Iron County register., 1882-03-30
Andres Monument Hacked.

on wednesday evening, at twenty Mill
utes past seven, by the freight train from
Port Jervis and asked the first man he
met the way to the Andre monument.
This is the great block of gray granite
which Cyrus w. Field set up on the
spot where the British spy, Andre, was
hanged in 1780. The stranger, who is
described as a man of twenty-five or
thirty years, wearing short, dark-col-
ored mustache, and well dressed and
mannerly, carried in his hand what was
mistaken for cane by those who saw
him. He met E. ID. Cronin on the road
from the depot to the village, and sur
prised him by asking the way to the
monument. 1t struck CrOnin as suspic-
ious that stranger should visit the spot
on dark night, and the circumstance
was talked over that evening in the vii
lage store. No one, however, thought
enough of it to follow the man.
1t was about eight O'Clock when the
stranger raped at the door of David 0.
Storms's Andre Hill House. Mr.StOrms
lodges few boarders on the top of the
hill. The monument to Andre stands
about 200 feet south of his house. MIR.
Storms, who is an elderly man, an
swered the strangers rap at his door.
MAY l. ScS you ~ UIc
man asked in "a low, pleasant voice.
Mr.. Storms says he was tritle sus-
picious of the man, but he stepped out
side of his door.
"Where is the Andre monument, sir ?"
asked the stranger.
ga minutes walk" said Mr.. Storms,
as he pointed out the granite block,
looming up black in the darkness.
cold ha
young man, ssand thought I'd just stop
and see it.'
Then he walked out toward the stone,
and Mr.. Storms watched him as he
leisurely walked around it.
The monument is block of gray
granite, standing on two courses of the
same granite, and topped off like an
obelisk. The faces of the stone are
rectangular, and are polished. From
the ground to the apex the height is sew
en- feet, and the stone is something over
three feet through 1t is surrounded by
an iron fence in 4 circle.
Mr.. Storms returned to his house after
he saw the stranger walk around this
iron fence. Presently he distinctly
heard sound of pounding, as though
the granite were being struck with some
instrument muf1ied to deaden the sound.
Mr.. Storms began to suspect that some
thing was wrong. One of his boys
wanted to go with him to see what the
stranger was doing, but Mr.. Storms had
made up his mind that the strange visit
or was q s' crank, ''and, as he said after
ward, &C was sure if l interrupted him,
he wouldn't hesitate to shoot me.''
The tapping noise lasted for some
xxrt,n ~
concluded that the man had left. At
o o'clock, an hour after the strangers first
Mr.. Storms went to q win
dow on the north side of the house to
close the blinds. Some fruit trees alone
hindered clear view of the stone, but
the noise of closing the blind
disturbed the stranger, for Mr.. Storms
heard him climbing over the iron fence.
Then he was heard to jump to the
ground, and presently Mr.. Storms saw
him coming slowly toward the house.
The man raped at the door again,
and Mr.. Storms opened it.
"Will you kindly give me a match?"
he asked, and with it he deliberately
lighted a brier-root pipe. thanked Mr..
Storms, bade him good night politely,
and started off toward the road. He did
not have the stick in his hand which he
had brought with him. Mr.. Storms con-
cluded to wait until morning before ey-
amining the monument.
Ten minutes later the well-dressed
stranger, smoking his pipe, walked hur-
riedly up to the porch of Ryerson's Ho-
tel, at the foot of Andre Hill, and asked
young Henry Ryerson, who stood there,
the road to Hoboken. The hotel stands
at the fork of the road, and the direc-
ton was pointed out to him. s'Thanks,"
he said, as he turned hurriedly and
started off at a dog g-trot toward the city.
No one in Tappan had ever seen him
before, and no one has seen him since.
There were no trains away from the
village after that hour, and it is be.
lieved that he must have walked to
Hoboken, nearly twenty-five miles.
Mr.. Storms went out to the monument
early yesterday morning to see what the
stranger had been doing. From the !
apex of the granite block small Amer
lean flag was Tapping in the breeze.
The stick which supported it was the
same which the stranger had carried |
the night before as a cane. It was held |
in place by pile of small stones. The |
tapping sounds of the night before were |
by glance at the inscription |
on the western face of the stone. It |
read as follows:
!: Here died. Oct. ., 17sO, Major John An |
d: dre of the British army, who entered the |
E. American lines on IL secret mission TO Ben |
: edict Arnold, was taken prisoner. tried and |
4: condemned as spy His death, though
:: according to the stern code of the law,
{: moved even his enemies to pity, and both |
armies mourned the fate of one so young !
{: and so brave. In 1921 his remains were re-
{: moved to Westminster Abbey. 4 hundred /
: years after his execution this stone was
:: placed above the spot where he lay by
:. citizen of the States against which he
:: fought, not to perpetuate the record of |
strife but in token of these better feelings |
which have since united two nations one
in race, in language, and in religion, with |
the earnest hone that this friendly uni0n