Curious BHS Student Digs Into Origin Of Lake Tonetta's Name

BREWSTER, NY — A lifeguard at Lake Tonetta in the summers, Brewster High School junior Roderick Cassidy and his friends often sat on the beach and talked about the folklore of how the lake got its name.

"For a long time the lake was called Tone’s Pond. There’s even a Tone’s Pond sign at the lake. It was suggested that the lake was named after an enslaved black man named Tone and his wife Etta – Tonetta," Cassidy said.

The pandemic-era plaque came about when BHS graduate Andrew DiFabbio got the ball rolling back in 2020 with the support of Michele Gosh, Nicole Hoerler, and Tom Mullane.

"He was an intern with the Southeast Town Historian’s Office and worked on topics including black history and census data," Brewster schools spokesperson Jessica Medoff told Patch. "Mullane and Rob Gallacher, then with the history department, had their student groups including Model UN, Semper Fi and Habitat for Humanity fundraise enough money to put up the marker."

Curious, Cassidy decided to dig further into the history.

Here’s what he concluded: Tone was likely promised his freedom by Southeast resident John Waring in exchange for his service in the Revolutionary War.

When he reviewed pension files of Revolutionary War service members with the National Archives, the name Anthony Waring jumped off the page. Cassidy had a “light bulb” moment. Could Tone be a nickname for Anthony? Perhaps Tone had served in the Revolution under his enslaver’s last name Waring?

According to the records, none of Waring’s children were named Anthony.

Based on the numerous pages in the pension file, it is clear that a man named Anthony Waring initiated the pension process following his service, Cassidy said.

Continuing to dig through the records, Cassidy found that Anthony Waring’s wife Mahettable — possibly Etta — pursued a widow’s pension following Anthony’s death.

Records for the widow’s pension revealed testimony from acquaintances and neighbors that confirmed that Anthony and Etta had lived as man and wife as early as 1777 and lived in “the old homestead,” near the Warings which was a tenant farm that “ran west to what was then called Waring’s Pond and now known as Lake Tonetta.” It was more generally known as “Tone’s Pond.”

Cassidy also found a document in which Mahettable Waring, 97, swore an oath that she and Anthony were married about 1773, had six children and that Anthony served in the Continental Army.

“The research was hard because there wasn’t anything directly stating that Anthony was Tone and the records are really hard to read,” explained Cassidy, “Lots of the writing is either illegible or poorly copied, so I was piecing clues together.”

But Cassidy was on a roll and found even more on Tone’s war experience: He was a private in General George Washington’s Corps of Sappers and Miners and as such was engaged in cutting away the pickets at the patriots' siege of the Battle of Yorktown. He also reported that he was at the capture of General Charles Lord Cornwallis, marking the American victory in the War for Independence.

He was honorably discharged after three years of service from “old age and lameness.” He later applied for a pension and received a certificate for a pension of eight dollars per month which he received until his death and his widow received for years after.

The last document of note he found was a court clerk’s form in which Anthony is referred to by his race as a Black Revolutionary War Veteran — which for him connected the dots to the man enslaved by John Waring.

Cassidy also found local newspaper archives documenting Tone and Etta’s descendants living in Southeast and Brewster for several generations. In fact, many were among the earliest free Black families to purchase property in the Town of Southeast.

“Throughout history there are people — especially people of color — who are erased with time,” said Cassidy, “It is important to preserve local history because without it we lose our history as a society.”

Cassidy’s hope is to post his research at the entrance of Lake Tonetta so that those who visit the lake can know more of the story of Tone and Etta, some of the first black property owners in Putnam County.