He was seldom induced to sell or even to lease any of it, but he was not particularly averse to settlers ami would offer now and then to build a house on his property for them as tenants." "Of the twenty-six buildings of all kinds," he adds, "including barns, sheds, and little shops, then [1813] on the three hundred ami twenty acres of land, about twelve could have been utilized as dwellings, five were mill buildings for grinding grain and plaster and for sawing and fulling, five were barns and sheds, and

HISTORY

WESTCHESTER

COUNTY

cue is represented as containing k s1k>i>s/ On the outskirts of the Wells property there were various farmhouses. Lemuel Wells died on the 11th of February, 1842. During the nearly thirty years of his proprietorship of the representative portion of Voukers the improvements which he made on Ins estate were only of an incidental nature. It was not until 1831 that he built a wharf permitting steamboats to land, although for some years previously

ESTATE

LEMUEL euioN-s mius

REPRESENTATIVE

PORTION

Purchased

in 1813.

RIVER

HUDSON

WELLS

YONKKRS

CNDKR

•RIETORSHIP

OK LEMUEL

WELLS.

these vessels had been making landings at Cluster (now Alpine) on the opposite side of the river. Indeed, it was a frequent occurrence for Yonkers people desiring to board the steamers 1<> cross over to Alpine. At the time of the death of Mr. Wells, says Allison, Yonkers was " a hamlet of one hundred people -- more or less -- and a little more than a score of houses/' Meanwhile, however, there had been a gradual accession of valuable citizens in the sections bordering the manor property -- some of them land purchasers of substantial means, and others men of enterprising traits, all realizing the natural advantages of the locality and standing ready to promote its development.