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Each week we bring you the front page of a local newspaper that covered the news in Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow (North Tarrytown) one hundred years ago. This front page comes from the Tarrytown Press-Record. The Press-Record was published as a weekly from 1893 to 1946 and has been preserved by the on microfilm.
Friday, August 9, 1912:
Uproar Over Killing of a Horse
An article appeared in The Daily News which described horrific scenes in Tarrytown and North Tarrytown; scenes which would have convinced a passing stranger that he had entered a town inhabited by heartless barbarians. The indignant Daily News editors severely censured the North Tarrytown Chief of Police, Chief Minnerly, for allowing chaotic brutality to go unchecked in public, calling him a “monument of disgrace”. The Press-Record decided to investigate further into the events which provoked such a scathing article.
The Daily News had reported that a lame old horse which could no longer walk was clubbed to death in public by a mob of about a dozen boys who took great delight in the suffering they inflicted. Chief Minnerly apparently witnessed this scene and did not lift a finger to stop the cruelty. “Possibly he was just lighting up some of his famous buckeye and his restful smoke could not be disturbed” remarked the Daily News.
The Press-Record sent a reporter to speak to Chief Minnerly, who was only too keen to explain his version of events, and was adamant that the Daily News article was almost entirely fiction, made up to spite him. He told how the horse was in a terrible condition and it was decided that the best thing to do was have it shot. Mr. Landers, the horse Undertaker, was called to take the animal away. However, when Landers arrived on the scene and saw that the horse was still alive, he said he would have nothing to do with it.
The owner offered Landers two dollars to shoot the horse, as long as it was done elsewhere, and not on his property. Landers agreed and led the decrepit horse along Cortlandt street to Tarrytown to be shot in a designated pace there. However, in Tarrytown Chief of Police Bowles made them take the horse back into North Tarrytown, saying that they had no right to bring the animal across the line to be shot. So the procession leading the poor animal started back up Cortlandt street.
Chief Minnerly scornfully asserted that the tale of boys clubbing the animal was a lot of “rot”, and that there was just one boy walking behind the horse slapping it occasionally to make it keep walking. He said he saw that the horse was suffering, and was in no condition to be led all around town, so he ordered it to be taken down to Valley street to a vacant lot where its suffering would be ended.
They were thwarted once more when Mr. Odell, who lived next to the vacant lot, rushed out of his house protesting that they couldn’t shoot the horse by his property “and a lot of other rubbish” (according to Chief Minnerly). In frustration the horse was finally shot then and there in the middle of the street, and the carcass was removed later on a wagon.
Tarrytown Baseball Players Released from Custody
The entire Tarrytown baseball team were arrested in Brooklyn and ordered to appear in court. They were charged with playing Sunday baseball in a Brooklyn park. In their defence the team protested that they were unaware that this was illegal, and that their opponents, the Suburbans, had not mentioned the criminal aspect of the game. The judge read both teams a stern lecture and released them.
Doctor Marries his Assistant
Dr. Townsend V. Roe surprised many of his friends when he announced that he would be taking his assistant as his wife. Miss Mary Ethel Grapes had worked for the doctor for 12 years before they became engaged, and during that time nobody had suspected that there was a blossoming romance between the two. Dr. Roe and his wife planned to spend their honeymoon in Alexandria Bay.
Cruel Parents Plead Guilty
Mr. and Mrs. Charles McManin were reported in the previous week’s Press-Record, when they were arrested for shocking cruelty and neglect towards their five children, who were found starving in filthy living conditions. This week the Press-Record covered the parents’ sentencing by Judge Moorhouse. The couple, who had previously been unable to remain sober long enough to appear in court at the appointed time, made a guilty plea after the charges against them were read.
Mr. McManin was sent to New York County Penitentiary for 30 days, and Mrs. McManin was sentenced to 30 days in White Plains Jail. Three of the children - Annie, aged 8, Maggie, aged 9, and Lillie, aged 12 - were taken by the Overseer of the Poor to the Peekskill Home, where they were to remain until their parents were released and they could return home.
Henry Stanton O’Brien Obituary
For several years Mr. Henry Stanton O’Brien, 73, had resided in Warburton House on Rose Hill, but on Sunday August 4, 1912, he passed away from “an affection of the lungs”.
O’Brien was born in Fayetteville, N.C., and was a descendant of the first Scottish settlers in that state. At the beginning of the Civil War, O’Brien was one of the first to enlist, and participated in many crucial battles and campaigns. He took part in the attack on Fort Sumter, and was also the leader of a scouting party under General Lee when the General surrendered.
After the war, O’Brien moved to New York City and entered into the real estate business. His son Henry became a Republican State Committeeman, and another son, Lewis Ogden, became Assistant United States Attorney. However, tragically both sons died at Briarcliff, and shortly after their deaths O’Brien left New York City and moved to Tarrytown, were he spent the rest of his days.
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