Historic Pelham

Presenting the rich history of Pelham, NY in Westchester County: current historical research, descriptions of how to research Pelham history online and genealogy discussions of Pelham families.

Thursday, July 28, 2016

The Chicago Tribune Lampooned Coaching to Pelham in 1884



"It was an institution of democratic aristocracy.  Anybody could
ride who engaged a seat in advance and paid the regular fare. . . .
He enjoyed the trips for they afforded him occupation and amusement. 
The scheme was so popular that at the close of the season he sold
his horses and got out without loss."

-- The Chicago Tribune, June 8, 1884, Writing About Col. Delancey Kane's
First Season Operating His Coach to Pelham Known as the "Tally Ho"

In 1876 a horse-drawn road coach named the "Tally Ho" and known informally as “The Pelham Coach” began running between New York City’s Hotel Brunswick and the “Pelham Manor” of yore. This road coach was not a simple hired coach that ferried passengers between New York City and Pelham Manor.  Rather, this road coach was driven by Colonel Delancey Astor Kane, one of the so-called “millionaire coachmen,” who engaged in a sport known as “public coaching” or “road coaching” as it sometimes was called. 

The purpose of the sport was to rush the carriage between designated points on a specified schedule and to maintain that schedule rigorously.  Colonel Delancey Astor Kane became quite famous for his handling of The Pelham Coach, a bright canary yellow coach that was cheered along its route from the Hotel Brunswick in New York City to Pelham Bridge.



Colonel Delancey Astor Kane and The Pelham Coach
During a "Coaching to Pelham" Excursion.  NOTE:
Click on Image to Enlarge.

Col. Delancey Astor Kane and the Pelham Coach made Pelham famous and played a critical role in shaping the nation's perception of Pelham as a playground of the rich and famous during the 19th century, just as the Town was beginning to grow explosively as a suburb of New York City.  People seemed to love the pageantry and excitement of the canary yellow Pelham Coach, pulled by four grand horses, racing through the streets of New York City and across the countryside.  Countless newspaper and magazine accounts describe crowds gathering at the Hotel Brunswick and along the streets to cheer the coach as it departed, arrived, or passed.

Yet, within a short time, some tired of the spectacle.  Some viewed the daily travels of the coach, in season, as a pointless exercise intended more to bring attention to Col. Delancey Kane and the various other mutton-chop millionaires who formed the Coaching Club of New York City and occasionally drove the Pelham Coach and other such sporting coaches in our region.  

Within a few years, some New Yorkers began to taunt and harass the various sporting coaches.  Indeed, I have written before of such incidents as the one in 1886, when a prankster hired four mules and hitched them to an English-style coach with a gaudily-dressed crew.  On the first trip of the Tantivy Coach to Pelham driven by Frederic Bronson that year from the Hotel Brunswick to the Country Club at Pelham, the mules pulled in behind the Tantivy as it rumbled over the streets of New York City and followed it as crowds along the roads roared with jeers and laughter, thoroughly humiliating the Tantivy, its coachmen, and passengers.  See Wed., Sep. 28, 2005:  Taunting the Tantivy Coach on its Way to Pelham: 1886.

Col. Delancey Kane and his Tally-Ho to Pelham were not immune from such taunts.  Indeed, it seems that an earlier such incident involving the Tally-Ho to Pelham may have inspired the prank that humiliated the Tantivy in 1886.  In fact, this earlier incident involving the Tally-Ho so thoroughly humiliated Col. Delancey Kane that he reportedly became ill and temporarily abandoned his beloved sport of coaching in New York choosing, instead, to pursue the sport in London during the following year (1883).

The incident, it seems, turned out to be a brilliant stroke of marketing by a soap seller who sought to make fun of the Tally-Ho while bringing attention to its soap products.  One report described the incident that occurred in about 1882 in terms offensive to our sensibilities today:

"All went merry as a marriage-bell, till suddenly the Devil appeared to trouble our stage-driving aristocracy.  He took the form of a four-horse coach almost exactly like the 'Tallyho' and 'Tantivy' which stood waiting for them when they came trotting down in the afternoon.  This device of the Evil One lay in wait at the Central Park.  It even outdid the two other coaches in genteel splendor.  It was driven by two liveried negroes in high white hats and two other children of Ham similarly attired sat upright and perched high behind.  They wore very high collars, and on these was the strange device '----- Soap.'  When either the Pelham or the Yonkers coach came along the soap concern turned right in behind it and followed it down Fifth avenue and through the city, and when the professional guards on the real coach would sound their stirring horns the colored tooters blew an answering blast.  Forrest was thrown into a fever once by seeing the negro minstrels caricature his Virginius.  So did the African imitation annoy Col. Kane.  It made him sick and nervous, and his doctor ordered him off the road.  He left.  The 'Tallyho' was withdrawn, no doubt to the great chagrin of the gorgeous advertising dodge, and soon thereafter Mr. Roosevelt ceased to play the Jehu."  (See transcription of text of the full article below).

As the incident involving the Tally-Ho to Pelham suggests, by the early to mid-1880s, there were many critics who viewed the sport of coaching as a decadent display of the excesses of an out-of-touch wealthy class to be taunted, not admired.  The Chicago Tribune seemed to adhere to this view.  Indeed, in a lengthy article published on June 8, 1884, the newspaper lampooned the "Swell Drivers" and labeled Col. Delancey Kane and his sport of coaching a bunch of "English Society Nonsense."

The lengthy article by The Chicago Tribune is significant not only because it documents much of the early history of the sport of coaching in America, but it also included amusing caricatures of a number of the important millionire coachmen including Col. Delancey Astor Kane, Pierre Lorillard, Col. William Jay, Leonard Jerome, Lawrence Jerome, and August Belmont.

The article is well worth a read, rather than just serving as research documentation for today's posting to the Historic Pelham Blog!

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"SWELL DRIVERS.
-----
The New York Coaching Club and the Characteristics of Its Members.
-----
Col. De Lancey Kane and His Following of English Society Nonsense.
-----
Pierre Lorillard, Leonard Jerome, August Belmont, Col. William Jay, and the Rest of the Boys.
-----

NEW YORK, June 5. -- [Special Correspondence.] -- The New York Coaching Club, which has just had its spring parade with an uncommon flourish of trumpets and flash of rainbow hues, is an exotic -- and English institution transplanted (in rather thin soil) to our shores.  By this characterization of the sort of soil in which it is set out I do not mean to depreciate either the character or the ability of the gentlemen who are trying to dig about the foreign plant and nourish it, but only to allude to the small motive for its being.

And before referring specifically to this let me say that the whole tendency of New York society of the present time is unmistakably English.  As London in the days of Addison mimicked the French, so does Fifth avenue now delight in bowing down in servile deference to Regent's Park and Rotten Row.  It imitates the English walk and the English talk, the way the Englishman dresses his butler, and the way he constructs his sentences.  The fast and fashionable set who centre at the Hotel Brunswick even keep their hats on when riding up on the elevator with ladies because the English do it -- forgetting that boorishness is scarcely a thing for fashion to approve, even though the Prince of Wales lead off for it.

These people are not all dudes and dudines by any means; they have generally some sense, as well as much money; they do not suck the heads of their canes or turn their elbows out, and at least half of them lead reputable lives.  But they say 'Good gwacious!  Oughtn't the English to know best how to speak the English language elegantly?'  So they allude to the 'nawsty, beastly weather,' and they intone their sentences to the Pall Mall inflection.  They ape English manners in every way.  There is not a bit of originality or manly independence in what calls itself high society in this city today.

These people are generally snobs and toadies.  They 'wegwet' that they were born this side the ocean.  They admit that Americans have no rights which English are bound to recognize.  They do not believe in a republican form of government.  They wish we had a nobility.  They have no respect for real work or workers.  And every year they are drawing closer the lines of exclusiveness and ordering out of their society everybody who is 'in twade.'  No active merchant, be he ever so wealthy or worthy, is tolerated in New York upper-ten-dom today -- though his children may sometime be, if they lie low, refuse to do any useful work, and say as little as possible about where they got their money.

So after polo had become acclimated the coaching was imported from England.  Its origin is due primarily to Col. De Lancey Kane, who was in England in 1877, and took part in the coaching there.  He joined other gentlemen drivers in driving swell coaches out from Charing Cross to the suburbs and back.  He procured a stylish turnout, and being a wealthy and fine-looking man, an enthusiastic lover of horses, and a good driver, his was one of the most prominent of the London coaches that season.  They drove in all sorts of weather, never losing a trip, and as they carried whoever wanted to ride at about double fare it seemed quite like a revival of the old stage coach days.

Returning here he broached the matter at the clubs, and immediately found others who wanted to hang on to the tail of the English kite -- notably Col. William Jay, August Belmont, and Fairman Rogers of Philadelphia.

They imported coaches and harness from Englan, and Col. Jay began the first season by running a coach out to Pelham and back every day -- fourteen miles up towards Connecticut.  It was started in May, and at the initial parade their were eight members and six coaches, five being for private use only.

Col. Jay's venture was a great success, and was followed the next year by Col. De Lancey Kane, who ran the 'Tallyho' over the same route.  A fixed charge of $3 a seat, up and back, was made, and the 'Tallyho' went full every day.  It was an institution of democratic aristocracy.  Anybody could ride who engaged a seat in advance and paid the regular fare.  Kane became a sort of society Weller.  [NOTE:  A reference to the fictional character of Sam Weller in Charles Dickens' "The Pickwick Paper," who served as Mr. Pickwick's personal servant and travel companion.].  He enjoyed the trips for they afforded him occupation and amusement.  The scheme was so popular that at the close of the season he sold his horses and got out without loss.

A SPECTRAL TERROR.

All went merry as a marriage-bell, till suddenly the Devil appeared to trouble our stage-driving aristocracy.  He took the form of a four-horse coach almost exactly like the 'Tallyho' and 'Tantivy' which stood waiting for them when they came trotting down in the afternoon.  This device of the Evil One lay in wait at the Central Park.  It even outdid the two other coaches in genteel splendor.  It was driven by two liveried negroes in high white hats and two other children of Ham similarly attired sat upright and perched high behind.  They wore very high collars, and on these was the strange device '----- Soap.'  When either the Pelham or the Yonkers coach came along the soap concern turned right in behind it and followed it down Fifth avenue and through the city, and when the professional guards on the real coach would sound their stirring horns the colored tooters blew an answering blast.  Forrest was thrown into a fever once by seeing the negro minstrels caricature his Virginius.  So did the African imitation annoy Col. Kane.  It made him sick and nervous, and his doctor ordered him off the road.  He left.  The 'Tallyho' was withdrawn, no doubt to the great chagrin of the gorgeous advertising dodge, and soon thereafter Mr. Roosevelt ceased to play the Jehu.

Last year no coach was run -- probably intimidated by the awful possibility of the African soap team falling in again.

This year Mr. J. R. Roosevelt and Mr. C. O. Iselin are running the 'Greyhound' every day from the Brunswick Hotel to the new clubhouse at Bartow on the Sound, near Pelham.  It was put on early in April, and will be taken off June 7, after which it is supposed to be 'too hot for fun.'  The price is reduced to $2.50, and the coach runs full every day.

It is but fair to say that the coach is run on the square; that the millionaire driver minds his own business and does not talk with the passengers unless first approached; and that, strange as it may seem, he is not above 'tips.'  In fact, being a driver, and doing his duty, he expects the 'perkisits' which pleased Tony Weller's soul.  [NOTE:  Tony Weller, in Dickens' "The Pickwick Papers," was Sam Weller's father.]  Some passengers do not 'tip' the driver, being restrained, perhaps, by the virtuous thought that it is demoralizing; but generally they give him $1 or 50 cents apiece.  I haven't known anybody to venture to offer Col. Kane or Mr. August Belmont (who sometimes drives) a smaller piece than a quarter.  Roosevelt, one of our nobby young men, with an income of $100,000, usually takes enough in tips to keep him in cigars and fluids.  If the English style is to be strictly adhered to, it seems to me that Jehu ought not to be above 'thrippence' or even 'tuppence,' and that he ought, on arriving at his destination to sit in the stable on a wheelbarrow, drink a glass of 'alf and 'alf,' and smoke a black pipe.

Col. Kane is in Europe this year and the mantle of management has fallen on the Chevalier Hugo Fritsch, the Austrian Consul here, who does much to keep up interest in the club.  

Other prominent members besides those already mentioned are Pierre Lorillard, Col. Isaac Reed (now 70 years old), F. A. Schermerhorn, George Beck, George P. Wetmore, F. R. Rives, E. D. Morgan (the millionaire grandson and adopted son of ex-Gov. Morgan), C. H. Joy, Leonard and Lawrence Jerome, and Theodore Havemeyer.

THE ANNUAL PARADE.

The spring parade of the Coaching Club is now one of the attractive sensations of the city.  Members of the club all turn out and drive their own coaches, with their wives, sisters, sweethearts, etc., on the coach with them, dressed in their best.  When I say 'best' I mean showiest.  They are generally in silks and satins, of Worth's make and kaleidoscopic colors.  This is in doubtful taste, even if these women are the leaders of society, but they have an idea that the ladies on coach-parade set the fashions for the summer, so they are somewhat elaborate -- delicate creations of lace and satin that would seem more at home in the drawing-room.  I am sure a dark costume would be more appropriate for the top of a coach.  In fact, the Princess of Wales has just set her face against this flamboyant style by appearing at the London coaching-parade in a dark-blue flannel dress -- or 'gown,' as New York society folks are now learning to say.  Mrs. John Sherwood, too, admirably criticizes this absurd gear of the New York ladies in her new book, 'Manners and Social Usages.'  After the wives and sisters of the 'gentlemen drivers' are seated, they reinforce themselves with the prettiest women in New York society, to whom the other seats are assigned.  Perhaps the lady who attracted most attention this year was Mrs. James B. Potter, the amateur actress, who, in a marvelous robe of lilac silk, occupied the box seat with old Col. Reed.  Among other noted belles and beauties who rode this year were Mrs. Maj. Wetmore, Miss Marion Langdon (who if New York had professional beauties would figure as perhaps the mmost attractive of them all), Miss Kate Bulkley (a tall and superbly-formed blonde), Mrs. E. D. Morgan, and Mrs. Frederick Bronson.  Shall I say something about the personnel of the club?




PIERRE LORILLARD.


Pierre Lorillard is about 44 years old and son of Pierre Lorillard, no longer living.  He is a heavy, solidly-built man, with a very florid complexion, resulting from the Dry Monopole, of which he is so fond, shining through.  He has a double chin, a bristly brown mustache, is always well dressed, and always in a perspiration.  His wealth is so great that, although a good business-man, he seldom goes to the factory, and lets his father's tobacco estate run up to weeds, as it were, while he devotes himself to sporting and society.  His father  was not in society, of course, because he worked and made the money.  His stud-farm out at Jobstown, N. J., is famous among sporting men throughout the country.  His wife, with a superb neck and shoulders and raven-black hair is one of the handsomest women in New York society; her Worth dresses are the envy of all women, and her diamonds are second only to those of Mrs. Astor.  She usually gives three balls each winter.

Lorillard's residence is the magnificent, spacious red-brick mansion on Fifth avenue and Thirty-sixth street.  His son, Pierre Lorillard Jr., now about 26, and a chip of the old block, was married three or four years ago to Miss Cassie Hamilton.  When their first child was christened the happy grandfather presented it with a massive silver cup bearing the device, 'From Pierre Lorillard 6th.'  A society paper in announcing the event added, 'Doubtless some ill natured people will now send us the query 'Who was Pierre Lorillard first?' but we positively refuse to open a conundrum department in this paper.'

Mr. Lorillard has just sold his superb summer residence at Ochre Point, Newport, and he will hereafter live here and cruise around in his fine steam yacht, the Radha.  If he runs into any more ferryboats with it, though, it may get to be an expensive vehicle.



COL. WILLIAM JAY

Col. Jay, President of the Coaching Club, is a son of John Jay, statesman and diplomatist, and a great grandson of John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the United States.  He is about 42, tall, well-built, and rather imposing in appearance.  A man of sense in most matters and of some education, he yet imitates closely the manners and speech of Englishmen.  Is fond of society, and society reciprocates.  Puts a good deal of his surplus enthusiasm into coaching.  His wife was Miss Oelrichs, sister of Hermann Oerichs.  His home life is very quiet and comfortable.  His wife is one of the prettiest married women in New York.  He has an income of $50,000, and if he could only be born in England sometime he would be perfectly happy.



LEONARD JEROME

The first appearance of the Jeromes in New York was in 1856 or '57, I forget which.  The sons of a farmer near Rochester, N. Y., they got a notion that they were born to better things; and, possessing a fair common school education and much natural shrewdness and ability, they struck out for New York City with a handsome team of horses of their own breaking -- almost their entire capital.  These they managed to sell to old Diedrick Havemeyer, the first day of their arrival, for $800 -- a tremendous price in those days.  Mr. Havemeyer drove out that afternoon to exhibit his prize, when the team ran away with him, broke the wagon into toothpicks, and came near killing day, when he got one leg broken by proxy.  Then he sold the team for $150, but the Jerome boys did not buy.

They now had money enough to go into Wall street on margins.  They made $1,000; more; then another $1,000; and so on till they had amassed considerable fortunes and become double millionaires.  Leonard is the older of the two, and quite different to his brother Lawrence (as our superior British brethren would say.), being much more quietand reserved.  He is about 62 or 63, tall, sinewy, with an intelligent face.  He made very largely in Pacific Mail, and wasthe founder of Jerome Park and the American Jockey Club, which was merged into the Turf Club, and both perished in the mergence.

Leonard Jerome's daughter married Lord Randolph Churchill, after complying with a well-known English ceremony by executing a contract agreeing to pay $25,000 annually to the purse of Milud.



LAWRENCE JEROME

Lawrence (pronounced 'Larrence,' if you please) is the prince of good fellows.  For many years no social gathering in New York was complete without him.  As a successful diner-out and a brilliant talker he is almost as widely known as his confrere and intimate, W. R. Travers.  He is an enthusistic yachtsman and coacher.



AUGUST BELMONT.

August Belmont is a Hebrew of the Wall street persuasion.  When a witness in a celebrated trial, and asked his identity, he said boldly:  'I am a Jew.'  'Have you any other business?' inquired the lawyer blandly.  He is a German and is said to bear some sort of blood relationship to one of the Rothschilds.  He came to New York about forty years ago, and soon became the American agent of that family of Cruesuses, which gave him prestige and made it easy for him to gratify his social ambitions.  He came widely known on account of his duel with Col. Heyward, which resulted from quarrel about a New York lady, and in which he received a bullet in his leg, from which he is still lame.  He soon contracted marriage with Miss Perry, a grand-daughter of Commodore Perry, hero of Lake Erie.  

Mr. Belmont is famous for his enmities.  He is a man of about 60, short, thick-set, bullet-headed, of a most excitable temperament.  He must have some friends, but there are many of the best-known men in New York with whom he is not on speaking terms.  He is brusque, arrogant, and violent in much of his intercourse.  He is worth $15,000,000, and dwells in a large brick house on Fifth avenue at Eighteenth street, opposite Chickering Hall.  At the rear of the house is a rich gallery of paintings, but it is seldom seen.  He is a member of the Manhattan and Union Clubs, and was the chief adviser of Turnbull in his recent unsavory trouble.

His oldest son is Perry Belmont, the bright M. C. from the First District.  Another son, Oliver, was married a year and a half ago, and his wife has already obtained a separation from him on the ground of ill-treatment on the bridal trip.  A divorce suit is now in progress.  A third, Raymond Belmont, now in Harvard College, was arrested and locked up at Narragansett Pier for disorderly conduct; and a fourth, August Jr., has had to pay $2,500 damages for assaulting and beating a man named Tower down on Long Island, because when he rode over Tower's son Tower complained to him about it.  There is a coolness just now between the Belmonts and Astors because Miss Carrie Astor had the temerity to stand as godmother to Mrs. Perry Belmont's child, after Perry had been discarded.  The summer residence of the Belmont family is at Babylon, L. I.



"COL. DELANCEY ASTOR KANE"

COL. DELANCEY ASTOR KANE is a short, slight, and swarthy man of 45.  Is thoroughly English in get-up, manner, and conversation.  Never rides on the 'tramway,' and always has plenty of 'luggage.'  No higher compliment can be paid him than to mistake him for an Englishman.  Inherited a fortune, and has never soiled his hands with work.  Until the last few years he spent most of his time abroad, but the Coaching Club now keeps him here.  He is the best four-in-hand driver in the country, and handles the ribbons with consummate skill.  For many years he was famed as a leader of the german, an Puck gave him the soubriquet of 'Dancy Kane.'  At the F. C. D. C., the Patriarchs', and all the Delmonico balls, he was simply indispensable, and on West Thirty-fifth street; his summer retreat at New Rochelle.  His faults are amiable ones, and most popular of the society men of the metropolis.  

W. A. CHOFFUT."



Source:  SWELL DRIVERS -- The New York Coaching Club and the Characteristics of Its Members -- Col. De Lancey Kane and His Following of English Society Nonsense -- Pierre Lorillard, Leonard Jerome, August Belmont, Col. William Jay, and the Rest of the Boys, N.Y. Herald, Jun. 8, 1884, p. 12, cols. 1-3 (NOTE:  Paid subscription requited to access via this link).    

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Below is a list of articles and blog postings that I previously have posted regarding the subject of "Coaching to Pelham."  

Bell, Blake A., Col. Delancey Kane and "The Pelham Coach" (Sep. 2003).

Wed., Jul. 30, 2014:  Yet Another Attempt in 1894 to Resurrect the Glory Days of Coaching to Pelham.  

Tue., Jul. 29, 2014:  Wonderful Description of Coaching to Pelham on the Tally-Ho's First Trip of the Season on May 1, 1882.

Wed., Apr. 14, 2010:  Col. Delancey Kane Changes the Timing and Route of The Pelham Coach in 1876.

Tue., Sep. 08, 2009:  1877 Advertisement with Timetable for the Tally Ho Coach to Pelham.

Mon., Mar. 23, 2009:  The Greyhound and the Tantivy-- The Four-in-Hand Coaches that Succeeded Col. Delancey Kane's "Tally-Ho" to Pelham.

Fri., Jan. 16, 2009: The Final Trip of the First Season of Col. Delancey Kane's "New-Rochelle and Pelham Four-in-Hand Coach Line" in 1876.

Thu., Jan. 15, 2009:  The First Trip of Col. Delancey Kane's "New-Rochelle and Pelham Four-in-Hand Coach Line" on May 1, 1876.

Thu., Mar. 06, 2008:  Auctioning the Tantivy's Horses at the Close of the 1886 Coaching Season.

Wed., Mar. 05, 2008:  Coaching to Pelham: The Tantivy Has an Accident on its Way to Pelham in 1886.  

Thu., Jan. 24, 2008:  An Account of the First Trip of Colonel Delancey Kane's Tally-Ho to Open the 1880 Coaching Season.

Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2008: Brief "History of Coaching" Published in 1891 Shows Ties of Sport to Pelham, New York

Thursday, August 3, 2006: Images of Colonel Delancey Kane and His "Pelham Coach" Published in 1878.

Wednesday, September 28, 2005: Taunting the Tantivy Coach on its Way to Pelham: 1886.

Wednesday, July 27, 2005: 1882 Engraving Shows Opening of Coaching Season From Hotel Brunswick to Pelham Bridge.

Thu., Jun. 09, 2005:  Coaching to Pelham: Colonel Delancey Astor Kane Did Not Operate the Only Coach to Pelham.

Fri., Feb. 11, 2005:  Col. Delancey Kane's "Pelham Coach", Also Known as The Tally-Ho, Is Located.

Bell, Blake A., Col. Delancey Kane and "The Pelham Coach", The Pelham Weekly, Vol. XII, No. 38, Sept. 26, 2003, p. 1, col. 1.




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Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Yet Another Attempt in 1894 to Resurrect the Glory Days of Coaching to Pelham


Yesterday I posted an item to the Historic Pelham Blog regarding the spectacle of "coaching to Pelham" in four-in-hand carriages during the 1870s and 1880s.  Col. Delancey Kane began the practice during the 1870s and many followed in his footsteps. Here is a link to yesterday's post:  Mon., Jul. 29, 2014:  Wonderful Description of Coaching to Pelham on the Tally-Ho's First Trip of the Season on May 1, 1882.  To read more about the curious fad, see the lengthy list of previous articles and postings at the end of this article.

In 1876 a horse-drawn road coach known as “The Pelham Coach” began running between New York City’s Hotel Brunswick and the “Pelham Manor” of yore.  This road coach was not a simple hired coach that ferried passengers from New York City in the days before Henry Ford mass produced his Model T.  Rather, this road coach was driven by Colonel Delancey Kane, one of the so-called “millionaire coachmen,” who engaged in a sport known as “public coaching” or “road coaching” as it sometimes was called.  The sport, conducted pursuant to the published rules of The New York Coaching Club, has been described as follows: 

“Public coaching, as it was called when it was a flourishing anachronism in the latter part of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth, is . . . now quite forgotten. It was one of those curious but artificial customs that suddenly drop into oblivion. . . . [Records of the sport] furnish a droll and flickering insight into the lives of that very small group of Americans, born and bred to wealth and leisure, whose influence on the nation’s social and economic life was so disproportionate to their numbers.”

The Pelham Coach was not the only coach that ran to Pelham.  Over years, there were various efforts to extend the sport of public coaching.  After Delancey Kane stopped running the Pelham Coach and, later, the coach named "Tally Ho", others attempted to resurrect the sport in the New York metropolitan area.  As I previously have written (see below), other such coaches that ran after Delancey Kane ended his public coaching to Pelham career included the Tantivy and the Greyhound.   

Today's posting to the Historic Pelham Blog provides information about efforts in 1894 to resurrect the sport of public coaching.  J. Clinch Smith began running a four-in-hand coach named "Tempest" from Hotel Brunswick to the Westchester Country Club.  The Tempest did not, however, run between the Hotel Brunswick and Pelham.  By 1894, after New York City created Pelham Bay Park, the Westchester Country Club had moved to nearby Throgg's Neck.  Still, the story of the Tempest provides a fascinating glimpse of the closing years of the 19th century when some tried to resurrect the spectacle of the sport of public coaching brought to the United States by Delancey Kane who began running his Pelham Coach between Hotel Brunswick and the Arcularius Hotel at Pelham Bridge in 1876.  

Below is an image and the text of an article about the first successful run of the Tempest on April 16, 1894.  The article recounts the glory of the original Pelham Coach that inspired the Tempest's journey.  



"RETURN OF THE COACH 'TEMPEST.'"
Showing the Tempest in front of the Hotel Brunswick.
Source:  ROAD COACHING IN EARNEST, N.Y. Herald,
Apr. 17, 1894, p. 9, cols. 1-2.

"ROAD COACHING IN EARNEST.
-----
The Tempest Makes Her First Regular Trip to the Country Club in Fine Shape.
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WEATHER GRAND AND ROADS GOOD
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A Full List of Passengers Was Taken Out and Back and All Were Enthusiastic.
-----
MANY WITNESSED THE START.
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IT is a pretty well established fact that history repeats itself -- sometimes pleasantly and at other times unpleasantly.  Under the former head should certainly be put any revival of the grand sport of coaching.  It is a sport nowadays, but let us not forget there was a time not so many years ago either, when it was, so to speak, quite as stern a reality as is a Pullman car to-day and as little tinged with romance.

We can't get away from coaching, however.  It may seem to lag for a while, but invariably 'bobs up serenly,' and well it is, particularly in our rushing New York, where most folks live far too much on a machine-made principle. 

As I stood in front of the Brunswick yesterday and watched the start of Mr. J. Clinch Smith's coach Tempest on the first of the regular daily trips -- Sundays excepted -- it is to make from now until June 1, between the hostelry named and the Country Club at Westchester, my mind drifted back to a fine spring morning -- May 1, 1876 -- when Colonel De Lancey Kane, the pioneer of road coaching in this country, pulled out from the same spot with his Pelham coach on its inaugural trip.

THE OLD PELHAM COACH.

Every one knows that the Pelham Coach ran successfully for several consecutive seasons.  It is doubtful if a country club at West Chester had even been dreamt of then, so the destination was the old Arcularius Hotel at Pelham Bridge, where lunch was served.  The time schedule was about the same as that now arranged by Mr. J. Clinch Smith for the Tempest.  

The Pelham coach was abandoned after a few seasons, but a few years later the Tantivy was put on the road by Mr. Frederic Bronson and Mr. J. Roosevelt Roosevelt.  This coach ran every spring until four years ago.  Since then there have been one or two rather lukewarm efforts to put on a public coach between New York and different adjacent points, but without much success.

The prospects are, however, that the Tempest will be liberally patronized.  Mr. J. Clinch Smith and Mr. Francis T. Underhill are to be the coachmen and the former has furnished an excellent road coach and several teams of the first quality.

The start yesterday was made promptly at eleven o'clock.  It was an ideal spring day, and by half-past ten there had gathered in front of the hotel many promising coaching men.  Among these were the Messrs. De Lancey A. Kane, Frederic Bronson, Perry Belmont, Frederick Gebbard, De Courcey Forbes, W. R. Travers, William Eldridge, Leonard Jacob, Hamilton Cary and Ashton Lemoine.

Mr. Francis T. Underhill was coachman out and Mr. J. Clinch Smith back, and the passengers were Mr. Francis Watson, who had the box seat; Merrs. George de Forest Grant, J. G. Follansbee, M. N. R. Davis, Robert W. Stuart, W. R. Hoyt, J. S. A. Davis, J. Hopkinson Smith, Charles Coster, Eben Wright and De Forest Manice.

ALONG THE ROUTE.

As told inSaturday, the route is through the Park and by Seventh avenue to 135th street, thence to and up St. Nicholas avenue, to Washington Bridge, across the bridge and past the Berkeley Oval to Jerome Park Corners, thence through Fordham and West Chester villages and past Morris Park to the Country Club.

A stop was made at the Plaza Hotel.  Teams were changed at 136th street and St. Nicholas avenue and at Jerome Park Corners.  

The Tempest arrived at the club at five minutes to one o'clock, schedule time.  Luncheon was immediately served.  The return journey was begun at twenty minutes to four o'clock and the Brunswick reached at half-past five.

Everything went as smoothly as could be desired, barring a slight mishap in front of the Brunswick.  One of the leaders was struck by an omnibus and lost his footing for a moment.  

All told, however, the first regular trip was pronounced if possible even more successful than the trial.  In the interval after luncheon and before starting home there was some informal pigeon shooting.  Three sweepstakes were contested for, the winners being the Messrs. Oliver Iselin, George de Forest Grant and Eben Wright.

The party to-day will include, among others, Messrs. George H. Mairs, Eben Wright, Roland W. Smith and Alexander M. Griswold.

Mr. F. M. Vermilye has the coach for Thursday.  Messrs. Center Hitchcock and Robert A. Osborn for April 20 and 21.  Mr. Stanford White has taken the whole coach for April 26 and Mr. J. W. A. Davis has booked as far ahead as May 30, when he will have the entire coach."

Source:  ROAD COACHING IN EARNEST, N.Y. Herald, Apr. 17, 1894, p. 9, cols. 1-2.  

*          *          *          *          *

Below is a list of articles and blog postings that I previously have posted regarding the subject of "Coaching to Pelham."  

Bell, Blake A., Col. Delancey Kane and "The Pelham Coach" (Sep. 2003).

Mon., Jul. 29, 2014:  Wonderful Description of Coaching to Pelham on the Tally-Ho's First Trip of the Season on May 1, 1882.

Wed., Apr. 14, 2010:  Col. Delancey Kane Changes the Timing and Route of The Pelham Coach in 1876.

Tue., Sep. 08, 2009:  1877 Advertisement with Timetable for the Tally Ho Coach to Pelham.

Mon., Mar. 23, 2009:  The Greyhound and the Tantivy-- The Four-in-Hand Coaches that Succeeded Col. Delancey Kane's "Tally-Ho" to Pelham.

Fri., Jan. 16, 2009: The Final Trip of the First Season of Col. Delancey Kane's "New-Rochelle and Pelham Four-in-Hand Coach Line" in 1876.

Thu., Jan. 15, 2009:  The First Trip of Col. Delancey Kane's "New-Rochelle and Pelham Four-in-Hand Coach Line" on May 1, 1876.

Thu., Mar. 06, 2008:  Auctioning the Tantivy's Horses at the Close of the 1886 Coaching Season.

Wed., Mar. 05, 2008:  Coaching to Pelham: The Tantivy Has an Accident on its Way to Pelham in 1886.  

Thu., Jan. 24, 2008:  An Account of the First Trip of Colonel Delancey Kane's Tally-Ho to Open the 1880 Coaching Season.

Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2008: Brief "History of Coaching" Published in 1891 Shows Ties of Sport to Pelham, New York

Thursday, August 3, 2006: Images of Colonel Delancey Kane and His "Pelham Coach" Published in 1878.

Wednesday, September 28, 2005: Taunting the Tantivy Coach on its Way to Pelham: 1886.

Wednesday, July 27, 2005: 1882 Engraving Shows Opening of Coaching Season From Hotel Brunswick to Pelham Bridge.

Thu., Jun. 09, 2005:  Coaching to Pelham: Colonel Delancey Astor Kane Did Not Operate the Only Coach to Pelham.

Fri., Feb. 11, 2005:  Col. Delancey Kane's "Pelham Coach", Also Known as The Tally-Ho, Is Located.

Bell, Blake A., Col. Delancey Kane and "The Pelham Coach", The Pelham Weekly, Vol. XII, No. 38, Sept. 26, 2003, p. 1, col. 1.



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Monday, March 23, 2009

The Greyhound and the Tantivy-- The Four-in-Hand Coaches that Succeeded Col. Delancey Kane's "Tally-Ho" to Pelham


I have published many items on the Historic Pelham Blog regarding the spectacle of "coaching to Pelham" in four-in-hand carriages during the 1870s and 1880s. Col. Delancey Kane began the practice during the 1870s. Many followed in his footsteps. To read a little about the curious fad, you may wish to review the following items which are merely a few of the many, many items on the topic published to this Blog and to the HistoricPelham.com Web site.

Friday, February 11, 2005: Col. Delancey Kane's "Pelham Coach", Also Known as The Tally-Ho, Is Located.

Bell, Blake A., Col. Delancey Kane and "The Pelham Coach" (Sep. 2003).

Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2008: Brief "History of Coaching" Published in 1891 Shows Ties of Sport to Pelham, New York

Wednesday, July 27, 2005: 1882 Engraving Shows Opening of Coaching Season From Hotel Brunswick to Pelham Bridge.

Wednesday, September 28, 2005: Taunting the Tantivy Coach on its Way to Pelham: 1886.

Thursday, August 3, 2006: Images of Colonel Delancey Kane and His "Pelham Coach" Published in 1878.

Today's Historic Pelham Blog posting transcribes the text of an article that appeared in the April 18, 1886 issue of the New-York Tribune. That article described two of the coaching successors to Col. Delancey Kane's "Tally-Ho": The Greyhound and the Tantivy.

"THE SEASON FOR SPORTS.

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THE TANTIVY TO TAKE THE ROAD

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BRIGHT PROSPECTS FOR COACHING MEN.

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THE ANNUAL PARADE OF THE CLUB ON MAY 22 -- EXCURSIONS IN PROSPECT.

Those who still love the music of the three-foot-horn, who think that a journey behind four spirited horses through forest and field, beneath the clear sky of May or in the gorgeous sunshine of October, is more healthful and far better sport than to watch the dissolving views of nature obtained through a cloud of dust and cinders from the window of a railroad car, have laid their heads together and have formed their plans for the coming season. On the 22d day of next month the annual parade of the Coaching Club will take place in Central Park. It will be a brilliant occasion, for there are nowhere in the world handsomer or better appointed drags, drawn by finer coaching horses, than in New-York. This was quite evident at the Horse Show last November, when Pierre Lorillard's four beautiful bays received the first prize. It is not yet known how many drags will be in line, but it is certain that there will be enough to make a fine showing. The parade will pass through the drives of the Park, and on this great day of the season will not astonish the goats and other inhabitants of Westchester County by unveiling its beauty before their unwonted eyes. Westchester, however, is not long to be left to its rustic tranquility. The old Tally-Ho which Colonel Kane used to drive daily between the Brunswick Hotel and Pelham during a whole season proved so successful that it has not been without successors. These coaches, with their daily trips into the country bringing their passengers back in the evening invigorated by a day in the open air, were always filled, and it was always with the greatest difficulty that places could be obtained by application many days in advance. Parties were made up every day for the round trip, and loud were the praises betowed upon the coaching dinner which was spread before the hungry passengers at Pelham. The Tantivy and the Greyhound succeeded the Tally-Ho. The Greyhound was run on the Pelham route under the joint management of J. R. Roosevelt and C. O. Iselin. The Tatnivy [sic] made daily trips to Tarrytown once season and to Yonkers the next. The Tantivy is to be put on the road again this season. The terminus of the route will be the shady home of the Country Club, whose windows look out upon the Sound; and where if the drive has been hot and dusty, the travelers will find a cool and refreshing noon-day halting place. The Country Club is in the village of Bartow, whence the distance to the Brunswick is eighteen miles. Twenty-five horses have been selected for hire along the route, and they are to be of such metal that passengers on the Tantivy will never grumble at their pace. The roads are excellent for coaching purposes and the hills are neither long nor steep. Four changes will be made along the route -- at One-hundred-and-tenth-st., at Unionport, at Westchester and at Pelham.

The Tantivy will be driven by J. R. Roosevelt and Frederick Bronson on alternate days. Both these gentlemen are experienced whips, and their handling of the ribbons may be relied on as an exponent of all that is graceful and scientific in the art of driving. When the Tantivy ran to Tarrytown and to Yonkers Mr. Bronson was one of the drivers. Mr. Roosevelt's experience is international. The team which is a well-known nobleman used to drive between Brighton and London was never more beautifully handled than that which Mr. Roosevelt conducted from Brighton to Eastbourne, and it is said that he still possesses a large collection of shillings given by thankful and admiring passengers to the driver at the end of each day's trip. The Tantivy will make its first trip on April 26.

It has been a pleasant custom in the Coaching Club for the club in a body to visit one of its members every spring and another in the autumn. Many if not all the members have large country places not far from the city. The club meets at some designated point and thence drives to the place of the member to whose lot has fallen the agreeable duty of acting as host. After a day or so of merry-making the club drives back again. There is never a lack of hospitable offers when the time comes round for one of these pleasant excursions. The club has in this way already been entertained by Pierre Lorillard at Rancocas, by Colonel Jay at Bedford, N. Y.; by W. K. Vanderbilt at Oakdale, L. K.; by Mr. Roosevelt to Hyde Park, by Theodore Havemeyer at Mahwah, N. J., and by Mr. Bronson at Greenfield Hill, Conn. This year Neilson Brown invited the club to be his guests at his breeding farm at Torresdale, Penn. Hence it was proposed to pay a visit to A. J. Cassatt's stud farm, near Philadelphia. This plan, however, has been changed, and it has been finally decided that Mr. Bronson shall again have the honor of entertaining the club in Connecticut. Mr. Bronson's farm, near Greenfield Hill, is about sixty miles from the city, a distance which will easily be covered in a day. The start will be made on May 15 at 9 a.m., from the Brunswick. The road passes through Unionport, Pelham, Portchester, Greenwich, Stamford and Norwalk, at each of which towns horses will be changed. A day will be passed with Mr. Brown in looking over the fine Jersey cattle which he breeds on his farm, and on May 18 the club will return to the city. In the autumn the club will visit Prescott Lawrence at Groton, Mass. The club will meet at Newport in September. Hence the road lies through Fall River and New-Bedford to Boston and on to Groton. The distance is about 100 miles, and six hours are considered a sufficient allowance for the journey.

With such a pleasant outlook before them the members of the Coaching Club are in high spirits and anxious for the return of the bright warm days which will permit them again to take their places on the box, crack the whip and feel the ready response from their gallant teams."

Source: The Season for Sports, New-York Tribune, Apr. 18, 1886, p. 15, col. 1.

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