Editor’s note: Beacon was created in 1913 from Matteawan and Fishkill Landing.
150 Years Ago (April 1874)
While Willie Van Wyck was going downhill on a trip to Newburgh, the bolts holding the tongue of his wagon came loose. He was not injured but lost his load of eggs.
Charles Wood, the school tax collector for Glenham, sold 1,000 yards of cloth to satisfy a $2,600 judgment [about $71,000 today] against a textile firm.
H.M. Swift of Fishkill Landing, who planned to move to a Delaware farm, put 100 residential lots at the foot of Mount Beacon on the market.
After his younger brother was bitten by a dog, Robert McKee of Fishkill Landing loaded both barrels of a borrowed shotgun. He killed the stray with the content of one barrel, but when he fired the second, the barrel exploded and tore off two fingers of his left hand.
Ambrose Hide traded a silver hunting case he stole in Fishkill Landing for a pair of pants and a vest in Cold Spring. After he was sentenced to 30 days in the county jail, his brother paid for the clothing.
Mrs. Calhoun of Fishkill Landing fell on a sidewalk and broke her hip. She was not expected to survive.
125 Years Ago (April 1899)
Crockett’s Comedians, a troupe from the Davy Crockett Hose and Ladder Co. of Poughkeepsie, performed at Peattle’s Opera House in Matteawan to benefit the Beacon Engine Co.
Samuel McHenry of Cold Spring survived a 40-foot fall from the New England Railroad bridge near Matteawan with scratches.
The Rev. Dr. C.W. Fritz retired after serving nearly 30 years as pastor of the Reformed Church in Fishkill Landing. The vestry offered to give him a long vacation instead, but he declined.
A judge ordered the Matteawan Board of Trustees to show why it had not reappointed Elijah Moshier as police chief. Moshier noted that, as a military veteran, he could not be removed without cause.
After the Bridgeport, Connecticut, police sent out an alert that it was looking for a murder suspect using a bay horse pulling a runabout buggy with bicycle tires, the chief in Matteawan responded with a telegram saying a man named Burlison was visiting with a bay horse and runabout made by Hall & Godfrey of Bridgeport. When the detectives dismissed the report, they were “ridiculed by some of the very clever New York papers” for not making an arrest, according to the New Haven Evening Register — but, as it turned out, the chief suspect was a female physician named Guilford who was later caught and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
The Southern Dutchess Water Co. secured a shed in the Fishkill mountains for a planned reservoir.
Five “tramps” who boarded an express train at Poughkeepsie robbed two men of their expensive clothes and watches before throwing one victim from the train when he fought back. The other victim said the bandits triggered the air brakes in the New Hamburg tunnel to escape.
A geologic survey of clay deposits in the lower Hudson Valley concluded that 35 million cubic yards remained, enough to produce 30 billion bricks. The brickyards were making 900 million bricks annually and so could continue for at least 30 years.
100 Years Ago (April 1924)
A vandal did more than $1,000 [$18,000] in damage to the arcade, casino, hotel and cottages on Mount Beacon. The property was only guarded when the incline railway was in operation.
After a battle with “organization” Republicans, independent Republicans won 12 of the 16 seats on the party’s city committee.
Because of a lack of rain, the Mount Beacon reservoir was 9½ feet below the spillway, with only enough water to supply the city for four weeks.
A Brockway woman was killed while collecting coal on the tracks when she stepped out of the way of a southbound freight and was hit by a southbound passenger train.
Four boys were rescued by Beacon police officers and a state trooper after their canoe capsized in the Hudson River. Two were unconscious when pulled from the water but expected to recover.
A worker at McGrath’s brickyard was mortally wounded following a dispute. According to police, Clarence Parker sampled moonshine offered by his neighbor, Perry King, but declared it “no good” and threw it to the floor. King asked Parker to leave, but when he returned, two shots were heard.
Police arrested a Dutchess Junction resident, Edward Chapel, on charges that he stabbed his neighbor. According to investigators, Chapel had beaten his wife over the head with a chair and she fled next door. She left with her husband but Chapel later returned, called the neighbor outside and slashed him across the abdomen.
Burglars took $75 [$1,370] from the poor boxes at St. John’s Church. Police suspected teenagers.
The Beacon Police Department purchased six tear-gas canisters for use in standoffs.
An Overlook Avenue woman gave birth to twin girls joined at the hip “not unlike the famous Siamese twins,” according to a news account. The babies were stillborn and the mother, 42, died a week later.
75 Years Ago (April 1949)
In an interview with the Poughkeepsie Journal, Elmer Steele recalled his days pitching in the semipro Hudson River Base Ball League at the turn of the century. He had moved to Fishkill Landing as a boy and became a professional at age 14, playing for teams in Newburgh and Poughkeepsie. Steele pitched in the major leagues from 1907 to 1911 for the Boston Americans/Red Sox, Pittsburgh Pirates and Brooklyn Dodgers.
More than 1,500 people turned out for the opening of a $750,000 [$10 million] plant in Beacon for the Cold Spring Dyeing & Finishing Co. The firm renovated the former Beebe factory at Main and Ackerman streets.
A burglar stole a jar from the Mi-Ro’s tavern on Main Street that contained $60 to $70 [$800 to $900] in pocket change patrons had been saving for a party.
A man accused of stealing an electric mixer, silverware, an electric train, an electric saw and a coat from a home in Poughkeepsie said he fenced the mixer at a Beacon tavern.
Emmadine Farms told police that one of its green milk trucks was stolen at about 6 a.m. on North Cedar Street. It was still missing at noon.
Two teenagers and a 19-year-old man pleaded guilty to stealing at various times from the poor box at St. John’s Church.
The Beacon school district was set to receive $209,000 [$2.7 million] in state aid, or 18 percent more than the previous year.
Three men throwing rocks into the windows of a home on Monell Avenue fled when police showed up, so Patrolman Stella fired two shots into the air. One suspect tripped and fell, injuring his hand; the other surrendered; and the third was captured. Each was fined $15 [$200].
A team from the Castle Point Veterans’ hospital won the Beacon dartball league. [Dartball uses a board with a pattern that resembles a baseball diamond.]
Three hours after a 5-year-old Green Street girl went missing, a police officer found her unharmed at about 10 p.m., a block from her home inside a Sunday School classroom at the Union Church.
50 Years Ago (April 1974)
Dr. Herman Snow, director of the Hudson River State Hospital, expressed confidence that the transfer of the 17 remaining mentally disabled patients from the Beacon State Institute to a medical facility in Poughkeepsie would go smoothly. A state court ordered the move, saying the men could not be imprisoned unless they were charged with a crime.
Burglars stole the change from 10 countertop jukeboxes at the Four Corners Diner at 24 Fishkill Ave.
Freda Casner, executive director of the Dutchess County Youth Board, expressed dismay that a funding request for $12,400 [$79,000] to launch a Spanish Center for teens in Beacon was delayed. She hoped a center would prevent the skirmishes with police that had occurred the previous summer.
Mrs. J. Lewis Bolton, the wife of a former Beacon mayor, was attempting to save Eustatia, a home at 12 Monell Place built in the style of Andrew Jackson Downing that she believed had been designed by two of his younger partners. Its first owners in 1867 were Downing’s widow, Caroline, and her second husband, Judge John Monell. Bolton feared it would be lost to urban renewal. [In 1979 the home was added to the National Register of Historic Places.]
Mayor Robert Cahill said the state’s estimate that federally mandated repairs to the city incinerator would cost $1 million was off by $1.5 million. Beacon and other cities had been ordered to meet new clean-air standards.
A contingent of residents traveled to Poughkeepsie to protest a threat by Dutchess County Executive William Bartles to veto a measure that froze the salaries of county officials during their terms in office. When elected in 1971, Bartles won every municipality in the county except Beacon.
The school board president said that, while the city population might top 16,000 by 1990, it would never reach the “potential” 25,900 residents mentioned in the master plan because that would require filling every available space with the maximum number of people.
25 Years Ago (April 1999)
In anticipation of the millennium, students at Sargent Elementary sealed a time capsule to be opened in 2024 into the cornerstone of a new classroom wing. It included a copy of the school newspaper and The New York Times, a recipe and a list of the students’ favorite movies and songs.
Tom Rednour published 250 copies of Songs by Sinatra, an alphabetical reference guide to Frank Sinatra’s commercially released songs. Rednour noted that he left out EPs, foreign releases and songs performed on the radio to keep the book under 300 pages.
Beacon police reported that, in the two years since the City Council passed a noise ordinance, officers had confiscated 22 boom boxes, although most had been returned.
A 25-year-old Beacon man was arrested for stealing a bicycle so he could get to a court hearing in Newburgh, where he faced a fraud charge.
Christina Dahl, who lived in Beacon, scored the first two goals of her varsity soccer career to lead Lourdes over her hometown school, 3-2.
Peter Forman, who had been the City of Beacon attorney, was sworn in as a judge for the Dutchess County Family Court.
Ten Beacon High School students met with teachers and administrators to discuss how to help their classmates process the killing of 12 students and a teacher by two gunmen at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.
The Glynwood Center in Philipstown invited urban and arts professionals from Japan, Wales and the U.S. to spend 2½ days in Beacon and make recommendations. They suggested the city hone its message for tourists, especially with the arrival of Dia:Beacon. “No message, no people come,” said Masara Maeno of the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music.
Joe Riley, a Beacon pet-shop owner who held the novice heavyweight title in the New York State Golden Gloves, was training at Jim Frederick’s Five-Star Boxing on Mead Avenue to qualify for the national competition.
Gov. George Pataki, during an Earth Day news conference at Long Dock Park, announced a $1 million, 1.7-mile trail that would link a chain of projects. As part of an environmental settlement, Central Hudson had agreed to build a 10-foot paved walkway from Long Dock to Dennings Point. After the event, a fisherman presented Pataki with a 7-pound roe shad.
