Town of Somers History Beasts and Ballyhoo Menagerie Men of Somers

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