Editing Dobbs Ferry, New York (section)

==History==
Multiple groups of [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] lived around what is now known as Dobbs Ferry since at least 4500 BC.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Heltzel|first=Bill|date=2017-11-22|title=Conservationists, condo group battle over access to Dobbs Ferry Indian site|url=https://westfaironline.com/96352/conservationist-and-condo-association-battle-over-access-to-indian-site-in-dobbs-ferry/|access-date=2021-12-15|website=Westfair Communications|language=en-US}}</ref> The most recent tribe who claimed territory of the area are the [[Wecquaesgeek]], maintaining villages until the 1600s.<ref name=":0"/> Numerous artifacts from the tribe continue to be found along Wicker's Creek in [[oyster]] [[midden]]s.<ref name=":0"/>

Dobbs Ferry was named for the ferry service started in the early 1700s by John Dobbs or his son William.  It was not a licensed service, so there are no official records to pin down exactly which Dobbs family member started the service or when. John was English, son of Walter Dobbs who can be found in the historical record getting a liquor license in Manhattan in 1680, leasing land on the East River to harvest salt marsh hay soon after, and serving as a constable in the Bowery Ward. John grew up in Manhattan, the nephew of the wealthy and politically prominent William Merritt, a mariner and businessman. Merritt was mayor of New York from 1695 to 1698 and co-founded Trinity Church (Anglican, now Episcopalian).

John leased the waterfront and adjoining acreage at present-day Dobbs Ferry from Frederick Phillips in 1698, when he was about 23 and single.  Simultaneously his uncle William Merritt moved to a large parcel he co-owned on the opposite bank, at what was later called Snedens Landing (now Palisades, NY).  It was a natural place for a ferry since it was the first spot going north from the city where the west bank was not blocked by the sheer rock cliff known as The Palisades.  Merritt needed to get out of the city, because he had been an anti-[[Leisler's Rebellion|Leislerite]], allied with those who engineered Jacob Leisler's trial and hanging in 1691 and therefore faced a perilous future in the city when a pro-Leislerite royal governor was sent over in 1698. (An anti-Leislerite ally who stayed in the city was arrested, charged with treason and sentenced to death by the re-ascendant Leislerites, though the sentence was not carried out.)

With members of the Dobbs/Merritt clan living on both sides of the river, the ferry service probably evolved as an adjunct to intra-family crossings of the river.  By 1739 ownership of the ferry service passed to Robert and Mary ("Mollie) Sneden who first rented and then bought a portion of Merritt's former holdings.  Mary is believed by some to have been John's daughter Mary Dobbs.  There is no proof of this, but Mary's Christening was recorded at Sleepy Hollow Church and the date matches Mary Sneden's birth year.  Moreover, there is no alternative adulthood recorded for Mary Dobbs and no alternative childhood for Mary Sneden.

The ferry service continued until about 1943.  Members of the Sneden and Dobbs families were involved almost throughout, including all of the 19th century and parts of the 20th century.<ref>http://dobbsferryhistory.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Ferryman_volXXIX_no6-Fall2019.pdf {{bare URL PDF|date=February 2024}}</ref> There is a conflicting version of this history that is widely disseminated, which gives a prominent role to one Jeremiah Dobbs, but this has been debunked by recent careful research.  There was a Jeremiah Dobbs among John's descendants, but there is no evidence he played any important role in the ferry.

Dobbs Ferry played a vital role in the [[American Revolutionary War]]. The position of the village opposite the northernmost end of [[The Palisades (Hudson River)|the Palisades]] gave it importance during the war. The region was repeatedly raided by [[camp follower]]s of each army;  the British army made Dobbs Ferry a ''rendezvous'', after the [[Battle of White Plains]] in November 1776, and the continental division under General [[Benjamin Lincoln]] was here at the end of January 1777.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Dobbs Ferry|volume=8|pages=349–350}}</ref>

Mary Sneden and all but one of her sons were Tories (Robert Sneden Senior died before the war).  Patriots on the west bank ordered the Tory Snedens to cease their involvement with the ferry because they were aiding the British cause.  One son, Robert Sneden, sided with the rebels and so operation and eventually ownership of the ferry fell to him.

[[File:DF GW orders to dismantle structures at Dobbs Ferry as they depart 8-19-81.jpg|left|George Washington's 19 August 1781 order to dismantle fortifications at Dobbs Ferry|thumb|220x220px]]

In July and August 1781, during the seventh year of the war, [[Continental Army]] troops commanded by General [[George Washington]] were encamped in Dobbs Ferry and neighboring localities, alongside allied French forces under the command of the [[Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau|Comte de Rochambeau]].<ref>[http://www.villagehistorian.org/Documents/EncampmentAlliedArmies15slides0001.pdf "The Washington-Rochambeau Encampment of the American and French Armies at Dobbs Ferry, Ardsley, Hartsdale and Edgemont"]</ref> [[earthworks (military)|earthworks]] and a [[Fortification|fort]], commanding the Hudson ferry, were built by the American side. A large British army controlled [[Manhattan]] at the time, and Washington chose the Dobbs Ferry area for encampment because he hoped to probe for weaknesses in the British defenses, just {{convert|12|mi}} to the south. But on August 14, 1781, a communication was received from French Admiral [[François Joseph Paul de Grasse|Comte de Grasse]] in the [[West Indies]], which caused Washington to change his strategy. De Grasse's communication, which advocated a joint land and sea attack against the British in [[Virginia]], convinced Washington to risk a march of more than {{convert|400|mi}} to the [[Chesapeake Bay|Chesapeake]] region of Virginia. Washington's new strategy, adopted and designed in mid-August 1781, at the encampment of the allied armies, would win the war. The allied armies were ordered to break camp on August 19, 1781: on that date the Americans took the first steps of their march to Virginia along present-day Ashford Avenue and Broadway, en route to victory over [[Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis|General Cornwallis]] at the [[Siege of Yorktown]] and to victory in the Revolutionary War.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.w3r-us.org/history/hist-ny.htm|title=March in NY|access-date=28 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308050331/http://www.w3r-us.org/history/hist-ny.htm|archive-date=2016-03-08|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The village was originally incorporated in 1873 as [[Greenburgh, New York|Greenburgh]], but the name was changed to Dobbs Ferry in 1882.

The current local government of Dobbs Ferry is headed by Mayor Vincent Rossillo, a Democrat, who was elected in November 2019.

The [[Estherwood and Carriage House]], [[Hyatt-Livingston House]], [[South Presbyterian Church]], and [[United States Post Office (Dobbs Ferry, New York)|United States Post Office]] are listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2009a}}</ref>