"The history of nations," said Taine, "is the history of the men who make up nations; it is in the homes of the common people, their daily lives and their ambitions, that we find the motives which actuate the most important national events, revolutionize governments and change the political geography of continents." To no communities could this judicious comment of the keenest of critics be more aptly applied than to those which, derived from all the maritime peoples of Europe, laid broad and deep the stable foundations of Caucasian civilization in North America and erected upon them the impregnable structure of free government. Writers of history never so generally recognized as they do now that to construct an intelligent and comprehensive narrative of a State, or its divisions they must seek the source of truth and the springs of action at the firesides of the pioneers of population and the civil establishment. No department of historical research is more fascinating to the student or the reader than that which throws a penetrating light upon the domestic life of the founders of our present society and government, and brings them out in bold relief as they transacted their business and household affairs, paid court to the blooming maidens who became their wives, reared their children, mingled in their feasts and festivals, built their churches and struggled to bequeath to their children the heritage of honored names and goodly estates. Rich as were all the early settlements of North America in this field of study, no section is more attractive than that in which Westchester County is embraced. The successive tides ot Dutch and English immigration, the original sharp definition of the lines which separated the two nationalities, the obliteration of those lines by a merging of racial interests, the institution of slavery, the growth of the colony toward moneyed prosperity, the influence of the Revolutionary War in domestic circles, the political and social readjustment which followed it -- all these epochs are vitalized by stirring, important and interesting incidents and phases that are gifted with an enduring charm for the generations succeeding the actors in them.