"The history of nations," said Taine, "is the

history of the men who make up nations; it is in the

homes of the common people, their daily lives and

their ambitions, that we find the motives which

actuate the most important national events, revolutionize governments and change the political geography of continents." To no communities could this

judicious comment of the keenest of critics be more

aptly applied than to those which, derived from all the

maritime peoples of Europe, laid broad and deep the

stable foundations of Caucasian civilization in North

America and erected upon them the impregnable

structure of free government. Writers of history

never so generally recognized as they do now that to

construct an intelligent and comprehensive narrative

of a State, or its divisions they must seek the source of

truth and the springs of action at the firesides of the

pioneers of population and the civil establishment. No department of historical research is more fascinating to the student or the reader than that which throws

a penetrating light upon the domestic life of the

founders of our present society and government, and

brings them out in bold relief as they transacted their

business and household affairs, paid court to the

blooming maidens who became their wives, reared

their children, mingled in their feasts and festivals,

built their churches and struggled to bequeath to

their children the heritage of honored names and

goodly estates. Rich as were all the early settlements of North America in this field of study, no

section is more attractive than that in which Westchester County is embraced. The successive tides ot

Dutch and English immigration, the original sharp

definition of the lines which separated the two nationalities, the obliteration of those lines by a merging of

racial interests, the institution of slavery, the growth of

the colony toward moneyed prosperity, the influence of

the Revolutionary War in domestic circles, the political and social readjustment which followed it -- all

these epochs are vitalized by stirring, important and

interesting incidents and phases that are gifted with

an enduring charm for the generations succeeding the

actors in them.