there three years. He then returned to his home and attended the normal school at Trenton, afterward embarking in the commission business in New York. He was a great student and decided upon making medicine his especial study, and with -this aim entered the New York Homeopathic Medical College in 1866. Soon after the close of the civil war a colony from New Orleans, composed of persons who had been disloyal to the Union, resolved to seek a new home in Brazil, and engaged the services of Dr. Hasbrouck as surgeon to the expedition. This colony was composed of about three hundred persons, and the experiences through which they went during the few years spent in Brazil convinced them that they had not improved their condition by leaving their native country. Through the influence of Dr. Hasbrouck, the captains of some of the United States war vessels were induced to bring back to this country what remained of the colony and they returned much better satisfied with the existing government than when they went away. While in Brazil he wrote a treatise on Homeopathy, as practiced in that country, which was published in the New England Medical Gazette. He was a surgeon in the Brazilian army during the war with Paraguay, and while in South America passed through several epidemics of small-pox and cholera. He was in St. Thomas during a violent epidemic of yellow fever, and the good results attendant upon his treatment of the disease proved the efficacy of his method. He was on the island of St. Thomas during the hurricane and earthquake which devastated it, and published the first description of that fearful scene of destruction. Returning from this trip, he graduated at the New York Homeopathic Medical College, and located at Dobbs Ferry, where he was successfully engaged in the practice of his profession for three years. He then located in New York, where he remained seven years, until 1881, when he made an extensive tour of Europe and the East, visiting Egypt, Palestine, and most of the countries of the Old World. Returning in 1883, he has since made his home in Yonkers, where he is esteemed a worthy citizen and a skillful physician. He married Miss Anna M., daughter of Captain John Still well, and has two children, Augustus and Mabel. He has an extended practice and holds an enviable position among the members of the Homeopathic medical profession.
Dr. Joseph Hasbrouck was also born in Bergen county. New Jersey, and remained in his native village until he was fifteen, when he taught school for two years. The New Jersey Normal School was established about that time and he was enrolled as a pupil of that institution, graduating there in due time. He then resumed his work of teaching until he was twenty-nine, in the meantime devoting his spare time to the study of medicine, and in 1869 graduated in the medical department of the University of New York. He is a practitioner of the Homeopathic school, and began his career at Goshen, Orange county. New York, later opening an office at Newton, Sussex county. New Jersey, and was the first Homeopathic physician to practice in the county. In 1875 he came to Dobbs Ferry, which has since been his home. He has a large and lucrative- practice, which is not confined to his immediate neighborhood, but reaches out over a large territory where his skill and success is well known.
Dr. Joseph Hasbrouck has been five times married, Sarah and Anna D. Dayton, daughters of Elias Dayton, being his first and second wives. He then married Emma, daughter of Stephen Archer, and at her death he wedded Ellen M., daughter of Reverend D. L. Marks, of the New York conference. She died in 1888, and in June, 1890, he married Mrs. Mary B. Roberts. Of the children of Dr. Hasbrouck, Dayton, the eldest son, died January 13, 1885, at the age of twenty-four years, being at the time of his death a member of the senior class in the New York Homeopathic College. His surviving children are Mabel E. and Edith S. , twin daughters, and a son, David Marks, fourteen years of age. He is a member of the Westchester County Homeopathic Medical Society, and for two years its president, and is a member of the Homeopathic State Society. He has for several years been connected with the board of education of Dobbs Ferry. He is president of the savings bank, is the health officer of the village and was president of the village from 1894 to 1898. He is deeply interested in all that pertains to the welfare of the community, and has been connected with the Republican party since its organization, taking an intelligent interest in its success, although he has not been an aspirant to office. Socially, he is a member of the Holland Society of New York. His residence is one of the historical landmarks of Westchester county. It was in this house that General Washington, Governor Clinton and General Sir Guy Tarleton met on the suspension of hostilities, May 3, 1783, to arrange for the evacuation of New York. It was during the Revolution a part of the Phillip Phillips estate, and it later became the Livingston mansion, formerly the home of Van Brugh Livingston, and sold by him to Steven Archer in 1836. It was the residence of Mr. Archer until his death in 1877, and was purchased from his heirs by Dr. Hasbrouck in 1882. The mansion, which is a well preserved relic of olden times, stands on the east side of the old Albany post road, a short distance below Livingston avenue. In 1894 Dr. Hasbrouck presented to the Empire State Society of the Sons of the American Revolution a site for a monument, which was erected June 14, 1894.
Before closing these memoirs, a brief mention must be made of the maternal grandfather of the Doctor, Wilhelmus Elting. He was of Huguenot stock, and traces his ancestry back to Henry IV, of France. He devoted his life to the improvement of mankind, and served as pastor of the Dutch Reformed church at Paramus for fifty years, and he and Dr. Dewitt, of New York, were the last ministers of the Dutch Reformed church who preached in either the Holland or English language.
Concerning Dobbs Ferry, we may add, as a postscript, that General Washington made his headquarters here July 6, 1781, when the French allies under Rochambeau joined the American army. August 14, that year, Washington planned the Yorktown campaign, which brought to a triumphant termination the war for American independence. May 6, 1783, Washington and Sir Guy Carleton arranged here for the British evacuation of American soil; and opposite this point, two days afterward, a British sloop of war fired seventeen guns in honor of the American commander in chief, — the first salute by Great Britain to the United States of America.
KEELER, JOHN H..
The unostentatious routine of private life, although of vast importance to the welfare of the community, has not figured to any great extent in history; but the names of men who have distinguished themselves by the possession of those qualities of character which mainly contribute to the success of private life and to the public stability, and who have enjoyed the respect and confidence of those around them, should not be permitted to perish. Their example is more valuable to the majority of readers than that of heroes, statesmen and writers, as they furnish means of subsistence for the multitude whom they in their useful careers have employed.
Such are the thoughts that involuntarily come to our minds when we consider the life of him whose name initiates this review — a man who is accounted as one of the most important factors in business life in Yonkers, and whose reputation in business circles is unassailable. He was born in the city which is still his home, May 26, 1840, his parents being Albert and Harriet (Myers) Keeler. During the colonial epoch in the history of the country representatives of the family resided for several generations in Fairfield, 'Ridgeway county, Connecticut. The paternal grandfather of our subject was a farmer of that county, and when the Revolutionary war was inaugurated he aided in the struggle which brought independence to the nation. He reared his family in his Connecticut home, and there Albert Keeler was born and reared. Having arrived at years of maturity he became a lumber merchant, and removing to Yonkers continued to be engaged in the same line of business activity until his death. His political support was given the Whig party until the organization of the Republican party, when he joined its ranks. He was one of the early trustees of the village of Yonkers and afterward served as alderman for eight or ten terms. He was also a member of the state militia and took part in the general training, common at that time. His religious opinions were in harmony with the doctrines of the Episcopal church and he attended its services. He died at the age of seventy-five years, and his wife still survives. Their children were Charles E., Albert and Josephine, all now deceased; and John H. The maternal grandparents of our subject were John and Charlotte (Nodine) Myers. The former was a carpenter by trade and was one of the pioneers of Yonkers, his home being in Getty Square — the present location of the Citizens' National Bank, of which Mr. Keeler is cashier. The grandmother also was a representative of one of the oldest families of Yonkers, in whose honor Nodine Hill was named.
