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€$e fcan Cortlanfct Mansion 
 
 was built in 1748 by Frederick van Cort- 
 landt. 
 
 Land purchased by the City of New- 
 York for a public park, 1889. 
 
 Placed in the custody of the Colonial 
 Dames of the State of New York by the 
 Board of Park Commissioners, for a term 
 of twenty-five years pursuant to an Act of 
 the Legislature in 1896. 
 
 Opened as a Public Museum by the 
 Society of Colonial Dames of the State 
 of New York, on May 27th, 1897, the 
 250th anniversary of the landing of Gov- 
 ernor Petrus Stuyvesant on the Island 
 of Manhattan. 
 
 The Museum will be open to the public free of 
 charge on every day of the week except on Saturday, 
 when an admission fee of twenty-five cents will be 
 charged to aid in defraying the expenses of main- 
 tenance. 
 

The van Cortlandt Mansion. 
 
I'he Society of Colonial Dames of the State of New Tork, in- 
 corporated 1893, w ^ a P re f eni tnemberjbip of three hundred 
 and fifty, commends itfelf to the public as a society formed for 
 hiftoric refearch and conducting its affairs purely on hiftorical 
 lines. 
 
 Its brief life already shows a record for philanthropic deeds 
 which Jlwuld be the raison d'etre of all patriotic organizations. 
 Five hundred dollars, the proceeds of a courfe of lectures on Colo- 
 nial Htftory, have been diftributed among the poor of New York ; 
 prizes of gold pieces and medals have been eftablifhedin the Normal 
 College for efjays on Colonial Hiftory ; this latter work having 
 been inaugurated by Mrs. Lydig M. Hoyt, zvhofe recent death has 
 been an incalculable lofs to the Society • the hiftoric places in the 
 Mohawk Valley are being marked in an appropriate manner ; 
 and a calendar of the wills on Me in the offices of the Secretary of 
 State, the Court of Appeals and the County Clerk, has been tran- 
 fcribed and publifhed by the Society. 
 
 With a dejtre to ?nake itfelf a power for good in the commu- 
 nity, the Society of Colonial Dames of the State of New Tork takes 
 up its latest work, the prefervation of this Manfion as a public 
 mufeum, and under the wife leaderjhip of its honored Prefident, to 
 whom the organization is largely indebted for its profperity, the 
 Society will feek to make the Mufeum an object leffon of Colonial 
 and Revolutionary times. 
 
 M. L. D. F. 
 
 The author has drawn from the Hiftories of Weft chef ter County, by Bolton 
 and Scharf, and papers by Mrs. Martha J. Lamb, Ben/on J. LoJJing, 
 John Auftin Stevens, Thomas H. Edfall, and many other authorities. 
 Thanks are alfo due to Mr. Kelby of the New Tork Hiftorical Society, Au- 
 guftus van Cortlandt, and "John Bradley James, Jr.; alfo to Mr. Edfall, for 
 his courteous per mifjion to reproduce his Hiftorical Map of King's Bridge. 
 
 IA 
 
€I)e tan Cottlan&t jttangion 
 in ban Cortlanat $arfe. 
 
 HE History of the van Cortlandt Mansion carries 
 us back to the historian of the New Netherlands, 
 KH Adriaen van der Donck, who enjoyed the distinc- 
 tion of being the first lawyer in the Dutch colony in the 
 New World. 
 
 van der Donck was a graduate of the University of 
 Leyden, and an advocate in the Supreme Court of Hol- 
 land. Arriving at Nieuw Amsterdam in a bark belong- 
 ing to Kiliaen van Rensselaer, in the autumn of 1642, he 
 immediately entered upon the duties of the important 
 office of sheriff of the Colonie Rensselaerivyck} 
 
 His Description of the Nieuw Netherland was published in 
 Holland in 1656, the 
 
 Book which as a leading star 
 Directs toward the Land where many people are, 
 Where lowland Love and Law all may fully share. 2 
 
 He was allowed to give advice, but was forbidden to 
 plead on the novel ground that, " as there was no other 
 lawyer in the colony, there would be no one to oppose 
 him." He was one of the committee who represented 
 to the States General the remonstrance of the people 
 against the oppression of the servants of the West India 
 Company. This remonstrance resulted in granting to 
 the people certain rights, which may be said to be the 
 first charter of Nieuw Amsterdam. 3 
 
 It was owing to van der Donck's exertions that the 
 first church at Fort Orange (Albany) was built, and the 
 services of Dominie Megapolensis secured. 
 
 1 N. Y. Hist. Coll. New Series, Vol. I, p. 128. 
 
 2 Evert Nieuwhof, 1655. 
 3 Mag. of Amer. Hist., Vol. XXVII, p. 402. 
 
 vii 
 
As a reward for negotiating an important Indian treaty 
 at Fort Orange, van der Donck had been granted by 
 Director Kieft a large plantation on the Nepperhan River, 
 but the indispensable requisite of a Dutch farm, a salt 
 meadow, was lacking here. In search of something to 
 remind him of his farm in Holland, he found about a 
 mile above the wading-place (King's Bridge) " a flat with 
 some convenient meadows about it," which he secured, in 
 1646, by purchase from the Indians Tackarew, Claes, and 
 seven others, and a grant from Director William Kieft. 1 
 
 On the flat just behind the present grove of locusts, 
 north of the old mill, he built his Bouwene, or farm-house, 
 with his planting field on the plain, lying between Broad- 
 way and the present lake, and extending to the southerly 
 end of Vault Hill. In 1649, ne went to Holland as the 
 representative of the Commonalty of Nieuw Amsterdam, 
 leaving his house only partly finished. During his ab- 
 sence his grant of land was made a Manor, of which he 
 was to be Patroon, and which he called Colen Donck? In 
 accordance with the privileges granted to the patroons, he 
 sent out colonists and supplies for his Manor, and, in 1652, 
 accompanied by his wife, mother, a brother and sister and 
 a suitable retinue, was about to set sail for Nieuw Amster- 
 dam, when the West India Company notified him that 
 his services were still needed in Holland. Word was 
 brought him that various portions of his land were occu- 
 pied by " land-greedy persons." In despair he appealed 
 to the West India Company, begging them to protect his 
 "flat and salt meadows," and so importunate was he that, 
 in the summer of 1653, ^ e was a ^ owe d to return to his 
 Manor. He reached Nieuw Netherland in the autumn, 
 and at once went to his Bouwerie, which he did not long 
 enjoy, as he died in 1654. 
 
 In 1655, during the Indian massacre, when all the out- 
 lying inhabitants of the Nieuw Netherland fled to Nieuw 
 Amsterdam for protection, his Bouwerie was deserted and 
 
 1 This tract had been granted to the Dutch West India Company, August 3d, 1639. 
 Albany Rec. C C, 62. 
 
 2 Donck's Colony. 
 
 viii 
 
destroyed. His widow, the daughter of Reverend Francis 
 Doughty, Patentee of Mespath, Long Island, became in 
 course of time the wife of Hugh O'Neale, of Patuxet, 
 Maryland, and van der Donck's tract * became known as 
 "O'Neale's Patent," by a new grant in 1666, made to 
 O'Neale and his wife. Owing to their residence being at 
 a distance, they assigned the patent to Elias Doughty, a 
 brother-in-law of O'Neale. In 1668, William Betts, an 
 Englishman, by trade a turner, and his son-in-law George 
 Tippett, purchased from Doughty two thousand acres, 
 Tippett receiving a special deed of gift from Doughty, 
 including the site of van der Donck's Bouwerie. Tippett 
 was rather a curious character. He gave his name to the 
 Governor as one " ready to serve his Majesty " on all oc- 
 casions, yet his neighbors' swine often disappeared, only to 
 reappear with Tippett's ear-mark, which was that the ears 
 were cut so close that any other marks would be cut off. 
 As a necessary consequence, he was often seen in court. 
 The tract covering the site of the van Cortlandt Mansion 
 was conveyed by Doughty to Thomas Delavall, Frederick 
 Philipse and Thomas Lewis, Philipse afterward acquiring 
 the interests of Delavall and Lewis. During the last half 
 of the seventeenth century, it is supposed that a group of 
 houses, inhabited by all the population of the Yonkers 
 outside of Fordham and Paparinamin, 2 together with a 
 good and strong block-house, stood in the neighborhood 
 of the van Cortlandt Mansion. Frederick Philipse, a car- 
 penter by trade, came to Nieuw Amsterdam in Stuyvesant's 
 time, and for five years worked on the forts at Nieuw 
 Amsterdam and Esopus. He was fortunate enough to 
 woo and wed Margaret Hardenbrook, the buxom widow 
 of Pieter Rudolphus de Vries, a prosperous trader. Mrs. 
 Philipse was a thrifty Dutch lady, and inclined, even after 
 marriage, to manage her own affairs. She went to and 
 from Holland as supercargo of her own vessels, in one of 
 them bringing over, in 1679, the Labadists. With the 
 
 1 This fief was called by the colonists de Jonkheer's Landt, Jonkheer being a term in 
 Holland applied to the sons of noblemen. The English corrupted it into Yonkers. 
 
 2 An island on the southern shore of King's Bridge. 
 
 IB ix 
 
aid of such a wife, and by his own exertions, Philipse soon 
 became the richest man in the Colony. His wife Marga- 
 ret died in 1692, leaving a daughter, Eva, a child by her 
 first husband; and Philipse married the widow of John 
 Dervall, the daughter of Olof Stevense van Cortlandt. 
 Jacobus van Cortlandt, the brother of Mrs. Philipse, mar- 
 ried Eva Philipse, as she was styled by her stepfather. 
 
 Jacobus van Cortlandt was an eminent New York 
 merchant, the second son of the Right Honorable Olof 
 Stevense van Cortlandt, who came out to the country in the 
 military service of the West India Company. His house 
 was built a little north of the Mill. Jacobus van Cort- 
 landt bought the fifty acres known as George's Point, 1 in 
 1699, fr° m Philipse, his father-in-law, adding to it several 
 hundred acres while he lived. He made a mill-pond by 
 damming up Tippett's Brook, and set up a grist and 
 saw mill. He devised to his only son Frederick van 
 Cortlandt his " farm situate, lying and being in a place 
 commonly called and known by the name of Little or 
 Lower Vonckers." Frederick van Cortlandt married a 
 daughter of the good old Huguenot Augustus Jay, by his 
 wife Anna Maria Bayard. His son and heir, Colonel 
 James van Cortlandt, nobly used his influence, while 
 residing in the Mansion, in ameliorating the condition 
 of his suffering countrymen. It not infrequently hap- 
 pened that a poor neighbor was robbed of everything he 
 possessed. Then Colonel van Cortlandt would assume his 
 red watch-coat and, mounting his horse, ride down to the 
 city to intercede on his behalf. He seldom applied in 
 vain, so universal was the respect for his character. 
 
 The van Cortlandt Mansion is built of rubble stone, 
 with brick trimmings about the windows. It is unpre- 
 tentious in appearance, yet possessing a stateliness all its 
 own, which grows upon the visitor. It was erected, in 
 1748, by Frederick van Cortlandt — a stone on the south- 
 east corner bears the date — and preserves within and 
 without many of the peculiarities of the last century. 
 
 1 This purchase was increased and kept intact in the family, until acquired by the city 
 of New York for the present van Cortlandt Park. 
 
The will of Frederick van Cortlandt, dated the second 
 of October, 1749, recites: "Whereas I am now about 
 finishing a large stone dwelling-house on the plantation 
 in which I now live." 
 
 Built on a plateau on the eastern slope of the river 
 chain of hills, it commands an extensive interior view. 
 The long and smiling vale of Yonkers stretches beneath 
 it, and to the southward the placid landscape ends in 
 the Fordham Heights. 
 
 The Albany Post Road goes up on one side of the val- 
 ley, and the Mosholu Tavern there was at one time the 
 stopping-place for all travelers. Fenimore Cooper has im- 
 mortalized this section of the country in his famous tale of 
 Revolutionary times, " The Spy," and, in fact, the whole 
 region teems with memories and landmarks of by-gone 
 times. 
 
 The style of architecture of the house is essentially 
 Dutch. The old Dutch builders were thorough masters 
 of their trade, and put up a structure which is as strong 
 to-day, as when New York was a colony. All the windows 
 on the front are surmounted by curious corbels with faces 
 grave or gay, satyrs or humans, but each different from the 
 other. Felix Oldboy innocently asked if they were portraits 
 of the van Cortlandts, and the owner replied, "Yes, and 
 that the particularly solemn one was taken after he had 
 spent a night with the boys." The window-sills are wide 
 and solidly built into the thick stone walls, as was the 
 fashion of the time, and vary somewhat in form in the 
 second story. The side-hall and the dining-room, with 
 the rooms above, belong to an addition built a year or 
 two later than the main house, and the " lean-to " is an 
 addition of this century. 
 
 The history of the house is full of romance, and it 
 stands to-day one of the most interesting relics of the 
 Colonial period. The interior is not less quaint and in- 
 dividual. An air of the olden times, which would have 
 charmed the heart of Hawthorne, still pervades the whole 
 building, and the Society of Colonial Dames have en- 
 deavored, so far as was possible, to restore it to its original 
 
 XI 
 
condition. Everything has been done to re-invest the 
 house with some semblance of its "dignified past and the 
 historic memories connected with it. 
 
 in the front and side windows presents a most interesting 
 scientific problem. 
 
 It has all the appearance of ground glass, though it 
 was perfectly transparent when first placed there. Close 
 examination reveals a process of disintegration, spiculse 
 of glass falling off when scraped with the finger-nail. 
 Scientists fail to account for it, though theories are many 
 and varied. Some years ago the rows of stately box, re- 
 nowned for height and antiquity, which stood in the old 
 garden, were cut down, and the glass inserted since shows 
 no decay. It has been presumed that the box and expo- 
 sure to the salt water of Mosholu Creek are in some way 
 responsible for the phenomenon. The heads of the 
 Tiffany Glass Works — and no more reliable authority 
 can exist — are so far baffled as to a solution. 
 
 " The glass is very poor," they write. " If it were not 
 decayed on both sides, it would be easy to solve the 
 reasons for its conditions. There must be some particular 
 local influence. The decay on the outside is of a form 
 well known, and can be accounted for ; but that on the 
 inside is entirely unknown to us." A fuller report is 
 promised later. 
 
 rises from the front hall with many windings to the 
 second and third stories. At the first landing, directly op- 
 posite the front door, is a large window filled with small 
 
old-fashioned panes of glass. The antlers in the front 
 hall were taken from a deer shot on the place. Deer are 
 said to have frequented the vicinity as late as 1782. 
 
 The southeast room, known as the drawing-room, has a 
 handsome mantel of carved wood, a fine specimen of Co- 
 lonial handiwork. On the iron back of the fireplace, 
 Adam, Eve, the serpent and tree of forbidden fruit are 
 displayed. Across the east, or rear hall is 
 
 This room has been somewhat modernized, although 
 an old wine closet in the side of the chimney still remains. 
 It has entertained historic guests. Here Generals Wash- 
 ington and Rochambeau dined on July 23, 1781, 1 after 
 having reconnoitered the woods on the northern part of 
 Manhattan Island. Later William Henry, Duke of 
 Clarence, afterward King William IV., dined here with 
 Rear Admiral Robert Digby 2 of the British Navy, and so 
 pleased were they with their entertainment, that on their 
 return to New York they sent to their host, Augustus van 
 Cortlandt, the huge teak-wood vultures that surmounted 
 for many years the posts of the old gateway facing the 
 stables. These vultures, of grotesque form and truly her- 
 aldic design, have a history. They were part of the spoils 
 taken from a Spanish privateer during the Revolutionary 
 
 1 On July 23d, 1 78 1, General Washington and General Rochambeau dined with Au- 
 gustus van Cortlandt and returned to their camp in the evening. Itinerary of General 
 Washington, 1775-83, p. 229. " History of New York," Thomas Jones, Vol. I., p. 204. 
 
 2 Robert Digby, "Rear Admiral of the Blue," was, in 1 781, appointed to the chief com- 
 mand on the American Station, and had under his especial charge Prince William Henry, 
 afterward William IV. " Balfe's Naval Biography," Vol. I, p. 192. 
 
War, and were considered even then in the light of curi- 
 osities. They have been given to the Colonial Dames by 
 Mr. Augustus van Cortlandt, and may be seen in the front 
 hall. 
 
 Men prominent in the civil and military life of the day 
 were frequent guests, and the walls have resounded with 
 the laughter of the British and of American patriots. 
 
 How the uncovering of the brilliant mahogany and the 
 toast of " Absent Friends and Sweethearts " was the signal 
 for a merry bout, when convivial song added to the charm 
 of the occasion and " flinching " was not allowed. It is 
 said a deserter, seeking to escape the "glass too much," 
 broke from the festive hall, cleared the front steps at a 
 bound, followed down the lane by the whole company in 
 hot pursuit, and, to the cry of " view halloo," with one 
 brave leap cleared the five-barred gate. 
 
 Lobster salad was an especial dish at Cortlandt House 
 for generations, and its peculiar excellence lay in the fact 
 that the lobsters, caught in the Sound daily, were bled to 
 death. A puncture was made in the neck and the lob- 
 ster was then hung for several hours before being cooked. 
 The van Cortlandt hams were far famed. The pork was 
 raised and fattened on the place, and the immense hams 
 were the main dish on state occasions. They were cured 
 very salt, which tended to increase the thirst for the famous 
 "van Cortlandt madeira" and the "White port." 
 
 €lje Sltastyingtou i&oom. 
 
 The southwest room is unchanged since the time when 
 the Hessian Commandant of the Green Yagers * occupied 
 it, and General Washington made it his headquarters just 
 before his triumphal entry into New York on Evacuation 
 Day, 1783. Around the fireplace are old-fashioned blue 
 
 1 The Yagers, or Jagers, were a body of light infantry armed with rifles. The word is 
 from the German to chase. 
 
 xiv 
 
tiles that tell scriptural stories in the quaint way then pre- 
 vailing, "when saint and sinner were alike a sight to 
 behold." 1 
 
 The deep window seats are suggestive of comfort, and 
 the andirons, which have a history of their own, speak of 
 huge logs, mulled cider, rosy-cheeked apples and hickory 
 nuts. 
 
 In olden times, it was a guest-chamber and later a li- 
 brary. It will now be used as the Museum, where Colonial 
 and Revolutionary relics will recall to mind the past, with 
 its memories, sad and tender. It was in this room that 
 the brave Captain Rowe expired in the arms of his bride- 
 elect, and his ghost is said still to haunt it on the anniver- 
 sary of his death. Captain Rowe, of the Pruschank Tagers, 
 was in the habit of making a daily tour from King's 
 Bridge round by Mile Square, 2 for the purpose of rec- 
 onnoitering. He was on his last tour of duty, having 
 resigned his commission for the purpose of marrying Eli- 
 zabeth Fowler, of Harlem. As he was passing with a 
 company of light dragoons, he was suddenly fired on by 
 three Americans of the water guard of Captain Pray's 
 company, and fell from his horse mortally wounded. 
 Word was sent to St. John's Rectory, near at hand, for a 
 conveyance to remove the wounded officer. The use of 
 a horse and gig was secured, and the dying man was taken 
 to the van Cortlandt House. In the meantime an express 
 had been sent to Miss Fowler, who, accompanied by her 
 mother, hastened to the side of her dying lover, who had 
 just strength enough to greet her, and then fell back in 
 her arms dead. 
 
 The fireplace has been restored, and the room presents 
 the same appearance as when Washington occupied it. 
 
 On June 26, 1775, General Washington with his suite, 
 attended by several New York military companies, and 
 likewise by a troop of gentlemen of the Philadelphia 
 
 1 Felix Oldboy's " A Tour Around New York," p. 339. 
 
 2 "This land next northerly from Eastchester on the other side of Brunckses (Bronx) 
 River." Fairfield Records. Tradition says it was given by Frederick Philipse as a dower 
 portion when his daughter Annetje married Philip French. 
 
Light Horse, commanded by Captain Markoe, and a 
 number of the inhabitants of New York, set out for the 
 Provincial Camp at Cambridge, near Boston. The Gen- 
 eral rested that night at King's Bridge at Cortlandt House, 
 and the next morning proceeded on his journey. 1 
 
 €>n tye ^>econt> floor 
 
 are three large bed-rooms; the northeast room still hav- 
 ing the old Dutch tiles around the fireplace, with their 
 scriptural illustration. 
 
 €Ije old mint^otmx, 
 
 in the northeast part of the third story, still shows the 
 ancient hand-hewn beams and wrought-iron nails. The old 
 lock is also curious, as are the wooden pegs which hold the 
 beams together. There are several curious locks in the 
 house, particularly one on the door of the southeast cham- 
 ber opening into the rear hall. An economizing of space 
 in the landing in the rear hall also denotes Dutch thrift. 
 
 All the beams in the mansion are hand-hewn, and the 
 cedar and cypress laths, hand-made. The manner of join- 
 ing the doors on the third story is also curious. 
 
 C^e Mtttym, 
 
 with its huge fireplace and brick oven, shows how well 
 our ancestors provided for creature comforts. It is highly 
 probable that this kitchen was built a year or two after the 
 erection of the main house. 
 
 1 "Itinerary of General Washington," p. 71. 
 XVI 
 
Some years ago an ash-room back of the brick oven 
 was removed, and several bottles of metheglin were un- 
 earthed, so incrusted by the heat of the ashes that it was 
 necessary to break the neck of the bottle in order to reach 
 the honeyed beverage of our forefathers. 
 
 €^e Cellar 
 
 will be found most interesting. The hand-hewn oaken 
 beams measure eleven by thirteen inches. The two loop- 
 holes on the western side prove clearly that the builder 
 made preparation for defense, and it is safe to say that 
 originally the present windows were all loop-holes. It will 
 be noticed, from the peculiar formation, that they were so 
 formed that the musket would fire away from the stoops. 
 It was a famous cellar. The regime was that usual in the 
 good old days of madeira and port, when annual provision 
 was made, by the old and half-old being refilled in the 
 order of their succession. Later demijohns of the famous 
 vintages, under the name of their importer, or the vessel 
 which brought them, took the place of this primitive 
 practice. Then the well-stored vaults held Blackburn, 
 March and Benson, Page, Convent, White, and other well- 
 known importations of madeira in profusion; and the 
 " White port" held undisputed rank. Nor must the "Resur- 
 rection madeira" be forgotten; so called because buried 
 during the Revolution and dug up at its close. In the 
 Museum will be seen a quaint wooden lock taken from an 
 old door in the cellar. The walls are three feet in thickness. 
 
 Clje d&ramti in tfrottt 
 
 of the house was artificially terraced, and ornamented, after 
 the Dutch manner of gardening, with large box-trees, and 
 
 xvii 
 
here and there small sheets of water and diminutive foun- 
 tains. The grounds were interspersed with ancient trees 
 still standing. A splendid row of horse-chestnuts, reputed 
 to be one hundred and seventy-five years old, flourish with 
 a still youthful vigor, and overshadow with a grand arch 
 of limbs and leaves where once stood the old gate-posts 
 surmounted by the Spanish vultures. The road to the 
 house has been slightly altered. In the olden days, flag- 
 ging extended from the side entrance to the front, and the 
 clattering over the stones announced the visitor long before 
 he mounted the three or four steps to the house, and rested 
 on the side benches, now restored, until the half-door swung 
 open to admit him to the broad hall. 
 
 Jying on the right of the front stoop, was dug up by 
 William Ogden Giles on the site of the American Fort 
 Independence, and has been loaned by him to the Colo- 
 nial Dames. 
 
 The twenty-one nine-pounders carried off from the Bat- 
 tery by the Sons of Liberty, August 23, 1775, were hauled 
 up to King's Bridge and left in charge of the Minute Men. 
 On the night of January 17, 1776, these guns were loaded 
 and stopped with stones and rubbish, and later had to be 
 unspiked at the cost of 20s. each. They were afterward 
 mounted in the works erected by the American troops on 
 the hills about King's Bridge. 
 
 In the beginning of the Revolutionary War, May 8, 
 1775, Congress appointed a committee of five, including 
 Col. James van Cortlandt, Gouveneur Morris and Gen. 
 Richard Montgomery, to fortify the approaches to New 
 York City. The principal fort built by order of this 
 committee was Fort Independence, situated on Tetar Hill, 
 then the property of General Montgomery, purchased by 
 him in 1772. After the evacuation of Fort Washington, 
 
 xviii 
 
Colonel Lasher, then in command of Fort Independence, 
 was ordered to evacuate the Fort, burn the barracks and re- 
 move the guns. On October 28, 1776, he carried out the 
 order given him, but being unable to procure horses to 
 move the cannon, he dug a trench, which afterward proved 
 to be the western corner of the foundation of Wm. Ogden 
 Giles's house. In 1853, wm l e building, Mr. Giles dug up 
 fourteen of these guns. He gave twelve away to different 
 organizations in the county and kept two, one of which 
 he lends to the Museum at van Cortlandt Mansion. 1 
 
 To the northeast of the Mansion rises Vault Hill, so 
 called from the family sepulchre upon its summit. From 
 this spot the view is most charming. The vault itself is a 
 small square edifice surmounted with a pointed roof, the 
 whole inclosed by a solid stone wall. 
 
 The field which was cut in two by the tracks of the 
 New York and Putnam Railroad was once a burial place 
 of the Indians, and later served the same purpose for the 
 few inhabitants of the region. 
 
 To the northeast is an opening of the woods, where the 
 dust of eighteen of the forty Stockbridge Indians, who 
 fell beneath the British bullets, while fighting on the side 
 of the Colonists, lie in one grave, still unmarked by a stone. 
 All through this region the plow and spade of the builder 
 or workingman turn up cannon-balls, rusty fragments 
 of bayonets and other reminders of the bloody struggle 
 which raged here for eight long years. 
 
 When the parade-ground, just north of the Mansion, was 
 leveled and graded, some curious Indian fireplaces and 
 pottery were found, indicating an important ancient In- 
 dian settlement, covering about fourteen acres. These dis- 
 coveries, made John Bradley James, Jr., of Riverdale, have 
 proved of great interest to the archaeologist. A good-sized 
 brook formerly ran through the northerly end of the plain, 
 turning off at a right angle to the east, at about its center. 
 The brook has since been drained and covered. South- 
 ward of the bend was the village site. The soil was rich, 
 
 1 The history of the gun's services during the American Revolution will be found in 
 detail in Scharf's "History of Westchester," Vol. L, chap. 19. 
 
the result of generations of cultivation, having been tilled 
 since it was the planting-field of van der Donck. It was 
 an ideal camping-place, combining beauty of location and 
 the conveniences of a rude life. The adjoining woods 
 abounded in game. The soil was loam, and easily tilled. 
 A clear stream of water sufficed for domestic uses, and 
 clay suitable for making pottery was found along its 
 banks, while the Harlem River and Spuyten Duy vil Creek 
 abounded in fish and shell-fish of all descriptions. The 
 tribe was known as the Waquareskeeks or Keskeskicks, a 
 sub-tribe of the great Mohican nation, immortalized by 
 James Fenimore Cooper. The early settlers called them 
 the Wider s Creek Indians. Keskeskick means "the birch- 
 bark country," in allusion to the prevalence of birch-bark 
 trees, still plentiful to-day. The skeletons of thirteen 
 Indians were found here almost intact. The interesting 
 collection made by Mr. James can be seen in the Museum 
 of Natural History in New York. 
 
 C^e Mill* 
 
 At the southern extremity of the lake which bears the 
 family name of the van Cortlandts, an ancient mill, which 
 has ground corn for both friends and foes of American 
 Independence, nestles among overhanging chestnuts and 
 elms, and looks out upon a miniature cascade and rapids, 
 which babble to the great trees on their banks the same 
 song that they sang more than a century ago. Not much 
 is known about the old mill. It first stood just below 
 the locust grove northwest of the van Cortlandt Station, 
 and was removed by Augustus van Cortlandt about 1823 
 to its present site, he having built the dam at about that 
 date. The original mill was a one-story building. When 
 it was removed, another story was added to the grist-mill 
 and the saw-mill was built. During the Revolution 
 both sides used the mill, as the fortune of war placed it in 
 
 XX 
 

 
 At 
 
 i ^ i 
 
 The van Cortlakdt Mill. 
 
the hands of one or the other. Up to 1881, the grist- 
 mill was turned by a large wooden wheel. It ground the 
 corn of the neighboring formers until the summer of 1 889, 
 when the City of New York came into possession. 
 
 The mill-pond, now called van Cortlandt Lake, was 
 made by Jacobus van Cortlandt, about 1700, by damming 
 Tippett's Brook, a stream called by the Indians Mosholu, 
 and subsequently known as Mill Creek, Yonkers River, 
 and Tippett's Brook. This stream rises in Yonkers and 
 flows southwesterly until it forms van Cortlandt Lake. 
 Below the lake it is a tidal stream to its outlet into Spuy- 
 ten Duyvil Creek. 
 
 The van Cortlandt family were proprietors with their 
 own skilled laborers, making them independent of their 
 neighbors or the outer world ; upon their farm they raised 
 their own flax and wove their own garments, had car- 
 penters, blacksmiths, millwrights and masons, raised their 
 own stock and constructed their own buildings, the ex- 
 isting mansion being built from materials from their own 
 grounds and by their skilled craftsmen. 
 
 They were good patriots, these early van Cortlandts, 
 and a stiff-backed race. 
 
 During the early part of the Revolution, the mansion 
 was garrisoned by a picket guard of Green Yagers, the 
 officers having their headquarters there. During the Rev- 
 olution, King's Bridge constituted the "barrier" of the 
 British line when they occupied New York Island, while 
 as far north as the Croton extended the neutral ground. 
 Many a skirmish took place between the patriots and 
 De Lancey's loyal Refugee Corps, the French and the 
 Hessians, and here occurred the bitter struggle with the 
 Stockbridge Indians, who had joined Washington, and 
 the Queen's Rangers under Colonel Simcoe. The scene 
 of the engagement lies northeast of the Mansion. An 
 alarm having been given, and the approach of the Indians 
 being momentarily expected, Colonel Simcoe threw out a 
 picket and took post in a tree convenient for observation. 
 At length, seeing a flanking party of the enemy approach- 
 ing, the troops were ordered into ranks, and had hardly 
 
accomplished the movement when a " smart firing " was 
 heard from the Indians, who were exchanging shots with 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Emerich of the advance guard. 
 
 The Queen's Rangers were moved rapidly to gain the 
 heights, and Lieutenant-Colonel Tarleton immediately 
 pushed forward, with the hussars and light cavalry, but, in 
 consequence of the fences in the way, was obliged to re- 
 return farther upon the right. This being reported to 
 Colonel Simcoe, he broke from the column of the Rangers 
 with a grenadier company, leaving Major Ross to conduct 
 the corps to the heights, and arrived without being per- 
 ceived within ten yards of the Indians. These now gave 
 a yell and fired upon the grenadiers, wounding Colonel 
 Simcoe and four others. The enemy were, however, 
 quickly driven from the fences when Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Tarleton got among them, and he pursued them rapidly 
 down van Cortlandt Ridge. 
 
 Though this ambuscade failed in greater part, yet it was 
 of importance. Nearly forty Indians were killed, and it 
 was beyond question the most important action of the 
 " Neutral Ground." Eighteen Indians were buried in the 
 same pit in " Indian Field," by the " Indian Bridge," 
 which still exists ; and it is said that the spirit of the sa- 
 chem yet walks abroad upon the scene of conflict. 
 
 In February, 1776, Colonel Augustus van Cortlandt, 
 Clerk of New York City, reported to the Committee of 
 Safety that, for their security, he had removed the public 
 records to his family vault on Vault Hill. They were 
 there until the following December, but it is probable that 
 the British were soon afterward apprised of their place 
 of concealment, and they were returned to the city. Five 
 years later, Washington lighted bonfires on Vault Hill, 
 deceiving the British encamped on the southern side of 
 Spuyten Duyvil Creek, while the great body of his army 
 was on the march to join Lafayette at Yorktown. 
 
 During the Revolution, the house was occupied most 
 of the time by some of the van Cortlandt family. Col. 
 James van Cortlandt was a member of the provincial 
 congress, and his brother Frederick a captain of the West- 
 
 xxn 
 
chester levies. The old Mansion saw the retreat of a part 
 of the American army on its way to White Plains, in 
 1776. 
 
 When, in January, 1777, General Heath made a move- 
 ment against the British outposts at King's Bridge, the 
 right division under General Lincoln, on the night of the 
 17th, moved from Tarrytown by the old Albany Post Road 
 to the heights above the Mansion, their camp being lo- 
 cated in the woods back of the Mansion; and, on the 
 18th, General Lincoln "surprised the guard above van 
 Cortlandt's, capturing arms, equipage," etc. A skirmish 
 occurred at Fort Independence four days later. British 
 troops were called to order under the apple trees to hear 
 the Church of England service and prayers offered for 
 King George. Armand's gallant French cavalry have 
 charged over its fields, and the Mansion was ransacked by 
 the British in their search for the brave colonel, who was 
 far advanced on his retreat to Croton. 
 
 From its windows, during the grand reconnoissance, in 
 1781, could be seen the smart cavalry fight at the old 
 bridge near the mill. In November, 1783, Washington 
 passed down the old Albany Post Road, alighted at the 
 mansion and drank a glass of "Resurrection madeira" to 
 the health of the ladies and the thirteen States, and, amid 
 the acclamation of the people, rode victorious across King's 
 Bridge, over which he had retreated seven years before. 
 
 XXlll 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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