In the late 1640's, the area was being settled by the Dutch. By the mid-1650's, England felt uneasy over the variousDutch settlements and wanted to expand her land claims. In 1654, Sir thomas Pell, an English aristocrat from Fairfield, CT, bought 9,160 acres from Mamaroneck to the Bronx, naming his manor Pelham or "home of the Pell's". By 1681, England became the sole owner of the land east of the Hudson. then, in 1688, the French Huguenots purchased 6,100 acres for their settlement in New Rochelle. During the Revolutionary War, the one-day battle of Pell's Point took place in 1776. With Washington's troops retreating from NYC, the British Army under General Howe sent warships to Pell's Point in an attempt to cut off Washington's escape. General Glover and 550 Marblehead Mariners lay in wait and shot down the Redcoats. General Howe's troops thought the Mariners were the advance guard of  Washington's troops, So they retreated to the Pelham Memorial High school for several days, making it possible for Washington's armies to establish themselves in White Plains. In the early 1800's, a well known race track thrived west of the present railroad station in what was then called Pelhamville. Trotters and passers were bred and raised here. By 1848, the railroad came to Pelham. As the station was inconvenient to shore residents, a trolley serviced flourished.  the little four wheeled car caught the imagination of the cartoonist Fontaine Fox, who immortalized it in the "Toonerville Trolley" cartoon; trolley service lasted until 1937. Today, the Town of Pelham includes one school district and 2 villages: Pelham Manor (Prospect Hill and Pelham Manor) and Pelham (Pelham Heights, Pelhamville and North Pelham).
 

This is an excerpt taken from: "The Best of Westchester" by Marian Hamilton, Marken Publishing, Armonk, New York