NY Yankees Captain Roger Peckinpaugh, purchased a home in Yonkers in 1916
By Mary Hoar, City of Yonkers Municipal Historian, recipient of the Key to the City of Yonkers, President Emeritus Yonkers Historical Society, recipient of the 2004 Key to History, Yonkers Landmarks Preservation Board Member, Founder of Revolutionary Yonkers 250 and President Untermyer Performing Arts Council
Monday, April 27th
April 27, 1943: Martin Zombeck, Rossiter Avenue, received five notes about his brother Michael; the Navy sent Martin a certificate of Michael’s “presumptive death” several months earlier.
Each one of the five letters was from a short wave radio ham around the US; they all carried the same message… Michael was alive!
Messages from American prisoners of war had been broadcast over Tokio radio days earlier. One prisoner of war in Java sent a message to his “brother in Yonkers,” telling him not to worry… and asked him to save the Sunday papers! Minnesota’s R. P. Read had recorded Michael’s message on a master record and offered to send Martin a copy. Read regularly listened to the Japanese broadcasts to try to identify the POWs… then notified their families if he was able to locate them.
The Bryn Mawr Tavern had a gold star for Michael on a service flag; Martin looked forward to telling the owner to remove it since he had proof his brother was alive!
Tuesday, April 28th
April 28, 1918: This was “Wake Up Day in Yonkers” to stimulate recruiting for the Army, Navy, and workers in industrial, agricultural and relief preparedness.
April 28, 1943: American Dietaids Company, 176 South Broadway, manufactured dehydrated food and vitamin food products. The company leased a large two-story building on Saw Mill River Road between Mostyn and Iselin Streets; the lease was part of the company expansion plan to remain in Yonkers while fulfilling their government contracts. They had tried to buy another South Broadway, the Hibbard Building on South Broadway owned by Yonkers; this became the National Youth Administration offices.
Wednesday, April 29th
April 29, 1942. Yonkers National Defense Vocational Training courses opened to women!
Because of the dwindling number of men available to work at “attack plants,” Defense Training Coordinator Dr. Lawrence Ashley announced the school would be open to women; three hundred women registered for training the first day. Twelve interviewers spoke to each enrollee, registering them for the ten-week-course. Women were assured of defense industry jobs at Eastern Aircraft, where the expected workforce of 4,000 would be 80% female. Other area companies where the women could perform defense work were Alexander Smith Carpet, Habirshaw Cable and Wire, Otis Elevator and Anaconda Wire and Cable Companies.
April 29, 1943: Yonkers’ own Lieutenant General Joseph Stilwell, Commander of our forces in the China-Burma-India theater, returned to America with US Air Corps Brigadier General William Old, General Frank Merrill and Major Claire Chennault, Commander General of the 14th Air Force in China to attend military conferences in Washington.
Thursday, April 30th
April 30, 1935: The New York State Health Laboratories reported they found the same toxic bacteria that caused the county-wide food poisoning in unopened cans of eggs! Dr. Edgar Maillard reported guinea pigs and white mice fed the eggs died within 24 hours. That morning, the County Board of Health banned manufacture and sale of custard filled pastry “until further notice.”
April 30, 1937: Charles Driscoll of Glenbrook Avenue, Editor of The McNaught Syndicate, announced he arranged for former Governor Alfred Smith to write articles for his publication while traveling on his first trip to Europe! Smith had agreed to write five 1,000 word articles on the topics of his choice, but Driscoll expected he mainly would write about the conditions he observed during his travels, both political and economic. Smith received “approximately $1 per word” for his efforts. His first article would be sent from Rome!
Friday, May 1st
May 1, 1935: Westchester County Health Department shut down its investigation of the poison custard and turned everything over to Federal agencies to pursue possible prosecution. The testing results showed bacteria level in frozen canned eggs sent to Cushman’s Sons, used to make 4,000 pastries the previous week, had sickened more than 1,200 people in the New York area. Seven-hundred-seventy-six victims were from Westchester!
May 1, 1936: Alderman Slater’s ban on shorts again made news. After the Common Council voted to post signs at major street intersections warning women not to wear shorts or bathing suits on the streets of Yonkers, Ernest Meyer, in his “As the Crow Flies” column in the New York Post, stated he was in favor of the legislation because the average woman was not “constructed along the lines of a Ziegfeld showgirl,” and the legs of too many women were ‘slightly parenthetical.”
Saturday, May 2nd
May 2, 1916: After announcing he was moving to Yonkers, New York Yankees’ Captain Roger Peckinpaugh purchased a home at 14 Lattin Drive and lived there for several years.
May 2, 1918: Stage and silent film star Marguerite Clark made several appearances in Yonkers for the Liberty Loan campaign. She spoke in Getty Square, at the Proctor’s, Broadway and the Hamilton Theaters. November of 1916, the New York Times called Clark one of the Big Four movie stars, the others being Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin.
At one time, Clark was second only to Mary Pickford in popularity.
May 2, 1981: The much loved Carnegie Library closed its doors forever.
Sunday, May 3rd
May 3, 1931: Sir Hubert Wilkins, owner of the submarine Nautilus, was notified by the Norwegian government it might ban his planned trip to the North Pole as it was an unnecessary risk of human life.” At the time Wilkins got the news, the Nautilus was making practice dives in the Hudson River off the coast of Yonkers.
Any questions on this column, email yonkershistory1646@gmail.com.
For information on the Yonkers Historical Society, the Sherwood House Museum on Tuckahoe Road or their upcoming events, please visit their website www.yonkershistoricalsociety.org, call 914-961-8940 or email info@yonkershistoricalsociety.org.
