Tag: Hudson Valley

The Maryknoll Sisters

The Maryknoll Sisters

For today’s post, I thought I’d highlight a group of women who have devoted their lives to making the world a better place – the Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic.

Maryknoll Sisters in Punahou, Hawaii c. 1920s
Photo from the Maryknoll Mission Archives

Maryknoll is just one of several places that have a pretty big footprint in Ossining but exist on the sidelines of Ossining’s collective consciousness. At least, I don’t often think about it unless I happen to run (or drive!) along Pinesbridge Road.  

Maryknoll Seminary on Pinesbridge Road, Ossining

But in recent years, I’ve had the opportunity to get to know some of the Sisters there, and their lives and accomplishments are certainly worthy of a Women’s History month post.

First, what exactly IS Maryknoll?  Officially, its title is the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America, and includes the Fathers and Brothers of Maryknoll and the Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic.  Founded by Father James Walsh and Father Thomas Price, they received Papal approval in 1911 and wasted no time in finding a home for their seminary.  Purchasing several tracts of land in Ossining, they hired Italian masons who had worked on the Croton Dam to build many of the Maryknoll buildings – hence the remarkable stone masonry evident. (According to Brother John Blazo, the Maryknoll Historian, it was decided to give the cupola a particularly Chinese theme in order to motivate the missionaries to go to far away places and spread the word of God.)

But back to the Sisters.  They were founded in 1912 by Mary Josephine “Mollie” Rogers (later known as Mother Mary Joseph.)  She’d gone to Smith College and become inspired by the active Student Volunteer Movement there and the idea of overseas missionary work.  

Mary Josephine “Mollie” Rogers, c. 1910.
Photo from the Maryknoll Mission Archives

Fortuitously, she met Father Walsh and began working in his office to help him get his Society started. Brother Blazo tells the story that Father Walsh had found it increasingly difficult to purchase some of the parcels of land he needed to put together the campus he envisioned.  Sensing that there might be anti-Catholic sentiment at the root of it, Mollie Rogers dressed up in her most formal Smith College-wear and purchased the land on behalf of the Fathers, looking to all the world like a rich, Westchester matron.

Working in tandem with the Fathers and Brothers, it took almost a decade for the Sisters to be officially recognized by the Catholic Church.  Mother Mary Joseph, along with few others, charted a course through unmapped waters – theirs was the first group of American religious women whose primary mission was overseas service. Frankly, it seems like the Church didn’t know what to do with them –  they were rebuffed again and again by Church leadership, both here and in Rome.  But by 1920, they were officially approved to begin their mission work.  Soon, they were serving in faraway places like Manchuria and the Philippines and China, and women from all over the world were joining their Sisterhood.

According to their website, what Mother Mary Joseph asked from her Sisters was “Charity, fearless honesty and speaking the truth in love as they give witness to God’s love and devote their lives to service overseas.” 

Sister Mary Joseph with novitiates at Maryknoll.
Photo from the Maryknoll Mission Archives

World War II interrupted their mission work, especially in Asia – there, some Sisters were put in prison, others were arrested and deported.  Two Sisters disappeared and were never found.  In the States, when Japanese Americans were put in concentration camps, Maryknoll Sisters went with them.

Maryknoll Sisters in China, c. 1940s
Photo from the Maryknoll Mission Archives

Over the decades, they’ve opened schools, clinics and hospitals, expanding their reach into South America, Africa, Thailand, Japan and South Korea.  They’ve nursed lepers in Hawaii, AIDs patients in El Salvador, taught English in Jakarta, provided social work services to Sudanese refugees, guided Vietnamese asylum seekers through a maze of red tape, performed surgery in Guatemala, started health clinics in Tanzania, nursed the sick in South Korea – in short, as their website says, they serve “the poor, the ailing and the marginalized around the world.”

Each one of these remarkable women has gone through rigorous training programs, learned several languages, and lived for years in foreign countries, often in great peril, as they served in some of the most unstable and violent regions in the world. 

The Maryknoll Sisters campus in Ossining offers space for nuns to take a breather between postings, opportunities for further training, and as a home base to serve locally.  Both of my sons fondly remember the Sister who was a regular in their 2nd grade classroom at Brookside School (just across the street), and how it was always a treat to be in her reading group. 

Currently, there are nearly 300 sisters serving in 18 countries.  

My interactions with them have been inspiring and humbling – they are all more informed about current events than anyone I know.  They also take a keen interest in politics and democracy, understanding that it is a potent tool to effect change.  But it’s their sincere belief in social justice, peace, and humanity that really sets them apart.

I asked one of the sisters what made her want to be a missionary nun and she told me the following story: 

 “When I was a very little girl, my father took me to see some shacks that had appeared at the end of our very nice street.  ‘They’re called Hoovervilles,’ he told me. (Yes, Herbert Hoover was President when she was a little girl!)  I cried.  ‘But we have to help these people, they can’t live like that.’ My father shook his head – ‘There are too many of them and they need too much.  There’s nothing we can do.’  Well, I think that was moment that started me on this path – I was only about four years old, but I’ve never forgotten that moment.  Yes, there ARE too many and they DO need a lot.  But there’s always something we can do.”

In the spirit of Women’s History month, may I suggest that you peruse a few of the biographies of these inspiring women here.

FDR Park and the Comte de Rochambeau

“The code word is Rochambeau, dig me? . . . You have your orders now, go man go!”  (From Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda)

I originally wrote this post back in December 2022 in honor of the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to the White House:  

French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Joe Biden toasting each other at the State Dinner hosted at the White House on December 1, 2022 (Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)

At the time, there was all sorts of talk about how France was America’s first ally, during our glorious Revolution of 1776.  So, I thought it would be interesting to share some nitty gritty details about a local spot where the French Army encamped during the American Revolution on their way down to Yorktown, Virginia where they helped us defeat the British in 1781.

However, the Harry Potter Forbidden Forest Experience had other ideas.  

They had loaded in an enormous amount of equipment and closed off a big section of Franklin Delano Roosevelt State Park.  And they’d set up right on top of the campsite and the historical markers I sought. But, as of February 15, all is clear and now the story can be told.

(As an aside, if you missed the Harry Potter Experience, it’ll be back next Fall, so try and snag a ticket.  They are not cheap, but it’s definitely a fun experience for young and old.   (No they’re not paying me to say this!)  Plus, the company has left the park better than they found it, with both new and upgraded trails. So win/win.)

On August 21, 1781 Marshal Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau and his army first encamped within the boundaries of today’s FDR Park to rest before their big march south to attack the British in Virginia.

General Rochambeau. Painting by Joseph Desire Court (National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.)

Local historian Lincoln Diamant wrote about their sojourn in our backyard in this charming article for the New York Times in 1996 (back when the NYT still published charming articles of local history and culture.)

Now, Rochambeau’s army of 3,500 had arrived in Westchester in early July.  They met up with George Washington’s army, camping in Ardsley, and Washington and Rochambeau planned the upcoming offensive.  

Rochambeau commandeered the nearby Odell House in Hartsdale as his headquarters.  (See here for more on this Westchester Historic Site.)

Diamant mentions that the two armies “exchanged civilities,” and shares a description written by a French officer of a banquet the Americans offered that consisted of ”la haute cuisine Americain . . .  vegetables, beef, potatoes, lamb, chicken, salad (dressed with nothing but vinegar), puddings and pie — all heaped upon the same table, and often upon the same plate.”

I can just see the French officers chuckling to each other behind perfumed, lacy handkerchiefs at such peasant fare and rough presentation, can’t you?  Oh, those Americains! I dread to think what the French thought about the wine served.

Washington took a few weeks to decide where he was going to launch what he must have known was the Colonies’ Hail Mary attack on the British.  By late August, Virginia had been selected as the attack point.

The two armies split up and began marching.  The French took a slightly different route, but all were marching through 90* heat, in wool uniforms, carrying heavy loads up to 60 pounds over some pretty hilly terrain. 

It’s at this juncture that Rochambeau’s army stopped in what is today FDR Park, camping near Crom Pond, on the property of one Caleb Frost, a Tory who had long before escaped south behind British lines.  According to Diamant, the precise location of this campsite is noted as near “Solomon Hunt’s Tavern in the pleasant settlement of what is now Yorktown Heights (near the corner of Hallock’s Mill Road and U.S. 202)”

They only stayed one night, heading off to Verplank to cross the Hudson River at King’s Ferry, marching south to Virginia, to the Siege of Yorktown and the Battle of the Chesapeake (I know I don’t need to tell you what happened there.)  Let’s just say that without General Lafayette (who was waiting there in Chesapeake Bay), General Rochambeau, and all the French soldiers fighting and dying for our cause, we would not be the vibrant, independent country we are today. 

So yeah, France really IS our first ally.

But the story doesn’t end there. In 1782, on their way up to Boston to embark on ships that would return them to France, Rochambeau’s army would return to this campsite for almost a month’s stay in September/October. As they packed up to leave, Rochambeau was very nearly arrested. You see, mill owner Hallock was miffed that the French army had cut down trees and destroyed some of his fences (3500 men will do that), and so had the local sheriff try to collect 15,000 livres from Rochambeau in damages. Ever the diplomat, Rochambeau defused the situation by offering to pay a significant, but much lower amount. While I certainly understand Hallock’s ire, in the big picture, Hallock would have likely had nothing if the British had won. Plus, the sign below notes that Rochambeau’s army had made improvements to the Crom Pond to give themselves more access to water and their work had also benefited mill-owner Mr. Hallock. I think Mr. Hallock was being unreasonable. Don’t you?

Here is the sign I have been waiting to photograph

The National Park Service has helpfully put together this Washington – Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Trail Brochure which you can use to follow in the footsteps of these patriots all the way from Boston down to Yorktown, Virginia.    (I know what I’m doing this summer . . .)

Teatown Lake Reservation — From 2022 to Two Million Years Ago

 I can’t quite believe it’s taken me this long to write about Teatown Lake Reservation. 

Talk about ignoring things in your own backyard! It’s not only a wonderful organization that has provided exemplary stewardship of the land, but it’s also a goldmine of history.  

If you know where to look, of course.

Now, I have of late become  a little more interested in pre-history – I mean geologic history, the kind that involves rocks and . . . well, rocks.  It is truly the history before humans.  See here for more. 

(Also, see the first chapter of my new book Croton Point Park: Westchester’s Jewel on the Hudson)

But I’m not going to go back to the Precambrian epoch.  I mean, I could tell of gneiss and schist and Ossining marble, of ancient continental plates, ever shifting and buckling up mountain ranges.  Of Pangaea and volcanoes and ice sheets . . . but already, I feel my attention begin to wane. 

No, I have to admit that my interests lie in people – how they lived, what they ate, what they wore, what they did.  How different yet similar we are.  And, of course, how we got to where we are today.

Teatown has all of this – characters and stories, and a long, long history that can indeed be traced back to rocks and magma.

So let’s start from today, and go backwards, investigating the world of Teatown from 2022 all the way back to – well, I guess the history of the rocks and ice I disparaged above.  Or at least until I get bored.

First, no discussion of Teatown would be complete without calling attention to Lincoln Diamant’s excellent book, Images of America: Teatown Lake Reservation. 

 You can find it in our local libraries, pick it up at the Teatown gift shop, at any number of our local bookshops or, if you must, buy it online.  

(Full disclosure, I have plucked much of my research for this post out of Diamant’s book.)

So, what is Teatown?  (And how did it get its name?)

Today, 2022, Teatown Lake Reservation is a non-profit nature preserve with miles of trails, native plant exhibits, and a small wildlife refuge.  Much of the land that constitute today’s Teatown was owned by Gerard Swope, Sr. and his wife Mary and inherited by their five children. They created Teatown Lake Reservation in 1963 to honor their parents and it has been thriving and growing ever since.

Gerard Swope was president of General Electric from 1922 – 1945 and was a well-respected businessman and labor reformer.  He also worked in the Roosevelt administration during the Depression to aid with the economic recovery.  

In 1922, Swope purchased the main house, the outbuildings and various parcels of land from the estate of Dan Hanna.   In 1924, the Swopes created Teatown Lake, by building the small dam still found at the far side of lake.  

I must note that from October – December 2022, Teatown had to do some extensive rebuilding of the dam and in the process, drained the entire lake.  Here are some photos and look – you can see the remains of 18th/19th century stone walls still stuck in the mud.  

And here are some pictures of the diggers and backhoes at work rebuilding the dam and installing a new pump.  

But back to the exciting title search — in 1919, Dan Hanna purchased the land. He was the owner and publisher of the Cleveland News, as well as being a coal industrialist from the Ohio region.   If you’re a serious political history buff, you might find it interesting to learn that he was the nephew of Ohio Senator Mark Hanna, the Karl Rove (or Kellyanne Conway) to our 25th President, William McKinley.  

Dan Hanna was referred to as a “Cleveland Millionaire,” in a 1916 New York Times squib about his third divorce.   (Is that a sniffy New York Times way of saying he wasn’t up to New York social standards?)  He then swiftly remarried Molly Covington Hanna in the same year.  There are other newspaper clippings I’ve seen that were positively salivating over his marital career (“Dan Hanna is some Marry-er” winked the Lexington Herald-Leader in December of 1916).

At his death in 1922, according to the New York Times, his estate was valued at $10,000,000.  He was also noted as having four infant sons.  Considering that he married Molly in 1916 and she was 47 at the time, that is either surprising or simply incorrect. Yet this curious 1923 article describes a chaotic life after she was widowed, despite the 978 acre estate on Makeenac Lake in the Berkshires that she received as a wedding gift from Hanna.

Continuing on back in time, the previous owner, Arthur Vernay, purchased the parcel in 1915 from the Hershfeld estate.  Vernay was one of those wealthy men with a fascinating variety of interests and hobbies – apparently he was a very successful antiques dealer in Manhattan who was also an enthusiastic big-game hunter in the style of Teddy Roosevelt (and who also donated many carcasses to the Museum of Natural History.  Apparently you can still find his name on a plaque in the Roosevelt wing there today.)  

Vernay was responsible for building many of the Tudor-style structures that still stand today.  Those office buildings by the parking lot?  These were the old stables and outbuildings of the Croft, Vernay’s matching Tudor-style mansion that stood across the street until it was demolished in 2019.  The Croft supposedly contained imported genuine antique English interiors (a fireplace in there was said to be from the 1300s!)  I mean, considering that Vernay dealt in antiques, that seems possible.

Now, here’s where it gets complicated.  Before 1915, Teatown was part of a series of parcels that had at one time all been owned and farmed by the Palmer family.  The Palmer connection goes back to 1780, when William Palmer purchased a fairly large tract of land from Pierre Van Cortlandt.  Palmer lived at 400 Blinn Road (so named in the 20th century by actor Holbrook Blinn) and seems to have run a successful dairy farm. (Lincoln Diamant says that #400 was a converted dairy barn. But Diamant also says that #400 was a house built by the Van Cortlandt’s in 1740.  I’d be interested to know which is the truth.) 

In 1826, William Palmer gives several plots of land to his son Robert, who would build himself a farmhouse nearby at 340 Blinn Road.

A few years later, William Palmer would give another plot to his son John, who apparently lived in a farmhouse on or near today’s Teatown administration building.  His barn is said to have been on the site of the maple sugaring shed.  And the lake?  That wasn’t there at all – it was in fact a Big Meadow (so noted on maps of that era.)

At some point, son (or grandson?) Richard Palmer also received a plot of land – this one all the way over by Teatown Road.  In fact, if you walk along the Lakeside Trail, crossing the two Eagle Scout-built bridges built by Troop 18 scouts Michael Pavelchek and William Curvan . . .

. . . you’ll eventually come upon some crumbing stone foundations which are all that’s left of Richard Palmer’s farmstead.  The buildings were supposedly standing until 1915, and I have even heard that daylilies are still seen to bloom at the site on occasion (though I’ve never managed to see any.) 

Other plots of land were sold to non-Palmers, one of which still whispers to us when the leaves are down.  As you’re walking on the Lakeside Trail, right next to Spring Valley Road, you might notice a pile of stones.  These are the foundation of Kahr’s farmhouse, located at 1685 Spring Valley Road.  

And if you walk a little farther and look carefully, you can even see what I believe is the original well for this farmhouse:

Are your eyes glazed over yet?  Stay with me a bit longer and I’ll tell you how it got its name AND make the connection all the back to the first people – I’ll be quick, I promise!

How did Teatown get its name?

The story goes (and it comes from the aforementioned Mr. Diamant) that during the American Revolution a grocer named John Arthur moved up from British-controlled Manhattan to the Neutral Zone of northern Westchester.  Gossip ensued, and it was bandied about among the local women that Mr. Arthur had several chests of tea in his possession.  Now tea was as precious as gold then (remember the Boston Tea Party??) and Arthur was a prudent businessman who hoped to sell his tea for whatever the market would bear.  Well, this market of tea-deprived farmwomen was no match for him – they ransacked his farmhouse and found the tea.  He finally agreed to sell it to them for a reasonable price and so Teatown was born.

(I will not waste words poking holes into this story as I do not have a better one to offer in its place.)

Moving still further backwards . . .

In 1697 Stephanus Van Cortlandt is awarded a royal patent from King William III for 86,000 acres that ran from today’s Van Cortlandt Manor in Croton all the way up to Anthony’s Nose and inland almost to Connecticut.  Stephanus died in 1700 and it was up to his widow Gertrude and about 100 tenant families to farm and maintain the land.  (Well, I’m pretty sure Gertrude wasn’t doing any hoeing. . .)

Now, before 1609, when Henry Hudson sailed his Half Moon up the river, the area was home to Algonquin-speaking indigenous people related to the Mohicans, Munsees, Wappingers and Delawares.  The Sint Sincks and the Kitchawan were two tribes that likely used the Teatown area as their hunting grounds.  

Going back even farther, say about 10,000 – 15,000 years ago, people were following the retreating glaciers and first coming into the area from the south and the west.  

Think about that — our area has only been habitable fairly recently.  Consider that the most recent ice age, of the Quaternary Period, began over 2 million years ago and it wasn’t until about 25,000 years ago that humans and animals could even have survived.  It is, as Town of Ossining historian Scott Craven likes to say, just a geological snap of the fingers!

So there you have it – a thumbnail history of Teatown from November 2022 to 2 million years ago.  While this is by no means in-depth reporting, I hope it will inspire you to dig deeper.

A Shameless Plug . . .

I know I haven’t posted much here lately and that’s because I was putting the finishing touches on my new book!

Co-authored with Town of Ossining Historian Scott Craven, it’s called “Croton Point Park: Westchester’s Jewel on the Hudson.” Here’s the cover for your enjoyment:

It’s a fairly comprehensive history of (duh!) Croton Point Park, starting about 25,000 years ago when the ice sheets began their final retreat north. We’ve been getting great feedback on it from people who’ve read it and/or seen one of our presentations.

So check it out! You can buy it at any bookstore in the immediate area, as well as from the usual online bookselling sites. (You can even purchase a Kindle version!)

And please, visit our website: HudsonValleyChronicles.com — you can find other links through which you can purchase the book and read our new Hudson River blog over there.

Thanks for your support!