[J. Thomas Scharf (1886)] Paul's Meth-odist Episcopal Church, and from thence onward he has been one of its leading members, and unsparing both of his labor and his means to advance its welfare and increase its usefulness. For nine years he has been the superintendent of the Sunday-school, and is the present president of the board of trustees, and the financial plan proposed by him has, through the per-fection of its working, been one of the efficient causes of the well-known prosperity of the church. Mr. Robertson is descended from an honorable an-cestry. His father, James Robertson, was a very prominent business man of New York, and is noted as the inventor of the stop-cock and the hydrants used in connection with the Croton water-works, and was alderman for theSeventeeuth Ward in 1847-48. He came to Peekskill in 1850, and purchased of Philip Van Cortlandt the old Van Cortlandt homestead, a 406 HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY. place of great historic interest. Oa that place he is now passing the evening of his days in calm retire-ment. He married Mary A., daughter of Albert Canfield. Their ten children are Charles F., Episco-pal Bishop of Missouri; James H., of the firm of Sax & Robertson, New York; Elizabeth, wife of Joseph Dixon, of St. Louis; Amelia, wife of Bishop Cyrus D. Foss, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and now residing in Minneapolis; Emily R., wife of William D. Southard; Mary, wife of Robert Wilson, of St.