150 Years Ago (February 1875)
Amid a water shortage because of frozen pipes, The Cold Spring Recorder noted that many residents had tubs and cisterns positioned to catch rainwater. But because most of the tin leaders were also frozen, “drainage from the roofs spirited forth in every direction but that of the receptacles, deluging doorways and basements, streaming down the clapboards and into the windows, overflowing the gutters to mimic Niagaras, to the distress of everyone who put a head from a window or porchless door.”
The Main Street gutter clogged and “the drainage of the whole north part of the village from Orchard Street down to that point went pouring down Garden Street for an hour or two until Mr. Myers, the mason, with a snow shovel, and an eye to the public weal, removed the snow dam.”
The Total Abstinence Society of Cold Spring encouraged residents to sign and return a temperance pledge left with each household.
Merritt’s cottages on Garden Street were ready for occupants, ideally men with small families.
As he prepared at 3 a.m. on a Saturday to make his rounds, Abner Merritt heard a noise in the Nelsonville hennery of his employer, Mr. Organ. Upon investigation, the milkman found 16 hens and four turkeys dead and a wild cat chasing the few survivors. Before he could get his gun, the cat escaped through a hole in the roof.
The Cold Spring Library Association held its fifth annual Literary Entertainment in the basement of the Reformed Church, including a debate on the question, “Resolved: That the reading of works of fiction is detrimental to the human race.” In an unsigned letter to The Recorder, one resident noted the Bible itself “partakes largely of the imaginative,” which must have value because that’s how God decided to do it.
The Highland Falls newspaper complained that Garrison was sending over its “surplus tramps” on the free ferry. Five newly disembarked men reported to the poor master just in time to be sent back on the last boat. “If the wily Garrisons attempt to play such a game again, our people will ‘go for’ them and their unwelcome boarders, too,” the paper warned.
The roof and woodwork of the stone tower in the conservatory of F.P. James, Esq., burned overnight. The plants and flowers in the main building were not damaged but three dogs restrained in the tower perished. The blaze was thought to have started when the gardener stepped away from a fire he kept going to make steam and prevent the intense cold from injuring the plants.
A wagon driven by Allen Owen speeding down Main Street with a load of wood collided at Furnace Street with a wagon driven by Milton Perry, who had a load of charcoal.
An ear trumpet that Peter Rose lost in the village was found and returned by Phil Riley of the Pacific Hotel.
In a letter to The Recorder, Alfred Webb recalled how, during the gold rush in California, he and Robert McKane created the Cold Spring Exploring Co. After the partners returned to New York two years later with $9,000 [about $365,000 today], Webb said McKane cut him out. When Webb discovered 25 years later that McKane was running for mayor in Scranton, Pennsylvania, he made a modest demand of the candidate for $500 [$14,000] “if he did not want the statement of our affairs published.” McKane told the Scranton Daily Times that he was being blackmailed but left out “everything about my claim” and “abused me in a shameful way,” Webb said.
125 Years Ago (February 1900)
The Recorder, while dismissing concerns that football was too dangerous because 11 players had died in the U.S. during the previous season, noted that 35 hunters had been killed just in the Adirondacks during the same period.
Gen. Daniel Butterfield, a Cold Spring resident who was a member of the State Battlefields Monument Association, returned from an official visit to Gettysburg with a piece of a tree trunk scarred with shot and shell that had been varnished and affixed with a silver plate identifying it as a relic.
The Recorder offered that “Cold Spring streets on the first of the week have been like Putnam County politics — slippery.”
Spalding, the druggist, reported that the price of boric acid had risen from 18 cents to 53 cents [$15] because of the Boer War in South Africa.
John Donohue, the former Putnam County sheriff who resided at the Garrison Hotel, was gifted two sea turtles by a friend on Long Island. Donohue said he planned to host a dinner once he fattened them up.
During a minstrel show at Town Hall, the six kerosene foot lamps were knocked off the stage, triggering a rush for the exits. Fortunately, they did not break. The potential disaster promoted a call for electric lights.
Eva Owen, 22, died at the Parsonage Street home of her father, Abram Ireland, of consumption [tuberculosis].
Pettegrino Pacia, a 16-year-old native of Italy who lived with his parents in the Grove house in the Beverly cut south of Garrison, was struck and killed by a train on his way to work at King’s Quarry. He stepped out of the way of a northbound train and was hit by a southbound train.
William Turner, a Cold Spring native living in Georgia, passed the civil service exam to be a watchman at the U.S. Capitol.
Thieves stole every lead pipe from an unoccupied Philipstown mansion.
The Board of Trade surveyed women to see if there would be enough workers for a proposed woolen factory.
Michael Clune, proprietor of the Cold Spring Bottling Works, was in Michigan taking sulfur baths for his rheumatism.
George Biker of North Highlands, a Civil War veteran who had twice been wounded, in the leg and head, died at age 55. He enlisted soon after he turned 18 and fought in the Virginia battles of Brandy Station, Wilderness, Cold Harbor and Spotsylvania.
The Colored Jubilee Singers, featuring 8-year-old Little Mamie Diggs, performed medleys and plantation songs at the Methodist Church.
Dr. C.C. Longnecker, a former resident, visited the village and “proceeded to load up on knock-out drops” [chloral hydrate]. Because of the freezing weather, Officer McCaffrey deposited him in the Town Hall lockup.
A reporter for the Matteawan Journal observed an older woman at the Fishkill Landing [Beacon] station buying a ticket to Cold Spring. The agent told her the next train left at 1:42 p.m., but the woman said that she wanted to wait for the 4:15 p.m. train because that was the one she always took. “There must be some queer people in Cold Spring,” the reporter wrote.
The Garrison Library added a card catalog.
The Rev. E.J. Runk, the former pastor of the Reformed Church, was arrested for skipping out on a $50 [$1,900] hotel bill in Kingston, where he was attending the YMCA convention.
Dr. Amos Squire was among the physicians who witnessed the electrocution of Antonio Ferraro at Sing Sing. It took five shocks to kill Ferraro, who had been convicted of killing a man in Brooklyn in 1898. Squire assisted with the autopsy.
David McGuire of Garrison killed an ox and hosted a barbecue for his friends and neighbors with music by a Peekskill orchestra.
Sen. Chauncey Depew introduced a bill to authorize the federal government to purchase Constitution Island for $150,000 [$5.6 million].
100 Years Ago (February 1925)
Warren Ferris underwent ear surgery at his home on Rock Street.
The Julia L. Butterfield Memorial Hospital opened on Feb. 19. The first patients were Thomas Davis, who had pneumonia, and Robert Murray, who an X-ray confirmed broke his wrist after slipping on ice. Rooms were $25 [$450] per week and operating room rentals began at $5 [$90], excluding surgical fees. Donations of vegetables, canned fruit, bedding and clothing were welcomed.
The Cold Spring Village Board awarded a five-year contract for street lighting to the upstart Philipstown Electric Corp. The firm promised to replace the six lights suspended over Main Street with 14 globes on poles.
75 Years Ago (February 1950)
The Haldane basketball team had three narrow victories in a row. First, it edged St. Mary’s of Katonah, 57-55, when Frankie Cerny stole a pass and scored at the buzzer. It defeated Mahopac, 35-34, after a confused Mahopac player scored at the wrong basket in the third quarter. Finally, Haldane edged Brewster, 48-46, to win the league title.
The Butterfield Hospital celebrated its 25th anniversary, having treated nearly 13,000 patients.
During the annual meeting at the Presbyterian Church, the Rev. Richard Norton showed color slides he had taken in China during his missionary work.
Local performers in blackface, top hats and white gloves filled the stage at the Cold Spring Fire Co.’s second annual minstrel at Haldane to raise money for a Brockway fire truck.
In his front-page, weekly column in the Putnam County News & Recorder, “Wake Up, America,” the commander of the American Legion chapter asked: “Will the charges by Sen. McCarthy that our State Department is riddled with card-holding Communists be substantiated?”
A partnership of five men purchased Bill Brown’s Health Farm in Philipstown for $150,000 [$2 million]. The deal was made in 36 hours in response to rumors that a Boston millionaire wanted to convert the property into a treatment center for alcoholics. The new owners were Broadway producer Joshua Logan; Chinese restaurant owner Sou Chan; Broadway actor Ray Middleton; and two attorneys, David Brady and Harry Kalish. Brown had created the resort in 1915 as “a haven for run-down tycoons of business, sports and the professions,” according to The Recorder. [The property was on the site of what became the Garrison golf course.]
50 Years Ago (February 1975)
A 68-year-old Paulding Avenue woman and her 75-year-old sister-in-law, visiting from Onondaga County, were killed in a one-car crash on Route 9D in Garrison when her husband lost control of their sedan and it hit a tree and split in two.
Rep. Hamilton Fish Jr., a Republican whose district included Philipstown, co-sponsored legislation to fine employers who hired “illegal aliens.”
Mrs. Robert Patterson of Cold Spring made her annual trip to Fort Benning in Georgia to present the Robert P. Patterson Award to a graduate of the U.S. Army Officer Candidate School. The 22nd recipient of the award was Lt. William Gary Butler of Andalusia, Alabama. Patterson was a federal judge and secretary of the War Department from 1945 to 1947.
The Juilliard Players visited Haldane to perform an abbreviated version of The Taming of the Shrew.
Barbara Flowers announced she would run for a second term as Cold Spring mayor.
Chris Helbock of Nelsonville, a senior at Haldane, set a state high school record in the shotput at 38 feet and 6¾ inches. [She competed wearing jean shorts and Nikes, which had been introduced in 1973.]
Over the weekend, vandals broke windows in the Haldane cafeteria, the visitors’ locker room and five buses. They also removed fuses from the buses, causing school to be delayed on Monday morning.
25 Years Ago (February 2000)
Citing fire code violations, Philipstown revoked a certificate of occupancy for a Subway franchise planned for the Countryside Motel on Route 9.
Jesse Bassignani of Cold Spring was promoted to the rank of Chodan (1st degree black belt) at Baran’s Soo Bahk Do in Fishkill.
The Philipstown Town Board received its first timber harvest application, to remove 247 trees from 35 acres on East Mountain Road South.
Mayor Anthony Phillips said he took exception to a letter from Valerie Hickman of the Putnam Visitors Bureau in which she complained there was no public access to the Hudson River at Cold Spring. He said 2,400 people in 800 boats had visited the village through the boat club dock in 1999.
The Butterfield Library hosted an Antiques Road Show-style event in which a resident brought in a dragonfly Tiffany lamp with a bronze base signed by Louis Tiffany that appraiser Ron DeSilva valued at $60,000 [$110,000].
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