Toonerville Trolley Accidents in Pelham Manor

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To this day Pelhamites chuckle fondly when they reminisce about the tiny little Pelham Manor Trolley that met all the trains and that inspired cartoonist Fontaine Fox to create the "Toonerville Trolley" that also met all the trains as part of the long-running comic "Toonerville Folks."  Though the Pelham Manor trolley made its final run in 1937, more than eighty years later most residents of Pelham know of the trolley and the role it played in inspiring Fontaine Fox.

It seems quaint to think of a little rattle-trap of a trolley car bouncing along light rails down Pelhamdale Avenue on its way to the Pelham Manor Depot and, then, to Shore Road before it returned all the way back to the Pelham Train Station meeting all trains at both stations.  Truth be told, however, the trolley was a massive rail car plowing down the center of Wolfs Lane, Colonial Avenue, and Pelhamdale Avenue on dozens of trips a day with horse and buggy, pedestrian, and automobile traffic vying for parts of the same roadway and jockeying with the trolley for position.  Accidents were bound to happen -- and they did.

I have written about some such accidents before.  See, e.g., Fri., Jul. 24, 2015:  The Day the Brakes Failed on the Pelham Manor Trolley, Inspiration for the Toonerville Trolley.  As one might expect, there were other accidents involving the Pelham Manor Trolley including at least one additional accident involving failure of the trolley's brakes.  Today's Historic Pelham article provides information about such additional accidents.

One of the earliest serious accidents involving the Pelham Manor Trolley -- as opposed to trolleys that ran in North Pelham, on Fourth Street (today's Lincoln Avenue) between Mount Vernon and New Rochelle, and on Boston Post Road into New Rochelle -- was one that occurred on the evening of June 30, 1899.  The Pelham Manor Trolley was in its infancy.

The President of the Pelham School Board, John Beecroft, and his wife were returning from a school event at the Hutchinson School late in the evening in their horse-drawn carriage.  As they proceeded their horse shied and backed into the path of a Pelham Manor Trolley car approaching from the opposite direction.  The trolley struck the carriage and destroyed it, throwing the Beecrofts into the roadway.  Mr. Beecroft was knocked unconscious and received a severe cut to the head.  Mrs. Beecroft suffered a dislocated shoulder.

A few years later, on February 14, 1918, the little Pelham Manor Trolley was involved in another serious accident.  A large tank truck belonging to the "Texas Company," a predecessor to Texaco, collided with the trolley, shoving it off its tracks.  The truck was being driven by Charles McCarthy of New Rochelle.  It carried two passengers:  Morris Johnson of New Rochelle, agent for the Texas Company, and Bert Nelson, bookkeeper for the company.  The two passengers were injured, suffering lacerations and broken arms.  Miraculously, none of the passengers on the trolley car was hurt. 

On December 5, 1920, an odd "accident" involving Pelham's Toonerville Trolley occurred.  As the trolley proceeded on Wolfs Lane there was a loud crash.  Passengers were showered with broken glass.  The motorman stopped the trolley, jumped out and demanded to know who had thrown the rock that smashed a glass window of the trolley car.  Witnesses pointed to a man who had climbed aboard the trolley after the window was broken.  It turned out he was trying to catch up with a woman on the car and had been running alongside the car tapping on its windows, unbeknownst to the motorman.  The man finally grabbed a rock, said he would pay for the window and smashed the glass for attention, stopping the car.  Oddly, a news account suggests that once the unidentified man was identified by the motorman, all was forgiven and the trolley proceeded.

In mid-June, 1921, Pelham's Toonerville Trolley suffered yet another brake failure.  As the trolley car approached the end of its line where Pelhamdale Avenue intersects Shore Road, the motorman tried to apply the brakes to no avail.  Thankfully, a Pelham Manor police officer was on duty at the intersection and observed the car hurtling toward the intersection without slowing.  The officer, Officer Murphy, "saw the danger and held up autos approaching."  The trolley car left the tracks and missed one car "by six feet."  Two trolley car passengers, Mrs. and Mrs. Moran of 20 St. Joseph Street in New Rochelle, were "slightly shaken up," but apparently unhurt.

Barely a year later, on July 23, 1922, the Pelham Manor Trolley was involved in another crash.  Paul Deglinno of 10 South Sixth Avenue in Mount Vernon was driving a Ford Touring Car on Pelhamdale Avenue near Bolton Avenue.  A passenger, Camelia Strolle of 34 Fourth Avenue in Mount Vernon, was riding with him.

Deglinno was stuck behind the rattling trolley as it bounced along Pelhamdale Avenue.  He decided to pass the trolley being operated by motorman Edward Galzier.  Deglinno gunned the engine and tried to pass.  He misjudged the maneuver and struck the rear of the trolley car so violently that he launched his passenger through the glass windshield of the touring car, cutting her chin badly.  

The accident was witnessed by Pelham Manor police officer Philip Atkinson who assisted Deglinno to drive the injured woman to New Rochelle Hospital where she received stitches.  

There were other such accidents involving Pelham Manor's Toonerville Trolley during its forty-year span.  Those described today merely demonstrate a few of the many when trolleys once rattled along tracks in the streets of the tiny little Town of Pelham.

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"EXTRA
-----
TROLLEY ACCIDENT AT PELHAM.
-----
JOHN BEECROFT AND WIFE INJURED
-----
A Wound on Head and a Dislocated Shoulder
-----

North Pelham, N. Y., July 1st -- This village was the scene of another trolley accident last night which occurred on Fifth avenue near Fourth street only a few feet from where little Ray Godfrey was hit and severely injured three weeks ago.

John R. Beecroft, President of the Board of Education, was returning to his home in Pelham Manor, with his wife, from the closing exercises at the North Pelham school over which he presided.  It was shortly after ten o'clock and as the carriage reached Third street on the way up Fifth avenue the horse shied and backed into a Pelham Manor trolley car coming from the opposite direction.  Mr. and Mrs. Beecroft were thrown out and the carriage completely wrecked.  

Mr. Beecroft was unconscious but escaped with a cut on his head and several bruises.  Mrs. Beecroft had her shoulder dislocated.

They were taken to the home of John Case and Drs. Fleming and Washburn summoned who set Mrs. Beecroft's shoulder and dressed her husband's wounds.  The motorman was arrested but later released."

Source:  EXTRA -- TROLLEY ACCIDENT AT PELHAM -- JOHN BEECROFT AND WIFE INJURED -- A Wound on Head and a Dislocated Shoulder, Mount Vernon Daily Argus, Jul. 1, 1899, Vol. XXIX, No. 2,227, p. 1, col. 4.

"Pelham Manor
-----
Accident Case Adjourned.

The case of Charles McCarthy, of New Rochelle, the chauffeur who drove the big tank motor truck of the Texas company, Thursday morning, when it collided with and pushed a Pelham Manor trolley car off the track on Pelhamdale avenue near Bolton avenue, came up yesterday morning before Justice of the Peace Ralph Rogers in the local court and was promptly adjourned until next Wednesday evening at 8 o'clock.  The two men who rode with McCarthy at the time of the accident Morris Johnson of New Rochelle, agent for the Texas company and Bert Nelson, the bookkeeper for the concern, are at the New Rochelle hospital where they were taken following the accident.  Their condition is reported as much improved and as no internal injuries of consequence have developed their condition is not serious.  The injuries are lacerations of the heads and each have a broken arm.  They will be able to leave the hospital in a few days.  None of the passengers who were in the trolley car have as yet reported injuries."

Source:  Pelham Manor -- Accident Case Adjourned, The Daily Argus [Mount Vernon, NY], Feb. 15, 1918, p. 9, col. 5.

"North Pelham. . . . 

The Pelham Manor trolley car had just left the Pelham station and was headed for the Manor at 7:15 o'clock last evening, when in front of Jeker's garage, there was a crash and a shower of falling glass.  The car stopped in front of the Pelham police headquarters and the motorman jumped off and asked who threw the stone through the window.  All rushed to the spot where two autos filled with people stood and asked the question there.  The autoists leaned forward and said:  'Do you see that man and woman who got on the car after it stopped?  Well, that man ran alongside the car and was tapping on the window.  The motorman did not hear or see him, so he said he would stop him and threw a stone through the glass, remarking at the time that he would pay for the window.'  There wass a stretching of necks to see who the man was, a chorus of 'Oh's' and the motorman remarked 'It's all right, never mind,' and the car was off."

Source:  North Pelham, The Daily Argus [Mount Vernon, NY], Dec. 6, 1920, p. 7, col. 5.

"Pelham Manor. . . .

The brakes on the Pelham Manor trolley car failed to work just as it was approaching the end of the line at the shore road, and ran across the shore road to the approach to the New York Athletic club.  Officer Murphy, who was on duty there at the time, saw the danger and held up autos approaching.  The car missed one auto by six feet.  Mr. and Mrs. Moran of 20 St. Joseph street, New Rochelle, were on the car and slightly shaken up. . . ."

Source:  Pelham Manor, The Daily Argus [Mount Vernon, NY], Jun. 18, 1921, p. 10, col. 4.  

"Woman Badly Cut When Auto Strikes Trolley
-----
Is Thrown Through Windshield By Impact.  Eight Stitches Taken In Chin At Hospital
-----

Thrown through the windshield of a Ford touring car, when it collided with the Pelham Manor trolley car.  Sunday afternoon, Miss Camelia Strolle, of No. 34 Fourth Avenue, Mount Vernon, received a deep gash in her chin, in which eight stitches had to be taken, by a surgenon at New Rochelle Hospital.

Miss Strolle was riding in the touring car which was operated by Paul Deglinno, of No. 10 South Sixth Avenue, Mount Vernon.  The couple in the automobile were going south on Pelhamdale Avenue, behind the trolley car, which was operated by Edward Galzier, Deglinno tried to pass the trolley car, but misjudged the clearance and crashed into it.

The force of the impact threw Miss Strolle forward, and her head struck the windshield, breaking it, and as her head passed through the broken pane of glass the jagged edge cut a deep gash in her chin.

Officer Philip Atkinson, of the Pelham Manor police department, witnessed the accident, and with Deglinno, drove the injured woman to New Rochelle Hospital.  There she received treatement and was removed to her home later.  There was no one else injured in the accident.  There was no damage done to the automobile than the broken windshield."

Source:  Woman Badly Cut When Auto Strikes Trolley -- Is Thrown Through Windshield By Impact.  Eight Stitches Taken In Chin At Hospital, The Pelham Sun, Jul. 28, 1922, Vol. 13, No. 22, p. 1, col. 5.

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Below is a bibliography including links to a few of my many previous postings dealing with the topics of the "Toonerville Trolley," horse-drawn railroad cars, electric trolleys and other trolley-related information pertinent to Pelham, New York.

Bell, Blake A., Pelham and the Toonerville Trolley, 82(4) The Westchester Historian, pp. 96-111 (Fall 2006).

Bell, Blake A., Pelham and the Toonerville Trolley, The Pelham Weekly, Vol. XIII, No. 11, Mar. 12, 2004, p. 10, col. 1.

Thu., Feb. 22, 2018:  More on the 1916 Trolley Strike That Brought Violence to Pelham.

Fri., Jan. 06, 2017:  Has One of the Most Enduring Pelham History Mysteries Been Solved? The Mystery of Charles A. Voight!

Thu., Sep. 15, 2016:  Pelham Manor Residents Complained of Awful Service on the Toonerville Trolley Line as Early as 1899.

Fri., May 27, 2016:  Was Max "Maxie" Martin the Man Who Was the Skipper on the Pelham Manor Trolley the Day Fontaine Fox Rode the Line and Was Inspired?

Thu., Sep. 10, 2015:  Pelham Manor Citizens Voted to Reject Bus Service and Keep Their Toonerville Trolley in 1936.

Fri., Jul. 24, 2015:  The Day the Brakes Failed on the Pelham Manor Trolley, Inspiration for the Toonerville Trolley.

Tue., Jan. 06, 2015:  Extension of the Toonerville Trolley Line in Pelham Manor in 1910.

Wed., Mar. 19, 2014:  Another Confirmation the Famous "Toonerville Trolley" was Inspired by the Pelham Manor Trolley in 1909.

Wed., Mar. 05, 2014:  Trolleys Came to Pelham in the 1890s.

Tue., Jan. 05, 2010:  More on the Extension of the Pelham Manor Trolley Line in 1910 -- The Toonerville Trolley Line.

Wed., Dec. 30, 2009:  Opening of the Extension of the Pelham Manor Trolley Line in 1910 -- The Toonerville Trolley Line.

Wed., Dec. 23, 2009:  Attack on the Toonerville Trolley Line by Strikers in 1916

Thu., Aug. 27, 2009:  October 19, 1898 Report that the Tracks of the Toonerville Trolley Line Had Been Laid in Pelham.  

Mon., Aug. 17, 2009:  Efforts by Pelham Landowners in 1900 to Halt Construction of a Trolley Line on Shore Road.

Tue., Sep. 19, 2006:  Toonerville Trolley Cartoons Available For Free Viewing Online.

Tue., Sep. 19, 2006:  Toonerville Trolley Cartoons Available For Free Viewing Online.  

Wed., Aug. 9, 2006:  The Saddest Day in the History of Pelham Manor's "Toonerville Trolley"

Thu., Jul. 06, 2006:  Who Was the Skipper on the Pelham Manor Trolley the Day Fontaine Fox Rode the Line and Was Inspired?

Thu., Mar. 09, 2006:  Photographs of the H Line and A Line Trolleys on and Near Pelhamdale Avenue.

Tue., Oct. 11, 2005:  The Toonerville Trolley Pays Its Bills -- Late!

Tue., Sep. 20, 2005:  Pelham's "Toonerville Trolley" Goes To War.

Fri., Jun. 17, 2005:  "Skipper Louie" of Pelham Manor's Toonerville Trolley


Tue., Apr. 19, 2005:   Pelham Manor Residents Fight Construction of the Toonerville Trolley Line

Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.

Home Page of the Historic Pelham Blog.

Order a Copy of "Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Pell Treaty Oak."

Has One of the Most Enduring Pelham History Mysteries Been Solved? The Mystery of Charles A. Voight!

Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.

Home Page of the Historic Pelham Blog.

Order a Copy of "Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Pell Treaty Oak."

On August 8, 1909, a man named Fontaine Fox arrived with his wife at the Pelham Station in the Village of North Pelham.  The couple hopped on the rickety little trolley that met all the trains.  

The little trolley shuttled back and forth, at that time, between the Pelham Station on the New Haven Line and the Pelham Manor Station on the New Haven Branch Line.  In 1909, the rattletrap trolley click-clacked along tracks laid on Wolfs Lane to Colonial Avenue where it turned toward New Rochelle.  It traveled along Colonial Avenue for a few hundred feet, then turned east onto Pelhamdale Avenue along which it traveled to its final stop near the Branch Line railroad trestle above Pelhamdale Avenue.  From there, the trolley operator reversed the trolley and returned along the same route to the Pelham Station.  (The following year, 1910, the trolley line was extended all the way to the end of Pelhamdale Avenue at Shore Road.)  

On that summer day in 1909, Fontaine Fox and his wife were on their way to visit their cartoonist friend, Charles A. Voight, who lived in Pelham Manor.  On the couple's brief trolley ride, as Fox later described in numerous letters and magazine interviews, Fox was struck by the folksy trolley operator with his Airedale beard, the idiosyncratic and rickety little trolley car known locally as the "Pelham Manor Trolley," and the concept that the little trolley met all the trains.  Fontaine Fox was so inspired by the ride that he created caricatures of the trolley operator, whom he named "Skipper," and the rickety little trolley that he called the "Toonerville Trolley that Meets All the Trains."  From there he created the wildly successful comic strip entitled "Toonerville Folks" that ran in syndication for the next forty years and made Fox a famous and wealthy man.  As Fox stated in one interview:

"After years of gestation, the idea for the Toonerville Trolley was born one day up in Westchester County when my wife and I had left New York City to visit Charlie Voight, the cartoonist, in the Pelhams.  At the station, we saw a rattletrap of a streetcar, which had as its crew and skipper a wistful old codger with an Airedale beard.  He showed as much concern in the performance of his job as you might expect from Captain Hartley when docking the Leviathan."

Source:  A Queer Way to Make a Living, The Saturday Evening Post, Feb. 11, 1928, p. 6.

Example of Sunday Comic Strip "Toonerville Folks" by

Fontaine Fox Featuring the Toonerville Trolley and its

Skipper.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

For decades, one of the most enduring Pelham history mysteries has been the location of the Charles Voight home that Fontaine Fox and his wife visited on August 8, 1909.  Today's posting to the Historic Pelham Blog attempts to shed light on that question.

Charles Anthony Voight was born in Brooklyn on April 28, 1887.  He showed artistic talent as a youngster and dropped out of school at the age of fourteen.  He became a member of the art staff a the New York World, a New York City newspaper, and did freelance advertising art work on the side.

Voight became an early comic strip artist.  Eventually he became best known for his long-running comic strip entitled "Betty."  According to one brief biography:

"In 1908, he drew his first comic strip, Petey Dink, for the Boston Traveler.  When [the comic strip] moved to the New York Herald it became simply Petey (sometimes titled Poor Little Petey).  He also drew for the New York World, and for Life, he created a series titled The Optimist.

The Sunday page of his popular glamour girl strip Betty began April 4, 1920 in the New York Herald, there was no daily strip.  Comics historian Don Markstein described the strip and characters [as follows]:  Betty Thompson's life was filled with cocktail parties, cotillions and affairs of that nature.  She wore all the latest high-class fashions, amply displayed by Voight's lush, stylish and highly individual illustration.  While Tillie the Toiler, very much a working girl, may seem to have little in common with Betty, they had one strong point of similarity.  Both went through handsome dashing men by the carload. . . ."

Source:  "Charles A. Voight" in Wikipedia -- The Free Encyclopedia (visited Jan. 2, 2017).

The comic strip Betty ended its run in 1943.  Thereafter Voight created art for comic books.  He died on February 10, 1947.

Voight and his wife, Nina, lived in Pelham Manor for a time.  The million-dollar-question, of course, is "where did they live on August 8, 1909."

Recently, while researching World War I draftees from Pelham, New York, I ran across a newspaper reference to the drafting of Charles A. Voight in July, 1917.  According to that record, Voight's address at the time was "541 Rochelle Place" in Pelham.  It turns out that there was no such address in Pelham at the time.  A quick review of World War I draft registration records, however, quickly revealed that on June 5, 1917, Charles Anthony Voight lived at 514 Rochelle Terrace in the Village of Pelham Manor.  (See immediately below.)

World War I Draft Registration Record for Charles

Anthony Voight of 514 Rochelle Terrace in Village

of Pelham Manor.  NOTE:  Click on Link to Enlarge.

The address is a starting point, of course, but certainly does not answer the question of where in Pelham Voight lived eight years earlier when Fontaine Fox visited him.  Thus, the 1910 Federal Census for Pelham was next consulted.  Neither Charles Voight nor his wife Nina, however, may be found anywhere in Pelham in the 1910 U.S. Census.  Nor has research yet revealed either of them anywhere else in the United States in the 1910 Federal Census.  If correct, this suggests, of course, that as was so often the case, they were among the members of the population who were missed in the census count that year.

This leaves us to review the 1905 and 1915 New York State census counts to try to find Charles Voight and his residence.  

Sure enough, the 1915 New York State Census shows Charles A. Voight and his wife, Nina, living with a live-in servant (a cook) in the Village of Pelham Manor at 457 Pelham Street.  There no longer is a street in Pelham Manor named Pelham Street.  That street once was located essentially where today's Monroe Street runs between Hunter Avenue and the end of Monroe Street.  The area was profoundly changed by the construction of the New England Thruway (I-95) through the neighborhood during the 1950s.  (See map detail immediately below.)

Detail from Map Published in 1910 Showing Location of

Pelham Street in Lower Left Quadrant of the Detail.

Source:  "Part of the Town and Village of Pelham Manor"

in Bromley, George Washington, Atlas of Westchester

County, New York, Vol. 1, p. 18 (Philadelphia, PA:  G.W.

Bromley & Co., 1910).  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

Detail from 1915 New York State Census, Westchester County,

Pelham, Assembly District No. 2, Election District No. 2, Page

14 of 21.  (Note:  Access via this link requires paid subscription).

NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

The Voight home at 457 Pelham Street in 1915 was very near the terminus of the Pelham Manor trolley in 1909 when Fontaine Fox took his fateful ride.  That fact, of course, is encouraging.  It turns out, however, that Voight and his wife seem to have moved into the home at 457 Pelham Street some time after 1909.  At the very least, someone else was living in that home in 1910.

Returning to the 1910 U.S. Census for Pelham, it is possible to find the home located at 457 Pelham Street and identify the occupants of that home at the time the census was taken in May, 1910.  There were five residents in the home:  Felix J. Rush (father and head of household), Centa Rush (wife), Marie G. Rush (daughter), Philomena S. Rush (daughter), and Joseph Dirnago (a brother-in-law).  Neither Charles Voight nor his wife is listed.  Thus, it would seem that the couple did not live there in 1910 and may well have moved into that home at a later date.

Detail from 1910 U.S. Census, New York, Westchester

County, Town of Pelham, District 0110, Page 48 of 65

(Note:  Paid subscription required to access via this link).

NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

Alas, although this research has added to the body of information regarding various homes in which famed cartoonist Charles A. Voight resided during his time in Pelham, the question of precisely where he lived on August 8, 1909 when Fontaine Fox visited him remains an unanswered question.  It remains, for now, one of the most enduring Pelham history mysteries to be resolved, hopefully, in the future.

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Below is a bibliography including links to a few of my many previous postings dealing with the topics of the "Toonerville Trolley," horse-drawn railroad cars, electric trolleys and other trolley-related information pertinent to Pelham, New York.

Bell, Blake A., Pelham and the Toonerville Trolley, 82(4) The Westchester Historian, pp. 96-111 (Fall 2006).

Bell, Blake A., Pelham and the Toonerville Trolley, The Pelham Weekly, Vol. XIII, No. 11, Mar. 12, 2004, p. 10, col. 1.

Thu., Sep. 15, 2016:  Pelham Manor Residents Complained of Awful Service on the Toonerville Trolley Line as Early as 1899.

Fri., May 27, 2016:  Was Max "Maxie" Martin the Man Who Was the Skipper on the Pelham Manor Trolley the Day Fontaine Fox Rode the Line and Was Inspired?

Thu., Sep. 10, 2015:  Pelham Manor Citizens Voted to Reject Bus Service and Keep Their Toonerville Trolley in 1936.

Fri., Jul. 24, 2015:  The Day the Brakes Failed on the Pelham Manor Trolley, Inspiration for the Toonerville Trolley.

Tue., Jan. 06, 2015:  Extension of the Toonerville Trolley Line in Pelham Manor in 1910.

Wed., Mar. 19, 2014:  Another Confirmation the Famous "Toonerville Trolley" was Inspired by the Pelham Manor Trolley in 1909.

Wed., Mar. 05, 2014:  Trolleys Came to Pelham in the 1890s.

Tue., Jan. 05, 2010:  More on the Extension of the Pelham Manor Trolley Line in 1910 -- The Toonerville Trolley Line.

Wed., Dec. 30, 2009:  Opening of the Extension of the Pelham Manor Trolley Line in 1910 -- The Toonerville Trolley Line.

Wed., Dec. 23, 2009:  Attack on the Toonerville Trolley Line by Strikers in 1916

Thu., Aug. 27, 2009:  October 19, 1898 Report that the Tracks of the Toonerville Trolley Line Had Been Laid in Pelham.  

Mon., Aug. 17, 2009:  Efforts by Pelham Landowners in 1900 to Halt Construction of a Trolley Line on Shore Road.

Thu., Jul. 30, 2009:  Pelham-Related Trolley Franchises Granted in 1897.

Wed., Mar. 25, 2009:  Another Brief Account by Fontaine Fox Describing Trolley in Pelham Manor as Inspiration for Toonerville Trolley Comic Strip.

Mon., May 28, 2007:  Brief Biography of Henry De Witt Carey, 19th Century Pelham Justice of the Peace.

Mon., Mar. 05, 2007:  An Ode to the Toonerville Trolley and its Skipper Published in 1921.

Tue., Sep. 19, 2006:  Toonerville Trolley Cartoons Available For Free Viewing Online.

Tue., Sep. 19, 2006:  Toonerville Trolley Cartoons Available For Free Viewing Online.  

Wed., Aug. 9, 2006:  The Saddest Day in the History of Pelham Manor's "Toonerville Trolley"

Thu., Jul. 06, 2006:  Who Was the Skipper on the Pelham Manor Trolley the Day Fontaine Fox Rode the Line and Was Inspired?

Thu., Mar. 09, 2006:  Photographs of the H Line and A Line Trolleys on and Near Pelhamdale Avenue.

Tue., Oct. 11, 2005:  The Toonerville Trolley Pays Its Bills -- Late!

Tue., Sep. 20, 2005:  Pelham's "Toonerville Trolley" Goes To War.
Fri., Jun. 17, 2005:  "Skipper Louie" of Pelham Manor's Toonerville Trolley


Tue., Apr. 19, 2005:   Pelham Manor Residents Fight Construction of the Toonerville Trolley Line

Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.

Home Page of the Historic Pelham Blog.

Order a Copy of "Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Pell Treaty Oak."

Pelham Manor Residents Complained of Awful Service on the Toonerville Trolley Line as Early as 1899

Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.

Home Page of the Historic Pelham Blog.

Order a Copy of "Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Pell Treaty Oak."

On August 8, 1909, Fontaine Fox made a now-famous trip on the little trolley line that once ran from Pelham Station down Wolfs Lane, onto Colonial Avenue and then Pelhamdale Avenue to a stop near the railroad bridge of the New Haven Branch Line.  As he later affirmed in letters, newspaper and magazine interviews, and conversations, Fontaine Fox was inspired by his ride on the Pelham Manor trolley line to create the "Toonerville Trolley" and its bearded "Skipper," a central tenet of his wildly-successful comic strip "Toonerville Folks" that he syndicated and that ran in hundreds of newspapers throughout the United States for fifty years.

Barely a year after Fontaine Fox rode the rickety little Pelham Manor trolley, the Westchester Electric Railway extended the Pelham Manor trolley line along Pelhamdale Avenue to Shore Road near the New York Athletic Club.  The history of the little trolley line is fascinating in its own right.

Since the founding of the little trolley line in 1896, the Pelham Manor trolley was expected to "meet all the trains" arriving at Pelham Station and Pelham Manor Station.  Indeed, Fontaine Fox entitled many of the comics he published "The Toonerville Trolley That Meets All the Trains."  

"The Toonerville Trolley That Meets All

the Trains."  Source:  The Toonerville

Trolley That Meets All the Trains, Sacramento

Union, Apr. 12, 1920, No. 43, p. 4, cols. 3-4.

NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

In 1896, the five-year-old Village of Pelham Manor granted the Union Railroad Company a franchise to operate trolley lines from the border with the Village of Pelham at Colonial Avenue along Pelhamdale Avenue to the railroad bridge near the Pelham Manor Station and along today's Boston Post Road from Pelhamdale Avenue to the border with New Rochelle.  Embarrassingly, the Union Railroad Company failed to file a certificate of its franchise with the Office of the Secretary of State of the State of New York.  In subsequent litigation, this failure prompted courts to rule the franchise to be illegal.  

In 1899, the Union Railroad Company attempted to remedy its failure by seeking a "renewal" of its franchise from the Village of Pelham Manor.  Showing chutzpah, however, the company sought more than a mere "renewal."  Instead, it sought to expand the line to run it further along Pelhamdale Avenue to Shore Road and then along a tiny portion of Shore Road in Pelham Manor to the New Rochelle border where it would connect with a New Rochelle line.

Pelham Manor residents were unhappy with the proposal.  The stretch of Pelhamdale Avenue east of the railroad bridge was a bucolic, beautiful, and still rural part of Pelham Manor.  Additionally, the portion of Shore Road that would be affected was considered "a beautiful riding and driving thoroughfare skirting Pelham Bay Park."  

During the week of January 23, 1899, a crescendo of local opposition to Union Railroad Company prompted the company to "withdraw" portions of its renewal request to limit it to a true "renewal" of the original franchise with no expansion of the line further along Pelhamdale Avenue and along Shore Road in Pelham Manor.  Nevertheless, Pelham Manor residents were not satisfied.

On Tuesday, January 31, 1899, during a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Village of Pelham Manor, Pelham Manor residents appeared and "made it clear to the trustees that no trolley road would be tolerated, either on the Shore Road or on that part of Pelhamdale-ave. desired by the company."  

Two days later, on Thursday, February 2, 1899, the Board of Trustees of the Village of Pelham Manor met again to consider whether to relieve Union Railroad Company "of its embarrassing position of running its cars without a legal right in the manor, by injecting new life into its defective franchise" with a simple renewal of the original franchise.  Pelham resident and civil engineer John F. Fairchild appeared at the meeting on behalf of the Union Railroad Company.  Fairchild served as engineer of the Union Railroad Company.  

During the meeting, a long-time notable resident of Pelham Manor, Alfred L. Hammett, read a protest "against the miserable service being furnished by the company between Mount Vernon, Pelham Manor and New-Rochelle."  Thereafter, Village President Ezra T. Gilliland piled on, giving his own account of recent miserable service.  One report noted:

"President E. T. Gilliland, who was chairman of the meeting, related his own experience.  He said that yesterday afternoon he came out to North Pelham on the 3 o'clock train from New-York, expecting to take a trolley-car for his home, in Pelham Manor.  He waited at the railroad station for ten minutes in the frigid weather, and then, being unable to get a car, walked home a distance of nearly two miles, through the snow.  'On my way to Pelham Manor,' said Mr. Gilliland, 'I passed two or three cars going in the opposite direction, but none came along that were going my way.'  This condition of affairs, he said, existed, notwithstanding the fact the company in its original franchise had promised to meet every train on the New-Haven Railroad until 1 o'clock each morning."

The Board of Trustees then considered the proposed renewal franchise "section by section."  On behalf of the trolley line, John F. Fairchild promised that the failure of the trolley to meet all trains at Pelham Station as required by the original franchise "would be remedied."  To ensure that the promise would be kept, the board "re-adopted" the franchise on the condition that the company post a bond of $25,000 to ensure that it carried out its "numerous promises."  

It was not until 1910 that the Pelham Manor trolley line was expanded along Pelhamdale to Shore Road where it ended.  Pelham Manor never agreed to permit the trolley company to expand the line along Shore Road to connect with New Rochelle.

What was really going on during this period in 1899?  Actually, it is readily apparent.  The Union Railroad Company never wanted to build the spur of the trolley line from Boston Post Road down Pelhamdale Avenue to the Pelham Manor Train Station because it never believed the spur would be profitable.  The company was required to build the spur, however, by the Pelham Manor Board of Trustees in order to obtain the franchise that it really wanted between Colonial Avenue and onto Boston Post Road into New Rochelle to connect Mount Vernon, Pelham, and New Rochelle, a line that it felt confident would be profitable.

It turns out that as the Union Railroad Company feared, the tiny little spur of the Pelham Manor trolley line from Boston Post Road to Pelham Manor Station was not profitable.  The company hoped to extend the line from the Pelham Manor Station along Pelhamdale Avenue to Shore Road to capture the many, many thousands per year who rode the branch line to Pelham Manor Station, then hopped off and walked to Shore Road to get to the New York Athletic Club on Travers Island.  Moreover, by extending that portion of the line along Shore Road onto Pelham Road in New Rochelle to connect with New Rochelle, the company hoped to attract additional riders on the little spur traveling to the Sound Shore region of New Rochelle.  Pelham Manor residents, in contrast, did not want hordes of people passing through the quiet and bucolic section of Pelham Manor along Pelhamdale Avenue and Shore Road just to get to and from New Rochelle.

Detail from a Photograph in the Collections

of the Westchester County Historical Society

Showing "Four Corners," the Intersection of

Pelhamdale Avenue and Boston Post Road

Before 1937. The "H Line" Trolley is Returning

from Shore Road Toward the Intersection.

At this Intersection, Trolley Tracks Along

Pelhamdale Avenue Split With Some Tracks

Turning Onto Boston Post Road Toward New

Rochelle and Others Continuing Along Pelhamdale

Avenue. NOTE: Click on Image to Enlarge.

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"NO EXTENSIONS GRANTED.
-----
PELHAM MANOR TRUSTEES RENEW THE UNION TROLLEY FRANCHISE.
-----
MISERABLE SERVICE TOLD OF BY CITIZENS AT THE MEETING LAST EVENING -- COMPANY UNDER A $25,000 BOND.

The trustees of Pelham Manor held a second meeting last night to consider the application of the Union Railroad Company for a renewal of its franchise.  The company is already operating a streetcar system which connects the Manor with Mount Vernon and New-Rochelle by virtue of a franchise given it in 1896, but which has since been held by the courts to be illegal, owing to the failure by the company to deposit with the Secretary of State a certificate of the right given to it by the authorities of the Manor.  The new charter applied for included a request for several additional streets not mentioned in the invalid franchise, among them Pelhamdale-ave., from the New-York, New-Haven and Hartford Suburban Road station to the Shore Road, a beautiful riding and driving thoroughfare skirting Pelham Bay Park, and connecting Pelham Manor with New-Rochelle, City Island and West Chester, and from a point near the gates of the country home of the New-York Athletic Club along the Shore Road to New-Rochelle and Glen Island.

At a public meeting on Tuesday night of this week the citizens made it clear to the trustees that no trolley road would be tolerated, either on the Shore Road or on that part of Pelhamdale-ave. desired by the company.

In view of the overwhelming opposition to its plans the company last week withdrew those sections of its application, and the trustees have relieved it of its embarrassing position of running its cars without a legal right in the manor, by injecting new life into its defective franchise.

At the meeting, last evening a protest was read from A. L. Hammett, a prominent citizen, against the miserable service being furnished by the company between Mount Vernon, Pelham Manor and New-Rochelle, President E. T. Gilliland, who was chairman of the meeting, related his own experience.  He said that yesterday afternoon he came out to North Pelham on the 3 o'clock train from New-York, expecting to take a trolley-car for his home, in Pelham Manor.  He waited at the railroad station for ten minutes in the frigid weather, and then, being unable to get a car, walked home a distance of nearly two miles, through the snow.

'On my way to Pelham Manor,' said Mr. Gilliland, 'I passed two or three cars going in the opposite direction, but none came along that were going my way.'  This condition of affairs, he said, existed, notwithstanding the fact the company in its original franchise had promised to meet every train on the New-Haven Railroad until 1 o'clock each morning.

John F. Fairchild, engineer of the company, who was present in its behalf, said that this condition would be remedied, but that the company must first get some additional rights on the highway, in order to build switches and turnouts.  The trustees in re-adopting the franchise took it up section by section, and held the trolley corporation down to a bond of $25,000 to carry out its numerous promises.

One of the trustees in speaking of the franchise said:  'We have simply given the company what it has already, and declined to allow it to make any more extensions for the present.'

The company operates lines in Pelham Manor, as follow:  From the junction of Pelhamdale-ave. to the bridge of the Harlem River branch of the New-Haven Railroad.  The meeting did not adjourn until nearly midnight.

A hearing on the application of the Tarrytown, White Plains and Mamaroneck Road for a franchise from White Plains to Mount Vernon will be held in Scarsdale before the Highway Commissioner to-day."

Source:  NO EXTENSIONS GRANTED -- PELHAM MANOR TRUSTEES RENEW THE UNION TROLLEY FRANCHISE -- MISERABLE SERVICE TOLD OF BY CITIZENS AT THE MEETING LAST EVENING -- COMPANY UNDER A $25,000 BOND, New-York Tribune, Feb. 3, 1899, p. 2, col. 2 (Note:  Paid subscription required to access via this link).

*          *          *          *          *

Below is a bibliography including links to a few of my many previous postings dealing with the topics of the "Toonerville Trolley," horse-drawn railroad cars, electric trolleys and other trolley-related information pertinent to Pelham, New York.

Bell, Blake A., Pelham and the Toonerville Trolley, 82(4) The Westchester Historian, pp. 96-111 (Fall 2006).

Bell, Blake A., Pelham and the Toonerville Trolley, The Pelham Weekly, Vol. XIII, No. 11, Mar. 12, 2004, p. 10, col. 1.

Fri., May 27, 2016:  Was Max "Maxie" Martin the Man Who Was the Skipper on the Pelham Manor Trolley the Day Fontaine Fox Rode the Line and Was Inspired?

Mon., Oct. 19, 2015:  Rioting Strikers Attacked Pelham Trolley Passengers and Fought With Pelham Police in the Great Streetcar Strike of 1916.  

Thu., Sep. 10, 2015:  Pelham Manor Citizens Voted to Reject Bus Service and Keep Their Toonerville Trolley in 1936.

Fri., Jul. 24, 2015:  The Day the Brakes Failed on the Pelham Manor Trolley, Inspiration for the Toonerville Trolley.

Wed., Mar. 19, 2014:  Another Confirmation the Famous "Toonerville Trolley" was Inspired by the Pelham Manor Trolley in 1909.

Wed., Mar. 25, 2009:  Another Brief Account by Fontaine Fox Describing Trolley in Pelham Manor as Inspiration for Toonerville Trolley Comic Strip.

Tue., Apr. 19, 2005:   Pelham Manor Residents Fight Construction of the Toonerville Trolley Line

Fri., Jun. 17, 2005:  "Skipper Louie" of Pelham Manor's Toonerville Trolley

Tue., Sep. 20, 2005:  Pelham's "Toonerville Trolley" Goes to War

Tue., Oct. 11, 2005:  The Toonerville Trolley Pays Its Bills -- Late!

Thu., Mar. 09, 2006:  Photographs of the H Line and A Line Trolleys on and Near Pelhamdale Avenue.

Thu., Jul. 06, 2006:  Who Was the Skipper on the Pelham Manor Trolley the Day Fontaine Fox Rode the Line and Was Inspired?

Wed., Aug. 9, 2006:  The Saddest Day in the History of Pelham Manor's "Toonerville Trolley"

Tue., Sep. 19, 2006:  Toonerville Trolley Cartoons Available For Free Viewing Online.  

Mon., Mar. 05, 2007:  An Ode to the Toonerville Trolley and its Skipper Published in 1921.

Mon., May 28, 2007:  Brief Biography of Henry De Witt Carey, 19th Century Pelham Justice of the Peace.

Thu., Jul. 30, 2009:  Pelham-Related Trolley Franchises Granted in 1897.

Mon., Aug. 17, 2009:  Efforts by Pelham Landowners in 1900 to Halt Construction of a Trolley Line on Shore Road.

Thu., Aug. 27, 2009:  October 19, 1898 Report that the Tracks of the Toonerville Trolley Line Had Been Laid in Pelham.  

Wed., Dec. 23, 2009:  Attack on the Toonerville Trolley Line by Strikers in 1916

Wed., Dec. 30, 2009:  Opening of the Extension of the Pelham Manor Trolley Line in 1910 -- The Toonerville Trolley Line.

Tue., Jan. 05, 2010:  More on the Extension of the Pelham Manor Trolley Line in 1910 -- The Toonerville Trolley Line.

Wed., Mar. 05, 2014:  Trolleys Come to Pelham in the 1890s.

Tue., Jan. 06, 2015:  Extension of the Toonerville Trolley Line in Pelham Manor in 1910.

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