements on the property. Her husband, Gilbert Bates, was taken prisoner by two British scouts who came along and took him from the orchard just opposite the house, in the fall of 1779, and putting him on a horse, tying his feet together, so carried him away, and that was the last that was ever seen of him. Mr. Bates had bought the place of John Tompkins who built the now old and historic house about 1733.