From Farms to Resorts, Estates and Home to ew
Immigrants
New Rochelle in the 19th Century
An “arm of the Atlantic”, Long Island Sound stretches along the New York and Connecticut
shorelines to the ocean. The western end of the estuary meets the Manhattan’s East River at
Hell’s Gate. This waterway not only put New Rochelle on a trade route, it propelled the farming
community into a resort destination. Sophisticated entrepreneurs and the advancement of
steamboat travel ensured its success, as they banked on the wide open vistas, clean country air
and unlimited aquatic activities just a boat ride from the increasingly crowded and sullied streets
of Manhattan.
The first passenger train of the New Haven Railroad steamed into town on New Year’s Day,
1849, and within a few decades rail service travel was suitable for daily travel. As a result, many
of the former vacationers began planting roots in the community - the wealthy building summer
estates; the middle class families purchasing homes in developing residential parks. The train
also brought new immigrants to town – the New Rochelle station was the first stop on the New
Haven line and a quick trip from the ferry dock off Ellis Island. By 1865, 30% of the town's
population was foreign-born. Of New Rochelle's 3,968 residents, 800 were Irish and 200 were
German.
The depot became the catalyst for shops, newspaper offices, banks, tearooms, and other
enterprises that evolved into a permanent and thriving “downtown” that was within the Village
of New Rochelle (a 950 section that had been established in 1857. With its own President and
Board of Trustees, the Village eventually included most of the southern part of the community –
from the stone wall that runs along the driveway into the current City Hall, all the way down to
the Sound.
At the onset of the Civil War, the New Rochelle cadets were organized for home defense. Some of these
men later volunteered for active service – including Henry W. Clarke who was made captain of Company
G, 17th Regiment, National Guard, which was comprised mostly of New Rochelle men. In all, 26 New
Rochelle men volunteered to serve in the Civil War. All but one returned home alive. There were many
other able-bodied men who were drafted, but the Town of New Rochelle raised a total of $95,000 to pay
for substitutes. (New Rochelle was in dire financial straits post-Civil War)
The Civil War has additional impact on the community. At the height of the Civil War, Thaddeus
Davids leased his island to hotelier Simeon Leland, who then signed a lucrative lease with the
United States government. DeCamp Hospital was erected on the island in 1862. Thousands of
wounded Union and Confederate soldiers passed were ferried out to the island from New
Rochelle.
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A few of the notables that lived in ew Rochelle in the
19th Century
Anthony, Susan B. (b. February 15, 1820 – d. March 13, 1906)
In 1839, Susan B. Anthony lived in New Rochelle for fifteen weeks, while filling-in for the
headmistress of Eunice Kenyon's Boarding School.
Dyott, John (b. 1812 – d.1876)
The night President Lincoln was assassinated, John Dyott was the stage of Ford Theater, acting
in the play, “Our American Cousin” and serving as stage manager. John and his brother,
William, were Irishmen who founded the New Rochelle Pioneer newspaper, located on Lawton
Street. Their home was on Prospect Street. .
Leland, Simeon (b. November, 1812 – d. August 3, 1872)
Leland was the senior partner of a hotel firm considered one of the best in the country during the
late 1800s. He made his wealth while operating the Metropolitan Hotel in Manhattan, and
constructed a summer place in New Rochelle that he called “Castleview”. The stone Gothic
structure, complete with a moat, took almost five years to construct.
He later leased and then purchased David’s Island which he sublet and then sold to the U. S.
government. After his death, Castleview eventually became the College of St. Angela, the first
Catholic women’s college in New York State, and renamed College of New Rochelle.
Leggett, William (b. April 30, 1810 - d. May 29, 1839)
Poet, writer, journalist, William Leggett became the owner and editor of the New York Evening
Post while residing in New Rochelle. H was an intellectual leader of his time, arguing for free
trade, abolition of slavery and Jacksonian Democracy. He was immortalized in a poem by his
employer and colleague William Cullen Bryant in a poem, and is buried in the cemetery of
Trinity –St. Paul’s Church.
Mott. Lucretia, (b. January 3, 1793 - d. November 11, 1880)
Lucretia Coffin Mott, a Quaker, an abolitionist and a founder of the movement, was also an
extended member of the family who owned and operated the famous Mott Mill in New
Rochelle's Echo Bay. In 1814, while she and her husband were residing with his brother here,
Lucretia gave birth to her first son. Mrs. Mott's life-long devotion to securing basic
Constitutional rights for all Americans was an unconventional and unpopular course. Her work
drew attention as early 1833, when she formed an anti-slavery society. In 1848 Mott and
Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized what is now considered to have been the springboard of the
woman's suffrage movement - the Seneca Falls Convention. At the historic assembly, the rights
of women were discussed and championed, perhaps for the first time.
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Paine, Thomas (b. January 29, 1737 – d. June 8, 1809)
Patriot, visionary Founding Father of America, and author of Common Sense and The Crisis
(among many other critical essays, Thomas Paine was granted a 277- acre farm in New Rochelle
the State of New York in recognition of his contributions to the American Revolution. Paine
lived in the farm’s hillside cottage, intermittently, from 1804 until his death in 1806.
Sickles, Daniel E. (b. October 20, 1819 – d. May 3, 1914)
A Civil War general whose leadership may have lost key battles, and a congressman who was
used the ground-breaking plea of “temporary insanity” for killing Francis Barton Key, the
alleged lover of his wife and son of the author of the “Star Spangled Banner”, Sickles frequently
stayed in the New Rochelle home of his parents. He incorporated the Sickles Estate
Improvement Company in 1904. The family property now comprises much of what is now
Rochelle Heights. The family burial grounds are in Beechwood Cemetery; Daniel Sickles is
buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Siebrecht, Henry A. (b.1849 – d. June 19, 1934)
A German immigrant to America in 1866, Henry A. Siebrecht used his early horticultural
training to become one of New York City’s top floral designers. In 1878 he purchased 40 acres
in New Rochelle, and then added another 50 to create Rose Hill Nursery – one of the largest in
the country. Siebrecht was responsible for bringing to America new species, and for handling
plantings at the New York Botanical Garden, Fairmont Park in Philadelphia, Coney Island, P.T.
Barnum's Hippodome and Gilmore Gardens, the World's Fairs in New York and Chicago, the
Philadelphia Centennial and the San Francisco Fair. Among his long list of notable private
gardens were those of Thomas Edison in NJ and John D. Rockeller, Sr. at Pocantico Hills.
Starin, John H. (August 27, 1825 - March 21, 1909)
The owner of the country's largest fleet of steamships, tugs and barges, John Starin created a "world
famous" amusement park on several islands off New Rochelle's southern shore as a destination for his
excursion steamboats. In 1879 he purchased eight islands, with the largest being Locust Island and the
location of his summer home, and connected them with footbridges and ferries to create his “pleasure
grounds”. Soon, over a half-million visitors enjoyed the resort’s many genteel amenities each summer.
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