Chestnut Ridge

The following was written in 1940 by Mrs. Glenette Forgea in her scrapbook of local history. Mrs. Forgea, nee Smith, was a descendant of the early settlers of Chestnut Ridge. The photo on the right shows Mrs. Forgea (right) with my great-grandmother Ruth Waldie, Mrs. Forgea's daughter Ruth, and Ruth Waldie's children Janet and Robert in 1937.

In treating with the history of New Castle Corners, the Village of Mount Kisco, or Bedford, mention should be made of a community called “Chestnut Ridge,” being passed out of existence. This community consisted of twenty or more small farms, all of them contiguous on both sides of the Chestnut Ridge Road and in the vicinity of Byram Lake. It was situated about four miles southeast of Mount Kisco. The Chestnut Ridge Road connected South Bedford Road and the Armonk Bedford Road.

The settlement of this little community antedated the Revolutionary War. The Mosher house was definitely known to have been built prior to the Revolutionary War and it is very likely there were others built at a very early date. At least three of the old homes are still standing (there was a tavern called Reynold’s Tavern of Chestnut Ridge in 1798). The settlers were all of good American stock, proud, patriotic, thrifty, and very religious.

Chestnut Ridge was situated in the town of Bedford. In Scharf’s History of Westchester County there is a record pertaining to Bedford, reading as follows: “On September 28, 1702 the town meeting directed that the new land should be laid out in 36 lots of 50 acres each or 60, if the land will hold out,” and ordered that convenient highways be made. The committee for this important work consisted of Zachariah Roberts, John Copp, Stephen Clason, Nathan Clark, John Miller Jr., Jonathan Miller, John Wascot, and Richard Wascot.

Copp began his work at Broad Brook Swamp at a place called Cohansey (where Aaron Sutton later resided) and laid out a ten rod highway westward to Kisco Brook. There was also a large tract of land about Chestnut Ridge left undivided and smaller tracts in other parts of the purchase. It was probably only a few years later that the Chestnut Ridge land was laid out in lots.

The life of the Chestnut Ridge settlement was at the peak of its existence about 1846 when it built its own Methodist Church.

As was mentioned, most of these farms were small and extensive farming was not carried on. Most every home was engaged in shoemaking. Shoemaking was an employment very much in vogue in those days as the machine age had not made its entrance into the land. Charles Wesley Brundage made a health shoe for Dr. Kaylor of New York City. Charles Brundage (son of William L. Brundage) was another very fine shoemaker. Many of the women made extra money by sewing on men’s shirts, the piecework being brought to their homes by various men in that business. A well-known man in that business was Morris Lissauer of Mount Kisco. The shoemakers and farmers helped each other out in time of haying, planting, or when a well was to be dug.

There were no stores in Chestnut Ridge. Most families had one or two horses and drove into New Castle Corners or Bedford Village on Saturday nights for their provisions. Through the week business men from Mount Kisco or Bedford would drive a wagon through the Ridge and usually the wagon carried everything imaginable – grociers, meats, dry goods, drugs, tinware, etc. Walter Osborne of Mount Kisco had such a route through the Ridge at one time.

The children of this community attended the little one room red school house located near the intersection of Chestnut Ridge Road and the Bedford-Armonk Road, called the Coman Hill School. Many of the children had several miles to walk. Slates were used in those days.

The Ridge had quite a reputation for its Camp Meetings and they were attended by the townspeople of Mount Kisco, also (Outdoor temperance meetings, lasting three hours, were held in Chestnut Ridge). Old timers tell of the many good times spent in Chestnut Ridge, the gay parties, sociables, and quilting bees. Some of the homes had organs and frequent evenings of song have been related. Because of the Ridge’s proximity to Byram Lake, most all the families had row boats and good times were spent in rowing and fishing.

The people of the Ridge received their mail by means of R. F. D. #1.

The settlement had two cemeteries – one on Byram Hill and the Zarr Cemetery. The Zarr Cemetery was used by many of the families of Chestnut Ridge – Adams, Sands, Moore, Brundage, Daniels and others – but in historical records it is referred to as the Zarr cemetery. The property about the Byram Hills Cemetery was bought up by various wealthy men and made into large estates and for that reason it was arranged to remove the bodies to Oakwood Cemetery in Mount Kisco – accounting for the very old dates of some of the markers and the old style of stones, for Oakwood is of comparatively recent origin. The Zarr Cemetery remains intact except tha tmany of the stones are fallen and embedded. It is now enclosed by a stone fence built by Mr. A. W. Butler, who bought up all the surrounding property. The oldest stone in the cemetery is that of Parker Zarr, born April 20, 1756 and died May 7, 1824. The last burial was that of Reed Adams (father of Eugene Adams) born June 22, 1821 and died November 22, 1915.

About 1908, Mr. Butler bought up most of the farms of Chestnut Ridge, which form his very large estate. Most of the families moved to the village of Mount Kisco, and the old homesteads have been torn down. Walter and Solomon Brundage, two old and beloved Chestnut Ridge residents, moved to Moger Avenue in Mount Kisco and lived there until their deaths. Mr. Charles Wesley Brundage was the oldest inhabitant to remain in Chestnut Ridge, having received a lifelong permit to live in his old home. The house now used as Mr. A. W. Butler’s superintendent’s house was one of the newer houses built in the Ridge. It was built by Solomon Brundage upon his retirement from the police force of New York City. The church was left standing for a number of years but was finally torn down, around 1925, thus erasing every vestige of the settlement called Chestnut Ridge.

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Addenda

It has been revealed by Ronald Reynolds that the Chestnut Ridge Road was at one time called Shoemaker Road. That name presumably resulted because practically every house in the Ridge conducted shoemaking. It was an honorable trade in those days and, of course, was prior to the machine age.

When the machine age reached these parts there was a serious blow to the inhabitants of the Ridge and most likley, without that income, the cause of selling their lands, one by one, and the beginning of the inevitable decline of the existence of the settlement that was called Chestnut Ridge.