150 Years Ago (November 1874)
The editor of The Cold Spring Recorder observed “an unusual amount of dram drinking and personal coercion” around the vote, which he attributed to the “large amount of money received in this town ‘for election purposes.’ ” He noted “the 100 voters who belong to no party but are found this year on one side and the next year on the other.”
The editor praised the saloons located near the polls for closing before 11 p.m., which helped maintain order during the count.
Myron Clark, the Prohibition Party candidate for governor, received one vote in Philipstown. Twenty years earlier, Clark had won the 1855 race for governor by 309 votes, after which he quickly enacted a law banning the sale of alcohol. Eight months later, it was overturned by a judge as unconstitutional.
A wildfire burned several hundred acres at the Cro’ Nest across the river from Cold Spring and spread to the depression known as Cronk’s Hollow and across the western edge to Buttel Hill (Storm King). It was stopped to the south by West Point cadets. The Recorder said baker John Lane had dropped several handfuls of naturally roasted chestnuts at the newspaper office.
T.C. Baxter showed off a cypress shingle from the Beverley Robinson House near Garrison that had, at one time, sheltered George Washington. [The home, which also sheltered Benedict Arnold, burned down in 1892.]
George Edwards, foreman of The Recorder office, left for Massachusetts to become publisher of the Northampton Journal. Its editor, A.M. Powell, was formerly with The Anti-Slavery Standard.
The Recorder published the names, grades and attendance records of every student in District No. 3.
Nellie Lloyd Knox, an instructor at the Teacher’s Institute, lectured at Town Hall on the territory of Colorado.
Officer Travis traveled to Albany to arrest Charles Annin on charges of deserting his family.
John Halliday’s horse dumped him from his wagon near Sandy Landing and ran down Northern Avenue, Church Street, Main Street and West Street. After the horse and wagon disappeared around a corner by The Recorder office, Halliday was seen limping along the route with the whip, blanket and cushion he had picked up by the roadside.
Charlie Nelson published a notice denying rumors he had refused an old man a ride on Election Day, saying no one had asked him for a ride.
The Special Express, due at Cold Spring at 8:12 p.m., unloaded a stranger who had been struck by the engine while walking on the track above the Breakneck Tunnel. He died inside the depot 90 minutes later. He was identified as John Daley, a brickyard laborer. The engineer said he threw up his hands before being struck.
The horse of Milton Wise, secured at the corner of Main and Graden, pulled up the hitching post and took off “as did Sampson with the gate of Gaza,” according to The Recorder.
125 Years Ago (November 1899)
A meeting was held at Town Hall to organize a military company.
Republicans won every part of Putnam County on Election Day except for District 2 in Philipstown.
Members of the Cold Spring Hose Co. practiced with their new extension ladders on two Main Street buildings, running hoses to the roofs.
William Curry was lighting a lamp in the show window at E.L. Post’s dry goods store when he dropped the match and ignited a pile of blankets. He smothered the fire with an armful of comforters.
John Donohue, of Garrison, resigned as Putnam County sheriff after being appointed deputy collector of U.S. Internal Revenue for Westchester County.
James Smith left for Cripple Creek, Colorado, to look after his mining investments.
George Cable of Nelsonville was arrested for not sending his son to school.
Capt. Henry Metcalfe was appointed by the Army to oversee the Cadet Corps at Haldane. The Army provided $1,650 [about $63,000 today] for 40 stands of arms and accoutrements and Metcalfe donated $140 [$5,300] for gymnasium apparatus.
Titus Truesdell, who owned the pickle factory, agreed to liquidate his assets to pay $8,345 [$317,000] he owed to creditors, including 49 farmers. His assets included 150,000 pickles (valued at $750) and a carload of salt ($110).
Sixty residents gathered at the home of Sylvanus Mekeel in Nelsonville for a dinner party. The raccoon was “cooked to perfection,” The Recorder said.
James Glover cut down every tree on the hill in front of his house so he could see the Hudson River.
Seymour Ellwell, who had worked at the Highland House for 20 years, died after he fell from a tree while picking apples.
A new soundproof telephone booth was installed in J.S. Boyd’s store.
The Cryptic Comedy Co. of Peekskill presented “The Old Mortgaged Homestead” at Town Hall on Thanksgiving night.
William Archie of Garrison was hired by Mrs. Samuel Sloan Jr. as a butler at her winter home in New York City.
Many residents signed a petition to protest the seating in Congress of Brigham Henry Roberts, a Mormon elected in Utah, because he practiced polygamy.
Michael Clear was arrested on a complaint by his wife that he had assaulted her. During his arraignment, Clear promised Justice Riggs that he would behave himself and Mrs. Clear withdrew her complaint.
Samuel Hustis and Robert Barrett of North Highlands purchased an empty whiskey barrel to fill with cider. Barrett attempted to examine the interior with a lighted match but dropped it through the bunghole and set the interior on fire. Barrett told Hustis the only way to save the barrel was to put the bung in the hole. But a few minutes later they heard a hissing noise, and the barrel exploded. The head struck Barrett below the knees, giving him a limp.
William Todd, a former Continentalville resident, was hit and killed by an engine at Grand Central Depot, where he was the night agent. He was off duty so it was not clear why he was in the yard, but his foot was found stuck in the rails.
Kemble Paulding donated to the Cullom Memorial at West Point a collection of nine paintings by John Chapman purchased by his father, James Kirke Paulding, who illustrated two of them for his 1835 biography of George Washington published by Harper Brothers.
John Quirk, a gunner’s mate on the battleship Texas, was home on three months’ furlough.
100 Years Ago (November 1924)
Calvin Coolidge, the incumbent Republican president, received 3,823 votes in Putnam County, while Democratic challenger John Davis got 1,472 and Progressive Party candidate Robert La Follette, 293. Davis won 12 Southern states and La Follette took Wisconsin, but Coolidge won the rest of the country in a landslide.
The laying of the concrete road, curb and sidewalk on lower Main from the tracks to the dock was underway. The project cost $50,000 [$921,000]. The Village Board promptly passed a law banning scooters, carts and roller skates on the new concrete road.
A pile of burning leaves caused a fire that destroyed the Forson Brothers icehouse in Garrison. Elsewhere, an icehouse owned by Milton Smith was also destroyed by fire, along with 20 tons of hay. Smith said he didn’t sound an alarm because the building was far out of the range of any water supply.
Nate Lyons lost the first joint of the third finger of his right hand because of a decayed bone caused by a bruise.
The Home Culture Club donated a $150 [$2,800] surgical instrument cabinet to the Butterfield Memorial Hospital, then voted to donate another $7 for a nameplate to indicate the club had donated the cabinet.
The Sisters of Atonement at Graymoor purchased 60 acres of the Stuyvesant Fish estate to create a camp for orphaned boys from New York City. At the same time, the Highland Country Club bought 2 acres from the Capuchins to expand its golf course and Henry Fairfield Osborn bought 14 acres from the Capuchins atop Sugar Loaf to extend and protect his water supply.
Jacob Ruppert, the New York Yankees owner who resided at Eagles Nest [now the St. Basil Academy campus], gave notice that he planned to apply to have his estate zoned as a private park under state conservation law to prevent trespassing by hunters and fishermen.
A fire in Carmel, fueled by a gale, destroyed the roof and upper story of the 110-year-old Putnam County courthouse, a hotel, the Putnam County Courier office and two stables. It began at 4:30 a.m. in the kitchen of the Smalley Inn.
Members of the Peekskill-Bear Mountain Bridge Celebration Committee, chaired by former U.S. Sen. Chauncy Depew, were among the first to cross the new bridge the day before Thanksgiving. The West Point Band met the delegation on the eastern approach and accompanied them to the Bear Mountain Inn. The bridge opened to the public at 7 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day.
The Italian American Social Club hosted a shooting match at Kemble’s Field on Thanksgiving Day. Only 12-gauge and .22-caliber rifles could be used, with size 6 shot for still targets and size 4 for clay pigeons. The prizes were turkeys, geese, ducks and chickens. Another shooting match was held near Allen’s Garage in Nelsonville, with the same prizes plus a pig.
Grace Patterson of Cold Spring was among the winners of a handwriting contest sponsored by the New York News.
The post office added an electric stamp-canceling machine.
A school of porpoises that passed by in the river was seen as far north as Hyde Park, but no one reported them going south.
The Van Corland family returned to their cottage on the road to Manitou after a few days away to find it had been burglarized. Neighbors reported seeing a truck parked outside but thought the family was moving.
75 Years Ago (November 1949)
Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Beattie and their two children of Garrison appeared in an article, “With a Will and a Workshop,” in the latest issue of Living for Young Homemakers.
The Haldane cross-country team defeated Carmel, 22-18, during a race held at halftime of the Carmel-Pawling football game.
Dr. Coryell Clark, who had been a physician in Cold Spring for 46 years, was honored with a surprise 70th birthday dinner at the Bird & Bottle Inn.
The Cold Spring Fire Co. ordered a Brockway truck with a 500-gallons-per-minute centrifugal pump and a 200-gallon-capacity booster tank.
50 Years Ago (November 1974)
Rep. Hamilton Fish Jr., the Republican incumbent, defeated Democratic challenger Nicholas Angell of Garrison, winning Philipstown, 1,961 to 1,183.
Corrie ten Boom, 81, the Dutch author of The Hiding Place, was the guest speaker at the fall banquet for the Walter Hoving Home of Garrison. The book, which sold 2 million copies, tells the story of her family’s imprisonment for harboring Jews during World War II.
West Point announced that its new four-story, $13 million [$83 million] hospital would be named for Col. William Lorden Keller, a surgeon, writer and inventor of surgical equipment.
James Gragg, senior engineer of the Taconic Park Commission, spoke to the Cold Spring Lions about improvements planned for Little Stony Point, including a parking lot for 100 cars between Route 9D and the railroad. Although the plans did not include a marina, a small bathhouse might be constructed, he said, because the state Department of Health considered the Hudson suitable for swimming there.
25 Years Ago (November 1999)
The Putnam County Legislature voted to override a veto by County Executive Bob Bondi of its plan to remove $74,000 [$140,000] from the budget that he had earmarked for immigrant health services. The override returned the money to the general budget.
The Hotel Thayer at West Point reopened after a $26 million [$49 million] renovation.
When the last game of the season for the Philipstown Pop Warner Flag Seahawks was canceled by their opponents, the coach asked eight starters from the Haldane varsity to fill in. The younger players won, 42-21, and thanked the Blue Devils — Matt Amato, Matt Steltz, Mike Davis, Dylan Griffin, Greg Anderson, J.P. Perk, Tommy Nastasi and Anthony Delvecchio — for being good sports about their defeat.
After a Garrison man drove off the roadway onto an embankment, he spun his wheels to return the car to the road. That started a fire that began to consume the vehicle. Matt Noviello Jr., 18, was credited with pulling the driver, who suffered serious burns to his hands and leg, from the vehicle.
After months of contentious debate, Garrison school district voters approved a proposal to construct a new building, 569-566.
Residents at a Cold Spring Village Board meeting opposed a proposal to build 16 townhouses on a former lumberyard on West Street.
Anthony Immorlica celebrated his 90th birthday. Born in Cold Spring in 1909, he recalled going as a boy with his father, Joseph, to light the 54 gas lamps that lined Main Street. He also remembered sledding down Main, over the tracks, off the dock and onto the frozen river. Sledders watched the gatekeeper, who waved a red lantern if a train was approaching. Immorlica was a linotype operator and foreman at the Peekskill Star for 42 years.
The Haldane volleyball team returned to the state finals for the third year but fell short of defending its Class D title.
After responding to a report of smoke inside a residence on Manitou Station Road, Garrison firefighters had to dismantle the living room fireplace with sledgehammers and pry bars to reach the flames. The homeowners had replaced the fireplace 18 months earlier without a permit or inspection. The couple smelled smoke at 5:45 a.m.; their smoke detector had a dead battery.
