At about 1640 the Norwalk Indians sold land in the eastern part of Lewisboro to Daniel Patrick of Greenwich. In 1673 the Ponus and Onox Indians also sold land in the eastern part of Lewisboro to the people of Stamford.  The first settlers of the eastern portion of the present Town of Lewisboro are believed to be William Truesdale and Solomon Tuttle, who brought their families to what is now the hamlet of South Salem sometime before 1728.

The western portion of the Town followed a different  course of development.  It belonged to Cortlandt Manor which was granted to Stephanus Van Cortlandt by William III of England.  In 1732 the manor was divided among his heirs who gradually spread eastward from the Hudson River.  Individual families rented the farmland and eventually land was sold in and around Cross River.

The first town meeting was held on April 8, 1747.  Jacob Wales was Supervisor, Nathaniel Wiat was Clerk, David Webster was constable and James Wales was collector.

In 1747 the town was known as Salem.  Present day Lewisboro and North Salem were included.  A border dispute with the colony of Connecticut  which was supposed to put our boundary 20 miles from and parallel to the Hudson River was settled in 1683.  The difference of 1 3/4 miles of land along the western border of Connecticut all the way to the Massachusetts line is known as the Oblong.

In 1788 the New York State Legislature divided the lands of the Cortlandt Manor among several towns, one of which was Salem.   In 1790 Lewisboro took its present shape.  Officially the name was changed from Salem to South Salem in 1806.

After the Revolutionary war almost everything necessary for living was made in the South Salem Community - carriage shop, a chair maker, a silversmith, a toolmaker, a hatter, a soap maker, a traveling tailor and a shoe factory.  

The Presbyterian Church was founded in 1752 and St. John's Episcopal Church was built in 1855.  

In 1840 John Lewis, a descendant of  a South Salem  family who made his fortune on Wall Street, requested the town change its name to honor him.  He established the Lewis Fund which is used to purchase educational books for the South Salem Library and thus our Town of Lewisboro.  

In 1899, enabled by the New York State legislature, Lewisboro officials were for the first time elected for two years.  Lewisboro is erected and organized by state statute and derives its capacity and powers from the state legislature.

Lewisboro is governed by a Supervisor and four Councilpeople who comprise the Town Board. The Supervisor serves a two-year term and the Councilpeople each serve a four year term. The Town Clerk, Receiver of Taxes, Highway Superintendent and two Town Justices are also elected.

More detailed and additional information can be obtained from our history book: A History of the Town of Lewisboro, available at the South Salem Library, Main Street, South Salem, NY.