THE TOWN 



SOMERS 



Somers is situated twenty miles North of the village of White Plains, 

 distant fifty miles from New York, and one hundred and twenty from 

 Albany — bounded north by Dutchess County, east by North Salem and 

 Lewisborough, south by Bedford and New Castle, and west by York- 

 town. 



Prior to the year 1788 Somers formed a part of the township of Han- 

 over, within Cortlandt's manor. Upon the 7th of March, 1788, it was 

 independently organized under the title of Stephentoznn, a name adopted 

 out of compliment to Stephen Van Cortlandt, one of its principal pro- 

 prietors. The present name was bestowed, A.D. 1808, in honor, it is 

 said, of Captain Somers, one of the gallant heroes of the Tripolitan 

 war. This individual terminated a short but brilliant career in the bay 

 of Tripoli. 



The name of Somers, (says Mr. Silliman,) the twin brother in arms of 

 Decatur, shines brightly in the history of American warfare ; and the 

 last desperate action which terminated his short and brilliant career, with 

 his life, is stamped in colors so indelible, that nothing but the destroy- 

 ing finger of time can efface it from its pages. After a severe and con- 

 tinued fighting before Tripoli, the Turkish flotilla withdrew within the 

 mole, and could not be induced to venture themselves beyond the guns 

 of the Tripolitan battery. The 'ketch Intrepid ' was fitted out as a fire- 

 ship, filled to the decks with barrels of gunpowder, shells, pitch, and 

 other combustible materials; and Captain Somers, with a volunteer 

 crew, undertook the hazardous, almost desperate, task of navigating her 

 in the darkness of the night into the middle of the Turkish flotilla — when 



