You can find histories of most of the cities, towns, and villages in Westchester County, but none is as well-researched and thorough as the one written by Rev. Charles Washington Baird, minister of the Rye Presbyterian Church from 1861 until his death in 1887.
Published in 1871, Baird’s “History of Rye” is subtitled “Chronicle of a Border Town” and includes accounts of the early periods of Harrison and White Plains. It provides valuable background for the programs and events of “Revolutionary Rye 250,” occurring between now and July 4, 2026, when the nation celebrates its 250th anniversary.
Reprints of Baird’s book can be purchased at Arcade Books in Rye or from some online booksellers. Copies are available in the reference sections of libraries in Rye and elsewhere in Westchester.
The “Contents” of the book contain digests of what is described in each of the 46 (short) chapters, and there are separate indexes of dates and people as well as a general index. If, for example, you want to know about events in Rye in 1775, the dates index shows that on June 26, George Washington passed through Rye on his way to Boston, where he was about to take command of the Continental troops. It also references pages in one of the chapters about the Revolution, among the most dramatic in the book being:
“Frequent outrages and depredations at this period betoken a state of affairs already unsettled. At Rye several daring robberies occur. From White Plains we hear of an atrocious murder by one Nathaniel Adams, who has long been suspected of being a tory. His victim was John McDonald, one of the Provincial recruits…
“A plot has been discovered at Rye for capture of several zealous friends of their country. Godfrey Haims was arrested in November for speaking disrespectfully of Congress, but he broke jail and is now on board the man-of-war in New York Harbor. He is said to be bent on revenge. A number of his neighbors and associates on Rye Neck lately formed a plot for taking Judge Thomas at his home in Rye Woods,” which is the current site of Purchase College.
The Tories, or loyalists, were equaled in their “depredations” by their patriot opponents, as occurred in October 1776, as Baird reported:
“When the American troops reached Rye they showed their resentment toward the tory sympathizers by plundering their houses, driving off their cattle, taking away their grain and imprisoning some of them…”
“These injuries were not inflicted solely by the regular troops of either side. Lawless bands of marauders — Cowboys and Skinners — infested the ‘Neutral Ground,’ ravaging the whole country between the British and American lines, a region of some thirty miles in extent, embracing nearly the whole of Westchester County.”
In the book’s conclusion, Baird wrote in 1871 (shortly after the end of the Civil War):
“It is perhaps worthy of consideration, by what a slow and painful process of improvement the manifold advantages possessed by the residents of such a locality as this, have been reached. The security of life, the convenience of travel, the means of education, the civil rights, the blessings of religion, enjoyed in our quiet rural neighborhoods, as in crowded cities, have been gained by degrees and, with effort, by successive generations….”
In 2018, the Rye City Council landmarked “Baird Square” in honor of Charles W. Baird. More like a triangle than a square, it is located near Citibank on the Post Road and contains an antique police kiosk as well as a spruce tree. Its landmark status is a small but fitting tribute to one of Rye’s most influential leaders.
