Nathan Cobb: Trans-Atlantic shipping captain key to founding of Tarrytown's public schools

Capt. Nathan Cobb, a leading figure in the early trans-Atlantic passenger and cargo ship trade between New York City and Liverpool, England, built this house at what is now 55 South Broadway, Tarrytown, near Christ Episcopal Church, in the early 1850s. This sketch appears to have been reversed at some point since photos of the house show the first floor doorway being two windows in from the left with three windows to its right, not three to the left and two to the right as this sketch shows. (“Images of America: Tarrytown & Sleepy Hollow,” The Historical Society Inc. of Tarrytown & Sleepy Hollow, Arcadia Publishing, 1997)

The home of the father of Tarrytown's public school system has survived on South Broadway since being built in the 1850s for Nathan Cobb, a 19th century sea captain and shipping magnate.

Cobb, born in Stonington, Conn., on Sept. 20, 1783 was one of the first Americans born in a truly independent nation. The Treaty of Paris ending the Revolutionary War had been signed on Sept. 3, 1783 but word of the deal had not reached the new nation by the date of Cobb's birth. In the days of sailing ships, it took anywhere from six to 14 weeks to cross the Atlantic Ocean between New York and England or France, where the treaty was signed by America and her French allies and the British.

The last British troops would not leave the United States until Nov. 25, 1783.

Not much is known about Cobb’s early life outside of the fact that he took to the sea likely no later than the age of 16 in 1799, more likely as early as age 12. By 1820 he had risen through the ranks to captain the trading ship Hercules.

His rise to the rank of captain came just two years after four 3-masted sailing packet ships under the Black Ball Line banner first began regularly scheduled monthly runs between New York City and Liverpool, England, carrying mail and passengers in 1818. Before then, getting passengers or messages back and forth between the two shores required a little bit of luck and a lot of patience.

By 1822, Cobb had joined the second of the packet lines sailing the New York to Liverpool route, the Red Star Packet Line or the Second Line. He was chosen to captain Meteor on the line’s first run to Liverpool in January 1822. After 1824, he had earned enough to buy his own packet ship, Helen, which ran between New York and London under the flag of yet a third packet line, the Griswold & Coates Line.

By 1832, he was the captain and owner of Orpheus, which he sailed under the flag of the first of the packet lines, the Black Ball Line, thereby adding to his investment portfolio. He sold Orpheus to the Black Ball Line in 1834 and bought Columbus. But by 1835, the seafaring businessman set his sights on the possibility of establishing trans-Atlantic steamship service, cutting travel time from six to 14 weeks to 12 to 14 days.
Steamboats had been in active service on inland waterways since the introduction of Robert Fulton’s Clermont in 1807, but the technology was not practical for overseas travel because of the amount of space required to carry enough fuel -- coal by 1835 -- to complete the 3,000-mile trip.

This oil-on-canvas portrait of Captain Nathan Cobb

was painted ca. 1820 when he was about 37

by an unknown artist. (Portrait courtesy The Historical

Society, Inc., Serving Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown)

Cobb thought he could overcome that hurdle and so he sought $500,000 in financing ($12.55 million today) and partnered with inventor Phineas Bennet of Ithaca, N.Y., on the development of a 100 percent fuel-efficient steam engine to get the job done. Bennet claimed his engine would cut fuel consumption by 90 percent.

It didn’t, and after much research, development and spending, the project foundered.

Bennet’s boiler didn’t work and financial issues forced a major downsizing of Cobb’s proposed pair of 1,200-ton steamships, to only the single Despatch of only 305 tons, one-quarter the proposed size of the original two ships. Bennet provided a steam boiler and Despatch did steam from New York City to Sandy Hook, N.J., on June 12, 1838 with about 50 guests from the shipping industry and media aboard. The ship made the 46-mile trip at 12.5 mph and received glowing reviews, but the reviews were based on false information provided by Cobb and Bennet and the ship and its “groundbreaking” technology faded quickly away, leaving Cobb debt ridden.

To hack away at some of that debt, Cobb auctioned off the $30,000 Despatch ($1 million today) -- and posted the winning bid of $4,000 himself after discouraging or barring competitors from attending the auction. On the sly, he already knew a company in Savannah, Ga., that was willing to pay $14,000 for the vessel, including $5,000 in its stock, and he turned the craft over for that price a short time after his purchase. The underhanded moves didn’t sit well with his investors, who sued.

It took until 1845 for the legal filings to be adjudicated and not in Cobb’s favor. Fortunately for him, most of the money in the original steamship ventures had been put up by investors, so he still had property and wealth of his own. In the aftermath of the court’s verdict, he retired to Tarrytown in 1845.

At the time of the 1850 federal census, Cobb valued his real estate holdings at $30,000. He lived in Tarrytown with his wife, Helen (Wardell) Cobb. Interestingly, the census taker wrote Cobb was 60 at the time, while he was actually known to be 67.
The Cobbs provided a home for Nathan’s mother Abigail until her death in Tarrytown in 1849. The 1850 census showed the Cobbs living with Nathan’s 45-year-old widowed sister, Abigail “Abby” Barker. The Cobbs had no natural-born children, but they did adopt at least one child, a girl named Henrietta, who later married Archibald M. Tomlinson, and was named in Cobb’s will.

The Cobbs employed six live-in servants in 1850 -- all immigrants, five from Ireland. They included 62-year-old cook Sara Lamson, 30-year-old coachman John Hopkins, 28-year-old gardener Philip Mellor, 23-year-old Elizabeth Irving and 20-year-old Catharine Williams, both domestic servants, and 21-year-old England-born waiter John Doss.

The Eastern State Journal newspaper of White Plains on July 3, 1845 spoke about the Cobbs and Tarrytown: “Immediately within the village are several elegant and delightfully situated family residences. First on the list of these we might mention that of Captain Nathan Cobb, a popular and well-known Packet Captain, who is now ‘laid up in ordinary’ (‘mothballed’ in current parlance). The old Captain and his lady are spoken of by their neighbors as two of the finest fellows to be found rusticating upon the banks of the Hudson. The Captain lives well and in elegant style, but, unlike some others, he is said not to live exclusively for himself.”

Capt. Nathan Cobb financed the construction and furnishing of a three-story school including basement on the corner of East Franklin Street and South Broadway in 1851. The brick building, pictured here ca. 1890, was Tarrytown’s first free public school and it suffered structural damage caused by a deadly railroad explosion three quarters of a mile away in 1891. Still, it was used as a school until 1897 when it was replaced by the Washington Irving School for grades 1 through 12 at 18 North Broadway. (“Images of America: Tarrytown & Sleepy Hollow,” The Historical Society Inc. of Tarrytown & Sleepy Hollow, Arcadia Publishing, 1997)

In 1851, Cobb donated $4,000 ($135,000 today) to build and furnish Tarrytown’s first dedicated free public schoolhouse at the southeast corner of today’s East Franklin Street and South Broadway, across the street from today’s Washington Irving Intermediate School, about a block south of Cobb’s own house at 55 South Broadway. The Union Free School District of the Tarrytowns was formed in the aftermath of Cobb’s donation.

The school itself suffered foundation and other structural damage from a devastating explosion at 11:40 a.m. on May 19, 1891 at the nearby railroad.

Related a New York Times front page story on May 20, 1891: “A quantity of dynamite carelessly being transported from Ludlow, near Yonkers, to Holmes's Point, on the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, exploded with terrific effect yesterday morning at 11:40 o'clock near Tarrytown, killing thirteen men and badly wounding twenty-two others. Most of the killed were Italians who were riding on the platform car on which the explosive was carried.”

The school continued in use until 1897 when it was replaced by the new Washington Irving School at 18 North Broadway. The new school also served students in grades 1-12. That Washington Irving School would be replaced in the 1920s by the new Washington Irving High School -- today’s Washington Irving Intermediate School, across the street from the original Cobb school.

The original Washington Irving School became the Frank R. Pierson School and the building now houses condominiums.

The former home of Capt. Nathan Cobb, pictured ca. 1935, was used by sisters Jane R. Bulkley (until her death in January 1873) and H.L. Bulkley and later Miss E.C. Plumley as a boarding school for girls of privilege. It was known as Miss Bulkley’s Seminary for Young Girls, also Miss Bulkley’s School for Girls, around the time of Cobb’s death in St. Augustine, Fla., in 1859 and before it was sold to the Episcopal Church in 1898. The church used the building after 1901 as St. Faith’s Home for unwed mothers and into the 1970s as a refuge for young women and orphaned and abused children. Most recently it has housed offices, including the non-profit Housing Action Council. (“Images of America: Tarrytown & Sleepy Hollow,” The Historical Society Inc. of Tarrytown & Sleepy Hollow, Arcadia Publishing, 1997)

The Cobbs purchased property for about $650 and built a home on it in St. Augustine, Fla., in 1854 on the eve of the Civil War as Nathan’s health declined. They left Tarrytown to live in the Sunshine State that same year, building a house on a seven-acre site some four blocks from the Atlantic Ocean beach. Nathan died in 1859 and his widow Helen lived on in St. Augustine, through the city’s brief sojourn as a Confederate port city in 1861 and after its return to Union hands in 1862. She sold the St. Augustine property in 1866 for 10 times what Nathan had paid for the land alone, and returned to Tarrytown with her late husband’s sister Abby Barker. She died in Tarrytown at age 90 in 1878.

The Cobbs retained property in Tarrytown even after their departure for Florida. Nathan’s will mentioned that he held a $3,000 mortgage on the parsonage of Tarrytown’s Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church, and he left an occupied rental house in Tarrytown on the west side of John Street -- about a block away from his Broadway house -- to his sister Abby. The rental house at the time was occupied by sisters Mary and Caroline Masterson.

Cobb’s house at today’s 55 South Broadway, has been renovated and expanded since his family’s departure from Tarrytown in the 19th century. It has had a remarkable run. It was used by sisters Jane R. (until her death in January 1873) and H.L. Bulkley and later Miss E.C. Plumley as a year-round boarding and day school for girls of privilege. It was known as Miss Bulkley’s Seminary for Young Girls, also Miss Bulkley’s School for Girls, sometime after Cobb’s death in St. Augustine, Fla., in 1859 and before it was sold in 1898 to the Episcopal Church, which owned nearby Christ Episcopal Church. 

The church used the building after 1901 as St. Faith’s Home for unwed mothers and into the 1970s as a refuge for young women and orphaned and abused children.
Today it houses offices, including the non-profit Housing Action Council.

Captain Nathan Cobb's original home at 55 South Broadway has been extensively renovated and remodeled since his 1859 death, but here it is shown in 2018. (Google Earth Street Maps, August 2018)