" There is in this town a great variety of timber and wood, being a good proportion of almost every kind which is known to grow in this part of the counrty." The surface of the town is mostly hilly, the soil productive and well cultivated. Mount Pleasant has the reputation of being rich in mineral productions; an iron mine has recently been opened on the land of the late David Acker. Native iron ore also (probably of meteoric origin) is frequently found on the surface of the earth in various parts of the town. The following town officers were elected in pursuance of the act of 1845 :

Isaac Coutant, Supervisor;

Jacob T. Brower, Town Clerk;

William Brown, Town Svperintendant;

Abrah am Broi wer, Trustee of the Poor;

Hkrvey Romeb, Assessor;

Henry Clark, Jr., Commissioner of Highways;

Amos Clark, Overseer of the Poor;

Hebby Brown, Sealer of Weights and Measures;

Andrew Vincent, Constable.

THE TOWN

ISTS"W CASTLE.

This township is situated ten miles north of the village of White Plains, and distant one hundred and twenty-one miles from Albany; bounded North by Cortlandt, Yorktown and Somers, East by Bedford, South by North Castle, and West by Ossining and Mount Pleasant. New Castle was taken from the older town of North Castle, and set off as a separate or distinct township on the 18th of March, 1791.

By the Indians it was called Shappequa, or Chappequa ; which tradition asserts to mean literally, " The Laurel Swamp" a it might have been, however, a mere corruption of the Algonquin term, " Chapacour." which signifies " a vegetable root."*5 The name still survives in the Chappequa hills, and has been conferred on a small hamlet in the Southern part of the town.