During the late 1870s and early 1880s, vagrants were hopping onto trains leaving New York City and hopping off in Pelham to beg, house-to-house, from local residents. Petty crimes involving such vagrants were a constant problem. Occasionally, vagrants were involved in serious crimes and brutal assaults on Pelham residents.
Known at the time as "tramps," these vagrants became such a problem in Pelham Manor that the residents of that settlement formed the "Pelham Manor Protective Club," a vigilance committee that served to police the community and that served as the forerunner to village government when the settlement organized as the Village of Pelham Manor in 1891.
One particularly brutal crime involving "tramps" occurred on June 10, 1882. That day a German woman named Kate Folz was walking along the tracks of the New Haven Branch Line on her way, by foot, from Connecticut to New York City. She worked as a servant in Stamford and in Greenwich. She carried a carpet bag filled with clothing.
Kate Folz finally reached a rather desolate and unpopulated area known as Pelham Woods near Pelham's border with New Rochelle between the New Haven Branch Line and the Pelham border. There, where the railroad tracks crossed Boston Post Road, she encountered a local gang of five young ruffians from New Rochelle, some of whom already had criminal records and had served jail time. The brutal encounter that followed became fodder for a host of newspaper reports throughout the region and a massive manhunt to track down the ruffians.
The gang robbed Ms. Folz of her earrings. They tore up her carpet bag as they searched for valuables and destroyed the clothing within. They demanded money and forced the poor woman to beg for her life. They stole nearly all the money she had, a little more than seven dollars. The thugs next assaulted her repeatedly.
Within two days the Executive Committee of the Pelham Manor Protective Club met and appointed one of its members to investigate what became known, euphemistically, as the "outrage." I have written before about this brutal assault on Kate Folz. See Tue., Feb. 21, 2017: The June 10, 1882 "Outrage" that Enraged the Pelham Manor Protective Club.
Barely two years later, Pelham Manor and the Pelham Manor Protective Club were faced with an even more shocking and brutal assault on the young fourteen-year-old daughter of a Pelham Manor resident. Early on the morning of Friday, May 23, young Nora Walsh (daughter of Patrick Walsh who later moved to Pelhamwood and operated a local dairy that supplied butter, milk, and other dairy products to residents of North Pelham, Pelham Manor, and New Rochelle), left her home to walk to school from Pelham Manor to New Rochelle along Boston Post Road. She never made it to school that day.
Patrick Walsh and his family operated a farm along Boston Post Road in Pelham Manor. Nora Walsh left the farmhouse that morning to walk along Boston Post Road to her school, the Sisters' School at New Rochelle.
When the little girl did not return home by the early evening, a frantic search began. Family, friends, and others searched throughout the entire evening, the night, and part of the next morning. That following morning, searchers found little Nora Walsh in a meadow on the edge of woods located along Boston Post Road less than a quarter mile from her home and about a mile south of the border between Pelham Manor and New Rochelle. The little girl had lain face up in the sun all day on Friday and was sunburned. It was nearly thirty hours before searchers led by one of her cousins from Larchmont found her.
Nora's hands were tied behind her back and her feet were bound, all with ribbons torn from the little girl's hat. When found, her mouth was still stuffed with green leaves to serve as a gag. Though alive, she was found in an "insensible condition." Her wrists were badly cut by the ribbons that tightly bound them behind her back. Her face was badly swollen from being beaten.
Local authorities were notified and the poor girl was taken to her home for treatment. Various witnesses reported seeing two young men in the area of the meadow where little Nora was found. The men were described as young tramps.
Deputy Sheriff Malloy of New Rochelle led a law enforcement group that began searching for the pair of tramps. Later in the day the officers observed two young men near the New Haven Main Line railroad tracks in New Rochelle. As the officers approached, the two men split and fled in different directions. After a brief pursuit, the officers arrested both men.
The men were German. Though they spoke English, they spoke it with some difficulty and with thick German accents. The two gave their names as John Derser and Frederick Hilthouse. They were taken to the Westchester County Jail in White Plains.
An arraignment was scheduled on Monday, May 26, 1884. At the appointed time, the courtroom was packed with a mob of angry citizens who were admonished by the Judge to hold their tempers and tongues during the proceeding. Incredibly, when the proceeding began, farmer Patrick Walsh of Pelham Manor led his brutalized and badly-injured little daughter to the witness stand to testify. The entire courtroom murmured in sympathy as she climbed to the stand with her bruised and swollen face and brutalized body.
The brave little girl testified that as she walked along Boston Post Road to school the previous Friday, while only 200 yards from her farm, she was attacked from behind by two men. One covered her eyes and mouth with his hands while the other grabbed and lifted her. The pair carried her over a stone fence into a meadow near woods. They began to brutalize her. They tore the ribbons from her hat and bound her hands and feet. They robbed her of the forty five cents she carried in her pocket. One of the men struck her in the face with his fist.
Nora remembered very little else. She remembered one important thing, however. The men were German with thick German accents. The men were held without bail and returned to the Westchester County Jail in White Plains.
All of Pelham was outraged. The Executive Committee of the Pelham Manor Protective Club kicked into overdrive. It assembled for a meeting on June 2, 1884 and took a host of actions intended to deal, once again, with the problem of tramps in Pelham Manor.
The minutes book of the Pelham Manor Protective Club, held in the collections of the Westchester County Historical Society, reflect what happened at the Executive Committee meeting held that evening at the home of George H. Reynolds that once stood where today's Weihman Park is located on the northeast corner of Boston Post Road and Esplanade. Executive Committee members George H. Reynolds, Robert C. Black, William E. Barnett, Thomas D. De Witt, and David M. Johnson were present.
Appropriately, the meeting began with the Committee voting to pay a local Pelham Manor resident a ten dollar reward for the arrest and subsequent conviction of a tramp named John McMahon in connection with an unrelated offense. Then the Committee turned to the important business of the evening.
First, the Committee levied a two dollar assessment against all members to fund additional operations. Then, the Committee authorized publication of a pamphlet for distribution to all members that focused, among other things, on the problem of tramps. The Committee authorized the inclusion of the following text in that pamphlet:
"“Members of this Club have in the past been more or less annoyed by tramps, but as some members have failed to make prompt reports of these annoyances to the Executive Committee and as the offences have only incidentally and long afterward come to the knowledge of the Committee, a number of the offenders have escaped with impunity. It is the earnest desire of the Committee to prosecute tramps and every criminal committing any punishable offence within the territorial jurisdiction of the Club. This end cannot be attained without the active coöperation of all the Club members. For the purpose, therefore, of securing such cooperation and making the Club efficient in accomplishing the objects for which it was organized, the Committee thinks fit and proper to offer the following suggestions:
1. As to Tramps – They are defined by statute as “persons who rove from place to place begging” and also as “vagrants living without labor or visible means of support.” “A person who, not having visible means to maintain himself, lives without employment,” or “a person wandering abroad and begging, or who goes about from door to door or places himself in the streets, highways, passages, or other public places to beg or to receive alms,” or “a person wandering abroad and lodging in out houses, sheds, stables, barns or uninhabited buildings, or in the open air, and and [sic] not giving a good account of himself,” is a tramp or vagrant.
Any offender coming within either of the foregoing definitions may be arrested by a private person without a warrant where the act of vagrancy has been committed in his presence. The person so making an arrest, however, should first inform the vagrant of the cause of his arrest and require him to submit, and then without unnessary [sic] delay take the offender before a Justice of the Peace or deliver him to a constable.
Members of the Club are particularly requested not in any case to give or consent to the giving of food, clothing or money to tramps but, on the contrary, to arrest them or cause their arrest forthwith.
2. As to reporting Crimes. – Members are requested to diligently report to this Committee any crime or misdemeanor, however trivial, committed within a mile radius of Pelham Manor Depot. If a tramp is arrested and handed over to a peace officer or taken before a magistrate report that fact. If a tramp escapes arrest report the circumstances, together with a description of him as near as may be. If any grave crime or misdemeanor is committed get word to the Committee at the earliest possible moment, whether in the day time or at any hour of the night, and whether the criminal has escaped or not. An accurate description of the person and dress of the criminal will be of the highest importance in cases of escape, and in every case the utmost care should be taken not to disturb any clues, however slight, which might by any possibility, lead to the detection of the criminal.
In the absence of the Club member from home, let some member of his family or a servant give information as above.
Reports may be left at the residence of either member of the Executive Committee, or with the Postmaster at Pelham Manor.
3. As to the Prosecution of Offenders. – The Executive Committee, upon being informed of the presence of any tramp or the commission of any crime or misdemeanor within the limits above mentioned, will at once take in hand the matter of detecting, arresting and prosecuting the offender.
4. Telephone. – A telephone connecting with New Rochelle and New York will soon be placed in Pelham Manor Depot in the name of the Protective Club, which may be used by any member for the purpose, in case of necessity, of obtaining assistance as against vagrants and other criminals, and for other purposes.
5. As to the names and residences of the Peace Officers, etc. of the Town of Pelham. –
The Constables are:
William H. Sparks, Jr. Residing at. Pelhamville
James Anderson. “ “ City Island
Henry Zuner. “ “ “ “
Valentine Hall. “ “ “ “
Frederick Case. “ “ Pelhamville
And the Justices of the Peace are:
Jerome Bell. Residing at City Island
Thomas Martin, “ “ “ “
Michael Hogan. “ “ Bartow
Edw’d A. Peterson. “ “ Pelhamville”
In the very next meeting of the Executive Committee, held on July 9, 1884, the committee members authorized payment of a bill from the Westchester Telephone Company for $20.20, likely related to installation of the telephone connection with New York City and New Rochelle that the Committee planned to have installed in the Pelham Manor Depot for the purpose "of obtaining assistance as against vagrants and other criminals, and for other purposes." Thus, it would appear that the terrible outrage suffered by 13-year-old Nora Walsh of Pelham Manor on May 23, 1884 was directly responsible for installation of what was the first telephone (or one of the first telephones) installed in the Town of Pelham. See, generally:
Wed., Aug. 23, 2017: Early History of the Telephone in the Town of Pelham.
Tue., May 03, 2016: More on the Earliest Installations of Telephones in the Town of Pelham.
Mon., Mar. 24, 2014: The Earliest Telephone in Pelham? When and Where Was it Installed?
Mon., Dec. 21, 2009: More on What May Have Been the First Telephone Installed in Pelham.
Tue., Mar. 29, 2005: The Earliest Telephone in Pelham Manor?
After little Nora Walsh testified at the arraignment of the two young tramps accused of brutalizing her, little Nora returned to her family's farmhouse where she was bedridden. As the weeks passed, her condition worsened. One report described her as in constant "terror" of further violence as her health deteriorated significantly, likely due to head injuries. On Monday, August 11, fourteen-year-old Nora Walsh of Pelham Manor died of injuries she sustained during the brutal attack on May 23rd. One report promptly noted that the two young tramps, still held in the Westchester County Jail, likely would be indicted for murder.
Dozens and dozens of articles appeared in newspapers throughout the United States about the brutal attack on little Nora Walsh in Pelham Manor. While it would be more satisfying to know if the miscreants who murdered the little girl were convicted and justly punished, a great deal of research has yet to reveal the fate of the two men jailed as suspects. Though time likely will reveal the answer, for now Pelhamites may only bow their heads in memory of little Pelhamite Nora Walsh who lost her life due to a brutal assault along Boston Post Road in 1884.
Detail from 1881 Bromley Map Showing Boston Post Road Area in
Pelham Manor Where Nora Walsh Was Assaulted Three Years Later.
The Map Does Not Reflect the Location of the Walsh Farm. Source:
York, From Actual Surveys and Official Records by G. W. Bromley & Co.,
Civil Engineers, pp. 56-57 (NY, NY: Geo. W. & Walter S. Bromley, 1881).
NOTE: Click on Image to Enlarge.
* * * * *
"A SCHOOL GIRL ASSAULTED.
-----
Little Nora Walsh, fourteen years old, was found gagged, and assaulted by two tramps at Pelham, last Friday morning. The poor child lay helpless, with her face exposed to the glaring sun all day Friday, and was not found till Saturday morning. The excited farmers in the neighborhood can be readily excused for threats of immediate vengeance. The only proper and natural punishment for such a crime is unknown to the law, but if there is ever an excuse for summary measures, this is a case in point. We know it is a dangerous precedent for the people to take the law into their own hands, but if the father of this child should take it upon himself to avenge her wrongs in a proper manner, we think no jury could be found of whose verdict he need be afraid."
Source: A SCHOOL GIRL ASSAULTED, The Port Chester Journal [Port Chester, NY], May 29, 1884, Vol. XVI, No. 810, p. 3, col. 2.
"NORA WALSH'S NARRATIVE.
-----
THE CHILD TELLS HOW THE TWO MEN BOUND, ROBBED AND ASSAULTED HER.
The two men who were arrested by Deputy Sheriff Malloy at New Rochelle on a charge of assaulting the schoolgirl Nora Walsh, of Pelham, Westchester county, on Friday morning, were arraigned yesterday before Police Justice Kene at New Rochelle. The court room was filled with excited men, who were inclined to show hostility to the prisoners, but they were warned by the Court to keep quiet under pain of arrest.
The prisoners described themselves as John Dersrer and Frederick Felthouse. They are rough looking Germans, speaking English imperfectly. They told several contradictory stories as to where they belonged.
The little girl had so far recovered as to be able to appear in court. When she was helped to the witness stand by her father, a farmer, a murmur of sympathy ran through the audience. The right side of the child's face was badly swollen, where she said one of the men struck her with his fist. Her wrists bore the deep discolored impression of the ribbon strings from her missing hat, which had cut into the flesh as she lay for nearly thirty hours bound hand and foot in the meadow. In a low but clear voice she told the story -- all that she remembered -- of the assault. She said that two men came up behind her. One placed his hands over her eyes and mouth and the other took her by her hands and feet and bore her over the fence. Her mouth was filled with green leaves and the ribbons were torn from her hat and used to bind her hands behind her. Then forty-five cents in change was taken from her pocket and one of the men struck her a violent blow with his fist, which caused her mouth to bleed. Her apron was produced, upon which were many blood spots. After this the child said she could remember nothing. She heard the men going away, but was too weak to see them or to attempt to rise. Some time afterward, she did not remember how long, she recovered consciousness and tried to get up, but could not. It was dark and she heard voices near by. She then lost consciousness and remembered nothing more until Saturday morning, when her cousin James Neville, found her.
Mr. Neville, a young man who resides at Larchmont, testified that he found the girl on Saturday morning in the meadow near the Boston turnpike, two miles south of New Rochelle, and almost within sight of her father's house; she was bound hand and foot with the ribbons from her hat; there were at least a dozen knots in the thongs about her wrists; the child was in a semi-conscious condition and was frothing at her mouth.
Dr. Finch testified as to the child's injuries.
Mr. L. P. Randall, Dr. A. St. John Sheppard and a boy named Keogh each testified to having seen the prisoners on Friday lurking in the vicinity of the meadow.
The men were committed without bail to await the actions of the Grand Jury."
Source: NORA WALSH'S NARRATIVE -- THE CHILD TELLS HOW THE TWO MEN BOUND, ROBBED AND ASSAULTED HER, N.Y. Herald, May 27, 1884, p. 5, col. 5.
"Nora Walsh, 13 years old, the daughter of Patrick Walsh, of Pelham Manor, was brutally assaulted while on her way to school in New Rochelle on Friday morning last. As she did not return in the evening a search was made for her continuing through the night and until following morning. She was found in an insensible condition in the edge of woods about a mile south of New Rochelle, near the Boston turnpike. Her hands were tied behind her, and a gag made of leaves was in her mouth. Two young tramps were committed to jail, in White Plains on suspicion of being the perpetrators of the outrage. They have been fully identified, and the case will be presented to the Grand Jury."
Source: [Untitled], The Chronicle [Mount Vernon, NY], May 30, 1884, Vol. XV, No. 767, p. 3, col. 4.
"CRIMES AND CASUALTIES. . . .
Nora Walsh, aged 14, is dying at Pelham, from the effects of a brutal assault committed by two young tramps. Two arrests have been made. . . ."
Source: CRIMES AND CASUALTIES, Oswego Times and Express, May 26, 1884, Vol. 41, No. 99, p. 1, col. 4.
“CITY AND SUBURBAN NEWS. . .
WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
Nora Walsh, 14 years old, the daughter of Patrick Walsh, a farmer in Pelham, was brutally assaulted while on her way to school in New-Rochelle on Friday morning. As she did not return home in the evening a search was made for her on the following morning. She was found in an insensible condition two miles south of New-Rochelle, near the Boston turnpike. Her hands were tied behind her, and a gag made of leaves was in her mouth. Two young tramps were committed to jail, in White Plains, on suspicion of being the perpetrators of the outrage.”
CITY AND SUBURBAN NEWS. . . WESTCHESTER COUNTY, N.Y. Times, May 26, 1884, p. 8, col. 4 (NOTE: Paid subscription required to access via this link).
"BRUTAL WORK OF TRAMPS.
-----
A Young School Girl Shockingly Treated Near New Rochelle.
NEW YORK, May 27. -- A dastardly assault was perpetrated by two unknown tramps on a defenseless school girl in the town of Pelham, Westchester county, on Friday morning last, the particulars of which have just come to light. The victim is Nora Walsh, fourteen years old, daughter of Farmer Patrick Walsh. She was a pupil in the Catholic parish school conducted by Rev. Father McLaughlin, near New Rochelle, and left her home on Friday morning at 8:15 o'clock for the institution. Thirty hours later she was found gagged, bound and in an unconscious condition in a meadow about 200 yards distant from her father's residence.
No alarm was felt for the girl's safety until near evening, as she had to walk two miles going and returning along the old Boston turnpike, but upon inquiries being made of school teachers it was ascertained that she had not attended school during the day. Inquiries were then made along the road, and searching parties were organized and scoured the country in every direction, using lanterns and torches. The prisoners were arrested on the railroad track about a mile above New Rochelle. When they discovered that officers were in pursuit they separated and tried to escape. They said that they were in New York when the crime was committed, and gave the names of persons with whom they professed to have boarded, but inquiry failed to establish the truth of their story."
Source: BRUTAL WORK OF TRAMPS -- A Young School Girl Shockingly Treated Near New Rochelle, The Glens Falls Daily Times, May 28, 1884, Vol. X, No. 110, p. 4, col. 7.
"THE WORK OF TWO MISCREANTS.
-----
A SCHOOL GIRL VICTIM OF A BRUTAL ASSAULT DIES OF THE EFFECTS.
Nora Walsh, a school girl of Pelham, Westchester county, who was assaulted by two ruffians near New Rochelle on May 23 last, died on Saturday last from the injuries she received, and now John Derser and Frederick Hilthouse, the two tramps in the Westchester county jail who are accused of the crime, are in danger of being indicted for murder.
The girl was fourteen years of age, and started to walk to the Sisters' School of New Rochelle, distant about a mile and a half from her father's farmhouse. About a quarter mile from home, on the open highway, she was seized from behind by two men, one of whom put his hands over her mouth and eyes while the other bore her over a stone wall into a field. There she was gagged, bound, robbed and assaulted, and left helpless upon the ground. The ribbons from her hat were taken off to bind her hands and feet. She was robbed of forty-five cents in change, her mouth was stuffed with leaves to prevent her from screaming, and she was left to her fate.
The poor child lay there all day and all night until ten o'clock the next morning, when she was found by a searching party more dead than alive. On that day the two tramps, whose names appear above were arrested by Deputy Sheriff Malloy and identified by several witnesses as having been seen in the vicinity about the time the deed was committed. The girl could not identify them because she did not see them, but distinctly swore that her assailants were Germans, for she heard them speak. The prisoners are German.
Little Nora, after giving her testimony against the prisoners, who were committed to await the action of the Grand Jury on May 27, was taken home, where she began to sink from nervous exhaustion. She was finally prostrated and confined to her bed. After a lingering illness of about four weeks, during which she seemed to be in terror of violence, she passed away. The prisoners' defense is an alibi."
Source: THE WORK OF TWO MISCREANTS -- A SCHOOL GIRL VICTIM OF A BRUTAL ASSAULT DIES OF THE EFFECTS, N.Y. Herald, Aug. 12, 1884, p. 8, col. 6.
* * * * *
The following is from the official minutes book of the "Pelham Manor Protective Club" and reflects a meeting of the Executive Committee of that club held June 2, 1884, only a few days after the brutal assault on little Nora Walsh of Pelham Manor.
"[Page 71 – June 2, 1884]
A meeting of the Executive Committee of the Pelham Manor Protective Club, was held at the residence of G. H. Reynolds, June 2nd 1884.
Present: Messrs. Reynolds, Black, Barnett, De Witt and Johnson.
The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved.
On motion, the Treasurer was authorized to pay Edward Kelley’s bill of ten dollars for the arrest and conviction of John McMahon, a tramp.
The following resolution was offered by Mr. Black and on motion was carried.
[Page 72 – June 2, 1884]
Resolved: That as the Pelham Manor Protective Club require money to meet current expenses, and as the members have not been called upon for either dues or assessments during the past eighteen months, an assessment of two dollars upon each member, be made payable on or before July 1st 1884, and the Treasurer is hereby instructed to collect the same.
Mess. [sic] Barnett and De Witt, the committee on Pamphlet of Instructions reported that they thought the pamphlet should contain, first, the Articles of Association of the Club, second the following suggestions to members.
“Members of this Club have in the past been more or less annoyed by tramps, but as some members have failed to make prompt reports of these annoyances to the Executive Committee and as the offences have only incidentally and long afterward come to the knowledge of the Committee, a number of the offenders have escaped with impunity. It is the earnest desire of the Committee to prosecute tramps and every criminal committing any punishable offence within the territorial jurisdiction of the Club. This end cannot be attained without the active coöperation of all the Club members. For the purpose, therefore, of securing such cooperation and making the Club efficient in
[Page 73 – June 2, 1884]
accomplishing the objects for which it was organized, the Committee thinks fit and proper to offer the following suggestions:
1. As to Tramps – They are defined by statute as “persons who rove from place to place begging” and also as “vagrants living without labor or visible means of support.” “A person who, not having visible means to maintain himself, lives without employment,” or “a person wandering abroad and begging, or who goes about from door to door or places himself in the streets, highways, passages, or other public places to beg or to receive alms,” or “a person wandering abroad and lodging in out houses, sheds, stables, barnes or uninhabited buildings, or in the open air, and and [sic] not giving a good account of himself,” is a tramp or vagrant.
Any offender coming within either of the foregoing definitions may be arrested by a private person without a warrant where the act of vagrancy has been committed in his presence. The person so making an arrest, however, should first inform the vagrant of the cause of his arrest and require him to submit, and then without unnessary [sic] delay take the offender before a Justice of the Peace or deliver him to a constable.
Members of the Club are particularly requested not in any case to give or consent to
[Page 74 – June 2, 1884]
the giving of food, clothing or money to tramps but, on the contrary, to arrest them or cause their arrest forthwith.
2. As to reporting Crimes. – Members are requested to diligently report to this Committee any crime or misdemeanor, however trivial, committed within a mile radius of Pelham Manor Depot. If a tramp is arrested and handed over to a peace officer or taken before a magistrate report that fact. If a tramp escapes arrest report the circumstances, together with a description of him as near as may be. If any grave crime or misdemeanor is committed get word to the Committee at the earliest possible moment, whether in the day time or at any hour of the night, and whether the criminal has escaped or not. An accurate description of the person and dress of the criminal will be of the highest importance in cases of escape, and in every case the utmost care should be taken not to disturb any clues, however slight, which might by any possibility, lead to the detection of the criminal.
In the absence of the Club member from home, let some member of his family or a servant give information as above.
Reports may be left at the residence of either member of the Executive Committee,
[Page 75 – June 2, 1884]
or with the Postmaster at Pelham Manor.
3. As to the Prosecution of Offenders. – The Executive Committee, upon being informed of the presence of any tramp or the commission of any crime or misdemeanor within the limits above mentioned, will at once take in hand the matter of detecting, arresting and prosecuting the offender.
4. Telephone. – A telephone connecting with New Rochelle and New York will soon be placed in Pelham Manor Depot in the name of the Protective Club, which may be used by any member for the purpose, in case of necessity, of obtaining assistance as against vagrants and other criminals, and for other purposes.
5. As to the names and residences of the Peace Officers, etc. of the Town of Pelham. –
The Constables are:
William H. Sparks, Jr. Residing at. Pelhamville
James Anderson. “ “ City Island
Henry Zuner. “ “ “ “
Valentine Hall. “ “ “ “
Frederick Case. “ “ Pelhamville
And the Justices of the Peace are:
Jerome Bell. Residing at City Island
Thomas Martin, “ “ “ “
Michael Hogan. “ “ Bartow
Edw’d A. Peterson. “ “ Pelhamville”
[Page 76 – June 2, 1884]
The report was accepted, and the Treasurer was instructed to have one hundred copies of the pamphlet printed.
The Chairman and Secretary were authorized to arrange with the Westchester Telephone Company for a Telephone at Pelham Manor Depot for the use of the members of the Club. Mr. De Witt presented his resignation as a member of the Executive Committee to take effect July 1st. Accepted.
On motion adjourned.
D M Johnson Clerk.
A meeting of the Executive of the Pelham Manor Protective Club, was held July 9th 1884, at the residence of W. E. Barnett.
Present: Messrs. Black, Reynolds, Barnett and Johnson.
On motion, the regular order of business was suspended, and the Committee balloted to fill the vacancy in the Executive Committee, occasioned by the resignation of Mr. De Witt. Wm Allen Smith was unanamously [sic] elected. Messrs. Barnett and Black were appointed a committee to wait upon
[Page 77 – July 9, 1884]
Mr. Smith, inform him of his election, and request him to meet with us this evening. Mr. Smith came in with the committee and was present during the remainder of this session.
The minutes of the last meeting were read and adopted.
The Treasurer presented a bill of the Westchester Telephone Company for $20.20, which was ordered paid.
The following persons were on motion, elected members of the Club: D. I. Carson, Jno R. Beecroft, Dr. C. F. Heywood , B. T. Kirby, E. R. Bertine , and G. Osmar Reynolds.
The meeting then adjourned.
D M Johnson Clerk."
Source: RECORDS OF THE PELHAM MANOR PROTECTIVE CLUB OF PELHAM MANOR N. Y., pp. 71-77 (Handwritten leather bound volume in the collections of the Westchester County Historical Society, Dec. 15, 1881 - Jan. 8, 1891).
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