19?? _ A Look Back to the Early Days of "Shrub Oak Plains" and Vicinity
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The Hart Memorial Library is situated in Shrub Oak, Township of Yorktown. There are numerous estates around and about Shrub Oak, one of which once belonged to John C. Hart.
Mr. Hart was of English descent, who was born in 1822 and died in 1872. At the age of 16 he went to New York City, where he found employment in a drug store. Gradually working his way up in the drug profession, he later became associated in a partnership with a Mr. Wheeler, the firm doing business under the name of Wheeler and Hart. Mr. Hart finally purchased Mr. Wheeler's interest, thus becoming sole owner of the business, which he continued to direct up to 1868, when he retired to private life. Four years later, he died.
One of his daughters married a Dr. Dresser, and when the latter died, the widow continued to reside in the building. Upon her death, she left the place to the people of Shrub Oak, with the stipulation that the building was to be utilized as a library for the people of Yorktown and to be named "The John C. Hart Memorial Library."
Now that we are speaking of Shrub Oak, let us go further. All of that, (...) before the white man came, was the hunting grounds of the Kitchawan Indians. When Stephanus Van Cortlandt was given permission to buy land of the Indians, what is now known as Yorktown was then a part of the Hanover grant.
Once called Shrub Oak Plains
In 1788, when the county of Westchester was subdivided into townships, that part of the Hanover grant was given the name Yorktown Township. It contained about 40 square miles, One quarter of it was forest, the remainder consisting of farm land.
With the opening of 1718, immigration began, and that portion of Yorktown Township now known as Shrub Oak was spoken of as Shrub Oak Plains.
By 1798, the hamlet of Shrub Oak Plains had increased in population to the extend that a house of worship was needed, and it was in that year that Pierre Van Cortlandt sold to the people for five shillings (63 cents), one-and-a-quarter acres of land for a church. A church was then erected and on June 13, 1827, three quarters of an acre was added for a burial ground.
April 1, 1856, six acres were purchased from one Hiram Mable with a house up on it to be utilized as a parsonage.
On June 5, 1867, the prasent stone church was erected on those six acres, (...) 1870, the church was completed and dedicated.
The Old Tavern
The Tavern occasionally alluded to was more of a roadhouse, catering to the traveling public, as it was at that place the stage coach from Danbury to the Post Road in Peekskill would make a halt and change hourses. The roadhouse stood on the John Hyatt farm, anjoining what is now the Hart library building.
The John Hyatt farm was afterward the Joshua Hyatt place, Joshua being a son of John. Today it is known as the Charles May place. Mrs. May was the daughter of Joshua.
Purdy 65 years Postmaster
The next thing occuring to place Shrub Oak on the map was when President William Henry Harrison appointed in 1841, one Mr. Purdy as Postmaster. Purdy retained that position up to the time of his death in 1906, having held the job for 65 years. Purdy was Shrub Oak's first postmaster, the office being located across the street from the library.
The Old Leather Man
of the many men of note who have either lived in Shrub Oak or visited it, the coming none was more looked forward to than that of the Frenchman known as "The Leather Man."
No one knew the name of the "Old Leather Man." though some contended, it was Jules Burglay and others thought it to be Gean Bogeaureau. This strange Frenchman made a round of 366 miles through Connecticut and New York in about 30 days and stopped off at many houses for more than 20 years, where mistresses gave him food, but he never begged and never gave thanks for his food.
Love Story of the Old Leather Man
The story runs, that while going of college in France, he fell in love with a girl whose father was a wealthy leather merchant, The poor youth was not allowed to marry the girl, but was taken into the leather business to learn it, then he would be allowed to marry her. However, a speculation in leather ruined the business and affected his mind. After many years in a hospital, he came out to find his parents gone and the girl dead of a broken heart.
He then sailed for America with a picture of his sweetheart tucked in a prayer book. He made his own clothes out of scraps of leather given to him and never accepted lodgings, even in storms,
He carried a huge tin pipe which be made himself, an axe, a tin pail, a hatchet, a jacknife and an awl. It was his custom to sleep in caves and when he came through Shrub Oak Plains, he frequented several caves in this vicinity. It is said that he had a house built of railroad ties where he often spend days reparing and oiling his leather clothes.
He was born in France about 80 years ago and died of Cancer in 1889. He was taken to a hospital but didn't want to stay. He walked 30 miles and at six bowls of bread and coffee first befor he died.
After the close of the Revolution, the so-called River Indiana in the Townships of Cortlandt and Yorktown made their last stand, before being placed on a reservation by the government, at Shrub Oak. Their habitation was on the flat lands of the Hyatt farm above alluded to, and their hunting grounds were on what we now know as "Piano Mountain" and "East Hill," a mile east of Shrub Oak on the way to Jafferson Valley. The road leading up that hill is known as "Indian Hill," and tradition has it that on that hill is an Indian burying ground.
(PHOTO) A quaint character who once roamed the hills of Northern Westchester and Putnam County, living in caves, who will be recalled by the older generation of today as one of their childhood thrills.
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