Part 2

JANUARY 16th.--On coming the next morning he said he could get it. I was now determined to make my escape, although hardly able to undertake it. Just at the dusk of the evening, before the lamps were lighted (having made the Sentinal intoxicated) I with others went out into the back yard to endeavor to make our escape over the fence, the others being backward about going first, I climed upon a tomb stone and gave a spring and went over safely, and then gave orders for the others to do likewise. A little Irish lad undertook to leap over, and caught his clothes in the spikes in the wall, and made something of a noise. The sentinal being aroused called out (Rouse) which is the same as to command the Guards to turn out. They were soon out and surrounded the prison, in the meantime I had made my way to St. Paul's Church, which was the wrong way to get out of town. The guards expecting, I had gone towards North River, went in that direction. On arriving at the Church I turned into the street to go by the College and thus go out of town by the side of the river. Soon after I was out of town I heard the 8 o'clock gun; which was found on board the Commodors ship, and was a signal for the Sentinals to hail every man that came by. I wished much to cross the river but could not find any boat suitable. While going up the side of the river at 9 O'clock (P M) I was challenged by a Sentinal with the usual word (Burdon) upon which I answered nothing, on being challenged the second time I answered Friend. He bade me advance and give the counter sign, upon which I fancied I was drunk and advancing in a staggering manner, and after falling to the ground, he asked me where I was going, home I told him, but had got lost, and having been to New York, had taken rather too much liquor, and become somewhat intoxicated. He then asked my name which I told him was Marther Hopper (Mr Hopper lived not far distant) And solicited him to put me in the right road, but told me that I must not go till the Sargent of the Guards dismissed me from him, unless I could give him the counter sign. I still entreated him to let me go knowing the situation I was in. Soon, however, he consented and directed my course which I thanked him for. Soon the moon arose and made it very light, and there being snow on the ground, crusted over, and no wind, therefore a person walking, could be heard a great distance. At this time the tumor in my lungs broke, and being afraid to cough for fear of being heard, prevented me from releiving myself of the puss that was lodged there. I had now to cross lots that were cleared and covered with snow, the houses being thick on the road, which I was to cross, and for fear of being heard, I lay myself flat on my stomach and crept along on the frozen snow. When I come to the fence, I climed over, and walked down the road, near a house where there were music and dancing. At this time one of the guards came out. I immediately fell down upon my face. Soon the man went into the house, I rose again and crossed the fence into the field and proceeded toward the river, there being no trees or rocks in the field to hinder my being seen, and not being able to walk without being heard as the snow crust was hard enough to permit my walking on it, and the dogs beginning to bark, I lay myself flat again and crept across the field, which took me half an hour. I at length reached the river and walked by the side of it some distance and saw a small creek which ran up into the island and by the side of it a small house, and two Sentinals one each side of it, not knowing what to do I crept into a hole in the bank which led in between two rocks, here I heard them talk. I concluded to endeavor to go around the head of the creek which was about half a mile, but on getting out of the hole I took hold of a limb of a tree which gave way, and made a great noise, the sentinal on hearing it said "did you not hear a person on the cr," I waited some minutes and then went around the head of the creek and came down to the river on the other side of the house to see if I could not find a boat, to cross to Long Island. But on finding sentinals near by I returned back a short distance, and went up the river. I had not gone more than 30 rods, when I saw another sentinal posted on the bank of the river where I must pass or go round a half a mile and then come down to the river again. I stood some minutes thinking what course to pursue, but on looking at the man found he did not move and was leaning on his gun, I advanced toward him and succeeding in passing by without waking him up. After this I found a Sentinal every 15 or 20 rods till I came within 2 miles of Hell Gate. Here I stayed till my feet began to freese, and having nothing to eat, I went a mile farther up the river. It now being late I crept up into the bushes and lay down to think what to do next. I concluded as I could not get a boat to cross the river to Long Island to remain where I was during the night and early in the morning to go down to New York and endeavor to find some house to conceal myself in. In the morning as soon as the Revelry Beating commenced I went on my way to New York which was 8 miles from this place, after proceeding awhile I heard the morning guns fired at New York though 4 miles from it. I passed the sentinals unmolested, down the middle road, and arrived there before many were up. I met many of the British and Hessian Soldiers whom I knew very well, but they did not know me. I went to a house and found them friends of America, and was kindly received of them, and promised to keep me a few days. I had not been here, but 3/4 of an hour when I was obliged to call for a bed. After being in bed two or three hours, I was taken with a stoppage in my breast, and made my resperation difficult, and still being afraid to cough loud for fear of being heard. The good lady of the house gave me some medicine of my own prescribing, which soon gave me relief. Soon a rumor spread about town among the friends of America, of my confinement and expectation soon to be retaken, they took measures to have me conveyed to Long Island, which was accordingly done.

FEB. 18, 1778.--The same day I was landed I walked nine miles, and put up at a friends house during my walk I passed my Grandfather's house, and dare not go in to see him for fear he would deliver me up to the British. The next morning I started on my journey again and reached the place I intended at 12 O'clock (noon) and put up with two friends. The next morning I and my companions (two of them) started from our friends with four days provisions and Shovels and axes to build us a hut in the woods. We each of us had a musket powder and balls. After going two miles in the woods, we dug away the snow and made us a fire. After warming ourselves we set to work to build us a hut and got one side of it done the first day, and the next day we finished it. It was tolerably comfortable, we kept large fires and cooked our meat on the coals. In eight or ten days we had some provisions brought us by our friends. At this time we heard that Capt Rodgers was cast away on Long Island, and concealed by some of his friends. We went to see him, and found him, we attempted to stay in the house in a back room. At about 10 O'clock A. M. there came in a tory, he knowing some of us seemed much troubled. We made him promise that he would not make known our escape. The next day my two comrades went back to their old quarters and Capt Rodgers and myself, and a friend went into the woods and built us a hut, about ten miles from my former companions, with whom we kept up a constant corespondence. Soon a man was brought to us by our friends whom we found to be John Rolston, a man that was confined with us in the Provost Jail. And was carried to the Hospital about 3 weeks after I was, and made his escape the same way, and by friends was brought to Long Island.

MARCH 19th 1778.--About five O'clock a friend came to us and said we had an opportunity to go over to New England in a boat that had just landed, with 4 torys that had stolen the boat at Fairfield Connecticut. We immediately sent word to our two friends with whom I first helped to build a hut, that we could now go across the sound, but they could not be found. At sunset those that came over in the boat went off, and some of our friends guided us through the woods to the boat, taken two oars with us which we had made for fear we should not find any in the boat. On arriving at the place our kind friends helped us off. We rowed very fast till we were a great distance from land. The moon rose soon, and the wind being fair, we arrived, we knew not where, about half an hour before day. We went on shore and soon found it was Norwalk Ct. We had bade farewell to Long Island for the present upon which I composed the following lines,

O fair you well once happy land, Where peace and plenty dwelt But now op'pressed by tyrants hands, Where naught but fury's felt.

Behold I leave you for awhile To mourn for all your Sons; Who daily bleed that you may smile, When we've your freedom won.

After being rested just as the day began to dawn we walked a short distance to a place called the "Old Mill" where we found a guard who hailed us at a distance, and on coming up to him kindly received us, and invited us to his house to warm us (for he lived in Norwark) here we went to bed at sunrise and stayed till 10 O'clock. After dinner we took our leave of Capt Rodgers, and started for head quarters in Pennsylvania, where the grand Army was at that time. In seven days we arrived at Valley Forge.

NOTE.--The above narrative is a true copy of the "Journal" written by my grandfather (Dr. Elias Cornelius), giving an account of his sufferings and treatment while in the hands of the British in New York, in 1777 and 1778.

CHARLES M. TOMPKINS.

June 4th, 1894.

[From _Putnam County Republican_, Carmel, N. Y., April 6, 1895.]

On our second page will be found a sketch of a Revolutionary soldier and patriot, Dr. Elias Cornelius, who was for many years a resident of Baldwin Place. This is the first complete sketch of Dr. Cornelius' career that has been presented to the public, although he passed away over seventy years ago. We are indebted to our old friend, Judge Charles M. Tompkins, of Washington, D. C., for a copy of Dr. Cornelius' Journal, and also for other information which has aided us in compiling the sketch.--EDITOR.

DR. ELIAS CORNELIUS.

The following sketch of one whose career dates back to the beginning of the Revolutionary War, who suffered imprisonment, endured great privations and persecutions, and even banishment from home and estrangement of family ties for the cause of freedom, but who came out of the ordeal unscathed and purified--like gold tried by fire--with character strengthened and patriotism intensified, and, after the clouds of war had rolled by and his beloved country no longer required his services, became the most noted physician of his time in this section of the State, and a strong and honored pillar in the Presbyterian Church, is written with a desire to revive and perpetuate the memory and deeds of a good man, and a noble patriot, who was an honor to his country, to his profession, and to Christianity, and whose life was an inspiration and a blessing to his fellow men.

Such was Dr. Elias Cornelius, who for over forty years (1781-1823) filled a prominent place in the active life of Putnam County and Northern Westchester, and whose name in those olden days was a household word in the communities through which he moved and practised his profession.

Elias Cornelius was born on Long Island in the year 1758. Besides Elias, his father's family consisted of another son and several daughters. His paternal ancestors came from Holland, and a coat of arms once in the possession of Dr. Cornelius, of which we have seen a copy, indicates that they were people of rank and distinguished for military achievements and religious zeal which had won for them this honorable heraldic emblem. Beyond this we know nothing of the family history, nor of Elias' boyhood or educational advantages, except that he had not received the benefit of a collegiate education.

At the commencement of the Revolutionary War, we find him studying medicine under the direction of Dr. Samuel Latham, a physician of repute, in New York City, who not only initiated his pupil into the mysteries of the healing art and sought to convert him into a worthy disciple of Esculapius, but also instilled into his youthful mind the principles of patriotism and implanted in his heart the love of freedom to such an extent, that, in spite of the persuasions and remonstrances of his parents and other relatives, all of whom were devoted Loyalists, he resolved to cast his lot with the Patriots.

The outgrowth of this was that he enlisted in the American Army, Jan. 1, 1777, being then only twenty years of age. On April 15, 1777, he was appointed Surgeon's Mate in the Second Regiment of Rhode Island troops under the command of Col. Israel Angell. His appointment was signed by John Cochran, Surgeon General; James Craik,[1] Chief Physician and Surgeon to the Army; Col. Israel Angell and others. Four months after this, Aug. 22, 1777, while on a reconnoitering trip, Dr. Cornelius was surprised and taken prisoner by the British, at East Chester. He was robbed of all his belongings, and then marched to New York under charge of Hessian Guards by whom he was treated in an insulting and cruel manner. On his arrival there he was lodged in the Old Sugar House prison, in which the private soldiers were kept. Soon after he was removed from that prison and thrown into a dungeon in the Provost Jail.

[1] It will be remembered that Dr. Craik was the physician who attended Gen. Washington in his last and fatal illness, December, 1799. Dr. Craik was then residing at Alexandria, Va.

Concerning this Jail, Mary L. Booth, in her History of New York City, quotes from a published document of John Pintard, one of the founders of the New York Historical Society, as follows: "The Provost was destined for the more notorious rebels, civil, naval and military. An admission to this modern Bastile was enough to appall the stoutest heart."

The Jail was under the superintendence of the notorious Provost Marshal Cunningham, and no greater brute, or demon in human form, ever had charge of captives of war. The barbarities practiced on the defenceless prisoners by this man stand unparalleled in the history of war. It is stated that he treated them with the utmost cruelty, heaped every possible indignity on them, and while his victims were dying off from cold and starvation, like cattle, he actually mingled an arsenical preparation with their poor food in order to kill them off quicker. It is also recorded that he openly boasted that "he had killed more of the rebels with his own hand than had been slain by all the king's forces in America." Such was the Provost Jail and its keeper.

Among Dr. Cornelius's friends and fellow prisoners in the jail, he mentions Ethan Allen, the hero of Ticonderoga, and Majors Williams, Paine and Wells.

Here he languished until Sept. 20, 1777, suffering for the necessaries of life and receiving like all confined there, most cruel and inhuman treatment from the jailers and guards. He was then transferred to the upper rooms of the prison where he was confined until Jan. 9, 1778. About this time Dr. Cornelius received a visit from his father, who, as we have stated, was a Loyalist and a most faithful adherent of King George. In the journal which he kept during his imprisonment (which we shall publish later) he makes mention of this visit and records the views which his father then expressed of his conduct. He writes that he reproached him for his treasonable action and wept over the trouble it had brought him into, ascribing the whole as a result of the influence which Dr. Latham, whom he styled "a bad man," had exerted over his son. He then urged Elias to avail himself of a free pardon which had been offered in a proclamation by the Governor, Sir William Howe, to all who would come in voluntarily and "quit the rebels." The young man, however, turned a deaf ear to his father's entreaties, who left him uttering dire predictions of the results that would follow. England, according to his views, must surely conquer the rebellious Colonies, and his erring son would then, when it was too late, realize the folly of his course, and without doubt meet the fate due a traitor to his king and country.

Soon after his father's visit, he was again consigned to the dungeon, but a few days later, on account of sickness, was removed to the hospital which he states was "in the brick meeting house." Watching his opportunity, he made his escape from there, Jan. 16, 1778, three days after his arrival. He then wandered about for a number of days and endured much exposure and suffering, but finally found, to use his own language, "the house of some friends to America," who took him in, and afterwards aided him to reach Long Island.

When he arrived on Long Island, he writes in his Journal that he walked nine miles and passed his grandfather's house but did not dare go in to ask relief for fear that the old gentleman, who was a strong Tory, would deliver him up to the British. Shortly after, in his wanderings, he again found friends to the American cause, and also met two men who had been prisoners of the British, and like himself, had been fortunate enough to make their escape without detection.

Cornelius, in company with these men, then went into the woods where they built a hut in which they passed the remainder of the Winter, living in constant fear, however, lest they should be discovered by the Tories in the vicinity, and information given which would lead to their recapture by the British soldiers. By hunting, and with occasional supplies stealthily furnished them by a few faithful friends they managed to eke out an existence until March 19, 1778, when not deeming it safe to remain longer in that location, the party separated.

After this Dr. Cornelius took refuge in the house of one of his friends, where he met two other men who had been his fellow prisoners in the Provost Jail. As all three men were desirous of leaving Long Island, in a few days, with the aid of friends, a boat was secured in which Cornelius and his two companions rowed across the sound to Norwalk, Conn., where they found shelter in the house of Capt. Rogers, one of the party. Dr. Cornelius remained at Captain Rogers's residence only long enough to take needed rest and refreshment, then proceeded on his way, and after a journey of seven days, rejoined the American Army which was then in those memorable headquarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. He continued in the service until Jan. 1, 1781, and received an honorable discharge.

On retiring from the service in 1781, Dr. Cornelius settled at Yorktown, Westchester County, and entered on the practice of his profession. Amid the hardships and dangers of his life in the army he received vivid religious impressions and came to be known as the "beloved physcian," which led him after settling there to unite with the Congregational Church, and in 1787 he was honored with the office of deacon.

Some years later he removed from Yorktown to the northwest part of the town of Somers, which is now known as Baldwin Place, and located on the farm at present owned by Samuel M. Lounsbury, where he resided to the time of his death.

Here he devoted himself with renewed energy to his profession and acquired a large practice extending over the towns of Carmel, Somers, Yorktown, Philipstown, and Fredericksburg. He was a close student, and by patient study and industry accumulated a large fund of general and professional information. Many young men studied medicine under his superintendence and became able and successful practitioners.

Though Dr. Cornelius was an energetic man and possessed great firmness of character, he was also very kind hearted and generous--the poor received gratuitous medical attendance from him to a great extent, and while he ministered to the physical ailments of his patients, like his Master, the "Great Physician," he was ever ready to offer spiritual comfort to those who stood in need, and kind words and advice were freely bestowed on rich and poor alike, in such measure as the case required.

His generosity was not alone confined to individuals but the church as well found him a faithful servant, a cheerful giver and an industrious worker. The Presbyterian Church Society, of Mahopac Falls (formerly known as Red Mills), to-day stands in part as a monument to his zeal and devotion to the cause of Christ, for in 1790, he in conjunction with a few other faithful ones effected its organization, and to the day of his death his contributions to its support were most liberal and his interest in its welfare unabated. He was a prime mover, too, in securing for the society its first house of worship, taking a very active part in raising funds for the erection of a suitable edifice, and its completion was to him a source of pride and satisfaction. When the church was incorporated, April 7, 1806, he was chosen one of the Trustees.

In his Will he bequeathed legacies to the following religious and charitable societies: The American Bible Society; The United Foreign Mission Society; The American Education Society, and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

His creed was loyalty to his country and to his God, and all through his eventful and useful life his words and deeds alike attested his sincerity. His view of life was evidently embodied in the following lines of verse which were found pasted in the inside covers of all his books.

"SOON will this glass of mortal life be run And all its fleeting vanities be gone. Then may I feel no more sins cruel fire, But to the grave in faith and peace retire; And weep no more for the licentious wrongs Of judgments rash or scourge of slanderous tongues."

Dr. Cornelius married for his first wife the daughter of a brother physician, Dr. Brewer, who bore him several children, all of whom died in childhood, and his wife also passed away in early life. Some years after her decease, he married Miss Rachel Stocker, who is described as possessing many excellent traits of character, and as being a woman of enlarged Christian experience. She died about the year 1833. By this marriage, five children were born to him, one son, Elias Cornelius, and four daughters: "Sally," who married Tallman Perry, Sept. 13, 1824; Betsey, who married Ira Tompkins, March 8, 1820; Polly, who became the wife of Rev. William Lewis, and Nancy, who died unmarried at the early age of nineteen years.

The son, Elias Cornelius, who was graduated from Yale College, Sept., 1813, studied theology under Dr. Dwight, and became an eloquent and influential minister of the Congregational Church, being licensed to preach the Gospel, June 16, 1816, at Litchfield, Conn. For five years (1826-1831) he filled the office of Secretary to the American Educational Society, and through his influence and earnest labors the work of preparing young men for the ministry received a notable impetus. In January, 1832, he was chosen one of the Secretaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, to succeed Jeremiah Evarts.