Pelham Manor Sided With the Anti-Automobilists in 1902

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The year was 1902.  The new-fangled contraption known by some as the horseless carriage and by others as the automobile was beginning to crowd local roadways in Pelham Manor, particularly Boston Post Road, Pelhamdale Avenue, and Shore Road.  Rival factions were growing.  Automobilists, as they were called, banded together in automobile clubs.  Anti-automobilists joined anti-automobile associations in the New York City region.

In Pelham Manor, anti-automobilists were on a rampage over the horseless carriages kicking up dust, making noise, and scaring horses on the unpaved roads.  Those who watered their horses at the stone horse fountain at Boston Post Road and the Esplanade felt that automobiles on Boston Post Road were making it dangerous to stop at the fountain.  In April of that year there even had been a major automobile crash on Pelhamdale Avenue near Shore Road where the automobile exploded in flames and two automobilists were injured when the vehicle swerved to miss a horse and slammed into a "telegraph pole."  See AUTO EXPLODES; TWO HURT -- IN TURNING OUT FOR A HORSE THE DRIVER RUNS INTO A TELEGRAPH POLE, New-York Daily Tribune, Apr. 20, 1902, p. 9, col. 5.  The anti-automobilists pressed the Board of Trustees of the Village of Pelham Manor to do something about the contraptions that were just beginning to speed up and down Pelham roadways with wild abandon.  

The Village of Pelham Manor already had enacted ordinances "regulating the speed of [the] machines within the village limits."  The only trouble with such ordinances is that automobilists just passing through Pelham Manor never seemed to be aware that any such ordinances existed. . . . 

It was time to do something!  On the evening of Thursday, June 5, 1902, the Village Board of Trustees voted to do something it never had done before.  It voted to post speed limit signs on several Pelham Manor roadways.  According to one account, at the meeting:

"The only measure that was brought to a head was the matter of erecting signs, calling the attention of automobilists to the law regulating the speed of their machines within the village limits.  Five of these signs will be placed at the outposts of the village:  two on the Shore Road, two on the Boston Post Road, and one on Pelhamdale avenue."

Though this reference says nothing about the speed limit posted on the signs, it is known from other sources that there was a village-wide speed limit of fifteen miles per hour at the time.  

Speed Limit Sign Likely Similar to Those Posted

in the Village of Pelham Manor in 1902.  NOTE:

Click on Image to Enlarge.

Though the Board of Trustees likely felt a sense of satisfaction that they had, in fact, done something about the problem, the poor Pelham Manor Police Department was left with the problems inherent in enforcing such a speed limit without automobiles of their own and modern tools such as radar and laser speed detection tools.  Indeed, police techniques for catching speeders at the time were so barbaric that speeders routinely defeated summonses and arrests for speeding in the suburbs of New York City.

For example, also in 1902 in nearby Oyster Bay, Long Island just across Long Island Sound from Pelham, a Deputy Sheriff and his colleagues invented a novel way to catch speeding automobilists.  The law enforcement officers were paid by an "anti-automobile organization made up mainly of Nassau county residents" named the Long Island Highway Protective Association.  The officers created a "home made timing device" described as follows:

"Sequestered sections of road, flanked by woods, are selected.  Three posts are set up an eighth of a mile apart.  Concealed in the woods opposite each post a deputy sheriff, paid by the association, is stationed.  A string is stretched from points opposite each of the outer posts to a point opposite the centre post.  At the latter the strings are attached to a condensed milk can and a bell.  When the approaching automobilist passes one of the outer posts the Deputy Sheriff stationed there pulls the string and warns the watcher at the centre post.  As the chauffeur passes the post the string is pulled and the middle man snaps his watch.  If the time shows a faster rate than the legal limit the timekeeper signals the deputy at the further post, who rushes out into the road and holds up the offender.  Then up comes the timekeeper, watch in hand, arrests the culprit, escorts him to the Magistrate and shows his stopped watch as proof."

Such improvised timing devices, it turned out, were easy to defeat in court.  Indeed, with regard to the device described above used on Long Island, "[e]xperts for the defence proved the inaccuracy of this system of timing, a practical test showing a variation of several seconds for the eighth of a mile, according to the manner of handling the string."  Automobilists, it turned out, were elated by the ruling rejecting such a crude timing device.  The anti-automobilists vowed to find another way to catch the law-breakers.

Shortly after the new speed limit signs went up in Pelham Manor, Pelham Manor police attempted a crackdown against speeding automobilists.  According to one account:

"the police of Pelham Manor carried on a campaign against speeding and many arrests followed.  On some Sundays as many as twenty automobilists were arrested and fined.  Then the police and the officials of the village were threatened with suits, claiming that the officers had exceeded their authority and the crusade came to a standstill."

Source:  Trolley to Shore Road, New Rochelle Pioneer, Jul. 30, 1910, p. 3, col. 5.  

It looks like the automobilists were beginning to win the war, at least in Pelham Manor, during the earliest years of the 20th century.

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Below is the text of a couple of articles that form the basis of today's posting to the Historic Pelham Blog.  Each is followed by a citation and link to its source.

"Pelham and Pelham Manor.
-----

The Village Board held its regular monthly meeting in the rooms of the Manor Club House last Thursday evening, and discussed several minor questions.

The only measure that was brought to a head was the matter of erecting signs, calling the attention of automobilists to the law regulating the speed of their machines within the village limits.  Five of these signs will be placed at the outposts of the village:  two on the Shore Road, two on the Boston Post Road, and one on Pelhamdale avenue.

The question of the watering of streets and roads was discussed but nothing was done decisively in the matter.  The water contract question was mentioned at the meeting, but as the contract was not available it could not be referred to and nothing decisive was done.  It seems that the present water company has stated that it does not intend to live up to their contract, but as they have made no move as yet to violate the provisions of their contract the matter has, thus far, been given but little attention.

Most of the trouble seems to be with the residents of Manor Heights."

Source:  Pelham and Pelham Manor, The Bronxville Review, Jun. 12, 1902, Vol. I, No. 21, p. 6, col. 1.  

"NOVEL TIMING IN AUTOMOBILE TESTS
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Long Island Deputy Sheriffs Base Arrests on System of String Pulling.
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INACCURACY IS PROVED
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Chauffeur Discharged at Oyster Bay Because Device is Found Faulty
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Automobilists yesterday expressed considerable elation at their victory in the Guthrie case at Oyster Bay, which followed so closely on their triumph in the May case at Southampton.

'The outcome of these trials,' said Mr. A. B. Shattuck, president of the Automobile Club of America, yesterday, 'proves that automobiling is not to be altogether wiped out on Long Island.'

Mr. W. D. Guthrie's chauffeur, Dietz, was discharged by Justice Wallace, at Oyster Bay, on Saturday, on the ground that the novel, home made timing device used by the deputy sheriffs who made the arrest failed to show results with reasonable accuracy.  Dietz was charged with speeding Mr. Guthrie's automobile at three miles an hour above the country speed limit over a measured stretch on the East Norwich road.

The trial disclosed the methods employed by the Long Island Highway Protective Association, an anti-automobile organization, made up mainly of Nassau county residents.  Sequestered sections of road, flanked by woods, are selected.  Three posts are set up an eighth of a mile apart.  Concealed in the woods opposite each post a deputy sheriff, paid by the association, is stationed.  A string is stretched from points opposite each of the outer posts to a point opposite the centre post.  At the latter the strings are attached to a condensed milk can and a bell.  

When the approaching automobilist passes one of the outer posts the Deputy Sheriff stationed there pulls the string and warns the watcher at the centre post.  As the chauffeur passes the post the string is pulled and the middle man snaps his watch.  If the time shows a faster rate than the legal limit the timekeeper signals the deputy at the further post, who rushes out into the road and holds up the offender.  Then up comes the timekeeper, watch in hand, arrests the culprit, escorts him to the Magistrate and shows his stopped watch as proof.

Experts for the defence proved the inaccuracy of this system of timing, a practical test showing a variation of several seconds for the eighth of a mile, according to the manner of handling the string.  Automobilists yesterday asserted that many arrests for speeding based on the string device were illegal."

Source:  NOVEL TIMING IN AUTOMOBILE TESTS -- Long Island Deputy Sheriffs Base Arrests on System of String Pulling -- INACCURACY IS PROVED -- Chauffeur Discharged at Oyster Bay Because Device is Found Faulty, N.Y. Herald, Sep. 23, 1902, p. 12, col. 6.  

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I have written before about the early years of the automobile in Pelham.  For a few examples, see:  

Wed., Nov. 09, 2016:  Who Drove the First Automobile in Pelham?

Thu., Nov. 05, 2015:  The Earliest Days of the Automobile in Pelham.  

Thu., Jan. 07, 2010:  Pelham Manor Police Establish Speed Traps on Shore Road in 1910 to Catch Those Traveling Faster than Fifteen Miles Per Hour.

Mon., Jul. 20, 2009:  Early Automobile Accident and Explosion on Shore Road Near Travers Island in 1902.

Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.
Home Page of the Historic Pelham Blog.
Order a Copy of "Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Pell Treaty Oak."