FIRST WHITE SETTLERS Although local Indian tribes deeded the region to British colonists in 1666, the earliest settlers are believed to be the Underhill and Morgan families who arrived here in the first half of the 18th century. Both families farmed and tended orchards, but the Underhills also established the first local factory – a saw and grist mill where today’s Pondfield Road West crosses the Bronx River. They built a wooden bridge over the River inspiring the settlement’s first name, Underhill’s Crossing. Their mill was the first of several factories sprung up along the River. Manufacturing was part of the Bronxville scene for almost two centuries, until 1922 when the last factory, the Kraft leather tannery, vanished in a spectacular blaze. The Morgans are remembered by the oldest surviving house in the Village, the Abijah Morgan House, built sometime before 1811 when a company of militia mustered there during the War of 1812. <<Previous • Chapter List • Next>>