About Pugsley

Pugsley is a farmhouse, built sometime in the 1830's, as near as anyone can make out.



In 1960, one of the daughters of the former owner did some research on its provenance:

September 26, 1951, my family became the owners of the Pugsley House, as it is most often called, located on the corner of Pugsley Place and Campwoods Road. That day was full of coincidences. It was my grandmother's birthday and Ossining's Golden Jubilee. As part of the celebration, The Ossining Historical Society conducted a tour, taking in several of the oldest homes, including the Ryder and Pugsley houses.
In the pamphlet issued by the Society, entitled "First Pilgrimage of the Ossining Historical Society," it was stated that the Ryder home was the supposed oldest house in this community and the Pugsley House the second oldest.
According to the leaflet, the Ryder home is said to have been built in 1826. The abstract of the title on our house dates back to the will of Bartholomew Ryder in 1841. From this information we assume that the Pugsley House was built between 1826 and 1841. 
Bartholomew Ryder was the owner of a large farm tract in this vicinity. When he died in 1843, what is now known as Pugsley formed a part of his property. He left the house and environs to his son, Willet Ryder. There have been 9 owners during its lifetime.

Bartholomew Ryder: built?-1843
Willet Ryder: 1843-1893
Frank Pugsley: 1893-1919
Katherine Coutant: 1919-1931
Gustav W. Gerlach: 1931-1940
Eloie S. Cliffort and Kenneth Gerlach: 1940-1945
Clifford Long and Verna L. Long: 1945-1951
Martin H. and Marguerite C.: 1951-2011
Capel States and Sherry Brennan: 2011-present

A photo has descended with the house, which seems to have been taken sometime in the 1860's, and if so, would perhaps most likely be a photo of the Ryder family. For more contemporary images of Pugsley, see the Topic "Images of Pugsley" to the right.



Also, as a part of this blog, I have started a series called The Lives of Pugsley Place. This series will focus on the history of the house and related topics. To view the entire series, choose the series name on the list of topics at the right side of the home page of the blog. For the first in that series, see here.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Sherry, I already wrote you a post about your porch bases but I don't think it published, so I am writing again. I am desperate to find info on replacing my rotting porch column bases. Your posts look very similar to what I need to do. Could you please let me know where you had your wood milled and how much each base cost. I am having a terrible time finding any bases that match mine. Thank you so very much, I look forward to hearing from you, Georgina

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  2. Georgina - We used Glacial Wood Products. You can find them online. I don't recall the cost, but they were the most reasonable, of the places I could find. It was very easy. I sent them some photos by email and they sent me a quote. Then I removed and mailed one of the bases, and they sent me back 6 exact copies. That part was very easy! Thanks for the question.

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