Page 43 - Bronx Chamber of Commerce - 2019 Business Directory & Resource Guide
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                                  THE BRONX THROUGH THE CENTURIES
    TIMELINE OF THE BRONX
17TH CENTURY
1609           1642           1663           1683           1696
                                          Henry Hudson, exploring for the Dutch East India Company, sails up the Hudson River in his ship, the Half Moon, and becomes the first European to see the Bronx.
1639
Jonas Bronck, a Swedish sea captain living in the Nether- lands, becomes the first settler in the Bronx, along with his wife and a handful of German, Dutch, and Danish indentured servants.
John Throckmorton comes from Rhode Island with a group
of settlers to live on Throgs Neck. At the same time, Anne Hutchinson arrives from the same place to live along the banks of the river later named for her. An Indian uprising causes Throckmorton and his settlers to flee and Hutchinson is killed.
1654
Prodded by Thomas Pell of Fairfield, Connecticut, 15 men settle at the head of navigation of Westches- ter Creek and found the first village in the area, called Westchester. This is the first permanent European settlement in the Bronx.
The town of Eastchester in the northeast Bronx
is established by ten families abetted by Thomas Pell.
1666
Thomas Pell receives a patent from the colonial governor making his land in the northeast Bronx a manor, later called Pelham.
1671
John Archer receives a patent from the colonial governor for the manor of Fordham, which included almost all of today’s western Bronx.
18TH CENTURY
Counties are created in colonial New York, and today’s Bronx becomes part of Westchester County, with the first county seat in the vil- lage of Westchester.
The colonial governor grants tiny, rural Westchester a charter making it a borough. This meant that it could have a mayor, council and alderman.
1693         1697
                       Frederick Philipse receives a patent from the colonial governor for the manor of Philipsburgh, extend- ing from the entire northwest Bronx to the Croton River in modern Westchester County. He builds the King’s Bridge over Spuyten Duyvil Creek.
Young Lewis Morris receives a patent from the colonial governor making his land the manor of Morrisania.
                                     1748           1761             1776           1783           1797
                                 The Van Cortlandt House is built by Frederick van Cortlandt. This is now the oldest house in the Bronx.
1758
The Valentine-Varian House is built by blacksmith Isaac Valentine. It is presently the second oldest house in the Bronx.
Benjamin Palmer purchases Minneford Island, and later forms a syndicate to make
it into a major com- mercial city on Long Island Sound, renamed City Island. The effort eventually fails, but the name sticks.
The British land at Throgs Neck on Octo- ber 12, then withdraw to land on Pell’s Point
in today’s Pelham Bay Park. There, the 4,000 British and Hessians are met by 350 Americans under Colonel John Glover and are fought to a standstill, enabling George Washington, with the main American army, to withdraw safely to White Plains. The Bronx passes under British control until
the end of the American Revolution.
Washington starts out from the Van Cortlandt House with a contin- gent of troops to cross the King’s Bridge to take possession of New York City from the British in the last act of the American Revolution.
Lewis Morris sends a letter to the Continental Congress proposing Morrisania as the permanent capital of the United States. Con- gress tabled the letter and never considered it.
The Harlem Bridge
(the first Third Avenue Bridge) is built over the Harlem River with a new Boston Post Road to lead to it. The latter is now Third Avenue to 163rd Street and Boston Road north of that.
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