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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, July 19, 1912:
Double Affliction
Mrs. Thomas Hanley of Pocantico Hills, lost her daughter Clara Hanley in a tragic accident, and the following day her brother-in-law passed away from a stroke.
Young Clara was only four years old, and was riding on a low stone-boat (a wagon for hauling stones) with five or six other little girls. The boat was under the charge of Wheeler Turner and was owned by Valentine, the truck-man of North Tarrytown. The team had been working on the Rockefeller place, and allowed the children to come aboard for a short ride.
In jumping back down off the wagon the girl fell over and the wheels passed over her. By the time Dr. Fairchild arrived on the scene the child was dead. Her remains were taken care of by Undertaker Dorsey, and the funeral service was held in the Church of the Magdalene at Pocantico Hills. Clara was buried in Mt. Hope Cemetery.
To add to this terrible tragedy, the following day Frank Reeves, an uncle of the girl, died at the home of his sister-in-law, Mrs. Hanley. He was 53 years old and had suffered a paralytic stroke two days earlier. The funeral service was also held at the Church of the Magdalene.
Prize-Fighter Beaten Up
Harry Cutch, a local prize-fighter, was entering the boarding house of Mrs. Wright on Kendall Avenue, where he lived, when he was viciously attacked.
As he approached the boarding house late in the evening, he noticed three men sitting on the porch, evidently waiting for him, and as soon as they saw Mr. Cutch these men immediately attacked him. The Press-Record explained that “the odds were so uneven that the young man took to his heels and fled down the street”. However, this was obviously a well planned incident since three more men who had been hiding further down the street jumped out and intercepted Mr. Cutch. All six men then beat him mercilessly.
Mr. Cutch thought that he recognized several of his assailants, and the following day he went to see Judge Armstrong, who listened to his account of the event and granted arrest warrants for Mssrs. Thomas Deeley, Thomas Burns and Harry Dolen. These men were immediately arrested and brought before the Judge.
Deeley and Burns were able to provide an alibi - they produced evidence to suggest that they had been in their homes, sleeping. Exactly what their alibis were is not explained by the Press-Record.
Mrs. Wright, the boarding house keeper, had been awakened by the disturbance and had run out of the house to see what was happening. She was able to positively identify her son by a first marriage, Harry Dolen, as one of the attackers. The Judge found Dolen guilty, but after Alderman Murphy, of North Tarrytown, interceded on Dolen’s behalf his sentence was suspended. No motive for the attack was given.
Midnight Wedding
Assemblyman William Shipley Coffey, of Mount Vernon, married Miss Becker, of Tarrytown, in an unusual ceremony which led Mr. Coffey to explicitly declare to reporters that it most definitely was not an elopement.
Mr. Coffey and Miss Becker were among the guests of widow Scherp’s “automobile party” on Tuesday night. The group, which included a number of Mr. Coffey’s colleagues, were enjoying driving around the area in automobiles, stopping every so often, and growing gradually more merry and boisterous as the evening commenced. By nightfall a heavy rainstorm began and the party decided to stop at Florence Inn and stay there overnight.
The whole evening Mr. Coffey had been “paying ardent attention” to Miss Becker, and he quite suddenly proposed to her that they should get married. She accepted, to the great joy of Mr. Coffey and their companions, and the whole party motored to Irvington where they roused the town clerk from his sleep in order to get a marriage license.
Back at the Florence Inn, Mr. Coffey called Judge Moorhouse, who had also been sleeping, and demanded that he made his way to the Florence Inn immediately. The Judge obliged, and as soon as he arrived he made Mr. Coffey and Miss Becker man and wife.
The next morning they had their wedding breakfast at the Inn before motoring to Rye Beach, where the couple spent part of their honeymoon.
Boy Hit by Automobile
Fourteen year old Tony Bonome, of North Tarrytown, suffered a broken arm and serious bruising when he was struck by the mud-guard of a passing automobile.
Mr. Ray Page was driving his car down Valley Street where there were a large number of children playing. He sounded the car horn to warn them to stay out of the way, but Bonome, who was catching a ball, paid no attention. The automobile almost ran right into the boy, but he jumped out of the way and was grazed by the mud-guard. This was enough to throw him to the ground and break his arm. Page immediately stopped his car, picked the boy up, and rushed him to hospital.
Witnesses asserted that the blame should not be placed upon Page since he was driving very slowly and had attempted to warn the children with the car horn.
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