By Mary Hoar, President Emerita, Yonkers Historical Society, recipient of the 2004 Key to History and President Untermyer Performing Arts Council
Monday, October 18th
October 18, 1941: Because only 58,120 people registered to vote, the City Council was limited to five members. If more than 60,000 people had registered, Yonkers would have been able to increase the number of Council members to seven.
October 18, 1945: The two-thousand Yonkers Boys Scouts not only aided our local war agencies and committees, they sold 4,798 War Bonds totaling $2,907,167.71!
Tuesday, October 19th
October 19, 1942: School Trustee John Class reported at a meeting of the Yonkers Board of Education he had “read something good had come out of Yonkers, something connected with the Board of Education.” A piece in the New York Sun reported on the training of aircraft workers at the Yonkers School of Aeronautical Manufacturing, describing it as “an impressive experiment in the working out of practical democracy.” The article reported that since the school had opened about two years earlier, had training 1,500 aircraft mechanics who worked all over the country, some as far as California. The article also reported 75 women attended the school.
Wednesday, October 20th
October 20, 1906: Part of the private road from Yonkers Avenue to the Dunwoodie Golf Club washed out due to the heavy downpour of rain. The soil rushed down the hill and covered the tracks of the Yonkers Railroad Company, making them impassable. Passengers were stuck between Mount Vernon and Yonkers until a crew removed the earth and reopened the line. A high wind accompanied the storm, stripping trees of their leaves, covering the streets and sidewalks in a carpet of brilliant fall color.
October 20, 1943: Norah Maher of St. Joseph Avenue received a letter from New York Senator James Mead, telling her he met her son Howard, who was happy and in good health. Private Maher was on duty with a Military Police unit in North Africa when a car of visiting officials pulled up. After a few moments of polite conversation, Mead asked Maher where he was from; hearing Yonkers, the Senator asked if he knew Eddie Murray (City and County Democratic Chairman Edward J. Murray) and Bill Cronin (Postmaster William Cronin). At the end of the conversation, Maher asked the senator to contact his mom to let her know he was fine.
Thursday, October 21st
October 21, 1922: Hundreds of Yonkers HS students engaged in three separate fights with Mount Vernon football fans during and after the teams played in Mount Vernon. The first took place between the second and third periods of the game when MV was in the lead; YHS students dressed in the school’s blue and orange colors began a snake dance on the field. Immediately swarmed by MV students, the dance degenerated in a fight that police had to break up the fight. Although Mount Vernon was the two to one favorite, YHS won 19-6, making MV fans very unhappy. Two other clashes broke out before Yonkers fans left, both of which needed police intervention. Cars loaded with Yonkers students drove through Mount Vernon, taunting everyone. After gathering in Getty Square to celebrate, the students formed a huge snake dance. The dance broke into two sections, one headed north and the other south. Not finished, cars filled with students heading back to Mount Vernon to continue celebrating. At 1 am, students still were not home. Cars adorned with orange and blue parked in Mount Vernon, cheering and jeering until MVPD chased them home.
Friday, October 22nd
October 22, 1936: County Judge Gerald Nolan heard arguments appealing the conviction of Rose O’Gorman and William Matthias in their conviction for violation of Yonkers’ “anti-shorts” laws. O’Gorman and Matthias were New York newspaper reporters.
October 22, 1943: In a letter home, North Broadway resident, composer, and band leader “Little Jack Little” sent to his family, he dispelled the glamour of the South Sea Islands, especially the intensity of the heat. Little partnered with Ray Bolger and traveled the Southwest Pacific entertaining servicemen in hospital wards, field theaters and combat areas; according to the Army captain responsible for bringing the two men around, the duo were the best entertainers visiting the boys, and never complained about the simple living conditions. Among Little’s better known hits were I’m in the Mood for Love, You Oughta Be in Pictures, and Where Am I? (Am I in Heaven?)
Saturday, October 23rd
October 23, 1890: General Thomas Ewing, Jr., held a reception in his home at 80 High Street to honor war hero, renowned Civil War military hero and Ewing’s brother-in-law William Tecumseh Sherman. After the death of her husband in 1829, Widow Sherman was left without funds to raise her 11 children; the Sherman family was broken up. Senator Thomas Ewing, Sr., of Ohio took Sherman in and raised him. Ewing, the first Secretary of the Interior, stood up as godfather when 10-year old Sherman converted to Catholicism at a ceremony held in the Ewing family home. Ewing Sr. later obtained a commission to the United States Military Academy for 16-year-old Sherman. Sherman married foster sister Eleanor “Ellen” Ewing in 1850 in Washington DC; President Zachary Taylor and Vice President Millar Fillmore attended the ceremony.
Sunday, October 24th
October 24, 1942: When the War Salvage Committee asked Dr. William Crocker, Director of the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research and President of the Yonkers Board of Education, for scrap a few months earlier, BTI turned in a large amount of unused metal. Crocker promised to have another inspection be made to see if anything else would turn up… and it did! They found an additional 5,000 pounds of scrap, immediately donated to the war effort.
October 24, 1975:16-year old Bobby Hackett slashed 40 seconds off the 1,500-meter men’s free style record at the Pan-American Games and wins the gold medal.
Questions or comments? Email YonkersHistory1646@gmail.com. For information on the Yonkers Historical Society, Sherwood House and upcoming events, please visit our website www.yonkershistoricalsociety.org, call 914-961-8940 or email yhsociety@aol.com.
