The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1909-04-04
Relics Of Days Of 10
To Be Sold at Auction
Famous Polly Townsens Home at Oyster Bay to Lose It's
Furniture, Ware and cmos of the Revolution.
MAJOR ANDRE WROTE 4 SONNET

high polish. at which Colonel Simcoe
wrote his dispatches to his command
ing officers in New York and at WHICH
Major Andre wrote a sonnet to his
sweetheart in England, stands In the
front room.
The bricks taken in 1920 from the
chifney which stood in what is now
the hallway we're used in the building
Of abutments for the now almost dis.
mantled iron fence, which in its day
was the wonder of the countryside
The vari-colored glass of the dome
by means Of which the hallway is
lighted. is of the early nineteenth Ger
fury pattern.
In the rehabilitation of the mansion
the glass panel in the front door, un
on which the British officers wrote
with their diamonds their tributes tr
Polly Townsend, was removed an
placed over the doorway leading to
addition to the structure. The chiro
raphy is bold and on the whole neat
done. Whether this will be sold is
yet mooted question.
In the dining room there is a veal
OF ancient plates, dishes, tea pots.
cups, etc. One copper teapot has been
in the Townsend family since the lat
ter part of the seventeenth century,
while several articles Of Delft ware
came from Holland about 1920. There
are also dishes of the Revolutionary
period-china cups and saucers, gravy
dishes and the like.
Ank To- - h. kh~ Ga S1~v
pictures has not yet been determined,
but it is likely they will be preserved
by the five Townsend boys who live in
New York and at Oyster Bay. There
are many bits of eighteenth century
script and books of account Of the
Townsend ancestors which are ex-
tremely curious.
The contract between the Continent
Il government and one of the Town
sends, who was blacksmith, for the
forging of the great iron chain which
spanned the Hudson at West Point to
keep the British ships from ascending
the river beyond that point. hangs In
a glass frame upon the wall Two
links of this chain, each weighing $50
pounds, lie in the front yard of the
Townsend home. These links, it 70
said. will not be sold. but will be pre-
scented to the New York Historical So
ciety or to the United States govern
ment for preservation at West Point,
where their brothers are preserved.
In the upper rooms of the mansion,
many members Of the Townsend fam
lily passed to rest. The bed in which
Polly Townsend breathed her last at
an advanced age, about 1870. stands in
its accustomed place. In another
Chamber Miss Townsend. the last Of
her race, died in May last. She was
the faithful custodian Of the property
and delighted to show visitors through
the home. Since her death the house
has been vacant and evidences of neg
Iect are apparent 1t every turn. The
property belonged to Miss Townsend
In fee. but 1t win now be sold for tte
benefit of the five brothers, none Of
whom cares to live beneath the roof
beneath which all of them were born.
The proceeds Of the sale will be de-
voted to the establishment of the
Townsend Inn, erected some years ago
On the Townsend demesne to the east
of the mansion, and which for tia lack
Of capital has been tenantless since
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