North Salem's Historical Intern Looks to the Past and the Future

NORTH SALEM, N.Y. - Some folks think that learning about history must be pretty dull because it requires the rote memorization of dates, places, and people who lived a long time ago.

But the subject is anything but boring if it’s taught in a way that inspires and captivates.

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That’s accomplished by making the past relevant to students’ lives, says future teacher and self-professed “history nerd” Alexandra “Allie” Driesen.

Now a senior at SUNY Geneseo where she majors in English and History, Driesen just wrapped up a dream internship this summer with North Salem’s town historian, Susan Thompson, and the North Salem Historical Society.

“That’s why I think knowing about local history is so important. Kids my age might wonder why it matters to them until they find out about something that actually went on in their town, where they lived, even on their street,” the 21-year-old explained to North Salem News recently.

“When it feels personal, it engages people a lot more,” Driesen added.

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The Katonah native and current Mahopac resident graduated from John Jay High School, where she played volleyball.

North Salem’s past is simply jam-packed with interesting stuff, especially of the Revolutionary War kind.

Thousands of troops under the command of Comte de Rochambeau, the general tapped by Louis XVI to lead the French army as it came to the aid of American patriots, passed through the town twice. (Whether he stopped to check out the Balanced Rock, one of North Salem's tourist attractions, isn't known.)

To honor its place on the Washington-Rochambeau Trail and to recognize North Salem's contributions to the Revolutionary War, the town last fall formed Revolutionary North Salem 250, a committee that will organize events and programs this year, next year, and in 2026, which is the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Driesen’s placement was funded through the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation’s Semiquincentennial Fellowship Program and overseen by Michael Leroy Oberg, a distinguished professor at the SUNY Geneseo Center for Local and Municipal History.

He visits each of the student fellows to offer advice and support. When he came to North Salem to check in, Thompson, Cynthia Curtis of the historical society, and Driesen took him on a tour of the town and then to lunch at Farmer & The Fish, a restaurant located in the former Purdys homestead. Built in 1776, it’s on the National Register of Historic Places.

One of the most important tasks Driesen undertook was to compile information on "known" Revolutionary War soldiers from North Salem and its surrounds.

Pinning down the exact number is “complicated” due to a number of factors, Thompson said. It’s estimated to be between 70 and 90.

A lot of that good stuff can be gleaned from post-war pension records, which not only told you who the soldiers were, but what they did, where they went, and who they fought beside, Thompson said.

The census helped, too.

(Several dozen of those brave souls are buried here, mostly in June Cemetery; the rest are resting at the Cat Ridge, Peach Pond, and Mills Road cemeteries.)

Driesen then created a spreadsheet of that information to provide sort of a one-stop shop for future researchers.

(The information was all there in Thompson’s archives but just in different books, documents, and materials.)

Driesen also put together a “very detailed” timeline graphic of North Salem’s events and “big moments” during the Fight for Independence.

“It’s just so people can get their footing in time and place,” she explained, adding the hope is that people will say: “Oh, that’s the context I need; I can actually get interested in the real story of what went on.”

Thompson’s office is located on the second floor of the Lobdell House, a Victorian-style home built by Albert Jenkins Lobdell for his wife, Mary Louise Braden, in 1883.

Then named Hickory Glen, the house stood west of Delancey Hall for 10 years until New York City grabbed the land for the creation of the Titicus Reservoir. The house was moved to its present location on log rollers.

Lobdell was town supervisor from 1915 to 1928. The couple had six children and ran a store and post office.

It couldn’t be a better spot to work for someone who’s loved history since she was a child, thanks to her like-minded father and paternal grandmother, who were raised in New York City and Yonkers respectively.

Whenever Driesen glanced out the window, she could see Delancey Hall, a manor house built by Stephen Delancey in the 1760s.

Delancey, a loyalist, was married to Hannah Sackett, a staunch Patriot.

Delancey fled behind British lines leaving the house in the hands of the Continentals. Rochambeau and his officers likely stayed there in the fall of 1782.

Asked what she personally thought was the most interesting tidbit that she found while rooting around in the records, Driesen said it was -- hands-down -- North Salem’s connection to the capture of Major John André, Britain’s head of intelligence who had obtained sensitive information about West Point, a key defensive position on the Hudson River, from turncoat American General Benedict Arnold.

Dressed in civilian clothes, André was trying to get back to headquarters when he was nabbed by John Paulding, David Williams, and Issac Van Wart.

They and other militia men – John Yerkes, James Romer, and Isaac See -- had met up in North Salem on Sept. 22, 1780, and had decided to go on an armed patrol of the area.

Four members of the posse stopped at a spot in Tarrytown – possibly where Sleepy Hallow Cemetery is now located -- and the rest – Paulding, Williams, and Van Wart – continued south.

After encountering André on the road, who they took to be a “cowboy,” the three discovered the damning documents in his boot. André was eventually convicted of espionage and hanged.

Continental soldiers, militia, and farmers called the British loyalist Westchester Light Horse battalion “cowboys” because of the raids they conducted between the lines to purloin food and supplies for the British army and civilians.

“There were a lot of Dutch settlers around here and they kept dairy cows. They stopped André thinking he was stealing cattle and they actually got him for a bigger crime, spying,” Driesen said.

A Tarrytown native, Williams had boarded at Joseph Benedict’s farm in Salem, which at that time included today’s Town of North Salem as well at the current Lewisboro hamlets of South Salem, Waccabuc, Vista, and a bit of Cross River.

The Benedict family were stalwart supporters of the rebel cause.

In 1782, Williams got hitched to Nancy Benedict, who was no slouch herself. During the Battle of White Plains in 1776, she and other horsewomen mounted up and rode to the front lines. Females weren’t allowed in the army or militia, but they cooked and carried water for the troops and cared for the sick and wounded.

The Delavans and the Cranes are other notable North Salem names, she pointed out.

Long before the war began, the Delavans were one of the first farmers to till land leased from descendants of the Lord of Van Cortlandt Manor, Stephanus Van Cortlandt, in North Salem. Other names of these pioneers include the Van Scoys, Smiths, and Lobdells.

While compiling the list of local soldiers, Driesen found that the Delavans had probably contributed the most sons to the Continental Army – about three generations worth – from the area.

According to several sources, Timothy Delavan Jr. and his nine brothers – including the youngest, Cornelius, who was too young to serve in the militia -- were assigned to escort George Washington to Fraunces Tavern, the general’s headquarters and a watering hole for many of the Founding Fathers, in what’s now lower Manhattan.

Their father, Timothy Sr., was born in 1713, and had also reportedly served in the militia. He would have been in his 60s at the time. He lived to the ripe old age of 90.

Col. Thaddeus Crane commanded the 4th Regiment of the Westchester County Militia. He died in 1803 at 75. His home, built in 1760, still stands on Baxter Road, Driesen said.

Both men are buried in June Cemetery.

Digging History

Driesen thinks it would be an interesting archaeological project if the owners of dwellings or properties from that period would be open to allowing a little digging for items of cultural or historic significance.

(This writer had a friend in northern Westchester who was always turning up bits and bobs such as musket balls, military buttons, and coins while gardening.)

One possible honey hole for artifacts – an old trading post – would be impossible to get to because it’s now under dozens of feet of water in the Titicus Reservoir, Driesen said wistfully.

Puzzle Pieces

To Driesen and Thompson, unearthing history can be thrilling.

It’s the not knowing exactly where or when, if ever, that last crucial tidbit of information is going to reveal itself and “make sense of it all” -- that spurs them on, the former said.

“We always joked that we just need to find someone’s diary where they talked about everything they did, in a detailed, first-person point of view,” said Driesen, admitting sadly that if that Holy Grail hasn’t turned up already, it probably won’t.

“So, we’re just relying on everything we can find and trying to piece it together that way. There are still unanswered questions.

Sometimes we have to say, 'Yes, but we don’t really know.’”

Driesen credits her fourth-grade teacher, Mary Ellen LaRocca, for helping incubate her love of the subject.

So she had “crazy déjà vu” when she bumped into the historical society president at the organization’s Strawberry Festival in July.

Featured at the event was re-enactor Sean Grady, who presented “Life of a Militia Soldier in North Salem in 1774.” As it happens, he had also educated and entertained Driesen when he put on a similar program for one of LaRocca’s classes.

“Every time you have a good teacher, you appreciate what you’re learning so much more,” said Driesen, who brought her history-loving grandma along and hung out with the kiddos at the fest's crafting tent.

Next Generation

As for the town historian, there weren’t words enough to describe how much she appreciated having Driesen onboard, even if it was for only a short period of time.

“So many people who do what I do are old, so having access to the perspective of someone that age was really important to me,” Thompson noted.

To see things through the eyes of folks who are “coming up in the world, just beginning to explore and understand history is very useful,” she said, adding: “It was a shot in the arm, a fresh breeze.”

Driesen’s going to miss working with Thompson and Curtis, who’s also involved with Revolutionary North Salem 250.

“I had a really good time doing it and Susie and Cynthia were wonderful too,” she said.

“We just talked and talked and talked. When you get people who appreciate history like you do, you could go on forever,” Driesen admitted.

Driesen starts student teaching this spring and can’t wait to get into the classroom where she hopes to pass her love of history to the next generation by scaling it down to human size.

“She’s going to be a fabulous teacher,” Thompson predicted.

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