| TOWN OF SOMERS HISTORICAL TIMELINE |
| Town of Somers History |
| Timeline - Elephant Hotel - Hachaliah Bailey - Menageries - Wright-Reis Homestead - Historic Properties Somers Historical Society Home Page - Somers History Page |
| 1609- |
| 1609 Amawalk Indian Village of Appamaghpogh known to exist by this year. 1624 Dutch trade with local Indians believed to exist. 1644 Naniechiestawack Indian village residents near Woods Bridge massacred by Dutch & English mercenaries. ("Blood Flows, War Threatens" &"Martyred Missionary Eyewitness Account" by Steve Wick, Newsday; "New Netherlands in 1644" by Rev. Isaac Joques, Newsday, all retrieved 08/29/2008; The Dutch, The Indians, and The Fur Trade in the Hudson Valley, 1609-1664 by Howard Vernon, State University College, New Paltz, retrieved 08/29/2008) 1677 Stephanus Van Cortlandt licensed to purchase land from Indians. 1679 Stephanus Van Cortlandt becomes Mayor of New York City. 1683 Westchester County established. On November 1, 1683, the county of Westchester was created by an act of the New York General Assembly. 1697 Lordship and Manor of Cortlandt established; Stephanus Van Cortlandt takes title to some 83,000 acres which includes present-day Somers. 1700 Stephanus Van Cortlandt dies. 1712 Ninety-one people in Cortlandt Manor. 1734 Cortlandt Manor is divided into 30 Great Lots. Lots 5, 6, 7 and a portion of 8 make up the Somers area. Somers and Yorktown areas sometimes known as Hanover. Stephen Van Cortlandt is alloted over 5,000 acres. (View page 388 from The Greatest Street in the World by Stephen Jenkins, 1911 in Google Books). ("There is a 1734 map of Cortlandt Manor, which incompassed Somers, showing the names of property owners, with such landmarks as John Peek's Creek, The Old Mill Stream, ''The Neck of Land belonging to Philip Verplank,'' and the ''Elbow of the River by the Indians called Kewightequack.'' from "Atlas Traces History of Local Property" by Betsy Brown, New York Times, Jan. 20, 1985). 1743 Samuel Brown buys 1,000 acres from Van Cortlandt heirs. |
| Van Cortlandt Manor (From Historic Hudson Valley) |
| Oloff Stevense Van Cortlandt |