General Frederick Hopkins, one of four Yonkers High grads with the rank of General by the end of WWII
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, January 20th
January 20, 1940: After months of anguish about her husband, a letter she couldn’t read made Anna Zima cry with joy! He husband Blazey sailed to Poland to visit his sister. Four days before he was to return, the Nazis launched the blitzkrieg, overwhelming Poland and trapping him. Anna asked Washington to help find him, but after almost five months, there was no word about him.
While she was walking home from work, her landlord Anthony Rup met Anna with a letter in his hand! Rup translated the letter written in Polish and dated December 16th. With a German return address, Blazey’s letter said he was alive, leaving for home in a few days, and would see her soon!
While in Yonkers, Blazey Zima managed the Polish Community Center’s bowling alley.
January 20, 1944: Chairman of Yonkers War Salvage Committee Joseph Ringwalt reported scrap paper collected by our boys and girls at thirteen Yonkers schools out of 29 schools, totaled 28,200 pounds of paper, three tons more than collected in December!
The final total would be announced after collection from all the schools was weighed.
Tuesday, January 21st:
January 21, 1944: With Waste Paper Day collections tabulated from 24 of 29 Yonkers schools, the total weight of paper collected at that point was 46,850 pounds of paper!
School Fourteen’s collection was so great, the driver had to return for a second trip; their January total was 7500 pounds of newspapers, magazines, books, paper and cartons!
January 21, 1944: Yonkers State Senator William Condon responded to columnist Westbrook Pegler’s “accusation” he had sought support from the Hod Carriers’ Union four years earlier. His response? “Certainly, I sought Labor support the first time I ran, just as every candidate seeks it.”
Officers of the same Hod Carriers Union were under investigation; one of the officers retained former County Executive William Bleakley… who had no comment.
Wednesday, January 22nd
January 22, 1947: State Senator William Condon, Assemblyman Malcom Wilson and Mayor Frank announced Yonkers would receive $900,000 from the State to create two- and three-room Veterans’ apartments. Yonkers would construct sixty-four units in the old Yonkers High School (South Broadway) and sixteen units in the old Labor Temple. Yonkers also would erect reconverted barracks’ apartments for 120 veterans’ families on Grassy Sprain Golf Course land in East Yonkers.
January 22, 1978: Retired Air Force General Frederick M. Hopkins died in Cleveland Veterans Hospital.
A Yonkers High School graduate, Hopkins enlisted as a private in 1917; he was one of four Yonkers High grads with the rank of General by the end of WWII.
Thursday, January 23rd
January 23, 1944: With special permission from Archbishop Spellman, Father Edmund Whelan of Holy Rosary Church celebrated mass for employees of Arthur G. Blair, Inc., in the Blair Building at the foot of Alexander Street. Instituted at the request of company officials, the mass was attended by more than 300 employees from the main shipyard and the Recreation Pier; it was offered during the employee lunch hour to prevent loss of working time. The first of its kind in Yonkers defense industries, mass would be offered every Sunday for workers on the 7 am to 7pm shift.
January 23, 1942: Major Thomas Trapnell, the former West Point Class President and football halfback born in Yonkers, was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for “extraordinary heroism” while serving with General MacArthur in the Philippines.
Using a medical truck to block a bridge retreating Fil-Am forces used, he set the truck and bridge on fire. Trapnell remained there under constant gunfire until the bridge was impassable. Although he could escape quickly in his car, he withdrew slowly, picking up wounded soldiers along the way.
Friday, January 24th
January 24, 1944: The final report for the January School Scrap Paper collection was 55,877 pounds of wastepaper, almost three times the previous month! War Salvage Goods Chairman Joseph Ringwalt said he was “personally very gratified” with the students’ collection.
Arthur Witte, head of the schools’ drive commented, “Last week’s observance was one of the finest demonstrations of patriotism. I am mighty proud of the children…”
Witte reminded people to start saving papers for the February drive.
January 24, 1942: City Manager Raymond Whitney “declined to comment” on Charles Burgess’ allegations the large number of “bingo parties” were “war waste,” draining thousands of dollars from Yonkers residents.
Officials were torn; although there was a profitable ring of “big game operators,” Yonkers churches and not-for-profit organizations ran bingo games.
Saturday, January 25th
January 25, 1922: The Tide Water Oil, after renting the 198 Fernbrook Street property for several years, purc\hased the 16,000 square foot property from the Ludlow Estate for a rumored $27,000.
Tide Water had invested more than $100,000 to improve the property; although called Ludlow Dock, it was not actually on the Hudson.
January 25, 1945: Yonkers’ Captain Patrick Byrne died while a Japanese prisoner on a cattle boat converted to use as a prisoner of war transport.
Byrne, captured on Bataan, spent two and a half years in a prison camp in the Philippines before enduring the “march of death.”
He passed away from illness, starvation and exposure in the dirty, crowded cargo hold of the boat filled with more than 1600 prisoners.
Before entering the service, Byrne was a Yonkers City Court Probation Officer.
Sunday, January 26th
January 26, 1893: The Yonkers’ Common Council authorized the creation of a Department of Public Works.
January 26, 1936: Three Leake and Watts boys, Robert Twiford, William Pinkus and John Smith, rescued twelve-year old Tom Kavanah caught on an ice floe carried downstream in the swift current of the Hudson River. The quick-thinking boys used a ladder to rescue Kavanah!
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.
