American Racing driver Joan Newton Cuneo visited Yonkers in 1905
By Mary Hoar, City of Yonkers Municipal Historian, 1977 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, November 2nd
November 2, 1944: City Manager William Walsh formally charged Yonkers Police Chief William Kruppenbacher with “delinquencies which seriously affected” his “fitness to discharge duties as Chief of Police.” Walsh, in his role as Public Safety Commissioner, also charged Lieutenant O’Connor, and Patrolmen Boyle, Connolly and Posenski. The trial against all five men was set for November 14th; Deputy Public Safety Commissioner W. Chantler Arbuckle would preside.
The five, according to Walsh, were involved with the incident at a building at Copcutt Lane and Nepperhan Avenue. Walsh alleged the site was “used for suspicious or questionable purpose.” Kruppenbacher allegedly took officers off that investigation and didn’t investigate the incident. Walsh told Kruppenbacher he was “negligent and derelict in the performance” of his official duties.
Tuesday, November 3rd
November 3, 1930: DPW Commissioner William Colquhoun announced a plan to employ men to clean the bed of the Nepperhan River and the Main Street sewer outlet and remove obstructions. Colquhoun stated cleaning the Nepperhan was needed because it was full of trash, menaced health and clogged the flume carrying the river under Larkin Plaza. The men would clean the river from the Tubewell Station, removing trash and trucking it away. They would deepen the channel, making it easier for future trash would be carried into the Hudson.
The Main Street sewer outlet emptied into the Hudson under the City Pier at the end of Main Street. The men would use machinery to dredge the channel, enabling sewage to flow quicker into the Hudson, preventing future backups and overflows.
Wednesday, November 4th
November 4, 1922: A small number of Yonkers police officers kept more than 1,000 high school students at bay after a Yonkers-New Rochelle High School football game. A riot ensued when New Rochelle students decided to do a snake dance on the field after the game and Yonkers’ rooters charged the field. After the officers ordered everyone off the field, 19-year old NYU student Andrew Imrie refused and became insulting. Sgt. Kennedy and Patrolman Roth took him into custody; the students then tried to remove Imrie from their custody. While the officers walked him to the Wells Avenue station, the crowd trailed them, with the number of people growing until there were more than one thousand students. The rowdy mob threw toilet paper, apple cores and garbage at the officers.
Backed against the wall of the Woman’s institute building on Palisade Avenue, Sergeant Kennedy drew his revolver and threatened to use it if the crowd continued. Getty Square Patrolman Fitzgerald and other officers joined them; Fitzgerald managed to keep the crowd back from the two officers until they reached the police station. The other YPD members tried to break up the crowd. Two NYU students, David Berer and Milton Desgrey, were arrested when backup arrived.
Thursday, November 5th
November 5, 1904: Several thousand people witnessed Frank Crocker of Yonkers break an automobile racing record at Empire City Track on Election Day! Croker drove a Ford racer, setting the amateur track speeds, covering twelve miles in 11 minutes and 32 seconds. Just a few days earlier on September 26th, he had set a new record for “automobile boats” in a match race in the first New York to Poughkeepsie race on the Hudson, traveling at an average speed of 26.2 miles an hour. Not only was it the fastest speed ever recorded in American waters, but it also was the record for a continuous run for a total distance of 136.6 miles.
Son of former Tammany Hall boss Richard Croker, Frank’s racing career was cut short when he was in a terrible accident the following January while practicing for the Ormond-Daytona Beach tournament. He passed away the following morning at the age of 27, his life cut much too short by love of speed.
November 5, 1934: Ruth Killoch, in charge of the work at the Yonkers Public Library, announced our Yonkers Public Library had received the first ten “talking books” for use of the blind. Among the selections were John Masefield’s “The Bird of Dawning,” Kipling’s “The Bushwood Boy,”, Gladys Carroll’s “As the Earth Turns,” and P. G. Wodehouse’s “Very Good, Jeeves!”
Friday, November 6th
November 6, 1905: Joan Newton Cuneo, one of the foremost women drivers in the country, gave an exhibition of driving skills during a two-mile race.
November 6, 1917: The Equal Suffrage Amendment to the Constitution carried in Yonkers by a majority vote of 2,305.
Saturday, November 7th
November 7, 1902: Employees of the Otis Elevators Company raised a flag on top of their waterfront building to celebrate the election of Norton P. Otis to US Congress.
November 7, 1935: Marie and Kathleen McCarthy, daughters of City Employment Director Frank McCarthy, dug up something other than weeds in their Ellott Avenue backyard! Kathleen’s trowel hit something hard; she saw it was a coin. It had a king’s head and the words “Georgius II Rx” on one side; the other side had a figure of a woman. Although worn, the date 1710 easily could be seen without a magnifying glass. Speculation at the time was it dropped during the American Revolution!
Sunday, November 8th:
November 8, 1939: Alderman William Slater, creator of Yonkers internationally known “Slater Anti-Shorts legislation,” was defeated in his race for Ninth Ward Supervisor, ending his political career.
November 8, 1939: To celebrate Alderman Slater’s defeat, McLean Avenue real estate agent Alfred Hudson flew blue and white striped shorts under the American flag on his 930 McLean Avenue building’s flagpole.
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 call 914-961-8940, visit website www.yonkershistoricalsociety.org, or email info@yonkershistoricalsociety.org.