A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE VILLAGE OF PLEASANTVILLE The following was written by Carsten Johnson II, local historian for the Village of Pleasantville. Pleasantville, incorporated in 1897, is located in the Harlem Valley, about 30 miles north of Manhattan, 6 miles east of the Hudson River, 12 miles north of Long Island Sound. The Indians were the first residents here having a camp to watch their cornfields on the south side of the village. In 1695, Isaac See settled here as as Agent of Frederick Philipse who had purchased from these and neighboring Indians nearly 50,000 acres of land. See and his Indian neighbors were tenants on the newly erected Manor of Philipseburgh. The Indians made goods for the New York City market which they carried on foot over the Tarrytown-Litchfield Trail to the Hudson and then canoed to the Market. When they left in the 1740s to join the Stockbridge Indians, new settlers, mainly Quakers, took up leases of large farms on the Manor. During the Revolution the settlement was part of the Neutral Ground, and the Manor was confiscated from its loyalist owner. The Quakers would not purchase a spoil of war, even if it was the land they farmed for two or three generations, and the population changed with the old residents purchasing farms elsewhere in the county. The settlement contained, by 1826, a blacksmith shop, general store and stage stop, a school and a Methodist Meeting house with cemetery. By 1830, what had been known varioulsy as Legget's and Clark's Corners became Pleasantville after Henry Romer proposed it for the new Post Office. Until 1847 the region was primarily agricultural, and produce was shipped on the Hudson River. When the New York and Harlem Railroad opened service that year, a marble quarry was opened, a peat bog exploited, fruit trees were planted, and shoe makers purchased small lots at the edge of the farms which comprised the settlement. Two doctors settled in the community. Before the Civil War a local abolitionist received fugitive slaves at his farmhouse on Broadway. During ensuing conflict local farmers tried their hand at growing tobacco. The shoemakers and dealers did best, some of their homes lining Bedford Road testifying to their success. A local lumber yard cut timber from the chestnut groves near the village. A fresh growth in the village occurred after 1897 when New Yorkers discovered and local landowners realized that there were building lots here only an hours ride from New York. New shingle-style, foursquare houses were built in the old apple orchards nestling with the old farm houses and shoe and marble barons' mansards. The community offered in 1896 a new Library Hall and in 1908 a regional high school was constructed. By 1930 Pleasantville had direct parkway access to Manhattan. Recreation areas including a swimming pool were added to the community services. The commercial district expanded with modern structures when the Reader's Digest settled in Pleasantville for its All-American quality.