The story of the Somers Hamlet begins long before the year 1750, with the Native Americans who inhabited the land prior to European settlement. The original inhabitants of what would become the Somers Hamlet were the Kitchawank Indians, who were members of the Algonquian Tribe. During the 1600s, the land would be settled by Dutch, English, French Huguenot, and Quaker settlers who did not always maintain friendly relations with local Native Americans. In 1677, a Dutch aristocrat named Stephanus Van Cortland, who had chosen to remain loyal to the English after they conquered the Dutch colony of New Netherlands (present-day New York) in 1664, began to purchase Indian land in the region after receiving a special license from the British Colonial Governor. This land became part of Westchester County when the county was officially established in 1683. In 1697, in return for his loyalty to the English Crown, Van Cortlandt received an 83,000-acre land grant from King William III of Great Britain (of Glorious Revolution of 1688 fame), which included the land that would become the Somers Hamlet, and which was known as Van Cortlandt Manor. When Stephanus Van Cortland died in 1700, the property passed to his descendants, who continued to personally control the region right up until the end of the American Revolution. In 1734, Van Cortlandt Manor was divided into 30 different administrative lots, and the lot that contained the nascent Somers Hamlet was often colloquially referred to as Hannover. In 1762, the first known private land transaction occurred in the Hamlet with the sale of 240 acres of land to Hachaliah Brown, a resident of the town of Rye, New York. This land included the western reaches of the Hamlet that would eventually contain the Elephant Hotel and which would become the property of Brown’s famous grandson, Hachaliah Bailey. Despite Brown’s purchase, the region was isolated and slow to populate, but it would soon play an important role in the ensuing American Revolution.

During the Revolutionary War, the Somers Hamlet was part of the “neutral lands” that separated the British Army, which controlled New York City and Long Island, from the Continental Army, which controlled the land north of the Hudson Highlands. The area was frequented by marauders and bandits from both sides, colorfully referred to as “skinners” and “cowboys.” The trails and routes created through the region by these highwaymen would prove extremely significant in the long run, as they laid the foundations for the later commercial and agricultural routes that became hallmarks of the Hamlet (which today, are Routes 202 and 100). The Hamlet did see some Revolutionary War action as a station along what would become the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail (https://www.nps.gov/waro/index.htm). The Hamlet was part of what was called the Chain of Express, a communications route used by General George Washington to coordinate with his allies in the French Army and French Navy and to track British troop movements during the Yorktown Campaign of 1781-1782. Military horse riders would travel about 15-20 miles per day along the Chain of Express to deliver messages and supplies to Washington’s forces. Along this route, which was very popular with American forces during the war, there was a small tavern owned by Somers resident Samuel Haight, who was a captain in the Third Westchester Militia Regiment. Haight’s Tavern, as it was called, was located directly across from what is now Ivandell Cemetery, and the building that contained it still stands today at 352 Route 202, Somers, NY. George Washington himself traveled frequently along the Chain of Express, and on September 18, 1780, he even stopped at Haight’s Tavern to eat breakfast there. In 1782, the Hamlet would see one last bit of Revolutionary War action when the Comte de Rochambeau’s French Army marched through it while traveling to Newport, Rhode Island after their victory in the Battle of Yorktown.

After the war ended, the Loyalist farms in the vicinity of the Hamlet were confiscated, and the Hamlet began its life as part of the new United States of America. On March 7, 1788, an act of the New York State Legislature divided the land that was once Van Cortlandt Manor into numerous towns, and the Hamlet became part of the new town of Stephentown, New York, which was named in honor of Stephanus Van Cortland (in exchange for his family’s loyalty to the Patriot cause during the revolution). In 1790, the first U.S. Census indicated that the town had a population of 1,297 people, including 38 slaves. The Hamlet remained relatively underdeveloped for the rest of the 1790s, though by the early 1800s, the two major agricultural turnpikes first forged during the Revolutionary War would drastically transform its existence. In the meantime, the only major development to occur during this time was the 1799 establishment of the Union Meeting House, a church intended to minister to local Methodists and Presbyterians. In 1800, Stephentown maintained a population of 1,571 people, including 40 slaves, and as of today, the modern town of Somers remains one of the most populous in Westchester County. As the 19^th Century dawned, the Hamlet would continue to grow and assume much of its regional and historical importance.