Stephanus; Uncas

STATES & CITIES

Great was the name of Stephanus Van Cortlandt in the colony of New York in 1680. Great also was the name of Uncas in the colony of Connecticut in 1680. Neighbors, they were both vitally interested in real estate, the Dutchman as a buyer, the Indian as a seller. Though they knew each other by professional reputation, they never met socially, never turned a joint land deal.

Into a New York court fortnight ago went descendants of Stephanus Van Cortlandt seeking justice for his property. Simultaneously into a Connecticut court went descendants of Uncas seeking justice for his property. A railroad had blocked the entrance of a little river that ran down past the Van Cortlandt estate. Realtors were trying to cut Uncas's burying ground up into building lots.

Son of a doughty Dutch immigrant, Stephanus Van Cortlandt was born in Nieuw Amsterdam in 1643, saw it become New York under the English in 1664. An active politician, he was chosen Mayor of New York at the age of 34, later collected its taxes, dispensed justice from its supreme court. Outside of political office hours, he piled up a fortune as a merchant at the northeast corner of Pearl & Broad Streets, served as senior warden of Trinity Church, bought land in what is now Westchester County. When he had accumulated an estate of 83,000 acres extending ten miles along the Hudson River north from the Croton River and "a day's journey" [20 mi.] eastward to the Connecticut line, he built himself a fort-like house of red sandstone, with loopholes, cannon em-brasures, 3-ft. walls. King William III of England bestowed upon him in 1697 full manorial privileges.* When he died in 1700, his large estate had been divided in his will among his four sons, seven daughters. The Van Cortlandt fort was changed into a manor house, where the male head of the family continued to dwell in lordly seclusion until 1917 when James Stevenson Van Cortlandt, Civil War veteran, died without issue.

In 1896 the New York Central R. R. threw a solid bridge across the Croton where it empties into the Hudson. Surviving Van Cortlandts now complain that this bridge blocks boats passing up the Croton to their estate. Last spring a judge ruled that the railroad must replace its structure with a drawbridge, but before he could sign his decree he died. Therefore last fortnight Mrs. Isabel R. Mason and the Misses Catherine Van Cortlandt Mathews and Anne S. Van Cortlandt, now occupants of the family manor house, appeared in the White Plains Supreme Court to recommence their suit against the railroad. Clad in sombre dresses, the three aristocratic women carried heavy volumes of history, old maps, aging documents to prove their claim. The railroad's defense: a drawbridge would cost $2,000,000; its operation would delay such trains as the 20th Century Limited; the Croton is not navigable for boats of any great size.

The case of Uncas was this: in 1635 Connecticut settlers first began to buy land from Uncas,* friendly Pequod who later organized the Mohegans (an offshoot of the Mohicans), became the No. i sachem of Connecticut. In 1659 he sold the English for -L-70 nine sq. mi. for the settlement of Norwich. He fought with them against other Indian tribes, horrified pious colonists with ruthless decapitation of his enemies. In 1682 Norwich deeded back to Uncas and "his heirs forever" some 200 acres of land on the edge of town in lieu of -L-3 still owing on the original purchase. On this land Uncas was supposed to have been buried along with his grandson Sam and other "royal" descendants. In 1833 President Andrew Jackson went to Norwich, laid the foundation for an Uncas monument over his grave. Lack of money delayed construction for nine years. Finally a seven-foot granite obelisk marked UNCAS was set up.

Last fortnight Edyth B. Gray, of Groton, Conn., Uncas descendant, started suit for $1,000,000 against the State of Connecticut and the city of Norwich, on the ground that the royal burying plot, now reduced to 16 acres, had been dese crated by the removal of tombstones, the erection of a Masonic temple, high pres sure real estate development.

*A Lord of the manor held court on his land, cunt rolled local churches, was personally represented in the provincial assembly.

*Also Okase, Onkos, Onkus, Okoko, Vncas, Unkuss, Unkowa, Unquase, Unkas. He is not to be confused with the legendary Uncas of whom James Fenimore Cooper wrote in The Last of the Mohicans. Cooper's Uncas supposedly lived in the Lake George. N. Y. region during the Franco-English wars of 1754-63.

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