Journalist, historian and civil rights activist John Edward Bruce
By Mary Hoar, City of Yonkers Historian, President Emeritus Yonkers Historical Society, recipient of the 2004 Key to History, Yonkers Landmarks Preservation Board Member, Revolutionary Yonkers 250 Chair and President Untermyer Performing Arts Council
Monday, March 3rd
March 3, 1913: More than 125 Yonkers residents organized by the Democratic City Committee and Public Safety Commissioner Fleming traveled to Washington DC to witness President Wilson’s inauguration.
It was bipartisan; Yonkers Republican John Edward Bruce chaired the Wilson Inauguration’s Committee on Public Comfort, drafting caterer extraordinaire Francis Moultrie, employment specialist Sterling Lambert, Samuel Giddings, Anthony McRae and attorney Stephen Bennett into action.
March 3, 1945: Habirshaw Cable Company announced expansion of its local facilities to include a fourth plant at the foot of Main Street where National Sugar Refinery once stood. Habirshaw spent $757,000 for the facility and was to employ several hundred men to make the needed wire. As soon as installation started, machinery started producing much needed strand wire for the US Signal Corp.
This most likely was the waterfront location where top secret Operation Overlord cable was constructed, the operation— and cable– many later credited with being responsible for D-Day’s success.
Tuesday March 4th
March 4, 1936: Downtown Yonkers’ people were talking about the small brass plate sunk into the sidewalk at the southwest corner of South Broadway and Hudson Street. The inscription read, “Property Line Cochran Estates, Inc. Crossing by Permission Only. Permission Revocable at Will.” No doubt, thousands of people had not noticed it and unknowingly “trespassed” on the property.
March 4, 1942: Adah Hopkins Aime resigned as Executive Secretary of the Yonkers Chapter of the American Red Cross.
Aime was sister of Harry Hopkins, who served the Roosevelt Administration as head of the Lend Lease Program, a member of the War Production Board and the Pacific War Council. Hopkins was an “intimate advisor,” so close to the president he lived in the White House. Harry Hopkins, his sister and his mother all lived in the Ludlow section of Yonkers in the 1920s.
Wednesday, March 5th
March 5, 1945: For the second time in a week, children found a large batch of mail hidden in woods behind Shelburne Road! Police notified local postal authorities who believed the mail was tossed by a seventeen-year-old temporary carrier working during the Christmas rush. The found mail was dated December 1944.
The post office sorted the mail and then delivered it.
Thursday, March 6th
March 6, 1945: New York Central Railroad representatives were in Albany to get permission to ignore new State Industrial Codes prohibiting removing rivets and bolts using flame. In the process of demolishing the overhead pass of the abandoned Getty Square spur of the “Old Put,” workers were ordered to stop using acetylene torches while tearing down the New Main Street and Nepperhan Avenue overpass. The workers finished removing the span mostly using iron bars and large wrenches, a considerably slower method, taking a lot longer to demolish the span.
Friday, March 7th
March 7, 1945: Forty Westchester women recruits for the new General Theodore Roosevelt Junior Company of the Women’s Army Corps were honored at a ceremony at Yonkers City Hall. Yonkers’ Mayor Curtiss Frank, Judge William Bleakley and County Executive Herbert Gerlach greeted the gathering in our Council Chambers; other mayors attended to honor the women. The High School of Commerce’s 150-piece female band provided entertainment.
After lunch was served by the Salvation Army and Red Cross Canteens, the women marched down New Main Street to South Broadway, where the Red Cross Motor Corps, accompanied by a police escort, picked them up and drove them to New York City to join 410 additional recruits from New York, New Jersey and Delaware.
Brigadier General Sumner Waite administered their Oaths of Office in Studio 4 of the Columbia Broadcasting System. Women’s Army Corps Director Colonel Oveta Culp addressed the group, as did Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt Jr., widow of the man after whom the medical and surgical technician company was named. Afterwards, the Kilmer WAC Band entertained them, one of the few all-women bands at the time.
Saturday, March 8th
March 8, 1922: J. Raymond Hannon of Warburton Avenue was awarded the Conspicuous Service Cross for evacuating wounded under heavy shellfire during the Somme offensive in March 1918. Hannon served with the US Ambulance Corps; he previously was decorated with the French Croix de Guerre.
March 8, 1928: The Yonkers Federation of Teachers and Parents filed an official protest against obsolete and unsanitary old drinking fountains in most of the schools, blaming the old equipment for school epidemics. They demanded the old fountains be replaced with modern sanitary ones… and soap and towels be supplied to all schools as well.
The fountains in question were in every school, except for schools built in the previous five years.
Sunday, March 9th
March 9, 1919: Sergeant Raymond Blackburn of Warburton Avenue and Corporal Irving Klein of Ludlow Street were awarded Distinguished Service Crosses for heroism in the World War (WWI).
Sgt. Raymond Blackburn’s award was for “Extraordinary Heroism” in action near Binarville, France, in 1918. Sgt. Blackburn had volunteered to lead a reconnaissance patrol. While returning with information, a patrol member became detached and was in danger of being captured. Realizing his comrade’s predicament, Sgt. Blackburn rushed to his aid and rescued him, killing two enemies and dispersing others.
Company A, 108th Infantry’s Corporal Irving Klein, Award was for extraordinary heroism in action near Binarville, France, in September 1918, and Charlevaux, France, in October 1918. After locating three enemy machine guns, he silenced one, took up a position against the other two under intense shell fire, and sent back information to his company commander making it possible to clean out the entire nest. After being wounded, Corporal Klein continued to assist his men repulsing the attack of an enemy combat patrol.
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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 info@yonkershistoricalsociety.org.
