Editor’s note: Beacon was created in 1913 from Matteawan and Fishkill Landing.
150 Years Ago (September 1874)
The congregation at the Reformed Church at Fishkill Landing was startled during a Sunday service by a loud crash. A prop holding up a beam had broken, causing the floor to suddenly drop several inches.
Services at the Methodist Episcopal Church in Fishkill Landing were suspended while the Rev. Millard recovered after being thrown from a wagon.
According to The Cold Spring Recorder, a Black man at the Fishkill Landing depot accused of “insulting a white lady” — no specifics were provided — ran away after her husband struck him repeatedly in the head with an umbrella.
John Rooney, a laborer in Dutchess Junction, died of a broken neck after falling down the hatchway of a canal boat.
The Fishkill Standard reported that “there are ladies and gentlemen in this village who resort to Rozell’s slaughterhouse and swallow blood, fresh from the animal, with as much relish as they would a glass of soda water.”
Thomas Sproas, while clearing the base of a new chimney at the Fishkill Iron Works, was seriously injured by a brick that fell from 60 feet overhead.
John McGlinn of Fishkill Landing was sent to the Albany penitentiary for a year after stealing clothing and a revolver from Barnum’s traveling stationery wagon while it was parked inside Flannery’s stables.
A schooner captained by Mr. Flaherty of Fishkill Landing and carrying a load of bricks collided with a tugboat and sank near the Breakneck tunnel.
A stowaway on the milk train was killed when he attempted to disembark while it passed through Fishkill Landing.
After the departure of a traveler from her Fishkill Landing saloon, Mrs. Traver discovered a $70 gold watch [about $1,900 today] missing from the bureau in her bedroom.
The tide overflowed Long Dock and washed away lumber for repairs to the trestle work at Dutchess Junction. At the same time, workmen were building a 2-foot stone wall to protect the roadbed from the tide.
125 Years Ago (September 1899)
Abigail Connors, 75, of Moore’s Mills, survived a leap from a train as it left Dutchess Junction. When Connors realized she had missed her stop, she grabbed her bag, opened the door and jumped. A passenger said that, after she hit the ground, she stood up, brushed off her clothes and started walking toward the station.
Two doctors who examined William Dean, a prominent lawyer in Fishkill Landing, declared him insane. The next morning, on a ruse, friends invited Dean on an excursion to Poughkeepsie. After arriving, the group dispersed, saying they would meet later, leaving Dean and a friend who happened to be an attendant at the Hudson River State Hospital to walk up Washington Street. When Dean spotted a waiting hospital taxi, he realized what was up and took refuge in a lawyer’s storefront. In court, he demanded to be examined by two new doctors, who also found him insane.
On Labor Day, more than 2,000 cars were transported across the river by the ferry. At one point, 724 cars were waiting in Newburgh.
Stanley Fowler, 65, a newspaper editor from Portsmouth, Virginia, came to Matteawan in pursuit of his 35-year-old wife and their 7-year-old son, who had been missing for 10 days. He went before a judge to obtain custody, but before the papers could be served, they disappeared again.
A judge released Gustave Weinberg from the Matteawan asylum after doctors determined he was sane. Weinberg had been committed after he relentlessly challenged a New York City minister to a duel on the Palisades, claiming he had killed Weinberg’s mother.
Arthur Gordon, a brickyard laborer, was struck by a southbound express train going 50 mph but suffered only a broken collarbone.
George Newcomer, a wealthy Kentucky brewer, came to Fishkill Landing in search of his 17-year-old sister, whom he found performing under a fake name with the chorus line of a traveling troupe. When he spotted her during the first act at the Peattie Academy, Newcomer left his box seat to confront the troupe manager. By the time Newcomer could get a court order for his sister to be detained, she had left with the company for Hudson. Newcomer said he had spent $1,700 [$65,000] trying to bring her home.
Telazel Gedney, who had come from New York City to Fishkill Landing to comfort the parents of her close friend, Georgia Harpel, who had died a few weeks earlier, was fatally burned in her rented room when an oil lamp overturned and ignited her clothing. Gedney had postponed her wedding because Harpel was set to be her maid of honor; her fiancé was waiting to meet her at West Point.
100 Years Ago (September 1924)
Irving Getter, 17, of New York City, who had been camping near Dutchess Junction, died of a fractured skull after being thrown from a New York Fruit Co. truck. He and 15 others were riding to Beacon when the side rail broke while the truck passed a taxi on Howland Avenue and the passengers were ejected.
Louis Fabiano died after an explosion at the Chiarella & Co. fireworks factory at the foot of Mount Beacon. Another employee, Anthony Ragno, and Joseph Chiarella, the owner, were badly burned. Fabiano was dividing powder when a spark, apparently from his iron scoop, ignited the pile, causing a blast that ignited 1,000 pounds of fireworks. Despite objections by neighbors, Chiarella said he would rebuild.
The Rev. John MacCulloch, pastor of the First Baptist Church, traveled to Indiana, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, to speak at a Labor Day rally of the Ku Klux Klan. He insisted he was not a Klansman but, in a letter written to a local paper after his return, praised its members for their “good behavior and law-abiding spirit” — unlike what he saw in Beacon, which allowed parades and drinking on Sunday.
The Poughkeepsie Eagle-News praised Beacon for its defense of “men’s rights” after a barbershop opened that banned women and Miss Beacon organizers launched a contest to crown Mr. Beacon.
After 20 years, the Chanier Club fife-and-drum corps disbanded. It had been founded by Samuel Beskin, who later became mayor, and named for Lewis Stuyvesant Chanier, a county supervisor who would become lieutenant governor. The club could not recover after losing many members to military service.
About 2,000 people attended the Sept. 15 opening of the Castle Point Hospital in Chelsea for World War veterans with tuberculosis. It had a capacity of 444 beds and more than 350 employees, including many Beacon residents. The ceremony included addresses by Beacon Mayor Marcus MacLaughlin, Rep. Hamilton Fish III and Sen. Royal Copeland. The hospital had been planned for Sullivan County but Fish fought to get it into his district.
Surveys began for a 3½-mile, 18-foot-wide concrete road to Wappingers Falls.
A 2-year-old girl and her 7-month-old brother were treated by Dr. Bolton after being bitten by rats overnight in their beds.
The bookkeeper, timekeeper and chief clerk for the New York Central Railroad office in Beacon were arrested for embezzling $231 [$4,200] by adding a fictitious name to the payroll.
Capt. Theodore Peiser, a “converted Hebrew,” was named to lead the Salvation Army chapter.
The U.S. Tariff Commission announced it would send an agent from Washington, D.C., to visit every straw hat factory in Beacon. Rep. Hamilton Fish III was pushing for more protective tariffs for the industry.
Grace Seeley, 29, who had been missing for 27 years, was located by her brother, Joseph Seeley, in Newburgh. Grace had been blinded at age 2 when scratched in the eye by a kitten and sent to an institution in Westchester County, where her siblings lost touch with her. She was living with a woman described as “a religious fanatic” who did not let her outside without a veil. After a state inspector removed Grace from the home, her brother read about the case and investigated.
75 Years Ago (September 1949)
A judge ruled that a firm hired to reappraise industrial properties had greatly overvalued the Groveville furniture factory, raising its assessment from $150,000 [$2 million] to $490,100 [$6.5 million]. He reduced it to $293,200.
The school board approved the purchase of 12 acres on Liberty Street for $7,200 [$95,000] to build an elementary school to replace the Spring Street school.
When a patrolman responded to a fender-bender near a tavern on Beekman Street, the driver at fault argued with him. When the officer arrived home at midnight after completing his shift, he discovered the driver had followed him to continue the argument. Backup arrived, and the driver sped away; after crashing into a telephone pole on South Avenue, he was arrested on foot a few blocks away and punched three officers at the station while being booked. The driver was charged with reckless driving, driving without a license, assault, disorderly conduct, driving without headlights, speeding and leaving the scene of an accident.
Beacon had its first cases of polio of the year when an 18-month-old girl and a young man were diagnosed.
50 Years Ago (September 1974)
The Highland Hospital accepted a bid of $369,831 [$2.4 million] for a 3,400-square-foot addition adjacent to the emergency room.
A judge sentenced a South Avenue woman to five years of probation after she pleaded guilty to stealing from the Beacon Housing Authority, where she worked. She admitted taking $2,000 [$13,000], although the judge noted that the BHA said $62,000 [$400,000] was missing. Her attorney said she was “not the only one involved.” The judge said the defendant did not appear to have raised her standard of living by $62,000 but wondered if she had hidden the rest of the money.
The Castle Point Hospital celebrated its 50th anniversary. Officials said one of its proudest moments was when 56 wounded South Vietnamese soldiers arrived for treatment in 1965, a few months after Rep. Joseph Resnick fought to keep the hospital open, and John Battle of Beacon, a disabled World War II veteran, organized a protest march.
Police were investigating three suspicious fires over a 20-hour period at a rooming house at the corner of Wolcott and Sargent avenues. The police chief noted there had also been two recent fires at the rooming house next door.
The city awarded a $24,375 [$156,000] contract to a Poughkeepsie wrecking company to demolish 15 buildings on Beekman, Ferry and Beacon streets and Wolcott Avenue in the Urban Renewal Project 1 Area.
25 Years Ago (September 1999)
The Beacon Business Association hosted a two-day Hudson River Arts Festival on the east end of Main Street. It had been held for three years at the waterfront.
Denise VanBuren of the Daughters of the American Revolution and Mayor Clara Lou Gould unveiled a bust of George Washington at the intersection of Teller and Wolcott avenues. The original bust, cast for George Washington University, had been copied for purchase through Mount Vernon to mark the 200th anniversary of his death. VanBuren, now the president of the Beacon Historical Society, noted that officials told the DAR in 1999 that the monument would need to be shifted if the traffic island was ever removed, which is happening now.
Two trucks left for the Frederik Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, Michigan, from the Tallix foundry with sections of bronze reproductions of Leonardo da Vinci’s Il Cavallo. The first casting had been unveiled earlier in the month in Milan, Italy.
The City Council applied for a state grant to bury utility lines along a half-mile of Route 9D between Spring Valley and Prospect streets. Residents would need to pay about $600 [$1,100] to have the lines buried from the street to their homes.
The city lost power for 36 hours during Tropical Storm Floyd. The worst flooding was along Fishkill Avenue and in the Jessen Park Development off DePuyster Avenue, said Randy Casale, the highway superintendent. Firefighter Dan Riley suffered a broken shoulder when he was hit by a falling tree limb.
In her first marathon, Jennifer Gardner, 27, of Beacon, won the women’s title in the 21st annual Dutchess County Classic in 3:27.29.
Beacon removed the name of Route 9D from Main Street south to the city line, so that the stretch would be known only as Wolcott Avenue to make things easier for emergency dispatchers. The county said it planned to renumber all properties along Route 9D between the Putnam-Dutchess line and Poughkeepsie but that each municipality could name the road whatever it wanted.
Dog warden Gene Murphy was honored for 30 years of service.
Police were searching for a man who broke into a 52-year-old woman’s home on Commerce Street and attempted to sexually assault her. A neighbor came to her aid, and the suspect fled.
Beacon residents were said by the Poughkeepsie Journal to be puzzled by a new telephone exchange — the first three of the seven digits — from Bell Atlantic. The 831 and 838 exchanges were full so new numbers used 440.
Images courtesy Beacon Historical Society
