The New York and Albany Post Road: From Kings Bridge to "The Ferry at Crawlier, over against Albany," Being an Account of a Jaunt on Foot Made at Sundry Convenient Times between May and November, Nineteen Hundred and Five — John Shaqi
The New York and Albany Post Road: From Kings Bridge to "The Ferry at Crawlier, over against Albany," Being an Account of a Jaunt on Foot Made at Sundry Convenient Times between May and November, Nineteen Hundred and FiveHine, C. G. (Charles Gilbert)
History
The New York and Albany Post Road: From Kings Bridge to "The Ferry at Crawlier, over against Albany," Being an Account of a Jaunt on Foot Made at Sundry Convenient Times between May and November, Nineteen Hundred and Five
Hine, C. G. (Charles Gilbert)
Hudson River Valley (N.Y. and N.J.) -- Description and travel; Hudson River Valley (N.Y. and N.J.) -- History
The Post Road, known in these days as Broadway, follows the eastern
edge of the Mosholu swamp to Van Cortlandt Park, through what is
called the Vale of Yonkers. Here is Vault Hill, one of the points
selected by Washington on which to make a display for the benefit of
the British while he quietly led his main army south for the
operations against Cornwallis. On a clear day the hill is in plain
view from Manhattan Island, and the camp fires and general indications
of activity on its summit helped materially in the scheme to deceive
the enemy. The hill has its name from the fact that it was used as a
burial ground by the early generations of the Van Cortlandt family.
The property was sold in 1699 by Hon. Frederick Philipse to his
son-in-law, Jacobus Van Cortlandt (a brother of Stephanus Van
Cortlandt of Cortlandt), and the mansion was erected by Frederick Van
Cortlandt in 1748. Northeast of it is situated Indian Field,
memorable as the scene of an engagement between the British and the
Stockbridge Indians, resulting in the practical annihilation of the
latter.
[Sidenote: _YONKERS._]
The road shortly becomes a village street and so continues into
Yonkers. In 1646 the Indian sachem Tacharew granted the land to Adrian
Von der Donck, the first lawyer of New Netherland. The Indians called
it Nap-pe-cha-mack, the "rapid water settlement," the "settlement"
being located about the mouth of the stream now known as Sawmill
River. The Dutch called their settlement Younkers, Younckers, Jonkers
or Yonkers, derived from Jonkheer, a common name for the male heir of
a Dutch family.
The old Philipse manor house, now Yonkers's City Hall, was erected
about 1682, the present front being added in 1745. In its palmy days
it is said to have sheltered a retinue of thirty white and twenty
colored servants. Here was born Mary Philipse, July 3, 1730, the
heroine of Cooper's "Spy," and the girl who is said to have refused
Washington. In January, 1758, she married Col. Roger Morris. Tradition
tells how, amid the splendors of the wedding feast, a tall Indian,
wrapped in his scarlet blanket, suddenly appeared in the doorway and
solemnly predicted that the family possessions should pass from its
control "When the eagle shall despoil the lion of his mane." The
mystery was explained later when the property was confiscated because
of the royalist leanings of the family.
The site of Pomona Hall, burned some twenty years ago, where Burr took
refuge for a time after the Hamilton duel, is now occupied by a modern
public school. It bordered the Post Road toward the northern edge of
the village, commanding a fine view of the Hudson.
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