By Mary Hoar, President Emerita, Yonkers Historical Society, recipient of the 2004 Key to History, and President Untermyer Performing Arts Council
Monday, May 31st
May 31, 1869: Mr. Andriesse, Proprietor of Messrs. Pell & Company, invited the people of the Village of Yonkers to see his shop’s brand new ice room! Andriesse used a two-ton ice tank suspended from the ceiling, allowing cold air to descend to keep the chicken, meat, and perishables chilled, while the room remained cool and dry. His shop was located on the Warburton Avenue Bridge.
May 31, 1935: Jean Nesbit, father of missing Yonkers debutante Marion Ruth Nesbit, admitted to Yonkers Police she resented taking the “voluntary test” on music appreciation during the Memorial Day holiday.
Tuesday, June 1st
June 1, 1908: William Duffis, J.J. Flynn and Charles Kisby, were found not guilty of breaking the Sabbath after deliberations of five minutes! Police Chief Wolff arrested Flynn after the young man fired a pistol to start the race, and the other boys were arrested because they were running in front of a crowd of a thousand people. The six jurors recommended the boys’ names be expunged from police and court records, stating running was not a public sport, and therefore could not be a Sunday violation. Defense attorney Thomas Curran stated it was “an outrage and shame upon the city that boys who are cooped up in mills and factories all week are dragged through the streets like criminals when they attempt to secure a little healthy recreation on Sunday.” Unbeknownst to Wolff, Police Commissioner Hermance had given the permit for a Sunday road race; the Commissioner believed since no admission was charged, it was not a violation of the law.
June 1, 1935: Brantwood School delivered the diploma of missing debutante Marion Ruth Nesbit to her home; her family and Yonkers Police still had no idea where she was or what happened to her.
Wednesday, June 2nd
June 2, 1935: After recognizing missing Marion Nesbit’s picture in a newspaper, NYC rooming house owner Eleanor Anderson called Mr. Nesbitt to let him know his daughter was staying in her rooming house. Anderson told the father Marion was calling herself Joanne Bellwood, and claimed to be an orphan from Texas who had to sell her family farm. Anderson, suspicious because Marion’s accent did not fit a rural Texas girl, had confronted the girl with the girl’s photo in the newspaper.
YPD Captain George Ford and Detective William Daly rushed the father down to bring the girl home. When she saw her dad, she ran back into her room, hysterical. She claimed to have had a memory lapse; the family doctor diagnosed it as a nervous collapse.
June 2, 1943: Instead of their usual one-week vacations, Otis employees received an extra two weeks’ “vacation” pay in their checks. All vacations had to be canceled, as workers were needed because of the high level of production of war goods at the Yonkers’ plant.
Thursday, June 3rd
June 3, 1932: Because Charities Commissioner Nicholas Ebbitt witnessed “charity beneficiaries” arriving to pick up supplies in cars, he organized a daily police check to stop the practice.
June 3, 1942: The Herald Statesman saluted the hard work of two Yonkers Police Detectives, John Baldwin and John Heenan, members of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation. The duo were tasked with fingerprinting all members of the Defense Council, the War Council, Auxiliary Police and Firefighters, Air Raid Wardens, members of the Red Cross Motor Corp, and other groups. Perhaps the most labor intensive was taking fingerprints of every single war factory employee at the dozens of Yonkers’ companies filling war contracts! Besides fingerprinting, they kept records and pictures, and provided the data to the FBI, Navy, Army, Marines, Coast Guard and other Government offices.
Friday, June 4th
June 4, 1921: In a match held at the Amackassin Club, Vincent Richards of Yonkers defeated Japan’s Ichyi Kumagae in the finals of the Easter States Championship.
June 4, 1931: Samuel Untermyer led the fight in New York State’s highest court in Albany to retain the five-cent fare on the Interborough Rapid Transit Company. He made the chief argument against the increased fares on behalf of the Transit Commission.
Saturday June 5th
June 5, 1924: Superintendent Cullen, leading workers from the Yonkers Bureau of Parks and Forestry, waged a “winning fight” against the host tent caterpillars that had invaded Crestwood and Colonial Heights. The workmen used an “innovative spraying machine” to cover the trees and shrubs with arsenate of lead.
June 5, 1946: The New York Central Railroad released a booklet featuring the historic significance and attraction of (Philipse) Manor Hall. Besides the history of the manor and the Hall, it mentioned the box hedge that “descended” from the original box hedge planted by Frederick Philipse, cedars brought from Washington’s birthplace in Wakefield, Virginia, and an elm tree fairly close to the entrance. The elm was grown from a cutting of a tree at Wellesley College, the very tree under where Washington assumed command of the Continental Army.
Sunday, June 6th
June 6, 1923: New York City Mayor Hylan condemned Dr. David Muzzey of Van Cortlandt Park Avenue and his book, An American History. The Yonkers Statesman published an exclusive interview with the author, who defied anyone to prove his book was anti-American and pro-British. New York Commissioner David Hirshfield not only condemned the book, he criticized the New York Superintendent of Schools William Ettinger, PhD, for allowing the book in the public schools. He stated “Dr. Ettinger should have read Muzzey’s history before he authorized its use in the city schools.”
June 6, 1945: Yonkers learned the job of Private First Class Joseph Sabol, formerly of Ashburton Avenue, was to meet passengers and give them information at John H. Payne Field, Cairo. Hundred of passengers landed every day at Payne, the west-east air terminus for the North African Division of the US Air Transport Command. Sabol was married to Helen Lutz of Harty Street.
Questions or comments? 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 yhsociety@aol.com.
