TOWN
HISTORIAN |
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Mimi
Buckley, Town Historian
Blake Bell, Deputy Town Historian
34 Fifth Avenue Pelham, NY 10803
(914) 738-2691
historian@townofpelham.com |
Town
of Pelham History
Pelham
is the oldest town in Westchester County. Thomas Pell signed
a treaty in 1654 with the Siwanoy Indians to buy what is not
only the Town of Pelham but is all of the borough of the Bronx
and the land along Long Island Sound north to the Rye border
and inland to the Bronx river. Pell named his manor "Pelham"
in honor of his tutor, Pelham Burton.
Thomas
Pell's nephew, Sir John Pell, was the first of the Pells to
live in Pelham Manor. He inherited the land in 1670 and until
the American Revolution only the Pell family lived in Pelham.
During
the American Revolution, the Battle of Pelham was fought along
Split Rock Road and Wolf's Lane on October 18, 1776. Despite
a fierce fight, the British army commanded by Sir William
Howe won the battle.
The
Joshua Pell House, built about 1760, is still standing today
at 145 Shore Road. Another Pell House, which was remodeled
by the Hay family in the 1820s and renamed "Pelhamdale", still
stands at 45 Iden Avenue.
The State Legislature incorporated the Town of Pelham on March
7, 1788, and at that time included all of City Island and
what is now Pelham Bay Park east of the Hutchinson River.
In 1895, the Town of Pelham was reduced to its current area.
Three Villages were incorporated within the Town - the Village
of Pelham Manor in 1891 and two others, the Village of North
Pelham and the Village of Pelham, in 1896. In 1975, the Villages
of North Pelham and Pelham (also known as Pelham Heights)
merged to form the present Village of Pelham.
JOHN
PELL
Little is known about man the
believed to appear on the New Rochelle half-dollar.
On the 1938 New Rochelle, N.Y., 250th Anniversary half-dollar,
a man “Three Musketeers”-like grabs hold the lead
of a calf. Nowhere on the coin’s obverse or reverse
is the man identified or is it explained why he appears to
be walking a baby cow. “Many people believe that the
figure in the late 17th century costume is meant for John
Pell, but this is unconfirmed,” according to Anthony
Swiatik and Walter Breen in The Encyclopedia of United States
Silver and Gold Commemorative Coins 1892 – 1989. Despite
this ambiguity, the man appearing on this commemorative half-dollar
is generally assumed to be, in most numismatic texts, John
Pell.
1938
New Rochelle Half Dollar
The
New Rochelle half dollar was the last new commemorative coin
issued by the U.S. Mint prior to World War II. There were
four coins who closed their runs in 1939, the Arkansas, Boone,
Oregon Trail and Texas half dollars. But the New Rochelle
coin was the last brand-new "commem" to appear for
nearly a decade. It proved to be a highly effective finale,
for its much admired design: left the hobby audience calling
for an encore. The coin commemorates the 250th anniversary
of New Rochelle, N.Y., a medium-size city in Westchester County,
just north of New York City. Its obverse shows a fatted calf
being roped and held by a figure representing John Pell. It
was Pell, the lord of Pelham Manor, who sold 6,ooo acres of
land-the site of New Rochelle-to French Huguenot settlers
in 1688. One of the conditions was that Jacob leisler, the
man commissioned to handle the transacdon for the settlers,
would give to Pell and his heirs "one fatte calfe"
on the 24th day of June every year thereafter, if they demanded.
The coin's reverse depicts a fleur de lis, a symbol which
appears on the shield of the City of New Rochelle. Gertrude
K. Lathrop prepared the appealjng designs.
Congress authorized 25,000 New Rochelle half
dollars; more than 9,700 were melted, leaving a net mintage
of 15,266. This is a relatively low figure, and makes this
a semi-key issue in the series. The coin was authorized in
1936 and minted in 1937, but didn't reach the public until
1938-the year of the observance and also of the date on the
coin. Fifty proof specimens were struck on polished planchets,
and these always bring healthy premiums. Business-strike exarnples
are scarce and highpriced, too, in gem condition.
PELLS AND PELHAM
In keeping with the design’s
ambiguity, frustratingly few specific details are available
about Pell.
Most background information about Pell comes through facts
about his father, also named John, who was a prominent mathematician.
The senior Pell was born in the English Channel town of Southwick
in 1610 or 1611. Pell Senior entered Cambridge at 13, where
he received his master’s degree in mathematics by age
20.
As a math professor throughout England and in the Netherlands,
Pell Senior developed the division sign.
Pell Senior was also politically affiliated with the Cromwellian
regime. During his tenure as lord protector for the English
Commonwealth, Oliver Cromwell appointed Pell Senior to lecture
on mathematics.
Pell Senior also served as an agent for the Commonwealth government
in Zurich, Switzerland, from 1654 to 1658.
Pell was presumably born sometime between his father’s
leaving Cambridge and the late 1650s.
While Pell Senior was achieving eminence in mathematics, his
physician brother Thomas was carving out a small empire in
New England.
On Nov. 11, 1654, Thomas Pell acquired 50,000 acres of land
in a treaty with Siwanoy Indian Chief Wampage. The parcel
of land encompassed all of what is now the Bronx and land
stretching west along the Long Island Sound to the Hutchinson
River in what is now Westchester County.
Thomas Pell named his acreage Pelham in honor of his tutor
Pelham Burton.
The Dutch government in the area then known as New Netherland
tried unsuccessfully for several years to remove the English
and Thomas Pell from their region. However, Thomas Pell and
England succeeded in driving the Dutch from what was soon
renamed New York. Thomas Pell led the English militia to accept
Governor Peter Stuyvesant’s surrender on Sept. 21, 1664.
Thomas Pell died without children in 1669. He willed his estate
to his nephew, John Pell, who moved from England to New York.
When the Protestant French Huguenots were denied protection
by King Louis XIV, thousands of the Huguenots left France
to settle in the Americas.
Acting New York Gov. Jacob Leisler appealed to Pell to sell
6,000 acres plus a donation of 100 acres for a French church
of Pelham to Leisler to sell to the Huguenots.
The Huguenots began settling on acreage in 1688, when they
found what would become New Rochelle.
A condition in the sale was that Leisler or his heirs would
provide “John Pell his heirs and assigns, of the said
Manor of Pelham … as an Acknowledgement to the said
Manor one fatt calfe on every fouer and twentyth day of June
Yearly and Every Year forever (if demanded),” as included
by Swiatek and Breen.
Pell served on Westchester County’s first court in 1683
and in the colonial governor’s council.
Take
a walking tour of Historic Pelham
For
more history on the Pelhams visit www.historicpelham.com
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