This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

One Century Ago: Death in the Candy Store, Criminal Night Watchman Uncovered

Headlines from Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow, 100 years ago.

Welcome back to One Century Ago, a collaboration between Patch and the .

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 Historical Society on microfilm.

Friday, February 23, 1912:

Candy Store Death

Find out what's happening in Tarrytown-Sleepy Hollowwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

F. J. Borie, 60, was enthusiastically impressing the qualities of a certain kind of crushed fruit syrup on confection store owner Charles Mierisch, when he suddenly dropped dead in the middle of the shop.

Borie was from Newark N. J., where he lived with his wife and several children. In his capacity as a sales representative for a syrup company he had come to the Mierisch’s store in Tarrytown to try to distribute a line of Middleby Crushed Fruit Syrup.

Find out what's happening in Tarrytown-Sleepy Hollowwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

A doctor was called to the shocking and incongruous scene where Borie lay, surrounded by the cheerfully colored candies, jellies, syrups and chocolates. He was announced dead immediately and his body was removed, to be taken for burial at the Fernwood Cemetary in Philadelphia. 

Glee Club in 1912

The concert given by the combined Boy’s and Girl’s Glee Clubs of Washington Irving High School was a great success one hundred years ago. The songs and recitations were received very well by the audience, with special mention going to a rendition of the tragic poem “The Wreck of the Hesperus”. Indeed no recitation performance was complete in the first half of the 20th Century without a “Wreck of the Hesperus” piece, as it was one of the most popular and adored poems in the English speaking world after it was published in 1842, but has nowadays fallen completely out of fashion.

Other highlights of the evening were the cantata “Lovel’s Bride” which included solos by Miss Frieda Igleseder, 12, and Miss Alice McIlravy,14, and a violin solo, “Souvenir Debelleni”, by Anderson Campbell, 12. After the performances, many people in the audience went to the Lyceum where there was a dance that lasted until 2 o’clock.

Night Watchman Caught with the Goods

Train station night watchman Charles A. Henyan was charged with Grand Larceny after stealing packages from American Express cargo over a period of several months.

For the past few months the American Express Company had been receiving complaints from people about the non-delivery of packages. Mostly these were relatively low value packages and the cost was simply reimbursed and thought no more of. However, when a fur coat, a silk dress and several expensive hats were unaccounted for, the company sat up and took notice.

Inspector Lobstein was put on the case, but for the first few weeks he too was baffled by the disappearances. However, one day at the station baggage room he noticed a package of butter in a locker. When he asked who this belonged to Charles Henyan claimed it as his own. Lobstein now felt that he had uncovered the culprit, as the same day there had been a complaint about non-delivery of a package of butter.

The following day Henyan boarded a train to Cold Springs where he lived, closely watched by Inspector Lobstein who boarded the same train. Onboard the train, Lobstein accused Henyan, who flat out denied the claims against him. Lobstein accompanied him home, where his wife also denied any knowledge of wrong-doing. However, when the inspector asked the man where he had got the shoes on his feet from, he admitted having taken them off the train. After that, Henyan admitted to having stolen many other items, and gave a written confession. Strangely, he returned to work the next evening as per usual, and was surprised when he was turned away. Shortly after that he was arrested and detained at White Plains jail.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?