Multiple groups of
Native Americans lived around what is now known as Dobbs Ferry since at least 4500 BC. The most recent tribe who claimed territory of the area are the
Wecquaesgeek, maintaining villages until the 1600s. There is a conflicting version of this history that is widely disseminated, which gives a prominent role to one Jeremiah Dobbs, but this has been debunked by recent careful research. There was a Jeremiah Dobbs among John's descendants, but there is no evidence he played any important role in the ferry. Dobbs Ferry played a vital role in the
American Revolutionary War. The position of the village opposite the northernmost end of
the Palisades gave it importance during the war. The region was repeatedly raided by
camp followers of each army; the British army made Dobbs Ferry a
rendezvous, after the
Battle of White Plains in November 1776, and the continental division under General
Benjamin Lincoln was here at the end of January 1777. Mary Sneden and all but one of her sons were Tories (Robert Sneden Senior died before the war). Patriots on the west bank ordered the Tory Snedens to cease their involvement with the ferry because they were aiding the British cause. One son, Robert Sneden, sided with the rebels and so operation and eventually ownership of the ferry fell to him. In July and August 1781,
Continental Army troops commanded by General
George Washington were encamped in Dobbs Ferry and neighboring localities, alongside allied French forces under the command of the
Comte de Rochambeau. The extensive campsite that stretched for miles became known as Philipsburg Encampment as the land belonged to the massive colonial landholding,
Philipsburg Manor.
Earthworks and a
fort, commanding the Hudson ferry, were built by the American side. A large British army controlled
Manhattan at the time, and Washington chose the Dobbs Ferry area for encampment because he hoped to probe for weaknesses in the British defenses, just to the south. But on August 14, 1781, a communication was received from French Admiral
Comte de Grasse in the
West Indies, which caused Washington to change his strategy. De Grasse's communication, which advocated a joint land and sea attack against the British in
Virginia, convinced Washington to risk a march of more than to the
Chesapeake region of Virginia. Washington's new strategy, adopted and designed in mid-August 1781, at the encampment of the allied armies, would win the war. The allied armies were ordered to break camp on August 19, 1781: on that date the Americans took the first steps of their march to Virginia along present-day Ashford Avenue and Broadway, en route to victory over
General Cornwallis at the
Siege of Yorktown and to victory in the Revolutionary War. The village was originally incorporated in 1873 as
Greenburgh, but the name was changed to Dobbs Ferry in 1882. The current local government of Dobbs Ferry is headed by Mayor Vincent Rossillo, a Democrat, who was elected in November 2019. The
Estherwood and Carriage House,
Hyatt-Livingston House,
South Presbyterian Church, and
United States Post Office are listed on the
National Register of Historic Places. ==Demographics==