Merwin was well known in this community as an upright, honorable man in whom there was no guile. He was for many years a Justice of the Peace, the duties of which he discharged with scrupulous fidelity and conscientious regard to the just claims of suitors, ever frowning upon those whose vocation it is to a foment discord and perplex right." At an early period of his life, and while engaged in school teaching, he passed much of his time in the society of Washington Irving,

a A Reminiscence of Sleepy Hollow.-- Harper's Xew Monthly Magazine, No. CCCXI, April, 1876, Vol. LI1., p. 23. » *«t

i Legend of Sleepy Hollow, by Washington Irving.

HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER.

then a preceptor in the family of the late Judge Van Ness, of this town.

Both were engaged in congenial pursuits, and their residences being only a short distance apart, the author of the " Sketch Book " frequently visited the " Old School House," in which " Squire Merwin " was employed in teaching the young idea how to shoot, and subsequently immortalized his name by making him the hero of one of his inimitable tales -- "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."

Every one who has read that inimitable legend -- and what lover of genuine humor has not ? -- will remember that hapless wight, Ichabod Crane, and his terrible adventure with the " Headless Horseman." Mr. Merwin was the original of that character, in the portrayal of which Irving's matchless fancy glows and sparkles as brilliantly ichauoa crane.* as in almost anything he ever penned.