By Mary Hoar, President Emerita, Yonkers Historical Society, recipient of the 2004 Key to History and President Untermyer Performing Arts Council
Monday, December 13th
December 13, 1908: Tuskegee Institute’s Booker T. Washington spoke in Philipsburgh Hall for the YMCA; Washington address, “Up From Slavery,” was warmly received by the Yonkers audience.
December 13, 1915: Van Cortlandt Park Avenue resident William Anderson, head of the New York Anti-Saloon League, asked New York City Mayor John Mitchel to order all night clubs to close at 1 a.m. on January 1st. He objected to the “orgies and dissipation” which resulted from all night liquor permits
December 13, 1947: The “Westchester 35 and Under Group” of Alcoholics Anonymous began meeting at the Yonkers YWCA on South Broadway on Thursday evenings; it was hoped that young people whose lives had become “unmanageable due to alcohol,” this “Junior AA” would be truly valuable.
Tuesday, December 14th
December 14, 1943: Alex Beckett of Yonkers sent a letter praising his Boy Scout experience, stating how it made his US Army instruction much easier. While training with US Engineers at Fort Belvoir in Virginia, the battalion had classes in knot tying on its second day. He was so experienced, he ended up assisting to teach the class. Other classes covered topics right out of the Boy Scout Training Manual, such as rope splicing, map making, and tent pitching. He said, “Any Scout, if he was a good one, could hold his own in any of the classes.”
December 14, 1944: Ora Duffenback, Director of Research for North American Phillips Company, addressed the annual Yonkers Chamber of Commerce Dinner held at the Hudson River Country Club. Duffenback, best known for his work in the field of electric conduction through gases, spoke on the “Future of Electronics in Industry.” Director of Research for the National Defense Research Committee and Professor of Physics at the University of Michigan for twenty years, he earned degrees at Princeton and the University of Chicago.
Wednesday, December 15th
December 15, 1901: Supreme Court Justice Keogh granted an alternative writ of Mandamus directing the Yonkers Board of Police Commissioners to reinstate James McLaughlin as Captain of the Yonkers Police Department immediately. The dispute centered on McLaughlin’s age; one side claimed he was 62 and McLaughlin insisted he was 58.
December 15, 1941: US Attorney General Francis Biddle announced Yonkers German and Italian aliens who filed for their papers before December 1939 could proceed with naturalization, as well as anyone with a petition pending in Naturalization Court. Husbands or wives of American citizens also were entitled to apply for citizenship without taking out first papers. All other Germans and Italians had to wait for investigation as enemy aliens to obtain “sanction of the President” since war had been declared. Non-citizens, according to Biddle, would not be “interfered with as long as they conducted themselves in accordance with the law.”
December 15, 1942: After enlisting together eleven months earlier, four Yonkers men met up in Hawaii! Staff Sergeant Robert Clark, Corporal Oscar Downs, Corporal-Technician Tyler Jackson and Private First Class Frank Holst all reported they were well and very grateful for the letters from Yonkers they were receiving five thousand miles away.
Thursday, December 16th:
December 16, 1911: The Yonkers Lodge of Elks laid the cornerstone for its new building at South Broadway and Kellinger Street, now the western end of Park Hill Avenue. Edward Leach, Grand Treasurer of the Order, Mayor Lennon and other city officials spoke.
December 16, 1946: Former New York City Police Commissioner Lewis Valentine died. The only public official who openly asserted some of the biggest gamblers and gambling rings not only flourished in Yonkers, they had total freedom in our city. The Mayor, City Manager, Police Chief and Westchester District Attorney all denied the allegations made in 1942.
Friday, December 17th:
December 17, 1917: Yonkers contractor Frederick Gross was appointed the New York Chapter’s American Red Cross Representative to reconstruct areas of France devastated by the Germans.
December 17, 1931: Yonkers Superintendent of Parks Louis Milliot announced we would use electric lights on city park Christmas trees at a cost of $650.
December 17, 1937: Five members of one family filed damage claims of $140,000 with the Common Council; the damage they claimed resulted from the Nodine Hill Water Tower collapse several weeks earlier.
Saturday, December 18th:
December 18, 1914: Yonkers contributed $3,298 to the Red Cross hospital ship, by far the largest amount raised in any other municipality in Westchester County. It was, in fact, $3,000 more than the combined total of Bronxville and Tuckahoe.
December 18, 1935: Nearly 1,500 Yonkers residents of all ages joined together to sing Christmas carols at the dedication of the Yonkers Merchants’ Association Christmas tree in Getty Square!
December 18, 1945: Harold Garrity, Chair of the Yonkers War Finance Committee, dubbed Walter Haskett, VP of Yonkers First National Bank, as “Yonkers’ Leading Bond Salesman!” Haskett personally was credited with selling War Bonds totaling $1,256,025.
Sunday, December 19th:
December 19, 1939: Yonkers native Colonel Joseph Stilwell, the military attaché at the US Embassy in Pieping, directed the evaluation of American nationals from areas of conflict to the Shensi province.
December 19, 1947: Congress named Yonkers native Gerald Brophy to the Congressional Aviation Policy Board.
December 19, 1950: NY corporation lawyer Gerald Brophy of Bronxville Road was named as Special Consultant to Secretary of State Dean Acheson. Brophy was brought in as an assistant on general policy questions. The 49-year-old Yonkers native was Senior Partner at Chadbourne, Parke, Whiteside, Wolfe & Brophy, a Director of North American Aviation, Inc., and General Analine and Film Corporation. When Colonel Brophy returned to civilian life, he received the Legion of Merit for his outstanding service during WWII.
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.
