150 Years Ago (June 1873)
A Yonkers police officer came to Cold Spring on a Sunday in search of Mathew Fitzpatrick, a former resident who had been staying with his sister in the village. He had last been seen the morning before at the post office with his daughter, Minnie. The officer said that Fitzpatrick’s wife, Ellen, had been found dead in the couple’s rented home in Yonkers on Saturday night. The Cold Spring Recorder expressed surprise, noting that while the couple had sometimes been heard quarreling while they ran a Main Street saloon in the village, “the impression was generally made that Mathew was the ‘weaker vessel’ from the fact that the woman usually managed to have her way in everything.” That included banishing her sickly elder stepdaughter, Maggie, to the home of an aunt on Kemble Avenue, where she had died of consumption. On Monday morning, Fitzpatrick turned himself in and confessed that he had strangled his wife a week earlier and gone in and out of the house for four days with her corpse on the bed.
Two years after its first appearance, the traveling show Washburn’s Last Sensation returned to Town Hall. Its 23 performers included Native Americans and members of the Washburn family.
Martin Ward, the captain of a canal boat, died from an aneurysm while anchored opposite Cold Spring.
The Board of Trustees ordered the removal of fences and porches that extended onto the north sidewalk on Main Street from Fair Street to Pindar’s saloon.
Main Street was in a cloud of dust for an hour or more while the mules, horses and wagons of O’Brien’s Circus drove noisily to the river road on their way to Matteawan [Beacon] for two performances that same day.
After the propeller boat John W. Harring, loaded with quicklime and bound for Poughkeepsie, left the Cold Spring dock, a fire was discovered in the hold. It was supposed that water came in contact with the lime. About 50 damaged barrels had to be thrown into the river.
The Recorder noted with some relief that Patrick Duffy’s rowdy saloon on North Market Street had relocated to Dutchess County.
The Saratoga Express broke an axle near Cold Spring; when the brakes were applied, it sent passengers flying. A girl broke her ankle and a man bruised his hand.
J.C. Bates received a patent for his window ventilator. The Recorder noted that it was unusual because most local patents were granted to the West Point Foundry, “some for the purpose of destroying human life.”
The streets were thronged with spectators for a Wednesday night pyrotechnics display over West Point, with President Ulysses Grant, Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman and War Secretary William Belknap among the visitors at the academy.
A two-horse wagon equipped with two water casks and a distributor sprinkled Main Street from the dock to Fountain Head to keep down the dust. The Village Board was making arrangements to purchase a sprinkler that would wet a track 12 feet wide and allow the waterman to reach the edge of the gutters.
Mr. Rumpf, while walking home from a late train on a Thursday night, was hit by a horse and wagon and run over while crossing Main Street at High Street but not seriously injured.
Joshua Knapp, who was born in Cold Spring but moved as a child with his parents to Illinois, graduated from West Point ranked No. 14 in his class of 41.
A vessel stopped at the dock with a load of pineapples.
Henry Matthews opened an ice cream restaurant at the corner of Main and Stone streets with strawberry, vanilla and lemon flavors. He also sold bottled soda, root beer, candies, nuts, cigars and tobacco.
125 Years Ago (June 1898)
The Recorder reminded readers that, under state law, “fowls of any kind, when beyond the limits of the owner’s property, can be treated as wild game and shot or killed.”
Capt. George Wise said that while he and his crew were loading wood at the furnace dock, a 5-foot copperhead with a head the size of a fist crawled out of the pile.
Sgt. Hamilton Fish II, 24, who had volunteered to fight with Teddy Roosevelt’s “Rough Riders” to liberate Cuba from Spain, was killed in action on June 24 while leading his men up a hill at Las Guasimas. The soldiers were ambushed and Fish, near the head of the column, was shot in the chest. According to Roosevelt, Fish sat against a tree and died. His remains were brought to Garrison and interred in the family plot at St. Philip’s Church.
A bicyclist racing down Main Street who lost his seat steered into a gutter near Chestnut Street and grabbed a utility pole to stop himself.
S.L. Barriett, an electrician, demonstrated a 1,000-candle-power light at the corner of Main and Chestnut for the Village Board, and observers noted they could read their watches while located as far away as Paulding Avenue. At its next meeting, the board discussed giving Barriett a five-year franchise to build an electric plant, in return for his promise to provide streetlight service each night until midnight. Barriett said the lowest price he could offer was $60 annually for each of 30 lights. The board president, Charles Miller, said that he felt taxpayers should be consulted before spending $1,800 [$66,000 today] and instructed the clerk to send a letter to every resident with a reply postcard.
The board discussed at length whether to pay Officer McCaffrey a salary. He had been volunteering his services for two years while keeping fees for licenses, which amounted to about $25 a year. McCaffrey said he was “tired of working for glory” and suggested a salary of $25 per month [about $900], to which the board agreed.
Charles Pelham Jr. won a 22-mile bicycle race from Main and Garden streets, along the river road to Matteawan [Beacon], through Fishkill Village and finishing in the village at Chestnut and Paulding, in one hour and 10 minutes.
The cadets at West Point, using 8-inch rifles and 185-pound projectiles, were supposed to fire at a mountain target on the west side of the river but somehow three errant shots exploded in Cold Spring. No injuries were reported.
The Recorder issued a correction to an earlier report that a former resident, John Goff, had died. Goff had written from Newark to say he never felt better.
Thomas Austin, whom The Recorder noted “is very particular as to the care of his wearing apparel,” reported the loss of a pair of fine trousers from his laundry line.
After 15 years as rector, the Rev. Dr. Walter Thompson gave his farewell sermon at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Garrison. The congregation presented him with a silver loving cup lined with gold and gave Mrs. Thompson a silver tea set, both from Tiffany’s.
Hamilton Fish and his family returned to Garrison after two years in Europe.
The Cold Spring Village Improvement Association began spraying the elms.
William Brown, known as Oklahoma Bill, was “giving entertainments” in a tent at Sandy Landing, according to The Recorder.
The Recorder quipped that the whistle of a locomotive could be heard up to 3,300 yards away, the bark of a dog from 1,800 yards, the roll of a drum from 1,000 yards, the chirp of a cricket from 800 yards and a call to get up in the morning up to about 3½ feet.
George Wright reported that a horse he purchased, when put before a plow, would only back up.
The West Point Foundry won a federal government contract to make 10,000 artillery shells.
Gen. Daniel Butterfield presented the National Bank of Cold Spring-on-Hudson with a painting that depicted him leading troops into battle during the Civil War.
The Board of Water Commissioners approved a 2-inch pipe from Orchard Street to Mountain Avenue and a 4-inch pipe from Cedar and Main to Gen. Butterfield’s estate [now the Haldane campus], including two fire hydrants.
The New York Central introduced a commuter ticket that would no longer need to be punched during each ride. Instead, riders would be issued a pass, with the color changing each month.
Henri Miller, the son of Charles Miller, the president of Cold Spring, died at his parent’s home at Main and Fair streets of diabetes, two days shy of his 21st birthday.
Machinery was installed in the Naylor building on West Street to make frosting for use by bakers, hotels and families. It was said the frosting was far better than that made with eggs and would keep for years without spoiling.
The state superintendent of public instruction ruled that James Bailey could serve as a county coroner and president of the Haldane school board without conflict.
Dr. J.E. Price, scheduled to give a lecture at the South Highland Methodist Episcopal Church on “noiseless forces” (sunbeams, gravity and will power), canceled due to illness.
To comply with a newly enacted state law, the Haldane superintendent prepared a student manual of patriotic exercises.
The northbound train, due in Cold Spring at 8:46 a.m., struck a cow north of the Breakneck tunnel.
Vredenburgh, the butcher, closed his shop to take a job at the state asylum at Matteawan [Beacon], which he said paid better.
100 Years Ago (June 1923)
Dorothy Andrews, supervisor of music at Haldane High School, directed a student production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pinafore and played the lead.
New York Lt. Gov. George Lunn and his wife traveled from Albany to spend two months at their summer home in Cold Spring.
75 Years Ago (June 1948)
The Garrison school board received only one bid to enlarge the school building and, because of an acute labor shortage, it was $33,000 more than the $70,000 authorized by the district. The school faced record enrollment in the fall, and board members discussed sending the seventh and eighth graders to Haldane.
Syl and Nora Merante took over management of the confectionary and luncheonette owned by Jean Lisikatos at 122 Main St., at the intersection with Garden Street, and changed the name to The Corner, open daily from 9 a.m. to midnight.
50 Years Ago (June 1973)
For the second summer in a row, Haldane varsity baseball players Jim Budney, Ralph Fleming, Phil Pellitteri and Terry Thorpe volunteered to manage Philipstown Little League teams.
By a vote of 399-342, Haldane voters approved a school budget that included a 7.62 percent tax hike, the smallest increase in more than a decade. Budget defeats had been a trend since 1969.
In Philipstown Softball League action, Pat Lahey of Jacks struck out the first 20 Geo. & Dees batters he faced before allowing a hit. One account deemed it “the greatest single-game pitching performance in the history of the P.S.L.”
David Gordon Jr. was appointed as the third headmaster of the Malcolm Gordon boarding school in Garrison. He succeeded his father, who was headmaster for 21 years, and his grandfather, who founded the school in 1927 and had the job for 25 years.
At the Gordon School commencement, Jeffrey Williams of Garrison was awarded the International Composition Prize. The contest was judged by Taylor Belcher, who had been the first boy to arrive at the school on the day it opened and in 1973 was appointed the U.S. ambassador to Peru.
Frank Milkovich was named principal of Haldane High School. He had taught science and chemistry in the district for 16 years.
25 Years Ago (June 1998)
Orphaned children from Russia visited Cold Spring on the first stop of a 10-day singing and dancing tour. Organized by Happy Families International, the visit was covered by a crew from Good Morning, America that met the group at the airport and filmed their show at Haldane. The children later performed in Fishkill, Kingston, Nyack and Brooklyn.
St. Joseph’s Chapel in Garrison held a Mass and pancake picnic to celebrate a century of worship. The site on Upper Station Road was purchased in 1871 and the church constructed about 20 years later. The organ was installed in 1894.
The Philipstown Players presented A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine at the Depot Theatre in Garrison, directed by Joel Goss and Brian McConnachie.
The Haldane boys’ tennis team finished 7-2, its best record since 1987.
A 25-year-old Cold Spring resident was found guilty of punching a Garrison man at the Downtown Bar on Christmas Day in 1996. The victim suffered a broken jaw.
After months of discussion, the Garrison School’s building committee presented its recommendations to address the district’s space problems, including the construction of a gym/auditorium; converting the current gym into a library; and building five middle-school classrooms. The plan would increase the footprint of the school by 70 percent and cost at least $5 million, it said.
Thomas Chefalo appealed to the state Board of Education to overturn the May election in which a write-in candidate won a seat on the Garrison school board. He charged that a billboard appeared on school property advocating the candidate and board members at the polls promoted his campaign.
Haldane High School said it planned to introduce varsity golf, boys’ lacrosse and girls’ field hockey during the 1998-99 school year.
About 3,000 people attended the annual Cold Spring Antique Dealers Association show at Mayor’s Park.
Following protests by parents, the Haldane superintendent reversed a decision to move an elementary teacher, Garry Hattersley, to a library position. Hattersley had taught at Haldane for 34 years.
