The doctor was also much interested in former years in organizing a higher grade in the common schools in the township and has held many offices of a public nature. Along the line of the Southern Boulevard, southwest of the- village, stands the Vyse mansion, formerly erected by Thomas Richardson, a wealthy Irish linen merchant, and at the junction of the Westchester road and Southern Boulevard stood the Fox Mansion, this point being known, and still by old settlers spoken of, as " Fox's Corners."

William Fox was a wealthy merchant of New York City. He married a daughter of William Leggett, of West Farms and Leggett's Point. He was of the Quaker persuasion, and the members of the Fox and Leggett families are buried in the old Quaker burying-ground at Westchester, just south of the Episcopal Church. He had several children,-- William, George, Mrs. Augustus Scliell and Mrs. Tucker. From him is descended the Tiffany family (who still own some of the original property) and Austin G. Fox, a rising lawyer of the New York bar, and Mrs. Rebecca Riggs, of the same city.

To the east of Fox's Corners stands Brightside, the beautiful residence of Colonel R. M. Hoe, of the world-renowned firm of R. M. Hoe & Co., printingpress manufacturers.

Since this work has been in press Mr. Hoe died in Europe. Though a poor boy, by the industry and mechanical skill of himself and his brothers, the firm increased its business to such an extent that it has its factories on both sides of the Atlantic. Most of the improvements made in the steam-presses of to-day are due to the careful study and knowledge of practical mechanics which Colonel Hoe possessed. The colonel was also diligent in the affairs of his township ; was one of the commissioners who constructed the Southern Boulevard, a promoter of the Morrisania Steamboat Company and the Suburban Rapid Transit Company, and vestryman of St.