History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. II, Part 32

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898,
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1286

USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. II > Part 32

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Since this victory the club has engaged in no con- tests of notable interest. Annual regattas have usually taken place in the fall. A silver tankard, known as the "Love Cup," and valued at two hundred and fifty

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dollars, is rowed for in single sculls, the winner hav- ing his name inscribed on it. The club remains in possession of the cup. The present handsonie club- house, situated above Peene's dock, is the successor of a much smaller and plainer one. It is the property of the association, which also owns sixteen boats of various size and model. Individual members also own many others. The membership of the club in 1885 was about sixty-five and the officers were as fol- lows: Robert G. Jackson, president; H. B. Starr, vice-president; Louis N. Morris, corresponding sec- retary ; Wm. W. Scrugham, recording secretary ; Edwin M. Jackson, treasurer; E. Martin, Jr., cap- tain ; and - -- , lieutenant. The trustees are W. R. Beers, M. A. Van Winkle, H. T. Keyser, George H. Lowerre and H. O. Tallmadge.

VESPER ROWING ASSOCIATION .- This was organ- ized August 12, 1867. The original members were eight in number. They were Thomas Franklin, R. C. Elliott, Benjamin Mason, William Macfarlane, James T. Howland, Thomas Fearon, William Hull and George Watt. It probably gaincd more fame on the water than any other similar club that has existed in Yonkers. The Vespers were represented by Thomas Fearon, who participated in a single scull race in a regatta of the Hudson Amateur Rowing Association at the Elysian Fields a short time after the organiza- tion of this club. Mr. Fearon carried off the cham- pionship, a feat which he repeated the two following years.

The chief fame of this association was gained by its four-oared crew, which was almost invincible among amateurs in its time. It was composed of Thomas Fearon, Owen Van Winkle, William Mac- farlane and John H. Keeler. They met many of the expert amateur clubs of the country, and won a num- ber of victories. Among these were one over the Nassau Club, of New York, at Yonkers, June 28, 1871, and another over the Argonautas, of Bergen Point, N. J., on the Kill Von Kull, August 29, 1871. They also entered the regatta of the National Ama- teur Association at Philadelphia, June 13, 1872. There were seven entries for the race, which was rowed in heats over a course one and a half miles in length on the Schuylkill River. In the second trial heat the Vespers' crew won, making the passage in the remark- ably quick time of nine minutes and four seconds. This record has never since been beaten by any four- oared crew on the same course. In the final heat, which took place between the Coopers of Savannah, and the Vespers, a collision occurred by the deflection of the Vespers' boat from her course, owing to which the first prize was awarded to the Coopers, though the Vespers' boat reached the goal ahead. A second prize, however, was awarded the latter, and this-a silver tankard-is still in the possession of Mr. Thomas Fearon. The association a few years later began to decline, and has now for several years been extinct. In its prosperous days it had about

thirty members. Its headquarters were always at Glenwood, in the boat-house which is now occupied by the Vesper Yachting Association.

YONKERS YACHT CLUB .- This club was organized in 1878 with the following officers : Alanson J. Prime, commodore ; Charles T. Mercer, vice-commo- dore; Thomas L. Mottram, secretary; William H. Devoe, treasurer; and J. W. Garrison, Sylvanus Coka- lete and A. W. Serrell, trustces. It opens every sea- son with a cruise and a "clam-bake " on the 30th of May, and generally has two regattas-one in May and the other in September-and a cruise in August. Among its contests that have excited most interest were the races for a challenge cup offered by Commo- dore Prime, to be owned by the first yacht that should win three races for that cup, and another prize to a ladies' race, in which each yacht was required to carry a lady. The first was won by the " Pinafore," owned by John Nesbit, and the second by the "Ram- bler," owned by John H. Thorne. In the "free-for- all" race, given under the auspiccs of the Vesper Yachting Association in the fall of 1883, the " Daisy," owned by J. Kitteringham of this club, was the vic- tor. The club has about sixty members, who own in all nineteen yachts. Alanson J. Prime has been its commodore from the beginning to the present time. The secretary is Gabricl Reevs.

VESPER YACHTING ASSOCIATION .- This associa- tion was organized in the summer of 1881 with seveu members, viz., Captain Hyatt L. Garrison, Thomas Fearon, James Shaughnessy, Thomas O. Shaughnessy, Augustus Bailey, Johu Watt and Abram C. Gould. Ownership of some sort of a sailing craft was made an essential condition of membership. Thomas Fearon was chosen commodore, and held that position for two seasons, when he was followed by Augustus Bailey, the present commodore. The vice-commander is John Watt, and Jas. Shaughnessy is secretary and treasurer.

The association opens its season, on the 30th of May, with a cruise on the Hudsou. From that time to the 1st of September races are made weekly, the prize being a pennant, which the boat winning the greatest number of times during the season retains at the end. This prizc, in 1882, was won by the "Mary S." (owned by the Shaughnessy Brothers) and in 1883 by the " Ray Howland " (belonging to Thomas Fcaron ). The club also holds annual regattas. One of the most interesting of these was a regatta organized by this club, which was made open to all clubs on the river, between Tarrytown and the Columbia Yacht Club House, in New York. It was held September 29, 1883, and the prize was won by the "Daisy," of the Yonkers Yacht Club.

OSCEOLA CLUB .- This is a social organization which was started in 1874. It occupies a room in the People's Savings-Bank building. Its membership is restricted to twenty by its laws, and this number of members it has. It gives a ball every winter and an excursion on the water every summer.

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THE YONKERS CLUB .- This club was organized in December, 1880. Its headquarters are 101 North Broadway, and its officers in 1885 were Samuel Swift, M.D .. president ; Abijah Curtiss, vice-president ; - -, treasurer ; Rev. M. R. Hooper, secretary ; Harry Holbrook, W. L. Heermance, Theodore Fitch, John Reid, Stephen D. Field and -, governors. The objects of the club are purely social. It has a reading- room, a card-room and a billiard-room. Ordinary meet- ings are held on Wednesday and Saturday evenings, but its rooms are open every day and every evening of the week. The elub has recently purchased property on North Broadway, opposite St. Paul's Church, and is building for itself a permament house.

TEMPERANCE ORGANIZATION.

HOPE LODGE, No. 55, I. O. G. T. (Independent Order of Good Templars) .- This lodge was instituted November 3, 1871, by a charter from the Grand Lodge of the State of New York, which is subordinate to the Right Worthy Grand Lodge. This order was in- stituted to promote the cause of temperance, and ex- acts from each member a solemn pledge never to use, and never to give to others as a beverage, anything that will intoxicate. The organization is non-secta- rian and non-political. It receives both sexes, and both are equally eligible to its offices. Prohibition is one of its cardinal principles, but it leaves all free as to their votes. The Lodge mects in Grand Army Hall every Friday evening. It was at one time strong and influential, and did some good in the way of reclaim- ing drunkards, but has now fallen off in membership and strength. Its first officers were Robert Pollock, W. C. T; M. M. Blakemore, W. V. T .; James Per- sise, W. Chap. ; William Welling, W. T .; Addie H. Denike, W. A. T .; Carrie Sawyer, W. Treas .; Henry P. Weimar, W. M. ; Kate Gordon, W. D. M .; Ellen A. Hemmingway, W. G .; William Bailey, W. Sent .; Nellie A. Whiting, R. H. S. ; Rachel Archer, L. H. S .; Peter V. Hoyt, P. W. C. T.

MUTUAL BENEFIT ASSOCIATION.

YONKERS LODGE, NO. 1872, KNIGHTS OF HONOR .- This is a " Number" of a very extensive organization, enrolling throughout the country not less than one hundred and ninety thousand members. Its object is mutual insurance by assessments on its members. The Yonkers " Number " is eight years old. It consists of about forty members, who meet in Reevs' Building on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month. It gives to the family or heirs of each member two thousand dollars at his death. Its officers are Jerome Barnes, Dictator ; J. Willet Bynon, Treasurer ; and C. W. Bynon, Financial Secretary.

MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS.

KITCHING POST, NO. 60, GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC .- An association of veterans of the Civil War was formed in Yonkers in 1866, but became too much involved in partisan sympathies and was aban-

doned. Afterwards nearly the same company of men obtained a charter for the Grand Army Post whose title is given above. The charter of the post was dated January 7, 1868. The charter members were E. T. Morris, S. C. Van Tassel, James Stewart, P. Kelly, G. W. Farnam, A. H. Tompkins, E. C. Nodine, James Carter, George Hendrickson, William Riley and Daniel S. Munn. The post was named in honor of Colonel J. Howard Kitching, of the Sixth New York Artillery.1 The first settled place of meeting was in a building which stood beside the Yonkers Savings-Bank and has sinee been torn down to make room for the station of the projected elevated road. Thence the post moved to Flagg's Hall in Getty Square, and thence again to its present room on the northeast corner of Palisade Avenue and Main Street, known as Grand Army Hall. The membership at one time had reached one hundred and fifty, but, owing to the inevitable conditions that restrict it, it has now fallen to one hundred and twenty-five, and must grow smaller and smaller, as the veterans, one after another, pass away. The officers in 1885 are Commander, James Sheridan ; Senior Vice-Com- mander, Joseph Irvin; Junior Vice-Commander, Augustus Kipp; Officer of the Day, Caleb T. Wool- heiser ; Surgeon, James Brazier, Sr .; Chaplain, Wil- liam W. Yerks; Adjutant, Charles T. Betts; Quar- termaster, Charles J. Luther; Officer of the Guard, George W. Lockwood; Sergeant-Major, Henry Nes- ler ; Quartermaster-Sergeant, John Ryer. The regu- lar meetings of the post are held on the first and third Monday evenings of each month.

THE FOURTH SEPARATE COMPANY .- This is a company of militia, now formed of Yonkers young men. It has, however, a history of outgrowth which is interesting. Companies H and B (the former the olderj, of the Seventeenth Regiment New York State Militia, of the late war period, were from Yonkers and vicinity. They served thirty days at Fort Mc- Henry. In due time, of course, their regiment was disbanded. But, in 1870, a new Third Regiment Na- tional Guards State of New York was formed. Of this regiment, Company H was from Yonkers, and about half of its men were from Companies H and B, of the old Seventeenth Regiment. In the summer of 1874 the Third Regiment, in its turn, was dis- banded. Its Company H, however, the only one of which this was the case, was retained in service and ordered to headquarters to await directions. Their directions, when received, proved to be to form Com, pany D of the Sixteenth Battalion. The Sixteenth Bat- talion was afterwards mustered out of service on the

1 Colonel Kliching (born July 16, 1838, and died at Dobbs Ferry Jan- uary 10, 1865, al twenty-six and a half years of age) was a moel Inler- erling young man. He was wounded on the 13th of October, 1864, in the engagement al Cedar Creek, Virginla, and subsequently died from the ampulation of a limb. President Johnson conferred upon him the rank of Brevet Brigadier-General, to lake effect from August 1, 1864. Tho life of this young ollicer Is published in n litlle volume issued by Hurd & Houghton, N. Y., in 1873.

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31st of December, 1881, with the repeated accom- panying circumstance that this Company D, the only one of which this was the case, was retained in ser- vice and designated as the "Fourth Separate Com- pany." As such, it was formally organized January 1, 1882.

The company occupies an armory on Chicken Island, but the county not long since appropriated twenty- three thousand dollars to build an armory for its use. Ground was broken for the building on the 29th of September, 1885. The site is at the corner of Waver- ley Street and Maple Street (late Davidson's Lane). The captains of the company, from its beginning, under the designation of Company H, of the Third Regiment, in 1870, have been William Macfarlane, Matthew H. Ellis, Isaac D. Cole, Isaiah Frazier and Rafaelle Cobb. The last-named gentleman is the captain now, while the first lieutenant is John I. Pruyn, and the second lieutenant is William H. Mc- Vicar. The company has, on at least three different occasions, been suddenly called out for purposes of protection in cases of disturbance and apprehended danger.

GERMAN SOCIETIES.

These are at present four in number. We give them in the order of their formation.

THE YONKERS TEUTONIA .- A German singing and literary society was organized in 1854 or 1855, under the name of the Yonkers Liederkrantz. In its formation Frederick Hempel, Albert Ludke, Robert Krapkowski and Philip Berenger were the chief movers. They engaged Professor William F. Müller, a teacher of music, to instruct them in singing. The start was made with eight members. Soon after, the title was changed to " Männerchor and Liederkrantz," and later it was further changed to its present form. It was incorporated under this name-the Yonkers Teutonia-on the 23d of November, 1867. Its first place of meeting was at the house of Philip Happel on Hudson Street; then it met at the house of Nicholas Rost, on North Broadway; and later, it occupied a school-honse, standing where the banks now are, on Getty Square. Subsequently still, meetings were again held in private houses, till the association purchased the property known as Teutonia Hall, which it now occupies. The hall is a one-story building, with a basement. It stands at the corner of New Main and Brook Streets. It contains a din- ing-room, reading-room, bar-room and hall, the latter being fitted up with a stage for amateur theatricals, which are generally given as often as twice during each winter. The property, with its furniture, cost about twelve thousand dollars. The membership includes both sexes, and is now about one hundred and fifty. The officers in 1885 were Gustav Remler, president ; Henry Maretsky, vice-president; Franz Hoffman, recording secretary ; Gustav Heine, financial secretary ; Joseph Lambrecht, treasurer ; John Schlo- bohm, Joseph Geizenhauer and Fritz Cassens, trustees.

SÖHNE DER FREIHEIT (SONS OF FREEDOM), YONKERS LODGE, NO. 82 .- This is a German secret society, paying weekly benefits to its sick members and sums of money to the families of its deccascd members, which sums are raised by assessments on the living. It was organized here in 1872 and now has thirty-four members. There are about ninety lodges of the order in New York State. The lodge meets in the hall over Dr. Reevs' drug-store. Its present officers are William Isele, president ; Chris- tian Reitenhauer, secretary; and Conrad Roth, treas- urer. In this society, if a married member dies, his wife or heirs receive three hundred dollars; if the wife of a member dies, he receives two hundred dol- lars, and if a member is sick, he receives six dollars a week while his sickness lasts.

HOLSATIA LODGE, No. 297, D. O. H. (DEUTSCHIER ORDEN HARUGARI) .- This lodge was instituted November 9, 1872. Its founders were John Knöchal, William Knöchal, Carl Yörgens, Christian Toaspen, John Schlobohm and Max Schmöger. Its object is to assist Germans who are not able to speak the Eng- lish language, and are thus debarred from the benefits of other societies. Sick members of this society re- ceive six dollars a week while they are laid aside, and the widow or dependent heirs of a deceased member receive at his death one hundred dollars. Any mar- ried member who loses a wife by death receives fifty dollars. Since its organization the society has paid out over eight thousand dollars in these benefits. It paid about eight hundred dollars in 1883 alone. Its first meeting-place was in the Temperance Hall at the corner of Main Street and Broadway. Thence it moved to the old Masonic Temple, in the Getty House, and later to the house of John Schlobohm, No. 48 St. Mary Street, at the corner of Riverdale Avenue, where Mr. Schlobohm had prepared for its use a hall, named by him Harugari Hall. It was afterward moved to its present quarters over Reevs' drug-store, corner of Warburton Avenue and Dock Street. The mein- bers are now ninety in number. The officers arc August Koch, president; Peter Thomann, vice-presi- dent ; Louis Wolf, secretary ; John Schlobohm, treas- urer; and Alexander F. Piltz, financial secretary. John W. Bauer was district deputy for Westchester County, in 1884.

YONKERS TURN-VEREIN .- This society was start- ed on the 1st of August, 1875, with thirteen members. Its first officers were R. Kersting, president, and A. Lange, secretary. It first occupied a room on South Broadway, between Prospect and Washington Streets. Thence it moved to the third floor of the Radford building. Its membership is now about sixty. The society has a small library and property to the value of about one thousand two hundred dollars. It hokls meetings on the second and fourth Sundays of cach month. The officers for 1885 are August Nitsch, pres- ident; Louis Wolf, vice-president ; Henry Gae lecker, recording secretary; Julius Herrmann, correspond-

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ing secretary; Fritz Goertelmycr, treasurer; John Bauer, first captain; Christian Reitenauer, second captain; John Althoen, custodiau; E. Credo, librar- ian; aud Fred. Gross, Fred. Meyer and Conrad Roth, trustees.

IRISH SOCIETIES.

As far as we can learn, the number of these in the city is three, as follows:

ANCIENT ORDER OF HIBERNIANS, DIVISION NO. 2. -- This division was organized here in August, 1873, and is known as "Division No. 2, A. O. H." Its place of meeting has always been in the Montgomery Club Hall, over the People's Savings-Bank. It has about one hundred and ten members, and meets on the first Monday in each month. The society is composed of Irishmen and pays weekly benefits to its sick mem- bers, and also certain amounts at the deaths of its members to the families they leave. Its officers are Patrick Curran, president ; Richard Fitzgerald, vice- president ; Maurice Conway, recording secretary ; Pat- rick Berry, financial secretary ; and Declau Troy, treasurer. Division No. 1 of the same order was or- ganized in 1884. It meets in the same room as Div- ision No. 2. Its present officers are Matthew Reilly, president; Andrew Delhanty, vice-president ; Charles Foster, recording secretary; William Caulcy, finan- cial secretary ; and Patrick Clark, treasurer.

MONTGOMERY CLUB, CLAN-NA-GAEL A .- This is a social organization of Irishmen or Irish-Americans. It was organized about fifteen years ago, and was known originally as the McClure Club. It comprises many of the leading business men of this nationality in Yonkers. Its officers change several times a year. The membership is about two hundred. The chb meets weekly in the hall of the People's Savings Bauk building. The furniture of the hall is owned by the Club.

MAIDEN CITY LODGE OF LOYAL ORANGEMEN, NO. 63 .- This lodge was organized November 10, 1884, and has a membership of thirty-nine. It is of an order described at length under the article " Orange- men " in Appleton's Encyclopedia, and needing no further definition here. The present officers are Frederick Bell, Worshipful Master ; William Beatty, Deputy; W. J. Bell, Recording Secretary; Robert Hogg, Financial Secretary ; Robert Wylie, Treasurer ; Henry Bell, Chaplain ; and Samuel Mills, Tiler. The lodge meets in Grand Army Hall on the second and fourth Mondays of each month.

SECTION XX. Hotels and Large Boarding Housex.

The word " hotels" was not applied to houses of en- tertainment hereabout till within the present century. Such places were previously called "inns" or "taverns." Through Yonkers lay a prominent stage-ronte-that between New York and Albany. At short intervals nlong this route places of halting for the many pass- ing stages, and of refreshment for the travelers and

the horses, were established. One who will follow the old route from the metropolis to the State capital will find very many of these old houses still standing, but fallen, of course, into disusc. They were substantially all of one type. The one here, of which we give a cut below, was a fair specimen of them all. They were long, low buildings, of two stories in height, with an open stoop and portico extending along the entire front. A sign post stood before each one, with an arm, from which swung a large sign, adorned with a coarse daub, under which the name of the proprietor of the tavern, and within or over which the name of his tavern, was painted. In front of each was a wa- ter-trough, and adjoining each was a very long shed, of sufficient dimensions to receive and cover many teams and wagons, and provided with an ample number of feed-boxes, from which horses, during a brief tarry, might partake of their oats or other food, as the case might be. Within the tavern was sure to be, first of all, a bar-room, to which the halting guest seldom failed to pay his first respects. The next essential feature was the dining-room, where the food was al- ways of the substantial kind. The vegetables, eggs and milk almost always came from the proprietor's own garden and farm close at hand. And the waiters were in nearly every case the wife and childreu of the proprictor, assisted by the negroes, who in the early days, were almost always slaves. In the second story of the house were the bed-rooms, all the furniture of which was of the simple, primitive style. The bed- steads were high, corded and surmounted with the old- fashioned frame and tester, whose object sccmed to be to keep all air from the sleeper below. The beds were of straw beneath and of feathers overlying, and the straw, feathers, linen quilts and counterpanes all came, as to raw material and as to weaving. from the neighborhood of the houses they adorned. These honses have now been largely superseded by the mod- ern "hotels." On off-roads or in remote districts their type still prevails. When one would think of the Yonkers of earlier days, he must go back to one of these taverns, of which we are here to give some account.

Down to 1852 there stood upon the site of our present and imposing Getty House a tavern of the old type. It had been built by Jacob Stout between 1796 and 1802, in place of the old Hunt's tavern of previous days. The earlier tavern had been asso- ciated with all the public acts of the lords of the manor. In it they hell their courts and administered the laws, of which they were alike the makers, inter- preters and appliers. After their days, from the crec- tion of the town of Yonkers (March 7, 1788., the town- meetings had always been held at this tavern. And, of course, all the public stir of the little hamlet al- ways centred around it or its successor, built by Mr. Stont. Never did a stage drive up to it without cu- countering all the idlers of the place. And at times it found waiting for it many, too, who were not idlers,

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but who depended on its arrival to bring them the news which formed the great relief to the community's daily quiet routine. The low politicians and the local wiseheads, real and pretentious, were always sure to be at the tavern in the evenings. Such was the picture. Its like can still be seen in sparsely- settled localities along great routes of travel. It con- tinued to be seen here in all its simplicity till the steamboats began to interfere with the business of the stages, and to a considerable extent even till 1849, when the Hudson River Railroad eame and entirely broke it up. The old tavern was finally removed in 1852 to make room for a honse of quite another type.

What the name of the earliest tavern or the name of its proprietor had been before 1756, we cannot find. In 1756 the proprietor was Edward Stevenson, and in 1783 it was conducted by David Hunt. Of what fant- ily Hunt was no one now knows. There are Hunts on our list of the land-buyers of 1785, already given.

"THE NAPPECKAMACK HOUSE" OR "THE INDIAN QUEEN INN," AS IT APPEARED IN 1851.

On onr map of 1813 the latter house is called " The Iudian Queen Inn " and on our map of 1843 it is ealled " The Nappeekamae House." Mr. Thomas C. Cornell remembers the sign bearing the latter name. Mr. John Henry Williams, whose father became the proprietor of the house about 1814 or 1815, and who himself was born in it in 1816, remembers it was ealled "The Eagle Hotel " in his boyhood, and Mr. Robert P. Getty, who bought the property in 1851, and re- moved the house to make way for his large hotel, says he thinks " The Nappeckamaek House " was a faney name given to it by some of its frequenters. And still further, we learn that its most common name among the people was " The Stage-House." As early as 1816 it was kept by Mr. Elisha Williams. Other proprietors succeeded in the following order: Captain Isaae Ruton, Colonel John Williams, De Witt C. Kellinger, M.D., Ralph Shipman (who kept it as a temperance house), John Armstrong (retired from it in 1837),

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History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. II, Part 32

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co. Number of Pages: 1286

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898,
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1286