The Peekskill Academy is a flourishing chartered institution, delightfully situated on Oak Hill. Near it is still standing the tree on which was hung, during the revolutionary war, Daniel Strang, the British spy.a- " One Daniel Strang, (says Thatcher,) was found lurking about our army at Peekskill, and on examination enlisting orders were found sewed in his clothes. He was immediately tried as a spy from the enemy, sentenced to suffer death, and was executed accordingly."^

The most interesting evidence, (remarks a recent traveller,) that there is a spark of public spirit existing in this ancient settlement which will sooner or later burst into a flame, is to be found in the establishment of a high school, and the erection of a very neat, spacious and appropriate edifice for that purpose on a most delightful eminence, where the healthful and invigorating breeze from the towering mountains in the vicinity pours forth its medicinal influence, and where the soul alive to the sentiments of beauty, variety and sublimity, can view wiih rapture the variegated and picturesque scenery, the beautiful and expansive bay, the towering and gigantic Dunderberg, the " race," and

» N. Y. Gazeteer. b Thatcher's Journal.

64 HISTORY OF THE

the opening of the majestic Highlands. But my pen affords an altogether inadequate description of the scene.

Peekskill is certainlj^ well situated for purposes of education, furnishing as it does facilities for communicating daily, nay, almost hourly, with the great city; and from my own personal inference, as well as the testimony of others, I doubt whether there is a place in the whole range of the Hudson, where health can be more conveniently soi^oht, or more surely gained.