Talman Orser
John M. McDonald interview — 1850-10-17 — Ossining, New York
Talman Orser (1766-1862), whose first name is usually spelled Tolman, begins his interview by discussing Twitching’s Corners in Mount Pleasant, and notes that the house in which he resides was raided by Refugees who stole horses and cattle. He states that when Loyalist Major Mansfield Bearmore was captured in November 1779, Colonel Charles Armand took him off personally. The Orser family suffered so much while residing in present-day Ossining that they moved to Yorktown, where they hosted the Westchester Guides. Orser also discusses an incident when a group of women led by Sarah Orser attacked a tea peddler and forced him to sell them his tea for Continental money. (Other accounts in the McDonald Interviews indicate that Talman Orser’s mother, Elizabeth Pugsley Orser, led the tea party.) He concludes by discussing Colonel Armand and Armand’s Legion.
Original findings from this interview
Manuscript page facsimiles
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Transcription
resides at 65 Stanton St, but am not certain. She is a daughter of Jabez Sherwood of the Log-Bridge over the Byram, is about 80 years old, and must know the Revolutionary transactions of her native neighborhood.
Oct. 17th Talman Orser, of Ossining, aged 82 : "There were four corners at Twitchings during the Revolutionary war formed by the White Plains and Pines Bridge road and the [marg: North Castle] Bedford and Tarrytown road near the Poor House was a road used before the Revolutionary war.
I was born in the house where I now live. The Refugees under the Kipps, Sam'l. and James, used to come up and sweep off our cattle. Once they took off as many as 200 head of horses and cattle, and about twenty head from this place owned by my father and grandfather. *Bearmore* commanded on this occasion.
When Armand took Bearmore he secured him upon his own horse behind him, being unwilling to trust him with any other person.
When the Refugees had taken our cattle and furniture, we moved to Yorktown where the following West Chester Guides boarded with us, viz: The two Dyckmans, Brom and Mike, the two Oakleys, Cornelius and James, John Pine, and Mark Post.
There was a party of women about here who in the beginning of the war attacked a Tea pedlar and an Irishman named James Dunlap, and compelled him to sell tea to them for continental money. Their number was fifteen or twenty. They lay in wait for him about three miles above the old church on the N. R. [marg: New Rochelle? North River] Turnpike on the road. They got as much as they wanted for the present —
They were commanded by Sarah Orser, wife of Albert Orser, who lived about a mile from here.
Colonel Armand's cavalry was well mounted on large fine horses from Pensacola or the South. Benjamin Orser and Daniel Orser two of his privates of the horse were from hereabouts.
I don't know whether James Requa's house was burnt when he was taken. He lived on the Bedford road about two miles from Tarrytown.
Armand himself was a stout, square built, black looking man. He wore a heavy black beard which, with whiskers and moustaches, increased the darkness of his appearance."