Written by Linda Laird, Co-Chair, Steering Committee, Eastchester 350th Anniversary, Inc.   

Dec. 17, 2014: Looking for the ideal holiday gift? The perfect present, one that no one already has, just became available.

Out of the Wilderness: The Emergence of Eastchester, Tuckahoe & Bronxville, NY, 1664 - 2014 is now on sale at Womrath Bookshop in Bronxville, Cornell's True Value Hardware in Eastchester, Eastchester Town Hall, and Bronxville and Tuckahoe village halls. It also can be ordered online at www.eastchester350.org.

Published by Eastchester 350th Anniversary, Inc., this coffee table-style book is the first-ever hardcover history of the town and its villages. "It is a monumental achievement" with "meticulous research, lively text, and beautiful illustrations," said Katie Hite and Patrick Raftery of the Westchester County Historical Society.

Out of the Wilderness is "magnificent," said Pelham historian Blake Bell, who described it as an "entertaining, carefully crafted, lovingly detailed, and richly illustrated record" of 350 years of history. The book has something for everyone, Bell noted. "For some, it will be a handsome, lavish, and cherished coffee table book to be thumbed through and marveled at for many years. For others, like me, it will be an important tool that furthers the understanding of our shared local history and the contexts within which that history has evolved."

The new publication is luxuriously illustrated with more than 300 images, most in color, and sells for only $50. It traces history from Eastchester's original 1664 settlement on the site of Anne Hutchinson's massacre through its transformation into the densely populated residential suburb of today, explained local municipal historians Eloise L. Morgan and Richard Forliano, who planned and organized the book.

Out of the Wilderness details Eastchester's 1665 civil covenant that governed town life in the 17th century, a 1773 Eastchester election documented by John Peter Zinger, Eastchester's devastation in the Neutral Ground of the Revolution, the town's posture during the Civil War, its acceptance and practice of African-American slavery well into the 1800s, the 19th-century transformation of farmland to suburbia flanked by two rivers, and the political and social forces that reduced Eastchester (through the loss of Mount Vernon and the northeast Bronx) to less than half its original size. The early 20th century, with its population explosion, changing demographics, expanding public schools, and outstanding athletes, as well as the Great Depression, is also featured.

Those who pre-ordered the book have received pickup information directly from the 350th anniversary committee and may also contact Linda Laird at 914-771-3351 for instructions.

Pictured here: The cover of Out of the Wilderness.

Photo courtesy Linda Laird, Co-Chair, Steering Committee, Eastchester 350th Anniversary, Inc.