150 Years Ago (December 1874)
E.A. Pelton was injured at Mount Forest farm in Breakneck Valley when a bull being driven from the yard into the stable turned and charged him, striking his left shoulder, arm and side. The bull was ready for a second attack when Mr. Archer rushed from the barn and thrust a pitchfork into its neck, causing it to retreat. Although no bones were broken, Pelton breathed with difficulty for a few days.
The Rock Street School principal had a little fun with the students when he asked if they would like to have a holiday for five weeks. When the students pressed for details, he replied that Mr. Halliday would need that long to complete the new addition.
Over several days, a train of wagons carrying 400 tree trunks moved down Main Street to the wharf for projects in Sing Sing and New York City.
The Methodist Church announced it had repaired its heater for services.
The Cold Spring Recorder suggested that the coroner investigate a rumor that Thomas Wells, who died suddenly three days after being injured at the Sunk Mine in Putnam Valley, had been killed by an accidental overdose of pain medicine.
The Recorder editor noted that, because the clerk’s office had been moved to the other side of the county, he could no longer get reports on Board of Supervisor meetings until they were published in the Carmel papers.
William Nelson wrote The Recorder to question the financial practices of the Philipstown highway commissioner. He noted that two years earlier, the town raised $500 [$14,000 today] in taxes to pay John Travis for road repairs. When he wasn’t paid, Travis sued. The commissioner offered to settle by giving Travis a 60-day note minus the interest because he had collected the taxes but never deposited them and needed to raise the cash. “It seems to me there could be some system organized in this town whereby it could be shown who receives the money and where it is expended,” Nelson wrote.
Erastus Nelson lost several fingers to a hay cutter.
The West Point Foundry tested its Sutcliffe rifled cannon and took photos.
An unnamed Cold Spring resident recounted his visit with three other Civil War veterans to the former battlefield at Petersburgh, Virginia.
A reader wrote The Recorder to complain about a traveling bookseller who appeared at the Clermont House in Garrison. “I presume the public knows that booksellers and drummers never take no for an answer,” he wrote. A hotel clerk finally persuaded the salesman to retire to the bar.
Meade Van Tassel was nearly finished loading blocks from the icehouses to take to Cold Spring when the horses took off down the road, which ran along a gorge. At the first curve, the horses and wagon tumbled down the bank, and one horse was killed. The loss was about $350 [$9,700].
Trustees from the 14 Philipstown school districts met at Town Hall to organize a centralized Board of Education as required by a new state law.
After parking his wagon for a few minutes to run an errand, John Ulter discovered his groceries had been stolen.
Because of an iron shortage, the blacksmiths and patternmakers at the foundry were cut to three-quarters time, or 7½ hours a day.
Capt. Bell’s small son escaped serious injury when he tripped while crossing Main Street in front of a team of horses drawing a cord of wood. The driver managed to stop about 3 feet short of the lad, who was snatched up by his father.
A baseball-themed spelling bee was held at Town Hall. The team captained by the Rev. Williams won by spelling 36 more words correctly during 300 at-bats. A designated pitcher gave the words to both sides.
Stephen Worden said the night was so dark in Indian Brook Valley that, while transporting a load of hay, he had to lead his team while poking ahead with a stick.
Charles Mekeel, an overseer of the poor, dismissed rumors that an 8-year-old girl in Mollysville [Nelsonville] was being starved and beaten by her father and stepmother. According to The Recorder, the girl had been living with her maternal grandmother after her mother’s death but was sent to her father. She had not been enrolled in school and seldom left the house, but her father said she was of “a very morose and vindictive disposition.”
Several residents reported feeling an earthquake at 10:30 p.m.; William Horton, who lived 3 miles from the village, thought a wagon was being driven up to his house and jumped out of bed to see who was coming.
After two drunk miners got into a fistfight on West Street, and one was knocked down, they shook hands and returned to the bar.
P. O’Donnell announced that, “finding it detrimental to business, morality and society,” he would no longer allow loiterers outside his store.
William Dykeman’s wife was admitted to the Hudson River Hospital in Poughkeepsie for treatment of a disordered mind.
Robert Laughlin, a Cold Spring trustee, left to spend the winter in South Carolina.
A man and boy who stole three chickens from the Rev. C.S. Brown escaped along Orchard Street and through the cemetery.
The state superintendent of public instruction, responding to an appeal, appointed Stephen MeKeel as a trustee of the Nelsonville school district. MeKeel had won the vote at a meeting, 19-17, over Isaac Riggs, but the chair called for a do-over that Riggs won because a few voters wrote initials instead of first names.
Two Garden Street residents said their Christmas turkeys, sold by the pound, had been clandestinely stuffed with chestnuts to make them heavier.
125 Years Ago (December 1899)
The Recorder reported that, for the first time in Cold Spring history, barbershops were closed on Sunday by order of the Board of Trustees. Officer McCaffrey also stopped football and golf games.
Two state agriculture inspectors searched in town for unlabeled renovated butter, which was rancid butter that was melted so the fat could be drawn off, mixed with skim milk or cream and rechurned. It was legal to sell but had to be identified.
Marie Taylor received a silver pie-lifter from Mrs. George Freeman for having the best-kept front yard. The presentation was delayed because Mrs. Freeman had typhoid fever.
After William Boyce of Newburgh broke his leg during a football game at Haldane High School, a collection was started at the Old Homestead Club for his benefit.
William Ladue, the bicycle racer from Cold Spring, won 31 races in 1899 and prizes valued at $1,135 [$43,000], including 13 diamond studs, seven diamonds, a diamond ring, a diamond pin, a silver tea set, four gold watches, three gold medals and a gold watch chain. He could continue racing as an amateur as long as he didn’t sell any of the prizes.
Howard Robinson, the baggage master at the Garrison depot, and May Forson, the telegraph operator, were married at the South Highlands church.
Judge Monroe Hayward, the son-in-law of E.A. Pelton of Cold Spring, died in Nebraska at age 58. Hayward had been elected to the U.S. Senate earlier in the year to fill a vacancy but never took the oath because of poor health.
The Central Hudson Steamboat Co. said that, for the first time in its history, it planned to run propeller boats between Newburgh and New York City through the winter.
The owners of parcels at Ardina, the subdivided, 75-acre former Arden estate that included the Highland Country Club, organized a land company.
Perry & Reilley received a barrel of live lobsters, but when the grocer called the New York company whose tag was on the shipment, it said it had no record. The barrel was returned to the American Express office.
Two young men got into a fistfight at Sherwood Odell’s store, spilling a box of coffee and breaking several dozen eggs before being evicted.
Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Odell received a letter from Manila from their nephew, William Denike, who had been reported killed in the Philippine-American War.
West Point cadets, by a unanimous vote, abolished hazing.
Seth Secor, the grocer, won a piano in a raffle and offered it for sale or rent.
Frank Odell and his wife and five children had the measles.
After a case of wine was stolen from his wagon at the Garrison depot, Maj. George Fox searched for his property nearby. He heard “merry voices” inside the home of Charles Gilbert, according to The Recorder, and when he opened the door, spotted the wine in the center of the room. Justice Riggs sentenced Gilbert, his brother, James, and his son, Harry, to 120 days in jail, but after Fox requested leniency, the judge reduced the sentences to 50 days for the brothers and 30 days for Harry.
Helen Nelson received an advanced academic diploma from the University of the State of New York, the first such diploma issued to a Haldane High School student or any student in Putnam County.
Gen. Edward Ferrero died at age 68. Along with his military duties, he was a choreographer who, before the Civil War, taught dance to the cadets at West Point.
The Recorder said the village was “overrun with peddlers of fruits, vegetables, meats, poultry, etc.” and “something must be done to protect the local merchants.”
Two men traveling to Peekskill on the 9:30 p.m. train from New York City fell asleep and were stranded in Cold Spring. “It often happens!” noted The Recorder.
The Rev. George Allen of Milton, who had attempted suicide in November 1898 while visiting his sister, Mrs. Henry Hustis, on Orchard Street in Cold Spring, by shooting himself six times in the forehead (in the same hole), announced his renewed engagement to Minnie Gedney. In the summer of 1898, while engaged to Gedney, Allen traveled to his native Scotland for a sabbatical. On the return voyage, he met Mary Noakes, a nurse, and they were engaged at sea. Back in Milton, this news was not well received, and Allen fled to Cold Spring.
100 Years Ago (December 1924)
The Recorder noted: “Now that the Bear Mountain Bridge is completed, some people are wondering who will be the first person ‘to do a Brodie.’” The slang referenced Steve Brodie, a penniless gambler who in 1886 claimed to have survived a daredevil jump from the Brooklyn Bridge. Two years later, in 1888, he jumped 222 feet from the Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge for a payout of $500 [$17,000]. He died in 1901 with an estate valued at $100,000 [$1.85 million].
Haldane students sold Ladies’ Home Journal subscriptions to raise money for playground equipment.
A new front was installed on the building next to the Old Homestead Club for its incoming occupant, Dalzell’s Stationery Store.
The Men’s Club of St. Peter’s Church in Peekskill performed a Wednesday night minstrel show at the St. Philip’s parish house in Garrison with a 24-person chorus, five vaudeville acts and “Negro monologues.”
The Loretto Council of the Knights of Columbus distributed Christmas baskets to needy families.
75 Years Ago (December 1949)
Maurice Brownell of Parrott Street retired after 37 years with the Postal Transportation Service, during which he traveled 2 million miles.
Mr. Entwistle of the New York Telephone Co. spoke at Haldane High School about the sound beam used to send messages from New York to Boston.
Because of poor weather, a Santa Claus Parade by Helicopter visit to Cold Spring was canceled.
The Haldane boys’ basketball team won its opener over Yorktown, 38-37, on a 30-foot hook shot at the buzzer by Ray Costa.
Marie Saunders of Old Albany Post Road inherited $38,000 [$504,000] from her grandmother, Anna Goebel of New York City.
50 Years Ago (December 1974)
Haldane grad Bob Vitanza, who played tight end for the undefeated Central College football team in Iowa, had a 25-yard reception in a 17-16 win over Evansville in the NCAA Division III tournament.
Graymoor announced a weekend retreat for divorced Catholics.
At the grand opening of the Fishkill National Bank branch at Oak and Chestnut streets, Marie Manglass won a 10-speed bike and Brian Nice took home a 19-inch color TV.
George Ross presented a children’s magic show at the Garrison Art Center. His claim to fame was a performance at the wedding reception of Mazie Cox (sister-in-law of Tricia Nixon Cox, daughter of the former president), where he made the bride and groom disappear in a puff of smoke.
Marie Choubaroff Fish, the wife of former Rep. Hamilton Fish, died at age 69 and was interred at St. Philip’s churchyard in Garrison. After her father was killed during the Bolshevik Revolution, she escaped Russia in 1923. According to her obituary, “Politically, she agreed with Billy Graham that Satan’s masterpiece is the Communist philosophy.”
25 Years Ago (December 1999)
The North American Numbering Plan Administration announced that residents of Putnam and eight other counties would be assigned a new area code, 845.
Twenty-five Garrison residents filed a petition asking the state Education Department to prevent the school board from issuing bonds for a $6.29 million building expansion approved by voters. The petition claimed, among other charges, that some voters lived outside the district and that the ballot was misleading.
Anthony Nastasi and John Bocchino founded an apparel and accessory company, Just for Girls Sports.
Dominick Dirito celebrated his 75th year as a volunteer firefighter with the Cold Spring Fire Co. He joined in 1924. Notably, he never learned to drive. He always lived within a few blocks of the firehouse, he said, and he had a train pass because he worked for the railroad.
A helicopter piloted by police officer Michael Susi landed on the Haldane football field as part of a study unit for the second graders, including his son, D.J., who assisted with the presentation.
Susan and Michael Mihalik expanded the outdoor creche at St. Philip’s Church installed in memory of their son, Michael, by adding a shepherd and a sheep.
A 16-year-old from Beacon who worked at a Garrison gas station called 911 to report that he had been held up and cut on the head. But investigators determined he and a friend had stolen the $1,700 [$3,200].
