Daniel Strang, III

He was hung on Oak Hill on the grounds of the Peekskill Academy on January 27, 1777 as the first spy to be tried and executed under the First Espionage Act passed by the Continental Congress in August of 1776.

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Inherited: The sawmill property called Haff farm. Residence: Port Chester, NY, USA.

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Daniel Strang, III
b. circa 1714 Greenwich, Fairfield, CT
d.Sept 25, 1792 (74-82) Rye, Westchester County, New York
Place of Burial: Anderson Cemetery, King St, Connecticut, United States or Strang Cemetery

Son of Daniel d'Estrang, Jr. and Phebe Strang
Husband of Elizabeth Galpin

1. Daniel Strang b.1743/1746 Cortlandt Manor, New York, United States/Port Chester, New York, United States d.27 JAN 1777 Peekskill, New York, United States
2. Elizabeth Strang b. 1752 d.Saint John, NB Canada
3. Gabriel Strang b.1754 d.1826 Saint John, NB Canada
4. Mary Strang b.@ 1756
5. Solomon Strang 1760 d.1844
6. Esther Strang b.1763 d.1843
7. Jared Strang b.1765 d.1837

Inscription
In memory
of
Daniel Strang, who departed
this life September 25th 1792
Aged 78 Years.
Find A Grave Memorial

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(# 14 in The Strang Genealogy) page 33

The Strang Genealogy states that Daniel was buried at Christ Church in Rye, NY on 7/7/1822 and that he was 96 years old, but his tombstone in the Strang Cemetery, Greenwich, CT indicates he is buried there and died on 9/25/1793 and was 78 years old. These dates may be a mix with his son Daniel.

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One of Daniel and Phoebe’s sons, Daniel Strang III, was arrested in Peekskill in 1776, on suspicion of being a spy for the British. He was apprehended while lurking around the army units stationed at the Peekskill Academy. When he was searched by Continental forces, they found several documents from British Colonel Robert Rogers who was commander of the Queen’s Rangers, the unit that would later become Simcoe’s Rangers. The documents, dated December 30, 1776, authorized Strang and others to recruit disaffected soldiers to the Rangers and detailed the terms and rewards that would be offered for recruitment. According to reports, Strang made no attempt to defend himself and on the authority of General Washington, he was tried and sentenced to death as a spy. He was hung on Oak Hill on the grounds of the Peekskill Academy on January 27, 1777 as the first spy to be tried and executed under the First Espionage Act passed by the Contented Congress in August of 1776..

Sources
“To George Washington from Major General William Heath, 19 January 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed September 29, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-08-02-0112. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 8, 6 January 1777 – 27 March 1777, ed. Frank E. Grizzard, Jr. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1998, pp. 104–106.]

“To George Washington from Major General William Heath, 30 January 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed September 29, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-08-02-0201. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 8, 6 January 1777 – 27 March 1777, ed. Frank E. Grizzard, Jr. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1998, pp. 189–190.]

“To George Washington from Major General William Heath, 4 January 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed September 29, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-07-02-0407. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 7, 21 October 1776–5 January 1777, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1997, pp. 514–515.]

“To George Washington from Major General William Heath, 9 January 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed September 29, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-08-02-0028. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 8, 6 January 1777 – 27 March 1777, ed. Frank E. Grizzard, Jr. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1998, pp. 26–28.]

Campbell, Charles A. “Peekskill Village in the Revolutionary War.” The Magazine of American History with Notes and Queries, 1877.

Scharf, J. Thomas. History of Westchester County: New York, Including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, Which Have Been Annexed to New York City. Vol. II. Philadelphia: L.E. Preston & Co., 1886.

Villadolid, Alice C. “The Hanging Tree of Peekskill.” The New York Times, June 24, 1979, sec. WC. https://www.nytimes.com/1979/06/24/archives/westchester-opinion-the....

• https://www.theclio.com/entry/105759

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The academy was built by a hanging tree where a British spy was executed in 1777; his bones were discovered and relocated during construction of a dormitory in the 1860s.[2]

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peekskill_Military_Academy

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The Peekskill Academy (the military name and aspect came later) was born in 1833 when several prominent residents of the community, concerned about the education of their children, sold stock to raise funds to build the school. A site atop Oak Hill with a good view of the Hudson River Valley was selected for the academy. On the grounds was a tree used during the Revolutionary War to hang Daniel Strang, a spy for the British, on January 27, 1777.

• https://patch.com/new-york/peekskill/the-glory-days-of-peekskill-mi...

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IN the chill dawn of Jan. 27, 1777, in Peekskill, Daniel Strang, a Tory sympathizer condemned to death by Revolutionary forces as a British spy, mounted a cart before a formation of Continental soldiers. A rope fastened to his neck was tied around a white oak tree and, at a signal from a Colonial officer, the tumbrel was drawn away, leaving the condemned man hanging. The Continental officers in charge, both on horseback, led their men in parade around the tree from which the victim swayed.

Today, Peekskill High School seniors will assemble near this same tree for quite a different ceremony — a farewell to their classmates. Although the Peekskill High School building dates only to 1971, the Spy Tree, which is believed to be 300 years old, has been the site of commencement exercises since 1834, when the first of many generations of cadets at the now‐defunct Peekskill Military Academy held their graduation ceremonies in its shade.

The true age of the Spy Tree, as it has been known for many decades, is unknown. The events that gave the tree its nickname were part of the harsh civil strife that was a large part of the American Revolution in these parts. The hanging of spies in the Peekskill area was not uncommon, according to the memoirs of officers. A highway not far from the Spy Tree still carries the name of Gallows Hill; here, several spies were executed on the orders of Gen. Israel Putnam.

Some of those who died on the gallows were farmers who had sold their produce to the enemy and who were ready to accept the monetary awards offered by the British Crown for spying and recruiting. There were many Westchester inhabitants among the 35,000 who left the country at the end of the war and settled principally in Canada. One study declared that the state's Loyalists numbered 90,000, out of a population of 203,000.

Daniel Strang, the Tory victim whose death immortalized the Spy Tree, was captured inside the Continental lines while attempting to obtain recruits for the British Army. A tablet, now almost overgrown by bark, was placed on the tree in 1912 by the members of Cornelia Beekman Chapter of the Junior Sons and Daughters of the Revolution. The inscription says that the tablet was “in honor of this tree, upon which was hanged … an American, who was employed as a spy by the British.”

The identity of the spy was recorded by Col. Seth Pomeroy, a hero at Bunker Hill and later a Brigadier General, who wrote in his Journal of Jan. 27, 1777, that “Daniel Strang was hanged for taking orders to raise a company of volunteers under the infamous [Robert] Rogers to join Gen. Howe's army in New York.”

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According to the court‐martial record, Strang was charged with being a spy and attempting to enlist men for the enemy. He denied being a spy but acknowledged being “guilty of the last, viz, attempting to raise recruits for the British Services.” The 19‐officer court, presided over by Col. Henry B. Livingston, found him guilty after hearing the testimony of two of his soldier friends and ordered him hanged.

An old record says that the Continental soldiers were drawn up in formation and “a rope was thrown over the limb of an oak tree and Strang was ordered to step into a cart which was placed beneath the tree. The cart was drawn away, leaving Strang suspended.”

The life of the old tree was extended considerably by tree surgery, the wiring of branches and feeding under the direction of the academy officials. During the construction of Peekskill High School special attention was given to the handling of the tree's roots, which extended hundreds of feet from its base; a wall was placed around the embankment on which the tree stands.

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The Spy Tree seems to be fighting losing battle. In the last decade, many branches have fallen, and others are decaying. The normal summer foliage has thinned out considerably and a gaping hole at the base of the trunk — five and a half feet in diameter — requires tree surgery.

In a few years the oak will be cut down, and someone will count the tree rings and determine its age. Until that time, it stands, as an unknown poet said in 1888, as “the oldest living thing for many miles around.” ■

The New York Ttnws /Joyce Dopkeen

• https://www.nytimes.com/1979/06/24/archives/westchester-opinion-the...

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