Tozer.

For the last eight years North Salem Academy has held a respectable standing among its sister institutions in this part of the state ; sometime numbering nearly one hundred students and generally during the winter sessions, from seventy to ninety. The last annual catalogue contained the names of one hundred and forty-five pupils. During the revolution, the Academy was used as a jail and court house for the detention and trial of refractory tories. Here one Paine was-tried and condemned as a spy ; he

^ was executed about half a mile from the Academy, though it appears that circumstances afterward threw some doubt upon his guilt. It is said that a reprieve was forwarded from head-quarters, and that when the unfortunate man was swung off, the bearer had just reached the Episcopal church, which was a mile as the road then ran, from the place of execution ; he was of course too late. When the French army passed through this town in 1781, on their way from Rhode Island to Dobb's Ferry, where they crossed the Hudson to join Washington, they encamped near the Academy two days, and the officers occupied the building."a The situation of the Academy is exceedingly beautiful, and the view of the Mutighticoos valley is such as can seldom

» Communicated by Mr. John F Jenkins, A. M., principal of the North Salem Academy.

478 HISTORY OF THE

be equalled. The moderate distatice from the rail-road, combined with the great advantages for education, presented by retirement and tranquility, justly entitle this institution to a large share of public patronage.