The Burning of Continental Village

History is meant to be shared with family and members of the community. It is one of the things that binds us together. By learning about history, we learn about ourselves and that learning then becomes part of the history.

Carlton B. Scofield, past Peekskill City Historian and author of the books: "Beside the Wide River" and "Echoes from the Hills" had an inherent understanding of this. On October 9, 1921 Carlton was a young boy attending the unveiling of a monument dedicated to the Mothers of the American Revolution which observed the burning of the Continental Village's arsenal, barracks, stores and paper mill by British forces under Major General Tryon on October 9, 1777. Carlton recalled the words of New York State historian, Dr. James Sullivan who stood only several hundred feet away from the place of Carlton's birth, the farm of his grandfather, William J. Briggs.

Sullivan had become the New York State historian in 1916 . Carlton quotes Dr. Sullivan on that day, "In this nestling valley-into this land of God, we have come to pay our humble tribute to Mothers of the Revolution...in all this broad land there is no monument such as this."

And perhaps at that very moment, Carlton became inspired to become a historian. That moment where family, community and history all came together to provide a living bridge to the past, a recordable manifestation of the present and a sudden connection to the future.