[J. Thomas Scharf (1886)] Joel Purdy was engaged in business in New York for many years and amassed a competence, after which he returned to his native town and erected the fine residence above mentioned; also fac-tory and store buildings at Croton Falls, where his son is engaged iu mercantile life. He has been and is an active man in the community, was one of the orig-inal organizers of the Baptist Church and occupies a prominent official position therein. He is also a large owner of real estate in the vicinity-There was an-other Purdy family in early Salem — that of Judge Ebenezer Purdy, prominently mentioned in connec-tion with town and academical interests. This was a separate and distinct family, having no connection, so far as is known, with the same-named branches men-tioned. It has long been known that Harvey Birch, the hero of Fenimore Cooper's novel of " The Spy," was a real personage, and that his true name was Enoch Crosby, and a most accurate description of the man and his exploits was made in an address delivered be-fore the Westchester County Historical Society, at Peekskill, on January 21, 1879, by Mr. Joseph Bar-rett, who confirmed his place in history. The facts were mainly derived from ex-Chief Justice John Jay, to whom Cooper was also indebted for the sketch which he developed into the romantic figure of " The Spy." Following Mr.