History of Rye, (Westchester County) New York United States of America

Our database does not include an historic photo for Rye, (Westchester County) New York, do you have one you would like to contribute? Contact Us!

Biographies:

Charles Washington Baird, clergyman, was born at Princeton, N.J., Aug. 28, 1828; son of Robert and Fermine Ophelia A. (Du Buisson) Baird. His father was a missionary and temperance orator. He was graduated from the University of New York in 1848, as class poet, and took a three years' course of study at the Union theological seminary, New York. After his graduation in 1852 he was ordained as minister in the Presbyterian church, 1853, and made chaplain of the American chapel in Rome, Italy, which office he retained until 1854, and in 1859 became pastor of the Bergen Hill Reformed Dutch church in Brooklyn, N.Y., going from there to Rye, N.Y., in 1861, where, until his death, he was pastor of the Presbyterian church. The University of the city of New York conferred upon him the degree of A.M. in 1860, and that of D.D. in 1876. He was a member of the American historical association, of the New York, Rhode Island, Westchester and Virginia historical societies, the Huguenot society of America and the Huguenot society of London. He is the author of "Eutaxia, or the Presbyterian Liturgies" (1855); "A Chapter of Liturgies" (1856); "A Book of Public Prayer" (1857); "Chronicle of a Border Town. History of Rye, Westchester Co., New York, from 1860 to 1870" (1871); "History of Bedford Church" (1882); "History of the Huguenot Emigration to America" (2 vols., 1885); "The Scholar's Duty and Opportunity," an oration (1886), and several translations, addresses and magazine articles. He died at Rye, N.Y., Feb. 10, 1887.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Bradley Sillick Osbon, naval officer, was born in Rye, N.Y., Aug. 16, 1828; eldest son of the Rev. Abiathar Mann and Elizabeth Esmond (Sillick) Osbon; grandson of William and Hannah (Mann) Osbon and of the Rev. Bradley and Mary (Pattison) Sillick, and a descendant of the Osbournes, who came from Normandy to England in the time of William the Conqueror. Four Osborne brothers came to America shortly after the arrival of the Mayflower, and settled in Massachusetts. His father (1808-1882) was a Methodist clergyman. The son went to sea on a merchant vessel in 1838; visited a majority of the ports and islands of the globe and nearly all the islands in the Pacific ocean; spent one summer in the Antarctic and two winters in the Arctic ocean; served in the Chinese navy as coxswain, and in the Argentine navy as commander under Commodore Coe. He also served throughout the Argentine war, returning at its close to the merchant service. Upon the outbreak of the civil war, he joined the Harriet Lane under Capt. John Faunce; served as aide and signal officer; was at the fall of Fort Sumter, S.C.; was temporarily attached to the flag-ship Wabash, North Atlantic squadron, under Dupont, and took part in the battle of Port Royal, S.C. He was appointed clerk and fleet signal officer to Farragut; served on the flag-ship Hartford during the capture of the forts below New Orleans, and was personally commended for gallantry. He was sent north on the gunboat Cayuga as bearer of dispatches, arriving at Hampton Roads during the fight between the Monitor and the Merrimac, and acted as signal officer to President Lincoln, and as aide and signal officer to Commander John L. Warden on the monitor Montauk in the engagements before Fort McAllister and in the destruction of the privateer Nashville. He was made admiral in the Mexican navy at the close of the civil war, and received a letter of marque giving him one half the prize money accruing from his captures and conferring upon him the power to issue "letters of marque" and to commission ships under the Mexican flag. He sailed from Philadelphia for Brazos de Santiago in the steamer General Sheridan with a full complement of officers and men. The steamer, fitted out in New York, and carrying his guns and torpedo outfit, was lost off Hatteras, thereby obliging him to confine his operations to the Rio Grande, Texas. He married in Liverpool, England, Feb. 14, 1868, Eliza Balfour, one of the Balfours of Burleigh. In the war with Spain, while acting as a volunteer naval scout, he was the first to discover Cervera's fleet off the island of Cura?oa, May 14, 1898, and after reporting to the department of state received a letter of thanks from that of the navy for his services. He was the first commander of the Farragut Naval Veteran Association of Philadelphia; a charter member of the Farragut Naval Association of New York; captain, commodore and twice rear-admiral of the National Association of Naval Veterans, U.S.A.; twice commander of Naval Post 516, G.A.R.; chairman of the Associated Commanders and Quartermasters of the City of New York; colonel of the Osbon cadets, composed of Sunday-School boys, and founder and flag-officer commanding the U.S. Veteran Navy with the rank of commodore. In 1902 he had been for several years interested in mining asphalt and sulphur in the eastern part of Venezuela. He was decorated with the Venezuelan order of "del Busto del Liberator" in 1889 in recognition of services rendered in coast surveying in that republic. The United States hydrographic office published his survey of the harbor of Car?pano, Venezuela.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor