THE TOWN OF MOUNT PLEASANT. 533 



ten order before she would relinquish her custody of it. Smith replied 

 that he had none, the officer having had no time to write one; but 

 added: 'You know me very well, Madam; and when I assure you that 

 Lieutenant Webb sent me for the valise, you ought not to refuse to de- 

 liver it to me, as he is in very great need of his uniform?' Mrs. Beeck- 

 man had conceived a great dislike for Smith before this; his known 

 sympathy with the royalist cause being in marked contrast to her enthu- 

 siastic devotion to the colonies; and influenced by it, she determined to 

 hold on to her charge until a written order of undoubted genuineness 

 should compel her to surrender it. Smith was vexed at her doubts; but 

 his entreaties had no effect on her resolution ; and disappointed at the ill- 

 success of his effort, he rode away. The result proved that he had no 

 authority to make the application ; and it was subsequently ascertained 

 that, at the very time of this attempt on his part to secure the uniform, 

 Andre was concealed in his house. After Andre's capture, the Lieu- 

 tenant called in person for his valise, and bore a message from Wash- 

 ington, thanking Mrs. Beeckman for the prudence that had prevented an 

 occurrence which might have caused a train of disasters, for Webb and 

 Andre were of the same height and form ; and, beyond all doubt, had 

 Smith obtained possession of the uniform, Andre would have made his 

 escape through the American lines."' 2 



" It was in this church that the never-to-be-forgotten Yankee peda- 

 gogue, "Ichabod Crane," in rivalry of the old dominie, led off the choir, 

 making the welking ring with the notes of his nasal psalmody. It was, 

 too, in the ravine, just back of the church, that this redoubtable hero, 

 Ichabod, had his fearful midnight encounter with the headless horseman 

 and forever disappeared from the sight of the goodly inhabitants of 

 Sleepy Hollow. 6 



The following notice of the death of " Ichabod Crane " appeared in 

 the Westchester Herald for Nov. 30th, 1852 : — Jesse Merwin died at 

 Kinderhook on the 8th instant, at the age of seventy years : Mr. 

 Merwin was well known in this community as an upright, honorable 

 man in whom there was no guile. He was for many years a Justice 

 of the Peace, the duties of which he discharged with scrupulous fidelity 

 and conscientious regard to the just claims of suitors, ever frowning 

 upon those whose vocation it is to " foment discord and perplex right." 

 At an early period of his life, and while engaged in school teaching, 

 he passed much of his time in the society of Washington Irving, 



a A Reminiscence of Sleepy Hollow.— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. CCCXI, April. 

 18T6, Vol. LIL, p. 23. 

 b Legend of Sleepy Hollow, by Wasnington Irving. 



