Editor’s note: Beacon was created in 1913 from Matteawan and Fishkill Landing.
150 Years Ago (October 1876)
Matteawan had four political campaign clubs: Two supported the Democratic ticket for president and vice president, Gov. Samuel Tilden (New York) and Gov. Thomas Hendricks (Indiana), and two supported the Republican ticket, Gov. Rutherford Hayes (Ohio) and Rep. William Wheeler (New York).
Lewis Tompkins, proprietor of the Dutchess Hat Works at Fishkill Landing, sailed for Europe.
A company introduced a horse-drawn omnibus line to compete for business between Newburgh and Matteawan. Controversy arose when the ferryboat owner agreed to sell tickets exclusively to the new line for 5 cents less [about $1.50 today] than it had charged the old line. Such passions arose that new-line drivers were pulled from their wagons and assaulted, according to news reports.
Mrs. Myer’s hotel at Fishkill Landing was rented as a temperance [alcohol-free] hotel. It was soon put in first-class shape and run on “the European plan,” charging only for accommodations.
The Matteawan Methodist Episcopal Church held an oyster supper and fair.
A young man from Matteawan picked a half bushel of mushrooms, rode the train to New York City and sold them to Delmonico’s Restaurant for $4.50 [$140].
A German man was robbed of $175 [$5,500] at Matteawan.
A jury ordered a bar owner to pay a Matteawan woman $800 [$25,000] following the death of her husband. According to testimony, the man drank four apple whiskeys and a beer at Michael McCabe’s saloon before staggering outside with a friend, who left him sitting against a cedar tree. He was found there dead the next day. The defense argued there was no evidence that he died from the alcohol.
A woman walking near the Union School in Matteawan was struck in the head by a stone, causing her to faint.
A wedding in Matteawan was delayed 15 minutes because the driver bringing the minister to the church got lost.
After a foreclosure sale, the new owner of the Dutchess & Columbia Railroad changed its name to the Newburgh & Connecticut.
Henry Ward Beecher, the famed clergyman and abolitionist who a year earlier had been put on trial on charges that he had committed adultery with a friend’s wife, Elizabeth Tilton, was spotted at the train station as he passed through Fishkill Landing. [After a six-month trial, the jury had deliberated for six days but could not reach a verdict. The Congregational Church exonerated him.]
A man visited the home of E. Wittiman, superintendent of the woolen factory and the A.T. Stewart & Co. mills at Glenham, and requested a meeting because he said the dyer at the factory was dangerously ill. As Wittiman approached the door, he saw a pistol pointed at him. He dodged, but a bullet struck his arm. The man fled, and his motive was not immediately clear.
The employees of the Groveville Carpet Mill had their hours fixed “after the English style,” according to a news report: On weekdays, they began at 5 a.m., worked until 8:30, ate breakfast, resumed at 9, worked until 1, took an hour for lunch, resumed at 2 and worked until 6. On Saturdays, they worked until 2.
The Hudson River Railroad Co. completed work on the Fishkill Landing depot, moving it a few rods north and setting it on a new foundation, surrounded by a high fence. The interior was divided into men’s and women’s waiting rooms, a baggage room and a ticket office.
Mrs. Walker, who lived near the Episcopal Cemetery at Matteawan, was standing on a chair sweeping a wall when the chair tipped and she broke two ribs.
Jessie Garrison of Fishkill Landing shot an owl with wings measuring 3 feet tip to tip.
Elijah Scott, 26, was taken to the county jail in Poughkeepsie after being accused of raping a 14-year-old girl.
William Russell succeeded George Fuller as collector on the ferryboat.
The Matteawan correspondent for the Poughkeepsie Journal asked: “Po’keepsie dealers charge but 18 cents [$5.65] a quart for oysters. Our dealers charge 30 cents [$9.50]. Why the difference?”
The Ellsworth’s baseball team of Fishkill Landing protested a 25-6 loss to the visiting Athletics of Poughkeepsie, saying they did not think they had been fairly beaten because four of the nine Athletics players — the pitcher, catcher, center fielder and first baseman — usually played for the Volunteers.
After John Whitehouse declined a third term, Democrats nominated Gen. J. Mansfield Davies of Fishkill Landing, son of the mathematician Charles Davies, for Congress. According to the Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, when the chair nominated Davies, the response from the convention floor was “faint applause and whispers of ‘Who is he?’”
Someone fatally stabbed a prize colt owned by James Brett while it was grazing in a field in Glenham, leaving a 2-inch-wide wound that sliced the liver and intestines. Brett offered a $100 [$3,100] reward for information.
When the British Attacked Beacon
The Washington’s Headquarters State Historic Site in Newburgh has loaned the Beacon Historical Society one of at least two cannonballs fired by British warships in 1777 at Fishkill Landing (now Beacon) for its exhibit, From Mt. Beacon to the Hudson River: Beacon’s Role in the American Revolution. Grant Miller of the state parks department, shown here, delivered the munition.
According to the society, when the British sailed past on their way to burn Kingston on Oct. 16, 1777, Shibboleth Bogardus, 20, fired his musket in defiance. The British replied with a volley. Workers found the cannonballs in 1877 while constructing the Dutchess Hat Works on lower Main Street.
The historical society, at 61 Leonard St., is open from 10 a.m. to noon on Thursdays and 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturdays. See beaconhistorical.org.
100 Years Ago (October 1926)
Rep. Ogden Mills, the Republican candidate to unseat Gov. Al Smith, made a campaign stop in Beacon. When his entourage arrived by car from Poughkeepsie, a marching band greeted him at the city line and led him to Memorial Theater, where he delivered his stump speech to 800 people.
Brig. Gen. Louis Stotesbury, formerly of Beacon, was nominated to take Mills’ seat in Congress, representing District 17. Asked whether he was wet or dry, Stotesbury said, “I hate Prohibition,” but believed the laws should be enforced.
Evelyn Welch, an English teacher at Beacon High School, was investigated for campaigning for Mills in the classroom. She allegedly distributed campaign buttons to her students and said he would reduce taxes if elected. Mayor Ernest Macomber stepped in to exonerate Welch, saying a student who received a button from a classmate joked that it came from her teacher.
Mrs. Frederick Mitchell died after falling down a flight of stairs at 140 Main St. The coroner noted the light had burned out on the landing, and that his findings could be grounds for a civil action against the landlord.
Police were investigating anonymous postcards sent to girls and women in Beacon with threats or “imputing infidelity on their husbands,” according to a news report. The Eagle-News headline was “Letter Writer Annoys Women.”
Work began on a new wing at the Matteawan State Hospital for the Criminally Insane with 32 cells for solitary confinement.
Federal agents raided the Manhattan Inn in Glenham on suspicion that it was serving alcohol.
50 Years Ago (October 1976)
The Dutchess County Society for Mental Health named Dr. Loretta Long, better known as “Susan” on Sesame Street, as the A. Jonas Berg Memorial lecturer for 1976. She spoke on “Space Age Children” at Poughkeepsie Middle School.
Joseph LaVallee and Gerry Clegg of Beacon escaped injury when they abandoned their 1967 Dodge after it got stuck on the track north of Breakneck Tunnel and a northbound commuter train cut it in half. A state trooper parked near the vehicle and flashed his lights as a warning, but the engineer could only slow to 60 mph.
The Moreno Institute at 259 Wolcott Ave., named for psychiatrist Jacob Moreno, the founder of psychodrama, opened its doors to the public for the first of what was expected to be an annual Festival of the Arts. [Moreno, who died in 1974, founded the Beacon Hill Sanitarium and its Therapeutic Theater in 1936.]
The Beacon High School football team lost to Franklin Roosevelt of Hyde Park, 21-0. The Presidents scored a safety after sacking the Beacon quarterback in the end zone following a punt that rolled dead on the 1-foot line.
Christopher Bopp, a candidate for the finance commissioner seat, accused the City Council of running a “dictatorial” form of government. His opponent, incumbent Harold Cring, dismissed the charge as “preposterous.”
Ginella Contracting Corp. of Newburgh submitted the low bid of $46,050 [$273,000] to demolish 30 buildings on the west end for urban renewal.
A Dutchess County grand jury dismissed felony riot charges against two men arrested in June during an altercation outside the Beacon police station. The disturbance began after officers booked a 16-year-old for allegedly slapping a woman with a towel.
25 Years Ago (October 2001)
Tara Goidel, a sophomore at Beacon High School, was ranked in the Top 10 internationally in sport karate among 12-to-14-year-old girls.
A mother and her 18-month-old son were in critical condition following an electrical fire at a Summit Street home. Firefighters rescued the toddler and two other young children; the mother jumped from a second-floor window.
The City of Beacon opened a weekend skateboard park at Memorial Park.
A 21-year-old Main Street man who admitted to selling $20 [$38] worth of crack cocaine to an undercover state trooper was sentenced to a 90-day rehab program.
The Southern Dutchess chapter of the NAACP honored Fonda Muhammad, an English teacher at Rombout Middle School who founded a student leadership club.
Gravistar Galleries, owned by James and Marisa Berlinski, opened at 165 Main St. At the same time, Nichols Hardware, founded in 1938, relocated from Carmel to 396 Main St.
Election officials announced that Ronald Ray would appear on the November ballot as a candidate for both the county Legislature and the City Council. The Democrat had tried to withdraw his name as a council candidate, but the Board of Elections ruled he missed the deadline. The board said that, if Ray won twice, he could serve in both positions. [Ray lost the Legislative seat, 826-649, and finished fourth of six candidates for two at-large council seats.]
