History of Westchester County, New York
From Its Earliest Settlement to the Year 1900
Volume 1
FREDERIC SHONNARD
W. W. SPOONER
History of Westchester County, Volume 1, Shonnard/Spooner
Jazzybee Verlag Jürgen Beck
86450 Altenmünster, Loschberg 9
Deutschland
Printed by Bookwire, Kaiserstraße 56, 60329 Frankfurt/M.
ISBN: 9783849660017
www.jazzybee-verlag.de
CONTENTS:
CHAPTER I. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY.. 3
CHAPTER II. THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS. 13
CHAPTER III. DISCOVERY AND PRELIMINARY VIEW... 46
CHAPTER IV. EARLIEST SETTLERS. 63
CHAPTER V. THE REDOUBTABLE CAPTAIN JOHN UNDERHILL — DR. ADRIAN VAN DER DONCK 82
CHAPTER VI. BEGINNINGS OF SERIOUS SETTLEMENT –– WESTCHESTER TOWN, RYE 98
CHAPTER VIII. THE PHILIPSES AND THE VAN CORTLANDTS. 133
CHAPTER XI. A GLANCE AT THE BOROUGH TOWN OF WESTCHESTER 192
CHAPTER XII. THE ELECTION ON THE GREEN AT EASTCHESTER, 1733 199
CHAPTER XIII. THE ARISTOCRATIC FAMILIES AND THEIR INFLUENCES 217
CHAPTER XIV. FROM THE STAMP ACT TO THE LAST SESSION OF THE COLONIAL ASSEMBLY 234
CHAPTER XV. WESTCHESTER COUNTY IN LINE FOR INDEPENDENCE – EVENTS TO JULY 9, 1776 250
CHAPTER XVI. THE STATE OF NEW YORK BORN AT WHITE PLAINS — EVENTS TO OCTOBER 12, 1776 283
CHAPTER XVII. THE CAMPAIGN AND BATTLE OF WHITE PLAINS 301
CHAPTER XVIII. FORT WASHINGTON'S FALL — THE DELINQUENCY OF GENERAL LEE 335
CHAPTER XIX. THE STRATEGIC SITUATION — THE NEUTRAL GROUND 348
CHAPTER XX. EVENTS OF 1777 AND 1778. 361
CHAPTER XXI. FROM JANUARY, 1779, TO SEPTEMBER, 1780. 377
CHAPTER XXII. THE CAPTURE OF ANDRE.. 393
CHAPTER XXIII. THE WESTCHESTER OPERATIONS OF THE ALLIED ARMIES, 1781 – END OF THE WAR 421
CHAPTER XXV. GENERAL HISTORY OF THE COUNTY CONCLUDED 484
THE TOWNS AND THEIR VILLAGES IN 1860. 497
EDITOR'S PREFACE
THE preparatory work for this History was begun by the editor several years ago along the Hues of research and of the collection and systematizing of materials. The identification of Mr. Spooner with the enterprise dates from a later period, but in its relative importance is not to be estimated by its duration. To him the credit of the authorship of the History is undividedly due. The editor's personal share in the joint undertaking — apart from the selection of the plan of the work and the procurement and arrangement of materials — has been mostly that of supervision; or, more properly expressed, of such co-operation with Mr. Spooner as personal knowledge of the subject and zealous interest in the project have enabled him to render in the particulars specially of recommendation, contribution, and criticism. This History is therefore not a work of collaboration, except in the sense here precisely indicated. As a literary work it is the exclusive production of Mr. Spooner; and whatever satisfaction the editor may reasonably — without an excess of complacency — take to himself in view of his own association in the enterprise, rests in a peculiar manner upon his appreciation of the conscientious devotion and accomplished ability with which Mr. Spooner has brought it to its practical issue.
Although the previous histories of Westchester County, Bolton's and Scharf's, are works of great volume and information, they are works of reference strictly, and as such belong rather to the department of historical miscellany than to that of books adapted for popular reading. Bolton's History is a collection of local chronicles entirely; Scharf's is on the same plan, with a number of general articles added. Both represent historical labors of great formality and seriousness, which are entitled to respect and whose aggregate results possess enduring value for inquiring persons. But mere collections of historical facts — even if comprehending all the