News From the Pelham Press of June 4, 1897

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In 1896 and 1897, the new Village of North Pelham was so tiny that one could stand "in the center and see every neighbor across its boundaries."  Yet, the tiny little settlement previously known as Pelhamville had its own little newspaper:  the Pelham Press.  

The few reports from the Pelham Press that exist are extant only because the editor of the newspaper, J. Gardner Minard, provided transcriptions of news from the little newspaper to The Pelham Sun which published the news thirty years later, in 1926 and 1927, in a series of columns entitled "Pelham 30 Years Ago."  Historic Pelham has transcribed a number of such columns given their historical significance and interest.  See, e.g.:

Wed., Oct. 07, 2015:  The Week that Was in 1896: Pelham Press News of Pelham, November 19, 1896 to November 25, 1896.

Tue., Aug. 30, 2016:  News Reported by the Pelham Press on February 13, 1897. 

Wed., Jan. 31, 2018:  News from the Pelham Press Printed on May 21, 1897.

 Fri., Sep. 29, 2017:  Professor David A. Van Buskirk's Scandalous Musicale in North Pelham in 1897 (transcribing "PELHAM 30 YEARS AGO" that reproduced news from the Pelham Press published Jan. 23, 1897).

Today's Historic Pelham article focuses on news from the Pelham Press published on June 4, 1897.  The news, reprinted by The Pelham Sun on June 10, 1927, is transcribed at the end of today's article.  

As one might imagine, in a tiny settlement like North Pelham in 1897 with a series of dirt roads that criss-crossed the neighborhood, there were no street signs.  Though many of the dirt roads had street names, even some North Pelham residents did not know the name of the streets on which they lived.  Consequently, the Pelham Press began agitating for the erection of street signs.

As the Pelham Press noted, the expense necessary to erect such signs would not require the issuance of a bond.  The newspaper admitted, however, that it was "True it is no easy matter to get lost in a village where you can stand in the center and see every neighbor across its boundaries, but many local residents would like to be enlightened as to the name of the street on which he resides."  Interestingly, the paper cited one example involving Park Place in North Pelham, a tiny one-block street that still extends between Eighth Avenue and Ninth Avenue just north of today's Lincoln Avenue.  The newspaper said:  "One gentleman who has resided on Park place for over six months just learned from us yesterday the name of his street."

Another fascinating aspect of the news from the Pelham Press of June 4, 1897 involved the new-fangled "safety bicycle" that swept the nation during the last two decades of the 19th century.  A variety of news reports Pelhamville and, later the Village of North Pelham, make clear that from the time wood plank sidewalks were first established in Pelhamville in the mid-1880s, bicyclists using the sidewalks instead of the muddy, rutted roadways were an annoying and dangerous problem.  In 1897, the Village of North Pelham had a relatively new ordinance forbidding bicyclists from using its sidewalks to ply their hobby.

Despite the ordinance, bicyclists continued to avoid the roadways and use the local sidewalks.  The Pelham Press expressed sympathy for local bicyclists, however.  It noted:  "
North Pelham should repair the streets of the village, especially Fifth avenue, so as to make it passable in wet weather.  Who can blame bicyclists for using the sidewalks."

One bicyclist who found himself in the clutches of the law in the Village of North Pelham in 1897 was William Howe of nearby Mount Vernon.  Howe, it seems, was a resident of Third Avenue in Mount Vernon and was a long-time bicycle enthusiast.  He is noted in a local newspaper as early as 1892 as having fallen from his bicycle and "strain[ing] both hands."  

On Monday, May 31, 1897, William Howe was delivering a new bicycle to a family in the new neighborhood of Chester Park in North Pelham.  The family was none other than that of Mr. and Mrs. William T. Standen, the founders of Chester Park.  The couple had purchased a new "Safety Bicycle" for their daughter.

A "Safety Bicycle" as it then was called, was a bicycle that resembled what we think of today as an ordinary bicycle with two equally-sized wheels.  This distinguished it from the so-called "High Wheelers" with a giant front wheel and tiny rear wheel.  Such High Wheelers were difficult to mount, difficult to dismount, and could be wobbly and hard to maneuver.

Image from 1904 Dictionary of Technology Showing an 1880

"High Wheeler" Bicycle on the Left and a So-Called "Safety

Bicycle" on the Right.  Source:  "Safety Bicycle" in Wikipedia --

The Free Encyclopedia (visited Feb. 4, 2018).  NOTE:  Click on

Image to Enlarge.

Howe rode the Safety Bicycle through North Pelham on his way to deliver it to Chester Park that day.  As he rode, a Town Constable at the corner of Fifth Avenue and First Street near Lyman's Pharmacy saw him and shouted at him to stop riding on the sidewalk.  According to the Pelham Press, "Howe was going at a good speed and tried to obey the command but not fast enough to please Marks who promptly placed him under arrest."  Howe was hauled before Judge Lyon who fined him $10 under the new bicycle ordinance (about $355 in today's dollars).  After Howe protested and threatened to test the new ordinance in court, Judge Lyon reduced the fine to $5.

The Pelham Press further criticized the Town Constables for what it believed was uneven and unequal enforcement of the North Pelham bicycle ordinance.  The newspaper claimed that the ordinance was enforced against non-residents, but was not enforced against North Pelham residents.  As the newspaper put it:

"Complaint is being received at this office that the local constables are drawing a distinction in making arrests for violation of the North Pelham ordinances, especially the one relating to the riding of bicycles on the sidewalks.  We have seen enough evidence to give this report much color and would suggest that these officers of the law enforce against all, local as well as outsiders."

The Pelham Press of June 4, 1897 also reported on the status of efforts by the Village of Pelham Manor to install new sewers.  The village sewer commissioners, according to the account, voted during a meeting held on Friday, May 28, 1897 to award a contract for installation of the new sewers to Smith Brothers, a contracting firm based in the Village of North Pelham.

It is difficult to imagine a time in Pelham when the main news of the day involved the need for street signs so people would know the name of the street on which they lived, the enforcement of ordinances against riding new-fangled "Safety Bicycles" on the local wood plank sidewalks, and a contract to construct new sewers.  Yet, such was the time in Pelham on June 4, 1897 before our little town grew up.

 

*          *          *           *          *

"PELHAM 30 YEARS AGO
(Pelham Press, June 4, 1897)
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Bruce T. Dick and family have removed to Prospect Hill, Pelham Manor.
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A meeting of the board of trustees of the village of North Pelham will be held next week for the purposes of appointing a village treasurer.
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At the meeting of the sewer commissioners of the village of Pelham Manor held last Friday night, the contract for the installation of the new sewers was awarded to Smith Bros.
-----

Frank Benz killed a large muskrat in the stream in the rear of his residence last Sunday.  Frank says the stream is swarming with them.
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North Pelham should repair the streets of the village, especially Fifth avenue, so as to make it passable in wet weather.  Who can blame bicyclists for using the sidewalks.
-----

The Ivanohoe Giants of New Rochelle defeated the Pelham Manor Field Club last Saturday to the tune of 23 to 20.
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Louis Schwab, a driver for John Grab, a New Rochelle beer bottler, was arrested by Constable Marks last Friday for selling bottled beer in North Pelham in violation of the village ordinance in peddling without a license.  Schwab protested that he was only receiving orders and later delivering them, but was unable to produce an order book for evidence.  Judge Lyon found him guilty and imposed a fine of $5.
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The young son of John Lowery of Fifth avenue was run over last Tuesday by a wagon belonging to J. Trohn of New Rochelle.  The little fellow was crossing the street near Heisser's grocery store when he was struck and the rear wheel passed over his leg.  He was not seriously hurt, however.
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William Howe of Mount Vernon was arrested last Monday afternoon by Constable Marks for riding his bicycle on the sidewalk.  Howe was on his way to Chester Park to deliver a safety bicycle to the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William T. Standen.  Marks was on the corner of 5th avenue and First street at the time and shouted to Howe to get off the sidewalk.  Howe was going at a good speed and tried to obey the command but not fast enough to please Marks who promptly placed him under arrest.  Before Judge Lyon he was fined $10 but protested and the fine was reduced to $5.  This he paid with a threat to have the case tested in the higher courts to decide whether the paths in North Pelham come under the laws governing sidewalks.
-----

Relief Hook and Ladder company received an invitation from Clinton Hook and Ladder company to be its guests at the parade in Mount Vernon last Monday.  Unfortunately the invitation had to be declined with with thanks as the local company is reduced to five members while Clinton has sixty.
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One of the most necessary improvements in North Pelham and one which will require no bond issue is the installation of street signs.  True it is no easy matter to get lost in a village where you can stand in the center and see every neighbor across its boundaries, but many local residents would like to be enlightened as to the name of the street on which he resides.  One gentleman who has resided on Park place for over six months just learned from us yesterday the name of his street.
-----

Complaint is being received at this office that the local constables are drawing a distinction in making arrests for violation of the North Pelham ordinances, especially the one relating to the riding of bicycles on the sidewalks.  We have seen enough evidence to give this report much color and would suggest that these officers of the law enforce against all, local as well as outsiders."

Source:   PELHAM 30 YEARS AGO (Pelham Press, June 4, 1897), The Pelham Sun, Jun. 10, 1927, Vol. 18, No. 16, p. 10, cols. 1-3.

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Padrone System Scandal Involving Up to 200 Italian Workers in Pelham Manor in 1894

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In 1894, New York City newspapers were abuzz with exposés and investigatory articles regarding use of the padrone system to hire manual laborers for city work.  Nineteenth century "padrones" typically were immigrant labor brokers who supplied large construction projects, railroads, mining concerns, industrialized agriculture, and the like with laborers from their own country.  According to one account:

"Padrones, unlike ordinary labor agents, dealt exclusively in immigrant workers from their own country of origin, and also cultivated intricate, binding relationships with their men.  They found immigrants jobs but also provided them with a range of other services that intensified their dependence on the padrone. . . . Immigrants paid padrones a variety of fees, and often these fees would be deducted directly from workers' pay."

Source:  Philip, Meghna, The Invisibility of Mexican Peonage:  Race, Space, Temporality, and Free Labor in the 19th Century, Brown Journal of History, Vol. 5 (Spring 2011), pp. 31, 42.

Padrones, in short, used the equivalent of a "company store" -- usually in the guise of a canteen in which the men were required to eat -- to charge the men essentially what they were supposed to earn for the work they performed, thus keeping them in servitude as providers of free labor.

On February 20, 1894, The World of New York City crowed in a front page article that its "fight against the infamous padrone system of securing city labor" had "resulted in victory" after the New York City Street-Cleaning-Department announced that it would no longer use padrones and, instead, engaged 200 extra men directly, without using labor brokers, and would pay them the requisite $1.50 per day for their work.  See ANDREWS YIELDS AT LAST -- He Puts 200 Laborers at Work Without Calling on the Padrones, The World [NY, NY], Feb. 20, 1894, p. 1, col. 5 (Note:  Paid subscription required to access via this link).

At about this time, Pelham found itself swept up in the padrone investigations.  In January and February of 1894, there was a major construction project underway in the three-year-old Village of Pelham Manor.  The newspaper reports are unclear, but the project likely involved the construction of sewer lines throughout the village -- a project that was undertaken in 1894.  In any event, a firm named Donlon Brothers employed between one hundred and two hundred Italian immigrant laborers for the project in Pelham Manor.  

When not working, the laborers lived, ate, and slept in temporary longhouse-style shanties.  They were required to eat meals provided by their employer.  The employer then "charged" the men exorbitant prices for their room and board.  The charges wiped out the men's pay.  Thus, the men labored without being paid.  In short, the construction firm was using the padrone system to perform the work without paying the laborers.  To make matters worse, the laborers were provided with meager and infrequent portions of food to the point that they were malnourished.

In February, 1894, four malnourished and "suffering" Italian laborers working in Pelham Manor escaped and fled to New York City where they approached a well-known, wealthy, and successful Italian American banker named Vincenzo Palumbo.  One of the men had an untreated broken arm.  All four "looked the picture of hunger and suffering."  

The men told Palumbo a story of "torture while at work."  Palumbo and his colleagues were shocked and outraged by the revelations.  Palumbo began an investigation of Donlon Brothers.

The company claimed that it had absolutely no knowledge that its laborers were provided as part of a padrone system.  The company said it merely had arranged the labor through a contractor.  Palumbo wrote the contractor on behalf of the laborers demanding that the men be paid for their labor.  The contractor wrote back to say the men were scheduled to be paid the following Monday and invited Palumbo to visit Pelham Manor to witness the men being paid off.  Palumbo accepted and left for Pelham Manor.  

What Palumbo witnessed in Pelham Manor was shocking.  He returned to New York and spoke immediately with a reporter for The Evening World.  He reportedly told that reporter:

"'It was the most awful sight I ever witnesses,' Palumbo said.  'The snow was a foot deep, and more than 200 men, sick and hungry, were lying in the shanties.  On account of the snow, work had been suspended.  Not a particle of food had crossed the lips of those men all day.  There was not as much as a crust of bread in any of the shanties, nor was there any fuel. 'You cannot imagine how the men looked.  I shudder now even to think of it.  They swarmed around me and begged piteously for me to take them back.  They said they had been robbed and starved.  They certainly looked the latter.  Several of them had been injured while at work, and no physician had bee called to set the broken limbs.  'When I asked the contractor if he proposed to pay off the men as he agreed he said he could not, as his brothers, who had the money, were in the city.  I denounced him as a trickster, but he only laughed and said he could do nothing.  I told him I would bring suit in the name of every man for the money due, but even that threat produced no result.  'While coming away the men clung to me and begged to be taken back.  I only had a few dollars with me.  I distributed that and took back the four most serious cases.  The men are here now and you can see them for yourself.  I only wish that some of the authorities here could see those 200 men in the shanties.  If they would only spend a few hours in going up to Pelham Manor, the padrone would soon be crushed.'"  (See full text of article below.)

Once again, such revelations shocked and outraged New York City.  The Mayor's Marshal Englehard began preparing charges against the Pelham Manor padrones operators and Vincenzo Palumbo began working with laborers to prepare affidavits as evidence against the operators.  New York City newspapers blared front page headlines such as "Outrageous Treatment of Laborers at Pelham Manor" and "Laborers at Pelham Manor Complain that They Have Been Cheated and Cannot Get the Money Due Them."

The investigation suggested that an organization named "the Pelham Improvement Association" was involved with overseeing unspecified work in Pelham Manor.  The investigation found that about one hundred Italian workers were furnished for the Pelham Manor project by Tony Richards of White Plains.  According to an account of the investigation, "Excepting, perhaps, half a dozen, the men have not been paid, although they have earned from $5 to $30 each."

Tony Richards of White Plains, according to news reports, was overseeing the laborers in a padrone system.  According to one report:

"Tony Richards has charge of the boarding-house, and the men say he charges them exorbitant prices.  It costs them 10 cents for a small loaf of bread that can be bought any place else for five cents.  His price for macaroni is nine cents a pound.  It isn't worth more than five.  He charges 18 cents for bologna that they could buy in the city for eight cents.  The shanty in which the men are compelled to build a wood fire on the floor, which is the earth."  

Despite the outrage and the threats of arrest, there seem to be no reported resolution of the matter in favor of the workers.  Reports suggest that Donlon Brothers denied owing the men "but very little" and claimed it was unable to pay the men "until a certain portion of the contract is finished."  

While one might think the negative press, investigations, and threats of law enforcement might have dissuaded firms from using the padrone system thereafter for work in Pelham Manor, it appears that the practice continued.  Indeed, in October, 1894, the New Rochelle Pioneer reported on a thwarted effort by a disgruntled Italian laborer working on the Pelham Manor sewer system project to dynamite a shanty in which Italian, Irish, and African American laborers were enjoying card games after work.  The article included a sketch of the shanty (see below) and described difficult living conditions in which the men were required to eat meals as part of the shanty boarding system required for their jobs.

"THE HUT REILLY IS ACCUSED OF TRYING

TO BLOW UP."  Source:  A WOULD-BE

MURDERER -- Patrick Reilly Attempts Wholesale

Murder to Avenge an Alleged Wrong -- CAUGHT

IN THE NICK OF TIME, New Rochelle Pioneer, Oct.

27, 1894, Vol. XXXIV, No. 31, p. 1, cols. 5-6.

NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

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"TO ARREST PADRONES
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The Mayor's Marshal, Englehard, Promises to Take Action.
-----
Banker Palumbo Now Preparing the Affidavits.
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Outrageous Treatment of Laborers at Pelham Manor.
-----

The arrival of four Italian laborers from Pelham Manor, in charge of Banker Vincenzo Palumbo, caused some excitement in Italian circles this morning.  The men were victims of the padrones, and had been lured here two months ago to work at the Manor.  They looked the picture of hunger and suffering.  One man's arm had been broken and all of them will be on the sick list for many days to come.

The stories they told of the torture endured while at work made many of their hearers cry out in rage against the bosses.  They returned just as they had started out, without a dollar.  What little they had earned had been kept from them, and it was only by the charity of Palumbo that they were able to get back.  Two hundred others, it is claimed, are now at work in the same place, enduring the same suffering.

A man named Donald is the contractor, and the work is being done for a firm who have an office at 18 Wall street, this city.  The latter, however, have no knowledge that the padrone system is in operation.  Donald's right-hand man is named Pricelardeeli, who runs the 'boarding-house' at which the men must eat.

One week ago the men wrote to friends in this city that they were being robbed and illtreated, and Palumbo was appealed to.  He wrote to the contractor and, in reply, received a letter stating that the men would be paid off on Monday.  He was invited up to Pelham Manor to see the men paid off, and he accepted.  He told the story of his visit to an 'Evening World' reporter this morning.  

'It was the most awful sight I ever witnesses,' Palumbo said.  'The snow was a foot deep, and more than 200 men, sick and hungry, were lying in the shanties.  On account of the snow, work had been suspended.  Not a particle of food had crossed the lips of those men all day.  There was not as much as a crust of bread in any of the shanties, nor was there any fuel.

'You cannot imagine how the men looked.  I shudder now even to think of it.  They swarmed around me and begged piteously for me to take them back.  They said they had been robbed and starved.  They certainly looked the latter.  Several of them had been injured while at work, and no physician had bee called to set the broken limbs.

'When I asked the contractor if he proposed to pay off the men as he agreed he said he could not, as his brothers, who had the money, were in the city.  I denounced him as a trickster, but he only laughed and said he could do nothing.  I told him I would bring suit in the name of every man for the money due, but even that threat produced no result.

'While coming away the men clung to me and begged to be taken back.  I only had a few dollars with me.  I distributed that and took back the four most serious cases.  The men are here now and you can see them for yourself.  I only wish that some of the authorities here could see those 200 men in the shanties.  If they would only spend a few hours in going up to Pelham Manor, the padrone would soon be crushed.'

Mayor's Marshal Englehard last evening requested Palumbo, through 'The Evening World' to procure evidence against the padrones for violating the employment agency laws.  Palumbo readily agreed to furnish all the evidence needed, and he is at work to-day securing affidavits of victims.  As soon as a sufficient number have been secured the Marshal will obtain warrants for the arrest of the padrone.

Palumbo is also securing affidavits showing the extortion practiced upon Italians in the police courts and by the police.  This will be used in case the Legislature decides to investigate the padrone system."

Source:  TO ARREST PADRONES -- The Mayor's Marshal, Englehard, Promises to Take Action -- Banker Palumbo Now Preparing the Affidavits -- Outrageous Treatment of Laborers at Pelham Manor, The Evening World [NY, NY], Feb. 27, 1894, p. 1, col. 2 (Note:  Paid subscription required to access via this link).  

"PADRONES BADLY SCARED.
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Three of the Italian Slave-Drivers May Be Placed Under Arrest To-Day.
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MORE AFFIDAVITS ARE SECURED.
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Laborers at Pelham Manor Complain that They Have Been Cheated and Cannot Get the Money Due Them.
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The padrones are badly frightened.  The announcement in The World that Mayor's Marshal Engelhard is looking into the charges made against the bosses has had its effect and is proving of material aid in breaking up the gang of slave-drivers.

Last night 550 more men were placed at work on the streets through the St. Raphael Society.  Commissioner Andrews kept his promise not to call upon the padrones.

Vincenzo Palumbo received several letters yesterday from bosses in various parts of the State offering to discontinue their abuse of the Italians and employ all the men needed from the Independent Italian Labor Union, which is to be organized to-night in Brookes's Assembly rooms, in Broome street.  It was advertised that the meeting was to be held Friday night in the Germania Assembly Rooms, in the Bowery.  Yesterday Mr. Palumbo received word that he could not have this hall.

The report was circulated yesterday that Rocco Manzelle, the partner of Francolini Bros., had received an order from the Street-Cleaning Department to furnish a certain number of men.  This was denied at the office of the department and by Manzelle himself.

James S. March, who was exposed in The World as a padrone, wrote a letter to Vincenzo Palumbo yesterday, in which he said he had been wrongfully accused.

'I will employ every man that I put to work from the Independent Italian Labor Union,' he added, 'and will always be pleased to have my commissaries along the line of the Erie Railroad inspected by a committee from the union.'

One of the worst frightened padrones yesterday was Vincenzo De Vito, who runs a bank and saloon at No. 83 Mulberry street.  An Italian who had paid him $38 to get a job in the Street-Cleaning Department and had in his possession a receipt from De Vito showing the transaction, called upon him and threatened to have him arrested if he did not refund the money.  De Vito promised to give back the money at 6 P. M. last night, but at that hour begged off until this morning.  If he does not keep his promise the receipt will be placed in Mayor's Marshal Englehard's hands.  The Marshal has said that any evidence of this nature would be sufficient to warrant an arrest.  Several affidavits were made yesterday which show conclusively that money has been fraudulently exacted for securing men work.  An effort will be made to have three padrones arrested to-day.

The recent snowstorm caused another delay in starting men to work on the park improvements, for which a million-dollar appropriation has been made.  At the offices of the Park Department it was said yesterday that there was no truth in the charge that only Democrats were employed.  'Why, you can go among the men who have been working for some time,' President Tappen said, 'and you will find just as many Republicans as Democrats.  We are aiming to do all that lies in our power to help the poor men, regardless of politics.  You can say that just as soon as the snow is cleared away all the men that can be used will be employed.'

The Italians who have been employed by Donlon Bros. at Pelham Manor say they have been cheated and robbed.  These contractors have been at work for the Pelham Improvement Association for two months.  They have employed about one hundred Italians.  Most of them were furnished by Tony Richards, of White Plains.  Excepting, perhaps, half a dozen, the men have not been paid, although they have earned from $5 to $30 each.

Tony Richards has charge of the boarding-house, and the men say he charges them exorbitant prices.  It costs them 10 cents for a small loaf of bread that can be bought any place else for five cents.  His price for macaroni is nine cents a pound.  It isn't worth more than five.  He charges 18 cents for bologna that they could buy in the city for eight cents.  The shanty in which the men are compelled to build a wood fire on the floor, which is the earth.  

Three men from New Rochelle called at Pelham yesterday for money that had been coming to them for a month.  They didn't get any.  They say they are put off from day to day with promises that are never fulfilled.  Mr. Donlon told the men he would pay them last Saturday, and they gathered to the number of nearly 100, but were told to come on Monday.  They returned on Monday, but Donlon could not be found.

Donlon claims that he owes the men but very little, and that he can't pay them until a certain portion of his contract is finished.  He says that Donlon Bros. never cheated an employee out of a cent during their six years in business."

Source:  PADRONES BADLY SCARED -- Three of the Italian Slave-Drivers May Be Placed Under Arrest To-Day -- MORE AFFIDAVITS ARE SECURED -- Laborers at Pelham Manor Complain that They Have Been Cheated and Cannot Get the Money Due Them, The World [NY, NY], Mar. 1, 1894, p. 9, col. 5 (Note:  Paid subscription required to access via this link).  

"A WOULD-BE MURDERER.
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Patrick Reilly Attempts Wholesale Murder to Avenge an Alleged Wrong.
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CAUGHT IN THE NICK OF TIME.
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On the outskirts of this village near Pelham Manor, a most atrocious attempt was made by a man named Patrick Reilly Sunday evening, one of some hundred employees of Murray & Molloy on the sewer construction at that place, which had he not been detected in the nick of time would have resulted in a fearful massacre of nearly 100 laborers, who at the time of the attempted plot were in a rough spruce board shanty which is about sixty feet long, and in which they lived and slept.

The men live on rough fare provided for them by the wife of Antonio Cesaria, who is known as the 'shanty boss.'  They include Italians, Irishmen and negroes.  After the day's digging is done they play cards, drink and fight.  At Cesaria's shanty the best man is the man who can stun his opponent with a kick or a blow, or drive him from the place out into the open country by showing him a gleaming dagger.

Reilly, the dynamiter, got on well enough with the Italians, but quarreled with Frank Murray, an Irishman, who boarded at the rough board table and slept in a bunk in the centre of the tobacco laden room.  It was to blow Murray to pieces that Reilly says he arranged the dynamite cartridges.  In his rage, he took little account of the fate of the others, though he says -- but no one believes it -- that by a scheme of his own.  Murray would have been the only one killed.

Reilly was on the night shift on Saturday, and as he reported half an hour late, he was told that his services were not wanted that day, and his place was taken by an Italian probationer.  A sewer gang is subject to strong discipline, and the men are kept in order by a system of 'laying off' when they show any signs of rebellion.

Before this Reilly says that he had several fights with Murray, in which Murray came off the victor.  This made his attitude a sullen one, and he was constantly looking for a grievance.  He left the sewer in an ugly frame of mind, attributing his ill luck to the machinations of his enemy Murray.

He spent Sunday in ill humor, apparently brooding about the triumph over him of the man Murray.

The cheap and nauseating beer which Reilly drank all Sunday improved neither his temper nor his nerves.  When night came the tenants of the shanty were noisily playing cards.  In the private room occupied by the shanty boss, that person's wife was washing up the dishes used at the last meal of the day and signing to herself an Italian hymn.  Reilly sat on a box in the corner smoking his pipe.  No one took any notice of him, and in fact he was already [portion illegible] dynamite cartridges and two fuses for his fiendish word.  Dynamite in a camp like that is used so freely and familiarity breeds such a contempt for it that it is not even locked up, and the men will sleep within a few feet of enough of to blow a score of them almost into a small powder.  

No one saw Reilly at his work at first.  He lighted a torch and began his labors in as cool and methodical a way as if the shanty were rock which he had been employed to blow up, and as if no human being but himself were within a mile of him.

He put the nine dynamite cartridges under the door sill in a pile, placing the two detonators in the middle of the pile.

Having arranged this bomb, Reilly got an electric battery from the tool chest.  With this he intended to ignite the detonators, which in turn would explode the dynamite.  He took wire enough to allow the battery to be placed sixty feet from the cartridges which he probably calculated would be a distance sufficient to ensure his own safety.

With the flaming torch in his hand Reilly was leaning over the battery and connected the wires when providentially, an Italian named Francesco Marchese came out of the shanty and walked a hundred feet or so up the road.  He returned presently and saw Reilly still bending over something.  The fact was that the would be murderer had drank [sic] a very large quantity of beer, and the thought of his coming revenge excited him, and his hand trembled so that he could hardly twist and join the wires on which the spark was to travel that would rend and maim perhaps a hundred human beings now laughing and joking over their cards, and reduce the shanty to a pile of splinters, stained with blood and covered with the dismembered dead, while the dying cried pitifully to be put out of their misery or be relieved of their pain.

The sight of Reilly holding a torch suggested nothing remarkable to Marchese.  He might be looking for a jack knife which he suddenly needed for an argument with some fellow workman hard to convince or e might be seeking for a button or a coin.  The torch itself was not surprising, as the sewer laborers work by torchlight on week nights and light their way about the grounds with torches.

But the light fell on something bright, and this, Marchesi saw, led up to the door of the shanty.  With his eyes on one wire, the surprised Italian tripped and fell over the other, and then he saw that it was no mare's nest that he had found.

He called out to Reilly and asked him what he was doing.  The dynamiter responded with an oath.  Marchese ran up and closed with Reilly, and there was a sharp struggle.  They rolled over on the battery punching and clawing at one another, Reilly swearing in his baffled rage.  The noise brought out a score of the men, who took up Reilly's torch, which had been half extinguished by falling in the dust, and looked about them.

Even now Marchese did not exactly realize what villainy the man had been concocting, but a yell of rage from the men who had followed up the wires told of the discovery of the nine cartridges under the door sill.  They rushed at Reilly and began to handle him roughly, but the shanty boss, Cesaria, pushed him into the building and put him in his private room before all the workmen had got through their heads the fiendishness of the plot.

Then when it was all seen the men horrified at the narrowness of their escape, wanted to take the half drunken criminal out and kill him.  Shanty boss Cesaria stood by the door and saved the fellow's life telling his men that the law would attend to him.  [Remainder illegible.]

Source:  A WOULD-BE MURDERER -- Patrick Reilly Attempts Wholesale Murder to Avenge an Alleged Wrong -- CAUGHT IN THE NICK OF TIME, New Rochelle Pioneer, Oct. 27, 1894, Vol. XXXIV, No. 31, p. 1, cols. 5-6.


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The Great Battle of Colonial Avenue In Pelham

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Most Pelhamites know that the Battle of Pelham ended on October 18, 1776 as American troops crossed the Hutchinson River via the old Boston Post Road (today's Colonial Avenue) and British and German troops ended their pursuit at the river.  The British and Germans encamped along both sides of the road all the way to the New Rochelle Border.  That night, American and British artillery units exchanged fire doing little damage to each other.

One might think that those artillery exchanges are what we know today as "the Great Battle of Colonial Avenue."  One would be wrong in assuming so, however.

The Great Battle of Colonial Avenue began in about 1891 and lasted decades, at least through the 1920s.  It was fought between the Village of Pelham Manor and the then Village of Pelham (known today as Pelham Heights).  

In 1891, when the forefathers of today's Village of Pelham Manor decided to incorporate, they also hoped to pull a fast one.  They incorporated using a northern village boundary at the southern edge of today's Colonial Avenue -- not the center of the street as is so often done when setting boundaries between two adjacent municipal entities.  

This decision meant that all of the old Boston Post Road (today's Colonial Avenue) sat in an unincorporated section just outside the boundary of the new Village of Pelham Manor.  Thus, the Pelham Manor founders reasoned, their new village would not be responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the ancient roadway.  That roadway was notoriously crooked, deeply-rutted, and both difficult and expensive to keep in good order.  

The Village of Pelham Manor realized that once a "new" village decided to incorporate adjacent to it, that new village likely would take the old Boston Post Road and all its maintenance headaches and expenses.  Several years later, that is exactly what happened.

The tiny little "Village of Pelham" (a village that at the time encompassed only today's Pelham Heights) incorporated in 1896.  The local newspaper later recognized Pelham Manor's ruse.  It wrote:  "We can picture the knowing winks of the founders as they cleverly relieved themselves of any responsibility for the maintenance of the road, forcing their neighbors in Pelham Heights to assume this when they incorporated some years later."

The Great Battle of Colonial Avenue was underway.

Pelham Heights felt that Pelham Manor seemed smug about its supposed "victory."  Soon, however, Pelham Heights turned the tables.  

As traffic regulation and street lighting became more sophisticated throughout the Town of Pelham, today's Colonial Avenue remained notoriously poorly lit and somewhat confusing from a "traffic regulation" perspective.  Somewhat hypocritically, most complaints came from Pelham Manor residents although the Village of Pelham Manor took the position that maintenance, lighting, and traffic regulation was the responsibility of Pelham Heights.  Pelham Heights, however, wasn't about to improve the lighting and traffic regulation on a street it believed it "shared" with the Village of Pelham Manor.

Moreover, pioneers soon sought to build Pelham Manor homes along the SOUTHERN  side of Colonial Avenue.  For the first time, Pelham Manor officials realized that the "knowing winks" of their forbears (when they placed the village boundary at the southern edge of Colonial Avenue) may have made it extraordinarily difficult to arrange water and sewer service beneath the roadway for homes adjacent to the roadway.  Actually, it made it impossible (absent entreating with the enemy, Pelham Heights).  

Village officials from both villages were unable to reach agreement to permit the laying of sewer and water lines beneath Colonial Avenue.  It took a high level pow-wow between former United States Congressman Benjamin L. Fairchild, a founder of Pelham Heights, and Theodore Hill, then counsel for the Village of Pelham Manor to reach a settlement that allowed service connections and, thus, the construction of homes along the southern side of today's Colonial Avenue.  

1950 Map of the Town of Pelham.

NOTE: Click Image to Enlarge.

*          *          *          *          *

"LET'S MAKE AN END OF IT
-----

The Colonial avenue fiasco has continued long enough.  Let's make an end of it for the best interests of the taxpayers.  Mayor Joseph N. Greene in answer to a letter fro a Pelham Sun reader, which was published in last week's issue, says that overtures have been repeatedly made to the Village of Pelham to relocate the boundary lines of the villages along the center of Colonial avenue, but the latter village has turned a deaf ear to those proposals.

There have been numerous complaints about poor lighting and traffic regulation along this avenue which although it is on the southern boundary line wholly within the village of Pelham, most of these complaints come from Pelham Manor.  Mayor Greene answers by saying that Pelham Heights won't agree to divide the roadway.  

If our recollection is correct it was the Village of Pelham Manor which first established its boundary line along the southern line of the old Boston Post road, now Colonial avenue.  We can picture the knowing winks of the founders as they cleverly relieved themselves of any responsibility for the maintenance of the road, forcing their neighbors in Pelham Heights to assume this when they incorporated some years later.

It has always been a thorn in Pelham Manor's side.  A decade or so ago, the Village Fathers found themselves unable to give sewer and water service to householders who had established themselves within Pelham Manor, yet their homes fronted on Pelham Heights' highway.  It was only through the counsel of former Congressman Ben L. Fairchild, then village attorney for Pelham, and Theodore Hill, then counsel for Pelham Manor, that an amicable settlement was reached to provide for service connections.

Had the founders of the Village of Pelham Manor been equipped with Mayor Greene's foresight, their little coup might not have appeared to be so amusing.  

At a recent discussion the trustees of Pelham Heights expressed an opinion that Colonial avenue was well lighted, and that additional traffic regulation was not necessary.

However, Mayor Greene's suggestion for a relocation of the village boundary lines is a point well taken and should be considered by the Pelham Heights trustees."

Source:  LET'S MAKE AN END OF IT, The Pelham Sun, Aug. 9, 1929, p. 2, cols. 1-2.  

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Early History of Pelham Heights Published in 1895

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I have written before about the lovely area of Pelham known as The Heights (Pelham Heights) and its residents.  The area once was incorporated as the Village of Pelham before the Village of North Pelham and the Village of Pelham were merged to form today's Village of Pelham.  For a few of many examples of prior articles about The Heights and some of its residents, see:

Tue., Jan. 21, 2014:  Early History of Pelham Heights: "Then Was Formed The Idea That Gave Pelham Heights Its Birth"

Thu., Jul. 16, 2009:  Village of Pelham Trustees Grant Franchise Necessary for the Pelham Manor Trolley that Inspired the Toonerville Trolley.  

Fri., Dec. 07, 2007:  Another Biography of Congressman Benjamin Fairchild of Pelham, a Founder of Pelham Heights.  

Thu., Dec. 06, 2007:  Biography of John F. Fairchild, Engineer of the Pelham Heights Company During the 1890s.  

Fri., Sep. 28, 2007:  When Incorporated, The Original Village of Pelham Needed More Elected Officials Than it Had Voters.  

Tue., Aug. 15, 2006:  Another Biography of Benjamin L. Fairchild of Pelham Heights.

Fri., Apr. 22, 2005:  Benjamin L. Fairchild of Pelham Heights -- A Notable Pelham Personage.  

Bell, Blake A., Early History of Pelham Heights, The Pelham Weekly, Vol. XIII, No. 32, Aug. 13, 2004, p. 9, col. 1.

Today's posting to the Historic Pelham Blog provides additional information about the early history of Pelham Heights.  It transcribes an article that described the earliest efforts to develop the lands that became The Heights.  The article appeared in the May 30, 1895 issue of The Mount Vernon Argus.  The transcribed text appears beneath the image below from the same article, followed by a citation to the source.  

Home of Hon. Benjamin L. Fairchild in 1895.

Source:  Pelham Heights, The Mount Vernon Argus [Mount Vernon, NY], 

May 30, 1895, Supplement, p. 7, cols. 3-4.  

"PELHAM HEIGHTS.

A place that is rapidly becoming famous is the second station from the Grand Central Depot, adjoining Mount Vernon, New Rochelle and Pelham Manor, extending from the easterly boundary of Mount Vernon to the westerly boundary of New Rochelle, and from the New Haven Railroad tracks southerly to the Pelham Manor line.  For a number of years it remained entirely undeveloped, by reason of the manner in which a portion of it was tied up in estates.  Fortunately, the several pieces of property were finally acquired by parties who had the ability and inclination to combine in developing this section into high class property, rather than to subdivide the section in accordance with the usual method of flaring advertisements, cheap lots and quick sales.

More than a year was occupied after the several properties were acquired by this syndicate in the engineering work alone, which included plans for an elaborate sewerage system, a separate drainage system, gas mains, water mains, electric lights, macadamized roads and sidewalks -- in fact, every modern municipal improvement, designed with a solidity equal to the best municipal improvements in any city in the United States.  The engineering work was immediately followed by active construction, in accordance with such plans, and the thoroughness of the work accounts for the number of years occupied in placing the property in a condition to invite the class of home seekers who can afford to comply with the restrictions, that require, among other things, a minimum cost of $5,000 for each residence, to be built upon plots of a minimum footage of seventy-five feet.  Hardly a year has passed since a sufficient number of streets have been entirely completed to warrant the offering of lots to a select class of purchasers, and already there are more than a dozen families located in the place, in handsome residences, costing from $6,000 to $20,000 quickly giving to Pelham Heights the name of a fashionable residential section.

Among the residences already erected in Pelham Heights, special mention might be made of the handsome stone residence on Pelhamdale Avenue of Mr. P.P. De Arozarena, of the Haviland Wall Paper Manufacturing Company, and the Colonial home of Congressman Fairchild, on the Third Street Boulevard, each of which is said to have cost about $20,000.  A description of the interior of these two houses would deserve a special article.  None of the visitors to Pelham Heights have failed to notice the picturesque homes on Loring Avenue of Mr. Ralph K. Hubbard, Secretary of the Provident Life Insurance Company, and Mr. Howard Scribner, son of the former Secretary of State.

There has been already as much as $200,000 expended in street improvements.  The work already completed is considerable [sic] more than appears upon the surface, and includes all the cross sections of the pipe lines, and the trunk line and main outlet sewers and drains for the whole property, including the unopened avenues, as well as those streets and avenues which have been entirely opened and completed.  The main outlet surface drain through Highbrook Avenue is a large stone, brick arch culvert erected at a considerable expense for the drainage of the whole section, and is of sufficient size for workmen to pass through if necessary to make repairs, without disturbing the surface of the avenue.  The opening and completion of any additional avenues in the future will not require the prosecution of any work in any of the streets or avenues already completed, because of such completition of all the main connections.  

The natural advantages of Pelham Heights was favorable for such a development as we have here described.  The property is higher than any of the surrounding territory, and from almomst any point on the property a wide expanse of view can be obtained of Pelham Bay Park and over toward Long Island Sound.  Congressman Fairchild, from his house, has an extensive view of Long Island and Long Island Sound on the south and east, and of the Palisades, as far north as Piermont, on the west.

A special natural attraction of Pelham Heights are the trees of many varieties, which cover a large portion of the property, and make Loring Avenue one of the handsomest anywhere.  It is not a long walk from Pelham Heights, through Pelhamdale Avenue, to the Sound.  The rapidly nearing completion of the macadamizing of the Pelham Manor streets and avenues will make Pelhamdale Avenue a finely macadamized boulevard, with sidewalks from Pelham Heights to Travers Island.

During the summer the macadamizing and construction of sidewalks along Third Street in Mount Vernon to Pelham Heights will have been completed, the new station at Pelham Heights will have been erected, and the electric railroad, which is now operated to the Pelham line, will probably have been completed through to the Sound.  The railway people wanted to build their line through the Third Street Street Boulevard, but the Pelham Heights syndicate would allow no tracks to be placed in that avenue, and the route mapped out, therefore, required the road to be built to the Pelham Station, and thence through First Street of Pelham Heights, which lies along the railroad track, and Highbrook Avenue, which is planned to be the business street of Pelham Heights and thence direct to New Rochelle and the Sound.  The entrance to New Rochelle from Pelham Height [sic] will also be improved greatly this summer.  The Suburban Railway tracks are to be raised considerably, and the old Boston Post Road, which now enters New Rochelle along a bridge over the tracks, will be carried under the tracks which will do away with the steep embankment now existing.  This will result in the final completion by New Rochelle of a macadam road and sidewalks from the terminus of the Third Street Boulevard of Pelham Heights into Main Street.  With the completion of these improvements, we will have continuous sidewalks from the westerly boundary of Mount Vernon to the northerly line of New Rochelle, through Third Street, in Mount Vernon and Pelham Heights, and Main Street, in New Rochelle, which two streets will then become practically one thoroughfare.  This is only one small indication of how rapidly Mount Vernon, Pelham and New Rochelle are becoming one community; and what a delightful community it is, and how much more delightful it is becoming, located as it is at the northerly door of the greatest of the new city parks, Pelham Bay Park, which comprises the whole of the peninsula formed by East Chester Creek, Pelham Bay and Long Island Sound."

Source:  Pelham Heights, The Mount Vernon Argus [Mount Vernon, NY], May 30, 1895, Supplement, p. 6, cols. 3-4 & p. 7, col. 3.  

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