Monday, August 29, 2011
Carve Their Names with Pride: Three Women Called Molly
HISTORY
Every war produces its share of heroes. The American Revolution, the most desperate of our conflicts, was unusual because many brave women participated alongside their men and even took an active part in battle.
Controversy still rages today about the role of women in combat. It is perhaps fitting to examine the lives of three women and their spontaneous heroism more than two centuries ago. Without such sacrifices, this nation might not have been created. Two were army wives who became impromptu cannoneers. The third masqueraded as a man and fought as a soldier. All were dubbed "Molly," then a popular diminutive of Mary.
Margaret Corbin
The first American woman to shed her blood in defense of this country, Margaret Corbin was born in 1751, the only daughter of Robert Cochran, a Scots-Irish settler in western Pennsylvania. When she was five years old, her father was killed by Indians, and her mother was carried off into captivity. Fortunately, Margaret was with relatives at the time.
In 1772, she married John Corbin, a Virginian, who joined the Continental Army as a gunner’s assistant in the First Pennsylvania Regiment of Artillery. His wife accompanied the unit as nurse and camp assistant. After watching her husband at his work, Molly Corbin soon became as familiar with the sequence of loading, firing and sponging a cannon as any artilleryman
John Corbin was killed in 1776 while manning a small cannon in a northern outpost of Fort Washington in upper Manhattan. Margaret took his place, loading and swabbing the gun "with skill and vigor" until she herself was severely wounded in the shoulder and chest by Hessian grapeshot.
Following the capture of Fort Washington, in return for her promise that she would fight no more in the war, her captors delivered her to the American forces. Evacuated to Philadelphia in 1779, Margaret Corbin was voted a pension of "half-pay for life and one complete set of cloaths."
After the war, she settled in Swimtown (later called Buttermilk Falls and now Highland Falls) outside of West Point. Famous for her flaming red hair, sharp eyes, shrill voice, shrewish temper and useless left arm, she was saluted as "Captain Molly." She died in 1800, a hard-drinking, impoverished veteran.
In 1926, her obscure grave was located. Her remains were disinterred and moved to the cemetery at West Point. Sheltered by a small grove of arbor vitae near the Old Chapel, an imposing monument erected by the Daughters of the American Revolution memorializes this first artillery woman of the American Army.
Molly Pitcher
Evidence exists that Molly Pitcher actually was a generic name given to women who brought pitchers of water or grog (rum diluted with water) to thirsty soldiers on the battlefield. The name is most often associated with Mary Hays, born Mary Ludwig, a Pennsylvania Dutch girl whose parents had emigrated from Germany. Married to John Caspar Hays, a young barber, she accompanied her husband's regiment, the First Pennsylvania Artillery, when it joined Washington's Monmouth campaign in New Jersey. In a strange coincidence, this was the same unit in which Margaret Corbin's husband had served.
Mary Hays's moment of glory came at the Battle of Monmouth on Sunday, June 28, 1778, remembered as one of the hottest days of that summer. Soldiers were dropping all around, not only from bullets but from thirst and overexertion in the hundred-degree heat. Mary carried water from a nearby spring, thus earning her the well-known nickname. When her husband suffered from heatstroke while firing his artillery piece, she grabbed a rammer and kept the gun in action.
Let Joseph Plumb Martin describe her decisive action. His graphic contemporary picture of the life of an enlisted man in the Continental Army was published anonymously in 1830:
"While in the act of reaching a cartridge and having one of her feet as far from the other as she could step, a cannon shot from the enemy passed directly between her legs without doing any damage other than carrying away the lower part of her petticoat. Looking at it with apparent unconcern, she observed that it was lucky it did not pass higher, for it might have carried away something else, and continued her occupation."
Her husband died shortly after the war, and Mary Hays married George McCauley, an ex-soldier from her husband's regiment. He turned out to be shiftless and a heavy drinker. She left him, supporting herself as a laundress and nursemaid.
Although she "smoked, chewed tobacco and swore like a trooper" and in later life comported herself like an old soldier, "Sergeant Molly" regrettably never was awarded a veteran's pension by Congress. Contemporary writers described her as a stocky, ruddy-complexioned Pennsylvania Dutch girl. Apparently misled by the McCauley name, some writers claimed that Molly Pitcher was Irish. Responding to this, her granddaughter, Polly McLeister, described Molly as being "as Dutch as sauerkraut."
A monument on the site of the Battle of Monmouth, near Freehold, N.J., celebrates the heroism of Molly Pitcher. She died in 1832 and is buried (as Mollie McCauley) in the Old Graveyard on South Street in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
Deborah Sampson
Of all the stories to come out of the Revolution, none is stranger than that of the only woman to formally enlist in the Continental Army. Deborah Sampson was born in Plympton, Massachusetts, in 1760. After their sailor father died at sea, the Sampson children were all parceled out among friends and relatives.
Deborah spent her teenage years as an indentured servant in Middleboro, Massachusetts, and a remarkable servant she was. Not only did she learn to read, but she educated herself enough to qualify as a part-time teacher. At the age of 22, dressed in borrowed male attire, she tried to enlist in the Continental Army as "Timothy Thayer." She was unmasked when she became tipsy in a local tavern celebrating her enlistment.
Undaunted, Deborah Sampson walked some 75 miles to Worcester, where she succeeded in passing herself off as "Robert Shurtliff" and inscribing this name on the rolls of Capt. George Webb's light infantry company of the Fourth Massachusetts militia regiment.
The success of her deception is understandable. A contemporary description portrayed her as "a heavy-boned woman of about 5 feet 8 inches in height, with an elongated horse-face and a long prominent nose." Teasingly nicknamed "Smock Face" and "Molly" because of his lack of facial hair, the new private marched off to West Point with his unit. In a skirmish with Loyalist troops near Tarrytown in Westchester, Deborah was wounded in the head by a saber blow that left a permanent scar.
She was wounded again near Eastchester, receiving two musket balls in the thigh. Medical treatment of these wounds would have revealed her gender, so she removed one musket ball with a penknife and sewing needle. The other was too deep to remove; it caused her to limp for the rest of her life. After service at Fort Ticonderoga, she was transferred to Philadelphia as an orderly to General John Paterson of the Delaware militia.
Having come down with a fever, she again tried to avoid treatment. Near death, she was treated by Dr. Barnabas Binney, who discovered her secret when he examined her. Discreetly, he said nothing and had her taken to his home to recover. The good doctor’s participation in her deception eventually backfired; his niece became infatuated with the young soldier.
Dr. Binney decided the time had come to reveal that Robert Shurtliff was a female. When told that his orderly was a woman, Gen. Paterson exclaimed, "Why, this is truly theatrical!" It was also unlike anything in his experience, so he took the news to the Commander-in-Chief. George Washington decided that an honorable discharge should be granted to Private Robert Shurtliff. This was done, showing an enlistment of a year and a half.
In 1784, Deborah Sampson married Benjamin Gannett, a prosperous Sharon, Massachusetts, farmer. Later, the Massachusetts legislature and Congress each awarded her small pensions. . She capitalized on her fame by appearing on the lecture platform, the first woman to do so. Her talk was a set speech about her wartime experiences that concluded with a performance of the complete manual of arms in full military uniform.
She died in 1827. Her grave is in Sharon's Rock Ridge Cemetery, and a street in Sharon is named for her. The house in Plympton in which she was born, and the Gannett House in Sharon in which she lived and raised four children are both still standing. In 1943, the Bethlehem Steel Company's Sparrow's Point shipyard near Baltimore launched a Liberty ship that proudly carried the name of this unusual woman.
It has been said that one of the reasons for many of our problems today is that we lack genuine heroes. For starters, we could reflect on the selfless courage of three American women called Molly, now only dimly remembered.
Every war produces its share of heroes. The American Revolution, the most desperate of our conflicts, was unusual because many brave women participated alongside their men and even took an active part in battle.
Controversy still rages today about the role of women in combat. It is perhaps fitting to examine the lives of three women and their spontaneous heroism more than two centuries ago. Without such sacrifices, this nation might not have been created. Two were army wives who became impromptu cannoneers. The third masqueraded as a man and fought as a soldier. All were dubbed "Molly," then a popular diminutive of Mary.
Margaret Corbin
The first American woman to shed her blood in defense of this country, Margaret Corbin was born in 1751, the only daughter of Robert Cochran, a Scots-Irish settler in western Pennsylvania. When she was five years old, her father was killed by Indians, and her mother was carried off into captivity. Fortunately, Margaret was with relatives at the time.
In 1772, she married John Corbin, a Virginian, who joined the Continental Army as a gunner’s assistant in the First Pennsylvania Regiment of Artillery. His wife accompanied the unit as nurse and camp assistant. After watching her husband at his work, Molly Corbin soon became as familiar with the sequence of loading, firing and sponging a cannon as any artilleryman
John Corbin was killed in 1776 while manning a small cannon in a northern outpost of Fort Washington in upper Manhattan. Margaret took his place, loading and swabbing the gun "with skill and vigor" until she herself was severely wounded in the shoulder and chest by Hessian grapeshot.
Following the capture of Fort Washington, in return for her promise that she would fight no more in the war, her captors delivered her to the American forces. Evacuated to Philadelphia in 1779, Margaret Corbin was voted a pension of "half-pay for life and one complete set of cloaths."
After the war, she settled in Swimtown (later called Buttermilk Falls and now Highland Falls) outside of West Point. Famous for her flaming red hair, sharp eyes, shrill voice, shrewish temper and useless left arm, she was saluted as "Captain Molly." She died in 1800, a hard-drinking, impoverished veteran.
In 1926, her obscure grave was located. Her remains were disinterred and moved to the cemetery at West Point. Sheltered by a small grove of arbor vitae near the Old Chapel, an imposing monument erected by the Daughters of the American Revolution memorializes this first artillery woman of the American Army.
Molly Pitcher
Evidence exists that Molly Pitcher actually was a generic name given to women who brought pitchers of water or grog (rum diluted with water) to thirsty soldiers on the battlefield. The name is most often associated with Mary Hays, born Mary Ludwig, a Pennsylvania Dutch girl whose parents had emigrated from Germany. Married to John Caspar Hays, a young barber, she accompanied her husband's regiment, the First Pennsylvania Artillery, when it joined Washington's Monmouth campaign in New Jersey. In a strange coincidence, this was the same unit in which Margaret Corbin's husband had served.
Mary Hays's moment of glory came at the Battle of Monmouth on Sunday, June 28, 1778, remembered as one of the hottest days of that summer. Soldiers were dropping all around, not only from bullets but from thirst and overexertion in the hundred-degree heat. Mary carried water from a nearby spring, thus earning her the well-known nickname. When her husband suffered from heatstroke while firing his artillery piece, she grabbed a rammer and kept the gun in action.
Let Joseph Plumb Martin describe her decisive action. His graphic contemporary picture of the life of an enlisted man in the Continental Army was published anonymously in 1830:
"While in the act of reaching a cartridge and having one of her feet as far from the other as she could step, a cannon shot from the enemy passed directly between her legs without doing any damage other than carrying away the lower part of her petticoat. Looking at it with apparent unconcern, she observed that it was lucky it did not pass higher, for it might have carried away something else, and continued her occupation."
Her husband died shortly after the war, and Mary Hays married George McCauley, an ex-soldier from her husband's regiment. He turned out to be shiftless and a heavy drinker. She left him, supporting herself as a laundress and nursemaid.
Although she "smoked, chewed tobacco and swore like a trooper" and in later life comported herself like an old soldier, "Sergeant Molly" regrettably never was awarded a veteran's pension by Congress. Contemporary writers described her as a stocky, ruddy-complexioned Pennsylvania Dutch girl. Apparently misled by the McCauley name, some writers claimed that Molly Pitcher was Irish. Responding to this, her granddaughter, Polly McLeister, described Molly as being "as Dutch as sauerkraut."
A monument on the site of the Battle of Monmouth, near Freehold, N.J., celebrates the heroism of Molly Pitcher. She died in 1832 and is buried (as Mollie McCauley) in the Old Graveyard on South Street in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
Deborah Sampson
Of all the stories to come out of the Revolution, none is stranger than that of the only woman to formally enlist in the Continental Army. Deborah Sampson was born in Plympton, Massachusetts, in 1760. After their sailor father died at sea, the Sampson children were all parceled out among friends and relatives.
Deborah spent her teenage years as an indentured servant in Middleboro, Massachusetts, and a remarkable servant she was. Not only did she learn to read, but she educated herself enough to qualify as a part-time teacher. At the age of 22, dressed in borrowed male attire, she tried to enlist in the Continental Army as "Timothy Thayer." She was unmasked when she became tipsy in a local tavern celebrating her enlistment.
Undaunted, Deborah Sampson walked some 75 miles to Worcester, where she succeeded in passing herself off as "Robert Shurtliff" and inscribing this name on the rolls of Capt. George Webb's light infantry company of the Fourth Massachusetts militia regiment.
The success of her deception is understandable. A contemporary description portrayed her as "a heavy-boned woman of about 5 feet 8 inches in height, with an elongated horse-face and a long prominent nose." Teasingly nicknamed "Smock Face" and "Molly" because of his lack of facial hair, the new private marched off to West Point with his unit. In a skirmish with Loyalist troops near Tarrytown in Westchester, Deborah was wounded in the head by a saber blow that left a permanent scar.
She was wounded again near Eastchester, receiving two musket balls in the thigh. Medical treatment of these wounds would have revealed her gender, so she removed one musket ball with a penknife and sewing needle. The other was too deep to remove; it caused her to limp for the rest of her life. After service at Fort Ticonderoga, she was transferred to Philadelphia as an orderly to General John Paterson of the Delaware militia.
Having come down with a fever, she again tried to avoid treatment. Near death, she was treated by Dr. Barnabas Binney, who discovered her secret when he examined her. Discreetly, he said nothing and had her taken to his home to recover. The good doctor’s participation in her deception eventually backfired; his niece became infatuated with the young soldier.
Dr. Binney decided the time had come to reveal that Robert Shurtliff was a female. When told that his orderly was a woman, Gen. Paterson exclaimed, "Why, this is truly theatrical!" It was also unlike anything in his experience, so he took the news to the Commander-in-Chief. George Washington decided that an honorable discharge should be granted to Private Robert Shurtliff. This was done, showing an enlistment of a year and a half.
In 1784, Deborah Sampson married Benjamin Gannett, a prosperous Sharon, Massachusetts, farmer. Later, the Massachusetts legislature and Congress each awarded her small pensions. . She capitalized on her fame by appearing on the lecture platform, the first woman to do so. Her talk was a set speech about her wartime experiences that concluded with a performance of the complete manual of arms in full military uniform.
She died in 1827. Her grave is in Sharon's Rock Ridge Cemetery, and a street in Sharon is named for her. The house in Plympton in which she was born, and the Gannett House in Sharon in which she lived and raised four children are both still standing. In 1943, the Bethlehem Steel Company's Sparrow's Point shipyard near Baltimore launched a Liberty ship that proudly carried the name of this unusual woman.
It has been said that one of the reasons for many of our problems today is that we lack genuine heroes. For starters, we could reflect on the selfless courage of three American women called Molly, now only dimly remembered.
Labels: American Revolution, Christmas History, Heroines
Tuesday, August 02, 2011
Whither Westchester? Part One: Cursed by Irrational Compexity
CURRENT AFFAIRS
Towns
Westchester
Westchester Mount Kisco Bedford New Castle New Castle Westchester
Table 1. Towns According to Population (2010 Census)
(All towns date from 1788, except as noted)
Lower Salem was changed to South Salem in 1806
North Castle
8.Bedford
9. Somers: 20,434 (Created as Stephen Town in 1788, it became Somers in 1808)
10.Harrison
11.Mamaroneck
12.Ossining
13.Eastchester
14.Yorktown
15. Cortlandt: 31,292
16.Mount Pleasant
17. Greenburgh: 42,863
Villages
During the 19th and 20th centuries, communities inWestchester County Peekskill
Rye
Table 2. Villages by Dates of Incorporation
Early 19th Century
Ossining
Peekskill
Pre-Civil War
Mount Vernon
New Rochelle
Post-Civil War
White Plains
Port Chester
Irvington
Tarrytown
Dobbs Ferry: 1873
North Tarrytown
Mount Kisco
Hastings-on-Hudson
Late 19th Century
Larchmont: 1891
Pelham Manor: 1891
Mamaroneck
Ardsley: 1896
Pelham: 1896
Pleasantville: 1897
Croton-on-Hudson: 1898
Bronxville: 1898
20th Century
Briarcliff Manor: 1902
Tuckahoe: 1903
Elmsford: 1910
Scarsdale
Buchanan: 1928
Harrison
Rye Brook: 1982
The ranking ofWestchester
Table 3. Villages According to Population (2010 Census)
(Towns shown in parentheses)
1. Buchanan (Cortlandt): 2,230
2. Ardsley (Greenburgh): 4,452
3. Elmsford (Greenburgh): 4,664
4. Pelham Manor (Pelham): 5,486
5. Larchmont (Mamaroneck
6. Bronxville (Eastchester
7.Irvington
8. Tuckahoe (Eastchester
9. Pelham (Pelham): 6,910
10. Pleasantville (Mount Pleasant
11. Hastings-on-Hudson (Greenburgh): 7,849
12. Briarcliff Manor (Ossining,Mount Pleasant
13. Croton-on-Hudson (Cortlandt): 8,070
14. Rye Brook (Rye
15. Sleepy Hollow (Mount Pleasant
16. Dobbs Ferry (Greenburgh): 10,875
17.Tarrytown
18. Mamaroneck (Mamaroneck,Rye
19. Ossining (Ossining
20. Port Chester (Rye
Westchester Westchester
Table 4. Cities According to Population (2010 Census)
(Dates of incorporation in parentheses)
1.Yonkers
2.New Rochelle
3.Mount Vernon
4.White Plains
5.Peekskill
6.Rye
Hamlets and CDPs
To the previously described bewildering array of towns, villages, town/villages and cities, we must also add nearly a half-hundred hamlets and population aggregations considered by the Bureau of the Census to be the equivalent of incorporated villages. These are listed in Table 5 below.
Table 5. Hamlets and CDPs
(Town names shown in parentheses)
Amawalk (Somers)
Armonk (North Castle
Archville (Mount Pleasant
Baldwin Place (Somers)
Banksville (North Castle
Bedford Center Bedford
Bedford Hills (Bedford
Bedford Village Bedford
Chappaqua (New Castle
Cortlandt Manor (Cortlandt)
Crompound (Cortlandt,Yorktown
Cross River (Lewisboro)
Croton Falls North Salem
Crugers (Cortlandt)
Eastview (Greenburgh)
Edgemont (Greenburgh,Yonkers
Fairview
Golden’s Bridge (Lewisboro)
Granite Springs (Somers)
Greenville
Hartsdale (Greenburgh)
Hawthorne Mount Pleasant
Heritage Hills (Somers)
Jefferson Valley Yorktown
Katonah (Bedford)
Lake Mohegan Yorktown
Lincolndale (Somers)
Millwood (New Castle
Montrose (Cortlandt)
Peach Lake North Salem
Pocantico Hills (Mount Pleasant)
Purchase (Harrison
Purdys (North Salem
Salem Center North Salem
Scarborough (Ossining
Scott Corners (Pound Ridge)
Shenorock (Somers)
Shrub Oak (Yorktown
Somers (Somers)
South Salem
Thornwood (Mount Pleasant
Tompkins Corners (New Castle
Valhalla (Mount Pleasant
Verplanck (Cortlandt)
Vista
Waccabuc (Lewisboro)
Yorktown Heights Yorktown
In the second part of this study, we shall examine the high costs ofWestchester
There are 3,141 counties or county equivalents (Louisiana United States Westchester New York
Why this should be so can be ascribed in part to the complexity of Westchester
According to 2006 HUD data, the median income for a household of one person in the county was $75,427 and the median income for a family of four was $96,500. Westchester County Manhattan New York County New York State Westchester
Towns
The town of Lower Salem South Salem
Three years after towns in Westchester were organized in 1788, the town of New Castle North Castle Ossining Mount Pleasant
Three communities have taken advantage of New York State Scarsdale
The other two New York Green Island Albany County Monroe County
Table 1 below lists Table 1. Towns According to Population (2010 Census)
(All towns date from 1788, except as noted)
1. Pound Ridge: 5,104
2. North Salem
3. Mount Kisco
4. North Castle
5. Lewisboro: 12,411 (Original town of 6. Scarsdale: 17,166 (One of the original towns, it became a town/village in 1916)
7. New Castle: 17, 569 (Created from the northern part of 8.
9. Somers: 20,434 (Created as Stephen Town in 1788, it became Somers in 1808)
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15. Cortlandt: 31,292
16.
17. Greenburgh: 42,863
Villages
During the 19th and 20th centuries, communities in
After the Civil War, in the thirteen years between 1866 and 1879, eight communities, mostly along the Hudson River
In the 20th century, incorporation was sporadic. The most recent addition to the list of villages was Rye Brook, formed in 1982 from an unincorporated section of the Town of At present there are 20 incorporated villages in Westchester Scarsdale Mount Kisco Harrison
The detailed chronological history of village incorporation of the present 20 villages and three town/villages in Westchester
Table 2. Villages by Dates of Incorporation
Early 19th Century
Pre-Civil War
Post-Civil War
Dobbs Ferry: 1873
Late 19th Century
Larchmont: 1891
Pelham Manor: 1891
Ardsley: 1896
Pelham: 1896
Pleasantville: 1897
Croton-on-Hudson: 1898
Bronxville: 1898
20th Century
Briarcliff Manor: 1902
Tuckahoe: 1903
Elmsford: 1910
Buchanan: 1928
Rye Brook: 1982
If you thought that villages by their very nature must necessarily be small, think again. Villages in Westchester can range between tiny Buchanan, with a population of only 2,230, to Port Chester Rye City Village Ossining Ossining Villages of Ossining and Port Chester now outnumber the population of the City of Peekskill North Salem
The ranking of
Table 3. Villages According to Population (2010 Census)
(Towns shown in parentheses)
1. Buchanan (Cortlandt): 2,230
2. Ardsley (Greenburgh): 4,452
3. Elmsford (Greenburgh): 4,664
4. Pelham Manor (Pelham): 5,486
5. Larchmont (
6. Bronxville (
7.
8. Tuckahoe (
9. Pelham (Pelham): 6,910
10. Pleasantville (
11. Hastings-on-Hudson (Greenburgh): 7,849
12. Briarcliff Manor (Ossining,
13. Croton-on-Hudson (Cortlandt): 8,070
14. Rye Brook (
15. Sleepy Hollow (
16. Dobbs Ferry (Greenburgh): 10,875
17.
18. Mamaroneck (Mamaroneck,
19. Ossining (
20. Port Chester (
Table 4. Cities According to Population (2010 Census)
(Dates of incorporation in parentheses)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Hamlets and CDPs
To the previously described bewildering array of towns, villages, town/villages and cities, we must also add nearly a half-hundred hamlets and population aggregations considered by the Bureau of the Census to be the equivalent of incorporated villages. These are listed in Table 5 below.
Table 5. Hamlets and CDPs
(Town names shown in parentheses)
Amawalk (Somers)
Armonk (
Archville (
Baldwin Place (Somers)
Banksville (
Bedford Hills (
Chappaqua (
Cortlandt Manor (Cortlandt)
Crompound (Cortlandt,
Cross River (Lewisboro)
Crugers (Cortlandt)
Eastview (Greenburgh)
Edgemont (Greenburgh,
Golden’s Bridge (Lewisboro)
Granite Springs (Somers)
Hartsdale (Greenburgh)
Heritage Hills (Somers)
Katonah (Bedford)
Lincolndale (Somers)
Millwood (
Montrose (Cortlandt)
Pocantico Hills (Mount Pleasant)
Purchase (
Purdys (
Scarborough (
Scott Corners (Pound Ridge)
Shenorock (Somers)
Shrub Oak (
Somers (Somers)
Thornwood (
Tompkins Corners (
Valhalla (
Verplanck (Cortlandt)
Waccabuc (Lewisboro)
In the second part of this study, we shall examine the high costs of
Labels: Current Affairs
Whither Westchester? Part Two: The High Cost of Villaging
CURRENT AFFAIRS
Westchester residents pay the highest taxes of any county in the United States Westchester County
Croton is one of the twenty-odd communities that levy this extra layer of property taxes. The impact of four layers of taxation was acknowledged in the February 2010 Newsletter published by the Village of Croton-on-Hudson and intended to keep residents informed: “The property taxes each Village resident pays during the year are distributed to four entities--the School District, the Village (of Croton-on-Hudson), the Town (of Cortlandt), and the County (of Westchester).
“The amount of your School, Town and County tax bill is based upon the Town’s assessment of your property value. Your Village tax bill is based on the Village’s assessment of your property. Village taxes are the second largest component of your yearly taxes, with the School taxes being first and the County and Town taxes representing smaller portions.” A significant piece of information in the above extract is, “Village taxes are the second largest component of your yearly taxes.” Curiously, when people rant about “big government,” they never takeWestchester ’s multi-layered government into account. But it is big government in every sense of the term, particularly because it has a now-superfluous layer of expensive and duplicative village government
“The amount of your School, Town and County tax bill is based upon the Town’s assessment of your property value. Your Village tax bill is based on the Village’s assessment of your property. Village taxes are the second largest component of your yearly taxes, with the School taxes being first and the County and Town taxes representing smaller portions.” A significant piece of information in the above extract is, “Village taxes are the second largest component of your yearly taxes.” Curiously, when people rant about “big government,” they never take
In 1788, there were twenty towns and no incorporated villages and cities in the newly constituted Westchester County New York with its 62 counties, there are 556 villages, and Westchester has 22 of them. One of the consequences of municipal incorporation is that every village soon acquired the appurtenances of business corporations—including an elaborate management structure. In fact, the heads of incorporated villages were originally called “President” until the title of Mayor was adopted to emulate the elected heads of cities.
Council-Manager Government
Long after incorporation, Croton adopted the council-manager form of government, an outgrowth of government practices of the late 1800s and early 1900s. when political “machines” and the abuses of the Spoils System (“to the victor belongs the spoils”) blighted many municipalities. Under the council-manager system, all governmental authority rests with a governing board, except for certain duties that are assigned by law to the manager or administrator. The manager is hired by and can be dismissed by the entire board.
Under the council-manager form of government the body called a city council or village council, board of selectmen or board of trustees is responsible for the legislative function of the municipality such as establishing policy, passing local ordinances, voting appropriations, and developing an overall vision for the village or other entity. The elected body appoints a manager to oversee the administrative operations, implement its policies, and advise it. If the position of mayor exists, the duties are usually primarily ceremonial. Sixty-seven of New York State
In Westchester , fourteen of its twenty villages and two of its three town/villages have adopted the council-manager form of government. These villages are Ardsley, Briarcliff Manor, Buchanan, Croton-on-Hudson, Dobbs Ferry, Hastings-on-Hudson , Irvington , Ossining, Pelham, Pelham Manor, Pleasantville, Port Chester, Rye Brook, and Tarrytown . The town/villages are Mount Kisco and Scarsdale
Although the popularity of council-manager government has continued into the 21st century, the system as practiced has changed over time, particularly in communities that have grown more politically contentious. Their elected officials increasingly see themselves as political activists responding to a constituency and concentrating on narrow issues, rather than as trustees performing a public service and attending to the public welfare regardless of any political agenda, as in the traditional model. In Croton, far too much has been spent on outside planning consultants in a desperate attempt to increase revenues instead of reducing expenses. Ordinary common sense would have revealed an easy solution to Village problems: Dispense with its expensive, redundant and archaic village structure.
The High Cost of Villaging
The chief disadvantage of municipal incorporation is that in the 21st century Westchester ’s villages are small and lack the potential for population growth. Too costly and outmoded to justify their continued existence, they add to the tax burden. Consider the string of villages that stretches along the Hudson between Yonkers and Peekskill
One of these, Croton-on-Hudson, is a typical example of the council-manager form of government. The four members of the village’s board of trustees earn $3,000 annually for their services; the mayor is paid $5,000 annually. The disparity between policy-making village board salaries and that of the policy-executing village manager is startling ($17,000 vs. $160,000.
Let us now examine the true cost of managing as exemplified by the annual salaries of Croton’s village management under this system. The parenthesized dollar amounts are the raises over last year’s salaries awarded to nonelected, appointed management employees These raises averaged almost four percent at a time when Social Security beneficiaries received no cost-of-living supplement.)
Table 1: Cost of Croton’s “Top Management Team”
Village Manager: $160,000
Village Treasurer: $111,936 (+ $2 884)
Deputy Treasurer: $77,250 (+ $2,318)
Village Clerk: $85,284 (+ $2,700)
Deputy Village Clerk: $47,700 (+ $2,700)
TOTAL OF ABOVE SALARIES = $566,015 (+ $14,331)
The above six salaries totaling well over a half-million dollars are taken from the current budget for the fiscal year 2011-2012. Croton is a village with a population of slightly more than 8,000 persons, a budget of $17 million and more than 80 employees. If we compare the currently budgeted management salaries to a reasonable public service salary yardstick—the salaries of the governors of the fifty states--surprising statistics emerge. The village manager of Croton-on-Hudson earns more than the governors of 44 states!
Just to put this statistic in perspective, the salary of the village manager of the village of Croton-on-Hudson with its population of a shade more than 8,000 persons is more than that of the governors of such important states as Illinois (pop. 12.9 million); Washington (pop. 6.6 million); Connecticut (pop. 3.5 million); Maryland (pop. 5.7 million); Ohio (pop. 11.5 million); Massachusetts (pop. 6.5 million); and 37 other states. (Only the governors of California , New York , Michigan , New Jersey , Virginia and Pennsylvania
Croton’s Village Treasurer makes more than the governors of twenty states. Croton’s Assistant Village Manager earns more than five governors in the U.S. Croton’s Village Clerk makes more than two state governors. And even its Deputy Treasurer makes more than the governor of the state of Maine
Table 2: Salaries of U.S.
CROTON VILLAGE MANAGER: $160,000
CROTON VILLAGE TREASURER: $108,150
CROTON ASSISTANT VILLAGE MANAGER: $93,215
CROTON VILLAGE CLERK: $82,400
CROTON DEPUTY VILLAGE TREASURER: $77,250
Some may point out that certain perks come with a governor’s salary—for example, the privilege of living in the executive mansion, usually a drafty old barn of a building through which gawking tourists regularly traipse. Governor Pataki so disliked living in the executive mansion in Albany , he chose to live in his house in Garrison , N.Y.
How does the current salary paid to Croton’s village manager stack up against salaries paid by other villages for the same job? Table 3 below shows the comparison. Note that the title may vary between village manager and village administrator in these figures arranged in ascending order.
Table 3. Salaries Paid to Village Managers
Dobbs Ferry: $79,029 (VC)
Buchanan: $110,902 (VM, VC, VT)
Briarcliff Manor: 116,966 (IVM)
Ardsley: $130,534 (VM)
Elmsford: $135,000 (VA, VC)
Pleasantville: $144,371 (VA)
Croton-on-Hudson: $160,000 (VM)
---------------------------------------------------
Job Title Code: IVM=Interim Village
Job Title Code: IVM=
Expressed in pocketbook terms. Croton’s village manager’s salary costs every man, woman and child in Croton $20.20 each year. In terms of the cost per household, the figure is $54.96. Interestingly, Croton (pop. 8,070) pays the same salary ($160,000) to its village manager as does Ossining (pop. 25,060)--even though Croton is only a third of Ossining ’s size. Thus, compared to Croton’s annual per capita cost of its village manager of, $20.20 Ossining ’s is a mere $6.38.
Neighboring Buchanan’s village manager also performs the functions of village clerk and village treasurer for a base salary of $110.902. Croton spends a total of $566,015 for six persons to perform these same management functions. (Not shown in any tables are the very generous health and retirement benefits offered that continue for the lifetime of each retiree.)
Croton’s Overweening Generosity
Croton’s largesse as a village extends to other areas affecting taxation—namely the School Board and school taxes, the largest item. For example, the base salary of the former superintendent of Croton’s school system of only three schools and 1,685 students was $240,000 (plus a $20,500 tax-deferred annuity, a merit bonus of the maximum of $5,000 and a vehicle allowance of $7,200).
Contrast that salary with that of the superintendent of the Yonkers
Croton’s police chief, in charge of a 20-person department, receives a salary of $145,000, while Buchanan’s police chief is paid $109,000 to supervise a five-person police department. The salary of Ray Kelly, the head of the 37,000-person New York City
Another source of taxpayer discontent is management’s practice of maintaining police departments at less than optimal strength. This results in expensive overtime practices that are often abused. Because their commuting populations empty many villages during daytime hours, the hitherto unanticipated prospect of paid fire department personnel may soon have to be considered to fill the gap left by daytime absences of volunteer firefighters.
Of Westchester ’s twenty villages, fifteen have populations of less than 11,000. Thirteen of these twenty, including Croton, have populations of less than 8,000. Three of these twenty have populations less than 5,000. Yet all have the same top-heavy village structure administering budgets in the millions of dollars.
In New York City , agglomerations like Battery Park City ; Peter Cooper Village , Stuyvesant Town , and Parkchester, not to mention entire square blocks of tall apartment houses on the Upper West Side , have similarly-sized populations. What if each of these had decided to incorporate as a village, with their own management, police, fire and sanitation departments? The result would resemble the chaotic picture of Westchester County
High taxes in small units of local government, such as villages, are also the result of ingrained practices that contribute to expenses. One is the method by which taxes are calculated by government. Politicians often run on platforms in which they promise to “run government like a business.” But businesses budget for the coming year by projecting the expected revenue (income) and adjust the next year’s expenses (payroll, number of employees. etc.) based on that projection. Local governments, on the other hand, project next year’s expenses (including payroll and benefits) and adjust the next year’s revenue (i.e. taxes) based on that projection. In effect, tax growth becomes a bottomless well that never runs dry.
In addition, local governments have made it a practice to give annual across-the board salary increases of two to three percent. What members of the Board of Trustees unfamiliar with the mathematical Rule of 72 don’t realize is that a three-percent raise each year will more than double a longtime employee’s salary in 24 years. This was the case with Croton’s previous village manager whose $196,340 salary in 2008 for “managing” a village of less than 8,000 persons was only slightly less than that of the governor of California
We are all aware of big government’s tendency to replicate itself, much like amoeba or paramecium splitting into two in a drop of pond water on a microscope slide. In 1970, when its population was 7,523 persons, Croton’s affairs were managed by a Village Manager, a Village Treasurer and a Village Clerk. By 2010, Croton’s population had grown by only 547 persons--an average growth rate of 14 persons a year.
We are all aware of big government’s tendency to replicate itself, much like amoeba or paramecium splitting into two in a drop of pond water on a microscope slide. In 1970, when its population was 7,523 persons, Croton’s affairs were managed by a Village Manager, a Village Treasurer and a Village Clerk. By 2010, Croton’s population had grown by only 547 persons--an average growth rate of 14 persons a year.
Such a minuscule increase over the past 40 years can hardly have made a perceptible difference in the respective work loads of Croton's manager, treasurer and clerk. Yet, in recent years, the village in its munificence has provided each with a generously remunerated assistant.
The salaries of these six individuals now total well over a half-million dollars a year. No wonder Croton’s village government has been unable to provide its citizens with meaningful tax reduction.
Village vs. Hamlet or CDP
The inevitable question becomes, “What do villages offer that other communities, such as unincorporated hamlets and CDPs (Census-Designated Places), do not offer?” The answer is, “Little to nothing.” The Westchester community whose junior and senior high schools are consistently chosen as “best in Westchester” by U.S. Greenburgh
Similarly, the community to which Croton residents most often aspire to relocate to for its quality of life and highly regarded school system is Chappaqua in the Town of New Castle
Then there’s affluent Katonah, also a hamlet, one of three unincorporated hamlets in the Town of Bedford New York Greenwich , Conn. , and Ridgefield , N.J.
Another example of a prosperous hamlet is Yorktown Heights in the Town of Yorktown
Neither Edgemont, Chappaqua, Katonah nor Yorktown Heights village of Croton
What advantage do Croton residents get from maintaining an elaborately structured village government with a budget of $17 million and more than 80 employees? The question inevitably becomes: Are we paying too much for what we get in return?
What Can Residents of Villages Do?
The Commission on Local Government Efficiency created by former Governor Spitzer to study ways to reduce the cost of government determined that a village is an inefficient and unnecessary form of government and should all be dissolved. There is a way for the twenty villages of Westchester County New York State
(1) A petition signed by at least one-third of the registered voters residing in the Village must be submitted to Croton’s Board of Trustees requesting that a proposition for dissolution be put before the voters on the next general election.
(2) A public hearing must be held to discuss the proposed dissolution of theVillage of Croton
(2) A public hearing must be held to discuss the proposed dissolution of the
(3) In cooperation with the Town of Cortlandt , the Croton Board of Trustees must develop a plan for disposition of Croton’s assets, payment of Croton’s debts, and the assumption of its services by the Town of Cortlandt
(4) At the next general or special election, the voters will be asked to vote on the proposition of dissolution. If approved the Village must be dissolved according to the approved plan within one year.
(4) At the next general or special election, the voters will be asked to vote on the proposition of dissolution. If approved the Village must be dissolved according to the approved plan within one year.
That’s all there is to it. It’s as simple as those four steps outlined above. Other advantages will stem from dissolution of the village. Reduction of taxes will make homes more affordable and make the community more attractive to new businesses. There’s nothing revolutionary about the concept of dissolution. It would merely mark a return to the original town plan of Westchester ’s founding fathers. Moreover, the Town of Cortlandt
The chief benefits we get from living in the village of Croton Cortlandt New York State
Discontent with multi-layered, self-perpetuating anachronistic government and burdensome taxation for replicated services is spreading. Aside from turning incumbents out of office, what else can the people who live in the villages of Westchester do? They can strike a blow for freedom from oppressive taxes and unnecessary government by starting the simple process of village dissolution. Otherwise, they should stop complaining about high taxes and big government, and suffer in silence. Croton will still be Croton. Absent will be one whole layer of oppressive taxation—and what a great relief that will be.
Labels: Current Affairs
