The Argus, 24 June 1900
NEW BOULEVARD NECESSITATES REMOVAL OF ROADSIDE GRANITE SHAFT.
THE AUTHOR OF “COMMON SENSE”
Farm Given to Thomas Paine by New York State in Recognition of His Services During the Revolution.
It has become necessary to move the monument erected to Thomas Paine, politician, philosopher and maker of republics, from the roadside in front of the farm that was his, near Rochelle, N. Y., writes a correspondent to the Boston Herald. The monument was placed there by public contributions from the admirers of his philosophy in 1839. It was a simple granite shaft until it was surmounted by a fine bronze bust of Paine last year. Not many feet distant is Paine’s grave, from which his bones were removed and taken to England by William Cobbett in 1819, and forever lost.
The Paine monument is one of the sights of New Rochelle, and the Paine farm one of its historical places. The monument stands on North street, at the corner of the lane that runs up to the house once occupied by Paine on the farm. His grave was once marked by a plain stone slab, on which was the inscription: “Thomas Paine, Author of Common Sense.” This, however, has long since been broken up and carried away by memento seekers. Nothing is left to mark his grave save two posts.
The village of New Rochelle, having determined to widen North street into a boulevard, for which the last Legislature appropriated $100,000, a discussion arose as to the disposition of the monument, which would be left in the middle of the road, an obstruction to traffic. The appropriation for the boulevard did not contemplate an expenditure for the monument, so the cost of moving it will devolve upon those faithful to Paine’s memory.
The monument cost about $2,000, and it was paid for in small subscriptions in New Rochelle and Tuckahoe, with a few from New York. On the front is a good portrait of Paine, in low relief, surrounded by a wreath. The inscriptions are as follows:
“The world is my country;
To do good my religion.”
Paine’s Motto.Thomas Paine,
Author of “Common Sense,”
Born in England, January 29, 1737,
Died in New York City, June 8, 1809.“The palaces of Kings are built upon the ruins of the bowers of Paradise.”—Common Sense.
Erected by Public Contribution,
November 13, 1839,
Repaired and Rededicated
May 30, 1881,
Bronze Bust Erected May 30, 1899.
On the sides and back are carved long extracts from Paine’s works, “The Age of Reason” and “Crisis No. 1.”
Across the street from the monument is an old house called “The Homestead,” which was formerly the residence of Alfred Badeau. In this house Paine boarded whenever he was on his farm. He had no housekeeper and only wrote and slept in his house.
The Paine farm is as pretty a bit of countryside as there is in the State of New York. It originally consisted of 375 acres, and was given to Thomas Paine by the State of New York in 1785, at the time Pennsylvania presented him with £500, in recognition of his services to the country during the war of the revolution and afterward. The farm had been the estate of Frederick Devoe, a Tory, who fled to Canada. Not returning to take the oath of allegiance to the United States, the government confiscated the farm.
In his will Paine left one-quarter of the farm to his friend, Clio Rickman, of London; one-quarter to Nicholas Bonneville of Paris, the husband of his friend, Margaret Bonneville, and the other half to the sons of M. and Mme. Bonneville. The farm has since passed through many hands, and is now owned by C. N. Lester and J. See. Mr. See occupies the house in which Thomas Paine lived, and owns the orchard in which the great free thinker sat and wrote. In his last testament Paine willed himself 20 square feet of land for his own grave, but he failed to locate it. Otherwise, the monument would not now stand in the lane, and his grave would not have been obliterated.
Paine’s house is a quaint, old-fashioned building of two-stories, with an added modern wing. In the rear is a buttery, with a barred window. The house is small, and has not a hospitable look.
The farm is now in a high state of cultivation. It is divided into fields by stone walls. In one portion of it is a large reservoir, fed by a brook and springs, and a walled in brook carries the water off brawling through a field and across the lane, under a bridge and off down the roadside. There are also fine orchards and groves, and, altogether, it is one of the show places of New Rochelle.