A postcard of The Fort Field Resovoir
By Mary Hoar, City of Yonkers Historian, President Emeritus Yonkers Historical Society, recipient of the 2004 Key to History, Yonkers Landmarks Preservation Board Member, Chair of Revolutionary Yonkers 250 and President Untermyer Performing Arts Council
Monday, August 18th
August 18, 1907: A kind benefactor placed a neatly painted sign inscribed, “Trophy, Maria Teresa, Santiago, July 3, 1898” beneath the muzzle of the large naval cannon on the north side of Manor Hall Park.
August 18, 1944: London Rotarians saluted the Yonkers Rotary Club while entertaining Yonkers servicemen with Club connections at a special evening held in their honor. All Rotarians and sons of Rotarians who happened to be serving in England were invited to stop by their meeting for an evening of good cheer and entertainment, despite the fact London regularly was being bombed.
Tuesday, August 19th
August 19, 1917: The YWCA announced it would lend its old building at 29 South Broadway to the Red Cross for a recreation canteen to welcome service members.
August 19, 1922: Long-time Yonkers resident Park Benjamin, the wealthy patent lawyer and father-in-law of the late Enrico Caruso, passed away in Connecticut. Caruso had married Dorothy Park Benjamin, a 25-year old socialite, in 1918 and passed away three years later. The Benjamins lived on Palisade Avenue and Morsemere Avenue. Benjamin disowned his three children, leaving them $1 each,and left his fortune to his adopted daughter Anna Bolchi Benjamin, whom he adopted as an adult.
Wednesday, August 20th
August 20, 1927: Twelfth Ward Alderman Frederick Stilwell announced his retirement from political life after twenty-one years of service to Yonkers. In 1926, the triangular Stilwell Park on McLean Avenue by East 241st Street was named after him.
August 20, 1952: Yonkers Planning Board turned down City Manager Charles Curran’s plan to rezone the Fortfield Reservoir property to permit a $65,000 garage-storage-office building for Yonkers’ Street Lighting Bureau. Curran asked the two-family zoning be changed to commercial district zoning. The Board’s rationale was this zone change potentially would create a precedent for other zone changes in the residential section. Property owners in the Fortfield section expressed their strong objection to the proposed change. It was suggested the old Hudson Tire plant in Nepera Park would be preferable.
Thursday, August 21st
August 21, 1920: Detective Sergeant John Steuart and Detective Leander Sherman left for Toledo, Ohio, to retrieve a car stolen from Yonkers! They also had arrests warrants for John Samuels and Thomas Wiesenee who had stolen the car from Frank De Alba.
August 21, 1943: Leaders in the war veterans’ organizations wanted to combine all nineteen organizations into one large veterans’ group. The sponsors thought the knowledge and experience of the men who served in previous wars would be invaluable to those returning; the new organization would “bear more weight and have more influence than nineteen separate ones.” Yonkers had nine American Legion posts, five VFW posts and several garrisons of the Army and Navy Union. It was not expected to happen as several posts were considered “community posts,” such as Dunbar in Crestwood and Bajart Post in McLean Heights.
Friday, August 22nd
August 22, 1882: Workers at Copcutt’s silk mills nailed notices to trees shading Yonkers streets, appealing to all other power-loom silk weavers to aid them in their strike for higher pay.
The mill owned by William H. Copcutt employed 400 hands. A delegation from the silk handkerchief shop, operating 40 of the 80 looms in the factory, met with Copcutt to ask for more pay, claiming they could not live on their wages of 68 cents for single-loom handkerchiefs and $1.38 for double-loom work. They were turned down flat. The entire department of 41 men and women met at noon. They decided to “stand out” until their rates were increased; 2/3 of the orderly and quiet strikers were girls and women.
Foreman Boydell claimed they were getting better pay than anywhere in the country, averaging $12 a week if they worked steadily.
Saturday, August 23rd
August 23, 1928: Dr. Leon Pisculli of Park Hill announced he would be a medical observer on the Roma, a plane that would attempt a non-stop flight to Rome. The announced plan was for Italian aviator Cesare Sabelli, Roger Q. Williams and Captain Frank Bonelli to pilot the plane. A short while later, the Roma took off for the Italian capitol without the good doctor, Sabelli or Bonelli. Instead, Roger Q. Williams and Capt. Lewis Yancey made the flight, landing in Spain. Yancey had a Yonkers connection; he was married to Gertrude Civelli, a Yonkers girl.
August 23, 1935: Major John Hayward of Chittenden Avenue, commander of the 369th Observation Squadron, Second Corps Area, led the contingent of six Army planes on the Wiley Post- Will Rogers memorial flight over New York.
The pair died when Aviator Post’s aircraft crashed because of engine failure shortly after takeoff from a lagoon near Point Barrow, Alaska. Congress suspended actions after learning of the deaths of the two men.
Sunday, August 24th
August 24, 1943: Alexander Smith Carpet Company announced company engineers Griffin Ashcroft and Oliver Beckwith developed a new tire retread of cotton and reclaimed rubber made on carpet looms; it used 40 percent of the rubber needed for a standard retread and lasted just as long. Although not on the market, it was displayed in the window First National Bank.
August 24, 1952: Gertrude Caulfield Cooney was honored by Crescent Post, American Legion. The only female member of the post, she served as a Yeoman in World War I. Not only was she a member, her husband, DPW Commissioner Thomas Cooney, was a thirty-year member and sons Thomas Jr. and John were World War II veterans, also belonged to the Post. They were a 100% Crescent Post family!
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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.
