Pound Ridge, New York

In the early 17th century, Pound Ridge was inhabited by Native Americans who spoke the Munsee language[5] and were members of the Wappinger Confederacy. The geographical boundaries of the tribes within the Confederacy are unclear. Pound Ridge has been variously listed as within the territory of the Kitchawong, Siwanoy, and Tankiteke bands.

The Siwanoy are generally agreed to have lived along the north Long Island Sound Coast with a maximum range extending from Hell Gate to the Five Mile River separating today's Darien, Connecticut, from Rowayton to its east. The Tankiteke appear to have occupied easternmost Westchester County above the coast but extending further west in the northern part of the county and into southern and eastern Putnam County, and eastward in Fairfield County to the Saugatuck River in Westport. The territory of the Kitchawong is thought to have extended from the Croton River to Anthony's Nose along the Hudson and some distance east from the river.[6]

The Wappinger Confederacy participated in Kieft's War which began in 1640 as a result of escalating tensions over land use, livestock control, trade and taxation between the Dutch West India Company colony of New Netherland and neighboring native peoples. In March 1644, a Wappinger Confederacy village in present-day Pound Ridge was attacked by a mixed force of 130 New Netherland soldiers under the command of John Underhill.[7][8][9] This event is now known as the Pound Ridge Massacre. The soldiers surrounded and burnt the village in a night attack killing between 500 and 700 Indians. The dead included 25 members of the Wappinger tribe, with the remainder being either Tankiteke or Siwanoy or both. The New Netherland force lost one man killed and 15 wounded. More casualties were suffered in this attack than in any other single incident in the war. Shortly after the battle, four Wappinger Confederacy sachems arrived in the New England settlement of Stamford to sue for peace.

The territory of modern Pound Ridge was first permanently settled by Europeans in 1718 in the present-day Long Ridge Road area.[10][11]^: 17 Long Ridge Road was originally an Indian path and had been used by the first settlers of Bedford, New York, as they traveled to that destination from Stamford. Although the very first settlers were from Huntington on Long Island, most of the original settlers of Pound Ridge were from Stamford. A large portion of Pound Ridge was included in the town of North Castle when it was incorporated in 1721.

Three thousand acres in the northern part of present-day Pound Ridge were included within the more than 86,000-acre (35,000 ha) Cortlandt Manor grant which extended from the Hudson River in the west 20 miles (32 km) east to the Connecticut border. A member of the historically prominent Lockwood family first purchased land in Pound Ridge in 1737 and several members of the family settled in the town within the next six years. The Scofield family first settled in the area in 1745 and the first Fancher settled in the area in 1758. Roads in the modern town bear the name of each of these families. The first record of the term "Old Pound Ridge" to refer to the present-day town's territory is found in the North Castle records from 1737. "Old Pound Ridge" begins to appear in Stamford records in 1750. The name "Old Pound Ridge" is thought to have originated from the presence of an Indian game pound on a hill within the territory when the settlers first arrived.

During the 1700s, the Boutonville area of Pound Ridge found itself at the center of a 50-year land dispute concerning overlapping grants of the Van Cortlandt Manor grant to Stephanus Van Cortlandt and to the Stamford patentees. After a lengthy legal battle, clear title to the 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) was finally given to Van Cortlandt heirs in 1788. Most of this land is now part of the Ward Pound Ridge Reservation. Sometime after that, Pierre Van Cortlandt built a home there. In 1815, Samuel Piatt (Peatt) (1773–1850) purchased 7 acres (2.8 ha) and an existing house from Gen. Philip Van Cortlandt. This home, since demolished, was on what now is Honey Hollow Road. The farmland in the Pound Ridge and Lewisboro sections (Ward Pound Ridge Reservation) were part of the Van Cortlandt Manor lands that were divided into "great lots" of about 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) each. These lots were further divided into 300-acre (120 ha) farms.[12]

Pound Ridge was the site of a battle during the American Revolutionary War. On July 2, 1779, a force of 300 American rebels was attacked by 200 British soldiers under the command of Banastre Tarleton.[11]^: 37 The raid was the first independent command for the 24-year-old Tarelton. The attack was planned as one of a series of raids on rebel forces in the region, the purpose of which were to draw Washington's army away from the Hudson River.

The rebels had been warned of an impending raid on the night of June 30 by the rebel spy Luther Kinnicutt. However, the spy was not able to discover the date of the attack. The American force consisted of 100 continental foot soldiers of the 6th Connecticut Regiment under Major Eli Leavenworth, 90 of Colonel Sheldon's 2nd Regiment of Light Horse, and about 100 militia under Major Lockwood. The light horse detachment had been under the temporary command of Major Benjamin Tallmadge until the day before the attack when Colonel Sheldon arrived. Benjamin Tallmadge had organized the Culper Spy Ring which operated in British-occupied New York. The British force consisted of 200 mounted light dragoons and infantry and included some Hessian Jagers.

Tarleton left his base on the Bronx River near Yonkers on the night of July 1 in a heavy rain storm and rode until he reached North Castle early on July 2. He then decided to attack Pound Ridge by an indirect northern route. In this way he managed to avoid the force of continentals located on the southern road. A lookout spotted the British as they approached the town and warned Colonel Sheldon. The commander dispatched Major Tallmadge with a small group to find out if the arriving force were British or expected reinforcements under the command of Colonel Moylan. The force under Tallmadge withdrew upon contact with the British. The force of light horse and militia under Sheldon and Lockwood were scattered and withdrew to the south. Tarleton's force pursued them for a time before returning to the town. They were then fired upon by some militia from behind cover. The British burned the Presbyterian Church and the home of Major Lockwood before withdrawing with prisoners, cattle, arms, equipment and the battle standard of Sheldon's 2nd Regiment[13] back along the northern road to Bedford. Tarleton had the Presbyterian Church in Bedford burned as well as the house of a patriot. The British abandoned the cattle in Bedford before returning to the Bronx River camp under pursuit by the Americans as far as North Castle. In the course of the raid the British had managed to capture some of Benjamin Tallmadge's papers including a letter from George Washington. These papers revealed information on the operations of the Culper Spy Ring.

Reports on battle casualties are contradictory. One secondary source provides a figure of 10 Americans wounded and eight captured along with two British killed and four captured.[11]^: 40 The nearby towns of Bedford and Norwalk were burned by the British on July 11. Throughout the Revolutionary War, the region was witness to raids by both Patriots and Tories against opposing residents. A Tory raid in Pound Ridge in 1779 led to the death of a resident. Pound Ridge held a number of Tories as prisoners or under house arrest throughout the war. Later in the war Tories were denied freedom of speech, lost the use of the courts, were prevented from practicing their trades and had their property confiscated.

Pound Ridge was officially incorporated in 1788. In 1782, the population was 707 which increased to 1,062 by 1790 and 1,256 by 1800. One slave is listed as a resident in the 1800 and 1820 federal censuses. In 1830, the population was 1,437. The population remained between 1,400 and 1,500 through the census of 1860 after which the census indicates population decline. During this period Pound Ridge was an agricultural community in which families raised a variety of crops for their own consumption. Commercial beef and dairy farming were also practiced. The town was a center for shoemaking with almost 150 families listed as shoemakers. Shoe parts were acquired from factories in Long Ridge and New Canaan. Residents would then stitch, fit and attach the parts and return the completed shoes to the factories. This activity was greatest in the winter during which farmers had the time to pursue secondary occupations. This cottage industry declined as the shoemaking industry began to employ full-time workers around mid-century. As a result, a number of local shoemakers moved out of town to become factory workers. Pound Ridge became a center of basketmaking with 80 families employed in the trade at its peak. Basketmaking was concentrated in the present-day hamlet of Scotts Corners which was known as Basket Town. Baskets were used for a variety of purposes but were particularly important for the oyster industry along the Long Island Sound. This local industry reached its height in the 1860s, with basket prices falling thereafter. The decline of basketmaking in Pound Ridge was caused by a combination of competition from foreign and machine-made products as well as the collapse of the oyster industry in the Sound due to environmental pollution.

Pound Ridge furnished 109 men to fight in the American Civil War. Of the 94 new recruits, 53 served in Connecticut regiments and 41 in New York Regiments. Seven men were killed in action, 13 died of disease, three died in prison, seven were wounded and 13 disabled.[11]^: 66 When conscription was enacted, the town began to raise money to give to conscripts for their personal use or so that they could purchase substitutes. The money was raised through taxes, bonds and loans from the county. By the end of the war the town had $35,000 in debts. A significant portion of the money was entrusted to Alsop Hunt Lockwood who served as the town supervisor from 1844 to 1853 and then county sheriff for three years before becoming supervisor again from 1856 to 1868. In the spring of 1868, the town attempted to audit the supervisor to determine how the war funds were disbursed. The supervisor resigned in the summer of 1868 and the town went to court against him to recover $9,155.77 in damages and costs. The case was apparently settled out of court. The former supervisor sold his Pound Ridge house in 1871 and moved to White Plains where he died three years later. Alsop was the sixth and last member of the Lockwood family to serve as town supervisor.

In 1869, the Stamford Water Company purchased land for the construction of a dam and the creation of a reservoir for the use of the city of Stamford. Three ponds were joined to create Trinity Lake which reached a capacity of 450 million gallons when the dam height was increased in 1895. In 1891, the Stamford Water Company purchased additional land and created Siscowit Reservoir with a capacity of 88 million gallons.[14] Annual farmers' picnics were held on the eastern shore of Trinity Lake for about 20 years from 1886 onwards. Up to 2,000 people from the region would attend.

The population of Pound Ridge declined from 1,417 in 1860 to a low of 515 in 1920. During this period general farming was replaced by dairy farming. Forest grew back over land cleared during the previous two centuries. The town had lost all three of its post offices by 1903. In May 1911, a series of fires broke out that burned hundreds of acres. George Irving Ruscoe served as town supervisor from 1894 to 1927. He also served as a justice of the peace for 62 years until his retirement in 1945. In 1916, the Northern Westchester District Nursing Association requested permission to open a Polio hospital in Pound Ridge. Sentiment in the town was strongly against the proposal and the hospital was not approved. The town board passed a resolution requiring all outside children under the age of 17 to be examined by health officials before they would be allowed to visit the town. In 1917, Pound Ridge was caught up in a Polio epidemic.

In 1925, Westchester County purchased over 4,000 acres (1,600 ha) of land in northern Pound Ridge and adjacent Lewisboro to create the Pound Ridge Reservation. The park was renamed the Ward-Pound Ridge Reservation in 1938 after the park planner and longtime Republican county leader William L. Ward. From 1933 to 1940, the Reservation was host to a Civilian Conservation Corp camp known variously as Camp SP-9, Camp No. 24 and Camp Merkel after the parks superintendent for Westchester County. The camp had about 200 enrollees at any one time. Workers improved roads and built bridges, planted trees and constructed shelters, picnic areas, walls, latrines and a museum.[15]