Home / Bolton, Robert Jr. A History of the County of Westchester, from its First Settlement to the Present Time, Vol. I. New York: Alexander S. Gould, 1848. / Passage

A History of the County of Westchester, Vol. I

Bolton, Robert Jr. A History of the County of Westchester, from its First Settlement to the Present Time, Vol. I. New York: Alexander S. Gould, 1848. 300 words

On the highlands grow chesnut, oak and hickory ; on the lower grounds ash, birch, maple, elm, pine and hemlock, &c. It is also sufficiently watered by springs and brooks. New Rochelle furnishes an extensive list of minerals. Among the most important may be mentioned quartZ; drusy, calcedony, agate, jasper, serpentine of almost every variety, and chromate of iron. Hydrate of magnesia and carbonate of magnesia, compact and crystalline, are also found here, according to Mr. Mather. <i There are several islands in the Sound attached to this town ; among others may be enumerated Goat, Maskett's, Hurtleberryj Hewlet's, Locust, Pea and Vaucluse Islands. • •. / . -/ • .:-■,• ; .

» Marshall's Life of Washington, vol. i. p. 111. b Heath's Mem. 113.

c Subsequently Governor General of Canada. d See Geological Survey of N. Y. 1840.

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NORTH CASTLE.

The township of North Castle is situated " 6 miles north of White Plains. 36 miles from New York, and 129 miles from Albany ; -- bounded north by New Castle and Bedford, east s:. Stephen's Church, North cas.ie. j^y Ponudridge, Southeasterly by the State of Connecticut and the town of Harrison, and west by Monnt Pleasant.''^- North Castle was at first styled the White Fields,^ and subsequently (upon its division into several patents) the Liberty of North Castle. The present township was organized on the 7th of March. 1788.^

From the general tenor of the Indian grant, made to Nathaniel Turner, of New Haven, in 1640, we infer, that the greater part of these lands originally belonged to the Indian sachems Ponus and Wascussue. At this early period, however, the Indians were in the habit of making repeated and almost unlimited grants of land into the wilderness, as they termed the interior of the county.