The Pawling House Bed & Breakfast

105 West Main Street
Pawling, New York
12564

innkeeper@pawlinghouse.com
845-855-3851

History

The history of the stately house at 105 West Main Street now known as The Pawling House Bed & Breakfast is a rich tapestry interwoven with the stories of three prominent families that feature in the earliest chapters of Pawling's history: The Campbells, Vanderburgs and Merwins.

The stories of these families who have been associated with the history of this house take us back to the early European settlement of the East Coast through the Merwin genealogy, touch on the French and Indian Wars through the elder Campbell brothers, lead us on to the Revolutionary War and an interesting insight into the compassionate character of General George Washington through an encounter with the younger Archibald Campbell, and then move us forward to the Civil War as we reconnect with the Merwin family through William J. and Elizabeth Merwin. Throughout the interweaving of these family stories, insights are also gained concerning the roots and subsequent development of the Pawling community, itself.

Colonel Archibald Campbell

Colonel Archibald Campbell and his brother Captain Duncan Campbell, born in Scotland, first came to this country at the time of the French and Indian wars as English military officers. It is recorded that on 25 June 1772, Captain Duncan Campbell took out a mortgage on a 290 acre farm in the Beekman Patent, the area later occupied by the Starlight Theatre on the west side of Route 22 about a mile south of the Village of Pawling. Colonel Archibald Campbell was granted a large tract of land in Putnam and Dutchess counties. Therefore, following the French and Indian wars, both brothers lived as semi-retired English officers on half pay, although subject to call.

Jane Monroe, the daughter of Moses Bowdy, one of the earliest settlers from England who lived in Pawling in1753, was the mother of Colonel Archibald Campbell's children. Together they had two sons who were named Duncan (b. 1767) and Archibald (b. 1769) after their uncle and father, respectively, and a daughter, Mary, born in 1776 after her father's death.

At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, orders came to Colonel Archibald Campbell and his brother Captain Duncan Campbell to report to the English Commander Howe – a call both brothers seemed unprepared to receive. When they left their homes and families behind, they were under the mistaken impression that the uprising would soon be over and they could return to Pawling in a few weeks' time to resume their peaceful lives.

But Colonel Archibald Campbell was severely wounded on his way to join the English at their headquarters in the house owned by Augustus Van Cortlandt on Guard Hill near White Plains. Realizing he was about to die, Colonel Campbell wrote his will in his own blood, giving the care of his beloved sons to his brother in London. He also directed that the property belonging to him in England be used for their support.

Shortly after Colonel Campbell's death and before the boys were sent back to England, General George Washington's soldiers took the younger Archibald Campbell to fetch water and run other errands for them. General Washington had compassion for the boy and ordered that he sleep on the trundle bed in his own room.

Historical documents note that among the properties confiscated in Pawling following the Revolutionary War were the holdings of John Kane and Archibald Campbell.

Eventually, as their father had wished, both boys were sent to their uncle in London to be educated while their mother, Jane, and little sister Mary remained behind in Pawling. According to family tradition, despite the best efforts of his uncle and family to make an English gentleman out of young Archibald, his heart remained back in the new country with his mother and sister. And so in 1791, Archibald returned to America with a cargo of merchandise from his English uncle and set up a mercantile business in what is now known as Pawling. Brother Duncan, who was trained as a surgeon, died while serving in the West Indies with the English army. Their sister Mary never married, but always made her home with her brother, Archibald and his family in Pawling. All are buried in the old Campbell plot at Hurd's Corners outside of Pawling.

Archibald Campbell and Elizabeth Mitchell Campbell

Having brought with him from England the means to begin his mercantile business, Archibald Campbell decided to establish his country store on Hurd's Corner in Pawling. Little by little he also bought land, ultimately owning a thousand acres. Archibald married Elizabeth Mitchell, daughter of Thomas Mitchell, when she was just16 years of age. Together they had ten children: Archibald born in 1793, Catherine Rosalinda, Jane, Eliza, Mary, Stacia, Duncan, Sarah, Harriet, and Thomas.

Characterized as aJacksonian Democrat, Archibald Campbell was active in local politics and much sought after to administer estates and settle disputes. Early records describe him as a man of strong character, superior intellect, great strength and vigor. A ledger he kept of his business dealings from 1841 to 1847, which is now in the possession of his descendants, records transactions involving vegetables, bushels of wheat, quarters of beef and apples, as well as entries crediting road work, plowing, planting, provision of wood and sale of oxen.

Archibald Campbell also served as postmaster, acted as a county judge and was active in local civic and church affairs. Among his various enterprises, it is documented that in 1791 Archibald and seventeen other partners opened an inn in Pawling. Ultimately he was sufficiently wealthy to provide each of his ten children a house in Pawling. The house now known as The Pawling House Bed & Breakfast was given to Archibald and Elizabeth's daughter, Catharine Rosalina, who eventually married William J. Merwin.

In early October 1846, Archibald Campbell suffered what has been described as “a paralytic attack” but lingered, his mind unaffected, until his death on January 18, 1847. His widow, Elizabeth Mitchell Campbell, died on January 27, 1858.

William J. and Elizabeth Merwin

William J. Merwin, born on November 3, 1833, was a prominent Pawling merchant who was descended from an old Connecticut family. The American branch of the Merwin family traces its origins back to Miles Merwin who emigrated from England in 1621 at the age of 9 and settled in Milford, Connecticut.

William J. Merwin's grandfather, Captain John Merwin, was an agriculturist who was born and raised in what is now known as Bridgewater, Connecticut. Following the death of his first wife in 1776 with whom he had seven children, John Merwin then married Mrs. Ruth Welsh in 1777, a widow with whom he had six more children.

William J. Merwin was the son of Daniel Merwin, born to John Merwin and Ruth Welsh Merwin on March 28, 1788 in Bridgewater, Connecticut. Daniel was educated in local schools and followed in his father's footsteps as an agriculturalist. On November 22, 1815 he married Miss Amy Peck (b.1799) the daughter of Andrew Peck of Newton, Connecticut. Together they had eight children, the seventh of whom was William J. Merwin.

Attending local schools in Bridgewater until he reached the age of 16, William J. Merwin then left school and traveled to Savannah, Georgia to learn the mercantile business. After a period of time in Savannah, doctors recommended that he move to Barcelona, Spain, for the sake of his health. Following a recuperative year in Barcelona, Merwin returned to America, briefly visiting family in Connecticut and then moving back to Savannah to clerk in a large dry-goods business.

With the outbreak of the Civil War, and because his sympathies were strongly aligned with the Union cause, William J. Merwin relocated up North to Pawling, New York in 1860, purchasing a junior interest in the firm of J. W. Stark & Company, dealers in dry goods and groceries. Eventually he and a partner acquired the business, subsequently known as Merwin & Holmes, and built it into one of the largest establishments of its kind in the area.

William J. Merwin is described as having had ‘a genial nature and a gentlemanly manner with a gift for friendships and dealing with the public.' He was active in local politics, was appointed the first postmaster at Pawling, served as a town supervisor for several terms, and was named treasurer of the Pawling Savings Bank when it was established in 1871.

Although originally an Episcopalian, because there was no church of that denomination in Pawling, he eventually joined the local Methodist Church. It is said that because he was a self-made man, Merwin had a particular heart for the unfortunate and did what he could to help deserving people make a better life.

William J. Merwin married Elizabeth Mitchell Campbell Vanderburgh, the daughter of Hexton Vanderburgh and Catharine Rosalinda Campbell, (who was the daughter of Archibald and Elizabeth Mitchell). Vanderburgh was also a prominent merchant and farmer in Pawling and Beekman. Elizabeth was known for her excellent cooking and her lavish and gracious hospitality. Her grandchildren recall that she loved music and after the phonograph was invented, enjoyed listening to recordings in the comfort of her front parlor, now the Common Room of The Pawling House Bed & Breakfast.

William and Elizabeth had one child, a son, also named William J. Merwin, born on October 17, 1875 in the home originally built by his great-grandfather Archibald Campbell for his daughter Catharine Rosalina. William J. Merwin, Jr. was by education and training a stockbroker and banker who eventually served for 44 years as President and then head trustee of the First National Bank of Hancock (NY).

According to family tradition, an original upstairs bathroom in what is now known as The Pawling House Bed & Breakfast (removed in earlier renovations) had a false wall behind which a hidden passage could be found. Two of the grandchildren of William J. and Elizabeth Merwin, Jay Gordon Merwin of Stamford, Connecticut and M. Gray Merwin Weingarten of Syracuse, New York, now in their 80s, believe the passage was used to hide former slaves on the underground railway which had a well-documented station at the home of David Irish on nearby Quaker Hill.

Although no formal documentation can be found identifying the former Merwin house as being part of the underground railway, the family maintains that due to William J. Merwin's strong Union sympathies which motivated him to relocate from Savannah to Pawling at the outbreak of the Civil War, the hidden passage they recall seeing during childhood visits was likely constructed for that purpose by their grandfather.

In a description of her childhood memory of the house and grounds as it appeared when William J. and Elizabeth Merwin owned it, granddaughter Ms. M. Gray Merwin Weingarten writes:

“It was a lovely big white house with a gentle stony brook in front where my sister remembers playing. Approaching from the porch-covered side door of the house, there was a large pantry and kitchen-dining room featuring a huge brick fireplace with ovens built on either side. In the front of the house, with light shining from the stained glass window-door, was a lofty staircase leading up to several bedrooms. The bathroom upstairs had a false wall behind which was a passage to where runaway slaves could be hidden. The barn in back was for the horses, tended by Oscar, the Swedish handyman, who also looked after my grandmother in her later, widowed years.”

William J. Merwin, Jr. sold the family home in Pawling around 1930 after which it went through a succession of owners, eventually becoming a two-family rental property. It was purchased by Barbara Lanman and Deborah DeWinter on September 13, 2006 for the purpose of being restored for development as an owner-occupied Bed & Breakfast.

Sadly, because the original back half of the house had earlier been gutted and allowed to deteriorate from the stone foundation in the basement to the hand-hewn beams of the roof, a necessary decision was taken to rebuild the back half of the house on the foundation and footprints of the original structure. This decision had the fortunate result of allowing for the addition of modern bathrooms in each of the four guestrooms, as well as providing totally updated electrical, heating and plumbing systems throughout the house.

The original front half of The Pawling House, featuring many unique architectural details, was lovingly restored over a 12-month period between the purchase date of 13 September 2006 and the arrival of the first guests on 16 September 2007. The restoration was undertaken by the current owners with significant help by Aniece and Joshua Collins, daughter and son-in-law of Innkeeper and co-owner, Barbara Lanman. Curt Johnson of Zarecki and Associates of Pawling was the architect for the project, and the contracting of the new construction was provided by Al Thomsen of Dutcher Avenue Builders, also of Pawling.

Bibliography

With special thanks to Ms. M. Gray Merwin Weingarten, granddaughter of William J. and Elizabeth Merwin and to James Mandracchia of the Akin Free Library.