The Hopkins Family

Ferdinand Travis Hopkins was 46 years old when he decided to acquire a summer home in Westchester County.  Born on his father’s farm in Lake Mahopac in 1834, he spent his first twenty years working along side his father, Nathanial Hopkins, on the family farm.  He then went to New York City where he made a considerable fortune both in real estate transactions and the pharmaceutical business.  Through his second marriage to Martha Bishop Gourand he acquired a profitable business which produced a variety of medicated soaps, skin creams, and other cosmetic preparations.

In 1879, Martha gave birth to Ferdinand T. Hopkins Jr.  Hopkins already had a son and daughter by his first wife, and a step-son, Claude L. Gourand, by his second.  The appearance of a new baby may have played a role in Mr. Hopkins decision to purchase a summer home in Westchester County in 1880.

As purchased, the Ezra Van Tassel farm obviously was not an appropriate summer retreat for an important New York City businessman and his family.  It was a working farm with few amenities.  The Hopkins decided to build a new house and chose the knoll slightly north and east of the original farmhouse for its location.  They built a late Victorian clapboard farmhouse, with both Gothic and Italianate Revival features.  The simple gable roof included a small cross-gable at the front.  The house featured Venetian style shuttered windows on the second floor which were covered with brightly striped awnings.  It was surrounded by porches and the porches were bedecked with hanging and potted plants, helping to merge the indoors with the outdoors. Painted with contrasting trim on windows, and doors, it was a striking example of the Victorian farmhouse as impressive country home.

It soon became evident that Mr. Hopkins did not intend to limit himself to just the Van Tassel farm.  He had much more ambitious plans for his summer home.  In 1881 he bought a small, 6 acre lot on the east side of the Somertown turnpike from Lewis Ferris.  In 1889, Ferris sold him an additional 25 acres between the turnpike and Croton Lake.  With the Ferris purchases he owned the land fronting the turnpike opposite his original Van Tassel farm.  He was also interested in the land north and east of his farm. In 1892 Ferdinand Hopkins purchased an additional 220 acres of land from Mrs. Virginia Brandreth.  It included three additional farmhouses, the David Chadeayne House, the A. Putney house and the Peter R. Carpenter House.  

As he grew older, Ferdinand Sr. spent an increasing amounts of time in Somers and relied on his sons to concentrated on the family drug business.  The Felis T. Gouraud Company had now become Ferd. T. Hopkins & Sons. They continued to produce a line of “Gourand’s Toilet preparations” but expanded the business in the 1920s by purchasing the Landon firm “Mothersill’s Seasick Remedy.” The popularity of the transoceanic liners in search of a touch of European sophistication made the “Mothersill’s” acquisition a lucrative expansion.

Ferdinand Sr. died in 1920, leaving Muscoot to Ferdinand Jr. Ferdinand Jr. and his second wife, Myrtle Rose Kennedy, moved into the family home.  With their two children Jean, born 1920, and Ferdinand III, born 1925, they spent their summers on the farm, even living in the house during the 1925 - 1927 remodeling when the main house was converted into a twentieth century Colonial revival mansion. Myrtle’s parents William and Mary Kennedy, moved into the home across the road from the mansion.  William Kennedy may have acted as farm superintendent for a short time during the mid 1920s.

It was probably during this time, the 1920s and early 1930s, that farming activity peaked at Muscoot, with all of the activity focused on the New York City dairy market.  Muscoot Farm included approximately 610 acres of land.  On this land the Hopkins kept a herd of 90 to 100 head of dairy cattle, primary Holstein-Friesians.  The large dairy barn accommodated 60 head but there were seldom that many cows milking at any one time.

The world of agriculture that Ferninand Jr. encountered differed dramatically from his father's world in the 1880s. Changes in technology and farm equipment, government regulation, and the new discoveries in medical science and genetics were making it difficult for Muscoot Farm, and most Westchester county farmers, to compete.  Rapid transportation also brought competing goods to New York market area at considerably lower costs and competing industries in the area readily absorbed all available labor, leaving the Muscoot Farm with high labor costs.  In 1967 Westchester County acquired the property and began preserving this rich part of Westchester county history.

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