More on "The King of Pelham" -- The Most Ornery Bull Ever Kept in Pelham

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He was called "The King of Pelham."  He was big.  He was mean.  He was the most ornery Holstein bull ever kept in Pelham.  He ruled the pasture located on the property of Colonel Richard Lathers adjacent to Lathers Woods.  The property later became what we know today as Pelhamwood.  The story of The King of Pelham is a tragic one that reminds us of days of yore when large farms dotted the North Pelham countryside.

I have written before about the ornery bull called "The King of Pelham," saying:

"The Walsh family supplied butter, milk, and other dairy products to residents of North Pelham, Pelham Manor, and New Rochelle. The dairy farm included a large pasture and cattle barn. The pasture was enclosed by stone walls and, in some parts, by a wire fence. Patrick Walsh followed a daily routine. Each morning he opened his cattle barn and drove his cattle into the pasture to graze. Every afternoon he went to the pasture and drove the cattle back to the barn. The King of Pelham, however, was a different matter. He was so mean and ornery that Patrick Walsh had to keep him chained while in the pasture. Walsh often kept the old bull tethered to a forty-feet long chain for his own protection and that of his family. According to a report in the New-York Tribune published on July 14, 1900, 'the bull had a reputation in the neighborhood for being vicious' and 'it was a menace to the neighborhood.'"

Source:  Wed., May 11, 2016:  "The King of Pelham" -- Pelham's Most Ornery Bull That Chased Pelhamites and, in the End, Killed His Owner.  

Today's Historic Pelham article details more about one of the many incidents that gave The King of Pelham his ugly reputation while reminding us of a time when much of Pelham remained rural farmland marked by croplands, dairy farms, and orchards.  Though The King eventually killed his owner, dairy farmer Patrick Walsh, today's article tells the story of The King and a pair of young Belles who dared to take a shortcut across The King's pasture, thinking the bull was chained as usual.  

September 4, 1898 seemed no different in Pelham than any other day.  Miss Ethel Fairchild was vacationing for a few weeks in the Village of North Pelham.  She was staying with Frank Dodge and his wife.  Frank Dodge was a famous scenic artist of the Herald Square Theatre, a major Broadway Theater in New York City.

Each day during Ethel Fairchild's vacation, part of the glorious enjoyment of Pelham included a beautiful stroll from the Dodge Household in North Pelham to the Pelham Station on the New Haven main line, accompanying Frank Dodge as he left on his daily commute to New York City.  

The early morning of September 4, 1898 was no different.  Vacationing Ethel Fairchild accompanied Mr. and Mrs. Frank Dodge all the way to Pelham Station where the two women watched him climb aboard the New Haven Line train and recede into the distance.

Miss Fairchild and Mrs. Dodge turned toward the Dodge home in North Pelham.  As the pair started to walk toward Fifth Avenue to head home, the vacationing Miss Fairchild suggested the pair should simply cut across the dairy farm pasture ahead.  That pasture was part of the Patrick Walsh Farm leased from Colonel Richard Lathers who owned Lathers Woods, what we know today as Pelhamwood.

The pasture was a small cleared area in one corner of Lathers' Woods.  It was located very roughly where today's September 11 Memorial, Daronco Townhouse (and parking lot) now are located.  In the midst of the clearing, farmer Patrick Walsh kept The King of Pelham tethered by a fifty-feet long chain attached to a ring in the bull's nose with the other end anchored to a tree.  

As the two women made their way across the woods of today's Pelhamwood toward the pasture clearing, Ethel Fairchild was the first to notice that the bull's chain had come loose from the tree.  She let out a little scream.  

According to the account quoted in full below, The King of Pelham was in a particularly ornery mood that day due to maddening heat and pesky flies.  As the bull turned toward the women, he reportedly "caught sight of a red ribbon on Miss Fairchild's hat."  The bull started toward the intruding women at a slow trot.  

The women gathered up their skirts and began running toward the pasture fence, an eight-feet high barbed wire affair.  As they began running, so did the angry bull, chasing after them.  

The King of Pelham was fast.  In mere moments, he closed the distance of the chase to only twenty feet as the two terrified women scrambled for their lives.  Providence, however, played its hand.  The bull's chain, dragging along behind the rushing animal, snagged for a moment in a sapling.  The Holstein had to stop and free itself from the snag.  Though the women were "nearly faint from terror and loss of breath," they raced ahead.  By the time The King of Pelham freed himself from the snag, the two women were one hundred feet away and nearing the fence.

The fence, however, was no simple affair.  Given the viciousness of the bull and its previous encounters with Pelhamites who tried to cross its pasture from the Pelham Train Station, farmer Walsh had built a sturdy barb-wire fence that was so high it could not easily be scaled.  

With the bull bearing down on them again, the two women raced to a small cedar tree that farmer Walsh had used as a fence post when building the fence.  Some of its branches were low enough for the women to grab and scramble up the tree.  As they did, the bull reached the fence as well, snorting and pawing the ground below the women.

Mrs. Dodge edged onto a limb that hung over the fence on the side opposite the bellowing, angry bull and dropped to the ground.  She fell directly into a pile of rusty tin cans and debris thrown behind the barn of a Mr. Lawrence.  Cut by the cans and rubbish, Mrs. Dodge lay in the debris exhausted.  Miss Fairchild thought she had fainted and began to shout for help from the tree branches above.  

Hearing the shouts, farmer Lawrence ambled out behind his barn.  He grabbed a pitchfork, used it to drive The King of Pelham away from the fence, and rescued the two women.  He took the two women into his farmhouse where he and his wife cared for them until they recovered.

According to the news account quoted in full below, "The bull, after being captured, was taken to Walsh's barnyard, and soon will be turned into dressed beef."

Alas, the bull was NOT turned into "dressed beef."  Months later, on July 13, 1900, farmer Patrick Walsh tried to control The King of Pelham with a pitchfork.  The angry animal ignored the pitchfork that the farmer jabbed into its face and, with the speed of a train, knocked the farmer to the ground and gored him through the temple, killing him.

Within hours The King of Pelham was turned into dressed beef.
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"BULL TREES WOMEN.

Mrs. Frank Dodge and Miss Ethel Fairchild, who are spending the summer at Pelham Manor, near Mount Vernon, N. Y., after running through the woods for nearly a mile only escaped being gored to death by a big Holstein bull by climbing into a low cedar tree, which grew near a barbed wire fence, through which they were unable to make their way.

Mrs. Dodge is the wife of the scenic artist of the Herald Square Theatre, New York city.  Miss Fairchild has been their guest for the last two weeks.  She and Mrs. Dodge, as was their custom every day, accompanied Mr. Dodge to the train at the Pelham station Monday morning.  Miss Fairchild suggested that they return home through the wood known as Winiah [sic; should be "Winyah"] Park, owned by Col. Richard Lathers.  In one corner of this wood is a small clearing, which had been leased by Col. Lathers to Patrick Walsh, a farmer.  In this clearing the vicious bull was tethered to a tree by a fifty foot chain, one end of which was attached to a ring in the bull's nose.

When Miss Fairchild and Mrs. Dodge were in the centre of the wood, within sight of the pasture, Miss Fairchild said, with a little scream:  -- 

'Oh, look at Walsh's bull!  I believe he's loose.'  

As they turned to jump over a fallen tree the animal, maddened by the heat and flies, caught sight of a red ribbon on Miss Fairchild's hat and started toward the women.  The clanking of the broken chain, mingled with the bellowing of the animal, which, with head down and tail up, was coming toward the two women at a trot, made them shake with terror.  Miss Fairchild was the first to recover herself.

'Come!' said she, gathering up her skirts.  'Let's run toward the fence.  Maybe the bull will get tangled in his chain.'

The two women scampered through the underbrush, the bull in close pursuit.  The animal was within twenty feet of the fleeing women when, as Miss Fairchild hoped, the chain caught in a sapling for a moment and gave them a chance to gain a hundred feet on the maddened bull.

Then the animal, loosening the chain, again started in pursuit.  The women were through the bushes now, and the bull was gaining on the women at every jump.  One hundred feet away was a barbed wire fence, eight feet high.  Around them were trees, which they could not climb.  It looked as if there was no escape from the animal.

The women were nearly faint from terror and loss of breath when Miss Fairchild spied a small cedar tree, which was used as a post in the barbed wire fence.  The tree's branches hung low to the ground.  The two women, their tattered skirts impeding their progress, headed for the cedar.  Just as they had climbed to the second branch of the little tree the bull reached the fence and stood pawing the earth.  The women were two much exhausted and frightened for a moment to scream for help.  In a few minutes Mrs. Dodge climbed out on a limb reaching over the side of the fence opposite the bull in the rear of a Mr. Lawrence's barn.

From here she dropped to the ground into a heap of tin cans and rubbish, which cut her about the face and hands.  She was stunned for a few moments, and Miss Fairchild, who thought she had fainted, called loudly for help.  Mr. Lawrence heard the cries, and, hurrying to the rear of the barn, rescued the young women from their predicament, driving the bull away from the fence at the point of a pitchfork.  The women were then taken to the farm house, where, under the care of Mr. Lawrence and his wife, they recovered from their fright and exhaustion.  The bull, after being captured, was taken to Walsh's barnyard, and soon will be turned into dressed beef."

Source:  BULL TREES WOMEN, Alexandria Gazette [Alexandria, VA], Sep. 7, 1898, Vol XCIX, No. 212, p. 1, col. 2.

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"The King of Pelham" -- Pelham's Most Ornery Bull That Chased Pelhamites and, in the End, Killed His Owner

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He was called "The King of Pelham."  He was big.  He was mean.  He was an ornery bull that ruled the pasture located on the property of Colonel Richard Lathers, the property known today as Pelhamwood.  The story of The King of Pelham is a tragic one that reminds us of days of yore when large farms dotted the North Pelham countryside.

During the 1890s and the earliest years of the 20th century, Colonel Richard Lathers of New Rochelle owned a 72-acre triangular tract of land in North Pelham that eventually became the development known today as Pelhamwood.  He leased a portion of the property to an Irish immigrant named Patrick Walsh who, with his sons, operated a small farm and dairy on the property.  Walsh had immigrated to America in about 1850 and, eventually, settled in North Pelham where he and his family operated his dairy farm.  

Detail from 1899 Fairchild Map Showing Undeveloped Property

of Col.Richard Lathers Known as "Winyah Park" with Pelham

Train Station at the Bottom, Adjacent to the Property.  Source:

Fairchild, John F., Atlas of the City of Mount Vernon and the Town

of Pelham, Plate 20 (Mount Vernon, NY:  John F. Fairchild, 1899).

NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

The Walsh family supplied butter, milk, and other dairy products to residents of North Pelham, Pelham Manor, and New Rochelle.  The dairy farm included a large pasture and cattle barn.  The pasture was enclosed by stone walls and, in some parts, by a wire fence.

Patrick Walsh followed a daily routine.  Each morning he opened his cattle barn and drove his cattle into the pasture to graze.  Every afternoon he went to the pasture and drove the cattle back to the barn.

The King of Pelham, however, was a different matter.  He was so mean and ornery that Patrick Walsh had to keep him chained while in the pasture.  Walsh often kept the old bull tethered to a forty-feet long chain for his own protection and that of his family.  According to a report in the New-York Tribune published on July 14, 1900, said "the bull had a reputation in the neighborhood for being vicious" and that "it was a menace to the neighborhood."

The reputation of The King of Pelham seems to have been well deserved.  For example, on September 4, 1898, Mrs. Frank Dodge of North Pelham and a friend who was visiting her, Miss Edith Fairchild (an actress from New York City) accompanied Frank Dodge to the Pelham Train Station to see him off to New York City.  After Mr. Dodge departed on the train for the city, the two women left the train station to return to the Dodge home in North Pelham.

The two women took a shortcut across Winyah Park, the property owned by Colonel Richard Lathers, and entered the pasture.  The two women had made it about halfway across the property before they realized that The King of Pelham had snapped his chain and was not tethered.  

The bull charged, dragging most of the forty-feet of chain behind him.  The women fled for their lives.  With the bull gaining on them, they reached a stone boundary wall that was so high, they could not climb it.  In a panic, the women ran along the wall with the bull chasing them.  As the bull gained on the fleeing women, providence extended its hand.  

The bull's chain snagged in bushes, slowing the fearsome charge of The King of Pelham.  With the fierce bull only "a few feet" behind them, the two women reached a wire fence.  According to one account:  "Mrs. Dodge crawled through the fence, ruining her clothing, and Miss Fairchild climbed it with equally bad results . . . in getting off the fence, [she] fell and cut her face."

The women had escaped.  Mrs. Dodge promptly fainted and had to be carried to a nearby house where she was revived.  Thereafter, she was "confined to her room from nervous prostration."

The King of Pelham certainly had reinforced his reputation as a mean critter.  His owner, Patrick Walsh, soon discovered just how mean a critter the ornery old bull actually was.

 On the morning of July 13, 1900, farmer Walsh went to his pasture to milk some of his cows.  As he neared the old bull, the animal lowered its horns and charged him.  Walsh sidestepped the mad bull and took refuge behind a nearby stone wall.

Infuriated with The King of Pelham, farmer Walsh went to the barn, grabbed a pitchfork, and returned to the pasture "to punish the bull."  The farmer and his bull began to battle with the bull wielding his horns and the farmer jabbing the animal in the face with his pitchfork.  By the time the battle was over, the bull had torn the farmer's pants and the farmer had stabbed the bull in the face with the pitchfork several times until the bull gave up and retired to a distant corner of the pasture.  This time, it was the bull who was infuriated.

Later that day, farmer Walsh boasted to neighbors that he had bested the beast in an epic battle and that he had "whipped the bull until it was as tame as a cat."  As he boasted, a storm came up and Walsh left in a hurry to get back to the pasture and drive his cattle to the barn for shelter.  When Walsh reached the pasture, The King of Pelham was waiting at the gate, angrier than ever.  "Fearing trouble," Walsh grabbed the pitchfork again and entered the pasture.  According to a rather gruesome account:

"The creature lowered its huge head and made for the farmer with the speed of a train.  The farmer tried to keep it off by jabbing it again in the face with the pitchfork, but this time the animal was so maddened that it did not seem to mind it.  It kept on coming, and, catching its victim in the back with its horns, tossed him about twenty feet.  Mr. Welch [sic] had just risen to his knees, and before he could defend himself the bull was upon him again.  There was a cry of agony, and the fight was over.  One of the animal's sharp horns had caught the man in the temple and penetrated the brain.  Mr. Welch's [sic] nose was also broken.  A man on an adjoining farm who saw the fight ran to the pasture.  The farmer was dead, and his clothing was saturated with blood."

Walsh left a widow and family.  His funeral was held at St. Catharines on July 15, 1900.  His sons reportedly killed The King of Pelham, admitting it was a menace to the neighborhood.

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I have written about The King of Pelham on two previous occasions, both of which contain the text of some of the articles referenced in today's posting.  See:  

Tue., Apr. 06, 2010:  Well-Known North Pelham Farmer Patrick Walsh Killed by a Bull in 1900.

Tue., Feb. 12, 2008:  He Fought the Bull and the Bull Won: Mad Bull Killed North Pelham Farmer in 1900.

Immediately below is the text of an article referenced above that sheds additional light on the ornery bull known as The King of Pelham.

"TWO WOMEN CHASED BY A BULL.
-----
They Got Through and Over a Wire Fence Just in Time.

MOUNT VERNON, N. Y., Sept. 5. -- Mrs. Frank Dodge of North Pelham and Miss Edith Fairchild of New York, her guest, had an exciting experience with a bull yesterday.  They had gone to the railway station to see Mr. Dodge start for New York, and, while walking home, took a short cut through the woods of Winyah Park, the property of Col. Richard Lathers.  One portion of this property is let out for pasturage, and among the animals there was the King of Pelham, the property of Patrick Walsh.  He had broken his chain.  

The two women were halfway across the park when they discovered the bull was not tethered.  The bull chased them and they fled, but on reaching the boundary found a high stone wall which they could not climb.  They fled along the wall with the bull after them.  They say the animal would have caught them had not the chain, about forty feet of which was dragging after the animal, caught in some bushes.  As it was, they reached a place where there was a wire fence, only a few feet ahead of the bull.

Mrs. Dodge crawled through the fence, ruining her clothing, and Miss Fairchild climbed it with equally bad results, but in time to escape the bull.  Mrs. Dodge fainted and was revived at a near farmhouse.  Miss Fairchild, in getting off the fence, fell and cut her face.  To-day Mrs. Dodge is confined to her room from nervous prostration."

Source:  TWO WOMEN CHASED BY A BULL -- They Got Through and Over a Wire Fence Just in Time, N.Y. Times, Sep. 6, 1898, p. 7, col. 3 (NOTE:  Paid subscription required to access via this link).  


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Below is the text from a number of articles about the death of Patrick Walsh in addition to those I previously quoted in earlier articles about the incident.  Each is followed by a citation and link to its source.

"THE BULL REMEMBERED 
-----
And Gored His Enemy To Death When He Got a Chance.

While attempting today to punish an angry bull, Patrick Welch [sic], a well known farmer of North Pelham in Westchester county, was gored to death says an exchange.  

This morning when Mr. Welch went to his pasture the bull made for him.  It plunged at him with its head lowered, but he avoided it by taking refuge behind a stone wall.  He then went to the barn, armed himself with a pitchfork and returned to punish the bull.  In the scrimmage that followed the farmer had his trousers torn, but he managed to jab the bull several times in the face and it finally retired to another part of the field.

Mr. Welch afterward told some of his neighbors that he had whipped the bull until it was as tame as a cat.  While he was talking a storm came up and the farmer hastened back to the pasture to drive his cows to shelter.  He found the bull waiting for him at the gate.  Its face was swollen from the wounds inflicted upon it in the morning.  When the beast saw the farmer it set up an angry bellowing.  Fearing trouble, Mr. Welch again seized the pitchfork.  His victory in the morning made him confident and he opened the gate and walked toward the big creature without hesitation.  This added to the bull's fury.

The creature lowered its huge head and made for the farmer with the speed of a train.  The farmer tried to keep it off by jabbing it again in the face with the pitchfork, but this time the animal was so maddened that it did not seem to mind it.  It kept on coming, and catching its victim in the back with its horns tossed him about 20 feet.  Mr. Welch had just risen to his knees and before he could defend himself the bull was upon him again.  There was a cry of agony and the fight was over.  One of the animal's sharp horns had caught the main in the temple and penetrated the brain.  Mr. Welch's nose was also broken.  A man on an adjoining farm who saw the fight ran to the pasture.  The farmer was dead and his clothing was saturated with blood."

Source:  THE BULL REMEMBERED -- And Gored His Enemy To Death When He Got a Chance, El Paso Herald [El Paso, TX], Jul. 19, 1900, p. 4, col. 2 (NOTE:  Paid subscription required to access via this link.).  

"KILLED BY A BULL.
-----
North Pelham Farmer Gored to Death by an Enraged Animal Last Night.
-----

Patrick Welsh [sic], 56 [sic] years old, a farmer living at North Pelham, was gored to death by a bull in the yard [sic] of his home last night.  For some time past the bull had been very vicious and last evening while Welsh was chastising it, the brute made a dash for him.  Welsh grabbed a pitch fork and plunged it into the bull's side [sic].

The brute turned suddenly and before Welsh could get out of the way he was tossed about twenty feet into the air.  By this time the bull had become thoroughly enraged.  He made a second rush for his victim who had regained his feet.  This time the bull thrust one of his horns into Welsh's head, penetrating the brain and he died instantly."

Source:  KILLED BY A BULL -- North Pelham Farmer Gored to Death by an Enraged Animal Last Night, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Jul. 13, 1900, p. 1, col. 2 (NOTE:  Paid subscription required to access via this link.).  

"GORED TO DEATH BY A BULL.
-----
Farmer Tried To Discipline the Animal and Was Attacked.

MOUNT VERNON, N. Y., July 14. -- Patrick Welsh [sic], fifty-six years old [sic], a farmer living at North Pelham, was gored to death by a bull in the yard [sic] of his home last night.  For some time past the bull had been very vicious.  Last evening Welsh went into the field and drove the animal into the yard.  There he began to chastise it.  The brute made for Welsh.  Welsh grabbed a pitchfork near the barn door and plunged it into the bull's side [sic].  The brute turned suddenly, and before Farmer Welsh could get out of the way he tossed him about twenty feet into the air.  By this time the bull had become enraged.  He made a second rush for his victim, who had regained his feet.  This time the bull stuck one of his horns in Welsh's head, penetrating the brain.  He died instantly.  Coroner Benning of Mount Vernon was notified and took charge of the case.  Welsh leaves a widow and family."

Source:  GORED TO DEATH BY A BULL -- Farmer Tried To Discipline the Animal and Was Attacked, The Scranton Republican [Scranton, PA], Jul. 16, 1900, p. 7, col 5 (NOTE:  Paid subscription required to access via this link.).  

"Gored to Death by a Bull.

New York, July 13. -- Patrick Welch [sic], 56 [sic] years old, a farmer living at North Pelham, was gored to death by a bull in the yard [sic] of his home last night.  For some time past the bull had been very vicious and Welch was chastising the brute when the animal stuck one of his horns in Welch's head."

Source:  Gored to Death by a Bull, Democrat and Chronicle [Rochester, NY], Jul. 14, 1900, p. 1, col. 6 (NOTE:  Paid subscription required to access via this link.).

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Pelhamville's Name Was Nearly Changed To "Huguenot" -- Efforts in 1870 to Develop and Market Today's Village of Pelham

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Research has revealed an initiative in 1870 to rename the tiny little hamlet known as Pelhamville.  The proposal was to change its name to "Huguenot" and seems to have been part of a broader ploy to develop and market building lots for sale to prospective home builders.

At about that time, the trains of the New York & New Haven Railroad did not stop in Pelhamville.  Rather, a red flag had to be raised to signal trains to stop.  As part of the initiative to develop the area, four petitions were circulated among local residents to request that all regular trains be required to stop in Pelhamville.  Such an arrangement would improve the local business climate and would benefit local merchants whose freight was delivered to Mount Vernon, three miles away, and had to be picked up.  

One of the principal proponents of the initiative was Col. Richard Lathers of New Rochelle.  Col. Lathers stood to profit handsomely from any such development.  

Richard Lathers was a commission merchant in New York City who dealt in cotton and rice and later founded the Great Western Insurance Company, with which he continued for nineteen years until 1869.  Born in Ireland, Lathers grew up in South Carolina.  In 1849, Lathers married Abbie Pitman Thurston whose father was President of the Exchange Bank of Newport, Rhode Island.  Lathers purchased 250 acres of undeveloped land in West New Rochelle and Pelhamville and built a large Tuscany-style home north of the old Boston & Westchester Railroad tracks and east of Storer Avenue.  He named the estate "Winyah Park," naming it after the Parish Prince George Winyah in South Carolina.  See Death of Col. R. Lathers -- Orator and Statesman Passes Away in His City Home, N.Y. Times, Sep. 18, 1903.  Lathers and his wife had two sons and four daughters, one of whom was educated at the Priory School for Girls in Pelham Manor.  

Col. Richard Lathers in an Undated Photograph Published in 1902.

Source:  Lathers, Richard, This Discursive Biographical Sketch 1841-1902

of Colonel Richard Lathers Compiled as Required for Honorary

Membership in Post 509, Grand Army of the Republic Embracing a

Sixty Years' Residence in South Carolina, New York, 

and Massachusetts:  Devoted Actively to Commerce, Agriculture,

Insurance, Banking and Railroad Enterprise,

Photo Page Following Index to the Volume 

(Philadelphia, PA:  J.B. Lippincott Co., 1902).

Col. Lathers opened up today's Webster Avenue through his property and opened Washington Avenue as well as a means of access from West New Rochelle to Pelhamville.  Col. Lathers transferred a large portion of his land to the Winyah Development Company.  A company named Winyah Realty Company took over the development of a large portion of the property in 1901 and used Pelham's Smith Brothers Contracting to begin to lay out streets and sewers in the neighborhood known today as Pelhamwood.  Lathers died in New York City on September 17, 1903.  See Death of Col. R. Lathers -- Orator and Statesman Passes Away in His City Home, N.Y. Times, Sep. 18, 1903.  

Development of the area slowed to a crawl during the Panic of 1907 and the subsequent Depression of 1907-1908.  In 1908, Clifford B. Harmon, a son-in-law of Commodore E.C. Benedict of Greenwich, Connecticut and Edward C. Storer, a Boston banker, formed the Pelhamwood Company and took over the land and its development.  They named Benedict Place for Commodore Benedict, Harmon and Clifford Avenues for Clifford B. Harmon and Young Avenue after George C. Young, President of the U.S. Mortgage & Trust Co. who was the husband of the famous opera singer, Mme. Nordica.  Storer Avenue was named for Edward C. Storer.  In 1912, the Pelhamwood Company arranged for the Joseph B. Lambden Agency to sell lots for the construction of homes and development of Pelhamwood followed.  Source: New Members Join Pelhamwood Association As It Celebrates The Thirtieth Year Of Its Existence, The Pelham Sun, Vol. 32, No. 7, May 22, 1942, p. 3, col. 1.

Map of Pelhamville Published in 1868.

Source: Beers, F.W., Atlas of New York and Vicinity from Actual 

Surveys By and Under the Direction of F.W. Beers, 

Assisted By A.B. Prindle & Others, pg. 36 

(NY, NY: Beers, Ellis & Soule, 1868) (Detail from Page 36 Map Entitled 

"Town of New Rochelle, Westchester Co., N.Y. (With) Pelhamville).

Although it took nearly forty years to develop the lands owned by Col. Lathers into Pelhamwood, in 1870 Lathers was beginning to formulate a grand design to name the area "Huguenot" and to cut a roadway from today's Shore Road near Bolton Priory all the way to the Pelhamville Depot.  He also planned to improve nearby roadways and to create "Huguenot Park" with a 20-acre lake for boating and fishing to attract prospective purchasers.

Thankfully, the name "Huguenot" never took hold.  Also thankfully, a New Rochelle resident named Richard Lathers had the foresight in 1870 to begin efforts to develop lands that included what is, today, the lovely neighborhood known as Pelhamwood.

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Below is a transcription of the text of the article published in 1870, followed by a citation to its source.

"PELHAMVILLE.

THE NEW NAME. -- The name of this 'hamlet' has been changed to Hugurnot [sic].  (It is jocosely reported that the name was understood to be Hug-me-not, to the extreme dissatisfaction of the fair sex.)  Four petitions are being circulated among the residents of the vicinity, to request that all regular trains upon the New York & New Haven Railroad shall stop at that point.  It is calculated that business will be greatly increased by this movement.  Immense advantages will certainly be afforded the trading community by leaving freight at their doors instead of Mount Vernon, three miles distant.  A new road is being opened from Pelham Priory to Huguenot depot, at an expense of $10,000, which will shorten the traveling distance from 3-1/2 to 2 miles.  An additional sum of $20,000 is being expended upon various roads in the vicinity with a view of affording perfect facilities to the traveling public.  Col. Lathers is the prime mover in this worthy enterprise, and has devoted one hundred acres of his valuable property to its service.  

'Huguenot Park,' now being laid out upon a portion of these grounds, will extend within a half mile of the railway depot, and will be rendered a delightful location.

A lake will be constructed covering a surface of twenty acres, in a valley peculiarly adapted by nature for the purpose, and watered by a number of small streams.  The lake will be stocked with choice varieties of fish, and supplied with boats for the use of the public.  A fine grove is also to be arranged for the use of pic-nic parties.  Once these improvements are completed, Huguenot will, to say the least, be equally desirable as a place of residence to any village upon the New York and New Haven Railroad.  The subsoil being of a sandy nature permanent dampness is unknown, and the vicinity is entirely free from miastra, as well as those summer pests, musquitoes [sic]."

Source:  PELHAMVILLE, The Statesman [Yonkers, NY], Apr. 14, 1870, Vol. XV, No. 739, p. 1, col. 3.  

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