Research notebook: reading the record again

This notebook organizes questions raised by the archive. It links the earlier research topics back to documents and to the revised stories. The entries are starting points for comparison, not forty-five certified discoveries.

Editorial correction, October 16, 2026. The previous version repeatedly claimed to overturn every published account or recover evidence for the first time. Those priority claims were not established. It also confused testimony about a document with the document itself, and treated several uncertain dates and identifications as settled. The notebook has been rewritten to keep its research paths while making the questions explicit.

Start with the revised accounts

Teller’s Point distinguishes contemporary military evidence from later testimony. The tea captain, Pines Bridge and Tim Knapp show why a disagreement should remain visible. The dam separates an in-service date from construction milestones.

How to use this notebook

Open the linked passage and its surrounding source. Identify who is speaking, when the account was recorded, whether it is firsthand, and whether a second account is independent or copied. OCR and modern transcriptions are finding aids; exact wording should be checked against an image when it changes the argument.

1. When was Brinton working on the Croton property?

Brinton’s 1922 class report describes work on the property during the preceding year or so. It does not supply an exact purchase deed or prove the purchase was a wedding gift. Revised account.

Archive passages to compare: Willard Cope Brinton — Harvard Class of 1907 Secretary Reports (1913, 1917, 1922).

2. Which milestone does a dam completion date describe?

DEP dates the reservoir’s entry into service to 1905. A later plan date does not prove that water first entered service in that year. Revised account and sources.

3. Where does the name Cornell Dam appear?

Contemporary strike reporting uses Cornell Dam. This establishes usage without needing to decide an exclusive official name. Strike reporting.

4. How did the dam-crest traffic closure change over time?

Distinguish the initial traffic restriction, subsequent works and present access. Current county description.

5. Which CCC companies worked at Blue Mountain?

The county attributes two comfort stations to the CCC. Identifying companies and their individual projects requires camp records. Revised account.

6. When did the county acquire Blue Mountain?

The county’s own account dates acquisition to 1926. The year on a later annual report is not necessarily an acquisition date. County account.

7. Is there evidence for a Trapp family visit?

An itinerary that omits a stop does not prove that the stop never occurred. The earlier categorical rejection has been withdrawn; locate affirmative evidence before including the story.

8. Which firms operated at George’s Island?

Photographs show more than one brickmaker’s mark on the shore. A mark alone does not date a fragment or establish a full operating chronology. Revised account.

9. What records establish George’s Island’s public acquisition?

The current county visitor page does not establish the acquisition date claimed in the earlier entry. Acquisition deeds and park records are needed; the earlier assertion that every authority agreed has been withdrawn.

10. What does the Reusens lawsuit establish about his finances?

The bank money attached in the proceeding belonged to the opposing company. The case is not a complete account of Reusens’s fortune. Revised account.

11. How do the strike records identify Robert Douglass?

Archive passages to compare: SERGEANT MURDERED — First Bloodshed in Croton Landing Strike.

12. When did the tea-raid story enter the written record?

The archive’s modern summary is a finding aid, not evidence of first publication. Compare Talman Orser’s interview with the testimony discussed in the tea captain.

13. How is Talman Orser’s age recorded?

Archive passages to compare: Interview with Orser, Talman.

14. Do the tea accounts describe one incident or several?

Archive passages to compare: Interview with Orser, Talman.

15. What do interviews report about the attack at the widow Griffen’s?

Archive passages to compare: Interview with Wood, James.

16. How did Hobby remember Bearmore’s final engagement?

Hobby’s recollection describes Bearmore’s wound and his death weeks later. First passage; continuation.

17. How do accounts describe John Champenois’s death?

Edwards recalled Champenois being captured and subsequently killed. The account is later testimony, not a contemporary death record. Interview passage.

18. What did Edwards report about the murder of a relative?

Archive passages to compare: Interview with Edwards, Amelia.

19. What does Edwards say about Lunnon?

Edwards’s recollection includes Lunnon’s execution; compare its claims with the other accounts discussed in Tim Knapp. Interview passage.

20. What evidence bears on claims about additional André captors?

Search the archive for the subject. The earlier entry did not provide a resolvable passage citation; this remains a research lead.

21. How are Lord Stirling’s quarters identified?

Archive passages to compare: Interview with Anderson, Jeremiah.

22. Can Mosier’s field be located from the recollections?

Archive passages to compare: Interview with Anderson, Jeremiah; Interview with Anderson, Jeremiah.

23. What evidence supports accounts of Totten’s threats?

Archive passages to compare: Interview with Brown, David.

24. Do witnesses distinguish separate attacks at Pines Bridge?

Archive passages to compare: Interview with Lyon, James and Sutton, James.

25. Is the reported Washington instruction preserved independently?

Odell reports a letter and its wording. His interview is not the recovered Washington original. Revised Pines Bridge account.

Archive passages to compare: Interview with Odell, Jackson; Interview with Odell, Jackson.

26. How did Montross recount Jack’s manumission?

Archive passages to compare: Interview with Montross, Nathaniel.

27. What did Hannah Hoag say she saw at Teller’s Point?

Hannah Hoag recalls a British landing. That passage should not be silently reassigned to the 1780 Vulture affair. Her account.

28. How do accounts connect Barrett’s killing and Donaldson’s punishment?

John Carpenter recalls a chain of retaliation involving Knapp, Barrett and Donaldson. Bell says he saw Barrett hanging; Ferris expresses uncertainty about the year. These are different claims with different witnesses. Carpenter; Bell; Ferris.

29. How did interviewees explain Huggeford’s change of allegiance?

Archive passages to compare: Interview with Halsted, Daniel and Halsted, Harriet Hunt.

30. What do records say about André’s stop near Crompond?

Compare Thomas Strang’s recollection with André’s own statement. Their perspectives and recording dates differ.

31. What kind of evidence is a command remembered decades later?

Archive passages to compare: Interview with Corsa, Andrew.

32. How did the newspaper describe Bowery Kate?

Archive passages to compare: SERGEANT MURDERED — First Bloodshed in Croton Landing Strike.

33. What was reported about communications during the dam strike?

Archive passages to compare: SERGEANT MURDERED — First Bloodshed in Croton Landing Strike.

34. What did the newspaper report about Douglass’s shooting?

Archive passages to compare: Contemporary reporting and revised account; SERGEANT MURDERED — First Bloodshed in Croton Landing Strike; SERGEANT MURDERED — First Bloodshed in Croton Landing Strike.

35. What happened during the April 1900 arrests?

The April 20 report describes the roundup. The earlier troop-deployment account supplies context, not proof of the later arrests. Arrests and source discussion.

36. How does Feeks’s account of Knapp compare with Hopkins’s?

Feeks relays a statement attributed to Ferris; Hopkins remembers Knapp’s participation differently. The contradiction is not resolved by choosing one. Revised comparison.

Archive passages to compare: Interview with Feeks, Joseph.

37. What is the source for the account of Thomas June’s death?

Archive passages to compare: Interview with Hobby, Cynthia.

38. How was the Hogpen Ridge engagement remembered?

Search the archive for the subject. The earlier entry did not provide a resolvable passage citation; this remains a research lead.

39. What do accounts say about the raid on DeLancey’s horses?

Archive passages to compare: Interview with Morris, Robert.

40. What is the basis of Cregier’s story about Tarleton?

Cregier describes Tarleton and recalls quartering at his father’s house. Quartering; physical description.

41. How was Prince Gedney’s view of the battle recorded?

Prince Gedney says he watched the British advance at White Plains from his master’s rooftop. The statement identifies his claimed vantage point. Interview passage.

42. What did Mandeville recall about the DeLancey raid?

Mandeville recounts the January 1783 raid. The part about DeLancey’s hiding place came from the family afterward; it should not be presented as something Mandeville saw. Interview passage.

43. How does Strang identify John Shaw?

Strang’s account discusses John Shaw. Its recollected identifications should be compared with other records before making a complete biography. Interview passage.

44. How did Hammond recall André’s route?

Hammond distinguishes his own recollection of water and a horse from André’s route relayed through Van Wart. Preserve that chain of transmission. First passage; continuation.

45. What can an interviewee’s silence establish?

Silence can have many explanations. A person’s failure to contradict an account is not, by itself, corroboration of that account.