36 HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 



This last deed marks the end of Indian rule in Bedford. It is the 

 only one of the "nine" deeds which is not signed by Katonah Saga- 

 more. Hence it is to be inferred that he died between 1704 and 1722, 

 and was spared the pain of seeing the last of his happy hunting grounds 

 pass out of the possession of his race. Tradition tells us, that he lies 

 buried beside his favorite wife on the heights of Cantitoe ( Katonah' s own 

 land), and two immense boulders on the farm of Henry E. Pellew, Esqr., 

 are shown as marking the spot, where, with his face towards the rising 

 sun, lies all that was mortal of the great chieftain."* Katonah may 

 have been the son of Powahag or Powahay the eldest son of Onox, and 

 left issue at least two sons, who figure in the Bedford conveyances, viz., 

 Papiag and Wackemane. 



A remarkable feature about these Indian deeds of Bedford is, that 

 with the exception of the first one, no consideration of great value is 

 in any case named. The bargains were usually made " to the full satis- 

 faction" of the grantors; and the doubtful phraseology leads to the 

 suspicion that some of the early settlers had the knack of making easy 

 bargains with the red men when they were in good humor. In many of 

 their bounds, except where streams were followed, these deeds are indefi- 

 nite, and it is believed that in some cases parcels of laud were included 

 in two or more deeds, and other parcels were left out entirely. They 

 could afford to be careless about a few acres at the prices of those 

 times.' 6 



Upon the 23d of June, 1736, "the land to the north of Cross River 

 was divided by lot among the twenty-nine proprietors of Bedford." 



Among the largest landed of the proprietors of Bedford was Jacobus 

 Van Cortlandt, son of Hon. Oloff Stevens Van Cortlandt and 

 brother of Stephanus Van Cortlandt, Lord of the manor of Cortlandt 

 (which lordship embraced the upper portion of the town). This indi- 

 vidual had purchased lands here from the Indians and settlers as late as 

 1 7 1 4, so that his estate, as we shall have occasion to show presently, 

 when divided in 1743, amounted to 5,115 acres. 



On the 10th of April, 1738, Jacobus Van Cortlandt devised " all his 

 tenements and hereditaments situated within the patent and township of 

 Bedford to his son Frederick Van Cortlandt, of Yonkers, and his three 

 daughters : Margaret, wife of Abraham Depeyster ; Anne, wife of John 

 Chambers, and Mary, wife of Peter Jay, the parties giving mutual leases 

 and releases to one another." 



a Address by Joseph Barrett July 4th, 1876, Recorder Katonah July 7th. 

 b Hist, sketch of the town of Bedford delivered by Joseph Barrett, 1876. Record Katonah 

 July 7. 

 c. Co. Rec, lib. G., fol. 208. 



