Nevada County picayune., 1891-01-08
AN HISTORIC MANSION.
Destruction by Fire of n House Famed
 New York History.

Destruction by Fire of House Famed in
 New York History.
 An interesting old mansion was de- stroyed by fire in this town recently, @ mansion whose history dates back be- yond the revolutionary war. To the present generation it was known as tho "Watson Webb house." from the name of its owpor in the carly part of tho present century. Although tho old mansion was the scene of many Q morry- making in colonial days, and saw many a bloody aFray in the revolutionary war, being on dcbatablc ground when the British were trying to cut their way through to New York from Lake Cham plain and Saratoga, and, although Gen. oral Lafayette was sheltered under its roof, it Is, perhaps. best remembered as the spot where the verses were written beginning:
 Twas the night before Christmas when all
 through the house
 Not creature was stirring, not even
 mouse.
 It was in 170i whom Kiliaen ioge- boom left Amsterdam to take possession of tract of land eight miles square, now including Clavcrnck, three miles from tho Hudson river and To tho east of the city of Hudson. It was purchased from Chancellor Livington. Kiliaen Hogeboom's son Jacobus began building the old mansion in i727. IL had gener. ous halls and big rooms and had front. age of siXty-thrcc feet, along which ran capacious porch Over the porch clambored an ivy, which, as years rolled by struck its roots deeper and wider in Co the soil, and extended it's shade over portico and mansion. The interior was finished in the highest style of Dutch art The freplaccs were tiles illustra' ting scriptural subjects, and were brought from Amsterdam. Tho mantels were of wood and wore quaintly and curiously carved, and mural paintings served for picture gallery. It is said that the furniture and expensive bric-a-brao brought from tho old country made the mansion one of the most delightful places to be seen at that time in the Hudson river valley, and that Dutch hospitality made the spot famous for good living up and down the river.
 It was during the revolutionary wal tHaI tnt uOuSt Was HlbNN AAuIONs TOT ltS hospitality The property had descended to General Samuel Webb an officer In the Continental army General Webb had married the granddaughter of Jacobus Hogeboom. It was when Lafayette was on visit to General Webb that Lafayette etched on a window pane with his dia- mond ring his name and the date of his visit.
 A later generation found the old place in the possession Of Benjamin Moore, who had married into the IIogeboom family, and at his death it became the joint property of his seven daughters and two sons and from them 1t descend cd to the present owners Henry James and tho heirs of the late Augustus Thinning. Horatio C. Adams also has a life interest in the property, his wife being one of Mir. Moore's daughters. It was when Clement Moore, son of Ben jamin Moore, was young man that he wrote 'Twas the night before Christ mas "-Clayorack Cor N. Y. Sun.
 An impecunious Tcrre lIaute young man, who has become a brother by brev- ct to seven hcirc-soS, calls them the little sisters ot tho poor. --Terro uaute Express.