Ossining

Ever since Nintendo Wii came out with Karaoke Revolution, I have been ridiculously in love with the song Ossining by Mike Doughty.  I never get tired of listening to it.

This is just another one of those eerie coincidences that I'm finding in my genealogy research.

The story, according to my great grandmother Ada Crofford, is that her grandfather Haight purchased a tract of land from an Indian called Old Sing Sing.  As part of the price, Old Sing Sing was promised a fresh loaf of bread every Christmas, baked by my 4th great grandmother. The old Indian would appear at Christmas time, and go off very happily with his prize.

William Haight > Miriam Haight > Miriam Olivia Wandell > Ada C. Hall > Horace C Crofford > Teresa Zaun Austin

This tract of land, once called Sing Sing, was officially named Ossining in 1901.

Nice story, right?  Historical accounts found online tell that a man named Frederick Philipse purchased the land from the Sint Sinck Indians in 1685 and incorporated it as the Manor of Philipsburg.  He leased the land to tenant farmers.  After the Revolution, Philipse was imprisoned for being a British Loyalist.  His manor was confiscated and sold at auction by the State of New York.  It became known as Sing Sing. Many of the farms were sold to the tenant farmers who had supported the American cause.  The Haights were among those tenant farmers who bought the land.  Ada's great grandfather William Haight was born in 1752 in Philipsburg; after the war, he purchased land he had been farming. His father, Samuel Haight had occupied the land as early as 1745 and purchased part of the manor from the state of New York in 1785.  According to The Settlement of Philipsburgh, by MacKenzie, Samuel and Joseph Haight were among the English families who settled in the eastern and northern part of Mount Pleasant after 1725.

In a manuscript about Deborah Sampson, there is mention of William Haight:

It is in this region* that William (also given as Willis) Haight had a tenant farm of 133 acres that was part of the extensive land holdings that made up Philipsburgh Manor. Unfortunately for Frederick Philipse III, he chose the wrong side in the Revolution. After the war his confiscated land was put up for sale by the New York State Commissioners of Forfeitures, and Haight purchased the land that he had been farming. XXX
The name Haight has many variations, the most usual being Hoyt and Hoit, with Hoite and Haite also used frequently. It was a relatively common name in Westchester.

*near where the borders of the present towns of Ossining, Mount Pleasant and New Castle intersect two miles due east of Ossining and the Hudson River.  In The Female Review it says "a place called, in Dutch, Vonhoite."

Interesting side notes:
Slaves played an important role in colonial life in this northern town.  One slave was named Charles Haight.
The Philipse Manor House still stands as a tourist attraction in what is now Yonkers.

Among the many famous people associated with Ossining:
Washington Irving "Sleepy Hollow"
Clement Moore "The Night Before Christmas"
Deborah Sampson, Revolutionary War soldier

Ossining lyrics:

Put my faith in the price of mud
And my lord shall match the pounds,
Ten thousand days and a night spelunking
Kill my years in the lightning round,
Confound it

Why not
Seek Ossining
These threes and foursomes
Abounded,

Why not
Seek Ossining
This time around?

No, not a maze, but like blazed-out inner star
Disclosed completely in a plain film canister