I also have written about early newspapers published in the Town of Pelham. See the extensive bibliography with links to such articles at the end of today's Historic Pelham article.
Today’s
Historic Pelham article provides a more detailed history of The Pelham Manor Tribune as well as
information about its editor and the Pelham Manor family that supported the
nearly three-year venture.
Introduction
The Pelham Manor Tribune began in
November, 1893. Indeed, on November 18,
1893, the New Rochelle Pioneer
published a brief "welcome" to The Pelham Manor Tribune, stating "We desire to
welcome to our exchange list, a new contemporary in the person of the Pelham
Manor Tribune. The Tribune is devoted to the local news of the Manor, and is
issued bi-weekly." Source: [Untitled],
New Rochelle Pioneer, Nov. 18, 1893, Vol. XXXIIII, No. 33, p. 4, col. 2.
The fact that the New Rochelle
Pioneer welcomed the new Pelham Manor newspaper should come as no
surprise. Though published and
circulated in Pelham Manor, the new newspaper was printed in New Rochelle by the
presses of the New Rochelle
Pioneer. It should be noted that, perhaps in recognition of the creation of a new newspaper on the "mainland" part of the Town of Pelham, only a few weeks later City Islander Orrin F. Fordham established The City Island Drift, a weekly
community newspaper “devoted to the interests of the Town of Pelham and City
Island.”
Pelham Manor
resident William George Landsman Beecroft founded The Pelham Manor Tribune. He was, of course, a member of the prominent
Beecroft family of the Village of Pelham Manor.
See Fri., Nov. 11, 2016: John Robert Beecroft and the Beecroft Family of Pelham Manor. Born in 1874, at the time he founded the
paper William G. L. Beecroft was eighteen years old. The masthead of his newspaper included a slogan that summarized his philosophy as a journalist: “This paper will be
the friend of the Village in morals and truth, independent of party
prejudice.”
Who Was William George Landsman Beecroft?
Information about William George
Beecroft:
William
George Landsman Beecroft was the second child of John Robert Beecroft and Elizabeth
Corbett who were married on January 16, 1872 in Chicago, Cook County,
Illinois. William was born there on August 16, 1875. His father emigrated to the United
States from England in the 1860s and became an early and prominent resident of
the settlement of Pelham Manor as he and Elizabeth raised William and other
young members of the family. Like his
son William would be later, John Robert Beecroft was a journalist. For a few years following his arrival in the
United States he was employed with the publisher A. S. Barnes & Company in
Chicago and as a manager of the Scribner Publishing Company of Chicago. In May, 1879 he joined the Century Company,
became an editor of the Century Magazine and thereafter moved his family to New
York where the family lived in Flushing Queens.
In about 1881, John Robert Beecroft and his wife moved their family to
Pelham Manor.
John Beecroft
was an active member of the community. In addition to his service as a School Board
Trustee and as President of the School Board, he also was an active member of
Christ Church in Pelham Manor, located virtually across the street from his
home. He served as a Warden of the
Church. He also was a member of the New
York Athletic Club, The Church Club, The Polo Club, and the Congregational Club.
He also was a Free Mason with the
Huguenot Lodge, F. and A. M. of New Rochelle.
The couple’s
son, William, and his three brothers became known throughout Pelham as the
“Beecroft Boys” as they grew up in the little settlement. By the 1890s the family lived in the home
that still stands at 1382 Pelhamdale Avenue.
The Beecroft Family Home that Still Stands at 1382 Pelhamdale
Avenue Where The Pelham Manor Tribune Was Prepared for
Printing. Portions of the Home Are Believed to Have Been Built
in About 1790. NOTE: Click on Images To Enlarge.
The Brief Life of The Pelham Manor
Tribune
William G. L. Beecroft founded The Pelham Manor Tribune in November, 1893. He served as editor while one of his younger
brothers, Edgar Beecroft, played the day-to-day operational roles of Advertising
Manager (and, later, Manager). William’s
older brother, Fred, served as a “business manager” of the venture during summer
vacations when he returned home from college.
Truth be
told, as one account has noted, “the entire Beecroft family” was involved in the
venture. The venture operated out of the
family home at 1382 Pelhamdale Avenue although the
newspaper was physically printed in New Rochelle. The subscription rate was fifty cents per
year. In addition to revenue derived
from at least a hundred subscribers, the newspaper sold advertising bought
principally by New Rochelle merchants and, occasionally, by New York City
merchants. Advertisers included Daniel
J. Kennedy, a “general contractor of sheet metal and hot air work;” Coutant’s Drug Store in New Rochelle, J. L. Eick, a horse harness and collar maker who also was a
carriage trimmer; E. Lamben, a dealer in “fancy
groceries;” Kusche’s Ideal Market; William Downing, a
horse shoer; Huyler’s Candy
Store in New York City; and George T. Davis, an undertaker and embalmer.
After the
short run of only two years and two months, on January 4, 1896, William George Landsman Beecroft announced that the issue would be the newspaper’s last. In an editorial that appeared in that January
4 issue, Beecroft wrote:
“With this
issue we present our last attempt at journalism in Pelham Manor. We sincerely hope that our subscribers have
derived as much pleasure from reading our simple little sheet, as the editor has
enjoyed writing it. We have several
reasons for allowing the Tribune to sink into [archives], important among which
is the fact that Pelham Manor is not yet a large enough field to make the
conducting of a newspaper a financial success.
For, although we have enjoyed almost three years of prosperity, we are
obliged to admit that our advertisers have patronized the Tribune more on
account of the enterprise than because of the benefits which they might derive
from advertising in its columns. Another, and by no means secondary reason that
makes a newspaper unprofitable in Pelham Manor, is that some of the people do
not seem to appreciate the fact that a newspaper in a small village, is a great
enhancement to property value and consequently do not give the paper the support
it deserves. If there are any of our
subscribers who feel that their fifty cent investment
has not been a profitable one, their money will be returned on application. It has been the endeavor of the management to
present a sheet free from scandal and small talk, and to include within its
pages only such material as could be read by our youngest reader to
advantage. How far we have succeeded we
leave to you, but we can say that in our three years of existence, we have never
had a single complaint, nor has the editor ever been horse-whipped (the fate of
many an editor). Kind reader, au
revoir.”
With that,
the first newspaper published in the Town of Pelham folded.
William George Landsman Beecroft, Founder and Editor of
The Pelham Manor Tribune, in an Undated Photograph (Ca.
1910). NOTE: Click on Image to Enlarge.
After closing
The Pelham Manor Tribune, William G. L. Beecroft
continued his work in the field of journalism as dramatic editor of the New York
Press. He interrupted his work to join the United States Naval Reserve on May 14, 1898 to serve a one-year term during the Spanish American War. He served during the War on the USS Jason, the last of the monitors, though he saw no action. With the end of the war he received an early honorable discharge September 6, 1898.
Record of Military Service of William George Landsman Beecroft
During the Spanish American War. Source: Abstracts of Spanish
American War Military and Naval Service Records, 1898-1902.
Series B0809 (34 Volumes), New York State Adjutant General's
Office, New York State Archives, Albany, New York. NOTE:
Click on Image to Enlarge.
On Wednesday, June 24, 1903, Beecroft married Frederika Bette Schmidt. See “A DRAMATIC EPISODE” in The Fourth
Estate, No. 487, p. 4, col. 4 (NY, NY:
Jun. 27, 1903). The couple had at least six children: William George Landsman Beecroft Jr., Elizabeth Valerie Beecroft, Richard Edgar Beecroft, Barbara Beecroft, Emily West Beecroft, and Mary Jane Beecroft.
According to
an article in The Pelham Sun (quoted in full below), after working as the
dramatic critic of the New York Press, Beecroft did syndicate work under Ervin
Wardman. Beecroft was an avid sportsman and outdoorsman. He became a writer for the leading outdoors magazine at the time, Forest & Stream. He became the corporation secretary and, then, an editor of Forest & Stream . (The magazine later was bought by Field & Stream magazine.) Thereafter he became, for a short time, an advertising
agency executive associated with Maclay & Mullally, Inc., a general advertising agency headquartered
in New York City. There he had charge of
the department of general advertising.
Source:
“Ad Field Personals” in The
Editor & Publisher, Vol. 49, No. 37, p. 25, cols. 1-2 (NY, NY: Feb. 24, 1917).
During World War I, Beecroft worked for the Hercules Powder Company. After the war, Beecroft was appointed editor and general manager of the American Banker. Source: “Change on American Banker” in Editor
& Publisher, Vol. 52, No. 18, p. 30, col. 2 (NY, NY: Oct. 2, 1919). He moved his family to Darien, Connecticut.
Beecroft worked at American Banker until 1920 when he retired. When Beecroft
finally retired from journalism, he became a fruit farmer with a farm on West Chestnut Avenue in Vineland, New
Jersey. According to family tradition, his son Richard Edgar Beecroft was a sickly child. When doctors told the family that the child needed "country air," Beecroft retired from journalism and moved to the Vineland, New Jersey farm.
William Beecroft died in January, 1924 as the result of a tragic accident. His wife taught at the New Jersey State School for the Feeble Minded Woman. He and his wife were scheduled to attend a fund-raising entertainment at the school. An acquaintance named Matt Unsworth, a mason by trade, gave the couple a ride in his truck to the school. Because the mason's truck was so dirty, William stood in the rear of the vehicle to keep his clothing from getting dirty. On the way to the school, the driver swerved to avoid debris in the roadway. William was thrown from the truck and badly injured. He was taken to the hospital in Vineland where he died two days later. He was buried in
Oak Hill Cemetery, Vineland, Cumberland County, New Jersey.
Role of The Pelham Manor Tribune in an
Interesting Legal Dispute Near the Newspaper’s End
In 1896, the
tiny four-page newspaper played an interesting role in a legal dispute between a
group of Pelham Manor residents, led by the Secor
family, who opposed trolley lines in the Village of Pelham Manor and a trolley
car company and other Pelham Manor residents who favored such trolley
lines. Indeed, a number of Pelham
residents fought bitterly to keep trolley tracks out of Pelham Manor. There were
at least two lawsuits that resulted in reported decisions in which Pelham Manor
residents sought to block construction of the Toonerville Trolley tracks through Pelham Manor along Pelhamdale Avenue.
One was McLean v. Westchester Electric Ry. Co., et al., 25 Misc. 383, 55
N.Y.S. 556 (Sup. Ct. Kings Co. 1898).
The other was Anna M. Secor v. Board of
Trustees of Village of Pelham Manor, et al., 6 A.D. 236, 39 N.Y.S. 993 (App.
Div. 2d Dep’t 1896). The second suit
involved arguments concerning publication of notice in The Pelham Manor
Tribune. I have written before about the
monumental fight to block trolley lines in the Village of Pelham Manor. See Tue., Apr. 19, 2005: Pelham Manor Residents Fight Construction of
the Toonerville Trolley Line.
In 1895, the
Westchester Electric Railway Company submitted an application to the Board of
Trustees of the Village of Pelham Manor to permit it to lay trolley tracks
through the village along Pelhamdale Avenue. On December 2, 1895, the Board took the matter
under advisement but adopted a resolution setting January 4, 1896 as the date
the application would be considered. To
comply with statutory notice requirements, the Board arranged for publication of
notice of the hearing on the railroad company's application for four successive
weeks in the weekly local newspaper, The Pelham Manor Tribune. Thereafter, the Board of Trustees approved the
application of the Westchester Electric Railroad Company.
Anna M. Secor -- whose family owned a large tract of land in Pelham
Manor -- commenced an action and obtained an injunction prohibiting the railroad
company from "acting upon the consent granted by" the Board of Trustees and
restraining the Board from further acting on the application of the railroad
company "until they have published the notice as required by statute."
The statute
at issue required that in the case of a village like Pelham Manor without a
daily newspaper, public notice most be provided "for fourteen days" in "a
newspaper published therein, if any there shall be, and if none, then daily in
two daily newspapers if there be two, if not, one published in the city nearest
such village or town." Anna Secor, through her lawyers, argued among other things that
although The Pelham Manor Tribune was distributed in Pelham Manor, it was not
published in Pelham Manor since it was printed in New Rochelle. The Court rejected the argument, holding that
"We think that there has not been established any substantial departure from the
requirements of the statute, and a case was not made warranting the interference
of the court by injunction. The order should be reversed, and the injunction
dissolved, with $10 costs and disbursements."
In other words, after the tiny newspaper closed its doors forever, the Appellate Division, Second Department of the State of New York held in a judicial decision that the little publication was, indeed, a newspaper. . . . . . . .
* * * * *
Below are transcriptions of some of the items on which today's Historic Pelham article is based. Each is followed by a citation and link to its source.
“Courage and
Chivalry Were Attributes of Pelham’s First Newspaper Editor
-----
Examples of
The Pelham Manor Tribune, First Newspaper in Pelham, Give Interesting Picture of
the Gay Nineties in Residential Suburb.
-----
A courageous
and chivalrous journalist was William G. Beecroft, founder and editor of The
Pelham Manor Tribune, Pelham’s first newspaper, two issues of which came to The
Pelham Sun this week.
For three
years from 1893 to 1896 Pelham Manor had a newspaper of its own, and it did a
good job serving the entire community.
In going
through papers left by the late Mr. Alfred L. Hammett of Pelham Manor, members
of his family found two issues of The Pelham Manor Tribune, dated December 28,
1895 and January 4, 1896, which Mr. Hammett had preserved. They were given to Building Inspector Clyde
F. Howes who is a collector of old Pelham Manor relics, and Mr. Howes permitted
The Pelham Sun editor to make a study of them.
This led to
some interesting research. From Village
Attorney Edgar C. Beecroft we learned that the Tribune
was founded by his brother, the late William G. Beecroft, who was at the end of
his teens when he decided that the small residential community was ripe for a
journalistic venture.
Editor
Beecroft nailed to his ‘masthead’ the following ‘This paper will be the friend
of the Village in morals and truth, independent of party prejudice.’ Perusal of the copies of the small newspaper
gives no evidence that he did not keep faith with this platform.
At times,
according to Village Attorney Beecroft, the entire Beecroft family were members
of the [venture]. Fred, another brother,
also since deceased, became business manager during the Summer vacations from
college.
‘In fact I remember that I was named as advertising manager at
the time,’ said the Village Attorney.
The
subscription rate was fifty cents per year and the circulation [illegible]
hundred copies. The office of the
publication was in the Beecroft home, and the four page
newspaper was printed in the office of the New Rochelle Pioneer.
Editor
Beecroft apparently had a delightful sense of humor. In his editorial column of the issue of
December 28, 1895 we read the following:
‘Now that war
with England is imminent shall Pelham Manor shirk its [duty]? Certainly not! Let our [illegible] fire department be
organized in a company of home guards now.
Nothing could so effectively throw ‘cold water’ on any part of the
Britishers to invade an otherwise peaceful domain. ‘Upwards and at ‘em.’
The same
issue contains a reference to the efforts of villagers to organize a skating
clb and to flood the courts for their pond. Editor Beecroft offers the following poetic
[vision]:
‘In his
overcoat with cushions Willie’s going out to skate,
He will need
the yielding softness when he cuts the figure eight.’
The editorial
pen was not without another instinct particularly [illegible] of a meeting of a
[dancing class] which was ‘so successful that a cotillion is being
discussed.’ Editor Beecroft reports that
of his visiting friends realize ‘Every woman on the floor [will be lovely] and a
good dancer.’
The united
[illegible] of Pelham also warmly advises this sentiment, adds the chivalrous
editor.
The editor
was also an epicure:
‘On Friday
night at the close of the dancing class, a party of dancers adjourned to Mr.
Beache’s residence to enjoy one of Mrs. Beache’s gourmand Welsh rarebits. The rarebits [illegible] in Mrs. Beache’s [illegible] and the [illegible] have been good
[illegible] hungry appearances. When the
onslaught of the smokers had subsided.
The unanimous vote of the party was that they had spent an exceedingly
pleasant evening.’
Civic
enterprise on the part of local officials is shown in the five lines of one
item: ‘After a
long fight the railroad company has decided to erect a sixty-foot bridge over
Pelhamdale avenue.
This is largely due to the efforts of James F. Secor, our road commissioner.’
[Illegible] Began the ‘Toonerville Trolley’
Those were
the days before the trolley car came to Pelham Manor. In fact the big
issue of the day was the franchise which was being brought by the Westchester
Electric Railroad Co. for the extension of its line in Pelham Heights, through
Colonial and Pelhamdale avenues to the Shore Road, the
line which later became affectionately known as the original ‘Toonerville Trolley.’
Editor
Beecroft had called attention of his readers to the fact that there was nothing
in the franchise to prevent the use of horse cars on the line. To this John M. Tierney, counsel for the
railroad company in a very political letter to the editor, called attention to
the fact that the railroad company intended to operate by electric rail, and
that the officers [illegible] to have incorporated the trolley line would not be
operated by horse power.
‘The road in
Pelham Manor is intended to be operated in connection with the present system
running to Mount Vernon and with the system authorized to be built in New
Rochelle and leading down to the City of New York, and it must be self-evident
that horses could not be used’ stated the attorney.
The small
paper contains a substantial amount of advertising, mainly from New Rochelle
merchants. There’s one from D. J.
Kennedy, ‘general contractor of sheet metal and hot air work,’ who gives a New
Rochelle office address, but reminds the readers that he is a resident of ‘Pelhamville.’ That’s
none other than Dan Kennedy now a village trustee of North Pelham.
Other
advertisers that old timers will delight in recalling are Coutant’s Drug Store which advertises ‘Be sure and Call in
before purchasing;’ J. L. Eick, harness and collar
maker, also a carriage trimmer. E. Lambden, dealer in fancy groceries; Kusche’s Ideal Market which offers ‘special rates to Yachts,
Hotels and Large Consumers;’ William Downing, practical horse shoer, and Huyler’s candy store in
New York City.
Wares
Department store in New Rochelle advertises a ‘January Skirmish, with Magazines
filled with goods and guns loaded with bargains. Our forces are ready to attack the enemy –
stagnation. Our band plays lively music
to the tune of small profits. You must
join the pursuit quickly or you miss getting gowns, drawers, skirts, corset
covers, shirts, infants’ slips at the cost of the muslin. Nothing for work or material, War, War, to
the end. This January Sale is to end all
odd lots at Wares.’
George T.
Davis, undertaker and embalmer, is another modern advertiser.
A Gay Nineties New Year
Eve
We find that
James Wilkinson and Mrs. Howard Scribner led the cotillion at the Manor Club New
Year’s Eve dance.
From 8.30
until midnight the dancing was informal.
When the hands of the watch indicated five minutes to twelve each dancer
was presented with a tin horn, with explicit instructions as to how and when the
instrument should be manipulated, but the horns and bazoos [sic] were no sooner ‘floated’ that pandemonium
reigned. When the clock struck twelve
all joined in singing Auld Lang Syne, after which the cotillion was begun.
‘The figures
were simple but extremely pretty, one figure being the lantern figure.
‘The house
was beautifully decorated with evergreens, holly and mistletoe. Rugs were tastefully arranged in the
alcoves. Half the cardroom was turned
into lemonade well, while the other half was so arranged as to make a beautiful
place to sit out dances. The new house
committee, Mrs. Roosevelt, Mrs. Gilliland, Mrs. Thornton, Mrs. Holmes and Mrs.
Secor, certainly deserve much credit for engineering
such an enterprise.’
There was
grave concern about education in January 1896.
The chief problem was whether the registration at the old Prospect Hill
School which was situated on Jackson avenue, was sufficient to warrant the
addition of a second teacher. We read
the following:
‘School
Trustee Beach submits to us the following statistics obtained from recent
canvass of the village by the School Board:
‘Number of
eligible school children, 79; at private schools, 35; at Prospect Hill School,
26; at no school, 18. Probably 25 more
pupils would attend the Prospect Hill School were added facilities given. The canvass is not complete, as several
citizens declined to express an opinion.
The above figures show that another year should not pass without an
additional teacher to instruct the higher grades. The School Board considers the present
teacher Miss Cowles entirely competent.
Her time, however, is entirely taken up by the average number of 20
children now attending the school.
There are
frequent references in the social notes to the old resident families of the
Manor, the Blacks, the Secors, the Roosevelts, the
Barnetts, and the Gillilands.
Valedictory
However,
Editor Beecroft found that village journalism in the Gay Nineties was an
unprofitable task, so after three years, he found it necessary to suspend
publication. The following editorial
published on January 4, 1896 is the valedictory of a member of the Fourth
Estate, who would have set a pattern for courageous journalism of today had his
venture continued through the years:
‘With this
issue we present our last attempt at journalism in Pelham Manor. We sincerely hope that our subscribers have
derived as much pleasure from reading our simple little sheet, as the editor has
enjoyed writing it.
‘We have
several reasons for allowing the Tribune to sink into [archives], important
among which is the fact that Pelham Manor is not yet a large enough field to
make the conducting of a newspaper a financial success. For, although we have enjoyed almost three
years of prosperity, we are obliged to admit that our advertisers have
patronized the Tribune more on account of the enterprise than because of the
benefits which they might derive from advertising in its columns.
‘Another, and
by no means secondary reason that makes a newspaper unprofitable in Pelham
Manor, is that some of the people do not seem to appreciate the fact that a
newspaper in a small village, is a great enhancement to property value and
consequently do not give the paper the support it deserves.
‘If there are
any of our subscribers who feel that their fifty cent
investment has not been a profitable one, their money will be returned on
application.
‘It has been
the endeavor of the management to present a sheet free from scandal and small
talk, and to include within its pages only such material as could be read by our
youngest reader to advantage. How far we
have succeeded we leave to you, but we can say that in our three years of
existence, we have never had a single complaint, nor has the editor ever been
horse-whipped (the fate of many an editor).
Kind reader, au revoir.’
‘What became
of Editor Beecroft?’ we asked the Village Attorney. ‘Was the Tribune his only journalistic
venture?’
‘No sir,’
said Mr. Beecroft. ‘Will went on to
become the dramatic critic of the New York Press, and later he did syndicate
work under the late Ervin Wardman, who was formerly publisher of the Press. He retired to farming and when he died five
years ago, he was a prosperous fruit farmer of Vineland, New Jersey.’
Court Said It Was A
Newspaper
There was
some who laughed at the little Tribune, said Mr. Beecroft. ‘But there’s a legal decision which proves
that it actually was a newspaper. There
was one group which opposed the trolley.
Line, so they tried to block it on the ground that the legal notices were
not properly advertised, charging that the Pelham Manor Tribune was not a
newspaper nor was it actually printed in the village, such requirements being
necessary. The Supreme Court in a
decision declared that The Pelham Manor Tribune was a newspaper and inasmuch as
its office of publication was in Pelham Manor, the publication of the notices
complied with the law, so the motion of the opponents was denied.”
“SECOR v.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES.
(6 App. Div.
236)
SECOR v.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF VILLAGE OF PELHAM MANOR et al.
(Supreme
Court, Appellate Division, Second Department.
June 23, 1896.)
1. STREET RAILROADS – CONSENT OF LOCAL
AUTHORITIES – PUBLICATION OF NOTICE.
Laws 1890, c.
565, §
92, as amdned by Laws 1892, c. 676, provides that,
where application is made to the local authorities for consent to build a street
railroad, such authorities shall publish notice thereof daily, if in a city, for
at least 14 days, in two of its daily newspapers, and if in a village or town,
for at least 14 days in a newspaper published therein, if any there shall be,
and, if none, then daily in two daily newspapers, if there be two, -- if not,
one, -- published in the city nearest such village or town. Held, that the statute does not require
daily publication of the notice in the village or town where no daily paper is
published, but publication for the prescribed length of time in a weekly paper
in the village where no daily paper was published is sufficient.
2. SAME – PLACE OF PUBLICATION OF PAPER.
Where the
publishers of a newspaper have their office in a village where they mail and
circulate the paper, it is published in the village, though it is printed
elsewhere.
3. SAME – PROCEDURE – DISCRETION OF BOARD.
Laws 1890, c.
565, §
92, as amdned by Laws 1892, c. 676, which provides
that public notice shall be given of the time and place when an application for
consent of the local authorities to the construction of a street railway will be
considered, by failing to provide when and how the hearing shall be had, leaves
that matter in the discretion of the board.
Appeal from
special term, Westchester county.
Action by
Anna M. Secor against the board of trustees of the
village of Pelham Manor and others to set aside, as null and void, a certain
resolution of defendant board of trustees purporting to grant to defendant
railroad company the right to construct a street surface railroad on certain
streets in defendant village. From an
order continuing an injunction pendente lite, defendants appeal.
Reversed.
Argued before
BROWN, P. J., and CULLEN, BARTLETT, and HATCH, JJ.
Jabish Holmes, Jr., and John M. Tierney, for appellants.
William Vanamee, for respondent.
HATCH,
J. The injunction order herein restrains
the board of trustees of said village from acting upon the application of the
Westchester Electric Railroad Company for leave to lay its tracks in the village
until they have published the notice as required by the statute, and restrained
the said railroad company from acting upon the consent granted by said board of
trustees. Upon oral argument the
injunction was sought to be sustained upon the ground that the consent which was
given by the board to the railroad company was so given without the public
hearing, or without sufficient opportunity for such hearing, as contemplated by
the statute, and also upon the ground that the publication of the notice of
hearing as required by the statute had not been complied with. It was then practically conceded that the
length of time during which said notice was published was sufficient, if it had
been made in a paper con- [Page 993 / Page 994] templated by the statute. Reflection seems to have convinced counsel
that he was overhasty in making this concession, as we find the point urged as
error upon his brief submitted since the oral presentation was made. The record discloses that a proper
application was made by the railroad company, and that the board of trustees
took the matter under advisement on the 2d day of December, 1895, and thereupon
adopted a resolution fixing the 4th day of January, 1896, for the
first consideration of the application, and directed that public notice be given
by publication for at least 14 days in the Pelham Manor Tribune. It is not disputed but that publication was
made in this newspaper for four successive weeks following the adoption of the
resolution, or but that the matter thereof was in compliance with law. The point made is that the paper was not
published in the village of Pelham Manor; that publication in such paper was not
the publication contemplated by the statute.
The stature which regulates this proceeding is section 92 of the railroad
law (Laws 1890, c. 565, as amended by Laws 1892, c. 676). It reads:
‘The
application for the consent of the local authorities shall be in writing, and
before acting thereon such authorities shall give public notice thereof and of
the time and place when it will first be considered, which notice shall be
published daily in any city for at least fourteen days in two of its daily
newspapers if there be two, if not, in one, to be designated by the mayor, and
in any village or town for at least fourteen days in a newspaper published
therein, if any there shall be, and if none, then daily in two daily newspapers
if there be two, if not, one published in the city nearest such village or
town.’
The first
clause of the statute evidently relates to cities, and contemplates that, as
they there have daily newspapers, publication shall be made therein for 14
days. It seems equally clear that daily
notice is not required or contemplated in a village or town, for when it speaks
of them it omits the word ‘daily,’ and simply requires publication in a
newspaper published therein. If any
other construction should obtain, many villages and towns could make no
compliance with the statute. If there
existed a weekly newspaper, a notice published therein would be invalid, while,
if they proceeded to publish in an adjoining city, they would be met by the
provision that this course is only permissible when no newspaper is published in
the village or town. The conditions
being so essentially different between village and city, the statute takes
cognizance thereof, and provides for daily publication in one, and publication
for 14 days in the other. The notice was
published once a week for four consecutive weeks, beginning December 15,
1895. This was sufficient, so far as
length of notice is concerned, as it covered a period in excess of 14 days. A publication once a week answered all the
requirements of the statute. In re Bassford, 50 N. Y. 509; Wood v. Knapp, 100 N. Y. 109, 2 N.
E. 632. The evidence is abundant to show
that the newspaper in which the notice was published was one which answered the
requirements of the law. It was printed
in New Rochelle, but the place of business of its publishers, the mailing list,
and place where it was mailed and circulated, was t the village of Pelham
Manor. It was not published where it was
printed, for it was not there circulated and given out to the public, which
[Page 994 / Page 995] is the essential thing necessary to constitute a
publication. Bragdon v. Hatch, 77 Me. 433, 1 Atl. 140; Ricketts v.
Village of Hyde Park, 85 Ill. 110. The
statute providing for public notice of the time and place when the application
will be considered by the board evidently contemplates that a hearing shall be
had, by the board, of the persons interested.
When and how this hearing shall be had is not provided in the
statute. The method of procedure must
therefore rest very largely in the discretion of the board, and while the courts
would not tolerate an abuse of discretion which arbitrarily excluded a fair and
reasonable hearing, by the board, of interested parties; yet when it appears
that parties have had a hearing, and reasonable opportunity has been given for
the hearing of all, the court ought not to interfere and restrain action by the
board unless it be clearly shown that this right has been unnecessarily denied,
and that actual prejudice and damage has resulted, or will result, to the party
seeking redress. In the case before us
it appears, without dispute, that, when the board met, interested parties were
heard for and against granting the application, and the minutes of the board
recite that, after hearing many citizens (naming them), no other citizen
apparently wishing to be heard, Mr. Roosevelt moved that the public hearing be
closed, and that the board proceed with business. Duly seconded and carried.’ The resolution which the board subsequently
adopted recited that the public notice was given and a public hearing had in
pursuance thereof, ‘whereat all persons so desiring were given an opportunity to
be heard, and were heard.’ These
recitals are not essentially disputed.
The affidavits in opposition do not dispute the substantiated fact of the
recital, which clearly establishes that the public meeting contemplated by the
statute was held, and that fair opportunity for the expression of views was
given. Assuming the fact to be that the
public hearing was not formally closed at the first meeting, but was adjourned
from time to time, and at such times interested parties were further heard, does
not at all militate against our conclusion.
There was no obligation resting upon the board, nor was there command of
the statute, that they should continue to adjourn for the purpose of hearing
interested parties, or that interested parties acquired the right to be heard
because the board adjourned without taking formal action upon the
application. We do not say that there
may not be circumstances which would require interference by the court even
though hearing had been once had, but they do not exist here. There is nothing which appears in these
papers to show that any one has been prejudiced or damaged by the action which
the board took, or that any one was prejudiced because the board did not further
hear them. All that is asserted of
damage to any one is that, by tearing up the street and laying the tracks,
plaintiff will be injured. This injury
she will even though no infirmity attends upon the grant. It is not occasioned by failure to further
hear interested parties, for it is not made to appear that this failure, if
failure it be, has changed or affected in the slightest the action of the board,
or would have done so. When the board
granted the application, all the trustees were present; and they were authorized
then to perform [Page 995 / Page 996] any proper official act, and consequently
authorized to pass the resolution which they did. 1 Dill. Mun. Corp. (4th Ed.) §§ 263,
264; 1 Beach, Pub. Corp. §§ 265-271. We
think that there has not been established any substantial departure from the
requirements of the statute, and a case was not made warranting the interference
of the court by injunction.
The order
should be reversed, and the injunction dissolved, with $10 costs and
disbursements. All concur.”
* * * * *
I have written extensively about early newspapers published in the Town of Pelham. Below are citations and links to various such Historic Pelham articles published in the last few years.
Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.
Home Page of the Historic Pelham Blog.
Order a Copy of "The Haunted History of Pelham, New York"
Order a Copy of "Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Pell Treaty Oak."
