So welcome to all of you.

Thanks for coming out on this very hot evening.

And I'm Karen Strauss, the co-president of Sister City Committee, along with Veloz Alexis.

Can you stand up, please?

Yeah.

And this was a wonderful committee that Peter Korn initially began, and then Wendy Vigrew started after that.

And unfortunately, she cannot be here tonight, but we're very happy to see Peter.

And Sister City Committee is been known for French exchange students, French pen pals between La Rochelle, France, and Neurochelle, and also musical exchanges.

In fact, there's a trumpeter here tonight, Hugh, who comes from La Rochelle and was here as a young student, an exchange student.

So we're very happy that this continuity will go on and on, hopefully for many years.

And actually, our history goes back to 1688 when the Huguenots settled in La Rochelle.

So we we go way back, the French and Americans working together.

In fact, there is a sailboat called Notre Dame des Flots that it's about 28 and a half meters.

So we're looking for a docking spot for it.

It will be here in September.

It came across the Atlantic from La Rochelle and will stay here for several weeks.

So we're we're hoping to greet the 10 sailors who made that arduous trip across the Atlantic.

And we do want to thank the Neurochelle City government for having us involved with the Sister Cities International.

And that will make it much easier for Sister Cities Committee to connect not just with France, but with all sister cities around the world.

And their credo is really beautiful.

It's an organization fostering friendships, building bridges, sharing cultures and history, and doing student exchanges.

Sam Gomez, who is the community liaison to the city manager, and Sam Vargas, the communications and marketing manager.

They both met with Veloz and me, both in person and on Zoom calls to plan this evening.

So a big thank you to them.

And now we uh would like to call up Will Melendez, the city manager, who has a very special presentation for a very special committee member.

And if the rest of the committee can come up, that would be wonderful.

Some couple groupings.

Hi, good afternoon.

Just a couple of words, a couple of greetings.

Thank you again to our sister city committee.

I want to acknowledge our Sonyman uh Steve Otis, who's here, who uh pleasure of joining us today.

Uh a couple of thank yous.

Thanks, Steve.

Uh the employee resource group, our DEI and communication staff uh that put this all together and everybody else who came this evening to make it possible.

Um this year we had the pleasure of celebrating America's 250th anniversary, two and a half centuries of our country's independence.

Uh but part of that magic of being in America is that the story's stitched with many different threads.

The roots of our Neurocharo are within, are with the French Huguenots, settlers who left their country fleeing political persecution.

And from what I understand, they they purchased a plot of land on the banks of the Long Island Sound in 1689, naming it after the Huguenot port of the city of La Rochelle.

So I had the pleasure a couple months ago of sitting with with Peter and Karen and Peter brought a bunch of really cool photos of all the times that they went over to La Rochelle and just to see that connection was was really awesome.

And we had a great, I had a great time that that day looking at those photos.

So even though it predates our country by more than 87 years, the story of those French travelers seeking freedom is as American as one could find.

So I want to thank you for joining us today as we celebrate the people and the culture of France that made it possible for this city of Neurochelle and a country we know and love to be.

With that, I would like to uh present a proclamation to on behalf of the mayor's office.

If she couldn't make it today, uh honoring Mr.

Peter Korn.

And I'll just read it out loud and then we could come up here.

Whereas Peter Korn has devoted his distinguished career to public service and local government, serving as the city manager of the city of New Rochelle since September 1996.

A graduate of the City College of New York and the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton Graduate School.

He has also served as city manager of Jersey City, New Jersey, Rochester, New York, Peoria, Illinois, earning a reputation as an exceptional municipal leader and administrator.

Whereas throughout his tenure in New Rochelle, Mr.

Korn has been instrumental in strengthening city government through organizational development, team building, strategic planning, economic development, technical innovation, and sound fiscal management.

Under his leadership, the city expanded investment into commercial neighborhoods, modernizing municipal services, enhanced communication technology, and secured millions of dollars in state and federal grant funding for the benefit of his community.

Whereas Mr.

Corn also made a lasting impact on mentoring future generations of public servants, helping launch the careers of numerous city managers and municipal leaders through through management training programs and his unwavering commitment to professional development.

Whereas recognizing the importance of international friendship and culture exchange, Peter Korn was instrumental in establishing and strengthening the sister city relationship between the city of New Shelle and La Rochelle, France.

His vision forced meaningful connections through student exchanges, a pen pal program at Neurochelle High School, Bastille Day celebrations, and cultural programs that brought together residents of both communities in the spirit of friendship and mutual understanding.

And whereas through his leadership, his attention to detail, and appreciation for both American and French traditions, Mr.

Korn laid the foundation for a partnership that contributes to flourish today, leaving a legacy that reflects the shared history and enduring bond between Neurochelle and La Rochelle.

Congratulations.

As I look back on my high school year book, it said, What do you want to be?

And I said, U.S.

foreign service.

So there was always something international about my interests.

And this is what happened.

But this is French American heritage recognition.

And Barbara Davis is going to be talking about some things.

All right.

I just want to make note that after the Suwanoy Indians, after the Lenny Lenape Indians, and a few English scattered around Southern Westchester, the French were first.

Okay.

The French came to New Rochelle and founded it.

The land that was purchased came from the Pell family.

And New Rochelle is carved out of the Pell Manor.

The Huguenots came here seeking religious freedom.

They were Protestant Calvinists who were expelled with barely the clothes on their backs.

And they arrived here around 1687.

And Jacob Leisler, who was a Huguenot, and the acting governor of New York, purchased some land from the Pell family.

6,000?

The 6,000 acres that form New Rochelle.

All right.

And they built a life here.

You say, are they still here?

Yes, they certainly are.

You don't see them.

But all you got to do is ask a few people, and you'll find out that there are descendants of the Huguenots here.

They know who they are.

All right.

And when I've asked some people, they said, oh, sure.

I'm a say core, now known as Seacord.

Okay, the names change a bit for pronunciation.

The first family that arrived even before the the uh the city was founded, um, were the Elers.

And you'll find their tombstones behind Trinity St.

Paul.

Many of the uh Huguenots who came here as Protestant Calvinists joined that church and became what were known as conformers.

They conformed to the Church of England.

Still, for 70, 80, 90 years or so, the French Calvinist churches still survived until finally by the end of the American Revolution, most people were absorbed into the what they called the conforming churches.

All right.

Um we have longtime contacts with La Rochelle.

People don't realize it, but in 1911, a statue was erected in the City Hall area of La Rochelle of Jean Guiton, who is a hero because he defended the Huguenots, all right.

And uh New Rochelle contributed money to that statue.

In 2011, a group of us went over to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the statue, and it's rededicated.

If you go to look at the statue, and there are three fellows here who were from La Rochelle, if you go to the statue, you can look at it, and it will say down toward the bottom, rededicated in the presence of people from New Rochelle, all right?

2011, a hundred years later.

Those are the kinds of things we did with our mother city, not just the sister city, it's our mother city.

All right, and we've done a whole variety of things here.

We used to have a Bastille Day frag raising.

Uh Brian started with the uh Brian Carter, started with Jazan Yu Anu, Jazonou, which is uh a takeoff on what they did or do in La Rochelle, where they have Jason Juillet, Jazz in July, and Brian has gone over quite a few times, and we have one fellow here, uh Hugh Serrat, um, who has been here before, plays the trumpet, and uh uh we're glad to have him back here again.

So there are lots of stories we can tell about our contacts with them, and one that is memorable to me is when uh the Ermione Lafayette ship came over to New York, uh, a group of other ships came over, smaller vessels, okay, and one of which was from the um the marine regional high school, which is located near La Rochelle, right?

The high school students who were interested in going into the merchant marine.

And they were coming over here, so we arranged with the athletic department at the high school to play a basketball game with them.

The only problem was when they arrived, we were told by the teacher accompanying them, they never played basketball before.

So we quickly changed, okay, and uh the assistant athletic director there, who takes care of the junior varsity, arranged for some practices, you know, teaching them to throw the ball, bouncing the ball around, you know, uh a number of things like that.

And they really had a wonderful time.

I asked them afterwards, you know, was it enjoyable?

He said, very enjoyable.

Okay, we like meeting the people.

And the next day, I happened to be in McDonald's getting a hamburger, and I saw one of the junior varsity students there.

And I said to him, Oh, did you have a good time with the uh students from La Rochelle?

And he said, Yes.

He said, you know, I know we're called the Huguenots.

That's the name of the teams for the high school.

I know we're called the Huguenots, but I thought it was fiction of some kind.

I didn't know they really existed.

So the visit really paid off that way.

But it's funny what happens when you do these kinds of things.

Anyway, thank you for everything, and uh I hope I can continue uh working with the sister city committee to do interesting and fun things.

Thank you all.

So now we would like to call up the city historian and the executive director of the Westchester County Historical Society, whose maternal grandfather just happened to have come from Brittany.

So, Barbara Davis.

Thank you, Karen.

And um uh Peter, I have to say, hats off to you, merci beaucoup, because it was because of uh Peter's efforts that I had a trip to La Rochelle.

And last year when I was speaking at this event, I remember closing by saying, if you haven't been to La Rochelle, you gotta go to La Rochelle.

And I say that to everybody that's seated here.

And thanks to Peter for uh forging ahead, keeping this wonderful relationship going that's now many, many years.

Um we are just treated so well when we go there, and it's uh just a beautiful city.

So uh start saving your pennies.

Um this year, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, um, I have been focusing on individuals that represent each of the heritages that we've been celebrating.

So tonight I'm going to be doing the same thing, but it's not just one individual, it's actually the Huguenots as well.

And you heard Peter pronounce it Huguenot, which is more uh uh the right way, but we're so used to saying Huguenot that bear with me, that is how I am going to be saying it.

Um and what is really remarkable, and Peter talked a little bit about this, is the French settlement that was uh New Rochelle was the longest continuing French community in America, um, which we'll see about in this talk.

The um Huguenot Exodus, which you heard about from France began on October 18th, 1685, when the Edict of Nantes was revoked by King Louis IV.

Um the Edict of Fountain Bleu stripped French Protestants of their religious and civil liberties, outlawed their worship, and ordered the destruction of their churches.

And probably what was most significant to the Huguenots in La Rochelle was that their children were being taken from them and converted to Catholicism.

So the exodus began.

Ums fled France to escape this persecution, settling in other Protestant nations like the Netherlands, England, and Switzerland, as well as the American colonies.

A small group of these refugees made their way to Manhattan Island and then just north to the place they would name after the last Huguenot stronghold in France.

That was La Rochelle.

The Huguenots did not come alone.

More wealthy refugees brought slaves with them.

You see, La Rochelle was actively involved in the transatlantic slave trade.

In fact, it was France's second largest slave port after Nantes.

Ships from La Rochelle carried over a hundred thousand enslaved Africans to the French Caribbean, primarily Haiti, to labor on sugar plantations.

The return ships brought raw sugar back to La Rochelle's refineries.

It was a lucrative business.

And a number of the French Huguenots escaped on those slave ships and would end up also in Haiti before coming to what's now New York City.

In 1698, just about 10 years after the settlement, the count of inhabitants in Neurochelle, 231, included 43 of these enslaved.

The Huguenots, as Peter mentioned, purchased 6,000 acres of land using John Jacob Lisler as their agent, and it was purchased from John and Rachel Pell, who gave them an additional 100 acres for a church, thus Church Street in Neurochelle, thus Trinity Place in Neurochell.

They chose well, the land was very fertile, it was farmable, and it was on Long Island Sound.

The waterway connected the Atlantic to the mercantile center of Manhattan, providing trade opportunities as well as an abundance of fish and whales for necessary products such as oil.

The post road that followed the waterway, and you can see the squiggle on the bottom, allowed for continuous access to news and mail as travelers and the post road rider used the key thoroughfare to travel between Boston and Manhattan Island.

Neurochale's geographic advantages would also lead to the community's unwitting involvement in the American Revolution.

The settlers laid out their property as you just saw by a middle line going straight down, that's now North Avenue, and giving the lots on either side and many thin lots going down to the water's edge.

The middle road was originally a Native American path.

It would be known as the Middle Road, then the Road to White Plains, then North Street, and then North Avenue.

So down in Hudson Park, we have the monument to the French Huguenots, and this was originally installed by the Westchester County Historical Society.

And it lists the 130 Huguenot names associated with Neurochelle during the colonial period.

More than a dozen are also the names of streets that we see every day.

Just a sampling, Flandreau, Fenuel, Parquhot, and Guyon.

Of course, for you French guys, please, I my apologies for butchering these names, but this is how we say them here.

And we also have the mural in the post office.

This was part of the New Deal.

David Hutchison created the laying of the foundation for Neurochelle.

I always have to say there are a few historical inaccuracies.

The stone wall that he has depicted looks like something Martha Stewart would have made.

There weren't log cabins, there were stone.

And I think there would have been many other people of color doing the work.

The one on the left was the second church.

They fondly called it the Little Stone Jug.

The one, the picture on the right was an illustration that was colorized by none other than Frederick Remington, the great artist of the American West.

Attending school at Trinity Church, John J.

would learn French, which was incredibly important as he was one of the signators of the Paris Treaty ending the American Revolution.

He was of Huguenot descent.

He grew up in Rye on the property now maintained by the Jay Heritage Center.

He would retire to property in Bedford, known as the Jay Homestead.

His childhood home, Locust Hill was depicted on the right.

Above, there's a picture of Philip Schuyler, a prominent individual in the American Revolution.

He also attended school and would later come through with General George Washington in 1775, knowing the area quite well because he had been schooled here.

I do have to say that John Jay was not at all happy with the accommodations.

It was very drafty.

The snow would come in through the cracked windows, he said, but he apparently got a fine education, going on to become a founding father and the first Supreme Court justice.

As Peter mentioned behind Trinity Church, we have a number of reminders of the Huguenot community.

The Huguenot burial ground was dug up with the installation of I-95 and reinterred to the backyard of Trinity Church, where also the Alert family cemetery was reinterred to.

There's a large monument to the Huguenot burial ground.

He was a great scholar and wrote a number of books about Neurochell.

It's just one of the many books that include a great deal of information about the Huguenots of Neurochell.

And when you leave through it, you can find it in the local history room at the Neurochell Public Library.

You can find others online.

You'll see names that are known on a national level, such as Peter Fenuel.

He was born here.

He would become the wealthiest man in the colonies and built Fenuel Hall, now a popular tourist destination.

And it's also known as the Cradle of the Revolution, as this is where men would gather to strategize the war.

Another well-known name, Galladay, as in the College for the Deaf.

The Galladay family was among the original Huguenot settlers.

And there are significant others.

And I captured just a few, including Paul Revere, no ties to Neurochell, but of course to our American history, was a descendant of the Huguenots.

And these are some of the presidents that are also descendant of the Huguenots.

George Washington, Gerald Ford, both Roosevelts and Barack Obama.

Some of the celebrities of George Clooney, Quincy Jones, Betty Davis, the Beach Boys, the Wilsons, that is, and Judy Garland, who, by the way, lived at the border of Neurachall and Amerinick for a short period of time, and I'm sure it had nothing to do with her ancestry.

But I often wonder if Frederick Remington, who I told you did the colorization of Trinity Church, knew when he settled in Neurochell that he had significant Huguenot ancestry.

The great chronicler of the American West did his major work while living in the house on the right, where he would bring back materials from the West to do his sculptures and his paintings.

And that meant that they kept their customs and their language the longest, including the way they built the houses.

These were very typical Huguenot houses, stone, steeply pitched roof, two chimneys, one at either end.

The language is evidenced in the town records, which were written in French up until the late 1730s.

The one on the right is in French, and if you look very closely, you'll see that it's appointing one of the coutants as an assessor of roads.

They were also these town records talking about the fence builders and who was in charge of the pigs and collecting fees.

Fascinating reading for the early times in Neurochell.

And for the 250th, as I said, we were talking about certain individuals that represent different heritages.

I thought we needed to select a family that represented the Huguenots.

And the family I selected, if you can see from the monument, is the Coutante family.

This was the Coutante House, one of them.

It was located opposite Mayflower Avenue today.

His son would take over the manufacturing of chairs.

I don't know why.

So they were, he was a chairmaker, but also, as I mentioned before, they had extensive farms.

Now, what I'm showing you here, we're coming into the American Revolution.

The Westchester County Historical Society, if you haven't had a chance to see the exhibit outside, I'll just fill you in briefly.

We recently transcribed and digitized firsthand accounts of people that lived through the American Revolution throughout Westchester, and many in Neurochell.

And I thought for tonight it would be interesting to hear from a few of the Coutants because they were among those who were interviewed by Mr.

McDonald in the 1840s about their time in Neurochell during the American Revolution.

Very briefly, there are two sort of parts of the American Revolution in which Neurochell was very involved.

October 1776, when the British were encamped all along the ridge on the east side of North Avenue.

The Hessians, the German troops were located on the other ridge.

There were over 10,000 troops in Neurochell.

There was martial law in effect.

People were trying to just survive in their houses.

The troops eventually moved up what's now North Avenue into White Plains for the Battle of White Plains, which occurred on October 28th.

And after that time, for seven long years.

On the above in the north, was the Patriot defenses, and below in New York City was occupied by the British.

In between in Westchester, it was the so-called neutral ground, which didn't mean it was neutral, it meant there was lawlessness.

There was no governance.

We say that about a third of the people in Westchester tended to side with the Loyalists, the British, a third tended to side with the Patriots, and the other third just really wanted to be left alone and live in peace.

So in Neurochell, the Huguenots were with the Church of England.

Many more in New Rochelle than other communities would have allegiance with the Loyalists, such as the DeVaux family, who lost their 300-acre farm that would later be gifted to Thomas Paine.

So we do know that the Coutants were very much impacted by the war, by the encampment, and the Seven Long Years because of their location.

The first one is Francis Coutant Horton.

She said French was our family language.

My parents were taught nothing else at school.

In 1776, the British army moved gradually by our house, the British first, and then the Hessians, Germans, took their place.

The British, when they left, moved south toward Ward's house.

They stripped us of everything.

The skirmish with the Hessians was near our house.

They had been plundering and had pumpkins on their heads, which they dropped.

They took off the doors and shutters from our house to transport their wounded onto Bonifoy's Point, which is on Davenport's neck.

John and Isaiah Coutant brothers shared their reminiscence that the British Army first encamped from Elias Gaines farm to Harlem River, and then on our farm along the ridge.

However he was the general, uh, the British general.

Howe's headquarters were at James Pugsley's, father of Hannah, an old house on the east end of the road, a little north of the crossroad leading to our house, Eastchester Road.

The skirmish between the Americans and Hessians on October 23rd and 24th was about a mile from here near Widow Morrill, kept a tavern in the fields this side.

The Hessians probably had been out towards Eastchester plundering when they were attacked by the Americans who surrounded them.

There was great alarm in camp.

About eight wounded Hessians were brought in here.

Drums be to arms, wounded men were taken on board hospital ship in East River the next day by me and our team.

When I shook the wounded in driving over the rough road, they screamed, and the Hessian guards abused me.

The last reminiscence from the Coutant brothers, the party that took him, placed him in care of Mr.

Elias Gaon, in whose house they took refreshments, giving him a pistol and telling him to shoot him, Donaldson, if he stirred.

Guyon said Donaldson was a neighbor of his, and if he ran, he would not hurt him.

And they answered he should be held responsible.

Donaldson then assured Guyan he would not escape or get him in trouble.

They took Donaldson on horseback the same day to Hugerford's headquarters and hanged him.

A black man called Bull Pete had a good looking wife that Colonel Emmerich got with child.

Emmerich was the Hessian leader.

These just reflect a little bit of the atrocities that occurred that were endured by those who stayed behind, and there weren't that many.

To the 10,000 troops that were here, there were about 500 that remained.

By the end of the war, the whole area was devastated.

Once just abundant with fruits and vegetables, we have an amazing account from a Hessian soldier talking about the incredible fields he saw filled with vegetables and the orchards.

It was empty.

It was nothing but this land that is in between two beautiful bodies of water, the Long Island Sound and the Hudson River with rolling meadows, hills, proximity to New York, all of this people came back.

During the time there was this martial law in place, the British were here, the Hessians were here.

Nobody could get downtown.

Yes, our downtown today was the downtown, because the church was there and the burial ground was there.

They couldn't get there, and when old Mrs.

Coutant died, her son Isaiah, the same one we just heard from him, also called Isaac, buried him her on a section of his farm.

That continued.

She would be the first burial in this family graveyard that still is active today.

This is one of the tombstones that was put in many years after the burial that says.

While this ridge was held by the British, the first interment in this cemetery.

And I thought it would be interesting to just take a quick look at the cemetery.

You have to be a descendant of Isaac Coutante or Mary to a descendant of Isaac Coutante to be buried here.

So you see a number of them.

There is Isaac buried with Jane, another coutant on the right.

This family, this was Reverend Louis Coutante who lived on Prospect Street.

I found a picture of his house and actually a picture of him and his wife.

He was one of the sons of uh John Coutante.

So there are a number of coutants, but there are also a number of other names that have a great deal of significance to Neurochell.

And just like Spoon River Anthology, anybody ever read that, which takes place in a cemetery, and the people who are buried there talk about their lives.

Well, if we had done a Spoon River anthology in Coutant Cemetery, we would get snippets of how this community grew and developed over the years from 1776.

Right here we have on the left the tombstone is that of Alexander B.

Hudson.

I don't think our park commissioner here is here anymore, but that is the gentleman for whom Hudson Park is named.

And he married a Coutant.

On the right is the tombstone of a Thorn family member.

It was the Thorn family that gifted the park that is now Davenport Park to the city of Neurochell.

On the next, we have Ferguson.

Now these people's names are all very familiar to me because I lived in the past.

My husband is sure.

Ferguson had a big general store on Main Street.

On the right, I think is a LaFever, such as La Fever Lane going down to Five Islands Park.

Some of the local street names, all prominent individuals in Neurochell who had many roots here for a long period of time.

And then we also have those of national note.

There are two Aaron Burrs, as you see.

This is the son and the grandson of yes, that Aaron Burr, because one of the Aaron Burrs, the son of Aaron Burr married a Coutant.

So yes, this little cemetery is properly maintained by the Coutant family today.

And as I said before, lives lives on as a very significant reminder of the American Revolution.

And it was, of course, because of our relationship with the Huguenots that we've had this long, longstanding relationship with La Rochelle France.

This is just one of many pictures.

This is the French delegation at City Hall when City Hall was located on Main Street for one of the grand parades.

My guess it was for the 225th anniversary.

And that concludes my program to celebrate the history of Neurochelle and of course the French heritage that is so important to this community.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Barbara.

That was really, really fascinating.

And no matter how many times I hear you speak, I always learn something new.

So this was really wonderful.

Well, I'm so happy that you all came tonight.

And there are some French specialties waiting for us in the rotunda.

So we hope you'll join us for some refreshments now.

And if the the committee can just remain, we'll have a photograph taken.

So thank you.