Editor’s note: Beacon was created in 1913 from Matteawan and Fishkill Landing.
150 Years Ago (June 1873)
Judge Monell’s lots in Matteawan brought $160 to $400 per lot at auction, for a total of $26,000 [about $660,000].
Two children, ages 4 and 8, were killed by a train at Glenham while playing on the Dutchess & Columbia Railroad tracks.
James Richard of Matteawan was chloroformed and robbed at a New York City hotel. He lost his money, gold watch and chain, and clothing.
Glenham organized a fire brigade.
Terry Carey, a brickyard laborer, after taking “a cruise among the liquor shops” in Peekskill, was walking along the tracks toward Fishkill Landing when “he was struck by a locomotive and crushed into a shapeless mass,” according to The Cold Spring Recorder.
A massive fire on the Newburgh dock that was presumed to have been started by boys smoking caused $250,000 [$6.3 million] in damage.
According to the Matteawan Enterprise, Thomas Coldwell, a former resident, purchased the interest of his partner, George Chadborn, in their Newburgh lawn mower company, which was making 75 Excelsior Roller Mowers a day. [The partners started their business in the late 1860s by buying out their boss, Horatio Swift, who owned a mower plant in Matteawan. By one estimate, there were only 300 mowers in the U.S. at the time; by 1891 Coldwell was producing 20,000 annually. When Coldwell died in 1905, his two sons took over; the company remained in business until the 1940s. Horatio Swift had opened his Matteawan plant in the 1850s after H.W. Sargent of Fishkill sent him a mower imported from England for repair. Swift’s largest mower was 42 inches wide and horse-drawn.]
A Fishkill Landing brewer, Paul Stackpole, had his pocketbook stolen at the depot in Troy. He was en route to Montreal for business, having traveled from Fishkill Landing to New York City the day before to exchange greenbacks for gold. After arriving in Troy, where he planned to change trains, he was crowded on the platform and soon after missed his wallet, which contained $251 in gold and $50 in greenbacks [about $7,600]. He had to refund his ticket to Montreal so he could purchase a return trip to Fishkill Landing.
Gen. Joseph Howland presented the Fishkill Free School with 350 plants to set along the paths and grounds.
A new stage route was opened between Matteawan and the long dock at Fishkill Landing.
Bryson Bruce, formerly editor of the Walton Chronicle in the Catskills, was named editor of the Matteawan Enterprise.
A fire raging in the Fishkill Mountains had already traveled nearly 5 miles and burned 1,000 cords of wood.
125 Years Ago (June 1898)
The Sargent Industrial School held graduation ceremonies. A reporter for the Poughkeepsie Eagle-News reported that “the whole house was open for inspection, and every room was fragrant with flowers. The tables were filled with articles made by little hands … Everything in the building was complete in equipment for the three grades of work it represented — cooking, sewing and laundrying. It was marvelous what these little girls of 10 and 11 had accomplished. … St. Luke’s Orchestra played for the march, in which nearly 200 students took part. All the marchers had flags and at the close formed a circle on the lawn with the flags crossed. In the center of the circle stood Mrs. [Henry Winthrop] Sargent with a basket of diplomas.”
Albert Knapp, who lived on the Highland road near Fishkill Village, found two old copper coins on his farm. One was a 1773 British penny stamped by a punch with images of a clay pipe, and the other a 1723 half penny.
100 Years Ago (June 1923)
More than 2,000 members of the Archdiocese of New York Holy Name Union descended on the city. They arrived from New York City on two chartered excursion boats, as well as from Cold Spring, Highland Falls, Wappingers Falls and Kingston, and were welcomed by members from St. Joachim’s and St. John’s churches.
Pvt. Julius MacDonald, a former Beacon resident, drowned in the Panama Canal Zone, where he had been assigned to the 4th Field Artillery after enlisting in 1922.
The Central New England Railroad said it would place uniformed officers at city crossings it considered especially dangerous after it had to pay out several settlements following collisions between locomotives and vehicles. The railroad said the officers would educate “autoists” on the risks.
Gussie Moose, of Herkimer, was killed while riding on the rear step of a New York Central Railroad train headed north from the city. According to the tower man in Beacon, Moose rushed from the depot just as the train was leaving and jumped on the last car. Because the door had been closed, he stood on the step and clung to the hand rail. When the train reached a bridge just south of New Hamburg, where there was not enough room for his body to pass, he was crushed. The tower man had phoned New Hamburg with an alert but, when the train arrived with no one on the rear step, a party was sent in search of the body.
Luckey, Plast & Co., a department store in Poughkeepsie, announced it would use “modern advertising techniques” and “circularize by aeroplane” an image of its newly enlarged store by dropping 5,000 pieces of paper over Beacon, Newburgh, Poughkeepsie and Kingston.
Thirty federal agents conducted raids during the Firemen’s Convention in Beacon, making 13 arrests for selling liquor [which was illegal during Prohibition]. The agents said they found whiskey during five raids and beer in three others.
The Holland Hotel Co. sold its property at the corner of Main and Elm streets for $35,000 [$622,000] to John B. Lodge.
75 Years Ago (June 1948)
A 39-year-old South Avenue man serving a one-year sentence at the county jail on a morals charge walked away from a crew assigned to the courthouse. Three days later, he surrendered to the sheriff accompanied by his father.
The Dutchess Hat Works closed and about 250 people lost their jobs. A subsidiary of the Merrimac Hat Corp. of Amesbury, Massachusetts, it had operated in Beacon for 14 years, and the building had been used as a hat factory for 75 years. The structure was to be sold as soon as the machinery was removed.
Robert Smith, chair of the Dutchess County chapter of the American Veterans’ Committee, said there was a waiting list of 100 men for the city’s veterans’ housing project, with turnover of about six per year.
Beacon heavyweight Melio Bettina scored the third knockout of his career at MacArthur Stadium in Brooklyn in a win over Angel Sotillo of Argentina. The boxing match ended in the third round.
A 23-year-old Newburgh man sued a Beacon police sergeant and three patrolmen for $25,000, alleging they beat him while he was being booked for disorderly conduct. The police department said the man, who was arrested after an argument on Main Street, had attempted to flee and asked why he had not filed criminal charges against the officers.
The City Council granted Mayor Lewis Bolton a leave of absence for the month of July so he could vacation in Maine.
In a boxing match at a recreation park in Newburgh in front of 2,500 fans, Max Mitchell of Harlem knocked out Paul “Kid” Hawks of Beacon in the fifth round.
50 Years Ago (June 1973)
The high school baseball team played nine scoreless innings against Lakeland in the Section I, Class A tournament before the Hornets pulled out a 5-2 win in the 10th inning to advance. Dave Eraca, who had 25 hits in 50 at-bats for the Bulldogs, was named the most valuable player in the Dutchess County Scholastic League.
After a two-year delay, a 30-unit condo development known as Hammond Plaza at Beekman and Ferry streets was ready for construction. Residents displaced by urban renewal received priority for the two-bedroom units, which cost $27,000 each [$185,000].
Jimmy Collier and Sweet Medicine performed a free concert at Memorial Park organized by the Neighborhood Service Organization, a United Way agency.
Three storage tanks at the site of the former Dennings Brickworks leaked 10,000 gallons of oil into the Hudson River, damaging boats at the Chelsea Yacht Club and White’s Marina. A commuter who spotted the slick as he drove over the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge notified the Coast Guard. Another 40,000 gallons soaked into the ground.
David Young, a Beacon High School graduate who worked for the National Security Council in the Nixon White House and co-founded what became known as the “plumbers” (because they plugged leaks), testified to a grand jury that one of his colleagues, John Ehrlichman, helped plan a September 1971 burglary of the office of the psychiatrist of Daniel Ellsberg, who had leaked the Pentagon Papers. Two other plumbers, E. Howard Hunt Jr. and G. Gordon Liddy, were later convicted in the Watergate conspiracy. Young was given limited immunity for his testimony.
The Howland Circulating Library, built in 1872 and now home to the Howland Cultural Center, was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The rock band Kid’s Stuff, led by Micheal Faison, performed at the second annual Beacon Jaycees Beacon Day, along with a folk singing group, Double Image. New York Jets offensive lineman Dave Herman also made an appearance.
AAA recognized Beacon for not having a pedestrian fatality in 12 years, which put it in a three-way tie as the third safest city in the state behind Southampton (27 years) and Pelham Manor (14 years).
An armed robber who held up Beacon Hardware, at 178 Main St., fled with $50.
After defeating Warwick, 11-10, on a bases-loaded single by Dave Eraca in the bottom of the final inning, the Beacon Astros improved to 7-1 in the Hudson Valley American Legion Rookie League.
About 20 Black residents attended a school board meeting to protest the demotion of Arthur “Ted” Browne, the first Black principal in the district, from Rombout Middle School to his former position as assistant principal at Beacon High School. He had the Rombout job for a year. The board said the demotion was based solely on an evaluation by the superintendent, and no racism was involved. It voted 5-1 to make the change, with the “no” vote from Leon Cochrane, its only Black member.
25 Years Ago (June 1998)
The high school baseball team made a deep run in the state tournament. Seeded No. 8 among Section I, Class B teams, it upset No. 1 Harrison before defeating Brewster to advance to the championship game against No. 3 Nyack at Dutchess Stadium. In that contest, reliever Bryan McDowell retired 13 of the 15 batters he faced and the Bulldogs won, 3-2, for their first sectional title since 1991. Beacon won its first regional matchup, 9-8, in 10 innings over Roundout Valley, then traveled to Syracuse to face Wantagh in the semifinals but lost, 12-6.
