150 Years Ago (May 1874)
The town and village excise boards met to receive applications for liquor licenses. The only applicant was Mr. Washburn, for his Garrison hotel. The Cold Spring Recorder noted that “temperance people” had been pressuring the boards to refuse all applications.
John Van Buskirk, who had received $75 [about $2,000 today] in an estate settlement, came to Cold Spring and, after getting drunk and waving around his cash, waited at the station for the Poughkeepsie train. Depot employees took him inside for his own safety, but Van Buskirk took offense and punched the baggage master. He gave up $10 as a fine and spent the night in jail.
A resident reported snowbanks on a mountain road on May 9 as high as his axle.
William Wood was taking down the front of his blacksmith shop to rebuild it with a mansard roof, Ladue was adding a story to Boyd’s building and George McCabe was having a brick barn constructed behind his Stone Street store.
A German strolling band with three brass horns performed in Main Street, with a woman on the baritone.
Sands Morrison, 26, died of pneumonia.
An anonymous correspondent chastised Continental Village residents in The Recorder: “The people of this place have rendered themselves despicable and conspicuous solely on account of their utter want of interest in church matters. They allowed their little, white, neat, respectable church to remain empty without even so much as a prayer meeting.”
Another anonymous resident complained about the vegetable hawkers who left at the end of the day “not looking to the right or left for fear they might be tempted to leave a little money in the town where they made it.”
Isaac Baxter, who grew up in Nelsonville, was a suspect in the robbery of $32,000 [$877,000] from a safe in the Grand Central office of the Hudson River Railroad Co. His alleged accomplice was a clerk there.
By a 30-2 vote, Philipstown residents rejected a proposal to raise taxes by $313.50 to pay a bill from the county Board of Health. The Recorder editor noted the bill had to be paid one way or another.
John Gallagher had been looking all over the village for Arthur Thompson to settle a score. He found him and pulled a knife but got a severe beating.
A 22-year-old sorrel mare that Richard Denney of North Highlands had sold two years earlier in Dutchess County showed up at her old stable.
A group of 10 women, working in pairs, went from door to door in Cold Spring and Nelsonville to circulate a Total Abstinence Pledge.
A wildfire broke out on Sugar Loaf, filling the Highlands with smoke.
Elmore Mekeel drowned while night fishing at Lake Surprise. He was pulled “cramped” from 3½ feet of water, suggesting he had a seizure.
Two Cold Spring men who went to Newburgh to see Barnum’s Hippodrome began to fight on the train home. The conductor put them in separate cars and locked the doors. They were arrested upon arrival and fined $8 [$220] each.
The Recorder noted that while May 30 was widely accepted as the proper time to decorate the graves of Union soldiers, “there are no remains of the Union dead in our cemeteries, therefore the day has not been observed here.” Cold Spring’s brass band instead traveled to Yonkers.
On a Saturday evening, a woman with bloody hands appeared at the district attorney’s office. The Recorder reported that her husband had been abusive, “but as we hear no more of the case we presume that the formality and delay of the law caused the woman to abandon her complaint.”
Carl Braasch sold his boot and shoe store on Main Street and returned to Germany.
A load of household goods being transported down Main Street went out of control and “a general smashup was anticipated” by bystanders. Instead, the first item to fall off was a sawhorse that wedged in front of a wheel and stopped the wagon.
125 Years Ago (May 1899)
Villagers observed Dewey Day to honor Admiral George Dewey, who destroyed the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War.
Joe McCarthy, formerly of Cold Spring, was elected president of the newly formed Jersey City Water Supply Co.
The mercury hit 96 degrees on May 3.
S.L. Barriett, owner of the new electric works, said he would supply the Cold Spring firehouse at no charge.
Abner Merritt sold his milk route.
Prof. Treat’s Canine Paradox performed twice at Town Hall.
At a meeting of the Cold Spring board, Trustee Farrell asked if penalties collected with back taxes belonged to the village or the treasurer, who collected them. The treasurer, who arrived late, said he had been advised he could charge penalties at his discretion — generally 1 to 5 percent — and keep the proceeds.
William Ladue, the well-known bicyclist from Cold Spring, competed in Savannah, Georgia, where the Morning News reported that he easily won the half-mile, mile and five-mile races.
For more than a month, William Woods had left lumber in front of a building he was constructing on Church Street. He was warned to add a light after dark, but failed to do so and visitors from Fishkill ran their horse into the pile.
John Young of England stopped in Cold Spring to visit his uncle, Dr. William Young, before continuing to Idaho to investigate the gold mines.
Officer McCaffrey, while inspecting a junkman’s wagon, found five brass valves worth about $200 [$7,500] that had been stolen from the Cornell works.
Dr. John Fillebrown, accompanied by his attorney, asked the Cold Spring Village Board to reduce his personal property assessment from $5,000 to $1,000. When the attorney asked how the tax was calculated, Village President Dyos said that it was understood that Fillebrown’s wife had received a large amount of money from her brother. Dyos said the only way the board could know if that was true was to issue a large assessment and have the parties appeal. Mrs. Fillebrown was summoned and swore she had never received any money from her brother.
The single and married men of Garrison faced off in a baseball game at Osborn’s Oval.
The Hill Country House in Philipstown, a former stagecoach stop, was purchased by a New York City developer who planned to convert it into a first-class hotel.
Frank Pelham of Cold Spring, who worked for a hospital in Albany, broke his arm when his ambulance collided with a street car.
The Cold Spring fire company wrote to the Village Board to suggest a second exit for Town Hall and a water line to the auditorium.
Justice Martin Keogh, after finishing court in Carmel at 3 p.m., was able to make the 5:36 southbound train at Garrison because of Sheriff Donohue’s fast team of horses, which covered the 24-mile country route in 2 hours and 15 minutes.
Neighbors formed a bucket brigade and used a garden hose to put out a fire in Grant Wright’s hennery on Church Street, but the 60 chickens were lost.
The Village Improvement Society placed wire scrap baskets throughout Cold Spring and benches at the corner of Main and Chestnut streets.
The Recorder noted that fishermen were catching trout in Foundry Brook using set lines, which was illegal.
The light globes on the new electric street lights were being broken by boys using them as targets.
The topmast of a flagpole to be erected at the Cragside estate [now the Haldane campus] was dropped into the river by a passing steamer and towed ashore behind a rowboat.
A violinist and a banjo player came into town to play street corners but left after receiving only pennies.
Laura deRham died at her home at 24 Fifth Avenue in New York City at age 71. She and her husband, Charles, had a summer home for more than 40 years on the Garrison Road. Her father had been the longtime consul general in New York City for Prussia, Saxony and Baden.
Robert Patterson, who had spent two months in the hospital in Yonkers with water on the knee, returned home.
The Cold Spring Hose Co., at its annual meeting, reported that it had purchased 100 feet of 2½-inch linen hose and now had 300 feet, as well as 400 feet of rubber hose. It had the full quota of members, 30, allowed by law.
An unusual five-masted schooner passed by Cold Spring.
The young adult group of the Methodist Episcopal Church held its annual Young Ladies’ Single Blessedness Debating Society gathering at Town Hall, in which “old maids” were transformed into “beautiful maidens.”
Professor Makeover demonstrated his invention, the Remodelscope, at Town Hall, turning three young single women into teenagers.
Kendrick Pierce of the Fould’s Milling Co. of Cincinnati, stopped in the village to promote its breakfast cereal, the Wheat Germ Meal.
The Cold Spring Chowder Club held its first monthly outing of the season at Stony Point.
Robert Barrows, 37, who was staying with his brother-in-law in Cold Spring, was found dead in bed with a half-emptied bottle of cocaine. Two empty bottles and a full bottle were found in his trunk. Friends said Barrows suffered from neuralgia and was in constant pain. During his stay, Barrows had led art classes and was preparing an exhibit of his watercolors.
A chicken with four legs was born at the George Miller farm.
John Moser, 10, was playing in the barn at his home near Lake Surprise when he was kicked in the face by a horse, losing three teeth.
The Recorder reported that a wife on Market Street left her husband for another man, and that “a young lady became infatuated with a married man; an elopement was stopped by the arrival of the girl’s mother.”
Hannah Rhodie celebrated her 91st birthday on Market Street. Her hearing was splendid and she read and sewed without glasses.
Herman Dean, editor of the Fishkill Village Times, visited Cold Spring on his new Columbia chainless bicycle.
Harry Elwood, a champion long-distance walker on his way from San Francisco to New York City, stopped in Cold Spring. An automobile traveling from Cleveland to New York also passed through on a Friday afternoon.
John Homer of Garrison, while cleaning his bicycle, caught his hand in the wheel and lost the top of a finger.
S.E. Selleck moved from the corner of Main and Furnace streets to the Wood Building opposite Depot Square but was still selling Fussell’s ice cream.
The town highway commissioners purchased signboards for every corner of town, giving directions and distances.
Fred Secor broke his collarbone when, while helping Louis Monroe remove a coffee mill at his brother’s store, he fell through a hatchway into the cellar.
Mr. and Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish and four guests left on their private train car for a month’s trip to Yellowstone Park.
The Village Board instructed Officer McCaffrey to stop baseball playing in the streets.
Cold Spring agreed to allow Nelsonville residents to tap into its water mains if they paid 150 percent of the standard rates.
100 Years Ago (May 1924)
Cold Spring voters narrowly approved propositions to widen the proposed state road through the village by 2 feet for $6,000 [$110,000]; widen the pavement on Main Street from 18 feet to 38 feet between Chestnut and Fair streets for $25,000 [$460,000]; and construct a $19,000 [$347,000] storm sewer.
The six-piece Cold Spring Syncopators played at a dance at the Bella Vista Hotel.
The rear axle of John Lowry’s car snapped in half as he drove on Main Street.
A cake and candy sale at Haldane raised $25 [$456] for the Junior Red Cross to provide milk to undernourished children at the school.
While watching the Haldane-Carmel baseball game at Kemble’s Field, young Rudolf Meyer was struck in the mouth by a bat that slipped from a player’s hands. Dr. Hall sewed the wound.
Members of the Putnam County Republican Club were surprised when Mrs. William Boardman Reed arose to express admiration for Democratic Gov. Al Smith. “All the best political material is not in the Republican Party,” she said.
The Rev. Dr. Elbert Floyd-Jones reported that automaker Henry Ford had ordered a copy of his book, A Relic of the Highway: The Origin and Use of Mile-Stones.
Louis Hale, while tightening bolts at the Harmon shops, came in contact with the third rail and burned his hands badly.
75 Years Ago (May 1949)
Upper Station Road in Garrison was blocked off for a Recreation Bazaar, including booths devoted to gardening and baking, a tag sale and games of skill.
The Garrison Fish and Game Club selected four boys to attend a 10-day state Conservation Department camp in Sullivan County.
The Beacon Savings Bank named Dorothea Pinkel’s kindergarteners at Haldane as the Honor Thrift Class of the Year. The award was based on the average number of children who made a deposit each week at the bank.
The Walter Ranch at Manitou held its first rodeo of the season, including performances by “Diamond” Ted Lewis, the rifle-shot artist, and Bill Stanfield and his trick roping. Bill Butler, who broke his leg during practice, was recovering at Butterfield Hospital.
New York Telephone Co. workers were replacing the phone dials in 22 communities, including Cold Spring and Garrison, from numbers to letters and numbers to prepare for a two-letter and five-number system.
50 Years Ago (May 1974)
A change in the state aid formula increased the funds expected by the Haldane district for 1974-75 from $2,000 [$12,700] to $57,584 [$365,000].
The Haldane and Spackenkill baseball teams played to a 17-17 tie after Haldane scored 13 runs in the sixth inning and the game was called for darkness.
The Garrison-on-Hudson Volunteer First Aid Squad debuted its new ambulance (below).
No one filed a nominating petition by the deadline for a vacant seat on the Haldane school board, but Judith Culbert won with 136 write-in votes.
Because of overcrowding, the Haldane school board voted to lease Marist Hall on Route 301 for its first- and second-grade classes.
25 Years Ago (May 1999)
The Philipstown Recreation Center ended its after-school care center at Haldane. It noted there were now many more options for parents than in 1988, when the program began.
Perks Plaza on Route 9 and a section of Route 301 in Putnam Valley were shut down for a video shoot by Carmin Turco, a Cold Spring-based musician who was making a video for “The Car Won’t Start,” from his album, Angel.
The Philipstown Town Board passed a law regulating the harvesting of timber. Minor operations of 2 to 10 acres had to be approved by the wetlands inspector and anything larger by the Planning Board.
A Garrison resident veered off Route 9D and hit a stone wall. She said she lost control when she sneezed.
The Haldane softball team defeated Croton-Harmon, 41-5.
A Putnam Valley real estate agent was charged with grand larceny after she allegedly removed the contents of a mobile home before repossession proceedings had begun.
Bob Galligan caught a 37½-pound, 40-inch-long striped bass off the Cold Spring Boat Club dock.
