Home / Scharf, J. Thomas, ed. History of Westchester County, New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. II. Philadelphia: L.E. Preston & Co., 1886. / Passage

History of Westchester County, New York, Vol. II

Scharf, J. Thomas, ed. History of Westchester County, New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. II. Philadelphia: L.E. Preston & Co., 1886. 251 words

These were some of the sturdy ones who outlived the troubles of the dry years, hauling water and supplies for miles. They would sometimes sit in the dark in the evening for they were out of oil. These people were often twenty-five miles from a postoffice, and forty miles from a doctor, but as Mrs. L. M. Myers expressed it, the outdoor life made people much more healthy. They didn't need a doctor so often, but in some cases it was a serious hardship, as in the following experience. Mrs. Myers' father, Julius Johnson, was very seriously wounded by a desperado. She was obliged to wade and swim the river and go five miles to get help, then the neighbor had to go thirty miles to get the doctor. She had run most of the way and had just enough strength to tell them what was wanted when she fainted. They went to help her father and get the doctor and the father's life was saved.

This same lady when a girl was often out hunting for Indian beads, arrow heads, etc. One day she came to an old hollow stump, upon investigation it was found to contain many human bones and a button. It had evidently served as a grave for a child. It was beside the Old Mormon Trail and some Mormon emigrants had spent a winter here in years gone by. There was also a grave marked Sarah Turner, died 1872. The weather had almost smoothed the board-marker.