THE TOWN OF NEW ROCHELLE. 6oi 



part of this State whenever the enemy shall abandon or be dispossest of the 

 same, and until the Legislature can be convened, passed 23d of October 1779, 

 the following town officers are elected : 



Benjamin Stephenson, Supervisor, 



James Willis, Town Clerk, 



James Reynolds, Constable and Collector, 



Benjamin Stephenson, "I 



James Ronalds, > Assessors, 



James Willis, ) 



David Guion,) Overseers of the Road 



James Willis,) for the Upper Quarter, 



The village of New Rochelle, which was incorporated by an Act of 

 the Legislature passed December 7, 1847,** is agreeably situated on the 

 Boston Turnpike, extending to Long Islaud on the south, where there 

 is a convenient steamboat landing, distant eighteen miles from the city 

 of New York. There is also a depot of the New York and New Haven 

 Railroad, together with a branch of the New Haven and Harlem River 

 Railroad, connecting with steamboats at Morrisania, upwards of forty 

 trains running daily to and fro. Extensive engine and freight houses 

 have been recently erected east of the depot. The population is about 

 4,000. There are, 1 Protestant Episcopal, 1 Roman Catholic, 1 Pres- 

 byterian, 2 Methodist, 1 Baptist, 1 German Lutheran, 1 German Metho- 

 dist Episcopal church, a post office, a bank, 2 hotels, and several ex- 

 tensive boarding houses, many spacious stores, 2 grist mills, and 2 

 carriage factories. There is a fire-brick edifice erected in 187 1 by the 

 Westchestei Fire Insurance Company. This well-known institution 

 was first organized under the name and title of the " Westchester Mutual 

 Insurance Company," on the 1st of April, 1S37 — David Harrison, Presi - 

 dent, and James T. Ells, Secretary; George Fail, of Eastchester, first 

 Treasurer. In 1870 the company merged into a stock company. It 

 had accumulated $279,425.87. The present company put to this sum 

 $200,000 paid up capital. In 1874 the company removed to New 

 York city, where they have an elegant office and over $1,000,000 assets. 



The settlement of New Rochelle was commenced by the Huguenots 

 probably as early as 1686-7, who gave it the name it now bears, in re- 

 membrance of their native residence, La Rochelle, in France. This 

 favorite asylum of the French Protestants was, at a very early period, 



a First President, Albert Smith, M.D. An act to amend, passed April 20th, 1864, and 

 amended April ll, 1872. Since its incorporation, the streets have been lighted with gas, the 

 side and cross walks of the streets have been flagged, and the roads macadamized. 



