Charles E. Gorton
By Mary Hoar, City of Yonkers Historian, President Emerita Yonkers Historical Society, recipient of the 2004 Key to History, Member of the Yonkers Landmarks Preservation Board, Chair of Revolutionary Yonkers 250 and President Untermyer Performing Arts Council
Monday, August 19th
August 19, 1911: Yonkers own runaway bride returned home from Italy!
Helen Andrus Hobbs was the daughter of Congressman and former Yonkers Mayor John E. Andrus. Because of her parents’ objections to the marriage, Helen told them she was going to NYC to shop; once there, the couple married.
The bride met the groom, son of a Massachusetts knitting mill owner and 1909 Yale All-American tackle Henry Hobbs, thorough her brother and Yale football star Hamline; at the time of the wedding, Hobbs was head football coach at Amherst and worked in a department store.
Arriving back in NY, Mrs. Hobbs told the press the couple was “perfectly independent and glad to be so.” Mr. Andrus was reported despondent and not in a forgiving mood when he learned of the marriage via telegram.
Five years later, Helen Andrus Hobbs sued for divorce for desertion and returned to her parents’ home with four-year old daughter Elinor. Hobbs was not allowed to see Elinor for thirteen years; after twelve hearings and writs by the court allowing visitation, until Supreme Court Justice Morschauser ordered Helen bring the girl to his chambers.
At the time of the divorce, Hobbs was in France, serving with the American Field Service; when the US entered the war, he joined the Army.
Tuesday, August 20th
August 20, 1917: Mrs. William B. Thompson of North Broadway gave $10,000 to the Preparedeness League of American Dentists to equip six dental ambulances for New York State troops.
August 20, 1943: Several 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.
Wednesday, August 21st
August 21, 1914: School Superintendent Charles Gorton announced concern about Yonkers schools opening in September. Yonkers teachers, teachers who traveled to Europe for summer vacations, were stranded; their return to Yonkers was delayed because of the outbreak of the European war.
August 21, 1930: Salvation Army officials were shocked when Federal Agents raided the cellar of their store at 6 New School Street. A large John Street bottling plant had taken it over to brew beer!
Thursday, August 22nd
August 22, 1947: Westchester Air Associates was announced as the first tenant of the new Yonkers Skyport, Yonkers’ third seaplane base on the Yonkers riverfront. Joseph Mirsky constructed the base on property near the ferry slip on Alexander Street. Designed to accommodate four-passenger and ten-passenger seaplanes or amphibians, its horseshoe-shaped float made it possible for planes to taxi in so passengers could alight from the airplane’s door. The other riverfront bases were the Hudson Valley Flyers on our northern city line and the Yonkers Seaplane Base at Ludlow.
August 22, 1952: Otis Elevator announced “Lady Drivers” had their own parking section in its new parking lot on Alexander Street, each space labeled “Reserved for Lady Drivers.” The section had wider spaces and an “extra wide aisle” to make it easier for women to get in and out.
Formerly the former Lloyds boathouse, the company bought the field at an auction; it adjoined property Otis rented for four years, The company filled the area behind a concrete bulkhead to extend it 330 feet into the river; after grading and paving, it would hold an additional 30 cars.
Friday, August 23rd
August 23, 1928: Dr. Leon Pisculli, Park Hill Avenue, announced he would be a medical observer on the Roma, the plane that would attempt to fly non-stop from the US to Rome. Scheduled to be piloted by Italian aviator Cesare Sabelli, Roger Q. Williams and Captain Frank Bonelli, when the Roma finally took off for the Italian capitol, it was without the good doctor, Sabelli or Bonelli. Instead, Roger Q. Williams and Capt. Lewis Yancey made the flight and landed in Spain. Yancey married Gertrude Civelli from Yonkers; the couple lived for many years on Lawrence Street.
Saturday, August 24th
August 24, 1943: Alexander Smith & Sons Carpet 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.
Sunday, August 25th
August 25, 1917: The Federal Sugar Refinery Company announced plans to build a pier extending several hundred feet into the Hudson on its property at the foot of Herriot Street.
August 25, 1943: Jack Lambert, graduate of Hawthorne JHS and Yonkers HS, was the first voice heard in the Hollywood film “Bomber’s Moon.” He played the turret gunner and was heard discussing the beauty of the moon. Lambert went on to be a fairly well-known character actor, appearing in crime dramas and westerns, appearing in movies such as “Vera Cruz,” “The Killers,” “The Enforcer,” and “How the West Was Won,” among others. He appeared in TV shows such as “Gunsmoke,” “Daniel Boone,” “Wagon Train,” “Get Smart” and “The Andy Griffin Show.” He was a regular (as Joshua Walcek) in Darren McGavin’s “Riverboat.”
Questions or comments on this column? 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 info@yonkershistoricalsociety.org
