Mount Pleasant, with its village of Sing Sing, still led, having 3,684 inhabitants; Cortlandt was second, with 3,121; Bedford third, with 2,432; Westchester fourth, with 2.10)2; and Greenburgh fifth, with 2,001. The population of Yonkers was 1,580, being exceeded by that of Yorktown and Seniors, in addition to the towns above named. In the year 1824 this county was the scene of enthusiastic receptions to the immortal Lafayette on his route from New York to Boston. Lafayette arrived in New York Bay on the 15th of August, and, lauding on Staten Island, was entertained there by our distinguished son, ex-Governor and Vice-President Tompkins. The news

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of his arrival had been brought by express to General Philip Van Cortlandt, then living at the Manor House on the Croton, who at once set off for the city, "'where he had the inexpressible satisfaction of embracing his old compatriot, and felt it one of the happiest moments of his life." On the 20th of August Lafayette was escorted by the mayor and corporation of the city to Kingsbridge, whence he continued his journey to Boston. The principal event in Westchester County of the decade 1820-30 was the building of the State penitentiary at Sing Sing. By an act passed March 7, 1824, the construction of a new State prison was authorized in the 1st and 2d senatorial districts, and the SingSing site was selected on account of its marble quarries -- which afforded a means for the advantageous employment of convict labor. -- its accessibility by water, and its salubrity. At that time there Mere only two State prisons in existence, one in New York City (called Newgate) and one in Auburn. "On the 14th of May, 1825," says Dr. Fisher, the historian of the Town of Ossining, " one hundred convicts from the Auburn prison, under the supervision of Captain Elam Lynds, were landed on the grounds from a canal boat in which they were brought.