The lots not improved, as so required, were, however, in a few years relieved from this incumbrance by releases freely given." 1 By the fall of 1853 the settlement of the place had been so satisfactorily accomplished, and its preparation in other respects for organized government so far advanced, that its people were ready to consider the question of its incorporation as a village. This plan was agreed to by a majority vote in December. The first election for village officers was held on the 7th of March, 1851, when Stephen Bogart, John B. Brennan, Joseph S. Gregory, M.D., Thomas Jones, and William Saxton were chosen trustees. Dr. Gregory was the first president of the village, but resigned soon after his election and was succeeded by Thomas Jones. A census taken at the time of incorporation gave the place 1,370 inhabitants, of whom 561 were parents, 623 children, and the remainder unmarried adults and apprentices. The original settlement of Mount Vernon was where the principal business portion of the city now is, on the line of the New Haven Railroad, and mainly on the southern side of that line, although a lew houses were built at an early period to the northward of the railway. Contemporaneously, however, with the foundation of the village on the New I la von road, another village on the Harlem road was inaugurated, called West Mount Vernon. This also was begun under the auspices of an association organized on principles of economy-- the Teutonic Homestead Association, composed, as its name indicates, mostly of Germans. The number of the Teutonic associates was five hundred, and The land which they bought consisted of about one hundred ami thirty-one acres. Subsequently a third settlement, Central .Mount Vernon, was built up between the two villages. Central and West Mount Vernon were incorporated as one village in 1869, and were consolidated with Mount Vernon in 1878.