Terrible Quarrel Led Brother to Shoot Brother in the Pelhamville Train Station in 1880

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Charles Merritt, the station agent at the Pelhamville Station on Saturday, February 21, 1880, was the only eyewitness.  He opened the doors of the station for business at 7:00 a.m. that day.  Pelhamville resident Charles Barker was outside and entered the waiting room when Merritt opened the doors.  The two men exchanged pleasantries and Merritt went into the station agent office to attend to the day's business.  Within moments, Charles Barker's brother, Thomas Barker, entered the station.  

The two brothers had been feuding for years.  For a time, the two brothers lived near each other in Pelhamville.  Thomas and Imogene Barker lived with Thomas's mother along with their children.  Charles and his wife lived with their two children in their own home until his wife died.  Thereafter, the two brothers essentially exchanged homes.  The widower Charles and his two children moved into the mother's home.  Thomas, Imogene, and their children moved out of the mother's home and into Charles's home, which they leased.  

Thomas and Imogene experienced marital problems and  Thomas Barker filed for a divorce.  After filing for divorce, he moved to Manhattan where he worked and, essentially, abandoned his estranged wife and their children.  Charles allowed Imogene and the children to continue to live in his former home while he remained in his mother's home.  He also provided them financial support.  

In the early stages of the divorce action, Thomas Barker accused his estranged wife of "criminal intimacy" (adultery) with his brother, Charles.  Both Charles and Imogene denied the charge vigorously and both defended against the allegations in the divorce proceeding.  According to one account, "  Thomas was finally obliged to abandon the suit on account of his inability to substantiate the charge."  Thomas had grown to hate his brother not only because he continued to believe the charges of adultery he had made, but also because Charles assisted Imogene in the divorce proceedings.  The two brothers did not cross paths again until Saturday, February 21, 1880, when Thomas Barker walked into the waiting room of the Pelhamville Station to catch the 7:11 to New York City and stumbled upon his brother, Charles.  

Seated in the station agent's office, Charlie Merritt suddenly heard Charles Barker call out "Charlie, come out here!"  Merritt stepped out of the office to find the two brothers locked in a clinch as they fought one another in the waiting room.  Merritt broke up the fight and separated the men.  Charles Barker stood next to the coal burning stove at the rear of the station.  Merritt escorted Thomas Barker to the front of the station.

As one might expect, accounts differ over what happened next.  According to testimony of station agent Merritt, however, Thomas Barker pulled a revolver out of his pocket and pointed it at his brother.  Merritt struggled with Thomas Barker for a moment in an attempt to disarm him to no avail.  Thomas Barker pointed the pistol at his brother again and his brother, Charles, picked up the poker next to the coal burning stove, held it up and said "Put down your pistol and then I'll be a match for you."  Charles then threw the poker at his brother "with the evident intention of disarming him."  Thomas Barker kept the gun pointed at his brother and shouted "No!  I've got a permit to carry a pistol and I'll use it."  

Thomas Barker waited "a few seconds," then fired at his brother.  The bullet struck Charles Barker in the "fleshy" part of the upper arm.  As soon as the bullet struck, Charles Barker yelled to the station agent "Charlie, I'm shot; go for a doctor!"

The shooter, Thomas Barker, told the story quite differently than his brother and the station agent.  He said that when he entered the station and saw his brother, his brother called him a scoundrel and said "I have you now, and I mean to kill you."  According to Thomas Barker, he replied "I heard you had made threats to kill me before, but look out you don't attempt it."

According to Thomas Barker, his larger brother Charles then rushed him, struck him about the head with his fist, "then seized him around his neck and attempted to choke him."  Thomas claimed that he finally succeeded in extricating himself from the grip of Charles, and cried out:  "I'm armed, and if you strike me again I'll defend myself."

According to Thomas Barker, his brother next grabbed the iron poker, shouted an expletive, and shouted "I'll kill you" as he raised the poker to strike his brother.  It was then, according to Thomas Barker, that he pulled out his revolver and fired the shot that struck his brother.  After he fired, he claimed he exclaimed "You have ruined my home already, but I don't want to have my brother's blood on my head."

Though accounts of what happened differ, there was no dispute over what happened next.  Merritt ran out of the station, ostensibly to get a doctor.  As he did, the New York bound 7:11 arrived and he saw Thomas Barker exit the station and climb aboard the train.  Merritt turned around and raced back to the station where he helped carry the wounded Charles Barker to the poor man's home.  

One report says that Thomas Barker fled only as far as Williams Bridge but, not knowing his brother's true condition, decided to take a train back to New Rochelle where he consulted with his lawyer, Martin J. Keogh.  In company with his counsel he started to surrender himself "but was met by a messenger from Pelhamville, who said that the injury to his brother was not so serious as was at first supposed the bullet having torn the flesh of one arm before reaching the body."  Thomas Barker turned around again, and left for New York City where, that afternoon, he was arrested in the hardware store where he worked.  He was taken before a Pelham Town Justice where he was charged with the shooting and sent to the White Plains Jail.  Within a short time he was able to raise the bail which was set at $3,000.

Though at first the wound suffered by Charles Barker did not appear life threatening, doctors began probing for the bullet but could not extricate it.  The wound became infected and Charles lapsed into critical condition.  It did not appear the suffering man would make it.  As the days passed, however, Charles improved and, indeed, survived the shooting.

During the first week of March a grand jury indicted Thomas Barker for criminal assault with intent to kill his brother Charles.  Bail was reset at $10,000 and Barker was held to await trial.  Research has not yet revealed the outcome of the trial, if one was held, but it seems clear that Thomas Barker led a productive life after the sad events with which he was involved (see below).   

The wounded Charles Barker eventually recovered.  He was a mason and contractor in the Pelhamville region who began investing his profits in local real estate.  As Pelhamville grew and became the Village of North Pelham, Charles Barker's real estate holdings paid off handsomely.  He was able to lease and sell a large amount of the land in the region around today's Fifth Avenue and Lincoln Avenue (a region once known as "Barker's Hill").  Charles Barker became a wealthy man and, indeed, acquired a profitable orange grove in Florida where he began to spend his winters.

In the meantime, due principally to the shooting by Thomas Barker, Imogene was able to obtain a divorce from her estranged husband and, several years later, did indeed marry the brother he had shot -- Charles Barker.  This made for a very complicated set of family members.  Imogene and Charles each had their own children, each of whom became the other's stepchildren.  Though it is pure speculation, circumstantial evidence suggests that some of those offspring, as they grew older, seemed to side with Charles Barker and his version of what had happened in the Pelhamville Station shooting.  At least one seemed to side with Thomas Barker or, at a minimum, became estranged from his mother, Imogene.  Thus, feuding followed.

In 1906, for example, odd and scandalous rumors surfaced in Pelham that a local chauffeur's son claimed to be a child of Imogene Barker and that there likely was another such child named "Harry."  The rumors were traced back to one of Imogene's own children who had become estranged from her years before.  Claiming that the rumors were part of a "gigantic blackmail plot" against her, in October, 1906, Imogene returned to Pelham from Florida to battle the rumors.

Nearly four years later, Imogene's husband, Charles Barker, grew ill and wanted to return to North Pelham as he neared death.  In his waning years he had transferred much of his North Pelham property to one of his stepsons, William Barker (one of the three sons of Imogene and her first husband, Thomas Barker).  Upon his return to Pelham, Charles Barker was taken to the home of his stepson, Will.  

Soon two of Charles Barkers sons (Dr. Charles A. Barker and Walter Barker, sons of Charles Barker and his first wife who died before he married Imogene) learned that he had returned.  They asked to see their dying father.  

Will Barker refused to let the two see Charles Barker.  A large crowd soon collected in front of the house.  Two village policemen were called.  They dispersed the crowd, but could not help the Barker sons to get in to see their father.  According to one news account:  "It took sometime before the excitement was over, and it is said that William Barker applied to one of the justices of the town to be permitted to carry a pistol and keep the 'trespassers' off, as he calls his step-brothers."

What happened to Thomas Barker, the man who shot his brother on February 21, 1880?  Research has not yet revealed whether the criminal charge against him was dropped or was prosecuted.  According to an obituary, however, in about the early 1890s, Thomas Barker moved to Boston and became head of the purchasing organization of the R. H. White dry goods store.  At some point, he remarried.

In about 1921, Thomas Barker tried to retire from his position with R. H. White with plans to return to North Pelham and build a grand retirement home.  His firm prevailed upon him to retain a connection and appointed him as head of its New York office.  He and his wife moved to North Pelham and purchased property at Fourth Street (today's Lincoln Avenue) and Sixth Avenue where they built a "splendid home" at 304 Sixth Avenue on property that had once been part of Barker's Hill and was originally owned by the parents of Thomas and Charles Barker.  Thomas Barker took up residence in the new home on April 1, 1923 and announced he would retire for good from R. H. White effective December 31 that same year.

In late September or early October, however, Thomas Barker's wife passed away.  According to Thomas Barker's obituary, "the shock and grief of her passing weighed heavily upon Mr. Barker as the couple were devoted to each other."  On Thursday, October 25, 1923, Thomas Barker returned home from work in New York City and suffered "an attack of acute indigestion."  He became seriously ill the next day although he rallied on Saturday "and hopes were entertained for his recovery."  Pneumonia set in, however, and on Sunday, October 28, 1923, Thomas Barker died in his North Pelham home.

His obituary said nothing of the fact that 43 years before he had shot his brother Charles in the tiny wooden Pelhamville Station. . . . 

Only Known Depiction of the Pelhamville Station Where

the Barker Shooting Took Place on February 21, 1880.

Source:  Detail from Source:  "A Remarkable Railroad Accident,"

Scientific American, Jan. 16, 1886, Vol. LIV, No. 3, cover and pp. 31-32.

NOTE: Click on Image to Enlarge. 

I have written before about the tragic shooting of Charles Barker in the Pelhamville Station on February 21, 1880.  See Mon., Feb. 02, 2009:  Brother Shoots Brother in the Pelhamville Train Station in 1880.  

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Below is the text of a number of news accounts relevant to today's Historic Pelham article.  Each is followed by a citation and link to its source.

"SHOT BY HIS BROTHER.
-----
The Culmination of a Bitter Quarrel of Several Years' Standing.

Thomas Barker of this city, formerly of Pelhamville, separated from his wife some three years ago, and she went to live with her brother-in-law, Charles Barker.  Thomas Barker brought a suit for divorce, which was subsequently discontinued.  The accusation was adultery.  The brothers met yesterday morning for the first time since the beginning of the suit for divorce.  The meeting was at the railway station in Pelhamville, to which village Thomas Barker had gone to visit his mother.  On seeing his brother, Charles is reported to have said:  'You scoundrel!  I have not met you before since you made the charge against me in court.  I now have you, and I mean to kill you.'

Thomas warned him not to resort to violence, but a scuffle ensued, and on extricating himself from his brother's grasp, Thomas said:  'I am armed, and if you strike me again I shall defend myself.'

Charles then seized a poker and threatened his brother, and the latter drew his pistol and fired.  Charles threw up his hands, and said to the ticket seller:  'I'm shot, Charley; go for a doctor.'

The 7:11 train for New York came along, and Thomas Barker got aboard and rode to Williams Bridge, but, not knowing the extent of the injury to his brother, he returned to New Rochelle on the next train, and consulted with his lawyer, Martin J. Keogh.  In company with his counsel he started to surrender himself, but was met by a messenger from Pelhamville, who said that the injury to his brother was not so serious as was at first supposed the bullet having torn the flesh of one arm before reaching the body.  Thomas Barker then came to this city.  Charles was taken to his home."

Source:  SHOT BY HIS BROTHER -- The Culmination of a Bitter Quarrel of Several Years' Standing, The Sun [NY, NY], Feb. 22, 1880, p. 5, col. 3.  

"The Pelhamville Shooting.

It is thought that the wound of Charles Barker of Pelhamville, who was shot on Saturday by his brother.  Thomas Barker, of this city, may prove fatal.  The ball passed through the flesh of the right arm and into the breast.  The physicians have probed without finding it.  Thomas Barker was arrested in this city on Saturday afternoon, at the hardware store where he works, and is held to await the result of his brother's injury."

Source:  The Pelhamville Shooting, The Sun [NY, NY], Feb. 23, 1880, Vol. XLVII, No. 176, p. 3, col. 7.  

"THE BARKER BROTHERS.
-----
Another Version of the Shooting Affray at Pelhamville.

Charles Barker, who quarrelled [sic] with his brother Thomas on Saturday last at the Pelhamville Hotel [sic], and was subsequently shot by him, still lies at his residence in Pelhamville in a very critical condition.  The ball has not yet been extracted, nor have the doctors thought it judicious to make any further probings on account of the inflammation which surrounds the wound.  Mr. Charles Merritt, the station agent at Pelhamville, who was an eye witness to the attempted murder, on his examination before Justice Patterson, being duly sworn, said: -- 'On Saturday morning I opened the station at about seven o'clock, and just as I opened the door Charles Barker came up and entered the waiting room; I bid him good morning and went into the office to attend to my duties; immediately afterward I saw Thomas Barker come into the waiting room, and a very short time after this Charles Barker called out to me, 'Charlie, come out here;' I went out and found the two brothers clinched; I went up to them and tried to separate them, and finally succeeded; then I retired with Thomas Barker to the front of the waiting room, standing before him and moving him off, to prevent any trouble; I then noticed that Thomas Barker held a pistol in his hand; I saw him raise the weapon and point it at his brother; I endeavored to take it away from him, but could not get hold of it; Thomas Barker continued to stand with the pistol pointed at his brother for some seconds, and Charles, who was standing near the stove, stooped down, picked up the poker and threw it toward his brother, with the evident intention of disarming him; before doing so he said, 'Put down your pistol and then I'll be a match for you;' he replied 'No!  I've got a permit to carry a pistol and I'll use it;' after waiting a few seconds Thomas fired, the ball striking Charles in the shoulder and entering the fleshy part of the arm; as soon as he felt the shock of the ball he called out to me, 'Charlie, I'm shot; go for a doctor;' Thomas Barker, who still held the smoking weapon, pointed at his brother, answered him with 'Yes, and if you move I'll shoot you again;' I at once started in search of a doctor, and as I was leaving the depot the south bound train came along, and I saw Thomas Barker jump aboard it; I turned back and assisted to carry the wounded man to his residence.'

CAUSES WHICH LED TO THE SHOOTING.

The causes which probably led to the shooting are as follows:  -- About five years ago the two brothers, both of whom were married, resided, with their families, at Pelhamville.  Thomas and his wife lived with his mother; Charles had a home of his own.  Charles' wife died, leaving two young children.  He then rented his own house and removed to the maternal roof.  Shortly afterward Thomas hired Charles' house and removed there with his family, and Charles and his two children boarded with them.  Thomas was sadly neglectful of his family, and in a short time he deserted them and came to New York, where he now resides.  His wife and children continued to live at the house of his brother Charles, and have been wholly supported by him.  Six months ago Thomas commenced an action against his wife for divorce, alleging criminal intimacy with Charles.  His wife defended the action, denying emphatically this charge, and Thomas was finally obliged to abandon the suit on account of his inability to substantiate the charge.  In this suit his wife received the assistance of his brother, and it was owing, undoubtedly, to this fact that Thomas attempted to kill Charles.  The affair has created great excitement in Pelhamville, and Charles has the full sympathy of the inhabitants."

Source:  THE BARKER BROTHERS -- Another Version of the Shooting Affray at Pelhamville, The Evening Telegram [NY, NY], Feb. 25, 1880, p. 4, col. 5.  See also THE BARKER BROTHERS -- ANOTHER VERSION OF THE SHOOTING AFFRAY AT PELHAMVILLE -- STORY OF AN EYE WITNESS, N.Y. Herald, Feb. 25, 1880, p. 11, col. 
2 (same text).  

"A DEADLY QUARREL.

In the village of Pelhamville, two brothers, Charles and Thomas Barker, reside.  The former is a widower and the latter is married.  His wife, however, does not live with him, but has for some time past lived in the house of his brother Charles.  Thomas brought an action for divorce against his wife, but subsequently discontinued the suit.  Last Saturday morning, he went to the depot to take the train which leaves for the city at twelve minutes past seven.  The rest of the story as told by the station agent, Charles Merritt, is given in the affidavit which he took before Justice Patterson:

'On Saturday morning I opened the station at about seven o'clock, and just as I opened the door, Charles Barker came up and entered the waiting room; I bid him good morning and went into the office to attend to my duties; immediately afterward I saw Thomas Barker come into the waiting room, and a very short time after this Charles Barker called out to me, 'Charlie, come out here!  I went out and found the two brothers clinched; I went up to them and tried to separate them, and finally succeeded; then I retired with Thomas Barker to the front of the waiting room, standing before him and moving him off, to prevent any trouble; I then noticed that Thomas Barker held a pistol in his hand; I saw him raise the weapon and point it at his brother; I endeavored to take it away from him, but could not get hold of it; Thomas Barker continued to stand with the pistol pointed at his brother for some seconds, and Charles, who was standing near the stove, stooped down, picked up the poker and threw it toward his brother, with the evident intention of disarming him; before doing so he said, 'Put down your pistol and then I'll be a match for you;' he replied, 'No!  I've got a permit to carry a pistol, and I'll use it;' after waiting a few seconds, Thomas fired, the ball striking Charles in the shoulder and entering the fleshy part of the arm; as soon as he felt the shock of the ball, he called out to me, 'Charlie, I'm shot; go for a doctor;' Thomas Barker, who still held the smoking weapon pointed at his brother, answered him with 'Yes, and if you move, I'll shoot you again;' I at once started in search of a doctor, and as I was leaving the depot the south bound train aboard it; I turned back and assisted to carry the wounded man to his residence.'

Thomas Barker rode on the train as far as Williams Bridge and then returned to consult his counsel.  He bears an excellent reputation, having been employed for many years in a large house in the city.  The story as told by his friends is as follows:

Since the beginning of the suit, the two brothers had not met until Saturday morning.  On Friday evening, Thomas Barker left New York to visit his mother at Pelhamville and remained there all night.  Saturday morning he went to the railway station about seven o'clock, and there he found his brother Charles, who immediately said to him:

'You scoundrel, I have not met you before since you made those charges in court; I have you now, and I mean to kill you.'

'I heard you had made threats to kill me before,' replied Thomas, 'but look out you don't attempt it.'

Charles, who is a much more powerful man than his brother, rushed at Thomas and struck him on the head with his fist and then seized him around his neck and attempted to choke him.  Thomas finally succeeded in extricating himself from the grip of Charles, and cried out:

'I'm armed, and if you strike me again I'll defend myself.'

At the same time he put his hand into his pocket.  Charles thereupon seized an iron poker, lying near the stove in the station, and shouted '---- you, I'll kill you!' and as he raised the poker to strike, Thomas drew his revolver from his pocket and fired, exclaiming, 'You have ruined my home already, but I don't want to have my brother's blood on my head.'  Charles instantly threw up his hands and said to Mr. Merritt, the ticket agent, 'I am shot, Charlie; go for a doctor.'

The ball entered the right shoulder, but the wound is not regarded as a very dangerous one.  Thomas was admitted to bail in the sum of $3,000, and is now at large."

Source:  A DEADLY QUARREL, The Chronicle [Mount Vernon, NY], Feb. 27, 1880,Vol. XI, No. 545, p. 2, col. 6.  

"Shot by His Brother.

ALMOST A FRATRICIDE AT PELHAMVILLE -- A LONG AND BITTER QUARREL BETWEEN TWO BROTHERS ENDED BY ONE SHOOTING THE OTHER -- THE SHOOTER LOCKED UP.

Pelhamville, a station on the New Haven Railroad, midway between Mount Vernon and New Rochelle, was the scene of a tragic encounter between two brothers at about half past seven last Saturday morning.  The brothers were Charles and Thomas Barker, descendants of an ancient Quaker family in that vicinity.  The trouble between the brothers may be said to have commenced three or four years ago, at which time Thomas separated from his wife and removed to New York.  Mrs. Thomas Barker, after the separation, removed to Charles Barker's house.  Subsequently Thomas commenced a suit for divorce from his wife on the grounds of alleged indiscretions on her part with his brother Charles.  The suit, however, was discontinued to prevent the scandal and family discord which the prosecution of it would engender.  The brothers then continued their separate ways, never meeting each other till Saturday morning last.  On Friday evening Thomas came up from New York to visit his mother, who resides at Pelhamville.  He stayed over night at his mother's house, and in the morning started to catch the train.  Arriving at the depot he found his brother Charles already there waiting for the train.  Some words passed between the brothers, when Charles picked up a poker and made for his brother, threatening to kill him.  Thomas drew a revolver and fired, the ball after passing through the fleshy part of his brother's right arm entered his breast.  Thomas was arrested in New York city on Saturday afternoon, on a warrant issued by Justice Paterson, of Pelham, before whom he was taken for examination.  The Justice committed the prisoner to the County Jail, and on Monday he was brought to White Plains and locked up.  Charles Barker is a mason and builder, while Thomas is employed in a hardware store in New York."

Source:  Shot by His Brother -- ALMOST A FRATRICIDE AT PELHAMVILLE -- A LONG AND BITTER QUARREL BETWEEN TWO BROTHERS ENDED BY ONE SHOOTING THE OTHER -- THE SHOOTER LOCKED UP, Eastern State Journal [White Plains, NY], Feb. 27, 1880, Vol. XXXV, No. 46, p. 3, col. 3.  

"Westchester County.
-----

Thomas Barker, indicted for assault with intent to kill his brother Charles recently at the Pelhamville station, gave bail last week in $10,000 to await trial, Edward Lambden, of New Rochelle, and James W. Roosevelt, of Pelham, being his bondsmen. . . ."

Source:  Westchester County, The Port Chester Journal, Mar. 11, 1880, Vol. XII, No 590, p. 4, col. 2.  

"NOT MOTHER OF CHAUFFEUR, SAYS MRS. I. BARKER
-----
'Blackmail Plot,' Telegraphs Pelham Society Woman Regarding Man's Story that He is Her Son.
-----
IS COMING FROM FLORIDA TO REFUTE ALLEGATIONS
-----
Her Eldest Son Declares Scandalous Stories Afloat Without Foundation and Blames One of His Brothers.
-----

'Gigantic blackmail plot.  Returning immediately.'

In these five words are expressed a declaration of Mrs. Imogene Barker, wife of Charles Barker, a millionaire contractor of Pelham, N. Y., who to-day telegraphed her son, Walter Barker, that she was hurrying home to frustrate the efforts of Melville Hays-Barker, a chauffeur, who has called himself her son.

Only a few days ago public interest was aroused in the announcement that a young man named Melville Hays on the eve of his marriage to Hannah Lenz, a janitor's daughter, had discovered that his real name was Barker and that he was the son of very wealthy parents.  The young men asserted that Mrs. Barker was his mother and that he intended to make her publicly announce that he was her son.  The news was immediately mailed to Mrs. Barker in Florida, where she was sojourning for the winter with her husband, with the result that she telegraphed her intention of coming back to fight the young man's claim.

Not in many years has the exclusive residential section of Pelham been treated to a more sensational series of events than those that have cropped up within the last few days in the Barker family.
-----

Wealthy Landowner.

Interest has been aroused to the highest pitch, as the Barkers have numbered among their friends some of the social lights of the section in which they live.  Charles Barker owns large tracts of land in Pelham from which he receives an enormous rental yearly and the Mount Vernon Hotel, the finest establishment of the kind in the town.

Primarily he was a contractor, but he invested most of his money in real estate which increased in value until he was able to retire and nurse his failing health.  Suffering from an incurable disease, it is said he cannot live much longer.  Recognizing this, it is said, one of Mrs. Barker's sons, who lives nearby, but who has been at odds with his mother for several years, is alleged to have started reports which have aroused the neighborhood.

Mrs. Barker was only known to the residents of Pelham to have four sons.  They are Walter, William, Gustave and Charles A. Barker, the last named a veterinary surgeon and dentist.  One of her sons does not hesitate to say he has been estranged from his mother for several years and it is on him that the other members of the family lay the blame for the troubles which have arisen.

To add to the startling nature of the charges made by Melville Hays or Barker, the report has been circulated that another son, Harry, exists, but was cast off by his mother for family reasons.  His whereabouts is [sic] not known to any of the members of the Barker family, but he is said to have been taken in charge by the Children's Society several years ago and released when of age.
-----

Chauffeur Tells Story.

Melville Hays-Barker, the chauffeur, when seen at his home at No. 601 Eagle avenue, said to-day that he was prepared to take the case into the courts if necessary.  His wife, who was Miss Lenz up to a fortnight ago, gave him the information which led him to believe that he was the son of wealthy parents and not the poor, struggling young man that he had thought he was.  Miss Lenz's mother, the chauffeur's wife says, brought up young Hays-Barker from infancy, being supplied with the necessary funds by a person who signed the initials 'I. B.,' the chauffeur's wife declares, stands for Imogene Barker.

At first three of the sons of Mrs. Barker were completely mystified by the reports and could not fathom their meaning or the motive of their circulation.  Their minds were somewhat cleared when they heard of the serious illness of Mr. Barker and the fact that he recently made his will.  Dr. Charles A. Barker, the eldest son, who owns a fine estate in Pelham, said to an EVENING TELEGRAM reporter -- 

'As son as I became acquainted with the nature of the reports going around Pelham I wrote to my mother asking her to do what she could to keep this scandal from going any further.  That there is not the slightest foundation for the tales I am certain, being the eldest son, and, until a few years ago, living with my parents continuously.

'Unscrupulous persons, among them, I am sorry to admit, one of my own brothers, have started this simply in an effort to force my mother to keep him quiet by submitting to a petty blackmail.  This is not the first time he has tried it, but I did not think he would go to such extremes.
-----

Will Spend Fortune.

'My mother, I am sure, will spend her entire fortune before she will allow herself to submit to such extortion, and she will have the support of two of my brothers and me to the end.  As far as Mr. Barker's will is concerned he is our stepfather and we do not look to him for a cent.  In fact, our incomes are such as to keep us all in comfortable circumstances.'

Mrs. Barker's history, as related by the townsfolk, is as interesting as it is strange.  She was divorced from her first husband, Thomas Barker, a brother of her present husband, several years ago.  Years later she married Charles Barker, having in her own name a fortune of many thousand dollars.  It is said that among the facts leading up to her divorce from her first husband was a shooting affray in which Thomas Barker sent a bullet into the shoulder of a man to whom he is closely related.

Charles Barker owns a large orange plantation in Southern Florida which he is in the habit of visiting every year, stopping there for the winter.  The pair left for Florida six weeks ago.  

Friends of Mrs. Barker unite in saying they do not believe a word of the reports.  Mrs. Barker was well liked for her charitable work in North Pelham, which is inhabited by the poorer classes and she has always been a prominent church worker.  Her husband also is noted for his generosity and kindly ways.

Neighbors point out that if a skeleton had existed in the Barker family for so many years it certainly would have been disclosed before in some manner.  The Barkers have at no time tried to conceal their whereabouts or have ever made any effort to keep their movements secret.  Mr. Barker is prominently known throughout New Rochelle, Mount Vernon and Larchmont, as well as in Pelham, and has always been looked up to as an upright and straightforward business man."

Source:  NOT MOTHER OF CHAUFFEUR, SAYS MRS. I. BARKER -- "Blackmail Plot," Telegraphs Pelham Society Woman Regarding Man's Story that He is Her Son -- IS COMING FROM FLORIDA TO REFUTE ALLEGATIONS -- Her Eldest Son Declares Scandalous Stories Afloat Without Foundation and Blames One of His Brothers, The Evening Telegram [NY, NY], Oct. 26, 1906, p. 4, cols. 4-7.  

"STRIFE IN THE BARKER FAMILY
-----
CHARLES BARKER RETURNED SICK TO HIS FORMER HOME IN NORTH PELHAM -- WILLIAM BARKER, A STEPSON, DENIED WALTER BARKER AND CHARLES A. BARKER ADMISSION TO THE HOUSE TO SEE THEIR AILING FATHER, WHO IS SAID TO BE DYING
-----

On Thursday evening quite some excitement was apparent in front of Charles Barker's house on Fourth street, North Pelham.  This house is occupied by one of Charles Barker's stepsons, William Barker.

It seems that the old gentleman returned here some time ago in ill health, and it is said that his condition is such that he may die at any moment.  Dr. Charles A. Barker and Walter Barker are his sons, while William Barker, Thomas Barker and Gus Barker are his stepsons.

It is said that the old gentleman is quite well off, or was well off, and that he has turned most of his property over to one of his stepsons, Will Barker.  When Dr. Barker and Walter Barker heard that their father was in town and ill, it seems that they went to William Barker's house and asked to see their dying father, but that William Barker blandly refused to admit them.

A large crowd soon collected in front of the house and the two village policemen were called.  They dispersed the crowd, but could not help the Barker sons to get in to see their father.

It took sometime before the excitement was over, and it is said that William Barker applied to one of the justices of the town to be permitted to carry a pistol and keep the 'trespassers' off, as he calls his step-brothers.  Very likely this whole Barker family affair will be aired in court some day.

From last information the old gentleman Charles Barker is very low."

Source:  STRIFE IN THE BARKER FAMILY -- CHARLES BARKER RETURNED SICK TO HIS FORMER HOME IN NORTH PELHAM -- WILLIAM BARKER, A STEPSON, DENIED WALTER BARKER AND CHARLES A. BARKER ADMISSION TO THE HOUSE TO SEE THEIR AILING FATHER, WHO IS SAID TO BE DYING, The Pelham Sun, Jun. 25, 1910, Vol. 1, No. 12, p. 1, col. 2.  

"Thomas Barker Died On Sunday at Home On Sixth Avenue
-----
His Decease Followed That of His Wife Which Occurred Only Six Weeks Ago
-----

The funeral of Thomas Barker, 79 years old, of 304 Sixth Avenue, North Pelham, took place on Wednesday afternoon from his late residence, the Rev. Herbert H. Brown officiating.  Interment was made in Beechwood Cemetery.

Mr. Barker died on Sunday.  He was ill with an attack of acute indigestion on Thursday night after his return from business in New York.  He rallied on Saturday and hopes were entertained for his recovery, but pneumonia set in and the end came suddenly on Sunday.

The deceased was one of the earliest settlers of Pelhamville as North Pelham was then called when in 1846 at the age of two he was brought here by his father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Barker, who emigrated from Birmingham, England.  He attended the old Prospect Hill School in Pelham Manor, then the little red schoolhouse of the Pelhams.  His parents purchased all the property in the neighborhood of Fourth Street and Fifth Avenue which then was known as Barker's Hill.  Mr. Barker for the last thirty years and until a few months ago, resided in Boston where he was head of the purchasing organization of the R. H. White dry goods store.  Two years ago he expressed a desire to retire and with that end in view came back to North Pelham and purchased the property at Fourth Street and Sixth Avenue where he built a splendid home, the identical property which was owned by the Barkers many years before.  He was prevailed upon to retain his connection with the White interests and was placed in charge of the New York office.  When their home was completed, Mr. and Mrs. Barker came from Boston and took up their residence here on April 1st.  Mr. Barker announcing his determination of retiring at the end of this year.

All their plans for spending the evening of their life in comfort were destined to be fruitless.  Six weeks ago Mrs. Barker died and the shock and grief of her passing weighed heavily upon Mr. Barker as the couple were devoted to each other.

Three sons, Thomas of North Pelham, William and Augustus, and several grandsons and granddaughters survive.  He was uncle of Dr. Charles A. Barker of Fourth Street and granduncle of Mrs. George Lambert, wife of village attorney of North Pelham."

Source:  Thomas Barker Died On Sunday at Home On Sixth Avenue -- His Decease Followed That of His Wife Which Occurred Only Six Weeks Ago, The Pelham Sun, Nov. 2, 1923, p. 15, col. 1.  

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Was This the Town of Pelham's Largest Foreclosure Sale Ever?

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."

On Hunter's Island during the 19th century, John Hunter created one of the grandest estates and mansions in the northeast.  Hunter died in 1852 and Hunter's Island, The Twins, and a rocky islet near The Twins called "Catbriar's Island" passed out of the Hunter family when it was sold in 1866 for $127,000 to Ambrose Kingsland who served as Mayor of New York City from 1851 to 1853.  See Westchester County Records of Land Conveyances, Liber 611, p. 374.  Barely two years later, Kingsland sold Hunter's Island, The Twins, and Catbriar's Island to Alvin Higgins of New Rochelle for $180,000.  See id., Liber 695, p. 220.  Higgins was a proprietor of the Neptune House, a famous hotel on Neptune Island originally built by Isaac Underhill in 1837 as a summer resort.

Lithograph of Neptune House and Neptune Island Created

by N. Currier.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

In 1879, as the U.S. economy was beginning to emerge from the so-called "Long Depression" (1873-1879), Hunter's Island changed hands again.  Higgins sold it to Gardiner Jorden, at a substantial loss, for $100,000.   See id., Liber 961, p. 89.  Jorden, however, may have had difficulty meeting his financial obligations in acquiring Hunter's Island, The Twins, and Catbriar's Island.  Within a short time, the islands were subject to foreclosure and were offered for auction at a foreclosure sale conducted at the county courthouse in the Village of White Plains at 11:00 a.m.  A legal notice of that foreclosure sale appears below, followed by a transcription of its text and a citation and link to its source.

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Notice of Foreclosure Sale of Hunter's Island with Text

Transcribed Below.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

"REAL ESTATE AT AUCTION.
-----
FORECLOSURE SALE.

MAGNIFICENT SUBURBAN PROPERTY ON THE SOUND, known as
HUNTER'S ISLAND and the TWIN ISLANDS,
On TUESDAY, May 25, 1880,
At 11 o'clock A.M., at the Court-house in Village of White Plains, Westchester County, the following described property will be sold at auction, viz:

HUNTER'S ISLAND and the connecting TWIN ISLANDS, at New Rochelle [sic], fronting on Long Island Sound, most beautiful and complete suburban residence in America; ancient and lordly mansion of stone; gas, water, &c.; located in park of 250 acres of beautifully diversified woodland, meadow, and water front; its natural advantages are unsurpassed; location most prominent on the Sound; buildings are very complete; place is connected to mainland by a stone causeway, and has an imposing entrance; two miles from New Rochelle, eight miles from Harlem Bridge; 40 minutes from Grand Central Depot; very accessible; 10 trains daily by New-Haven Railroad, also branch from Fulton Ferry; one mile from depot.  For particulars inquire of FREDERICK DeP. FOSTER, Plaintiff's Attorney, No. 10 Wall st., New-York, or of HOMER MORGAN, No. 2 Pine-st., or RICHARD V. HARNETT, No. 111 Broadway."

Source:  REAL ESTATE AT AUCTION -- FORECLOSURE SALE, N.Y. Times, May 20, 1880, p. 6, col. 5.  

Detail from 1905 Map Hunter's Island and The Twins.  Source:

"Index [Map] to the Topographical Survey Sheets of the Borough

of the Bronx Easterly of the Bronx River" (1905) (Lionel Pincus and

Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library). NOTE:

Click on Image to Enlarge.

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I have written before about John Hunter and Hunter's Island on many, many occasions.  A few are listed below.  See, e.g.:

Fri., Jun. 03, 2016:  More Newspaper Accounts of President Martin Van Buren's Visit to Pelham in 1839.

Thu., Nov. 03, 2005:  President Martin Van Buren's Visit to Pelham in July 1839.

Fri., Dec. 15, 2006:  References to John Hunter of Pelham Manor in the Papers of President Martin Van Buren.

Tue., Nov. 21, 2006:  John Hunter Loses a Debate in the State Senate During the Winter of 1841.

Mon., Aug. 28, 2006:  John Hunter of Hunter's Island in Pelham Obtained Special Tax Relief in 1826..

Mon., Aug. 14, 2006:  An Early Account of a Visit to Hunter's Island and John Hunter's Mansion in Pelham.

Thu., Apr. 27, 2006:  Burial Place of John Hunter (1778 - 1852) of Hunter's Island.

Wed., Dec. 14, 2005:  New Information About John Hunter's Acquisition of Hunter's Island in the Manor of Pelham.

Fri., Dec. 2, 2005:  John Hunter of Hunter's Island in Pelham, New York.

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

A History of Trap Shooting in Pelham, Including Amateur National Championships

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."

Countless news stories (too many to quote them all below) describe or reference elaborate "pigeon shoots" in the Town of Pelham during the 19th century, particularly on holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day.  Shotgunners competed to kill live pigeons released into the air and, later, glass and clay targets, for cash prizes, silver trophies, and more.  In one year alone during the 1880s, more than 15,000 live pigeons were shot and killed on the grounds of the Country Club that once stood along today's Shore Road in Pelham.  Spectators and shotgunners bet on the outcomes of the competitions.  Pelham sportsmen, it seems, were avid participants in one of the oldest shotgunning games:  trap shooting.

According to one authority:

"Trap shooting has been around for a long time, maybe hundreds of years.  An early printed mention was in an English publication called 'Sporting Magazine.'  In 1793, an article stated that trap shooting was already 'well established' in England.

"Early trap shooters used live pigeons for targets.  Birds were held in a box or 'trap' until the shooter 'called for the bird.'  An assistant would then pull a string to open the trap's lid.

"The first known records of organized trap shooting in the U.S. are probably those contained in the 1831 records of the Sportsman's Club of Cincinnati, Ohio.  In 1866, Chs Portlock of Boston, Massachusetts, introduced a glass ball to American target shooters.  The balls met with limited success because the levers used to propel them were so inadequately matched to the glass that many balls shattered when they were launched.

"Glass ball shooting declined when George Ligowsky invented the first clay pigeon and a machine to throw it effectively in the 1880s.  This was significant for shotgun games because Ligowsky's disc-shaped clay pigeon simulated the flight of a live bird, whereas the glass balls were simply lobbed into the air.

"Ligowsky's pigeons were made of clay and baked in an oven.  They were apparently quite hard and it took a precise shot to break one.  Today's clay targets are made primarily of pitch and are easier to break.  The use of live birds gradually fell into disfavor in the 20th century."

Source:  Sapp, Rick, The Gun Digest Book of Trap & Skeet Shooting, 5th Edition, p. 17 (Gun Digest Books, 2009).

The sport of trap shooting seems to have progressed in Pelham consistently with the history of the sport.  There are countless references to live pigeon shoots with later references to competitions involving glass target balls and "clay pigeons."  By the early 20th century, there was a trap shooting range and a "Trap Shooters' Lodge" on Travers Island that operated for many, many decades.  

Early pigeon matches, as they were called, were interesting affairs.  In the earliest days wooden boxes were placed on the ground in front of the shotgunner, each holding a pigeon.  They were called box "traps," hence the name of the modern sport of trapshooting.  Each box trap had a long cord attached to a door on the trap.  When the shooter called for a bird, a participant pulled a cord that sprang open the door allowing the bird to escape into flight to be shot.  

Chromolithograph Entitled "Pigeon Match" from Work

by Henry Thomas Aiken.  A Wooden Box Trap May Be

Seen on the Right From Which the Pigeon Has Just

Been Released.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

During much of the 1880s and early 1890s, live pigeon shoots were held in Pelham at Bartow Station and in an area near the border of Pelhamville and Eastchester.  By 1884, the Country Club located near Bartow on both sides of Shore Road held live pigeon shoots as well as clay pigeon matches on its grounds.  On October 4, 1884, for example, shotgunners faced off in a clay pigeon match.  The men were presented with twenty clay targets apiece, presented as singles.  The clay targets were sprung from five traps hidden by a screen with each trap throwing in a different direction.  J. L. Breese and W. Kent ended the day with the two highest scores.  Breese shot 18 of the 20 clay pigeons.  Kent shot 17.  

At the height of the popularity of live pigeon shoots in Pelham, more than fifteen thousand pigeons a year were shot and killed on the grounds of the Country Club along today's Shore Road.  When a reporter for the New York Herald visited the clubhouse of the Country Club in 1888, he later wrote:

"Within the office [of the clubhouse] was a heap of gun cases, which led to the remark on the part of the young man in charge that the last pigeon match of the winter season was shot off last Saturday.  Do they have many matches?  Well, they kill about fifteen thousand pigeons in a year.  And so it readily appeared, for the grassy plot without for about a quarter of an acre was enclosed with a netting fence, within whose confines were the traps and other paraphernalia necessary to such sport. . . ."

Other news items indicate that during the mid-1880s, Pelham sportsmen shot live pigeons, glass ball targets (the predecessor to clay pigeons), and also clay pigeons.  For example, a January 11, 1884 local news item stated:  "There is to be a big time at Secord's, Bartow, on the 22nd of February.  There will be pigeon, sparrow and glassball shooting.  Secord is offering $5 a hundred for live sparrows.  This is a good opportunity to get rid of some of the little nuisances."  During that February 22nd pigeon shoot (held on the holiday of George Washington's Birthday), two local residents shot a pigeon match.  William Pell and Ben May bet $25 a side when shooting against each other.  Pell won the match and the bet by "killing eight straight birds."

As another example, an item published on November 28, 1884 stated:

"There was a big time at Secord's, Bartow yesterday.  There was an interesting pigeon match, between Messrs. Weeks and Malnatt, and plenty of clay pigeon and glass ball shooting. . . ."

As the sport of trap shooting progressed, the traps did as well.  So-called plunge traps became fairly standard.  The plunge trap, invented by Parker and in use by 1874, was an early effort to "launch" a pigeon rather than simply open a box and wait for the pigeon to emerge.  With box traps, the door would be opened and it might be some time before a wary and reticent pigeon might attempt a flight escape -- a reason for the intentionally unpredictable delay in the release of a clay target once it is called for in modern trap shooting.  A plunge trap had a platform on which the bird was placed with spring doors that closed like a pyramid above the platform.  When the cord was pulled, the doors fell away from the platform which "plunged" upward to force the pigeon into the air.

"THE PARKER GUN MANUFACTURED BY PARKER BROS.

MERIDEN CONN."  This 1893 Trade Card Shows a Pigeon

Match Underway.  Four Parker Plunge Traps Are Visible on

the Ground to the Right With Cords Extending Back to The

Handler Standing to the Left of the Shotgunner.  NOTE:

Click on Image to Enlarge.

Though it seems a certain recipe for disaster, such pigeon matches occasionally involved copious amounts of whiskey.  Indeed, occasionally the nasty results were predictable.  One odd event involved whiskey at a pigeon match near an Eastchester tavern called Forkle's on the border of Eastchester and Pelhamville on New Year's Day, 1886.  (Forkle's, owned by William Forkle, was sometimes referenced as in Pelham and other times as in Eastchester.)

Two men from the settlement of Bartow in Pelham, John Secord and W. J. Elliott, faced off against two men from the Village of Westchester, Hiram Hoffman and Joseph Whitney.  The four men loaded up on "Forkle's whiskey" during the match.  According to one account, "[d]uring the afternoon, while the boys were feeling the effects of Forkle's whiskey, to a considerable extent, someone fired a shot through Forkle's door."  

Mr. Forkle had Joseph Whitney arrested, claiming he fired the shot.  Whitney was tried and found not guilty.  Forkle next had Whitney arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace.  Whitney refused to appear for trial and was fined $20.  Not yet satisfied, a "meddler" claimed W. J. Elliott of Pelham was actually the one who fired the shot.  Nearly three weeks after the pigeon match, Forkle had Elliott arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.  The case was tried before Justice Farrington and a jury on the evening of Tuesday, January 19, 1886.  According to an account of the trial:

"On the trial that took place there was not a scintilla of evidence against Elliott, as the counsel for the prosecution remarked, 'the witnesses would not swear as they had talked.'  The result was a verdict by the jury of 'not guilty.' The action of Forkle in this matter, to say the least, is reprehensible.  He issues an invitation broadcast for a pigeon shooting, a violation of law; he then sells his guests whiskey, and when it takes effect and they get hilarious, he has them arrested for disorderly conduct."

Many of the pigeon shoots were held in and around the settlement known as Bartow that once surrounded Bartow Station along the New Haven Branch Line near the head of today's Orchard Beach Road.  

Glass target balls and the new "clay pigeons" were being used in Pelham by at least mid-1882.  For example, according to one report, on July 29, 1882, a match game between two local residents included a $20 stake as the wager:

"A match game at glass ball shooting will take place to-morrow (Saturday), at Bartow, between James K. Hyde and Gus. Barton.  For the purpose of making it the more interesting, $20 has been staked on the result."

Source:  CITY ISLAND AND PELHAM, The Chronicle [Mount Vernon, NY], Jul. 28, 1882, Vol. XIII, No. 671, p. 3, cols. 2-3.  

Occasionally local shotgun shoots included glass target balls in conjunction with live pigeon matches.  Indeed, in late 1885, John S. Secord of Bartow arranged a sports day on Christmas Day to have "a pigeon match, clay pigeon shooting and shooting for poultry.  

By at least August, 1895, shootists in the little settlement of Pelhamville (actually the spanking new Village of North Pelham) took a more humane approach.  By then they seem to have been shooting exclusively clay pigeons rather than live pigeons.  New York State banned live pigeon shoots, although other states such as Pennsylvania continued to allow such competitions as late as the 1960s. 

Many of today's Pelhamites can actually remember the sounds of trap shooting emanating from Travers Island by members of the New York Athletic Club and their guests.  Trap shooters shattered clay pigeons on the island for more than eighty years.  Indeed, there was a "Trap Shooters' Lodge" on the island maintained by the NYAC Trap Shooting Department.

Beginning in 1906, the New York Athletic Club began sponsoring an annual trap shooting "Amateur Championships of America."  Travers Island became the mecca for the most outstanding trap shooters in the United States.  Indeed, excepting the latter years of World War II, the annual championships attracted the nation's best amateur trap shooters for many, many decades.  In some years up to 300 trap shooters, both men and women, gathered to fire thousands of shells at clay pigeons on Travers Island.

Perhaps one of the most interesting Amateur Championships of America held at Travers Island was the 49th annual championship held in early May, 1958.  Seventy-year-old Ben Higginson won the National Singles Trap Shooting Championship by breaking 197 out of 200 targets.  Higginson thus became a three-time national champion in the event, having won the same event on Travers Island 52 years previously and also in 1949.  

Rufus A. King of Witchita, Texas, Winner in the

Class A Doubles Trap Shooting Event and the

Preliminaries Singles Event in the Amateur

Championships of America Held in Early May,

1939.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

"AT THE TRAPS - TRAVERS ISLAND 3/22/11"

Image Shows Competitors on Two Trap Shooting

Platforms on Travers Shooting Clay Pigeons onMarch 22, 1911.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge. 

In early 1994, the Long Island Soundkeeper Fund and the New York Coastal Fishermen's Association filed a lawsuit against the New York Athletic Club alleging violations of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, 33 U.S.C. § 1251 et seq. and the Federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, 42 U.S.C. § 6901 et seq.  The plaintiffs claimed that the club's trap shooting activities involving shooting clay targets from shoreline concrete platforms and breaking those targets over the waters of Long Island Sound were polluting the waters of the Sound.

On March 22, 1996, Federal District Court Judge Robert P. Patterson, Jr. ruled in favor of the plaintiffs.  The Court concluded that the New York Athletic Club either had to apply for a Federal permit to pollute (in essence) or cease shooting immediately.  The club decided to end its century long shooting tradition on the island rather than seek the required permit.  See Long Island Soundkeeper Fund, Inc., et uno v. New York Athletic Club of the City of New York, No. 94 Civ. 0436 (RPP), 42 E.R.C. 1421, 1996 WL 131863 (S.D.N.Y., Mar. 22, 1996).

The long tradition of trap shooting in the Town of Pelham thus ended.

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"City Island. . . . 

A pigeon match will take place at the Tally Ho Hotel, Bartow Station, between Charles Johnson and Wm. Pell, for $25 a side, on September 4, 1880; also sweepstake shooting at one hundred birds.  The shooting will take place in the meadow at the rear of the hotel. . . ."

Source:  City Island, The Chronicle [Mount Vernon, NY], Aug. 27, 1880, Vol. XI, No. 571, p. 3, col. 2.  

"BARTOW AND PELHAM BRIDGE. . . . 

A glass ball shooting match took place at Bartow Station, on Friday last.  Two contests for sweepstakes were ties between W. Pell and Gus Barton, and the third was won by Mr. Talman P. Hyde.  A match has been arranged for July 29th, at the same place, between Gus Barton and James K. Hyde. . . ."

Source:  BARTOW AND PELHAM BRIDGE, The Chronicle [Mount Vernon, NY], Jul. 21, 1882, Vol. XIII, No. 670, p. 3, col. 3.  

"PELHAM AND CITY ISLAND

There will be a pigeon shoot, at Secord's, Bartow, on Wednesday next. . . ."

Source:  PELHAM AND CITY ISLAND, The Chronicle [Mount Vernon, NY], Oct. 12, 1883, Vol. XV, No. 734, p. 3, col. 3.  

"PELHAM AND CITY ISLAND. . . .

There is to be a big time at Secord's, Bartow, on the 22nd of February.  There will be pigeon, sparrow and glassball shooting.  Secord is offering $5 a hundred for live sparrows.  This is a good opportunity to get rid of some of the little nuisances. . . ."

Source:  PELHAM AND CITY ISLAND, The Chronicle [Mount Vernon, NY], Jan. 11, 1884, Vol. XV, No. 747, p. 3, cols. 3-4.

"CITY ISLAND AND BARTOW. . . . 

A pigeon match is to be shot at Seacord's [sic] Hotel at Bartow Station, on the 22d inst., between Benjamin May and Willard [illegible] for $50 and at ten birds each.  Sweepstakes shooting at sparrows will follow the pigeon match."

Source:  CITY ISLAND AND BARTOW, New Rochelle Pioneer, Feb. 9, 1884, Vol. XXIV, No. 46, p. 3, col. 7.  

"PELHAM AND CITY ISLAND. . . . 

The pigeon match at Secord's Bartow, on Washingtons Birthday, between Will. Pell and Ben May, for $25 a side, was won by Pell killing eight straight birds. . . ."

Source:  PELHAM AND CITY ISLAND, The Chronicle [Mount Vernon, NY], Feb. 29, 1884, Vol. XV, No. 754, p. 3, col. 4.  

"SPIRIT OF THE FIELD.

THE COUNTRY CLUB. -- A clay pigeon match was held at Bartow-on-Sound Oct. 4 at thee grounds of the Country Club -- 20 birds each, 21 yards rise, singles, with 18 entries.  The birds were sprung from five traps hidden by a screen, each trap throwing in a different direction.  The following are the two best scores:

J. L. Breese........1 1 1 1 0    1 1 1 1 1    1 1 1 1 1     1 1 1 1 0 - 18
W. Kent...............1 1 1 1 1    1 1 1 1 1    0 1 1 1 1     1 0 1 0 1 - 17"

Source:  SPIRIT OF THE FIELD, Spirit of the Times, Nov. 15, 1884, p. 499, col. 3.  

"COUNTRY CLUB MEETING.

Everything is in readiness for the first fall meeting of the Pelham Country Club, which is to take place at Pelham, to-morrow afternoon. . . .

The club has been very actively managed, and all through the Summer there have been any number of tennis, polo and pigeon shooting matches. . . ."

Source:  COUNTRY CLUB MEETING, The Chronicle [Mount Vernon, NY], Oct. 17, 1884, Vol. XVI, No. 787, p. 2, cols. 3-4.  

"PELHAM. . . .

There was a big time at Secord's, Bartow yesterday.  There was an interesting pigeon match, between Messrs. Weeks and Malnatt, and plenty of clay pigeon and glass ball shooting. . . ."

Source:  PELHAM, The Chronicle [Mount Vernon, NY], Nov. 11, 1884, Supplement, p. 1, cols. 2-3.  

"PELHAM. . . .

There was a big time at Secord's, Bartow, yesterday.  There was an interesting pigeon match, between Messrs. Weeks and Malnatt, and plenty of clay pigeon and glass ball shooting. . . ."

Source:  PELHAM, The Chronicle [Mount Vernon, NY], Nov. 28, 1884, p. 2, cols. 2-3.

"PELHAM AND CITY ISLAND. . . . 

Mr. J. S. Secord, of Bartow, having given way on Thanksgiving, to all those who usually arrange sports on holidays, has decided to have a pigeon match, clay pigeon shooting and shooting for poultry, on Christmas Day, and to that end is making extensive preparations for a big time.  John never does things by halves, and a fine day's sport may be confidently looked for."

Source:  PELHAM AND CITY ISLAND, The Chronicle [Mount Vernon, NY], Dec. 11, 1885, Vol. XVII, No. 847, p. 3, col. 4.  

"LOCAL NEWS. . . . 

While a pigeon match was in progress at Forkle's, Eastchester, on New Year's Day, Joseph Whitney, a colored man of Westchester, is charged with having fired the contents of his gun through the door of Mr. Forkle's house, after otherwise conducting himself in a riotous manner.  Upon complaint of Forkle, Justice Edmonds issued a warrant for the arrest of Whitney.  The same was adjourned from Saturday to Monday on application of the defendant to get witnesses, and on Monday the principal witness for the people not being present the case was further adjourned until last night. . . ."

Source:  LOCAL NEWS, The Chronicle [Mount Vernon, NY], Jan. 8, 1886, Vol. XVII, No. 851, p. 3, cols. 1-2.  

"LOCAL NEWS. . . .

As previously announced in these columns there was a pigeon match at Eastchester on New Year's day, at Forkles, and among those in attendance were W. J. Elliott and John Secord, of Bartow, and Hiram Hoffman and Joseph Whitney, of Westchester.  During the afternoon, while the boys were feeling the effects of Forkle's whiskey, to a considerable extent, someone fired a shot through Forkle's door.  The act was charged upon Whitney and he was arrested, tried and found not guilty.  He was then rearrested on a charge of disorderly conduct and disturbing the public peace and for not appearing for trial was fined $20.  Not yet satisfied or as was intimated by the complainant Forkle, at the instigation of a meddler, nearly three weeks after the pigeon match, he, Forkle, caused a warrant to be issued for the arrest of Elliott, whom he charged with disorderly conduct, and the trial took place before Justice Farrington and a jury last Tuesday evening.  On the trial that took place there was not a scintilla of evidence against Elliott, as the counsel for the prosecution remarked, 'the witnesses would not swear as they had talked.'  The result was a verdict by the jury of 'not guilty.'  The action of Forkle in this matter, to say the least, is reprehensible.  He issues an invitation broadcast for a pigeon shooting, a violation of law; he then sells his guests whiskey, and when it takes effect and they get hilarious, he has them arrested for disorderly conduct."

Source:  LOCAL NEWS, The Chronicle [Mount Vernon, NY], Jan. 22, 1886, Vol. XVII, No. 853, p. 3, cols. 1-2.  

"PELHAM AND CITY ISLAND. . . . 

Benj May, Jr., of Bartow, shot a pigeon match, at Forkle's, last Monday, with Harry Force, of Harlem, at seven birds each.  May won, by killing three to his opponent's one. . . ."

Source:  PELHAM AND CITY ISLAND, The Chronicle [Mount Vernon, NY], Mar. 5, 1886, Vol. XVII, No. 859, p. 1, col. 5.  

"PELHAM AND CITY ISLAND. . . . 

A number of gentlemen, some from Mount Vernon, assembled at Elliott's Grand View Hotel, Pelham Bridge last Tuesday and as there were no pigeons or glass balls to shoot at, amused themselves shooting at bottles, and they got lots of fun out of it too. . . ."

Source:  PELHAM AND CITY ISLAND, The Chronicle [Mount Vernon, NY], Sep. 17, 1886, Vol. XVII, No. 916, p. 1, col. 6.

"PIGEON SHOOTING.
-----

The noted wing shot from Long Island, Ike Hyde, competed last Thursday against John Hall of England at Bartow-on-the-Sound, in a pigeon match under Hurlingham rules, thirty yards rise, for $500  Hyde killed seventeen out of his eighteen birds, while his opponent only killed thirteen out of the same number.  The Englishman's friends are said to have had lost considerable money on the result."

Source:  PIGEON SHOOTING, The Newtown Register, Feb. 17, 1887, p. 2, col. 3.  

"PELHAM AND CITY ISLAND. . . . 

Handy-cap Pigeon Match. -- Americanized Hurlingham Rules. -- From Five Traps. -- For a Sporting Trophy, will be shot at J. S. Secord's Hotel, Bartow Station, on Thursday next, December 8th.  Conditions of the match:  at 11 birds each, from five traps [illegible] entrance fee, $3.00.  The above trophy is a solid silver cake basket of very unique design and specially appropriate, being supported on three guns between which, on the base stands a dog, at point. . . ."

Source:  PELHAM AND CITY ISLAND, The Chronicle [Mount Vernon, NY], Dec. 8 1887, Vol. XIX, No. 1043, p. 2, col. 4.  

"PELHAM AND CITY ISLAND. . . . 

There was a pigeon shoot at Secord's, Bartow, last Monday, during which the tie for the silver trophy, between Messrs. McCourt and Trott, was shot off, and in the contest which followed, there was another tie between Messrs. McNicholl and Elliott.  As a result, there will be another match to-morrow. . . ."

Source:  PELHAM AND CITY ISLAND, The Chronicle [Mount Vernon, NY], Jan. 13, 1888, Vol. XIX, No. 1054, p. 3, col. 2.  

"WITH THE COUNTRY CLUB. . . . 

FIFTEEN THOUSAND A YEAR. 

The Country Club!  Who has not heard of it?  It is a landmark for all the villages around, as was attested by Blacksmith Burns' remark to a policeman at New Rochelle, when Mr. Lynch drove by in his buckboard, with his broad brimmed hat fluttering in the breeze.  He said, 'That little roan horse is the toughest in Westchester county.  He can keep up that three minute gait from here down to the Country Club.'  What a wholesome sound is there to the name, 'The Country Club?'  It seems to ring with rural music -- the baying of hounds, neighing of hunters, crack of guns, snapping of whips and shouts of stable boys.

Within the office was a heap of gun cases, which led to the remark on the part of the young man in charge that the last pigeon match of the winter season was shot off last pigeon match of the winter season was shot off last Saturday.  Do they have many matches?  Well, they kill about fifteen thousand pigeons in a year.  And so it readily appeared, for the grassy plot without for about a quarter of an acre was enclosed with a netting fence, within whose confines were the traps and other paraphernalia necessary to such sport. . . ."

Source:  WITH THE COUNTRY CLUB, New York Herald, May 6, 1888, p. 10, col. 3.  

"LOCAL NEWS. . . .

About 10 a.m. Thanksgiving day there will be a grand pigeon match at Forkle's Pelham.  Several crack shots of our village will take part."

Source:  LOCAL NEWS, The Chronicle [Mount Vernon, NY], Nov. 22, 1889, Vol. XXI, No. 1248, p. 3, col. 1.  

"PIGEON MATCH, (EASTCHESTER.)

A large and jolly crowd of the town men attended the pigeon match at William Forkel's, Eastchester, on Thanksgiving day.  It was one of the finest displays of marksmanship that has taken place in this vicinity for some time.  The first was a sweepstakes in which John Secord, of Bartow; John Elliott, of Pelham Bridge and Wm. Hoffman, of Westchester, entered.  The distance was 30 yards and it was nip and tuck between them, but John Elliott captured the prize.  Next one had 6 entries -- William McCourt, Peter Magee, John Secord, John Elliott and Wm. Hoffman.  This was a tan-teaser as one of the boys remarked; not a bird escaped, and in the shoot off the sweep was won by William McCourt.  Several other sweeps were indulged in equally as interesting; then John Elliott gave an exhibition of his skill, killing 17 out of 18 birds. They will attend the tournament to-day at White Plains.  Five better marksmen with a gun will be hard to find.  Zoo Zoo."

Source:  PIGEON MATCH, (EASTCHESTER.), The Chronicle [Mount Vernon, NY], Dec. 3, 1889, Vol. XXI, No. 1251, p. 3, col. 3.  

"SPORTING NOTES OF INTEREST. . . .

The Wauregan Gun Club will shoot matches and sweepstakes at Pelhamville on the 12th inst.  The principal match is a four-handed one -- W. Harris and W. H. Auckner against J. Fay and T. Kerker -- 25 birds each, 28 yards rise and $100 a side. . . ."

Source:  SPORTING NOTES OF INTEREST, New York Herald, Aug. 2, 1892, No. 20434, p. 8, col. 5.  

"CITY ISLAND. . . .

Owing to the inclemency of the weather on Saturday, Jan. 14th, the pigeon match which was advertised to take place at Percy Pell's is postponed until Saturday, Jan. 21st, at the same time and place.  All entries stand."

Source:  CITY ISLAND, The Daily Argus [Mount Vernon, NY], Jan. 18, 1893, Vol. 1, No. 244, p. 1, col. 5. 

"CITY ISLAND.
-----

How is it that Percy W. Pell, could not shoot one bird out of five at the recent pigeon match for the gold medal, but when he entered into the 'sweepstakes' shoot a week later he succeeded in killing ten straight.  That is easy enough.  May be Percy was a little off on the medal, and was in perfect trim for the sweepstakes. . . ."

Source:  CITY ISLAND, The Daily Argus [Mount Vernon, NY], Feb. 5, 1894, Vol. 2, No. 564, p. 1, col. 6.

"OUR NEARBY NEIGHBORS.
-----
Pelhamville. . . .

At the pigeon-match held Friday afternoon last, the first prize was awarded to Mr. Munzer of New York, second prize to Mr. William Brickner of the same city, third to Mr. Silverhorn and the fourth to Mr. Jarvis of New Rochelle. . . ."

Source:  OUR NEARBY NEIGHBORS -- Pelhamville, The Chronicle [Mount Vernon, NY], Apr. 19, 1894, Vol. XXV, No. 1633, p. 4, col. 1.  

"Clay Pigeons Shoot at Pelhamville.
-----
GEORGE STANLEY AND MICHAEL KELLEY VANQUISHED.
-----

Tuesday afternoon at 2 o'clock a shooting match at clay pigeons took place at Pelhamville Hotel, now under the management of Michael Kelly, formerly of this city.  The match was between Daniel Kelly and M. F. Brickner versus Michael Kelly and George Stanley, 15 birds each.  Kelly and Brickner shot 12 birds each.  Michael Kelly 10 and G. Stanley 11.

After this the party shot at clay pigeons placed upon poles, distance 150 feet.  Daniel Kelly shot 6, Brickner 4, Michael Kelly 5 and Stanley 2.  Brickner and Daniel Kelly were declared the winners.  There was a large and interested crowd present."

Source:  Clay Pigeons Shoot at Pelhamville -- GEORGE STANLEY AND MICHAEL KELLEY VANQUISHED, Daily Argus [Mount Vernon, NY], Aug. 21, 1895, Vol. XIII, No. 1034, p. 1, col. 3.  

"COUNTRY CLUB XMAS SHOOT.

The Country club of Westchester had an all day shoot at live birds yesterday at its grounds, overlooking Pelham bay.  Three cup events and a dozen sweepstakes made up the programme and among the cracks present were George Work, Fred. Moore, J. Seaver Page, W. Gould Brokaw, W. S. Edey and Colonel Butler.  The firset cup event, at five birds, was won by P. H. Adee, a 27 yard man.  Fred. Moore won the second event and Colonel Butler the third.  In the sweepstake events Moore, Work, Page, Gilbert, Brokaw and Butler divided the honors."

Source:  COUNTRY CLUB XMAS SHOOT, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Dec. 26, 1896, Vol. 56, No. 357, p. 5, col. 5.  

"SHOTGUN STAR TO COMPETE IN NYAC TITLE TEST
-----

Joe Hiestand, the farmer of Hillsboro, Ohio, regarded as the greatest shotgun marksman of all time, with a straight run trap record of 1,191 clay targets will be the stellar attraction in the 34th annual tournament for the Amateur Championship of America which will start the 1939 trapshooting season on  national scale at the New York Athletic Club's Travers Island field tomorrow.  

Hiestand, who made his phenomenal record in the Grand-American at Vandalia, Ohio, last August, will try to shatter his own mark this season.  His entry in the New York A.C. meeting will be his first appearance in national competition this year.  He won the Amateur Championship of America at Travers Island in 1935, tying the record score of 199x200, again in 1936, and expects to repeat.

The stiffest kind of competition confronts him.  Roger Fawcett, New York, the defending champion who also shares the record for this event, Walter Beaver, Berwyn, Pa., and Steve Crothers, Chester Hill, Pa., both former title holders twice, will be on the firing line.  In addition to Beaver, several other former Grand American Handicap winners are entered including Rufus King of Wichita Falls, Texas, and F. G. Carroll, Brecksville, Ohio.

On account of the World's Fair, the Travers Island meeting this year is expected to be larger than ever before.  At least 200 of the nation's leading scatter-gun marksmen will shoot, plus a Canadian detachment of twenty under the leadership of Sam Vance.

The tournament will start tomorrow morning with a preliminary 100-target event followed by the Amateur Championship of America at doubles targets in the afternoon.  Hiestand, Beaver and Crothers have alternated in capturing this event for the past six years.  The Amateur Championship is scheduled for Saturday, 200 targets at 16 yards.  The 100 Targets Distance Championship will be fired on Sunday.  This was won last year by Z. G. Simmons, Jr., Greenwich, Conn., with a score of 98-100 at 22 yards."

Source:  SHOTGUN STAR TO COMPETE IN NYAC TITLE TEST, The Daily Argus [Mount Vernon, NY], May 4, 1939, p. 24, col. 3.  

"Trap Shooting Title Taken By Ohio Ace

PELHAM MANOR -- With most of the major titles already claimed by victorious contestants, competition in the 37th annual national amateur clay target championships resumed today at the New York A.C. traps at Travers Island here.

Joseph Hiestand of Hillsboro, Ohio, won the doubles title for the fourth time yesterday when he managed to turn back a challenge by John D. Rowland of New Brunswick, N.J., in a shoot off.  Hiestand and Rowland scored 95 each in the regular competition, leading a field of 65 contestants, but in the shoot-off the former blasted 20 birds to Rowland's 18.

Top award in Class A competition, for which Hiestand and Rowland became ineligible when they placed one two in the doubles, went to Walter S. Beaver of Conahohocken, Pa., who won the title on five previous occasions and who scored a 94 yesterday.  W. H. Miller of Cleveland and Donald Tullock of Wilmington, Del., took first prizes in Classes B and C, respectively.

Earlier in the day Beaver, B. M. Higginson of Newburgh and Roger Fawcett of Larchmont all posted perfect scores in a preliminary singles event at 16-yard targets.  In a shoot-off, Higginson won a toss of the coin to settle the deadlock, and Fawcett received second prize.

Heading the B, C and D divisions respectively were A. L. Cornwell of Brookfield, Conn.; N. J. White, Hamilton, Ont., and Mrs. I. Andrews of Spartansburg, S. C."

Source:  Trap Shooting Title Taken By Ohio Ace, The Daily Argus [Mount Vernon, NY], May 2, 1942, p. 6, col. 7.  

"TRAPSHOOT CHAMP

PELHAM MANOR, NY, May 13 (AP) -- The 47th annual national trap shooting championships came to a close today at the New York athletic club's Travers Island range when Dr. Harry Whiteford, a Mountain View, N.J., dentist, won the handicap title by breaking 97 out of 100 targets."

Source:  TRAPSHOOT CHAMP, Schenectady Gazette, May 14, 1956, p. 21, col. 2.  

"Trapshoot Champ Retains Crown

New York -- Walt Ostrom of Orangeburg, N.Y., successfully defended his national singles crown yesterday in the forty-eighth annual National Trap shooting Championships at the New York Athletic Club's Travers Island range.

Ostrom broke 192 of 200 targets to defeat George Newmaster of Lebanon, Pa., and C. H. Ziegler of Vernfield, Pa., by two.  It was the champion's third national singles victory in six years as a trapshooter."

Source:  Trapshoot Champ Retains Crown, The Sunday Press [Binghamton, NY], May 12, 1957, p. 15, col. 7.

"Veteran Wins In Trapshoot

PELHAM MANOR, May 10 (AP) -- Ben Higginson, 70-year-old veteran of the firing line, won the National Singles Trap-shooting Championship today at the New York Athletic Club's Travers Island range by cracking 197 out of 200 targets.

Higginson, who won the same title 52 years ago, and again in 1949, outshot a field of 125 of the nation's top on his way to his latest success.

The Newburgh contractor finished two targets in front of Walt Ostrom of Orangeburg, the defending champion; Howard Lewis of Frenchtown, N.J., and C. H. Ziegler of Vernfield, Pa.

John H. Larocque of Harrison, 16-year-old prep school junior, won the Junior Championship in a shoot-off with John Campbell of Oyster Bay by breaking 21 out of 25.

The Ladies Championship was won by Mrs. Mary Christopher, a 40-year-old Bristol, Pa., widow, at 184."

Source:  Veteran Wins In Trapshoot, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, May 11, 1958, p. 6B, col. 2.

"National Trap Shoot At N.Y.A.C.

PELHAM -- 

One of the largest and strongest fields ever to enter a trap-shooting tournament have filed entries to compete in the fifty-fourth annual National Trap-shooting Championships scheduled for the New York Athletic Club's Travers Island range next week-end.

Shooting will get under way on Friday with the shooting of the doubles event in which a field of over 300 marksmen and women will set aim at 50 pairs of double targets.

Five championships will be decided on Saturday.  Sharpshooters from the United States and Canada will try for titles in the singles, ladies, seniors, junior and immediate family events.

The eight-event program will be completed on Sunday with the shooting of the handicap and overall events.

Included among the title defenders who have filed entries are Walt Ostrom, singles; Ruth Conover, ladies; Ben Higginson, seniors; Daniel O'Neil, juniors; Dan Orlich, doubles; Dr. Robert Silva, handicap and C. J. and R. B. McArthur, immediate family.

Higginson, the dean of New York A. C. trapshooters, will be attempting to win the senior title for the sixth successive year, a feat never before accomplished in trapshooting.  The Newburgh, N.Y. veteran is also a former three-time winner of the singles title."

Source:  National Trap Shoot At N.Y.A.C., The Daily News [Tarrytown, NY], May 4, 1963, p. 22, col. 4.  

"'Southern' NY Next For Frank

Frank Little of Endicott continues his accelerated preparation for U.S. Olympic trap-shooting trials this weekend when he competes in a New York State championship held 200 miles south of here.

Little was one of the three U.S. trap entries in the 1964 Olympics at Tokyo and is an automatic qualifier for the July trials in San Antonio.  He was an alternate on the U.S. team in last year's world meet in Italy after twice shooting in previous world meets.

The IBMer has competition scheduled every weekend from now till fall.  On Sunday he took three trap titles in the New York Athletic Club's Amateur Championships of America, held at Travers Island, and this weekend it'll be pigeon-shooting, held in Philadelphia because [it's] banned in New York State.  

Yesterday's Press erroneously listed Little's first name as Fred and said his Sunday wins were in Endicott."

Source:  'Southern' NY Next For Frank, Press [Binghamton, NY], Apr. 2, 1968, p. 3-C, col. 5.

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