Olean Herald, 18 March 1892
NEW ROCHELLE.
[Special Correspondence.]
BY ALBERT C. POTTER.
NEW ROCHELLE, N. Y., March 17.—Settled by Huguenot refugees in 1689, and long retaining the language and life of a French community, the old village of New Rochelle has had a unique history. It is said that the women carried stones in their hands and mortar in their aprons to help build the first church in the place, and before the people had a settled pastor they used to walk twenty-three miles to New York for the Sunday worship, starting Saturday evening and returning Sunday evening, their brethren in the city offering them entertainment over night. Obviously a people so devoted to their religion would not have invited the great Freethinker, Thomas Paine, to make his home in their midst, nor would he on his part have chosen their village as a particularly congenial abode. Yet the lapse of more than a century had wrought changes in the town, and one must remember that the inestimable services of the author of “Common Sense,” being recently rendered, were fresher in the public mind than now.
Those services were deeply appreciated by Washington and valued by congress, which voted Paine thanks and money. The state of New York showed its sense of obligation by granting him a large farm at New Rochelle, made up of land confiscated from a Huguenot Tory. The place was on North street, over a mile from the village, and here Paine lived awhile before he went abroad to mingle in the fierce controversies of that stormy period. Returning at length, broken in fortune and repute, he alternately resided in New York city and at his farm till his death in 1809. A portion of the house he occupied is still standing, and the room in which he slept is still pointed out. Until a few years ago the quaint “Franklin” stove was preserved in his old room, but was then taken out and displayed as an advertisement in a local hardware store.
It is claimed that Paine provided for his monument in his will, but the monument now standing on North street informs us that it was “erected by public contribution in 1839.” It stands near the spot where he was buried, at the entrance to a private lane leading back half a mile east to a farmstead on the hill. A neat wall incloses the monument, and in each corner of the square yard is a flourishing tree—two willows, a maple and a hickory. An iron fence and gate border the road. The memorial is about twelve feet high, of marble and capped by an ornamental block. The faces of the shaft are two feet wide, and on three sides are engraved notable selections from “Common Sense,” “Age of Reason,” and “Crisis.” The front bears a medallion of Paine cut in stone and surrounded by a wreath of laurel. The bones of the restless patriot and agitator were not allowed to rest in peace where he intended, but were some years later spirited away by the English radical, William Cobbett, who thought to aid the growth of republican ideas in England by producing the relics. The plan failed, and their final resting place is uncertain.
Directly opposite where Paine was buried used to stand an old Huguenot inn where merry times often prevailed. Once during a local carnival the British suddenly appeared and captured some of the youth, required them to deliver up their valuables, and even stripped them of coats, hats and shoes. Here and there in the village and environs are to be seen a few of the ancient Huguenot houses, small, low and solidly built, with massive stone chimneys. The old French names are still numerously represented among the people. Many interesting traditions are preserved of Paine and of old time matters. He is said to have preached his doctrines in a grove in the village for a time. He frequently made the rounds of the farmers and accepted their hospitality.
Striking tales of his drunkenness and blasphemy are told, perhaps colored somewhat by prejudice, though there is little doubt that his last years were unhappy. The influence of so popular and noted a man was considerable in the community during his life, and naturally some of his neighbors and acquaintances sympathized with his views, but we are told that this influence was almost wholly destroyed by the advent of itinerant Methodist preachers in the locality not long after Paine’s death.
New Rochelle was the birthplace of that good Boston saint, Peter Faneuil, who gave the famous old “Cradle of Liberty,” Faneuil hall, to the “Hub.” He came of approved Huguenot stock. To show the contrasts of this life, one must add that the notorious Captain Kidd also knew this quiet old hamlet on the sound, having used it as a recruiting and provisioning ground. Along these beautiful shores he “sailed, and he sailed,” bequeathing to this and to that inlet and point sundry ghostly traditions of dreadful deeds and of buried treasure. Defying the powers of both earth and heaven, he still “sailed, and he sailed,” till at last he made the snug port of Newgate, and resigned his commission at “Execution Dock.”