According to Henry Western Eastman's History of Roslyn, which was published serially in the Roslyn News during 1879, the only houses standing on the east side of Hempstead Harbor in 1830 were the present "Cedarmere," the present "Willowmere," the Mudge Farmhouse and a small unidentified house built for a laborer. Conrad Goddard, in his "Early History of Roslyn Harbor," describes the Mudge Farmhouse as the "second oldest house in Roslyn Harbor." He further states that it was once known as the "old Red Farmhouse." He states that it once stood about 1/4 mile west of its present location and that it had been moved several times. A photograph in the Bryant Library and reproduced in Goddard shows the house standing almost directly south of William Cullen Bryant's "Stone House" on today's Post Drive. In an unpublished letter to Charles Nordhoff dated July 15th, 1871, William Cullen Bryant writes that Mr. Hendrickson "is supervising the building of a stone cottage on the Mudge Place." He mentions that work is about to start on the roof. On this basis the photograph could not have been taken earlier than the spring of 1872 as the same photograph shows the largest black walnut tree on Long Island (Goddard) just leafing out. Beyond the Mudge Farmhouse there is a large barn which Goddard writes was "built 1870-1880" and immediately south of Stone House, today, there are some rubble retaining walls which probably incorporate the foundation stones of this barn, and possibly even of the Mudge house foundation stones. The Walling Map (1859) confirms this original location.

According to "Mudge in America From 1638 to 1868" (Alfred Mudge & Son, Boston, 1868, page 77) Michael Mudge, a mill-wright and farmer, was born in Oyster Bay on 8/30/1715. He married Sarah Hopkins in 1737 and died in Hempstead Harbor on 12/28/1801. On 11/18/1745 he bought a farm from Amos Mott for £564/10/6. Alfred Mudge wrote that "The farm consisted of two pieces of land—one containing forty-three acres, 'including the Dwelling Housen Buildings, Barns, Orchards, Fences, Fields and improvements'; the other containing sixty-six acres, with dwelling housen, etc. Here he resided until his death; and after his demise, his son Daniel lived and died there, in 1840, and Daniel's daughter Amy still resides there (1868). This is the same house in which the Tories robbed and maltreated Michael (Mudge) in 1775." This house is the same as the one which now stands on Mott's Cove Road South.

According to Goddard it was moved to its present site by Robert Patchin, brother-in-law of John Russell Pope, a prominent architect, about 1920. There was at least one intermediary relocation of the house as the Bryant Library group includes three other photographs of the house on still a third site, at which time the visible part of the foundation was constructed of brick. At least some of the old reddish-brown paint survives today and is visible in places from which the later paint has been removed. Goddard also wrote that the Mudge Farmhouse is the "second oldest house in Roslyn Harbor" second only to Willowmere. While there is no doubt that the property which includes the present Willowmere was granted to Nathaniel Pearsall and others in April, 1685, there is no reason to believe that the present house was standing at that time or shortly thereafter.

The Mudge Farmhouse has had really only a single major renovation, about 1920, and there is much evidence to date the house to circa 1740 or a little earlier. Willowmere, on the other hand, architecturally appears to date from about 1770 or perhaps a little later. For one example, among many, raised panelling seems to have disappeared from this part of Long Island by about 1770. The Mudge Farmhouse retains two original raised panel fireplace walls. The raised panel hallway dado in "Willowmere" is 20th Century Colonial Revival. The early, incised panel fireplace wall in the library seems to be a 20th century insertion. The fireplace wall in the southwest chamber, directly above the library, utilizes moulded flat panels and dates from circa 1770 or later (TG 1975-1976).

It is the opinion of the writer (R.G.G.) that the Mudge Farmhouse is the earlier of the two houses. The Landmark Society was extremely anxious to include the Mudge Farmhouse in its group of pre-Revolutionary War houses exhibited for the Bicentennial on 6/5/1976 but was unable to get permission to do so. However, it was exhibited in 1982 and 1983. To return to the Tories and their mistreatment of Michael Mudge in 1775, we quote from Henry Onderdonk, Jr.'s "Revolutionary Incidents of Queens County, L.I., N.Y.," Leavitt Trow & Co., New York, 1846, page 182. "A gang surrounded the house of Michael Mudge and knocked at the door. When Daniel, his son, asked who was there, 'Friends' was the reply. The door not being opened immediately, they added It will be better for you to let us in. Thereupon the frail door was opened, when three men entered (one had on a hair cap, drawn down and tied under his chin, and his face blackened), and proceeded to the room of the aged father, whom they beat unmercifully, and run (sic) a gun muzzle in his cheek because he did not tell where his money was; and in truth he did not know, for he had given it to his daughter-in-law, who had it in bed with her. He gave them his silver shoe-buckles, but because they were plain, they supposed them to be base metal and threw them back in his face. They then rummaged every part of the house, went up the kitchen stairs and bid the negros lie still. At last, to frighten the rest of the family into a disclosure, they brought the old man into his daughter-in-laws bed-room, the blood trickling down his head behind both ears and joining in one stream under his chin, so that his throat seemed cut. The family then gave up. A bag of silver was brought forth. They opened it, and exclaimed, "Not a single guinea!" Directly eying a bag inadvertently left under a table which proved to be filled with gold, in the rage of disappointment, they dragged the daughter-in-law out of bed with her infant in her arms. She managed to save a part of the remaining gold. During the search, the robbers went to the door to consult with those outside, and returned with increased fury. When they left, they blew out the lights and bid Daniel (who was following to see what road they took) to stay in doors." Alfred Mudge describes the "robbers as a gang of Royalists who committed great depredations upon the inhabitants of North Hempstead. About the same time Israel Pearsall (present Willowmere) was twice beset by robbers. Once they carried off some spoons and linen. On another occasion they were heard by his neighbor, Daniel Mudge, who fired an alarm gun, when the robbers hastily decamped." Daniel Mudge was the second on the list of privates in "A Training List of the Officers and Men in The District of Cow Neck, Great Neck, etc." Michael Mudge also was one of 1290 signatories to the petition requesting that Queens County be restored to Royal favor, after the Battle of Long Island.

Michael Mudge lived in the farmhouse from the time he bought it in 1745 until his death in 1801. His son Daniel was born in the farmhouse on 7/12/1750 and lived in it until his death on 5/8/1840. He married Martha Coles on May 30, 1770. On the basis of these two longest residences in the house we are calling it the Michael and Daniel Mudge Farmhouse, even though it probably had been built originally by Amos Mott or Charles Mott, his father.

Goddard goes on to say that the Mudge Farm was bequeathed by Daniel to his son Michael, a farmer and mill-wright, who survived his father by only six years. Upon his death in 1846 it passed to his two sisters, Elizabeth and Amy, both spinsters. The Mudge sisters continued to live in the Old Red Farmhouse until about 1868 when William Cullen Bryant bought their property for his daughter Fanny and her husband, Parke Godwin, as part of their "Montrose" estate. (See Tour Guides 1974-1975). Actually, in a letter in Bryant Library, dated March 4, 1868 to Jerusha Dewey, then visiting Rome, Bryant wrote that the "Mudge family are in their new house and well satisfied with it." The new house was a cottage "Springbank" which Bryant built for Elizabeth and Amy Mudge.

Subsequently Bryant relocated the Mudge Farmhouse to its second and, as of now, unknown location. This should not be confused with the latter, renamed "Springbank" (TG 1991-1992). Only one more item of Mudge history. On her death in 1970 Jessie Smith, whose ancestors had lived in the James and William Smith House for more than a century (TG 1961-1962; 1973-1974) bequeathed a sampler embroidered by Anne Mudge to the Landmark Society. Unfortunately she did not identify Anne Mudge although it may be accepted that she was someone local. The sampler hangs today with other local samplers in the Van Nostrand-Starkins House. Caleb Mudge, a son of Daniel and Martha, was born in the Mudge Farmhouse on September 26, 1771. He married Ellen Weeks on April 21, 1806. Their eldest daughter, Anne, was born on 2/15/1808 and married Andrew Pollock, of Boston, on July 1,1830. She is the only Anne Mudge in the Mudge genealogy who could have embroidered the Anne Mudge sampler and even she seems to be a little old to have done so. Samplers usually were embroidered by girls between the ages of 8 and 13. This one, unfortunately, is undated, but it appears to have been wrought circa 1840. However, the time error is only that of about 20 years and our appraisal of the sampler's date may be in error. In addition to the usual embroidered alphabet and numbers it includes the following verse which is worth preserving:

"Anne Mudge is my name

Long / Island is my station.

Heaven /1 hope my dwelling place

And / Christ is my salvation /

When I am dead and in my / grave

And all my bones are / rotten

So this you see Reme / mber me

Let me not be for/gotten."