Early Life and Call to Service Harry William Lewis was born in Brooklyn, New York on November 18, 1892. Like so many young men of his generation, his life was dramatically altered by the outbreak of the First World War. In April 1918, at the age of twenty-five, Harry was inducted into the U.S. Army.

The following is a court indictment from New Hampshire dated May Term 1860 against Jeremiah Hayes of Manchester, Hillsborough County. Hayes was accused of illegally keeping and selling a large quantity of intoxicating liquors (about 100 gallons)without being authorized as an agent under state law. The law in question was the 1855 Act for the

The search for the true parentage of Nathaniel Cutler, born in 1808 in Westchester County, New York, highlights the difficulties faced when researchers rely too heavily on compiled genealogies and derivative sources. Over the past two days, close examination of both 19th- and early 20th-century genealogical works has revealed a troubling pattern of duplication, speculation,

In the late summer of 1832, nearly fifty years after he first hauled barracks timber on the Hudson, Nathan Cutler of Lodi, Seneca County, New York appeared before Judge Levi Whedon to claim a pension under the Act of June 7, 1832. He was about seventy-four. His memory, he admitted, was “worn by old age,”

Here are firsthand voices from our Nathan Cutler’s Revolutionary War pension file (S12642)—his own 1832 sworn declaration, plus affidavits from his brother-in-law Isaac Travis, his probable son Abraham Cutler, and neighbors and clergy in Seneca County. Together they place Nathan as born at Peekskill in 1758, serving along the Hudson Highlands(Fishkill, Fort Montgomery, Peekskill, West

The following summarizes Nathan Cutler’s own words in his request for a U.S. pension as recorded in pension file S12643. When the Revolution broke out, Nathan was living in the Nine Partners tract of Dutchess County. In October 1775 he answered an early call-up under Captain Isaac Bloom and spent about six weeks hauling lumber

Henry Lewis, the Nashville, the First Naval Shot, and the Opening of the Civil War In the spring of 1861, the U.S. Mail Steamer Nashville was exactly what her name and registry claimed her to be — a civilian “packet” steamer, meaning a privately owned vessel that ran on a fixed schedule under contract to

My name is Philip Hayes. I was born in the United States, as was my father—but according to the deep dive I’ve taken into our genealogy, we are unmistakably, undeniably, 100% Irish up to my father.  My father is a third-generation American, yet the Hayes line remained pure up to him. Our family roots trace

Long before the first Dutch and English settlers arrived, the region that would become Mount Pleasant, New York, was a vibrant homeland to the Weckquaeskeck, a branch of the Wappinger Confederacy within the Algonquin nation. These Indigenous people lived along the Saw Mill River, relying on its fish-rich waters, fertile floodplains, and connecting trails for

A Visit to Philipsburg Manor, Sleepy Hollow, NY If you're part of the extended Yerks family — or descended from any of the tenant farmers who once lived and worked in colonial Westchester County — then Philipsburg Manor isn’t just a historical site. It’s a living connection to your past. OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Background: Capture of Major André (Sept 23, 1780) On the morning of September 23, 1780, British Major John André was captured near Tarrytown, NY by a small patrol of New York Patriot militiamen. The three famed captors – John Paulding, David Williams, and Isaac Van Wart – stopped André (who was traveling under the alias

Background: Westchester’s Neutral Ground in 1780 During the American Revolution, Westchester County, New York lay in a volatile “Neutral Ground” between British-occupied New York City and American-held northern positions. It was a lawless battleground plagued by constant raids and skirmishes. Regular troops and irregular bands – dubbed “Cowboys” (Loyalist marauders) and “Skinners” (renegade Patriot militia)