The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-06-07
WORK OF TIE COLONIAL DANES
PRACTICAL RESULTS ACCOM-
PLISHED BY THE SOCIETY
Seen At Last weeks Celebration at Van
COrtlandt Park-The Museum In tho Old
Manor House and the Dutch Garden
Old Colonial Records Made Available

After the Colonial Danes of America
had duly celebrated the o5Oth anniversary
| Of New York city in the Van Cortland
Manor House at Van Cortlandt Park, last
Wednesday, and as the special train packed
with hundreds OF women radiant with
patriotism aud spring millinery pulled ous
OF the Van Coltlandt station on the
return Journey one OF them remarked
with an uplifting air
| SHOULD fatal accident occ1r to these
cars. nearly every family Of any importance
! in New York would he plunged into mourn
, ing" meaning, probably, every family OF
! some degree Of historical iI!eres.
That remark illustrates one phas" OF
! rhe work accomplished y tn" society.
II has inspired widespread interest IN
| peDeaioav- an interest Indicated by tho
fac. that /, III, NV YORK $ At" branch
of the organization aole 'h"rr are GlI
| members, and Il has stimulated historical
study amol " pcrs,rs wh" might otherwise
never have been moved TO tGie il M. Then
it has accomplished more practical results
in the way OF preserving Objects of his
torical interest
All this it h1s done in a decade. Just
why this form OF the patriotic enthusiasm
Of American women should har' "ema'n'i
latent unt il 10 recent period l. due'' ION
n good many p' rsons have asked without
getting an answer. Whatever IL" caus'.
the women have certainly tried to make 'ip
for lost line The manner il watch tho
, enthusiasm got to work at last was related
at the Van ort!andt Park gathc"iag,
Like good many femini0e cntsr-
prses the inception of the fist "on'ls
patriotic society Of America took p!ac'
over cup of tea In April ,slo, Mrs. John
| King Van Rensselaer, and Mira. John Lyon
Gardiner Of New York crossed over 10
Weehawken to drink afternoon tea win
Mrs. A. Oracle King. Incidentally they
visited the spot where Alexander Hamilton
and Aaron Burr fought their famous duel
Later over the tea cups. the little com
pany discussed the indifference shown
by Americans in the matter of prcserr-
ing historic places of interest, Et1'r
the tea or the talk or both tog ethar proved
80 stimulating that before they sepl-
rated they had decided to invite cor
tain of their friends to meet on stated
day at Mrs. Van Rensselaer's house for
the purpose Of organizing patriotic so
oiety.
The meeting took place. A month later,
in May, 1899, the National Society OF Co.
lonial Danes Of America, with lnamo'r-
ship of fifty, held its first official meeting
in Mrs. Van Rensselaer's house in Twenty
ninth street.
In six months the society was famous,
and its membership jumped up into the
hundreds The officers were overwhelmed
with applications for admission from all
over the country. As II to make up for
previous indifference. women from the
| Atlantic to the Pacific developed an al
most aggressive stage OF enthusiasm rot
alto rether pleasing to the original pro-
moters OF the Colonial Danes
| AZ A result, a second society bearing tho
anne name was organized year and
half later with Mrs. Howard Townsend
az president, which fourished from the
start and now has growing membership
seoond organization that had charge OF
the celebration at Van Cortlandt Park.
The Van Cortlandt manor house is in
itself a monument to their zeal, Inc pig
Eraderic Van Cortlandt in l74S and was
an,d nv the Van Cortlandt estate to the
citv GOOD many years later, was during
The most critical days OF American history
a social and political centre. . from,n nen.
its roof-notably Rochambeau and George
Washington.
a police station-which was it's tate after
the city took possession-seemed to the
Danes to be almost criminal. They de-
termined to rescue 1t, and they did 80:
About six years ago the Park Board gave
IL into their care to be converted into
museum for historical relics. The work has
gone on slowly but surely,
So far as paint and paper can accom-
| plish it, the house has taken on the aspect
inside and out that II wore in Colonial days.
and it is hoped in time that the restoration
= zs ~k<,l at
Vernon. Then the Danes went to work with
such will to collect objects OF historical
interest from all parts OF the land that
already the place rs valuable as an object
lesson in Revolutionary and Colonial fur
nishings.
The collection at present is valued at
SSO,UOO Last year more than 100000
| schoolchidren gazed into the room once
occupied bv Washington and at the bed IN
| which he slept.
Another thing Of which the Danes are,
proud is their success in wrestling several
acres OF marshy land situated short dis
tancs from the mansion at the foot OF
hill out Of the clutches OF mosquitoes ana
Transforming ii into Dutch garden which
in time will be blooming with all the varieties
Of flowers more particularly G assocI~a ar,
| with the old-tims gardens of New lork
! and New England. This is the first year OF
the Dutch garden and 10 far the showing
Of flowers is somewhat scant,
A contribution to the curios utside me
museum which seems to have good deal
| Of int for schoolchildren is the grating
and stone framework Of window OF the old
sugar house, which may or may not have
been used as prison in the Revolutionary
days. r. j. Oakley Rhinelander. whose
| mother ia one Of the Colonial DANES, pre-
sented the window to the society during
the birthday celebration and i was accepted
by its president, Mrs, Arson P. Atterbury
Whenever, however, Miss De Peystsr,
vice president of the Danes, or either of
the secretaries. Miss Mary H, Haldan'
and Miss Edith Johnson. wants 70
impress people with the really useful work
the society has accomplished. sh" points
not to the museum, but to huge vo''imn,
Of Wills and extracts from wills, seNera!
thousand of them, Of the early Cnlolld.
period, which until the Colonial Danes
came to the rescue were as scaled hnok
TO most people because inscribed IN 'he
Dutch language. dat,
These documents contain lot oi dalt
useful TO students OF law and history a,la
vet for 200 years they remained stored away
In the State archives al Albany, Al las.
the president OF the Danes. realizing ,h',
Importance to the genealogical records ol
the State arranged at her own RISK 10 nay aN
them translated and prepared for pnn,
cation. She advanced the money ana