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With the coming of peace, the New York State Legislature, by an act of
May 12,1784 decided to sell all of the Philipsburgh Manor land through
the Commissionners of Forfeiture. Preference was give to prior tenants
who had supported the American Revolution or their families. Some
tracts of land were also bought by wealthy New York City people who
often bought these tracts as investments. The tracts were then leased
to tenant farmers who could not afford to purchase them. Mount Pleasant was officially designated a town by an act of the state legislature on March 7, 1788. At that time the Town of Mount Pleasant's boundaries included all of the land north of present day Grasslands Road, including the town of Ossining which was separated from Mount Pleasant on May 2, 1845. The first officers of the Town of Mount Pleasant appear to have been appointed in April of 1788 when a Mr. Daniel Miller was appointed Town Clerk and a Mr. Michael Hays was appointed Town Assessor. As the town gradually grew, schools and churches began to spring up in the wake of the development of agriculture. On April 9, 1795, the State Legislature passed an act for the "encouragement of schools". The Town of Mount Pleasant was alloted 94 pounds, 17 shillings and one pence for the support of their schools. In 1812 the State Legislature again offered state aid for the establishment of schools, but this time with matching funds on the part of the town. School districts were also established at about this time. Included were districts established in the Upper Crossroads (what is now Valhalla), Unionville (what is now Hawthorne), and Nannahagen (what is now Thornwood). The first public school was built in |
Pleasantville in 1826. In 1832 a one room
schoolhouse was built in Hawthorne and two one room schoolhouses built
in Valhalla. Perhaps the most interesting school built in Mount
Pleasant during this era was the Mount Pleasant Academy, built in Sing
Sing (now the City of Ossining) in 1814. Donations of land and money
from the community allowed the school to be built. The school was first
operated as a day school but it was such a huge success that in 1834 it
was forced to move to large quarters. In 1848 the Mount Pleasant
Academy became the Mount Pleasant Military Academy owing to the
popularity of military
schools at that time as well as its close proximity to West Point.
However, a casualty of the change to a military school was the female
department of the school, which was disbanded in 1848 after only being
in existence for six yers. The school is no longer in existence,
having ceased operations in 1925. During the late 1700's and early 1800's the early Old Quaker settlers of the town were in decline and most people were worshipping in the Old Dutch Church in North Tarrytown. With increasing numbers of people coming into Mount Pleasant, a number of churches began to be built. In 1818 the Hawthorne Reformed Church was built an the same year the First Methodist Church of Pleasantville was established. Following the Quakers and Dutch Reformed settlers, large numbers of Presbyterians and Episcopalians began moving into Mount Pleasant and churches of these denominations soon followed. With the arrival of large numbers of immigrant families to Mount Pleasant from Ireland and Itlay, Roman Catholic churches soon followed and today form the largest single denomination in Mount Pleasant.
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