Freak Storm Reportedly Drowned Dozens of People Off Pelham Shores in 1922

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On a beautiful, lazy late afternoon in the spring of 1922, nearly twenty thousand people descended on City Island to swim and fish in Long Island Sound.  It was June 11, 1922.  Hundreds and hundreds of canoes, skiffs, rowboats, sailboats, and other watercraft plied the waters around City Island from Execution Light to Hunter's Island and beyond.

Bathers crowded local beaches on City Island, on Hunter's Island, and on the mainland.  Indeed, hundreds of bathers crowded onto the property of the City Island Bathing House to enjoy a lovely Sunday afternoon.

Shortly before 5:45 p.m. that day, the proprietors of the City Island Bathing House noticed something strange on the horizon.  It looked like a monumental, dark-colored wall approaching.  Though it took a little time, it became clear that a massive storm was approaching quickly.  The proprietors began shooing bathers out of the water as the storm quickly overtook the region.

All hell broke loose.  One eyewitness described the storm as a "Kansas twister."  Winds were clocked as high as 88 miles per hour.  The skies unleashed a "white blanket" of hail.  Within moments, hundreds of pleasure craft in Long Island Sound were capsized.  Many drowned immediately.  Others fought for their lives and clung to capsized craft in the heavy waves and high winds.  Volunteers at life saving stations on City Island and Hunter's Island launched small craft and began dragging exhausted excursionists out of the heavy waters.  One rescuer tried to save a drowning man, but was dragged under by the man.  Both drowned.

Everywhere there were heartrending scenes.  In one rowboat, eight people including a young mother and her infant daughter were tossed into the waters.  One of the passengers tried to save the baby.  She sank beneath the waves, as did the infant.  The distraught mother clung to the side of the rowboat as others tried to keep her from going under the heavy waters.  A tree fell into a chimney at a hotel on Boston Post Road.  The tree and chimney collapsed the roof and crushed a couple to death inside.  Lightning killed two people.  Others were electrocuted by downed power lines.  A new Ferris wheel in an amusement park on nearby Clason's Point was blown over into the waters of long Island Sound, killing seven and injuring 35.  

Fifteen minutes later, the storm passed.  Pandemonium began.  Bodies were floating in Long Island Sound.  Rescuers crowded onto launches and began plying the waters of the Sound searching for survivors.  Husbands, wives, sons, and daughters crowded City Island beaches searching for any sign of missing loved ones.  Indeed, according to one account:

"Following the tragedy, City island became a scene of pandemonium.  Many of the men who had gone out to fish had left their wives and children there to picnic.  As soon as knowledge of the drowning became general and heads of the families, sons, and in some instances daughters, failed to return the survivors became hysterical."

All communication with the outside world was cut off.  The storm had severed not only electrical lines, but also phone lines.  Indeed, it was three hours before word of the catastrophe reached the rest of the region including New York City authorities.

Soon bodies began washing ashore from Larchmont to City Island.  The casualty list began to grow.  Confusion reigned.  Newspapers the following day reported up to 75 deaths in the freak storm.  The newspapers published the identities of the confirmed dead, but quoted police as saying it would be days before all the missing persons reports could be resolved and a true tally of the dead would be known. 

One boat rental facility reported that 46 of its rowboats were missing after the storm.  All were in use at the time the storm hit.  People began lining up outside a City Island police station seeking any information they could obtain about their loved ones.  There were so many people waiting for news of missing loved ones that the very long line became a human conveyor belt.  As the person at the head of the line asked police about missing loved ones, if nothing was known, that person would return to the end of the line and wait in line again until reaching the front and asking again.

A local bathing house was used as a makeshift morgue.  There the scenes were heart-breaking.  According to one account:

"There were many heartrending scenes as friends and relatives of the drowned identified them.  So many men, women and children became hysterical that it was necessary for the police to remove them to other parts of the island and keep them under observation.  Relatives of the missing were equally affected."

The freak storm did millions of dollars of damage in the region.  It only took fifteen minutes, but those fifteen minutes unleashed death, devastation, and pandemonium on Pelham and the surrounding region on that late spring day nearly one hundred years ago.

Wreck of Clason Point Ferris Wheel After June 11, 1922 Storm.
Source:  POLICE PUT STORM DEATH LIST AT 75, The Evening
World [NY, NY], Jun. 12, 1922, Vol. LXII, No. 22,073, p. 1, cols. 1-8
& p. 2, cols. 1-3.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

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There were hundreds and hundreds of newspaper articles written about the freak storm on June 11, 1922.  Below is the text of two such articles.  Each is followed by a citation and link to its source.

"POLICE PUT STORM DEATH LIST AT 75
-----
POLICE PLACE DEATH LIST IN STORM AT 75, WITH BODIES OF 47 RECOVERED
-----
Biggest Mortality Was at City Island, Where 16 Drowned and 46 Rowboats Are Unaccounted For.
-----
Seven Killed When Ferris Wheel at Clason Point Collapses -- Property Damage Incalculable.
-----

The official police estimate of the number of victims of the storm that swept this city and vicinity yesterday evening is seventy-five.  It is known that forty-seven were drowned or otherwise killed.  The estimate of seventy-five is based upon the number of inquiries that have been made about missing persons at Bronx and Westchester Police Stations.

Thousands visited the Fordham Morgue to-day and looked at the bodies there.  It would appear that most of the visitors were looking for missing relatives.  From the number of rowboats, canoes and motor boats that have been washed ashore along the Sound beaches between the Harlem River and Greenwich, Conn., the estimate of seventy-five victims in this vicinity seems to be low.

The greatest loss of life by drowning was at City Island, where the storm came with terrific fury and hundreds were caught far from shore in canoes and rowboats.  One boathouse at City Island reported to-day that forty-six rowboats rented yesterday before the storm are missing.

At New Rochelle James Stroker lost his life while trying to rescue five Italians from a capsized rowboat.  Stroker and Charles McGrath of Larchmont were on shore and saw the rowboat capsize.  They went out in a launch and saved three of the five men.  Two of the Italians were drowned and one of them dragged Stroker down with him.

The body of a young man wearing a blue sweater, white trousers and white shoes came ashore at Larchmont Yacht Club shortly before noon.  There were no identifying marks on the clothing.

Harry Klein of No. 1619 Washington Avenue, the Bronx, reported to the City Island police to-day that Sadie Dexler, 19 years old, a stenographer, of No. 496 East 174th Street, was drowned in the storm.  According to Klein, he and Miss Dexler were in canoes a short distance off shore when the storm broke.  The canoes were capsized.  He made an effort to save the young woman, but she was swept from his reach.

Among those reported missing were Miss Rita Anderson of No. 103 Centre Street, City Island, an eighteen-year-old stenographer, and B. A. McLaughlin, a young man who had taken her out for a row on the Sound from Lane's Beach.  They returned home late last night, explaining that their boat had been swamped by the waves kicked up by the storm.  When they righted it, the oars were gone.  It took them three hours, paddling with their hands to reach Nevin's Dock on the Bronx shore.

Moe Buskin, twenty-three, No. 230 Miller Avenue, Brooklyn, a salesman, is believed to have drowned.  His friend, Don Selvin, No. 1220 42d Street, Brooklyn, reported to the police of the City Island Station this morning.

'There were four of us in a canoe,' he said, 'and the storm came upon us between Hart's Island and Half Moon Beach.  Three of us, including Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Moss, managed to cling to the upset canoe and were rescued by a lighter.  But Buskin drifted out with the tide.'

The 50-foot sloop yacht Viking capsized in Larchmont Harbor.  Three women were caught in the cabin of the yacht.  To rescue them it was necessary for the crew to swim to shore, get axes and steam out to the yacht in a launch and cut a hole in the hull.  The women were uninjured.

The Sound shore of Westchester was in darkness last night.  Officials of electric light companies say it will take a week to repair the damage done in a few minutes.

Carl Vollmer, twenty-two, of Pennyfield Road, Bronx, was reported missing to the police by his mother, Bella, to-day.  He went canoeing off City island yesterday and has not returned.  It is believed he was drowned.

Death came not only by drowning.  Some were killed by falling trees; others were struck by lightning and others were electrocuted by fallen high power feed wires.  The catastrophe was made worse by the cutting off of communication when telephone wires were broken.  Most of those who were killed and injured were far from their homes.

RAILROADS WASHED OUT AND TRAINS STALLED.

Up-State there are reports of railroads washed out; highways blocked by fallen trees and gutted by torrents.  The City of Oneida was five feet under water for an hour.  Syracuse reports a loss of $1,000,000.  

Scores of the 3,000 trees recently planted in Central Park were uprooted.  

Seven persons were killed and thirty-five injured when a Ferris wheel at Clason Point Park in the Bronx was torn apart and blown into Long Island Sound.  A man was killed by a live wire in Newark.  A tree was blown on the brick chimney of Red Lion Inn on the Boston Post Road, killing a mother and daughter at a table.

Motor cars were abandoned in many parts of the metropolitan district by their owners in seeking safety.  One woman left her car near Hackensack only to be killed by a falling tree, and a similar fate overtook a man near Piping Rock. L. I.  A condemned tree in Mount Vernon fell on a woman and child, killing both.  These are but a few of the accidents, hundreds of them of a minor nature.

The storm swept up from Pennsylvania, through New Jersey and New York, the wind at times having a velocity of 88 miles an hour.  Before passing out to sea it split into three distinct but short disturbances.  It was the second storm of the day which did the most damage, the first being mild.

Many who saw the approach of the afternoon storm, which lasted only about fifteen minutes, said it resembled a Kansas 'twister.'

Valentine Fendrich, chief of the Fire Alarm Telegraph Bureau, sent out every man in his department to repair storm damage.  Fifteen lines were broken in Brooklyn, ten in the Bronx and five in Queens.  Comparatively little damage was done in Manhattan, where the wires are all underground.

Mr. Fendrich said that the overhead wire system in other boroughs were at the mercy of a storm such as that of yesterday and he meant to use the experience to emphasize his recommendation that the wires in Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx and Richmond be put under ground as rapidly as possible.

Credit for reducing the total of casualties was given by the police to-day to the management of the City Island Bathing House.  Attaches seeing the black clouds approaching called in the hundreds of bathers from the water and when the first fierce gust of wind broke all the pleasure seekers were safely under shelter.

Among the 20,000 holiday makers about the island were the regular summer colony, week-end campers and many visitors.  The storm descended suddenly at 5.45.  Bathers and others on the beach escaped easily, but few of the boats could reach shore.  Just how many persons were picked up from the water by life-savers and members of nearby boat clubs never will be known.

MOST OF THE VICTIMS IN SKIFFS AND CANOES.

The known casualties were mostly off Execution Light, six miles east of City Island; Rat Island, three miles east, and an island a mile north, in waters known as fishing grounds.  Most of the overturned boats were skiffs and canoes, many containing women and children.  Those who aided in keeping down fatalities after the first blast were crews of the two stations of the United States Volunteer Life Saving Corps on City Island and Hunter's Island, and the members of the City Island, Metropolitan, Stuyvesant, Morrisania and Oak Point yacht and boat clubs.  In many cases girls and young men were dragged from the water by the experienced water men just as they were about to succumb.

The police boat John F. Hylan and other boats of the Marine Division played powerful searchlights on the water all night, but early to-day no further bodies had been recovered.  The police were waiting for the tide to turn when it was expected other bodies would be washed ashore, but they continued grappling.  

City Island at 4 A. M. was still in darkness and the telephone wires were still down, not even the Fire Department there having a connection.

THE DEAD.

PETGOLD, MARY, fifty-two, No. 3416 Levere Street.
KAPLAN, BEATRICE, thirteen, No. 346 Pacific Street, Brooklyn.
KOHLER, AGNES, three, No. 236 West 11th Street.
RIGOFF, MARION, No. 1472 Seabury Place, the Bronx.
[Illegible], JULIA, twenty-six, a stenographer, No. 848 Whitlock Avenue.
FARLEY, PATRICK, thirty-eight, No. 41 Commerce Street.
BUSKIN, MOE, twenty-three, No. 200 Miller Avenue, Brooklyn.
LONDON, MORRIS, twenty-one, No. 734 East 165th Street, the Bronx.
REITTER, ISIDOR, nineteen, No. 21 Charles Street.
KEINING, JOHN, thirty, No. 2416 Levere Street, Bronx.
KEINING, GEORGE, two and a half years.
PFOFFENDORF, ALFRED, six months.
DEXLER, SADIE, nineteen, No. 496 East 174th st., Bronx.
STROKER, JAMES, No. 32 Union Avenue, New Rochelle.
GRATTINO, JOHN, No. 234 East 105th Street.
GUIDE, SALVATOR, No. 1957 First Avenue.
Unidentified man in yachting apparel washed ashore at Larchmont Yacht Club.

There were many heartrending scenes as friends and relatives of the drowned identified them.  So many men, women and children became hysterical that it was necessary for the police to remove them to other parts of the island and keep them under observation.  Relatives of the missing were equally affected.

The wind, which struck Pelham Bay at 5.45 and blew until 6 o'clock with the fury of a hurricane, left in its wake a scene of desolation.  Trees were uprooted, buildings were unroofed, windows were shattered and telephone and electric light wires were blown down.

This resulted in the severing of all communication with the island.  As a consequence, news of the tragedy did not become generally known outside until three hours after its occurrence.  The island police were handicapped, as they could not summon ambulances or aid except by crossing the bridge leading to the mainland by motor.


Lieut. Reilly went over about 9 o'clock and flashed word to Police Headquarters.  In the meantime yacht clubs in the vicinity and crews of two life saving stations started the work of rescue in motor boats.  They were joined when darkness fell by the police boat John F. Hylan, which cruised about, throwing its searchlights over the waters.

Scores of amateur fishermen, men, women and children, were rescued, clinging to the keels of their overturned boats.  Others had been carried close enough in to wade ashore.  Many of the boats were without occupants.  

'There is no way of knowing just how many were drowned until several days have elapsed,' said Lieut. Reilly.  'Many of the people who come here on Sundays to swim or sail are from Manhattan, Brooklyn, and New Jersey towns.  We shall have to wait until we check up with families who report missing persons who left home with the intention of coming here to spend the day.'

ALL NIGHT HUNT FOR BODIES OF VICTIMS.

One of a party on a yacht owned by Tom Conrad, a song writer, told last night of the rescue of three men from a swamped motor boat on the Sound.  The hail was to thick it formed a blinding white blanket, he said, and the yacht passed the boat before the men were seen.  They went back and pulled them out of the water.

The waters of the Sound were dotted with overturned boats, hats and articles of clothing, he said, for a distance of several miles.  At the Stuyvesant Yacht Club on City Island members saw that a catastrophe had happened.  They jumped into boats and joined the rescue work.

All night hundreds of persons knowing that members of their families had gone to City Island for the day, went there by automobile or in any other way possible.  They lined the street in front of the police station asking for information of relatives and friends, and when there was no information passed down to the foot of the line to ask again later.

The search by the police caused additional excitement among the crowds.  Patrolmen laden with hats, pocketbooks, parts of women's and men's clothing, shoes and stockings came to the police station.  The pile grew larger every minute and the work of tabulating the articles was handicapped by the fact that the desk Lieutenants and Sergeants pressed into service had to work by the light of candles, oil lamps and lanterns.

Mrs. Petgold and Agnes Kohler, three years old, two of the identified dead, were in the rowboat with six other persons who were rescued.  The storm caught this party in Pelham Bay.  The boat overturned almost immediately and all were thrown into the water.

Mrs. Petgold, who tried to save the child, sank at once, and the others of the party, including Mrs. Katherine Kohler, the child's mother, managed to keep afloat.  Mrs. Kohler was saved by members of the Stuyvesant Yacht Club.  Albert and Edward Ottes and F. E. Acker of the Hunter's Island life-saving station rescued Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Thessendorf of No. 333 East 118th Street, Miss Anna Bursall and another person whose name was not obtained.

FOUR MEN MISSING FROM LAUNCH IN THE SOUND.

A 33-foot glass cabined launch drifted into the float of the Clason Point Yacht Club, Clason Point, the Bronx.  Its Custom license is 171.  A man who reported the finding of the launch said he had seen the boat earlier in the day with four men on it, but no trace of the men was found when the launch drifted in.

the police of Greenwich, Conn., early to-day notified Detective Sergt. Wiessmer, of the Missing Bureau at Police Headquarters, that Gladys Redinger, twenty-four years old, of No. 803 East 116th Street, had been taken to a hospital in Greenwich last night after being rescued from Long Island Sound.  John Anderson, of No. 4138 Disney Avenue, the Bronx, who, the police say, was the rescued girl's fiance, was drowned.

William Taylor, nineteen years old, of No. 2063 Crotona Avenue, the Bronx, who aided in rescuing ten or fifteen persons thrown into the Sound from rowboats off City Island, was taken from his home early this morning to Fordham Hospital suffering from submersion.  Taylor assisted in the work of rescue until he became exhausted and had to be rescued himself.  After being attended he was taken to his home in an automobile, and after telling his family of the horrors he had witnessed and saying nothing of the heroic part he himself had played in the rescue work, the young man collapsed.  

According to reports received at Police Headquarters Anderson and the young woman were canoeing on the Sound and were caught in the storm.  The canoe was overturned and its occupants thrown into the water, Anderson swam with the girl to the canoe and helped her cling to it.

The yacht 'Countess,' owned by J. B. Dunbough, of No. 177 Summit Avenue, Mount Vernon, passed nearby and went to the rescue.  Miss Redinger was reached in time and lifted into the yacht.  Anderson, his strength exhausted in holding his fiancee against the side of the canoe, lost his hold on the boat and sank beneath the water before rescuers could reach him."

Source:  POLICE PUT STORM DEATH LIST AT 75, The Evening World [NY, NY], Jun. 12, 1922, Vol. LXII, No. 22,073, p. 1, cols. 1-8 & p. 2, cols. 1-3.  

"50 DIE IN STORM IN GREATER N.Y.
UPSTATE PROPERTY LOSS TO RUN INTO MILLIONS
-----
SCORES OF PLEASURE BOATS OVERTURNED AS WILD GALE SWEEPS LONG ISLAND SOUND
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Eight Bodies Recovered -- Police Believe 30 More Missing -- Pandemonium Reigns at Sunday Resort as Hysterical Women Fail to Find Husbands and Sons -- Six Perish as Ferris Wheel Is Wrecked.
-----
TWO KILLED WHEN TREE CRASHES THROUGH ROOF ON DINNER PARTY
-----

NEW YORK, June 11 -- Fifty persons are reported to have been drowned off City Island in Long Island Sound when the mad storm that hit the city late today capsized scores of small pleasure craft.  Eight bodies have been recovered and thirty more persons are reported missing.

Twenty thousand holiday-makers went to City Island today and half went out on the waters of Pelham Bay.  It was jammed with boats of every description when the storm hit it.  Few had opportunity to get ashore.  The known casualties occurred off Execution Light, which is about six miles east of City Island; Rat Island, about three miles east, and another island nearby.

Ten Thousand Were Fishing.

It is estimated by Lieut. Joseph Reilly of the City Island detectives that no fewer than 10,000 persons were fishing off those places when the storm broke.  After it had passed and the sky cleared, the waters of Pelham bay and Long Island sound were dotted with overturned rowboats, launches, canoes and yachts.

The police immediately started the work of rescue.  At 9 o'clock tonight eight bodies had been recovered, and Lieut. Reilly said he was making a conservative estimate when he put the bodies to be recovered at thirty.

Scene of Pandemonium.

Following the tragedy, City island became a scene of pandemonium.  Many of the men who had gone out to fish had left their wives and children there to picnic.  As soon as knowledge of the drowning became general and heads of the families, sons, and in some instances daughters, failed to return the survivors became hysterical.

All communication by telephone with the island was cut off by the razing of wires and telephone poles, and this hampered the police.  They improvised a morgue in one of the bathing pavilions and as rapidly as the bodies were recovered they were taken there for identification.

Six Killed on Ferris Wheel.

Six persons were killed and more than forty hurt when the wind caught a huge Ferris wheel at a Clason Point amusement park and crushed it to the ground.

A women and her seven-year-old daughter were crushed to death and several other persons injured when an oak tree blown by the wind crashed through the roof to the crowded dining room of the Red Lion inn in Boston Post road, carrying with it an old-fashioned stone chimney.

The dead were taken from the cars that were thrown into the sound.  The wheel, 100 feet in diameter, was constructed only recently, park officials said, and was considered one of the best in the country.

The dead:

Louis Dorotio, 524 Edith street, Old Forge.
Emily Lawyer, New York.
Mrs. Pasquale Kreda, New York.
Idella Vanderpool.
Pellegrino Fasuk.
Unidentified boy.

Among the seriously injured were:  Pasquale Kreda, Kenneth Lawyer, Anita Schalk and Anna Fleet.

Paul Simon, owner and operator of the wheel, was arrested on order of Assistant District Attorney Quigley on a charge of homicide.

The bodies of seven canoeists caught in Long Island sound off City island at the height of the storm were washed ashore after nightfall.

Girl Blown Overboard, Drowned.

Miss Edda Smith, seventeen, walking with a companion along the Reservoir road at Ossining, was blown into the water and drowned.  

Charles Emerson, New Rochelle clothing manufacturer, was rowing in Echo bay with his wife and three children when the storm broke.  He managed to row to shore, then died from a heart attack.

A tree fell across a party of motorists seeking shelter on the Brookville road near Locust Valley, Long Island, killing Harry Halleran of Oyster Bay, and seriously injuring his three men companions.

Unable to reach shore in the stiff wind, Jack Lowenthal, twenty, was drowned while swimming in East river.

Two Killed by Lightning.

Concetti Basiataso and his ten-year-old son Anthony of Mount Vernon were killed when a tree, under which they had found shelter in the Bronx, was struck by lightning.

Two men were killed in Newark, N. J., when they came in contact with electric wires torn down by the wind.

A massive decayed tree on the New York - Westchester county line at Mount Vernon fell, crushing to death Mrs. Cassie Cacavalle and her infant son.

Moe Ruskin, one of a party of canoeists in Echo bay, was drowned.  Three other members of the party swam to shore after the canoe capsized.

Ten excursionists on the ferryboat Hildegrad, returning from Interstate park, N.J. to West 158th street, were injured when the wind tore a lifeboat from its davits.  In falling the boat struck the railing of the lower deck at a spot where about a dozen passengers had gathered for shelter, then it slid into the river and disappeared.  Sidney Jacob, fourteen, was badly hurt and was taken to a hospital.  Others injured were able to go to their homes."

Source:  50 DIE IN STORM IN GREATER N.Y. -- UPSTATE PROPERTY LOSS TO RUN INTO MILLIONS, Buffalo Courier [Buffalo, NY], Jun. 12, 1922, Vol. LXXXVII, No. 163, p. 1, cols. 1-8.  

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Sixteen-Year-Old Received a Reward of a Nickel for Saving Six Lives in Pelham

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In 1892 a smart aleck and street-smart sixteen-year-old newsboy nicknamed "Swipes" (after a famous prize fighter of the day to be a subject of a future Historic Pelham article) saved the lives of six people off the shores of City Island in the Town of Pelham.  The story of the courage and quick thinking of Swipes made newspaper headlines throughout the United States from New York to California.  People throughout the nation marveled at his feat and laughed at the disdain he showed for those whom he rescued.  Today's Historic Pelham article tells the story of the rescue by Swipes and his subsequent determination that each of the lives of the six people he saved was worth only five-sixths of one cent. . . .

In the summer of 1892, the fishing village and summer resort known as City Island in the Town of Pelham was at the height of its renown as a vacation resort.  Each weekend (and many weekdays) thousands crowded onto trains, wagons, small ships, and even horseback and made their way to City Island in the Town of Pelham to enjoy bathing and boating in the waters offshore as well as wandering the streets of the quaint settlement.  

One of those who visited City Island on Monday, August 8, 1892 was sixteen-year-old Edward Gallagher.  He was known as "Swipes" and lived in Manhattan at 330 West 42nd Street.  He was described as "black-eyed, brown haired and small.  What his muscular development lack[ed] in quantity it more than [made] up in quantity."

Swipes worked as a newsboy.  He spent the better part of the day that Monday hauling armloads of newspapers and hawking them between New York City and City Island.  Having sold all his copies by late that day, he decided to hop into a rowboat at City Island and enjoy a little time on the waters of Long Island Sound.

At the same time, a small land-lubbing group of four men and two women from Greenpoint, Brooklyn, were wading and bathing in the waters near Belden Point at the tip of City Island.  Earlier, the group had sailed up the East River and lower Long Island Sound in the small sloop Agnes during the morning of the day.  

At about 6:30 p.m., with "Swipes" enjoying a leisurely row off the shores of Belden Point, the small group of landlubbers from Greenpoint commandeered a tiny skiff.  Three men and two women climbed in and paddled into the Sound while a fourth man swam leisurely behind them, trailing the skiff.

When the skiff made it about two hundred yards offshore, the man swimming behind it grew tired and decided to climb aboard.  Rather than climbing safely over the stern, he tried to climb over the side of the skiff and upset it, tumbling all five occupants into the water.  Several, apparently, were unable to swim.  

Swipes noticed the commotion and heard the cries for help.  He rowed furiously to the upset skiff and found six flailing in the waters around the skiff.  As he arrived, one of the men shouted forlornly "We're all lost!"  Swipes dragged all six to safety and paddled them back safely to the shores of City Island.

When the rowboat arrived and the landlubbers scrambled out, one of the men exclaimed to young Swipes, somewhat condescendingly:  "that was great work you done."  He turned to the other landlubber survivors and collected what money they had to gift as a reward to young Swipes.  The landlubber passed the hat among his compatriots and raised only thirty cents .  He then handed it over to Swipes explaining sheepishly that it was only thirty cents because "You're only a boy, you know."

According to a contemporary account, young Swipes shook his head and gave the man back twenty-five cents.  Swipes next said to the group "I ain't goin' to overcharge you.  The hull gang of yer ain't wort' more'n 6 pence."  Young Swipes then turned and left the landlubbers, later telling a New York Herald reporter that he first became disgusted with the group when one of the men cried from the water "We're all lost!"  According to Swipes, the entire group made him "weary."

Swipes, it seems, had the final say.  Though he was "only a boy, you know," newspapers throughout the United States reported this Pelham vignette.  Virtually all reported that Swipes had affirmed the lives of such people off the waters of Pelham to be "dull and in small demand -- spot cash, five-sixths of a cent each person."

Undated Postcard View of Belden Point and the Waters Off its Shores

in About 1914.  "ST. BARTHOLDI CAMP, BELDEN POINT, CITY ISLAND,

N.Y."  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

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Below is the text of a newspaper article on which today's Historic Pelham article is based.  The text is followed by a citation and link to its source.

"SWIPES KNEW THEIR VALUE.
-----
A Newsboy Who Would Only Accept Five Cents for Saving Six Lives

Human life is dull and in small demand -- spot cash, five-sixths of a cent each person -- at Belden Point, on City Island.  These figures are the result of the and experience of Edward Gallagher, of 330 West Forty-second Street New York.  Edward is a newsboy, sometimes called 'Swipes the Newsboy,' as a compliment to his ability.  He is not the original 'Swipes.'  Edward is 16 years old, black-eyed, brown haired and small.  What his muscular development lacks in quantity it more than makes up in quantity.  He sold a big armful of newspapers between this city and City Island on Monday afternoon and then went rowing near Belden Point.  Four men and two women who had sailed up from Greenpoint in the small sloop Agnes went in bathing at half past 6 o'clock so 'Swipes' says.  Three of the men and the women presently got into the skiff and paddled out into the sound followed leisurely by the fourth man, who swam.  Two hundred yards from the shore he grew tired, tried to climb into the skiff over the side instead of the stern and upset it.  'Swipes' said he rowed fiercely to the rescue and saved them all. 

'They make me weary,' he confided to a New York Herald man.  'When I began taking them in all the men could say was:  'We're all lost!'  Soon's I got 'em ashore one says:  'Johnny, that was great work you done.  I'm goin' to take up a c'lection.'

'He passed the hat and raised 30 cents out of all their clothes.  When he give it to me he says:  'You're only a boy, you know,' an' I gave him back his quarter an' says:  'Yes, an' I ain't goin' to overcharge you.  The hull gang of yer ain't wort' more'n 6 pence.'  Then I skipped.'

But will not some society or some kind individual give 'Swipes' a medal?"

Source:  SWIPES KNEW THEIR VALUE -- A Newsboy Who Would Only Accept Five Cents for Saving Six Lives, St. Hilaire Spectator [St. Hilaire, Polk County, MN], Aug. 10, 1892, Vol. XI, No. 3, p. 4, col. 5.  See also WIPES [sic] KNEW THEIR VALUE -- A Newsboy Who Would Only Accept Five Cents for Having Six Lives, The Daily Leader [Gloversville, NY], Aug. 4, 1892, Vol. V, No. 308, p. 4, col. 2 (same text); WIPES [sic] KNEW THEIR VALUE -- A Newsboy Who Would Only Accept Five Cents for Having Six Lives, Bridgeport Chronicle-Union [Bridgeport, Mono County, CA], Nov. 19, 1892, Vol. XXXI, No. 1,585, p. 4, col. 4 (same text).

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The Great Invasion of Armed Police in Pelham and City Island on June 7, 1895

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Introduction

Things were about to get ugly late in the evening of June 7, 1895.  Four Police Roundsmen and fifty Patrolmen, all from New York City, were crowded into patrol wagons making their way silently on dark dirt roads toward the communities of Pelham, City Island, West Chester, East Chester, Wakefield, Williamsbridge, and Unionport.  

Each Police Officer was armed with a loaded revolver and billy club.  The plan was to invade West Chester and take control of its Town Hall, then to dispatch groups of Police Officers from that command post to town halls and other public buildings in the remaining communities.  However, the group of invaders had been assembled so quickly that none was mounted on horseback.  Plans were to substitute mounted men for the invading Police Force as soon as possible.

The Great Invasion of Lower Westchester was underway.  

The Origins of the Invasion

The previous day, June 6, New York Governor Levi P. Morton signed into law Chapter 934, New York Laws of 1895.  That statute annexed much of the Town of Pelham including City Island and all of today's Pelham Bay Park into the City of New York.  It also annexed areas including the Town of West Chester, portions of East Chester, Wakefield, Unionport, and more.

Neither New York City nor the communities being annexed seemed ready for the legislation, despite the fact that it was long in coming.  Indeed, some in the communities believed that the annexation was unlawful and vowed to continue to fight it, both physically and through the courts.  Others argued that residents of most of the communities favored annexation while their elected representatives (who would be turned out of office by the annexation) did not.  In any event, rumors abounded at the time that local residents would use force to resist annexation; hence, the police invasion that night.

To make matters worse, rumors abounded in New York City that local elected officials in the annexed communities were on spending sprees to deplete their public coffers before New York City took over the public funds and that local officials also were entering into contracts of all sorts for public services in the hopes of binding New York City to the arrangements once annexation was finalized.  Consequently, early in the day of June 7, United States Congressman Benjamin Fairchild, a resident of the Village of Pelham (today's Pelham Heights), and State Assemblyman J. N. Stewart of Westchester County gathered a group of local Westchester citizens.  The group scurried to see New York City Mayor William Lafayette Strong "in a state of considerable excitement."

The group fomented anxiety in among Mayor Strong and his staff.  They told the Mayor that local elected officials in the annexed district were engaged in subterfuge to defeat the annexation and were fomenting dissent among local residents.  According to one account:

"They asked that the New York police be sent up to protect them and that the proper authorities take charge of the public buildings, and that means to be taken to get the $200,000 or more of money in the public treasuries of the several villages and towns turned over to the City Chamberlain before it can be wasted by the officials, who say they propose to fight the annexation on the ground that the law is unconstitutional.  The Town Board of West Chester has retained H. C. Henderson to test the law, and there was talk of resistance to our occupation of the territory."

As soon as the meeting ended, Mayor Strong consulted with his Corporation Counsel, one of his Police Commissioners, his Commissioner of Public Works, the New York City Comptroller, and others.  Members of the Board of Commissioners of the City Police Commission contacted the Acting Police Chief to consider the matter.  The group soon realized that local police in the communities of the annexed district had been "deposed" by the legal machinery of the annexation.  The entire annexed district was entirely un-policed!

With the guidance of the Police Commissioners, Acting Police Chief Conlin formulated a plan quietly to invade the annexed district that night with a large police presence to secure public buildings and maintain order.  There was particular concern over the saloons operating on City Island.  The plan was to create two police precincts in the region:  the Thirty-Eighth Precinct and the Thirty-Ninth Precinct.  The Thirty-Eighth Precinct would be based in the West Chester Town Hall as its principal police station with two sub-stations (sub-precincts) located, respectively, in the Wakefield Fire Engine House and the Pelham Town Hall Building on City Island.

Later in the day (June 7), a letter authorizing the plan was secured from newly-appointed President of the Board of Commissioners of the City Police Commission, Theodore Roosevelt (later to become Governor of New York, Vice President of the United States, and President of the United States).  The letter, to be delivered to Pelham Town Supervisor William McAllister at City Island, Town Supervisor August M. Fields of the Town of West Chester, and Village Clerk Robert Wallace of Williamsbridge, read as follows:

"POLICE DEPARTMENT, June 7, 1895.

SIR:  

Under the act, chapter 934, of the Laws of 1895, which became law yesterday, it becomes the duty of this department to police all that territory comprised within the limits of West Chester, East Chester, and Pelham which lies southerly of a straight line drawn from a point where the northerly line of the city of New York meets the centre line of the Bronx River to the middle of the channel between Hunter's and Glen Island, in Long Island Sound, and all that territory lying within the incorporated limits of the village of Wakefield which lies northerly of such line.

In the performance of this duty it becomes necessary for this department to take possession of all public buildings within the area described and to receive from the former custodians thereof free access thereto and possession thereof.

The bearer of this, Acting Inspector John McCullagh, is authorized so to take possession on behalf of this department, and you will please, upon presentation hereof, put him in possession of all such buildings within your jurisdiction and deliver to him the keys thereof, taking you a voucher or receipt therefor from him.  

Yours very truly, 

THEODORE ROOSEVELT."

The Town Hall of the Town Hall on City Island

Many may be surprised to learn that the Town Hall of the Town of Pelham once was located on City Island.  Pelham has had at least four Town Hall Buildings since the town was organized by State statute on March 7, 1788.  The first was a beautiful brick structure that once stood on today's Shore Road.  Built in 1858, it was demolished by New York City in 1955.  See Wed., Dec. 03, 2014:  Pelham Proposed To Build A Town Hall and Post Office in 1857.  

Undated Photograph of Pelham Town Hall on

Shore Road Not Long Before it Was Razed in

1955.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

For much of the 19th century, however, City Island was the population center of the Town of Pelham.  Thus, most elected Town officials lived on City Island.  Typically they found the chore of crossing to the mainland to conduct Town business tiresome and, at least for a time, abandoned the structure as a meeting place for the Town Board, although it continued to be used for other functions and even, for a time, a tiny schoolhouse.  During such times, Town business was conducted on City Island.

Although it is not now known all the places where Town Board meetings were held on City Island, it is clear that at least during the early to mid-1890s, a building that once stood 

Postcard View of Old Pelham Town Hall on City Island

Postmarked July 26, 1905 From Collection of the Author.

NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

Detail from Map Published in 1893 With Arrow Showing

Location of Town Hall Building on City Island at the Time.

Source:  "Towns of Westchester and Pelham [with] Villages

of Westchester and Unionport [with] Village of Pelhamville"

in Bien, Joseph Rudolf, Atlas of Westchester County,

New York, p. 3 (NY, NY:  Julius Bien & Co., 1893).  NOTE:

Click on Image to Enlarge.

With annexation, as detailed below, New York City took control of the Town Hall building on City Island.  Thus, the Town of Pelham had to move its government to a new location within the unannexed portion of the Town.  It chose to move Town business to a small wooden meeting facility and courthouse built in the settlement of Pelhamville in 1890.  The facility once stood on the location of today's Town Hall at 34 Fifth Avenue.  See Tue., Apr. 21, 2015:  The Early History of Pelham's Town Hall, Built in 1909.  After that Town Hall structure burned on October 23, 1908, the Town of Pelham built in 1909 the beautiful brick and stone courthouse that still stands and still serves the same purpose.

Detail from Undated Photograph of the Original Pelham

Town Hall on Fifth Avenue on an Election Day. The Building

Later Burned on the Evening of October 23, 1908 in a Suspicious

Fire. Source: Courtesy of The Office of The Historian of The

Town of Pelham. Note: Click on Image to Enlarge.

2013 Photograph of Pelham Town Hall, Built in 1909.

NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

Back to the Police Invasion of Pelham and City Island, and its Aftermath

As the police force left in patrol wagons for West Chester Town Hall, someone telephoned a wild "tip" to the former Constables of the Town of West Chester.  According to the tipster, a force of five hundred police officers "flanked by a regiment of soldiers" were on their way "to capture the town."  Word spread like wildfire.  The former Chief of Constables raced over to the Town Hall building with his keys and "barred and locked the doors and windows, leaving a lone prisoner locked up in the cellar."


A crowd of more than five hundred local residents gathered along the road outside West Chester Town Hall to "meet" the police.  Soon the patrol wagons rolled up and police scrambled over the sides of the wagons.  The town hall building was pitch black.  Local streets were unlighted.  Inspector John McCullagh, who led the force, assembled his men and ordered them to march to the building and surround it.  As they followed orders, the Inspector went to the front door, found it locked, and began pounding on the door.  

Soon a quivering voice came from a cellar window.  The lone prisoner still held within the building said "There's no one here but me, and as I'm locked up I can't get out to let you in."  Someone in the crowd told McCullagh that the former Chief of Constables had the keys and lived a block away.  Five police officers were dispatched to his home to take the keys.  Though McCullagh protested and said that the New York City Police had no authority to enter the Town Hall, he turned over the keys.  The Police returned to Town Hall and handed the keys over to Inspector McCullagh.

The crowd turned ugly and began to harass the Police Officers.  When Inspector McCullagh had had enough, he ordered his men to drive back the crowd.  Armed with billy clubs and revolvers, the Police waded into the crowd and drove it back "in a hurry."  The unruly crowd and the response of the Police seemed to prompt the former Chief of Constables to action.  According to one account, after Police drove the crowd back, he:

"looked around in the crowd for his town constables and found two of them.  A consultation was held, and then Fitzgerald approached the Town Hall and volunteered to show Inspector McCullagh how to unlock the door.  He also got an oil lamp from one of the village stores and lighted it, so that the police could see their way in.  When the doors were opened a dozen policemen filed in and drew up in line along a railing surrounding an oak writing table.  Fitzgerald placed the lamp on the table."

Inspector McCullagh went behind a railing and sat at the table.  He next took the first formal action in the annexed district to establish a New York City Police presence.  He "formally established a new police station" and put one of his Police Roundsmen, a man named Wolf, in charge, stating "This will be known as the West Chester station."

Leaving Roundsman Wolf in the Town Hall with eight Policemen to maintain order, Inspector McCullagh drove to Williamsbridge where he left a detail of eight men with a Police Roundsman at a "little hall" that was "used as a political meeting place."  Next he drove to the Town Hall building on City Island where he left a dozen Police Officers with another Roundsman in Charge.  He drove an additional patrol wagon full of men "to Pelham" and left eight patrolmen there.  (Although nowhere in news reports is there any indication as to where in Pelham he left these men, it is virtually certain that he and the men commandeered the old brick Town Hall building built in 1858 that stood along Shore Road.  That was the only Town building not on City Island that was part of Pelham within the annexed district at the time.)  Finally, Inspector McCullagh drove a small group of officers who were left at Throggs Neck, described as "the most dismal place in the new district," to "patrol the woods in the vicinity of Fort Schuyler."

The invasion was complete without the loss or injury of a single person.  The annexed district no longer was un-policed as of late in the evening, June 7, 1895.

The Aftermath of the Invasion and Cleaning Up the Details

The invasion may have been complete, but because it was organized so hastily, many details had to be addressed in the coming months.  For example, the following day, a representative of the New York City Comptroller's Office, James Rapp, appeared in front of the Town Hall in each annexed municipality and read "to the assembled trustees" of each municipality, the statute providing for the annexation of the district.  

Additionally, important municipal records had to be transferred to New York City.  The papers of the Town of Pelham presented a particularly thorny problem because a huge portion of the acreage of the Town had been annexed but the property annexed represented only about one-third of the assessed value of all taxable properties in the Town.  Nevertheless, because Pelham Town Supervisor William McAllister was one of the leaders in Pelham of the movement to annex City Island and Pelham Bay Park, he quickly turned over Pelham records to the City by June 9.  According to one reported, once again quoted and cited in full below:

"At City Island Supervisor McAllister has surrendered all the papers and documents concerning the annexed part of Pelham.  He holds the papers and documents of the unannexed portion.  The unannexed portion represents about two-thirds of the taxable valuation of the town.  Mr. McAllister will turn these over to his successor in the Board of Supervisors as soon as there is one.  Only one-third of the Town Building here belongs to the annexed part of the town, and it is thought some means of transfer of the third portion will be found, so that the city may become sole owner.  It is thought the Town Board of Pelham will be allowed the use of the hall until such a settlement is made.  Mr. McAllister is the leader of the annexationists here.  He thinks there will be no trouble in arranging the details.  The majority of the citizens on City Island favor the change."

Similarly, on June 11, 1895 a regional newspaper reported that "Deputy Collector John H. Rapp, of the Finance Department, took possession of the public property and records of the villages of West Chester, Williamsbridge, Wakefield and City Island, and made his report to the Controller yesterday."  (See full article cited and quoted below.)

Next there were efforts to tie up loose ends that should have been handled before legislation effecting the annexation was passed in the first place.  For example, in order for the public buildings seized by the City to serve as authorized police station houses, they first had to be designated by the Mayor and Common Council of New York City as "houses of detention and refuge."  By June 21, 1895, the Police Board, led by Theodore Roosevelt, requested such a designation.  

About three months later, on September 6, 1895, the Police Board adopted a resolution dealing further with the issue.  The resolution provided, in its entirety, as follows:

"Resolved, That all the territory annexed to the city of New York, pursuant to chapter 934, Laws of 1895, shall constitute a police precinct, to be known and designated as the Thirty-eighth Police Precinct.

Resolved, That on the approval of the Mayor and Common Council of the West Chester Town Hall as principal station, and the Wakefield engine house and the City Island Town Hall as sub-station, said premises be designated and set apart for the accommodation of members of the police force, for the temporary detention of persons arrested within said precinct and sub-precincts, and for the transaction of the business of the Police Department.

Resolved, That the quota of the police force of said precinct shall for the present be as follows:  One Captain, 4 Sergeants, 10 roundsmen, 45 patrolmen, and 8 doormen, or a total of 68, to be assigned as follows:  West Chester (main station), 1 Captain, 4 Sergeants, 4 mounted roundsmen, 16 mounted patrolmen, 6 foot patrolmen, 2 patrol wagon drivers, 2 patrol wagon guardsmen, and 3 doormen.  Wakefield (sub-station), 2 roundsmen and 4 patrolmen. . . ."  (Note:  No mention of City Island or Pelham.)

Only a few weeks later, on September 30, 1895, the Board of Aldermen of the City of New York passed a resolution "authorizing the establishment of a police station for the Thirty-eighth precinct in the Westchester Town Hall, and sub station in the fire engine house in Wakefield and in the Town Hall, City Island."

The entire arrangement was finally formalized early on October 10, 1895 when New York City Acting Chief of Police Conlin issued an order constituting the police force of the newly-established Thirty-eighth Precinct covering the annexed district a permanent force.  His order followed adoption of a resolution early the same day by the Board of the New York City Police Commission authorizing the creation of a permanent force in the precinct.  According to one account published on October 10:

"Acting Chief of Police Conlin this morning issued an order creating the permanent force of the Thirty-eighth Precinct.  The precinct was made permanent by a resolution adopted by the Board of Police early this morning.  The new precinct comprises the territory recently annexed to the city, and embraces all that territory lying within the villages of West Chester, Wakefield, Williamsbridge, and City Island.  The police have been in command of the territory since June 7, but the police force stationed there has been only temporary and was made up from the various precincts in the city.  The district as it stands now has forty-five men to look after it.  It was said that twenty more will be added to these as soon as new appointments are made.  The precinct is in command of Acting-Capt. Frers, who was made Acting Captain at the last meeting of the Police Board.  It was said that he would be made a Captain as soon as his six months of probation as required by the rules of the department are ended." 

The Great Invasion of 1895 was complete.  New York City Police had prevailed.  Portions of Pelham in Pelham Bay Park and all of City Island thereafter were policed by New York City.  Mainland Pelham had shed an albatross about its neck.

*          *          *          *          *

"ANNEXED BY OUR POLICE.
-----
WE'RE IN POSSESSION OF THE CITY'S NEW TERRITORY.
-----
Fifty Policemen Go Up and Occupy the Public Buildings -- The Comptroller After the Public Funds -- A Formal Resistance by Local Authorities, Who Propose to Test the Constitutionality of the Law.

Congressman Fairchild [of the Village of Pelham] and Assemblyman J. N. Stewart of Westchester county, together with several other prominent citizens of the territory brought into the city of New York by the law signed by Gov. Morton on Thursday, came down to see Mayor Strong yesterday in a state of considerable excitement.  They represented that some of the town and village authorities in the territory referred to have been acting as though to defeat the objects of the annexation:  letting contracts of various sorts, tearing up streets, and otherwise disposing of the public funds.  They asked that the New York police be sent up to protect them and that the proper authorities take charge of the public buildings, and that means to be taken to get the $200,000 or more of money in the public treasuries of the several villages and towns turned over to the City Chamberlain before it can be wasted by the officials, who say they propose to fight the annexation on the ground that the law is unconstitutional.  The Town Board of West Chester has retained H. C. Henderson to test the law, and there was talk of resistance to our occupation of the territory.

Mayor Strong consulted with Corporation Counsel Scott, Police Commissioner Parker, Commissioner of Public Works Brookfield, Comptroller Fitch, and others.  Later in the day Supervisor Fields of the town of West Chester turned over to City Chamberlain O'Donohue $19,000 of public moneys which had been in his keeping.

Police Commissioner Parker went back to Headquarters and the Commissioners called in Acting Chief Conlin.  The local constabulary having been deposed by the operation of the law, it became necessary to police the district at once.

Four roundsmen and fifty patrolmen were detached from various precincts and ordered to proceed forthwith to Capt. Creeden's headquarters in the Thirty-third precinct, the Town Hall at Morrisania.  There Acting Inspector McCullagh took command of them.  Accompanied by a representative of the Comptroller he left Morrisania at 6 o'clock, and with his force in patrol wagons moved on West Chester village, where a temporary headquarters was established.  There the detail was built up and squads were sent to City Island, Williamsbridge, East Chester, Pelham, Wakefield, and Unionport.  The men were all armed with billies and revolvers.  All men were afoot, but as soon as possible mounted men will be substituted.

Commissioner Parker said that the new district would probably be made into two precincts, to be known respectively as the Thirty-eighth and Thirty-ninth.  Copies of the following letter, signed by President Roosevelt, were given to Inspector McCullagh to be delivered to Supervisor William McAllister at City Island, Supervisor August M. Fields at West Chester, and Village Clerk Robert Wallace at Williamsbridge:

POLICE DEPARTMENT, June 7, 1895.

SIR:  Under the act, chapter 934, of the Laws of 1895, which became law yesterday, it becomes the duty of this department to police all that territory comprised within the limits of West Chester, East Chester, and Pelham which lies southerly of a straight line drawn from a point where the northerly line of the city of New York meets the centre line of the Bronx River to the middle of the channel between Hunter's and Glen Island, in Long Island Sound, and all that territory lying within the incorporated limits of the village of Wakefield which lies northerly of such line.

In the performance of this duty it becomes necessary for this department to take possession of all public buildings within the area described and to receive from the former custodians thereof free access thereto and possession thereof.

The bearer of this, Acting Inspector John McCullagh, is authorized so to take possession on behalf of this department, and you will please, upon presentation hereof, put him in possession of all such buildings within your jurisdiction and deliver to him the keys thereof, taking you a voucher or receipt therefor from him.  Yours very truly, THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

Inspector McCullagh's orders to his men were first to take possession of the Town Hall in West Chester village.  Some one had telephoned to the West Chester constables, notifying them that 500 policemen, flanked by a regiment of soldiers, were on their way to capture the town.  Chief of Police John Fitzgerald, who is also keeper of the Town Hall, hurried to the Town Hall, barred and locked the doors and windows, leaving a lone prisoner locked up in the cellar.

The hall was dark and deserted when the patrol wagon with the police arrived.  But the news of their coming had been spread about the various villages, and a crowd of over 500 men, women, and children gathered to meet them.  

Inspector McCullagh drew the men up in front of the hall, and gave orders to march in on the lawn.  The policemen surrounded the big old-fashioned building, and the inspector went to the door and rapped.

An answer came from a cellar window.  It was the lone prisoner who spoke, saying:

'There's no one here but me, and as I'm locked up I can't get out to let you in.'

A man in the crowd out on the road shouted that Fitzgerald had the keys.  Roundsman Benjamin Wolf and four policemen were sent to hunt for Fitzgerald.  They found him in his house, a block away.  At first he refused to give up the keys, saying that the New York police had no authority to enter the Town Hall.  

Roundsman Wolf was not to be bluffed, and he soon had possession of a bunch of keys bigger than his head.  There were forty keys in the bunch.  Fitzgerald explained that one was for the Town Hall, another for the town safe, and so on.

'Just what we want,' said Wolf.

'Well, I didn't give them up voluntarily,' remarked Fitzgerald.  'I intend to have this thing tested by the courts.  This is a game of politics, and the cards were stacked right here in this town.  It's no use to quarrel with you policemen, for you'd get the best end of it.  You'll be sorry for this.'

Roundsman Wolf and his companions went back to the Town Hall and handed the keys over to McCullagh.  By this time the crowd had begun 'sassing' the bluecoats.

Inspector McCullagh ordered his men to drive the crowd back, and they did so in a hurry.

Fitzgerald looked around in the crowd for his town constables and found two of them.  A consultation was held, and then Fitzgerald approached the Town Hall and volunteered to show Inspector McCullagh how to unlock the door.  He also got an oil lamp from one of the village stores and lighted it, so that the police could see their way in.  When the doors were opened a dozen policemen filed in and drew up in line along a railing surrounding an oak writing table.  Fitzgerald placed the lamp on the table.

Inspector McCullagh went around behind the railing and then formally established a new police station, putting Roundsman Wolf in charge.

'This will be known as the West Chester station,' said the Inspector.

Eight policemen were left with Roundsman Wolf in the Town Hall, and the Inspector drove away to Williamsbridge, where he left another detail of eight men with a roundsman in charge in a little hall that is used as a political meeting place.

Then City Island was visited, and here a dozen policemen were left with a roundsman in charge.

There was still a patrol wagon filled with men, and this was driven to Pelham, where inspector McCullagh left eight patrolmen.

At Throgg's Neck, which is the most dismal place in the new district, the remaining coppers were dropped from the patrol wagon to patrol the woods in the vicinity of Fort Schuyler.

As this load of coppers was dumped out an old Irishman advised them not to go up near the fort as they would be shot by the soldiers there.

'They'll be suspicious of seeing brass buttons out there in the moonlight,' said the man.

At Throgg's Neck there is an Irish settlement, and here the coppers got a royal welcome.  One of them remarked that the place was made just after Hoboken had been finished, but it would be a good place to catch fish and chase butterflies in the summer time.

After visiting Throgg's Neck Inspector McCullagh returned to the new station house in the West Chester Town Hall and inspected it.

In front of the Town Hall at each place, James Rapp of Comptroller Fitch's office read, or will read to-day, to the assembled trustees of the village, the act by virtue of which it became a part of New York."

Source:  ANNEXED BY OUR POLICE -- WE'RE IN POSSESSION OF THE CITY'S NEW TERRITORY -- Fifty Policemen Go Up and Occupy the Public Buildings -- The Comptroller After the Public Funds -- A Formal Resistance by Local Authorities, Who Propose to Test the Constitutionality of the Law, The Sun [NY, NY], Jun. 8, 1895, p. 3, cols. 1-3 (see map below that accompanied this article).

"THE NEW TERRITORY JUST ANNEXED TO THE CITY OF NEW YORK.

[The shaded part of the map shows the new territory.  It comprises 20,000

acres and includes West Chester, East Chester, Pelham, Wakefield, City

Island, and Hart's Island.]"  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

"POLICE IN THE NEW DISTRICT.
-----
Every One but Displaced Officials Is Satisfied.
-----
Only One Arrest, and That Was a Lost Italian Boy.
-----

Acting Police Inspector John H. McCullagh, who has charge of the new annexed district, has made his headquarters at the new police station in the Westchester Village town hall, and Supt. Brennan, of the Police Telegraph Service, is engaged in putting in telephone communication with the Central Office.

Inspector McCullagh made a tour of his new district to-day, starting from City Island at 7 A.M.  He says that the advent of the city police was received with expressions of pleasure by the people of the various annexed places, the only dissenters being the village officials who are legislated out of office.

At City Island, where there are 1,800 inhabitants.  Roundsman Seavy and three patrolmen have established a station in the Town Hall.

At Eastchester, which has 350 inhabitants and is three and a half miles from City Island, a roundsman and two men are quartered at Steve O'Donnell's Hotel, on the Boston road, the nearest stopping place of the coaches.

At Wakefield, a pretty place of 2,500 inhabitants, Roundsman Strathman and six men are quartered in the headquarters of the Volunteer Fire Company, which is rented as a sort of village hall.

At Williamsbridge the only entries on Roundsman Duffy's books this morning were a false alarm of fire last night and a second visit of the village clerk and other officers to demand again the tax books.  The request was denied.

At Westchester Roundsman Wolf has headquarters in the Town Hall.

Inspector McCullagh conferred with Supervisor Field regarding the character of his new duties to-day, and the latter said:

'We have covered everything with two constables, but they would never interfere with the ball players, who play near the saloons.  Then there are the thimble-riggers on the West Farms road every Sunday fleecing the people.'

The Inspector said:  'I won't promise you much for to-morrow, for we are only temporarily established but by next Sunday we will be thoroughly organized and will restore order.'

There has been but one arrest so far in the new district, that of a four-year-old Italian boy, lost in Wakefield.  If not claimed he will be sent to the Central office.

'What will I do if 'Little Monte Carlo' does poolroom business now?' said Acting-Chief Conlin to a reporter of 'The Evening World,' which paper succeeded some time ago in rooting out the nuisance.

'Well, now,' and the Chief winked his gray eyes significantly, 'there's no 500-feet-outside-the-city-line business about Little Monte Carlo now.

'The Evening World' can depend upon it.  Little Monte Carlo will be carefully watched.'"

Source:  POLICE IN THE NEW DISTRICT -- Every One but Displaced Officials Is Satisfied -- Only One Arrest, and That Was a Lost Italian Boy, The Evening World [NY, NY], Jun. 8, 1895, p. 7, col. 3 (Note:  Paid subscription required to access via this link).  

"WITHHOLDS THE MONEY
-----
Annexed Westchester's School Commissioner Has $12,000.
-----
DUE TO NEW-YORK CITY BY LAW
-----
Acting Chief of Police Conlin Will Send a Squad of Mounted Metropolitan Police to Protect the New Territory.

Acting Chief of Police Conlin was busy yesterday completing the arrangements for policing the new territory annexed to the city, which takes in Westchester, East Chester, Pelham, Wakefield, City Island and Hart's Island.

Acting Inspector McCullagh has established a temporary headquarters in the Westchester Town Hall.  Telephonic communication was established yesterday between Police Headquarters and Westchester.  Acting Chief Conlin said that the present police arrangements were temporary.

'The men on duty in the new territory to-day,' said the Chief yesterday, 'will go back to their precincts to-morrow morning.  I am selecting twenty-five mounted men, who will be sent up there to-morrow.  They will be kept there for the present.  I will send a Sergeant or two along.  Temporary quarters will be provided for the men.  The department, of course, has to arrange to board the men until the police details for the new district are permanently completed.

'Acting Inspector McCullagh will have supervision over the squad.  The new territory will be included in his inspection district.  I have a telephone at the headquarters at Westchester, so I am in direct communication with the men stationed there.  A patrol wagon will be kept at Westchester, which is the central point of the new territory.  Prisoners will be taken in the patrol wagon to the King's Bridge and Morrisania stations.

'There was no trouble during the night.  I wish to give notice that the law will be enforced to-morrow up there.  I will permit no violations of the excise law.  I understand that no respect at all has been paid to the excise law at City Island and the other places on Sunday.  I will stop that right away.  The law will have to be rigidly enforced.'

The first case to be reported from the annexed territory to the police was entered on the books in the Information Bureau at Police Headquarters yesterday afternoon by Sergt. Harley.

Antonio Brandi, who lives in Pleasant Avenue, between Second and Flower Streets, called upon Sergt. Harley and had an alarm sent out for his child, Victor, two and a half years old, who wandered away from home yesterday, and was last seen at 6 o'clock last night on the White Plains Road.

Acting Chief Conlin yesterday afternoon detailed Sergt Revelle to command the mounted men who will go on duty in the new district.

When the police took possession of Westchester Village on Friday night the whole town was thrown into a state of excitement over the announcement that the village authorities would resist the taking possession of the town records and buildings.  The authorities did nothing.

Supervisor August M. Field, who has been one of the strongest advocates of annexation, and who was the only one in the Town Board who did not condemn the annexation, Friday turned over to City Chamberlain O'Donohue $19,000 which was in his possession as town money.  He received his receipt for it.  It was at first supposed that the other members of the board would obtain a writ from the Supreme Court restraining him from Turning over the money.

School Commissioner Warren Ferris of the village has still in his possession $12,000, which, it is said, ought to have been turned over to New-York City.  He will wait, it is said, until he obtains legal advice.

The following office holders will be legislated out of office:

John Fitzgerald, J. McGory, and F. O'Mara, Constables; Justices O'Neil, Cox, Delahanty, and Kidder, Town Clerk Thomas Dunnigan, Supervisor Field, and Road Commissioners Talma T. Hyde, Henry Victory, and J. Gerroughty.

As yet there have been no changes in the schools.  There are four schools in this place.  The largest is School No. 1, presided over by Michael E. Devlin, as principal.  It is said that Devlin will be the first to have his head cut off, as a consequence of his fighting the bill for annexation.

At City Island Supervisor McAllister has surrendered all the papers and documents concerning the annexed part of Pelham.  He holds the papers and documents of the unannexed portion.  The unannexed portion represents about two-thirds of the taxable valuation of the town.  Mr. McAllister will turn these over to his successor in the Board of Supervisors as soon as there is one.  Only one-third of the Town Building here belongs to the annexed part of the town, and it is thought some means of transfer of the third portion will be found, so that the city may become sole owner.  It is thought the Town Board of Pelham will be allowed the use of the hall until such a settlement is made.

Mr. McAllister is the leader of the annexationists here.  He thinks there will be no trouble in arranging the details.  The majority of the citizens on City Island favor the change.

Fire Commissioner Ford and Chief Bonner visited City Island yesterday, and were met by Fire Chief Fordham of City Island.  Chief Fordham showed the officers the department maintained by the island, and, after an inspection, both Mr. Ford and Chief Bonner agreed that the fire protection was ample for the time being, and until permanent arrangements could be made."

Source:  WITHHOLDS THE MONEY -- Annexed Westchester's School Commissioner Has $12,000 -- DUE TO NEW-YORK CITY BY LAW -- Acting Chief of Police Conlin Will Send a Squad of Mounted Metropolitan Police to Protect the New Territory, N.Y. Times, Jun. 9, 1895, p. 9, cols. 3-4 (Note:  Paid subscription required to access via this link).  

"IN PEACEFUL POSSESSION.
-----
CITY AUTHORITIES HAVE FULL CONTROL IN THE NEW TERRITORY.
-----
PEOPLE IN THE ANNEXED DISTRICT A LITTLE ANXIOUS OVER THE QUESTION OF IMPROVEMENTS -- A MEETING THAT WAS NOT HELD.

The land up in Westchester, with its groves and primeval forests, its natural parks and antique buildings, which has just become a part of the city of New-York, was visited yesterday by a number of New-Yorkers who were anxious to see what the baby ward of the city looked like.  Some went by trolley from One-hundred-and-twenty-ninth-st., by way of West Farms, and some took the suburban road.  Those who went by trolley landed in the centre of the pretty village of West Chester and escaped the hackmen at the station, who seem to have become intoxicated with metropolitan honors and although they retain all their rustic looks and their strictly 'country' conveyances, they charge city prices.  The place looked lively, and the new New-Yorkers stood in groups in the street discussing annexation and the appearance of their visitors.  One little girl from New-York proper was heard to say to her father:  'Isn't it nice, though -- we can go to the country now without leaving the city.'

Blue-coated guardians of the peace in the well-known metropolitan uniform patrolled the place, and the town hall has been converted into police headquarters for the Annexed District.  Until yesterday there were only twelve men in charge of the district, but this force has been augmented and there are now distributed in the Westchester part, under command of Sergeant A. Revelle, Sergeant W. W. Burfiend, Acting Sergeant Ferdon, four roundsmen, sixteen mounted men, twelve patrolmen, one driver, one guard, one stable man, one doorman and a patrol wagon.

Acting Police Inspector McCullagh was in charge yesterday, and the newly made citizens looked with awe through the open doors of the 'meetin' house' on the men who came to preserve the peace.  It was expected by some that there would be a contest between the old town authorities and the police yesterday, but there was none.

A meeting had been held last week and adjourned to meet yesterday at 10 a.m.  At the appointed hour about twenty citizens demanded entrance to the town hall, but they were told by Roundsman Benjamin Wolf that the town hall was now a police station and that no meeting could take place there.  There was a little muttering, a little talk, which was more emphatic than polite, and then the citizens retired in good Westchester order.

There is certainly some dissatisfaction on account of the annexation, but the majority of the inhabitants are pleased with the change.  The only town official to be seen yesterday was Thomas O'Neil, who was elected a Justice of the Peace in March, 1894, for a term of four years.  He was shoeing a horse in his blacksmith shop when a Tribune reporter called on him.  He stopped to say:  'The reports which have been sent to New-York about the lawlessness of our people and of their intention to resist annexation do us a great injustice.  We are law-abiding citizens,' he added, 'and we were against annexation because we were afraid we would get no improvements.  There is so much to be done in the way of public improvements in the city proper that it seems but natural that we should be neglected.  We know how little has been done for Fordham and for Tremont, and has been done for Fordham and for Tremont, and that's why we opposed annexation,' and the blacksmith Justice of the Peace resumed his labors.

Deputy Collector John H. Rapp, of the Finance Department, took possession of the public property and records of the villages of West Chester, Williamsbridge, Wakefield and City Island, and made his report to the Controller yesterday.

The Controller also received yesterday a petition from many prominent citizens of the town of West Chester asking the Controller to allow the tax-books of that town to remain for a reasonable time at the office of the late Supervisor, Augustus M. Field, and that Mr. Field be appointed custodian of such books, with authority to receive the back taxes and furnish searches from the records."

Source:  IN PEACEFUL POSSESSION -- CITY AUTHORITIES HAVE FULL CONTROL IN THE NEW TERRITORY -- PEOPLE IN THE ANNEXED DISTRICT A LITTLE ANXIOUS OVER THE QUESTION OF IMPROVEMENTS -- A MEETING THAT WAS NOT HELD, N.Y. Tribune, Jun. 11, 1895, p. 5, col. 1.  

"CAPT. GALLAGHER RETIRED. . . . 

The Mayor and the Common Council were requested by the board [i.e., the Police Board of New York City, led by Board President Theodore Roosevelt] to designate the town hall at Westchester, the engine-house at Wakefield, and the town hall at City Island as houses of detention and refuge, so that those places may be fully authorized station-houses for the Annexed District. . . ."

Source:  CAPT. GALLAGHER RETIRED, The Evening Post [NY, NY], Jun. 21, 1895, p. 3, col. 1.  

"WARING ASKS POLICE AID.
------
WANTS PEOPLE WHO LITTER THE STREETS LOOKED AFTER.
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The Annexed Territory to Be Known as the 38th Police Precinct. . .

At the meeting of the Police Board yesterday . . .

The following resolution was offered by Commissioner Grant and adopted:

Resolved, That all the territory annexed to the city of New York, pursuant to chapter 934, Laws of 1895, shall constitute a police precinct, to be known and designated as the Thirty-eighth Police Precinct.

Resolved, That on the approval of the Mayor and Common Council of the West Chester Town Hall as principal station, and the Wakefield engine house and the City Island Town Hall as sub-station, said premises be designated and set apart for the accommodation of members of the police force, for the temporary detention of persons arrested within said precinct and sub-precincts, and for the transaction of the business of the Police Department.

Resolved, That the quota of the police force of said precinct shall for the present be as follows:  One Captain, 4 Sergeants, 10 roundsmen, 45 patrolmen, and 8 doormen, or a total of 68, to be assigned as follows:  West Chester (main station), 1 Captain, 4 Sergeants, 4 mounted roundsmen, 16 mounted patrolmen, 6 foot patrolmen, 2 patrol wagon drivers, 2 patrol wagon guardsmen, and 3 doormen.  Wakefield (sub-station), 2 roundsmen and 4 patrolmen. . . ."

Source:  WARING ASKS POLICE AID -- WANTS PEOPLE WHO LITTER THE STREETS LOOKED AFTER -- The Annexed Territory to Be Known as the 38th Police Precinct, The Sun [NY, NY], Sep. 7, 1895, p. 9, col. 3.  

"CITY JOTTINGS. . . . 

The Board of Aldermen yesterday passed a resolution authorizing the establishment of a police station for the Thirty-eighth precinct in the Westchester Town Hall, and sub station in the fire engine house in Wakefield and in the Town Hall, City Island. . . ."

Source:  CITY JOTTINGS, N.Y. Herald, Oct. 1, 1895, p. 13, col. 2.  

"THE NEW PRECINCT.
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A Permanent Police Force Created.

Acting Chief of Police Conlin this morning issued an order creating the permanent force of the Thirty-eighth Precinct.  The precinct was made permanent by a resolution adopted by the Board of Police early this morning.  The new precinct comprises the territory recently annexed to the city, and embraces all that territory lying within the villages of West Chester, Wakefield, Williamsbridge, and City Island.  The police have been in command of the territory since June 7, but the police force stationed there has been only temporary and was made up from the various precincts in the city.  The district as it stands now has forty-five men to look after it.  It was said that twenty more will be added to these as soon as new appointments are made.

The precinct is in command of Acting-Capt. Frers, who was made Acting Captain at the last meeting of the Police Board.  It was said that he would be made a Captain as soon as his six months of probation as required by the rules of the department are ended."

Source:  THE NEW PRECINCT -- A Permanent Police Force Created, The Evening Post [NY, NY], Oct. 10, 1895, p. 4, col. 4.  

 "Y'EAVE HO, THE TARRY COPS!
-----

They Are the Bluecoats Who Keep Watch and Ward on City Island Reg'lar Old Mariners, Now.

The police of the Westchester Sub-Station, at City Island, have become regular old shellbacks, and can catch oysters, clams and flounders as well as they can catch lawbreakers.

It is nearly two years since the territory north of the turbulent waters of the Bronx was annexed to the city.  One night two big patrol wagons, filled with policemen, suddenly drew up in front of the West Chester Town Hall.  The men jumped out, fell into line and captured the building.  Then a few of them were sent to Wakefield, and half a dozen under Roundsman Wolf, went to City Island and took possession of the Town Hall of Pelham, where they are yet.

City Island is a bit of land in Long Island Sound, less than two miles in length and only half a mile wide at its fattest part.  Its chief industries are boat building and oyster and clam catching.  The place reeks of the salt, salt sea.

When the bluecoats arrived at City Island the natives were inclined at first to regard them as curiosities.  The instructions from Capt. Freres to his men were to treat the people kindly and not enforce all the city ordinances at once, so no one was arrested for spilling sand on the seashore or scattering paper over the clam cars.

The City Island police were gentlemen, every one of them.  The natives took them under their wings and mainsails and the result is that the policemen can reef, steer, dredge for oysters and converse in a tarry-topsail sort of way.

When off duty the police go sailing or fishing or sit on oyster and clam cars and talk about Stepping Stones and Sand's Point Lights, the last storm and about the oyster sloop Kate receiving a new suit of sails or Cap'n Pell's new catboat breaking her main boom off Turtle Cove.

They know the history and records of all the famous yachts laid up or getting ready for the season at Piepgrass's or Hawkins's shipyard.  They have a perfect knowledge of all the tides -- where the best places are to fish, when, where and how to plant and dredge for oysters and how to calk, rig and handle a boat.  

Should you visit the island and ask for a certain policeman who might be absent you would be told that he had 'gone over to the main,' meaning that he had crossed the rickety drawbridge to the mainland, on which Pelham Bay Park is situated.

When a City Island policeman starts out for duty he 'weighs anchor.'  He 'hauls alongside' a lawbreaker, takes him to the sub-station and 'claps him under hatches.'

The policemen only sleep in 'Town Hall,' their diminutive headquarters, when on duty.  Nearly all have neat little cottages with pretty gardens about them, with hard winding paths made out of ground-up oyster and clam shells.

There are not many posts on City Island, but what few there are cover such important places as Main street, Belden Point, the drawbridge and Pilot avenue, including a close watch over the shipyards and clam cars.  When a prisoner is brought in a policeman starts 'east'ard' and uses a telephone or the ship news reports who controls the only telegraph wire on the island may send a message for him to West Chester and the prisoner is taken to West Chester Station and later on arraigned at the Morrisania Police Court.

Once a day Capt. Freres drives from West Chester to City Island to see how things are getting along and talks to the police, boat builders, and oystermen, shakes hands with the leading citizens and then drives away again."

Source:  Y'EAVE HO, THE TARRY COPS! -- They Are the Bluecoats Who Keep Watch and Ward on City Island Reg'lar Old Mariners, Now, The World [NY, NY], Sep. 1, 1897, p. 2, col. 5 (Note:  Paid subscription to access via this link).

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