Harvey Birch, the hero of The Spy, is a portrait from the life of a revolutionary patriot who appears in the book as a peddler with a keen eye to trade as well as to the movements of the enemy. One of the best known incidents in the book is that in which Harvey, by a clever stratagem, assists Capt. Wharton to escape. James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) was born at Burlington, N.J., but was reared in the wild country around Otsego Lake, in central N.Y., on the yet unsettled estates of his father. It was here he learned the backwoods lore, which in combination with his romantic genius, made him one of the most popular of authors.
Among the literary residents of Tarrytown have been Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth, well known to a previous generation for her romantic novels, John Kendrick Bangs, the humorist, and Hamilton Wright Mabie, editor and essayist. Carl Schurz (1829-1906) is buried here in the Sleepy Hollow churchyard. Tarrytown is the trading center of a prosperous agricultural region; it also has about 100 manufacturing establishments with a large output. Just north of Kingsland Point (seen at the left, on the east bank of the river), the seat of William Rockefeller comes into view on the right, and behind it, among the hills, is the estate of his brother, John D. Rockefeller.
John D. Rockefeller was born in 1839 at Richford, Tioga Co., N.Y., but his family moved to Cleveland while he was still a boy, and his career was begun there. In 1858 he went into the produce commission business, and 4 years later his company invested in an oil refinery. Mr. Rockefeller kept constantly adding to his influence and possessions in this field until by 1872 the Standard Oil Co. was organized with him as president, and a practical control of oil production in America was secured. This was the first great American "trust." Mr. Rockefeller himself retired from active business in 1895. While his wealth is enormous, his benefactions have been on an equal scale, comprising gifts to the Baptist Church, the founding of educational institutions and the supporting of those already existent. Scientific research in medical fields has been a particular object of his generosity.
Mr. Rockefeller's country estate is called "Kijkuit," meaning look-out—a name given by the early Dutch settlers to the beautiful hill on which it stands, and which, rising to a height of 500 ft., gives a lovely view up and down the Hudson, across to the distant mountain ridges of N.J., and inland over Westchester County. The house and gardens are famous not only for their splendour, but for the priceless works of art they contain. Among the treasures which have been worked in as details of the landscape gardening is a fountain which for years has been considered unrivalled by experts. The huge basin, 20 ft. 8 in. in diameter, was cut from a single block of granite weighing 50 tons and brought on the deck of a schooner from an island on the Maine coast to the dock at Tarrytown. The heroic figure at the top represents Neptune, and the figures below symbolize the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans.
In the "morning garden" at the rear of the house is a bronze Victory (a facsimile of the Pompeiian Victory at Naples), which stands on a marble column with a Byzantine capital brought from Greece. The 13th century relief set in the wall of the pergola at the left came from a church in Venice.
Descending a flight of steps to the westward, one comes upon the Aphrodite temple. The style of this is Graeco-Roman, with columns of marble supporting a dome decorated after the fashion of the portico niches in the Massimi palace in Rome, which was designed in the 16th century by Baldassare Peruzzi. Under a roof of copper and bronze, on a high pedestal, stands "Aphrodite," resembling the Venus de Medici, but so superior to her in line and proportion that many critics believe it to be a Praxitilean original from which the Venus de Medici was clumsily copied. This is the greatest art-treasure in the garden.
30 M. OSSINING, Pop. 10,739.
(Train 51 passes 9:15; No. 3, 9:34; No. 41, 1:48; No. 25, 3:30; No. 19, 6:21. Eastbound: No. 6, passes 8:34; No. 26, 8:54; No. 16, 3:11; No. 22, 4:36.)
Ossining was first settled in 1700, when it was part of Philipse Manor. It was originally called Sing Sing, taking its name from the Sin Sinck Indians, but in 1901 the name was changed to Ossining, on account of its association with the Sing Sing prison, which can be seen to the left near the water's edge. The prison is a low white-marble building, built in 1826. Ossining has a public library, several private schools, the Roman Catholic Foreign Missionary Seminary of America, and a soldiers' monument.
Passing the Croton aqueduct (on the right), which is carried over a stone arch with an 80-foot span, the train crosses the mouth of the Croton River and intersects Croton Point. It was at the extremity of this peninsula that the British sloop-of-war "Vulture" anchored when she brought André to visit Benedict Arnold at West Point. Six miles up the Croton River is the Croton Reservoir, which supplies a large share of N.Y. City's water. Across the river is Haverstraw Bay.