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Village History
Early History
Recent archaeological excavations near Wicker's Creek -- a stream that flows into the
Hudson a few hundred feet north of the Metro North Railroad station -- established that
what is now Dobbs Ferry was inhabited at least four thousand years before the first
European contact.
Little is known of these prehistoric people, but we do know about the area's
inhabitants shortly before the arrival of the first European settlers. These native
Americans were known as the Weckquasgeek Indians, a tribe belonging to the Mohegan Nation
who spoke an Algonquin dialect and who lived in the Wicker's Creek area.
Game was plentiful here, the river provided fish, oysters were abundant, and the
Weckquasgeeks planted maize, pumpkins, and beans.
Henry Hudson's explorations in 1609 opened the area to Dutch colonialization, and by
1629 the Dutch West India Company was issuing grants requiring settlers to acquire the
land from the Native Americans. The muskets of the colonists decided any disputes.
Vreedrych Felypse, an immigrant carpenter from Holland who became a successful New
Amsterdam trader, purchased the territory bounded by Spuyten Duyvil, the Hudson, the
Croton and the Bronx Rivers. When the British conquered New Amsterdam, Felypse anglicized
his name to Frederick Philipse, and in 1693 received a Royal Charter confirming him as
Lord of the Manor of Philipsborough.
The third lord of the Philipse line backed the wrong side in the Revolution and, at the
end of the war, his property was confiscated and auctioned off. Former tenant farmers from
the area now known as Dobbs Ferry (such as Adrian La Forge, the Storms, and Thomas Hyatt)
set up private farms.
The Village of Dobbs Ferry derives its name from William Dobbs, who in 1730 established
a ferry from Willow Point to Sneden's Landing directly across the river. The family
business was taken over by his sixth child, Jeremiah Dobbs, and the area formerly known as
Wysquaqua became, through general acceptance, "Dobbs Ferry."
Revolutionary Times
During the Revolution, the area -- a sparsely populated farming community -- was
contended for by both sides. On September 30, 1778, at Edgars Lane (just south of the
present Dobbs Ferry - Hastings border) American militia ambushed and destroyed an
eighty-man Hessian patrol.
In 1781, the Dobbs Ferry shoreline and Sneden's Landing were fortified to prevent the
British fleet from interdicting American and French supply lines. American fire from the
Dobbs Ferry Redoubt sank the warship HMS Savage which had been attacking American supply
sloops off Tarrytown.
The Industrial Revolution
The region was agrarian until the advent of the steamboat and the railroad in the
mid-1880s. Growth was stimulated all along the Hudson River. The Croton Aqueduct
(1838-1842) was dug from Croton to New York City, passing through the center of what is
now Dobbs Ferry's central business district.
By the end of the 19th century, the region had attracted wealthy New Yorkers who
established fabulous estates. The newspaper tycoon Henry Villard settled within Dobbs
Ferry. The homes of the Vanderbilts, the Goulds, Rockefellers, and others were built
nearby.
Many of these, along with such historic properties as Washington Irving's Sunnyside
(Irvington) and part of the original Philipseburg Farm (Tarrytown), are open to
visitors.
The opportunities for employment on the great estates and in the building of the
region's infrastructure attracted Irish, Italian, and other European immigrants to Dobbs
Ferry during this period. Many of their descendents still live in our village.
The settlement of Dobbs Ferry between 1890 and 1929 claimed most of the large tracts of
undeveloped land. Because of this, the village and its neighboring river communities
avoided the major subdivision development that swept other towns in Westchester and Long
Island after World War II.
(from the Dobbs Ferry Commercial and Cultural Directory, 1994, published
by the Dobbs Ferry Chamber of Commerce)
Dobbs Ferry Historical Society: 914-693-7766
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last update: 7/31/02