Searching for Roots in Scarsdale
News that the neighboring home at 140 Saxon Woods Road was soon to be demolished sent Toril Utheim Hanna of 138 Saxon Woods Road on an unusual quest. In speaking with the former resident of the small, wood frame home, Hanna learned that the woman was a descendant of runaway slave Robert Purdy, (1820-1890) who came to Scarsdale in 1840 from Louisiana, possibly on the underground railway. Settling in Saxon Woods, Purdy eventually became a landowner himself, purchasing five acres of land from George A. Willets in 1856 for $277. Since that time, four generations of Robert Purdy’s direct descendants have lived on homes on the land until February 2011 when 140 Saxon Woods Rd was sold to the Parma Construction Corporation.
Curious to learn more, Hanna located Donna Lockley, a fourth generation direct descendant of Robert Purdy who provided invaluable information and copies of documents pertaining to Robert Purdy and his descendants, enabling the discovery of historic information about the Scarsdale Saxon Woods Road "Robert Purdy Community." In addition, Hanna met with Hazel Gill, a great-grandaughter of Robert Purdy who grew up on Saxon Woods Road. According to Hanna, “One piece of information led to another. Research continued and the pieces of the puzzle were, and are still, coming together! It is indeed a very interesting and colorful landscape/masterpiece of a picture/painting in progress.”
According to an 1860 census, Robert Purdy had two cows, a horse and chickens and grew Indian corn on the property. The land was still used as a farm in the 1920’s and William E. Peterson Purdy's great grandson told Hanna that “we were hardworking people – there were no parties in those times -- we would work on our farm, then go off to our day jobs and then return to the farm at night.” Women did domestic work in Scarsdale homes and they were apparently treated well. Esther Purdy, on of Purdy's four daughters, ran a laundry service at the home. Hazel Gill told Hanna that when she was a girl there was a curfew at night for blacks who were ordered to return home after dark.
Hanna, a Norwegian native, said that she sees similarities between the tale of the Purdy’s and others who have been disenfranchised. She has lived all over the world and worked for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Married to an American, who currently works for the United Nations, at one point Hanna lived in Jordan and worked with Iraqi refugees. During that time she gained insight into what it means to flee with your personal belongings on your back and lose your identity. When Hanna moved to the United States with her husband she did not have a green card – and therefore could not work, travel or even have her own credit card. Her work to uncover the story of the Purdy family is partially motivated by her own quest to establish a national identity with roots and origins.
Hanna’s discovery dovetailed with an ongoing research project on Scarsdale’s African American Heritage led by Scarsdale Middle
Waltzman and Hanna are researching original documents such as the land deed, ownership maps, farming records and census documents. They have already learned that Robert Purdy registered for the Civil War Draft in June, 1863 and that he began an African Methodist Episcopal Zion congregation in his home. In 1902, this congregation built the Barry Avenue AME Zion Church in Mamaroneck, and Purdy’s descendents still attend the services held there to this day.
According to a letter Hanna and Waltzman have drafted for the Committee on Historic Preservation, “It appears that Robert Purdy was an influential and important representative and leader of the local free black men and women, commanding great respect and faith. When he died in 1890, an impressive tombstone was erected at his grave in the Greenwood Union Cemetery in Rye.”
Though Hanna is not taking a position on whether or not the home at 140 Saxon Woods Road should be preserved, she does hope to document the interesting history of the land and the homes and preserve the story for future generations. She will present the facts and original documents to the committee on Historic Preservation on Tuesday night June 21 at 8 pm at Scarsdale Village Hall.
Update: June 23: Toril Hanna, Elizabeth Waltzman, a group of descendants of Robert Purdy and concerned neighbors attended the meeting of the Historic Preservation Committee Meeting June 21, 2011. In an eloquent presentation, Hanna presented a wealth of information to the committee on the Robert Purdy Community on Saxon Woods Road.
Each of the committee members was given a folder that included copies of historic maps, deeds, census data, a civil war draft registration and information that verified the presence of the community and the historic relevance of the property. Hanna told the committee that Purdy must have been an “extraordinary man” as after only seven years in Scarsdale this runaway slave was able to purchase 5 acres of land from George Willets. Waltzman, the Scarsdale Middle School librarian, explained, “140 Saxon Woods Road has a rich history and the property stayed in the family for 155 years until February of 2011 when it was sold to the developer.” She told the committee that they are bumping into new information about the community every day and called it a “part of Scarsdale’s visual and oral history.”
Helen Parnell Daniels, an African American woman who grew up on Saxon Woods Road, told the group that during her youth she “was one of the only blacks who lived here at the time.” She urged the committee to give the information “consideration – not just to the family, but because of what it means to the Village of Scarsdale.”
She ended by saying, “Do not negate the historical perspective of blacks and slaves in the Village of Scarsdale.”
Caroline Gibson, a neighbor at 146 Saxon Woods Road, bought her house in 1985 from the Peterson family who are also descendents of the Purdys. She said she spoke to an historian at the time who said that the property once sheltered runaway slaves en route to emancipation in Canada.
Though Hanna had not originally come to the committee to save the house, her persuasive presentation, coupled with the input from others in the room, convinced the Committee Chair to hold over the application for demolition. He told Hanna that “it behooves us to go through this material,” and that she had provided the committee with a wealth of information to consider. He indicated that he would share it with Village Historian Eric Rothschild and discuss it with the committee. So until the committee can make a determination of its historical significance the house will stand.
In other news from the meeting, the committee ruled that a 1925 home on Fairview Road did not have historical significance and thus could be demolished. Since no one appeared at the meeting on behalf of the application for 4 Windmill Circle, that item was held over on the agenda.
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written by Sam Charles Houston, January 28, 2012
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written by Phyllis C Murray, August 15, 2011
many facets to the lives of its early Scarsdale inhabitants. Today, their
descendants mirror the same drive and industrious spirit. The ethic of hard
work was not relegated to the immigrant alone. It transcends the history of
many former slaves who were able to make a way out of no way. Surely, this
was a time when the road to success was not paved. This road had to be
carved out one day at a time by their descendants. .
"Saxon Woods to NASA: The Journey of George Peterson " is also one example of how it took a whole village to raise a child.
Phyllis C. Murray
_http://www.americantowns.com/ny/scarsdale/news/from-saxon-woods-road-to-nas
a-the-journey-of-george-peterson-6312630_
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written by Phyllis C. Murray, July 02, 2011
By Phyllis C. Murray
"Happy Fifth of July, New York!" by Louise Mirrer, Jame Oliver Horton and Richard Rabinowitz (NYTimes July 3, 2005) provided a historical perspective on Slavery in the North and South...and its present day implications. This team of historians/writers worked on the much heralded exhibition about slavery at the New York Historical Society. And with all of the work of Historic Hudson Valley, The African Burial Ground Project and St. Paul's Church, we are approaching some clarity "on the role our city and state played in the institution of slavery."(see Mirrer et al.)
Certainly, Daniel D. Tompkins should be the most honored and celebrated Scarsdalian in New York State History. In 1817 Thompkins made a recommendation to the Legislature for an abolition of domestic slavery in the state.
"This act, if passed, would take effect on July 4, 1827. In accordance with his proposition the Legislature passed an act on the 31st of March 1817, and at the prescribed time slavery was ripped off the statue books of the state of New York." (Shonnard)
It is interesting to note that Tompkins was Vice President of the United States from 1817-1825 and founder of the NY State Historical society. The Extract from an adder on the Life and Serivice of Governor Thompkins by the Hon. Hugh Hastings, Historian of the State of NY reads as follows:
"Of all the able men who have occupied the chair of governor of New York State, none ever sustained the onerous and over whelming responsibilities with more conscientiousness, or guarded the destinies of his state and his people with more fidelity. He was more than a great man, he was a great patriot, a great martyr. He gave his services, his fortune, his reputation, and his life, that his country should maintain its position amongst the nations of the earth, and for the transcendent results he achieved, he deserves the imperishable gratitude of this country. Amen."
I began researching the early African presence in Scarsdale in 1999. It really was one of the best places to start. .The African presence in Scarsdale, NY is as old as the village itself. If we look to the past to better understand the present and inform the future, we will find the vestiges of an almost forgotten people in historical texts which proliferate the library shelves. We will also find the skeletal remains of our African ancestors in cemeteries and landscapes throughout Westchester Country. Thus, history unfolds.
Happy Fourth of July!
Phyllis C. Murray,
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written by Bob Miller, June 29, 2011
Another quirk of Saxon Woods Road was a gentleman who owned a very large piece of property housing, among other things, a menagerie of circus animals. He was famous as the owner of the lion used in the Dreyfus Fund advertising. My friend and I used to collect tadpoles from a pond adjoining that property long before Springdale Road, Boulder Brook Road, much of Rock Creek Lane, and Black Birch Road were developed.
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written by Liz Waltzman, June 27, 2011
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written by Robinette A. Robinson, June 25, 2011
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written by A Surya Peterson, June 25, 2011
in the Robert Purdy Community @ Saxon woods rd Scarsdale 1700's to present for the public .
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written by Shelley Moore Christiansen, June 23, 2011
This story intrigues me all the more because I serve on the Historic District Commission in the Massachusetts town I live in now.
I applaud the efforts of the Middle School (the spanking new junior high in my day) and the Historic Preservation Committee. And to Toril: Tusen takk!
Shelley C.
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the circus animals at the area were the HASS family had lived , near the Amodio's
nursery . It was reported by a student that interviewed the Peterson twins in mamk
for a cultural project of the Africanamerican Cultural foundation , that their grandfather
had come by way of the Harriet Tubmans underground rail rd. They were the last
burials at the Rye African cemetery , were i went weekend with my father to clear
the area of my grandparents, aunt & mother Josephine Baker from Miss. My Grand
father's brother preston married phobe robert purdys daughter. Ester her daugher
sole land to Eugene Peterson in 1908. I lived in the house built in 1915 till the 60's
when i took the photo of House at 307 . I had been present with cousin Mary when Ester passed
at 311, I am very interested in the street being named for the Robert Purdy family. I
can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it '> This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it 914 419 8368