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published by

The Historical Society of Rockland County Orangeburg, New York

Vol. 15, No. 3 July - September, 1971

Photo by Roger Cornell Mrs. Fred F. Brickmann. of the Demarest-Blauvelt Foundation and Reverend John A. Springer, pastor of the Tappan Reformed Church, examine the snuff box which was presented by HRH The Duke of York to Reverend John Demarest, in appreciation for his help in arranging for the removal of Andre’s remains to West­ minster Abbey in 1821. The gold box, encased in the wood of a cedar tree which has been planted on Andre’s grave in Tappan, after being lost for many years, was returned to the custody of the Demarest-Blauvelt Foundation through the efforts of Hiram Blau- velt, following a search which led to Minot, North Dakota. A PRE-BICENTENNIAL PROGRAM On August 15th, our Society, in collaboration with the Tappantown Society and the Westchester County Historical Socieiy, sponsored a 150th anniversary commemoration of the disinterment of Major John Andre at Tappan for reinter­ ment in Westminster Abbey on November 28, 1821. Three years earlier, in 1818, the British and United States governments had co-operated in arranging to remove the remains of General Richard Montgomery, the American general killed at Quebec, to a final resting place in St. Paul’s Cemetery, New York City. Dr. Robert W. Coakley, Deputy, Chief of the Office of Military History, De­ partment of the Army, Washington, D.C., gave an excellent summary of the events involved in the Andre story which is presented in this issue. Vice-Consul Michael P. Ross summarized details of the arrangements which his predecessor James Buchanan, at the British Consulate-New York, had made at the time. Colonel C.H.M. Toye, OBE, who serves as Deputy Commander of the British Army Staff, Washington, D.C. spoke on the United States and British Military relations since the Revolution. A copy of Colonel Toye’s address has been received which will be available for publication in a later issue. The program concluded with an excellent solo rendition of the hymn “God of The Nations, Near and Far” by J. Erwin Perine, vice president. The occasion - in a sense a pre-bicentennial program, served to recall the pur­ pose of Cyrus W. Field in arranging for the Andre monument, dedicated October 2, 1879 carrying the following inscription, prepared by Dean Arthur Penrhyn Stanley of Westminster Abbey:

Inscription Here died, October 2, 1780 Major John Andre of the British Army Who, entering the American lines on a secret mission to Benedict Arnold, for the surrender of West Point, was taken prisoner, tried and condemned as a spy. His death, though according to the stern code of war, moved even his enemies to pity; and both armies mourned the fate of one so young and so brave. In 1821 his remains were removed to Westminster Abbey. A hundred years after the execution this stone was placed above the spot where he lay, by a citizen of the United States, against which he 2 not to perpetuate the record of strife, but in token of those better feelings which have since united two nations, one in race, one in language, and one in religion, with the hope that this friendly union will never be broken. Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Dean of Westminster.

The monument carries two other inscriptions as follows:

“He was more unfortunate than criminal; An accomplished man and gallant officer." George Washington

“Sunt lacrymae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt.” Virgil AEneid, 1,462

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We are indebted to Colonel Toye for a letter regarding the second passage.

24 August 1971 “When we had a few minutes in the house on Saturday evening last, Betty and I looked up the passage in Virgil from which comes the Latin line on Andre’s monument. We found it - Aeneid Book I, line 462 - and the surrounding story may be of interest. As you know, the Aeneid story is that of a handful of survivors from the sack of Troy who, after great sufferings and adventures, eventually found the city of Rome in Italy. On their way, they are cast ashore near Carthage (in what is now Tunisia) and there they are welcomed and helped by Dido, the Carthaginian queen. But before Aeneas has met Dido and is sure of his welcome, he visits the great temple of Carthage, and there he sees sculptured in stone the story of the siege of Troy - including himself and his dead comrades. For the first time this gives him hope; the story of Troy is known in this far off land - known and admired. They have a chance of being welcomed and succored of finding sympathy for their past trials. So as he looks at the sculpture he says - “Here, there are tears for what hap­ pened, and those tragic human events touch people’s hearts.” Altogether a very appropriate line for the monument. My translation is a free one and strict classicists might quarrel with it, but the background of Aeneas’s story is perhaps even more interesting.” 3 THE TRAGEDY OF MAJOR ANDRE By Dr. Robert W. CoaJcley The board of officers that met here in Tappan on the 29th day of Septem­ ber 1780 to consider the case of Major John Andre, Adjutant General of the British Army, reported to General Washington “the following facts, which appear to them relative to Major Andre. “First, that he came on shore from the Vulture sloop of war in the night of the twenty-first of September instant, on an interview with General Arnold, in a private and secret manner. “Secondly, That he changed his dress within our lines, and under a feigned name, and in a disguised habit, passed our works at Stoney and Verplanck’s Points, the evening of the twenty-second of September instant, and was taken the morning of the twenty-third of September instant, at Tarry Town, in a dis­ guised habit, being then on his way to New York, and when taken he had in his possession several papers, which contained intelligence for the enemy. “The Board having maturely considered these facts, do also report to his Excellency General Washington, That Major Andre, Adjutant General to the British Army, ought to be considered a spy from the enemy, and that agreeable to the law and usage of nations, it is their opinion, he ought to suffer death.” This verdict was duly executed three days later on Oct. 2, 1780, and Maj. Andre’s body lay buried here in Tappan for nearly 40 years. In 1821 the British Government had the body disinterred and removed to Westminster Abbey where a very impressive memorial was erected in testimony of his zeal in service of king and country. It is this distinterment that we commemorate today, 150 years afterward—time enough for old enmities and partisan quarrels to have settled so that we can view the dramatic events that led to Andre’s execution in some historical perspective. Initially your president asked that I present an official American interpreta­ tion of the Andre incident. I told him that there really was none unless of course the terse words of the military board’s verdict represent it. And I would suppose there is no official British position either though Englishmen certainly might still be expected to feel some of the same sense of outrage at Andre’s execution that Sir Henry Clinton, the British Commander, felt at the time. Allowing for some national differences however, I believe there is a reasonable consensus of opinion among historians, British and American, as to the facts in the case and even the interpertation of them. This consensus briefly stated would be this: The board of officers who passed the verdict on Andre, and Washington, who insisted adamantly on its execution, had little choice in the matter. In the light of the evidence and the practices of the day, Andre could but be judged as spy, to suffer the fate of spies. Given the circumstances and the enormous shock to the Americans from the revelation of Benedict Arnold’s treason, Andre could only have been saved had the British been willing to surrender Arnold. Yet it is equally true that Americans as well as British, both at the time and since, have felt the greatest sympathy for Andre and indeed his very executioners wept copiously at the deed they felt they had to do. For they had the greatest respect for the gallant and talented British officer who showed that he could die so well for his country. As Douglas Freeman has remarked “although he was a 4 Brtish agent in the most dangerous and least suspected move to the the citadel of the indispensable line of the Hudson, he became almost a national hero and so he has remained.” It is because of this paradox that the Americans hung Andre because they thought they had to, while loving and respecting him as a person that we can look on the whole incident as a sort of Greek tragedy in which the inexorable fates, no human will, determined the destinies of men, and the most tragic figure in this drama was certainly John Andre. There were really three persons most intimately involved in this great human drama—Arnold, the disappointed and frustrated American hero of the March to Quebec, the naval base on the lakes, the Ruse at Fort Stanwix, and of Sara­ toga; his young and beautiful wife Peggy Shippen, who had known Andre well during the British occupation of Philadelphia in 1777-78, and who had cooper­ ated in promoting the treason of her husband; and Major Andre, a young man of 28 years, a favorite of Sir Henry Clinton, the British Commander in New York, acting as Adjutant General without the necessary prerequisites of rank, ambitious and overly anxious to distinguish himself to vindicate his occupation of the post of Adjutant General and to pave the way for promotion. Of these three it was only Andre who was in effect doing his duty as a soldier of the Crown: the other two were traitors to their own country. Yet it was only Andre who paid the penalty, in what from the American viewpoint must be recognized as an enormously dangerous plot that if it had been success­ ful, might well have led to the collapse of American resistance in the New York area and possibly indeed the failure of the patriot cause entirely. That is was Andre who suffered for the sins of others (in which he was simply an accessory and from the British point of view simply doing his duty) was unjust. Ameri­ cans inherently recognize this in the way in which they did honor to his memory after executing him. Though I am sure that most of you are familiar with the story of Arnold and Andre, I think it worthwhile to review them briefly to show how harshly the fates dealt with the gallant British Major, and how the outcome of the whole affair turned on so many small coincidences that might well have hap­ pened otherwise. Sometime in the year 1779 while he was Commandant at Philadelphia Ben­ edict Arnold became disillusioned and, encouraged by his wife Peggy, opened negotiations through intermediaries with the British Command in New York. Andre was involved in the negotiations from the start, both because of his posi­ tion at Clinton’s Headquarters and because of his previous acquaintance with Peggy. The conspiracy entered its final stage with Arnold’s transfer to the Com­ mand at West Point—his final offer to Clinton involved essentially the sur­ render of this strong point in the American line with its garrison in return for payment of 20,000 pounds sterling. Nothing could finally be arranged, however, without a meeting between Arnold and a British representative. For in dealing through intermediaries, Clinton could not even be sure he was dealing with Arnold nor Arnold that he had any sure promises of the financial rewards he sought. After several unsuccessful efforts to arrange meetings somewhere along the Hudson, the fateful meeting between Arnold and Andre took place on the night of the 21st of September, 1780, at a hidden rendezvous along the banks of the Hudson about two miles below. Haverstraw. The circumstances here are 5 interesting. Andre was picked up by a boat dispatched by Arnold to the Vulture and he carried a pass for Arnold in the name of John Anderson, merchant. Clinton had not wanted Andre to risk the meeting but would have had the Tory, Col. Beverley Robinson conduct the negotiations. But Arnold’s men brought a pass for Andre, not Robinson, and evidently Arnold wanted to talk only to the British Adjutant General. In agreeing that Andre should go, Clinton admonished him that he should not go within the enemy’s posts and that he should not under any circumstances, take off his uniform and put on civilian clothes, admonitions Andre was, to his sorrow, to ignore. Once ashore Andre had placed himself at the mercy of Arnold and of Arnold’s compartriot Joshua Hett Smith who a more or less unwitting tool in the conspiracy. Andre expected to be rowed back to the Vulture by the same boat in which he had come, but here came the first slip-up. The pow-wow between Arnold and Andre went on until dawn began to break and besides a patriot battery on the Hudson opened up o nthe Vulture forcing it to shift position. All agreed that it was too danger­ ous to row back in the light of day and Andre was hidden all day in the house of Joshua Hett Smith. The firing had alarmed both Smith and the oarsmen who, reluctant to undertake the journey in the first place, now refused to repeat it, so that when night fell Smith told Andre he would have to accompany him overland to the British lines. Smith knew nothing of the conspiracy, thinking Andre to be John Anderson the merchant he. purported to be. Andre reluctantly agreed to this mode of procedure for he had little choice but it was certainly not to his liking. And to play the part of the merchant he traded his uniform coat for a civilian coat—and he stored away in his boots the papers detailing the plans of West Point and other vital information that Arnold had given him. Smith got him past the American outposts but left him on his own to cover the last 15 miles to the British outposts at White Plains through a territory in which both Loyalist and Patriot Militia operated at times but in which the Loyalists were generally predominant. Andre was stopped by three Patriot Militiamen whom he assumed to be Loyalists and gave himself away as a British officer before showing his pass from Arnold. The militiamen, though tempted to let him go on promise of reward, eventually stripped him, found the suspcious papers, and turned him over to the nearest Continental Army Post to a Col. John Jameson. Jameson started to send Andre on to Arnold, but did take the precaution of sending the captured papers to Washington, who was known to be on his way to West Point. Major Benjamin Talmadge persuaded Jameson that he should hold Andre though a messenger proceeded to Arnold to tell him of Andre’s capture. As it happened this messenger reached Arnold before the other messenger carrying the papers to Washington, and Arnold escaped to the Vulture just an hour before Washington himself rode in to have breakfast in his his quarters at West Point. Arnold, he was told, had gone in to West Point to make a hasty inspection of the defenses there. Not until afternoon did Washing­ ton receive the papers with the awful truth that Arnold was a trator. With the papers taken on Andre’s person came a letter from Andre to Washington that was in effect a confession of guilt, though Andre tried to maintain that he was a prisoner of war, since after coming ashore he had been under the control of the American Commanding General Arnold and had changed his uniform at 6 Arnold’s behest. Such a defense American commanders could only regard as a confession of guilt, and Andre’s letter to Washington was the principal evidence used to convict him in the trial before the board of officers on Sept. 29. Andre was indeed, as Clinton may well have suspected, ill-adapted to the role of inter­ mediary with Arnold that he was called on to play. It was the disarming hon­ esty found in the confession that his American captors admired in Andre, but it was also his undoing. But in the last analysis it was the little coincidences that had led to Andre’s capture and the collapse of the conspiracy . . . the unexpected firing on the Vulture, the unlooked for volunteers beyond the American Out­ posts. Yet Andre had contributed mightily to his own downfall. “An unaccount­ able deprivation of presence of mind in a man of first abilities” was the phrase Washington used to describe the conduct of Andre when the Major first met the Militiamen near Tarrytown. Andre was in the last analysis much too forth­ right and the gentleman to play well the role of spy. As I noted Arnold escaped to the Vulture and his charming wife, left to face the wrath of Washington and his entourage, threw one of the most impressive fits of hysterics in American history and in the end convinced Washington’s young aides that no taint of Arnold’s guilt could possibly be on her. And so only the luckless Andre remained to face the wrath and astonishment of Washington and his compatriots. And though those same young aides were also mightily affected by Andre’s charming manners, as they were by Peggy Arnold’s beauty, there was little they could do in this case. The British command, from Gen. Clinton on down, found it almost unbelievable that Andre should be regarded as a spy and made frantic efforts to avert his fate. Clinton’s contention was that Andre had gone out under a flag of truce and was entitled to the protection thereof, that it was the “Rebel General” Arnold who had forced him to divest himself of his character as a British officer and assume the disguise of a merchant. Clinton got Arnold to write a letter certifying that Andre had come in under a flag. The trouble, however, was that Andre in his own confession had said he had not come in under a flag of truce. To Clinton’s plea that Andre be treated as a soldier rather than a spy, Washington replied: From these proceedings it is evident Major Andre was employed in the execution of measures very foreign to flags of truce and such as they were never meant to authorize or countenance in the most distant degree: and this gentleman confessed with the greatest candour in the course of his examination ‘that it was impossible for him to suppose he came on shore under the sanction of a flag.’ A conference between Washington’s second in command, General Greene, and Clinton’s representative, General Robertson, produced no change in Washington’s position though the execution was delayed for two days while negotiations went on. Clinton made dire threats of retaliation on American prisoners who might be suspected of spying, though there is no evidence that he ever carried these threats out, once the deed was done. There was really only one way that Andre’s life might have, been saved ... if the British had agreed to give up Arnold. While never officially proposed this was hinted at through several channels, one Hamilton. But Clinton who had promised to reward and protect Arnold could not consent to an exchange that would be a sentence of death for him, whatever mischance Andre had fallen into. And so in the end Clinton, like the Americans who hung him, 7 could only weep at his beloved aide’s fate. In informing the British Army of the death of Arnold on 8 October, Clinton said “The unfortunate fate of this officer calls upon the Commander in Chief to declare his opinion, that he ever considered Major Andre as a gentleman as well as in the line of his military profession of the highest integrity and honor, and incapable of any base action or unworthy con­ duct.” Ironically the Americans did not disagree. Those who were his guards during his captivity became his friends. Major Tallmadge, who first learned his true identity and who was with him almost constantly thereafter, walked with him to the place of execution and parted with him under the gallows, entirely over­ whelmed with grief that so gallant an officer and so accomplished a gentleman should come to such an ignominious end.” Colonel Alexander Scammel who read the death sentence to Andre on the scaffold considered him “perhaps the most accomplished officer of the age.” Alexander Hamilton wrote that “among the extraordinary circumstances that attended him, in the midst of his enemies, he died universally esteemed and universally regretted.” And so it seems quite fitting that we as Americans should do honor to this quite extraordinary man who was so well liked by friend and foe alike. His capture, the product of unlikely and fortuitous circumstances, was for the American cause in the Revolution most fortunate and Arnold’s plot to betray West Point was certainly the most dangerous move of the sort during the Revolution and it came at a time when the patriot cause was at a low ebb everywhere. Yet I think as human beings we must find it regrettable that Washington found it necessary to carry out so drastic a sentence on Andre and particularly that he saw fit to turn down Andre’s plea that he should be shot like a soldier and not hung like a criminal. But to Washington the case was very simple. If he was a spy he must be meted out the punishment due to spies: If he were not a spy then he should not be executed at all. The tragedy was thus played out to its bitter end. Andre went to the gallows with perfect courage, tied the handkerchief around his own eyes and as his last worlds said “You all bear me witness that I meet my fate as a brave man. As Douglas Freeman puts it it was “as if he wished to show the ages how a man should die, and thereby he assured himself an immortality that to some has seemed to be more desired than long life.” It is this immortality that we com­ memorate today.

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CAMP SHANKS, NEW YORK

During World War II and until August 30, 1946, the Camp Shanks office served as a sub-station of the Orangeburg, N.Y. post office. Many thousands of letters car­ ried this cancellation. If you have one and would like to con­ tribute the cover to the Society’s collections, it would be appreciated. 9 OPEN HOUSE — NEW CITY Our new history center will be open for fall inspection on Sunday afternoon, October 24th. Leland Rickard Meyer, who has been in charge of the partial restora­ tion of the Jacob Blauvelt homestead reports that many contributions of farm equipment have been offered and will be collected by Jay Ferine. These will be placed on exhibit in areas of the barn which are being made ready for the displays. Demonstrations of quilting and other early crafts are being planned. Members who are interested in donating home made jams or jellies for sale by the Society that afternoon are requested to notify Mrs. Charles C. Blitch, 634-5172 or John F. Heusser 634-2052. This should be a particularly interesting opportunity to visit the cen­ ter and become acquainted with the development plans projected for the next few years. Using Wallace Mackenzie’s old cider press, Rockland County apples and doughnuts will constitute the refreshments for the afternoon. There will be no admission charge but the trustees suggest that a donation of 50^ for each adult member of a family would be appreciated to help augment our Museum Fund. SAVE THE DATE OCTOBER 24th BRING THE CHILDREN

BUILDING COMMITTEE PROGRESS Preliminary studies of our new history center are continuing. Dr. Louis L. Tucker, state historian and Dr. John Still, museum specialist, both from Albany, visited the grounds on July 27th, and seemed impressed with the potentials. Both strongly recommended that a full basement be considered for the new fireproof building which is proposed east of the Jacob Blauvelt homestead. Funds available at present are insufficient for the entire project but a master plan - broken down into phases - will help to determine how far we could go towards the start of new construction. The Building Committee, under the chairmanship of James F. Stoner, of Suffern, is studying these options carefully and expects to have tangible information this fall. In the meantime, the Fund Raising Committee is being organized with a most encouraging assist through the recent gift of 50 shares of Avon Products stock by one of our members, which is valued at approximately $4,600. This is being allo­ cated to the Museum Fund for construction purposes. Volunteers to help on all phases of this drive, including clerical tasks, will be needed. If you can devote time to this work during the next several months, a post card to the Secretary, Historical Society of Rockland County, Box 587, Nyack, N.Y. 10960, would be appreciated. Robert Allison, Valley Cottage; Mrs. Newton Blickman, Pearl River; Mr. and Mrs. W. Arnold Finck, Palisades; Mrs. Joseph T. St. Lawrence, Suffern and Miss Gladys G. Weber, Neiv City are among those concentrating on these activities. 10 Aerial view YANKEE PEDDLER DAY -1971 Photo courtesy of Decair Helicopters, Inc.

Good weather, good attendence, interested customers and satisfied dealers were the four ingredients added to a handworking crew of volunteers assembled by Blackie Danger and Tom Quinlan for the 12th annual YPD fund raising program on July 24th. The Museum Fund and Endowment Fund were increased substan­ tially as a result. Ralph Braden, Frank Kraus, Leland Meyer, Jay Ferine, George Sharpless and Robert Zehner were in charge of special phases of the event. To all who helped make the day so successful, the trustees extend their sincere thanks. CLARENCE LEXOW — SOUTH NYACK DYNAMO by Norman R. Baker Rockland County has become in recent years a favorite place for residents of New York City to get into. It wasn’t too many years ago that Rockland County got into New York City and actually ran the show. The late New York State Senator Clarence Lexow of South Nyack was the star performer of that show as he brought Rockland County into prominence— statewide and nationally—by introducing and championing the legislation that created the City of Greater New York out of the the five boroughs of New ifork, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, and Richmond plus parts of Nassau and Westchester counties. The consolidation came to pass in 1898 and the Golden Jubilee of the event was marked in 1948 when Senator Lexow was honored for his leadership in the fight. A member of the Jubilee committee was Morton Lexow of Suffern, a prominent attorney in Rockland County and son of Senator Lexow. It was a bitter, bruising fight that Senator Lexow had on his hands for the consolidation resulting in the City of Greater New York—a fight that painfully twisted the Tammany tiger’s tail. Yet twisting that tail was nothing new for the South Nyack Senator—he had spearheaded a fight earlier that exposed rampant vice and corruption in New York City police and official circles. That probe sent 11 New Yorkers scurrying up the river—not to Rockland County but to Sing Sing Prison—for their share in the corruption. Senator Lexow was of a family with roots deep in Rockland County. His father, Rudolph Lexow, came to Nanuet in 1852 from Brooklyn and the family lived there for nearly 30 years. Family tradition has it that the elder Lexow got across the border into France from his native Germany in 1848 just one jump ahead of the “Storm Troopers” because of an article he published in a German publication that stirred the ire of Count von Bismark, the Iron Chancellor. It must have been an earlier edition of today’s Russia and the Soviet controlled Izvestia press. The elder Lexow and his bride, the former Caroline King of Hull, England, emigrated to the United States shortly after their marriage in 1848. They lived first on 14th Street in New York City, later in Brooklyn where Clarence was born. When they came to Nanuet they bought 300 acres north of Nanuet on Middletown Road, their place afterwards known as Rock Farm. Rudolph Lexow was not without friends when he first came to the United States. He had met Horace Greeley in Berlin and one of his first jobs was given him by the Tribune editor—reporting the speeches of Senator Charles Summr in Congress. A first Lexow enterprise was the publication of Belletristche Jour­ nal, a predecessor of the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung with its appeal to the Ger­ man emigrants in the U.S. Mrs. Lexow did not have the robust health of her husband and even a trip to Europe to consult specialists was to no avail and she died in 1873 at the age of 48. Despite the ministrations of the specialists, her own preference was for Nanuet’s Dr. Hammond. Senator Lexow went to school in Clarkstown, then to the German-American Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn, finishing his academic work in the German universities of Bonn and Leipsic. His bachelor of laws degree came from Col­ umbia College in New York in 1874.

Clarence Lexow Rudolph Lexow About 1900 12 Senator Lexow married Katharine Morton Ferris, member of a distinguished New York family, in 1881, living at her home on 42nd Street until they came to Nyack to live in July, 1882. Several years after coming to Nyack they built at 398 Piermont Avenue, a house that was torn down some 20 years ago. For the next decade, Senator Lexow devoted himself to his law practice in New York City and to affairs in Nyack community. He organized the Nyack Electric Light and Power Company in 1887, the Nyack Building Cooperative Savings and Loan Association in 1888. He was the president of the Village of South Nyack as well as of the Nyack Boat Club. In the best family tradition, he owned and edited the Nyack Evening Star. He developed an interest in politics early and it was in 1886, when he was still in his 30’s that he became Rockland County Republican Committee chair- mas. In 1892, he was delegate to the Republican National Convention in Minne­ apolis and the next year he was nominated to run for the State Senate in the 16th Rockland-Dutchess-Orange District, winning easily in normally Demo­ cratic territory. Tammany Hall must have felt the impact of Senator Lexow’s first foot-fall as he alit from the train that deposited him at the Albany station. He had just about settled into his Senate seat when he introduced legislation that brought about a free-swinging investigation of corruption in the New York City police department, continuing through 1894. He headed the Lexow Committee that conducted the probe, its findings so horrendous as to claim national and even international attention. This was Senator Lexow’s first real taste of Tammany Tiger blood and he throve on the diet. He was re-elected to the State Senate in 1896, this time from the Rockland-Orange 23rd District, reapportionment having excised Dutchess from the 16th. As chairman of the Senate’s Judiciary Committee in 1896, he went out after the city itself, introducing legistlation for a study of a proposal for consolidation of the five boroughs. He was chairman of this committee, too. Actually, the proposal to consolidate New York’s boroughs into a single city goes back to an original proposal by Andrew H. Green in 1868 before the days of “Boss” Tweed and other Tammany chieftans. The proposal lay dormant for a querater-century and it wasn’t until 1894 that voters in Brooklyn and New York approved at referendum a proposal to consolidate. Again nothing happened until Senator Lexow lit the fire in 1896. The consolidation, after the 1894 referendum, had generated spirited oppo­ sition and Senator Lexow had no more than introduced his legislation when Brooklyn Senator George W. Brush vehemently protested, backing it with a petition bearing 72,800 names and requesting a new referendum. Senator Lexow was too astute a politician to fall for a second vote so he switched his approach. Instead of pressing his proposed legislation to appoint a commission to draw up a charter for the greater city, he asked for appointment of a joint committee of inquiry to hold sessions in New York, Brooklyn and Albany. He got the committee but Tammany legislators swung enough power to deny a $25,000 fund to carry out the work. It was a minor obstcle—Senator Lexow rounded up enough businessmen to underwrite the cost and they were later reimbursed by legislative action. ,q The road of the legislation that emerged from the Lexow committee recom­ mendations was a rocky one and the Senator was the target for all manner of broadsides from opposing Tammany politicians, fearful lest they lose their jobs, and from an opposing press, also. He was the “little whipper-snapper from Nyack” (he was always described as small, short of stature, dapper and athletic). He was the “Grand Inquisitor,” “the tool of the Republican hayseeds from upstate.” If the boroughs merged, it was claimed the greater city would be run by a “hayseed commuter.” The Eve­ ning Post doubted editorially that “anything could start in the mind of Lexow that intellectual process called thought.” To all of which the doughty Senator smiled and kept on plugging in the State Legislature. The bill for appointment of a commission to draw up the Greater City charter was passed but was vetoed by Mayors W. L. Strong of New York and F. W. Wurster of Brooklyn, sending it back to Albany. The veto was overridden in the Senate April 16, 1896, in the Assembly by a narrow margin and after furious debate on April 22. Thirty minutes after final passage the bill was in the hands of Governor Benjamin B. O’Dell but was not signed into law until May 11. The Greater City of New York came into being in 1898 with the prepara­ tion and approval of its charter. Senator Lexow declined firmly and flatly a unanimous renomination that same year, returning to a successful practice of law which he had been forced to neglect during his five years in the State Senate. At the 1948 Golden Jubilee observance, the New York Historical Society set up an exhibit which included the gavel Senator Lexow used during the Greater City hearings and a medal struck by the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, presented to the Senator in 1906, to mark his achievements. Senator Lexow was not unmindful of his Rockland County constituency during his turbulent years in Albany. Among his legislation was a bill that led to the creation of the present Palisades Interstate Park Commission, a bill pro­ moting preservation of the site where Major John Andre was executed as a spy in Tappan during the Revolution, and another for the acquisition by the state of the Stony Point battlefield. He introduced and fought through the Senate one of the first primary laws in the country, a law triggered by the corruption sur­ rounding the nominations of county officials in county conventions. Distasteful though it may have been to Republicans of that time, Senator Lexow followed his victories scored against Tammany Hall with a searching probe into the trusts that were operating in New York. Among those that came under close scrutiny were the sugar trust, the tobacco trust and the railroad trust. Senator Lexow, still a relatively young man, died in South Nyack in 1910. His son Morton is living in Suffern; his daughter Caroline Babcock is in New Jersey, his daughter Catherine Call in Washington. The record of Senator Lexow and the part South Nyack and Rockland County played still stand as unblemished monuments in the history of New York City and New York State.

AT&T RIGHTS Our treasurer, Dr. George R. Sharpless, reports that 232 rights were contributed by four members during June in connection with the purchase of AT&T preferred stock for the Endowment Fund. 14 STRAWBERRY FESTIVAL

The 11th annual Strawberry Festival and Awards Program on June 13th fea­ tured an address by Dr. Louis L. Tucker, New York State Historian, with awards to the following students of the county high schools who had been nominated by their faculty advisers for outstanding interest and excellence in American History.

ALBERTUS MAGNUS CLARKSTOWN Paul McCormack Sandra Fox Joyce Pedersen Thomas Holton NANUET NORTH ROCKLAND Jeffrey Benson Larry Hooghuip Sandra Williams Andrea Meisse PEARL RIVER NYACK Margaret Edwards Stephen Schwartz Peter Sluys Cynthia Sheridan RAMAPO SUFFERN Howard Brown Susan Hyman Livia Singer Richard Silver SPRING VALLEY TAPPAN ZEE Paul Fromson Michael Goran Donna Howland Rene Schneider

A letter from one of the recipients Mr. Meyer, who co-ordinated the pro- gram, follows:

June 24, 1971 Dear Mr. Meyer: I would like to thank you for the history award which I received. I appreciate your interest in high school students, as I feel that I have benefited from the honor of coming to the Strawberry Festival, and also receiving a book about the history of Rockland County. My interest in local history has been stimulated, and I plan to spend time this summer reading about, and discovering various aspects of our history which interest me. I am very grateful to you, since the most valuable gift which anyone can give or receive is the awakening of a new interest. Sincerely yours,

The Society is indebted to the Bankers Trust Company of Rockland County (formerly the First State Bank of Rockland County) for underwriting the cost of presenting Cornelia F. Bedell’s book “Now and Then and Long Ago in Rockland County” and to Jay D. Northrup, President, who made the presentation to the students.

IN MEMORIAM Charles Dittrich Eleanor C. Schmidt 15 COMING PROGRAMS Dr. Theodore Kazimiroff, one of the foremost lecturers in the Metropolitan area on the subject of “Diggings,” who has uncovered much history relating to Indian and Dutch Colonial life, will be the speaker at our first meeting on Monday, October 11th at 8:15 p.m. The meeting will be held at the Dellwood Country Club, Zukor Road, New City just north of the new History Center. Dr. Kazimiroff, is an accomplished speaker and his lecture, with slides of his recent work at the Peter Stuyvesant seaport in New York has been noted by the Metropolitan Museum which recently presented an exhibit of his collection of New York and Hudson Valley artifacts. Bring the children. ★ ★ ★ Miss Clare McVickar Ward will be the speaker at the November 8th meeting to be held at Street School, Zukor Road, New City at 8:15 p.m. across from our new property. Miss Ward, an expert on heraldry, has lectured extensively on the subject. For those interested in methods of tracing family heritage - for the answers to the ques­ tion - “Who were my ancestors?”, this program with colored slides will provide a very enjoyable evening. Don’t miss it! ★ ★ ★ Our annual theater benefit will be The Chalk Garden, a drama, presented by T': e Antrim Players at the Playhouse, Suffern, on Thursday Evening, December 2nd. Tickets - $3.00 each. Please call Miss Alice Kinney, 947-1635 or Dr. George Sharpless PE 5-4373. The annual St. Nicholas program for the children will be held at the Orange­ burg museum on Friday through Sunday, Dec. 3rd-5th. Further details later. Other dates for 1972 meetings: January 23rd - Sunday afternoon March 13th - Monday evening February 27th - Sunday afternoon April 10th - Monday evening Information follows in next issue. ★ ★ ★ You are cordially invited to join the Society. The annual dues of $2.00 per per­ son (Family-$3.00) may be forwarded with your name and address to the Society, Box 587, Nyack, N.Y. 10960 and will cover the period through December 1972. ★ ★ ★ The Treasurer’s report of March 31, 1971, showing a balance of $196,108. has been audited by Lawrence H. Hecht, Certified Public Accountant. This issue sponsored as a public service by

THE COUNTY TRUST COMPANY Haverstraw — New City New York