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History and Legend of 
 
 Howard Avenue and the 
 
 Serpentine Road, Grymes 
 
 Hill, Staten Island 
 
 Gathered by Charles Gilbert Hine 
 
 From Real Estate Records and 
 
 Long Memories 
 
 " One generation passeth away, and another gen- 
 eration Cometh: but the earth abideth forever." 
 
 Hine's Annual, 1914 
 

 Privmtei^ Printed 
 
 cm 
 
 Author 
 
 m 20 ,9,5, 
 
 Hine Brothers Printery 
 
Prologue 
 
 "Men toil," he said, "from mom till night 
 With bleeding hands and blinded sight 
 For gold, more gold! They have be- 
 trayed 
 
 The tm^ that in their souls was laid; 
 Their fairy birthright they have sold 
 For little disks of mortal gold; 
 And now they cannot even see 
 The gold upon the greenwood tree, 
 The wealth of colored lights that pass 
 In soft gradations through the grass. 
 The riches of the love untold 
 That wakes the day from grey to gold; 
 And howsoe'er the moonlight weaves 
 Magic webs among the leaves." 
 
 Alfred Noyes. 
 
STAPLETOX AS IT APPEARS TO THE BENIGHTED 
 TRAVELER ON GRYMES MILL. 
 
 "THE HARBOR-LANTHORNS, EACH A SPARK, 
 A PIN-PRICK IN THE SOLID DARK." 
 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 
 
 In that which is to follow I speak not as 
 one having authority, but rather as a scribe 
 who records the learning of others. 
 
 Chiefly I am indebted to Mr. Edward C. 
 Delavan, whose knowledge of land transfers 
 on the island is exceptionally extensive and 
 accurate, and who has been my guide to 
 much that has proved of interest. To Mr. 
 William T. Davis and his "Old Names and 
 Places." To Messrs. Alfred De Groot, Dan- 
 iel Wandel, Sheriff Denyse, E. D. Clark, 
 who lived on Howard avenue from 1843 to 
 1857; J. M. Betton, born in the Hunt 
 house; Ralph M. Munroe, a frequent vis- 
 itor at the Vanderbilt and Ward homes, 
 and James Vreeland; to Mrs. James Mor- 
 gan Davis, and Miss Violet Ward, who 
 readily recalls that which came to her from 
 her father, Gen. William G. Ward ; Mr. and 
 Mrs. Joseph D. Lawrence, Miss Elizabeth 
 Elliott, daughter of Dr. S. M. Elliott, Miss 
 Mary S. Thompson, Mr. and Mrs. J. A. 
 Morton, and to others in varying degrees 
 whose memories have been my stepping- 
 stones. 
 
 his 
 C. G. ? HINE. 
 mark 
 
t 
 
ALEXAXDEU VOX HUMBOLDT IS t?AID TO HAVE PRONOUNCED THE VIEW 
 PROM GRYMES HILL ONE OF THE GRANDEST AND MOST IMPOSING IN THE 
 WORLD. BELOW LIKS STAPLETON AS WE SEE IT ON A WINTER NIGHT, WHILE 
 BEYOND THE NARROWS BROOKLY'N'S MILKY' WAY" SHINES STRONG AND 
 CLEAR. PROM ONE POINT JUST SOUTH OF EDDY STREET EIGHT LIGHT- 
 HOUSES AND TWO LIGHT-SHIPS CAN BE SEEN ON A CLEAR NIGHT. 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 The general hi^ory and ^ory of 
 the locality, including the several 
 names that have been applied to 
 Grymes Hill in the pa^ and their 
 origin. Howr the Serpentine Road 
 and Howard Avenue came to be 
 opened and when; also other 
 matters of a similar nature. 
 
 IKE Marc Antony's friend, the 
 
 L charms of Grymes Hill are of in- 
 finite variety. It holds something 
 for every human temperament, 
 some new phase for every hour of 
 the day and in every change of the 
 weather. The morning mist and the lazily 
 drifting smoke from a throng of breakfast 
 fires in the valley ; the afternoon sun which 
 picks out many a brilliant point along the far 
 shore of the Narrows; the summer-night 
 lights of the village beneath us ; the glittering 
 necklace of the Shore road beyond, and the 
 more distant lights on Coney Island, with the 
 warning flashes from eight lighthouses and 
 two lightships — the winter moon on freshly 
 fallen snow turning night into a dream of 
 beautiful mystery as the eye wanders off 
 over the lowlands into the unseeable. 
 
 These are but chapter headings for the 
 multitudinous riches spread for all. 
 
 A traveler whose homeward flight ends on 
 Grymes Hill once picked up a magazine and 
 therein saw depicted our familiar view illus- 
 trating an article by Gorki, and under it 
 
 Gorki on 
 the View 
 
HOWARD AVENUE CBb 
 
 Signal 
 Hill 
 
 Castleton 
 Heights 
 
 Capo di 
 Monte 
 
 Snake Hill 
 
 Brimstone 
 Hill 
 
 Clove Hill 
 
 the title, "The most beautiful view in the 
 world." A good deal, it seems to me, for a 
 foreigner to admit, even under such extenu- 
 ating circumstances. 
 
 The early history of Grymes Hill was lost 
 before any recording angel looked into the 
 matter, but, as the Indians touched not the 
 high places except as hunting grounds, and 
 the Dutch who followed were alike low- 
 minded, it does not seem probable that this 
 region made much history before 1830. 
 
 Those first to settle on the island pre- 
 ferred the low country and the water side. 
 Messrs. Bankers and Sluyter reported in 
 1676 that "The eastern part (of Staten Is- 
 land) is high and steep, and has few inhab- 
 itants," and so at least the Grymes Hill re- 
 gion continued for one hundred and fifty 
 years. 
 
 The earliest name for the ridge, so far as 
 known, was "Signal Hill." According to 
 William T. Davis the British had a signal 
 station here, and the name followed as a 
 matter of course. Deeds of 1836 and there- 
 about show that the hill was known as 
 "Castleton Heights." Madame Grymes 
 called her place "Capo di Monte," and for a 
 time this name was applied to the entire 
 ridge, to be succeeded later by the present 
 appellation. Mr. Daniel Wandel tells me 
 that in his youth the part of the hill which 
 looks down on "Rocky Hollow," and which 
 was all "briars and rabbits" was known as 
 "Snake Hill," while the southeastern end 
 which dominates the "Richmond road" was 
 known as "Brimstone Hill." "You could 
 smell the brimstone — can smell it now." 
 Old deeds give this name, according to 
 William T. Davis. The southern slope has 
 also been known as "Clove Hill," while 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 the northern slope was at one time called 
 "Brown's Hill" for the reason that E. G. 
 Brown helped to erect the Lederle house 
 on Louis street, and lived therein for some 
 time. This region was also known as 
 "Pole Hill," Mr. Taxter tells me, and he 
 presumes it was because travelers over its 
 slippery, soapstoned sides used alpenstocks 
 or poles in their efforts to scale these 
 craggy heights. 
 
 The known history of interest begins with 
 the advent of Major George Howard in 1830, 
 and of Oroondates Mauran in 1831. 
 
 At first Grymes Hill was part of the Don- 
 gan possessions, which appear to have ex- 
 tended as far to the eastward in these parts 
 as the Norwood patent, which lay along 
 the eastern foot of the hill. It so remained 
 until some time before 1755, when a portion 
 of its eastern slope was added to the farm 
 of Cornelius Corson, which occupied the 
 water front where now lies Stapleton. The 
 deed covering this transfer was not re- 
 corded and its exact date is not known. 
 When Cornelius 2d dwelt with his fathers, 
 1789, his three sons, Daniel, Cornelius and 
 Richard, came into possession, each re- 
 ceiving a strip which ran from the water to 
 the hilltop. 
 
 The account of Howard avenue and the 
 Serpentine road which is to follow covers 
 such items of history and legend concerning 
 Grymes Hill as have come from the real 
 estate records and by word of mouth, the 
 printed histories containing almost nothing 
 on the subject. The word "legend" is used 
 advisedly, as much of the material is from 
 the lips of those with long memories — one of 
 which at least goes back to his childhood 
 
 Brozmi's 1 1 HI 
 
 Pole Hill 
 
 Early 
 Oivners 
 
HOWARD AVENUE ca, 
 
 Turnpike 
 j8j6 
 
 Oroondates 
 Mauran 
 
 Howard 
 Purchases 
 
 Howard 
 Avenue 
 
 school days in Rocky Hollow — 1836. It is 
 not always possible to make statements so 
 received dovetail with that nicety which is 
 commendable in a history, and consequently 
 we call this the "history and legend of," etc. 
 
 Barring the Turnpike, 1816, with which 
 we have nothing in common at the present 
 time, the first roads on the hill would appear 
 to have been Eddy street, Howard avenue 
 and Prospect (now Lewis, misspelled 
 Louis,) street. 
 
 When Oroondates Mauran purchased in 
 183 1 the property which now lies between 
 Eddy street and the Kendall place, Howard 
 avenue and the Turnpike, it was stipulated 
 in the deed that land should be set off on 
 the north and east sides of the property for 
 roads, and thus Eddy street and that part of 
 Howard avenue came into being. The elbow 
 in Eddy street occurs at a point where the 
 Corson and Vreeland farms met and may 
 be due to this fact and some fence or other 
 field bound on one or both of the farms. 
 
 Between the years 1830 and 1833 Major 
 George Howard purchased forty-two acres, 
 which included all land between Eddy and 
 Louis streets, a strip along the north side 
 of the latter and the present Hillard, Brui- 
 nier, Martin and Stirn properties, and he is 
 probably responsible for Louis, which he 
 named Prospect street, and the northern 
 portion of Howard avenue. That portion of 
 the property which is represented by the 
 Cisco place he retained for a home, the re- 
 mainder he cut up into fifty-foot lots which 
 were sold at auction on August i, 1836. 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 Announcement of the auction sale 
 of the Howard property on Aug- 
 ust 1 , 1 836. With names of orig- 
 inal purchasers. 
 
 James Bleecker, Auctioneer. 
 
 By James Bleecker and Sons. 
 Sales Room 13 Broad St. Furness Buildins, 
 
 Monday. Au«r. 1. (1836) 
 12 o'clock at their Sales Room, 13 Broad St. 
 
 Staten Island. — A number of building: sites, situated on 
 tlie romantic heights of Staten Island, adjoining 
 Howard Place, three-quarters of a mile from the 
 steamboat landings at New Brighton, Tompkinsville 
 and Bay House. 
 
 The view from these grounds is unrivaled in this or any 
 other country; the lots are of large dimensions 
 bounded on the one side upon an avenue, and the 
 Richmond turnpike on the other. 
 
 The title has been strictly investigated and is undispu- 
 table. 
 
 Maps will be ready and furnished in a few days. 
 
 Terms, 10 per cent on the day of sale, 40 per cent on 
 the delivery of the deeds, and if desired, the balance 
 can remain on bond and mortgage. — (From the New 
 York Commercial Advertiser of July 30, 1836.) 
 The sale was lield probably on the date advertised 
 
 as all deeds are dated on the twentieth of that month. All 
 
 the lots were sold except those on the northern side of 
 
 Prospect street. 
 
 Following is a list of the lots sold with names of 
 
 purchasers and such items of Interest as the records 
 
 yield. 
 
 Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4, 9, 10 and 11, Thomas Langworth, 
 
 of the city of New York, Gentleman. Conslderatioi., 
 
 $2,660. 
 
 Nos. 5 and 6, Stephen H. Herrick of the city of New 
 
 York, Merchant. Consideration, $800. 
 
 Nos. 7 and 8, 41 and 42, Joshua Moses of the city of 
 
 New York, Merchant. Consideration $1,620. 
 
 Nos. 12 and 13. 31 and 36. Benjamin Pike, of the 
 
 city of New York, Optician. Consideration, |2,045. 
 
6 
 
 HOWARD AVENUE ca. 
 
 Serpentine 
 Road 
 
 Nos. 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19, Benjamin Wood of the 
 town of Castleton, county of Richmond, Gentleman. Con- 
 sideration, $3,520. 
 
 No. 20, Wesley Cole, of the town of Castleton, etc. 
 Consideration, $400. 
 
 Nos. 21, 23, 25, 27 and 29, Thomas Hazard, of the 
 town of Castleton, etc.. Gentleman. Consideration, $1,000. 
 
 Nos. 22, 24, 26 and 28, William Rockwell, of the town 
 of Castleton etc.. Physician. Consideration, $2,040. 
 
 No. 30, Caleb T. Ward, of the town of Castleton, etc.. 
 Gentleman. Consideration, $420. 
 
 Nos. 32, 33 and 34, John Y. Cebra, of the city of 
 New York, Merchant. Consideration, $1,420. 
 
 No. 35, George Ackerly, of the city of New York, 
 Gentleman. Consideration, $430. 
 
 Nos. 37, 38, 39 and 40. Wyllis Blackstone, of the 
 city of New York. Consideration, $1,520. 
 
 Nos. 43 and 44, Samuel R. Smith, of the town of 
 Castleton, etc. Consideration, $910. 
 
 Thus we see that Major Howard sold 44 lots for 
 $18,785, and had remaining 15 lots in addition to his home 
 plot, which he later sold for $22,000. For all this land, 
 42 acres, he paid $8,892.50, Showing a profit of $31,- 
 893.60, less expenses of plotting and sale. 
 
 Major Howard came in 1830. The deed to 
 Madame Grymes's property, 1836, begins 
 "all that certain tract, etc., lying on the 
 west side of Howard avenue," etc. Thus 
 Howard avenue was then an established 
 fact. 
 
 The Serpentine road was a later develop- 
 ment. Madame Grymes had her private en- 
 trance from the Richmond road; this was 
 also the case with the Nesmith and Cunard 
 properties, while Captain Vanderbilt had an 
 entrance on the Clove road. 
 
 The fact that it is a "road,"' and not an 
 "avenue," is the best of evidence that the 
 Serpentine grew as required, and was not 
 laid out deliberately by any real estate 
 boomer. Between the years 1836 and 1865 
 the Nesmith family purchased a large tract 
 through which the Serpentine road now 
 runs fronting on the Richmond road, 
 the Clove road and the Turnpike. These 
 purchases were made from twenty-four sepa- 
 rate property-owners, and necessitated the 
 recording of about fifty deeds. In not one 
 of these instruments is the Serpentine road 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 mentioned as a boundary line or in any way ; 
 hence it would seem improbable that the 
 road was a recognized highway during this 
 period. The map of 1845 shows no such 
 road. In the agreement of 1867, concern- 
 ing Hillside avenue, noted elsewhere, the 
 Serpentine road is mentioned by name. 
 
 As Miss Violet Ward recalls it, the 
 southern end of our beautiful roadway be- 
 gan in a Nesmith cow trail from the grazing 
 grounds along the Clove road to the stables 
 on the top of the hill, which stood opposite 
 the present El Paradiso. This was so nar- 
 row that a carriage attempting it would be 
 scratched by the briars on either hand. 
 When General William G. Ward purchased 
 — 1865 — he found that he had no access to 
 any highway, and so he adopted the 
 Nesmith cowpath by setting his fence back. 
 At first Cunard at one end and Jacob Van- 
 derbilt at the other fenced him off, as nei- 
 ther was willing to contribute land for a pub- 
 lic road, preferring that the village should be 
 compelled to do the work. This trouble was 
 finally straightened out, however, and grad- 
 ually the road grew as necessity required, 
 allowing the lay of the land to govern its 
 course until it came to what we now know 
 as the Drucklieb place, when it passed down 
 the hillside west of Mr. Drucklieb's dwelling 
 and, Mr. Drucklieb tells me, came out on the 
 Richmond road at or near Broad street. 
 
 Miss Ward makes this statement, know- 
 ing that the Serpentine road is laid out on a 
 map published in 1850, but she is quite sure 
 that the mapmaker simply accepted the 
 Nesmith cowpath, which was in those days 
 so rough that no vehicle ever attempted it a 
 second time if, by any chance, it could go 
 the long way round. However, Mr. Munroe 
 
8 
 
 HOWARD AVENUE CBt, 
 
 Where 
 Howard Av. 
 and Serpen- 
 tine Road 
 Meet 
 
 Hillside 
 Avenue 
 
 Howard 
 Avenue 
 
 writes "I dislike to take exception to the 
 statements of my friend, Miss Ward, re- 
 garding the Serpentine road, but my family 
 left the Emerson Hill place about 1862 or 
 1863 and I feel quite certain that between 
 1857 ^^^ 1 86 1 we drove over that road 
 many times to show visitors the wonderful 
 view." 
 
 Howard avenue ran into the Serpentine 
 road at that obtuse angle in the Kendall 
 stone wall which conceals the future, no 
 matter which way one travels. Before the 
 Serpentine became established as a public 
 way, however, that part which ran through 
 the Grymes (present Drucklieb) property 
 was closed and the Serpentine road and 
 Howard avenue became one. 
 
 By an agreement made in 1867 between 
 John P. Nesmith, George Browne, Edward 
 Cunard and Eugene Dutilh, owners of the 
 surrounding property, the private carriage 
 road established some time previous to 1843, 
 and known as Nesmith street, was closed 
 and Hillside avenue, which included a small 
 part of the older road, was opened for the 
 mutual accommodation of the adjoining 
 land-owners. 
 
 It is proposed to begin our story at the 
 northern end of Howard avenue and worry 
 south over that and the Serpentine road, giv- 
 ing the history as we go — geographically, 
 rather than chronologically. 
 
 As first laid out, Howard avenue was 
 merely a private lane, gates being placed at 
 Louis and Eddy streets, which were closed 
 at night and opened in the morning. Why 
 any one should desire to call a country road 
 an "avenue" is one of those mysteries that 
 only an alderman or a real estate promoter 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 can solve. Therefore, do not build up in 
 your imagination a Howard avenue lined 
 with palatial mansions set shoulder to 
 shoulder, or gorgeous shops, but rather a 
 winding country road bordered by the homes 
 of those who would dwell apart from the 
 hurry and noise of the city. And join with 
 me in the hope that there is some particu- 
 larly warm spot tucked away in the here- 
 after for the author of such a desecration as 
 "Avenue" in such a region as this. 
 
 From Daniel Wandel comes the following 
 story of what may have been the first steam 
 railway on Staten Island. I have been un- 
 able to verify this from any other source, but 
 Mr. Wandel's memory appears to be clear in 
 regard to even minute details, and he has 
 told me the same story on two occasions 
 without material variations. 
 
 About 1842 or 1843 some resident of 
 Grymes Hill conceived the idea of putting 
 a cog road up its slope. The track was laid 
 from Beach street, which was open at that 
 time, about where it runs into St. Paul's 
 avenue ; this track ran "slantindicularly" up 
 the hillside, crossing the present Stirn and 
 Davis properties and coming out on How- 
 ard avenue at or near Eddy street; thence 
 following the line of the present highway 
 to the southern end of the hill. The rails 
 consisted of flat strips of iron with cogs 
 riveted thereon for the steep part of the 
 climb, and were laid on four-foot cord wood 
 sticks. The engine and rails were made in 
 the blacksmith shop of Peter S. Wandel, 
 which then stood near the shore just south 
 of the old Nautilus Hall, Tompkinsville. 
 The engine was small and crude and, ac- 
 cording to Mr. Wandel, passengers strad- 
 dled it. The chief use for which the road 
 
 A Legend 
 
10 
 
 HOWARD AVENUE CBb 
 
 Prospect 
 Hill 
 
 was intended was to carry those dwelling at 
 the southern end of the hill to a point from 
 which they could easily walk to the ferry. 
 
 It was, however, but a nine days' won- 
 der, for while the engine climbed the slope 
 well enough, the brakes were inadequate for 
 the descent, and it returned to the lower re- 
 gions with a suddenness that discommoded 
 its promoters to the point of standing them 
 on their heads, and was promptly consigned 
 to that bourne from which no engine re- 
 turns — the scrap heap. 
 
 There is at least one irreconcilable among 
 Mr. Wandel's statements which refuses to 
 adjust itself. He thinks that the railroad 
 was originated and built by a son of Gen- 
 eral Ward, and that its southern end stopped 
 at the Ward front door. General Ward did 
 not purchase his property until 1865, and 
 the General was only about ten years old 
 when this is said to have happened. How- 
 ever, Mr. Wandel is sure he was a small 
 boy at the time, and that he remembers, as 
 such, exploring the track as a healthy boy 
 naturally would. 
 
 Gordon Winslow did not purchase until 
 1846, Jacob H. Vanderbilt in 1847, Sir Ed- 
 ward Cunard in 1850. The map of 1845, 
 given elsewhere, shows no road beyond the 
 Nesmith place. Hence it would seem that 
 the settlement was too sparse in 1842 to 
 warrant such a venture. 
 
 When the Stapleton flats were filled in 
 with excavated material from Prospect Hill 
 (east of the German Club Rooms) a tram 
 road is said to have been laid by the con- 
 tractors, it is of course possible that this is 
 what Mr. Wandel had in mind. Miss Ward 
 tells me that after her father built — 1865 — 
 he and others, believing they had discovered 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 valuable minerals at this end of the hill, put 
 through a small track to the Richmond road 
 at or near Broad street, but this was merely 
 to carry ore to the lower level and, so far 
 as is known, no engine was included in the 
 outfit. As the mining did not pay, the 
 track was used but a short time, and those 
 who fathered the scheme were so pestered 
 by facetious references to their fairy gold 
 that they refrained from conversing on the 
 subject, and it was soon forgotten. 
 
 In the open field and woods across the 
 road from and opposite El Paradiso the 
 fortune-hunters sunk a number of small 
 shafts in their search for minerals. At the 
 edge of the road and just within the prop- 
 erty now fenced off for the water tower a 
 considerable pit was digged, but all were 
 filled in later as they became more or less 
 successful traps for the unwary. 
 
 Grymes Hill is known to geologists as 
 an elevated dome of serpentine. The ser- 
 pentine or soapstone area extends from 
 New Brighton to Richmond, and includes 
 the hill country of the island. In places 
 where glacial erosion was limited the rock 
 is weathered into a soft, yellowish, fractured 
 condition to which the name "soapstone" 
 is applied, but where the weathered stone 
 was eroded the rock is hard and dense in 
 texture and dark green in color. 
 
 The following notes on the hill country 
 of Staten Island are furnished by William 
 T. Davis and, while covering more territory 
 than is included in this book, are given in 
 order to preserve the information: — 
 
 "On the old map of Staten Island, made 
 in the year 1793, probably by Bernard 
 Sprong and Richard Conner, who received 
 £13,8,0 for their labors, 'A Ridge of Moun- 
 
 11 
 
 Mining on 
 Grymes Hill 
 
 Geology of 
 Gr\'nies Hill 
 
 HiU Country 
 of Staten 
 Island 
 
12 
 
 HOWARD AVENUE (®. 
 
 tains' is shown. It extends from what is 
 now called St. George to Fresh Kill Creek, 
 that is, to a little beyond the village of Rich- 
 mond, a distance in all of nearly seven 
 miles. 
 
 "To the early settlers this ridge of moun- 
 tains was full of mystery. It was heavily 
 wooded and there was a labyrinth of lesser 
 hills and valleys covering part of the area, 
 where it was easy to lose one's way. We 
 now know that these lesser hills are part 
 of the terminal moraine of the great 
 glacier. The main backbone of the ridge, 
 Archean however, is Archean Serpentine, one of the 
 Serpentine oldest formations of the earth, and into this 
 soft rock the early settlers dug holes in 
 their search for precious metals that were 
 supposed to be present in considerable 
 abundance. In the patent to John Palmer 
 in 1687, which covered the land along the 
 ridge of mountains and much more, we 
 read that he was to have all the * . . . 
 marshes, woods, underwoods, trees, timber, 
 quarries, rivers, brooks, ponds, lakes, 
 streams, creeks, harbors, beaches, ffishing, 
 hawking and ffowling, mines, minerals 
 (silver and gold mines only excepted), 
 mills, mill dams,' etc. This land was later 
 conveyed by Palmer and his wife to 
 Thomas Dongan. 
 
 "A critical examination of the range of 
 hills will show that its eastern declivity is 
 generally much more precipitous than the 
 western slope, and in this feature resembles 
 the Orange Mountains, the Kittatinny 
 Mountains and other parallel ridges to the 
 westward of Staten Island. Fort Hill, near 
 St. George; Mount Tompkins or Pavilion 
 Hill; Ward's Hill; Signal Hill; Capo di 
 Monte or Grymes Hill; Brimstone Hill; 
 
GRTMES HILL, IN 1845. 
 
 i\ 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 Todt Hill; Iron Hill or the Yserberg; 
 Ocean Hill or Ocean Terrace; Richmond 
 or Latourette's Hill; and Ketchum's or 
 Cemetery Hill are names for some of the 
 individual prominences of the 'Range of 
 Mountains' of the old-time map of 1793." 
 
 GRYMES HILL IN 1845. 
 
 13 
 
 From a "Map of New Brighton, Tompklnsvllls, 
 Stapleton and Clifton. Surveyed and Drawn by C. H. 
 Blood, 1845". 
 
 The original Is the property of William T. Davis and 
 la the only one in existence so far as he knows. 
 
 This is a literal copy even to the extent of following 
 misspelled names. 
 
 Dotted lines on the original map Indicate that th« 
 road from the Nesmlth houses to Howard avenue was a 
 private way, as was the road through the lower Gryme* 
 property to the Richmond road. 
 
 Duncan avenue looks as though it was originally a 
 Mauran stable entrance. 
 
 Note thrt: 
 
 Louis street was a mere connecting link. 
 
 Anthon Is Anthem. 
 
 Mauran is Maran. 
 
 Grymes is Grimes. 
 
 Silver Lake was Fresh Pond. (On a map of 1850 It la 
 ' Fresh Pond or Silver Lake.") 
 
 The north and south line that divides the Mauran 
 property if carried north to the Turnpike would be con- 
 tinued by the boulder line mentioned elsewhere as * 
 division line of the Vreeland farm. 
 
 The English name of the .T. P. Nesmlth place, "In- 
 wood", Is as a one word translation of the Indian name, 
 "Monocnong," adopted by Mr. Mauran. 
 
 The Serpentine road was not In existence except that 
 portion which shows as a private drive from the Nesmlth 
 houses to Howard avenue. 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 15 
 
 PROLOGUE 
 
 By 
 
 GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS. 
 
 "One Sunday I went with him a few miles 
 into the country. It was a soft, bright day ; 
 the fields and hills lay turned to the sky, 
 as if every leaf and blade of grass were 
 nerves bared to the touch of the sun. I 
 almost felt the ground warm under my feet. 
 The meadows waved and glittered, the 
 lights and shadows were exquisite, and 
 the distant hills seemed only to remove the 
 horizon farther away. As we strolled along, 
 picking wild-flowers, for it was in summer, 
 I was thinking what a fine day it was for 
 a trip to Spain, when Titbottom suddenly 
 exclaimed : — 
 
 " 'Thank God ! I own this landscape I' 
 
 "'You,' returned I. 
 
 " 'Certainly,' returned he. 
 
 " 'Why,' I answered, 'I thought this was 
 part of Bourne's property?* 
 
 "Titbottom smiled. 
 " 'Does Bourne own the sun and sky? Does 
 Bourne own that sailing shadow yonder? 
 Does Bourne own the golden luster of the 
 grain, or the motion of the wood, or those 
 ghosts of hills that glide pallid along the 
 horizon? Bourne owns the dirt and fences; 
 I own the beauty that makes the land- 
 scape.' " 
 
 —From "Prue and I." 
 
16 
 
 HOWARD AVENUE CS, 
 
 Fingerboard for off-islanders -who 
 would know Grymes Hill — 
 Ferry from Battery to St. George. 
 Silver Lake trolley to Louis ^reet, 
 tandem, one foot before the other, 
 to Howard Avenue. 
 
 Lewis 
 Street 
 
 Prospect 
 Street 
 
 HOWARD 
 
 AVENUE— THE 
 TINE ROAD. 
 
 SERPEN- 
 
 THIS way of ours reminds me of a 
 corkscrew — Louis street the handle, 
 Howard avenue the shank and the 
 devious meanderings of the Serpen- 
 tine road the business end of the 
 instrument. We shall investigate 
 each in its turn. 
 
 Louis street should be Lewis street, so it 
 is said. But there is a small-sized mystery 
 that I have been unable to fathom as to 
 what Lewis it was intended to honor. As 
 late as 1874 the street was known as Pros- 
 pect (see Beers's atlas of that date), a deed 
 of 1882 spells the name "Louis" while 
 several deeds of 1874, a deed of 1876 and one 
 of 1886 refer to it as "Lewis"; the present 
 telephone directory also carries the latter 
 spelling. 
 
 Miss Lederle tells me that it was so enti- 
 tled because a Dr. Lewis lived in the house 
 now known as the Lederle homestead about 
 the time her father purchased in 1878. But 
 no doctor of the name is on record as having 
 owned the property, none of the local his- 
 tories note such a name and I do not find 
 any one else who knew of such a doctor. 
 Mr. J. D. Lawrence has been told that the 
 
THE SUGAH LOAF OR DRUID'S ROCK, SOUTHWEST CORNER OF LEWIS 
 STREET AND HOWARD AVENUE. THIS ROCK IS SAID TO HAVE FORMERLY' 
 BEEN A GATHERING PLACE FOR THE INDIANS, WHO WERE IN THE HABIT 
 OF CAMPING HERE WHEN IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD. 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 17 
 
 street was named for Father Lewis, a well 
 known priest and a very popular man; no 
 one else has been found who can verify this, 
 but several of the old-timers think it quite 
 possible. 
 
 Our all-wise city fathers probably jumped 
 at the conclusion that the street was named 
 for Louis De Jonge, or possibly some equally 
 astute sign painter may have been allowed 
 to exercise his own good judgment in the 
 matter of spelling street signs. 
 
 Louis street, formerly Prospect street, 
 and Howard avenue, may have been laid 
 out by Major George Howard in 1836 to 
 open property which he introduced to 
 the public. A map of 1845 indicates that 
 only that part from the Turnpike to How- 
 ard avenue was then in use. Louis street 
 commences on the right with Sugar Loaf 
 field and on the left with the Dejonge 
 paper factory. 
 
 In 1852-3 Julius De Jonge "merchant of 
 the city of New York" purchased the fifteen 
 lots along the north side of Prospect street 
 numbered from 45 to 59, Howard map. 
 The property was then transferred to Louis 
 De Jonge who erected a small factory at the 
 Turnpike corner which has since grown to 
 the present proportions. 
 
 Beyond the paper factory and on the left 
 as we go stands the De Jonge homestead, 
 erected v^'hen the business was much more 
 modest than at present. This was pur- 
 chased in 1872 by Dr. John E. Lauer, a 
 chemist. In 1886 it was the property of 
 Constance Mullmann though I do not seem 
 to have discovered just when the transfer 
 was made. The lady is commonly referred 
 to as the "countess" ; she was an educated 
 woman said to have come from abroad. Lo- 
 
 Julhts 
 De Jonge 
 
 De Jonge 
 Honiesteaii 
 
 Dr. John 
 E. Laner 
 
 Constance 
 M nihnann 
 
18 
 
 HOWARD AVENUE CSt, 
 
 J. F. 
 Fredericks 
 
 T. W. Stake 
 
 E. G. Brown 
 
 Dr. Kenneth 
 Reid 
 
 Clara 
 J. Lederle 
 
 Brown's 
 Hill 
 
 cal stories agree that she, being a devout 
 Catholic, gave this place and in fact all she 
 had to the church expecting that a convent 
 would be erected here of which she would 
 be the mother superior, but finding that for 
 some reason, possibly because she was a 
 married woman, she was not eligible, she 
 objected so strenuously to the situation that 
 in order to quiet her a portion of the prop- 
 erty was returned and she left the neighbor- 
 hood. 
 
 The next house, still on the left is that of 
 J. F. Fredericks erected in 1886 on a portion 
 of the Lederle property, Mr. Fredericks 
 having married a daughter of the house of 
 Lederle. 
 
 Next east stands the Lederle homestead, 
 now occupied by T. William Stake. The 
 place was purchased in 1878 by Joseph 
 Lederle and has remained in the family ever 
 since. 
 
 In 1870 Louis De Jonge sold the eastern 
 end of his property, some 309 feet along 
 Prospect street, to E. G. Brown and Dr. 
 Kenneth Reid, consideration $6,000. In 1876 
 these sold to Elizabeth S. Beemer for $20,- 
 000 and in 1877 she to Eliza Livingston and 
 the following year she to Clara J. Lederle. 
 
 Edward Graham Brown is recalled by 
 some of the older neighbors as poor, but 
 proud, a lawyer by profession and a gentle- 
 man by practice. He evidently made an 
 impression on the locality as this part of the 
 hill was known for a time as "Brown's 
 Hill", but more than this I have been unable 
 to discover. Probably he lived in one side 
 of the house and Dr. Reid in the other, as 
 Miss Lederle tells me that when her father 
 purchased it was a double dwelling. 
 
 None appear to remember Dr. Reid, while 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 the brief ownership of Mrs. Beemer and 
 Mrs. Livingston possibly signify that they 
 did not occupy the premises. 
 
 Beyond Howard avenue, and on the right 
 as we travel, are two houses, the exact date 
 of which is uncertain, the Bruinier and the 
 Hillard homes. (In mentioning places, the 
 first name in each instance will be that of 
 the present owner.) 
 
 The Harry Roberts Hillard house, whose 
 commanding position includes so much of 
 the view that a stranger might easily be- 
 come lost therein, crowns the highest part 
 of the ridge here. From an abstract of title 
 we learn that this is part of a large tract 
 of land which in 17 18 was owned by Ellis 
 Duxbury and which by will he devised to 
 the rector of St. Andrew's Church, it being 
 thereafter known as the "Glebe," in fact one 
 of the Glebe boundary lines cuts al- 
 most precisely through the centre of the 
 Hillard house. In 1814 the Legislature au- 
 thorized the church to sell the tract, where- 
 upon Daniel D. Tompkins added the greater 
 part thereof to his earthly possessions. 
 
 From Tompkins it passed to Caleb T. 
 Ward and thence, about 1833, to Major 
 George Howard, who in 1836 plotted this 
 and the surrounding territory in fifty foot 
 lots, and invited the public to buy. This 
 section extended east from Howard avenue 
 three hundred and sixty-eight feet; begin- 
 ning at the avenue, four lots were sold to 
 Willis Blackstone (present Bruinier), the 
 next two lots to Joshua Moses, and the re- 
 maining frontage of sixty-eight feet to 
 Samuel R. Smith (present Hillard). These 
 were probably speculative purchases as 
 none of the purchasers built. Between the 
 years 1846 and 1851 Charles Keutgen ac- 
 
 19 
 
 Harry R. 
 
 Hillard 
 
 House 
 
 Glebe Bound- 
 ary Line 
 
 Willis Black- 
 stone, Joshua 
 Moses 
 
 Sam'l R. 
 Smith 
 
 Chas. Kciit- 
 i]cn 
 
20 
 
 HOWARD AVENUE (S. 
 
 Sam'l R. 
 Smith 
 
 quired all of this property, and it is probable 
 that he built both houses as maps of 1845 
 and 1850 which are believed correct do not 
 show any houses here. Mrs. Emma 
 Schering, daughter of Charles Keutgen, was 
 born in the Hillard house and is certain 
 that her father erected both it and the 
 Bruinier home. 
 
 The later transfers of the Hillard place 
 are as follows : — 
 
 In 1870-2 Keutgen to Anton M. Mosle. 
 
 1887 Mosle to James C. McAndrew. 
 
 1894 McAndrew to William Rockstroh. 
 
 1900 Rockstroh to Harry R. Hillard. 
 
 The Samuel R. Smith, who purchased 
 these lots from Howard in 1836, was the well- 
 known physician, after whom the Smith 
 Infirmary is named. Although he died in 
 1851, stories illustrating his goodness and 
 large heartedness are still current. I have 
 an incident from Mr. De Groot which does 
 not appear in any of the histories: — 
 
 "One very dark night, the doctor was 
 driving along a lonely road when a man 
 sprang for the horse's head and demanded 
 his money with the usual formula. The 
 doctor recognized the voice as that of the 
 wayward son of a good family, and ad- 
 dressed him by name promising that if he 
 would turn over a new leaf and keep it 
 turned he, the doctor, would never say any- 
 thing about the matter." 
 
 Miss Benham relates a story which she, 
 when a young girl, heard from the doctor's 
 own lips: "One night on a lonely road, the 
 doctor was held up by a highwayman, who 
 was so savage that the traveler feared for 
 his life, but he expostulated with the man, 
 told him who he was, stating that he had 
 no doubt attended some member of the 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 ruffian's own family in the past, whereupon 
 the fellow walked off without offering fur- 
 ther violence." The doctor was noted for 
 his philanthropy and attentions to the sick 
 poor, for which he seldom received remu- 
 neration. 
 
 The doctor had ideas of his own con- 
 cerning the care of his horses, which of 
 necessity were driven very hard at times. 
 His method of feeding was to dump a bag 
 of oats in the manger and allow the horse 
 to eat as much and as often as he wished, 
 and no matter how hot the animal might be 
 he was permitted to drink his fill under 
 any and all circumstances. Daniel Wandel, 
 who tells me this, says that the doctor 
 never foundered a horse. Trips were long 
 and the going sometimes very heavy; it 
 was the doctor's habit to stop along the 
 way at times and hire a horse, leaving his 
 own tired animal to recuperate. 
 
 The house was at one time occupied by a 
 well known champion of the manly art, 
 "Billy" Clarke, a boxer of note. Mr. Law- 
 rence when a young man frequented the 
 place in company with Dr. S. R. Elliott, 
 who, he states, was the only man who 
 could stand up in front of the professional. 
 
 The Ansco G. Bruinier home stands at 
 the corner of Louis street and Howard 
 avenue. As told in the note on the HJJlard 
 property George Howard sold this corner 
 in 1836 to Willis Blackstone, and he in 
 1 85 1 to Charles Keutgen. In 1862 the house 
 was leased to John S. Tuttle and John 
 W. Stout, Jr. When Keutgen sold and to 
 whom, is not clear, but probably to Bishop 
 John Freeman Young. The next owner 
 was Frederick B. Wendt, who in August, 
 1903, sold to Olga Josephine Jones, pre- 
 
 21 
 
 Billy Clarke 
 
 Dr. S. R. 
 
 Elliott 
 
 Aiisco G. 
 firtiiiiier 
 
 Bishop John 
 F. Yoitng 
 
 /•■. B. 
 ]Vcudt 
 
22 
 
 HOWARD AVENUE CS), 
 
 Willis 
 Blackstone 
 
 John F. 
 V oung 
 
 sumably because the lady held a mortgage; 
 she in April, 1904, to The Sisters of the 
 Congregation of Notre Dame, St. Joseph's 
 Seminary. In February, 1907, The Sisters, 
 etc. sold to Ansco G. Bruinier. 
 
 The New York directories from 1836 on 
 show a Willis Blackstone, builder, who at 
 no time resided outside of the city, he may 
 have used this as a summer home, or may 
 have purchased the property as a specula- 
 tion. 
 
 John Freeman Young was at one time 
 assistant minister at Trinity Church, New 
 York, he was later appointed Bishop of 
 Florida, July 25, 1867, and spent his winters 
 in that state and his summers on Grymes 
 Hill; his style of living gives the impres- 
 sion that he was not wholly dependent on 
 the income from the bishopric over which 
 he presided. 
 
 Frederick B. Wendt enlarged the house 
 and added the upper story. 
 
 HOWARD AVENUE. 
 It is doubtful whether one could find 
 within one hundred miles of Manhattan 
 another so beautiful, rural roadway as 
 this. In itself, exclusive of the view, it is 
 a remarkable combination of those fea- 
 tures that are commonly called "pictur- 
 esque." Most of the houses have been here 
 long enough to fit themselves into the land- 
 scape and the whole way has acquired that 
 indefinable something which comes with the 
 long association of man and nature where 
 both work in harmony. The gray stone 
 walls which give a suggestion of the ex- 
 clusive, by no means deprive the passer-by 
 of the beauties within, yet lend the same 
 enchantment that is found in a bend in the 
 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 23 
 
 road, mystery. We are all of us endowed 
 with more or less curiosity and anything 
 that piques that curiosity adds materially 
 to the pleasure of the moment, whether 
 it is a stone wall bordering beautiful grounds 
 or a veil covering a beautiful face. 
 
 Our way lies chiefly along the eastern 
 side of the Hill, just below its brow, and 
 consequently it is only now and then that 
 we of the roadside catch a glimpse of the 
 blue hills of New Jersey, our land of the 
 setting sun. At its very beginning Howard 
 avenue gives somewhat of this, but it is 
 only those who dwell on the summit of the 
 ridge that have the full sweep of the west- 
 ern horizon. This, however, is of small 
 moment, comparatively. There are many 
 spots from which blue hills and fair, sunlit 
 skies may be seen, but only one that looks 
 down on so much of human interest and 
 natural beauty as does this highway whose 
 praises we are to sing. 
 
 As we leave Louis street we have on the 
 right (west) the Sugar Loaf field, so-called 
 from the large glacial boulder which raises 
 its head high above the surrounding field 
 flowers. This has been in the Irving family 
 for many years, they purchasing from John 
 A. Cisco, Mr. Cisco found it a bit of the 
 Quarantine woods, but desiring a pasture 
 for his cattle cut off the trees that the grass 
 might grow. Mr. W, T. Davis recalls that 
 the finding of this boulder in the woods was 
 one of the things for small boys to do when 
 he was in that class. 
 
 Daniel Wandel states that he can remem- 
 ber as a boy, 1836, seeing Indians camped 
 about this rock. These were no doubt 
 Indians from New Jersey who, once in so 
 often, came to the island for basket wood. 
 
 Sugar 
 Loaf Rock 
 
 John A. 
 Cisco 
 
24 
 
 HOWARD AVENUE (®, 
 
 Basket 
 Wood 
 
 John Martin 
 place 
 
 Dr. S. M. 
 Elliott 
 
 Henry 
 Sedley 
 
 In the last Indian deed of the island, 1670, 
 Bayle's history states that: "They re- 
 served two sorts of wood, however, and 
 within the memory of the people now living, 
 small parties of Indians at long intervals 
 have visited the island, and exercised their 
 reserved right of cutting such wood as they 
 required for the purpose of making baskets." 
 Basket wood was either ash or elder. The 
 log was laid on the ground at the feet of a 
 squaw, in whose hands was placed a club, 
 the buck sitting on a near-by stump smok- 
 ing the pipe of peace the while he bossed the 
 job; it was the squaw's part to pound the 
 log from end to end and on all sides. (These 
 were the good old days v/hen women had 
 an abundance of "rights".) 
 
 At the proper time the buck would cease 
 from the difficult art of directing, and with 
 a sharp knife cut through the year's growth 
 which the pounding had loosened, when the 
 thin layer of wood was easily peeled off. 
 This could be repeated until the log was 
 reduced to a small pole. The thin sheets 
 thus made were split to a required width 
 and woven into baskets, which the women 
 were freely allowed to sell. 
 
 John Martin place. The original house 
 here, which has been added to several times, 
 was erected by Dr. S. M. Elliott as a spec- 
 ulation. He secured a bargain lot of flag- 
 stones in New York and standing these on 
 edge bolted them to the timbers thus illus- 
 trating in an odd way that he was not as 
 other men. His daughter believes that the 
 first tenant was Henry Sedley. 
 
 This property consists of lots 32, 33 and 
 34, Howard map; at the auction sale in 
 August, 1836, these were purchased by John 
 Y. Cebra. He paid $1,420, and after holding 
 
THE GROUP OF HOUSES ON THE NORTHERN END OF HOWARD AVENUE 
 AND ON LEWIS STREET AS SEEN FROM THE DAVIS PLACE. FROM LEFT TO 
 RIGHT THOSE SHOWING AGAINST THE SKY LINE ARE THE HOMES OF C. 
 ALLAN BLYTHE. LOUIS A. STIRN, JOHN MARTIN. ANSCO G. BRUINIER AND 
 HARRY R. HILLARD. PICTURE TAKEN IN FEBRUARY. 1914. 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 for sixteen years sold in September, 1852, to 
 Dr. Elliott for $2,000, the price paid being an 
 indication that no building had been erected. 
 In January, 1870, the Doctor sold to Anne 
 Norton, wife of Henry Sedley, for $8,000, 
 and on March 11, 1912, Barbara, daughter 
 of Hanry Sedley, sold to Prestonia Mann 
 Martin. 
 
 The common impression is that Mrs. Sin- 
 clair owned this property and that Henry 
 Sedley resided with her but the real estate 
 records do not bear this out. The lady held 
 a mortgage on the property and may have 
 advanced money for its purchase but title 
 was taken in the name of Mr. Sedley. 
 
 Mrs. Sinclair was the former wife of Ed- 
 win Forrest. She sued for divorce in 1851 
 and won her case through a "stupendous 
 blunder" of the lawyer representing the de- 
 fendant. The case was so celebrated that it 
 has been published among "Extraordinary 
 Cases". 
 
 Mrs. Sinclair was an actress of note and 
 I am told was also literary. She was gen- 
 erally known as good to the poor, kind and 
 hospitable. Miss Thompson tells me that 
 during the draft riots of civil war time Mrs. 
 Sinclair harbored in the kitchen of this 
 house numbers of negroes, thus saving 
 them from attack. As she was not known 
 as an abolitionist the mob made no effort 
 to search the house and she was able to 
 offer the protection in comparative safety 
 to herself. 
 
 Efforts to secure facts concerning Henry 
 Sedley have met with little success. Such 
 of his family as I have been able to com- 
 municate with practically refuse to be 
 interviewed and about all that can be said 
 is that he was a newspaper man of some 
 
 25 
 
 Mrs. Sinclair 
 
 Negros 
 Sheltered 
 From Mob 
 
 Henry 
 Sedley 
 
26 
 
 Charles 
 Dickens 
 
 Gorki 
 
 Ernest F. 
 
 Slocum 
 
 Dr. S. M. 
 
 Elliott 
 
 HOWARD AVENUE (®, 
 
 note and an expert at the game of chess. 
 I am told that he was born a Smith, Jones, 
 Brown or Robinson, but having aspirations 
 for a handle less plebeian fixed on Sedley as 
 altogether lovely. 
 
 It is claimed that Charles Dickens was a 
 guest here at one time and the room he is 
 said to have occupied is still pointed out. 
 
 One of the notables entertained at this 
 house in recent times was Gorki, who 
 came to this country in igo6 to aid 
 the revolutionary movement in Russia. 
 His mission was a failure so far as collecting 
 money was concerned and he spent a large 
 part of his time writing for the good of the 
 cause and as his literary efforts commanded 
 high prices he secured considerable money 
 all of which, except enough for his bare 
 living expenses was given to the revolution- 
 ists. 
 
 He was a guest of the Martins for five 
 weeks, but never went about the roads much 
 as he feared the spies which he claimed 
 the Russian Government had constantly 
 watching him. No one was seen in the 
 locality who could be identified as a spy, 
 but it was believed such were about as 
 there was evidence at other points that he 
 was being watched. 
 
 Gorki spoke no English and communi- 
 cated through his wife who spoke French 
 fluently. She was of the nobility of Russia, 
 but had joined the Revolutionary party and 
 was an exile. 
 
 The property of Ernest F. Slocum, 
 "Tower House," on the west, consists of 
 lots 10 and ii and fractions of 9 and la, 
 Howard map. Dr. S. M. Elliott erected the 
 building as a dwelling, this being his only 
 home on the hill ; he sold to John J. Cisco in 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 27 
 
 Tower 
 House 
 
 Dr. S. M. 
 
 Elliott 
 
 August, 1873; the Cisco estate to Marie, 
 wife of Ludwig Raecke, she to A. D. Irving 
 in May, 1886, and he to Mr. Slocum in Feb- 
 ruary, 1906. 
 
 It is the "Tower House" because Doctor 
 ElHott used the tower as an observatory, 
 it being capped with a dome from which 
 a telescope sent inquiring glances heaven- 
 ward, for it appears that the doctor was 
 something of an astronomer. 
 
 Some time later the building was used as 
 a boys' school. In the early seventies a 
 mixture compounded of equal parts of 
 small boy and firecracker set the tower on 
 fire one glorious Fourth of July, and its 
 present style of roof is thus accounted for. 
 
 We will introduce Doctor Samuel Mc- 
 Kenzie Elliott as he introduced himself to 
 Staten Island. 
 
 About 1835-6 Dr. Elliott visited the island 
 for the first time and in order to do so en- 
 gaged the services of a Battery boatman 
 who charged one dollar to row the five miles 
 which separates Manhattan from Staten 
 Island. 
 
 The beauties of the island completely cap- 
 tivated the Scotchman who had a strong 
 leaning toward the beautiful in nature and 
 he immediately purchased property at what 
 is now Bard avenue and Richmond Terrace 
 and erected several houses, being later 
 attracted to the Grymes Hill neighborhood. 
 
 It was the Doctor's artistic sense which 
 led him to make his home on Staten Island 
 rather than on Manhattan Island. He was 
 fond of predicting that here would be the 
 city rather than the older site and called it 
 "Bay City", but so far Manhattan appears 
 to have kept in the lead. 
 
 While his love of the beautiful so far ob- 
 
 Bay City 
 
28 
 
 HOWARD AVENUE (®, 
 
 The first 
 Oculist 
 
 scured the practical side that he sometimes 
 overlooked such trifles as stairs in his build- 
 ings and omitted curtains for the windows 
 it led him to select charming sites for 
 homes. The "Tower House", which an- 
 swered well enough for his family, was his 
 first building on the hill. It was so small that 
 when he removed therefrom and tried to 
 rent he found it necessary to make a num- 
 ber of additions, but he had notions of 
 his own as a general thing and if they did 
 not fit in with the popular taste he never 
 allowed such a small detail to worry him. 
 
 The doctor married a "blue-eyed Irish 
 girl", Letitia Irvine, his immigration to this 
 country from his native Scotland being 
 partly due, it is said, to the fact that she had 
 preceded him here. He came in 1833 when 
 twenty-two years of age and in 1835 settled 
 in New York as an oculist. 
 
 He was a pioneer in his line and like many 
 another pioneer was not understood and 
 suffered from much abuse at the hands of 
 the medical profession. He was accused of 
 being a quack and other unpleasant things 
 and of using unknown drugs. But his frank- 
 ness in throwing his office open for inspec- 
 tion, his wonderful personal magnetism and 
 enthusiasm combined with remarkable skill 
 and scientific attainments, finally compelled 
 recognition. 
 
 He was the first medical practitioner in 
 this country to make a specialty of the treat- 
 ment of the eyes, but he never neglected to 
 build up and strengthen the body as an aid, 
 and many stories are told of the tricks he 
 played on patients to this end. In Boston 
 he pretended to have discovered great vir- 
 tue in the waters of a well near a blacksmith 
 shop on the far side of the Charles river, and 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 29 
 
 which could only be reached by a footbridge. 
 As the water must be drunk immediately on 
 being drawn the patient must walk for it 
 and thus the end was gained. Mrs. George 
 William Curtis has heard Dr. S. R. Elliott 
 say that when his father operated on the eye 
 of a patient the latter lay on the floor and 
 the doctor held his head between his, the 
 doctor's, knees during the operation. 
 
 Among his patients were John Jacob 
 Astor, Commodore Vanderbilt, Peter Cooper, 
 Prescott, the historian, Longfellow, Gott- 
 schalk, Horace Greeley, James Russell 
 Lowell, and many other notables. His 
 family tell an incident concerning the first 
 named. Astor, being much concerned over 
 his physical condition, agreed to pay the 
 doctor $50 per day to keep him alive, but 
 w^as so stingy that he would not follow 
 directions. At one time the doctor ordered 
 that he be kept thoroughly warm and for 
 this purpose insisted on a wood fire which 
 was built in his presence. He left shortly 
 after but having forgotten his gloves came 
 back to find Astor extinguishing the blaze. 
 
 When the civil war came he, with the as- 
 sistance of his three sons, Samuel R., Alvin 
 Vaughn and William St. George and with 
 his daughter, Elizabeth, acting as "enrolling 
 officer" — raised at his own expense — some 
 $30,000 — the "Seventy-ninth Highlanders" 
 made up principally of "red-headed Macs 
 with a bad temper" as his advertisement 
 for men put it. "With the father as Colonel 
 and his three sons in the ranks the Seventy- 
 ninth Highlanders marched out of New York 
 to the skirl of the pipes, barelegged and in 
 tartan." 
 
 While both he and his sons were in the 
 war from beginning to end none of them 
 
 Serei'ty- 
 
 ntiitlt 
 Highlanders 
 
30 
 
 HOWARD AVENUE CSt> 
 
 Dr. S. R. 
 
 Elliott 
 
 were in the habit of talking of their ad- 
 ventures and not a great deal has been pre- 
 served concerning their experiences. 
 
 The New York Tribune of May 7, 1875, 
 speaks of him as "emphatically one of the 
 men who impart the element of the pic- 
 turesque to common affairs. A person of 
 very strong, original, eccentric character. A 
 man of positive genius in his profession." 
 
 Dr. Elliott was buried in the Silver Mount 
 Cemetery. 
 
 The New York Sun of December i, 1909, 
 contained a two column article on the edi- 
 torial page by E. D. Doster entitled "A Man 
 of Many Talents. The Life and Friendships 
 of the Late Dr. S. R. Elliott." (Eldest son of 
 Dr. S. M. Elliott.) 
 
 The doctor's virtues and accomplishments 
 were so many that space permits hardly 
 more than the mere cataloguing of them. 
 We learn that even as a young boy his tal- 
 ents attracted attention from the distin- 
 guished men who were in the habit of vis- 
 iting his father. 
 
 Gottschalk, the composer, noticed the 
 dreamy melodies he composed and predicted 
 for him a wonderful future as a musician and 
 even gave him lessons. 
 
 His quaint verses attracted Longfellow 
 who offered to bring him up in his own fam- 
 ily and train him for a literary career. 
 
 At the University of Heidelberg his fame 
 as a broadswordsman was such that nearly 
 fifty years later a young German "schlager," 
 then champion, called on him to salute a leg- 
 endary hero, the greatest "English" schla- 
 ger the University had ever known. 
 
 In the Latin Quarter in Paris he studied 
 music and medicine simultaneously; here 
 there came to him high honors for his work 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 31 
 
 in the hospitals and for his achievements at 
 the conservatory of music. 
 
 The fame of his musical gifts reached the 
 ears of the Empress Eugenie, before whom 
 he improvised, winning the applause of the 
 imperial court. 
 
 When Garibaldi was wresting a united 
 Italy from the Austrian, Dr. Elliott donned 
 the red shirt of the Garibaldians and 
 marched with a troop of Lombardy soldiery. 
 
 The British and American colonies of 
 celebrities in literature, music and art in 
 Rome and Florence were captivated by his 
 address, his physical graces and his wonder- 
 ful versatility, and flung their portals wide 
 open to him. In Florence he frequented Mrs. 
 Browning's evenings at the Casa Guidi. 
 
 He entered the Seventy-ninth Highlanders 
 as a private, but soon became First Lieuten- 
 ant, then Captain of Company K of this 
 regiment. Secretary of War, Simon Cam- 
 eron, an intimate friend of his father, 
 offered him an important commission which 
 he declined. 
 
 During '62 he served as assistant surgeon 
 in the Sixty-third New York, the "Irish 
 Brigade." 
 
 In '63 was surgeon in the Second Battal- 
 ion, Hawkins Zouaves, and in the same year 
 was Major in the Blair Rifles, Consolidated. 
 
 In '64 surgeon in the Fifth Heavy Artillery 
 which post he held until he was mustered 
 out at the close of the war. 
 
 He took honorable part in thirty engage- 
 ments from Bull Run to Appomattox. 
 
 In '63 while home on a furlough he married 
 Miss Amy Dinsmore, a cousin and a fellow 
 pupil of Patti. His wife and his sister, Miss 
 Elizabeth Elliott, returned with him to 
 Washington and to Harpers Ferry where he 
 
32 HOWARD AVENUE CS, 
 
 had charge of field hospitals. At the battle 
 of Bull Run he carried from the field, at con- 
 siderable personal risk, the body of his reg- 
 imental commander. Colonel Cameron, son 
 of the secretary of war. 
 
 He was seriously wounded in the head at 
 the battle of Antietam when jumping his 
 horse over a fence in a charge on the enemy. 
 
 Under a heavy fire he swam his horse 
 across the Shenandoah river, towing after 
 him, with the aid of a swimming orderly, a 
 raft loaded with wounded men. 
 
 After the war he began the practice of 
 medicine with his father. 
 
 He and his chum, who was later Justice 
 Barrett, composed several sermons which 
 were preached by a leading divine as his 
 own and which became famous for their 
 literary qualities and profound theological 
 erudition. 
 
 During this period his friends were such 
 men as Artemus Ward, Fitz James O'Brien, 
 Henry Clapp, Edmund Clarence Stedman, 
 "Private" Miles O'Reilly, George Arnold, 
 General Devereau, Bob Wheat, Col. Thomas, 
 Albert Pike, Professor Youmans, Walt 
 Whitman, Charles A. Dana, William Henry 
 Hurlbert, Andrew C. Wheeler, Parke God- 
 win, W. J. Stillman, George Fawcett Rowe, 
 Bret Harte, Elihu Vedder, Charles Coleman, 
 Hamilton Wilde, Edwin Booth, William 
 Stuart, Madame Modjeska, Sara Jewett, 
 Clara Louise Kellogg, and many others as 
 well as the older generation who knew his 
 father. His office in the University build- 
 ing was the rallying place of the wits and 
 thinkers of the city. 
 
 In spite of the fact that he stood at the 
 head of his profession and was kept exces- 
 sively busy with his work, he yet found time 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 33 
 
 to meet with his friends and to develop his 
 literary and musical talents. 
 
 It is told that on the eve of her first ap- 
 pearance in America, Madame Modjeska 
 was brought to Dr. Elliott one morning. Her 
 manager was in despair for she had lost her 
 voice. She remained under the doctor's 
 care during the day and was able to appear 
 in the evening in perfect condition. 
 
 Dr. Elliott valued his physical strength 
 and prowess above any of his other gifts, In- 
 dian clubs which he used habitually until a 
 few years before his death were almost too 
 heavy for the ordinary man to lift ; he could 
 crack a coin with his fingers or bend a poker 
 with his biceps. On one occasion he carried 
 five men up a long and steep flight of stairs. 
 Billy Clarke, a fistic champion of the '70's, 
 was the companion of his boxing bouts. 
 
 His memory w^s as phenomenal as h:s 
 physical strength, once he read a poem th.^t 
 appealed to him he never forgot it ; thus v/ith 
 music; when he heard an opera he would 
 return home and repeat it in its entirety. 
 Charles A. Dana once tested his memory for 
 quotations but could not trip him. 
 
 He wrote prose for the Atlantic Monthly 
 and Harper's Weekly and poems for the 
 Churchman and the Congregationalist. 
 
 Such is an extremely brief summary of 
 an unusual career. 
 
 The wayfarer now begins to catch his 
 first real intimation of the scenic wonders 
 that are to come. From this point on the man 
 on foot begins to share with the house- 
 holder the pictures that no mere words can 
 trace, some bounded only by the heavens, 
 some framed by swaying branches, for it 
 is indeed a sultry summer day when no 
 breeze stirs here. 
 
34 
 
 HOWARD AVENUE CSt, 
 
 Louis A. 
 
 Stirn 
 
 C. Allan 
 
 Blythe 
 
 Convent 
 Property 
 
 It is, perhaps, a trifle difficult to say which 
 outlook exceeds all others. Happily, each 
 householder believes in his own, this no 
 doubt because each lives with his partic- 
 ular view and only sees that of his neigh- 
 bors incidentally. It holds for him the 
 same intimate quality as do his family re- 
 lationships. He sees it morning, noon and 
 night, in storm and under sunswept skies, 
 the twinkling night-lights form for him geo- 
 metric designs or curves of beauty that can 
 be had from no other angle. 
 
 The next house on the left is the concrete 
 home of Louis A. Stirn built in 1908, and just 
 beyond that the home of C. Allan Blythe, 
 Jr., also of recent construction. 
 
 This hill slope is extremely irregular and, 
 consequently, the houses are not necessar- 
 ily set with the road, but rather accommo- 
 date themselves to the lay of the land, a 
 series of ravines and shoulders. These two 
 houses, situated within three hundred feet 
 of each other, are possibly the best on the 
 hill to use as illustrations of the marvelous 
 variety of a scene which, in reality the same, 
 is yet so individual to each. This is unques- 
 tionably due to the fact that no two fore- 
 grounds are similar and to the difference in 
 the angle at which each house is set. Of 
 these the one stands out on a slight jut of 
 land and gazes off over the roofs below as 
 from the edge of a declivity, while the eye 
 of his neighbor follows down a grassy ra- 
 vine, guarded by tall forest trees, to the dis- 
 tant vessels, or with a slight turn of the 
 head he finds a portion of his picture framed 
 by the branches of his woodland retainers. 
 
 On the right lies the Convent property. 
 This land was purchased at the Howard 
 sale, 1836, by Benjamin Wood who in July, 
 
 I 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 35 
 
 1842, sold to John Anthon, and he in 1854 to 
 Albert Brisbane, he in 1857 to Ezekiel J. 
 Donnell, who lost the place through fore- 
 closure proceedings and the sheriff sold it 
 at auction in May, 1868, to Alexander Mait- 
 land for $105. January, 1869, Maitland sold 
 to Alexander D. Shaw for $17,000. This reads 
 as though Maitland's fairy god-mother had 
 him in charge at the time, but the gentle- 
 man probably purchased a large sized mort- 
 gage with the property. In 1871 Shaw sold 
 to John A. Cisco for $32,500, and he in Feb- 
 ruary, 1885, to Ellen E. Du Pont Irving, 
 wife of A. D. Irving for $20,000. The last 
 transfer was to The Sisters, etc., who now 
 conduct here a school and convent known 
 as the "Congregation de Notre Dame." 
 
 It is believed that the house was erected 
 by Albert Brisbane — 1854-1857. Mr. Wil- 
 liam B. Duncan has told me that such was 
 the fact and that Brisbane was interested in 
 the socialistic teachings of Charles Fourier, 
 who founded the communistic system known 
 as Fourierism. According to his plan so- 
 ciety was to be organized in associations 
 united by the principle of attraction and ar- 
 ranged in groups according to occupations 
 or capacities. All members of a group were 
 to live in a common dwelling and each was 
 guaranteed the means of self-support and 
 opportunities for a harmonious develop- 
 ment of all his faculties and tastes. The 
 plan was brought to America about 1840. 
 Mr. Brisbane started such a colony here, 
 but like other schemes to make life pleasant 
 for the lazy man at the expense of the 
 worker it did not last. As Mr. Brisbane 
 only owned the property for three years it 
 is not clear how he could have done so much 
 in such a short space of time, unless he con- 
 
 E. J. Donnell 
 
 Alex. D. 
 Shaw 
 
 A. D. In iiig 
 
 Albert 
 Brisbane 
 
36 
 
 Cisco 
 Property 
 
 Major 
 
 George 
 
 Howard 
 
 John 
 Anihon 
 
 Ernest 
 Caset 
 
 George Law 
 
 John J. Cisco 
 
 Otto P. Heyn 
 
 HOWARD AVENUE CS, 
 
 tinued to occupy the place after selling it. 
 
 More than one hundred years ago the 
 northern part of the Cisco property was in- 
 cluded in the church Glebe. Daniel D. 
 Tompkins purchased about 1814, but when 
 his troubles became acute it was sold under 
 foreclosure proceedings and was conveyed 
 to Caleb T. Ward. A suit in chancery was 
 brought by the Tompkins heirs to set aside 
 the deed to Ward, but was discontinued 
 long years after. The transfers of the prop- 
 erty are as follows: — 
 
 October 21, 1830, Caleb T. Ward sold to 
 Major George Howard, consideration $850, 
 being at the rate of $100 per acre. 
 
 December 3, 1838, George Howard sold to 
 John Anthon, consideration $22,000. This 
 included the dwelling erected by Howard, 
 but as that is spoken of as a small frame 
 building, the transaction would appear to 
 have been a profitable one for him, 
 
 June 15, 1855, John Anthon sold to Ernest 
 Cazet, consideration, $27,500. 
 
 October 25, i860, Ernest Cazet sold to 
 George Law, consideration, $40,000. In 
 view of the fact that Cazet erected the house 
 now standing and the stone wall which in 
 part still surrounds the place, the price re- 
 ceived must have represented a considerable 
 loss. 
 
 June 4, 1869, George Law sold to John J. 
 Cisco, consideration, $75,000. Law erected 
 the brick stable at a cost of $20,000, and put 
 in an expensive system of sewers and drains, 
 two ponds and other improvements. He 
 claimed to have expended for and on the 
 place $100,000. 
 
 The northern third of this property has 
 recently been built upon by Otto P. Heyn, 
 the house having been turned over by the 
 
HOWARD AVENUE NORTH FROM THE CISCO GATE. ON THE RIGHT THE 
 HOME OP C. AI-LAN BLYTHE. IX THE DISTANCE THE "TOWER HOUSE," 
 ERECTED BY DR. S. M. ELLIOTT. NuW OWNED AND OCCUPIED BY ERNEST 
 F. SLOCUM. 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 37 
 
 Major 
 George 
 Hoivard 
 
 contractor in July, 1913. This residence, 
 being situated on the ridge, looks both to 
 the west and east, furnishing its occupants 
 with the glory of the setting sun on the one 
 hand, while on the other it gazes on the orb 
 of day as that light-giver shakes the morn- 
 ing mists from its face and looks over into 
 the Narrows to discover what plunder Quar- 
 antine has gathered during the hours of 
 darkness. 
 
 Major George Howard was born in East 
 Windsor, Connecticut, January 23, 1787. He 
 entered the United States Army from his 
 native state and was honorably discharged 
 June 15, 181 5. For eleven years he was 
 boarding officer of the port of New York, 
 and in 1830 was appointed keeper of public 
 stores at Staten Island. 
 
 He married Sarah Trumbull, presumably 
 of Connecticut, as her ancestors certainly 
 were, owned a pew in the Dutch Reform'.d 
 church at Tompkinsville and two lots in the 
 cemetery belonging to that church. This 
 cemetery was sold or exchanged and the 
 bodies removed to the Silver Mount Cem- 
 etery where they are to be found in the 
 "Church Lot" though there appears to be 
 no record that the Major is buried here. He 
 died July 13, 1851 and was buried from the 
 residence of his son-in-law. Dr. James Har- 
 court. Factory Village, Staten Island. 
 
 As Mr. Hiram Smith, who has been kind 
 enough to dig out the above Howard facts 
 for me, has included the Major's children, it 
 will do no harm to preserve the information 
 here. "Possible children, Jedia — born March 
 II, 181 1. Mary Anne — born November 5, 
 1814. Sarah Harper — born May 30, 1819. 
 Daniel R. Hitchcock married, April 22, 1833, 
 Mary Anne Howard. She died September 2, 
 
38 
 
 HOWARD AVENUE CSt 
 
 CastletoH 
 Heights 
 
 Lover's 
 Lane 
 
 1875. When he married, second, December 
 27, 1886, Julia Trumbull Howard, (possibly 
 the 'Jedia' above) sister of his first wife and 
 widow of Dr. James Harcourt. She died in 
 1890. Daniel R. Hitchcock died March 31, 
 1891." 
 
 After disposing of his dwelling here the 
 Major purchased land on St. Paul's avenue 
 opposite the head of Hannah street and 
 erected a brick dwelling, still standing, in 
 which he resided until 1844. 
 
 In the good old days when Grymes Hill 
 was known as Castleton Heights, there 
 lived on its crest a fierce old war-horse 
 whose two daughters shared honors as the 
 beauties of the countryside, but such a 
 fire-eater was the head of the house that 
 the youth of the neighborhood stood afar 
 off lamenting the cruelty of fate. How- 
 ever, this method could not last, being 
 against all nature, and the moths kept nar- 
 rowing the circle until one, more bold than 
 his fellows, finally plunged within the flame 
 and lost his wings, as his desire to use them, 
 but gained that which appeared far more 
 precious. 
 
 At that early period Howard avenue was 
 a lover's lane fit for a fairy princess. In 
 these primeval woods were many interest- 
 ing nooks for young men and maidens, while 
 the summer breezes that refreshed the hill- 
 side had a way of fanning the spark of love 
 until it became a mighty flame. The lovers 
 thoroughly tested each nook and comer 
 and found none wanting until one day, com- 
 ing to the far southern end of the hill, which 
 was in those times known as Brimstone 
 Hill, they fell beneath the baleful influence 
 of a certain hollow from whose depths 
 came a cold biting wind which ever shiv- 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 39 
 
 ered through the leaves. So wrapped were 
 our young friends in their own imaginings, 
 however, that they failed to note the change 
 in temperature and set themselves on the 
 very edge of this clove to discuss those 
 abstruse questions which naturally arise on 
 such occasions. They so placed themselves, 
 as it happened, that only the young man 
 caught the cooling breeze in the region of 
 his fluttering heart, and as they sat a — to 
 him — unaccountable change came over the 
 spirit of his dreams. The proceedings 
 which heretofore had been more than in- 
 teresting began to pall. He even discovered 
 that the maiden could walk without as- 
 sistance. She eyed him curiously as they 
 returned toward her father's dwelling and 
 speculated inwardly on the frigidity which 
 by this time had worked through his breast 
 and particularly affected his good right arm 
 which was refusing its too evident duty. 
 As love's fitful fever subsided, the youth's 
 attentions became more and more intermit- 
 tent until he fell away, so to speak, entirely, 
 and there was a long period when the 
 sighing of the winds around the house found 
 an echo in the breast of the forlorn maiden. 
 It would appear that about this time the 
 stern parent began to fret over the situation, 
 for a friend who happened to call as the 
 bleak winds of autumn were spreading 
 desolation through the trees found the old 
 gentleman industriously polishing a pair of 
 antique dueling pistols that long since 
 adorned the sash of an ancestor whose rec- 
 ord had been carefully notched upon their 
 butts. The long, bright barrels attracted 
 the visitor's attention and he asked con- 
 cerning their history. The Major, however, 
 was not inclined to talk overmuch, but 
 
 Discord 
 
40 
 
 HOWARD AVENUE (®, 
 
 Love 
 Triumphant 
 
 John 
 Anthon 
 
 rather grumbled to himself, sputtering in 
 an excited fashion that in nowise became 
 his gray hairs. The caller finally gathered 
 from the fragments of conversation which 
 fell to him that there was trouble in store 
 for the reluctant lover and hastening his 
 departure sought out the young man and 
 explained what the future held for him. 
 And now a most wonderful thing happened. 
 The love which had for so many weeks lain 
 dormant suddenly surged back to its proper 
 channels. No longer did the wind sigh 
 about the house, but called joyfully to the 
 reunited lovers whose course ran on so 
 smooth a track thereafter that even the re- 
 furbished pistols that had been hung in a 
 conspicuous place above the mantel by a 
 thoughtful parent ceased to hold the at- 
 tention of the gallant youth. 
 
 Ever after all true lovers avoided the 
 darksome hollow that had so nearly en- 
 gulfed the joy and romance of young love 
 in its treacherous embrace, and only the 
 snake and the toad slipped silently through 
 its slimy ooze. 
 
 As before stated Howard sold to John An- 
 thon in 1838, he caught the real estate fever 
 and on July 19, 1842, purchased lots 14 to 
 19 inclusive, Howard map, these adjoined 
 his place on the north and he had the entire 
 property surveyed and platted. Lot 6 
 which contained the dwelling was about 
 400 feet wide ; between that and Eddy street 
 lay lot 7 which was something over 200 
 feet wide while north of lot 6 lay five lots 
 each 100 feet in width. Lots i and 2, the 
 most northerly, are now occupied by the 
 Convent. He expended for all the property 
 $27,500 and sold for $32,500, having oc- 
 cupied the dwelling over sixteen years as 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 41 
 
 well; every one seems to have made money 
 in real estate in those flush times. 
 
 John Anthon was a notable member of a 
 notable family. The first of the name to 
 land on this soil passed Staten Island in 
 1757 on his way to New York a prisoner 
 of war, and no doubt looked up to these 
 heights with any but friendly eyes. This 
 was George Christian Anthon, a surgeon 
 in the employ of the Dutch West India 
 Company, though himself a German. A 
 ship on which he sailed was captured by a 
 British privateer and carried into New 
 York; being a skilled man of medicine he 
 soon found employment as assistant sur- 
 geon in the General Military Hospital at 
 Albany. After a brief period here he was 
 appointed assistant surgeon in the First 
 Battalion, 60th Regiment, Royal Ameri- 
 cans, and with his company was sent to 
 Detroit in 1760. Here he married and here 
 his son John was born in 1784, Shortly 
 after the Revolutionary war he removed to 
 New York. 
 
 John Anthon graduated from Columbia in 
 1 80 1, studied law and soon became the 
 foremost lawyer of his time in this city. 
 He was in command of a company of mili- 
 tia during the war of 1812 and, served in 
 the defense of New York City. He was 
 also employed during this period as judge- 
 advocate and accumulated many honors in 
 the course of his long life. 
 
 Charles Edward Anthon, son of John, was 
 for many years professor of Belles-Lettres 
 and History in the "Free Academy," later 
 known as the College of the City of New 
 York. During the years 1850 and 1851 he 
 gathered material for a history of Staten 
 Island which he never published, but which 
 
 G. C. 
 Anthon 
 
 John 
 Anthon 
 
 C. E. 
 Anthon 
 
42 
 
 HOWARD AVENUE (®. 
 
 Wm. H. 
 
 Anthon 
 
 Ernest 
 Cazet 
 
 has been liberally used by succeeding his- 
 torians as it supplies much that would have 
 been lost had it not been recorded at the 
 time. Sheriff Denyse remembers Charles 
 E. Anthon well ; says he was a great walker 
 and a fine man. At one time, probably after 
 the place on Grymes Hill had been sold, he 
 boarded at the hotel of Frank Jones, Bay 
 and Grififin streets, Stapleton. 
 
 William Henry Anthon, son of John, fol- 
 lowed in the footsteps of his father and 
 was admitted to the bar in 1848. He soon 
 became distinguished in the profession and 
 in 1858 was one of those who defended the 
 rioters who burned the quarantine build- 
 ings on Staten Island. 
 
 Ernest Cazet came to this country from 
 the wine district of southern France, a 
 youth of eighteen with "no money, but un- 
 limited credit." By the time he arrived at 
 the age of thirty he was a rich man, not all 
 of it having been made in the wine busi- 
 ness, however, as his speculations in New 
 York real estate appear to have been won- 
 derfully profitable; as an instance, two lots 
 on lower Broadway are cited, these he 
 purchased for about $25,000 and sold not 
 long after to the Produce Exchange for 
 about $150,000. He also owned several 
 blocks on Sixth avenue in the dry goods dis- 
 trict which were the cause of much gain, 
 but reverses finally came and he lost much 
 that had made life so fair a prospect. 
 
 Mr. Cazet purchased the Anthon prop- 
 erty with the idea of making his home 
 here for the remainder of his life. The 
 Howard dwelling was sold to one Geshidt, 
 an architect, and removed to Houseman 
 street, near the Little Clove road; it was 
 later used by Italians and finally burned. Mr. 
 

 SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 Cazet erected the present building and sur- 
 rounded his land with the stone wall which 
 to a considerable extent continues to adorn 
 the locality, but when his losses came he 
 was stricken with a serious disorder and 
 returned to France for treatment. There he 
 was advised that a cure would be a matter 
 of years and came back to New York, closed 
 up his interests and returned to his native 
 France only to die within a few years. 
 
 Mr. Cazet is spoken of as a gentleman and 
 a friend of the needy, as well as a shrewd 
 business man, and appears to have left only 
 pleasant memories behind him. He sold 
 to George Law, one of the conditions in- 
 sisted on by the latter being that the con- 
 tents of the house should go with the place; 
 this was presumably because of the rich- 
 ness of the furnishings, everything having 
 been imported from France, the carpets were 
 of such quality that after fifty-five years of 
 use they are still in good condition. 
 
 We find a legend to the effect that the 
 stone wall which surrounds the Cisco place 
 was constructed with slave labor, but as 
 Emancipation day came to Staten Island, 
 July 4, 1825, and Mr. Cazet not until Oc- 
 tober 25, 1855, the legend can hardly be 
 taken seriously. It is a fact, however, that 
 the wall was erected by Frederick Law 
 Olmstead who did considerable of his early 
 landscaping on Staten Island. The con- 
 struction is peculiar in that the wall is built 
 on the surface of the ground without foun- 
 dation, the interior being filled with loose 
 stone and although it has been standing 
 full fifty-five years it is to-day as good as 
 when built. 
 
 These walls are one of the most pic- 
 turesque features of the road and it will be 
 
 43 
 
 George Law 
 
 Frederick 
 
 Law 
 
 Oivislead 
 
44 
 
 HOWARD AVENUE CSb 
 
 George 
 Law 
 
 John Jay 
 Cisco 
 
 a sad day for the hilltop when the time 
 of their fall arrives. The effect of ex- 
 clusiveness has been heightened to some ex- 
 tent by bits of broken glass set in the top of 
 the wall as more than one marauder has 
 been pained to discover. 
 
 I have been told that George Law pur- 
 chased this property as a home for his 
 daughter, but that the lady found the hill 
 too dull, preferring brick and mortar to the 
 enchantment of nature. It is said that there 
 was a husband who honored the army with 
 his time and attention, and who was chiefly 
 celebrated for the length of his hair, but 
 not much appears to have been handed down 
 concerning this branch of the family. 
 
 George Law himself was a self-made man 
 having built his success on a foundation of 
 industry and study. A farmer's son, he 
 learned the mason's trade, secured employ- 
 ment on the Delaware and Hudson canal, 
 employed his leisure in study and made him- 
 self a good engineer and draughtsman. 
 Became a large railroad and canal con- 
 tractor. In 1837 went to New York, ob- 
 tained contracts on the Croton water works, 
 built High Bridge over the Harlem. In 
 1842 became manager of the Dry Dock 
 Bank. Purchased and extended the Harlem 
 and Mohawk railroads. Assumed the con- 
 tract to carry the mails to California, 1849 
 built the first passenger steamer for Pan- 
 ama. Purchased the steam ferry to Staten 
 Island and Brooklyn. Was known as "Live 
 Oak George". 
 
 John Jay Cisco. The name Cisco is an 
 abbreviation of Francisco, the prefix hav- 
 ing been dropped several generations since. 
 After having served an apprenticeship of 
 nine years, Mr. Cisco started in the whole- 
 
THE CISCO-LAW-CAZET HOUSE, ERECTED ABOUT 
 1855 BY ERNEST CAZET. THE WALL. SURROUNDING 
 THE PLACE WAS BUILT AT THE SAME TIME UNDER 
 THE SUPERINTENDENCE OP FREDERICK LAW OLM- 
 STEAD, THE NOTED LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT. 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 sale dry goods business in New York, and 
 retired at the age of thirty-six with a for- 
 tune. Some eleven years later, or in 1853, 
 he was appointed by President Pierce, much 
 against his inclination. Assistant Treasurer 
 of the United States, and placed in charge 
 of the Sub-Treasury in New York. When 
 President Buchanan came into office he at- 
 tempted to resign, but was persuaded to re- 
 main and when Mr. Lincoln was inaugu- 
 rated he again made an effort to retire, but 
 his administration had been such that both 
 Mr. Lincoln and Secretary Chase insisted 
 that it was his duty to remain and he ac- 
 quiesced. His relations with bankers and 
 merchants were such that he was of great 
 service during the Civil War in placing 
 early loans, and at one time actually paid 
 the interest on certain bonds himself rather 
 than allow the hard-pressed government to 
 default. As a government officeholder Mr. 
 Cisco stands almost alone. Mr. Cisco was 
 finally allowed to retire in 1864, but was 
 immediately appointed, at the insistance of 
 Mr. Lincoln, a government director and 
 Treasurer of the Union Pacific Railroad. In 
 1865 the banking house of John J. Cisco 
 & Son was established. Mr. Cisco died on 
 March 23, 1884. The above account is 
 taken chiefly from the New York Herald 
 of March 24, 1884, with some additions by 
 Hiram Smith and Mrs. Angus McKenzie, 
 grandchildren. 
 
 About a year after the death of John J. 
 Cisco his son, John A. Cisco, removed from 
 his own home, now the Convent, to this 
 place, and it still remains in the family. 
 
 Late in 1913 George Cisco, grandson of 
 John J. Cisco, commenced the erection of a 
 home at the comer of Howard avenue and 
 
 45 
 
 John A. 
 Cisco 
 
 George 
 Cisco 
 
46 
 
 James 
 
 Morgan 
 
 Davis 
 
 Thomas 
 Eaken 
 
 Harvey 
 North 
 
 Supply 
 
 Water 
 
 on Grymes 
 
 Hill 
 
 HOWARD AVENUE (®. 
 
 Eddy street. The white stuccoed sides of 
 this, gleaming over the old stone wall and 
 half shaded by tall hornbeams, has an air of 
 seclusion and aloofness that a building so 
 close to the road could not hope to possess 
 except it were walled about, as is the case 
 here. 
 
 On the east side of the road lies the James 
 Morgan Davis estate, "East Over". October 
 1 6, 1 84 1, Caleb T. Ward sold this property 
 to Harvey North, "late of New Orleans," 
 consideration $5,940. October 12, 1853, 
 North sold to Thomas Eaken "of Nash- 
 ville," consideration $12,000, and Eakin 
 erected the present dwelling, but died shortly 
 after and his family did not long occupy the 
 place. Mr. E. D. Clark who came to this 
 place when a boy in November, 1843, tells 
 me that his father, Eusebius Clark, was em- 
 ployed by Mr. North to lay out the grounds, 
 a house being erected for his occupancy in 
 which he lived thirteen years. 
 
 There were two brothers North, in the im- 
 porting business in New York one of whom, 
 Harvey, married a French woman. He ex- 
 pected to build a handsome house and make 
 this his home, but his wife refused to live in 
 this country and he went to France with 
 her. Mr. Clark caused the well, 102 feet 
 deep, to be dug ; up to this time Logan Spring 
 had never run out of water but since has 
 gone dry on occasion and it is supposed this 
 well tapped the water supply of the spring. 
 
 The water supply on this high land is 
 erratic, there have been in the past at least 
 three natural ponds here which must have 
 been fed by springs, two on the Cisco 
 place and one on the Kendall place and yet 
 the well on the Cisco place went down 117 
 feet before water was reached and that 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 47 
 
 James 
 Remvick 
 
 on the Kendall place is 130 feet deep. 
 
 Many years ago Mr. Davis purchased the 
 property from Mrs. Eaken and it is still the 
 Davis home. The architect of the dwelling 
 was James Renwick, one of New York's 
 most noted architects. Grace Church, 
 Broadway and Tenth Street, and the Catho- 
 lic Cathedral, Fifth avenue, are among the 
 creations of Mr. Renwick's genius. 
 
 James Morgan Davis had a business ca- 
 reer that was of unusual interest. He was 
 a member of the New York Stock Exchange 
 by the time he was old enough to vote, and 
 retired from business at the age of twenty- 
 five. 
 
 Mr. Davis began his business career in 
 the stock brokerage office of Travers & 
 Jerome, and when the latter retired was ad- 
 mitted to the firm, which was then known 
 as Travers & Co. By the time he was twen- 
 ty-five his health became impaired and he 
 concluded to give up work and go abroad. 
 His partner, William R. Travers, wished 
 him to retain his interest in the firm and 
 step back into the harness when his health 
 would permit, but Mr. Davis preferred to 
 leave no loose ends that might carry worry 
 into his retirement, and refused to entertain 
 the proposition. 
 
 After remaining inactive for seven to 
 eight years he entered the Wall street arena 
 again as a member of the firm of Work, Da- 
 vis & Barton. 
 
 Among others, the firm acted as broker 
 for Commodore Vanderbilt, and it was dur- 
 ing this period that the Commodore cor- 
 nered Erie. He had Jay Gould "busted," 
 and had it not been for the latter's methods 
 of high finance, would have completely 
 cleaned him out, but the ingenious Mr. 
 
48 
 
 HOWARD AVENUE CBt. 
 
 Gould moved over into Jersey, where the 
 New York courts could not reach him, and 
 being in complete control of the Erie, issued 
 a convertible bond which he immediately 
 converted into stock. This he put on the 
 market in large quantities, and as the proc- 
 ess could be repeated ad libitum, owing to 
 the lax railroad laws of the day, he rather 
 had the Commodore "on the hip." 
 
 The case was immediately thrown into 
 the courts and the Commodore brought suit 
 against Gould. Work, Davis & Barton also 
 brought suit in the namer. of certain custom- 
 ers, and it was here that Mr. Davis discov- 
 ered the real character of Frank Work, 
 which proved to be anything but lovely. 
 Work suggested that in order to prevent 
 the dragging of all members of the firm into 
 the court and interfering with its business, 
 suit be brought in his name; this was done 
 and Work was left to engineer the details. 
 
 One fine morning Mr. Davis saw in his 
 newspaper that the Commodore had com- 
 promised his suit out of court, and knowing 
 that Work would, of course, do likewise, 
 called on him for an accounting, but the lat- 
 ter insisted that his suit had been dropped 
 and that he had received nothing beyond at- 
 torney's fees. This was so palpably untrue 
 that Davis threatened suit, but to have 
 brought suit would have dragged the Com- 
 modore in, and compelled him to uncover 
 his hand, and this the firm could not afford 
 to do. The firm was, however, immediately 
 dissolved, as neither of the other members 
 cared to be longer associated with Work. 
 
 In 1874 the firm of Davis & Freeman was 
 formed with Commodore Vanderbilt as a 
 special partner and, some six years later, or 
 when Mr. Davis was forty-t^vo years of 
 
HOWARD AVEXUE. LOOKING SOUTH FROM THE DAVIS GATE. THE AVENUE 
 WAS OPENED FROM EDDY STREET NORTH BY OR BEFORE 1S36 BY MAJOR 
 GEORGE HOWARD, WHO ERECTED THE FIRST DWELLING ON GRYMES HILL IN 
 1830 ON THE SITE OF THE PRESENT CISCO HOUSE. 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 49 
 
 age, he retired from business permanently. 
 
 The Davis family camie to Staten Island 
 in 1832 from Rhode Island, and James Mor- 
 gan Davis was born here in 1837, and al- 
 ways regarded himself as a full-fledged 
 Staten Islander. 
 
 In the southwest corner of Howard ave- 
 nue and Eddy street stands the dwelling of 
 J. D. Lawrence. This is one of two houses 
 erected by William Butler Duncan about 
 1870. Apparently these were to be the ni> 
 cleus of a small colony, but the buildings did 
 not rent as expected and the venture went 
 no further. About 1875 Mr. Lawrence pur- 
 chased, after having rented for a short time, 
 and he has occupied the property ever since. 
 The second house stood at the back of 
 the Critten place and was later moved to 
 the opposite side of Duncan avenue, where 
 it still stands. 
 
 The before-settlement history of the 
 Lawrence and Critten properties will be 
 found under the description of the Hunt 
 grounds. 
 
 Next south stands the home of Mrs. De 
 Frees Critten, "Olive Crest." In January, 
 1874, Arthur Oilman, architect, purchased 
 the land from Wm. B. Duncan, paying $15,- 
 000 ; it was he who erected the dwelling now 
 standing, but it appears to have been too 
 much of a load for his bank account as we 
 find the property again in the possession of 
 Mr. Duncan. In June, 1879, it was sold by 
 order of the court as part of the bankrupt 
 Duncan estate, being purchased by the estate 
 of Orondates Mauran, apparently to protect 
 a mortgage. April 30, 1881, the Mauran 
 estate sold to Davis Johnson. July 8, 1886, 
 Johnson sold to Charles McNamee. No- 
 vember 23, 1886, McNamee to Anna E. Lord 
 
 /. D. 
 
 Lau'rcnce 
 
 Olive Crest 
 
 Arthur 
 Gihnan 
 
 Dai is 
 Johnso)! 
 
 Chns. 
 McXaniee 
 
 y 
 
50 
 
 Castleton 
 Heights 
 
 Arthur 
 Giltnan 
 
 Daiiis 
 Johnson 
 
 Anna 
 E. Lord 
 
 'HGWKRD AVENUE CBb 
 
 and October 3, 1895, Lord to De Frees Crit- 
 ten. The plot is known as lots 5 and 8 on a 
 "map of valuable property in the village of 
 Edgewater, Staten Island, sold June 19, 1879, 
 under judgment of the New York Supreme 
 Court by Theodore C. Vermilye, Jr., xeferee 
 in suit of James E. Mauran as executor, etc., 
 against William B. Duncan and others. 
 George M. Root, city surveyor." 
 
 In the deed from Johnson to McNamee, 
 1886, the hill is called "Castleton Heights" 
 thus it would appear that even so late as 
 twenty-five years ago the present name was 
 not universally in use. 
 
 Arthur Oilman was an architect of con- 
 siderable note, not only as a designer but 
 also as lecturer and at least to some extent 
 as a writer. Before coming to New York 
 and while a resident of Boston he advocated 
 the filling in and improvement of the Back 
 Bay, and it is claimed that the handsome 
 features of Commonwealth avenue are due 
 almost entirely to his efforts. In 1865 he 
 removed to New York. The Equitable Life 
 building which burned during the winter of 
 1911-12 was his work and he had much to do 
 with the designing of the Capitol at Albany. 
 St. John's church and parsonage, Clifton, are 
 also of his creating. Mr. Oilman is recalled 
 by his old neighbors as an unusually pleas- 
 ant companion and exceedingly social, a 
 great after-dinner story-teller and raconteur. 
 
 Davis Johnson was a broker and while 
 recalled pleasantly by his one time neigh- 
 bors I have not come on any store of infor- 
 mation concerning him. 
 
 While the real estate records show that 
 Charles McNamee was the next to purchase 
 the property and that he in turn sold to 
 Anna E. Lord, it is believed that he was 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 merely acting for Mrs. Lord who was his 
 mother-in-law. He or she called the place 
 "The Beacon", an appropriate name surely 
 and the more so as the earliest known name 
 of the ridge was "Signal Hill." 
 
 The man who is remembered for his 
 kindly and neighborly qualities, who re- 
 verses Shakespeare's oft-quoted lines, "the 
 evil men do lives after them, the good is 
 oft interred with their bones," has accom- 
 plished more than will most of us. Such was 
 De Frees Critten, who is recalled lovingly 
 by his neighbors as "the best man that ever 
 lived," and who also commanded the ad- 
 miration and respect of the men with whom 
 he associated. 
 
 Mr. Critten was in a way a forty-niner, 
 that is, he was born in Piqua, Ohio, in that 
 year of the gold fever, which may or may 
 not have had something of an influence on 
 his acquisitive powers later on in life, but it 
 is more probable that the early struggle to 
 support a widowed mother developed a 
 natural ability to improve his opportunities. 
 In 1886 he came to New York and formed 
 the firm of Critten, Cliff & Co., and was on 
 the high road to a large success when death 
 overtook him. His hobby was his home, but 
 he was the same clean man in business that 
 his neighbors knew. "He was known 
 throughout the business channels of the 
 country by his manly dealings and upright 
 character, and was respected for his integ- 
 rity and honesty of purpose." 
 
 Mr. Critten died in 1907, having been a 
 resident of Staten Island for twenty years. 
 
 Still south stands the home of Mrs. 
 Charles W. Hunt. An abstract of title 
 gives us the early history of this place and 
 to a great extent that of the Lawrence and 
 
 51 
 
 Dc Frees 
 Critteti 
 
 Mrs. Clias. 
 W. Hunt 
 
52 
 
 HOWARD AVENUE (®, 
 
 Orondates 
 Mauran 
 
 Eddy St. 
 Howard Av. 
 
 Critten homes as well. As far back as 
 1789, this, with the exception of a strip at 
 the back, was part of the Cornelius Corson 
 farm. This portion descended to his son 
 Daniel C. Corson. Was sold by him in 1806 
 to James Dobson, who immediately dis- 
 posed of it to David Mersereau and he in 
 18 14 to Daniel D. Tompkins. The strip at 
 the back of the place was willed in 1798 by 
 Wilhelmus Vreeland to his son Eder Vree- 
 land, it having been aforetime probably a 
 portion of the Hendrick Hsndrickson grant 
 from the Dongan trustees.* In 1814 Eder 
 Vreeland sold to Daniel D. Tompkins. Thus 
 the latter came into possession of the tract 
 which is now bounded by the Turnpike, 
 Eddy street, Howard avenue and the Ken- 
 dall place. 
 
 Daniel D. Tompkins fell on evil days and 
 in 181 7 mortgaged the property to Thomas 
 Hulme, who foreclosed in 1822. He sold to 
 Caleb T. Ward in 1826 and he to Oron- 
 dates Mauran June 14, 1831, and Mr. Mau- 
 ran probably erected the present building 
 immediately as Mr. Betton, a great-grand- 
 son, has the record book of the wine cellar 
 which begins with the year 1833. This 
 would make it the oldest house now stand- 
 ing on the hill. The deed to Mauran gives 
 the impression that neither Eddy street nor 
 Howard avenue at this point were then 
 established as Ward agrees therein to allow 
 an avenue on the north side of the property 
 fifty-six feet in width and on the east side 
 of the property forty feet in width. Eddy 
 street was named by Mr. Mauran in honor of 
 
 * NOTK.— Wilhelmns Vreeland willed hi8 farm to liJs two sona, 
 Ertcir and William. It may be intereHtiiiR to note in tliis connec- 
 tion that Mr. Delavan believes tlie line of bonlders which leaves 
 the Tnrupike opposite the division line of the Cisco and Convent 
 properties to be the line which divided the Vreeland farm between 
 the two sons, 1798. 
 
THE KAUrE-HUXT-McXAMEE-DUXBAR-MAURAX HOfSE. THE OLDEST HOUSE 
 XOW STAXDIXG OX GRTMES H11>L. BUILT ABCUT 1831-2. IT WAS STI1>ULATED 
 IN THE DEED TO MAURAX THAT THE PRESEXT EDDY STREET AXD A PORTIUX 
 OF HOWARD AVENUE SHOULD BE ESTABLISHED FOR HIS COXVEXIEXCE. EDDY 
 STREET WAS NAMED AFTER MAURAX'S FATHER-IX-LA W, CHIEF JUSTICE EDDY 
 OF RHODE ISLAXD. 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 53 
 
 his father-in-law, Samuel Eddy, chief jus- 
 tice of Rhode Island. Mrs. Mauran died 
 about 1855 3nd the house stood vacant for 
 some time thereafter. 
 
 Orondates Mauran died October 6, 1846, 
 leaving a widow and nine children. James 
 Eddy Mauran, the elder, was made execu- 
 tor of the estate and in November, 1868, he 
 sold the Hunt property to Edward E. Dun- 
 bar and at the same time the remainder of 
 the tract to William Butler Duncan. At the 
 instance of Mr. Duncan it was agreed that 
 the joint property of himself and Mr. Dun- 
 bar should be restricted to residential pur- 
 poses and that this restriction should be 
 insisted on in future sales. 
 
 Edward E. Dunbar married Sophia R. 
 Sterry Mauran, a niece of O. Mauran. He 
 died February 18, 1870, Mrs. Dunbar and 
 two children, Edward Mauran Dunbar and 
 Clyde Trippett Dunbar surviving him. In 
 1 87 1 Mrs. Dunbar sold to William B. Dun- 
 can. In 1875 Duncan (William B.), Sherman 
 & Co. assigned and in 1881 James McNamee 
 purchased the Hunt portion of the property. 
 He died in 1896 and in the fall of 1899 
 the widow sold to C. W. Hunt. 
 
 June, 1913, Mrs. Hunt sold to W. Kaupe. 
 
 The Hunt house was built in the most 
 substantial manner. Its beams were hewn 
 from oak trees that grew on the place and 
 it is as sound and strong to-day as when 
 erected over seventy-five years ago. Mr. 
 Mauran called his home "Monocnong," an 
 Indian word which the owner translated as 
 meaning "surrounded by trees." The 
 name does not now apply as formerly, as 
 the hand of time has dealt heavily with the 
 timber in these parts. In those days the 
 entrance to the place was from Eddy street 
 
 Eduard F.. 
 Dunbar 
 
 Monocnong 
 
54 
 
 HOWARD AVENUE (®, 
 
 /. C. 
 Mauran 
 
 Orondates 
 Mauran 
 
 and the front door of the house was on its 
 north side. 
 
 As in the case of the Anthon family the 
 Mauran ancestor came to this country a 
 prisoner. Joseph Carlo Mauran, a native of 
 Villefranche, Italy, was impressed when 
 twelve years old on board of a British man- 
 of-war; he was kept a virtual prisoner for 
 some two years, but while the vessel lay in 
 the harbor of New London, he escaped and 
 in the course of time found his way to Bar- 
 rington, Rhode Island, where he settled 
 down and took unto himself a wife. He 
 soon tired of farming and took to the sea 
 and by 1776 was a man of importance. 
 During the early years of the Revolution, 
 Rhode Island built two "row-galleys" both 
 of which he commanded with honor to him- 
 self; each carried a crew of fifty men, 
 mounted one eighteen pounder and several 
 swivel guns. In 1778 he received Lettres 
 of Marque and Reprisal as commander of 
 the private schooner of war, "Weazel," but 
 after that we hear of him as a merchant- 
 man. 
 
 Oroondates or Orondates, as the name 
 was later spelled, was born in Barrington 
 in 1791. His singular name is accounted 
 for as follows: His mother owned a book 
 entitled "Rival Kings or the Loves of 
 Oroondates and Statira," by John Banks, 
 and it is supposed she confounded the name 
 with Onorato, an old Mauran family name. 
 
 Oroondates married Martha Eddy, and 
 removed to New York where he went into 
 some mercantile business. He was pas- 
 sionately fond of music and was proprietor 
 of the first Italian Opera House erected in 
 New York. Among his other ventures was 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 55 
 
 an interest with Commodore Cornelius Van- 
 derbilt in the Staten Island ferry. Old 
 Staten Islanders used to say that it was 
 Mauran's money that first put the com- 
 modore on his feet and gave him his start, 
 but I do not know how much of fact there 
 may be in this. 
 
 He erected this house on Grymes Hill, 
 then known as Castleton Heights, as a 
 summer residence and as many opera 
 singers and musicians from abroad brought 
 letters to him, and as he was lavishly hos- 
 pitable it is to be presumed that notables 
 of the musical world were frequent visitors 
 to this hilltop and that Monocnong was as 
 musical as is its pleasant sounding name. 
 One of his intimate friends was Captain 
 Marryat who might easily have found in- 
 spiration in our view for a background for 
 some story. 
 
 James Eddy Mauran, eldest son of above, 
 was a noted antiquarian and scholar; while 
 in New York he was a dealer in books, more 
 particularly rare volumes of which he him- 
 self was a large collector, he was also an 
 authority on Fourteenth century matters and 
 heraldry and was exceedingly clever in the 
 art of inlaying prints for the purpose of extra 
 illustration. 
 
 James McNamee was bom in New York 
 and graduated from Columbia at the head of 
 his class. As a young man he was familiar 
 with Staten Island and no sooner was he 
 free to do so than he and Vanderbilt, 
 
 daughter of Captain Jake, caused the 
 preacher to say those mystic words which 
 flatly contradict the multiplication table. 
 In the course of time he purchased the 
 Mauran property and resided here until his 
 death. 
 
 Jas. Eddy 
 Mauran 
 
 James 
 McNaivec 
 
56 
 
 HOWARD AVENUE (®. 
 
 Chas. W. 
 Hunt 
 
 Mr. McNamee became prominent in the 
 profession of the law, and was also some- 
 thing of a politician though he appears to 
 have been too honest to have been much of 
 a success in the latter line ; in fact, his disin- 
 clination to any but a straight course was 
 so pronounced that he became more than 
 distasteful to those who are disinterested 
 enough to devote all their time to govern- 
 ment. 
 
 One of his chief hobbies was "good roads," 
 and I am told that he worked long with the 
 legislature at Albany in order to get a bill 
 through which would deal fairly with the 
 question and that the first good roads on the 
 island were largely, if not wholly, due to 
 his efforts. 
 
 Captain Vanderbilt, his father-in-law, was 
 everlastingly rubbing the wrong way such 
 neighbors who owned fast horses as he met 
 on the highway, for the Captain never could 
 take anybody's dust and consequently he 
 was much sought after by those who had 
 claims for damages against him and Mr. Mc- 
 Namee was kept busy defending him. 
 
 Charles W. Hunt who came to Grymes 
 Hill in igoo began his business career on 
 Staten Island about 1868 in the storing and 
 handling of coal. The clumsy methods then 
 in use suggested to his inventive mind the 
 present system of handling through the 
 use of an automatic railroad by which coal 
 is lifted from barges and carried back on an 
 elevated track to be dumped automatically 
 at any desired point. This led to other in- 
 ventions and soon Mr. Hunt was one of 
 the foremost men in his line, the handling 
 and storage of coal in large quantities. 
 
 The coal stations of the United States 
 Navy at Guantanamo, Puget Sound and 
 
 JJ 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 57 
 
 Manila, as well as other large plants in South 
 Africa, Europe and Australia, are of his cre- 
 ation. His inventions reduced the cost of 
 handling coal from 30 to 3 cents per ton. He 
 also applied the principle to the handling of 
 freight, and this by no means covers the list 
 of his activities. As a mechanical engineer 
 and inventor he was known throughout the 
 world, and was a member of many societies 
 and clubs which have to do with engineer- 
 ing and its allied interests. 
 
 Mr. Hunt's kindly and practical nature 
 was early recognized when he was assigned 
 by Secretary Stanton during the Civil War 
 to the care of the thousands of negroes who 
 flocked into the Union lines from the Southern 
 states. These he taught to care for them- 
 selves by furnishing work and teaching them 
 to be self-supporting. 
 
 An illuminating side light on the man's 
 character is the way in which he used his 
 holidays in photographing the old buildings 
 of Staten Island. He went at it methodi- 
 cally, filing the negatives as they were fin- 
 ished under numbers so that any one of 
 them could be found readily when wanted. 
 A number ot the buildings so photographed 
 have since been destroyed and these nega- 
 tives are possibly the only records extant. 
 Even his method of numbering the negatives 
 was unique as the numbers used included 
 the date on which the picture was taken 
 making other record unnecessary. 
 
 Opposite to the three last mentioned 
 places stand the recently erected dwellings 
 of William Horrmann and Thomas Avery 
 Hine and Charles Gilbert Hine. They 
 purchased together the Robert Bonner 
 tract in July, 1909. All this property 
 bounded on the east by the Richmond 
 
 IV ni. 
 
 Horrmann 
 T. A. Hine 
 C. G. Hine 
 
58 
 
 HOWARD AVENUE (S. 
 
 The 
 
 Wonderful 
 View 
 
 road, on the south by the Strohmeyer, 
 Drucklieb and Kendall properties, on the 
 west by Duncan avenue and a continuing 
 line through the Cisco property, and on the 
 north by a line which includes most of the 
 Cisco place, and all of the Davis property 
 was sold in 1806 by Daniel C. Corson to 
 James Dobson, who the same day sold to 
 David Mercereau, and he to Daniel D. 
 Tompkins in 18 14. 
 
 The property of William Horrmann, ex- 
 tending from Howard avenue to the old 
 Richmond road, now Vanduzer street, con- 
 sisted originally of three knolls of graduated 
 height, whose rounded tops probably looked 
 much as they did when the glaciers retired 
 from this region. On the highest of these the 
 house is set, its one hundred and twenty 
 feet added to the three hundred and twenty 
 feet which nature provides, elevates the 
 "crow's nest" to a point in the upper air 
 from which the horizon line can be seen 
 around the complete circle — north, east, 
 south and west — a glorious panorama. 
 
 Grymes Hill has always been noted for 
 its wonderful view and as we have reached 
 the point from which the view is best ob- 
 served from the road suppose we stop a 
 moment in our mad career and attempt to 
 grasp it. 
 
 A distance of sky and wooded shore 
 pleasantly dotted with country homes; a 
 middle distance of water with passing sails 
 and pennants of smoke, and a bit more near 
 vessels at anchor — fishermen, square-rig- 
 gers, and tramp steamers, the latter mostly 
 Irish if one can judge by the evidences of 
 red flannel, running through all shades to 
 a sweaty pink, which exude from seeming 
 rents in their outer garments. A fore- 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 59 
 
 ground crowded with small homes set about 
 with a certain abandon that harmonizes 
 delightfully with the general lack of straight 
 lines. 
 
 Such is the impression after one has re 
 covered from the first startling magnifi- 
 cence of the picture and before he begins 
 to discover its lesser details. 
 
 Toward the north we see west of the 
 Statue of Liberty, Jersey City and the 
 Palisades of the Hudson when the weather 
 and the smoke permit, the Upper Bay and 
 the jagged peaks of New York, the Brook- 
 lyn Bridge, and the City of Homes itself. 
 At our feet lies the village of Stapleton, 
 beyond, the Narrows and Bay Ridge, and 
 the early riser can see the morning sun 
 glisten on Jamaica Bay ; further to the south 
 is to be noted Gravesend Bay, Coney Is- 
 land and the Atlantic Ocean, whose far 
 horizon line is about twenty-five miles dis- 
 tant. Still further toward the right lies 
 Sandy Hook, the Lower Bay and the blue 
 Highlands. 
 
 At night there are within view from here 
 eight lighthouses and two light-ships — the 
 Highland light, the two lights on Sandy 
 Hook, Romer Shoal light. West Bank light, 
 the red flash of Norton's Point at the west 
 end of Coney Island, and toward the north 
 Robbins Reef light and the double red light 
 on Castle William, Governor's Island; the 
 Ambrose Channel light-ship twenty miles 
 away, a flashing white light on the horizon 
 above the western point of Coney Island, 
 and the Scotland lightship, one steady white 
 light, only to be seen on exceptionally clear 
 nights. Before the land held so many 
 electric lights it was possible to catch the 
 glow from the Fire Island light, forty miles 
 
 Ex lent of 
 the View 
 
 Eight Light- 
 houses and 
 two Light- 
 Ships 
 
60 
 
 HOWARD AVENUE (®, 
 
 distant, but in these days the competition 
 is too keen. 
 The View ^^^ view from this hill at night is one of 
 
 at Night the wonders of the world ; to see the moon 
 rise from the ocean above the summer lights 
 of Coney Island is a liberal education in art. 
 Coney Island is as though the Gods had set 
 the stars in fantastic design for some celes- 
 tial festival; the Shore Road is platted in 
 brilliant points which outline the further 
 side of the Narrows, the streets running 
 back into Bay Ridge are festoons of sparkles. 
 When we are to have a southerly wind all 
 these lights wink in such knowing fashion 
 that there is no mistaking the signal. New 
 York's brilliant array is capped by the 
 Singer Building while the Metropolitan 
 tower flashes the time to us each fifteen 
 minutes. Both north and south the water 
 is alive with winking gas buoys, while tugs 
 and steamers trying to turn an honest penny 
 are so many fireflies on the wing. 
 
 The heavenly bodies descended to earth 
 lie at our feet; again the Dipper points the 
 way to the North Star. What though the 
 latter be an arc light does it not help the 
 belated wayfarer to lay a course for home, 
 its celestial prototype does no more for the 
 mariner. But probably the lights behind 
 shaded windows furnish the greatest op- 
 portunity to the prophetic soul. There 
 they lie, so many winking eyes, as shadowy 
 figures pass and repass telling of home and 
 fireside or, as time grows late, suggesting 
 to one a sick bed, to another love's young 
 dream, both calling for late hours and low- 
 turned lights I am informed. 
 
 To sit here of a quiet summer night and 
 catch the subdued murmur from the val- 
 ley, the call of children at play, blending 
 
AS THE DAYS BEGIN TO SHORTEN THE FIRST WARM RAYS OF THE EARLY 
 SUN ON THE NIGHT-CHILLED EARTH BRING FORTH VAPORS THAT CONSPIRE 
 WITH THE SMOKE FROM MANY BREAKFAST FIRES TO SOFTEN THE ANGLES OP 
 STAPLETON. THE DISTANT OBJECTS. SUGGESTED RATHER THAN SEEN. ARE 
 NOT BELATED SHADOWS OF THE NIGHT. BUT RATHER SUBSTANTIAL SHAPES 
 OF WOOD AND IRON THAT BRING TO THIS PORT MUCH SPOIL FROM FOREIGN 
 LANDS. 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 61 
 
 No Other 
 View Com- 
 pares With 
 It 
 
 with the joyous barking of distant dogs 
 is enough to endow the bosom of a wooden 
 Indian with sentiment. 
 
 Travelers generally compare this view to 
 that from Mount Vesuvius over the Bay 
 of Naples and usually to the disadvantage 
 of the latter. There is undoubtedly no 
 spot in the world where so much of beauty 
 and human interest combine to hold the at- 
 tention. It must be seen many times and 
 under varying conditions to be fully ap- 
 preciated. All the commerce of the greatest 
 city and port of the country passes through 
 our backyard — the Narrows — great steam- 
 ers accumulate during the night until it 
 is no unusual thing for the rising sun to 
 look down on a dozen or fifteen of the lar- 
 gest passenger carriers the world knows, 
 waiting for the visit of the Quarantine doc- 
 tors to set them free. When we consider 
 that the loss of the Titanic was estimated, 
 vessel and contents, at many millions, some 
 idea of the enormous values that pass be- 
 fore us may be had. 
 
 The early morning fog and mist effects 
 give us some of the most exquisite pic- 
 tures that the mind can conceive, and the 
 gorgeous sunrises that so often introduce 
 our days are of infinite variety. Allow me 
 to quote Robert Browning for a brief space : 
 "Day! 
 Faster and more fast. 
 O'er night's brim, day boils at last; 
 Boils, pure gold, o'er the cloud-cup's brim 
 Where spurting and suppressed it lay: 
 For not a froth-flake touched the rim 
 Of yonder gap in the solid gray 
 Of the eastern cloud, an hour away; 
 But forth one wavelet, then another, 
 curled, 
 
 Early Morn- 
 ing Effects 
 
62 
 
 HOWARD AVENUE CBb 
 
 Variety of 
 the View. 
 
 Till the whole sunrise, not to be sup- 
 pressed, 
 Rose, reddened, and its seething breast 
 Flickered in bounds, grew gold, then over- 
 flowed the world." 
 
 Under the action of a strong wind I have 
 seen the fog peeled off the surface of the 
 water as one might lift a sheet from a bed. 
 But possibly the most weird and startling 
 fog effect is confined to a gully on the 
 eastern slope of this hill just south of Eddy 
 street. The currents of air steal up and 
 down this depression without much regard 
 to what the wind is doing elsewhere and 
 when the fog is abroad it is sometimes 
 gently wafted back and forth through this 
 trough in a way to give a sensitive person 
 the creeps. Particularly is this so when 
 the occurrence happens after dark — the 
 gliding of this mystic white figure about the 
 hill slope in the quiet of the night can never 
 be forgotten once it is seen. 
 
 Immediately beneath us spreads a hillside 
 rough hewn by the elements which carries 
 an extremely sparse vegetation. As the 
 grass here takes on a warm tint with which 
 to meet the coming crispness of fall we have 
 a singularly beautiful effect when the 
 rainy day comes, then the wind animates 
 the dullest blade among them, the wet fresh- 
 ens the greens and reds and browns with 
 their varying shades until the life and color 
 are a magical sight. While the wandering 
 footpath that is ever seeking an easier way 
 or the glisten of a wet boulder gives point 
 and character to the foreground, for the 
 rumpled land is but a foreground after all, 
 leading the eye on to the jumbled homes and the 
 busy thoroughfare we know as the Narrows. 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 63 
 
 No one description can fit this ever chang- 
 ing picture. Sometimes it is the gray light 
 of early evening with gray clouds above a 
 blue film spread over the houses beneath us, 
 and quiet gray water beyond, picked out with 
 a square-rigger or two and a handful of 
 tramp steamers. 
 
 Or it is all lines. The brown smoke lies 
 in level lines, the quiet waters carry long 
 slicks, distant Jamaica Bay is another line, 
 the clouds help, most of the visible roadways 
 of the village middle-distance run north and 
 south carrying out the effect. Some tall 
 smokestacks, the city dock, masts of vessels 
 and the derricks of the wrecking company 
 but add a few bits of cross-hatching. 
 
 The George H. Kendall place, "Kenwood," 
 Madame Suzette Grymes purchased in 1836. 
 Before the Civil War Staten Island was a 
 notable resort for Southerners and that prob- 
 ably accounts for the discovery of Grymes 
 Hill by Madame Grymes. This wilderness 
 was just beginning to blossom into a home- 
 land. Major Howard's dwelling had been 
 standing about five years, his real estate boom 
 was well under way and the Mauran house 
 had also been erected, when Madame 
 Grymes "in jack boots, girded up her skirts, 
 and with axe in hand struck out a clearing 
 for her future home." 
 
 Before becoming the wife of John Ran- 
 dolph Grymes, a noted New Orleans law- 
 yer, the lady was the widow of Governor 
 Claiborne of Louisiana. So far as can be 
 learned Mr. Grymes seldom visited these 
 parts. 
 
 The real estate records show that during 
 the years 1836 to 1843 Madame Grymes 
 made four purchases of property on the 
 
 Kenwood 
 
 Suzette 
 Grymes 
 
 1836 
 
64 
 
 HOWARD AVENUE CS. 
 
 Capo 
 
 di Monte 
 
 IV m. Butler 
 Duncan 
 
 George H. 
 Kendall 
 
 Suzette 
 Grytnes 
 
 west side of Howard avenue including 
 some twenty acres for which she paid 
 $8,300; and during the years 1839 to 1846 
 three purchases between the avenue and 
 the Richmond road for which she paid 
 $7,400. William Butler Duncan has told 
 me that she erected the house on the west 
 side of the road first; Mr. C. Drucklieb has 
 been told by members of the family that the 
 house on the east side was the first. The 
 shape of the former tends to confirm Mr. 
 Duncan as it looks like the creation of a 
 Southerner who would naturally place the 
 rooms so as to catch every breath of air, 
 and the first purchases of property were 
 here, and further one of the deeds, 1845 or 
 1846, of the lower property is to Suzette 
 Grymes "of Capo di Monte," the name she 
 gave to her hilltop dwelling. 
 
 In 1846, John R. Grymes gave Suzette 
 Grymes a power of attorney to rent, sell or 
 mortgage any or all of the property, giving 
 as a reason the fact that a large portion of 
 his time was spent out of the state of New 
 York and that his wife was permanently a 
 resident of said state. 
 
 In 1858, William Butler Duncan purchased 
 the place from Madame Grymes and made 
 it his home until 1896, when it was sold to 
 George H. Kendall. The place contained 
 twenty acres. 
 
 Members of the Grymes family have failed 
 to respond to requests for information con- 
 cerning Madame Suzette Grymes and it has 
 been necessary to fall back on such slender 
 facts as have been gleaned from a few long 
 memories and from official records. The 
 pickings are somewhat scant. 
 
 Madame Grymes was of Spanish descent, 
 her maiden name being Bosque. She 
 
THE KEXDALL-DUXCAX-GRYMES HOUSE. ERECTED 183C-7 B^ MADAME 
 SUZETTE GRYMES, WHO CALLED HER PLACE CAPO DI MONTE. FOR A SHORT 
 SPACE THE ENTIRE HILL WAS SO CALLED, THE PRESENT APPELLATION 
 HAVING BEEN ADOPTED MORE RECENTLY. 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 65 
 
 married William C. C. Claiborne, governor 
 of the territory of Mississippi and after his 
 death married John Randolph Grymes, 
 a lawyer, of New Orleans. Their children 
 were : — 
 
 1. Medora, who married Samuel Ward of 
 
 New York. 
 
 2. Edgar. 
 
 3. Alfred. 
 
 4. Athenaise, who married Louis A. von 
 
 Hoffman. 
 
 A mysterious "Mable" is referred to in 
 the will of Louis A. von Hoffman, but as 
 her name does not appear in the genealog- 
 ical records of the Grymes family it is not 
 clear who she was. 
 
 A codicil of the von Hoffman will disposes 
 of "principal and income of a certain fund to 
 me paid over by Suzette Grymes, now de- 
 ceased, the mother of my late wife, which 
 said fund was by me received in accordance 
 with the following instructions in writing to 
 me at the time given by the donor thereof". 
 Translation of Madam Grymes's instruc- 
 tions which are given in the will in the 
 original French. 
 
 "I have given this day 20 thousand francs 
 to my son-in-law Louis von Hoffman. I 
 made him a present of it until his death and 
 then this sum will go to Mabel but not 
 before, because she will spend it in dresses 
 and hats. He can do with this sum what he 
 wants, increase it or invest it. I beg him to 
 give some little interest to Mabel, as a little 
 present which comes from me." 
 
 Madame Grymes is recalled as a heavily 
 built woman, very strong and masculine, 
 and with a peppery temper that would have 
 done honor to the scrappiest of "red-headed 
 Macs," and a vocabulary equally as forcible. 
 
66 
 
 HOWARD AVENUE (®, 
 
 Wm. B. 
 Duncan 
 
 F. G. 
 
 Strohmeyer 
 
 Alfred 
 Grymes 
 
 C. Drucklieb 
 
 L. A. von 
 Hoffman 
 
 but like many such she was kindly to a 
 degree and very fond of children. Some of 
 the present day gray-heads recall with lively 
 satisfaction her Christmas liberality which 
 appears to have been as free as salvation. 
 
 When William Butler Duncan purchased 
 the property the four corner wings were 
 merely one story in height; he transformed 
 one of these into the present tower and 
 added a story to each of the others; it was 
 Mr. Duncan who erected the present stone 
 wall 
 
 Mr. Duncan's father was a native of Scot- 
 land, but came to this country in his youth 
 and married a Miss Butler of Providence. 
 The son graduated from Brown University 
 in i860 and five years later became the head 
 of the banking firm of Duncan, Sherman and 
 Company. He had many prominent friends 
 and was visited by King Edward VII, then 
 the Prince of Wales, when the latter was in 
 this country and it is possible that the 
 Prince was entertained in the Grymes Hill 
 home as were many other notables. Among 
 such was the first Lord Rosebery who it was 
 understood was engaged to a daughter of 
 Mr, Duncan; the visitor was taken sick 
 while here and returned home to die. The 
 daughter later married the Honorable 
 Mr. Phipps. 
 
 Opposite, on the other side of our high- 
 \way, lie the Strohmeyer and Drucklieb prop- 
 erties. The home of Mr. F. G. Strohmeyer, 
 which is two-thirds of the way down the 
 hill, was erected before 1845 by Alfred 
 Grymes, son of Madame Grymes. It passed 
 from his possession into that of the pres- 
 ent owner. 
 
 The C. Drucklieb house is the former 
 home of Louis A. von Hoffman, a son-in-law 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 of Madame Grymes. This is one of the 
 most beautifully wooded hillsides imagi- 
 nable. The present owner is constantly re- 
 foresting his domain, as he believes in mak- 
 ing two trees grow where one grew before. 
 Originally Mr. Drucklieb only purchased 
 the northern end of his present holdings and 
 the house close on the road, now occupied 
 by Mr. W. H. Pouch, was erected by him 
 for dwelling purposes, but having acquired 
 the larger domain Mr. Drucklieb removed 
 to the von Hoffman-Grymes house which 
 he still occupies. 
 
 The decided bend in the road which puts 
 a kink in the Kendall stone wall hereabouts 
 is that particular spot spoken of elsewhere 
 at which Howard avenue and the Serpentine 
 road become one. If I am correctly in- 
 formed the Serpentine road is not so named 
 because it reminds one of the trail of the 
 serpent, though it might well be, but be- 
 cause it passes over a stratum of rather rare 
 rock known as serpentine; the rock, how- 
 ever, is so named because it often occurs 
 in winding, irregular veins and possibly 
 the road thus received its cue. 
 
 There are more exotics dwelling along 
 this way than those who live in houses made 
 with hands. Here, for instance, when 
 spring comes to us, can be found the Amer- 
 ican Star Thistle which has been natural- 
 ized from the dry plains of Missouri and 
 the southwest. Its red buttons add a 
 pleasant touch to the garments in which old 
 Mother Earth clothes herself in these parts. 
 
 From the beginning of the Drucklieb 
 property to the Cunard gateway we catch 
 but glimpses of the view through the trees. 
 The sun glistening on the Lower Bay makes 
 a brilliant background for the tall columns 
 
 67 
 
 M'\ H. 
 Pouch 
 
 Howard Av. 
 Ends 
 
 The Serpen- 
 tine Road 
 Begins 
 
68 
 
 HOWARD AVENUE (®, 
 
 Chas. E. 
 
 Seitz 
 
 Thos. 
 Nesmith 
 
 J. P. 
 Nesmith 
 
 Col. George 
 Browne 
 
 upholding the roof of green above us, and 
 these in turn break the expanse into in- 
 numerable small pictures where a bit of 
 canvas or the long, black trail of a passing 
 steamer furnishes the motif; or possibly 
 some ponds in the low country shine like 
 bright, particular stars under the touch of 
 the same illuminating hand. 
 
 El Paradiso, the property of Chas. E. 
 Seitz, is the next place on the left. This 
 was originally the home of John P. Nesmith 
 while Thomas Nesmith lived just beyond. 
 
 Thomas Nesmith made the first purchase 
 in April, 1836; John P. purchased in Sep- 
 tember, 1840. The Nesmiths continued to 
 purchase property up to 1865, some fifty 
 parcels in all, until they not only owned 
 everything between the Grymes and 
 Cunard-Vanderbilt places and the Rich- 
 mond road and Clove road and the Turn- 
 pike, but also purchased beyond the Turn- 
 pike to the shores of Silver lake in the one 
 direction and east of the Richmond road in 
 the other. The description of one piece of 
 property, 1844, which lay along the Rich- 
 mond road includes "a marked cedar tree 
 near the foot of Brimstone Hill." 
 
 The Nesmiths are identified in some of the 
 deeds as of the city of New York, merchant. 
 In a deed dated in 1865 Thomas Nesmith is 
 spoken of as of Derry, N. H, ; it is a com- 
 mon family name in those parts and the 
 family may have come from New Hamp- 
 shire originally. 
 
 May 18, 1866, John P. Nesmith sold his 
 home, which he called "Inwood", to Joanna 
 C. Browne, wife of Col. George Browne, 
 she in 1874 to William B. Ogden. In 1881 
 Anna B. A. Shaw, "widow, of the city of 
 Philadelphia," purchased and placed the 
 
THE SERPEXTIXE ROAD. I.OOKIXG NORTH FROM THE GATE OF THE OLD 
 JOHN P. XESMITH PLACE. THE BEND IN THE DISTANCE MARKS THE NORTHERN 
 END OF THE SERPEXTIXE ROAD. AT THAT POIXT THE ROAD FORMERLY 
 PLUXGED DOWX HILL TO RICHMOND ROAD AT BROAD STREET, AND HOWARD 
 AVENUE RAN INTO IT AND STOPPED. THE LOWER PART OF THE ROAD WAS 
 LATER ABANDOXED AXD ROAD AXD AVEXUE BECAME ONE. 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 69 
 
 property in trust for her son, Edward H. 
 Shaw of New York; in 1890 Amzi L. Bar- 
 ber became the owner, but sold the same 
 year to George H. Kendall, and he in 1902 
 to the present owner. 
 
 Sheriff Denyse tells the following story, 
 but does not recall to which one of the 
 Nesmiths it applies. Pat Henry, a con- 
 tractor, undertook to dig a well for one of 
 the Nesmith houses, he agreeing not to 
 ask for his money until he could show water, 
 but after reaching a depth of forty or fifty 
 feet without even getting damp feet he tired 
 of his bargain and selecting a dark night 
 proceeded to cart the desired element from 
 some pond. In the morning the guileless 
 Mr. Nesmith was shown his four feet of 
 water in his well and Pat got his money 
 and retired. In the course of a few days 
 the water likewise retired and left the 
 owner with a perfectly good hole in the 
 ground, and such reflections as would 
 naturally go with the situation. 
 
 As stated above Thomas Nesmith pur- 
 chased in April, 1836. His home which stood 
 south of his brother's place was known as 
 "Cedar Cliff". By or before 1867 this prop- 
 erty came into the possession of Eugene 
 Dutilh, a New York banker. In 1889 Louise 
 T., wife of Alexander Barring, sold to Mrs. 
 Winnifred F., wife of Robert A. Ammon of 
 Tompkinsville, for $6,500, this included the 
 house and furniture and twelve acres of 
 land. 
 
 Christmas eve, 1894, the house burned. 
 The fire caught during the absence of the 
 owner and while Mrs. Ammon was arrang- 
 ing a Christmas tree for the children and 
 was attributed to a lantern in the hands of 
 the gardener. 
 
 Thos. 
 Wcsinith 
 
 Eugene 
 Dutilh 
 
 R. A. 
 
 Amnion 
 
70 
 
 HOW^ARD AVENUE CSt, 
 
 Serpentine 
 Road 
 
 Mr. Amnion's desire for riches exceeded 
 his ability to keep out of trouble and for a 
 considerable period he figured prominently 
 in the New York papers. During the days 
 of his prosperity he purchased considerable 
 property hereabouts until he owned all the 
 property along the south side of the Ser- 
 pentine road to the King place, which he 
 also purchased in igoi. 
 
 No one can be expected to appreciate the 
 full beauty of this region until he sees it on 
 some showery day when those who do not 
 know enough to go out when it rains are 
 snugged up at home. Then the adven- 
 turous one has it all to himself or at least 
 only divides with the small, wild things. 
 It is surprising how careless of the pro- 
 prieties these are at such a time, for it 
 seems to be with particular gusto that they 
 scamper along wet boughs or through the 
 watery grass. At such a time a little brown 
 bunny is just as apt as not to sit up on the 
 path and wave his paws at one as though 
 he were quite ready to spar it out then and 
 there, or a gray squirrel perched on a near- 
 by branch will wink an eye with a demure 
 solemnity that is quite fetching. 
 
 Somehow these incautious doings never 
 seem to happen when the sun shines and it 
 has occurred to me that the lesser denizens 
 of the wood have heard of the old admo- 
 nition to keep one's powder dry and still 
 labor under the impression that modern 
 shooting irons do not work at such a time. 
 But whatever the reason they go skylarking 
 around the woods like so many small boys 
 when teacher reports sick; and the birds 
 are not one whit more serious-minded. 
 
 For a short space now the Serpentine 
 road is a typical winding, woodland road, 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 71 
 
 showing only such evidences of modern 
 civilization as its macadam bed and bor- 
 dering telegraph poles furnish. No fence 
 confines the traveler but trees on either 
 hand rise up to call it blessed and those so 
 inclined may take to the woods without 
 let or hindrance. 
 
 Here we gaze down the wooded slopes of 
 Pleasant Valley, a name which does not 
 convey much but serves as a handle. This 
 furnishes Hillside avenue a means of reach- 
 ing the lower regions, and also lends some- 
 thing of variety to the view, for one can 
 not only see through but over the trees and 
 when a morning sun puts a glitter on the 
 far ocean horizon line, a very good excuse 
 is furnished the stroller to stop for a brief 
 rest. 
 
 On the right, opposite Hillside avenue, 
 stands the R. A. Ammon dwelling, "Fair 
 Acres". The property was purchased by Rev. 
 Gordon Winslow in 1846 from John P. 
 Nesmith who also granted a right of way 
 over "an intended road" which led "to the 
 road opposite the house of the said John P. 
 Nesmith." This accounts for so much of 
 the Serpentine road. In 1870 the widow of 
 Gordon Winslow sold to Edward King and 
 in 1 90 1 he to Mrs. R. A. Ammon. 
 
 The Reverend Gordon Winslow came to 
 Staten Island in 1845, being driven here by 
 bronchial trouble. He purchased about ten 
 acres of land and erected a simple house in 
 which he spent the remainder of his days, 
 except during the Civil War period. He 
 was a graduate of Yale, 1830, where he also 
 studied theology, but later turned to the 
 creed of the Episcopalian. He became rec- 
 tor of St. Paul's and chaplain of the Quar- 
 antine, holding the latter position for sev- 
 
 Pleasan I 
 
 Rer. Gordon 
 Wiitslozv 
 
72 
 
 HOWARD AVENUE CSt, 
 
 enteen years and being highly regarded be- 
 cause of his devotion to the sick during the 
 yellow fever epidemic. 
 
 When the Fifth New York, known as the 
 "Duryea Zouaves" went to the front, Gordon 
 Winslow went as the chaplain; from the 
 first his record stands a shining mark, none 
 surpassed him in bravery or devotion to the 
 wounded. Note what the officer in com- 
 mand reported after the battle at Big 
 Bethel: "The noble conduct of Chaplain 
 Winslow and the generous-hearted men 
 who remained to help the wounded de- 
 serves the highest praise; and the toilsome 
 task which they accomplished, of dragging 
 the rude vehicles filled with their helpless 
 comrades, over a weary road of nine miles 
 in their exhausted condition, with the pros- 
 pect of an attack every minute, bespeaks a 
 goodness of heart and a bravery never ex- 
 celled." James Parton speaking of the same 
 incident says: "The noble Chaplain Wins- 
 low, with a few other men, remained be- 
 hind, and, all exhausted as they were, drew 
 the wounded in wagons nine miles from the 
 scene of the action to the nearest camp." 
 
 Some two years later, Major-General War- 
 ren, in a report issued in January, 1863, 
 summarizes his deeds as follows: — 
 
 "From the first battle of the war at Big 
 Bethel to the last at Fredericksburg, Dr. 
 Winslow has shown an adaptability for his 
 position, and a success in efforts which has 
 won the confidence of all. At an early day 
 he was elected by the Sanitary Commis- 
 sion at Washington for the responsible posi- 
 tion of the Sanitary Inspector of the Army. 
 This immense labor he sustained till the 
 commencement of the Peninsular campaign, 
 for which he received the earnest thanks 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 73 
 
 of the Department at Washington. Since 
 the commencement of the Peninsular cam- 
 paign he has been my aid and a member of 
 my staff, and has been constantly with me 
 on the field, except when the claims of 
 humanity and mercy called him to attend 
 to the sufferings of his fallen comrades. His 
 efforts in this department I most gratefully 
 acknowledge. For days and nights after 
 the battles of Williamsburg, Hanover Court 
 House, Gaines Mills, Malvern Hill, Bull 
 Run, Antietam, and Fredericksburg, the 
 doctor has had frequent recourse to his ex- 
 perience to guide him to the best measures 
 of improving hospitals for the wounded, or 
 means of comfort and solace, which at such 
 times of trial cannot be too highly valued." 
 
 He is spoken of by those who knew him 
 when he lived on the hill as a pretty good 
 doctor (of medicine), a good nurse, a taxi- 
 dermist, hunter, fisherman and nature-lover; 
 a genial, agreeable and instructive com- 
 panion with mind and manners finely culti- 
 vated. 
 
 Dr. Winslow's elder son. Col. Cleveland 
 Winslow, of the Fifth New York, was badly 
 wounded in the battle of the Wilderness, 
 and while bringing him and other wounded 
 officers and men to Alexandria the doctor 
 lost his life, June 7, 1864, at the mouth of 
 the Potomac. He fell overboard from the 
 transport steamer Mary Ripley, and after 
 swimming for some time, suddenly disap- 
 peared as he was about to be rescued. The 
 remains were never found. 
 
 The son mentioned above died in the hos- 
 pital at Alexandria one month after the 
 death of his father. Of him Major-General 
 Warren reported, "I have never known a 
 braver officer." 
 
 Col. 
 
 Cleveland 
 
 Winslow 
 
74 
 
 Edward 
 King 
 
 Gen. Wni. 
 G. Ward 
 
 HOWARD AVENUE (®. 
 
 Edward King was the well-known New 
 York banker, president of the Union Trust. 
 He owned this property for about thirty- 
 one years. 
 
 When Mr. King decided to quit he ad- 
 vertised that the place would be sold at 
 auction and that half of the purchase price 
 would be allowed to stand on mortgage. 
 Much to his chagrin Ammon bought the 
 place in on a bid of $8,000. Immediately 
 Mr. King, who had a strong dislike for the 
 purchaser, decided that if possible he would 
 avoid holding the mortgage and called in 
 his legal adviser, Mr. DeWitt Stafford, 
 charging him to meet Ammon and, if possi- 
 ble, persuade him to pay the entire amount. 
 They met in the real estate oifice of Mr. 
 Cornell in Stapleton and Ammon when 
 questioned said he would pay the $8,000 if 
 Mr, King would deduct the $100 he had paid 
 for searching the title. This was readily 
 agreed to, whereupon the new owner pulled 
 an immense roll of bills from his pocket and 
 counted out $7,900 in cash which he turned 
 o/er. Mr. King was greatly delighted with 
 the result until the lawyer suggested that 
 this was no doubt part of the ill-gotten gains 
 of the Miller Syndicate, when his joy was 
 much abated. 
 
 Here again did fire come to mar the per- 
 fect peace of the new owner. On November 
 30, 1 90 1 a barn in which was stored con- 
 siderable furniture was destroyed by a fire 
 of supposed incendiary origin. Mr. Ammon 
 thought it might have been started by a 
 discharged coachman. A reward was offered 
 by the insurance companies interested, but 
 nothing came of it. 
 
 Next stands the former home of General 
 William G. Ward, erected by him in 1865 on 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 
 
 75 
 
 a twenty-acre plot purchased from one of 
 the Nesmith brothers. Ha called his place 
 "Oneata", a Seminole word brought from the 
 Dry Tortugas by a friend of the family, a 
 Doctor Storrow, and which he translated to 
 mean "Kissed by the dawn". When a young 
 man in college the General used to visit the 
 hill. He and John Anthon were friends and 
 Miss Ward thinks that Doctor Winslow 
 acted as tutor for her father at this time, 
 a double incentive to draw him here. Be- 
 fore building he rented the Winslow house 
 for three or four summers. 
 
 A brief biography of General Ward gives 
 an outline of his services as follows: April 
 19 to August 4, 1 86 1, Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Twelfth Regiment N. Y. S. M. May 31 to 
 October 8, 1862, Colonel of the same regi- 
 ment. Participated in the defense of 
 Harpers Ferry and was paroled at its sur- 
 render, September 25, 1862. Exchanged 
 January 11, 1863. June 17 to July 22, 1863, 
 Colonel of the same regiment, being in 
 Dana's Division and Couche's Corps in the 
 Pennsylvania campaign. He partly in- 
 vented and partly improved the Ward- 
 Burton breech-loading rifle. 
 
 The Bellevue. Sir Edward Cunard, Jr., 
 married a granddaughter of Thomas Addis 
 Emmett; the latter purchased property in 
 1850 on this end of the hill from John Mell 
 and the same year sold a portion to Sir 
 Edward, who erected the present house. 
 Presumably it was he who adopted the name 
 "Bellevue". Mr. Cunard was American 
 manager of the Cunard line and could 
 readily see from his home the vessels of his 
 line pass in and out. 
 
 The next tenants were cousins of the 
 owner, Allen by name, two or three 
 
 Sir Edward 
 Cunard 
 
76 
 
 HOWARD AVENUE (®. 
 
 Bachelors' 
 Club 
 
 Am si 
 Barber 
 
 Capt. 
 
 Jacob H. 
 
 Vandcrbilt 
 
 bachelor brothers. These gathered other 
 disciples of St. Anthony about them, and 
 the place was for a time known as the 
 "Bachelors' Club". Either at this time or 
 later Sir Oliver Northcut was a tenant. In 
 the course of time the place fell into the 
 hands of Amzi Barber, of asphalt fame, 
 and still remains in the possession of his 
 heirs. 
 
 Captain Jacob Hand Vanderbilt, com- 
 monly known to all the island as "Captain 
 Jake", was, the histories tell us, bom Sep- 
 tember 2, 1807, in the old house on Bay 
 street. Staple ton, known as the Vanderbilt 
 homestead, which is still standing. By the 
 time he had reached the age of eighteen 
 years he was in command of a steamboat. 
 He died in 1882. 
 
 The Captain purchased this property in 
 1847 and erected the house which burned 
 about 1904 while being used as an annex 
 to the Bellevue. 
 
 He was one of the best known men of the 
 island and being free in his hospitality enter- 
 tained many celebrities including such men 
 as General U. S. Grant and others. 
 
 Every one recalls "Captain Jake" as a 
 lover of fast horses and many are the stories 
 told to this end. That part of his property 
 which lay over against the Cunard holdings 
 and bordered on the Serpentine road was 
 known as the "Paddock". It was here that 
 his horses spent their leisure hours, and 
 many a boaster has come to grief in this 
 inclosure when bidden to show his skill on 
 the back of some particularly lively friend 
 of the Captain's. To refuse an invitation to 
 mount was even worse, for then the owner's 
 wrath was even as that fire which never 
 shall be quenched. 
 
VIEW FROM THE SERPENTINE ROAD OVER THE LOWER BAY. ONE OP THE 
 MANY DAZZLING PICTURES WHICH THE MORNING SUN LAVISHES ON THIS 
 REGION. 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 77 
 
 Pretty much every one on the road took 
 the Captain's dust, even Wall Street did it 
 once and this is how it came about and how 
 the trouble was mended. On the advice of 
 brother Cornelius, Jake made an investment 
 in stocks which netted him a handsome loss, 
 due chiefly to the fact that the stock did not 
 rise to the occasion, and thereafter brotherly 
 love between the two was as difficult to 
 locate as native ore in a salted mine. As 
 a result Jake ceased his Sunday custom of 
 dropping in on big brother for tea and the 
 situation was just the reverse of the quality 
 of mercy as elucidated by Mr. Shakespeare. 
 
 Some time thereafter as the Captain 
 stepped on the boat one afternoon for the 
 voyage home, he saw a handsome team of 
 black horses hitched to a light road wagon 
 that made his heart glad and promptly pro- 
 ceeded to investigate by asking the darkey 
 driver where he was going, to which came 
 the brief but enlightening response, "Staten 
 Island." At this our friend sputtered a bit 
 in his usual Sunday-school fashion, but 
 made no headway beyond relieving his feel- 
 ings by consigning the negro to what the 
 new Baptist version of the Bible calls the 
 "underworld." 
 
 Arriving at his home, he found the darky 
 and rig awaiting him at his own door with 
 an olive branch from brother Cornelius 
 which gave him to understand that this was 
 for him and which wound up with the ad- 
 vice, "Don't be a damned fool ; come around 
 to the house and have tea." Jake rubbed his 
 hands over the beautiful, glossy coats of the 
 animals and, concluding to let the dead bury 
 the dead, simply remarked, "Well, they cost 
 me $40,000." But the breech was walled up 
 
78 
 
 HOWARD AVENUE ®, 
 
 Vale 
 Snowden 
 
 Mrs. W. S. 
 Nichols 
 
 Fred'k Law 
 Olmstead 
 
 and the brothers again dwelt together in 
 unity. 
 
 "Vale Snowden", which comers on the 
 Clove road, is the home of Mrs. William 
 Snowden Nichols. The house was erected 
 by Satterthwaite about 1852-1854 and was 
 purchased by Mr. Nichols in 1864. The 
 architect was James Renwick, mentioned in 
 connection with the Davis place, and the 
 grounds were laid out by Frederick Law 
 Olmstead. 
 
 Mrs. Nichols tells me that General Green, 
 one time minister to Russia, and who was 
 associated with Mr. Olmstead in the laying 
 out of Central Park, once said that Mr. Olm- 
 stead and Mr. Satterthwaite were friends and 
 that the former gained a large part of his 
 practical knowledge as a landscape architect 
 in the laying out of this place. Originally it 
 was a most unpromising spot, a mass of 
 soapstone (serpentine), and it required the 
 work of eight yoke of oxen almost a year to 
 haul sufficient earth from the top of the hill 
 to make a foundation for the garden. 
 
 A well which is situated almost in front 
 of the house and very near the road was, ac- 
 cording to local tradition, a regular stopping 
 place for the Philadelphia stages. Mrs. 
 Nichols does not know anything more than 
 that this statement came from Mr. Satter- 
 thwait. It is possible that there may have 
 been an inn on the Little Clove road here, 
 but if so there does not appear to be any 
 record concerning it. 
 
 Mrs. Nichols recalls that the Richmond 
 County Country Club grew out of an in- 
 formal riding and driving club which used 
 this place as a rendezvous, as the younger 
 members of her family took a lively interest 
 in its formation and development. 
 
SERPENTINE ROAD 79 
 
 LAST WORD OF ALL. 
 
 One could visit this hill-top a hundred 
 times and never see the view as I have at- 
 tempted to describe it, nor, in fact, see it 
 twice alike, so many things enter into its 
 make-up, — weather conditions, time of day 
 or night, season of the year; the possible 
 combinations are almost without number. 
 
 The visitor might happen on a time when 
 an east wind was driving a thin fog up the 
 hill, one moment revealing the village be- 
 low, another crowding everything but the 
 earth on which he stood off the map, merely 
 allowing fleeting glimpses of the beyond, 
 and then the hurrying legions of the mist 
 charging upon the sight until all is lost 
 again. 
 
 It is like the animated face of beauty, ever 
 changing yet always the same, and never 
 uninteresting. Only a poet could hope to 
 do the subject justice, and he must be no 
 mere juggler of words. 
 
80 HOWARD AVENUE (®, 
 
 WHY THERE ARE OMISSIONS! 
 
 In the gathering of information for such a 
 purpose as this there is no point that one may 
 reach with the feeling that nothing more is 
 possible. There is always some will-o'-the- 
 ^visp in the distance that leads on to further 
 investigation and always the feeling that some- 
 where is an uncovered treasury of facts. 
 
 People come and go rapidly. The work on 
 this book has been progressing some two and 
 one-half to three years and even in that short 
 space three men have died from whom I had 
 secured some information and hoped for more, 
 and two others have become incapacitated. 
 
 I have a strong feeling that the southern 
 end of the hill has not been covered as it 
 should be. Rumors have come that some 
 artist who was later renowned used, in his 
 more obscure days, the lodge at the John P. 
 Nesmith gate as a dwelling and studio, but 
 who he v^as has not been learned. It is said 
 that the head gardener on the Cunard place 
 was an interesting character that was worth 
 a book in himself. I do not even kno^v his 
 name. And so there is much that even such 
 a willing and capacious swallovv^ as mine can- 
 not quite accommodate itself to. 
 
 Consequently there comes a time when such 
 work must be cut off short and the draggled 
 ends trimmed into shape as best may be. And 
 this has very recently happened to the History, 
 etc., of Howard avenue and the Serpentine 
 road. 
 
 C G. HINE. 
 
 March 17, 1914. 
 

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