america-250-ny-logo250 Years Ago (June 1775)

British troops in New York City were evacuated to transports anchored in the harbor. A small group of Sons of Liberty confiscated five wagonloads of royal weapons.

Maj. Gen. Philip Schuyler of New York and George Washington, the newly appointed commander of the army, left Philadelphia for New York City. Addressing fears of military rule, Washington reassured the New York Provincial Congress that, after the establishment of liberty, he would return to private life.

On June 26, Washington and Schuyler crossed King’s Bridge into Westchester County. The next day, slowed by well-wishers, they made it only as far as New Rochelle, where Schuyler headed to Albany and Washington toward Boston.

150 Years Ago (June 1875)

John Cox, the flagman at Garrison’s station, was suspicious of banks and paper money. On a Thursday night, while John was at work, five masked men pushed through the door and bound Mrs. Cox and the couple’s two sons, ages 14 and 20. After ransacking the house, they left with a box of silver and gold coins valued at $1,100 [about $32,000 today]. Two tramps at the station were arrested after the Cox family said they resembled the suspects — one with a dark complexion, an ugly face and a bad eye and another who was “more honest-looking.”

Signor Sebastian, a circus performer, broke his leg at a Friday performance in Cold Spring when he was thrown from a horse while riding bareback seated in a chair. He was taken to the Pacific Hotel and, a few days later, returned by train to his home in New York City. A few weeks later, a baggage-car fire on a sidetrack in Connecticut destroyed all the troupe’s baggage and musical instruments.

Shortly after midnight, Thomas McAndrew, the watchman at the lower railroad switches, heard a noise and found two men standing at a broken door on a freight car on the sidetrack. When the larger man put his hand into his pocket and threatened to shoot, McAndrew dropped him with a shot to the neck. The man — who said his name was McKinseynally — was taken to Town Hall, where Dr. Murdock removed the bullet.

Three people held solid-silver life passes for the Hudson River Railroad: John Jervis, the first chief engineer, his wife and Gouverneur Kemble of Cold Spring, the founder of West Point Foundry and an early supporter of the railroad.

Commodore Foote and his sister, Eliza, “celebrated Lilliputians,” performed at Town Hall. The Indiana natives claimed to be the smallest people in the world and were as well-known in their time as Tom Thumb.

Commodore Foote
Commodore Foote and his sister, Eliza, about 1880

A six-horse team delivered a 7,530-pound load of bedplate to Sunk Mine for its steam-powered machines.

The Methodist Episcopal Church held its annual Strawberry, Ice Cream and Floral Festival.

The Recorder noted that a new state law made it illegal, punishable with a fine of up to $10 [$290], to mutilate shade trees near schools, churches, public buildings or highways. “It is well known that people from the farming districts are the principal offenders,” the editor wrote. “They come into town to do some business and seek a comfortable shade for their teams. All right, so far; but how about the shade next year if the horses girdle the trees while standing thereat?”

A reader complained to The Recorder that people were taking water by the barrel from the Main Street pumps to irrigate their strawberries and gardens.

After the first baseball game of the season on Vinegar Hill between a club from West Point and the Kellogg team (which the latter won, 22-19), the Newburgh Telegraph said the Army boys lost only because of the “considerable partiality shown by the umpire who, of course, proved to be a resident of Cold Spring.” The Recorder retorted that the visitors lost because they did not score enough runs.

On a Tuesday at noon, while Isaiah Jaycox of the Highlands was driving at a good speed down Main Street seated atop a cord of wood, a front wheel on his wagon fell off as he passed High Street. Passersby lifted the corner of the wagon with levers so he could return it to the axle.

The 3-year-old child of John Maher of Market Street died suddenly while playing outside, seized by what a doctor said was “paralysis of the heart.”

While neighbors were talking by a gate on Garden Street, a bullet tore through a fence board nearby. “Such carelessness is almost criminal,” The Recorder said.

After Thomas Jaycox began yelling “Thieves!” a group of young men at Mekeel’s Corners gave chase to two suspected burglars. They were found hiding in a closet and brought back to the scene to be frisked for missing valuables. It turned out the suspects were two well-known young women dressed as men — apparently, out of boredom, they hoped to create some excitement. “After their revelation, the proposed search was not so rigid as was expected,” The Recorder reported.

125 Years Ago (June 1900)

James Greene, the census enumerator, said one man refused to answer his questions but changed his mind when Greene said he would be arrested.

Stephen Romaine, 21, a Yonkers resident known as “Steeple Jack,” fell 150 feet to his death from the Methodist Episcopal Church. He had been hired to regild the ball but declined to install safety measures, saying it would take too long and he wanted to catch the 4:30 p.m. train home. Romaine was known for his acrobatics: In 1899, in New York City, he climbed 375 feet above Park Row to polish the gilt ball on the Pulitzer Building.

A few days later, “Steeple Bob” Merrill arrived to regild the ball and paint the woodwork. He was accompanied by his wife, who kept a close eye on him.

The younger members of the Haldane Cadet Corps were given wooden rifles.

The West Point Foundry baseball team visited Newburgh, losing 21-10. The Newburgh Press noted that spectators were allowed to stand 3 feet from each baseline.

Frederick Birdsall, his wife and two other women, all visiting from Yonkers, went for a row on the river but their boat was upset by the wakes of two tugs. Mr. Birdsall was able to save the guests but not his wife.

The secretary of war, Elihu Root, visited the Highlands Country Club for a benefit to supplement the pension income of military survivors. The widows of enlisted men received $12 [$457] per month, plus $2 [$76] per child.

Elihu Root
The secretary of war, Elihu Root, about two years after he visited Garrison

A German man named “Gus” picked a fight on a Saturday night with a West Point corporal named Barry. The fight ended when Gus bit and gnawed on Barry’s little finger. Dr. Richard Giles dressed the wound, but blood poisoning set in and Barry lost the finger, then his hand and arm.

Louis Di Tomasso, 28, an Italian working in the cut below Garrison, was killed when he stepped out of the way of a freight train and was hit by the express. He had been in the U.S. for three months and had no family here.

The brother of Mrs. J.M. Winslow of Cold Spring, William McElwain, died in Amsterdam, New York. An hour before the funeral, her brother Henry also died there.

After Officer McCaffrey stopped an unauthorized baseball game on a Wednesday night, the players appealed to the village president, Samuel Condell, who overruled the constable. McCaffrey submitted a letter of resignation in protest of this challenge to his authority, and the Village Board voted, 3-2, to accept it.

Charles Henyan, a liveryman, and William Yates, a jeweler, had a good day fishing but, when it was time to return home with their catch, found their horse missing — it had returned to its stable in Cold Spring. The men were seen trudging home along the highway, bowed under the weight of their catch.

A pile driver and crew of men arrived to rebuild Beverley Dock in Garrison, which had been owned by Beverley Robinson during the Revolution and was the spot where Gen. Benedict Arnold went aboard the vessel that took him to British-occupied New York City following the discovery of his betrayal.

beverley-dock
The Beverley Dock, in an 1871 lithograph

The Recorder reported that Sam McIlravy of Garrison, who had returned from the Spanish-American War and been greeted as a hero, was spotted ill-clad and unshaven drinking from the Osborn fountain. He said he was considering enlisting in the Army to fight in China against the Boxers so he could earn a purse to liquidate his indebtedness to several Garrison residents.

A glass bottle thrown from the window of the flats over T.F. Doran’s store broke on the sidewalk and cut Walter Baxter’s horse, which was tied in front of the building and choked itself trying to pull away.

Haldane High School celebrated its four graduates: Mary Shea, William Herrick, Egbert Nelson and Stephen Mekeel.

The fire department put out a blaze in the butler’s pantry at the St. Mary’s parsonage with a bucket brigade. A tenant, Mrs. James Bushnell, who was using the gasoline stove to heat irons, had just stepped out of the room when it exploded.

100 Years Ago (June 1925)

M.A. Malone returned home from Philadelphia, where he attended the funeral of his 8-year-old nephew, William, who had visited Cold Spring the previous summer with his mother.

Mr. and Mrs. Frank Kelley of New York City spent the weekend at the home of her parents. They started home by automobile on Sunday evening but because of the traffic had to return to Cold Spring and wait until Monday.

Col. Jacob Ruppert, the owner of the New York Yankees, who had a home in Philipstown, placed a classified ad in The Recorder for his lost beagle.

Eugene McGrath, 34, who two years earlier had been among the men employed in Philipstown on the New York City aqueduct and played for the local baseball team, died on Staten Island, where he lived. He was the first batter in a game between his National Baseball Club and the visiting Clover Athletic Club of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, when the first pitch struck him over the heart.

Haldane High School had 10 graduates (five boys and five girls), the largest class in its history. James Patterson won the prize for penmanship.

The first graduate of the Our Lady of Loretto School, Gerald Heckler, received a diploma and a gold medal.

With the Cold Spring baseball team down one run in the ninth against the visiting Rainbows of Newburgh, the locals hit four straight singles before Mooney won the game with a bases-loaded double.

75 Years Ago (June 1950)

After considering Cold Spring for a web offset lithography plant, the Eton Publishing Co. selected Silver Spring, Maryland.

The Haldane school bus transported the ninth-grade social studies class to Carmel to observe a trial at the county courthouse.

A two-story cottage owned by Charles Tennenbaum on Lane Gate Road was destroyed by fire after being struck by lightning.

Voters approved a $155,000 [$2.1 million] bond to add two classrooms, a principal’s office, kindergarten, playroom-auditorium and stage at the Garrison School.

Harry Hustis Jr. of Pine Street came home for the summer from Harvard.

The London cast of Mister Roberts — including Tyrone Power, Jackie Cooper and George Matthews — took over Bill Brown’s Health Farm in Philipstown for a weekend to rehearse. Henry Fonda and Bill Harrigan of the Broadway cast and John Forsyth of the Boston cast also visited.

50 Years Ago (June 1975)

A 16-year-old girl visiting from Yorktown Heights saved a 37-year-old Poughkeepsie woman from drowning. The woman had fallen off a boat and was pulled unconscious from the water at Dockside. After a bystander attempted mouth-to-mouth resuscitation without success, Sharon Consaga, a youth member of the Yorktown Volunteer Ambulance Corps, took over. After 30 minutes of effort, the woman was revived and taken to the hospital.

Fred Selleck, 88, of 41 Fair St., who in 1907 was running a sporting goods and newspaper store on Main Street, shared a photo with the PCNR given to him that year by the manager of Cold Spring’s Pastime Baseball Team.

pastime baseball club
The Pastime Baseball Team of Cold Spring in 1907 (Putnam History Museum)

The eight surviving members of the Haldane Class of 1925 held a 50th anniversary reunion dinner at the Southern Dutchess Country Club in Beacon.

Haldane voters rejected a proposed $2.48 million [$14.7 million] budget, 447-325. In a second vote, they adopted five of eight propositions but rejected spending plans for building renovations, two 15-passenger vans and new furniture.

Elzear Duquette, the “king of the walk,” spent a few days in Cold Spring on his way to Lake George. According to Duquette, he started walking in 1934 in Montreal and had traveled 200,000 miles through 54 countries. He pulled a cart that resembled a coffin, which he used for supplies and to sleep in.

Elzear Duquette
Elzear Duquette, “the king of the walk,” in 1972. (Keystone Press)

Fernando Berarducci of Nelsonville demonstrated to a Putnam County News & Recorder reporter how to make charcoal, which he had learned as a young man in his native Abruzzi, Italy.

Dianne Ogley, 20, a former Cold Spring resident, was touring with a British illusionist, Malcolm Shorrocks, 24, as Vadell and Sue. They met on a cruise where Ogley was working as a hostess.

25 Years Ago (June 2000)

A Category F1 tornado, with winds of up to 100 mph, touched down in Continental Village at 7:30 p.m. on a Friday, snapping trees and power lines. “It was surreal,” said a firefighter. “One street looked fine, then we’d turn the corner and — devastation.”

Putnam phones were officially switched from the 914 to the 845 area code.

New York State purchased 513 acres of Philipstown forest for $2 million [$3.7 million] to expand Fahnestock State Park to nearly 11,000 acres.

Roger Chirico Sr. caught a 40.6-pound striped bass in the Hudson River, breaking a Cold Spring Boat Club record.

The Cold Spring Village Board approved a change to the Village Code limiting merchant display areas to 3 feet from the building, 8 feet parallel to the front and no higher than 6 feet from the sidewalk, between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m.

The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival opened with Measure for Measure, followed in July by The Taming of the Shrew, with Nance Williamson and Kurt Rhoads.

Voters in the Haldane district defeated a referendum to build a new high school, 916-666.

Behind The Story

Type: News

News: Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.

A former longtime national magazine editor, Rowe has worked at newspapers in Michigan, Idaho and South Dakota and has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism from Northwestern University. He can be reached at editor@highlandscurrent.org.

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