^x> ■-f" ^'^' ->> '■"v^*.■•.- oo By EDGAR MAYHEW BACON THe Hudson River from Ocean to Source Historical -- Legendary -- Picturesque 8°. With over loo Illustrations. Chronicles of Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollo\v iG"". With 23 full-page Illustrations. G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS Ne-w "VorK London The "Half-Moon" on the Hudson -- 1609 From a painting by L. W. Seavey poO/ {(()^!, [\o "nooM-lIiiH" …

A reference to the index may in many cases dis])el an impression that some im])ortant event or i)erson has been neglected or forgotten l^ecause its ]dace in a chronological sccjuence has of necessity been disregarded. In commencing the story with the arriwal of TTenry Hudson, the claims of Verrazani and other early na\-igators have been ignored, not because history disowns them, but for the reason…

TJic Hudson River is offered to the ]iu])lic with a consciousnes ofthe vastness of the suljject and the im])ossibility of treating it exhaustively in a single volume. The author \w\\\ ask his archaological readers kindly to bear in mind that for no town in the land vv^ould the antiquaries be found in accord concerning all points of local history. Whoever writes the history (jf a single village, wh…

VI -- On the Jersey Shore VII Early Settlers of the Hudson Valley 139 VIII-- The Passing of the White Wings . 100 IX Fulton and the Hudson River Steamhoat 41 X -- Riverside to In wood XI -- The Island and the River in 1776 XII -Forts Washington and Lee 181 XIII ^From Spuyten Duyvil to Yonkers XIV-- Spectres of the Tappan Zee . 211289 XV -- In the Land of Irving . 226 XVI-- Literary Assoc…

The Month of Spuytoi Dnyvil Creek in Early Days Earliest Map of the City A Bit of Old Neiv York 20 Before the Day of Skyscrapers 21 The House that icas Built for Washington The Staten Lsland Ferry and Barge Office (about nS33) 33 Peaks of the Manhattan Range The City that Hides Majihattan . TJie Barge Office and the Bay Cover noCs Island from Battery Park 43 A Tow Going out to Sea 53 Illustrat…

" Paragon,'' 181 1 ..... " Richmond," 181 j ..... The " North America" and " Albany,'^ 1 82^-1 82g The Modern Flying Dutcliman Riverside Drive, Manhattan The Apthrope Mansion, Bloomingdale . Grant's Tomb, Riverside Drive The Notable Buildings on Harlem Heights, ivherc tJic Battle was Fought in 1776 Burnham's Mansion House, Bloomingdale Road about i8jj Illustrations Page Barnard College, on tJ…

From an old print. The River Road, near Coldeuham Where the Brooks }h^t -Pilewild . 299 View South from Sing Sing, about iS4(S 2gi Croton and Verplanck\s Point and Anthony's Nose from Hill back of Sing Sing . High Taur and the Short Clove -- Haverstraw Illustrations Page Stony Point and H arc rst raze, jyoiu W-rplanck's 307 Point Bird^s-Eyc View of tJic Hudson from a Peak in tJic Highlands …

Murderer's (Moodna) Creek--By the Butter Hill 399 380 Across the Hudson from Cornwall 403 h^roni a ilraieinii bv \V. 'J. ]Vi!.'<oii. Ncivburgh as Seen from Ftshkill and Coldspring Road 4og The Cantilever Bridge at Poughkccpsie . 419 Tomkins's Cove ...... 423 Ice-boat Fleet near Hyde Park 433 Illustrations Page Mciidiiii^ Wis at (larn'soii . Mooiiliglit 0)1 llic Hudson 445 River Sccjic, Catski…

Along the River beloiv Troy . 532 Looking doivn River, near Troy 540 On the Hudson above Troy . 555 From an ohl print. Congress Spring in 1820 559 550 The Rapids below Glens Falls 552 xii Illustrations Page On the River between Glens [''alls and Sandy Hill I'l-oni a draicnii^ by \V . 7. Wilson. The Bridge at (ilens Falls . . . . . j6q A Logjam on the Upper Hudson . . . jyo Sectional Map of t…

The vovage of Henry Hudson, English navigator in the service of the Dutch East India Company, to find a passage through polar seas to the shores of farthest Ind; the happy accident which led him into the mouth of the river that was afterwards to bear his name and to perpetuate his memory; and the wonder of the Indians of Manhattan when the Half Moon anchored at last, are the details of a more than…

He dispatched his mate with a boat's crew, to make sure of the disappointing fact, and not till this expedition returned, after a journey of eight or Introductory nine leagues, did he finally abandon the enterprise in that direction and prepare to descend the river. Hudson ascended the stream in eleven days. He recorded his impressions and adventures, especially with regard to the Indians, in a …

in that year, 1610, they sent a ship thither and obtained afterwards, from the High and I\hghty Lords States-General, a grant to resort and trade exclusively in these parts, to which end they likewise, in the year 161 5, l)uilt on the North River, about the Island Manhattans, a redoubt or little fort, wherein was left a small garrison, some people usually remaining there to carry on trade with the…

The sweeping verdure of a nearly unbroken forest on the one bank, and precipitous, wild, pine-clad rocks on the other, bordered a land of mysterious possibilities and unguessed extent. Early writers have noticed particularly the prevalent abundance of the wild grapes that in their season filled the air with spicv perfume. Yet the forests were not uninhabited, for from every covert, every little co…

There is, however, for those who have sufficient patience and enthusiasm, a delightful study in those old Indian names that cover the Hudson and its tributarv waters with |)oly syllabic strangeness. The Rev. Charles E. AUison says of the Algonquin tongue, in which these names had their birth, that it "was agglutinative. The wild men of the rapid water settlement strung words together in an extende…

The Indians, themselves loaded with the unpronounceable name of Meckquaskich, called a river between hills, that ran near AHpconc (shady place), now Tarry town, Pocantico or Pockhantes. Besightsick was Sunnyside brook, Ossin-ing -- "stone upon stone," appropriate prophecy of present State buildings -- was Sing Sing at a later day, though very recently the inhabitants have again restored the Indian…

Albany claims the first of these, a palisaded enclosure antedating even that upon Manhattan Island. At the extreme ends of the navigable river, nearly a fortnight apart in ordinary weather and absolutely shut off from communication after the winter ice and snow appeared, they became each the centre of dependent communities. The settlements from New Amsterdam, or Manhattan, extended northward to Ki…

In relation to the purchase of Manhattan there is one old document, written in 1634, that concludes with a burst that has the ring of prophecy: " Further, not only were the above named forts enlarged and renewed, but the said company purchased from the Indians, who were the indubitable owners thereof, the island of Manhattes, situated at the entrance of said river, and there laid the foundations o…

There are, besides, divers other wild animals in the interior, but these are unknown to Christians. Introductory 13 After the account here quoted of the black and white deer, we are inchned to wonder whether it was knowledge or invention that failed. Certainly one may be more indulgent to the flocks of flamingoes with which Campbell brightened his picttn^e of the Wyoming valley. Allusion has bee…

Kinderhook -- spelled Kinderhoeck -- is about where it should be, and Hinnieboeck suggests Rhinebeck. Esopus has unaccountably slipped down the river, and is surrounded by forests belonging to the Waronawanka Indians. Then we find Blinkersbergh and Vischershoeck (or letters to that effect) in the country of the Pachami. Finally the familiar bend of "Havestro" and "Tappans" is reached, after which …

What is really important is that some one who constructed a map less than a decade after the discovery of the river should have known the names of Nassau, Kinderhook, Esopus, and Tappan, and should have placed them in their approximate order on the shores of a river making a line of cleavage through the wilderness. Those little settlements were the nuclei from which cultivation spread into the for…

having married Susanna Janss, at the time widow of Aert Teunissen, her previous husband, who had entered into a contract with Director Kieft to lease a certain boniverie named Hobog/n'n, situate in Pavonia on the west side of the North River, . . . fenced the lands, cleared the fields, and erected a suitable brew house which is yet standing there, and brought thither eight and twenty head of large…

" We respectfully request 3'our honours to institute a rigid inquiry into this matter ; how many first-class bouweries and ])lantations were abandoned in the war EARLIEST MAI' OF THE crrY b}' our Dutch and English, whose houses were burnt as has been stated." It may well be believed that, except within the stockades at Manhattan or under the protection of the fort at Rensselaerw}'k, few ornament…

The rest of the Indians, as soon as their maize was ripe, followed this example; and through seml)lance of selling beavers, killed an old man and woman, leaving another man with five wounds, who, however, fled to the fort, in a boat, with a little child in his arms, which, in the first outbreak, had lost father and mother, and now grandfather and grandmother; being thus twice rescued, through God'…

In it there is a statement that all fruits which will grow in Netherland will also thrive in New Netherland, without requiring as much care as must be given in the former. All garden fruits succeed likewise very well there, but are drier, sweeter, and better flavoured than in Netherland. As a proof of this we may properly instance melons and citrons or watermelons, which readily grow, in New Nethe…

Either this writer, or another of his tribe, was overjoyed to report that " indigo silvestris grows spontaneously here without any human aid or cultivation." Experiments with this plant were made in the extensive gardens of Rensselaerwyk and promised great things. We find added to that report a statement that madder would " undoubtedly ' ' thrive well ; " even better than in Zealand in regard to t…

From a thousand miles of streets the aur? ')f its multitudinous life seems to rise, and the hum ■ traffic and the murmur of its striving never ceases On the river the scene changes ii oat not in character. The boats cross and recross t.^ch other's courses like mammoth shuttles, w^eaving a pattern of a marvellous ta]:)estry, and the e\-e is bewildered in tr\'ing to follow their intricate paths or …

It is the city that hid behind palisades for fear of Indian neighbours; that fretted and prospered under Dutch and English governors; that in j^lace of stock exchanges and produce exchanges raised live stock and farm produce: the little city that entertained the first representative Congress in the Colonies and inaugurated the first President of the new Republic. Fort Amsterdam, at first a very ru…

For many years the church in which the early Dutch domines exhorted their flocks fostered its s];)iritual courage behind that tem])oral bulwark, and no doubt the many-breeked worshippers slei)t more comfortably in the knowledge that the hewn timber of their fence was strong, and the matchlocks of the guard ready for all comers. The names by which the fort was known, judging by the old records, cha…

It has Thirty nine Guns, two Mortarpieces, thirty Barils of Powder five hundred Ball some Bomb Shells and Grenados, small arms for three hundred men, one flanker, the face of the Xorth Bastion «& three points of Bastions & a Courtin has been done & are rebuilt by mee with Lime and Mortar and all the rest of the Fort Pinnd and Rough Cast with Lime since my coming here. And the most of the Guns I fo…

To this he adds a word about the human wall, upon which more reliance was to be placed than in rotten planks and dismantled guns. In this country there is a Woman yet ahve from whose Loyns there are upward of three hundred and sixty persons now living. The men that are here have generally strong and lusty bodies. In the face of such a statement as the foregoing the historian is dumb, willing in f…

High and Mighty Lords. One Andries ^Hchielsen, having been placed by Captain Binckes, the Commander of a squadron of four ships and one sloop-of-war, on board a prize of about fifty tons burthen, taken by the aforesaid Commander near Guadeloupe, in the Caribbean Islands, to bring her here, was forced, by leakage and insecurity of the ship, to run through the Channel, where he had the misfortune to…

What a century and a half have wrought of change and growth may best be appreciated by reading the description he wrote when Domine Ritzemer dispensed unadulterated Calvinism to his flock, when the Dutch farmers " in the small village of Harlem, pleasanth^ situated" on the north-western part of New York Island, cultivated ]iroduce for the cit}^ markets, and the oyster beds within view of the Batte…

Within the walls is the house in which our governors usually reside; and opposite to it brick barracks, built, formerly, for the independent companies. The Governor's house is in height three stories and fronts to the west; having from the second story a fine prospect of the bay and the Jersey shore. There was formerly a chapel, but this was burned down in the negro conspiracy of the spring of 174…

The ladies in general seem more partial to the light, various, and dashing drapery of the Parisian belles, than to the elegant and becoming attire of our London beauties, who improve upon the French fashions. The winter is passed in a round of entertainments and amusements. The servants are mostly negroes or mulattoes ; some free and others slaves. Marriages are conducted in the most splendid styl…

When at last, in March, the news reached America that Great Britain had acknowledged the absolute independence of the American States, there was a mighty thanksgiving that reached from the general commanding the army to the poorest private in the ranks, and included all classes of citizens, save those whose hearts were with the cause of royalty. New York, which had been in British hands since 1776…

General Henry Knox, who was with the Commander-in-chief, was there to take a conspicuous part in the ceremonious entrance. When the American troops, having marched through the length of New York, halted in Broadway, near Wall Street, and two companies were sent forward to take formal possession of the fort, with instruction to hoist the American flag and fire a salute of thirteen guns, many of the…

When the Americans, in accordance with orders, tried to pull it down to hoist the American colours in its place, they found that it had been securely nailed to the pole, the halliards cut, and the staff well slushed with grease. It was a dilemma awkward on one side as it was amusing on the other. We may imagine the departing soldiers waiting a short distance from the shore to watch the frantic eff…

AT the end of the eighteenth century there were a large number of historic houses clustering about the old fort. The names of some of the most notable New Yorkers were associated with them, and the reign of social leaders long celebrated for courtly and unstinted hospitality gave distinction to a neighbourhood now occupied by steamship offices and noisy with a jargon of foreign tongues. It was h…

The fort and batter}^ that, to the discomfiture of all good Continentals, were held by the British troops, and which, to the immense satisfaction of the elect, they evacuated in 1783, were in large part within the hne of the present elevated railway, and never very far beyond it. The extension of the Battery Park to the south and west of the ancient water-front has finally resulted in a symmetrica…

The grounds ran down to the water's edge, and were laid out after the approved EngHsh fashion of the day, with stately terraces and parterres of flowers. Kennedy was the son of the Hon. Archibald Kennedy, Receiver General under British rule, and he afterwards became by inheritance the eleventh Earl of Cassalis. His son, born in the old house at No. i, was afterwards Marquis of Ailsa. The Kennedy h…

It was the favourite meetingplace for British officers during the war, and was the scene of the great ball given on May 7, 1789, in h(jnour of Washington's Inauguration. John Peter de Lancey sold the property to a New Buildings and Old 35 syndicate composed of Philii) Li\'ingst()n, Gulian Verplanck, Ivloses Rogers, and others, in trust for subscribers to the "Tontine hotel and assembly room." Th…

Now the Equitable Building covers the place where Damen sat on his stocp and enjoyed his garden and listened to the hum of bees in the apple blossoms, -- covers house, garden, orchard, and all, to the extent of nearly an acre of grotmd. The old Middle Dutch Church in time disappeared from Nassau Street, as even churches do in New York, and on the i8th of October, 1882, the Mutual Life Insurance Co…

Separate structures have been shot into the air as though impelled by some terrific volcanic agency, but there is no hint of any idea of relationship between them; they suggest rather the accidental huddlins: of more or less unrelated and even incon- New Buildino-s and Old n gruous elements. The saw-tooth sky-hne thus produced does not add an element of beauty to the aspect of the city as seen fr…

There are cities, and even small towns, that present themselves to the imagination as units and are in their degree satisfying to that sane something within us that demands balance and proportion in art. They are at once comprehensive and comprehensil^le. But Manhattan is without a plan. Each building is a unit, sufficient unto itself, and the city is chaos. It is aside from the purpose of this bo…

There is old Trinit>' spire, that we used to think was in danger of tearing the silver lining from the clouds with its heavenward-pointing ti]x How dwarfed and insignificant itseems now among all its tall worldlx' neighbours! And yet, with the rush of a thousand thronging associations, how the eye seeks and dwells upon it, recognising in it a significance deeper and stronger than is suggested by a…

There are no drawbacks or incongruities then ; but the corruscation of uncounted lights -- flashing galaxies, not of stars, but of constellations and firmaments of stars -- render the scene one of indescribable beauty. Below the zone of white brilliants there is that other, of coloured shore lights. The Hudson River fountains of emerald and ruby that overflow and paint the unresting wave-rims wit…

The site was grant ed by the Cor- ])oration of New York City to the United States Government in May, 1807, and a fortification was built soon afterwards, but owing to bad engineering the foundations of the structure were not strong enough to support the weight even of what at that day was considered as heavy ordnance, and in March, 1822, the fort and ground were reconveyed to the city. For many y…

The Hudson River 4Of all the various tides in the affairs of this notable fort (whose aspect and name have been warlike, but whose record has all been suggestive of the piping times of peace), none has led more im.mediately to fortune, as well as fame, than Jenn}^ Lind's first concert on September ii, 1850. An account of this event was published in the New York Herald of the following morning wit…

Scena and Cavatina -- "Casta Diva. ' ' Swedish Melody -- "Herdsman's (Norma) Bellini. Song" (known as the Echo Song) ^I'lle Jenny Lind. Sung by M'lle Jenny Lind. Grand Duet for two Piano Fortes. Greeting to America -- Prize Com- Thalberg. position, byBayard Taylor, Esq. Messrs. Benedict and Hoffman. Benedict -- Composed expressly for Duet -- "Per Piacer." this occasion. (II Turco in Italia) R…

The ladies' dresses were very magnificent, and such as the great mass of women in no other country in the world can afford to wear. The fair sex were not as numerous as might be expected, the gentlemen outnumbering them considerably; but those who were present seemed to enjoy the concert in the highest degree. It is very probable that many ladies were kept away for the first night by the fear of b…

Here, more than once, the people of the city have welcomed a celebrated guest with all the enthusiasm that in later days we have seen evinced for an Am.erican or a German admiral. The accounts given of the landing of Lafayette and his reception at Castle Garden, in August, 1824, show how far from being a new thing it is for the average Manhattanite to express his feehngs vehemently when a receptio…

The animated scenes attending his landing at Castle Garden, upon a carpeted stairway, under a magnificent arch, richly decorated with flags and wreaths of laurel, while groups of escorting vessels, alive with ladies and gentlemen, and adorned in the most fanciful manner, circled about; and the prolonged shouts of hosts of people, and the roar of cannon echoed far away over the waters, together wit…

It was a festival that realises all that we read of in the Persian tales or Arabian Nights, which dazzled the eye and bewildered the imagination, and which produced so many powerful combinations, by magnificent preparations, as to set description almost at defiance. We never saw ladies more brilliantly dressed -- everything that fashion and elegance could devise was used on the occasion. Their hea…

admitted they had never seen anything equal to this fete in the several countries from which they came -- the blaze of light and beauty, the decorations of the military officers, the combination of rich colours which met the eye at every glance, the brilliant circle of fashion in the galleries, everything in the range of sight being inexpressibly beautiful, and doing great credit and honour to the…

The year following Lafayette's visit brought another event to be written large in the chronicles of Castle Garden. One of the brightest of the spectacular dis])lays that New York witnessed in the first half of the nineteenth century was that connected with the completion of the Erie Canal, 1825. A fleet as large as had ever assembled before the city up to that time thronged the river, and the vess…

Medals were then distributed to the honoured guests of the occasion, after which we may surmise that dignity unbent and a somewhat more rampant Americanism reigned. We are told that a lad}^ who was present wrote at a late hour that night; We met all the world and his wife; military heroes, noble statesmen, artificial and natural characters, the audacious, the clownish, the polished and refined; b…

The advance giiard of the marine procession was a broad line of some twenty-one tugs, stretching hah' across the mile- wide Hudson with an almost perfect alignment, as if a file of soldiers on parade; they were manned by white-uniformed volunteers. Among the craft that followed the saucy-looking tugs, was conspicuous the torpedo boat Cnshing, on which was Commander Kane, and tiny steam yachts dart…

Our flagship Philadelphia, of the White Squadron, was on the right, with her high white hull, and her two yellow smokestacks. The trim despatch vessel Dolphin followed in her wake, and the long, low, dynamite projector VesHvins, looking like a torpedo boat enlarged, brought up the rear. The place of honor in the centre was given to the French flagship Arcthiisc, the largest of the foreign contin…

From the start to the finish tliere was no place where the pageant made such an impressive display as between the shores of the incomparable Hudson. It was a picture of the civilization of the nineteenth century, too vast for a painter and inexpressible in words. From the vessels in the procession the spectacle was even more remarkable. Xo other city in the world has such a stretch of water-front …

The vessel which closed the procession was the Wiiuoose, restraining her speed like a greyhound in leash. It was altogether a great display, and one of which New York may ever be justly proud. "The queen of the western waves sat by her waters in glory and in light all day, proud of the past and hopeful of the future. " Space fails in which to print even a Hst of the notable water parades that hav…

As a race we appreciate spectacles: we love the gleam of metal, the concourse of people, the rolling of drums, and the fanfare of trumpets. We love a parade, and we fall into paroxysms of patriotism when a hero appears. We have only one limit: we do not wish our Festivals and Pageants 53 enthusiasms to be remembered against us. When wc tell a hero that he is a demigod and can have the Presidency…

So and so did such and such a deed, and there was an end of it. We have a sample of such tales in the following veracious narrative: Previous to 1812, a riverman, or some one connected with one of the markets alongshore, was impressed by the captain of a British vessel. The people of the neighbourhood, roused by this highhanded proceeding, seized a boat belonging to the said captain, broke it up, …

At the foot of West loth Street -- or near it -- was the old State prison, which at least one boardinghouse-keeper in the vicinity advertised as an attraction. One of the early morning sights of the city is that of the market at West Street, near Gansevoort and Little West Tenth. This is one of the survivals from the old days of river boats and farm trucking, and is a part of the story of the Huds…

Between the hospital and the river stood a chapel, and to the south of that, on the double square between Murray and Barclay Streets, the old college buildings. There was nothing then to hide St. Paul's Church from those who w^ent up or down in the sloops and schooners that thronged the river, and above all else in the city old Trinity loomed, a magnificent landmark. Old Paulus Hook Ferry, at the …

His widow was considered a ver}^ desirable match, and no dotibt had many suitors, but she conveyed her goodly inheritance, along with her buxom person, to the grave and reverend Domine Everardus Bogardus, stated minister of the Dutch Church. What a ])air they were! he with his austere bearing, his ministerial garb, and theological bent ; she sprightly and not too unworldly. It must have been an in…

But to return to the farm : e\'ery one who knows his New York at all knows what years of litigation over the inheritance of part of that property ha\-e made it one of the most famous pieces of real estate in the 6o The Hudson River world, and its mistress as well known as Queen Anne or Pocahontas. And wherever the name of Anneke Jans is mentioned, and the now fabulously valuable property becomes…

Along the river shore above Lispenard's swam]), or meadow, and reaching inland nearly to the old Boston and Albany Road (that is, the Bowery) was that delightful suburl) known as Greenwich Village. Along the shore northward from old Vauxhall and Harrison's Brewery the old maps show the " Road to Greenwich." Its first name was Sa]3okanican, which the Dutch changed to the Bossen Bouwerie. Where Whit…

"Admiral" Peter Warren (who was only Captain Warren at that time) built a house somewhere about 1744 in Greenwich. That house afterwards became, and was for many years, the residence of Abraham Van Ness, Esq. Around it clustered other fine houses: there came the Bayards and the de Lanceys and James 62 The Hudson River Jauncev, and there the fashionables of their time were accustomed to turn for …

After the erection of this memorial to the hero of Quebec the drive of good society was out the Post Road to the Greenwich turning; thence across to the Obelisk; thence by the Great Kill Road (the present Gansevoort Street) over to the Hudson; and so homeward by the river-side while the sun was sinking in golden glory behind the Jersey hills. Or the drive could be extended a little by going out th…

But popular appreciation had not yet reached far enough to restrain the predatory bands of boys and men who enjo}'ed the fruits of nocturnal forays upon the garden and orchards of Chelsea, so in a fit of desperation the owner sought counsel and concluded to survey his land and la}^ it out in building lots. There was some question whether merchants doing business in New York could be induced to tra…

Rapelje was at one time a wine merchant, and the cellars of the house at the farm were well stocked with port and Madeira, and a pipe of good wine was always on tap for visitors. Perhaps, after all, the name of " Glass House" was no misnomer. At that time the farm was three miles and a half from the city:- it is now practically downtown. Nothing could more strikingly illustrate the vastness of the…

Here the intrepid crew of the Gocdc Vroniv first cast the seeds of empire. Hence proceeded the expedition under Olofife the Dreamer, to found the city of New Amsterdam, vulgarly called New- York, which, inheriting the genius of its founder, has ever been a city of dreams and speculations. Communipaw, therefore, may truly be called the parent of New- York, though, on comparing the lowly village wit…

The secret of all this wonderful conservation is simple. At the time that New Amsterdam was subjugated by the Yankees and their British allies, as Spain was, in ancient days, by the Saracens, a great dispersion took place among the inhabitants. One resolute band determined never to bend their necks to the yoke of the invaders, and, led by Garret Van Home, a gigantic Dutchman, the Pelaye of the New…

Here are to be seen articles of furniture which came over with the first settlers from Holland; ancient chests of drawers, and massive clothespresses, quaintly carved, and waxed and polished until they shine like mirrors. Here are old black-letter volumes with brass clasps, printed of yore in Ley den, and handed down from generation to generation, but never read. Also old parchment deeds in Dutch …

Nicholas took it under his protection, and the Dutch Dominie of the place, who was a kind of soothsayer, predicted that as long as these four chimneys stood Communipaw would flourish. Now it came to pass that some years since, during the great mania for land speculation, a Yankee speculator found his way into Communipaw ; bewildered the old burghers with a project to erect their village into a gre…

Among all the gruesome legends of the west shore of the river none is more famous than that of the "Guests from Gibbet Island." Yan Yost Vanderscamp, the scapegrace nephew of the innkeeper of Communipaw, disappeared with old Pluto, his uncle's negro servant, and reappeared years afterwards -- "a rough, burly bully ruffian, with fiery whiskers, a copper nose, a scar across his face, and a great Fl…

These were the times of the notorious Captain Kidd, when the American harbours were the resorts of piratical adventurers of all kinds, who, under pretext of mercantile voyages, scoured the West Indies, made plundering descents upon the Spanish Main, visited even the remote Indian Seas, and then came to dispose of their booty, have their revels, and fit out new expeditions, in the English colonies.…

What was the surprise and disquiet of the inhabitants, to see Van Yost Vanderscamp seated at the helm, and his man Pluto tugging at the oar. Vanderscamp, however, was apparently an altered man. He brought home with him a wife, who seemed to be a shrew, and to have the upper hand of him. He no longer was the swaggering, bully ruffian, but affected the regular merchant, and talked of retiring from b…

Sometimes boats pulled in at night, in front of the Wild Goose, and various articles of merchandise were landed in the dark, and spirited away, nobody knew whither. One of the more curious of the inhabitants kept watch, and caught a glimpse of the features of some of these night visitors, by the casual glance of a lantern, and declared that he recognized more than one of the freebooting frequenter…

The old negro made no reply, but shaped his course so as to skirt the rocky shores of Gibbet Island. A faint creaking overhead caused Vanderscamp to cast up his eyes, when, to his horror, he beheld the bodies of his three pot companions and brothers in iniquity, dangling in the moonlight, their rags fluttering, and their chains creaking, as they were slowly swung backward and forward by the rising…

The rain fell in torrents, the thunder crashed and pealed, and the lightning kept up an incessant blaze. It was stark midnight before they landed at Communipaw. Dripping and shivering, Vanderscamp crawled homeward. He was completely sobered by the storm; the water soaked from without having diluted and cooled the liquor within. Arrived at the Wild Goose, he knocked timidly and dubiously at the doo…

"Is this a time," said she, "to keep people out of their beds, and to bring home company, to turn the house upside down?" "Company?" said Vanderscamp meekly, ''I have brought no company with me, wife." "No, indeed! they have got here before you, but by your invitation; and a blessed looking company they are, truly." Vanderscamp's knees smote together. ' ' For the love of Heaven, where are they,…

To an earlier generation Jersey City was known as Paulus, Powles, or Pauws Hook. It was important as the w^estern end of the Paulus Hook Ferry, that was one of the chief means of communication between New Jersey and Manhattan Island. The Cortlandt Street Ferrv still crosses the same water, but the multitude that it transports each day would populate a goodsized citv; the several railroads making t…

Hobock was an Indian village, which appears in at least one Dutch On the Jersey Shore 'jT) record, ah-eady cited, as Hoboquin. Ahiiost its first appearance in history is as the scene of murders and massacres, of arson and pillage. But the atrocity was not all upon the side of the Indians. In 1643, after a long feud, marked by excesses on both sides, a body of the Dutch, reinforced by Mohawk Indi…

A century ago the woods of Weehawken were the scene of one of the most significant and famous private encounters that have ever been recorded. Not only did the participants hold exalted positions in the political and social world, l^ut at least one of them had connected his name indissolubly with the history of his country and the record of her progress. At the time of the celebrated Burr-Hamilton…

On the Jersey Shore 75 recently come to my knowledge. Mr. A''an Ness, who does me the favour to deliver this, will ])oint out to you that clause of the letter to which 1 particularly request your attention. You must perceive, sir, the necessity of a prompt and unqualified acknowledgment or denial of the use of any expression which would warrant the assertion of Dr. Cooper. I have the honor to be …

I stand ready to avow or disavow promptly and explicitly any precise or definite opinion which I may be charged with having declared of any gentleman. More than this cannot fitly be expected of me. I trust, on more reflection, that you will see the matter in the same light with me. If not I can only regret the circumstance and must abide the consequences. The pul)lication of Dr. Cooper was never s…

There can be no doubt that his inclination, if not his efforts, was adverse to a peaceful solution of the difficulty. The correspondence culminated, as might naturally be expected, in a challenge delivered by Mr. Van Ness in Ijehalf of his princi|xd in the affair. From the Lijc of Aaron Burr, by Samuel Lorenze Knapp, published in 1835, we may quote a brief account. The ])articulars of what then to…

The intervening time is not expressed, as the seconds do not precisely agree on that point. The fire of Colonel Burr took efifect and General Hamilton almost instantly fell. Colonel Burr then advanced towards General Hamilton with a manner and gesture that appeared to General Hamilton's friends expressive of regret, but, without speaking, turned about and withdrew, being urged from the field by hi…

presiding officer of the Senate, dehvering at the conclusion a speech long remembered for its eloquence. The subsequent trial of Aaron Burr for conspiracy against the Government of the United States, and the intrigue that led up to it, while of extraordinary interest to the student of American history, has no place in the present volume. A monument erected to mark the spot of the duel was almost e…

There, on a warm summer afternoon [wrote Lossing], or on a moonlit evening, might be seen scores of both sexes strolling upon the soft grass, or sitting upon the green sward, recalling to memory many beautiful sketches of life in the earlier periods of the world, given in the volumes of the old poets. Castle Point, the promontory from which the Dutch drove the Indians mercilessly into the river, …

committed, and that the scene of the atrocity was the Elysian Fields. But there the poHce and the papers aHke stopped, baffled. Then Poe, changing the scene from the Hudson to the Seine, and hiding the name of Mary Rogers under a transparent French equivalent, wrote one of his most marvellous tales, the Mystery of Marie Roget. One by one he took up the clues; with an astuteness that seemed almost …

A trolley line connects with the Forty-second Street Ferry and carries the passengers to the top of the bluff and beyond. But there are still, between this point and Fort Lee, unoccupied and wooded acres lying back of the shore along the heights that are still among the finest points of ^4ew in the neighbourhood of New York. More than half a century ago Fitz-Greene Halleck wrote, in praise of this…

Stevens, as elsewhere noted, bnilt and operated the first steam ferryboats that were ever used, and they ran Ijetween Manhattan Island and Hoboken. One cannot realise the primitive Hoboken of that day in the place of many wharves, where the ocean liners lie at their piers, or move niajesticalh' out into the stream. Among the |:)rincipal steamers that make a landing at Hoboken are those of the Nort…

There was in 1 7S0 a blockhouse near the ferry, and for a time it was garrisoned by a British picket, whose duty it was to protect the loyalists of the neighbourhood. A numl3er of cattle and horses belonging to Americans had strayed on to Bergen's Neck, and offered a tempting bait for Tory marauders from Paulus Hook. From his headquarters near the Ramapo Hills, Washington dispatched Wayne -- "Mad …

The officer was the ill-fated Major Andre, whose name is for ever associated with the attem]3t of Arnold to betray West Point into the hands of the enemy. In his ballad, which he called the Coiv Chase, Andre gave free rein to his satirical humour. As the poem contains seventy-one stanzas, the reader will excuse its full insertion in this place. But here is a sample of it : All in a cloud of dust …

It is not always clean nor abounding in good taste, nor even clever, except with a variety of wit that suggests the barrack room and the stables, but it contained one remarkable verse, that had a touch of prophecy in it. The verses were 86 The Hudson River published in Rivingtojfs Gazette, the last one being as follows: And now I 've closed my epic strain I tremble as I show it, Lest this sam…

'T is moreover, to be borne in mind that the Patroon of the Colonie Rensselaerwyk causes all his tenants to sign, that thev will not appeal to the IManhattans. in direct contravention of the exceptions, by which the colonists are bound to render to the director and council at the Manhattans an annual report both of the colony and the administration of Justice. . . . 'T would be a very strange thin…

We are accustomed to point to those colonial princelings as though they had brought to the New World the inestimable advantages of blue blood along with the favour of the sovereign Lords of Holland. But history shows that land patents were never supposed to imply either birth, breeding, or previous rank of any kind on the part of the recipient. Patroonships, like houses, lands, ships, or peltries,…

Early Settlers of the Hudson Valley 89 per day, and those who go and eat in the orlop, shall have their board and passage gratis, and in case of an attack, offensive or defensive, they shall be obliged to lend a hand with the others, on condition of receiving, should any of the enemy's ships be overcome, their share of the booty pro rata, each according to his quality, to wit: the Colonists eating…

But they shall be warned that the Company reserves the Island Manhattes to itself. All Patroons and Feudatories shall, on requesting it, be granted Venia Testandi, or the power to dispose of, or bec[ueath, his fief by Will. For Masters or Colonists, shall be acknowledged, those who will remove to New Netherland with five souls above fifteen years; to all such, our Governor there shall grant in pro…

The Patroons shall forever possess all the lands situate within their limits, together with the produce, superficies, minerals, rivers and fountains thereof, with high, low and middle jurisdiction, hunting, fishing, fowling and milling, the lands remaining allodial, but the jurisdiction as of a perpetual hereditary fief, devolvable by death as well to females as to males, and fealty and homage for…

There is in the provisions of this act a survival of customs fostered under a mediaeval feudatory system, -- customs that seem strangely out of place in the new land. Another clause provides that: Should any Patroon, in course of time, happen to prosper in his Colonic to such a degree as to be able to found one or more towns, he shall have authority to appoint ofificers and magistrates there, and…

Whereas it is found that greater pains have generally been taken to promote the fur trade than the agriculture and poi^ulation of the country, the supreme court there, shall, in consequence, above all things, provide that cattle be not exported, but be as much as possible retained and reared there : also that a good quantity of grain be kept in store to be furnished and sold at a reasonable price …

On the north of Van Cortlandt Philipse again appears; the Highland Patent, as it was called, taking in nearly all of Putnam Coimty and reaching to Fishkill creek. Rondout came next, including the land between Fishkill and Wappinger's creek. The Schuylers ruled where Poughkeepsie now is, and Falconer's purchase lay to the north. Above Falconer's was the Henry Beekman tract, that had Esopus as its n…

Let us in the first place remember that the scholarly men and those whose lives are passed amidst luxurious surroundings seldom make colonists. To strike into the wilderness for anything more than a dash of adventure usually indicates that one has more to gain than to lose, and that his habit is active rather than contemplative. If noble families are represented in any colony, it is apt to be thro…

The Schuylers appear to have been of gentle blood, and Robert Livingston, the father of all the Livingstons, was the son of the Rev. John Livingston, a Scotch dissenting minister, who was banished to Holland for contmnac}- in 1663. The remainder of the colonists, from Patroons to tenants, seem to have been of that race that has always furnished the best colonisers in the world, and they have left …

For the enlightenment of his masters, the States- General, and incidentally for the instruction of posterity, the careful Secretary Van Tienhoven in 1650 wrote a re])ort that contained a section relating to the conveyance of farmers and handicraftsmen, the charges and responsibilities for which were assumed by the Patroon or land patentee. A large fly boat of 200 lasts, which would be chartered fo…

" If in the course of time, with God's blessing, the stock multiph-, the bouweries can be fully stocked with necessary cattle, and new bouweries set off with the remainder, as is the practice in Rensselaer's Colonic and other places, and so on, dc novo, so as to lay out no money for stock." The houses used at first by those who settled the new lands were rude affairs, often consisting of nothing …

It is suggestive of recent South African history that the tenant farmers were referred to in some of the old documents as boors or boers. To us of to-day the name is associated with sweltering velts and beleaguered kopps and laagers of waggons bristling with guns. Perhaps the best way for us to comprehend the Boer of the seventeenth century, with his energy, pluck, thrift, and courage, is by study…

He has accepted Calvinism, but does not allow it to disturb him; wherein he differs essentially from his New England neighbour, who wears his creed as an ascetic would wear a hair shirt, to the discomfort of himself and the annoyance of his neighl)ours. The Hudson River Boer worked out his salvation with infinite difficulty and toil, though fear and trembling were foreign to his disposition. He he…

He would perhaps be bewildered, while he could not fail to be impressed, by the spectacular display of steam craft of every description, from the smallest launch that darts shoreward from the side of some trim yacht or imposing war vessel, to the ocean liners that move majestically from their piers and succeed in preserving an imposing dignity of demeanour in spite of the hustling, bustling, rowdy…

John Stevens set afloat between New York and Hoboken in 181 1. Now the huge arks pass and repass, some to the point most nearly opposite, others crossing their course diagonallv, bound for a distant slip, and all engaged in what would seem to be a leviathan performance of Sir Roger de Coverley. The freighters find their way among the throng, some light and riding high, with the rusty red of their …

Here is power, but at the expense of the romance, the poetry, may we say the l^eauty and grace of an earlier day. What naval spectacle or pageant can compare with the flight of the white wings that once were spread through all the sunUt reaches of the river, enchanted argosies that bore about them, if not the scent of sandal wood and musky odour of spice islands, at least an undefined suggestion o…

Many an old resident will recall Thomas Brown, Charles and Isaac Depew, the Requas, the Lyons, James B. and John L. Travis, Vermilye, Storm, Conkling, Farrington, and others. Harvey P. Farrington is, at the time of this writing, a hale octogenarian, who graduated from a schooner into the steamboat ranks, from captain became owner, and is now, at a time of life when most men willingly retire from a…

There are a few of them left, -- grizzled, keen-eyed, hard-fisted, broad shouldered, -- a race by themselves, unhappily passing away, -- the men who followed the river. They were in many cases the sons and grandsons of sires who had browned in the sun and wind and shed the blood from their cracked fingers on the frozen sails and sheets of their craft long before Fort Washington had a name or Newbu…

The Passing of the White Wings 107 Whereas divers Skippers and Sloop captains have requested leave to sail to Esopus and Willemstadt with their vessels, whereby this city would be almost wholly stripped of craft, and the citizens greatly weakened, to prevent which those of the Court of this city are ordered to summon all skippers and sloop captains of this city before them, and to instruct them t…

An amusing record of a Dutch attem.pt to put a stop to English trading is given in the following words: 7 November 1633. Jacob Jacobson Elkins, of Amsterdam merchant, aged about 42 yeares, sworn before William Merricke, doctor of lawes, surrogate to the righte worth Sir Henry Marten, Knight judge of his Majesties highe court off the Admiralltye. To the first interreye, hee sayeth, that within the…

To the second hee sayeth, that the said shippe, the William arrived att the forte, called ^lanhatton, also Amsterdam, in the said Hutsons river, uppon the twelvth daye of Aprill, last past; and sayeth, that the entrance of the said river is in the latitude of fourtie degrees and a halfe or thereaboutes, and in longitude aboud one and fortie degrees and a halfe. And after theire arrivall neere that…

And he tould the said Governor, if he would not give him his good will soe to doe, hee would goe upp the said river without it, although it cost him his life. Whereuppon the Governor commannded all the companye of the said shippe to come on shoare. And in the presence of them all, the said Governor commannded, that the Prince of Orange his fiagge should bee putt upp in the forte, and three peeces …

Whereuppon this deponente wente a mile belowe that forte, and there sett upp a tent, and carried all theire goodes on shoare, and was in trade with the Salvages. And the Dutch sett up a tent by the said englishe tent, to hinder theire trade as much as they could. And then there came souldiers from both the said dutch forts with musketts, halfe pikes, swords and other weapons, and beat some Indians…

The Governor commannded him to sende all the beaver and other skinnes on shoare to the fort, which this deponente and companye had gott in trucke with the salvages; which this deponente refusinge to doe, the Governor then demanded a particular of all the skinnes that were abord the said shippe. The principal Towns within this Government [wrote Governor Dongan to the home government], are Xew York…

To the West Indies wee send Flower, Bread, Pease Pork and sometimes Horses: the return from thence for the most part is Rumm, which pays the king a considerable Excise, and some Molasses which serves the people to make drink and pays noe custom. There are about nine or ten three Mast Vessels of about eighty or a Hundred tons burthen, two or three ketches and Barks of about forty Tun ; and about tw…

Of course the War for Independence interfered for a while with trade and travel, but they were resumed as soon as the country was once more at peace. Almost the last to disappear when steam superseded sail propulsion were the boats that carried the least perishable kinds of farm produce. But now, except for an occasional Haverstraw brick schooner, or a pleasure boat from Nyack or Piermont, there i…

The first extended past the long wall of the PaHsades, the " Great Chip rock" of the old deeds. The second reach included the Tappan Zee, and took the voyager as far as Haverstraw, which gave name to the third. Beyond the Haverstraw was Seylmaker's Reach, then Hoge's, next Vorsen, which included the hazardous passage of the Highlands. After that was Fisher's Reach, to Esopus, and Claverack next, w…

The Passing of the White Wings 115 I\Iy first voyage up the Hudson was made in early boyhood, in the good old times before steamboats and railroads had annihilated time and space, and driven all poetry and romance out of travel. A voyage to Albany then, was equal to a voyage to Europe at present, and took almost as much time. We enjoyed the beauties of the river in those days; the features of nat…

In this way the captains of Albany sloops were personages of more note in the community than captains of European packets or steamships at the present day. A sloop was at length chosen ; but she had yet to complete her freight and secure a sufficient number of passengers. Days were consumed in " drumming up " a cargo. This was a tormenting delay to me who was about to make my first voyage, and who…

What a time of intense delight was that first sail through the Highlands. I sat on the deck as we slowly tided along at the foot of those stern mountains, and gazed with wonder and admiration at cliffs impending far above me, crowned with forests, with eagles saiHng and screaming around them; or listened to the unseen stream dashing down precipices; or beheld rock, and, tree, and cloud, and sky re…

The sloops which ply the Hudson, by the way, are remarkable for their picturesque beauty, and for the enormous quantity of sail they carry on in all weathers, and nothing is more beautiful than the little fleets of from six to a dozen,] all scudding or tacking together, like so many white sea birds on the wing. Up they come, with a dashing breeze, under Anthony's Nose, and the sugar loaf, and givi…

It took a large amount of hard horse sense to run a river schooner successfully in the old days of frequent crises and sharp competition, and the man who could cope with the shippers and the market men, keep the weather gage of rivals and more than hold his own with wind and tide, was very apt to be a valuable man in any active business. In most cases it was the old schooner and sloop skippers tha…

This was published, the author at the same time ol:)taining patents on a double inclined plane designed to take the place of locks in small canals. This work, done by Fulton while sojourning in England, found its way across the ocean and attracted the attention of Albert Gallatin and others, who were the means of introducing the inventor and his ideas to the notice of Congress, which led to a full…

He carried a supply of air compressed in a copper globe, and propelled the boat by means of a hand-engine. , We have seen that Bushnell, in 1776, invented a torpedo and submarine boat to act in conjunction with it, -- contrivances in which Israel Putnam seems to have placed great confidence, -- but he never succeeded in making them practicable. Fulton, on the contrary, did blow up a vessel provid…

Fitch sailed a scrczv steamer on the old collect pond in New York before the Clermont was built ; but both Rumsey and Fitch died before their tasks were accomplished. Then there were Ormsbee, Morey, and others, busy with experiments. The thing was so evidently in the air that it would have been almost a miracle if a busy brain like Fulton's had not caught the infection. When Fulton took up the pro…

His connection seems rather to have been that of a business partner or backer. Preparations for a trial of their boat in the Seine were interrupted by the collapse of the contrivance, which broke in two and sunk in the river. Fulton succeeded, however, in raising the wreck, and, having repaired the hull, proceeded to demonstrate his theory. The trial was pronounced a success and the partners agree…

used because he did not wish to have it connected with such a preposterous scheme. The vessel was built at the shipyard of Charles Brown, on the East River, and not, as some writers have claimed, in the North Bay, near the Livingston manorhouse of Clermont, at Tivoli. Xor can we find any warrant for the tradition that the plans for the boat were made at Clermont, though very possibly they may have…

Altogether, she was something of a monstrosity, as compared with the river boats of to-day. A contemporaneous account of the trial trip of the Fulton and the Hudson River Steamboat 125 CIcnuoiit, in the summer of 1807, makes interesting reading. d Nothing could exceed the surprise and admiration of all who ....nessed the experiment. The minds of the most incredulous were changed in a few minu…

The jeers of the ignorant, who had neither sense nor feeling enough to suppress their contemptuous ridicule and rude jokes, were silenced for a moment by a vulgar astonishment, which deprived them of the power of utterance, till the triumph of genius extorted from the incredulous multi- j tude which crowded the shores, shouts and acclamations of / congratvilation and applause. ^^-l Fulton, …

On Thursday, at nine o'clock in the morning, I left Albany, and arrived at the Chancellor's at six in the evening: I started from thence at seven, and arrived at New York at four in the afternoon -- time, thirty hours; space run through, one hundred and fifty miles; equal to five miles an hour. Throughout mv whole way, both going and returning, the wind was ahead; no advantage could be derived fro…

The use of fat pine wood for fuel made a particularly impressive spectacle when night overtook the voyagers, for the sparks flew in a ceaseless stream and warranted the statement that " It was a monster, moving on the river, defying wind and tide, and breathing flames and smoke. ' ' Such wa s the progenitor of all the steam-craft in the world, and this the death-warrant to the fleets of sails tha…

The taste and temperament -- in a word, the personality -- of the average American citizen of antebellum times was made concrete in the Hudson River steamboat. It somehow suggested the man who might buy an onyx mantel-piece for the satisfaction of putting his feet on it. Those great, resplendent, costly, comfortless, tasteless vessels, overloaded with ornament and magnificently vulgar, were the pr…

the rates of fare were such as to be prohibitive to any but travellers of means, though the accommodations were hardly such as would be considered "palatial" by the tourist of latter days. The advertisement of distances, time, and charges, was as follows: From New York to Newburg S3. Time 14 hours " Poughkeepsie 4. " 17 " Esopus 5. " 20 " " " " Hudson 51. " 30 " " " Albany 7. " 36 Fulton and…

All passengers other than those regularly shipped at the stated landing-places were required to pay at the rate of one dollar for every twenty miles, and half a dollar for each meal taken on board. Baggage was allowed free, if below sixty pounds in w^eight, and freight was carried at the rate of three cents a pound. Some of the old river boats had an interesting historv. One, called the New World,…

The war ended b}" the purchase of a controlling interest in the new boat by the " Commodore" and the restoration of high rates. Thomas Stanton built the Trojan at West Troy, and, afterwards, several other steamboats, the two best known being the Anjieiiia and the Daniel Drew, which was his last. The Dreiv was chartered to take the Prince of Wales and his suite to Albany, at the time that the Princ…

In 1852, this po])ular boat, while making her regular run and crowded with passengers, was discovered to be on fire. She was headed for the shore at Riverdale and ran hard aground near the wharf. But while from the bow of the boat it was only a step to the shore, yet the stern floated in deep water, and the majority of the passengers w^ere imprisoned by the flames in that part of the boat. A wild …

The scene is one of inextricable confusion, and it is not till the twenty miles of the Palisades are well passed that the bewildered passenger knows rightly whether his wife, child, or baggage, whichever may be his tender care, is not being left behind at the rate of fifteen miles in the hour. I have often flung my valise into the corner, and, sure that the whole of my person and personal effects …

The plank is drawn in, the wheels begin to paw like foaming steeds impatient to be off, the bell rings as if it were letting down the steps of the last hackney-coach, and away darts the boat, like half a town suddenly slipping off and taking a walk on the water. The "hands" (who follow their nomenclature literally, and have neither eyes nor bowels) trip up all the little children and astonished ma…

The negress disappears, is called twenty ways in twenty seconds, and an hour afterwards the patient husband sees the faithless messenger pass with a glass of lemonade, having utterly forgotten him and the lady in the black bonnet and gray eyes, who may be, for ought he knows to the contrary, wringing her hands at this moment on the wharf at New York. By this time the young ladies are tired of look…

disappeared, and now the traveller finds great floating hotels, run to maintain, in comfort and fidelity to schedule time, a successful rivalry with the modern railroad service. Their appointments are no longer barbaric, their accommodations no longer uncomfortable, their voyages no longer invitations to disaster and sudden death. By day, they sweep by the base of the echoing hihs or into the open…

mere RIVERSIDE PARK has been called "the aggrandiseme nt of a road." In a sense that is true and yet the aggrandisement of such a road in such a way suggests the embellishment of a book by extra illustration, till the original volume appreciates in value beyond computation. From 7 2d Street to 130th Street, between Eleventh and Twelfth Avenues -- the latter near the river level -- Riverside Dri…

The changing hues of colour, the evanescent shadows playing across the distant hills, the long lanes of winddrift vanishing in perspective, present not one picture, but a never-ending succession of them. Near the southern end of Riverside Drive used to be a place of resort known as Elm Park. Mr. Benson J. Lossing describes it as a camp-ground for recruits during the Civil War, " once the seat of t…

and wears proudh' its own record of Revolutionary happenings. The trees that crown this ridge and sentinel its slopes gi\'e an impression of venerable antic[uity, and it is difficult to receive without a grain of allowance the record that tells how, during the severe winter of 1779- 80, when the island was under martial law, General Robertson stripped the land of its trees for fuel. At the north e…

With a superficial area of 8100 square feet and an extreme height of 150 feet, fashioned in The Hudson River white granite from Maine, this mausoleum takes rank among the most cek^brated commemorative buildings in the world. The circular cupola, surrounded by columns and surmounted by a conical cap or dome, rests upon a massive cube of masonry, relieved by entablature, frieze, and columns of pur…

Grant, ex- President of the United States of America, for the purpose of commemorating his greatness, by Li Hung Chang, Guardian of the Prince, Grand Secretary of State, Earl of the First Order Yang Hu, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of China, Vice-President of the Board of Censors. Kwang Hsu, 23d year, 4th moon, May, 1897. Some distance to the south of Grant's tomb, at 89th- 90…

In form, its describes a Maltese cross, surmounted by a dome of noble proportions, Ijcneath which is the already famous rotunda that constitutes the central feature of the building. A statue of Pallas Athene stands at the doorway, within the ample colonnade, to reach which one must cross the broad, paved esplanade and mount a wide flight of stairs -- for the architects wisely put this building on …

At 120th is the Teachers College, founded in 1886 by Miss Grace Dodge. This also is now a part of Columbia. One of the most notable structures along the ridge is that of St. Luke's Hospital, opposite the Cathedral grounds, at 113th Street. Back from the river and hidden, except at one or two points, where a transverse \^alley crosses the main ridge of the island at i6ist Street, stands the histori…

Besides the buildings of a public character that have been enumerated here, and others w^hich are omitted for lack of space, there are numberless private residences, some of them quite palatial in extent, that crown the heights or are scattered along the slopes of the shore. Immediately above Riverside Park is the former village known to its residents as Manhattanville. A steel viaduct spans the M…

Here the statesman and soldier passed the last years of his busy and brilliant career, surrounded by his friends, but not entirely free from the animosities of political life -- enmities that finall}^ culminated in the fatal encounter between himself and Aaron Burr. The thirteen elm trees planted Ijy Hamilton near his house, to celebrate the thirteen original states of the union, were saved from d…

North of this is the cluster of residences that occupies Audubon Park, where the famous naturalist once had his home. A little above is the building of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, between the Kingsbridge road and the Hudson and nine miles from the City Hall. Now we approach the section known as Washington Heights, a region of park-like aspect, traversed by delightful avenues, shaded by fine trees, a…

Among the most recent of notable transfers of Hudson River property was the sale of a tract of one hundred and sixty city blocks at Mount Washington in January, 1902. This was formerly a part of the estate of Lucius B Chittenden, well known as a Broadway merchant, who died about thirty years ago. The last owner was Mrs. Chittenden, a widow, living in England. This land lies from about 189th to 197…

Along the ridges and through the woods where they disputed titles with their neighbours, the bears and the catamounts, generations of white men have Riverside to Inwood 159 come with their feuds and friendships, their loves and their hates, and ha\-e also passed away. From the great city, less and less distant every year, the rumble and the roar of approaching activity warn the dweller among gre…

Inquiries, it was said, had been made by Englishmen high in authority as to the feasibility of erecting forts in the Highlands, thus controlling the navigation of the river. x\lbany was also included in these designs for keeping open communication between Quebec and the lower provinces. vSuch reports, whether well or ill founded, had the desirable effect of inciting the Continental leaders to mea…

John Adams, being near at hand at the time, was consulted, and strongly endorsed the proposed measure, considering as a sufficient warrant the extraordinary authority with which Washington had recently been invested by Congress. Lee w^as thereupon commissioned to raise volunteers in Connecticut, secure military aid from New ycrse^^ disarm the Tories in the neighbourhood of New York, and to put the…

We, therefore [continued the letter], ardently wish to remain in peace for a little time, and doubt not we have assigned sufficient reasons for avoiding at present, a dilemma, in which the entrance of a large body of troops into the city, will almost certainly involve us. Should you have such an entrance in design, we beg at least the troops may halt on the western confines of Connecticut, till we…

The Island and the River in 1776 165 But nothing came of Clinton's visit. He protested that he had simply called to pay his respects in a friendly way to Governor Tryon, a proceeding that Lee reported as " the most whimsical piece of civility I ever heard of. ' ' The British fleet sailed south and the inhabitants of New York, relieved from their fears for the time, began to settle down to quiet.…

We are to erect enclosed batteries on both sides of the water, near Hell Gate, which will answer the double purpose of securing the town against piracies through the Sound, and secure our communication with Long Island, now become a more important point than ever; as it is determined to form a strong fortified camp of three thousand men, on the island, immediately opposite to New York. The pass in…

The threats of Governor Tryon, the carpings of Tory residents, and the pleas of the timid were all disregarded, while with an energy and foresight highly creditable, he placed the city in such a condition of defence as was then possible. The peremptory measures adopted to put an end to supplying the enemy's fleet with provisions were efi^ectual; Sir Henry Clinton, evidently discouraged by the mili…

Following in their general outline the plans made by his predecessor, Putnam continued the construction of defences on the East River and imdertook also to close the Hudson by erecting several batteries along shore and placing obstructions in the channel. Washington arrived on the 14th of the month, his appearance being the signal for rejoicing on the part of the majority of those who remained i…

About this time Clinton was also in receipt of several letters from committees in Cornwall and Newburgh, informing him of the presence of certain active Royalists who were forming a conspiracy to cooperate with the British troops upon their arrival. But not even the ])resence of a powerful enemy on the one side and dangerous neighbours on the other could dampen the ardour with which the Colonial p…

The forts commanding the North River about this time included the Grand Battery, at the southern extremity of the island; Fort George, immediately north of it ; White Hall Battery, on the left of the Grand Battery ; Oyster Battery, behind General Washington's headquarters; Grenadier Battery, " Near the Brew House on the North River"; Jersey Battery, at the left of the one last named; Bayard Hill R…

But, I hope, by the blessing of God and good friends we shall pay them a visit on their island. For that end, we are preparing fourteen fire-ships to go into their fleet, some of which are ready charged and fitted to sail and I hope soon to have them all fixed. We are preparing clievaux-de-frisc, at which we make great dispatch by the help of ships, which are to be sunk; a scheme of mine which you…

More than that, before the obstructions were in place in the channel two British war-ships left their anchorage and, taking advantage of a brisk breeze, sailed past the forts and ascended the river. They were fired upon by the shore batteries and replied sharply with a broadside, but did not linger or turn back. Where they were bound, whether to land troops at some point on the mainland, to attack…

The following day Washington's messenger arrived, only to find that his orders had been anticipated and that the most energetic measures for the defence of the river were already under way. The arrival of Lord Howe, Admiral of the British The Island and the River in 1776 171 fleet, filled with consternation those whose sym])athies were enlisted with the American cause. It was understood that aff…

Ha\'ing cnlled attention to the means by which the Americans endeavoured to protect the city and ri\'er from the British encroachment during the spring and summer of 1776, we may now proceed to describe briefly the disposition of the opposing forces after the disastrous battle of Long Island, in September of that year, and especially to indicate the ground upon which was fought the important engag…

It was evident to Washington and his officers that the plan of the British was to enclose us on the island of New York, by taking posts in our rear, while the shipping secures the front, and thus, by cutting off our communication with the country, oblige us to tight them on their own terms or surrender at discretion; or by a briUiant stroke endeavour to cut this army to pieces and secure the colle…

Congress having left the decision relating to the evacuation of New York entirely to the Commanderin-chief, and nearly all of his officers determining, upon a second council being held, that retreat was a necessity, preparations were rapidly made to complete the withdrawal of the Continental forces. The attack of the British, concentrated upon the forces under Greene and Spencer, on the 15th, prec…

I had frequent opportunities that day of beholding him, for the purpose of issuing orders and encouraging the troops, flying on his horse covered with foam, wherever his presence was most necessary. Without his extraordinary exertions, the guards must have been inevitably lost, and it is probable the entire corps would have Ijeen cut in pieces. When we were not far from Bloomingdale, an aide-de-ca…

The proprietor of the house was absent; but his wife set cake and wine before them m al)undance. So grateful were these refreshments in the heat of the day, that they lingered over their wine, quaffing and laughing, and bantering their patriotic hostess about the ludicrous panic and discomfiture of her countrymen. In the meantime, before they were roused from their regale, Putnam and his forces ha…

Johnston, whose study of the action on Harlem Heights has been exhaustive, says in this connection : It is enough to know that when we hear of tliem [the Rangers] a Httle later, they were at the most important point on the enemy's front. We hnd them stirring up their pickets on the left, that left which rested, as we have seen, somewhere on the Bloomingdale Road, not far above Apthorpe's (91st St…

But the odds against them were too great, and after holding their ground valiantly for a while, losing about ten men, they fell back, the line of their retreat being along the old Bloomingdale road "As it was subsequently extended through Manhattanville to the Kingsbridge road above." Close to where Columbia University and Barnard College now stand the British light troops pushed the Rangers till…

Washington, on the other hand, put Spencer's and Putnam's men in readiness along the line of 147th Street, where they seem to have been immediatelv engaged in throwing up earthworks. It is doubtful if General Putnam could have rested for half an hour in any position without leaving something in the nature of a redoubt to mark the spot. Adjutant-General Reed, who joined Knowlton before the retreat,…

The place where this flank attack occurred has been located at 123d Street, east of the Boulevai'd. The Connecticut men, then and throughout the day, retrieved their honour, fighting like veterans, and for the first time driving the seasoned troops of the King before them. It must have been a novel sensation for both parties. But both the Rangers and the Virginians, their companions and equals in …

Other detachments were engaged in various parts of a held that embraced woodland, hill, and valley. The centre of the battle was in a buckwheat field that appears to have been midway between Columbia Uni\'ersity and Grant's tomb. The main engagement lasted from eleven o'clock till about half-past two, and was participated in l:)y more than four thousand out of the eight thousand men comprising the…

FOR a month after the battle of Harlem Heights the Americans held possession of the northern end of the island, with the works they had erected there. There were three main lines in the Heights. The first was at 147th Street, the second, with four redoubts, along 153d to 155th Street, and the third, incomplete and with no redoubts, was at i6ist Street. Mount Washington, as it was then called, wa…

One needs only to insj^ect the river, or even a good map of it, to be convinced that if a reasonable hope of controlling navigation from any point below the Highlands could be entertained, this was the place. The river between Forts Washington and Lee is narrow and is commanded upon both banks by high hills. But the stream is swift and deep, as well as narrow, and the task of obstructing it was by…

It has been shown that the policy which led to an effort to hold this natural gateway after the retirement of the Americans from the city was strongly urged by Congress; nor must we forget, in criticising the military judgment of Washington, that an almost irresistible pressure was brought to bear upon him in this matter by the civil authorities as well as by the counsel of his own officers. The …

On the 9th of October, however, the Roebuck and Phoenix, each of forty-four guns, and the Tartar, of twenty guns, which had l^een lying for some time opposite Bloomingdale, got under way with their three tenders, at 8 o'clock in the morning, and came standing up the river with an easy southern breeze. At their approach, the galleys and the two ships intended to be sunk got under way with all haste…

He ordered that two hulks which lay -- as hulks still lie -- in Spuyten Duyvil creek, be ballasted and sunk, and that others that had grounded near Yonkers be brought down and consigned to a similar use. A council of officers, called by the commander, discussed the question of attempting to retain the position occupied by the American army upon Manhattan Island, and it was decided -- with only the…

Two of the enemy's war-ships had anchored at Burdett's Feny, a short distance below the forts, with the evident purpose of cutting communication between the island and the mainland, by stopping the ferr3\ At the same time British troops appeared on Harlem plains. When the lines in that direction w^ere manned by Americans from the forts, the vessels opened fire, attempting to dislodge them, but an …

That they will invest Fort Washington, is a matter of which there can be no doubt ; and I think there is a strong probability that General Howe will detach a part of his force to make an incursion into the Jerseys, provided he is going to New York. He must attempt something on account of his reputation, for what has he done as yet, with his great army? While still in doubt as to the meaning of the…

If we cannot prevent vessels from passing up the river, and the enemv are possessed of all the surrounding country, what valuable purpose can it answer to hold a post from which the expected benefit cannot be had? I am, therefore, inchned to think, that it will not be prudent to hazard the men and stores at Mount Washington; but, as you are on the spot, I leave it to vou to give such orders as to …

After making a mihtary visit to the Highland posts, reconnoitring in company with Generals Heath, Clinton, and others, and directing the disposition of the various bodies of troops, he crossed the Hudson below Stony Point with a force which was to find its way to Hackensack by a pass in the Ramapo Mountains. The commander took a more direct route to Fort Lee. Arriving there on the 13th, he found t…

Upon the 15th, two months to a day after the hurried evacuation of New York by Putnam's hard-pressed columns, Howe sent Magaw a summons to surrender. The latter answered in somewhat stilted butunequi\'ocal English that, " Actuated by the most glorious cause 1 88 The Hudson River that mankind e\'er fought in, I am determined to defend this post to the very last extremity." Greene, across the riv…

In other words, this is believed to have been one of the rare occasions upon which Washington swore. And certainly, if there was ever an excuse for profane invective, he could plead it at that time. Besides Magaw there w^ere Cadwalader, Rawlings, Baxter, and other officers of merit at the beleaguered fort, together with a force of about two thousand picked men, the flower of the army ; while oppos…

This story has a strongly apocrA^phal flavour. From Fort Lee the Chief saw the greater part of the attack upon Fort Washington and his spirits were alternately raised and depressed by the varying fortunes of the fray. The battle commenced about noon, with General Kn3^phausen's division attacking from the north, General Mathew advancing from the Harlem Ri\^er and Lord Percy trying to force the line…

It is said so completely to have overcome him that he wept "with the tenderness of a child." By the hands of a daring messenger Washington managed to get a note to Magaw, telling him that if he could hold out till night, he would then endeavour to bring off the garrison. The messenger was one Captain Gooch, of Boston, whose intrepidity reminds one of some mighty deed from the sagas. General Heath…

Washington's own reflections upon the closing scene, given in a letter to his brother Augustine, will throw much light upon the difficulties that beset him, and his frame of mind regarding an action against which his better judgment rebelled. This is a most unfortunate affair and has given me great mortification; as we have lost, not onlv two thousand men, that were there, but a good deal of artil…

And what adds to my mortification is, that this post, after the last ships went past it, was held contrary to my wishes and opinion, as I conceived it to be a hazardous one: but it having been determined on by a full council of general officers, and a resolution of Congress having been received, strongly expressive of their desire that the channel of the river which we had been labouring to stop f…

Upon the passing of the last ships, I had given it as my opinion to General Greene, under whose care it was, that it would be best to evacuate the place; but, as the order was discretionary, and his opinion differed from mine, it was unhappily delayed too long, to my great grief. The abandonment of Fort Lee was of course a foregone conclusion as soon as the enemy was in possession of Fort Washing…

Anthony the Trumpeter was dispatched on a warlike mission to the Patroon Van Rensselaer, when he came to the stream that forms the upper boundary of Manhattan Island. Warned not to cross, he still persisted in advancing, intending to gain the other shore by swimming. " Spuyt den Du3^vil!"he shouted, " I will reach Shoraskappock. " But his challenge to the Duyvil was unfortunately his last recorded…

A little way up the stream the Manor Lord, Frederick Filipse, purchased a ferry right and afterwards erected a bridge with a toll gate between the island and the main shore. Near the mouth of the creek occurred, in the early fifties, one of the most dreadful of the steamboat disasters of which the history of the Hudson presents not a few: it was the burning of the Henry Clay, which is more fully n…

The road which ran about the base of the hill was the scene of many a wild foray and the echoing hillsides resounded with the shouts of marauding cattle thieves and the lowing of frightened herds, urged towards the lines by their reckless drivers. Now the mouth of the creek is shut by a drawbridge and the northern shore is a place of division between the passenger and freight trains of the New Yor…

There he enjoyed six years of something as nearly approaching calm and happiness as one born under his turbulent star could ever hope to attain. Within those blue granite walls he entertained bountifully and indulged his vehement passion for historic study. Then, in 1844, he went abroad, taking his wife with him. Out of the quiet eddy where he had found rest for six years he pushed into the turmoi…

Fascinating, if not beautiful in general outline, wonderful in detail and often exquisite in colour, the great mass of weather-beaten rock seems to rise out of the very bosom of the river. Deep at its base runs the swift current of the channel and in its crowning belt of trees the clouds drift. Here and there in the wall are deep rifts cut by little torrents that have been industriously mining the…

Notice what Professor Archibald Geikie, the celebrated Scotch geologist, wrote thirt)^ years ago: Hardly is the traveller out of New York than he notices tliat every natural rock, islet, or surface of any kind that will hold paint is disfigured with advertisements in huge letters. Tlie ice- worn bosses of gneiss which, rising out of the Hudson, would in themselves be such attractive ol)jects in t…

One of the mutilated landmarks that used to be the pride of those who lived near the banks of the lower Hudson was the jutting shoulder of rock known as Indian Head, nearly the highest point of the Palisades. It was one of those peculiarly striking features in nature that persistently claim and invariably receive the consideration due to eminence. No one seeing the rugged beauty of Indian Head cou…

It did seem dreadful; but it took the people who really cared so long to wake up to the dreadfulness of what was being done, and so much longer to discover a way to stop it, that before thev could do anything Indian Head was gravel. However, the people succeeded, though apparently with some difficulty, in saving the rest of the Palisades. The blasting and crushing processes which were at once an o…

The narrator claimed that he fell naturally into that attitude in order to get a steady and restful position and that he noticed that his knees and palm fitted into the depressions. It is possible that the gentleman may have been in error in his conclusions, but that lonely vidette, waiting through uncounted centuries for the appearance of the ship of destiny that must at last arrive with the fore…

In the afternoon, at two of the clocke, wee weighed, the winde being variable, between the north and northwest. So we turned into the river two leagues, and anchored. This morning at our first rode in the River, there came eight-and-twentie canoes full of men, women and children to betray vs: but wee saw theire intent and suffered none of them to come abord of us. At twelue of the clocke they depa…

The Company, or the Company's Director, was under some obligations to Van der Donk, it is said, for advances of money; and land grants have been convenient for discharging obligations of that sort in all ages of the world. The deed named the tract so acquired " Nepperhaem" ; but the names by which it was popularly known to the Dutchmen of that day were " Coin Donk, " or the '■ Colony of Donk," an…

He was actually Lord of the Manor, with baronial power. From 1693 till his death in 1702 his country residence was probably at Tarrytown, in the stone house -- called "Castle Filipse" -- that he built there, and that has been going slowly but surely to decay up to this year of grace, 1902, because of a lack of public spirit or sentiment, or whatever the emotion may be that moves men to the preserv…

Stcinding in the doorway, he delivered himself in this wise: "Your possessions shall pass away when the eagle shall despoil the lion." If the reader wishes to take a grain of salt with that Indian no objection will be made. All of the central portion of the present city of Yonkers was purchased in 181 3 by Lemuel Wells. This estate, having the Nepperhan River running through the middle of it and i…

In 1876 it was thus described: A few miles north of Spuyten Duyvil is the large village of Yonkers. Thirty years ago a church, a few indifferent houses, a single sloop at a small wharf, and the gray walls and roof of a venerable structure, which you may see stretching among the trees parallel with the river, comprised the whole borough. That building is the Philipse Manor house, now occupied for …

Y., in which four generations of his family had lived, he passed the declining years of his busy and influential life within the walls of "Graystone," his substantial and costly home at Yonkers. His house is situated to the north of the city on an elevated plateau and is massive and ample rather than ornate. Its granite walls and Mansard roof, rising from the surrounding verdure, do not easily pas…

between the httle centres of po])ulation there are fragrant miles of tree-shaded banks where the violets and anemones nod in the spring and the scarlet spires of the cardinal flower hide in August by the watercourses. Half a century ago Alfred B. Street wrote a characteristic description of the woodland scenery which in his day formed so striking a feature of the Hudson, and which even now in many…

There had been some notice or rumour of a frolic at Kakiat, a secluded hamlet hidden away among the hills of Rockland County, and Van Dam on hearing the news rowed from his home at Spuyten Duyvil the whole length of the Tappan Zee and the Palisades to boot in order to be there. Most modern yotmgsters would be conscious of some slight fatigue after such a ])ull, but not so delicate were the Dutchme…

Whethei living or dead, none can say, but doomed to a perpetual journey across the river he undoubtedly is,for many a boat-man on the river has heard the sound of his oars, and more than one damsel, being rowed o' moonlit nights on the river, has clung in terror to her swain, as she fancied she saw in the distance the shadowy form of Rambout Van Dam. There is another haunting shape that occasional…

She was flying Dutch colours and her sails bellied with a w4nd that certainly was not apparent to those who gazed at her, wide-eyed and whispering, from the fort. In spite of the trade regulations that forbade the passing of any vessel up the river without a permit, regardless of signals or challenge, the stranger sailed on. Then a gun was fired from the battery, but her hull did not stop the ball…

believe that she runs for anchorage into the mouth of the Pocantico, and others that she hides near the pineshaded banks of the Hafenje, but no one has ever seen her at rest. She is always flying swiftly before a wind that mortals cannot feel. There is the memory of another craft, more substantial than the phantom shi]), and more successful in attaining a port than Rambout's boat, that made the pa…

But Aaron Burr was no ordinary lover, which is perhaps the reason why in his generation his enemies were seldom found among the gentler sex. History discreetly neglects to furnish the details of the courtship that we know ultimately resulted in the winning of Theodosia 's hand and heart. By daybreak horse and rider were back within the American lines and no one but the troopers, the ferryman, and …

the Hudson these were among their principal sources of subsistence, as evidenced by the extensive shellheaps that still mark the site of many of their villages or camps. The water of the Tappan Zee is brackish, about half sea water and half fresh. The width from Tarry town to Nyack is between three and a half and four miles, and communication between the two shores is kept up during the greater pa…

Piermont, above the northern extremity of the "iceworn bosses of gneiss," is a village that was created when the Erie Railway built the mile-long pier that still projects into the river at this point. It is chiefly interesting because of its proximity to the village of Tappan, where Major Andre w^as executed. The house, that was long pointed out as the headquarters at Tappan, has been allowed to f…

not usually either safe or pleasant to cross. On the east bank the poorer dwellings and the coal and lumber yards are near the river, while on the west the grounds of handsome residences slope to the water's edge. One of the results of the difference just noted is that there is quite a fleet of pleasure boats belonging to Nyack and a flourishing boat club there, while Tarrytown must be content to …

A headland that used to be eagerly looked for by the passengers 222 The Hudson River on the river boats, and was pointed out by every riverman, who viewed it with the pride of conscious proprietorship, No-Point satisfied the cultivated sense of the artist and impressed the untutored wayfarer with its perfection. It is safe to say that not even the Hudson River affords a more perfect combination …

In one scale are beauty, sentiment, the delight of the eye, the restful, health-conserving qualities inherent in a harmonious landscape; in the other -- gravel. Gravel is a marketable commodity. Gravel pays. Gravel fills the pockets of the contractor, and must be secured for that purpose without regard to sentiment or local pride. The story of the Palisades over again? Yes, and worse; for while ev…

Its curving contours, from any point of view, are so nearly perfect that it is inconceivable that the work now going on can result in anything but permanent injury. No one can tell how long this outrage is to continue if the people of the State do not take measures to protect themselves ; but as there seems to be no limit to the gravel market, it is reasonable to suppose that a future generation m…

Even as far away as Tarrytown, which is eight or ten miles distant across the river, windows are shaken, and the sick often seriously disturbed by the heavy detonations, while at Ossining, more nearly opposite the Point, invalids and the aged are particularly distressed by the rattling and shaking, the shock and the uproar. It is time that there should be a general understanding of the rights of t…

Do we not admit that diseases of the nerves are among the most prevalent, the most varied, the most stubborn, and the most dangerous of any with which medical science has to cope? There is no reason why the population of the towns upon the Hudson should sit down supinely. If the aesthetic basis is asserted by a community, it will be recognised by the law. Let people understand that a landscape is …

What the tradition may ha\^e been that associated such a name with the little brook that enters the river here, and afterwards applied it to quite an extensive territory, no antiquary has discovered. Dobbs had a shanty on Willow Point and eked out his modest living by ferrying chance passengers over the river in his ]:)eriauger, or dugout. His name was easier to pronounce than Weeckquaesguck, and …

The last ]}ro])osition was met by a gravely advanced argument in favour of dro]^ping the Van from the last name and sim])ly calling the place " Warton-the-Hudson." For a short time, Greenburgh was accepted as a compromise, and Dol:)bs Ferry became Greenburgh to the ])Ost-office authorities, but as a cjuiet after-thought the old name was finally restored. There are at this place numerous shell-heap…

When Arnold arranged his first interview, relative to the betrayal of West Point, with Andre, he was to meet him at Dobbs Ferry, but as the name seems to have applied equally to the eastern and western landings, it is uncertain which side of the river was indicated. We know that the plan miscarried, and the treacherous American general was so closely pursued by a British gunboat that he narrowly e…

And opposite this point May 8, 1 783, a British sloop-of-war fired seventeen guns in honour of the American Commander-in-chief, the first salute by Great Britain to the United States of America. In the Land of Irving 229 111 1861, Lossing wrote: The Livingston mansion, owned l)y Stephen Archer, a Quaker, is preserved in its original form. Under its roof in past times many distinguished men have…

Almost immediately following this skirmish two gunboats ascended the river from New York, with the evident intention of cutting out the vessels congregated near the ferry, but they were discovered and driven away by shot from the shore l:)atteries. Dobbs Ferry was in the heart of that debatable region known as the neutral ground, the inhabitants of which were so harried and impo\^erished that, acc…

His home was in what some one has called the great millionaire belt of the east shore of the Hudson. For mile upon mile the prospect along shore is that of magnificent residences and highly developed grounds. Although it is no part of our purpose to fill these pages with a descriptive list of the mansions that multiply till they suggest a celestial comparison, yet we think that no American will qu…

Her home is palatial, but it was not considered too good to be the resting-place for convalescent soldiers, broken dowm by a Cuban campaign; her conservatories are remarkable even in this neighbourhood of millionaires, but they are not too fine to be open wdth a welcome to the poorest child that seeks admission. Lyndhtu-st means a forest of linden trees, but its park-like lawns are shaded by nearl…

The British threatened to destroy stores near the village and made one or two attempts to do so, landing in force upon at least one occasion. General Lincoln marched through on his way to Kingsbridge; Colonel Luddington commanded five hundred militia here; "Light-Horse Harry" Lee had a brush with some of Dunop's Yagers, -- we might go on indefinitely wath such details, none of them particularly im…

The troops in the neighbourhood at that time consisted of a sergeant's guard of French infantry and a troop of dragoons commanded by Colonel Sheldon, whose regiment lay at Dobbs Ferry. These soldiers, dismounting, worked with great spirit in assisting to unload the stores from the sloops, but were soon subjected to a galling fire from the British frigates. Under cover of this cannonading, two gunb…

This action, hardly noticed in general history, should at least be chronicled among important minor actions of the war, and the name of Hurlburt be honoured with those of Gushing or Hobson. The most notable of all historic events connected with this part of the river was the capture of Major John Andre at Tarrytown, in September, 1780. Fresh from his interview with the traitorous Arnold, within th…

Whether Paulding really exclaimed, " My God, he is a spy, ' ' or whether the question of ransom was ever seriously discussed, are matters that will probablv never be settled. What is important is that the men In the Land of Irving- 237 who captured Andre did not conclude any bargain for ransom, but actually held their prisoner till they had turned him over to some one who had official authoritv t…

Among the famous men whose homes were, for a longer or shorter period, at Tarrytown, Commodore Matthew Galbraith Perry, to whom the world owes the opening of Japan to Western influences, must not be forgotten. His house was to the north of the estate of Mr. William Aspinwall, now owned b>' Mr. William Rockefeller. Not far away was the cottage in which Captain Alexander Slidell Mackenzie resided, a…

At that time a company of roughs from farther down the ri\-er were marching upon Tarr}^town, with the intention of doing mischief to the cok)ured ])ortion of the i;)0])ulation. The latter, badly frightened, swarmed over the hills, taking refuge in the woods back of the village. But the rioters never reached the town. A brave minister of the place, the Rev. Abel T. Stewart, accompanied by one or tw…

James Kirke Paulding, his senior by several years, was his guide and friend, if not philosopher; and it is not improbable that the people of the neighbourhood, who have conjured for half a century by Geoffrey Crayon's name, must thank that engaging youngster for their titular saint. It is hard for us to realise, looking at the cultivated "grounds," the "improved" residences, and innumerable smooth…

A century has made mighty changes. Years afterward, Washington Irving wrote: To me the Hudson is full of storied associations, connected as it is with some of the happiest portions of my Hfe. Each striking feature brings to mind some early adventure or enjoy- In the Land of Irving- 241 ment, some favourite companion who shared it with me, some fair object, perchance, of youthful admiration, who,…

One of the resorts well known to all the fishermen on the Tappan Zee was the Hafenje, or little harbour, a i^leasant bay that indented the shore to the north of the "Yellow Rocks." In later days the old Dutch name became corrupted to "Hobbinger." It can hardly be doubted that the youthful companions wet their lines in its quiet water or beached their boat under the pines and hemlocks that bordered…

He describes "the little market town on the river, from whence the boats plied weekly to New York with produce," as a "pestilent little place [in 1793] for running races, pitching quoits, and wrestling for gin-slings," but adds: I must do it credit to say that it is now [1S28] a very orderly town, sober and quiet, save when Parson Mathias, who calls himself a Son of Thunder, is praying in secret …

Silent was the sonorous harmony of the big spinning wheel, silent the village song, and silent the fiddle of Master Timothy Canty, who passed his livelong time in playing tuneful measures and catching bugs and butterflies. It may not be out of place to let the careful Duyckinck supply the grain of salt with which he warns us that Paulding should be enjoyed: In almost all the writings of Paulding…

Around his garret were disposed a number of unframed pictures, painted on glass, as in the olden time, representing the four seasons, the old King of Prussia, and Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, . . . the beautiful Constantia Phillips, and divers others. . . . The whole village poured into the garret to gaze at these cltcfs d\vitvrcs, and it is my confirmed opinion . that neither the gallery of Fl…

His nephew teUs us that he explored the recesses of Sleepy Hollow with a gun in 1798, but we know that the best spoils of those expeditions were not to be found in his game-bag. Clarence Cook, writing, in 1887, of his school days at Tarry town, more than half a century ago, gives a pleasing picture not only of the place that still retained enough of simplicity to stamp its image upon his memory " …

Irving made good dramatic use of this tree in his Legend of Sleepy Hollozu, but it is likelv enough he had not seen it when he wrote the story. . . . While I was at school at Tarry town, Mr. Irving was Hving on his little Sabine farm of Wolfert's Roost, which afterward was so widely known as Sunny side. The place, which originally contained ten acres, afterward increased first to fifteen and final…

Irving, out of his abounding good nature and hking for young folks, to visit the school occasionally at "commencement" time and give out the prizes. This, of course, made it necessary to keep us acquainted with Irving's writings, and there were some of us who found this no ungrateful task. TJic History of Xcw York and The Sketch Book we knew by heart. Mr. Irving first heard the story of the headle…

We might copy a fashion much in vogue among art publishers of a generation ago and style our picture Irving and his Friends; for it is certain that the names that present themselves most prominently in this connection are those of his intimate associates. Irving may almost be said to have discovered the Hudson. He found a stream that was wonderful in beauty and already rich in material for history…

"Come and see me." he wrote, years afterward, from Sunnyside, " and I will give you a book and a tree." A whimsical picture he drew of his first reading of Scott's Lady of the Lake, while he was at the Hoffmans' home on the Hudson in 18 10: " Seated leaning against a rock, with a wild-cherry tree over my head, reading Scott's Lady of the Lake ; the busy ant hurrying over the page -- crickets skip…

Miss Hoffman's death occurred in 1809, when she was but eighteen years old and he twentysix. From that time till, in 1859, his own dust was laid to rest in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, he w^as never knowm to mention her name, even to his most intimate friends; but, after his death, his literary executor found a paper relating the story of his passion and lifelong attachment to her memory, together …

Another of Irving 's early hamits on the Hudson was the Philipse house in the Highlands. There Paulding, Renwick, and the Kembles -- Peter and Gouverneur -- met, along with Henry Brevoort, whose acquaintance Irving had made while travelling on the St. Lawrence with Mr. Hoffman. The two young men soon formed a friendship which was destined to be lifelong. Of a visit to the Highlands during the year…

Had you but seen me, happy rogue, up to my ears in "an ocean of peacock's feathers," or rather like a " strawberry smothered in cream "! The mode of living at the Manor is exactly after my own heart. You have every variety of rural amusement within your reach, and are left to yourself to occupy your time as you please. We made several charming excursions, and you may suppose how delightful they we…

There the " Lads of Kilkenny" used to hold their informal meetings, as partly told in the Salmagundi papers. Peter Irving and Henry Ogden were both members of that convivial nine, and long afterwards the former alluded in a letter to " the procession in the Chinese saloon, in which we made poor Dick McCall a knight; and I, as the senior of our order, dubbed him by some fatality on the seat of hono…

His home, near Hyde Park, where he passed in retirement the final years of a busy life, is described in another chapter. In the effervescent period of Cockloft Hall and Salmagundi, his familiar nickname was Billy Taylor, from a song that he was fond of singing upon festive occasions. Closely connected with Irving, in that circle of writers that we are wont to group under the general title of Knick…

254 The Hudson River . . . in liquid light Does the wine our goblets gleam in, With hue as red as the rosy bed Which a bee would choose to dream in. He sang of the Hudson in an exalted strain, in verse that may sound formal and, perhaps, a little pedantic to our modern ears ; but the fashions change in fifty or sixty years, and it is certain that he celebrated her beauties as only a lover cou…

Its sinking arches once gave back as proud An echo to the war-blown clarion's peal, As gallant hearts its battlements did crowd, As ever beat beneath a vest of steel, When herald's trump on knighthood's haughtiest day Called forth chivalric host to battle fray. For here amid these woods did he keep court, Before whose mighty soul the common crowd Of heroes, who alone for fame have fought. Ar…

On one occasion Irving speaks of him in a letter as "little Charles." In early l^oyhood he was crippled for life by being crushed between a river steamboat and the wharf, an accident that may have driven him to more diligent stud\% by depriving him of many of the active sports of boyhood. He was sent to the old Poughkeepsie Academy, then a somewhat famous school, but ran away because of alleged ha…

This editorial work threw him into agreeable relations with some of the most brilliant and celebrated men of his day. His familiar associates included William Cullen Bryant, Chancellor Kent, Lewis Gaylord Clarke, Colonel William Leete Stone, and a score of others, some of whose names have a prominent place in this chapter. The honourary degree of Master of Arts was conferred upon him by Columbia C…

His first visit to New York was made in 1808, and was an event to which the metropolis may point with pride, for no native-born son of Manhattan, with the blood of all the Dams and Bilts and Blinkers in his veins, ever became more intimately associated with the city. His celebrated friendship for Joseph Rodman Drake, -- a memory embalmed in the exquisite tribute of verse that he paid at the latter…

Drake's claim to association with the Hudson River rests on his beautiful and imaginative creation, The Culprit Fay, which was composed among the Highlands in the same year that saw the production of the " Croaker" papers and of Fanny. The story goes that while walking with some friends, one of them remarked to the poet that, without the introduction of human characters it would be next to impossi…

Till he came where the column of moonshine lay. And saw beneath the surface dim The brown-back'd sturgeon slowly swim; Around him were the goblin train -- Literary Associations of the Hudson 259 But he scull'd with all his might and main, And follow'd wherever the sturgeon led, Till he saw him upward point his head ; Then he dropp'd his paddle blade. And held his colen-goblet up To catch t…

A moment, and its lustre fell; But ere it met the billow blue, He caught within his crimson bell A droplet of its sparkling dew -- Joy to thee. Fay! thy task is done; Thy wings are pure, for the gem is won. Cheerily ply thy dripping oar, And haste away to the elfin shore. It was once the fashion among admirers of Drake's dainty work to ])lace the author upon a somewhat dizzy pedestal. More …

WilHs, that versatile worker, idler, flaneur, poet, city dandy, and country gentleman, who made no deep impression by his literarv labours, but is nevertheless vividly remembered when many a man of greater power is forgotten. General James Grant Wilson wTote, in 1886, in a reminiscent vein, of a visit to the scene of the poet's retirement at Cornwall, where he was trying to recuperate the strength…

Around us we see the Storm King and other wooded mountains, towering to a height of nearly two thousand feet: the whole river, -- here expanded into a broad bay, on whose bosom the white-sailed sloops and schooners are idly floating with the flood tide: and on the opposite shore vallevs and hillsides, sprinkled with country-seats ; from aniong which our companion points out the ancestral home of t…

I passed over the rough and rocky fifty acres with the owner, who looked his astonishment as well as expressed it, that a New Yorker should have any use for his unimproved property. He said, 'What on earth can you do with it" it is only an idle wild.' I did not tell him, but I bought it and you see what I have done with it, and that I was indebted to my Dutch predecessor for a very pretty and appr…

His grandmother was a daughter of Daniel Crommelin of Amsterdam, and by her the boy, motherless from infancy, was reared. He graduated at Columbia College when only fifteen years of age, and studied law with Edward Livingston, being finally admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-one years, by Chief- Justice (afterwards Chancellor) Kent. Mr. Verplanck was one of those earnest men, of many activit…

He was Regent of the University of the State of New York ; member, and afterwards Warden, of the Vestry of Trinity Church; President of the Century Clul:); President of the Board of Emigration; and chairman of various charitable bodies. To the task of editing the edition of Shakespeare that bears his name, he added that of making a strenuous and successful fight for the extension of the copyright …

Commenting on this, Irving wrote to his brother, Ebenezer : I have seen what Verplanck says of my work. ... He is one of the honestest men I know of in speaking his opinion. . . . I am sure he wishes me well . . . but were I his bitterest enemy, such an opinion have I of his integrity of mind, that I would refer any one to him for an honest account of me, sooner than to almost any one else. Mr. …

Near the village of Coldspring, his " summer seat" (as it used to be the fashion to call one's country home), commanded a noble view of the Highlands, and was the goal of many a pilgrimage. "America's best lyric poet," as Benson J. Lossing calls him, was in intimate relations with most American men of letters in his day. His long Literary Associations of the Hudson 269 association with TJic Home…

A man greatly valued by his literary cotemporaries and hand in glove with the leading spirits of the Knickerbocker school was that delightful humourist, Frederick Swartw^out Cozzens, author of the Sparron'grass Papers. He was younger than Irving and Halleck, of the generation to w^hich Willis and Hoffman belonged ; a New Yorker by birth and a wine merchant b\' occupation. The Sparrowgrass Papers, …

We cannot long dwell with the Knickerbocker group without coming in close contact with the patient collector of every printed scrap of American writing. Evart Augustus Duyckinck, compiler, with the assistance of his brother, of the monumental cyclopedia that bears his name, was the preserver of many a local reputation. There are numberless early American authors who were only rescued from drowning…

The Literary World was established by Duyckinck and his brother, and was considered by the ]]»oet Dana to be the best journal of its kind ever published in America. One of the bibliographer's associates and warm admirers was William Allen Butler, the author of Nothing to Wear, who pronounced an eulogy upon his memory at a meeting of the New York Historical Society in 1879. Mr. Butler, himself a me…

It is said of him that, "half a century ago the now-forgotten singer's name was one of the brightest poetical names of the dcLY, and alwa^'s mentioned along with those of Bryant, Dana, Halleck, Percivale, Pierpont, Pinckney, Sprague, and Woodworth. " Leggett, in his Biographies of American Poets, included Brooks and excluded Dana. Another early poet, once of considerable celebrity, but long since …

I gaze, but they have vanish'd; and the eve, Free now to roam from where I take my stand, Dwells on the hoary pile, let no rash hand Attempt its desecration: for though I Beneath the sod shall sleep, and memory's sigh Be there for ever stifled in this breast, -- Yet all who boast them of a land so blest, Whose pilgrim feet may some day hither hie, -- Shall melt, alike, and kindle at the th…

But we cannot accord to Schoolcraft any prominent place in the literary associations of the Hudson, for his work was mainly the result of thirty years of sojourn and study among the redskins upon the frontier. John Romeyn Brodhead, the patient comj^iler of the ten great tomes that contain transcripts of all discoverable documents relating to the early history of New York, was bom in Saugerties. He…

At his place, which he named Coldenham, he spent the delightful leisure years of a life that had known, and was destined to know, many activities. There he collected, cultivated, and classified plants, assisted by his daughter, of whom Peter Collinson wrote to Linuceus that she was "perhaps the first lady who has so perfectly studied your system. She deserves to be celebrated." Cadwallader Colden…

Many an elderly man will remember with pleasure and no small degree of gratitude America's first landscape-gardener, -- first in eminence ifnot in time, -- Andrew Jackson Downing. He had two qualities that are not always combined in one individual, namely, artistic sensibility and practical sense. The latter enabled him to make the former effective. Before his day we are led to believe that in the…

He will be remembered as a scholarly man of sweet, rare character. His contributions to Christian hymnology possibly constitute his chief claim to remembrance, though he devoted nearly twenty years of his life to public speaking and writing. While James K. Polk was President, Doctor Bethune was offered the appointment to the chair of Moral Philosophy at West Point, which he felt obliged to decline…

He wrote as artists of his day painted; every leaf on every last twig was described with conscientious care. His almost ])assionate love for nature was retained through the cares and acti\'ities of professional life, and the influence of the wild, rugged scenery amidst which several years of his boyhood were passed never deserted him. He loved to sing of "sweet forest odours" that Have their birt…

While others have lived upon one bank or the other of the river, they have spent their lives almost in the midst of it, on an island in the \'ery wonderland of the Highlands. Henry Warner, a member of the New York bar, removed to Constitution Island with his family before the middle of the nineteenth century. An old house, occupied as headc[uarters during the Revolution, was added to and partly re…

Some hundreds of thousands of copies were sold in European editions, which brought to the writer fame, if not wealth. The sisters frequently worked together. The younger, who had chosen Amy Lathrop as her literary title, made her Ijow to the reading public with a novel called Dollars and Cents; ])ut she was associated with the elder Miss Warner in the production of The Hills of the Shateniuc, the …

regular army of the United States to-da>' to whom the name of the two sisters is not famihar, and the impression of their work has gone wherever the flag has gone. When Miss Susan Warner died, in 1885, the Government, upon special application of the cadets, permitted her burial in the military cemetery at the Point, -- an honour, it is said, never granted to any other woman. Miss Anna Warner still…

to assign merely local limits; Init the writer likes to recall a walk over one of the rough Highland roads, while, beside him, leading his horse by the reins, the great orator forgot his greatness to talk in a wdse, sweet way of wayside things. Mrs. Fremont -- Jessie Benton Fremont -- used to live just above Tarry town, and the house that was General Fremont's had formerly been the home of James W…

Her workroom is in the tow^er that commands a \-iew that an eagle might envy, -- a view of river and hill, farmland and town, -- that melts at last in a horizon that is sixty miles distant. Next door to Cherry Croft is Julian Hawthorne's summer home, and nearer the foot of the hill lives Dr. Lyman Abbott, at whose house, it need hardly be suggested, Hamilton Wright Mabie is a familiar visitor. Mr.…

His own stated residence is a properly constituted country home, where he raises the best Niagara grapes that come into the market; but, to satisfy the cravings of a born woodsman, he has built for retiring a less pretentious nest, which he calls Slabsides, a little "city where nobody lives," and the number of those who find it are few. Stephen Henry Thayer, long a resident of Tarrytown, has given…

We have with us as this is written, Doctor David Cole, at Yonkers, a veteran in educational work, in pulpit work, in historical work ; Joel Benton at Poughkeepsie ; Harrold Van Santvoord at Kinderhook. We remember that E. P. Roe, when he was " Driven Back to Eden," found the delectable mountains of that blessed country al )0\'e the Highlands, with John Burroughs established as a sort of titular an…

The station at Scarborough is an isolated building, an outpost for the village that lies eastward over the hill. In the distance one sees a massive group of low, marble buildings, the melancholy residence of convicts, -- it is the State prison at Sing Sing. It is natural, but unfortunate, that the fair fame of one of the most attractive of Hudson River towns should for years have been damaged by s…

Not far away, at the mouth of the kill that finds its wa}- to the Hudson, through a deep gore, from the plateau above, the smelting furnace was erected. There the ore was reduced, the precious metal being shipped to England. The Revolution put a stop to the operations of the mine, which seems never to ha\'e been reopened. At the time of its abandonment, the length of the works is said to have reac…

Many of them, it is said, found their lodging in what used to be known as the Great Kill cave, near the brook already referred to. Years ago. Sing Sing was the terminal station for the stages that ran on the Bedford Pike. Hachaliah Bailey of Somers, who had a stage route between New York and Danbury, Conn,, made the Bedford Pike line a connecting link between the latter place and his steamboat, th…

Its capacity is 100,000,000 gallons a day, but this supply was found to be inadec[uate for the rapidly growing city, and a new aqueduct, commenced in 1884 and finished in 1890, was constructed to the east of the earlier one. This has a capacity three times as great as the first, and taps the numerous lakes of a watershed embracing between three and four hundred square miles. Above the ba}^ into wh…

Recent [1876] discoveries, while repairing it, of loopholes for musketry near the floor of the diningroom clearly show that it originally composed a fort, which was probably built by Governor Dongan. John Van Cortlandt enlarged itto its present dimensions in the early years of Queen Anne's reign. . . . Over the main entrance to the manor-house hangs the strong bow of Croton, the Sachem whose name …

Encompassed and o\'erwhelmed, amid showers of arrows and surrounded by the smoke and flames of his burning ]3alisades, he fought with desperate valour, as one by one his com])anions fell; till at length, he stood alone and wounded; then, as his foes rushed forward, he fell headlong into the l:)lazing fire. But again and again, it is said, he has a])- peared in great crises, urging men to coin"ageo…

At the old ferry-house at Croton, a party of New York yeomen, under the command of Captain Daniel Williams, were surprised and captured in 1782 by a party of British cavalry. But there was one incident in the history of this place that seems to have been the small pivot upon which the great structure of America's future swung. From Haverstraw, on the other side of the river, on the twenty-second o…

That was all; yet it certainly cost Andre his life and Arnold his reward -- and ])ossibly cost King George a kingdom. Early on the twenty-first, Arnold had, in expectation of his meetine, left the Robinson house, his head- «j^!«./^:.»rir CROTON A\n VFRPLANCK S POIXTS AND ANTHONY NOSE -- FROM OF SING SING quarters, and proceeded to Verplanck's Point; from thence he went to the house of Joshua H…

The landing [of Andre, from the V';(/////-r] was made at a dock used as a shipping place for wood and stone. A portion of this dock still remains. There is an old stone house three hundred feet north of the dock and an abandoned stone quarry north of the house, and the landing place is therefore easily found. There was a road leading up from the dock to the Long Clove road and traces of that old d…

from the Haverstraw hills -- or, one should say, views, for there is a panorama of them -- are of unique beauty. The swelling shoulder of Point-no-Point is below, and, still more to the south, the venerable figure of High Taur. Croton and Sing Sing lie opposite, and;' northward, the buttressed gates of the Highlands. There is a legend of High Taur that runs something in this wise: Amasis, one of t…

Their leader, a nobleman, Hugo by name, refused to follow the custom of the old country, which decreed that the forge fires should be extinguished once in seven years. The belief used to ol)tain that a salamander grew in the fire, and if allowed to remain unmolested for more than seven years would develop his perfect form and be able to issue from the flames and work incalculable mischief among me…

She in her innocence would have ex]:)ressed her love for him, but he repelled her gently, saying: "When you sle^^t, I came and put a crown of gems on vour head; that was because I was in the power of the earth S]:)irit. Then I had power only o\'er tlie element of fire, that either consumes or hardens to Stone, but now water and life are mine. Behold! wear these, for you are worthy." Then he touche…

While they con\-ersed, Hugo and his followers burst upon them. ^Misunderstanding his daughter's agitation, the old man in a rage ordered his followers to seize the stranger and fling him into the furnace. What the girl saw, when this inhuman decree had been obeyed, was a form clad in robes of sih'er float from the furnace and drift upward into the night. It is said that that sight brought peace to…

The storming and reduction of Stony Point by the American army under General Wayne occurred on the night of the 15th of July, 1779. It w^as one of the brilliant achievements of the Revolution, and, indeed, in some respects, can hardly be excelled by any action in our history. The British had retired from Philadelphia; Washington's army had passed through the trying experience of Valley Forge, and …

An amusing and characteristic (and possibly true) anecdote records a conversation sujjposed to have taken ])lace between the Commander and General Wayne on this topic. A'^ked whether he thought he could storm Stony Point, the impetuous Wayne -- -"Mad Anthony" -- replied : " I '11 storm hell, if you'll make the plans, sir!" Washington looked at him meditatively for a moment, and then replied quie…

Washington's headquarters at this time were at New Windsor. The column destined for the attack upon Stony Point marched from Sandy Beach, fourteen miles above, at noon of the fifteenth. The soldiers numbered twelve hundred light infantry. Their march was over bad roads and rocky hills and through heavy swamps. They halted after nightfall at the house of a man named Springsteel, a mile and a half f…

It was their work to remove the obstructions in the wa}' of the troops. It was nearh' midnight when the advance commenced. Absolute silence was enjoined, and like spectres the two storming parties faded from each other's sight in the gloom. The marshes were overflowed with two feet of water, and through this the men followed their officers, eager and alert, for the object of the expedition was no …

In a few minutes the roar of cannon joined with the rattle of musketry, and the devoted centre was the object of the British attentions, while the real attacking parties, giving no indication of their approach, were pushing eagerly forward. An officer saw one of his men step aside and commence to load his musket. Ordering him to desist, he was met with the surly c|uestion, " How am I going to figh…

Still not a shot came from the grim, eager, undeviating ranks of the Americans in re])ly to the reverberating volleys of the enem}% but thc}^ entered the works with the bayonet and they subdued the garrison at close quarters. Then the silence was broken. A cheer rang out, -- a cheer that reached the ears of the men on the British war-shi])s in the river, satisfying those good servants of King Geor…

The morning of the 16'^'^ inst, General Wayne with a party of infantry attacked the enemy's works at Stony Point -- the garrison consisted of about six hundred men -- it being the dead of night they were not discovered until they had got within about sixteen rods of the works, the alarm was instantly given, but such was the dexterity of our men that they gained some part of the enemy's works befor…

There were five deserters from us in the fort, three of which they hanged with little ceremony -- 10 pieces of cannon, a large number of small arms, with military stores of all kinds fell into our hands. Sunday we should have attacked the fort on this side the River, but General Clinton's arrival at Croton Bridge with a large force prevented it. It must otherwise have fallen into our hands soon. Y…

The pleasant village of Peekskill has a memorable history, associated as it was during the War for Independence with important military movements. From its position, so near the lower gate of the Highlands, it was destined to be ridden over by both of the opposing armies. We have spoken elsewhere of some of the more noteworthy occurrences of Revolutionary days, as they presented themselves in sequ…

Heath instantly refused to give the necessary directions, exclaiming, " I have received positive written orders to the contrary." Lee replied that he would then give the orders himself, to which Heath could not do otherwise than to assent. "That makes all the difference," he said. "You are my senior; but I will not myself break those orders." He then showed Lee General Washington's letter of inst…

Heath resolutely demanded and received from Lee a certificate that he had assumed command of the post. Then, when the comedy was all played, and his wayward will satisfied, the usurper of authority changed his mind and recalled the regiments he had ordered out. "The erratic Lee," as some one has called him, crossed the Hudson with his army on the 2nd and 3rd of December, to the great relief of the…

A year after the building of the Peekskill house, Van Cortlandt seems to have been living in the older one at the Point, for it was there that Governor Tryon visited him in 1774, to secure, if possible, his interest for the King's cause in the approaching contest. In 1775, Phili]), the son of General Van Cortlandt, accepted a commission in the Continental army, an act which incurred the enmity of …

John Paulding, the captor, hved for a number of years after the e\'ent which made him famous on a farm on the Crom-pond road, about three miles east of Peekskill. A number of tales concerning him are current, for one of which we have space. He was attentive to a young woman named Teed whose brother was a lo}^alist. Upon one of his frequent \'isits to the homic of his lady-love, he was set upon by …

A few days later, while wearing the same conspicuous garment, he assisted in capturing ]\Iajor Andre at Tarry town. After the foregoing cursory glance at Peekskilbs historic past, which we reluctantly leave, we must make an equalh' rapid stu'vey of more recent days. - Of the man}^ eminent men that the inhabitants of the town have delighted to honour, there are several that we may not be forgi\'en …

Here, at an elevation of a hundred feet above the river, all arrangements were made for the convenience of a permanent camp. A reser\'oir was formed by damming a brook, and the water distributed in jnpes through the grounds, while facilities for cooking on a large scale have also l:)een perfected. Here, summer after summer, the \'arious regiments of the National Guard have succeeded each other in …

The trains that creep about the base of the Dunderberg are pigmy affairs ; the swift current that flows through the Horse Race and into Seylmaker's Reach catches broken reflections of the towering masses above them, and all the contrivances of man -- his wharves, his boats, and his villages -- cannot impair the invincible majesty of nature. Some years ago there was a coffer-dam and pumping station…

It might have been taken as a natural inference that the rusty weapon belonged to some British vessel of war, or was a trophy of American valour; but not so did the wiseacres decide. It was gravely j^ronounced to be a relic of Captain Kidd! Then a speculator worked up the idea and interested a number of people of the class that the j)roverb mentions as being soon parted from their money, and a com…

It is certain that strange things have been seen in these highlands in storms. The captains of the river craft talk of a little bulbous-bottomed Dutch goblin, in trunk-hose and sugar-loafed hat, with a speaking-trumpet in his hand, which they say keeps about the Dunderberg. They declare that they have heard him, in stormy weather, in the midst of the turmoil, giving orders in Low Dutch for the pip…

In this way she drove quite through the highlands, until she had passed Pollopol's Island, where, it is said, the jurisdiction of the Dunderberg potentate ceases. No sooner had she passed this bourn, than the little hat spun up into the air like a top, whirled up all the clouds into a vortex, and hurried them back to the summit of the Dunderberg; while the sloop righted herself, and sailed on as c…

Nicholas; whereupon the goblin threw himself up in the air like a ball and went off in a whirlwind, carrying away with him the nightcap of the Dominie's wife; which was discovered the next Sunday morning hanging on the weathercock of Esopus church steeple, at least forty miles ofif! Several events of this kind having taken place, the regular skippers of the river, for a long time, did not venture …

Before the battle of Long Island, in .\ugust, 1776, the New York Con\'ention sent delegates to stir up the veomanr\' along the river. As the enemy's ships w^ere at anchor near Tarrytown, powder and ball w^ere sent to that place. Colonel Hammond, of local celebrity, w^as actively engaged in organising the militia for defence; Colonel Pierre Van Cortlandt, of the Croton manor of that name, was an ac…

The Tories alongshore w^ere suspected of furnishing both provisions and information. A tender beat u]3 from Ha\^erstraw Bay nearh^ to Fort Montgomery in the Highlands, when General Clinton greeted the unwelcome visitor with a ball from a 32-pounder, that had the effect of sending her about in short order. But soundings and observations had been completed, and the chart of the river was sufflcientl…

" They were to be lashed together," we read, " between old sloops filled with combustibles and sent down with a strong wind and tide, to drive upon the ships." Besides these preparations, an effective barrier was to be made by stretching a huge iron chain across the river in an oblique direction, from Fort Montgomery to Anthony's Nose. Van Cortlandt and others were busy at this time in organising…

The story has been graphically told by Irving in his Life of Washington: Two of the fire-ships recently constructed went up the Hudson to attempt the destruction of the ships which had so long been domineering over its waters. One succeeded in grapphng the Phccnix, and would soon have set her in flames, but in the darkness got to leeward, and was cast loose without effecting any damage. The other…

The men on board were kept close, to avoid being picked off by a party of riflemen posted on the river bank. The ships fired grapeshot as they passed, but without effecting any injury. Unfortunately, apassage had been left open in the obstructions on which General Putnam had calculated so sanguinely; it was to have been closed in the course of a day or two. Through this they made their way, guided…

The galleys made strenuous efforts to escape, some by darting into convenient bays and others by trusting to their speed and ability to sail over shallows where the British must have grounded. But two of them ran ashore, and the crew took to the boat and made for land with aU possible speed, their vessels falling into the hands of the British. All was hurry and alarm at Spuyten Du>^vil, Yonkers…

I would then have stationed the main body of the army in the mountains on the east, and eight or ten thousand men in the Highlands on the west side of the river. I would have directed the river at Fort Montgomery, which is nearly at the southern extremity of the mountains, to be so shallowed as to afford only depth sufficient for an Albany sloop, and all the southern passes and defiles in the moun…

When, after the winter of 1776-77, the river was again free from ice so as to be navigable, General Howe sent a squadron of war-vessels, with troops, to destroy or capture American stores, one of the principal depots for which was at Peekskill. General Mc- Dougall was, during the absence of General Heath, in command there, and, learning of the approach of the British, he undertook to remove most o…

He also strengthened the chain previously extended across the ri\'er from Fort Montgomery. General McDougall. still in command at Peekskill, received instructions from Washington to co-operate with Clinton in ]cutting the fortifications in as perfect condition as possible for defence. Clinton was directed to put as large a force as he could spare on the mountains west of the ri\'er. General Greene…

spv, Edmund Palmer, as a lieutenant in the King's service. Putnam did not waste words in writing his reply : Headquarters, 7^^ Aug. 1777. Edmund Palmer, an officer in the enemy's service, was taken as a spy lurking within our lines. He has been tried as a spy, condemned as a spy and shall be executed as a spy; and the flag is ordered to depart immediately. Israel Putnam. p s. -- He has, accordin…

The Spirit of '76 3^7 headquarters at Peekskill, wrote to General George CUnton as follows: I have received intelligence on which I can fully depend, that the enemy had received a reinforcement at New York last Thursday, of about three thousand British and foreign troops, that General Clinton has called in guides who belong about Croton River; has ordered hard bread to be baked; that the troops a…

Fort Clinton had subsequently been erected within rifle shot of Fort [Montgomery, to occupv ground which commanded it. A deep ravine and stream, called Peploep's Kill, intervened between the two forts, across which there was a bridge. The governor had his headquarters in Fort Montgomery, which was the northern and largest fort, but its works were unfinished. His brother James had charge of Fort Cl…

On the next day, the fifth, Clinton landed in force at Verplanck's Point, below Peekskill, thus strengthening the impression already created that Fort Independence and the eastern shore of the river were to be the scene of his attack. Almost immediately, however, the greater part of the troops were ferried across in barges from Verplanck's to the opposite shore, and while a body of Tories on shore…

Dividing his force, vSir Henry Clinton sent Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell, with nine hundred men, to take a circuitous course by the western side of Bear Hill and a])proach Fort Montgomery from the north or north-west -- that is to say, in the rear. Sir Henry proceeded towards the river from the point of division, which was between the Dunderberg and Bear Hill. He then intended to advance along a ne…

Two hundred and fifty were either slain or captured by the British. Putnam did not suspect the true direction of the British advance till the reverberations of the battle, thundering along the cliffs of the Highlands, revealed the true state of affairs. The escape of the brothers George and James Clinton was almost marvellous. The Governor leaped down the rocks to the riverside, a breakneck procee…

The main object of Sir Henry Clinton's attack, which was to create a diversion in favour of General Burgoyne, w^as a complete failure, as that officer, in the course of ten days, yielded to the harassing attentions of his foes. Chapter XXI A Voyage up the Hudson in 1769 e A HITHERTO unpublished account of a voyag up the Hudson in 1769 is here presented. It is taken from a manuscript journal, …

Scoonhoven, Skipper, for Albany, had fine weather and found it extremely agreeable Sailing with the country Seats of the Citizens on the Right Hand, the high Lands of Bergen on the Left and the Narrows abaft. We sailed about 13 or 14 Miles Sz then came to Anchor for the Night, the great Rains just before we set out had caused the Water of the North River to taste almost fresh at this Place. The Be…

The ^lanor of Philipsburg according to our Information, extends about Miles on the River and about 6 Aliles back and is joined above by the Manor of Cortland, this ]\Iorng. the Sloop passed by Col. Philips's Mansion House and Gardens situate in a pleasant Valley between Highlands, the country hereabout excels ours by far in fine Prospects and the Trees & Vegetables appear to be as forward almost a…

York according to our Skipper is Four Pence, of a Barrel of Flour one Shilling and of a Hogshead of Flour 7/6 and he thinks they have the same rates from Kaatskill. In the Night we ran ground among the Highlands about 50 Miles from N. York between Orange and Duchess Counties. The Highlands here are not so lofty as I expected and the River at this place appears to be about Half a Mile wide. 7th Ou…

Martiler's Rock stands in a part of the River w^hich is exceeding deep wnth a bold Shore encircled on either Hand by aspiring Mountains & thro them there is a View^ of a fine Country above, here it is chiefly that the sudden Flaws sometimes take the River Vessels for which Reason they have upright Masts for the more expeditious lowering of the Sails on any sudden Occasion -- beyond the above Rock …

About one ocloc we passed by the Town of New Windsor on the Left, seeming at a Distance to consist of about 50 Houses Stores and Out houses placed without anv regular Order, here end the Highlands. This Town has some Trade and probably hereafter may be a place of Consequence as the fine Country of Goshen is said to lie back about 1 2 or more Miles. On the East Side of the River a little above …

The New England men cross here & hereabouts almost daily for Susquehannah, their Rout is from hence to the Minisink's accounted only 40 Miles distant, & we are told that 700 of their Men are to be in that Country by the first of June next, A sensible Woman informed Us that Two Men of her Neighbourhood have been several Times across to those Parts of Susquehannah which lie in York Government & here…

We have the pleasure of seeing sundry Sloops & Shallops passing back and forwards with the Produce of the Country and Returns, in the Evening we sailed thro' a remarkable Undulation of the Water for a Mile or Two which tossed the Sloop about much and made several passengers sick, the more observable as the Passage before and and after was quite smooth & little Wind stirring at the Time, We anchore…

Our Skipper says there are at Albany 31 Sloops all larger than this, which carry from 400 to 500 Barrels of Flour each, trading constantly from thence to York & that they make Eleven or 1 2 Trips a year each. The general Course of Hudson's River as taken by compass is N. & by E. and S. and by W. in some Places North North and South. Between the Highlands and Kaatskill both these Mountains are in v…

We went on shore to Two stone Farm Houses on Beekman Manor in the County of Duchess, the Men were absent & the Women and children could speak no other Language than Low Dutch, our Skipper was Interpreter. One of these Tenants for Life or a very Long Term or for Lives (uncertain which) pays 20 Bushels of Wheat in Kind for 97 Acres of cleared Land & Liberty to get Wood for necessary Uses anv where i…

Livingston the Judge, in the Lower Manor of Livingston. Albany County now on either Hand, & sloping Hills here and there covered with Grain like all the rest we we have seen, much thrown out by the Frost of last Winter. Landing on the West Shore we found a Number of People fishing with a Sein, they caught plenty of Shad and Herring and use Canoes altogether having long, neat and strong Ropes made …

Eckerson's House, a good Waggon Road and Produce brot. down daily from thence to Cherry Valley half a Day's Journey, that People are now laying out a New Road from SopusKill to Schoharie which is supposed to be about 32^- Miles, Sopus Creek is about 11 Miles below KatsKill Creek and a Mile below where we now landed, they say that 7 or 8 Sloops belong to Sopus -- the Fish are the same in Hudsons Ri…

Sloops go no further than Dyer about Half a Mile up the Creek, the Lands on both Sides of KaatsKill belong to Vanberger, Van Vecthe, Salisbury, Dubois & a Man in York, their Lands, as our Skipper says, extend up the Creek 12 Miles to Barber the English Gentleman his Settlement, the Creek runs thro the KaatsKill Mounts, said hereabouts to be at the Distance of 12 or 14 Miles from the North River bu…

Bear's Island said to be the Beginning of the Manor of Renslaerwic which extends on both Sides of the River, the Lords of Manors are called by the common People Patroons, Bearen Island or Bears Island just mentioned is reputed to be 12 Miles below Albany -- Cojemans Houses with Two Grist Mills & Two Saw Mills stand a little above on the West Side and opposite is an Island of about Two Acres covere…

Jersey, as we approach the Town the Houses multiply on each shore and we observe a person in the Act of Sowing Peas upon a fruitful Meadow on an Island to the right. The Hudson near Albany seems to be about Half a Mile over. Henry Cuyler's Brick House on the East Side about a mile below the Town looks well & we descry the King's stables a long wooden Building on the left & on the same side Philip …

York, we found Cartwright's a good Tavern tho his charges were exorbitant & it is justly remarked by Kahn the Swedish Traveller in America that the Townsmen of Albany in general sustained the character of being close, mercenary and avaricious -- they deem it 60 miles from Albany to Cherry Valley -- We did not note any extraordinary Edifices in the Town nor is there a single Building facing Albany …

Stephen VanRenslaer the Patron or Lord of the Manor of Renslaerwick his House stands a little above the Town he is a young man (since deceased) -- the Site of the Town is hilly and the Soil clay but round the place it is a mere Sand bearing pine Trees chiefly of the Pitch Pine, some Lime or Linden Trees as well as other Trees are planted before the Doors as at N. York and indeed Albany has in othe…

It is called 7 miles from the City to the Mouth of the Mohawk's River & from thence to the Cahoes 5 Miles, from the Cahoes to Schenectady 1 6 Miles from Albany to Schenectady in a Direct Line along the usual Road 1 7 Miles (there are now Mile Stones set up) The Patroons House at the North End of Albany is a large handsome Mansion with a good Garden & Wheat Field that reaches down to the North Ri…

Wells & the Two Surveyors to be 60 Feet or upwards but I have seen a Copper plate that calls it 75, tho' upon ocular view it appears less, the Fall is almost perpendicular, the whole Body of the River brawling over a Slate Rock, the Banks of the River consist of this Rock intermixed with a crumbling stone and are perhaps 30 feet higher than the Bed of the River, the whole looks as white as cream e…

By the Information reed. Stephen Van Renslaers Manor extends on each Side of the North River 12 Miles below Albany and 12 above by 48 Miles across East & West. Along the Road the Trees are out in full Leaf and the Grass in the Vales several Inches high, Clover and Timothy common to the Country, they use wheeled Plows mostly with 3 Horses abreast & plow and harrow sometimes on a full Trot, a Boy si…

Storm King is not quite so good; it is artificial, and one needs hardly to be told that Willis invented the name to take the place of Boterberg, or Butter Hill, so called by the Dutch because it was thought to resemble a huge pat of butter. Then there is Beacon Hill, reminiscent of the fires that blazed to tell the cotmtry for miles around that the war was over; and Bull Hill, that has been latini…

There is one more of the principal elevations of the Highlands to mention. Mr. Charles M. Skinner, in his delightful Myths and Legends, calls it " the aquiline promontory that abuts on the Hudson opposite Dunderberg." There is at its base an opening that, from a distance, resembles nothing so much as an ant-hill entrance, and from near at hand suggests the den of some fabulous monster that issues,…

Now thus it happened, that bright and early in the morning, the good Anthony, having washed his burly visage, was leaning over the quarter rail of the galley (of Stuyvesant's yacht, in the Highlands), contemplating the glassy wave below. Just at this moment the illustrious sun, breaking in all his splendour from behind a high bluff of the Highlands, did dart one of his most potent beams full upon …

It was the latter part of a calm, sultry day, that they floated gently with the tide between these stern mountains. There was that perfect quiet which prevails over nature in the languor of summer heat; the turning of a plank, or the accidental falling of an oar on deck, was echoed from the mountain-side and reverberated along the shores; and if by chance the captain gave a shout of command, there…

It was succeeded by another and another, each seemingly pushing onwards its predecessor, and towering, with dazzling briUiancy, in the deep-blue atmosphere; and now muttering peals of thunder were faintly heard rolling behind the mountains. The river, hitherto still and glassy, reflecting pictures of the sky and land, now showed a dark ripple at a distance, as the breeze came creeping up it. The f…

f f i •>i niv m iHH 1 m Among the Hills 365 almost hid the landscape from the sight. There was a fearful gloom, illumined still more fearfully by the streams of lightning which glittered among the rain-drops. Never had Dolph beheld such an absolute warring of the elements; it seemed as if the storm was tearing and rending its way through this mountain dehle, and had brought all the artillery…

Everything now was fright and confusion: the flapping of the sails, the whistling and rushing of the wind, the bawling of the captain and crew, the shrieking of the passengers, all mingled with the rolling and bellowing of the thunder. In the midst of the uproar the sloop righted; at the same time the mainsail shifted, the boom came sweeping the quarter-deck, and Dolph, who was gazing unguardedly …

Margaret died, her share going to the survivors. The first thing these heirs did was to take legal steps to bar the entail imposed by their father. Susannah, who married Beverly Robinson, conveyed her share to William Livingston, who reconveyed it to her husband. It was in his possession up to the time of the Revolution, but was confiscated after the war. The mansion in which Colonel Robinson and …

a fugitive to the Beverly house in the Highlands, while Washington made his headquarters at the house on Richmond Hill, and finally sent Robinson and Morris, with all who belonged to them, overseas in exile. The third share of the Patent, whieh went to Philip Philipse, was left by him to his sons, of whom only one, Frederick, survived. His daughter, Mary, married Samuel Gouverneur. By them the maj…

Indeed, though Washington, in his annual message in 1793, strongly advised the founding of an academy, the necessity for which had been so forcibly demonstrated during the war, when his trained officers were often chosen from among the ranks of foreign soldiers of fortune, yet the recommendation had little or no effect for several \^ears. Congress displayed its accustomed dilatory spirit. It is tr…

To Major Thayer, appointed Superintendent in 1 8 1 7 , the Academy owes more than to any one man for the ground j^lan of its s\'stem of work and the first great impulse towards its present efficiency. He was Superintendent for sixteen years, during which time 570 cadets were graduated, -- men who were soon to test the value of their instruction and training under the skies of Mexico, where, in two…

The mihtary post at West Point formerly was distinct from the Academy, and, until 1842, was sometimes under separate command; but at that time Congress very wisely put an end to contentions arising from a conflict of rank and authority between the Commander of the post and the Superintendent of the Academy, by providing that the latter should also command the post. While the requirements for exami…

Take a man who can ride, dance, fight, speak the truth in his own and several other languages, and pass a stiff college examination, and 3'ou have the kind of man that West Point is turning out b\^ the scores every year. While the standards of physical, mental, and moral excellence have been rigorously upheld at the Academv, and the instruction and drill have advanced with the progress of the worl…

Tablets honouring the memory of Washington's generals are placed upon the walls, one alone being remarkable from the fact that the name is erased, leaving only the dates of birth and death. It is that formerly inscribed with the name of Benedict Arnold, who tried to betray West Point to the British enemy. Above the altar is a picture representing War and Peace, ])ainted iDy Professor Wier, who at …

The conditions of good work ha\'e grown more exacting with every year, till the Academy has been cramped for the lack of modern facilities and equipment. The barracks have been overcrowded and insufficiently furnished with such conveniences as light, water, and heat. The cavalry and artillery drill-room and grounds have proved inadequate to the needs of the school ; the lecture-rooms and laborator…

In spite of the fact, or it may be because of the fact, that we are not a soldier people, the sentiment of the nation centres at West Point more really than even at the White House or the Capitol. Perhaps no nation on earth has ever seen a case parallel to that of the United States, that has gone through most of its history without a standing army worthy of mention, yet has persistently trained me…

It is not too much to say that the loss of the Highlands of the Hudson would probably have meant the downfall of the Continental cause. Never but once during that long struggle for freedom did the patriot army temporarily lose this point of vantage: that was when, after the reduction of the forts by Sir Henry Clinton in October, 1777, the chcvaux-dc-frisc and other obstructions were cleared away, …

Fort Constitution was on the island opposite West Point, from which place one of Putnam's numerous chains was stretched. Its insular character can hardly be recognised to-day, as the The Hudson River 38o marshes between it and the eastern shore of the river have gradually filled up and now appear as meadowland. The old house, about which the home of the Warner sisters was built in the course of …

What impulse of chance or Providence led Washington, with Knox and Lafayette, to change his i)lan of breakfasting with Arnold, baffles conjecture. We onh' know^ that the General and his aides turned aside to inspect some fortifications and sent a note to apprise Arnold of the fact, and that in that \'erv hour Colonel Jameson s fatuous letter, informing him of Andre's capture, was delivered to him …

Without pausing to aid her, he hurried down-stairs, sent the messenger to her assistance, probably to keep him from an interview with the other officers; returned to the breakfast-room and informed his guests that he must haste to West Point to prepare for the reception of the commander-in-chief; and, mounting the horse of the messenger, wiiich stood saddled at the door, galloped down by what is s…

Within a stone's throw from the portico of the hotel, upon a knoll half hidden with trees, stands one of the most beautiful structures, of its kind, in this country -- a stone church, of English rural architecture, built by the painter, Robert Weir. The story of its construction is a touching poem. When Mr. Weir received ten thousand dollars from the government for liis picture on the panel of the…

The painter's taste and heart were set to work, and with the money left him by his children and contributions from General Scott and others, he erected this simple and beautiful structure, as a memorial of hallowed utility. Its bell for evening service sounded a few minutes ago -- the tone selected, apparently, with the taste which governed all, and making sweet music among the mountains that look…

What belle of other days ever comes back to the Point without looking out upon the Parade from the windows of the hotel and indulging in a dreamy recall of the losing of her heart, pro tciii., on her first summer tour, to one of those grey-tailed birds of war? A flirtation with a greycoat at the Point is in every pretty woman's history, from Maine to Florida. Suppress those tapering swallow-tails!…

Who, at that time of rejoicing and congratulations, could anticipate the horror and mystery that would afterwards surround the fate of this ro\-al infant ? History has related the imprisonment of the Dauphin, after the downfall of his ill-fated house, has told of the cruelty of the brutish Simon, and has recorded the prince's death from a scrofulous affection induced by the filth and malnutrition …

was built upon a spur six hundred feet above the level of the river, and so situated that it commands an extensive view of the water and of the Highlands on both sides. It is somewhat back of the Point, and, though long since disused by troops, its parapets and several of its ancient casemates are still preserved. "The spot where Kosciusko dreamed" is still a place where the young man may see visi…

It was here, in a time long past, that Fanny Kemble loved to row her boat, mooring it in some attractive little cove along shore when the heat became burdensome. A brook that flows into the bay north of Garrison's was a favourite haunt of hers, and the cascade that for years had been known as Indian Falls was afterwards rechristened Fanny Kemble 's Bath. Only a short distance from this stream and …

In that curious journal of a voyage up the Hudson in 1769 which we have the good fortune to publish in this volume, the reader will notice that the name " Broken Neck Hill" appears, and a glance at the camel-like profile of the mountain in question will go far toward convincing one that the later name, "Breakneck," is a corruption of a title that was really descriptive. The name Breakneck might be…

We hear in the thunder that reverberates from crag to crag the echo of long silent artillery; we see in the mists of morning the smoke of British guns, and under the downright rays of noon seem to distinguish the entrenchments of patriotic levies. But when night falls the mysterious significance of nature asserts a sway that is stronger than embattled arms and older than history. Then the passions…

He lay contemplating the strange scene before him: the wild woods and rocks around; the fire throwing fitful gleams on the faces of the sleeping savages; and the Heer Antony, too, who so singularly, yet vaguely, reminded him of the nightly visitant to the haunted house. Now and then he heard the cry of some animal from the forest ; or the hooting of the owl; or the notes of the whippoorwill, which…

Pollopel's has long been considered as a haunted spot, especially infested by the evil s])irits that in time of storm fly with the storm through the Highlands. In this particular it resembles the Duyvel's Dans Kamer. Crtiger's Island, on the contrary, enjoys the distinction of never having been visited by death, even down to the present day. Above the Highlands, on the western shore of the river, …

He superintended the laying-out of paths, the building of roads and dams; he cultivated the acquaintance of trees and wild flowers, protected the birds, and evinced a kindly fellowship for the frogs. To many of those who have read Willis's work, no part of it seems more satisfactory than the chatty, personal chronicle of nature happenings, the unforced record of his surroundings, as they appeared …

If, from some dust}^ shelf corner, you take down a copy of Out-Doors at Idlcwild, blow the dust of years from it, and settle yourself to read, you may presently say, " Burroughs would have done this better, or Bradford Torrey that." Very possibly. Please to recollect that Willis did it first. To-day every man -- lawyer, physician, clergyman, hack, storekeeper, or clerk -- finds his way at least on…

My cottage at Idlewild [wrote Willis] is a pretty type of the two lives they live who are wise -- the life in full view, which the world thinks all, and the life out of sight, of which the world knows nothing. You see its front porch from the thronged thoroughfares of the Hudson, but the grove Ijehind it overhangs a deep down glen, tracked but by my own tangled paths, and the wild torrent which by…

The drives are probably better kept and the lawns better groomed than they were in the early fifties, and the shade trees are taller and more dense ; but one step aside over the edge of the wooded declivity instantly translates the pilgrim into a "land of faery," where the hand of man has not interfered except with the consummate art that conceals art. From the commencement of the descent the soun…

Step by step in a zigzag course the visitor gets toward that stream that is "sometimes a cataract," and, with every moment the remoteness from human life increases. If it was ever true that " Idlewild is getting fast peopled with the viewless crowd that will make haunted ground of it," the gentle ghosts must have departed with him for whom they first appeared. I could imagine Willis there -- Willi…

A hundred miles could not make their remoteness more complete. The trees are full of singing and calling birds, the banks covered with ferns and wild flowers; the solitude is that of a beautiful wilderness. What Idlewild was in its prehistoric days we may conjecture from a letter written by its master in February, 1854: We were fortunate enough to identify yesterday a mysterious inmate of Idlewil…

Mesa-ba-wa-sin still presides in spirit and fact over the glen, and his altars are everywhere. The woodthrush and the vireo sing his praises still, and the wake robins are proxies for his redskin worshippers. There is a pathetic side to the Idlewild days. In many of the cheery, entertaining letters, and increasingly toward the last, there is an acknowledgment of illness. The man who wrote them was…

The last and least attracti\'e name is, of course, the one on which a tradition depends -- the story of the compassion of a red man, the steadfast loyalty of a woman, and the lust for blood that has seemed at times an uncontrollable instinct with the Indian. A family named Murdoch lived near the mouth of the stream and frequently welcomed to their cabin an Indian called Naoman, who showed great fr…

He was immediately struck down, and the savages, rendered furious by the sight of blood, rushed upon the captives and slew them every one, casting their bodies into the creek. A small company of German Palatines, by the favour of Queen Anne and under the escort of Governor Lovelace, crossed the ocean in 1709 and settled where is now the city of Newburgh. Directed by their pastor, the able and belo…

The Fisher's Reach 405 The few who remained in Newburgh after the exodus of their brethren seem to have been immediately in\-olved in a dispute with their new neighbours, the subject being the possession of the church building. This discussion terminated with the death of the Palatine leader, who was crushed by a falling door. Among the peculiar features of Newburgh 's history is the fact that th…

It is to the story of Washington and the Revolution what Camelot was to the i\rthurian legends. Here, during the long, gloomy months that preceded the dawn of American independence, the great chief of the Continental army fought and won his greatest battles -- fought the growing and just indignation of that army against a dilatory and ungrateful Congress, fought the spectres of want and care, foug…

The American military force in the Revolution consisted of three distinct grades or classes of soldiers: the regulars, known as continentals; the levies, drafted either from militia regiments or from the people; and the militia. The continentals were longterm men, always under arms, commanded by the chief of the army -- in a word, professional soldiers. The levies were drawn for a short term, but …

It was the militia and the levies that enabled the commanding general to throw reinforcements into the scale of battle when his little army of regulars was hard ])ressed. The\' were to the British always an unknown riuantity, and set calculations at naught. When Gates needed a larger force of men to oppose to Burgoyne, Clinton sent him the farmer-soldiers of Ulster County -- men of mingled Dutch a…

Yet it would have been worth almost an\' effort or sacrifice to have held the river. Granting the numerical superiority of the Americans on shore, it does not seem impossible that a man of greater genius than Sir Henr}^ Clinton might haA^e maintained an effectual blockade with his fleet U]3on the river. Upon the military road of which the Newburgh ferry was so important a feature, not only troops,…

The Commander was accompanied by his wife and military family, and lived at Newburgh till the latter part of the succeeding year. The old house, which is in an excellent state of preservation and is used as a repository for military relics, is upon a little plateau commanding a comj^rehensive view of the river, particularh^ where it flows between the towering hills that form the northern gatewa}' …

It was while living at Newburgh that Washington narrowly esca]3ed capture by an envoy of Sir Henry Clinton -- at least, so the legend runs. A man named Ettrick lived with his daughter in a secluded valley to the south of headquarters ;a place known as the Vale of Avoca. It was at the head of a long, narrow bay, but though only a short distance, as the bird flies, from the Hasbrouck cottage, it cou…

The Fisher's Reach 4^3 ticipations of the future about to ])e turned on the world, forced by penury and by what they call the ingratitude of the public, involved in debt, without one farthing to carry them home, after spending the flower of their days, and many of them their patrimonies, in establishing the freedom of their country, and suffering everything this side death -- I repeat it -- when I…

Be assured, sir, no occurrences in the course of the war have given me more painful sensations than your information of there being such ideas existing in the army as you have expressed, and which I must view with abhorrence and reprehend with severity. I am much at a loss to conceive what part of my conduct could have given encouragement to an address which to me seems Ijig with the greatest misc…

After which the chaplains with the several brigades will render thanks to Almighty God for all His mercies, particularly for His overruling the wrath of men to His own glory, and causing the rage of war to cease among the nations. After noble admonitions addressed to the reason and consciences of the men who had followed him so long, the General proclaimed a day of jubilee and ordered for every ma…

To sto]) the destruction being wrought by the d}'namite of the contractor and save the Palisades from ultimate exodus through the jaws of the stone-crusher, the Interstate Park Commission was formed. After a great deal of hard work and no little application of faith and patience, an appropriation of four hundred thousand dollars was secured from the State of New York and fifty thousand from the St…

"Gulian Ver- Planck died before the English patent was granted by Governor Dongan ; Stephanus Van Cortlandt was then joined in it with Rombout, and Jacobus Kipp substituted as the representative of the children of Gulian VerPlanck." The tract contained seventy-six thousand acres in Fishkill and nine thousand more within the limits of the present town of Poughkeepsie. The position of Fishkill in r…

From Beacon Hill the huge watch-fires, lighted to give warning of the approach of the enemy or to celebrate the advent of peace, could be seen from the peaks of the Catskills, the rugged tops of the Highlands, the hills of Westchester, or the far-away elevations of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. On a level plateau at the base of the hills the encampment of the American army was at one time situa…

It is stated with authorit}^ however, that the idea of associating bricks with hats did not originate in Fishkill. Carthage lies about four miles to the north of Fishkill Landing. It was formerly known as Low Point, to distinguish it from the High Point -- New Hamburg -- two miles above. The latter village lies at the mouth of Wappenger's (or Wappingi's) Creek, so named from the Indians who once o…

The traditions relating to this miniature island commenced when Hendrick Hudson made his voyage of discovery, and have reached quite to the present day, for there are many young men -- not to mention maidens -- who would hesitate long before venturing to spend the lonely hours of night in a solitary vigil on the Dans Kamer. For some reason not >'et fathomed the spectre of Kidd rises where\'er ther…

The Eastman College, devoted to the work of preparing young men for business, has also been long established and is widely known; but to a great many thousands of educated women all over the world Poughkeepsie means " Vassar. " When Matthew Vassar conceived the idea of doing something of public value with his wealth, he hit at first u]3on the plan of erecting a monument. It should be a thing to l…

Through all the ages there had been exceptionally favoured women who had been specially trained, in the way that men were trained, and had left such records of intellectual achievement that the world generally regarded them as peculiar creatures, excessively endowed. There was alwavs, in the minds of the ma- Fishkill to PouL;"hkecpsie 423 jority even of educated men, a doubt whether the whole fa]…

At the old Huguenot village of New Paltz, on the opposite side of the river from Poughkeepsie, is situated the State Normal School, and here recently a number of young women from Cuba have been preparing for educational work in their own lately liberated land. Perhaps no writer who has lived on the Hudson has linked so really a generation that has passed with the men of to-day as John Bigelow, -- …

Y., and Fishkill to Poughkeepsie 425 finally retired to his delightful home near the shore of the Hudson. There is an Indian legend connected with the name of Poughkeepsie, which is said to be derived from the Mohegan word apo-kccp-sinck -- " a safe and pleasant harbour. ' ' Between the rocky bluffs called Slange Klippe and Call Rock, the Fall Kill flowed into a bay near which was formed the ear…

Her affianced conceived abold design for her rescue, and proceeded immediately to execute it. In the character of a wizard he entered the Huron camp. The maiden was sick, and her captor employed the wizard to prolong her life until he should satisfy his revenge upon Uncas, her uncle, the great chief of the Mohegans. They eluded the vigilance of the Hurons, fled at night, with swift feet, towards…

This house stood till after the Revolution, and was used by the Legislature of New York after the burning of Kingston. About 1835 it was torn down. Poughkeepsie was incorporated as a city in 1854. It early became the centre for the trade of Dutchess County, which, it must be confessed, was at first but meagre; but it was also connected by the Dutchess turninke with Sharon, Conn., and thence with L…

When the British burned Kingston he prorogued the Legislature to Poughkeepsie, which still served as a "safe harbour." As the Revolution progressed, the Tory faction was weakened, either by suppression or surrender. It was in the Poughkeepsie Court House that, by one vote, after a Homeric l)attle, the colony of New York consented to become a part of the American Republic, which consent was practic…

In 1S44, the New York State fair was held here, somewhere east of what is now Hooker Avenue. It was an occasion thought important enough then to be pictured and reported in the London Illustrated Xacs. Two years after, the telegraph wires were put up in this city, before they had yet reached the city of New York. Considering the fact that Professor S. F. B. Morse, the telegraph inventor, had his r…

He gave what assistance he could to the patriot army, and it may well be believed that a strong and willing arm and a good forge found plenty of occupation; but retribution came when Vaughan's ships passed up the river with the torch. The smithy and mill were among the first places to be laid in ashes, and the smith himself was carried a captive to the most detestable prisonship that history has m…

But the original purpose was defeated, if not lost sight of, when the ownership of the bridge was acquired by another company. For seven years past the river at Poughkeepsie has been the scene of one of the ga^'cst and most popular of all the great annual features of college athletics. There the regatta of the Intercollegiate Rowing Association isheld every June, and over one of the finest straigh…

One recalls in this connection the famous delivery of a well-known critic concerning a popular book: " If you like this sort of a book, this is the sort of a book you like." If one cares for ice-boating, fishing, and kindred occupations, this is the sort of a subject that he cares for; but, realising that the converse is also true, we frankly re-echo the advice given by Mrs. vStowe, in the preface…

There the great and fashionable world of x\lbany and Kingston, we may suppose, entered into that exhilarating pastime with a zest that belonged to a simpler phase of life. It is a trite reflection that the fathers enjoyed their pleasures more heartily, having fewer to enjoy. There is a story told of a dinner given by Douw to Red Jacket, the Indian chief, at which were present not only a number of …

At a hint from one of the disputants, redskin and negro servants in a crowd made for the river, where in a short time they marked and cleared a course across and down stream, lighting the way with torches and lanterns. Peter Van Loan, the overseer, was master of ceremonies, and King Charles, a famous jockey in his day, rode Sturgeon. The bets were large, Schuyler having backed his own horse heavil…

Even more exciting than the horse-races are the contests of ice-boats, for which the upper Hudson, especially inthe neighbourhood of Tivoli and Hyde Park, is famous. An ice-boat is to an ordinary boat what the Empire State Express is to a way freight. It does not Sports and Industries 433 sail, it flies, reminding one of the Chinaman's famous descri] )tion of his first toboggan shde, -- ' ' Phwt…

The crew of a boat that is going at a rate of speed that would put the cannonball flight of a wild duck to shame may escape with life and limb the shock of arrested motion, but that will be because the ways of Providence are past finding out. It is a matter of course (but no less a subject for congratulation) that the passion for skating has not yet died out. The army of those who every year glide…

With a sled to carry his paraphernalia and a cube of frozen salt pork for his luncheon, such a fisherman may skate ten or twelve miles to find a favourable ground, and the fewer his com]:)anions the more he is to be congratulated. But usually the professionals are gregarious in their habits, which is necessary from the methods they employ. A long fissure, cut at right angles with the current of th…

In the face of these discomforts the winter fisherman, slapping his legs to restore lost circulation, moving stiffly because of the rheumatism contracted last year, or nursing the cracked and bleeding fingers that were frozen last week, is as cheerful a citizen as circumstances will permit; but it is a far cry from the frozen river as he sees it, a field of labour and a scene of drudgery, to the g…

The first "run" sends a quiver of excitement through the communities of fishers, and the news is telegraphed from New York to Albany. The newspapers herald the coming of the shad and the marketmen display them with pride and expatiate upon their merits. At that time a multitude of the passengers returning from the Jersey shore to Manhattan by w^ay of the upper ferries may be seen carrying mysterio…

The demand upon it grows with increase of population and improved facilities for shipping shad to a distance. It is not alone among the people living along the river that the shad find a market, but hundreds of miles of railways act as distributing agents and take shad where formerly thev w^ere unknown. Since 1S82. the United States Fish Commission has made large contributions of shad fry and eggs…

The toiling groups of roughly clad rivermen, handling and shipping the fish, the midget fieets of clustering boats, and the endless labour of spreading, drying, and repairing the nets, are details of a quaint and fascinating picture. The greatest number of nets operated are at Alpine and Fort Lee on the Jersey shore, and at Nyack and Ossining in New York. The striped bass, while caught for market,…

Long ago the Indians found the bays and shallows of the river prolific breeding-grounds for oysters, and some of the tribes are said to have used the bivalves as one of their chief means of sustenance. Their frequent shell heaps, some of them not yet obliterated, bear witness to the favour in which this epicurean morsel was held by the aborigines. During the early years of New York's history, the …

When sturgeon were more plentiful than now, they were caught for the oil, that has been esteemed equal to the best sperm. The leap of the sturgeon, immortalised by Drake in TJic Culprit Fay, was a frequent sight a generation ago, and it was worth a day's journey to see that quivering bulk ])ierce the surface, a living projectile, and, descril)ing a parabola of eight or ten feet, fling a rainbow ar…

By the ordinary process of multiplication, if unchecked by other untoward influences, the supply of fish in such a river must ahva}'s be in excess of the number caught with hook and line. But there are other pernicious influences, among them the pollution which results from sewage in the vicinity of large towns. There can be little doubt that fish are poisoned by the fouling of the element in whic…

The restocking of the waters will only be an efficient remedy in places where the fry will not be subject to the disadvantages we have suggested and others of equal importance. It is well known that man}% if not all, of the fish that frequent the Hudson, or any large river, run into the smaller streams to spawn. The practical closing of many such streams by means of dams, where no fish-ways are pr…

At the hatcheries of the State Commission it has been found that the shad fry, if they are to be raised at all, must never be handled even with the nets that may be used in the rearing of young trout or salmon. The ideal pond for hatching purposes is one that has been dry for months, so that all life in it is destroyed, and then filled by seepage, thus excluding enemies that would otherwise destro…

The Minnesinks, one of the largest clans, were originally dwellers on a minnis, or island, in the upper waters of the Delaware. The Mohegan Indians lived upon the upper shore of the Hudson. Northward of Esopus, on the west shore, the land was claimed by the Mohawks, who ruled the forests as far north as Champlain and through the valley of the Mohawk River. The}^ were to the more peaceable tribes o…

But truth compels the admission that the first notable proprietor of land at Kingston (or Atkarkarton) was not a Dutchman. This is on the authority of the Rev. I. Megapolensis, the third stated minister of the Collegiate Dutch Church of New^ York, who, in 1657, wrote: Thomas Chambers and a few others removed to Atkarkarton or Esopus, an exceedingly beautiful land, in 1652, and began the actual se…

Two other edifices succeeded each other on the ground where the first one stood, and from the tower of the last the Holland bell, imported in 1794 from Amsterdam, used formerly to ring three times a day to notify the good people of their meal hours. In those far-off days sober and respectable people did things in an orderly and customary way. It required unheard-of temerity to break away from the …

Notices of all kinds, whether of funerals, weddings, or christenings, were given to the sexton, who took them to the clerk ; and the latter, having a bamboo rod with a split end kej^t for that very purpose, stuck the paper in the slit and jjassed it up to the domine, who was perched overhead in a half-globe pulpit, canopied by a sounding board. "The minister wore (out of the pulpit) a black silk m…

At the communion table church members always wore black, and invariably stood to receive the sacrament. The Kingston church is ]particularly worthy tof >- notice from the fact that it occupied a unique position, being an inde])endent church as late as 1808. For a century and a half it had rejected the jurisdiction of the General Synod of the Dutch Church in America. The ministers had been called …

Ulster County, formed in 1683, lay between Moodna or Murderer's Creek on the south, and Sawyer's, the line dividing: from Greene Count\', on the north. It 450 The Hudson River borders the west bank of the river and embraced at that time all of the important settlements between the Highlands and vSaugerties. The trading post of Rondout, one of the very earliest to be established, antedated the lan…

One of the recipients, during the revel which followed, fired a gun. A party of white men, who were possibly not too sober themselves, construed the discharge of the firearm to mean the commencement of an attack, upon which they fired upon a party of the Indians, killing several of them. In retaliation the lately peaceable redskins took thirteen prisoners, and, soon gathering a force of five hundr…

Thomas Chambers, whose foolish bestowal of brandy had brought on the original trouble, aided by the militant valour of the Dutch domine, led his companions in such a desperate fight that they succeeded in driving the invaders from the fort, but not before eighteen of the whites had been killed. Forty- two prisoners were carried away by the savages, and all of the newly established farms and bouwer…

He directed them to follow Rondout Creek to the Wall kill and to leave that for a third stream, where the encampment of their enemies would be found. The statement that the Indians intended putting their prisoners to death urged the rescuers to greater haste if possible. Dubois and his companions, guided by the savage, pushed through the wilderness for a distance of twenty-six miles, and though th…

Catherine Dubois had already been placed on a funeral ]^yre of wood, preparator}* to being burned, and had 454 The Hudson River evidenced her Christian fortitude by singing hvmns that pleased her cai^tors so that they demanded a repetition of them. It was no new thing for them to hear a warrior sing his death- song in the face of his enemies, but for a woman to show such courage may have excited…

Dubois on the occasion just mentioned was the 137th in the Dutch collection, which is translated thus: By Babel's stream the captives sate And wept for Zion's hapless fate; Useless their harps on willows hung While foes required a sacred song. The village of New Paltz is a delightful reminiscence, a legacy of old habitations and simple customs, bequeathed by generations of God-fearing folk to…

It is said that so fine and free from animosity and greed has been the life of the people of New Paltz that i)revious to 1873 no lawyer ever found a permanent residence there. Johannes Nevius and others, in a report to the States-General in 1663, spoke feelingly of the deplorable massacre and slaughter of the good people of the beautiful and fruitful country of Esopus, recently committed by the b…

Then, with necessary stealthiness and caution, he succeeded in freeing his companion, and falling iipon the sleeping Indians thev killed all except two squaws, who escaped. Providing themselves with the arms and provisions of their late captors, they undertook the return journey of four or five hundred miles through the woods. Their lives were barely sa\-ed by the game they managed to shoot on the…

The previous year, 1876, had been the l^i-centennial anniversary of the building of what has been known niodernly as the Old vSenate House. This building, that has so deep an historic interest, is long and low, constructed of stone and supplemented at a late period of its history by a "linto," or lean-to. It was erected in 1676 by Wessel Ten Broeck, a West])halian, who, emigrating to America at an…

We seem to know that as Jacomyntie Ten Broeck stood in the doorway of that goodly stone house, there was in her roimd and ])leasant face a consciousness of wellstocked larders and fruitful orchards, of cream in the dairy and butter in the crocks, and oily koeks on the ample sheh'cs of the i)antry. At a later day the old house, then one hundred and one years old, sheltered a notal:)le company. Ther…

Here General Armstrong, the boy hero of the Revolution, father-inlaw of William B. Astor and ex-Secretary of War, lived in 1S04, previous to his departure as Minister to the French Court, leaving a small marble fireplace, the first ever seen in Kingston, as a memorial of his residence; and here, last spring. General Arthur, the Republican candidate for Vice-President, bowed his tall head to escape…

There are many other buildings and several localities of special interest to those who love the mild anticjuities of our brand-new country -- the Academy, founded in 1774, in which De Witt Clinton and Thomas De Witt, Edward Livingston, Stephen Van Rensselaer, and Abram Van Vechten received their early education; the stone Court House, built in 1S18 upon the site of a much older one; and the First …

Livingston, and the mother of the distinguished chancellor of that name, as well as of Janet, the wife of General Montgomery. The old Senate House was at one time occupied by Chancellor Livingston and by General Armstrong, the " boy hero of the Revolution," who was afterwards United States Senator and Secretary of War. Governor Clinton married Cornelia Tappen of Kingston, and their son was educate…

diers of George III. to take possession of the region above West Point, either to ereate a diversion in favour of Burgoyne, then face to face with Gates near Saratoga, or to co-operate with him according to agreement. Sir Henry Chnton did not proceed in person fc>-with the expedition up the ri\'er, but left the command to General Vaughan and Sir James Wallace, who were accompanied bv a considerabl…

There is an admiral^le ring of courage in the note written at this time to the Council of Safety by Clinton: " I am persuaded, if the militia will join me, we can save the country from destruction and defeat the enemy's design of assisting the northern army." A new and definite evidence of this design had been strangely received by the Governor about the time of the penning of those words. The ar…

He saw here and there at villages and hamlets, and even single residences on the river shore, marauding parties of British at work, their motions being marked by flames and depredation, but he could not move rapidly enough to intercept them. When General Vaughan and his force landed from their vessels, a little body of about a hundred and fifty militia opposed them at Kingston, but these valiant d…

One of the Dutchmen, in running ]:)lindl\' forward, stepped u])on the teeth of a rake, whereupon, according to the time-honoured custom of rakes when their teeth are stepped on. the handle sprang up and rapped him on the head. That was too much for overwrought ner\'es. Thinking that the enemy had overtaken him, the fugitive fell upon his knees, shouting, " I gifs up -- I gifs up! Hurrah for King S…

The smoke and flame spread consternation among the inhabitants of other villages, and fugitives from the destroyed town sought asylum among the hills and in remote places. The spectacle of Kingston burning must have moved with rage and pity the stout hearts of Putnam and Clinton, on opposite sides of the river, witnesses to a calamity they were powerless to avert. Clinton had used the utmost dispa…

The intention of the enemy was evidentl}^ to advance to Albany, which seemed doomed to share the fate of Kingston, and there to effect that conjunction with Burgo}^ne which was the object of the expedition. But Burg03me was in no condition to co-operate with any armv. The diversion had come too late. Almost Rondout an( Kin^^ston 465 simultaneoush' with the mo\-ements of CHnton and his subordinat…

The deep mouth of the creek, sheltered yet accessible, furnished one of the most convenient harbours for the river boats, and the fertile and pleasant lands were inviting to the farmer. But farmers do not make villages, and facilities for the landing of boats do not make trade. The Indian traffic in peltries, which in the first centur\' of its growth had been so important an item of its commercial…

Rondout and Kingston 467 its incorporation and sixty-three after the great fire, the total population of Kingston and Rondout together did not much exceed fifty-five hundred souls. In the succeeding thirty years, however, the population had increased fourfold, while the population of Ulster Count}' in the same ]3eriod had doubled. This increase was in |)art due to the development of certain indus…

The hills that face Rondout Creek are honeycombed with galleries from wliich cement is obtained. The ciuarries for bluestone and flagging extend for nearly ninety miles through the region of countr\' for which the canal furnishes the outlet. Besides this, several railroads either touch at this place or make it a terminal station, and a fleet of steamboats equal in number to a combination of all ot…

John Vanderlyn, the celebrated painter, was born in Kingston late in the eighteenth century. He was first apprenticed to a waggon-painter, and the genius that was in him developed in spite of this prosaic occupation. For several years he struggled >to reconcile his vocation with his avocation, to possess his soul while laying smooth panels of coach varnish and striping wheels. At length one d…

At first their national language and form of worshi]) distinguished them from their Dutch neighbours, but gradually, in the course of several generations, both of these distinguishing ])eculiarities were forgotten and the descendants of Dubois, Hasbrouck, Lefever, Bevier, Crispell, and then* companions could not be distinguished except by name from those of Ten Broeck, Van Gaasbeek, or Blom. A des…

The Rosendale begins its course far in the interior, and, uniting with the Wallkill, then rapidly passes on till it unites with the Hudson. So with the Esopus Creek; its source is among the mountains of the Delaware, whence it rushes furiously onward until it reaches Marbletown ; from thence it runs northerly until it mingles with the Hudson at Saugerties, Ulster County. About twenty families rem…

Dalhe, from New York, visited New Paltz, January 26, 1683, and occasionally conducted services for them. Their then house of worship was a stone edifice, where thev worshipped eighty years, when it was demolished. . . . The Huguenots finally, by intermarriages and intercourse with the Dutch, adopted their language, manners, and customs, and finally gave up their French church and accepted and join…

The "Little Sawyer," who established himself on the bank of a stream some ten miles above Kingston and antedated the earliest settlers whose names are recorded, has been referred to in old accounts as de Zaagertje and his mill as Zaargertje's, of which Saugerties is a simple corruption. What the object of the sawyer's coming was, for whom his logs were sawn, or where they were shipped, are questio…

Brink had been a prisoner among the Indians after the horrible Esopus massacre in 1663 ; but, with twenty- two fellowcaptives, he managed to escape from the hands of the savages. A few other hardy Dutch frontiersmen took up land between the great Hardenbergh patent and the river. A large holding to the north of Saugerties was known as Fullerton's tract, upon which afterwards the West Camp of the P…

We read of the subjugation of the Mohegans and their aUies by the Mohawks and the estabHshment of their overlordship or suzerainty, and we can understand how the latter compelled the adversaries of the Dutch to surrender prisoners that they had taken. Near the beginning of the eighteenth century, at the same time that a purchase (elsewhere referred to) was made of Judge Livingston for the Palatine…

This alone should for ever set at rest the common notion that they were illiterate peasants. Poor they were certainly, the victims of persecution that seemed to follow them even from their own land in the lower Palatinate, on the Rhine, across the seas, at first to England and afterwards to America. The statesmen of Qtieen Anne's time anticipated that the labour of the Palatines would at least rep…

Fortv thousand dollars had been expended in the experiment by the British government, and a hundred and thirty thousand more from Governor Hunter's private pocket; but at length the whole scheme of colonisation was acknowledred to be a failure, and the colonists were Saugerties and its Neighbours 475 permitted to mcn'e where they pleased or to buy the lands upon which they were settled. The sett…

West Camp (Newton) is given in translation by Benjamin Myer Brink, in his History of Saugerties, as follows : Know traveller, under this stone rests, beside his Sibylla Charlotte, a real traveller, of the High Dutch in North America their Joshua, and a pure Lutheran preacher of the same on the east and west side of the Hudson River. His first arrival was with Lord Lovelace in 1709, the first of J…

We find ourselves in what may be known as the land of the Livingstons. Mr. Ellis H. Roberts points out that in the assembly of 1759, consisting of twenty-seven members, no less than four Livingstons sat: Philip for New York, WiUiam for the Manor, and Robert and Henry for Dutchess. By alHance by marriage with the Schuylers and the Jays, and by its wealth, the Livingston family held a pre-eminence …

Nothing now remains of the old manor-house which he erected at the mouth of Roeleff Jansen's Kill, or Ancram Creek. Six thousand acres of Robert Livingston's land was bought the same year that the grant w^as dated by the government for the use of the unfortunate Palatines. Early in the eighteenth century, the tenants of the Livingston Manor w^ere allow^ed one representative, elected by the freeho…

Fulton married a niece of Livingston's, whose own wife was the daughter of that John Stevens who owned most of the site of Hoboken, and sister of the second John Stevens, the builder of the first oceangoing steamer. The atmosphere in which he lived seems to have been surcharged with the spirit of invention. The origin of the fallacious tradition that the Clermont steamer was built near Tivoli may …

His birthplace was Dublin, Ireland; and at Dublin College he was educated, afterwards entering the British army. When his regiment, the 17th, was ordered for service in enforcing the Stamp Act in America, Montgomery, among others, resigned his commission. In 1772, or the early part of 1773, he came to New York, purchasing a farm near Kingsbridge, but that same year he married a daughter of Judge L…

of Fifty from Dutchess County, and afterwards, upon the appointment of PhiHp Schuyler as Major-General, he was tendered the rank of Brigadier-General. His young wife was nearly overcome with emotion when he brought her the news of this appointment, but, quickly recovering herself, she with her own hands placed a ribbon cockade upon his hat and gave him such encouragement as a brave wife, who loves…

He had a difficult task in dealing with discontent and even instibordination among his troops, but his progress through Canada was triumphant, and he went to the attack of Quebec with a feeling that he " had courted fortune and found her kind." With his half-starved and half-naked little army, in the bitter cold of a Canadian winter morning, before the dawn, on the 31st December, 1775, Montgomery…

After forty-three years the body of General Montgomery was delivered, through the courtesy of Sir John Sherbrooke, to Colonel Lewis Livingston, and, escorted by the Adjutant-General, with Colonel Van Rensselaer and a detachment of cavalry, it was brought to Albany and lay in state in the Capitol. The impressive ceremonies held there extended over the Fourth of July. Two days later commenced a fune…

Montgomer}' was left alone upon the ]:)iazza of her home, "Montgomery Place." There, un watched, she coidd witness the pomp and ceremony of that melanchoh^ progress that, w4iile it could not fail to gratify her pride, yet renewed the anguish of her loss and brought the scalding tears to her aged eyes. The steamboat stopped before her house and the troops stood under arms as the distant strains of …

Paulding is to most Americans a scarcely remembered name, recalled only because of his association with Washington Irving in some youthful literary Saugerties and its Neighbours 4^S ventures. His pleasant home at Hyde Park was reehristened b_\' a subseciuent owner, as though to emphasise the vanity of popular reputation. An in(|uiry about the last scene of his earthly sojourn elicits from one wh…

This was included in the Loverage patent. Beekman's, already alluded to, was in Kiskatom, adjoining Greene s. The land where the village of Catskill stands was included in Lindsay's patent. Silvester Salsbury and Martin G. Bergen, in 1677, purchased a large tract of land from the Indians. Salsbury was a British captain, who had charge of the fort at Albany in the time of Governor Nicoll. A patent …

It was built of brick, being a unique example of the use of this material in old Catskill. Benjamin Dubois had a wooden house, probably a roomy log-cabin, near the mouth of the creek; and others of the prominent men of the settlement were similarly housed. Among the names of the older Catskill families are Van Ordens, Van Vechtens, Overbaghs, Abeels, Oothoudts, Schunemans, Wynkoops, Fieros, Webers…

While thus exposed in the glare of the firelight, and no doubt thrown into confusion ])y the ruse that had du|jed them, they fell a read)' ])re}' to the arrows of the crafty Mohawks. In another narrative of this battle (one, it must be confessed, more in keeping with probabilities) , no mention is made of the strategy of the blankets and cam]3-fire. It is stated that the Mohawks, finding the Moheg…

Rensselaer's agent, and Stuyvesant declared the title void, ordering that the purchase money be restored, \'et making a condition that if those holding such lands would, within six weeks, petition the Director and Council, they might have their holdings confirmed. Of course, this was a crafty effort on the Governor's part to make the too independent patroon of Rensselaerswyck own the authority of …

Where these eadier inhal:)itants, whose wigwams occupied the terrace that l)eeame the site of old Catskill, betook themselves, is not recorded. The subsequent Indian troubles, which this ])lace shared with other river towns, were due to conflict with other tribes. The most tragic stories of Indian atrocities are of Revolutionary date. The fierce Mohawks, acting as allies with the British, and aide…

These people lived in a house about three miles back of Catskill. The father, who was old, had l)cen an Indian trader and understood the Mohawk tongue. When seated at their noonday meal one Sunday, the family was surprised by the sudden entrance of a number of Indians, led by a white man, painted and disguised, but recognised by the sharp eyes of the old Indian trader, who thoughtlessly called him…

When the savages learned that he could converse with them in their own language, and had been among their j^eople as a trader, they treated him with consideration. The son was compelled to run the gauntlet, that is, to make what speed he could between two armed files of Indians, whose blows he might esca]3e by dodging. His father warned him that the yoimg men would try to get in his way and impede…

The stor}' of the captivity of these men is a romance, but too long for insertion here. The Snyders and Abeels met in Canada, and afterw^ards succeeded in making their escape together, subsequently returning to their homes. The capture of the boy Schermerhorn, known as the 'Tvow Dutch Prisoner," was attended with the horror of murder and arson. The old i;)eo|)le with whom he lived, Mr. Stro]:)e an…

A man of great influence at that day was Domine Schuneman, whose pastorate of forty years had endeared him to the i^eople to such an extent that he was their leader in things temporal as well as spiritual. Mr. Schuneman was not of HoUandish descent, but had sprung from the German peasant blood of the Palatinate settlement. He, however, was a minister of the Dutch Church, and had been in Holland to…

His funeral was in the good old Dutch manner, a medley of grief and junketing, of piety and punch. Each comer, man or woman, was met at the outset with a glass of rum, and, after a service in Dutch and a long procession on foot (the coffin upon an open bier leading the way), the assembled company returned to the house and, amid clouds of tobacco smoke and deep potations, discussed the merits of th…

The man was tried for murder and found guilty, but through the influence of his family he escaped punishment, or, rather, the court decreed that he should be hanged when he attained the age of ninety-nine 3^ears. In addition to this sentence, he was to present himself annually to the judges when the court was in session, and wear always a cord about his neck as a memorial of his crime. He lived fo…

The details of this story have no doubt been coloured, but there is a foundation in fact. The man in question did tie a servant to a rope, to make her return to his home, from which she had escaped; but he tied the other end of the rope to his own body and was himself dragged to the ground w^hen the horse ran awa}'. He gave himself up to the authorities, who, it is said, acquitted him and let him …

Not as lofty as many of the famous chains that are celebrated by travellers, the Catskills have a rare beauty of their own and are fully worthy of the admiration of the artist or the poet. Irving says: Of all the scenery of the Hudson, the Kaatskill ^Mountains had the most witching effect on my boyish imagination. Never shall I forget the effect upon me of the first view of them predominating ove…

As Kingston cherishes in her hall of fame the name of John Vanderlyn, artist, so Catskill points with pride to Thomas Cole, who, though of English birth, yet for many years, and indeed to the close of his life, lived and worked near that ])lace. He is best known by the Voyage of Life, which at the time of its exhibition was considered. |:)erhaps, the most remarkable painting produced in America. C…

They procured some of this metal and Johannes de la Montague put it in a crucible. When assayed it produced gold, to the great delight of the Governor and his friends, who managed, upon the arrangement of peace, to send an exj^edition in search of the source of treasure. The result of the expedition was a bucketful of ore that yielded |)leasing results w^hen put to the crucible's test. The rest of…

Here closes the golden legend of the Catskills, but another one of a similar import succeeds. In 1679, about two years after the shipwreck of Wilhelmus Kieft, there was again a rumour of the precious metals in these mountains. Mynheer Brant Arent Van Slechtenhorst, agent of the Patroon of Rensselaerswyck, had purchased, in behalf of the Patroon, a tract of the Catskill lands, and leased it out in …

Shortly after this a feud broke out between Peter Stuyvesant and the Patroon of Rensselaerswyck, on account of the right and title to the Catskill Mountains, in the course of which the elder Slechtenhorst was taken captive by the potentate of the New Netherlands, and thrown into prison at New Amsterdam. We have met with no record of any further attempt to get at the treasures of the Catskills. Adv…

To the modern mind its reason for being seems as deliciousl\ a1:)surd as anything in the inconsecjuent adventures of Alice in Wonderland. A little company of sturdy New England men, from Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and Providence, decided in 1784 that they would found a city. The humour of the proposition lay in the fact that, being mighty in the handling of the harpoon and seasoned with the sal…

Its growth was i)henomenal, onl}' excelled, it is said, by that of Baltimore, and the ])roprietors Avaxed wealthy. For the large region of Columbia Count}' it became at once the distriliuting centre for all manner of merchandise, and after a while manufactures were established and prospered. The names of the ] )ro]3rictors were all familiar along the southern Massachusetts shore. Their leader was …

It is true that after the troublesome exi)erienees of the war, when their vessels had been captured and destroyed and their liberties menaced by the British enemv, they must have exi)erienced great satisfaction in hnding so safe a retreat ; 1 )ut it is also to Ijc believed that to eves accustomed to the unmitigated sand and unrelieved levels of Cape Cod, the green and fertile billows of the landsc…

One can hardly realise to-day how considerable that trade was ; for while Hudson is still a place of many factories and some business acti\'it\\ it no longer holds the prominent rank it once did among the ri\^er towns. Claverack Creek enters the river a short distance north of the old city. Its name is deri\^ed from Klauver Rack, which is the Dutch for Clover Reach. Athens, a thriving little town …

A hundred and fifteen years ago the Gazette of Hudson published, in Ma^^ the following news item: "Robert White was married to Betsie Harris on Tuesday, May I St. Who was brought sick on Wednesday, delivered of three children on Thursday, who all died on Fridav and w^ere buried on Saturday." And still the local authorities are uncertain whether this astonishing statement may be classed as a piece …

Van Ness, the intimate associate of Aaron Burr and his second in the duel which resulted in the death of Alexander Hamilton. Washington Irving was a guest at Lindenwald during one period of which we ha\'e record, and not improbal:)l}' at other times. He is said to ha\'e niade there the acquaintance of the school-teacher, Jesse Merwin, who is credited with being the original of the character of Ich…

A few years ago the plain slab with its simple inscription, at the head of the grave, was replaced by a neat monument, and residents of the village take pride in exhibiting to strangers the grave of Ichabod Crane. Coxsackie station, on the east side of the river, communicates byferry with the village of that name upon the opposite bank. The Iroquois Indians called that part of the shore by the de…

Beerin, Beam, or Bear Island, as it has been variously called, is a little above Castleton and near the west bank of the stream. It is from various causes one of the best known of the many islands that diversify the river from Coxsackie north to the head of navigation. Itenjoys the distinction of being the birthplace of the first white child born to any of the earl}' settlers upon the Hudson, and …

After a while a boat put off for land, and a stranger stepped on shore, a lofty, lordly kind of man, tall and dry, with a meagre face, furnished with huge moustaches. He was clad in Flemish doublet and hose, and an insufferably tall hat, with a cocktail feather. Such was the patroon Killian Van Renselaer, who had come out from Holland to found a colony or patroonship on a great tract of wild land,…

At length tidings came that the patroon of Rensselaerswyk had extended his usurpations along the river, beyond the limits granted him by their High Mightinesses: that he had even seized upon a rocky island in the Hudson, commonly known by the name of Beam or Bear's Island, where he was erecting a fortress to be called by the lofty name of Rensselaerstein. Wouter Van Twiller was roused by this inte…

This done, he garrisoned it with a number of his tenants from the Helderberg, a mountain region, famous for the hardest heads and hardest fists in the province. Nicholas Koorn, his faithful scjuire, accustomed to strut at his heels, wear his cast-off clothes, and imitate his lofty bearing, was estal)lished in this i^ost as wacht meester. His duty it was to keep an eve on the river, and oblige ever…

Go vert Lockerman, a veteran Dutch skipper of few words but great bottom, was seated on the high poop, rjuietly smoking his pipe, under the shadow of the proud flag of Orange, when, on arriving abreast of Beam Island, he was saluted by a stentorian voice from the shore, " Lower thy flag, and be d d to thee!" Go vert Lockerman, without taking his pipe out of his mouth, turned up his eye from under…

Bang! went a third gun. The shot passed over his head, tearing a hole in the "princely flag of Orange." This was the hardest trial of all for the pride and patience of Govert Lockerman: he maintained a smothered, though swelling silence, but his smothered rage might be perceived by the short, vehement puffs of smoke he emitted from his pipe as he slowly floated out of shot and out of sight of Beam…

and how the whole c[uarrel hiially simmered down and died out, are told in the same racy fashion, and the narrative is altogether more vivid and more easy to remember and belie\-e than many a sol:)er page of history. The sober page of history relates that the Dutch built their first fort on the Hudson in 16 14 u])on an island at the mouth of Norman's Kill, and named the island Kasteel, or Castle, …

Its only rivals in age are Jamestown and one or two of the Spanish towns of the far south. The genesis of its history will be found in the little trading station called Fort Orange, which was established in 16 14. The hardiness of the pioneers who gained this foothold in the remote wilderness may only be estimated when we recall the fact that the nearest neighbours of their own blood were more tha…

van Rensselaer did, in the same year 1650, purcliase from the owners and proprietors, and them paid for a certain ])arccl of land, extending up the river South and North off from Fort Orange unto a little besouth of Moeneminnes Castle; and tlic land called Semesseeck lying on the East l)ank opposite Castle Island, up unto the aforesaid fort. Item, from Petanoch the millstream North unto Negagonse,…

High and Mighty, to him Rensselaer and other Patroons of Colonies; that afterwards, the aforementioned West India Company's Director had indeed disquieted the Petitioners in the possession of the aforesaid hamlet or village, leaving in the meanwhile the Petitioners only in the possession of the remainder of their aforesaid Colonic. That in the year 1664, New Netherland and consequentlv the Coloni…

Three tracts of land were chosen, one in Delaware, one in New Jersey (at Pavonia), and the third in the immediate neighbourhood of Fort Orange. The last-named tract became in time the site of several thriving cities and villages, among which Albany, Troy, and Lansingburg are the most important. Under the act of 1629, styled a "Charter of Freedoms and exemptions," Van Rensselaer secured his title a…

While other colonies were either maintaining an ai)athetic silence or else comi3laining bitterly of the hardships of their lot and the difficult}^ of sustaining life without aid from the company or government that i)lanted them, the long reports of the great advantages and rich fertility of Rensselaerswyck stirred the imagination of many a seventeenth-century Boer. Other shi])s might bring ]3ro\4s…

But though the Company had backed the Go\'ernor in his action, the States- General, before whom the matter was finally brought, decided that Fort Orange stood within the limits of the patroon's estate, while the corporation did not own a foot of land in that part of the country. The second patroon, also a non-resident, was Johannes Van Rensselaer, whose half-brother, Jan Baptist, succeeded Van vSl…

Writing of the pomp and circumstance attending the mo\xments of the Van Rensselaer chief, Mrs. Lamb, the historian, says: To many of the present generation a simple sketch of the style of life of these old feudal chieftains would read like a veritable romance. Upon the Van Rensselaer manor there were at one period several thousand tenants, and their gatherings were similar to those of the old Sco…

The great Van Rensselaer manor-house, long considered the most ])alatial dwelling in the New World, and noted for the princely character of its entertainments, was built by Stephen, the fourth patroon. His wife was Catherine, the daughter of Philip Livingston, signer of the Declaration of Independence. Their son, born in New York City, was the fifth and last patroon, known in later life as General…

For some reason, long forgotten, the prospective bridegroom had failed to win the favour of his aunt, the young lady's mother, who emphatically refused her consent to the marriage. vShe was not one whose will was lightly disregarded in her household. Mistress Harriet, we may well believe, was in despair and would, no doubt, have wept her pretty eyes out if she had not received secret comfort and e…

congratulations of the witnesses, the sounds from the library suddenly ceased. Madame Van Rensselaer was waking. It is not difficult to be l)rave before or after a crisis. The thing that is really hard is to display moral heroism at the \'ery moment of sur|)rise or danger. Tf Van Rensselaer had had time to consider this he would, no doubt, have stayed and faced the situation, but as it was, no one…

Under the Dongan charter the limits of the city were included in an area of one mile upon the river and three and a half miles westward. It was not only the centre of social life and the metropolis of trade, but also the home of religious authority. When the Dutch church was organised there in 1640, it was the only one on the northern part of the river that had a regular ministry, and until after …

The streets that intersect the Pasture bear the names of the old Dutch domines, Westerloo, Lydius, etc. When one stands upon some eminence -- as the tower of the Capitol -- and looks out over the city at its numerous churches and imposing cathedrals, he wonders whether Domine Megapolensis would be able to discover amid all those labyrinths of brick and stone the place where he expounded in Low Dut…

It should be a matter for congratulation that back of the proudest aristocracy of New York we find "the nobility of labour, the long pedigree of toil." Mrs. Grant, the " American Lady," whose memoirs are classic, says: " The very idea of being ashamed of anything that was neither vicious nor indecent never entered the head of an Albanian." Theirs must have been an almost ideally peaceable life, n…

They had a court-house, it is true, -- a room upon the second floor of a house within the fort, -- but Vander Donck, the first and at th^it time the only law)'er of the ])laee, was not permitted to practice, as there -was no one to o Pilose hi in. The Schepeii heard and decided, without haste or delay, upon the few cases that were brought before him, ruling by a code as simple and effectual as tha…

The grass grew about the unpaved streets, and relieved the eye by its refreshing verdure. Tall sycamores or pendent willows shaded 530 The Hudson River the houses, with caterpillars swinging, in long silken strings, from their branches; or moths, fluttering about like coxcombs, in joy at their gay transformation. The houses were built in the old Dutch style, with the gable-ends towards the street…

He was unusually tall, raw-boned, and of a most forbidding aspect -- singular in his habits and eccentric in his character -- but independent, honest, and gruff as a bear. He occupied, at the commencement of the present [nineteenth] century, the old and somewhat mysterious-looking mansion then standing at the southeast corner of North Pearl and State streets, and was, of course, next door ncii^hbo…

It is supposed to have been the oldest brick building in America at the time it was demolished in 1833 to make room for the present Apothecary's Hall. . . . The Pearl Street door is said to have been used only for the egress of the dead. The orgies of a Dutch funeral are fast receding from the memory of the living. Few remain who have witnessed them. The records of the church show the expenses of …

The streets were named after the domines or ministers of that church. Beginning with Lydius Street on the north, then Westerlo, Bassett, Nucella, and Johnson running parallel with it. Among those running north and south were Dellius (pronounced Dallius and now so written), from Rev. Godfrey Dell, who came over in 1683; Frelinghuysen and Van Schee. The reference to the " funeral orgies " of the Al…

But there w^ere li\-elier festivals than those incident to the taking-off of honest and considerate burghers. Many an odd custom marked the keei)ing of such holidays as Kecstijd (Christmas), Nicmvjaarsdag, Paaschdag (Easter), and Pinxtcrfccst. Christmas, to be sure, was not held in great esteem, for New Year's day was the occasion upon which St. Nicholas and his A'rouw, Molly Grietje, visited the …

We listen to the eloquence of Jay or Livingston, but with an ear open to catch the crooning of a cradle-song, somewhere within a gableended dwelling, over whose sanded floor some Schuyler, or Beekman, or Van Dyke has taken his first tottering steps in infancy. How many a small morsel of Dutch humanity, nestling his flaxen poll on his mother's arm, has closed his blue eyes to the music of Trip a t…

Only the baby of Satigerties or Kingston or Allxmy would have ruminated over the broader vowels of Slaap, kindje, slaap, Daar buiten loopt een schaap; Een schaap met vier witte voetjes. To this day the English-speaking mother talks to her little one about his "footies." Is it possibly an echo of " voetjes"? But listen to the stamp and swagger and hustle that is compressed into four lines here…

dood-kocks, and niciiivjaarskocks, rather than the trifling knickcr, stood sponsor to that Dutchest of titles, and that the first Knickerbocker of eminence was Volckert Jan Pietersen Van Amsterdam, whose name was too long for even the patience of his neighbours, who shortened it to Baas -- that is to say. Boss. If this etymology be correct, Boss Knickkerbakker Volckert Jan Pietersen Van Amsterdam …

The witch went away, threatening the baker with dire calamity, and her words were not empty ones, as the event proved, for from that time Baas and his poor wife Maritje knew no peace. For a year everything went wrong. The chimney fell in, the neighbours fell An Old Dutch Town 537 out, the trade fell off. It was a l)ad season and the rotund haker and his wife shrank pereeptiblv. Then Xew \'ear's e…

Its inhabitants took what measures they could to prevent the intrusion of aliens, and, in order to secure the cream of the traffic in ])eltries, the merchants sent runners into the wilderness to intercept Indians who might carr)' their goods to other markets. They owned a fleet of x'cssels, u])on which all, or nearly all, of the carrying trade of the city was done. They ha\-e been charged with unf…

At first merchandise used to be conveyed to the vessels in skiffs and afterwards wharves were built for the convenience of shippers. At the time of the Revolution three or four Albany men stand out prominently in national annals. Gansevoort. President of the Convention that adopted the first constitution of the State, lived in the old homestead of the Gansevoort family that stood upon the ground a…

To him was given the task of watching Governor Tr_\'on on the south, the British and Indian force under Colonel Guy Johnson at the west, and the enemy that menaced the northern frontier. He led the advance upon Quebec until forced by illness to resign his command to the unfortunate Montgomery. His was the la])our of ])rovisioning the posts upon Lake Champlain. In fact, there was hardly a man in th…

The Hudson River vSchuyler's ];)ro])erty had been destroyed and his house at Schuylers\'ille burned by Burgoyne, A'et after the latter "s fall, when he had been brought a j^risoner to Albany, it was at the Schuyler house that he found entertainment for himself and his family ; and it is said that the noble hosi)itality of his host moved himi to SCHUYLER MANSION, lyOO tears. Baroness Reidesel an…

It wa.s of honest brick througliout, and not, like most of the city houses, a wooden structure with a veneered front of l)ricks " brouglit from Holland." To-day tlie walls and the oaken window-sills sliow no reason why they miglit not last for centuries to come, unless the onward march of business shall demand the destruction of the relic. So long as it lasts, the Scluiyler mansion stands as a lin…

542 The Hudson River "Gone to alarm the town," was the ready answer. Schuyler, hearing this, acted upon the hint, and, putting his head out of a window, called as though to a large body of men, to surround the house and capture the rascals ; u]ion which the in\'aders fled, but, unfortmiately, took the plate with them. Alexander Hamilton married Elizabeth Schuyler, and was counted by the General a…

We have mentioned but a few of them, and those with a brevity for which the sco])e and variety of the subject-matter of this book must be the excuse. After the Revolution, in 1797, Albany was made the permanent State capital of New York, and its importance from a political point of view drew to it many men of ability and reputation ; but its growth in population was not rapid until after the adven…

As a curious anti-climax to the feudal system under which the ])eople of Rensselaerwyk lived ])rior to the War for Independence, there occurred in the earl\' half of the nineteenth century an agitation known as the anti-rent war, that stirred Alban\' and the surrounding countr}^ for man}' years. This trouble was the result of a persistent effort on the i^art of the heirs of the Van Rensselaer esta…

Other feuds marked the middle period in Albany's history, the transition stage between a somewhat overgrown village and the cit>- of a hundred thousand inhabitants. For instance, there was the great battle on State Street, in which the |)rinci])al actors were John Ta\der and General Solomon Van Rensselaer, a number of lesser combatants participating. The fray occurred in 1807, and was occasioned b…

When the opposing forces were at last separated, the i;)arties began to think of legal redress for the hurts they had received, and a number of lawsuits was the outcome of the matter. It is interesting to note how im]:)artially the arbitrators in the case -- Simeon de Witt, James Kane, and John Van Schaick -- chstributed the damages for assault : Jenkins against Van Rensselaer $2500 Van Renssela…

Worth, already quoted in this chapter, has given a list of the men who seemed to him most prominent in the city at that time. They were George Clinton ; John Tayler, who was Lieutenant-Governor of the State and acting in Governor Tompkins's place after the latter's election to the Vice- Presidency; Ambrose Spenser, Attorney-General and Judge of the Supreme Court; James Kent; Chancellor Lansing; Ab…

There are many narrow streets, paved as of old with col)l)lestones, to remind us of a former day; but there are also some noble thoroughfares, chief among them being State Street, which is accounted one of the broadest streets in the country, and was, until quite recently, only second to Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington. The chief object that challenges the attention from State Street, and, indee…

The structure is of Maine granite, built in the style of the French renaissance, and is surmounted by a tower and dome, from which the eye may sweep over sixty miles of country to rest u])on the blue profiles of the Catskills, or follow the windings of the river, or return to trace the streets that are spread like a map at our feet. There is the City Hall, that was built in 1882, carrying in the s…

The Capitol was commenced in 1881 and completed at a cost to the State of twenty-one million dollars, and is of such noble proportions that its mere bulk alone is impressive. The main structure is three hundred by four hundred feet on the floor plan, with walls that rise one hundred and eight feet from water-table to cornice. It contains chambers ample for all the departments and business of the g…

New life has been infused into a formerly inacti\'e chamber of commerce, and whereas a few years ago business enter])rise was in many quarters somewhat conspicuous by its al^senc e, now there is e\'idence of more stirring activity. The first change in Albany's life occurred when the New England element came in and began to mingle with the Dutch and " the dogs began to bark in broken Engli…

ceived it from the Patroon Van Rensselaer in 1720. About 1787 the site of the future eity was laid out in town lots. At West Tro)-- or Watcr^dlet-- ui 181 3, the United States Government purchased groun d upon which was established an arsenal, near the presen t east bank of the Erie Canal. Sex'cral widely known educational establishments add interest to a city that is not devoid of beau…

The stream takes in, first, the Boreas River and the Schroon, and fifteen miles north of Saratoga recei^•es the water of the Sacandaga. South of that the Battenkill is added to it, and, between the Battenkill and the Mohawk, the Walloomsac. It will be noticed that these streams, with two exceptions, have Indian names, and this recalls the prophecy of a dying chief, who, while chanting his death-s…

From Hartford, where I resided, our party proceeded westward, and some idea of the fashions may be formed from the dress of one of the ladies, who wore a black beaver with a sugarloaf crown eight or nine inches high, called a steeple-crown, wound round with black and red tassels. Habits having gone out of fashion, the dress was of London smoke broadcloth, buttoned down in front, and at the side wi…

After three days we reached Hudson, where a gentleman who had come to attend a l)all joined our party, sending a message home for clothes; and, although he did not receive them and had only his dancing dress, persisted in proceeding with us. He mounted his horse therefore in a suit of white broadcloth, with powdered hair, small clothes, and white silk stockings. Cotild an>-thing l^e more delightf…

The old Dutch church, with its pointed roof and great window of painted glass, stood at that time at the foot of State Street. At Troy, where we took tea, there were only a dozen houses, the place having been settled only three years before by people from Killingworth, Saybrook, and other towns in Connecticut. Lansingburg was an older and more considerable town, containing more than a hundred hous…

On the road to the Mohawk we met a party of some of the most respectable citizens of Albany -- among whom was the patroon Van Rensselaer -- in a common country waggon without a cover, with straw under their feet and wooden chairs for seats. Two gentlemen on horseback, in their company, finding that we were going to Saratoga, offered to accompany us to the scene of the battle of Behmus Heights, and…

During the funeral, she also stated, the American troops, who had got into the rear of the British on the opposite side of the river, and had been firing over the house, on discovering the cause of the procession up the steep hill, where Frazer had requested to be interred, not only ceased firing, but played a dead march in complement to his memory. On leaving the battleground for Saratoga Lake . …

We were for a time extremely dispirited, until the gentleman who had joined us at Hudson came forward (still in his ball dress) and endeavoured to encourage us, saying that if we would but trust to his guidance he doubted not that he should be able to conduct us safely and speedily to a more comfortable habitation. This raised our hopes, and we followed him cheerfully, though the day was now at it…

One would give much to have seen this cheerful "gentleman from Hudson" at that moment: He . . . dismounted, tied his horse behind our chair, and taking the bridle of our own began, to lead him on, groping his way as well as he was able, stepping into one mud hole after another, without regard to his silk stockings, sometimes up to his beauish knee buckles. At length one of the gentlemen declared …

On reaching the springs at Saratoga we found but three habitations and those but poor log houses, on the high bank of the meadow, where is now the eastern side of the street on the ridge near the Round Rock. This was the only spring then visited. The log cabins were almost full of strangers, among whom were several ladies and gentlemen from Albany, and we found it almost impossible to obtain accom…

The tale of its splendoin* is bewildering, the roll of those who have added to its gaiety, overwhelming. A list of those who have lodged in its great hostelries, or drank of its waters, would, perhaps, include a majority Above Tide-Water 559 of the famous people who have hved during the past half -century. The peculiar virtues of the waters of Saratoga were long known to the Indians, who, in 176…

In 1783, General vSchuyler, who had not forgotten the letter of his quondam friend, though the sad events of the war had cut him off from intimacy with the Johnsons, made a road through the woods from his estate at Schuylersville to the spring, and, taking his family there, encamped for several weeks. The same year, General Washington, being distracted by the long idleness of his waiting at Newbur…

Repeated reference has been made to the battle of Saratoga, and its great importance in relation to American history can hardh^ be overestimated. It should not be forgotten that Sir Edward Creasy, the English military writer, has numbered this among the fifteen decisive battles of the world. Burgoyne started from Canada towards Albany with a reasonable expectation of uniting his forces with those …

562 The Hudson River vSchuyler, having retired to Albany, was receiving deputations of Indian chiefs and exerting his great influence to secure their services as scouts, thus materially aiding the forces in the field. One is compelled to admire the greatness of soul of this man, who refused to permit the cavalier treatment accorded him by Gates, or the apparent neglect of higher powers, to interr…

Leger at Fort Schuyler had been disheartening; now the frequent desertions from his army depleted his force of fighting men. On the 13 th and 14th of September he crossed the river on his bridge of boats, landing upon the plain near the mouth of Fishkill Creek, afterwards Schuylerville, about five miles north of the American position. The arrangement of the opposing forces on the 19th was similar,…

Having, on the i8th, advanced slowly to within two miles of General Gates's position, Burgoyne rested over night and prepared for an attack ui)on the morning of the 19th. The plan, in brief, was to inake a demonstration with Canadians and Indians threatenmg the American centre, while the grenadiers and light infantry, under Frazer, on the left of Gates's position, and the British left-wing, und…

Grudgingh^ reinforcements were then given to Arnold, and he continued for four hours a spirited action with the whole of the British right, though his force at no time exceeded three thousand, or, as some have said, twenty-five hundred men. Both Reidesel and Burgoyne afterwards described this battle as having been fought with great obstinacy and valour, the fire having been unusually fierce and we…

But, either made impatient by the desertions that were rapidly reducing his army, or rendered bold by the apparent disinclination of the superior American force to oppose him, or swayed from his purpose by the councils of his officers, he determined, upon the 7th of October, "to make a grand movement on the left of the American camj), to discover whether he could force a jxassage, should it be nec…

The New Yorkers, with their New Hampshire comrades, did magnificent work that day. The Hessian gunners, serving their artillery with the precision and THE RAPIDS BELOW GLENS FALLS effectiveness of well-trained veterans, were amazed to see the Americans advance without hesitation in the face of a rain of grape-shot. The grenadiers, unused to meeting opponents who could stand before them, found it…

His corps fell 1:)ack in confusion. Overcome at all points, Burgoyne made an effort to save his camix This and a subsequent effort to cross the ri\'er in the face of an American battery on the eastern shore, were ec[ually unsuccessful. He made repeated efforts to withdraw, only to find that the way was completely blocked in every direction, and at length, upon the 17th of October, articles of cajj…

It is hard to realise that Fort Edward, for example, has hidden away, beneath the evidences of modern industry and thrift, an early history that is full of romance and derring-do. ON THE RIVER BETWEEN GLENS FALLS AND SANDY HILL (From a draixjing hy W. G. M'ilso)!) First of all, it was granted to Domine Dellius of Albany, who transferred his title to his successor in the church, John Lydius, the…

der of Jennie McCrea, by some of Burgoyne's Indian allies, gave Gates a telling argument, with which not a few wavering partisans w^ere turned against the British cause. With Fort Edw^ard, as with nearly all of the upper river towns, the possession of one of the most magnifi- The Hudson River cent water-powers in the world has decided the direction of its activity. Glens Falls, eighteen miles abo…

" Here are the marble works, where the black marble, native to the place, is prepared for market; the gun works, sewing-machine works, lime works, and a legion more. But if the average citizen was to be suddenly asked to name the staple product of Glens Falls and neighbouring river towns, he would be apt to answer, "wood-pulp." Wood-])ul]) is turning a great many factory wheels to-day, as it is fe…

David, 491-492 563-565; vessels, 340 Al)L'cl family, 491-492 Americans, 28 Abintjdon-Fitz-Roy Road, 174 Amsterdam, 2 1, .108, 446 Ancram Creek, 477 Academy Building, Kingston, 463 Ackland, Lady Harriet, 530 Andre, Major John, 72, 85, 86, 219, Act regvilating navigation, i 2 i 228, 236-237, 244, 296-297, 314, Adams, John, 163 317-318, his Adirondacks, 551 Andresen, Annandale, 479captivity, 456 Ad…

Charles E., 9 Aspinwall, William, 237 Alpine, 438 Assembly of Nineteen, the, 516, Amackassin Brook, 10 Amasis, 301 Astor, William B., 458 America, 407 Astor Place Athens, ^07 Riots, 196 American, Academy, 428: army Atkarkarton, 444 179, 184, 192, 232, 317, 331, 380 406, 461-462; camp, 565; citi- Atkins, 520 T. Astley, 209 zen, the, 125; Civil WaV, 372 Atlanta, warship, 51 colonies, 68; colo…

Robert, 290 Battle of Long Island. 151, 326 Boreas River, 551 Battle of White Plains, 332 Boreel Building, New York, 35 Bausan, Italian warship, 51 Bossen Bouwerie, 61 Baxter, 188 Boston, 167, 290 Bayard family and residence, 61 Boston and Albany Boston Tea Party, 57Road, 61 Bayard Hill, 168; Redoubt, 168, Boulevard, the, 176, 178 Beacon Hill, 357, 417 Boulevard, Lafayette, 155 T. ^74 Boulton a…

ships, 28, 54, 31, 64,' 168, 170, 228, Carl's Mill,Sir230 Carleton, Guy, 27, 220, 288 235; troops, 176, 232 188, igi, 227, 554 Carolina troojjs, 310 Broadway, Albany, 527, 538 Carolinas, 160 Broadway, New York, 27, t,^, 46 Carthage, 416 5S. 317- 523 Cartwright's ta\'ern, 353 Brodhead, John Romeyn, 17, 273 Cassalis, Earl of, 32 Casta Diva, 42, 45 Broken Neck Ilih, 346, 386 Brooks, James…

N., 437 Chepontuc, 570 (\il)le Building, New York, ^8 Cherry Valley, 352, 353 C'al.cit, John, 2 Cherrycroft, 285 Caclwalader, Chesapeake shad, 436 Cah oes, 355 Colonel, 188-190 Chittenden, Lucius B., and widow Cairo, 495 156 Call Rock, 425 Church, Frederick E., 507 Campbell, 13, 339 Church notices, 44S Campbell, Donald. 4S3 Church Street, Albany, 527 Canada, 160, t,7,^. 4S0, 491, 49:;, 561 Church…

George, 460; Sir Henry, 163-166, 228, 304, 335, 338, 339, Cornwall, 168, 260-261, 393 343, 379. 3S<), 407-40S, 412, 439, Cornwallis, General Lord, 190, 227- 228, 41 I Clinton 467-46S 461, Point, ujS Corporation of New York City, 41 Cockloft Hall, 252, 253 Corsen, Arcnt, 501 Coeymans, 510 Cortlandt Manor, 91, 313, 326, 345 Cohoes, 550, 554 Cortlandt Street Ferry, 58, 72 Cojemans House, 352 Coun…

Croton, Chief, 295-296 Croton Manor-house, 317 Columbian Celebration, 1892, 50 Croton Point, 10, 301, 304 Columbiaville, 509 Croton River, 11, 206, 21)3, 2()4, 337 Columbus, 2, 5 Crown Point, 483 Commissioners of Emigration, 41 Cruger, General S. Y. R., 50 Commissioners of Indian Affairs, Cruger's, 304 Cruger's Dock, 57 Committee of 100, 50-51 Cruger's Island, 393 Committee of Safety, 331, 456…

I'l i Lords, ers De Fuyck, 519 Dutch possessions. 9 De Gary, Blasco, 119 Dutch record of Hoboken, 72--^ De Jouffroy, Marquis, iiq De Koven's Bav, 478 Dutch West India Comp; De La Barr. 107 Dutch settlers. 11 ' 4 'So~"' De Lancey, Lieutenant-dovenK Dutchess CouiUv, 357,' 340, James, 32 Duyckinck. A. E.. 7.242. 3,s°' 416. 426-42 "4S0 De Lancev, John Peter, ^ 5:; 271, 280 Diiyx-el's Dans …

Dodge 9, 27, 148 Miss Grace, 172, i 8^'. ,'86 Elkins, Jacob [acob.sen Dolphin, dispatch boat, Elm Park, 140 Domines, Dutch, 21, 474 =; Elysian Fields. 78-80 Dongan, Governor, 22-23, ir Emigration Commission! 294, 416, 447, 526 Empire Building, New ^• or York Dood Fest (Deadfeast), C31. =133 Empire State, 12 k. -., E^nglewood, 198 Don w , Vol kert , 4 3 1 , 4 3 2' ■ Equital)le Building. New Down…

Theodorus, fayette fete, 47 494. 526, General Evertsen, Captain Cornelius, 23 Fremont, John C, 238, 241, 285 Fremont, Jessie Benton, 285 French and Indian Wars, 475, 569 Fair Street, New York, 45S French Church at New Paltz, 470 Falconer's purchase, 91 FuUerton's tract, 472, 473 Fall Kill, 425 Fanning, Colonel, 317 Fulton, Robert, 118-122!^ 125-126, Farrington, Harvey P., 105 Fur trade and agr…

Lieutenant, ^09 198, 257,436,438; Lyman, 56S; R., 507 Montgomery, 328, 335, 337-339, Gillender Building, New York, 38 Glass House farm, 63, 64 379, 428, 460, 461-462; Nicholson, 568; Orange, 6, iii, 353, Glen, Johannes, 528 516,519,520,522; Oranier, 513; Glens Falls, 570-571 Putnam, 379, 384; Schmder, 562 ; Goede Vroviw, the, 65 Washington, 106, 155-156, 172, Gooch, Captain, 190 181-182, 1…

Colonel. 310. 326. 327 173. 176, 179. 1S4. 186. 1.S7 I,'- 189, 190, 228, 33:^. 41 , Hays's landing. 298 Greene County, 443. 44,,. 4S6 Hay ward. Miss, 250 Greene s Patent, 486 Heath, General, x66, 172, ,89. Greenwich Road. 61, 62 315-316.33 iqo Hebrews, ^^4 2 Greenwich Village, 6r, 62 1-4 Helderberg war, i^i i Grenadier Battery. i6'8 Greyho ' ' Henry ( 7aV. steamboat, 133 und. British fri…

Guests from'Gibbet Island 68 High Bridge, "170 H Highland forts, 33:; g?-ti^^"f^ Spring. 552, 559, 560 Ilackensack, 192 Highland Highland Station, Patent.' 91 Hafenje, 216, 241 Highlanders, 167, 177-1 7,^ Hague, The, i Highlands, 92. 105-106, 114, 1,6 Hale, Captain Nathan, 151 Hale's regiment at Saratoga 160, 170, 317.32 256, 331.33 7-328, 266, 286, 301 313' 56:; 5.350.3^7- Hall Moon. …

U^ Irving, Peter, 252 Hudson Canal, 550-551 Irving, Washington, 20, 114, 137, Hudson, city of, 48, 503-504, 507- i88\ 237, 239, 240, 243-246, 250- 509. 553 253, 255, 261, 262, 266, 269, 305, Hudson, Henr}-, i, 2, 5. 6, i()4, igN, 321, 329, 337, 389, 484, 499, 501, 2Q4, 421-422, 50Q 509, 511, 231, Irvington, 567 245 Hudson (Hudson's) River, q, 11, 13, 18, 19, 48, 51. 57-58, 87, 92, 100, 108, 1…

Colonel, 2 :;5-2 :;6 Jenkins, Seth, 504 Hurley, 456 Jenkins, Thomas, 504 Huron Indians, 425 Jersey Battery, 168 Huyler's Landing, 198 Jersey City, 72 Hiizzard, French warship, 51 Jersey, prison-ship, 428 Hyde Park, 253, 432, 476, 484-485 John Jay, steainboat, 291 Johnson, Colonel Gtiy, 539 Johnson, General Joseph, 372 Johnson, Lieutenant-Colonel, 305 Johnson, Rev., 526 Idlewild, 260, 285, 393,…

Marquis de, 46, 47. 48, Kent, James, 546 366. 382, 416, 427 Kerse, Major, Quartermaster at Lake Champlain, 539 Stony Point, 2q8 Lamb, Colonel of Artillery, 338 Kidd, Captain William, 69, 321, Lamb, Mrs. Mather J., 30, 520, 522 Land patents, 88 Kidd's 421 Rock, 421 Landor, Walter Savage, 253 Lands, 89 Kieft, William, 15. 35. 4S9, 500, 501. 513 Lansing, Abraham, 54() Kindcrhook (Kinderhoeck) . …

Jacobus, 416 Leslie, General, 175, 178 Leyden, 494 Kipp's Bay,486172, 173 Kiskatom. Liberty Statue, 49 Kitchawan River. 10, 11. 206. 293. Liberty Street, New York, 31S 294, 295 Li Ilung Chang. 144 Klauver Rack. 507 Lincoln, General. 228, 232 Knapp, Samuel Laurens, 76 Lind, Jenny, 42, 45 Knickerbocker , 5 3 5-5 3 6 Lindsay's patent, 486 Knickerbocker, Diedrich. 65, 253. Linlithgo. 50() 265, 266,…

John. 274 Manor of Foxhall, 447 Long Clove Road, the, 298 Long Island, 331. 416 Manorial rights granted. 96 Long Island, battle of. 171 Ma]ies, General. 47 Marbletown, 457, 470 Lords States-General. 5. 512-514 Lossing, Benson J.. 78. 81. 140, 188, Marie Roget (Marv Rogers). 80 193, '266, Louvre, the, 285."294i 468 462, 478 Marriages in New Market Dock, 104' York, 25 Love Lane, 62 Marritje, Dav…

Mihtia, the, 335 ■ ■ „ 378. 383 ■ M iIton , horse- 1 )oa t , t li e , 428 Nantucket, 503, 553 Minesecongo Creek, jgS Mingua. 443 Napo Naomleon 469 n," 401 an, , India Minnerl3^ " Sherd," 2S6 Minnesinks, 443 Nappeckamack, 10, 202 10 or Nassou, 14 Nassau, Minuit, MoeneminncsPeter, Castle, "i i i;io Nassau 7 Street, New York Mohawk Indians, 73. 44:;, 47 National Academv, the 2 4SS, Na…

New Amst iT. 65 erda 479. 480, 483, 4S6, 539; Mrs. m, Janet, 250, 479, 483, 484; estate, 106, 112. 195. 440. 4:;,". 4S3; house, 484 N 96, ^ ew.51 Am5s1t 5 520 Bouw Montrose Point, 304 New 2,Balti,erdam 510 eri Monument Lane, 62 more, Newli 27. 106, 168. : urgh Moodna (Murderer's) Creek, :;46, 349. 40,2. 405-4 408. 401, 449- 456, 471, 515 06 New414.Cit4y1.6. 224488, 56,0 Moore, Governo…

Mount Ida, 550 Mount Mclntyre, 551 New T,?<. York, 461 40, 46,City, 22, 51,5 47, 48, 26," 2 ' '4. Mount Olympus, 550 7. 77. 59, 60, 62, 63, 64, 65, 7 4. 28, Mount St. Vincent, 165, 196 . 185, 37. 82, 92, 103, 105. IT I, Mount Tahawas, 551 125, I 26, 160, 171. T72. Mount Taurus, 357 57. 23g, 273, 290, 291, 2()3, Mcnmt Vernon, 8 , ^;;6, 337- 349- 350. 353-354- 45«- 584 Index Palatines, 40…

Si Patroons' ships, 88, 90, 107 North, Lord, 41 1 Paulding family, the, 239 North Market Street, Albanv. 5 38 Paulding, General William. 231 Paulding, James Kirke, 231, 240. North Pearl Street, Albany,' ^jo 242. 246, 250, 252, 262, 484-4S5 North River, the, 5, i5,'5 7."'i6S Paulding, John, 236, 314, 318 Xorth 174, River, steamboat, 176, 185, i 2S516 224. 346, 35-2. Paulus Hook, 82, 112, 337 Nu…

Pennsylvania, 60. 402. 406, 409 23, 239 Pennsylvania soldiers, 82, i8q Oloflfe the Dreamer, 65, 69 Pe])loei)'s Kill, 337 Oothoudts, 4S8 Peijuod, Indians, 42;; lo\-cr, 425- Orange Coitnty, 345. 34(1, 405 Orange, N. [.. 1 72 Privy, Lord. 186. tS<) Order dislumding Washing I'cricr, in\Tnlor. 1 1 ij army, 4 1 4 braith,Commander Perry. 237 M;itllie\v C.al- Ormsl)ec, 120 Ossining, 10, 224. 289, 2(13,…

Plymouth and' Pocantico, the Pilcrriins, 10, 216, 231, 239, 450 240 Read, Nathan, 1 19 Pockhantes, 10 Red Jacket, 431 Poe, Edgar Allen, 7(;, 80 Reed, Adjutant-General, 177, 178 Poestenkill, 55 i Reidesel, Baron de, 5 ft 3-:; (14 ' Point-no-Poin't, 106, 216, 221, 22(;, Reindeer, Remonstrancesteamboat , 1 :; :;' 87 of colonists, Polk, James K,, 278 Rensselaer County, t:;o Polopel's Island, 322,…

Wendell, D.I)., 209 Ridley, Matthew, 31 Prime, William C, 282 Rijckman, Albert, 528 Prince of Orange, 514 Ritzemer, Domine, 24 Prince of Wales's visit to America, River craft and jiassengers, j i :;; 130 Riverdale, 133, 198 Produce Exchange Building, T,i) Riverside Park and I)ri\-e, ^2, i ^(;, 140, 143. 144. i.Si Prospect Hill, Albany, 547' Riverview Academy, llie, 422 Prospect Hill,R. Hudson, P…

Phili]i, 541 45Q' 463.Creek, Rondout 467-468 467 Schuyler, Peter, 3 i Rose, Briti.sh warship, 329, 330 Sehuylersvillc, Scotoc Island, 353 530, 560, 562 Rosendalc Creek, 470 Scott, 458 Rotterdam, ^01 Round Rock, 558 Scott, General Wintield, ^71, 382 Scutters Island, 352 Rumsey, James, 119, 120 Seawant (wampum), 44(), 538 Royalists, 168"^^ Seine, river, the, 80, 121 S Selden, Captain, 310 Seme…

Gideon. 526, 531 Skenesborough, 562 Schenectady, 3 54-:; 5 5 Schermerhorn, boy prisoner, 49^ Skelcli-Book,^TIie. 245 Skinner, Charles M.,358 Slaange Klij)]K', 425 Schodack, Schoharie, 510 351-352' Slaperig Hafi'U, 2 i i Schoolcraft", "llenrv Rowe, 273, 2S9, Sleepy Hollow, 23, 137, 239, 243, Schoonmaker, 444, 4:; 6 244, 286 Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, 249, 271 Schoonmaker 463 house \at Kingston Sl…

Cornelia, 4O0 State Capitol, 547, 548 Tapjians, 13 State Legislature, 462, 465 Ta]>pan Zee, 104, 1 14, 137, 2 1 1 , 2 13, State Library, 548 216, 217, 221, 241, 244, 246, 286, State Normal School, 424, 455 326, T,2^. 320 State Prison, 57 Tarrytown, 10, 103. 137, 140, 206, State Records, 348 207, 217, 218, 220, 224, 231, 232, State Street, Albany, 527, 530, 53S, 236, 237, 230, 244, 243, 271, 285, …

Luke's Nicholas,Hospital, 533 148 Stone, William L., 552, 554 Ten Broeck family, 444 Stone, Colonel William Lecte, 256, Teunise, Gerrit, 528 490. 495 Teunissen, Aert, 15 Stony Point, 1S7, 297,298,304-306, Thackeray, William M., 270 311, 312, 320, 339, 415 Thayer528Hall, 377 Storm, Captain Jacob, 105 Thayer, Major Sylvanus, 371, 372 Storm King, 261, 285, 357, 3S6, 393 Thayer, Stephen Henry, 286…

Antony, 390.529, Trojity steeatery, 13 i n Tr ity Ce rch, m 15 5 Vander Heyden tamily, 530 Trin , Chu 39, 58, 60 Vanderlyn, John, 468, 500 Trooyy 92m,, 438,8 520, 550, 551, 553 Vanders'camp, Van Driessen, Jan 526 Jost, 68-72 Tr n, da 43 or iam, 65, 66, ern Tryo Gov Will 1 1 Van D\^ke, Henry, 528. 534 Van Epps, 528 317- 539 55° Tugboats. 100 Van GaasVjeek family, 444 Ttirtle Bav, 172, 173 Van …

Seeretarv,87,96,98 Van500,Corlaer, Anthony, i()3, 358 Van66, Twiller 511-513 (Walter the' D.ml.ter), Van Cortlandt family, 295, 522 Van Vechten, Abraham. 546 Van Cortlandt house, 294-295 Van Vechten (Veethi-). "352, 459, Van Cortlandt, John, 294 Van Cortlandt Manor, 95, 365 Van Voorst, 528 Van Cortlandt, Oloff, 95, 206 Van Wart, Isaac, 236, 245 Van Cortlandt, Phili]), 317 Vassar College, …

Ir\ Voyage Webl>, (leneral lanu-s Wats.. 241. -^^5 Weber. 488 \'iilt the, 2q6-2( Webster, urc, )S Colonel, Danic 305 427; Lieut enant- • 473 Wecquash(|ueck, g, 202, 226 Walkin, 350, 452, 454-455, 470 Weehawken, 0, 74, 78. 80, 8r WaU vStreet on evacuation of New Weh-awk-en, g York, 27 Weiser, Cai)tain John Conrad, 475 Wallace, Sir James, 340, 461 Wells, Lemuel, 207, 208 Walloonsac River, 5 5…

War vessels, 5 i Westchester County, g, 1 1 , g i , 33 i , Ward, Moses, 2Q1 ?<M- 417- 457 Waronawanka Indians, 13 Wcstrlu-stcr. steamboat, 130 Warner, Anna B., 280-282 Warner, Henry, 280 West Point, 27, 85. 116. '281, 305, 365-166, 371-372, 375, 370, 380- Warner, Susan, 280-282 382, 384-385, 460 Warner Sisters, 380 80 West Shore Road, 42g; Terminal, Warren, Admiral Peter, 61 Warren Street, New Y…

Gorham A., 5 Willett, Colonel, 332 I. 546 William the Testy, 514 504 Wynant's Kill, 551 Williams, David, 236 Wynkoop, 48S Williams, Captain Daniel, 296 Wyoming Valley (Campbell's poem) Williams, Rev. Eleazer, 384 Willis, Nathaniel P., 116, 134, 253, 259, 266, Willow Point,269,226357, 382, 393-398 Wilson Steamship Line, Si Yonkers, 10, 184, 188, 202, 20 208, 223, 230 Wilson, General James Grant…