150 Years Ago (April 1875)
The shoe stores of Thomas Martin and Hugh Patterson were burglarized by culprits who fled toward Breakneck in a light wagon. “Strange to say, no reward was offered and, consequently, no pursuit was made,” The Cold Spring Recorder reported. A week later, several pairs of ladies’ gaiters were found in a buggy stored in an unoccupied building on Market Street that was once the Presbyterian Church.
Allen Brewer appeared to have “skedaddled” from Nelsonville with all his family’s goods except the calico.
A miniature steam engine puffed away in a hole on April 2 opposite Patterson’s shoe store to thaw a frozen pipe 2 feet below the surface that had prevented any water from flowing below Chestnut Street. The work continued for more than two weeks. On April 15, the engine exploded outside Mr. Murry’s store and a piece of burning charcoal landed between the collar and neck of Jimmie Mellravy, causing a blister.
Charles Emerson, who lived near Mekeel’s Corners, claimed he killed six crows with one shot from his English fowling piece. Jackson Tompkins of Putnam Valley said he shot 12 foxes over the winter.
The Episcopal bishop of New York visited Cold Spring for a Saturday morning service to install the Rev. Mr. Isaac Van Winkle as rector of St. Mary’s Church. Van Winkle then left for a 10-day vacation.
Twice in a week, a train was stopped by a malfunctioning south signal, which did not instill confidence in the system.
Dr. Griffin of Nelsonville opened a branch office at the corner of Main and Stone streets that he manned daily from 7 to 8 a.m. and 5 to 6 p.m.
Officer McAndrew caught two truants from the Rock Street School after “a lively chase.”
After guests at the Pacific Hotel heard wild geese honking on the river, they began to shoot at them for sport.
The Recorder editor reported that Jacob Levi and Barny Clinton exchanged “a great many small rocks and vile epithets” just outside the newspaper office.
A freight engine, while taking water at the station, sent a spark onto the roof of a shed, but a young man spotted the smoke and climbed to put it out.
William Conroy drove to Sandy Landing Cove to wash the mud off his wagon, but the horse sank in the sediment. When Conroy climbed down to get it out, the horse knocked him into the water.
After determining that the oath given to members of the Nelsonville board had been improperly administered, the village petitioned the state Legislature to legalize its past proceedings.
The governor vetoed a bill giving the Garrison and West Point Ferry Co. a half-mile monopoly. He said it was unconstitutional to give exclusive benefits to a private corporation.
The father of Miss Warner, author of Wide Wide World, died at the family home on Constitution Island. She sent for two clergymen to conduct the service but, when they failed to show, knelt by the coffin and led the prayers.
There was a split in the Baptist Church among parishioners who wanted to dismiss the Rev. Benjamin Bowen and those who wanted him to stay. When a deacon said taking a vote would be illegal, most people left. Those who remained then voted to keep Bowen for another year.
125 Years Ago (April 1900)
The M. Taylor Granolithic Co. rented the Truesdell property on Main Street to manufacture the liquid it used in its patented sawdust flooring.
The Cold Spring Hose Co. changed its name to the Cold Spring Fire Co. No. 1.
Dr. Lewis Morris, a former Cold Spring physician, was engaged to Katherine Clark, whose father planned to give the couple a mansion on Fifth Avenue.
After Thomas Coe began selling 26 eggs for 25 cents [$9.50] at his dry goods store, Truesdell offered 30 for 25 cents; Morris, 35 for 25 cents; and Secor, 36 for 25 cents. Morris then went to 50 for 25 cents.
Charles de Rham hired King Quarry Co. to cut a $1,500 [about $57,000 today] fountain and horse trough (shown today, below) for the highway near Indian Brook as a memorial to his late wife.
Mrs. Michael Clare reported to the village police officer that her husband had deserted her, leaving the family destitute. She wanted her children sent to a home.
The Board of Trustees purchased a fireproof safe for $140 [$5,300] that included private lockboxes for the boards of water and health.
The Thomas and Columbian Colored Concert Co. performed at Town Hall to benefit the Rev. William Eley, pastor of the St. James AME Zion Church at Fishkill Landing [Beacon].
The Recorder noted that “this country is now receiving from Europe about 10,000 immigrants a week.”
Charles Mosher, the fish dealer, received 20 North River shad, the first of the season.
Mrs. Patrick Scullen gave birth to triplets, two girls and a boy. One girl died, but the other two babies were healthy. [They lived for about a month.]
Gen. Abraham Arnold, a hero of the 1864 Battle of Davenport Bridge (for which he received the Medal of Honor), and his wife visited her mother on Morris Avenue. [Arnold died in Cold Spring in 1901 and is buried at St. Philip’s Church in Garrison.]
Congress appropriated $1,200 [$45,000] for a firing tunnel so that shots from West Point at a target on Cro’ Nest did not ricochet into Cold Spring.
The Village Board instructed news dealers to stop throwing paper wrappers into the street at Depot Square because they were stopping up the culvert.
Writing from Madrid, the Hon. Hamilton Fish reported: “I went to see a bull fight and found it a disgusting, brutal sight, and I left in horror, and came to the conclusion that no nation in the world can succeed that can tolerate such a brutal and degrading exhibition.”
Attorney Joseph Greene purchased a Hammond typewriter.
The Salvation Army was holding nightly outdoor meetings at Chestnut and Main streets.
A gang of boys who hung around the corner of Morris Avenue and Main Street broke several windows. “The respectability of their parents has prevented us from publishing their names,” The Recorder said.
Burglars broke into the railroad station and stole $6 [$227] in change and a pistol but overlooked the cash in the ticket office.
100 Years Ago (April 1925)
The Knights of Columbus presented a six-reel silent movie, That French Lady, starring Shirley Mason, at its hall, plus a two-reel comedy.
Walter Callahan agreed to compete in a baton-twirling contest at a gathering hosted by the National Drum and Fife Corps of Newark.
After Pauline Dodge heard a commotion early in the morning in her Nelsonville home, she came downstairs with a pistol to find two intruders escaping through a window. She fired and “winged” one of them.
The Cold Spring Fire Co. reported it had responded to 21 alarms in the previous 12 months, not counting chimney fires fought with chemicals transported by auto.
Schwartz & Bros. opened a dress factory on Depot Square in the building formerly occupied by the Rite Form Corset Co. It employed 15 people.
Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected chair of the Taconic State Park Commission, with jurisdiction over state parks east of the Hudson River.
The Cold Spring Board of Trustees voted to adopt daylight saving time.
Frank Early, 22, of Cold Spring, a U.S. Marine who served on the USS Tennessee, participated in war games with a fleet near the Hawaiian Islands.
The Philipstown Electric Corp. planned to spend $51,000 [$925,000] to bring power to the north part of town.
75 Years Ago (April 1950)
Bruce Larson, a junior at the Princeton Theological Seminary, was named pastor at the Presbyterian Church. He succeeded George Morrison, also a Princeton student, who left for missionary work in Egypt.
The Visiting Firemen of Garrison ended the 1949-50 basketball season with a 40-39 victory over the Texaco Fire Chiefs of Beacon at Haldane on a midcourt shot by Don Ingraham with 15 seconds left.
Cold Spring residents were warned to call the police if a dog annoyed them, rather than poison it, which had happened three times over the weekend in the vicinity of Mountain Avenue.
The local postmaster, Bernard Schatzle, said Sunday mail delivery and holiday window service would be suspended because of federal budget cuts.
50 Years Ago (April 1975)
An electrical fire damaged the Beau Jim Restaurant on Route 9 (formerly the Alpine Inn). Jim Muse, who operated the restaurant with his wife, Joan, said everything appeared to be in order when he left at 3:30 a.m.
A Cold Spring committee organized a parade on April 19 as the first local event to celebrate the U.S. bicentennial.
Clearwater said that, unless it could raise $50,000 [$300,000] to repair dry rot in the main timbers of its sloop, it would not sail during the bicentennial year.
The state Department of Mental Hygiene created a toll-free line for residents of Putnam, Dutchess and 19 other counties to get information about mental illness, alcoholism, mental retardation and development disabilities.
The fifth car of the 25-car Bicentennial Freedom Train that stopped in Newburgh displayed patent models from the collection of O. Rundle Gilbert of Philipstown such as an 1878 telephone and early roller skates. The collection, which Gilbert purchased at a bankruptcy sale in 1941, filled 75 trailer trucks.
Martin Carter, 45, was ordained into the priesthood at Graymoor after becoming the first Black friar to make a perpetual commitment. The North Carolina native moved to Philipstown in 1947 at age 17 and became a brother in 1950. [Father Martin died in 2021 at age 91.]
An Ulster County resident wrote to the Putnam County News & Recorder with an offer to buy a subscription to the 85-year-old Weekly People, the newspaper of the Socialist Labor Party, for any Putnam County library that contacted him.
Fifty members of the Rolls-Royce Owners Club brought their cars to the Bird & Bottle Inn in Philipstown for a meeting.
A suspicious fire gutted an unoccupied home on Fair Street next to the Our Lady of Loretto rectory. The destroyed contents included an electric-train collection and paintings by the late artist Theodore Mosher, whose estate owned the structure.
Two hundred and thirty-five people paid tribute at a dinner at the Holiday Inn in Fishkill to Police Chief John Merante, who retired after 32 years with the force.
Members of Putnam County Right to Life held an hour-long vigil outside Butterfield Hospital with prayers, hymns and scripture readings.
25 Years Ago (April 2000)
Bob Bondi, the Putnam County executive, vetoed a resolution to pay $275,000 [$507,000] to settle a lawsuit brought by a former fire coordinator against the sheriff. A federal jury had awarded John Leather $845,000 [$1.6 million] over his arrest in 1994, which he contended was politically motivated because he disagreed with the sheriff about control of the 911 system.
A Cold Spring police officer was attacked by one of two dogs that had pulled away from their owner on Morris Avenue, causing her to fall. When the officer arrived, the dog returned and bit him in the thigh. He retreated to the top of a parked car while the owner got the animals under control.
Before a full house that included many farmers, the Putnam County director of real property services petitioned the Legislature to create an agricultural district.
By a 5-2 vote, the Garrison school board adopted a $5.4 million [$9.96 million] budget with an 8 percent tax increase.
A state judge ruled that Nelsonville had “clearly demonstrated bad faith” in denying an application to build an 87-unit housing complex on a 20-acre parcel between the Cold Spring Cemetery and Pete’s Deli. The developers had been seeking approval since 1981, when they brought a proposal for a 203-unit complex to the Planning Board. After a court ordered the village to allow a complex with 180 units, the board adopted a law limiting developments to one unit per 9,000 square feet. In the late 1980s, the developers tried again with proposals for 93 units and 87 units, which prompted another restrictive law. The village vowed to appeal.
