Lt. Col. Grosvenor, to march to Robinson's stores, near Marpoach Pond, to cover that quarter."a

21st of October, 1780, "intelligence was received that the enemy were meditating an excursion as far up as Crompond and its vicinity, to sweep off the cattle." General Heath "immediately ordered Colonel Hazen, with a detachment of 500 men, to move to Pine's Bridge, and Lieut. Col. Jameson, with the 2d light dragoons, to move from Bedford towards Col. Hazen. The detachment arrived at Pine's Bridge about 10 o'clock the same evening, and Colonel Jameson with the dragoons at about 2 o'clock the next morning. The evening of the 23d, Col. Hazen returned with the detachment; the enemy did not come out."b It was in the vicinity of Pine's Bridge that Enoch Crosby, the Westchester spy, first commenced his career of secret service.

By way of a general geographical description of Yorktown, it may be observed, "that the north is broken by the hills of the southern border of the Highlands, and the general surface is hilly, though its hills are of a moderate height in the south." The numerous streams supply abundance of mill seats. "The soil is generally productive, and well distributed into arable, pasture and meadow lands. Much of it is stony; and previous to the late introduction of gypsum as a manure, many farms were nearly exhausted by constant tillage." The timber is very thrifty and tall, consisting for the most part of oak, chesnut, hickory and walnut, &c. The low grounds yield maple, black birch, ash and hemlock, &c.

The first entry relating to town officers occurs in the manor book, entitled, "Record for the manor of Cortlandt and Yorktown." "At a town meeting held for ye manor of Cortlandt, on the first Tuesday, in April, in the year of our Lord, 1760, to choose town officers for ye said manor for the ensuing year, and the respective names and offices of those chosen."

Pierre van Cortlandt, Supervisor,

Moses Travis, Clerk,

a Heath's Mem. 206.

b Ibid. 260.

C

Spafford's Gazetteer of New York.

d Ibid.

Joseph Sherwood, Treasurer,

Daniel Strang,

Joseph Tidd,

Assessors.

Joseph Travis, for the Water Collector at Peekskill,

John Travis, Pounder,

Jeremiah Drake, Constable for the west part,

John Yeomans, for ye middle part,

John Purdy, for ye east part, &c.a

See Rec. of Yorktown. The names of some twenty freeholders are also attached to the list.

YONKERS.

YONKERS is situated on the east bank of the Hudson, immediately above New York island, seventeen miles north of New York, one hundred and thirty south of Albany, and ten southwest of White Plains; bounded north by Greenburgh, east by Eastchester and a small angle of Westchester, or by Bronx's River; south by West Farms and New York county, and west by the Hudson River. It extends near eight miles along the Hudson, and has a medial width of near three miles.

The name of this town, at different periods written Younkers, Younckers, Jonkers and Yonkers, is derived from the Dutch "Jonker" or "Jonkheer," meaning in that language the "young gentleman," a common appellation for the heir of a Dutch family.a

Yonkers and the Mile Square constituted a township within the great manor of Philipsburgh, until the year 1779, when the manor was confiscated and conveyed to the people of this state. A. D. 1788, the present township was independently organized.b

Thirty years after the Dutch discovery of the New Netherlands, A. D. 1639, we find the Dutch West India Company purchasing lands in this town of the native Indian sachems.

"Appeared before me, Cornelis van Tienhoven, secretary of the New Netherlands, Fecquemeck, Rechgawac, Packanniens, owners of Kekeshick, which they did freely convey, cede, &c. &c. to the behoof of the General Incorporated West India Company, which lies over against the flats of the Island of Manhates, mostly east and west, beginning at the source of the said Kill till over against the high hill of the flat lands-to wit, by the great Kill, together with all the rights, estate and title to them, the grantees,

a Benson's Mem. of N. Y.

Act passed 7th March, 1788. Rev. Stat. vol. iii. 286, VOL. II.

51

&c. &c. In testimony of the truth of which, this is subscribed by witnesses. Done 3d of August, 1639, at Fort Amsterdam, in New Netherland.a

In presence of me Cornelis van Tienhoven, Sec'y." How long the Dutch West India Company held the lands of Kekeshick, does not appear; but about the year A. D. 1646, we find the Indian sachem Tackarew, granting lands in this town to Adriaen van der Donck. In this sale the town is called Nepperhaem, an Indian name frequently applied to the village. Eighty years later we find it varied to Nepperah, the proper Indian orthography of which is evidently Nap-pe-cha-mak, rendered literally the "rapid water settlement." Thus graphically expressing the situation of the Mohegan village, at the mouth of the Neperah, or rapid waters.e In the deep seclusion of the ancient forests that once bordered this beautiful stream, were located other Indian villages, some of the sites of which tradition has preserved to us; one of these occupied the eastern edge of Boar Hill. A Mohegan castle ornamented the steep side of Berrian's Neck, styled in the Indian tongue Nipnichsen. It was carefully protected, by a strong stockade, from the attacks of the warlike Sauk-hi-can-ni, (fire workers,) inhabiting the Jersey shores, and commanded the romantic scenery of the Spuyten Duyvel Creek and Hudson River. The junction of the two streams was called, in the Indian, Shorackoppock. The last settlement of the Nappeckamak Indians remembered in this town stood near the present residence of Abraham Fowler, on a rising bank of the Neperah (Saw Mill.) The crystal waters of this sweet stream (which runs principally north and south) arise from two perennial springs in

Alb. Rec. C. C. 62.

Sometimes called the Younger Van Dunke. Assize Rec. Alb. 47.

• Alb. Rec. viii. 79, 80; Hcl. Doc. vi. 118; Book of Pat. i. 56; O'Callaghan's Hist. N. N. 382.

d Valentine receipts for rent.

Nipi, in the old Algonkin, signifies water; Niep, in the Montauk. Trans. Amer. Antiq Soc. ii.

the bosom of the Chappequa hills. To this nymph of the valley the Indians (as their custom was) offered sacrifice, the perpetuity of her motion typyfying to them the eternity of God.

In the north west corner of this town, west of the Saw Mill, (Neperah) is situated the rock Meghkeckassin, Amackassin, or the great stone, sometimes called Meghkeckassin, and Macakassin, a name probably derived from two Delaware words, "Mekhkakhsin," signifying copper, "akhsin," stone.b This word appears to denote not a common stone, but the colored copper stone bound under some spell of Indian necromancy. "To these stones they paid all outward signs of worship and devotion, not as to God, but as they are hieroglyphicks of the permanency and immutability of the Deity; because these, both for figure and substance, are, of all sublunary bodies, the least subject to decay or change." This stone lies in an obscure nook on the eastern shore of the Hudson, at the foot of a steep bank whose sides are shaded with masses of wild cedar and laurel, the beautiful lake like appearance of the river giving additional interest and magical illusion to the scene. At ebb tide the huge