Samuel Untermyer
By Mary Hoar, City of Yonkers Historian, President Emeritus Yonkers Historical Society, recipient of the 2004 Key to History and the Key to the City of Yonkers, Yonkers Landmarks Preservation Board Member, Founder of Revolutionary Yonkers 250 and President Untermyer Performing Arts Council
Monday, February 9th
February 9, 1943: While waiting to testify before the Grand Jury, Councilman Edith Welty was approached by a Yonkers man, who wished her luck. The man told her when she got back to Yonkers, gambling still would be happening. She was to go to Central Park Avenue just north of the Post Office, and watch. “Every day, between 2 and 4 O’clock, a short stocky man wearing eyeglasses, stands on the sidewalk… that man makes book.”
An hour after Councilman Edith Welty testified before the Grand Jury on Yonkers gambling, she witnessed a “sidewalk gambling scene!”
In a car with Deputy Public Safety Commissioner Frank Wartur and Patrolman John Bishop, she saw a transaction by the bookmaker! Bishop called it in. Lieutenant Henry Murphy and Sergeant John Kennedy arrived quickly and arrested the man.
Tuesday, February 10th
February 10, 1943: Yonkers celebrated the birthday of its last living Civil War veteran Charles Frazee, who had served two years with Company N, Second Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery. He celebrated his 97th birthday with friends at his 46 Douglas Avenue home. One friend, Calvary Baptist Church’s Reverend Harry Stevenson, reported Frazee was in fair health; he passed away less than a year later.
February 10, 1947: Contractors doing reconversion work could not get into the Labor Temple at 307 Walnut Street, so called a locksmith. They found a deserted room with five telephones, and tables littered with bet records and pads! Someone immediately notified The Herald Statesman a “horse room” was found. Commissioner O’Hara went to the building with Captain James McCue and Lieutenant William Comey; they confiscated all the materials they found. The scratch heets were dated two years earlier.
Wednesday, February 11th:
February 11, 1922: Rabbi Jacob Tarshish announced Samuel Untermyer was named honorary chairman of the Yonkers Jewish War Relief campaign. Yonkers’ quota was $35,000.
February 11, 1923: After a public hearing at which not one speaker appeared, the Common Council voted to change the name of Kellinger Street, the continuation of Park Hill Avenue running from Linden Street to South Broadway, to Park Hill Avenue
Thursday, February 12th
February 13, 1942: Adult Advisor Abe Cohen’s Club Maccabee held a “Gift for Yanks” dance, with admission being items that soldiers might need or want. Most people brought razor blades, writing paper, shoe polish, toothbrushes and toothpaste, things any serviceman could use. The committee received some unusual items such as bed socks, sets of dice, one copy of Robinson Crusoe, and an electric pants presser! These donations were sent to members of the Jewish Community Center serving in the armed services.
February 12, 1944: Colonel John Stilwell of North Broadway, Director of Civilian Protection in Yonkers, and brother of General Joseph Stilwell, also happened to be President of the National Safety Council and a man with a sense of humor.
He came across some Victory Valentines; he quickly adapted them to “with love and hisses to highway heels.” One example of a valentine dedicated to a wartime speeder telling off the “wartime traffic pests:” “We want you to know just how we feel. We love you like Hitler, you wartime heel!!”
Friday, February 13th
February 13, 1933: Believing that roller skating was just as dangerous as coasting, the Community Service Commission began campaigning to make it safer in Yonkers. They asked the Board of Education to use the paved schoolyards on weekends and after school hours to create a safer place for citywide public skating.
February 13, 1941: Deputy Superintendent of Yonkers Schools William Williams announced Fred Lena, Principal of Girls’ Vocational High School (Commerce) was the only principal in the entire school system who did not sign his “voluntary” salary contribution waiver. Instead, he returned it to Superintendent Ankenbrand with the notations: “It is intended to impose conditions that have been modified to such an extent as to make the content of this waiver inapplicable.”
Williams said the reason for not signing would not be recognized.
Saturday, February 14th
February 14, 1932: Park Hill’s Dr. Alfred Flinn of Glenbrook Avenue, Director of the Engineering Foundation in New York City, stated there was a world need for a new and universal language. He wanted this language taught by radio and sound or a book… without the need of a teacher. He said this language had to be “responsive to a culture about our present highest level… yet be very simple.”
February 14, 1941: City Manager Raymond Whitney submitted a budget including a 15% pay cut for Dr. Ward Cook, the only City Hall employee who did not turn in a signed waiver authorizing a 15% salary deduction!
Sunday, February 15th
February 15, 1931: Former Mayor John Andrus celebrated his 93rd birthday by going to his New York headquarters! Although known as the “millionaire straphanger” because of his preference for taking the subway to work, his last ride on a subway was November 1926.
No big celebration was planned, other than the usual good wishes from his associates at the Arlington Chemical Company. Andrus hoped to pass the day with little fanfare. He served as Yonkers Mayor from 1903-1905, and as Congressman from 1905-1913. He finished his last year as Mayor while serving in Congress!
February 15, 1934: Mrs. Arthur Maudlin, wife of the County Register and Yonkers Republican City Chairman, with two other teachers (Harriet Gehr and Elizabeth Vail), were back on the city payroll after their jobs were abolished by the Board of Education as an economy measure. The reinstatement was kept a secret; Schools Superintendent Lamont Hodge refused to discuss the case.
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