Chappaqua Residents Featured at Bronxville Library Lecture on Eastchester's Founding Families

Chappaqua residents Pieter and Edna Jacques were featured guests at an Oct. 24 lecture on the town’s founding families at the Bronxville Public Library for Eastchester’s 350th Anniversary celebration.

It was sponsored by the Anne Hutchinson-Bronxville Chapter National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR)

Chapter DAR Member Virginia Kathryn Hefti - a Horace Greeley graduate - is a direct descendant of Henry Fowler - a signatory to the vaunted Eastchester Covenant.

Along with Hefti - the living legacy of this prominent historic American family - Fowler descendants Susan Bartlett (Anne Hutchinson-Bronxville Chapter DAR Treasurer) and Chappaqua’s own Pieter Jacques (husband of Mary Hemings descendant and former DAR Regent Edna Bolling Jacques) were also introduced to the audience prior to the public lecture.

Town Historian, Richard Forliano, built his lecture - The Fowlers: A Living Legacy - around Hefti’s ancestors who, according to Forliano, remain “arguably the most influential family in the history of the town.”

Bringing to life the storied history of the Fowler family, the town historian shared with the audience the fact that in addition to signing the Eastchester Covenant - an historic 17th Century document still held in the town archives - Henry Fowler and/or his descendants: stood up to the tyranny of the British Crown long before the Declaration of Independence was ever written; served bravely in the American Revolution (e.g., Moses Fowler and Theodosius Fowler, et al); served on the Judiciary (e.g., Judge Caleb Fowler) and served as Town Supervisor for a cumulative twenty-four years - an historic record rivaled only by the family of the current Town Supervisor Anthony Colavita - to mention just some of the Fowlers’ centuries-long list of significant public contributions.

For more information on the 350th Anniversary Celebration, please visit the 350th website.

PHOTO: L-R: Anne Hutchinson-Bronxville Chapter DAR Treasurer and Fowler Descendant Susan Bartlett; Anne Hutchinson-Bronxville Chapter DAR Former Regent Barbara Coughlin; Mary Hemings Descendant and Former DAR Regent Edna Bolling Jacques and Fowler Descendant Pieter Jacques of Chappaqua,/courtesy Virginia Kathryn Hefti